Abstract

There has been a high failure rate of Grade 10 learnersin the year end examinations in the Caprivi Education Region of Namibia over a number of years. The objective of this study was to investigate whether the use of mother tongue in English medium classrooms enhanced learners’ academic achievement.The study investigated 12 teachers at 12 schools in the Caprivi Education Region. The study found that teachers perceived Code Switching as enhancing academic achievement because it enhanced learners’ learning of the English language, improved the way learners answered questions, and that it enhanced teaching and learning of English as a second language. It is believed that learners would be actively involved in their learning, understand the subject matter better and the difficult English concepts would be better interpreted by learners in the language that they fully understand.

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