Table 3. Test administration by locations
Village TestQuestionnaire
SRT S
Q G
T R
Wordlist
Ilagala x
x x
x Uvinza
x x
x Chakulu
x x
x x
Rukoma x
x x
Kalya x
x x
Kashagulu x
x x
x x
x x
Majalila BENDE x
Lwega BENDE x
According to the information gathered during the trip, the villages of Kalya and Kashagulu form the heartland of the Tongwe speech community. These villages appear to be different from other villages in
the following ways: •
highest percentage of Tongwe population, 50–60 percent •
geographically isolated, more so than other villages •
traditionally a Tongwe-only area, as recognized by others •
strongest traditional community These factors cause us to consider the data from the research in these locations separately from those
collected from villages that are not in the Tongwe heartland. Other ethnic groups inhabiting the survey locations are the Ha, the Fipa and the Bembe. The
Tongwe use Swahili to communicate with them.
4.3.2 Sentence Repetition Test procedure
The Sentence Repetition Test is administered by asking subjects to repeat fifteen sentences, one at a time, immediately after he or she hears it. The subject’s SRT score, based on the accuracy of the
repetition of the test sentences, is then converted to a number on a language ability scale called the Reported Proficiency Evaluation RPE. An RPE score of 3.0 as calibrated for Tanzanian Swahili SRT
indicates Swahili ability approximately on par with FSI Level 3.
2,3
The original plan was to administer the SRT in both Kalya and Kashagulu; however, practical limitations made its administration in Kalya impossible. The populations of Kalya and Kashagulu appear
to be quite similar in their relatively high concentration of mother tongue Tongwe speakers and other sociolinguistic data obtained from community interviews in both villages. Therefore, we believe the data
collected from the SRT and Individual Questionnaires administered in Kashagulu can be considered approximately representative of both villages.
The village of Kashagulu consists of seven subvillages. According to the information obtained from the village leaders, two of the subvillages consist almost entirely of Tongwe. However, they are very
distant from the center of the village 20–25 miles and are not accessible by road. The village leaders and inhabitants reported that Swahili second language proficiency in these subvillages is very low.
Because of this, and due to their isolation, it can be assumed that the Swahili ability in these two subvillages would be lower than that in the other subvillages. Therefore, the team decided to exclude
2
Specific procedural information concerning the production and administration of the Tanzanian Swahili Sentence Repetition Test is given in Radloff 1991 and Hadlock and Turner 1998.
3
Definitions of the various RPE levels are given in Appendix C.
these subvillages from the initial sampling procedure for the SRT. If, however, the initial analysis of SRT results in other subvillages had indicated high Swahili ability, these two subvillages would have been
visited for further research. The initial analysis of SRT results in other subvillages proved that a significant part of the sample population scored below RPE level 3.
4.3.3 Wordlist elicitation
