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Learning through the medium of English in multilingual South Africa: enabling or disabling learners from low income contexts?

ABSTRACT Increasingly, there is a growing move towards using global languages such as English as media of instruction. Does one swim against this growing tide or does one look at strategies to accommodate English in multilingual contexts such as prevail in South Africa? In this article I examine the debates in South Africa about the role of English in education. I argue that the success or otherwise of using English as a medium depends a great deal on the context learners and teachers find themselves in. This article explores the learning of English in three different contexts to illustrate ways in which to address issues of ‘quality, equity and social justice’ with regard to the medium of instruction issue in differing contexts. It suggests that there may not be one solution for all contexts.