Parents’ and Teachers’ Perception of the Use of Mother Tongue as Language of Instruction in Lower Primary Schools
CHAPTER ONE
Objective of Study
The main purpose of this study is to examine parents’ and teachers’ perception of the use of mother tongue as language of instruction in lower primary schools. The specific objectives of this study are:
- To examine the perception of parents towards the use of mother tongue as language of instruction at lower primary level.
- To determine whether teachers have positive perception of the use of mother tongue as language of instruction in lower primary schools.
- To find out the factors militating against the use of mother tongue as language of instruction at the lower primary school level.
- To proffer possible solutions to the problem of negative perception of both parents and teachers towards the use of mother tongue as language of instruction in lower primary schools.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter presents a review of related literature and studies on the following topics: Language Development in the Early Years, Early Language Development of Bilinguals, Domains of Early Literacy, Listening Comprehension, Strategies of Developing Listening Comprehension Skills, Literacy Practices of Yoruba Families, Policies on the Medium of Instruction, The Lingua Franca Project, Basic Education Sector Reform Agenda, The Lubuagan Experience, The Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE), International Perspectives on the MTB-MLE, Teachers’ Attitude towards MOI, and Parents’ Attitude towards MOI.
Literature Review
The idea that primary education is best begun in a child’s MT has received a strong support in many educational and linguistic circles. A detailed analysis of research findings and published literature, however, have shown a great diversity on the basic assumptions and objectives of scholars and writers in the field. This has made it impossible to generalize such beyond the areas studied:
It is axiomatic that the best medium for teaching a child is his mother tongue. Psychologically, it is the system of meaningful signs that is in the mind works automatically for expression and understanding: sociologically, it is a means of identification among the members of the community to which he belongs.
Educationally, he learns more quickly trough it than through an unfamiliar linguistic medium UNESCO 1953:11).
Some scholars have advocated the use of the mother tongue as a medium of instruction from the primary school level for the following reasons. One, a number of scholars (Fafunwa and Bliss, 1967: Afolayan, 1976) have written on the assumption that primary education, when given in the child’s MT rather than in a second or foreign language, is more effective and meaningful. Student learning can be accurately assessed in bilingual classrooms. When students can express themselves, teachers can diagnose what has been learned, what remains to be taught and which students need further assistance. In submersion schooling cognitive learning and language learning are confounded, making it difficult for teachers to determine whether students have difficulty understanding the concept itself, the language of instruction, or the language of the test.
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
Research Design
The design adopted in this study was a survey research design.
Population and Sample
The study population comprised all primary school in surulele metropolis. There are 198 public primary schools in the metropolis out of which a total of 50 primary schools were randomly sampled. In each primary school primary five classes were purposively selected while 20 primary five pupils were randomly selected in each school. In all 1000 primary five pupils took part in the study. The average age of the respondents was 12years.
Research Instrument
The instrument used for data collection was a self-designed questionnaires tagged “parents and teachers Perception of Efficacy of Mother Tongue Questionnaire. The questionnaire contained 25 items carefully worded to elicit responses from the participants.
Validation of the Instrument
The first draft of the questionnaire was given to experts in psychological testing in the Faculty of Education, University of Ibadan to ensure its content and face validity. Thereafter, the reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha and a coefficient of .79 was obtained.
Procedure for Data Collection
The researcher visited the schools of study, sought the permission of the headmaster/headmistresses of the school, and thereafter went straight to distribute the questionnaire to the participants with the help of their class teachers. The researcher was on hand to provide explanations, and sometimes translations of the items in Yoruba, to the pupils to ensure that the questionnaire was correctly completed. The completed questionnaire was collected on the spot.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA
The result of this study has both qualitative and quantitative sets of data from all three groups of participants: parents, teachers and pupils from Grades 1 and 2. Each group has quantitative data gathered from questionnaires or tests and qualitative data gathered from interviews, focus group discussions and observations. The presentation of the data in this chapter will be executed in accordance with the research questions stated in Chapter 1.
Research Question 1a: What are the parents’ attitudes toward the mother tongue as the medium of instruction?
To answer the first question, questionnaires, interviews and focus group discussions were done. The results gathered from the parents and teachers were treated and analyzed separately.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION, RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary of Findings
This study sought to find out the attitudes of parents and teachers towards the MT as MOI. It also intended to find out the listening comprehension skills of grades 1 and 2 pupils. It also sought to find out if the parents’ and teachers’ attitude towards MT as MOI is related to the listening comprehension skills of grades 1 and 2 pupils and if the listening comprehension test scores of the pupils’ whose teachers have a positive attitude towards MT as MOI has a significant difference with the listening comprehension test scores of the pupils’ whose teachers have a negative attitude towards MT as MOI. Further, this study tried to find out if there is a significant difference between the scores of the primary 1 pupils who used MT as MOI for one year and the scores of the primary 2 pupils who have not used MT as MOI.
