ON THE WEB

Grappling with English language problems

National examinations over the years have recorded poor or mean scores on both English and Kiswahili throughout the country. Experience in Tanzania has shown that English and Kiswahili are interdependent during the elementary learning processes. But as a student moves from one learning level to the other, he has of necessity to lean on English language as a medium of communication as it is key in all other subjects testing creativity and writing skills in the process of its use.  Pendo Ryakitimbo dwells on the worsening English problem in a paper presented recently to an English teachers refresher workshop at Suji secondary school in Same, Kilimanjaro region.

As an advantageous medium of instruction in schools, problems facing the English discipline have to be addressed with all the seriousness in order to shape it nicely. Inspectorate reports in the past three years attributed the poor performance in this discipline to a professional overlook on the area of writing skills. This means  the whole range of the Composition aspect such as; sentence construction, coordination, use of connectors, paragraph building, spelling and punctuation.

According to such reports, teachers do not provide adequate writing exercises and neither do they insist on rigorous exercises to improve vocabulary, sentence structures, and general knowledge through extensive reading.   It is also clear that marking composition scripts is regarded as a tedious exercise by teachers and many avoid giving writing assignments to students.

Whether or not teachers admit these charges, the crux of the matter remains that most graduates nowadays reveal serious communication problems in the English discipline. Such an alarming situation commands for an irritating question to English teaching professionals; “Is there any connection between what English teachers do and what is actually happening in schools”?

The notion, “What English teachers do” does not necessarily mean “They don’t know what to do” but rather it means, “How they perform their professional duties” coupled with their long time experience.

The notion ‘What is actually happening in schools’ as aforesaid reflects what cripples students in the process of learning English - circumstances independent of their will and beyond their control i.e. the use of vernacular language, exercises, lack of textbooks, schools maintenance activities over whelming academics etc.

Problem worsening

If one asks “under which circumstances a student would perform poorly in English language?” Any reasonable person would get hold of a set of circumstances, which hinder the development of English language in schools. Such circumstances are situational problems, which may differ from one school to another due to differing conditions and backgrounds of their inception. Such problems are often referred to as small issues. But professionally speaking there are no small problems. Problems, however small may pull down the language status of a school and command it to grow from bad to worse. The under mentioned are some of these problems.

Down playing pre-secondary course

The precious pre-secondary English course has in the past fifteen years been neglected by several schools for reasons that students will pick up communication skills as they go along with other studies. This means that schools “Take things for granted” which is a grave mistake in the teaching enterprise. This is an opportune moment whereby a student is assisted during the early days of secondary school to build up his vocabulary, improve his speaking and writing abilities through trials and errors. In addition to this, students get the benefit of learning the “methods of studying” which prepare them better to cope with other subjects perfectly.

Kiswahili overwhelms English

For over 20 years Kiswahili was the official medium of instruction in primary schools thus bringing forth tendencies of down playing the English language in upper schools. In some cases secondary schoolteachers join the same band wagon and mistakenly or unknowingly use Kiswahili as a medium of instruction due to this background. Due to such as traditional background it has become a common phenomena for a teacher addressing a student in English to resort into Kiswahili response from the same student. It is hard to break tradition but the teaching profession demands a change in this respect.

Short lived English practicals

English communication skills revisited during Refresher seminars and workshops and implement in schools lasts only for a short while and gradually withers away.

Teachers from seminars always appear interested in exercising English practicals but end up halting the exercise due to lack of support. Inter school debates or purchasing additional instructional materials may seem to be involving schools into extra financial expenses and there by discouraged there and then.

In the light of this, the newly learnt skills and those sharpened through the exchange of views and ideas, end up being shelved for no further action.

Schools budgetary constraints

Nowadays school debates, school newspapers or newsletters and other forms of English language practicals are neglected under the pretext of limited budgets. This underscores the dishonesty of some school implementers posing as if education is expensive to them.

Vernacular language

Most students in secondary schools group themselves according to common interests and tribal backgrounds. Apart from the fact that most of such groups violate rules and regulations, they also disorganize students to such an extent that practical English usage outside classrooms leaves a lot to be desired.

In the light of this unprecedented situation, Kiswahili and vernacular languages prevails very prominently in several schools.

Wrong Model

It is a common phenomena for students to admire their teachers as model worthy copying. It goes without saying that teachers usually set the standards in whatever they do both in the classrooms and in the school campuses. In most cases such standards include how they teach, smile, walk, dress, and talk. Students are very smart in copying all these behaviours good or bad professional or unprofessional.

The standard required on the part of a teacher is the one portraying a very high degree of professionalism in such a way that helps a student to break barriers of English communication and build a bridge for further education or interactions with the rest of the world in the future. On the contrary, some school cases reveal that teachers use Kiswahili in schools thus defeating the purpose of using English as the language of those respective schools.

Recovering English substance matters

Teaching the English language seriously means and include the problems and opportunity of imparting English skills and experiences for the betterment of students interactions in various spheres of their lives. It goes without saying that experience has always proved to be the best teacher in the English language teaching enterprise.

The experiences of language professionals always assist in the identification of problems, and also demands for the opportunity to work on them. Sometimes the opportunity for seminars, workshops, and classrooms instructions leave a lot to be desired, but sometimes such opportunity is rest assured.

Sometimes teachers are not fully utilized due to negative circumstances, on one hand and depriving the students “chances of success" in adequately learning the English language on the other. Something very fundamental is lacking in the English language discipline. However, the problems within the meaning of this paper does not mean the loss of professional influence; but rather the problem here is the loss of confidence both on the part of teachers and the students on the loss of English substance matters which are not adequately taught in schools, nowadays.

This is a professional loss in  teaching English language, which has of necessity to be recovered. In the light of these circumstances which pull down the “teaching by success” exercise, the following thesis statement is desirable.

“It is the recovery of English substance matters focussing on the skills of reading, writing, speaking, listening and vocabulary that leads to the recovery of excellent practical English usage in schools”.

In other words the above phrase means. If there is no recovery of English substance matters, then there is no effective teaching, and therefore no fruitful results on the part of students.

The major point there is that matters of substance in the English language has the capacity to make a difference in communication skills of students and at the same time opens several avenues for students to interact with the outside world - i.e. use of Internet, etc, the English language teaching has always been in the stage of transition with old styles of books - talk, chalk, and explain only overtaken by new styles coupled with latest technology using dust free whiteboards, radio, television video sets, Internet access computers, etc. in which we find ourselves today.

“In my study about the history of the English language, I have never come across the point whereby it is generally assumed that there were no difficulties, that all was well, and that there were no problems. That one style was firmly in place and the new, style had not yet evolved.”

These facts in English history books underscore the fact that there has always been an influx of teaching styles in the business of teaching the English language.

*Pendo Ryakitimbo is a Teacher at the Tanzania Adventist College, Usa River, Arusha

[ Home ] [ Up ] [ Meditations ] [ EAC customs union ] [ Assembly's priority ] [ Grappling with English ]

Last modified: June 21, 2002.
Copyright © 2001, 2002 Arusha Times.  E-mail: editor@arushatimes.co.tz

Webmaster:   WDJMallya