SOCIOLOLINGUISTIC SURVEYS - Centre for Language Studies

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pupils have Chichewa as an alternative to Chilomwe as a medium of instruction. The pupils’ responses indicate clearly that the learners have significant problems with studying in English. It is obvious from the findings that the pupils are more comfortable with local languages as media of instruction than with English, a foreign tongue. The fact that pupils welcome the introduction of Chilomwe as a medium of instruction shows that there is now a growing positive attitude towards Lomwe. Matiki’s (1996/97) study on Chilomwe reports that it had 31.4% of the respondents claiming that they find it embarrasing to speak Chilomwe. The curent survey’s findings show that pupils display a positive attitude towards Chilomwe. The recent elevation of Chilomwe as one of the languages for newcasts on the national radio is one possible factor that could have instilled a sense of pride in the Lomwes. The new political dispensation in Malawi has created room for linguistic liberalisation, giving people the opportunity to freely promote their languages. This is in contrast to the one party state era during which vernacular languages were marginalised and despised. 5.5.2 PARENTS’/GUARDIANS’ RESPONSES In this section we present responses made by parents’/guardians from the districts of Thyolo, Mulanje and Phalombe were interviewed in the following proportions: Thyolo (92), Mulanje (81), Phalombe (64). 2 were not documented. Their age ranges were recorded in Table 76. Table 76: Age Range For Parents/Guardians Age Range No. of Respondents Percentage 2024 42 17.6 2529 40 16.7 3034 36 15.1 3539 39 16.3 4044 21 8.8 4550 18 7.5 5054 13 5.4 5559 2 0.8 6064 5 2.1 6569 1 0.4 70 and above 3 1.3 80
There were 19 cases of respondents who were aged below 20 who were also put in the category of parents/guardians because they could not fit in any of the other groups due to certain personal peculiarities. 5.5.2.1 SEX Out of the 239 interviewees, 106 (44.4%) were male and 128 (53.6%) were female. There were 5 (2.1%) cases which were inadvertently not documented. 5.5.2.2 QUALIFICATIONS The educational background of the respondents was as shown in Table 77. Table 77: Parents/Guardians’ Qualification Level of Education No. of Respondents Percentage No formal education 88 36.8 Below PSLC 98 41 PSLC 26 10.9 JC 13 5.4 MSCE 10 4.2 Diploma and Above 1 0.4 There were 167 respondents (representing 69.9%) who indicated that they were Chilomwe speakers while 72 (30.1%) said they did not fully speak the language. The difficulty here is that there were some respondents who claimed not to speak Chilomwe but who, nevertheless, showed sufficient competence in the language when later presented with a proficiency test. This appears to have been so particularly with those who felt that their Chilomwe was mixed with some Chichewa but who strictly speaking, ought to have been regarded as Chilomwe speakers. This, therefore, means that in reality, the figure of 69.9% given above for Chilomwe speakers is an under representation. 81
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SOCIOLOLINGUISTIC SURVEYS OF FOUR M
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4.5.1 TEACHER’S RESPONSES 23 4.5.
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A Note from the Director on Socioli
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1 INTRODUCTION The availability of
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instance, a mother tongue literacy
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level of understanding, whether the
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In relation to religions affiliatio
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there is l and w are repalced by d
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the survey that people from outside
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Above form 4 1 3 0.5 Other 3 0.3 Th
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REASONS GIVEN Easy communication Mo
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Chilomwe Chisena Chinkhonde English
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50. It has been observed that those
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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 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: Undecided 1 0.3 The results present
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
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