2 Literature Review
2.2. Defining language attitudes and their interaction with language use in primary
Although there is agreement that language attitudes are major determinants of linguistic behaviour (Adekunle, 1995:58) the main difficulty in explaining their impact on language use in classrooms is that language attitudes are notoriously difficult to document, prove, pin down or define precisely (Shameem, 2004) because of lay and specialist connotations (Cross, 2005) attached to them. Despite difficulties in achieving consensus, this section attempts to provide a working definition for the concept language attitudes as used in this study.
Choi (2003) defines language attitudes as an individual or collective expression towards a language. The expression involves responding to certain aspects o f language and linguistic use. In this study language attitudes are taken to be the way teachers and learners respond to use of English and Shona/Ndebele as media of instruction in Zimbabwean primary schools. Teachers and learners trigger responses which manifest themselves in patterns o f language use in class. By language use is meant the “the act of communicating in verbal or written form in one or more languages; it refers to behaviour or actions that can be determined by elements of linguistic attitude” (Choi, 2003:82). Language attitudes and language use have mutual influence on each other in that language attitudes influence teachers’ and learners’ use o f a language while the way they use language influences their attitudes towards the language. While proposing the symbiotic relationship between language attitudes and language use I acknowledge that the relationship between these two elements is not simple; some researchers (Homberger, 1988; King, 2000; Lyon and Ellis, 1991) have found inconsistencies between attitude and conduct, especially in situations in which there are two or more languages in contact as is the case in postcolonial Zimbabwe.
A number of studies illustrate complexities involved in defining language attitudes. In his study of ESL teaching using an indigenous language in Zimbabwe, Nyawaranda (2000) initially states that he is investigating teachers’ beliefs about using an indigenous language in the process of teaching English but later states that “our final definition of belief then... is that it is an attitude” thus conflating attitudes and beliefs. Similarly Rapatahana (2012) cites Phillipson’s personal communication that equates beliefs with attitudes.
Baker (1992:29) sums up the complexities involved in precisely defining language attitudes when he notes that “language attitude is an umbrella term under which resides a variety of specific attitudes”. He lists some of them as:
• Attitude to language variation, dialect and speech style, • Attitude to learning a new language,
• Attitude to a specific minority language,
• Attitude to language groups, communities and minorities, • Attitudes to language lessons,
• Attitudes to the uses of a specific language, • Attitudes of parents to language learning, and • Attitude to language preference (Baker, 1992:29)
The last three attitudes in Baker’s list are relevant to answering questions for this study but the list itself also highlights difficulties of being precise about what is being investigated when investigating the influence of language attitudes on language use in primary classrooms.
One way of lessening the confusion about defining language attitudes has been to link definitions of language attitudes to actions. In this regard Bokhorst-Heng and Caleon (2009) and Coady (2005) have given a more expanded definition of language attitudes by pointing out three components o f attitude, namely cognition, affect and behaviour. Coady (2005:43) argues that the cognitive element of an attitude concerns perceptions, concepts, and beliefs regarding the attitude object. For instance Probyn (2009) reports that South African rural teachers,
parents and learners believe that proficiency in English leads to better jobs and upward social mobility (see also Seargeant and Erling, 2011 about beliefs o f English as a language for international development). Such beliefs and perceptions, it could be argued, represent the cognitive element o f an attitude and contribute to positive attitudes towards English (Ting, 2003; Bokhorst-Heng and Caleon 2009).
The second aspect o f language attitudes is the affective component which consists o f feelings toward the object of the attitude, such as the English language itself (Aziakpono and Bekker 2010). Teachers and learners may like using English as medium o f instruction or dislike it or feel anxiety over learning the language. Muthwii (2004) reports that her study o f primary children in Kenya showed that they had negative attitudes toward mother tongue instruction and preferred English because they believed using English would help them pass examinations which were set and written in English. The children therefore could have developed negative attitudes towards mother tongue instruction because they were anxious to pass examinations and knew that, like their counterparts in South Africa, passing examinations would be the beginning of the journey up the social ladder.
