Emmah Mulwa

Language of Instruction in Urban Children's Homes: Status and Implications Emmah Mulwa

This study is a sociolinguistic survey of the status of Language of Instruction in Children?s Homes. It considers the fact that there is a variety of languages at the disposal of the children in CHs, who are a minority group in the society and so have no common language as the educational language policy requires during schooling. The study, therefore, sought to describe the status and implication of Language of Instruction in CHs in order to give empirical recommendation. The literature reviewed showed that while pupils from CHs do not have immediate families to nurture their first languages, their counterparts do. The Critical Language Planning and Policy approach that is meant to reduce various forms of inequalities was adopted to guide this study. The study revealed that there are many languages used in class by both the teachers and the pupils in an effort to communicate including verbal and non-verbal communication. A number of factors such as a common language, the language used in the Home and the linguistic background influence the choice of language to use in class. There is the hope that language policy and planners will make their choices with the minority in mind.