| Abstract: | This article is concerned with the use of English and indigenous languages in creating contexts for understanding primary level science in Kenya. Through an ethnographic study of instruction in three rural schools, it was found that important ideas were more easily conveyed when teachers did not adhere strictly to the English‐only language of instruction policy. Explanations of culturally foreign concepts were given along with concrete, familiar examples through a complex pattern of code switching, including the near exclusive use of the local language. The paper underlines the importance of sociolinguistic study of the instructional process itself for educational planning, teacher training, and other reforms that are meant to increase the educational foundations of national development. |