The third component-- behaviour-relates to actions that individuals are willing to take toward an object or event under certain circumstances. If teachers and learners use English a lot in classroom interaction one might assume they have positive attitudes towards the language. Choi (2003:82) argues that “one element that is linked to attitude is behaviour and more specifically, linguistic use”. Choi argues that linguistic use is behaviour or actions that can be determined by elements of linguistic attitude. Therefore teachers’ and learners’ use or non-use
of a particular language during teaching-learning sessions might be a reliable indicator o f their attitudes towards the language although it has to be acknowledged that non-use of the language may be due to limited competence in the language in question.
So far difficulties associated with pinning down language attitudes have been discussed in general terms but there is need to discuss them focusing on Zimbabwe. Discussion of language attitudes in Zimbabwe highlights contradictions surrounding attitudes towards English in postcolonial contexts. While some studies (Arthur, 1994; Muthwii, 2004 and Probyn, 2009) show that parents, teachers and learners prefer use of English as medium of instruction, Alidou et al (2006:40) argue that “planning and implementing language and language-in-education policies for post-colonial Africa has met in the past, and still meets today, with a fair amount of negative attitudes on the part of most stakeholders towards:
1. the feasibility of utilising more than one language in education,
2. the value of the African indigenous languages for quality education, and
3. the value of utilising the former colonial language as medium o f instruction in education”
The three areas singled out by Alidou et al (2006) are relevant to this study because Zimbabwe has a language-in-education policy that allows use o f more than one language in the education system. The policy seems to privilege English over local languages and therefore investigating the influence of teachers’ and learners’ attitudes to English on language use in primary classroom becomes a way of interrogating the value of utilising the former colonial language as medium of instruction in education in Zimbabwe. While the current study does not consider the feasibility of using more than one language as problematic, it investigates teacher’s and
learners’ attitudes to English and how their attitudes might shape how they use language in classrooms and view the role of Zimbabwean languages as media o f instruction. The question of the viability of using indigenous languages as media of instruction is considered against the backdrop of continued use of the former colonial language as medium of instruction.
The negative attitudes referred to by Alidou et al could account for the fact that there has been limited progress in changing language-in-education polices in Africa and Alidou et al (2006:18) attributes the lack of progress in changing policies to the “well documented attraction of English language education throughout the African continent and beyond and the consequent popular pressure on governments to introduce English ever earlier into the curriculum”. Williams (2011) and Tembe and Norton (2011) also argue that negative attitudes that impede progress towards changing language-in-education policies are largely evident among postcolonial elites who fear that official recognition of indigenous languages might empower common people and threaten their power and privileges. As a result most postcolonial countries in Africa have made little headway in developing language-in-education policies that are in line with learners’ facility in using English as the language for learning. For example, Tembe and Norton (2011) argue that although Uganda has been independent since 1962 it has been struggling to develop and implement effective multilingual policies in its schools. Probyn (2005) also argues that although the South African constitution has given parity to English, Afrikaans and nine indigenous languages since 1996, English remains the dominant language. In this context, Busch (2010:284) adds that “constitutional recognition of language rights, however, has yet to be translated into a coherent language-in-education policy”.
In Zimbabwe the constitution is vague on the issue of languages, merely stating that every person has the right to use the language of their choice and “the State must promote and advance the use of all languages used in Zimbabwe, including sign language, and must create conditions for the development of those languages” (Zimbabwe Constitution 2013,1.6). Lack of specificity in the constitution accounts for the vagueness evident in the Education Act and represents the unwillingness of postcolonial governments to take bold policy decisions about the language in which children are educated. The ambivalence about the relationship between English and indigenous languages evident in the Constitution and the Education Act is at the heart of any investigation into the impact of attitudes towards English as medium of instruction at primary school level on language use in classrooms because “the choice of language and the use to which language is put is central to a people’s definition of themselves” (Ngugi wa Thiong’o,
1986:4).