LINGUISTICALLY MARGINALIZED CATEGORY OF CHILDREN: A CASE OF THREE COMPOUNDS IN LUSAKA CITY, ZAMBIA

The purpose of the study was to analyze how children between the ages of one day to five years are linguistically marginalized in their own communities. The study employed a mixed paradigm and descriptive survey design that sampled three compounds in Lusaka; Misisi Compound, Matero Compound and Kabulonga. Sample size comprised of 60 respondents and parents and children were interviewed and collection of the objects that children use to play with were used to collect data. Data was obtained from respondents by means of interviews, objects children use and observation schedules. Frequency, percentages, tables, graphs and pie-charts were used to analyze the quantitative and qualitative data obtained. Data was then analyzed manually in some cases and also, a combination of software MS Access and MS Excel. The findings revealed that home-based language marginalization, can occur within the same community to any child from any social, economic and education background and that adults‟ linguistic practices contribute in preventing this category of children to have enough access to the speech of their ancestors. Therefore, understanding possible factors that contribute to children‟s first language marginalization in families can guide parents (caretakers), educational researchers, linguists, and community-based The simple random sampling procedure was used to select the 30parents and 30 children. In the sampling of compounds, the study adopted the stratified cluster random sampling technique. The compounds were stratified by initially by population and clustered by location (zones). Sampling was done zone by zone. The sampling was done at three levels: Sampling zones and compounds- level 1, sampling parents- level 2 and sampling children-level 3. the the used qualitative research methods to collect empirical data from children (1-4 years) and parents. These methods were used to gain access to the multiple realities and subjective meanings about Mother tongue early childhood marginalization. Here, one-on-one interviews were conducted. The interview questions were developed from the four main research questions listed above. The participants comprised both male and female, parents and children. They were selected from three different social backgrounds: Misisi Compound, Matero Compound and Kabulonga. The interviews were generally 5-10 minutes long for children and 10-20 for the adults. The questions were framed around children‟s speech production, sound perception, listening and speaking skills, meaning understanding, non-linguistic communicative elements, and children‟s interactions with their peers and with adults.

The purpose of the study was to analyze how children between the ages of one day to five years are linguistically marginalized in their own communities. The study employed a mixed paradigm and descriptive survey design that sampled three compounds in Lusaka; Misisi Compound, Matero Compound and Kabulonga. Sample size comprised of 60 respondents and parents and children were interviewed and collection of the objects that children use to play with were used to collect data. Data was obtained from respondents by means of interviews, objects children use and observation schedules. Frequency, percentages, tables, graphs and pie-charts were used to analyze the quantitative and qualitative data obtained. Data was then analyzed manually in some cases and also, a combination of software MS Access and MS Excel. The findings revealed that home-based language marginalization, can occur within the same community to any child from any social, economic and education background and that adults" linguistic practices contribute in preventing this category of children to have enough access to the speech of their ancestors. Therefore, understanding possible factors that contribute to children"s first language marginalization in families can guide parents (caretakers), educational researchers, linguists, and community-based workers in their respective work with children during their early childhood (1day-5years of age). 870 most of these literatures put focus only on how children are linguistically marginalized in schools (also known as linguistic imperialism in schools). This happens through learning in languages that are not familiar to them, such as English, French, Portuguese, etc. and have ignored the form of children language marginalization that takes place in their own homes by their own parents or community members. These are linguistically marginalized in a sense that they have no significant access to their first language compared to other children in the same community.
This study focuses on such kind of language marginalization: [the] children language marginalization of their first language by their own communities during their early childhood, which is from infancy to 5 years. Why should it be considered as a language marginalization? It is because; linguistic proficiency is a central requirement for human life. Magnuson (2000). Second, bilingual researches prove that proficiency in first language is a strong predictor of second language skills development and that the competence in a second language is a function of proficiency in the first language. Commins (2000). Therefore, not exposing a child to his or her first language is another form of marginalizing on him or her, specifically the kind of language marginalization that takes place primarily in the child"s home by his or her own close relatives.
Why do parents and other caretakers do not view this as act of marginalizing children? Two factors can explain it. First, as ZalineMakini (2019) observed, it is common today to hear people holding the argument of the world getting smaller by technology and globalization to justify the use of foreign languages rather than African languages (which are both the first and familiar languages to children in Africa) as languages of education, official affairs and business in African countries. This view makes parents and other caretakers in African communities avoid the use of their (the parent"s) familiar languages ( these are in most cases the parent"s mother tongues) while talking to their children even before they have attained the age to attend school. Secondly, parents" misconception about the innateness theory, which suggests that language, is an inborn faculty. This means that humans are born with a certain set of rules concerning language in their mind. Chomsky referred to this set of rules as a Universal Grammar. Chomsky (2004). This makes many parents think that a child does not necessarily need to be exposed to his or her first language in order to acquire it.
To fully understand the early childhood language marginalization, two approaches of Language Development in children: the Native Magnet Model and The Interactionist language-learning theory will help in understanding how it happens. On one hand, the Native Magnet Model is based on the idea that from our infancy we can trace and perceive sounds of different languages and that the skills we develop to perceive language sounds influence our future language learning. On the other hand, the Social interactionist approach of both first and second language acquisition focuses on the role of social interaction. It views interactions as the context and process through which language can be learned. The discussion will explore the social process of language acquisition, especially children"s first language.

