Unlocking Language Potential: How Mother Tongue Shapes English Acquisition in Rural Grade 1 Classrooms of South Africa

This study investigates the influence of learners’ mother tongues on the acquisition of English as a First Additional Language (EFAL) among Grade 1 learners in South Africa’s rural Klein Letaba Circuit, Limpopo Province. Guided by Cummins’ Interdependence Hypothesis and Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory, the study employs an interpretivist qualitative design involving eight purposefully selected Grade 1 teachers from multilingual classrooms. Semi-structured interviews were thematically analysed to identify patterns of phonological, grammatical, and lexical transfer, alongside teachers’ pedagogical responses. Findings reveal that learners frequently transfer L1 sound systems and grammatical structures into English, resulting in predictable decoding, pronunciation, and syntactic errors. Teachers report that strategic translanguaging—purposeful alternation between English and local languages such as Xitsonga, Tshivenda, and Sepedi—enhances comprehension, pronunciation, and learner engagement. Teachers’ narratives further highlight that bilingual scaffolding affirms cultural identity, reduces cognitive load, and strengthens early literacy development, despite persistent shortages of bilingual resources and limited professional development. The study concludes that mother-tongue-based bilingual instruction is not a remedial strategy but a foundational approach for promoting equitable literacy and cognitive growth in multilingual contexts. Its originality lies in situating translanguaging pedagogy within rural African classrooms and illustrating how teachers operationalise bilingualism under material and ideological constraints. By offering classroom-level insights, the study contributes to national conversations about South Africa’s 81% reading comprehension crisis, as reported in PIRLS 2021. Although based on a small, context-specific sample, the findings provide transferable implications for multilingual education policy and EFAL pedagogy across rural African settings.