The Child's First-self identification as "I"

O. INTRODUCTION

Child self-identification is an interesting topic to educators because it helps them investigate when children happen to identify themselves as full members of a community. In fact, when a child produces the first personal pronoun "I", he, at the same time, produces a piece of language. It is this " I " that makes him, identify as an individual.

Along that trail, many scholars such as Weeks, T.E. (1979), Chomsky N. (1975), Halliday , M.A.K. (1979), Romaine, S. (1986) and others have been interested, for a variety of reasons, in how and when children, throughtout different stages of human development, from birth to adolescence, do acquire useful language in which they need to communicate, first as individual and then as members of their communities.

O.I. Problem statement and hypothesis

The interest of this study is justified in the sense that as linguists have not yet been able to answer satisfactorily the question " When does self-identification appear in children ? " i.e. when a child, as a human being, can use the language to identify himself as an individual with the first personal pronoun " I "; when he says, for example, " I am a boy ". This research paper will try to provide a tentative answer.

Therefore, the hypothesis of this piece of work is stated in such words as «All children aged from two years can identify themselves as unique in a mirror», saying " Mie huyu " (This is me).

0.2. Method of working

In order to answer the above question, there are two major sources of data for this study. The first comes from the extensive body of literature on the aspects of child's physical growth and his language development, from 0 : 6 to 6 : 00 years of age.

The second source of data is from our investigation. We obtained first a group of 40 children aged from 0 : 6 to 6 : 00 years. From this number we, secondly, selected 15 children to whom we presented a mirror and recent photographs and we paid attention to their different reactions and answers to the questions we put them.

Furthermore, a questionnaire was conceived for children who could answer our questions. On the contrary, parents whose children could not speak helped us get information concening them. The questionnaires are given in annex to this work.

In all cases, stratified and poised sampling is the method which helped us find the number of children who were our subjects. This method is the process by which a certain number of strata is divided so that the variability of the elements of each stratum is more homogeneous than those belonging to the different strata. In this case, the elements in the strata of the sample must correspond to the number of elements of the population.

The formula we used was:

p = n or

N

p = n x 100

N

0.3. Delimitation of the topic

This work concerns children aged from six months to the age of seventy-two months or six years (6 : 00), because these constitute our focus as parent and educator. This age range is made up of four categories. The first comprises three children aged from 0:6 to 1 : 5 years. The second is about five children aged 1 : 6 to 2 : 00 years. The third one is made up of four children aged 3 : 00 years. The last category is made up of three children aged 5 : 00 to 6 : 00 years.

The geographical areas concerned in this work are Mbobero and Bagira since these two places share Kiswahili and Mashi, the two languages that helped us get our data.

CHAPTER ONE : THE CHILD'S DEVELOPMENT.

1.1. The stages of the child's physical growth.

1.1.0. Introduction.

The development of physico-psychological tendencies at the early ages casts lights into the future. Any educator will do well to study these formative years; because he may have an important part in shaping the development of children under his responsibility. Second, because he can only understand a person as he is now by knowing what went on before. Finally, because he will have children whose development was harmed and who will need skillful help and guidance to make them grow up in school matters.

Children's growth has always been looked into in five stages. Kamanyula (1987:3), quoting Debesse, M. (1971:36) says that :

" The period of childhood may be divided

Into five stages :the neo-natal period

(from birth to about one month), infancy

(from one month to two years), middle childhood

(from six to nine years) and preadolescence

(from nine years to puberty) that ushers in adolescence. "

Given that this work is about chidren from the age between six months and six years (seventy-two months), the stages before and after the ones mentioned in this paragraph do not interest us. The development in childhood between the following stages is, then, the interest of this section :

- from six to twelve months,

- from twelve to thirty-six months,

- from thirty-six to seventy-two months.

1.1.1. From six to twelve months (0 : 6-1 :00)

This period is crucial for the growth of a child. At about six months, in fact, as his mind and mouth muscles develop, a child manifests four important characteristics.

The first is the tendency to bite everything. At the beginning of the second term (at the age of four months), children growing up normally manifest traces of the first teeth. Indeed, these make the child suffer even if they are an indication of a positive development. At this time, the child experiences for the first time the pleasure of using his teeth to attain everything. With them, he also tries to bite and destroy whatever he gets in contact with. These teeth also help him defend himself by, for example, using them to tell his caretaker not to carry him. So, this period is said to be the one at which the child puts everything in his mouth. It is, therefore, called " the active oral age " .

The second characteristic is the recognition of other people as different and unique. In fact, the person a child recognises is his mother. For him, mother is someone very different and unique, and who cannot be replaced by any other person. To lose her is like losing an entire life.

At the age of seven or eight months, the child recognises totally his mother, better than by mere instinct. He now knws by experience that she is the woman to whom he is affectionally linked and that no other woman equals her.

Being the only one person to give maximum warmth and tenderness to her child, mother makes him enjoy her affection. She is,for that reason, obliged to stay with her child all the time. If she can happen to abandon him for a while, it creates anguish and distress in him. In this respect, it is clear that a child of this age never wishes to separate with his mother.

First self-image is the third characteristic. Language, pictures, photographs,.....and the mirror may help children form an image of themselves. This image may be positive or negative according to how his neighbourhood considers their personality. Then, children will probably grow up thinking of themselves as beautiful, intelligent, proud, ugly, stupid in case they hear people addressing them repeatedly as « Yolande wa kiana... » ( How beautiful you are, Yolande...),« Ona lu kichwa!» (How big is your head ! ), etc...

The fourth characteristic is that at this age, the child produces his first sounds as his mind and mouth muscles develop. We will fully develop this idea in the second section concerning language development in the child, especially at the babbling stage.

From twelve to thirty-six months (1 :00-3 :00)

At 1 :00 the child is now a self-directed learner. He learns how to walk and to do things himself.

Apart from this, he is imaginative and absurd. He enjoys telling stories in interaction with others. He is keen on drawings, and experiments whatever he finds on his way, be it a piece of wood or mud, to express himself artistically, as put by Kamanyula (1987 :4)

During this period, therefore, he needs from his parents proper materials which can make his imagination develop more. On the other hand, parents' short questions on what their child is doing can help him improve his language.

From thirty-six to seventy-two months (3 :00-6 :00)

As said earlier, at 3 :00 years, the child is imaginative. At 4 :00 he becomes talkative since his mind has developed more. At 5 :00 years he is noisy and strong.He makes plans of his own which he absolutely wants to execute. In the household, he is seen setting the table, washing plates, etc....

When he works with pencils or sheets of paper and pairs of scissors, he knows what he is going to do before he does it. The result of all this may seem childish, but to him it is an exact fulfilment of his task.

