Transitioning from a local language to English as a medium of instruction
Rwandan teachers’ and classroom-based perspectives
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20505168 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Emmanuel Sibomana (0000-0002-1118-7435, The Wellspring Foundation for Education, Kigali, Rwanda, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 1259-1274 |
| Publication date | 2022-04-21 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1367-0050 • E-ISSN: 1747-7522 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13670050.2020.1749554 |
| OpenAlex | W3016228643 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 15 |
| References cited | 24 |
Language-in-education policies in Africa are believed to be a factor of poor quality education on the continent as languages learners are not conversant with continue to take the lead as languages of teaching and learning. This paper explores the experience of teachers and learners in Rwanda transitioning from Kinyarwanda to English as a medium of instruction in Grade Four and the implications thereof for teaching and learning. Data was collected from two public schools where two ‘Social and Religious Studies’ lessons were observed in each school: one in Grade Three and another in Grade Four. One Grade Four teacher from each school filled in a questionnaire and was interviewed. The analysis of the data followed thematic content analysis methods. The findings indicate that the transition is challenging for both teachers and learners due to their limited proficiency in English. Learners’ engagement is very limited and teachers resort to unplanned code-switching, language pairing and content simplification. As a result, classroom interactions are dominated by drilled repetitions after the teacher, with extremely limited understanding a situation, which impedes learners’ deep understanding and, de facto, access to quality education
Code-switching · Linguistics · Mathematics education · Medium of instruction · Pedagogy · Qualitative research · Sociology · Thematic analysis · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Multilingual Education and Policy · Psychology · Second Language Learning and Teaching
Transitioning to an unfamiliar medium of instruction
Translanguaging as an effective pedagogical tool for teaching English second language short stories in selected township high schools
Teachers’ pedagogical practices in teaching isiZulu Home Language in multilingual Soweto schools
Umuzigo w’inyongera
Towards a social and epistemic justice approach for exploring the injustices of English as a Medium of Instruction in basic education
Unveiling the Learning Crisis
Harnessing the potential of translanguaging in Tanzanian secondary education
Promoting inclusive and equitable access
English medium of instruction in science learning
Comparing stakeholders’ perceptions of the implementation of ‘learner-centred’ pedagogy
How educators navigate language ideology and pedagogy in refugee education
Integrating the lived experience of language with discursive approaches to policy
Teachers’ codeswitching practices in the quest for Bi/Multilingual education
Fear and shame
Transitioning learners from literacy instruction in local languages to English in Zambia
Writing and Identity
TheSociolinguistics of Development in Africa
Globalisation and the university
Content analysis and thematic analysis
Dueling Models of Dual Language Instruction
Policy without a plan
Challenges of Using English as a Medium of Instruction in Multilingual Contexts
Language and inequality
Language policies in education
The Use of Vernacular Languages in Education
Using thematic analysis in psychology
| Citations per year | 3.75 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Highly cited | No |