The Role Of English As Medium Of Instruction In Lower Primary Schools

ABSTRACT

In the lower primary classrooms in Ghana, most teachers are faced with the challenge of having to

teach pupils from diverse ethnic and language groups. This qualitative study therefore investigates

the practicalities of the instructional language policy and the role that English plays in

multilingual classrooms at the lower primary schools. Accordingly, the research aims to find

answers to the following questions. First, what medium of instruction does a teacher who does not

understand the major L1 of that locality use during lesson delivery? Also, in a multilingual lower

primary classroom where some pupils do not understand the dominant L1 spoken in the

community, what becomes the medium of instruction? Finally, what role does English play as a

medium of instruction at the lower primary level? In all, 53 participants were involved in the

research. This number was made up of 14 teachers and 39 pupils sampled from three lower

primary schools. Classroom lesson deliveries were observed, followed by semi-structured

interview sessions with both teachers and pupils. The findings indicate that the classrooms are

multilingual with the teachers employing the use of languages that they are comfortable with in

teaching their pupils. It also comes to light that English is gradually taking over as the main

language of instruction in the multilingual classrooms at the lower primary level, a practice that

goes contrary to the language policy. The study recommends translanguaging pedagogical

approach as a remedy to the challenge of medium of instruction in the lower primary multilingual

classrooms.

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