2.9 Code switching in learning and teaching activities
Closely related to the use of mother tongues for purposes of classroom instruction, is the interesting phenomenon of code switching; interesting in that some scholars argue that it must be encouraged in the classroom context while others feel that it must be discouraged. Eastman (1992:1, citing Heller 1988) defines code switching as “the use of more than one language in the course of a single communicative episode” and adds that code switching encompasses borrowing, mixing and switching all of which have the same rhetorical effects though they are structurally different. According to Myers-Scotton (1993) code switching can be classified as marked (where the language used would not be normally expected in a given context) or unmarked (where the language used is one that would be expected in that context). Researchers on the code switching phenomenon (e.g. Nwoye 1992; Adendorf 1993; Canagarajah 1995; Slabbert and Finlayson et al. 2002; Myers-Scotton 2005; Holmarsdottir 2007, among others) largely concur that it carries out important functions both in and outside the classroom. According to Adendorf (1993:141 citing Gumperz 1982), “code switching is a communicative resource, which enables teachers and pupils to accomplish a considerable number and range of social and educational objectives”. In Myers- Scotton’s (2005:3) view, code switching “better expresses the semantics and pragmatics of the speaker’s intentions” than either of the separate codes singly.
In the classroom situation, code switching is invaluable both in content transmission and classroom management (Canagarajah 1995). Adendorf (1993) concurs with this notion when he asserts that code switching plays both an educational and a social function. Code switching is important to the second language learner, not only because it augurs well with the communicative classroom (Faleni 1993, Canagarajah 1995) but indeed because students learn the values behind respective codes; how to negotiate meaning through code choice; how to negotiate identities through alternations in appropriate situations, the metalinguistic and metacognitive skills (Canagarajah 1993). Through exposure to code switching, students also learn to be communicatively competent and to practically benefit from their bilingualism.
Keane (1999) as well as Shumba and Manyati (1998) also report on how code switching resulted in improved levels of motivation and participation in the classroom. Furthermore, code switching gives the L2 learner an opportunity to use his or her mother tongue, thereby enabling him to enjoy this fundamental human right (Skutnubb-Kangas 1990) and leading to a reduction of the cultural
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and language shock of the minority language learner who is faced with a foreign medium of instruction.
There are also micro-functions of code switching. Canagarajah (1995) gives examples such as negotiating directions, opening the class, managing discipline, expressing encouragement, complements, commands, admonitions and mitigation within the classroom context. There are of course scholars who argue that code switching takes away from the L2 learner an opportunity to experience vicariously how certain messages are communicated in the target language. Kgomoeswana (1993) says that paraphrasimg learning content using the learner’s L1 should be discouraged because no two words or phrases from two different languages mean the same, such that translating, as it were, is bound to mislead the learner.
From the foregoing discussion, it is evident that despite some shortcomings that the use of code switching in both English and content subject classes may have, it is by and large an important resource which teachers must not feel ashamed to use.
2.10 Non-educational motivations behind language policy
A survey of the history of language policy in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and India by Tsui et al. (1999) shows that a political agenda has always played an important role in language policy formulation and implementation. According to Cooper (1989:112) “since education is, from the state’s point of view, a primary means of social control, and from the family’s point of view, a means for social mobility, it is scarcely surprising that the language of instruction should be an important political issue.” Socio-economic, ethno-religious and cultural factors may also constitute another dimension in language policy formulation and implementation. There were difficulties in implementing CMI in Hong Kong though its usefulness had been acknowledged by a majority of stakeholders because CMI was perceived as socially divisive and as taking away the autonomy of schools. Consequently, 66% of the school principals consulted were not in favour of CMI, confirming earlier observations that LoLT policy formulation and implementation is not premised exclusively on educational motivations and that determining media of instruction for school systems is a decision, inter alia, most commonly subject to strong political pressures (Cooper 1989:109).
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In Malaysia, Singapore and India, recourse to English in the 1990s, 1966 and post-independence period (from 1948 onwards) respectively, was clearly driven by an economic agenda. Thus Huebner (1999:12) observes that “language policy is shaped in the process of political struggles over issues seemingly only secondarily related to language.”
In Malawi, the fortunes of the Chitumbuka language were intricately tied to the whimsies of the ruling government both before and after independence. For example, attempts by the colonial government led by Sir Shenton Thomas and later by Harold Kittermaster, to impose Chinyanja in the northern region as the official language were rejected by the colonial office in London because it felt that such a move would estrange the Livingstonia Misssion and consequently jeopardise its political interests. The Livingstonia Mission had worked hard to develop the Chitumbuka language and had, in vain, lobbied the colonial government not to impose Chinyanja as the official language in northern Malawi, a policy that would inevitably marginalize Chitumbuka. Similarly, when Chitumbuka had been marginalized by the Banda regime, for about thirty years, it only regained space on national radio and in the publication of textbooks because the new government (Muluzi’s government) saw the need to buy the support of the northern region which had, largely, not voted for it in the election that had propelled him to power. (Kamwendo 2005). In Sierra Leone, the local languages including Krio, Limba, Mende and Themne climbed the status ladder due to the influence of certain political figures (Francis and Kamanda 2001). It becomes evident that language policy shift is, by and large, shaped by political considerations
Cooper (1989:109) also cites examples from Palestine, Ireland and Ethiopia in which medium of instruction policies were based on political reasons. In the case of Palestine the use of German as the LoLT in the 1920s was not determined “by a consideration of what medium would most facilitate the children’s learning” but rather “the choice was made primarily on political grounds and for political ends.” In the Ethiopian case, Cooper remarks that the use of vernacular languages, including Amharic, as media of instruction for initial literacy and the decision to employ them for the Ethiopian campaign had… a strong political motivation.”
Thus language policy planning may indeed be viewed as a game essentially political in nature, especially if it is the “canonical” (i.e. government authorised and/or controlled) type of planning (Kamwendo 2005). In this way, the needs of a language community are violated rather than
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served. This study will shed further light on the extent to which language policy satisfies the needs of the community for which it is intended by investigating the views of secondary school teachers towards the current language policy which has English as the official LoLT.
2.11 Conclusion
In the foregoing discussion it becomes evident that a number of factors affect language planning in general and LoLT policy choice in particular. The most important of these factors include political, socio-economic, cultural and ethno-religious ones. It also becomes evident that the top- down fashion in which educational policies are handed from the policy-makers for implementation at the grassroots level results in resistance or lack of articulation between policy and practice. It also emerges that most studies (e.g. Bamgbose 1984; Fafunwa et al.1989; Macdonald 1990; Chick 1992; Shumba et al. 1998; Godwyll 2002; Ejieh 2004; Iyamu et al. 2007 and Holmarsdottir 2007) that focused on LoLT policy mainly dealt with primary school learners, thus creating a need for the extension of such research to the secondary school level.
The supremacy of the mother tongue over AL as the LoLT also emerged as an important finding from a majority of these studies. However, what is most important is that the investigation of teachers’ perspectives on issues to do with the learning and teaching process was seen to be of paramount importance. In the studies reported here, though teachers’ perspectives were sought, the contexts of the studies were not the same as the ones obtaining in my study which was carried out in Masvingo District (Zimbabwe). Hence the need to investigate the perspectives of teachers on English as a LoLT in the district.
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Chapter 3
Research methodology
3.1 Overview
This chapter delineates the research design and the methods that were used to collect, present and analyse the data. The population and the sample used in the research are described out, along with the criteria used for sampling. The chapter also describes the data-collection instruments, namely the questionnaire, classroom observation and interviews. Finally, the procedures followed in the collection and analysis of data will be outlined.