Socially, it has been proved that children of 5 :00 enjoy group activities. They always want to be with people and in the surroundirgs they know. It is in these groups where a child picks out most of his language. Weeks (1979 : 6) goes on writing that

« In the neighborhood and in peer groups, language

is used to define and consolidaste the groups, to

exclude and to include, to make clear just who

belongs to the « in group. »

He uses this language to tell the group how things appear to him even if he is not the best observer of the world.

The six year-old child is our last concern in this section. He is likely to try older people's activities. His eagerness for learning is high in degree. He plays and works very hard, and yet he is easily tired.

Self-confident, a six year-old child finds hard to play with others since he wants to be always the first. He is selfish and self-centred, thinking that what he often wants is all important. Psychologically, he seeks praize and, as to paraphrase Gratiot, H. (1987 :5) quoted by Kamanyula (1987 : 5), he is content with expressions of the kind « good-good, very nice,.... »

Actually, this is the age when he enters primary school.

1.2. Language development in the child

1.2.0. Introduction

This section is about children's language development. In fact, since a child has sociolinguistic abilities as well as psycholinguistic ones to acquire a language in order to be capable to use it in particular contexts, language development is then social and innate. But those two factors are not alone sufficient. The development of a language competence is also a process. Romaine, S. (1986 :xi) writes that

« ....language development is an ongoing process which

begins (arguably) even before the child starts to

speak.... »

This section will thus be concerned with language development from birth up to the age of six when the child enters school. This is to avoid being so vague and ambiguous. Because, as pointed out earlier, our data concern children's language development of these ages, the assumption is that children's language development can shed some lights on their future language, once adults, and on second or foreign language acquisition.

Because children's language development is an ongoing process, this section, following Kambale, M.B. (2003/4), will be looked into through the following stages :

- Crying and smiling

- Body movements

- Babbling stage

- One -word stage

- Two-word stage

- Three-word stage

- Increasingly sophisticated language

1.2.1. Stages of child language

1.2.1.1. Introduction

As pointed out earlier, language development in children starts earlier than the time when adults have its manifestations. At that time, the child has his own way of communicating, using paralinguistic features such as crying, smiling, body movements, babbling which end sometime when the child starts practising real language.

1.2.1.2 Crying and smiling.

Crying is a nonverbal vocal sound people produce. It often carries meaning. When a baby cries, it expresses states of discomfort, e.g. to say he is hungry or suffers from a given pain, etc. The only one parson to interpret the child's crying is his caretaker.

As mentioned in the preceding section, children know that it is their mothers who provide them with comfort. In fact, when a child cries, his mother interacts with him one way or another. This kind of interaction constitutes a prelinguistic conversation between child and mother. That is why one can, for example, hear a mother intervene to the cry of her child saying :

Toto nyamanzaa....!

Mama'takupa nyonyo.....!

(Oh baby ! Stop crying....

Mommy is going to give you breast ! )

This kind of response of a mother results from the child's nonverbal phenomenon of addressing his mother. It is looked at by some linguists to be a precursor of language. Weeks (1979 : 121) states that:

" Infant vocalizations are precursors

of language ; some of them

eventually lead to language sounds ;

some result in paralinguistic phenomena

(aspects of nonverbal communication). "

Smiling, as opposed to crying, on the other hand, expresses states of satisfaction, happiness, contentment, etc. A child responding positively to older persons' language often does it through smiling. For example, when he sees his parents in a good mood, he also shows his happiness by smiling. This is to say that if he would have some words and the physical possibility to express his feelings, he would have produced those words.

1.2.1.3. Body movements or Kinesics

Body movements are another prelinguistic stage. Markel, N.N. (1969 : 80) refers to them as Kinesics or the systematic study of gestures and motions.

Weeks (1979 : 124 - 131), on the other hand, classifies them in terms of " explicit gestures, body postures, body rhythms and face and eyes. " They are for a child a means to reach out something useful, to touch, to make some physical exercices, etc.

Explicit gestures as well as face and eyes movements are our interest in this sub-point.

In fact, children have a repertoire of so many gestures that carry meaning and that can easily be understood by parents or caretakers. These gestures can be, for example, lifting up arms by a child to ask mother to take him ; waving an arm to say goodbye ; taking a cup to say he needs water to drink ; etc.

It is, then, up to any person accustomed to children to interpret these gestures appropriately. Haselkorn, S.L. (1977) quoted by Weeks (1979 : 125) says that

" The adult is interpreting the child's

requests on the basis of the child's

nonverbal behavior and its context

whether or not a verbalization

or vocalization is included. "

This is to say that adults do not have to take into account the child's object name, for example, a cup of water, at face value but rather consider its nonverbal meaning as to say together with Weeks (1979 : 125) that " gestures are powerful communicators. "

In connection to this, young children use the " face and eyes " body movements to communicate messages. A face movement, as Weeks (1979 : 130) writes

" is usually considered to be the principal

communicator of moods or emotions _____

a much more reliable indicator than language. "

It can be the expression of happiness, anger, fear, sadness, surprise and disgust.

Since children never hide their moods and feelings, there is no need to guess their facial movements. It is to the careteker to interpret them and know when a child is either happy or angry.

On the other hand, when a child's eye meets or avoids his mother's or caretaker's, communication takes place, and both the child and his mother get involved in it and immediately know that it is either an " eye " of affection, demand, happiness, etc. or discontent, as Weeks (1979 : 131) goes on writing :

" And just as eye contact carries with it a special kind of

communication, the complete avoidance of eye

contact signals something special ________

social distance, a disinclination to be friendly,

or outright unfriendliness. "

1.2.1.4. Babbling stage

Babbling is the most common variety of language play in which young children engage . According to Weeks (1979 : 139), babbling is a speech-type sounds that are made principally during the prespeech period of infancy (from perhaps six months to one year).

Actually, it is at the babbling stage when people hear the child producing syllables like

ba ba ba

pa pa pa

ta ta ta

ya ya ya

As mentioned in the first section of this chapter, it is at the babbling stage that the child produces his first sounds. Linguistically, these sounds, for example " papa ", " mama " are randomly produced since the child is still at a pre-language stage. To understand how this strange creature happens to produce such sounds, Alby N. et al. (1976 : 485) say that

" ... Ces échanges sont absolument universels (les bébés chinois ou anglais font des " a-re " comme les bébés français) et malgré les apparences, ils sont très riches en combinaisons de tous ordres, l'enfant utilisant cependant, aux début d'avantage des voyellesque des consonnes (...) Les linguistes modernes, Jakobson enparticulier,qui se sont interessés au fonctionnement du langage enfantin pensent que l'enfant progresse en jouant avec les sons et tout spécialement en provoquant des sons contractés. Par exemple, l'enfant prend plaisir à associer une consonne fermant la bouche, /p/, à une voyelle l'ouvrant au maximum, /a/, ce qui donne /p'a/, maintes fois répété. En réalité, il lance les sons un peu au hasard, et devant la joie qu'il provoque, surtout quand sa mère l'y encourage, il les redit à qui mieux mieux. De la même façon, il associe volontier une consonne explosive comme le /p/ avec une consonne fermant ensuite la bouche comme le /m/, d'où /p'am/, puis /mam/ et enfin /mama/. "

The above quotation can be translated into English as follows :

" ... These exchanges are absolutely universal (Chinese or English babies as well as French ones produce " a-re ") and despite apparent facts, they are rich in combinations, producing at an early age more vowels than consonants (...) Modern linguists, particulary Jakobson, think that the child evolves in playing with sounds by contrasting them. He gets pleasure, for example, in associating the consonant /p/ to the vowel /a/ closing his mouth and opening it widely.This consonant-vowel association gives /p'a /, repeatedly produced. Actually, this is produced randomly but it gives him pleasure in case his mother encourages him to do so. In the same way, he associates a plosive like /p/ with another consonant, like /m/ to give /p'am/. Then he produces " mam " which finally results in " mama ".

