Acquisition of lexicon by Kenyan primary school children in a multilingual environment: a case of Kyeni Location, Embu County
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Date
2016-06
Authors
Nduma, Jayne R. F.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
For a long time, schools in rural Embu have been using instructional materials
written in Gikuyu. This is due to lack of instructional materials written in the
language of the catchment area which is Kiembu. Various Education Commissions
recommended the use of mother-tongue as a language of instruction in the first three
years of schooling. In line with this, the schools in Embu teach using mother tongue
but they use instructional materials written in Gikuyu. This study sought to
determine the process of acquisition of noun and verb lexical items of school going
children in a multilingual environment. The study was an attempt to investigate
some of the factors that may influence language acquisition at a critical stage of age
6-7 years. It is hoped that the findings of the study will inform policy makers on the
need to have instructional materials written in Kiembu for use in primary schools in
Embu County. Data was collected from six children aged between six and seven
years. Three of them were pupils at Kiamboa Primary school in Kyeni location,
Embu County, an environment where they are exposed to Kiembu, Gikuyu,
Kiswahili and English. The other three children were from Kiamboa village, also in
Kyeni location, Embu County, an environment where the language of interaction is
mostly Kiembu. The study used two theories namely: Nativist Theory and The
Krashens Monitor Model to analyze data. The Stories were by tape- recorded and
oral interviews were used durng interactions with respondents. The Gikuyu and
Kiembu nouns and verbs used by respondents were identified. The researcher sought
to assess the influence that teaching using resource materials written in Gikuyu has
had on the acquisition of Kiembu noun and verb words. The noun classes of all
nouns were indicated. The verbs were interlinealized. The researcher identified the
Gikuyu and Kiembu nouns and verbs used by the respondents.The study found out
that the 6-7 year olds use only Kiembu before joining class one. This was attributed
to the fact that these children are only exposed to Kiembu hence the competence in
the use of Kiembu.The study further found out that the 6-7 year olds use Kiembu
and Gikuyu in their conversations after they have joined class one. This was
attributed to the fact that they are taught using books and other instructional
materials written in Gikuyu. The study further showed that the exposure to a
multilingual linguistic environment has little effect on the acquisition of Kiembu by
the 6-7 year olds.
Description
A dissertation submitted to the school of humanities and social sciences in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of the Degree of Master of Arts of Kenyatta University. June, 2016