Abstract

Many Zimbabwean mathematics classrooms have student populations from diverse cultural backgrounds who speak diverse Shona dialects. Most of the mathematics teaching is not related to the learners’ world or everyday experiences because it is taught in English, a second language for most of these learners. Teachers therefore play a fundamental role in making sure that learners in this bilingual setup understand the mathematical concepts being taught. The debate on whether English or indigenous languages are suitable for use in education is increasing. This paper explores possible instructional practices to assist bilingual learners. A qualitative approach was used to explore the instructional practices used by primary school teachers during the teaching and learning of mathematics in Zimbabwe. The findings indicated that teachers code-switched between English and Shona and also used examples from the learners’ environment. It was concluded that there was a possibility of using a bilingual model including Shona and English when teaching mathematics to bilingual learners. The idea is to create a caring, colourful, exciting, stimulating, and reflective environment as a way of engaging learners even if they are from diverse cultural and social backgrounds. The latter would also reduce marginalisation of bilingual learners.

摘要

津巴布韦的许多数学教室都有来自不同文化背景的学生群体，他们会讲不同的绍纳语。大多数数学教学与学习者的世界或日常经验无关，因为它是以英语授课的，英语是大多数学习者的第二语言。因此，在确保双语教学中的学习者理解所教授的数学概念方面，教师起着根本性的作用。关于英语或土著语言是否适合用于教育的争论正在增加。本文探讨了可能的教学实践，以帮助双语学习者。在津巴布韦数学教学中，定性方法被用来探索小学教师在数学教学中所使用的教学实践。调查结果表明，教师在英语和绍纳语之间进行了代码转换，还使用了学习者环境中的示例。结论是，向双语学习者教授数学时，有可能使用包括绍纳语和英语在内的双语模型。这个想法是要创造一个关爱，丰富多彩，令人兴奋，令人振奋和反思的环境，以吸引学习者，即使他们来自不同的文化和社会背景。后者还将减少双语学习者的边缘化。和反思性环境，即使他们来自不同的文化和社会背景，也可以作为一种吸引学习者的方式​​。后者还将减少双语学习者的边缘化。和反思性环境，即使他们来自不同的文化和社会背景，也可以作为一种吸引学习者的方式​​。后者还将减少双语学习者的边缘化。