From home to school: bridging the language gap in Mauritian preschools

Abstract

Most Mauritian children face a language challenge as they leave their homes and start school. While most Mauritian children speak a French-lexified Creole as home language, the Mauritian primary education programme promotes English as the main language of literacy and the only written medium of instruction. In such a context, the preschool has the implicit role of preparing the 4- and 5-year-old Creole-speaking children for the English-mediated primary education curriculum. This paper examines the role of the preschool in bridging the language gap between the home and the school. On the basis of an analysis of the English language teaching practices of teachers in seven preschools, it is argued that there is a lack of coherence and continuity between the preschool curriculum and the primary school curriculum and that the preschool inadequately prepares children for the language challenges of the primary school programme.

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