Towards a more communicative approach to the teaching of African languages, particularly Xhosa, as second languages

The changes taking place towards a non-racial South Africa and the acceptance of English as a lingua franca should be accompanied by the promotion of African languages for communication. This means that there is to be a need for teaching methodologies that equip learners not only with the knowledge of grammar but also with knowledge of use of the languages in social contexts. It appears that there are very few Xhosa non-mother tongue speakers who can communicate effectively in the language. This is the case with all other African languages. This paper examines the underlying problems of this lack of communicative competence. Drawing from experience as a second language teacher, the author argues that motivation, attitudes towards the language, the status of the language in society, and exposure to the language through interaction with mother tongue speakers are keys to communicative competence. Classroom teaching methods should therefore reflect those communicative activities that the learner is most likely to engage in outside the classroom; these should be naturalistic and meaningful. In this manner, as Canale and Swain (1980) assert, students will have not only knowledge of morphology, phonology, syntax and semantics, but will also have sociolinguistic competence. Language should be taught as a whole and not be decontextualiscd.