Digital Commons Network^™

Multilingualism in classrooms is currently prompting debate and has significantly impacted on schooling in South Africa over the last d ecade. At present South African educators face the challenge of coping with and finding solutions to culturally and linguistically diverse urban school contexts which did not exist before. In many South African communities young learners, without any prior knowledge of English, are enrolled in English preschools. Preschool teachers have the dem anding task of preparing these m ultilingual preschoolers for formal schooling in English, and, in addition, are pressurised by p arents or caregivers who expect their children to be …