South Africa’s multilingual context is quite varied and complex. This has made it difficult to adopt and implement multilingual teaching and learning approaches in the different levels of South African education. No single multilingual teaching and learning approach can effectively work in all South African contexts and in all levels of education. Using a qualitative research approach, in this paper I intend to do an overview of the various multilingual approaches that have been implemented in various international context. I do a document analysis of studies that have been conducted on various multilingual teaching and learning approaches to determine their potential usefulness in the different South African contexts. The argument that I intend to make is that for effective multilingual education to take place, it is important that in conceptualising multilingual teaching and learning programmes, the scope be broadened to accommodate and suit the varied linguistic contexts that prevail in the country. Using research findings from the document analysis, I intend to show that it is not possible to expect one approach to work effectively in all teaching and learning contexts. There is thus a need for more robust research and pilot projects to trial various multilingual approaches to determine which approach would be suitable for which contexts in South Africa.

Keywords: Education, multilingualism, South Africa.