Zumhezia (19X9), XVI (ii)RESEARCH REPORTTHE TEACHING OF SHONATHROUGH THE MEDIUM OF SHONA AND ENGLISHIN HIGH SCHOOLS ANDAT THE UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWEE. CHIWOMEDepartment of African Languages and Literature,University of ZimbabweandJULIET THONDHLANACommunication Skills Centre, Department of Linguistics,University of ZimbabweTHE ROLE OF national languages in nation-building is not a new issue and inAfrica there has been widespread recognition of the need to consolidate politicalindependence with linguistic independence. The Inter-African Bureau ofLanguages, which is accountable to the Organization of African Unity, hasclaimed that there are several advantages in using the mother-tongue as amedium of instruction: the development of critical powers, the fostering ofeffective communication, the enhancement of deeper cultural understanding andthe increasing of national consciousness (Walusimbi, 1984).Nevertheless, in Zimbabwe there is no clear language policy although theimportance of the subject was emphasized by Ngara (1982, 9), quoting from theBulletin of the Survey of Language Use and Language Teaching in EasternAfrica (\967):To embark upon a program of national development without careful consideration of thelanguages used in a nation is to invite an incalculable waste of vital resources simplythrough the compounding of everyday inefficiencies in communication. Even moreserious in the long run is the waste of human potential that occurs when children aresubjected to ill-conceived and inadequate language instruction during their school years.There is no national language policy to encourage and harmonize languagedevelopment. In spite of this the Ministry of Education established the CurriculumDevelopment Unit for the continuous development of formal educationalcurricula. The Unit has Education Officers in charge of the promotion of the useof Shona and English (and Ndebele) in primary and secondary schools. Theirefforts are complemented by Education Officers in charge of the teaching ofShona in the various regions (determined by the Ministry of Education) of thecountry. Also, at the University of Zimbabwe, the Departments of African159160 THE TEACHING OF SHONALanguages and Literature, Linguistics, Curriculum Studies, and TeacherEducation participate in the promotion of African languages through researchand by offering courses leading to academic and professional qualifications.The task is an uphill one because of the negative effects of the colonialeducation system which marginalized Shona by making English the officiallanguage. English was the medium of instruction of all subjects, except Shonaitself, in primary and secondary schools and at the University. Students associatedShona with unemployment and English with employment. They often mistookthe medium of instruction in English for the content; English language proficiencywas mistaken for intellectual competency. Colonial condescension demotivatedboth students and staff. Many concepts which were met with in English tendedto be expressed in the English language, an example of code-switching whichdiscouraged exploration of concepts in the mother tongue. Sometimes, insufficientmastery of English led to rote learning (Cole etal., 1971). As rote learning is thelowest level of learning, material learned in such a way is not easily transferableto other situations in life.Macnamara (1966) in his study of bilingualism observes that learning takeslonger in a foreign language than in a mother tongue. According to this argumentthe right medium of instruction in terms of ensuring understanding and transferof knowledge would be Shona.Some headway is being made in spite of these difficulties, as observed byChimhundu (1984). Unesco and Norad (the Norwegian International DevelopmentAgency) have sponsored many national and international conferences in whichresearch and networking have been encouraged in order to centralize efforts inpromoting a more efficient use of national languages. It is from resolutions ofthe 1986 Linguistics Association for SADDC Universities (LASU) conferencethat this report was conceived. Dr H. Chimhundu and Mr J. Zondo, linguistsfrom the University of Zimbabwe, and other conference participants embarkedon a research project to find ways and means of promoting the use of AfricanLanguages in mass media, commerce and industry and in education.SCOPEThis report focuses on Shona because Shona is the mother tongue of bothresearchers. As the report is aimed at arriving at practical solutions to problems,we felt it was prudent to confine ourselves to a language in which we arelinguistically competent. In addition, we have both gone through the type ofhigh-school and university programmes which are being analysed, which givesus an inside picture of the area we are studying. We have both taught at schooland university levels.DEFINITION OF TERMSShona is one of the two major indigenous languages in Zimbabwe, spoken bythe majority of the population, that