The Prevalence of Code-Switching in Secondary Schools Where English is the Official Medium of Instruction: A Case Study of Buhera South District

This study explores the controversies surrounding the adoption of either an exoglossic or endoglossic language policy by Zimbabwean educational language planners. It is argued that the adoption of a foreign language as the medium of instruction was in incongruent with the search for quality education. The study discovered that although all classroom interactions should officially be mediated through English, in practice, there was widespread tendency to use Shona or a mixture of English and Shona, by most teachers and learners in all classes and subjects that constituted the schools’ curricula. While the majority of pupils expressed the view that they were not comfortable with the constant use of English as they were with Shona, teachers, on the other hand, argued that they deliberately code-switched at times to enhance pupils’ understanding and performances in the classroom and public examinations which they felt could be hindered if they stuck to English . This investigation, therefore, questions the wisdom of an arm-chair theorists’ wanton pronounced of educational policies that, in the eyes of classroom practitioners, impede pupil achievement. The study has, thus, concluded that teachers and learners’ unsanctioned departure from using the official language of the classroom is a form of tissue rejection of an exoglossic policy. It therefore recommends the need to rethink and revise the language policy of the country so that it embraces and reflects the teaching-learning reality on the ground.