Abstract

The influence that the use of a familiar language has on learning has long been explored with suggestions that a child’s mother tongue is the most suited initial language of instruction in school. In Zambia, however, this is not the case as the majority of people think that young children should learn to speak in English as soon as possible because this is the language of education. As a result, songs in English dominate the singing repertoire in pre-schools even when children have not mastered sufficient English vocabulary. Singing songs in English, just as teaching children in a language they do not understand, has been shown to hamper learning. The theoretical lens of indigenous African education underpins the study in order to investigate how music in the mother tongue in a cultural context can foster educational aims. Research participants included an expert in Zambian indigenous children’s songs who also acted as resource person and led 18 children aged between 5 and 6 years in sessions of music in their mother tongue. The findings of the study revealed that educational implications of children’s participation in music in the mother tongue can be found in the way in which they are organised, the activities they involve and in the music elements that characterise them.

Highlights

  • Learning in a foreign language that children are not conversant with has been argued as contributing to the impediment of learning among African children (Diop 2000:90)

  • The propagation of language and music in the mother tongue in education can be broadly viewed as an effort towards Africanisation (Cabral 1998:263), which is often associated with the propagation of going back to the African way of life, its philosophy, and a revival of traditional African culture (Eze 1998:213; Okonkwo 1998:257)

  • The school hall was not a real or exotic location in which music takes place in cultural contexts of childhood, it was adapted for the music in the mother tongue sessions by removing furniture and excluding teacher participation

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Summary

Introduction

Learning in a foreign language that children are not conversant with has been argued as contributing to the impediment of learning among African children (Diop 2000:90). Since knowledge is culturally determined, Muchenje and Goronga (2013:890) add that children should be educated in a language that they are conversant in. An education that promotes the use of African tools such as language and music is seen by Africanists as a secure way of regaining what was lost through colonisation (Eze 1998:258; Muchenje & Goronga 2013:890). Music in the mother tongue can be argued as a means to promote Africanisation when used in education, since it has conveyed and transmitted cultural values in African societies for many generations

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