Mother tongue language and concept development in science: A Botswana case study

Abstract

The study described in the paper is concerned with the impact that the language of instruction has on concept development in Botswana secondary school students in science. A lesson dealing with some basic ideas in astronomy was developed in English and in their mother tongue, Setswana. It was taught to samples of Form One and Form Three students in a junior secondary and a senior secondary school in the Kgatleng District. A control group in these schools was taught an unrelated lesson dealing with health issues. Using an interview technique based on models and pictures, an attempt was made to determine the extent to which development of concepts presented to the students in the lesson were affected by the medium of instruction. Analysis of the data collected from the interviews suggests that the language used as the medium of instruction during science lessons has a significant effect on concept attainment for those students who are in Form One. However, the impact of language on concept attainment appear to have no significant effect for those students who are in Form Three of the senior secondary school.