From the above quotation, one may discover that language acquisition in children of the early age is already a complex phenomenon which follows a predictable order, with the combination and contrast of both consonants and vowels. This is what can be schematized :

Stage 1 : CONSONANT + VOWEL = CV (repeatedly)

p + a

p + a

p + a Pa pa pa ...

* * *

* * *

* * *

Stage 2 : CONS + CONS = CVC = CVCV (repeatedly)

p + m = p'a m

mam = mama ...

* * * *

* * * *

* * * *

These sounds give the impression of a given language with meaning, as Lewis, M.M. (1963 : 20) quoted by Weeks (1976 : 86 ) writes :

" When a child is babbling

he gives us the impression

that he is making sounds

" for their own sake." "

As said earlier, babbling begins during the early months of infancy and continues up until when real speech begins. Though it is often interpreted to be a child's way to communicate, it does not express any meaning. To follow Kambale, M.B. (2003/4)'s ideas, babbling only " indicates the child's preparedness for verbalization, that is the use of words to express one's thought. "

However, Lenneberg (1967) and Jakobson (1968) quoted by Weeks (1979:86) stated that babbling is in no way a predictor of language behaviour.They respectively say that babbling does not represent "practice stages for future verbal behavior and that it is an articulatory exercise that is unrelated to later speech. " Fortunately, even if babbling is qualified as " play ", Weeks (1979 : 86) goes on writing that

" recent studies offer evidence that babbling

is more than random noise ;

there is a continuity between babbling

and meaningful child speech. "

Following this, speculations can be made to know whether there can be some relationships between the babbling of a child and future speech production. These speculations are to know about any cause-and-effect relationship between the child's babbling and his future speech production.

Providing an answer, Weeks (1979 : 86-7) followed some children's language development and came to the conclusion that

" a very small amount of babbling may be considered a predictor, not a

cause, of slow speech development during the early language

development period. "

This is to say that babblers should be encouraged by adults in their everyday speech-type sounds. In doing so, the former will profit from it and repeat some of the sounds pronounced by the latter. That is why Norman (1936), referred to by Weeks (1976:88), describing some aspects of the babbling of a nine month-old girl says :

" When she heard her own strings of

nonsense syllables said to her by her

campanions, she showed real delight,

and was able to repeat these syllables

in turn after the adults. In this

there seemed to be the first

communication in the sense of a give

and take of speech-sounds, or of

sounds that were later to become speech. "

Indeed, in producing babbling that is similar to adult speech, the child gets great satisfaction and pleasure.

However, by the fact that babbling is a stage of meaningless sounds, the attitude of parents as well as of any other educator vis-à-vis the babbler should show the child that he is understood. Parents, therefore, should adopt a soothing attitude in case the child babbles to trouble them. In addition, parents' attitude will even be a boast of the linguistic performances of their babies, learning now to say

" ti-ti-ti " to refer to a car, for example.

A pedagogical implication is that the teacher should be attentive to the

learner's language production by using the " Silent Way Method ".

Following Kambale, M.B. (2002 - 2003), this method is referred to as an approach in which the teacher should talk less and less, to remain silent so that there will be more and more pupil talk. This method was developed in 1963 by Calleb Gattegno in comparison to the " silent period " during which a child does acquire his mother tongue, but cannot verbalize what he is taking in. But, any way, the child's first utterances are pieces of evidence that language learning has already taken place.

The babbling stage then takes end with the practice of real language by children, at about one year of age.

1.2.1.5. One-word stage

At the end of the babbling stage (1 : 3), the child starts producing utterances which are made of one word only. The words concerned are only content ones, those expressing concepts.

A concept, as Weeks (1979 : 25) writes, is a thought or an idea ; in logic it is more specifically an idea comprehending the essential attributes of a class of logical species.

When a child names something, he indicates that conceptualization has taken place in his mind. This is what, for example, people hear from him :

Ua ( mua ) (Sugar cane)

Ai ( chai ) (Tea )

Ali (ugali) ( Cassava bread)

Yola (Solange ) ( Female name )

Uu (Kuku ) ( Chicken )

Accordingly, Weeks (1979 : 23) observed that at 1 : 7 years, Brandon had learned the word cow. He says that this child had learned this word well enough that he could always identify a real cow or a picture of a cow correctly up until he learned a new word.

After this step, he learns and uses short utterances to ask for food and make some conversations with older persons.

All these three examples suggest that the hearer may not exactly be aware of what the child is saying about the thing, the place, people, animal, ... that he

mentions. Yet, he needs additionnal information from the context in which the child produces his utterance as to have an idea of what he has in mind.

By producing the above words, it is up to the listener to know that the child wants to be given a sugar cane, tea or food ; he also wants to show the chicken passing by and probably wants Solange (Yola) to hold him.

A pedagogical conclusion is that the educator should be ready to accept good one-word answers from learners ; to encourage them at the very early ages to answer in one-word only ; to teach single concepts in order to facilitate learning at the very early stage. Then after, he can teach two concepts, at the second step.

In doing so, he will be encouraging the development of the sense of achievement at the end of every learning session. One can have :

Step 1 : One-word utterance : One concept

e.g. Cup Chair

Step 2 : Two concepts

e.g. Cups

Chairs

1.2.1.6. Two-word stage

Two-word utterances happen at about 1 : 9 years. It is a characteristic of utterances given in a fixed order. One may hear utterances like :

- This is ?

- Towel bed

- Baby chair

- Mommy sleep

- More read

- Daddy car

- etc.

The above examples indicate that the child's cognitive sphere is now capable of organizing information in patterns, following some predictable principles. And this is what makes a child differ from a chimpanzee, however adult it is because research studies have shown that it still remains mentally disorganized and unstable. This difference can well be stated throughtout the following comparative chart ; as mentioned by Kambale, M.B. (2003-2004).

Table 1 : Table of child & Chimp utterance structure differences.

