Effects of Language Status on Assessment and Educational Development of Basotho Learners from Minority Languages’ Backgrounds

Abstract

This paper provides a critical overview of the theoretical and practical questions that prevail in the teaching, learning, and assessment of learners from diverse linguistic backgrounds in Lesotho. It investigates how far exclusion of minority languages affects both assessment and/or educational development of learners whose mother tongue is not Sesotho but other minority languages spoken in Lesotho. The paper advances a research-evidenced argument that the poor performance of students from such backgrounds is indicative of marginalisation and discrimination of such learners due to their language background. A constructivist qualitative study was adopted through use of focus group discussions with 246 learners and 142 teachers in 23 schools located in Botha Bothe, Mohale’s Hoek, Qacha’s Nek and Quthing districts in Lesotho. These places were selected based on their predominance of minority languages. The findings revealed diminutive if not absolute non-recognition of minority languages in teaching, learning, and assessment of learners from this linguistic background. Therefore, the study concludes that linguistically discriminative curriculum, teaching and learning and assessment educational practices can reasonably be associated with poor performance of learners. Based on these findings, the paper recommends that Lesotho’s education system should respect and embrace existence of national minority languages. Again, the curriculum, its implementation and more importantly assessment should not be divorced from linguistic background of learners.

Linguistic Reconstruction of Post-Colonial South Africa and Lesotho: English Dominance Dilemma

“…However, the minority languages are not currently used as mediums of instruction despite the fact that Lesotho's strategic plan of 2005-2015 by the [59] reiterates that children from minority groups would cease to be marginalised in order to afford them access to knowledge in their mother tongue. Kolobe and Matsoso [56], in their study, aver that only Sesotho is used as a medium of instruction, and this suggests that the other three ethnic languages are side-lined, thereby compromising the quality of education offered to learners.…”

“…Historically, Lesotho has been considered a monolingual country, with Sesotho, a language used by the majority of the population, giving the country this monolingual status [53,54]. However, it suffices to mention that following Lesotho's independence from Britain in 1966, Lesotho officially became a bilingual country, with Sesotho, a native language, and English, a coloniser's language, both awarded the status of being official languages [55,56]. The Constitution of Lesotho, Section 3(1) boldly states that these two languages are declared official and that any official document that is presented in any of the two languages should be considered valid [57].…”

“…In the same token, the revision of the language policy in 2009 by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) saw both Sesotho and English being used as mediums of instruction in schools at different levels, with the former used from Grade 1 to Grade 3 and the latter from Grade 4 up to the tertiary level [58]. Nevertheless, Kolobe and Matsoso [56] posit that the Curriculum and Assessment Policy (CAP) document insists that mother tongue should be used as a medium of instruction from Grade 1 to Grade 3, and that erroneously, this statement was interpreted by many to be referring to Sesotho as being the mother tongue. Indeed, the revision of the policy in 2009 through CAP duly recognises the existence of other languages spoken by minority groups such as IsiPhuthi, IsiXhosa and IsiNdebele, which are seen to give Lesotho a linguistic and cultural variance that was previously overlooked.…”

Idiomatic Phrases among Banten Sundanese Local Language Speakers: An Exploratory Case Study

“…The language is only limited as an additional subject for elementary schools. The local government of Pandeglang Regency does not seem to have initiated this yet; whereas the importance of the issue had been investigated by the previous works, such as (Gumilar, 2016); (Kolobe & Matsoso, 2020); (Kurniasih, 2016); (Kurniasih et al, 2017); (Murtiningsih & Puspawati, 2020); (Musaddat & Lasmawan, 2020); and (Young, 2019). Therefore, it is expected to be taken into consideration for related parties to allocate the local languages as a part of the curriculum and intra-curricular activities for both schools and universities.…”

Teachers’ Experiences in Piloting the Integrated Curriculum in Lesotho: Constraints and Prospects

“…In contrast to the above optimism on the outcome of the new curriculum, there is more growing literature revealing the challenges linked to the new curriculum especially in secondary schools (Ralebese, 2018;Makumane & Ngcobo, 2021;Kolobe & Matsoso, 2020;Tafai, 2017;Khechane, 2016;Phosisi, 2019;Kaphe, 2017). Even though it is commonly believed that there are more challenges associated with the new integrated curriculum, Ibraimova (2017) and Lowe (2017) contested this belief based on the fact that opportunities and challenges of implementing any curriculum are inevitable.…”