SOCIOLOLINGUISTIC SURVEYS - Centre for Language Studies

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age increases. A plausible explanation for this phenomenon seems to be that as age increases the less the parents/guardians remember about their linguistic problems at school. 4.7 CONCLUSIONS The picture that emerges from the findings is that in general, teachers support the mother tongue instruction policy. Despite acknowledging the lack of teaching/learning materials, the teachers are nevertheless determined to implement the policy. The guardians/parents too are in support of mother tongue instruction. Pupils, on the other hand, have different perceptions from their teachers and guardians: pupils have rejected the mother tongue policy. The majority of the pupils would like to learn through English, with Chichewa as the second choice. The high affinity for English is not dificult to account for given that English is the language for social, economic and political advancement. The mother tongues, on the other hand, have a very negligible impact on one’s personal advancement. Pupils also recognise the importance of Chichewa as a national lingua franca and as a language currently in use in a number of official domains in the country. Chitumbuka is viewed by pupils as a local language which does not have the social, political and economic power they require in life. This clash between pupils on the one hand and parents/guardians and teachers on the other hand, is something that policy makers must handle with care. It is also important to mention that Chichewa has firmly established itself as the national lingua franca for the whole country so much so that one cannot realistically talk of a Chitumbuka speaking area that has not felt the impact of Chichewa. For example, the pupils’ second most preferred language of instruction is Chichewa. In the case of parents/guardians who speak more than one language, the other most spoken language (apart from Chitumbuka) is Chichewa. The same picture emerges from the pupils. This is evidence that Chichewa has over the years firmly established itself even in traditional nonChichewa speaking areas. Whilst it is true that Chitumbuka is the most dominant language in the Northern Region, it is worthwhile to recognise the presence of smaller but prominent languages. Languages such as Chindali in Chitipa, Nkhonde in Karonga, and Chitonga in Nkhata Bay pose as powerful rivals to Chitumbuka. Infact, the three districts under review are not strictly speaking Chitumbuka dominated areas. In the case of Nkhata Bay, there is aclear rejection of Chitumbuka as the language for various domains: Chichewa has a strong showing in Nkhata Bay, with Chitonga coming second. In a nutshell, the findings of the survey indicate that while Mzimba and Rumphi are unquestionable strongholds for 70
Chitumbuka, the same cannot be said to be true for Chitipa, Karonga and Nkhata Bay. Techinically speaking, it is not accurate to label the entire Northern Region as a Chitumbukaspeaking area. If and when Chitumbuka is introduced as one of the media of instruction in Malawi, the linguistic picture presented above will have to be seriously taken into consideration. 4.8 RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (i) The results of the survey show clearly that teachers and parents/guardians are in favour of using local languages in schools. The ministry of Education should therefore go ahead with the mother tongue instruction policy. Given that pupils have a strong preference for English as a medium of instruction and a subject of mstudy, the position of English in the primary school curriculum should be strengthened. Currently there is misconception thath the mother tongue policy means doing away with English as a subject of study. (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) (vi) The Ministry of Education should develop teacher programmes to cater for the mother tongue instruction policy given that the current programmes only cater for two languages of instruction, namely, English and Chichewa. There is also urgent need for the Malawi Institute of Education and its professional partners to develop teaching and learning materials in Chitumbuka since these are not available. The required materials include grammar books, dictionaries, teacher’s guides, literary books etc. The Chitumbuka dialect spoken in Rumphi was identified by the majority of the respondents as the best. The Ministrry of Education is therefore strongly encouraged to adopt this dialect for use in the mother tongue instruction policy if and when it gets implemented. The role of Chichewa as a lingua franca should still be recognised and maintained. The Ministry of Education’s special attention is drawn to the findings from Nkhata Bay where the majority of the respondents favour the use of Chichewa in a number of domains as opposed to Chitumbuka which is widely spoken in Rumphi and Mzimba. Furthermore, the fact that Chitumbuka is not favoured in Nkhata Bay and parts of Karonga should be considered seriously. There should be meaningful cooperation and information flow between various partners in the Education sector e.g. betwen the Ministry of Education, the Malawi Institute of Education, the University of Malawi and the donor community. Such cooperation would cut down waste of resources as well as 71
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SOCIOLOLINGUISTIC SURVEYS OF FOUR M
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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
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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 and 30: the most crucial informants because
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: Table 68 reveals that there is an i
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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