CHILD		CHIMPANZEE	UTTERANCES (1) More sweet Sweet go (referring to the respbery bush where berry grows on) Structures Mod + head Place + verb UTTERANCES (2) Car gone This is Go sweet Structures S+ V V + Place

The above chart suggests that while the human child gives manifestations of higher mental power, the old chimp shows mental disorganization. For the child, even if the meaning of his utterances still brings in confusion, their order is predictable. On the other hand, the chimp has no idea of any standard order.

1.2.1.7. Three-word stage

Although the bulk of children fall somewhere in the language practice they indulge in, it has been noted that children's earliest language productions are already fluent at the age of two when three-word utterances happen. Three-word utterances are characterized by the appearance of word inflections as in the following :

- My talk John ( = I was talking to John)

- Yeah, these are ?

- Pants change.

- Daddy go car.

1.2.1.8. Increasingly sophisticated language

Three-word stage is a passing phase which ushers in a more increasing and sophisticated language. This is already observed at the age of 2 : 8 when the child can produce sentences like :

- What he can ride in ?

- He not taking the walls down

- I want to open it

- Ile bike yangu nipe (Give me that pen belonging to me)

- The cup broke

At two and three, his vocabulary increases so rapidly that, as Alby et al.

(1976: 496) put it, he is capable of building up organised and meaningful sentences with the structure S+ V + C.

Between 2 : 10 and 4 : 00 years the child will be producing utterances like :

- Lady bug. Lady bug won't hurt me

They love me

- My teacher holded the baby rabbits

and we patted them (...)

- No, she holded them loosely.

- ... And roses maked him sneeze.

The example here above is to say that the child's language is a long process

that develops from one stage to another until it reaches the adult version as to form lexis and other aspects of language.

Yet, it still contains some grammatical weakness. However, as mentioned by Kambale, M.B. (2003-2004), the child grows in selecting appropriate structures to mean the same thing in different circumstances as in the following :

- Give me beans

- I need beans

- Can I have beans ?

- Can I have beans, please ?

- I see beans

- Could I have beans, please ?

- Beans taste well.

On the other hand, at 3 : 00 the child can already answer some WH-questions. He is at the age called " the questioning period" where he asks any question to adults, even though he still has difficulties in everyday spoken language. His questions are puzzling because he already knows to differentiate a question from an answer.

Following Weeks (1979 : 8/9) quoting Halliday (1973 : 8), it is easy to say that .

" The young child is very well aware of

how to use language to learn, and

may be conscious of his aspect of language (...)

Many children (...) know what

a " question " is, what an " answer " is,

what " knowing " and " understanding "

mean, and they can talk about

these things without difficulty. "

Because " children do things with their language " although limited as it may appear, a child of 3 : 00 knows how to use his " poor " words in a useful way to convey a given message in connection with real life situations.

To talk to people, a three year -old child addresses them with the third person singular. Deictically speaking, using this third person justifies the fact that the child is still limited since he has not mastered the first person singular yet, and since the third persons " he, she, it or they " are the words adults use to address him very often.

e.g. (1) Aline, unyamanzeee ... Mama'takubebaaa ...

( Keep quiet oh, Aline ... Your mother

is going to carry you.)

(2) Mammy's going to lift Tommy up

(3) Daddy wants to brush Julie's hair.

By the ages of 5 and 6 the child will have picked up all that one needs to qualify as a full-fletched member of a language community.

1.2.2. Partial conclusion

This chapter has developed some theoritical considerations on the stages of child's growth. It has looked at the child in ages between six months to six years of age. Be it physically, socially, or intellectually, the child of these stages manifests different abilities, among which language with which he expresses himself.

Language development, then, evolves from what the child picks out from other children and older speakers. Though it is " poor ", it helps the child communicate and make him be understood. It is, thence, the adult's responsibility to encourage him emerge in the area of language.

CHAPTER TWO : THE CHILD'S FIRST IDENTIFICATION OF HIMSELF

AS " I "

2.0. Introduction

It takes time to mature. From early childhood up to the age a child can recognise himself as an individual is therefore demanding. This chapter is going to reveal, throughout the different answers collected, the period when a child is capable to use the first person singular " I " to refer to himself.

2.1. Presentation and description of the data

As pointed out earlier, our data is made up of answers to questionnaires administered to children and parents. The questionnaire conceived for children was supported by a mirror and / or recent photographs through which the child had to see his own image.

As this work concerns directly children, parents' answers were only to give lights about the ages of their children. For this reason, we only took into consideration what we recorded from children.

We got in contact with 40 children whom we put in four groups. Fifteen of these were selected randomly as the sample to work with. The formula we applied to get this sample is then

P===0.375

The first group was made up of 8 children aged from 0 : 6 to 1 : 5. The second was made up of 14 children aged 1 : 6 to 2 : 00. The third one concerned 11 children of 3 : 00. The last category was made up of 7 aged 4 : 00 to 6 : 00.

The fifteen children selected randomly were found by applying the formula px as in the following table.

Table 2 : Sample selection

Sample	Age range	Number of children	Xp	Totals of children selected
1	0 : 6 - 1 : 5	8	0.375	3
2	1 : 6 - 2 : 00	14	0.375	5.25 5
3	3 : 00	11	0.375	4.125 4
4	4 : 00 - 6 : 00	7	0.375	2.625 3
TOTAL	-	40	-	15

The fifteen children now selected represent the population for this work.

2.2. Analysis of the data

The analysis of our data follows a chronological order, i.e. from younger children to older ones.

The first group of children concerned are aged 0 : 6 to 1 : 5. Up to now, these children cannot talk. They use babbling, body movements and gestures to express themselves up until when they learn isolated words to express what they have in mind.

Elvis, a 0 : 11 year old child, is the first one we are interested to in this age range. Although he does not show us a satisfactory behaviour vis-à-vis his image in the mirror, i.e. he does not produce any word, he is any way trying to see the same image behind the instrument he has in hand.

To know why he does not "talk ", his mother justifies it by the fact that Elvis is very often ill. According to her, his normal growth must have been affected by diseases that occur each two months.

However, there is a positive aspect in Elvis' relationship with his mother, his brothers and sisters. He calls her " mama " all the time. On the other hand, he has a way to call his elder brother Leon, who is aged 5 : 5, using his hand.

We also followed Victor, our own son. He is a 0 : 11 year-old child as well. He is a toddler now. Though childish, his language productions and his doings may be, one may compare them to older children ones already. One can see him trying to use the telephone on the one hand. On the other hand, he already knows how to switch off a TV set or a radio set.

In addition, he easily grasps the message older people address him. For example, when he is asked to drum and dance he does it immediately.

Psychologically speaking, he is intelligent. He calls every body in the family. All the girls are called " dada " (sister) whereas his grandmother is called " tate ".

Accordingly, when we presented him the mirror for the first time, at around 0:6, he immediately reacted by saying " toto ", repeatedly. We understood this behaviour as a positive one since a child growing up normally recognises himself and other people to be " toto " at this stage. That is why it did not sound strange to us to hear Victor reacting like that to his own image in the mirror.

