33 the role of the primary language in the bilingual bicultural educationin zimbabwe

7/27/2019 33 the Role of the Primary Language in the Bilingual Bicultural Educationin Zimbabwe

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Zambezia (2002), XXIX (i).

THE ROLE OFTHE PRIMARY LANGUAGE IN THEBILINGUAL BICULTURAL EDUCATION IN ZIMBABWE

MUN HUW EYI PERESUH AND * ' JE ST A MASUKU*Faculty ofEducation, University of Zimbabwe**M asvingo U niversity College (U niversity of Zimbabwe)

AbstractThe article addresses thequestion of integrating primary languages into theeducation systems within bilingual andbicultural settings. Itreviews studiesundertaken to prom ote thestudent's home language andculture in bilingualand bicultural education systems. The policies and possibilities in theZimbabwean system areexamined. The article argues that for a child to beidentified with the entire education process, the role played by the child'snative culture andlanguage andthat of the native language teacher shouldnot be underplayed. It concludes that a synthesis of all the elements of thechild's home language and culture equips the child with strong and deepskills that the child will require in operating in a multilingual-culturalenvironment.

INTRODUCTIONZimbabwe is a former British colony that became independent in 1980.Missionaries of European descent and the government gradually gotinvolved in the policy and financing of education. The country has twomajor socio-linguistic groups, namely, Shona and Ndebele speakers ,const i tut ing more than 70% and more than 15% of the popula t ion,respectively. Th ere arealso several indigenous m inority linguistic gr ou pssuch as the Venda, Tonga, Kalanga, Ndau, and Sotho, which co nsti tu teslightly over 12% of the population . How ever, English, thehom e languageof less than 1% of thepopulation, is the official medium of instruction inthe country's educational system from the fourth year of elementaryschool to theunive rsity. Indigenous languag es ha ve bee n m arginalised asa mat ter of policy in preference to English. English is also the medium ofcommunicat ion in allofficial communications in the country.Histor ical ly, educat ional systems worldwide have largely beenmonolingual, in favour of languages of the elite (Gfeller and Robinson,1998). Research has amply demonstrated the superiori ty of the mot he rtongue (LI) to the second language (L2) as themedium of instruction forthe subjects of the school curriculum. In Zimbabwe, the repor t of theNational Language Policy Advisory Panel (NLPAP) (1998) pointed out theneed to upgr a de the s t a tus of the previously marginalised African

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28 BILINGUAL-BICULTURAL EDUCATION IN ZIMBABW E

Languages as media of instruction especially in the elementary stages ofthe primary school (The Herald, 27 July 1998). This show s an ac ce p tanc eof the role of the m other tongue in the initial stages of co nc ep t forma tionand is in line with the historic UNESCO (1953) document of which is veryclear in its support for indigenous languages. The UNESCO documentstates that

Psychologically, [the mother tongue] is a system of meaningful signsthat, in [a child's] mind, works automatically for expression andun de rsta nd ing . Sociologically, it is a m ean s of identification am ongmembers of the community to which he belongs. Educationally, helearns more quickly through it than through an unfamiliar linguisticmedium (1953, 17).This dem on strate s the strong role of the child's language and cu lturein bilingual and bicultural education at primary level in public schools.One would, therefore, expect that, in Zimbabwe's primary scho ols, w he realmo st all the pup ils have the sam e LI which is not English, the LI w ouldbe used as the medium of instruction so as to achieve optimal learning.Yet, this is not the case.A significant policy chang e in Zimbabw e in th e 1990s w as th e

requ irem ent to use the child's hom e language as the m edium of instruc tionfor the first three years of elementary school. However, for the last fourye ars of primary school and througho ut the years of seco nd ary edu catio nuntil university level, English is, by policy, the only medium of instru ctionfor all pupils. This is, in spite of the fact that most primary schools arerural and located in specific monolingual speech communities where allthe pupils speak the same home language. Similarly, most urban primaryschools also have children of the same home language background. It isonly the few elite and exclusive primary schools that are attended bychildren of mixed home language backgrounds that would require acompromise common language of instruction. The policy to use Englishas a medium of instruc tion for all pupils in primary schoo l m ust, the refo re,have ot he r justifications than that of the need to use a language com m onto all pupils.

