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The Tanzanian English case: learning to use reported speech
(Mkuki na Nyota, 2018) Mtana, Noah; Murasi, Geoffrey
English language is taught as a compulsory school subject in primary and lower secondary schools in Tanzania. The language was imposed in the education system by a controversial Education and Training Policy (URT, 1995 & 2014) that has its origin in the British colonial era of 1918 to 1961 (Kimizi, 2008; Schneider, 2007). English language is learned with difficulty in the primary schools because of, among other things, inappropriate teaching methodology and a context where use in daily life outside the classroom is very limited (Mtana, 2013). When students complete primary education, they are expected to have developed enough competence in the language to use it as medium of instruction for learning all school subjects in secondary education (URT, 1995). But research (eg Roy Campbell & Qorro, 1997; Mtana, 2013) shows that this is not the case. As Brock Utne (2004) argues, rather than being the language of instruction in secondary education, English becomes the language of destruction in teaching and learning. The new Education and Training Policy (URT, 2014) seems to allow the use of Kiswahili as the medium of instruction in secondary and higher education, but also emphasises the continued use of English. It is therefore, still necessary to conduct research that would help to improve the teaching and learning