Challenges of Enforcing English as the Medium of Instruction in Upper Primary Classes in Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the challenges of enforcing English as the medium of instruction in upper primary classes based on Vygotsky’s social constructivism and language theory. Mixed methods approach was used in the study. The focus of this study was on public primary schools because they use mother tongue in lower primary school classes. Simple random sampling was used to select 21 out of 70 public primary schools that took part in the study. Purposive sampling was used to select standard seven classes on the premise that they have already had an experience with various languages in school and are also already aware that the official language of communication in school is English. Twenty standard 7 pupils from the selected schools were randomly selected to take part in the pupils’ focus group interviews and one teacher of English language from the selected class in each school was automatically selected to take part in the study. Data was collected using pupils’ focus group interviews and teacher questionnaires. The study found out that teachers face challenges in enforcing English as the medium of instruction in upper primary schools, all the teachers agreed that they make efforts to make their pupils aware of the need to use English for communication both in and outside class and finally most of the pupils reported that they experience difficulties in using English only during English lessons.

Keywords: Challenges, Enforcing, English, Medium of Instruction, Upper Primary