Towards the Utilization of Instructional Media for Effective Teaching and Learning of English in Kenya

Although English language is a compulsory subject in the Kenyan school curriculum, its teaching faces enhancement challenges. English language has been allotted more time for effective teaching and learning, this is however, not reflected in students’ performance results in many public secondary schools in Kenya. In assessing the cause of this poor performance, teachers are said to have absconded their duties.  Most teachers in public schools are said to absent themselves from school, while those who attend classes do not carry out their responsibilities when teaching. Moreover, since the introduction of free primary education in 2002, the number of pupils joining schools increased tremendously. This has seen an increased number of primary level graduates transit to secondary schools whereas the number of teachers remained the same.  The huge numbers of students in classes has posed a great challenge to effective teaching and instruction and to the use of teaching resources available.  In many instances, teachers have reverted to using only the traditional methods of teaching and instruction. Thus, this paper assesses the place and role of instructional media in enhancing teaching and learning of English language subject in Kenya. The paper urges for a renewed emphasis towards the use of Instructional Media by teachers and stakeholders. The paper proposes for a mandatory use of instructional media while teaching to enhance learning English language subject in Kenya. Keywords: Instructional media, Language teaching, instructional objectives, performance

Multilingualism and Language Attitudes: Students Perceptions towards Kiswahili in Mtwara Region of Tanzania

The role of language attitudes on language choice, development and policy in multilingual societies cannot beover emphasized (Adegbija, 1994; Batibo, 2005). Monolingual speakers have only one attitude towards theirlanguage because they have no other languages to compare it with. However, where speakers are bilingual ormultilingual; there is a tendency to develop different attitudes to each of the languages used. These attitudes,whether positive or negative, will normally depend on the degree of symbolic or socio-economic valuemanifested by each language. Tanzania, a multilingual country with over 128 languages and with a bilinguallanguage policy in education is therefore a fertile ground for studies on language attitudes. In recent years, therehave been concerted efforts by various stake holders to propagate growth and development of English inTanzania. English has been lauded as the essential language which links Tanzania to the rest of the worldthrough technology, commerce and administration. Against this backdrop, this study sought to investigatestudents’ attitudes towards Kiswahili so as to determine whether the shift to English had impacted students’attitude formation towards Kiswahili. This survey comprised of 340 students sampled from six selected schoolsof Mtwara Urban and Mtwara Rural districts. Results show that most Tanzanian students have favourableattitudes towards Kiswahili and the language’s status among secondary school students has not diminished.Kiswahili remains the most preferred language of use in all major domains. This study proposes that the placeand role of Kiswahili be further enhanced in the country by exploring its possible use as a medium of instructionat secondary school level. Further, the study proposes that local vernaculars, which face extinction due tolanguage shift that has taken place, need drastic measures in order to preserve them.Keywords: Multilingualism, Bilingual education, language attitudes, Kiswahil

Language Attitudes and Kiswahili Language Learning in Primary Schools in Kenya

Kiswahili and English are two important languages taught and examined at the national level in Kenya’s education system. Students’ academic performance in the subjects keeps varying in national examinations. Different from English, however, poor performance in Kiswahili is more often associated with negative attitudes. Nevertheless, empirical validations have in most cases, not been established. The present study explores pupils’ attitudes toward Kiswahili in the context of second language learning in Siaya County of Kenya. The study is anchored on the assumption that although language attitudes play a big role in second language learning and development, primary school pupils have often been neglected in the investigation of language attitudes despite the fact that Kiswahili language learning and teaching begins at that level. A sample size of 360 class eight pupils randomly picked from 18 primary schools of Siaya County participated in the survey. Data collection was by use of attitude questionnaires and, analysed by mixed method approach.  Results showed that primary school pupils had positive attitudes towards Kiswahili. The attitudes were due to the communicative and integrative functions of Kiswahili. Pupils however indicated that English remained instrumental to their academic and future pursuits.  Consequently, Kiswahili was not accorded the same weight as English, which in turn influenced negatively Kiswahili language learning. The study calls for creation of awareness about the instrumental value of Kiswahili language to learners. This be done, from the early stages of their academic development. Moreover, it recommends that the culture of using grammatical language by learners be encouraged, as much as it is possible.  This will serve to improve their Kiswahili language skills and contribute to good performance. Keywords: Language attitudes, Kiswahili education, integrative/instrumental attitudes, language use patterns DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-21-19 Publication date:July 31st 202

Novel sources of drought tolerance from landraces and wild sorghum relatives

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench) is the fifth most important cereal crop worldwide and second aftermaize (Zeamays L.) in Kenya. It is an important food security crop in arid and semi-arid lands, where its production potential is hampered by drought. Drought tolerance can be measured by a plant’s ability to resist premature senescence, often described as stay-green. This study was carried out with the objective of identifying novel stay-green trait among wild and landrace genotypes of sorghum. Forty-four sorghum genotypes that included 16 improved, nine landraces, and 17 wild relatives of sorghum alongside known stay-green sources, B35 and E36-1, were evaluated under well-watered and water-stressed conditions in an alpha-lattice design of three replications. Data was collected on plant height (PHT), flag leaf area (FLA), panicle weight (PWT), 100-seed weight (HSW), relative chlorophyll content (RCC), number of green leaves at maturity (GLAM), days to 50% flowering (DFL), and grain yield (YLD). Genetic diversity was determined using diversity arrays technology (DArT) sequencing and quality control (QC) markers were generated using a java script. Lodoka, a landrace, was the most drought-tolerant genotype, recorded the highest numbers of RCC and GLAM, and outperformed B35 and E36-1 in yield under water-stress and well-watered conditions. The RCC was highly correlated with GLAM (r = .71) and with yield-related traits, HSW (r = .85), PWT (r = .82), and YLD (r = .78). All traits revealed high heritability (broad-sense) ranging from 60.14 to 98.4% for RCC and DFL, respectively. These results confirm earlier reports that wild relatives and landraces are a good source of drought tolerance alleles