Appraisal of Holistic and Analytical Literacy Instructions in Tanzanian Primary School English Classrooms

Authors

  • Benedict Lema University of Dar es Salaam

Abstract

Performance in literacy among primary school pupils has sparked both academic and public concerns in Tanzania. This paper appraises the use of holistic and analytical approaches as used in learning English vowel phonemes in Kiswahili and English media primary schools based on performance indicators. Data was collected from Standard Two pupils in two primary schools in Temeke Municipality. An Achievement Test was used in data collection, which was administered to 60 Standard Two pupils. Data analysis was aided by the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), Version 18 and Microsoft Excel. Although performance is skewed in favour of English medium primary schools, findings also suggest variations in pupils ' abilities irrespective of school category. This suggests that holistic and analytical approaches work better for some vowel phonemes than for others, and this calls for the need to determine the best practices for specific vowel phonemes.

Keywords: performance, literacy instructions, Primary schools, Tanzania

Author Biography

Benedict Lema, University of Dar es Salaam

Dar es Salaam University College of Education  

Published

2022-09-26