is, 5 293 000 (67 per cent) out of a populationof 7,9 million (Unesco, 1985, 75).An official language is one that is used in government, commerce andindustry. A national language is a language that has been accorded that status bythe government. In Zimbabwe, English, Shona and Ndebele are nationallanguages.E. CHIWOME & JULIET THONDHLANA 161Traditionally the term 'high school' means a school which teaches up to thelevel of the Higher School Certificate ('A' level), which is the normal entryrequirement to the University of Zimbabwe. Since Independence the term hasbeen somewhat relaxed to include schools which teach up to the level of theGeneral Certificate of Education ('O' level) only.The African Languages and Literature Department is a department of theUniversity of Zimbabwe which offers degree courses in Shona and Ndebele.Shona was offered for the first time in 1963 and Ndebele in 1968.A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE TEACHING OF SHONA IN HIGHSCHOOLS IN ZIMBABWEInitially Shona was taught in schools in both Shona and English. Shona was firstoffered as an examinable subject for first-language speakers by the CambridgeExamining Syndicate in 1957 and by the Associated Examining Board forShona second-language speakers in 1964. The subject was first offered by theCambridge Examining Syndicate at Advanced level in 1977. There are threepapers at 'A' level, as follows:Paper I: Composition (Rondedzero), Comprehension (Nzwisiso) andSummary (Pfupikiso).Paper II: Language Usage and Appreciation.Paper III: Traditional and Modern Shona Literature.The questions in Paper I must be answered in Shona but the questions in PapersII and III can be answered in either English or Shona.There has been a move towards minimizing the use of English in bothteaching and examination answers since the attainment of Independence in1980. This has not been easy in practice because some of the language andliterature books used to prepare for Papers II and III are largely in English and insome cases are actually designed for the study of English. Fortune's ShonaGrammatical Constructions (Fortune, 1981) was the only source for the languagecourse component until a supplementary v/orkJekesa Pfungwa (Masocha, Kuonaand Gumbo, 1985) was written. The problem of reference books is furthercompounded by the problem of Shona-English bilingualism. There is a tendencyfor people to have difficulty in expressing themselves in Shona when discussingideas and concepts which they learned in English. Bilingual people then tend toswitch from one language to the other. This tendency is most marked amongteachers who are teaching Shona through the medium of Shona.This tendency of bilingual speakers, coupled with colonial attitudes towardslanguage, could give an impression that indigenous languages have no vocabularyfor certain concepts. To some extent this is true but the degree of truth can bedetermined only through research because the educated have been culturallydenied continuous active academic use of the Shona language because theylearned it in English.University graduates who teach Shona will have received most of theirinstruction in English at the University. When they start teaching, they areexpected by the authorities and the students alike to teach Shona totally inShona. This is even more difficult for underqualified teachers or teachers of162THE TEACHING OF SHONAother disciplines who are asked to teach Shona just because they happen to befirst-language Shona speakers. This has been noted by Ngara (1982) and byChimhundu (1984, 15), who says:Those Africans who have made it have absorbed a lot on culture in the medium ofEnglish and their Shona has been left behind in the village. They will boast of theirAfrican culture but will do nothing to promote it, besides perhaps buying a few artefacts,books and records or cassettes for display only.The effect of this situation led the Shona Language Committee of the Ministryof Education to consider setting up machinery to remedy the lack of literary andlinguistic terms. In practical terms not much appears to have been done by theCommittee. Many scholars are of the opinion that a living national languagecould be promoted more easily if the government had a clearly defined languagepolicy.METHOD OF RESEARCHIn carrying out this research, questionnaires and structured interviews wereused. Firstly, a questionnaire was distributed to 143 first-year African Languagesstudents during the first week of their first term at the University. These studentswere representative of 41 high schools, both rural and urban. The questions werecentred mainly on students' learning experiences of Shona at high school withreference to the medium of instruction. There were also questions on the students'general attitude to the Shona language. This sample of students was chosen onthe basis that since they had shown an interest in the subject by electing to studyit at University level, they were likely to give more genuine informationconcerning