effects of diglosssia on the teaching and learning of English as a second language

Bilingualism is the case in the Zimbabwean socio-linguistic context, the population uses two languages, English as the high variety (H) and the community’s native language as the low variety (L). Such a situation is referred to by sociolinguists as diglossia, a term coined by the German linguist Karl Krumbacher as early as 1902. The school instructional language in Zimbabwe, the state's official language, is English. English significantly differs from vernacular languages and is rarely used in rural communities’ daily interactions. This poses challenges in teaching and learning English as a second language, particularly in rural schools, due to the diglossic relationship between English and the local languages. Both the teacher and the learner are usually not native speakers of the English language and this has proved to be a challenge in teaching and learning the second language. Findings obtained through observations, questionnaires, and interviews reveal that teachers need to understand the pedagogical, sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic, and cognitive consequences of diglossia, to teach the language effectively. Most learners have a negative attitude towards the language and are not intrinsically motivated to learn it. Learners also lack cultural capital to support them from the early stages of learning the foreign language as their communities also have a negative attitude towards English due to its origins in the country. The study advocates for the constant upgrading of the local languages especially in line with the fast advancement in technology, so that they can be used equitably with the English language as most learners would rather use their mother tongue in all subject areas. The assessment systems should consider the variability of cultural realities as learners in rural areas have incomparable developmental milestones with those in cities and, hence cannot be evaluated using the same instrument. Key terms: Bilingualism, diglossia, second language acquisition, cultural capital.