This special issue of "Per Linguam" is entirely devoted to a report of a project to improve the English language proficiency of primary school teachers in the Kwa Zulu area of Southern Africa. The inter-university project was designed to raise the standards of English modeling and instruction early in the education of children in order to provide them with a better command of the language for academic success and retention. The report of the initial phase of the project, a language need analysis of higher primary teachers: (1) outlines the conceptual framework for second language learning used in the project; (2) describes the existing linguistic situation and related instructional problems; (3) surveys existing literature; (4) presents the project's goals and methods of data collection; (5) gives a profile of teacher characteristics; (6) describes the setting in which primary teachers work in KwaZulu; (7) summarizes and analyzes the results of the needs survey; (8) interprets the results in terms of teacher education course specifications; (9) compares teacher needs with existing teacher training courses; (10) draws conclusions; and (11) makes recommendations for teacher education curriculum design and further research. (MSE)