Increasingly, the Ghanaian tertiary classroom is
receiving learners who cannot effectively handle the English Language. Reading
is a chore for such learners, apparently, due to the poor comprehension skills.
Reading is no fun when a reader has challenges understanding text. The students
in question cannot produce coherent text, so they plagiarize. Asking such
students to apply concepts learnt in class is a thorny experience, due to poor
comprehension. It is indeed baffling that learners could have studied English
for about fourteen years yet communicate so poorly in the Language.
Ironically, learners are losing grasp of English at a
time when many Ghanaian parents tend to speak English with their children at
home, right from infancy. The former erroneously believe that just by using
English, their children would acquire proficiency in the major language. Such
parents could be literate or semi-literate, they struggle to speak English with
their children. Ghana’s high illiteracy rate, coupled with porous handling of
language policies across levels of education, culminate in many residents
leaving school with abysmal English skills. Therefore, the English spoken at
home tends to be below standard.
Worst of all, many private schools neither teach
Ghanaian languages nor allow learners to use them in school. Some would even
instruct learners not to speak the mother tongue at home. Therefore, when
parents attempt to communicate in the first tongue, their children would not be
engaged. The situation effectively creates linguistic interlopers who,
unwittingly, squander the mother tongue and flip flop in the second language.
Poor language skills effectively hamper learning, especially, at the formative
level, rendering socio-cultural, intellectual development processes shallow as
learners progress. Instead of producing knowledgeable and skilled
professionals, we are, currently, mostly creating charlatans.
The situation has persisted for a considerable time,
so questionable knowledge and skills have permeated the sectors, from health
through service, legal, energy, transport housing, to mention six. When major
stakeholders possess porous knowledge and skills, they fail to appreciate
service and value. Consequently, there is hardly service delivery in Ghana now,
but shoddiness and exploitation.
Evidently, slighting the mother tongue is yielding
poor dividends in the Ghanaian society. Growing generation are rapidly losing
the linguistic values and legitimate world view inherent in the mother
language. Sacrificing the language also implies squandering vast opportunities
for job creation – translation, writing, publishing – in a country saddled with
a high unemployment rate. When indigenous people elsewhere are fighting
vehemently to save their languages, many indigenous Ghanaians trample upon
indigenous languages. Instead of embracing multilingualism, many Ghanaians
advocate dominant language supremacy.
Of the estimated 6,000 languages of the world, 43 % is
endangered; UNESCO reports that a language is lost every fortnight. Ghanaian
languages might be in that category, considering the growing trend of poor
usage among indigenes. As the world marks International Mother Tongue Day on
February 21st, well-meaning Ghanaians ought to reflect on the grave
implications of marginalizing indigenous languages. Improvement can come
through concerted efforts only.
The Education Ministry ought to revisit the language
policy and strategize strict implementation. Private schools in the country
must be obliged to offer Ghanaian languages. Teacher certification at the basic
and secondary levels should be conditional upon a teacher’s proficiency in, at
least, one Ghanaian language. Both at home and school, children should be
encouraged to use their mother tongue. Such bold steps would, gradually, ensure
a balance in the use of mother tongue and English.
Families ought to know that marginalizing the mother
tongue is a delinquent stance, because it compromises a child’s learning
experience. Conversely, when a child receives the mother tongue through childcare
and formative learning years, her/his learning experience is smoothened. There
are diverse, valid and human reasons for speaking and valuing Ghanaian
indigenous languages. On Sunday, February 21st, every Ghanaian ought
to promise the self to learn to be an effective user of the mother tongue and
show appreciation for its socio-cultural, intellectual and linguistic
endowments. May the International Mother Language Day motivate all to
contemplate the question: Do I desire to know the values inherent in my
mother tongue?