How language challenges affect the behaviour of immigrant learners in the foundation phase at three schools in Gauteng, South Africa

Abstract

The education of immigrant children is influenced by many factors that emanate from global socio-economic and political issues. In the South African education system, teachers do not have guidelines on how to include immigrant children from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. The question that arose was ‘what effect does poor language proficiency have on immigrant learners’ psychosocial development?’This study focused on how language challenges experienced by immigrant children influence their relationships with themselves and others in the learning environment. The second objective was to find out how teachers are coping with immigrant learners.