Abstract:

South Africa is a multilingual country with eleven official languages and at least thirteen non-official indigenous and foreign languages. It is also a country marred by a history of legislated segregation and inequality in the socioeconomic arena and education policy. The current education policy in South Africa aims for equal access by all South Africans to the country’s resources. By extension, the National government aims to provide equal, quality education to all South Africans at the school level so as to prepare them for optimal participation and success in life and higher education. Unfortunately it is not always the case that every South African learner receives an education that equips him/her to participate fully and actively in higher education, and lifelong learning, as envisaged by the National government. It is mostly black public school educated learners who, due to poor quality human and physical resources at their schools, struggle with their studies at tertiary institutions. These learners generally arrive at institutions of higher learning with a basic knowledge of the English language and low levels of academic literacy. Their low proficiency in English and low academic literacy levels, coupled with the challenge that any student has in acquiring the knowledge associated with his field of learning, make it necessary for these students to be supported in terms of academic literacy in order to facilitate success in their education and skills development. This paper is meant to propose a comprehensive academic literacy support initiative to address the recurring problem of poor academic literacy amongst black second language speakers of English at the University of the Free State (Qwaqwa campus). Acquisition planning in higher education should include a comprehensive academic literacy support initiative addressing students’ Language (grammar), Logic (Argumentation and skills in analysis), Learning styles (inductive, active learning as opposed to deductive, passive learning) and Literacy (Reading and writing skills).It should be planned and implemented with consideration of the cultural specificity of African students’ schematic composition which might interfere with their ability to make sense of, initially or throughout the entire period of study, many concepts in their area(s) of study in the West dominated higher education context

Keywords:

Multilingualism, Academic literacy, Second language.