• Curriculum expert says it takes about six to eight years to develop language skills.
• Experts say the abrupt switch from mother tongue to English has affected teaching and learning as learners end up only using the newly introduced languages while learning thus fail to develop proficiency.
Education experts have advised the government to consider extending the use of mother tongue to six years in schools.
They propose that mother tongue be used concurrently with a foreign language to improve proficiency.
The experts say the abrupt switch to English and Swahili in schools has affected teaching and learning.
The experts claim learners end up only using the newly introduced languages while learning them but continue using mother tongue while outside classroom environment.
Currently, most schools use local area languages as the mode of instruction in pre-primary school and switch to English in Grade 1.
According to the curriculum experts, it takes about six to eight years to develop cognitive grasp of any language.
However, curriculum expert David Njegere yesterday said the shift comes barely before the learners are able to properly grasp their first languages thus end up confused.
The plan the experts propose is to use English and the local languages concurrently from pre-primary to Grade 3.
This will enable pupils to develop proficiency in both languages and avoid confusion when the learners finally adopt English as the main language of instruction.
"The first time you are meeting this language of instruction you are in class one, three years later you are supposed to sing and do the alphabets in English," Njegere said yesterday.
These were part of deliberations of a pre-conference which sought to address the place of languages under the new curriculum yesterday at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development.
“While some children continue to develop proficiency in their first language while succeeding in school in a second language, this does not happen automatically," Njegere said.
Njegere said, there are two main reasons behind the introduction of foreign languages in primary classrooms
The first is the belief that ‘the younger the better’, the idea that young children are intrinsically better language learners, and will, therefore, become more proficient more quickly.
The second is that in an increasingly globalised world, intercultural competence is essential and that it is important to awaken children’s interests in other people and cultures when they are open and receptive.
"More recent arguments are based on the cognitive advantages that learning a foreign language brings (such as enhanced problem solving, attentional control or ability to switch tasks, and on the claim that it helps with literacy in English but these arguments have not yet filtered into public discourse," he added.
Currently, approval of mother tongue learning materials for four communities has been finalised.
The materials include those in Gikuyu, Kikamba, Dholuo and Ekegusii languages.
These are used in the development of language activities, which include listening, speaking, pre-reading and pre-writing which, according to the new curriculum framework, are to be carried out in the language of the catchment area.
(edited by O. Owino)