ABSTRACT

Ghana’s language-in-education policy, which mandates the use of L1 as medium of instruction at the lower primary classroom, is not strictly adhered to in majority of Ghanaian classrooms. One factor that has militated against the smooth implementation of the policy is the multilingual nature of Ghana and its classrooms. This sociolinguistic survey, therefore, aims at examining the language representation and practices in selected 104 lower primary schools in Southern Ghana. The study found that multilingual classrooms in urban schools range from mild (low) to severe (high). The study also found relatively fewer cases of multilingualism in the classrooms of rural schools; rather, most of them are linguistically homogenous. One intriguing finding of the study is that though there are multilingual classrooms, L1 was used as medium of instruction, especially when teachers understood the L1 of the community. It was also observed that there was mismatch between the L1 of some teachers and the L1 of the learners. This study is crucial because it begins the mapping of language representation in Ghanaian schools at the district level, especially in the lower primary classroom.

摘要

加纳的语言教学政策要求在较低的小学教室中使用L1作为教学语言，但大多数加纳教室并未严格遵守。加纳及其教室的多语言性质是阻碍该政策顺利实施的一个因素。因此，这项社会语言调查旨在研究加纳南部104所小学的语言代表和做法。研究发现，城市学校的多语种教室从轻度（低）到重度（高）。该研究还发现，在乡村学校的教室中，使用多种语言的情况相对较少。相反，它们大多数在语言上是同质的。这项研究的一个有趣发现是，尽管有多语言教室，但L1被用作教学语言，尤其是当老师了解社区的一级语言时。还观察到一些教师的L1与学习者的L1不匹配。这项研究至关重要，因为它开始在加纳地区的学校中，特别是小学低年级的教室中绘制语言表示形式。