Student Teachers’ Attitude towards the Use of Indigenous Languages as Medium of Instruction in the Teaching of Science Subjects In Primary Schools of Zimbabwe

Abstract

The study sought to explore the attitudes of student teachers towards using indigenous languages as medium of instruction in the teaching of Science Subjects in primary schools of Zimbabwe. The aim was to compare the attitudes of student teachers towards the use of English as a medium of instruction and that of ChiShona as medium of instruction in the teaching and learning of Mathematics to Grade 4 classes and to examine the students' attitudes towards the use of mother tongue instruction in the teaching and learning of Mathematics in Zimbabwe primary schools. A practical teaching experiment was used to investigate the feasibility of using ChiShona as medium of instruction in the teaching and learning of Mathematics to Grade 4 class and investigate the student teachers' attitudes in the teaching situation. In addition a descriptive survey research design which used questionnaires and interviews as data collection methods was employed for its usefulness in exploratory studies. Data gathered was subjected to both quantitative and qualitative analysis resulting in data triangulation for validation. Key terms: Language planning, Language policy, Medium of instruction, language attitudes