While it has been accepted that the use of LI in school instructionfacilitates co ncep t formation on the part of the elem entary school lea rnerand imp roves th e quality of instruction, according to Bergman, M enicucci,McLaughlin and W oodworth (1995), this is possible dependin g on a varie tyof factors, including, the languages and cultures present in the school,the development of language strategies that are adapted to the localcon ditions and that add ress the core curriculum, fluency of the tea ch er sin the languages, the interactive and integrative use of language in reallife situations, in all areas, and on a school-wide basis, and the ability todraw on both local and regional resources.


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M. PERESUH AND J. MASUKU 29

In promoting the use of LI in all primary schools, Zimbabwe has adistinct advantage in that its indigenous languages are already rooted inthe ph ysical env ironm ent of the local commu nity. However, the problemis that the core school curriculum is, presently, highly centralised, elite-culture oriented, and insensitive to the cultural and linguistic concerns ofthe sub-cultures of the various linguistic groups. It would, therefore benecessary to rewrite and re-orientate the content and materials presentlyused in sc ho ol, which are geared to an English language mediated imaginedcommon cul ture.A schoo l-wide ap proa ch w ould be easy, as sch oo ls could use thesame common language, which is LI in their areas. Already, for the firstthr ee yea rs of elem entary schoo l, children from M ashonaland (includingits urb an c en tres ) us e Shona, while children in M atebeleland and Plum treeus e Nd ebele and Kalanga, respectively . Similarly, those in Kariba and thesurrounding areas have Tonga, while the Southern Lowveld has Venda.Teacher deployment would have to take cognisance of the linguisticabilities of the teacher vis-avis the school he/she wants to work in. Thechild's self-esteem, com mu nication factors, and othe r issues are ess entialto education and can be greatly facilitated by a teacher conversant withand sy m pa the tic to the language and culture of the child. This is an issuethat has received little attention, yet it is very important.Concerning Zimbabwe, it has bee n argued tha t prom oting a com mo nlanguage, namely, English, is necessary in order to promote nationaluni ty , as th i s fac i l i t a tes in ter -group communicat ion and mutualunderstanding. Thus, political considerations are given primacy overpedagogical issues. However, a distinction has to be drawn betweenlearning English in order to use it as an official medium of nationalcommunication and using English as a medium of instruction. The formerp re su pp os es on e do es not have to learn English in English. A child can betaught English in a medium he/she b est und erstand s, namely, his/her hom elanguage. This can work even better if the teacher is fully aware of andbest understands the child's culture and primary language. The lat ter ,however, makes English fundamental and very powerful in all the schoolsubjects studied by the child. This is the situation most Zimbabweanchildren find themselves in. Except for vernacular subjects, most, if notall, su bje cts are taugh t and examined in English. Th e pow er and cen tralityof English, obviously disadvantages the second language learner.

A va riety of issue s, therefore, com e to th e fore in the gen eraldiscussion of the child's home language and culture. While these issuesmay seem to be distinct, they are actually intricately related and haveimp ortant co nse qu enc es for the education of the child who ent ers schoolspeaking a language different from that of the school administration. Therole of the mother language in the learning process, the empowering


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30 BILINGUAL-BICULTURAL EDUCATION IN ZIMBABWE

nature of language and culture, and the role of teachers fluent in thechild's home language and familiar with the culture, therefore , are ele m en tsof bilingual-bicultural education whose effects cannot be underestimated.THE ROLE OF THE PRIMARY LANGUAGE

