An Analysis of Attitudes in the Teaching and Learning of “A” Level Chishona Grammar: A Case of “A” Level Schools in the Chirumanzu District of Zimbabwe

Abstract

In Zimbabwe, ChiShona is a national language spoken language by at least 75% of the population followed by Ndebele which is spoken by up to 16.5 % and English only accounts for 3.5 % of the population (Hachipola, 1998). However, Zimbabwe has inherited a colonial language system which has seen positive attitudes towards English language more than indigenous languages like ChiShona. In the Zimbabwean social spheres, very few people are still very proud of speaking ChiShona without code mixing and code switching with English. Some of them may go to the extremes of confessing that they cannot read and write ChiShona efficiently because it is too difficult. For these and other reasons, indigenous languages like ChiShona have been relegated to the fringes of people‟s imagination since they are perceived as relatively unimportant in people‟s lives.