Effects of Language of Instruction on Students’ Academic Performance in Community Secondary Schools in Bunda District.

Patrick, Maiga Samwel (2020) Effects of Language of Instruction on Students’ Academic Performance in Community Secondary Schools in Bunda District. Masters thesis, The Open University of Tanzania.

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Abstract

The study examined the effects of language of instruction on students’ academic performance in community secondary schools in Bunda District. The study employed a mixed research design and employed purposive and random sampling for getting 105 respondents including teachers and students to respond to semi-structured questions related to language difficulty experienced in secondary school; how language of instruction contributes to their success or failure in schools and possible strategies for improving students’ proficiency in the language of instruction in secondary schools. The key findings show that despite English language being essential to students’ academic success in secondary education, many struggled in writing, speaking and reading during lesson discussions and in examinations. Indeed, one of the major barriers towards students’ academic performance was the language used to instruct learning. The study also found that both teachers and students had developed various coping mechanisms for dealing with language barrier such as use of code-switching. Generally, this study recommends that there is a need to officiate English as the language of instruction from pre-primary to secondary education. Also the government should invest in teacher language training and use of multimedia in classrooms in order to improve English as a language of instructions in public schools. Keywords: Community secondary schools, language of instruction, students’ academic performance

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