their experience than those students still in high school.Secondly, structured interviews based partly on students' responses (to beused for checking with students' responses) were carried out with 25 Shonateachers in high schools and lecturing staff in the Departments of AfricanLanguages and Literature, Linguistics, and Curriculum Studies at the Universityof Zimbabwe. In order to create an informal and hence relaxed atmosphereconducive to freer impartation of information, the order of questions was notstrictly adhered to. The interviews with high-school teachers focused on theirexperiences in using Shona in teaching Shona, especially their opinions on theadvantages and disadvantages of teaching in Shona. The interviews also coveredquestions on the attitude of students towards the use of Shona and on thelanguage in which they encouraged students to write when there was a choice.Interviews with the University lecturing staff centred on the medium of Shonainstruction at the University and its implications.DIFFICULTIES EXPERIENCEDThere was no difficulty obtaining the questionnaire returns from the students asthey were in the department in which both researchers were working. Thestudents were quite enthusiastic about the questionnaire, possibly because theythought that the information which they gave would enable lecturers to assistthem more in their studies. Thus all questionnaire returns were obtained withinthe same week in which they were distributed. One problem, however, was thatE. CHIWOME & JULIET THONDHLANA 163some students did not answer all the questions, probably because they failed tounderstand them. Nevertheless, this failure to answer all the questions wasconsidered negligible as there were at least 133 out of 143 responses for any onequestion.The major problem experienced in interviewing teachers in High Schoolswas to find sufficient time when they could be interviewed as their scheduleswere generally very tight. Most of them were, however, kind enough to givetheir students work to do while they themselves were being interviewed. Theywere very co-operative, as they considered the survey of considerable significancelo their work. Generally no significant problems were experienced with theinterviews with the University lecturing staff.FINDINGS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONSStudent questionnaireResults of this questionnaire have been tabulated (Tables I-IX). Table X is asummary and overview of the results. The results show that there is a generaltendency to use both Shona and English as media for teaching and learningShona in High School. There is, however, some complexity in the teaching ofthe Language Usage and Appreciation component of the subject. The resultsshow that teachers use mostly English, or, to a lesser extent, both Shona andTable ILANGUAGE IN WHICH NON-PRESCRIBED LITERATURE IS READlAiiiiiiHiife Respondents c/rEnglish onlyShona onlyBoth Shona and EnglishMore Shona ihan EnglishMore English than ShonaTOTAL 125 KM)Table IILANGUAGE IN WHICH SHONA WAS TAUGHT AT A" LEVEL/.(Hi,l»««,if<' Respondents '<Shona onlyEnglishShona and EnglishTOTAL 132 KM)086289069116810812682101321099164 THE TEACHING OF SHONATable IIILANGUAGE IN WHICH COMMENTS WERE MADE BY TEACHERLanguage Respondents %Shona onlyEnglish onlyShona and EnglishTOTAL 133 100Table IVLANGUAGE IN WHICH PRACTICAL CRITICISM AND GRAMMARESSAYS AND EXERCISES WERE WRITTENLanguage Respondents %Shona onlyEnglishShona and EnglishTOTAL 133 100Table VREASONS FOR CHOICE OF LANGUAGE IN TABLE IVLanguage Reasons Respondents %Shona Higher proficiency in ShonaShona is richer and more preciseTo avoid interferencePersonal preferenceTOTAL72233854172959328724316824311100171370English Teacher's recommendationEnglish is richer and more preciseHigher proficiency in EnglishTOTAL 23 100Shona and English English has literary and linguisticteminology which Shona largelydoes not have. The two thereforesupplement each other 38 100TOTAL 38 J0O~E. CHIWOME & JULIET THONDHLANA165Table VILANGUAGE USED FOR TEACHING PRACTICAL CRITICISM AND GRAMMARLanguageRespondents<7rPruhlemsShona onlyEnglish onlyShona and EnglishTOTAL207251143145036100Lack of literary and linguistic-terminologyGenerally low proficiency leading toproblems of expressionNilTable VIILANGUAGE PREFERRED WHEN LEARNING SHONA AT UNIVERSITYLanguageRespondentsReasonsShona onlyEnglish only103227616Both English and Shona 11More proficientWould like to increase proficiencyCultural preservationMore proficientAvailability of literary andlinguistic terminologyMore standard othographyPrecise and clearPrefer to use language used bylecturerPrefer to use either languagedepending on the questionTOTAL136100Table VIIIPROBLEMS EXPERIENCED IN WRITING LITERATURE ESSAYS IN SHONAResponses Respondents %Problems experienced (in order of frequency)YesNo281042179Being analyticalExpression poorLack of adequate linguistic and literaryterminology in ShonaTOTAL132100166 THE TEACHING OF SHONATable IXWHETHER THE LEARNING OF SHONA IN SHONA WASAN