Sociolinguistic perspectives on the quality of instruction in African primary classrooms

Abstract

This article is concerned with the effects of national and educational language policies on the quality of primary level instruction in Kenya. It argues that national language policies need to be disentangled from educational matters so that the language used for instruction more directly meets the social as well as the academic requirements of learners. The paper draws on a study of grade eight students' ability to use the mother tongue to write about what has been learned in science lessons. The findings suggest that this ability be actively nurtured, to give students the benefit of current knowledge about the interaction of first and second languages in the learning process. Given even limited amounts of freedom to teach in ways they intuitively know work best, teachers will get their points across. When restricted by language policies that only make sense at the national level for keeping the peace between competing language groups, communication in the classroom suffers.