Educational Implication of ‘Sheng’ In The Learning of Kiswahili Among Secondary Schools Students in Kenya: A Case Study of Kirinyaga County.

Abstract

In the recent past Kiswahili has been hit by a wave of ‘Sheng’ speakers who are mostly adolescents and young adults. Use of Sheng has raised significant linguistic and pedagogical questions associated with the attainment of Kiswahili proficiency. While some people have advocated the growth of ‘Sheng’ as an indication of societal growth in Kenya, others, including scholars, researchers and educationists are on the opinion that the spread of this code impacts negatively on the learners in Kenyan schools and should be left to hip hop musicians, public transport touts, drug peddlers and school drop outs. In the education circles, the code is gangster slang, a secret code associated with social misfits, is fluid and not easy to understand. It interferes with standard Kiswahili and has negative effects on formal education. In Kenya, language policy has come to mean political pronouncements, government statements, and recommendations by Educational Commissions which are rarely implemented. The study was guided by Inter-language theory by Selinker. Study sample consisted of 9 schools, 368 form three students and 40 teachers. Sample populations were obtained through purposive and stratified sampling. Research showed that the code has interfered with formal language learning inside the classroom since students fail to mark the boundaries between ‘Sheng’ and standard Kiswahili and thus continue to show incompetence in writing and speaking. Also, it has interfered with the performance of students in national examinations especially in sentence constructions. Students regarded sheng as a tool to distinguish themselves from their parents whom they perceive as living in the past. Findings show that ‘Sheng’ has to do with lack of clarity in Kenya’s language policy. The paper recommends specific researches on the language situation in Kenya especially as far as the spread of ‘Sheng’ and its impacts on education are concerned