Bridging the Language Divide: Teacher and Learner Responses to English-Medium Instruction in Zambian Grade 4 Classrooms

Zambia’s shift to English-medium instruction from the early primary grades raises urgent questions about how teachers and learners navigate learning when English proficiency varies widely. This article examines teacher and learner responses to English-medium instruction in Grade 4 across four public primary schools in Lusaka and Central Province. Using Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, the study treats language, peers, teachers, visual resources and familiar-language practices as mediational tools for accessing curriculum content. A qualitative ethnographic multiple-case study combined classroom observations, semi-structured interviews with Grade 4 teachers, head teachers and curriculum-level participants, learner focus-group discussions, and document analysis. Thematic analysis revealed a double instructional demand: learners had to acquire new subject content while developing the English needed to access, discuss and demonstrate that content. Teachers responded with phonics remediation, planned and ad hoc code-switching, translation, visual and contextual mediation, peer grouping, additional explanation and locally produced resources. Learners valued English for examinations and progression but showed uneven comprehension, confidence and participation. They also actively constructed support systems through multilingual questioning and peer mediation. The findings suggest that the language divide is bridged most effectively through temporary, purposeful scaffolding linked to explicit English development rather than through abrupt monolingualism or indefinite dependence on translation. The study recommends structured bilingual scaffolding in teacher training, transition-specific professional development, a minimum instructional resource package, and formative assessment practices that distinguish conceptual understanding from English expression.