EFFECTIVE MOTHER TONGUE EDUCATION IMPLEMENTATION: TEACHER EXPERIENCES IN TEACHING LIFE SKILLS IN SELECTED ZOMBA CITY GOVERNMENT PRIMARY SCHOOLS

Abstract

Linguists and educational psychologists agree that the best medium of instruction for initial primary school education is the mother tongue. In Malawi, the medium of instruction for initial primary school education i.e. standards 1 to 4, is Chichewa which is not necessarily the mother tongue of every Malawian. Despite the fact that Chichewa is the medium of instruction, teachers’ guides, except those of Chichewa, are written in English. This means that teachers have to render the content developed in English through Chichewa. Adaptation of the materials is thus involved. This study sought to answer the question whether Life Skills instructional materials developed in English for teaching in Chichewa cause translation or other language related problems to teachers and whether this affects the rendering of teaching content in the early years of primary school education. Data was collected mainly using a quantitative approach supplemented by a qualitative approach. Questionnaires were administered to teachers of Life Skills in standards 2, 3 and 4 in selected government primary schools in the City of Zomba. The questionnaire data was supplemented by classroom observation, whose data was collected through a lesson observation checklist and tape recorder. The findings generally indicate that many teachers face problems when using Life Skills teachers’ guides that are developed in English for teaching through Chichewa medium and that the major problem has to do with translation of Life Skills concepts into Chichewa.