4.3 FINDINGS FOR OBJECTIVE 3: THE LEARNERS’ VIEWS ON THE USE OF ENGLISH AS THE LANGUAGE OF TEACHING AND LEARNING (LoTL)
4.3.1 WHY DO LEARNERS BELIEVE ENGLISH SHOULD REMAIN THE LoTL
PARENTAL INFLUENCES
During the data collection interviews, it became evident from the responses given by the learners that parental beliefs in English being a superior subject had rubbed off on them. The learners here revealed that parents play a huge role in influencing them to pass English.
Some even pay for them to rewrite English should they fail to do well in it. This is what they had to say concerning parental influences upon their learning of English.
L1 said, “Both my parents and my siblings, we try to speak in English at home, except for my grandma. Our parents are just trying to train us to know English better because it is a failing subject, most people fail English.” (Focus group).
L2 said, “When we come back with our term reports, the first thing my father looks at is if we have passed English because he believes it is more important to do well in it.” (Focus group).
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L3 added, “Parents normally encourage us to read novels and to also listen to English news in order to increase your chances of passing English.” (Focus group).
L4 believed, “Our parents know clearly that if we fail English, it is the end of our success in life because we need English in order to go to University.” (Focus group).
L5 said, “Parents go all out, depending on how poor they are, they normally pay for their children to upgrade English so that they can be admissible at the university and have a better future. Some restart in Form 4 because their English was not good, still trying to create a bright future for themselves.” (Individual interview).
L6 commented, “My father always says English is important and I should pass it but I always find it difficult.” (Individual interview).
Parents have a huge role to play when it comes to the education of their children. It goes without saying therefore that they have a huge influence on the success of their children’s education. A study by Moyo (1991) in Ndamba (2008) concluded that negative attitudes learners have towards African languages are passed onto their children. The point of view that a parent holds towards the MT will more often than not be the view that their children have as well. This then spills over to the larger community. Ndamba (2008) further points out that community attitudes were developed a long time ago when all that was European was viewed as excellent whereas that which belonged to the local African community was seen as inferior and not worth emulating.
As L2 said, some parents are more concerned about their children’s performance in English more than anything else. So when the learners come back with their end of term school reports, the first thing parents scrutinize is their performance in English. This automatically exerts pressure on the learners to pass English because their parents have this belief that it is super important and will ultimately lead their children to a better life. A dissertation by Msonthi (1997) cited in Kamwendo (2008) found that Malawian parents were generally not in favor of mother tongue instruction. In fact, the study concluded that some parents favored the strong use of English in the curriculum such that they even opt to send their children to private schools where English is the sole medium of instruction. Many parents believe that getting a job is the learners’ ultimate goal hence to do that; they must be proficient in English (Babaci-Wilhite and Geo-Jaja 2013). Qorro (2009), as quoted in Babaci-Wilhite and Geo- Jaja (2013) understands the parents’ decisions to be based on the myth that having English as the LoTL will improve the learners’ learning abilities and their job opportunities in life.
Parents therefore would argue that their children need an International language such as English which of course, offers a ticket to a good life.
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This shows that parents understand the need for their learners to do well in English such that even those who have not done well in it are encouraged to rewrite it in order to improve their chances of being admissible to tertiary institutions. A majority of parents are from poor rural backgrounds but because they know that English can retard the academic life of their children, they do all they can in order to help create a better future for them. So many parents in so many countries are therefore inclined to include English as part of their and their children’s learning (Roux 2014). Without appearing to underestimate the power of English as a global language, Babaci-Wilhite and Geo-Jaja (2014) argue that schooling in Africa should not mean that the children must learn how and what USA or Britain is teaching their children. In other words, the content that is being taught to the learners should be socio-culturally friendly. A study by Titone, Plummer and Kielar (2012) on creating culturally relevant instructional material in Swaziland, revealed that children learn more and participate more actively when they can relate to the curriculum by seeing themselves and their communities mirrored in that curriculum than when they do not. They further discovered that when a book is culturally relevant, the content is true to the lives of the children reading it because it reflects their everyday life hence immediately accessible to them. Education stakeholders agree that the inherited curricula remain culturally and linguistically alien to Africans (Glanz, 2013), because the African learners cannot see themselves in the education materials (Grassi and Barker 2010 in Titone, Plummer and Kielar 2012).
Many curricula in Africa therefore remain mismatched and do not reflect the local thinking in teaching and learning (Babaci-Wilhite and Geo-Jaja 2013). In many African countries, the status quo remained the same after the attainment of independence, the former colonial languages continued to dominate as the official language at the expense of the indigenous languages which occupied the subordinate role of being the national language or the language of communication. In Swaziland for example, the education system is based on a British framework (Titone, Plummer and Kielar 2012). English therefore continued to dominate as the language of education, government, judiciary etc., while siSwati remained the language that Swazis used for communication at home or in the community. This is despite the fact that the Swaziland education and training sector policy (2011) recognizes both English and siSwati as the official languages in the country.
One of the many reasons that people have for preferring English to indigenous languages is that they fear a drop in the standard of education, that learners will not be able to face the world from a linguistic point of view (Kamwendo, 2013). Learning English therefore is almost like going with the flow because it is the normal, natural thing to do. No matter how the learners struggle to acquire English language skills, they will almost always be encouraged to do it and not only do it but pass it well so that it opens doors for them both academically
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and in the world of work. Studies such as the one done by Rudwick and Parmegiani (2013) proved that learners themselves actually prefer English to isiZulu because it is a precondition for most professional employment in South Africa.
Many Governments throughout the world are still trying to find ways in which English language can co-exist with other languages whereby they complement each other instead of one being superior at the expense of the other (Kirkpatrick, 2013). For example, English can be learnt as a subject so that learners have the linguistic skills needed for wider communication, not as the gatekeeper that decides who of the learners is ‘intelligent’ thus eligible to go to college or University. Parents and the wider community therefore have a strong influence on how the learners view English as discussed above. Another factor that made the learners believe English should remain the LoTL is the LEPs of many African states. This is discussed below.