SOCIOLOLINGUISTIC SURVEYS - Centre for Language Studies

Teachers were also requested to indicate when thhey use Chitumbuka in the classroom.
In Chitipa 47% of teachers indicated that they do not use Chitumbuka at all in the
classroom; 11.8% said they used it when teaching social and religious studies; another
11.8% indicated that they used it whenever they felt that the pupils understood it, and
29.4% said they used it whenever they felt there was need to clarify a point.
In Karonga 48.6% of teachers indicated that they used Chitumbuka to clarify issues,
16.7% indicated that they used it to teach social and religious studies; 5.6% claimed they
used it for introducing new pupils; and 25% indicated that they do not use it at all.
In Rumphi 75% of the teachers said that they use Chitumbuka for clarification; 12.5%
idicated that they use it when introducing new pupils’ and 12.5% said they do not use it at
all.
In Mzimba 76.4% of the teachers reported that they use Chitumbuka for clarification;
11.1% indicated that they use it to teach social and religious studies; 2.8% use it
whenever it is understood; 1.4% indicated that they use it to discipline the pupils; 1.4%
used it for introducing new pupils and yet another 1.4% did not respond; and 5.6%
indicated that they do not use it at all.
The same question was repeated in Nkhata Bay where 64% of the teachers said that they
used Chitumbuka to facilitate learning; 8% said they used it to introduce new pupils; 28%
indicated that they do not use it at all.
A follow­up question requested the teachers to indicate the language most used at their
school by their pupils. The results are shown in Table 19.
Table 19:
Language Most Spoken By Pupils At School
% Respondents
District English Chewa Tumbuka Nkhonde Tonga Lambia Sukwa Ndali Bandia
Chitipa 41.2 29.4 5.9 29.4
Karonga 1.4 2.8 51.4 44.4
Rumphi 100
Mzimba 5.6 94.4
Nkhata
Bay 4.0 4.0 92.0
From Table 19, Chitumbuka is predominant among pupils only in two districts, namely
37