An examination of the role of language in learning shows that the firstlanguage acts as a sort of a 'gatekeeper', i.e. a filtering and interpretingmechanism w ithin which subse que nt co ncep ts are best dev eloped . D avies(1991) describes the foundational nature of the primary language and itsrole in learning. Davies also discusses Halliday's (1978) contention thatno language ever completely replaces the mother tongue. Certain kindsof ability seem to be particularly difficult to acquire in a secon d langu age.Many pupils in Zimbabwe find it difficult to distinguish between meltingand dissolving, ice and snow because there are no distinguishingequivalents in their LI languages of either Ndebele or Shona.When a child is learning new concepts or words in the secondlanguage, he or she first searches the mother tongue 'database' for animmediate equivalent. If the primary language has not been developedwell enough, such a child is likely to have problems in forming newconcepts in the second language. The role of language in meaning,therefore, is a variable that depen ds on the context and individual situatio nwithin which the languages and their speakers are found. Studies ofbilinguals reading a text in one language in which a word appears in thesecond language, for example, report that "when a reader knows thewords of a language, he/she perceives them directly in terms of theirmeanings" (Freeman, 1992). This recognition tha t the things we lea rn ar enot restricted to one language or another and are not kept in separatepa rts of the brain illustrates clearly the thin line betw een p rimary languageand second language use in the classroom, and reveals the real goal oflearning, namely, the acquisition of knowledge and skills.Danesi (1990, 74) argues that "literacy development in the mothertongue constitutes the primary condition for the development of globallanguage proficiency and for the formation of the appropriate cognitivesch em es needed to classify and organise experience ." This is in a gre em en twith Zimbabwe's primary school language policy, which attempts topromote bilingual-bicultural education. In this policy, the medium ofeducation at primary school level is in the child's home language up toGrade 3.1 As of the year 2002, only Shona and Ndebele have been madethe two dominant languages at primary school level, while attempts to

1. Third year of primary school ed ucation (8 years old).


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inclu de oth er m inority langu ages are still in infancy. The prim ary languageis used so that the child gets the oppo rtunity to learn the basic co nce ptsin his own language and to give him freedom to express himself withoutthe inhibitions imposed by an insufficient mastery of the medium ofin str uc tio n. It is hop ed th a t the child will Xise his p rimary linguistic sk illsin acquiring the second language.Some studies "indicate that bilingual children perform better thanm onoling uals on te st s of linguistic skills, divergent thinking, sens itivity toco m m un icatio n, and gen eral intelligence" (Lessow-Hurley, 1990, 56).Others support the "Common Underlying Proficiency model of languagelearning which assu m es that skil ls and co ncep ts learned in one languagetra n sfe r to an ot he r" (Lessow-Hurley, 1960, 60) . Such ski lls are :"directionality, sequencing, and the ability to distinguish among shapesand sounds" (Lessow-Hurle, 1990, 61). All these skills are extremelyimportant in the learning environment, in general, and in the schoolclassroom, specifically.Related to this is th e recogn ition tha t "bilingual peop le hav e a stron gunderstanding of the arbitrary nature of the symbols of language, whichenhances their problem-solving skills" (Lessow-Hurley, 1990, 24). Lessow-Hu rley (1990) further arg ue s that a norm al child ent er s kinderg arten w ithan adequate vocabulary and an excellent grasp of syntax in his/herm ot he r tong ue. This, he argu es, prov ides the foundation for th e languageand literacy development that will follow in school. This provides astrong rationale for providing primary language instruction in the earlygrades, for it is logical to begin early skill instruction in that language,building on the conceptual and linguistic framework the child brings toschool (Lessow-Hurley, 1990).Additionally, the manner in which one learns first and secondlanguages is important, for as Davies (1991) points out, native speakersoften move from a position of insecurity to one of security, while non-native speakers move in the reverse direction. Native speakers, howeverdefined, start off seeking meaning: they learn the language offered themin ord er, in pa rt, to gain the mean ing they seek. As they pr og re ss , the gainin m eaning gives them g rea ter and greater security as they com e, throu ghthe medium of language, to control their environment.Similarly, in discussing the prerequisites for academic success, in asec on d language, for stud en ts w ho know their first languages well, Freeman(1992) maintains that success is based on three prerequisites, namely,that content instruction in the first language is maintained, that conceptdevelopment in the first language is more effective and is more easilytransfe rred to the sec on d language, and that a stron g first language ea sessecond language learning. This is evident in studies that show fasterlearning of a third language among stud en ts who have develop ed literacy