Statement of the Problem
Children language marginalization takes place first in their own homes by their own parents or community members. These are linguistically marginalized in a sense that they have no significant access to their first language compared to other children in the same community or by learning languages which are not familiar to them Mohanty (2010).

Purpose of the study
The purpose of the study was to analyze how children between1 day to 5 years of age are linguistically marginalized in their own communities.

Research Objectives:-
This article was guided by the following four key research objectives: 1. To identify the linguistically marginalized children by their own communities in their first languages. 2. To establish the possible factors that contribute to children"s first language marginalization in families. 3. To highlight how the early childhood language marginalization affect children. 4. To assess whether the home-based language marginalization happen only in the poor social and less educated backgrounds where these children live, or does it occur in both environments.

Theoretical Framework
The study was guided by, the Marginalization theory by Mark Orbe (1996) which brings about processes by which individuals and groups are ignored or relegated to the sidelines and Neo-classical economists trace marginalization to individual character flaws or to cultural resistance to individualism. In this case, parents, members of the community and teachers seem not to recognize or give space for certain functions of child language as accorded to adult language within the same linguistic ecology. This affects a child"s speech production, sound perception, listening and speaking skills as well as interactions with their peers and with adults, Kuhl (2000),

Significance of the Study
It is hoped that the findings of the study would contribute to the knowledge gap amongst all the stake holders interested in initial child language education in Zambia on Children language marginalization in their own communities and at school as well as highlight how the early childhood language marginalization affect children. This understanding can guide parents and caretaker, educational researchers, linguists, and community-based workers in their respective work with children during their early childhood (1day-5years of age).

Review Of Relevant Literature Language
Language is a complex and dynamic system of conventional symbols that are used in various modes, thoughts and communication and can be defined as, a socially shared code or conventional system for representing concepts through the use of arbitrary symbols and the rule governing combinations of these symbols, Fromkin et al (2007). Therefore, language has a vital role to play in the education process and hence, the attainment of language skills during the initial education stage is extremely important in the education system and also, communication is essential in teaching and learning.

Mother tongue
Mother tongue can be defined as the language which a child starts hearing after being born and mother tongue, helps in providing a definite shape to a child"s emotions and thoughts. Therefore, learning in the mother tongue is crucial in enhancing skills to learn a second language and literacy skills. Mother tongue makes it easier for children to pick up and learn other languages. Mother tongue develops a child"s personal, social and cultural identity and using mother tongue helps a child develop their critical thinking and literacy skills Comminis (2000). However, children are linguistically marginalized in their own homes by parents who instead of using their mother tongue to their children in homes. At times, parents use both the mother tongue and a foreign language thereby depriving an infant whose is having his or her emotions and thoughts being shaped in the mother tongue. This marginalization comes about as a child"s skills to learn a foreign language are not fully developed.
Language marginalization may also occur to a child born in a home where both parents are educated and report for work every morning till evening. Such educated parents tend to communicate to the infant in a foreign language such as English while the infant"s siblings and the nanny who remain with the child at home the whole day tend to communicate to the child in familiar local language or mother tongue. Another instance which may bring about language marginalization could be a child born in a home where parents belong to different ethnic groups and each communicate to the child in their own mother tongue. In both scenarios, the child listens to different language sounds and since the child"s critical thinking and literacy skills are not fully developed and since many parents think that a child does not necessarily need to be exposed to his or her first language in order to acquire it. However, not exposing a child to his or her first language is another form of marginalizing on him or her, specifically the kind of language marginalization that takes place primarily in the child"s home by his or her own parents and close relatives Eimas et al (1971).

