The 'Mother Tongue as Media of Instruction' Debate Revisited: A Case of David Livingstone Primary School in Harare, Zimbabwe

Abstract

This paper reports the findings of a research carried out at David Livingstone Primary School in Harare, Zimbabwe. The study sought to assess the impact of the medium of instruction on the performance of two Grade 6 classes. Data were collected through interviews, lesson observations and document analysis. From the findings of the study, it was concluded that learners learn better and benefit more from the education system if the medium of instruction is the same language they use at home. This would normally mean Shona in Harare; however interesting findings emerged from this study. There is a new crop of Zimbabwean pupils who seem to have been ignored in the medium of instruction debate, those pupils who now use English as a first language at home despite having Shona (by origin) parents. Furthermore, there are pupils whose L1 is neither Shona nor English, those from the Ndebele and other minority language speaking groups. What then happens to these pupils if the medium of instruction is to be changed to suit the majority of the pupils who are Shona first language speakers? In a bid to accommodate students from various linguistic backgrounds and consequently improve results, the study recommends the adoption of a model that fosters multilingual competencies and boosts learning achievement, that is, a strong additive bilingual model. However, the paper cautions that this kind of model may face a lot of resistance from both the policy makers and the masses owing to Africa's greatest enemy, that is, the colonial mentality.

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