SOCIOLOLINGUISTIC SURVEYS - Centre for Language Studies

Table 58:
Would Science Be Taught In Mother Tongue
%Respondents
District
Yes
No
Chitipa 71.2 28.8
Karonga 47.2 52.8
Rumphi 56.3 43.7
Mzimba 62.9 35.9
Nkhata Bay 53.2 45.9
As Table 58 shows a majority of pupils believe that science would be easier in the mother
tongue. On the other hand, a significant percentage of the pupils believe the contrary to
be true. To most of these pupils, science in a mother tongue was simply inconceivable.
4.5.3.1 OTHER DOMAINS OF LANGUAGE USE
To supplement responses on language use in education, pupils were asked questions on
language use in other domains. In this section, the findings of these non­educational
domain will be presented.The pupils were requested to indicate which language they
would like to be used on the radio. The following are the results:
Table 59: Languages To Be Used On The Radio
% Respondents
District Engklish Chewa Tumbuka Nkhonde Ndali Sukwa Lambia Ngon Mambwe Yao Lomwe Tonga
i
Chitipa 8.3 48.5 28.8 1.5 1.5 0.8
Karonga 19.8 57.3 18.1 4.0 0.4 0.4
Rumphi 41.4 31.4 27.6
Mzimba 23.9 36.6 37.8 0.5
Nkhata
Bay
16.4 48.6 7.7 26.4
Following Table 59, the picture that ermeges is that the most preferred language among
pupils is Chichewa. This is not surprising because for nearly 30 years Chichewa has been
Malawi’s sole national language.
A futher question solicited answers on what languages the newspapers should be
published in. The following answers were obtained:
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