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The Influence of Regional Language to Teach Multilingual Learners in Primary Schools of Kafue District
Abstract
The study sought to investigate the use of regional language to teach multilingual learners in primary schools of Kafue District used a qualitative design. Using a phenomenological design, the study utilized purposive sampling to sample 16 participants. The study was anchored on Ruiz’s Language Orientation Theory. Data was analysed using the thematic analysis framework. The study established that the use of regional languages did not improves students' understanding of content because the language of play was different from the language of instruction used by pupils in school. It was also established that the classrooms were linguistically diverse and lacked standardized teaching and learning materials in regional languages. The challenges included lack of learning resources which forced teachers to rely on impromptu translations leading to inconsistencies in content delivery thereby teachers adopting various practices to address the linguistic diversity among their learners to promoting inclusivity. To resolve the linguistic challenges, teaches used code-switching, peer to peer support, story-telling, pictures reading and gestures to convey complex ideas. Visual aids were seen to be effective tools in multilingual settings as they provided universal references that were easily understood. In conclusion, the study found that the regional language did not have influence on the learning in the classroom of Kafue district hence translanguaging was present. The study recommends that teacher training institutions should revise their curriculum to address the linguistic challenges teachers face in multilingual classes. Keywords: Regional language, Multilingualism, Linguistic diversity, Inclusivity
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