New Curriculum - English Language Overview

As a nation, we should embrace the new curriculum as it brings more benefits than limitations to our society. It was introduced at a time when it was needed most. We were trailing behind in terms of the quality of education basing on the current trends. Now we have joined the bandwagon having the likes of Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria to mention but a few. The idea is to ensure that the learners acquire skills in the psychomotor domain, affective domain and cognitive domain in a particular learning area.

It is important to explore individual learning areas in order to ensure great understanding by the teacher. This will in turn result in the learners benefiting and objectives being met without hassle. In this article I decided to explore the English Language learning area. The syllabus covers from form one up to form four in one document. This is now easy to use especially for teachers.

During the four year period learners should develop skills in problem solving, critical thinking, decision making, conflict resolution, self management, communication, technology and innovation, enterprising and teamwork. Truly speaking, these skills are of great importance in the world of work and society in general.

There are cross cutting themes that the syllabus provides for. These should be considered by the authors when writing books and teachers when preparing for the teaching and learning process. The themes are as follows:gender, children's rights, sexuality, HIV and AIDS, child protection, heritage studies, human rights, collaboration, and environmental issues. These are part of the various issues that affect today's society. The learners should be exposed to such issues and be ready with solutions before they join the society as adults.

The general aims of the curriculum are clearly stated and they apply to all levels. For example it aims to help learners communicate effectively in spoken English/Sign Language in different situations. They go up to seven. There are also general objectives which states what the learners should achieve by the end of form four. There are ten objectives, for example, by the end of form four learners should be able to construct correct English sentences orally and in writing/brail.

The objectives are clear and exhaustive. The objectives encourage learner centred and interactive activities that enable all learners to develop and understand linguistic concepts and their use in everyday life.

Various methodologies have been suggested. The strategies include:debate and discussions, individual and group presentations, drama, role play, poetry, song and dance, educational tours, e-learning, research/case studies, puppetry, diorama, quizz and models/resource persons. The teacher should also employ any other relevant strategies that he/she may think of. Six to seven periods of 35 to 40 minutes were recommended.

We now look at the skills to be acquired by the learners during the four year period. They are: listening/observing, speaking/signing, reading/signing and writing/brailing. Signing involves the use of sign language whereas brailing is for the blind. Each skill has requirements at each level. The syllabus has a breakdown of the skills and their sub skills from form one to four. For example the speaking skills has the following sub skills:pronunciation, registers, descriptions, debates and speeches. Each sub skill is learnt at each level. To take an example of speeches, all levels are required to learn impromptu speech and prepared speech.

Now let's look at the language structures. This part is made up of eight areas namely:nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, spelling and word formation, sentence construction, and direct and indirect speech. They look familiar, don't they?They are also learnt at each level. Learners should know the language structures in terms of formation and usage. The syllabus requires the language structures to be learnt in context across all the skills , ie, given a passage you are asked language questions.

There is another area of interest which is the competency matrix. It is the longest part of the syllabus. It is done per skill for forms 1 to 4. Teachers should derive their schemes of work mainly with information from the competency matrix. It is divided into the following columns:sub area, objectives, content(attitude, knowledge and skills), suggested notes and activities and lastly suggested resources.

Last but not least, there is the important aspect of assessment. There is continuous assessment and summative assessment. Assessment objectives are given according to skill. Continuous assessment contributes 30 % made up of 15% project and 15% oral. The exit profile should be there but does not contribute marks to the final exam. Summative assessment contributes 70% made up of two papers of 35% each. For form 1 there is one assessment task per term for speaking, listening, writing and a project. All this contribute 5% of the 30%. The project features at all levels. It remains the same for form 2 which contributes 5%, form 3 , 10% and finally form 4 which has 10%. If you add them together you come up with a total of 30%. For summative assessment , Paper 1has section A, free composition(30 marks) and section B guided composition(20 marks). It is written in 1hour 30 minutes. Paper 2 has section A, comprehension and summary (40 marks) and section B, supporting language structures based on the passage given in section A(10 marks). Duration is 2 hours.

I hope you find this article helpful. I wish the teachers and learners a successful teaching and learning process. I appeal to parents to support schools on the new curriculum. It's your children's future.

For views and comments contact Farirai Nyamana on 0773 152143.