Kalahari students are learning in a very challenging environment. They are taught in English, their
second language, by teachers who have varying degrees of competence in that language. Their schools are very poorly
resourced, and their teachers, for various historical, political and financial reasons, are not always highly motivated.
There are many aspects of this situation that we at Frankfurt International School are powerless to influence. There is little we can do, for example, in the area of language policy (which determines among other things when education switches from the first language to English).
Nevertheless the teachers and students who participate in the Kalahari Experience can make a significant difference in the schools in which they temporarily work. The most important thing they can do is to make lessons that they teach in the Kalahari schools as useful and enjoyable as possible. This presupposes that participants have a basic knowledge of the issues concerning the learning of educational content in English as a second language. The most important of these issues are:
background information on the learning situation of students in the Moshaweng Valley schools
classroom strategies that facilitate the learning of subject content
language learning and the difficulties of English as a second language
strategies for making spoken and written language comprehensible
The workshops for teachers and students that are held shortly before the visit to the Kalahari address these issues. Kalahari Experience participants who are unable to attend the workshop can inform themselves on the issues via the following links to workshop presentation pages: