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AAU, IER February 2010

The Impact of learning with the mother tongue on academic achievement: A case study of Grade 8 Students in Ethiopia

By Dr. Teshome Nekatibeb

• Reviewed

By - Daniel EbbaInstitute of Educational Research

Addis Ababa UniversityFebruary 2010

Background• Learning with mother tongues other than Amharic is a relatively new phenomena in Ethiopia.• Dates back to the early 1990s • when the TGE is issued an interim education and language policy In 1992.

• The current proclamation is different in recognizing as medium of instruction

• So far 17 languages being used as media of instruction in primary school( Haile Selassie 2005).

Despite all these dev’ts very little is known for the effectiveness of learning with the mother tongue.

Scope of the study• The impact of learning with the mother tongue on academic achievement of grade 8 student by using data from ESNLA

• It compares the learning attainments of pupils who studied biology, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics • through the medium of their mother tongues• With those who studied the same subjects through the medium of a language which was not their mother tongue.

• Although more than 80 living languages in our country, this study focuses on • Amharic,Afan Oromo,Tigrenya and Somali.

Objective/purpose of the study

• To examine the extent to which learning in the mother tongue enhances the learning of English

• To provide information's concerning the effectiveness of learning with mother tongue in enhancing student achievement for parents , policy makers and stakeholders.• To provide information's for the argument of not using

multiple languages in education in Ethiopia is that to promote several languages would hinder national unity.

Mother tongue and mother-tongue education

• Following Szepe(1984) and Pattanak (2003), the term ‘mother tongue’ to refer to the first language that a child acquires.

• According to Hoius(1976), in practice there are five different patterns of mother tongue use in education:• The medium of instruction at all levels of education

• Used up to a certain level of schooling and then replaced by another language

• Used in the teaching of certain subjects while a non-mother tongue is used for other subjects

• Taught as a subject but not used as a medium of instruction

• Completely exclude from the education system

Cont.• In sub Saharan Africa, according to Ouane(2003), there are b/n 1,250-2100 languages.

• Kuper(2003) reports that in 22 out of 39 African countries primary education still uses one of the colonial languages.

• Only 3 countries – Ethiopia, Eritrea and Tanzania- employ the mother tongue for whole duration of primary education.

• A similar situation is found in Latin America, where Spanish is used almost everywhere as the language of education,• even in those countries where there is quite a large Indian population.

Cont.• In contrast, in many developed countries, the use of different languages as media of instruction is widely accepted.• In the USA, for example, Rotberg (1984) records that the first bilingual education act which urged that native tongue should be used until children were proficient in English was enacted in 1968.

• In Spain although Spanish is the official language of the state, a constitution was issued in 1978 (Siguan 1984)

• Switzerland has for many years had tri-lingualism, with French, German and Italian as official languages.

Cont.• There are several d/t arguments for providing primary education in the mother tongue. These are summarized by Kuper (2003) in the following categories:• Pedagogical appropriateness• Cost effectiveness• Children’s right to be taught in their own language

• Development of self-identity• The contribution of learning in the mother tongue to improved relations b/n political leaders and the population at large.

Table 1: Arguments in favour of mother tongue education based on (Laforge 1987)

Perspective

Rationale/ Use of mother tongue/

Educational - guarantees child's emotional and psychomotor development. - It sets free child's expressive potential. - It offers opportunity for child to verbalize all his/her experience.

Teaching/didactic

Enables classroom effort to be concentrated on learning of content.

Psychological Mother tongue continue to avoid sudden break b/n two d/t forms of expression.

Social and family

Enables family and community to continue educational effort already undertaken at home. they can play a part in child’s education by ensuring traditional values are taken into account at school.

Cultural Mother tongue is foundation of personality of the individual and the nation. Denying mother tongue is to deny oneself.

Economic Reduces repetition and fail at school because of having to learn non- mother tongue with difficulty at early age.

Cont.• Various external and internal factors influences student achievement in addition to language of instruction.

