O n f e r e n c e

Short paper 
Research context 
The teaching of foreign languages in South Africa is decreasing. Fewer schools include 
foreign languages in their curriculum and foreign language departments at tertiary 
institutions are struggling to justify their existence. Researching means to improve the 
teaching of foreign languages and to better the competencies of learners of these 
languages 
–
thus empowering South Africans to communicate with the rest of the 
continent, Europe and beyond 
–
is crucial in this struggle. French 
–
one of the few foreign 
languages taught at tertiary level 
–
is widely spoken in African countries and therefore 
deserves the attention of local researchers. 
At the end of the first week of class of the 2014 academic year, students who are 
registered for the module FREN111 
–
a beginners course in French as a foreign language 
at the North-
West University’s (NWU) Potchefstroom campus –
took part in a survey 
providing data on learner beliefs and motivation in order to find out why they chose to 
study French, which competency they consider to be the most important and to discover 
which aspect of language learning they think should receive particular attention. 
Seventy-one respondents took part in the survey of which 13 males (18%) and 58 
females (82%). 90% of the participants have no previous knowledge of French.
The results show that 35% of respondents study French because of their love for and 
interest in French in particular or languages in general. 28% of respondents study French 
as it will give them an advantage in their future career or in their studies and 12.5% 
because they want to travel to France or abroad.
Of the four skills, oral communication was listed as the most important by the group. 
63% of respondents listed communication as the first priority. When looking at gender-
specific opinion, the results stay more or less the same: females 64% and males: 61.5%. 
Group results show reading as the second most important skill (15.5%), listening as third 
(13%) and writing is listed last with 8.5% of respondents naming it as the most 
important of the skills.
When asked which aspect of language learning should receive special attention, 31 out of 
the 71 respondents (44%) specifically mentioned pronunciation as an important aspect 
worthy of particular attention.
These results concur with the findings of a study at the University of Cape Town (UCT), 
South African specialist in the domain of teaching French as a foreign language, stating 
that undergraduate students require more opportunities to practice spoken French 
(Delena-le Roux, 2010).
Newton Nchang Tamukong’s
Master’s study (
personal communication, 14 September 
2013 at the Association for French Studies in Southern Africa (AFSSA) Journées d’études 
avancées in Pretoria) at UCT suggests that a large percentage of the 5 lessons-per-week 
teaching time should be dedicated to bettering students’ oral proficiency. The proposed 
change could have far-reaching implications on the development of the other skills, 
however.
The need for bettering students’ oral proficiency in foreign languages is not limited to the 
South African context. Studies on how to better oral proficiency in second and foreign 
languages have been done 
–
and are still conducted today 
–
in many countries and at 
different institutions worldwide amongst which Altys College, Lithuanian University of 
Agriculture in Lithuania (Vitienė & Mičiulienė, 2008), Spain (Laborda, 2009), University of 
Hawai’i in Hawai’i (Warschauer, 1996), University Kebangs
aan in Malaysia (Bakar, Latiff 
& Hamat, 2013), Suranaree University of Technology in Thailand (Yaikhong & Usaha, 
2012), Okinawa Christian University in Japan (Murikami, Valvona & Broudy, 2012), Iowa 

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2014 CALL Conference 
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State University (Gleason & Suvorov 2011) and University of Washington (Tsutsui, Kato 
& Mohr 1998) in America, to name but a few. 
Most studies focus on learners with previous knowledge of the target language [Gleason 
& Suvurov (2001, p. 4), Murakami et al (2012, p. 410), Peng (2012, p. 206), Arnold 
(2007 p. 473), Al-Mansour, Al-Shorman (2011, p. 53), Gromik (2102, p. 225) amongst 
others]. In the South African context the need for individual development of oral 
proficiency is at its highest in beginners’ classes where groups consist of large numbers 
of learners making individual attention and practice impossible. Even the conversation 
tutorial classes consist of twenty or more students, which is not optimal. This study will 
aim to contribute to filling this gap in the literature.
An additional challenge is that less privileged institutions of higher education in the 
country are seriously understaffed (e.g. in 2006, at the English Studies Department of 
the University of Limpopo the staff-student ratio was 1:117, McCabe, 2008). This has 
considerable repercussions for the teaching process. The biggest problems lie in the fact 
that the students are taught in oversized groups. Yet that there is no possibility to offer 
differentiation of the learning process and continuous assessment is highly problematic 
too.