ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how the changes in the language policy in the lower grades affected teachers’ practices in the classroom. These findings show that the English-only policy had colonial connotations, and although it was intended to make young children learn to speak, read, and write English, most children had difficulties in achieving this aim. Children come from homes where English is not the first language and therefore were not used to the language. Teaching and learning in this circumstance were poor due to misunderstanding of concepts and less interaction between teachers and children and among children in English. Although local language appears to be more favoured by a section of Ghanaians, its use was also very problematic. As a multilingual country, only a fraction of the total languages spoken in the country are used in school leaving a good number of children unable to learn and develop literacy in their own mother tongue. The National Literacy Acceleration Programme, the latest policy, appears to be an answer as it acknowledges the importance of both English and the local language in supporting language and literacy. However, without competent and knowledgeable teachers on language and literacy development in young children, supervision, teacher placement, and retention, the policy may suffer the same fate as those preceding it.
