THE PARENT’S CHOICE OF LEARNING THROUGH ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION - A CASE OF ENGLISH MEDIUM SCHOOLS IN TANZANIA

In Tanzania the English medium schools are now mushrooming and many parents send their children at very early age. These schools enroll children of pre-school to school age to learn through English a foreign language regardless of their proficiency in the... More

In Tanzania the English medium schools are now mushrooming and many parents send their children at very early age. These schools enroll children of pre-school to school age to learn through English a foreign language regardless of their proficiency in the first language. Therefore the study aims at examining these young learners’ competence as they learn through English as a foreign language in their English medium schools (EMS). Specifically the study intended: to identify reasons for parents sending their children in English medium school at early age; to identify factors influencing pace of learning in English at early childhood; to assess the impact of learning in English at early childhood on the perceived academic competence of the child; and to identify challenges facing parents sending their children to English medium schools. The study used both quantitative and qualitative approach. Random and purposeful sampling were used in getting sample for the study, the sampled size was Less