Language acquisition
Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language or the process to gain the ability to be aware of language and to understand it, produce and use words and sentences to communicate. The two ways of language acquisition is the first language acquisition which refers to the way children learn their mother tongue whereas, second language acquisition refers to the learning of another language or languages besides the first language, Chomsky (2004). Children acquire language quickly and easily and acquire language through repetition and reinforcements. It should also be mentioned that the process of acquiring language is important because this is what makes all other learning possible and that is why learning all the skills a person needs for communicating with other people throughout life is one of the main developmental tasks of early 872 childhood. However, language marginalization in childhood usually occurs between the ages of zero to five years and mostly during the six language acquisition stages which are critical in child language acquisition.
Language acquisition is the process through which children learn their native language by abstracting structural information from the language they hear around them and internalizing such information for later use. Children acquire language through six stages as advocated by Ford and Robertson (2008). It should be noted that the process of acquiring language is quite cardinal because it is what makes all other learning possible. In addition, language acquisition is important as it is the foundation for a multitude of other skills such as vocabulary, writing structure and other text-based skills. So, any disturbance to the six stages of language acquisition in childhood has a negative effect on the child"s language use later in life.
The six language acquisition stages as advocated by Ford and Robertson are: Pre-talk stage or Cooing (0-6 months)-this stage is also known as the gurgling or mewing stage where the first thing the child does is crying and cooing and in the process the child discovers vocal cords and produces sounds such as coo/ goo or ga-ga and so on.
Babbling stage (6-8 months)-at this stage, the child first uses single syllable speech-ba/ da/ ma, secondly reduplicated bubbling is used where the child repeats same syllable such as ba-ba/ na-na/ ma-ma and so on. Thirdly, at this stage, the child uses variegated babbling, that is mixing different sounds such as ba de da.
Holophrastic stage (9-18 months)-this is also referred to as the one-word stage as the child uses one word to express a sentence such "water" meaning "Give me water." At this stage, the child uses commands and learns requests later.
Two-word stage (18-24 months)-at this stage, the child uses two words instead of one for a sentence such as "give water" instead of just "water" or "give milk" instead of just "milk" to mean Give me water or give me milk.
Telegraphic stage (24-30 months)-at this stage, the child put two/three/four or five words together at a time and speech is like one writing a telegram where verbs are omitted. Such as "milk cup" instead of "a cup of hot milk"/ "water black pot" instead of "a black pot full of water" Later multi-word or Loquacity stage (30+months)-at this stage, the child uses substantial sentences which are make grammatical and functional sense and also child talks a lot and asks questions a lot.

Language marginalization
While many studies were or are devoted to language marginalization in general and Child language marginalization in school in a particular way, it is cardinal to do an analysis of how children of 1 day-5years of age are linguistically marginalized in their own communities in Zambia and Lusaka in particular. The focus should be on the child"s first language which is commonly known as local language, mother tongue or native language during the child"s early childhood Mohanty (2010). We should attempt to reveal factors that contribute to this kind of language marginalization of the child"s own first languages even before most of these go to school. The attention should also be on the adults" linguistic practices, and how they contribute in preventing this category of children, to have enough access to the speech of their ancestors. Basing on two approaches of Language Development in Children, one of the derived conclusions would be that of home-based language marginalization and this can occur within the same community to any child from any social, economic and education background.

Causes of language marginalization
Many researchers have been trying to understand what could be the main causes of language marginalization. Andy and Mawande (2019), for example, demonstrated that poverty and illiteracy contributes to language marginalization. They took Khoisan languages with a limited number of remote-dwelling communities of Botswana as an illustrative case. They indicated that these people"s poverty and illiteracy in their own languages and in other aspects in general makes them isolated. To them, historically and socially, due to their mode of living, these communities were easily subdued and exploited by other language communities. According to them, Colonialism found them in this social state, and post-colonialism has left them in the same state.

