The impact of code switching in teaching Grade 12 learners algebra at one selected secondary school in Oshana region

Abstract

The issue of language usage in Mathematics is investigated especially in the Namibian context. Also, there is little evidence as to whether the use of code switching in Mathematics really helps to improve learners’ performance in algebra. It is against the foregoing background that this study investigated the impact of code switching in teaching algebra on Grade 12 learners at School X in the Oshana region. Under the question: What is the impact of code switching on the performance of Grade 12 learners at School X in teaching algebra? The following hypotheses were tested: H0: There are no statistically significant differences in the performance of Grade 12 learners at School X in algebra activities for the learners taught using the code switching and those taught using the traditional method of teaching. H1: There are statistically significant differences in the performance of Grade 12 learners at School X in algebra activities for the learners taught using the code switching and those taught using the traditional method of teaching. The study drew data from 50 Grade 12 Mathematic learners from School X in the Oshana region. Twenty-three learners were assigned randomly to the control and twenty-seven learners to the experimental group. All the fifty learners were pre-tested on algebra at the beginning of the study. Four learners withdrew after the pre-test, or during the intervention and only forty-six learners were post-tested. The control group had twenty learners and the experimental group had twenty-six learners. The pre-test and post-test on algebra were used to test learners’ performance after the intervention of code switching in the teaching of algebra. The control and experimental groups were separately taught the same content on algebra, using the same instructions and notes by the researchers for one week. Each lesson lasted for forty minutes. The control was taught using traditional method, while the experimental group was taught using code switching. The statistical significance was tested using the t-test to establish whether or not the observed differences were statistically significant. The two groups were similar at the end thus any observable distance could be attributed to the intervention that was given to the experimental group. The experimental groups’ post-test mean score was higher than pre-test mean scores, which indicates a significant difference in the using of traditional method with code switching on the learners’ performance in Mathematic. The control group’s post-test mean score was 8.0 and for the experimental group was 10.037 and this indicates the significant difference and attribute to the impact of using code switching in the experimental group.