| Summary: | Magister Educationis - MEd === In this study, it is assumed that non-mother tongue speakers of English are faced with the
difficulty of writing and learning in English first additional language (FAL) or second language.
In the context of Cape Town, this applies to isiXhosa mother-tongue speaking learners who are
taught in an additional language, while their counterparts who speak either English or Afrikaans
as a home language are taught through the medium of their home languages from primary to
tertiary education. Snow (2014:17) claims that learners acquire academic language skills in the
home language and are able to transfer those skills into an additional language e.g. English. In
addition, if learners have their home language as the LoLT, language transfer may take place
easily and the home language structure can assist them when writing in an additional language
such as English. Language transfer, according to Odlin (1989:27), is the influence that
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culminates from the differences or similarities evident between the target language and any
other acquired language. There is a belief that strong proficiency in the home language
enhances the learning of an additional language easier through language transfer (Odlin,
1989:1). According to Ellis (1994:302) errors mostly occur when there is a negative transfer
from the mother-tongue to target language. Aziakpono and Bekker (2010:49) believe that there
is certain terminology that cannot be easily transferred from the home language to the target
language. However, the issue is not necessarily the transfer of language but rather the
expression thereof, especially with individuals who use the home language more than the target
language which is often English in South Africa. With regard to language transfer, it should be
taken into account that languages have different phonetic and syntactic structures which may
impede the learning of an additional language.
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