and the Effectiveness of the Language
of content through the English language. Further, students viewed mixing Kiswahili with English as more helpful and wish to see this approach adopted in teaching and learning. This book chapter, therefore, suggests that the education policy needs to acknowledge language pedagogical strategies combining Kiswahili and English to allow students to effectively learn STEM, particularly biology.
Keywords Language of Instruction
·
Language policy·
Pedagogical language strategies·
STEM1 Introduction
Language in education policy has been a matter of concern in the swiftly increasing systems of developing economies (Brock-Utne, 2014; Samuelson & Freedman, 2010). For most countries’ education systems in Sub-Saharan Africa, English language has never been the first language for both teachers and students (Brock- Utne,2014). The evidence is that English as a language of instruction is introduced in middle or upper primary education. The reason behind this late use of English as a language of instruction is that learning in a familiar language is encouraged in early education to raise academic achievements at an early age rather than in the foreign language. However, the status quo has been challenged in support of multilingualism in education (Rubagumya,2003).
Viewing the matter in the East African region; Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya, in particular; these countries were the former British colonies, where English has been a language of instruction in the education system since the colonial period (Abdulaziz,1982; Rubagumya,2003; Kyeyune,2003). In the region, Rwanda was under the Belgian colony, hence used French as a language of instruction until 2008 (Gahigi, 2008), then adopted English in teaching and learning since 2009 as the country joined the East African Community in 2007 and commonwealth by 2009.
In Rwanda, students’ home languages are used as the language of instruction with English only taught as a subject in nursery schools (Rwanda Education Board [REB], 2015a,2015b,2020), and then all subjects are taught in English from primary one to the higher learning levels. The common characteristic in East African countries is that a small section of the population speaks English outside of school and office activi- ties (Samuelson & Freedman,2010; Rubagumya,2003; Abdulaziz,1982; Kyeyune, 2003).
In Tanzania, following World War I, the British government took over the adminis- tration of German East Africa. Kiswahili was therefore conserved as the language of instruction from primary 1 to primary 5, and English was used for the last three years of primary and post-primary (Rubagumya,1990). During the colonial time, English was the official language of colonial administration, and it was used to train a minority of elite Tanzanians to assist in British colonial administration (Roy-Campbell,2001).
Later in 1965, the education structure changed to 7 years of primary education. In
1967, Kiswahili became the official language of instruction in primary, then English was used in post-primary education (Rubagumya,2003; Vavrus,2002).
Further, East African countries consider Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects as important to enable citizens to manage the envi- ronment and to contribute to the development of the nation (Tanzania Ministry of Education, Science and Technology [MoEST], 2015; REB,2015a). In Tanzania, STEM subjects are taught from year three of primary education. At the secondary school level, all students learn physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics until the second grade known as the second year of ordinary secondary school level (MoEST, 2015). After, all students continue to study biology and mathematics as compulsory subjects to the fourth year of secondary education. Thereafter, students are free to choose between physics and chemistry in the third year and fourth year of secondary education. Successful candidates are expected to leverage different fields of science and technology in colleges of higher education and vocational training (MoEST, 2015).
Despite the case, teachers and students are challenged by integrating STEM subject content and English language in teaching and learning in Tanzania (Gabrieli et al., 2018; Barrett et al.,2014). Besides English, Kiswahili is the lingua franca of the country, used as the language of instruction for public primary schools since 1965. The Tanzanian education policy specifies that the language of instruction in primary must be Kiswahili, while English has to be used in post-primary education.
On the other hand, the English language is used in few pre-primary schools referred to as English medium pre-primary and primary schools (Ministry of Education and Vocational Training [MoEVT],2014).
Nevertheless, in light of supporting students from diverse backgrounds of more than 120 ethnic communities who are not conversant in English (Galabawa,2006), the Tanzanian government took initiatives to introduce a new policy to address various language educational challenges. The Tanzania education and training policy (ETP) approved in 2014 (MoEVT,2014) states that Kiswahili has to be used for teaching and learning at all levels of education and training. The government would then put in place a mechanism to make the use of this language sustainably and effectively to provide effective national and international education and training. Besides, the Government was committed to continuing with the process of enhancing the use of English in teaching and learning at all levels of education and training. Unfortunately, the 2014 ETP is yet to be put into implementation as the 1995 ETP reformed in 2005 still holds to date (Gabrieli et al.,2018). Even though the policy clarifies the use of Kiswahili and English, there is still a challenge on how effectively the language of instruction recommended by the policy can be well articulated to ensure effective teaching and learning for STEM subjects.
Despite attempts done to improve the status quo in the country, students still face difficulties using English as a language of instruction in secondary schools.
Consequently, they acquire very little knowledge in STEM (Barrett & Bainton,2016;
Gabrieli et al.,2018). A quick transition from primary to secondary education without clear language support can be among the reasons for the limited acquisition of knowl- edge in STEM as has been indicated by Gabrieli et al. (2018). Therefore, there is a
need to explore the policy implications and the contribution of language pedagogical strategies on students learning STEM in Tanzania. This study seeks to fill the gap and answer the following research questions: What are the language policy implications on pedagogical strategies in teaching and learning STEM? How can effective peda- gogical language strategies supported by bilingual instructions be used in teaching and learning STEM? The findings of this study would illustrate the link between policy interpretation and the choice of pedagogical language strategies in Tanzanian secondary schools.
To answer these research questions, we conducted STEM research using biology subject, the content of invertebrate systematic. Systematic biology has been preferred because it possesses subject-specific terms in foreign languages, mainly Latin, that is internationally accepted as the language of systematic biology. Further, studies done by Gabrieli et al. (2018) and Ricketts (2014) indicate that among other STEM subjects, biology places critical language demands on both students and teachers.
Further, biology was selected as one of the least performed STEM subjects in national examinations of the ordinary level during the past six years in Tanzania, particularly in Dodoma region, where this research was conducted (MoEVT, 2014; MoEST, 2019).
This study aimed to indicate how the combination of Kiswahili and English can contribute to solving teacher and students’ language difficulties in teaching and learning STEM subjects, specifically biology, systematic of invertebrates. Results indicated positive impacts during the teaching practice, as it equipped teachers on the language strategies to support students. Further, the study informs the policy- makers and curriculum developers that a unified form of strategies to effectively teach and learn STEM subjects is missing from the current MoEST education policy, particularly the use of bilingual classroom instruction. Furthermore, the results of the present research would be useful to education stakeholders, school heads and STEM teachers, who may wish to advance the integration of content and the use of the English language in teaching and learning STEM.