Experiences of first-year students with using English Second Language for Teaching and Learning at a Rural Based University in a democratic South Africa

Abstract

For several decades, English had enjoyed high esteem as the language of education in various higher education institutions in South Africa. The dawn of democracy paved ways for previously marginalised indigenous African languages to be utilised in teaching and learning in South African education system. Underpinned by Krashen’s theory of second language acquisition, thisarticle sought to examine students’ experiences on using English second language for knowledge acquisition at a rural based university. The article employed qualitative research method to purposively select twelve first-year students to solicit their experiences, views, and opinions regarding the research problem and objective. Data collected through unstructured interviews were analysed through thematic content analysis. The findings revealed that first-year students had difficulties with grammar, words pronunciation, expression, comprehension of module contents, and interferences of first language when using English second language for teaching and learning purposes.This translated to poor academic performance, inactive participation, and high failure rate among first-yearstudentsat rural based universities. To deal with these inadequacies the article recommended for the rural based universities to strongly enforce various academic and student support programmes to assist First-year students to swiftly adjust to the university standards for teaching and learning.