4.3 FINDINGS FOR OBJECTIVE 3: THE LEARNERS’ VIEWS ON THE USE OF ENGLISH AS THE LANGUAGE OF TEACHING AND LEARNING (LoTL)
4.3.4 LEARNERS VIEWS TOWARDS SISWATI BEING MADE A GATEKEEPER SUBJECT
In the Swazi context, the learners are currently taught and assessed in English which is not their MT. As already mentioned in this chapter, some of the learners fail to do well in English no matter how much effort they put into it. The learners were asked the question, “In other countries, the MT is used for education from preschool to University, would it be possible to do the same in Swaziland? Why? Why not? The learners held the following dissenting views.
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L5 said, “The Ministry of Education would also have to standardize the siSwati papers so that those who go to the University are those who are truly knowledgeable in siSwati ...because siSwati is a language just like English....it’s just that English is used worldwide.
The way I see it is that if we were not a poor country, siSwati could perhaps be an International language just like English.” (Focus group).
L3 said, “SiSwati can be developed to be the passing subject...because everybody here can speak siSwati. Even though some students fail it, I believe many more students can qualify for college or University.” (Focus group).
L1 believed, “I don’t think this can be a good thing, because almost everybody here knows siSwati so there would be overcrowding at tertiary.” (Focus group).
L4 said, “I think it is partially true that in our country we can introduce siSwati as the language of teaching and learning, just like French in France. But in France, they don’t need to speak other people’s languages since their economy is really improved, they do not need to even ask for grants from other governments, they are independent of themselves, which is why they don’t need much help from other countries and... English.... they just learn it as an intermediate subject to be able to communicate with others.” (Focus group).
L2 had this to say, “SiSwati is well capable of being the LoTL, after all, it is a language just like English”. (Individual interview).
Lastly L6 said, “I think the standard of education would drop dramatically if siSwati would be the LoTL.” (Individual interview).
L3, L4 and L2 believe that siSwati is well capable of being a gatekeeper subject or being the mark of intelligence amongst the Swazi learners. L4 further brought in a new dimension, being that, the economy of a country determines the language choice that shall be made by it. This could not be further from the truth since most education systems in Africa are donor dependent, governments find it to be an uphill task to provide the necessary resources to support the use of African languages in education (Kamwendo, 2009). This is one other subtheme that was discovered during the research study and it shall be unpacked in detail later on in the chapter. In the same vein L3 believed that with siSwati as the passing subject, more learners would actually make it to university or college. The reason is implied when she says “...everybody here can speak siSwati” which was interpreted to mean that every student is proficient in the siSwati language hence stands at a better position to attain academic excellence if it could be used as the language of the exit tests which learners write to qualify for University or college. As Gandara et. al (2003) argue that if the language of
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assessment is the L1 of a learner, that test will provide an accurate reflection of the learner’s knowledge and capabilities which will in turn help teachers to enhance their instruction on their learners. If this would materialize, it would quell the general trend across the African continent that of excessive overdependence on the languages of the former colonial powers looking at the fact that African languages other than English can serve as the medium of instruction all the way from preschool up to higher education (Kamwendo, Hlongwa and Mkhize, 2014).
As already mentioned earlier in this chapter, UNESCO promotes the use of the MT in education. UNESCO argues that MT in education is essential and should therefore be extended to as late a stage in education as possible (UNESCO 2003). This has been validated by numerous research studies which have all come to the conclusion that children learn better when they can understand the teacher and the material is presented to them in a language that they speak. The exclusive use of English as the LoTL hinders a child’s intellectual development yet studies show that learners become actively involved when a local language is used (Mwelwa and Spencer, 2013). A study by Khosa (2012) proved this to be true when the Grade 3 learners she was observing were better able to identify more nouns from a text after the teacher had code switched to Xitsonga, the learners’ local language. The learners had previously found this to be quite challenging for them. So, learners understand better when concepts are explained in a language that they understand and they partake joyfully during the lesson.
Moreover, Glanz (2013) maintains that students who learn through a LoTL which they do not master are therefore disadvantaged in assessments. This was proven in yet another study by Gandara et.al (2003) in the state of California, which came to the conclusion that when the learners are not proficient in the language of assessment (English), their scores on a test in English will not accurately reflect their knowledge of the subject assessed. Therefore the exclusive reliance on English language norm referenced achievement test for L2 speakers of English was inappropriate for those students. In this context therefore, the L1 speakers of English were always put at an advantage to pass the high school exit exam than the L2 learners of English in California.
80 4.4 LANGUAGE AND THE ECONOMY
The learners kept on bringing forward a link between language and the economy of a country. They believed that the economy of a country determines the choice to be made in as far as LoTL is concerned. This is what they said.
L1 argued, “Swaziland is a developing country, in order for Swaziland to improve English must be spoken in order to communicate with other people around the world. To put siSwati as the language of teaching and learning....it can cost us a lot, in fact Swaziland is struggling to provide basic needs to its people, and so if we can do this, it can affect us so much that even the standard of living can deteriorate.” (Focus group).
L2 further mentioned, “We are still unable to produce personnel that can represent our companies; most of the companies here belong to external people. It goes hand in hand definitely; most companies here use expatriates so we need to be able to communicate with those people from other countries.” (Focus group).
L3 argued, “Unfortunately if we can demote English, our economy can suffer because we depend on external help greatly”. (Focus group).
L4 mentioned that, “English is used extensively in Africa especially the developing countries.
Developed countries such as Italy and Germany use their own languages instead of English.
We cannot be a successful country economically if we can use siSwati because not many people speak siSwati.” (Focus group).
L5 believed that, “..But for the sake of development in our country, we need to use English.”
(Focus group).
L6 finally concluded and said, “So this would not be good for our country. Moreover, we are not economically stable so using siSwati and dropping English would not be good for the country. Even our neighboring countries would not look at us in a good way because they also use English so what would we be implying really?” (Focus group).
The learners’ views couldn’t be further from the truth. Former colonial languages such as English, French or Portuguese are seen as the languages of industry and trade despite them being spoken by only a small minority and thereby excluding a large proportion of the population from participating in the economic mainstream (de Wet, 2002). In Swaziland for instance about 10% of the population is able to speak English fluently just like the same figure is true for French former colonies such as Niger, Burundi, Mauritania and many more
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(Laitin and Ramachandran, 2014). This minority however, controls or runs the economy because of the higher economic value of colonial languages hence Kamwangamalu (2005) argues that it is this imbalance that needs to be corrected in order for local languages to have value in the linguistic market. This is because currently, many people fear to remain hewers of wood and drawers of water if they stick to indigenous languages and are unable to converse fluently in English (de Wet, 2002).