TEACHING STRATEGIES TEACHERS USE TO TEACH ZAMBIAN LANGUAGE IN THE MULTILINGUAL SECONDARY SCHOOLS OF KAFUE DISTRICT, ZAMBIA.

Abstract

The study explored the strategies used to teach the Zambian language in multilingual secondary schools of Kafue district. The study was anchored by the objective; (1) To establish the teaching strategies teachers use to teach Zambian language in the multilingual Secondary Schools of Kafue District, (2) To explore the challenges teachers face when teaching Zambian language in the Multilingual secondary schools of Kafue district and (3) To establish the teaching strategies suitable for teaching Zambian Language in the Multilingual Secondary Schools of Kafue District. The qualitative methodological approach was used. This research employed social constructivism and phenomenology as research paradigm and adopted a phenomenology research design. Five different Zambian language teachers were picked from five different Secondary schools from Kafue District. Purposive sampling was used to select participant and focus groups and teacher interviews were used to collect data. The data collected was analyzed thematically. The findings show that teaching strategies teachers use to teach in the multilingual secondary schools of Kafue district includes; code-switching, peer teaching, culturally relevant teaching, utilization of visual aids, project-based learning and differentiated instruction. The study also revealed that the challenges teachers face when teaching Zambian Language in multilingual secondary schools are; diverse language proficiency levels, limited resources, language attitude, lack of Continuous Professional Development, communication barriers, lack of parental/community support and assessment challenges. The study revealed that there are suitable mechanisms for teaching Zambian Language in the multilingual Secondary Schools which includes; encouraging community involvement, contextualized language learning, enhancing collaborative learning, use of technology and encouraging field trips (cultural immersion). It was clear that employing these mechanisms would help to alleviate challenges in lesson delivering in a multilingual secondary schools. The study recommended that teachers should be in position of organizing storytelling competitions or sketches that encourage creativity and language use.