ENJOYABLE EXPERIENCEReasons for not enjoying learning Shona in ShonaReponses Respondents % (in order o)'frequency)\Z 122 92No 10 8 Terminology problemsShona not clearTeacher's failure to express himself clearlyPoor expressionTOTAL 132 100Table XSUMMARY Of- RESULTS FROM QUESTIONNAIRELanguage used (9c)Shona English Both1 Language in which non-prescribed literature is read 2 0 692 Language in which Shona was taught at'A'level 12 6 823 Language in which comments were made by theteacher 1 0 994 Language in which practical criticism andgrammar essays and exercises were written 54 17 295 Language in which practical criticismand grammar were taught 14 50 366 Language preferred to be used as medium oflearning Shona at the University 76 16 8English, while students prefer to use Shona in writing essays and exercises inthis course. One major reason why many students preferred Shona was that theywere more proficient in Shona than in English. However, others thought thatEnglish has the linguistic and literary terminology necessary for writing LanguageUsage and Appreciation essays and exercises, and so preferred, when given thechoice, to use English. Others used either language, depending on the topicgiven.On the question of which medium they preferred to use at University, themajority chose Shona. It should be noted, however, that it was in English thatmost of these respondents chose to write their first literature essay at University.E. CHIWOME & JULIET THONDHLANA 167Interviews with high-school teachersMedium of instructionThe majority of the teachers interviewed confirmed students' responses thatthey use both Shona and English in teaching according to content, that is, theygenerally use Shona only when teaching Shona literature, a mixture of Englishand Shona when teaching literary terminology and English when teachingLanguage Usage and Appreciation. There were, however, a few others who saidthat they use Shona only. These teachers said that they overcome the problemsof terminology through the creation of linguistic and literary terminology byphonologizing and coinage.Advantages of using ShonaThe following is a random list of what teachers generally considered to be theadvantages of using Shona as a medium of instruction for the teaching of Shona:Ł the language becomes living, that is, students can actually see thelanguage in wider use;Ł some topics are better discussed in Shona, for example, topics oncultural studies;using Shona encourages assimilation of English terms into Shona;examples can easily be given in context;it fosters and ensures understanding (if the teacher is proficient);it encourages discovery and exploitation of the richness of the language;it has greater impact because of the absence of communication barriers;students experience fewer problems of expression in writing;rote learning can be avoided because students understand more; andstudents become creative as they have to improvise and createterminology to use in writing their essays.These responses confirm those of the students that students are more proficientin Shona than in English and, therefore, use Shona more in writing.Disadvantages of using ShonaTeachers' responses on the disadvantages of using Shona in teaching reflectstudents' responses that teachers tend to use mostly English in the teaching ofLanguage Usage and Appreciation. The following is a random list of theirresponses:Ł there is no standard academic register for Shona;Ł students are accustomed to using ready-made material and are notvery creative;Ł English terms are used in designing examination questions and sostudents are disadvantaged if they remain ignorant of them;Ł there is limited literary and linguistic terminology in Shona;Ł there is a general lack of interest in learning the Shona subject,probably owing to the colonial attitude to the language and psycho-logical problems experienced by a people who for many generationshave been made to feel that their language is inferior to English;168 THE TEACHING OF SHONAhigh-school teachers are trained in English at the University and donot question the rationale behind it;the Ministry of Education has done nothing to encourage teachers touse Shona; for example, there are no official circulars in Shonaconcerning terminology, syllabuses, or marking schemes and officialdiscussions are conducted in English;there is no Shona grammar written in Shona and no texts on literarycriticism in Shona;Ł existing literary and linguistic terminology is not standardized; andthere is a lack of training in translation and so teachers find it difficultto translate English terminology into Shona.Students' attitudeOn the question of students' attitude, some teachers thought that the studentsattitude depended to a large extent on the teacher's attitude towards the subjectand his or her level of competency in teaching the subject. Others thought thatstudents tended to give Shona less study-time than other subjects, showing thatthey thought it was either an easy subject or a not