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Another factor pushed by many as being at the root of children language marginalization is the domination of the minorities by groups of the majorities. According to the same authors, this covers underlying cultural and linguistic discrimination, and legitimizes ethnic domination, as the following observation from UNESCO World Commission on Culture and Development (1995) indicates. This can be especially observed in a multilingual context. Ajit Mohanty (2010).
Researchers argue that the school is one of the key areas where children language marginalization is plainly practiced. Phillipson (1992). The Handbook on Language of Instruction Issues in Reading Programs recognizes that while many factors contribute learning crisis, language is increasingly, and rightly, recognized as a key reason that millions of learners globally do not acquire the skills they need to succeed in school and in life. This same work indicates that the problem is twofold: First, many school systems continue to use languages for instruction that children do not speak, use fluently or understand. These school systems, abide to that unproductive practice despite the overwhelming evidences such as those described in the abovementioned Handbook-of the key role that language[familiar to the learner] plays in supporting effective teaching and learning.
UNESCO estimates that 40 percent of the world"s children do not have access to education in a language they understand. Second, education systems continue to use language for instruction in ways that are ineffective in helping children learn to read and to learn across the curriculum. This includes utilizing methodologies for teaching reading that are not evidence-based and not specific to the language being taught.

Effects of early childhood language marginalization on children
Early childhood language marginalization comes about when a child in infant stage is excluded by the people whose voices they need most by denying them opportunities to communicate their needs and priorities and this is mostly done by parents not exposing the child to his or her first language. Early childhood language marginalization affects the individual child and his or her family life and normally, language marginalization is associated with social isolation or poor social integration as well as dysfunctional family relations. Usually, as already alluded to, children are marginalized by their own parents, siblings, neighbours, kinder garden teachers and other children in school and thesetype of children may develop language disabilities, mental health resulting in poor esteem and lack of selfefficacy and may engage in risky behaviours later in life as well as become victims of physical or sexual violence. Above all, marginalization negatively impact an individual"s physical, psychological and emotional health and as a result of these consequences, the child may develop feelings of anger, anxiety, fear, depression, self-blame, sadness, stress and isolation. In conclusion, early childhood language marginalization affect a child"s speech production, sound perception, listening and speaking skills as well as interactions with their peers and with adults, (Eimas et al, 1971).

Study Design
The study design was a survey with sparse use of qualitative data. This design was chosen because the considered appropriate as they also allowed for more flexible strategies of data collection in order to answer the research questions, (Scott, 2015). Also, because the research had to cover three compounds and many respondents in a short period of time and also, had to get detailed view points on the issue from the point of view of the researched and used statistical tests and graphic displays to analyse data (Hatch,2016).

Research sites
The study was carried out in three compounds (Misisi, Matero and Kabulonga) in Lusaka District of Lusaka Province from which respondents were also sampled.

Population, Sample and Sampling procedure
The population for the study consisted of all children and all parents of marginalized children in the three compounds of Lusaka district. (Johnson and Christensen, 2012), describes population as the entire group of individuals or items under consideration in any field of inquiry and have a common attribute.The sample consisted of sixty (60) respondents. A representative sample of 30 children and 30 parents, that is 10 children from each compound and 30 parents, that is, 10 from each compound were randomly selected from the three compounds in the district (White, 2005).

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The simple random sampling procedure was used to select the 30parents and 30 children. In the sampling of compounds, the study adopted the stratified cluster random sampling technique. The compounds were stratified by initially by population and clustered by location (zones). Sampling was done zone by zone. The sampling was done at three levels: Sampling zones and compounds-level 1, sampling parents-level 2 and sampling children-level 3.
To investigate the problem, the researcher used qualitative research methods to collect empirical data from children (1-4 years) and parents. These methods were used to gain access to the multiple realities and subjective meanings about Mother tongue early childhood marginalization. Here, one-on-one interviews were conducted. The interview questions were developed from the four main research questions listed above. The participants comprised both male and female, parents and children. They were selected from three different social backgrounds: Misisi Compound, Matero Compound and Kabulonga. The interviews were generally 5-10 minutes long for children and 10-20 for the adults. The questions were framed around children"s speech production, sound perception, listening and speaking skills, meaning understanding, non-linguistic communicative elements, and children"s interactions with their peers and with adults.
Additionally, the collection of the objects that children use to play such as audiovisual gaming tools, objects with writings, the observation of the entertainments they view through digital tolls such as TV and Smart phones allowed to know which language these children were the most exposed to and with what effects. In the interviews and reflections, parents were asked to comment on their linguistic practices when they interact with their children. The interviewed parents also commented on the time they spend with their children and the ways the linguistic challenges their children face can be addressed. The author did the analysis of data and this phase concentrated on the subjective meanings of the respondents" opinions, thoughts and their appreciation of the role of adults and the society in general in Children"s Language Development.

