ASSESSMENT OF THE USE OF INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES AND ENGLISH AS MEDIUMS OF INSTRUCTION IN LOWER AND MIDDLE BASIC EDUCATION CLASSROOMS OF KADUNA STATE NIGERIA

Abstract

It is noteworthy that mother tongues and the English language enjoy great recognition in Nigeria. They perform various functions in formal and informal contexts of multilingual Nigerian communities. Apart from being adopted as national and official languages, their functions have been expanded for the teaching and learning purposes in Nigerian basic education schools. Both mother tongues (national languages) and the English language have syllabuses at basic education levels such as lower basic, which includes primary one to three and middle basic which deals with primary four to six. There have been growing debates on the best language needed for teaching children in basic education for long. This was what led to the consensus that instructions in early basic education classrooms in especially multilingual contexts need to start in the language of the child since every human child has a language he/she comes in contact with before schooling. In line with this, this article is written to look into the factors and issues surrounding the use of mother tongue in early years of basic education and of course to the use of the English language in later years as languages of instructions. Both mother tongues and English have syllabuses designed to guide teachers on what to teach, the period of teaching, teaching objectives, contents of learning experiences and activities in lower and middle basic education. It is believed that both mother tongue and English language syllabuses are by their nature, expected to give the leaner a gradual learning process which fosters progressive as well as comprehensive understanding of the aspects of both the native and the target language for effective instructions in basic education classrooms in Kaduna state, Nigeria. The paper recommends the employment of innovative teachers of mother tongue and English who have encyclopedic understanding of the complexities associated with the first and second language teaching and learning, use of harmonized syllabuses, good libraries, good textbooks and a variety of methods for effective teaching and learning.