Effect of English as a Language of Instruction on Mother Tongue Mastery in Rwanda

Abstract

The language of instruction used in teaching and learning activities is taken as an important aspect that improves the quality of school deliverables. Well maintained language of instruction promotes the level students’ learning skills and school outcomes. Therefore, English as a language of instruction can be influenced by the students’ mother tongue that usually use. This paper therefore, sought to examine effects of English as a language of instruction on the mother tongue (Kinyarwanda) mastery in private primary schools in Rwanda. Correlation research design was employed. The target population was 310 people with a sample of 175 got using stratified and simple random sampling techniques. Data collection tools used were questionnaire, interview guide and document analysis review. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 21.0 was adopted for data management.  The findings revealed that there is a statistical and significant relationship between English usage as a language of instruction and students’ Kinyarwanda mastery in private primary schools of Gicumbi District with the P-value of .000, Adjusted R Square of .741 and the Pearson Coefficient of Correlation of .854**. The study recommended that all education stakeholders should work collaboratively in order to enhancing Kinyarwanda mastery among Rwandan primary school students at their early age.

Key words: Language Mastery, Mother Tongue & Medium of Instruction.