very important one. A fewother teachers thought that students liked the subject and were quite happywith it.Generally all teachers thought that multiracial (mainly urban) schools hadgreater attitude problems towards the language (maybe because of the socialenvironment) leading perhaps to a lack of interest in and a poorer command ofthe language. These teachers tended to prefer the use of English for teaching andlearning. On the other hand, non-multiracial schools (rural and high-densitysuburbs) had a more positive attitude towards the language and therefore a bettercommand of and more interest in learning Shona in Shona.Language encouraged for written communicationThe majority of the teachers responded that they encouraged students to write inShona, thus confirming students' responses that they used mostly Shona forwriting essays and exercises. There were, however, a few who said that, whenteaching Language Usage and Appreciation, they told students to use eitherlanguage, depending on which one they felt comfortable with in answering aparticular question. There was a consensus that students wrote better essays inShona: they expressed themselves better and made fewer grammatical mistakes.In considering possible solutions to the problems raised, one notes thatwhile English has been maintained in the classroom for the convenience of theteachers, some teachers have felt that this could be taken negatively by studentsand adversely affect their attitudes. Borrowing English literary and linguisticterms should be encouraged only when it is essential. Neologisms should not beintroduced without careful research first. Research should be aimed at findingexisting terms from all people who use the language. The formally educated andtraditional language experts who are familiar with Shona rhetoric should beinterviewed. On the other hand, country people, according to some scholars, arebetter repositories of Shona terms than beneficiaries of formal education.Some teachers did not feel confident in their use of Shona expressions andthey argued that they use English in order to explain themselves better. Someteachers felt that students pretend not to know Shona. Yet others felt that oneE. CHIWOME & JULIET THONDHLANA 169achieves greater clarity when teaching the Shona subject in the medium ofShona. This, as already noted, was specially felt to be so in cultural studies. Itwas generally agreed that composition could also be taught easily in the mediumof Shona. The problem of teaching language usage is aggravated by the regionaldiversity of linguistic terms as each region has tried to evolve its own terms.Improvisation is commendable but at some point there is a need to harmonizethe results for examination purposes. Teaching Shona in Shona encouragesteachers and students alike to be creative. New terms are coined at grassrootslevel and a diversity of terms gives people choices and synonyms. It helps tocombat the dependency syndrome and the 'foreign is better' attitude engenderedby colonialism. It also helps to develop an academic register.Another problem is that of inertia. Students learn in English or Shonawithout being told the rationale behind the practice. They then carry on thepractice without thinking about it. Some educationalists felt that the Ministry ofEducation could assist in changing negative attitudes by circulating lists ofliterary terms in Shona; by having syllabuses and marking schemes in Shona; byencouraging examiners to set examination questions in Shona rather than mixingthe two languages as is usually the case at present in Papers II and III; byencouraging translation of English works into Shona; by removing the option toanswer questions in English; and by introducing translation courses in teachertraining.Interviews with University lecturersThe University's official medium of instruction is English. Traditionally theDepartments of African Languages and Literature and of Curriculum Studies(Shona section) have used English as a medium of instruction. Essays arenormally written in English but students have the option to write in Shona. Thisdoes not appear to have conflicted with the academic goals of the University.Shona is taught to promote national consciousness; it is also taught as part of thegeneral pursuance of academic rigour and excellence. Undergraduates are trainedto apply knowledge to any situation in life, teaching included. The training ofthe graduate to become a fully-fledged teacher is the responsibility of theCurriculum Studies Department.Some academics argue that it does not matter in what language teaching isdone. Independent and creative thinkers can be created through the medium ofeither language. One academic observed that English could have the advantagebecause it has developed an academic register. Academic rigour implies lookingat the medium as well as the content. The choice of English rather than Shona isthus a pragmatic decision. One interviewee felt that, while it is a disadvantagefor students to look at