What counts as English? : a discursive investigation between two English language Cape Town primary school grade six classrooms

Abstract

What counts as English depends on the circumstances and where and how it is employed. In classrooms this socio-cultural artefact is constructed through practices in particular ways. Language and literacy practices in schools produce and re-produce certain things that count. In this dissertation I asked what counts as English and what practices were employed in varying contexts to validate what counted in a greater context. I was concerned to find out whether and how English-language resources in different contexts or did not contribute to enhancing students’ (social and economic) mobility. This ethnographically-based study focused on two Grade Six classes in State run Primary schools in Cape Town, one of them being a well-resourced, monolingual, English classroom and school and the other being a poorly-resourced, multilingual, English as an Additional language classroom and school.