• External factors• Sts. home background and• Personal and community characteristics

• Parental socio economic status• Parental support

• Internal factors• School and classroom environment and• School resource

Methodology• Comparative survey with cross sectional perspectives was applied• it is also called as case study since it has grade 8 student only

• Student achievements are measured through •achievement tests of English, Mathematics, Physics, Biology and Chemistry.

• Other variables were explored through the use of questionnaires for students, teachers and head teachers.

Cont.• The number of sample schools in each region was determined based on;• Relative proportion of its school population, with a minimum of 25 schools per region.• Within regions, schools were selected at random.• Originally 407 schools was selected from total of 12,471schools.

• However data collected from 213 schools• And also included 40 randomly selected sts. from each selected schools.− Totally sample of 8520 was proposed, but only 8127 participant are involved.

Limitation of the study • Three limitation of the study can be identified;• Only objective or multiple choice tests were used to measure students competence.

• Not all of the randomly identified schools could not be included

• Gambella region not included in the study, hence results cannot be generalized to this region.

Findings and analysisTable 2: Composite student achievements in

learning Mathematics, physics, Biology and Chemistry with mother and non-mother tongues

Medium N Mean scoreMother tongue 3256 42.30Non-mother tongue

4534 36.23

Mean difference - 6.03• Sts. Who studied mathematics, physics, biology and

chemistry through the mother tongue scored an average of 42.3%

• While sts. Who studied through a non-mother tongue scored 36.3%

• Mean difference is 6.06% in favour of the sts using the mother tongue.

Table 3: student achievement in learning with mother tongue and non-mother tongue, by subject

Subject Medium N Mean ScoreBiology Mother tongue 4594 45.87

Non-mother tongue 3279 35.17Mean difference - 10.70

Chemistry Mother tongue 4606 42.79Non-mother tongue 3279 36.37Mean difference - 6.42

Physics Mother tongue 4614 38.68Non-mother tongue 3299 30.72Mean difference - 7.95

Mathematics Mother tongue 4611 42.62Non-mother tongue 3295 38.44Mean difference - 4.18

Cont.

• The results show:• Learning in mother tongue had an advantage of about 11%, 6%,nearly 8% and 4% respectively in Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics as compared to using of non mother tongue media of instruction.

Table 4. student achievement with the non-mother tongue as a subject, and as a subject and medium of instruction

Status of English N Mean scoreAs subject 4615 42.79

As subject and as medium of instruction

3300 36.37

Mean Deference - 6.42 Sts. Who studied English simply as a subject gained more than those As subject and as medium of instruction.Thus we can conclude that studying through the mother tongue facilitates;

learning a foreign language more than studying through the medium of that foreign language while studying than language as a subject.

Table 5: multiple regression analysis of variables and their r/s with composite sts. Academic achievement in Grade 8

• Student background variables as an independent group explain 38.6% of the total variation in learners achievement, Language of instruction 37.3%, teacher x.tics 32.5%, school structre and cc. materials 20.5%, school mag’t 11.1%

Categories of variable

R R-sq. F

STUDENT’S BACKGROUND AND BEHAVIOR

0.404 0.386 22.42***

LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION 0.611 0.373 125.51***TEACHER 0.570 0.325 16.37***SCHOOL STRUCTURE AND CC MATRIALS

0.453 0.205 8.32***

INSTRUCTION/SUPPORT 0.368 0.136 7.30***SCHOOL MAG’T 0.366 0.111 5.73***

Conclusion• Like elsewhere in the world:

• this study has confirmed the pedagogical effectiveness of learning with the mother tongue in Eth.

• It suggest not only that the policy of providing primary education in the mother tongue is appropriate, but also that it should maintained.

• Since the study identified that learning with the mother tongue is one of the most decisive factors in students achievement, a proper implementation of the language policy in Ethiopia education is required.

• This study , there fore, provides clear evidence for adopting a positive approach towards plurality of languages in education.

Personal reflection• Mother tongue (dependent variable)

• Its Impacts on education are highly noticeable• the more we have mother tongue media, the more we expect the achievement result

• And since using different mother tongue media increases student achievement, no doubt that to promote national unity.

• The analysis part• result explains more the background and objective of the study

• Reach in comparison of international perspective

• What was concluded is, what is expected and also right

•Thank you!