THE USE OF AN AFRICAN LANGUAGE AS LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION AT UNIVERSITY LEVEL: THE EXAMPLE OF KISWAHILI DEPARTMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DAR-ES-SALAAM IN TANZANIA. Paper for Presentation at the Netereed Conference, Beitostolen Hotel, December 5 th -8 th , 2005 By Rhoda Kidami Peterson Introduction Language is an important tool for daily communication between one individual and another. It plays vital roles in our daily lives, for example, it has played and continues to play an important function in learning and teaching processes (Senkoro 2004b). Since language enables teaching and learning activities to be well accomplished, both teachers and learners should be familiar with the language which is used. If learners and even teachers are incompetent in the language which is used as a medium of instruction, then the learning process cannot take place effectively (Malekela 2004). In this case, language can simultaneously play conflicting roles in the educational sphere. It can be a factor in either providing or withholding access to education. Although Tanzanian government issued many language policies in the country i.e. 1995 Language Policy, 1997 Cultural Policy etc, the 1995 language policy is the one that has been emphasized more, and it is the one that is currently practiced in the country. According to the policy, Kiswahili should be used from pre-primary up to primary level while English is to be used from secondary up to the university level as media of instruction. However, English has to be taught as a subject from standard one with the aim of making students acquire and develop adequate mastery of the language so that at the end of their primary education, pupils will have acquired enough skills to cope with the English language demands at post-primary levels and the world of work (MOEC 1995). 1