I should like to thank the ODA and the Ministry of General Education and Culture, Zambia, for having provided me with the opportunity to carry out the research for this project.
I should like to thank the following personally for all their help and encouragement: Professor Dylan Aspinwall, Professor John Chapman, Israel Chikalanga, Myra Harrison, Armand Hughes D'Aeth, Terence Humphreys, Professor M Kelly SJ, John Luangala, Malcolm Molloy, Graham Ness, Leo O'Keefe, Professor Bridie Raban, Malcolm Seath, Rodah Zulu.
I am grateful to Reading University colleagues for their support especially Ron White, Don Porter and Pauline Robinson of the Centre for Applied Language Studies, and Professor David Wilkins of the Department of Linguistic Science, who first brought the project to my notice. I benefitted from the cooperation of Dr Vivian Edwards and her colleagues at the Reading and Language Information Centre and I owe a great debt to Dr Andy Scott of the Department of Applied Statistics. I am grateful to Maisoon Rehani (ODA, London) help with the proof reading, and Cecilia Cruz (ODA, Lilongwe) for arranging transport. I must especially thank my wife, Dr Ann Williams, who did the drawings for the tests and also managed the family and her job during my field trips.
Finally, thanks are also due to all the headteachers, teachers and pupils, whose schools I visited. They have remained anonymous in this report, but without their kind cooperation in allowing me to observe their classes and administer the tests this project would not have been possible.