However, he still confuses the consonants / p / and / t / as, for example, in

" pot " (the container made of plastic used by children as toilet), " papa ", " popi " (toy) he pronounces "to", "tata", "toti".

The third child we followed in this age range is Marcelin. He is a 1 : 00 year-old child. He lives at Mbobero in a family where parents did not go beyond the second year of secondary school.

When we showed him a mirror, he was very interested to see his face in it. But what was more interesting was that he wanted to beat his own image. The reason was that it was the first time he saw a mirror.

Contrarily to Victor, he did not produce any sound, though he was older than the latter. According to his father, Marcelin is shy. When he wants to be carried by his mother, he only cries and weeps. It is then up to his mother to interpret his reactions.

From the three children here above, only one happened to recognize himself as " toto " and did not neither look for the image behind the mirror nor beat it. This is because this one grows up normally in a family where he has allowance to a mirror. This result represents 33,3 per cent and that very few children of this age can have a positive reaction towards it. This is because many children have no access to a mirror since parents hide it with the fear that their children may break it. Another reason is that, as Elvis' mother let us know, some parents, especially in villages, argue that a mirror may cause a child become epileptic" But this has to be looked at as superstitution.

The second group of our sample is made up of 5 children aged between 1:6 and 2:00. This is the age range which will make us confirm or reject our hypothesis.

Fernand, the first child we examined, is 1 : 6. He lives in a family where his father attended the Nurses college and obtained an undergraduate degree in Laboratory Sciences. His mother attended secondary school and got a certifcate in nutrition.

Despite all the language advances he has mastered in for example asking for food, calling his father's name, identifying and naming things, Fernand has not got any notion of himself yet. This is what was observed when he was shown a mirror. He did not know that the image in it was his. Instead, he called it " toto ". We also showed him a photograph of his. He did not even happen to know who was printed in.

We went on and got in a family where it is only father who attended class. There, Emile, 2 : 00, was our subject. We greeted him but he did not answer. Physically, Emile has not learned to walk yet. Her mother justified this by saying that he has always been ill. This may even have affected his language acquisition because we did not record any word from him.

When we showed him a mirror, his first attitude was to kiss it. The second was to look for the image in the mirror behind it. This is to suggest that he is still reacting as a child of 0 : 6.

As the child between 1 : 00 and 2 : 00 can now produce his first words if he grows up normally, we came to a child who was asking for a sweet from her mother. She is called Jerry. She is a 1 : 7 year-old girl. Even though she was capable of asking for a sweet (bobo), she did not recognize herself in the mirror. She instead exclaimed " toto ", a word used to refer to babies in general, when she looked at her image through.

Of this age range Emma, 2 : 3, is our fourth child. He is a boy whose father is a mechanic. All her uncles and aunts are still at secondary school. They constitute a big family in which, we assume, Emma picks up all his language which evolves positively.

We showed him a mirror after the greetings and the following conversation took place.

Interviewer : Aye Emma ? (How are you, Emma ?)

Emma : Bien (Fine)

He immediately asked me for the mirror.

Emma : Nipe iyi Kio (Give me this mirror)

And he called the girl with whom he was playing and said :

Jutine (Justine), Kuya Ona, Mie uyu mu kio (Come and see, Justine.

"Look at me in the mirror).

Then we went on asking him.

Interviewer : Ni nani ule mu kio ? (Who's that in the mirror ?)

Emma : Mie, di ! (Me, of course !)

Interviewer : Papa njo nani ? (What's your father's name ?)

Emma : Ye njo papa Ndata. (He's Papa Ndata).

Finally he spoke to the image in the mirror as to say :

"We njo Emma ?" (It is you Emma, isn't it ?).

However, we discovered that Emma was jealous, greedy and selfish. He did not want Justine to touch the mirror, he did not want to share food with her neither, though he had called her to show her the mirror. This is to say that he has developed a strong ego.

The last informant in this category is Neema. She is 2 : 6. She lives at Mbobero, particularly at Ikambi. We also asked her questions, but in Mashi, as follows :

Interviewer : Aye ? (How are you ?)

Neema : Bien (Fine, thanks)

Interviewer : Izino lyawe we ndi ? (What's your name ?)

Neema : Nie Neema (I'm Neema)

Interviewer : Bici ebi ? (What's this ? ) (Showing her a mirror).

She did not know it. Then we asked her mother Neema's recent photograph when she got baptized and she reacted to the following question.

Interviewer : Ndi oyu ? (Who's this ?)

Neema : Nie oyu Neema (This is me Neema).

The question is to know why she could not recognize herself in the mirror whereas she could on a photograph. The reason is, according to villagers, that children, as already mentioned, should not have access to a mirror.

The following conversation indicates that Neema has already entered kindergaten, where French is their school language.

Interviewer : Bonjour ! (Hello !)

Neema : Bonjour ! (Hello !

Înterviewer : Comment ça va ? (How are you ?)

Neema : Comment ça va ? (How are you ?)

The above conversation suggests that even if she goes to school, she does not differentiate between a question and an answer in French. But in Mashi, her mother tongue, she does. However, this conversation is an indication that Neema is at the three-word stage where she has already got some traces of word inflections.

The conclusion to this age range is that from five children, only two are now able to identify themselves as " mie, nie oyu " (me). They represent only 40 per cent of the cases recorded.

The third category of children in our sample are aged 3 : 00. They are four as presented here below.

The first, Binja, aged 3 : 6, is the elder sister of Neema, the preceding child of the group of children under the age of : 2 : 00.

Although Binja proves to be an old child throughout the question she put us when we wanted to interview her, she did not want to answer any of our questions. Her question, in Mashi, " Bici wampa ? " (What are you going to give me ?) let us undestand that she did not want to collaborate.

According to her mother, this question is one way asking us to offer her something like an avocado, a sugar cane or a sweet if we want her to talk because she hardly talks to " strangers ".

To induce her into collaborating with us, we brought her a sweet the next time we met her. She immediately reacted, saying " Merci " (Thank you).

Then, the following conversation took place :

Interviewer : Aye sasa ? (How are you then ?)

Binja : Bien (Fine)

Interviewer : Izino lyawe we ndi ? (what's your name ?)

Binja : Nie Binja (I'm Binja)

Interviewer : Papa ye ndi ? (What's your father's name ?)

Binja : Ye Defo. (He's called Defo ) (Ildephonse)

Interviewer : K'onaj'oku masomo ? (Do you go to school ?)

Binja : Ntacikuja. (I've given it up).

Despite the avoidance technique she uses very often, it is clear that at her age she has acquired a sufficient language to communicate with.

As Halliday (1973 : 8) points it out, a three year-old child is well aware of what a question and answer are. The three other children here below happened to answer the questions we put them.

Carine is a 3 : 8 year-old girl. She lives at Mbobero with her mother who attended the second grade of secondary school. Her father did not attend school. But together they happen to provide their children with good education. That is why Carine is at kindergaten.