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32 BIUNGUAL-BICULTURAL EDUCATION IN ZIMBABWE

in their first languages. It barely need s to be resta ted tha t p eop le ap p ro ac hlanguage learning using the information and abilities they already have,thou gh it is not always recognised tha t erro rs by second language lea rn ersar e ev idence of a creative cognitive strategy for solving the new langu agepro ble m (Lessow-Hurley, 1990). The abov e disc ussio n su gg est s th a teduc ation system s in bilingual/multicultural socie ties can no long er affordto neglect the learners' LI and home culture.The issue of what language to use in schools i s pol i t ica l lyproblemat ica l in former colonies especia l ly s ince "a choice mayred istrib ute pow er in a global context as well as within an African co un try ,between the elite and the masses" (Brock-Utne, 1993, 9). In most Africanstates, including Zimbabwe, the official language is the language of theminority as opposed to home languages spoken by the majority. Todetermine whether initial primary education should take place in thech ild's ho me language or the school language, Dutcher (1982) a rgu es th atth e cognitive and linguistic developm ent of the child in the first lan gu age ,att i tu de s and sup po rt of paren ts, and the statu s of the languages involvedwithin the community (especially the non-school language), should beco nsid ered . These factors are imp ortant in any consid eration of bilingual-bicu ltural education, especially for second ('school') language ins tructio n.If th es e criteria are no t met, initial instruction should be c on du cte d in th efirst language.Equally important for the success of any language in education,especially in bilingual-bicultural situations, is the parents' attitudes tolanguage use. Where parent's support for local languages is low, asse em s to be the case in Zimbabwe, the state m ay be reluc tant to insist o n

the ir u se in scho ols. In Zimbabwe, the pa ren ts' attitude to LI is ve ry po o rin most of the cases. They think English paves way for employment. Formost parents in Zimbabwe, educat ion is equated to the thoroughknow ledge and proficient u se of English. Th e pedagogical im plica tions ofgaining acc ess to the second language, via the prim ary language, m ay no tmake any sense to many. Trying to convince a parent that "bilingualeducation is the best route to full English proficiency is like trying toconvince somebody that the best way to go west is to go east first"(Brock-Utne, 1993, 32). It is common practice, therefore, for parents toen co ura ge their children to use English in their day to day ac tivitie s. Thisha s h ad a negative impact on the primary langu ages, a s will be ind icate dlater in this article.The view argued so far is that th e primary language must be de ve lop edand used in the initial instruction stages until the official language, whichis the second language, is thorough ly m astere d. This will be don e so tha tlinguistic problems do not interfere with concept acquisit ion anddevelopment.


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SOCIO-LINGUISTICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE USE OF THE HOMELANGUAGES IN SCHOOLIt is not always that the child's home language and home culture arerecognised and implemented in the overall planning of the education ofthe child. This is normally the case where other "minority' languagesexist. Zimbabwe is one such nation, which has not yet accommodated allthe minor i ty languages in i ts educat ional system. Present ly , thegovernment policy is that some minority languages like Venda, Tonga,Kalanga, Shangani, and Nambya should be taught for three years ofprim ary ed ucatio n in area s where they are predom inant. This has largelybeen because most of the languages have not yet developed writtenmaterials for use as instruction materials in school.In addition, no teacher training programmes have been designed fortheir inclusion. For this reason, English as a Second Language (ESL)teachers are often simply unaware of the many factors which play a rolein the education of a child from a cultural and linguistic backgrounddifferent from th e large schoo l culture . Many tea ch ers have specialise d inteaching this language in an intensive, immersion style that has notallowed them to examine and understand the language and culturalbackground of the ir s tudents , who may come f rom a myriad ofbackgrounds. They, therefore , do not take into account the r ichbackground and foundational element upon which they can build whendeveloping plans and addressing the student's needs. To remedy this,Danesi (1990, 13) suggests "gradual integration" and the "preservationand reinforcement of the pupil's cultural identity".Also important are the attitudes of teachers and the community tolanguage use. As noted, many parents want their children to focus onlyon the school language because of its perceived high status in society.Teache r s , mono l ingua l admin i s t r a to r s , and pa ren t s , who do no tunderstand the deep foundational nature of the first language, often donot realise the strong force that empowering students with a sense ofprid e and identity in their native languages and cultu res wield in education .The lack of pride in the Zimbabwean children's primary languages andculture has resulted in the poor performance in Shona and NdebeleGrade 7 exam inations in mo st Zimbabwean schoo ls;2 the main reasonbeing that schools expect the children to use English when at school,while, at home, parents equally encourage them to use English.

