Investigating the language of wider communication and examining the selected medium of instruction for local primary schools in the Livingstone city of Zambia.

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue XII, December 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186

Investigating the language of wider communication and examining the selected medium of instruction for local primary schools in the Livingstone city of Zambia

Elliot Machinyise, Jackline Pali
David Livingstone College of Education

Abstract:- Livingstone as a tourist capital of Zambia has developed into a multilingual and multiethnic community because a lot of languages are spoken within its boundaries. In this paper an attempt has been made at taking a sociolinguistic perspective of investigating the local language of wider communication in the Livingstone city of Zambia. To achieve this, particular attention was focussed on the assessment of the popularity of Tonga, Nyanja and Lozi, the three community languages of Livingstone townships. The results of the study were used to establish whether or not Tonga language is indeed the appropriate medium of instruction for Livingstone primary schools and also as a learning subject of choice. A case study survey was carried out in schools and Livingstone townships so as to come up with the desired findings of the study. Instances of language use were observed in selected primary schools in Livingstone. The findings of the study indicate that although Nyanja is not the native language or mother tongue of most Livingstone residents, it has proved to be the language of wider communication. It has also been revealed that although Tonga is the officially prescribed medium of instruction in Livingstone primary schools, many school going children do not use it in many domains. Lozi was found to be the mother tongue of most Livingstone residents but the language is only confined to the home domain and family functions.

KEY WORDS: Language of wider communication, medium of instruction, mother tongue, regional official language, language attitude, lingua franca

1. Introduction

Livingstone is the fourth biggest city in Zambia with several languages spoken within its boundaries. As a cosmopolitan city and like any other city in Zambia, there is always a bridge language that is used for communication among people of different ethnic and linguistic background. Among the local languages used in the city, Nyanja, Lozi and Tonga are the most commonly used languages. This study tries to establish which language among the three has the wider communication.

1.1 Background

The dawning of the industrial revolution that triggered mass migration of people from one place to another in search of employment had remarkable influence on the languages of the entire world. Because of this sudden interaction of people with different linguistic backgrounds, languages had to wrestle for survival. This scenario meant that speakers of indigenous languages did not only host migrant settlers, but had to learn new languages brought about by these migrant workers. As if that was not enough, native speakers had to stretch further to their limit in order to accommodate new terminologies for new discoveries and technologies.

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