When we showed her the mirror, she directly said "Mie uyu " (this is me). To be more satisfied we put her some questions to which she answered satisfactorily.

Interwiewer : We njo nani ? (Who are you ?)

Carine : Mie njo Carine (I'm Carine)

Interwiewer : Nini ile uko nayo ? (what's that ?) (Referring to the mirror)

Carine : Kio (mirror)

Interviewer : Unasomaka ? (Do you go to school ?)

Carine : Ndio (Yes)

Interviewer : Wapi ? (Where ? )

Carine : Mu Ndeko ^*(*) (at the " Ndeko ").

These short good answers encouraged us and they are an indication that Carine has already matured.

Rosette is another child who impressed us very much. She is 3 : 9 and is now at kindergaten. When we met her, she had a pencil and told us that she was drawing a table. We wanted to know to whom the pencil belonged ; she replied : " Ni yangu " (It is mine). Through the mirror, she said :

" Ona mie, ona Lucienne "

(Look at me ; Look at Lucienne).

Lucienne is her younger sister.

Then we interviewed her. She told us her father and mother's names. She also told us that she is at kindergaten. To prove it, she started reciting a piece of text she had learned at school and that we recorded as follows :

" Le reveil de Nina. "

Nina, lève-toi, il est temps.

Oui, maman.

Bonjour maman, j'ai bien dormi

Maman, regarde, Dina est là.

Oui, ma fille, il est temps

d'aller à l'école.

Au revoir maman, à tantôt

Sois bien sage en classe. "

The above piece of recitation can be translated as follows :

" The Waking-up of Nina. "

Nina, wake up ! It is time

Yes, mommy.

Hello, mum. I've slept well.

Hello, my daughter

Mum, look. There's Dina.

Oh yes, my daughter. It is

time to go to school.

Goodbye mum. See you.

Ok. Behave wisely at school. "

Not only is Rosette intelligent but she proves to have a form of her own individuality throughout the language she uses.

Schola Faida, the last interviewee in this group, is also 3 : 9. Her father has already passed away. Her mother, who lives at Mbobero, earns a hard living by selling beer. She told us that her child is very clever and can answer any question. We asked her to bring us a recent photograph of her family and we showed it to her daughter. She immediately showed us her image and that of his brother, Junior.

" Mama, si mie uyu na Junior ! "

( Mum, this is me and Junior !).

We went on and asked her these questions.

Interviewer : We njo nani ? (What's your name)

Schola : Mie njo Schola. ( I'm Schola)

Interviewer : Unasomaka ? (Do you go to school ?)

Schola : Ndio. (Yes)

Interviewer : Wapi ? (Where ?)

Schola : Mu Ndeko (At the " Ndeko ").

Interviewer : Mu somo gani ? (In which class ?)

Schola : Mu maternelle. (At kindergaten, as to say that there is no class

differenciation.)

Interviewer : Banakuitaka nani ku masomo ? (How are you called at

school ?)

Schola : Schola FAIDA MUTABESHA.

All these four children show satisfaction concerning their language development as well as their individuality. They use their language to prove that they know, not only about themselves, but also about other things they have already learned. Therefore, together with Weeks (1979 : 8) we can say that

" the child offers to someone else something unique to the child_____

somethig he has to say. It is the child's own gift. And it is throughout

this kind of personnal offering that the child's personality develops. "

The last category of children concerned with our research were those aged from 4 : 00 to 6 : 00. Unfortunately, no child aged 4 : 00 was selected in our sample. But between 4 : 00 and 5 : 00, children are characterised by making noise, drawing, play-group activities. Together with 6 : 00 years-old children, they use their language in all their everyday activities. And it is only at 6 : 00 that a child can qualify for primary schooling.

The first child we contacted was Amisi KANINGU, aged 5 : 00. He lives in Bagira and is at kindergaten.

Here are his answers to the questions we asked him.

Interviewer : Aye ? (How are you ?)

Amisi : Bien (Fine, thanks)

Interviewer : We njo nani ? (Who are you ?)

Amisi : Amisi

Interviewer : Nini hii ? (what's this ?)

Amisi : Kio (Mirror)

Interviewer : Ni nani ule mu kio ? (Who's that in the mirror ?)

Amisi : Ni mie Amisi (It is me, Amisi).

Interviewer : Unasomaka ? (Do you go to school ?)

Amisi : Ndio (Yes).

Interviewer : Wapi ? (Where ?)

Amisi : Ku Foyer ^*(*) (At Foyer)

Since his answers were satisfactory, we profited from asking him his parents' identities ; they were absent at the time. He told us that his father's and mother's names were Philippe and Modestine.

What we observed was that Amisi is a stummerer. He often hesitated in pronouncing words and nouns as in " Ki - Kio " , " Mo-Modestine', etc. We understood this phenomenon as normal since there has been some people whose language did not develop earlier on because of fright or any affective shock in their childhood.

A help to such a child is to talk to him calmly, friendly and slowly until he learns to produce words naturally.

The last but one child is Adrien, aged 6 : 00. He is in the first grade at Bulenga Primary School in Bagira Commune. His father and mother work at Saint Paul Secondary School as teacher and cook, respectively.

Adrien is a noisy boy. When he was shown his family photograph her aunt gave us, he ran with it outside and started calling his sisters and brothers names.

" Mie uyu, Padiri Sota " (This is me, Father Sota).

" Ona Judith : Machafu " (Look at Judith : Cheeks !)

" Ona na ki Bony : Mutebusi " (Look also at Big Bony : Mutebusi !).

He made everybody laugh so that no more than the above sentences could be recorded.

Philemon, aged 6 : 00, is the last subject for this piece of research. He is in the first grade of Mbobero Primary School. When he was presented a mirror, he laughed. Then, we asked him why he laughed.

He told us that it was because he saw how he was dirty as follows :

" Minajichekea ju niko buchafu ".

This sentence let us understand that this boy was already old enough to feel ashamed in some circumstances.

Philemon told us that his father is called Emile Ntakobajira and his mother's name is Honorine. We finally learned from his uncle that his father studied up to the second form of secondary school and her mother has no school education.

The last three children give evidence to the fact that the language they have already acquired is a tool to qualify them as grown-up children. Their interactions prove sufficiently that their self-identity has already developed since they can know what is good or bad as in " niko buchafu " or " ona Judith : machafu ".

2.3. Interpretation of the results

Out from our research, the results we came to can be interpreted in the following way.

First, children aged 0 : 6 to 1 : 00 are capable to use babbling, gestures to express what they see and feel. But they are still unable to say really what they are. For example, Victor's production of " toto " from his image in the mirror let us understand that he used babbling rather than language. This behaviour is however a positive performance in terms of language development because it is common to all children growing up normally to produce " toto " at the early age.