Data Analysis
In this research, data was analysed qualitatively as the semi structured interviews and observation schedules were used as data collection instruments. Thematic approach was used, where data analysis started with the categorization of themes from the semi structured interviews and observation schedules (Smith, 2013).Charts and graphs were used to analyse data. The data gathered was analysed according to the themes of the study, the order of the research objectives. Data generated from the interview guide was analysed manually and also, a combination of software MS Access, SPSS and MS Excel was used to analyse data. Analysis was mainly descriptive, that is, mean, median, mode, range, and standard deviation. Related statistics were applied where possible. Statistical testing took the form of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), correlation and regression both simple and multiple.

Ethical Issues
The researcher avoided pressuring respondents to take part in the research. Alternatively, permission consents, assents were obtained from respondents involved in the research and the research topic was strategically selected to ensure that there was no harm whatsoever to the research respondents. In this research, the researcher was fully conscious of the need to abide by the ethical rule of respecting the privacy of individuals taking part in the research. In the same way, all the respondents of the research were to remain unidentified to the public as all their valuable views, opinions and perceptions were only known by the researcher for use only in the research and participant"s identities will forever remain hidden.
The Researcher got permission from The District Education Board Secretary (DEBS) to interview parents and from children to interview teachers and learners. The names of respondents would remain anonymous for the sake of confidentiality, (Kasonde, 2013). However, the identity of respondents was concealed in the thesis but for identification in the thesis, thirty parents were allocated numbers 1 to 30 while children were allocated ordinal numbers 1 st to30 th .

Findings And Discussions:-
As it was seen in the introductive section of this study, language proficiency especially proficiency in one"s first language is capital to human life. The interesting thing, according to Glasson (2000), is that babies (whether deaf, hard of hearing or hearing) begin to communicate intentionally before the end of their first year, usually when they are about 9 to 10 months of age. This is the period, when children realize that they can make a vocalization or a gesture and expect the other person, parents for instance, to respond. The truth is that early vocabulary skills are 875 very important regardless of the child"s hearing status or mode of communication (visual or auditory). To achieve this, children must be exposed to language, their first language. This is possible only through social interactions.
Through this study, it was noted that parent"s absenteeism at home, electronic devices such as Smart phones and Game devices, TV entertainments such as cartoon movies, are the key factors of language marginalization during their early childhood and most of the cases, this happens subconsciously. This is to say that parents do not realize that their little children are being treated unfairly, so to speak. It was also noted that such kind of language marginalization is independent of their parents" social, economic, education background.

Social interaction and early phonetic perception:
The social interactionist theory suggests that knowledge, which includes knowledge about language, develops first through social interactions and then becomes an internalized part of cognitive structure of learners. Brown (2000). One of the ways to marginalize a child is to deny him or her the right of interacting, which in turn affects his or her language development. This is even true, the community considers the role of language in human"s life especially their first language as it was observed by Sean Hughes when he asserted that "[…], from the cradle to the grave and nearly day-in-between, humans are bathed in a seas of language. From early childhood, they swim in conversations and wave stories about past, present and future. By adulthood they use written and spoken words to control their own and other people"s behavior and to transmit information within and between generations." As regards social interaction and early phonetic perception in infants, the study reviewed that this can be achieved by engaging children in games (27%), offering support (26%), providing feedback (24%), monitoring child language development, 16%) and interaction with child at 7% as illustrated in Figure 1 below. Language exposure produces commitments that affects future learning: simply put, the brain"s early coding affects the ability to learn the phonetic schemas of a new language. Therefore, social interaction influences early language learning at the phonetic level.
Parents" home absenteeism negatively affects children"s Language sounds learning process. How? According to the Native Magnet Model, speech perception is linked to language acquisition. Kuhl argued that before they can learn language words, children learn first sounds or phonics of language. In other words, the child"s brain has the ability to process language sounds by using the hearing. Children can discern the differences among sounds of various languages.
Native and non-native phonetic perception skills, predicts later language ability. What does this mean?-it simply means that if a child has proved to have developed high abilities in hearing correctly which sound of language parents or other caretakers have uttered, then this child will be expected to attain proficiency in language. Children are able to discriminate virtually all the phonetic units of the world"s language. Eimas (1971 et al.). They can distinguish between the sounds of their language and those of other languages only if parents produce them.
The use of Electronic devices contribute to children"s language marginalization. Kuhl explains that if a child of nine months of age is exposed to a certain language for the first time, he or she will learn phonetically from a human being but not from disembodied sources even if the acoustic information remains the same. This is to say that children can learn language sounds only if they are in contact with other human beings. They need to interact with others. According to her, even if they repeatedly listen to audio recordings or videos of that language, children cannot learn correctly its sounds. Kuhl (2003).
This study revealed that parents or other caretakers do not use their human language sounds when they are with these children meaning that they do not significantly interact with them; rather they expose these children to language sounds that have been recorded on different electronic tools. This can include games, baby songs, cartoons, etc. Though these recordings may be in the child"s first language, they cannot allow children to develop linguistic skills that will enable them to perceive phonetic sounds. A human being needs this, because language acquisition is not passive. It implies that children do not just accumulate information, procedures, and then be able to utilize language in different forms. Jackendoff (1994).
Therefore, the perception link is forged developmentally. According to the Magnet approach, the link between perceptual representations is formed through experience with language and vocal imitations. It means that when children become familiar to the language they have been exposed to, they then start striving to imitate the sounds they hear and try to match them with those stored in their memory. Early speech perception is therefore a strong predicting tool to measure how far a child will go in learning language as he grows up. Kuhl (2000a, b).

