SOCIOLOLINGUISTIC SURVEYS - Centre for Language Studies

Table 68 reveals that there is an interesting correlation between the parents/guardians
liking their child to be taught in Chitumbuka and the age of the parents/guardians. Those
between the 20­24 (15.1%) recorded the highest liking followed by the 25­29 (11.9%)
age bracket, then 30­34 (10.2%) and 35­39(8.3%) respectively. It can be observed that
generally as the age increases the number of parents/guardians wanting their chidren to
be taught in Chitumbuka decreases. This observation can be explained by the fact that
after 40 years, of age most people lead a settled life and tend to accept what has already
established. Change is usually frowned upon hence they tend to accept the status quo. In
this case, therefore, the introduction of Chitumbuka would create a lot of uncertanities
which is deemed unnecessary.
Another question which was correlated with age is whether or not language is a
contributing factor to pupils’ failure in infant classes. The following results wee
obtained:
Table 69:
Language As A Contributing Factor To Failure Vs Age
Age %Respondents
Yes
No
15 – 19 3.7 1.8
20 ­ 24 13.9 6.5
25 – 29 11.0 5.1
30 ­ 34 9.2 4.1
35 – 39 8.4 2.8
40 – 44 4.1 2.1
45 – 49 4.0 1.3
50 ­ 54 3.9 0.7
55 ­ 59 2.3 0.9
60 ­ 64 3.8 2.1
65 – 69 2.1 0.4
70 above 2.3 0.7
Table 69 shows that there is a correlation between age and belief in language as a
contributing factor to pupils’ failure are found in the majority in the 20 – 24 age bracket.
These constitute 13.9% followed by the 25 – 29 (11.0%) age bracket, 30 – 34 (9.2%) age
bracket and 35 – 39 (8.4%) age bracket. Here again, the numbers begin to decrease as the
69