The assessment of awareness and use of motherese in the bilingual schools and in homes in Kinshasa : case of motherese as used by the efl teachers with learners of 5 years old and with their babies and young children in two municipalities of Kinshasa (Limete and Gombe)

Abstract

The aim of this article is to evaluate the Knowledge and use of ‘Motherese’ by the aforementioned teachers, first, as parents and, second, as EFL teachers, respectively, in the home and professional settings. The results show that the majority of Respondents, mostly men, did not know about Motherese or and its importance, so far, while the minority made, mainly, of ladies recognised knowing and using it. During the sensitisation session, the ladies gave even their personal experience of how and when they usually started speaking motherese with their baby before they were born. However, it was clear that at home they use the mother-tongue and French to communicate with their baby, while at school they teach English as a foreign language, which is part of their contract with the school. Therefore, they also use French at school. A talk with the surveyed population, at the end of the inquiry, attested positive face of the first biased responses from men, essentially, and comforted the women in their knowledge and personal experience. Motherese starts in the maternal womb with mother using mother-tongue, it continues at birth and vanishes as the child develops. However, there is still room to fill in this “linguistic subfield" (Saxton 1964) and longitudinal surveys are still needed to include more detailed questions.

Keywords

• motherese
• exploratory survey
• bilingual school
• tefl
• respondent