SOCIOLOLINGUISTIC SURVEYS - Centre for Language Studies

Chichewa at the end of their first year in school.
viii)
ix)
To establish teachers’ competence in using Chisena as a medium of
instruction.
To establish what language(s) teachers use for instruction in the first two years
of pupils’ school life.
x) To determine the magnitude of teachers whose first language is Chisena.
xi)
To determine the availability of teaching/learning materials to support
Chisena as a medium of instruction.
xii)
To establish whether there are languages other than Chisena that can serve as
media of instruction in schools.
xiii)
To make relevant recommendations to GTZ/MITEP, TDU, the Malawi
Institute of Education, and the Ministry of Education on teacher training and
learning/teaching materials.
6.4 STUDY DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
6.4.1 POPULATION
The total population for the survey was 817 respondents. This population can be broken
down into four categories, namely teachers, parents/guardians, pupils, and “others”.
This composition translates into 16 teachers, 289 parents/guardians. 409 pupils and 103
“others”. The subjects were randomly selected and then interviewed.
6.4.2 PROCEDURE
Data were obtained through interactive interviews with the randomly selected subjects in
two districts, i.e. Chikwawa and Nsanje. A questionnaire was employed in the data
collection exercise. The questionnaire had both open ended and closed questions whose
objectives were to solicit the following:
i) general information about the respondents – sex, age, marital status, level of
education, etc.
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