Attitudes to Gamogna, Amharic and English Languages in Primary Schools: In the Case of Arba Minch Town

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Date

2012-02

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Addis Ababa University

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to assess the attitudes of Arba Minch primary schools’ students and their parents, teachers, and school administrators toward the use of Gamogna, Amharic and English languages in the primary education system. It focused on this area because it provides an excellent opportunity to examine language attitudes in a multilingual setting. The study was conducted in two state primary schools in Arba Minch town during the 2011/2012 academic year. In this study, 200 students and 49 teachers completed self-reporting questionnaires and 40 parents were also interviewed. In addition, focus group discussions were conducted with 7 school administrators. This study utilized questionnaires, interviews and focus group discussions to obtain data from the respondents. The data was analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. The findings indicate that Arba Minch town primary schools’ students, teachers, school administrators and parents had positive attitudes towards all three languages (i.e. Gamogna, Amharic and English) but prioritised English, Amharic and Gamogna in that order.

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Keywords

Languages in Primary Schools

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