The influence of formal education on first language attrition among gogo speakers

This study investigated the influence of formal education on first language attrition by schooling Gogo speakers in public primary and secondary schools in Dodoma, Tanzania. The study was guided by one objective: to examine the extent to which formal education contributes to first language attrition among Gogo speaking children. The study was conducted in Chamwino District in Dodoma Region, central Tanzania where Gogo is spoken natively. The theory of Activation Threshold Hypothesis by Paradis (2004) guided the study. This study was qualitative in approach and used case study in design. It involved the total number of 25 participants (22 school going children and 3 non-school going) selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected through individual interviews and simple proficiency tests. The result showed that school going children had experienced reduced use of Gogo due to the influence of Kiswahili. It also indicated that school going children had experienced reduced proficiency in L1 (Gogo) compared to non-school going children measured in the subject’s ability to perform various tasks in their mother tongue. Therefore, formal education plays a great role in the loss of L1 proficiency. It can also be concluded that L1 attrition can possibly take place in L1 environment whereby formal education exposes children to the second language which is used in schools as a medium of instruction.