Teachers’ strategies of teaching primary school mathematics in a second language: A case of Botswana

This paper reports the results of a study of primary school mathematics teaching in northern Botswana in order to highlight the strategies teachers use in bi/multilingual classrooms. Questionnaire and interview data collection procedures were used. The findings, which are based on responses of randomly selected primary school teachers, confirmed that monolingual classes were fewer than bilingual and multilingual classes in those parts of Botswana. Furthermore, syllabus analysis confirmed the abstract nature of mathematical concepts. Teachers report to have devised strategies to overcome the difficulties imposed by this classroom situation.