2. A schoo l leaving examination taken in the seventh year of primary schoo l educ ation.


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THE ROLE OF THE PRIMARY-LANGUAGE SPEAKING TEACHERAs a way of approaching the task of recognising the force of the child'slanguage and culture, fluency in the student's primary language by ateacher is essential for effective learning. This should not only be for theobvious benefits in communication, but also for the positive image of thestud en ts ' home languages and cultures which such a teache r can convey .Such an understanding is attained from recognition of the foundationalnatu re of the ho m e language and an appreciation of language and cu ltur e'spotency for empowering pupils politically and otherwise. Indeed, whenstudents see their home language and culture being valued in school,they form more positive attitudes towards learning in general. Afterlisting benefits to teachers' positive attitudes towards the students ofprimary language, as seen in a variety of programmes, Freeman (1992,203) concludes, "teachers who support their students' bilingualism areteaching to the strengths of the whole child". Especially important is therecognition that:

a culturally responsive classroom must reach beyond surface or artifactculture and attend to the basic differences in the way children fromdifferent backgrounds understand, communicate, and learn. Teachersmust un dersta nd the nature of the culture, its relationship to language,and the relationship of specific cultures to the culture of . . .schools(Lessow-Hurley, 1990,3).For a teacher to operate well in a bilingual-bicultural educationalsystem , ideally, tha t teache r should be bilingual. If prim ary langu ages ar eto becom e truly effective too ls for expressing national cultu re, th e train ingof primary language teachers should be treated as a matter of greatimportance. Such training programmes should be able to incorporatesom e of the m inority languages in Zimbabwe. The in tegratio n of m inoritylanguage teachers in schools is very crucial, especially in inter-culturaleducation where teachers are expected to operate on the same level andin perfect cooperation. Such teachers create links between the schooland minority parents, and introduce the minority culture as content intothe curriculum (Byram, 1990).It is also w orth noting tha t maintaining fluency in the st u d en ts ' n ativ elanguages de pe nd s strongly upon a teac her's und erstan din g of th e ch ild'shome language and culture. Teachers should teach from the students'experiences, provide a strong context for the und erstan din g of th e issu esstudents face, emphasise critical thinking, validate the students' owncultural experiences, and explore both cultural differences and humanuniversals. Incorporating local folklore into the school's curriculum isone way of making it more culture-consciou s. H owever,


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the main problem in our classroom s today is that th e teach ers seem tobe unaware of the wealth of examples that could be taken from Africanfolklore to enrich the teaching of their subjects. Consequently, theirteach ing is often divorced from th e pupils ' cultura l expe riences (Ndawian dM as uk u. 1998, 14).Above all, a teacher's understanding of the flexibility of a bilingualchild's thinking should guide learning and teaching.TOWARD A SYNTHESIS OF THEORY, PRACTICE AND RESEARCH

Recent studies show how the home language and culture of a child in abilingual-bicultural situation builds upon all the resources available tothe child. However, such a perspective is not without problems andcontroversy. One way of going round the hurdles associated with thisapproach is to adopt a "Framework of Intervention", as proposed byCummins (1989) which, if implemented, can benefit all s tudents . Theproposed framework includes high expectations of students, prioritisingthe education of such students, staff development, offering a variety ofc l a s ses t o s t uden t s , b i l i ngua l counse l l i ng , encou rag i ng pa ren t sinvolvement, and a strong commitment by staff (Freeman, 1992).One of the ways of planning, analysing and assessing bilingual-bicultural education is through the examination of a number of "qualityindicators", elem ents which are present in si tuations w here high qua lityresu lts are ach ieved . A num ber of these have bee n outlined by Bergmanet. al. (1995). Those that relate specifically to the role of the child'sprimary language and culture in the education p roc es s have already beenhighlighted above in order to promote better understanding of, and toencourage building upon this imp ortant foundation as se t for m ore effectiveteach ing an d learning. Th ese indicators require a high level of intera ctionand coo pera tion among the teache rs, pare nts and adm inistrators; indeed,all who become involved work together in a positive manner whichend eav ou rs to respect, sup po rt and build upon the stud en ts ' f irst (home)language and cul ture . This cooperat ion not only faci l i ta tes theimplementation and success of the school 's goals and plans, but alsoprepares the children to become emerging cit izens in a multiculturalworld, first, within the school and, later, in the wider world of theirneig hb ourh oo ds, ci ties, state s, and countries. By virtue of their multiplelinguistic and cultural backgrounds, they are, without choosing or beingchosen, mediators, gatekeepers and travellers, at the very minimum, ofthe "border" between any two cultures and languages of which they haveknowledge.

