Evaluating Language Supportive Approaches to Transition at Scale

Across many countries in the Global South, secondary education uses a language for learning and teaching (LoLT) that is not the main language learners use outside of school. In Tanzania and Ethiopia, transition to English occurs relatively late, at the beginning of lower secondary education. Late language transition coincides with the curriculum splitting into different subjects, with their own set of academic language practices and taught by subject specialist teachers. Language supportive approaches are multilingual pedagogies that integrate instruction on academic language practices into subject teaching. The Evaluating Language Supportive Approaches to Transition at Scale (ELSATS) project aimed to explore how language supportive promote epistemic inclusion across education systems with a late transition. Inclusion was analysed with respect to opportunities for all children to access the specified curriculum, and recognition of students as knowledge-holders. Four studies were conducted: (1) international literature review on late language transition; (2) action research that introduced language supportive pedagogy into a teacher education programme at a university in Addis Ababa; (3) an
analysis of how language skills in the Tanzanian curriculum; and (4) teaching and learning of science in the first year of English Medium Instruction in 16 Tanzanian schools. Study (4) included lesson observations, interviews with English and Biology teachers, groups interviews with students and an assessment of students’ knowledge of scientific vocabulary. Findings point to five areas of opportunity and challenge for transformation towards inclusive language transition. First, policies that insist on monolingual practices in schools impede subject learning and are harmful to learners’ wellbeing and so should be removed. Second, the specific curriculum should set out a coherent, continuous and gradual learning journey across educational phases, Grades and subjects. Third, learning materials should be designed for multilingual learners. Fourth, inclusive multilingual policies should be integrated into every
component of teacher education programmes. Finally, education institutions should nurture collaborative pedagogic innovation.