their language through foreign spectacles, the foreignperspective can afford students an objective analysis of their own language,enabling them to see themselves from the viewpoint of the outsider. Objectivityis an academic virtue. It was also argued that if true learning does take placestudents should be able to extend themselves to meet the demands of teaching inhigh schools. Moreover, when they have chosen teaching as a career they haveto go through professional training in teaching (which is conducted in English).However, there is need to balance idealism and realism. Academic rigour shouldbe balanced with practicality. This is the best way of achieving a balancedperception of the problem.170 THE TEACHING OF SHONAThe majority of academics interviewed agreed that the introduction ofShona as the medium of instruction in teaching Shona is essential. Some believethat it should start in primary and secondary schools and be introduced graduallyat the University. This would encourage grassroots participation in the creationof terms and of linguistic and literary registers. University courses requirematerial such as a Shona-Shona dictionary, literature in Shona and experiencedteaching staff, all of which are not easily available at present. While Shona isbeing taught at primary and secondary schools the Departments of AfricanLanguages and Literature, Linguistics, and Curriculum Studies at the Universitycould concentrate on research with the help of students and colleagues of relateddepartments so as to bring out the richness of the language.It is difficult to achieve academic rigour in the face of so many problems.Problems of comprehension impede the easy instruction of students of Shona inShona as well as in English. Both teachers and students need to acquire anacademic register in both languages in order to achieve academic excellence.Teaching Shona courses in both languages is not uncommon in lecture-rooms. This again is a pragmatic decision. Certain issues need to be introducedin Shona and then evaluated in English. Essential and plausible as this praoticemay be, it could undermine the image of the national language in the minds ofstudents. It could give the impression that serious discussion cannot be carriedout in Shona. English is then taken as being academically deeper. This isparticularly so where, as was observed to be the case in some lectures, jokes arccracked in Shona and serious content delivered in English. This gives theimpression that Shona is good only for humour and is, therefore, incapable ofbeing the medium of formal instruction. One lecturer observed that, in such asituation, whenever English is used students take notes and whenever Shona isused students stop taking notes. English is equated with course content andShona with digressions from content. It was observed, however, that in discussionstudents are more confident when speaking in Shona than in English.One academic felt lhat it is possible to teach Shona through the medium ofShona. New terms can always be brought in when necessary through eithercode-switching or phonologizing the English terms into Shona. The problemsone faces when teaching in Shona are typical problems of adaptation which fallaway through hard work. In Lesotho, Nigeria and Tanzania language courses aretaught in the respective national languages. The cases of Swahili in Tanzaniaand Hausa and Igbo in Nigeria show that, given the right attitudes and approaches,it is possible to use the indigenous tongue for instruction.CONCLUSIONMuch has been done but a great deal more still needs to be done. The work doneso far needs to be supported by research in the creation and standardization ofterms. Alongside these efforts research could be conducted in using Shona foroperational efficiency in industry, the media, commerce, essential services andcommunity work. Without research guidance valuable efforts can be misguided.Research could also be expedited if there were a national languages policy.E. CHIWOME & JULIET THONDHLANA 171ReferencesCHIMHUNDU, H. 1984 'Towards a Policy on the Teaching of AfricanLanguages in Zimbabwe' (Zomba, Paper presented at the OrganizingConference of the Linguistics Association for SADCC Universities).COLE, M. et al. 1971 The Cultural Context of Learning and Thinking (London,Methuen).FORTUNE, G. 1981 Shona Grammatical Constructions (Harare, Mercury, 2vols.).MACNAMARA, J. 1966 Bilingualism in Primary Education: A Study of IrishExperience (Edinburgh, Edinburgh Univ. Press).MASOCHA, W., KUONA, G. and GUMBO, K. 1985 Jekesa Pfungwa (Harare,Longmans).NGARA, E. A. 1982 Bilingualism, Language Contact and Planning:Proposals for Language Use and Language Teaching in Zimbabwe (Gwelo,Mambo Press).UNESCO 1985 African Community Languages and Their Use in Literacyand Education: A Regional Survey (Dakar, Unesco).WALUSIMBI, L. 1984 ' Language Policy and Research Priorities in Tanzania'(Zomba, Paper presented at the Organizing Conference of the LinguisticsAssociation for SADCC Universities).