THE DOUBLE EDGED ROLE OF INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES IN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: A CASE OF THE LOWER PRIMARY CLASSROOMS IN KENYAN SCHOOLS

Abstract

Language plays a crucial role in the education outcomes of a country. The study has addressed the issue of language choice and development in a multilingual state to enable learners be advantaged both locally and internationally. Despite choice of mother tongue and English as medium of instruction in lower primary and from upper primary classes respectively, low literacy level is evident as 1 out 6 children could not read an English word (Uwezo, 2014). Further, learners’ poor command of the English language is evident in poor performance in national exams. Some stakeholders attribute this to use of indigenous languages in school despite their importance in language development. Consequently, there is need to interrogate the place of local languages during instruction at the lower primary level. Purposive sampling technique was used to select schools where learners used Kiswahili – their indigenous language - as a medium of instruction. Data collection was through observation during English lesson and interviews. The study found that circumstances necessitated the use of Kiswahili language by teachers though they are often discouraged; secondly, the use of Kiswahili enhanced English vocabulary learning as learners performed well on words explained in Kiswahili; and finally, teachers lacked guidance on when and how to use Kiswahili resulting to ungrammatical sentences. Thus if indigenous languages are well developed, code-switching maybe used to enhance mastery of English language for better results. All stakeholders ought to be sensitized on the importance of both indigenous and international languages in learning.