'Literacy is the ability to read and write English': defining and developing literacy in basic schools in Ghana

How do teachers define literacy, and how do their perceptions influence their approach to the teaching and learning of literacy? These and other questions relating to literacy generally formed the focus of this ethnographic case study in two urban public primary schools in Ghana. The paper also considers teachers' views on mother tongue literacy. Teachers tend to perceive literacy as the ability to read and write English or an international language like French, etc. and scarcely consider mother tongue literacy as relevant. Teachers' perceptions tend to be reflected in their pedagogical approach, which generally involves error correction and grammar-based language teaching, as well as in their assessment of literacy. Although teachers and society at large tend to have unfavourable attitudes to mother tongue/bilingual education, in the real classroom situation teachers tend to code switch between English and the local language on the grounds that pupils' understanding of English is inadequate.