Implications of teachers’ attitudes towards unofficial languages on english language teaching in multilingual Zambia.
Date
2017
Authors
Mwanza, David Sani
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Zambian Journal of Language Studies
Abstract
Zambia is a multilingual and multi-ethnic country. Amid
73 dialects spoken in the country, English is the official
language and the only school compulsory language
subject from grade one to the last grade of secondary
education. According to 2010 statistics, only 1.7% of a
Zambian population which was approximately 13 million
people, spoke and understood English. This meant that
the vast majority of the people (including pupils) spoke
Zambian Languages. Drawing on Basil Berstein’s Code
and Pedagogical Discourses Theory, the study intended
to establish the attitudes of teachers towards unofficial
languages and the implications such attitudes would have
on the expected teachers’ juxtaposition of the horizontal
and vertical discourses in selected Multilingual
classrooms of Zambia. A qualitative study involving
18 grade 11 secondary school teachers of English were
sampled. Data was collected through interviews and
participant observation. The findings show that teachers
held monolingual purist language ideologies in which
their negative attitudes towards unofficial languages
resulted into symbolic violence.
Description
Article
Keywords
Teachers , English , multilingual , unofficial language , zambian languages , attitudes , pedagogical discourses
Citation
Mwanza, D.S. (2017). Implications of Teachers’ Attitudes towards Unofficial languages on English Language Teaching in Multilingual Zambia. Zambian Journal of Language Studies, 1(1), 101-124