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