Social interaction and further language development:
The interactionist theory supports the view that language is acquired through social interactions, meaning that the social environment plays a preponderant role especially that language is a social product. Larsen Long (1991). Social interactions allow children to develop their language. They do so especially through two main ways: negotiations and collaborative dialogues. However, as it was stated earlier, parents" home absenteeism, TV entertainments, denying children to associate with others can marginalize them and hinder them from getting required exposure to language.
As regards social interaction and language development, according to the parents, the solutions for children"s language development during infancy lay in child motivation at 19%, conducive environment 16%, interaction with child, 16% and attachments to the child and giving child warmth at 10% while the negatives to language development were overprotection at 16%, lack of parental support at 16% and child maltreatment at 7% as illustrated in Figure 2 below.

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Language Negotiation: when children start to vocalize and produce clear language sounds, they feel happy. When they start talking and interacting with others (relatives or not), they acquire language through modification of previous utterances. This is to say that they hear and correct their mistake. This happens between them and experienced speakers. In some sense, it can be said that these children negotiate language. They need it from someone else.
Collaborative dialogue: here, they engage into significant dialogue, talks, etc. Ellis (1985), and this process can take place even without the kinds of communication breakdowns and repairs that characterizes negotiation. Through this study, it was seen that adults are not there to engage in such dialogues and when they are there, they let their children talk to TVs than they do with human beings.

Conclusion:-
The study was conducted in three compounds in Lusaka. Though many think that language marginalization takes place or happens only in schools, through this study, it was discovered that some children from 1day to 5 years, are linguistically marginalized in their own homes. In addition, this is so in their first language. Since child"s proficiency in his or her first determines his or her proficiency in L2, L3 and so on and, according to the American Speech-Hearing Association (ASHA); in its Prison Populations (2000), not exposing a child to his or her first language, causes him or her to develop poor skills in his or her second language, which in future can lead to poor academic performance, school dropouts, juvenile delinquency, and adult criminal behavior. Therefore, refusing to expose a child to his or her first language is a real form of child marginalization.The results generated by this study indicated that parents spend little time with their children, the use of Smart phones and TV entertainments prevent both parents and these very little children to engage in an interactive communication. It was also revealed through the analysis that parents in all these three areas in Lusaka tend to communicate more with their children in English than in Zambian languages. The study showed that children in wealthy places interact less with their age mates especially those from lower economic places. It was then evident that children from one day to five years are prevented to have full access their mother tongue. This happens not in schools but in their own homes and communities by their own parents or caretakers, and other adults in general, which in turn was seen to have an impact on their proficiency in these languages and their second languages. Finally, through interviews with parents, the study revealed that this marginalization is due to poor social interaction (children not exposed to these languages) and it was observable all the three communities with different economic, social, and education backgrounds.

Recommendations:-
the recommendations were as follow: 1) Parents should spend more time with their children as well as engage in an interactive communication and spend little time on the use of Smart phones and TV entertainments prevent both parents and these very little children to engage in an interactive communication.
2) Parents in all these three areas in Lusaka should try by all means to communicate more with their children in Zambian languages than in English. 3) Children in wealthy places should interact more with their age mates especially those from lower economic places. 4) Children from one day to five years should not be prevented to have full access of their mother tongue. This should not be allowed to happens in schools, in their own homes and communities by their own parents or caretakers, and other adults in general, which in turn may have an impact on their proficiency in these languages and their second languages. 5) Good and conducive social interaction, that is, children must be exposed to local languages) regardless of communities with different economic, social, and education backgrounds they may be coming from.