ABSTRACT
Oshikwanyama and Oshindonga are different dialects of this language, spoken by the Kwanyama and Ndonga ethnic groups, and they are the only two dialects with established orthographies. One of the Oshiwambo lecturers said that in the past she made writing errors in her first language. All of the Oshiwambo teacher educators told the author that they tried hard to teach orthography but that there was little improvement, since many student teachers have a "don't care" attitude toward their first language. The students said that there are many contributing factors to their writing problems. One of these is the Oshiwambo teachers' limited knowledge in their teaching subject. The only chance students had to see and to learn Oshiwambo in written form was during class time. To learn how to write Oshiwambo correctly, students need to study the structure and the grammatical rules of this language.