This study used Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory which states that all learning takes place within a social context and Bandura’s Social Learning Theory which claims that adults play a significant role in a child’s development. It also used the differing opinions of parents and teachers in the use of the MT as MOI as observed in seminars and seen in previous studies of Duguiang & Dekker (2010), Garcia (1988), Panda et.al. (2011), UNESCO (2010) to name a few.
To answer the first part of Research Question 1: The parents’ attitudes towards the mother tongue as medium of instruction were positive. During discussions and interviews, their beliefs and pride towards their language heritage were apparent. They seemed to have a desire to preserve their language but were conflicted with the demands of the society for their children to learn English to ensure a more secure future. English continued to be perceived as the language of social, educational, and financial advancement. Learning how to speak English seemed to be of utmost importance for parents because of these.
To answer the second part of Research Question 1: The teachers’ attitudes towards the mother tongue were neither positive nor negative since their scores (3.45) in the questionnaires regarding MT as MOI was between 2.9 -3.8. Through interviews, it seems clear that they see the value in using the mother tongue to teach children. They have observed that their students are able to grasp concepts more easily when taught in a familiar language. However, due to the lack of guidance, training, materials and preparations, they encountered problems with the implementation. All the teacher participants gave the same feedback that the transition from mainly English medium of instruction to the mother tongue was too quick, abrupt. Most admitted that they do have a natural aversion to change, it was especially difficult to teach in the mother tongue without the necessary guidance and materials. As shown in Appendix G, the results in the questionnaire garnered a less positive attitude than that of the parents.
The pupils’ listening comprehension skills showed that the students understood the story and can recall the main idea as well as some details from the story told. However, they had difficulty with the vocabulary in the stories which may have affected their comprehension of the stories. They also had difficulty understanding some of the words in the listening comprehension tests such as the different traits. Their scores for the questions on the literal level of comprehension were quite high (77%). However, they had difficulty answering questions on the critical level of comprehension. These observations were also reinforced by the researcher’s observations as well as the teachers’.
The parents’ attitude towards the MT as MOI had no statistically significant relationship with the pupils listening comprehension skills.
With regard to the teachers’ attitudes towards the mother tongue as medium of instruction, this study shows that there is a significant difference between the scores of the pupils whose teachers have a positive attitude towards the MT as MOI and the scores of the pupils whose teachers have a negative attitude towards MT as MOI.
On the other hand, the primary 1 pupils scores on the listening comprehension tests did not have a significant difference when compared to the scores of the primary 2 pupils’ listening comprehension tests.
Conclusion
This study shows that:
- The teachers’ attitudes also had an effect on the students’ test scores as shown by the significant difference between the scores of the pupils with teachers having a positive attitude towards MT as MOI and the scores of the pupils with teachers having a negative attitude towards the MT as MOI.
- primary 1 and 2 students had an easier time answering literal, inferential, and application questions than with answering question in the critical level of comprehension.
- Parents and teachers alike have specific attitudes towards the different languages used in schools.
- The following are the attitudes of parents:
- English is a desirable language to master for gaining financial security
- English is not seen as a hindrance to learning
- Yoruba is used mainly to encourage love for the country
- MT and English are the preferred MOI
- The following are the attitude of teachers towards English, Yoruba, and MT:
- Yoruba is used mainly to encourage love for the country
- English is not a hindrance to learning
- Mother tongue is used for self-expression and is the ideal language to use for learning new concepts
- MT and English are the preferred MOI
- Teachers were unprepared for the implementation of the MTB-MLE, but were able to adapt and make adjustment to develop listening comprehension skills in their students.
REFERENCES
- Almario, E.S., Almario, V.S., Almario, A.S. (Eds.) (2009). Regional Profiles: People and Places. Adarna House, Inc.
- Aquino-Yu, Y.F. (2005). The Effects of Bilingual Instruction on the Literacy Skills of Preschoolers. (Unpublished Masteral Thesis). University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City.
- Ball, J. (2010). Educational Equity for Children from Diverse Backgrounds: Mother Tongue-Based Bilingual or Multilingual Education in the Early Years.
- Presentation to UNESCO International Symposium: Translation and Cultural
- Mediation, Paris: UNESCO, 22/23 February 2010, on the occasion of the 11th
- International Mother Language Day in collaboration with the International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies, 2010 International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures.
- Benson, C. (2004). The Importance of Mother Tongue Based Schooling for Educational Equity. Commissioned Study for Education For All Global Fund 2005. Center for Research on Bilingualism, Stockholm University.
