,HED4806 Assignment 3 (COMPLETE ANSWERS)
Semester 1 2025 - DUE 2025; 100% trusted, comprehensive
and complete reliable solution with clear explanation
SECTION A
Section A is an extract from chapter 14 of the prescribed
textbook (Seroto, Davids & Wolhuter, 2020). Read the extract
and then answer the questions that follow.
Mother tongue as a medium for teaching and learning in
multicultural/multilingual societies.
Decolonising previously marginalised indigenous languages is,
no doubt, one of the most important tasks facing South Africa
today. A people’s dignity and self-esteem are restored, and
identity and respect maintained, if they speak and use their
mother tongue. A people’s language is a heritage bestowed upon
them by their ancestors. However, the later generations of our
people dumped their languages and embraced the foreign tongue
(Sotashe 2017).
Wa Thiong’o (1986:4) placed specific emphasis on the use of
the relevant local language to decolonise the mind of the African
people. In his discussion of the language of African literature,
Wa Thiong’o (1986:4) posits that language be put at the centre
of people’s definition of themselves, in relation to their natural
and social environment and to the world at large. He, further,
argues that decolonisation has to start with language. This shows
the importance of a person’s language. Wa Thiong’o (1986:4)
made an important point about the language of indigenous
people’s evening teachings (home teaching), and the language of
, their immediate and wider community, as well as the language
of their field of work. There was harmony in the language used
at home, in the community and in their world of work. This
harmony was broken by the start of colonial schools. Wa
Thiong’o (1986:11) indicates that when schools were still run by
Kenyan patriotic nationalists, their medium of teaching and
learning was Gĩkũyũ. After the declaration of a state of
emergency in Kenya in 1952, the colonial regime took over the
administration of all the schools that the nationalists had
previously run. English became the language of formal
education.
To show how the indigenous languages were marginalised in the
colonial classroom, Wade (2018) states that the Alliance High
School, which Wa Thiong’o attended, used English as a medium
of teaching and learning. Children who were found speaking the
local Gĩkũyũ language were beaten. On the other hand, any
achievement in spoken or written English was highly rewarded.
In his own words, Wa Thiong’o (1986:11) says:
“One of the most humiliating experiences was to be caught
speaking Gĩkũyũ in the vicinity of the school. The culprit was
given corporal punishment – three to five strokes of the cane on
bare buttocks – or was made to carry a metal plate around the
neck with inscriptions such as ‘I am stupid’ or ‘I am a donkey’.
Sometimes culprits were fined money they could hardly afford.”
This demonstrates that the colonial classroom became an
instrument of psychological subjugation of people during the
colonial period. English was the language of power, rationality,
and intelligence. Gĩkũyũ, which Ngũgĩ would write, was
considered backward, and had to be forced out. This is how
Semester 1 2025 - DUE 2025; 100% trusted, comprehensive
and complete reliable solution with clear explanation
SECTION A
Section A is an extract from chapter 14 of the prescribed
textbook (Seroto, Davids & Wolhuter, 2020). Read the extract
and then answer the questions that follow.
Mother tongue as a medium for teaching and learning in
multicultural/multilingual societies.
Decolonising previously marginalised indigenous languages is,
no doubt, one of the most important tasks facing South Africa
today. A people’s dignity and self-esteem are restored, and
identity and respect maintained, if they speak and use their
mother tongue. A people’s language is a heritage bestowed upon
them by their ancestors. However, the later generations of our
people dumped their languages and embraced the foreign tongue
(Sotashe 2017).
Wa Thiong’o (1986:4) placed specific emphasis on the use of
the relevant local language to decolonise the mind of the African
people. In his discussion of the language of African literature,
Wa Thiong’o (1986:4) posits that language be put at the centre
of people’s definition of themselves, in relation to their natural
and social environment and to the world at large. He, further,
argues that decolonisation has to start with language. This shows
the importance of a person’s language. Wa Thiong’o (1986:4)
made an important point about the language of indigenous
people’s evening teachings (home teaching), and the language of
, their immediate and wider community, as well as the language
of their field of work. There was harmony in the language used
at home, in the community and in their world of work. This
harmony was broken by the start of colonial schools. Wa
Thiong’o (1986:11) indicates that when schools were still run by
Kenyan patriotic nationalists, their medium of teaching and
learning was Gĩkũyũ. After the declaration of a state of
emergency in Kenya in 1952, the colonial regime took over the
administration of all the schools that the nationalists had
previously run. English became the language of formal
education.
To show how the indigenous languages were marginalised in the
colonial classroom, Wade (2018) states that the Alliance High
School, which Wa Thiong’o attended, used English as a medium
of teaching and learning. Children who were found speaking the
local Gĩkũyũ language were beaten. On the other hand, any
achievement in spoken or written English was highly rewarded.
In his own words, Wa Thiong’o (1986:11) says:
“One of the most humiliating experiences was to be caught
speaking Gĩkũyũ in the vicinity of the school. The culprit was
given corporal punishment – three to five strokes of the cane on
bare buttocks – or was made to carry a metal plate around the
neck with inscriptions such as ‘I am stupid’ or ‘I am a donkey’.
Sometimes culprits were fined money they could hardly afford.”
This demonstrates that the colonial classroom became an
instrument of psychological subjugation of people during the
colonial period. English was the language of power, rationality,
and intelligence. Gĩkũyũ, which Ngũgĩ would write, was
considered backward, and had to be forced out. This is how
