Determining the Efficacy of Mother Tongue as Medium of Instruction at Elementary Level

Abstract

The exercise of English as a medium of instruction, in schools in Pakistan, has given opening to an elongated debate whether English verifies to be better than any of the native languages especially to build up the learner’s cognitive and comprehension level at Secondary School. This research article argues that students comprehend more and perform better in Grade VIII General Science Subject when they are taught in their mother tongue. The n = 68 public secondary/higher secondary school of Hyderabad District were taken as the sample. The two groups of the Class VIII students comprised 630 from which 360 from mother tongue and 270 from nonmother tongue respectively were taken as a sample. An appropriate achievement test was developed to inspect the discrepancy and reasons of confusion due to medium of instruction. Achievement test of 25 items from “General Science” was developed in English, Sindhi / Urdu languages, measuring the knowledge as well as comprehension of the learners. The investigator used simple statistics percentage to analyze the data. The results of the study demonstrate that students’ comprehension is better when taught in their mother tongue. This understanding enhances their cognition level as well. At the end it has been recommended that the teachers must use at least bilingual approach in the class to make the students’ concept clear. Training courses must be held from time to time to equip teachers with the latest material and methods of teaching especially the science subjects.