“…hawa
watu wanakuwanga* waj*nga sana…” asserted a guy seated next to me in a matatu “…these people are so tribal they want to speak their language
everywhere, they think this country is theirs…” went the incoherent
arguments by this guy that to some extent we would say he was ignorant. “…wanadhani sisi wote ni wakikuyu?” I
wasn’t surprised by the unnecessary outburst that was caused by the mere fact
that the conductor of the Nairobi bound matatu was speaking Gikuyu “too much”.
This can elicit different debates especially in Kenya
where there are over 50 native languages which has been used negatively by our
politician to divide and rule!
In Kenya, and especially the Nairobi metropolitan
region there’s a mistaken move of tagging mother tongue speakers with negative stereotypes
which as my syntax professor likes repeating is st*pid! Her argument is that we
are studying a universal grammar but still insist on studying it in English to
verify its validity while we are so rich in terms of languages. In fact in that
class we have upto five African languages at our disposal!
Away from linguistics, I’ve wanted to write this
article but I always wonder where to start, thanks to guy X above the threshold
has been exceeded and my centre can hold no more! Let’s try and tackle it from
a political viewpoint; according to the 2010 constitution, Swahili is the
national language while English and Swahili are the official languages. A
little further, it has been a government policy that children are taught their mother
tongues and in mother tongue from class 1 to class 3 in catchment areas while
in metropolis like Nairobi, Thika, Nakuru among others they use Swahili or
English. Things become complicated here! These children in Nairobi, for instance,
cannot say that Swahili is their first language, neither is English. Most of
them also do not speak in their mother tongues, so what are we left with? The
sheng phenomenon! Unfortunately we cannot blame the children, none of us choses
which language we will learn first. I cringe when I hear parents discourage
their children from speaking their first languages!
Before joining school, we usually have already
acquired a first language; first language acquisition starts as soon as one is
born. It is the language that you acquire during this critical period that you
will be able to speak flawlessly and even judge when someone doesn’t speak it
well. Suffice it to say, you will be a native speaker of that language. Going
by the research done in cognitive science, education and language acquisition,
the advantages of this first language cannot be overstated. It is this language
that should be used for didactic purposes according to certain scholars, an
idea that I buy. Take the case of Kenya for instance: English is the language
of instruction even with the mother tongue lessons in lower primary. Having
ever through a public school, brought up by teachers and even taught (a private
school), I can tell you for sure that English is such a challenge and so is
Kiswahili. Teachers have admitted that more often than not they’ve had to
explain subjects such as science and social studies in mother tongue so that
the pupils could grasp. That is in the rural areas, in Nairobi metropolitan the
situation might not be exactly the same but is definitely not better. I have
been in classes in Thika and Nairobi and you do not want to hear the kind of
Swahili that is used even for instructional purposes. The challenges in English
and Swahili were evident. My “mini-research” got much more interesting when I
observed English compositions from the two regions. Helping a colleague mark
English compositions made me afraid of what to expect from the French exam that
I’d later administer! This problem isn’t exclusively Kenyan; many other countries
such as Nigeria, Namibia and Pakistan are confronted with this problem.
"...a third of the world's languages ar in Africa yet Africa is the only continent where children begin learning in foreign languages..." -Prof Kithaka Wa Mberia
Such findings are only found in academic corridors as
theses or conference papers after which they are cast onto the shelves of the
library to gather dust. In a conference during the International Mother
language Day, a scholar showed how learning is slowed down by lack of
linguistic competence in the language of instruction, and the impact on the
cognitive ability of the child since attention has to be divided between
learning English, the language of instruction, and the concepts to be learnt!
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has
for the last 50 years championed for the mother language in learning at the
elementary levels. Multilingualism is supposed to be mother tongue based, how
well one has mastered their first language has a positive effect on the
acquisition of a second language, according to research done in second language
acquisition. Other scholars have argued that the goals of education for all are
more easily achieve in countries where first languages are used. It has also
been found that multilingual children tend to develop better thinking skills
than monolinguals, as such most African countries would stand to benefit if
there was a good education policy, properly implemented. Kenya for instance is
already multilingual, and with individuals, before reaching a foreign language
most people will have an indigenous language, Swahili and English. The case of
Swahili however puzzles me and is subject to research. In my translation
classes, I was rather surprised to see some of us put Swahili as their language
C meaning that they could not have Swahili as their target language yet it is
assumed that this is the language we use daily.
Even with the poor mastery of English and Kiswahili in
Kenya, there are still grave issues with our mother tongues especially in urban
and peri-urban areas. Today children are becoming more alienated from their
cultures. The inability to communicate with grandparents and even parents is worrying
and subsequently leads to a situation where the young generation no longer has
a connection to their cultural heritage. “For the sake of national
integration…” I hear people argue. But I hear more stereotypes about tribes
than things that would foster national integration by use of a common language.
As the world’s languages reduce, so do the cultural values carried in these
languages.
Evidently, the benefits people who mastered their
first languages alongside other languages reap are immense as are benefits that
come with second/foreign languages. However the benefits of the latter underlie
those of the former thus overlooking them will have far reaching effects!
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There are 70 languages native to Kenya, however some
have become extinct while a few others like el molo have as few as 650
speakers.
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According to UNESCO the literacy rate in Kenya was
at 84% in 2010 ranking 4th in Africa.
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Most of the research done on our native languages
has been in Europe and America
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