Abstract
The study explored parents, teachers, and students’ beliefs about the use and study of mother tongue (MT) in selected secondary schools in Akinyele Local Government Area, Oyo State, Nigeria. Descriptive survey design was adopted. Twelve public senior secondary schools were randomly selected. Purposive sampling technique was used to select at least 15 literate parents, 12 teachers from different subject areas, and 20 students from each school. Overall, 211 literate parents, 195 teachers and 237 SSII students participated. Three instruments used were: Parents’ Questionnaire (r=0.87), Teachers’ Questionnaire (r=0.90) and Students’ Questionnaire (r=0.87). Data were analysed using frequency count, percentage, mean and standard deviation. Results show that parents, teachers and students have strong beliefs that using the MT to teach will facilitate the learning of English and other subjects and enhance participation in lessons. They also believe that studying the MT as a school subject would promote students’ sense of identity and positive attitude towards the Nigerian culture. Students believe that the MT remains the best language to learn with. The study has shown that the participants have strong beliefs about the pedagogical and sociocultural relevance of the MT in education. There is a positive indication that the main stakeholders (parents, teachers and students) are ready to embrace the study of MT as a subject in the secondary school. It is therefore recommended that the governments should endeavour to invest in the development of the orthographies of the Nigerian languages to make them usable in education.
Highlights
The term, mother-tongue-in-education is often associated with the use of mother tongue as a medium of instruction in schools
There is a positive indication that the main stakeholders are ready to embrace the study of mother tongue (MT) as a subject in the secondary school
With a weighted mean of 2.89, the results indicate that parents have strong beliefs about studying the MT as a subject in the senior secondary school for their sociocultural values
Summary
The term, mother-tongue-in-education is often associated with the use of mother tongue as a medium of instruction in schools. Teaching through the mother tongue (MT) has been identified as having a lot of cognitive and academic benefits, studying it as a school subject enables students to consolidate their competence, performance and knowledge of the socio-cultural aspects of the language. It enables learners to have a strong sense of confidence, self-esteem, motivation, initiative as well as creativity (Benson, 2004; Njoroge & Gathigia, 2011) and could facilitate the learning of additional languages (Ball, 2010). These are possible because proficiency in the language of instruction enhances active participation in the learning process
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