Second, children who grow up positively and who could be called advantaged ones acquire language more rapidly than those disadvantaged.

Advantaged children have so many opportunities to learn even things around them. They learn for example to use a mirror, a telephone or a T.V. set.

These concrete materials can help these children acquire some language and therefore happen to say and convince older people that they are already separate individuals. At 2 : 3 and 2 : 6 already, Emma and Neema know that they are " mie ",

" nie " and this is embodied in their whole persons to say that they are individuals.

On the contrary, disadvantaged children who have no access to such concrete things will not be capable to identify themselves through them. We were happy to find that even at 2 : 00, Emile could not speak because, despite his being unable to identify himself through the mirror, he has been suffering from diseases and this affected his language development.

Our third interpretation of the results of our research is the advantage and problem of self-dentity.

As an advantage, the " Mie ", "nie", " mi ", " na", "je", " I ", "me" once acquired help the person to live his personality and individuality. Philemon, 6 : 00, for

example, knows that to be dirty can affect him because it gives a negative picture of his identity. That is why when he says " Minajichekea ju niko bucafu", he feels ashamed and therefore must go to wash.

On the other hand, the disadvantage of the " I " of self-identification is the egocentricity and selfishness of the person which to our point of view, is negative.

Emma, 2 : 3, is a good example since he did not want to share neither the mirror he had in hand nor his food with Justine because he knew they were his and not for others. Likewise, Rosette, 3 : 9, referred to her pencil as " ni yangu " knowing that it belongs only to her and not to her younger sister Lucienne.

On the whole, up until when the child is unable to use the first personal pronoun to identify himself as unique and individual, he will not have evolved physically and therefore qualify linguistically fully. This is to say together with Tanz (1980 : 89), quoted by Kambale, B.M. (2002-2003), that

" the " I " is the acid test for homosapiens evolution and evolvement to

humanhood.

Finally, the following are the statistical results we came to.

Table 3 : Pourcentage of self-identification, age-range indication.

Number of groups	Age-range in terms of months and years	Number of children selected	Self-identification as " I "
			+	%
1.	0:6 - 1:5	3	0	0 %
2.	1 : 6 - 2 : 00	5	2	40 %
3.	3 : 00	4	4	100 %
4.	4 : 00 - 6 : 00	3	3	100 %

The sign + in this table means when the child happened to produce the " I " of self-identification.

The results in this table show that at two years, only a few children can identify themselves. Before this age, the child will only be using nonverbal language. From two and beyond it, the child can now use his language to be identified with.

The implication of these figures to the teaching and learning of English by Congolese children is to design a syllabus , for example, for kindergaten or primary school which is appropriate to their level of mastering the language.

As some children aged 2:00 or 3:00 can be admitted at kindergaten even if they cannot up to now identify themselves as «I», the teacher can use some procedures which would help them learn a bout the «I» of their individualities. He can, for instance, make them use gestures referring to themselves as follows:

Step 1: Child ______ Teacher

Teacher: Emile, Mie (Emile, Me)

Emile (repetition): Emile, Mie (Emile, Me)

Teacher : Mie, Emile (Me, Emile)

Emile : Mie, Emile (Me, Emile)

Etc.

Here the teacher shows Emile a mirror. He asks him to repeate what the teacher makes him produce.

Step 2: Child _____ Child

Emile: Emile, Mie (Emile, Me)

Emile: Emile, Mie (Emile, Me)

Emile: Mie, Emile (Me, Emile)

Emile: Mie, Emile (Me, Emile)

The above repetitions of Emile, through the mirror, are a way to help him aquire the first personal pronoun by himself. The teacher is only a guide.

On the other hand, children growing up normally can be taught and encouraged to use utterances like the following, in pair work activities.

e.g.:Child 1: Mie Rosette, niko mwanafunzi (Me Rosette, I'm a

pupil)

Weye Emma, hauko mwanafunzi (You Emma, you are

not a pupil)

Child 2: Mie Emma, niko garcon (Me Emma, I'm a boy)

Weye Rosette, uko fille (You Rosette, you are a girl)

These interactions will have each of the members of the group not only identify himself as individual but also differentiate himself from others.

GENERAL CONCLUSION

This work has attempted to answer the question when all children do learn first self-identification. Since a child grows up to recognize himself by means of language, it is language that proves that a man has matured. This is to say that the child's physical growth goes along with his language development. For this reason, chapter one of this work has discussed the child's development, including both his physique and his language.

The second chapter, on the other hand, tried to verify whether all children aged from two years can learn to identify themselves as " mie, nie, I " etc.

It is true that children of the same age, born and living in the same area and using the same language may not learn particles of this language, for example " I " at the same level. That is why we were glad to discover that all the children aged 2 : 00 could not identify themselves as individuals. This automatically made us reject our hypothesis ; that is all children aged from two years can identify themselves as unique, saying " mie huyu " (This is me).

The reasons can be that first, some children earn lower social life. They are disadvantaged to learn from the world as much as advantaged children. They have no access to concrete materials which can help as tools to refer to for learning language. Secondly, there are some other children who have been victims of diseases which may have affected their language development.

Finally, some others may have been able to produce this " I " but because they do not want to collaborate with us, they do not talk.

As one looks at the language progress of these children and their attitudes towards the researcher's investigation , some pedagogical conclusions can be drawn.

· The encouragement of only one word learning as well as only one short answer at the early stage is recommended.

· The correction of the child's shortcomings should rather be a help to his language than a threat.

· The use of concrete materials as visual aids is an important tool for language learning.

· The treatment of children in their individualities is very important. This is because children are not the same since each one has his own abilities.

· The age is an important factor to language learning. It should not fit if a one year-old child was imposed to learn a two-word utterance as if he was aged 2 : 00. Accorlingly, it should not be expected to a 1 : 00 to learn this " I " because he has not reached the appropriate age for it yet.

What we hope we have done is, so far, only a tip of an iceberg. We recognize

that this work having its shortcomings, we call, therefore, for replication of a research study with different data collection procedures and a different research design so as to obtain mere convincing evidence for the results we came to. The researcher we welcome may for example investigate much on the effect of " I " in the child's language learning or on his self-image.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A. BOOKS

1. Alatis, J.E et al. (1981) The Second Language Classroom : Directions for the

1980's. New York: Oxford University Press.

2. Alby, N. et al. (1976) L'Univers de la Famille, Vol. 2. Paris: Hachette.

3. Clark, H.H. and Clark, E.V. (1977) Psychology and Language : An Introduction to

Psycholinguistics. New York : Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.

4. Chomsky, N. (1976) Reflections on Language. Fontana : Collins

5. Encyclopedia Universalis (1968), Vol 6. Paris : Elastomères.

6. Freud, S. (1966) Cinq Leçons sur la Psychanalyse. Paris : Payot.

7. Halliday, M.A.K. (1979) Language as Social Semiotic. The Social Interpretation of

Language and Meaning. New York: Edward Arnold.