Th rough the unde rstanding of theories of cognitive deve lopm ent andthe role of the child's first language, practical application of such theory,


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as in the Foyer model and others (such as those reviewed by Dutcher,1982), and continued resea rch and application to classro om s a nd specificsituations, a synthesis of all elements of the child's home language andculture can be achieved which would m ake bilingual-bicultural ed uc atio neffective. By learning in a very active manner their own cultures andlanguages, in conjunction with other learning which transpires in anyschool, children are assured of achieving the strong and deep rootedskills which they will need to mediate in a multicultural environment.

CONCLUSIONCurricula are generally accused of inertia and of lagging behind thedictates of progressive discoveries made in educational research. InZimbabwe, the issue of the use of the pupils' home languages as theprimary medium of instruction is one such example. There is someconfusion between the learning of English for use as a national languageof communication, and its role as an effective medium of instruction forall oth er scho ol subjects and at all levels of edu catio n. The effectiven essof the pupils' home languages as media of instruction, especially in theprimary school, as this article has argued, can not be doubted. It is thusbeing argued here that countries, including Zimbabwe, whose nativelanguages are not English should reconsider their present strategies,which emphasise English as a medium of instruction in schools at theexpense of their own languages.

ReferencesBERGMAN, C ; MENICUCCI, B.; MCLAUGHLIN, AND WOODWORTH, K. (1995) SchoolReform and Student Diversity: Case Studies of Exem plary Practices forLEP Students (Washington, DC, National Clearinghouse for BilingualEducation).BROCK-UTNE, B. (1993) "Education in Africa: Education for self reliance orrecolonization?", in Rapport, A.BYRAM, M. AND LEMAN, J. (eds.) (1990) Bicultural and Bilingual Education:The Foyer M odel in Brussels (Clevedon, Multilingual Matters).CUMMINS, J. (1989) "Linguistic in terde pen de nc e and th e ed uca tio naldevelopm ent of bilingual children", in Review of Educational Research49, (ii), 222-51.DANESI, M. (1990) "M other tongue lite racy and th e 'shapin g ' of k no w led ge :The experience of Italian child ren", in Byram, M. and Lem an, J. (eds)Bicultural and B ilingual Education: The Foyer Model in Brussels(Clevedon, Multilingual Matters).DAVIES, A. (1991) The Native Speaker in Applied Linguistics (Edinburgh,

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DUTCHER, N. (1982) The Use of First and Second Languages in P rimaryEducation: Selected Case Studies (Washington, D C, W orld Bank).FREEMAN, Y. S. (1992) Whole Language of Second Language Learners

(Portsmouth, Heinemann).GFELLER, E. AND ROBINSON, C. (1998) "Which language for teaching? Thecultural messages transmitted by the languages used in education",in Language and Education, 12, (i), 18.HALLIDAY, M. A. K. (1978) Language as a Social Semiotic: The SocialInterpretation of Language and Meaning (Baltimore, University ParkPress) .LESSOW-HURLEY, J. (1990) The Founda tions of Dua l Language Instruction

(New York, London, Longman).NDAWI, O. AND MASUKU, J. (1998) "Inco rp ora ting Local Folklore in to theSchool C urriculum in Southern Africa", A pap er p rese nte d at the FifthBiennial International C onference of the Southern Africa Folklore Society(University of South Africa, 15-17 July).THE HERALD (1998,) 'State must stop playing lip-service to indigenouslang uag es", 27 July.UNESCO (1953) The Use of Vernacular Languages in Education (Paris,

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33 the role of the primary language in the bilingual bicultural educationin zimbabwe

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