SOCIOLOLINGUISTIC SURVEYS - Centre for Language Studies

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and eight research assistants. The eight principal researchers were drawn from the various academic ranks of the Centre for Language Studies and Chancellor College. Their minimum education qualification was a Bachelor’s degree. The eight research assistants, whose minimum qualification was a Malawi School Certificate of Education, were trained in the use of the questionnaire. They were briefed adequately on the survey’s aims and objectives. Each research assistant was profesionally supervised by a principal researcher. Some of the research assistants were native speakers of Chitumbuka. 4.4.4 DATA ANALYSIS The data were edited, coded and then entered into a computer. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for analysing the data. Frequencies, percentages and cross tabulations were done for the three categories of respondents namely. 4.4.5 PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED DURING THE SURVEY It was planned that 2500 subjects would be interviewed. This figure was deemed to be representative enough because it represented nearly 5% of the population of the Northern Region. During the survey itself, 1732 subjects were interviewed. The target was missed because of a number of factors such as bad road conditions which made some areas inaccessible. Secondly, the fact the Northern Region is sparsely populated made it difficult for the research team to get hold of a reasonable number of respondents. Amongst the general problems encountered is that in some cases some subjects would initially claim that they are monolingual. After a language proficiency test, one would find that such subjects were in actual fact either bilingual or multilingual. It was also noted that pupils from the lower classes usually did not provide reasonable and meaningful answers. The subjects in this category were too young to understand and appreciate the research questions. So the research team opted for senior pupils. The research team was sometimes mistaken for agents of the ruling party, the United Democratic Front (UDF). It must be noted that since the Northern Region is the stronghold for the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD), the UDF has very little support and the survey was, therefore, regarded by some people as a politically motivated exercise whose ultimate goal was to seek political gains for the ruling party. Other people refused to be interviewed because they claimed that they had more serious 30
and pressing issues to handle e.g. the drought which has badly affected some areas of Karonga. At Ngerengere in Karonga, some people mistook the researchers for suppliers of food aid. Upon realising the truth, some of the angry people refused to cooperate with the research team. 4.4.6 SOME DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS OF RESPONDENTS Areas of interest here are sex, age and levels of education. As pointed out earlier on, 1732 subjects were interviewed. Of these 817 (47.2%) were made 891 (51.4%) were female; 24 (1.4%) were undocumented. The subjects were then grouped into three categories: teachers, guardians/parents and pupils. The breakdown for these categories was as follows: 433 (25.0%) parents/guardians; 194 (11.2%) teachers and 1,105 (63.8%) pupils. As regards age, the teachers ages ranged from 20 to 59. The highest number of teachers was concentrated within the 25 – 29 (19.4%) age bracket, followed by 30 – 34 (17.4%), 35 – 39(11.9%) and 20 – 24 (13.9%) bracket. The lowest concentration was within the 55 – 59 (0.5%) age bracket. The guardians’/parents’ ages ranged from 15 to 70. The highest concentration of parents’/guardians’ was within the 20 24 (20.7%) age bracket, followed by 25 29 (16.6%) and 30 39 (11.3%) age brackets. The lowest concentration was within the 65 – 69 (2.5%) age bracket. Among the pupils the ages ranged from 9 to 24. The highest numbers of pupils were concentrated within the 10 – 14 (55.8%) age bracket, followed by the 15 19 (41.0%) age bracket. The 20 – 24 age range had the lowest number with only 0.6%. With regard to education, the guardians’ levels of education ranged from no education at all to tertiary. 3.7% of the guardians had no education; 75% had primary school education; 12.7% had a Junior Certificate of Education (JCE), 6.9% had a Malawi School Cerificate of Education (MSCE); and 0.2% had a diploma and 1.4% were undocumented. Among the teachers, the levels of education ranged from primary to tertiary. 50% had a J.C.E; 49.0% had an MSCE; 0.5% had a diploma and 0.5% were undocumented. In order to measure the respondents’ competence in Chitumbuka, all the respondents were given a comprehension and vocabularly test. In the comprehension test 76.3% showed very clear understanding, 16.2% showed little understanding; 4.7% did not 31
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 and 28: Chichewa. This has arisen from the
Page 29: the most crucial informants because
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
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 and 106:
6.5.4 “OTHER” RESPONDENTS’ RE
Page 107 and 108:
grammars and dictionaries. (iv) The
Page 109:
109
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