SOCIOLOLINGUISTIC SURVEYS - Centre for Language Studies

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A sociolinguistic survey of Chitumbuka speaking areas of Malawi was conducted by the Centre for Language Studies from 13 th September to 3 rd October, 1997. The survey covered the following districts: Mzimba, Nkhata Bay, Rumphi, Karonga and Chitipa. A pilot phase for the survey was done in Rumphi district from 23 rd August to 29 th August, 1997. 4.2 GENERAL OBJECTIVES The survey was conducted in order to determine the need, practicality and relevance of using Chitumbuka as a medium of instruction in primary schools in Chitumbuka speaking areas. 4.3 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES The following were identified as the survey’s specific objectives: i. To establish teachers’ competence in using Chitumbuka as a medium of instruction. ii. To dertermine the availability of teaching/learning materials to support Chitumbuka as a medium of instruction. iii. To establish attitudes of Chitumbuka speakers towards Chichewa as a subject and as a medium of instruction. iv. To determine zones where the need for use of Chitumbuka in schools is most felt. v. To establish whether there are other languages that can serve as media of instruction in schools. vi. To establish whether or not children acquire proficiency in Chichewa at the end of their first year in school. vii. To establish what language teachers use for instruction in the first two years of pupils’ school life. viii. To make recommendations to GTZ/MIITEP, the Malawi Institute of Education and the Ministry of Eductaion onteacher training and learning/teaching materials reuirements. 4.4 STUDY DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 4.4.1 POPULATION The population for this survey (1732 respondents) comprised: 1105 primary school pupils, 194 primary school teachers, and 433 parents/guardians. These were identified as 28
the most crucial informants because they are directly involved with whatever language policy is adopted: teachers (as implementors of government policy), pupils (as victims or beneficiaries of government policy), and guardians/parents as people who invest in the future of their children. All the three categories of the population were randomly selected and then interviewed by the research team. 4.4.2 PROCEDURE Data for the survey were gathered mainly through interactive interviews with some 1732 randomly selected subjects (i.e. pupils, teachers and parents/guardians) from Mzimba, Nkhata Bay, Rumphi, Karonga and Chitipa. A questionnaire was admnistered to each respondent by members of the research team. The questionnaire, which had both openended and closed items sought to find out the following, among other things: (i) general information about the resopondents – sex, age, marital status, level of education, etc. (ii) proficiency in Chitumbuka and other languages. (iii) views on the use of Chitumbuka as a medium of instruction in standards 1 – 4. (iv) teachers’ competence in using Chitumbuka as a medium of instructiion/subject for study. (v) availability of learning/teaching materials wrtten in Chitumbuka. The data collection procedure was as follows: researchers read out questions to which the subjects responded. The answers were then recorded on the questionnaire by the researchers. One of the items on the questionnaire was a wordlist in which respondents were asked to state whether they knew the Chitumbuka words. This was followed by a narrative which was read out by the researchers. The respondents’ task was to retell the story in a summarised form. The two tests were aimed at determining the respondents’ level of competence in Chitumbuka. It has to be mentioned that some data were collected through observation and literature survey. The researchers were equipped with notepads in which they recorded any relevant sociolinguistic observation. These observations were made during both working and off hours. 4.4.3 DATA COLLECTORS The data collection exercise was done by a team comprising eight principal researchers 29
Page 1 and 2: SOCIOLOLINGUISTIC SURVEYS OF FOUR M
Page 3 and 4: 4.5.1 TEACHER’S RESPONSES 23 4.5.
Page 5 and 6: A Note from the Director on Socioli
Page 7 and 8: 1 INTRODUCTION The availability of
Page 9 and 10: instance, a mother tongue literacy
Page 11 and 12: level of understanding, whether the
Page 13 and 14: In relation to religions affiliatio
Page 15 and 16: there is l and w are repalced by d
Page 17 and 18: the survey that people from outside
Page 19 and 20: Above form 4 1 3 0.5 Other 3 0.3 Th
Page 21 and 22: REASONS GIVEN Easy communication Mo
Page 23 and 24: Chilomwe Chisena Chinkhonde English
Page 25 and 26: 50. It has been observed that those
Page 27: Chichewa. This has arisen from the
Page 31 and 32: and pressing issues to handle e.g.
Page 33 and 34: Table 13: District Acceptance Of Ch
Page 35 and 36: The figures above clearly indicate
Page 37 and 38: Teachers were also requested to ind
Page 39 and 40: Rumphi 75.0 25.0 Mzimba 84.7 11.1 N
Page 41 and 42: Bay Table 24 shows that English is
Page 43 and 44: preferred language is Chilambia (17
Page 45 and 46: Rumphi 17.3 Pure Tumbuka 6.7 Henga
Page 47 and 48: Pure 1.5 Mmbelwa 1.5 Euthini 1.5 Ka
Page 49 and 50: Chichewa is the most favoured langu
Page 51 and 52: Respondents were also requested to
Page 53 and 54: 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
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Age Group Frequency % 09 20 4.9 1
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Tengani 11 2.7 Nsanje 35 8.6 Phodzo
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The majority of the pupils have cle
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6.5.2.3 VARIETIES Asked bout where
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mentioned the Nsanje variety, anoth
Page 105 and 106:
6.5.4 “OTHER” RESPONDENTS’ RE
Page 107 and 108:
grammars and dictionaries. (iv) The
Page 109:
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