8. Longman Dictionary of contemporary English. (1995) London: Longman Group Ltd.

9. Markel, N.N. (1969) Psycholinguistics. An Introduction to the study of Speech

and Personality. London: Dorsey.

10. Moore, T.E. (1973) Cognitive Development and the Acquisition of Language.

New York:Academic Press.

11. Nasr, R.T. (1978) The Essentials of Linguistic Science. London: Longman

12. Romaine, S. (1951) The Language of Children and Adolescents. Blackwell: Oxford.

13. Weeks, T.E. (1979) Born to Talk Massachusetts: Newbury House Publishers, Inc.

B. UNPUBLISHED THESIS AND UNPUBLISHED LECTURE NOTES

14. HABASIKIYAKE,M. (2003) " Writing Exercises " (4^th Year of English), ISP/Bukavu

15. ________________ (2003) " Research Seminar (4^th Year of English), ISP/Bukavu.

16. Kamanyula, K. (1987) " Life of Bukavu School Teen-Agers : A Descriptive Essay "

(3^rd year research paper), ISP/BUKAVU.

17. KAMBALE, M.B. (2003) " Special Topics in English Linguistics " (Part 1). (4 th

Year of English), ISP/Bukavu.

18. _______________ (2004) " Applied Linguistics " (Part 2). (5 th Year of English),

ISP/BUKAVU

19. MUKE, Z. (2003) " Cours de Statistique Inferentielle ".

1^ère Licence, ISP / Bukavu

ANNEXES

ANNEX I : INFORMANTS

We got in contact with 40 parents of the children concerned in this work as our informants at the point of departure. From this number we selected only 15 as we did for the sample of the children we worked with.

a. Children

N°	NAMES	Age	Sex	Date of interview	Place
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10 11 12 13 14 15	Adrien MARHEGANE Aganze JERRY Amisi KANINGU Binja MUKONO Carine NSHOMBO Elvis MATARATARA Emma NDATABAYE Emile BATUMIKE Faida SCHOLA Fernand BIRINDWA Marcelin CISHUGI Neema MUKONO Philemon NSIBULA N. Rosette BISIMWA Victor MUGISHO	6 : 00 1 : 7 5 : 00 3 : 6 3 : 8 0 : 11 2 : 3 2 : 00 3 : 9 1 : 6 1 : 00 2 : 6 6 : 00 3 : 9 0 : 11	M M M F F M M M F M M F M F M	17.02.05 18.02.05 17.02.05 18.02.05 17.02.05 17.02.05 18.02.05 18.02.05 18.02.05 17.02.05 18.02.05 18.02.05 18.02.05 18.02.05 17.02.05	Bagira, Fariala Mbobero / Ikambi Bagira, Q/B, S/Walungu, Mbobero/Ikambi Mbobero / Nkungu Mbobero/Ikambi Q/A,S/Kasenga,n°14,Bagira Mbobero/Ikambi Mbobero/Nkungu Q/C, Mokoto, Bagira Mbobero/Nkungu Mbobero/Ikambi Mbobero/Ikambi Mbobero/Ikambi Q/B, S/Walikale, Bagira

b. Parents

N°	NAMES	Age	Sex	Date of interview	Place
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10 11 12 13 14 15	BYABUSHI ILDEPHONSE CISHUGI CIFETE DEMETILE M'MUNGAZI DEMETILE M'MUNGAZI EUSTACHE BIRINDWA FAUSTIN BISIMWA HONORINE M'CIKAKA JEANINE (Caretaker) JOSEPHINE M'NYAMWATA LYDIE BATASEMA M'CIRORO MUKONO ILDEPHONSE MUKONO ILDEPHONSE NOELLA M'MAPERU PHILIPPE HAMISI	50 37 44 35 35 30 26 40 27 50 23 45 30	M M F M M F F F F M F M F	18.02.05 18.02.05 18.02.05 17.02.05 18.02.05 18.02.05 17.02.05 18.02.05 18.02.05 18.02.05 18.02.05 17.02.05 17.02.05	Q/A, S/KASENGA, n° 14 Mbobero/Nkungu Mbobero/Nkungu Q/C-Bagira, Mokoto Mbobero/Ikambi Mbobero/Ikambi Fariala/Bagira Mbobero/Ikambi Mbobero/Ikambi Mbobero/Ikambi Mbobero/Ikambi Q/B, S/Walungu,n°21/Bagir Q/B, Q/Walikale

ANNEX II. MAULIZO (MADOSO)

A. KWA MTOTO (OKU MWANA)

1. Aye ?

2. We njo nani ? ... (We ndi ?)

3. Nini hii ? (Naonyesha Kio ao photo) ... (Bici ebi ?)

4. Ni nani ule mu Kio (Ku photo) ... ( Ndi oyo omu ciyo ?)

5. Unasomaka ? ... (K'onaj'oku masomo ?)

6. Wapi ? ... (Ngahi ?)

7. Mu somo gani ? ... (Omu isomo lihi ?)

Kama mtoto hawezi jibia kwa kuwa hajafikia kusema bado, nampa tu kio ao

photo yake ya sasa. Kisha ninachunguza vema namna gani atajiona ndani na kama ataweza kujitambua binafsi bila tatizo.

B. KWA MZAZI (OKU MUBUSI )

Kitangulio : Maulizo haya yatatusaidia kujuwa ni kwa miaka ngapi mtoto anaweza

kujitambua kwenyi kio ama picha (photo) kuwa " Mie ".

1. Mtoto huyu njo nani ? ... (Oyu mwana ye ndi ?)

2. Ana miaka ngapi ? ... (Agwerhe myaka inga ?)

3. Ni fille ao ni garçon ? ... (Ka murhabana erhi munyere ?)

4. a) Jina ya baba ni nani ? ... (Ishe ye ndi ?)

b) Jina ya mama ni nani ?... (Nina ye ndi ? )

5. a) Mulisomaka ? ... (Ka mwajire oku masomo ?

b) Mpaka somo gani ? ... (Kuhik'omwisomo lihi ?)

6. Munafanyaka kazi gani ? ... (Kazi kahi mukola ?)

7. Mtoto naye anasomaka ? ... (K'omwana anaj'emasomo ?)

8. Wapi ? ... (Ngahi ?)

9. Mu somo gani ? ... (Omu isomo lihi ?)

10. Ninaweza sumulia naye ? ... (Ka nanamuganiza ?)

Aksanti ! ( Koko ! )

* ^* " Ndeko " is a meeting room of a local Catholic Church. It is a place where kindergaten is organised in the morning and in the afternoon Christians meet in to pray and discuss about any topic concerning their lives.

* ^* In the Democratic Republic of Congo school system, " Foyer " is an adult women's education centre. But in Bagira this centre is no longer used for the benefit of women. The building is now rent by a private kindergaten called MAENDELEO, but people still refer to it as " Foyer ".