The language of literacy teaching and learning in a multilingual classroom: is Silozi appropriate in the Zambezi region of Namibia?.
Date
2020-03
Authors
Mashinja, Begani Ziambo
Mwanza, David Sani
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
International Journal of Humanities Social Sciences and Education (IJHSSE)
Abstract
Language planning and teaching has been premissed on a monolingual bias and the exclusive use
of a predominant language has been percieved as a suitable practice to ensure inclusiveness, epistemic access
and language learning success in mulitilingual classrooms. Zambezi education region is multilingual and
SiLozi is the sole language of instruction for initial literacy in the junior primary grounded on the notion that
it is the predominant local language. Drawing on Ruiz’ Three Language Orintation framework, the study
intended to assess the familiarity of learners and teachers with SiLozi language of instruction for initial
literacy and the implication of their familiarity on epistemic access and initial literacy development in
selected multilingual pre-primary classrooms in Sibbinda circuit of Zambezi region. A mixed methods study
involving 6 pre-primary classrooms with 168 pre-primary learners, 6 pre-primary teachers and 6 school
principals were sampled. Data were collected through a familiar language test, observations and interviews.
The findings showed that pupils were not familiar with the official language of instruction which in itself, has
a number of pedagogical implications. The results showed that pupils use their linguistic resources to access
the target language and ensure epistemic access and initial literacy development. As a conclusion, the study
argue that the exclusive use of SiLozi as medium of instruction for initial literacy is not a realistic view of the
linguistic realities both inside and outside the multilingual pre-primary classroom, thus it is not appropriate.
Description
Journal article
Keywords
Initial literacy , Language of instruction , Familiar language , Language as resource , Translanguaging , SiLozi