SOCIOLOLINGUISTIC SURVEYS - Centre for Language Studies

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part of it in any direct way, it was deemed necessary to find out views on the issue. In general, the respondnets did not find it embarrassing either to identify themselves as Senas or to speak Chisena. The respondents also indicated their willingness to be taught in Chisena as well as their acceptance of the pupils to be taught Chisena in the schools. 6.6 CONCLUSIONS There are a number of conclusions which can be drawn from the data presented above: (1) That the majority of the Senas have a positive attitude towards their ethnic group and their language, which contradicts the pervasive myths that the senas do not have pride in their language and culture; (2) That the majority of the pupils (60.6%) in the Chisena speaking areas would like to be taught in Chisena; (3) That the majority of the parents/guardians (78.9%) support the idea of having their wards taught in their mother tongue (Chisena); (4) That the majority of the teachers (87.5%) would accept Chisena in the schools; (5) That Chichewa has permeated every fabric of the Sena society thereby making Sena societies bilingual/multilingual. 6.7 RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (MOE) (i) The results of the survey clearly show that pupils, teachers and parents/guardians are in favour of using Chisena in the schools. The MOE should therefore proceed with the mother tongue instruction policy. (ii) The MOE should develop teacher training programmes to cater for the mother tongue instruction policy given that the current programmes only cater for two languages of instruction, namely English and Chichewa. (iii) There is also an urgent need for the MIE and its professional partners to develop teaching and learning materials in Chisena since these are nonexistent. The required books include primers, teachers’ guides, elementary 106
grammars and dictionaries. (iv) The Nsanje dialect of Chisena should be adopted for use in schools. (v) The role of Chichewa as a national lingua franca should be recognised and maintained. (vi) In discussing matters of language policy in education, there should be meaningful cooperation and information flow among the various partners in the education sector e.g. MOE, MIE, the University of Malawi and donors. Such cooperation would avoid wasting resources as well as duplication of efforts. 7 FINAL REMARKS In all the four languages surveyed (i.e. Chiyao, Chitumbuka, Chilomwe and Chisena), there is a general acceptance of the use of these languages as a media of instruction in standards 1 – 4. The important influence of Chichewa and its acceptance as a “Lingua Franca” is also clearly noted. There is also an awareness of the problems that for the implementation of the mother tongue instruction policy will raise. We also note that for the implemenation process to suceed, there is need for collaboration among the various educational bodies such as the Ministry of Education itself, the University of Malawi (especially the Centre for Language Studies), the Malawi Institude of Education, publishers, and others. The surveys’ findings reported here were also presented and debated at a national symposium whose objective was to review the languageineducation policy in Malawi. The symposium, held in March 1999 in Mangochi, attracted a wide range of stakeholders. The symposium, after being furnished with the relevant data from the four surveys, did propose a new language policy for Malawi’s education. At the core of this policy is mother tongue instruction policy for the first four years of primary education. 8 BIBLIOGRAPHY ADEA Newsletter (1996) Volume 8 No. 4 Special Issue on the Role of Africa Languages in Education and Sustainable Development. Bamgbose, A. (1991) Language and The Nation: The Language Question in Sub 107
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SOCIOLOLINGUISTIC SURVEYS OF FOUR M
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4.5.1 TEACHER’S RESPONSES 23 4.5.
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A Note from the Director on Socioli
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1 INTRODUCTION The availability of
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instance, a mother tongue literacy
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level of understanding, whether the
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In relation to religions affiliatio
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there is l and w are repalced by d
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the survey that people from outside
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Above form 4 1 3 0.5 Other 3 0.3 Th
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REASONS GIVEN Easy communication Mo
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Chilomwe Chisena Chinkhonde English
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50. It has been observed that those
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Chichewa. This has arisen from the
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the most crucial informants because
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and pressing issues to handle e.g.
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Table 13: District Acceptance Of Ch
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The figures above clearly indicate
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Teachers were also requested to ind
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Rumphi 75.0 25.0 Mzimba 84.7 11.1 N
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Bay Table 24 shows that English is
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preferred language is Chilambia (17
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Rumphi 17.3 Pure Tumbuka 6.7 Henga
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Pure 1.5 Mmbelwa 1.5 Euthini 1.5 Ka
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Chichewa is the most favoured langu
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Respondents were also requested to
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Table 43: Whether To Be Taught In C
Page 55 and 56: % Resdpondentys District Chichewa C
Page 57 and 58: N/A 19.5 On the corollary question
Page 59 and 60: Table 53 shows that most pupils pre
Page 61 and 62: TRA = Translation NMT = Not mother
Page 63 and 64: Table 60: Language To Be Used In Ne
Page 65 and 66: Rumphi 41. 4 Mzimba 23. 9 Nkhata Ba
Page 67 and 68: case for Nkhata Bay is that Chitong
Page 69 and 70: Table 68 reveals that there is an i
Page 71 and 72: Chitumbuka, the same cannot be said
Page 73 and 74: (vii) (viii) To establish whether t
Page 75 and 76: the villagers would also ask the re
Page 77 and 78: Chiradzulu 1 0.3 Mozambique 22 6.2
Page 79 and 80: Undecided 1 0.3 The results present
Page 81 and 82: There were 19 cases of respondents
Page 83 and 84: On the question of whether the resp
Page 85 and 86: Chitakhwani 2 6.9 Chikokhola 2 6.9
Page 87 and 88: 5.5.4.1 SUMMARY Although this categ
Page 89 and 90: 6 CHISENA SURVEY 6.1 BACKGROUND TO
Page 91 and 92: ii) proficiency in Chisena and othe
Page 93 and 94: Table 80: Age Groups Age Group Freq
Page 95 and 96: Age Group Frequency % 09 20 4.9 1
Page 97 and 98: Tengani 11 2.7 Nsanje 35 8.6 Phodzo
Page 99 and 100: The majority of the pupils have cle
Page 101 and 102: 6.5.2.3 VARIETIES Asked bout where
Page 103 and 104: mentioned the Nsanje variety, anoth
Page 105: 6.5.4 “OTHER” RESPONDENTS’ RE
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