32 The studies discussed in this section are not based in the Namibian context and their results cannot necessarily be extrapolated to the Oshana region. However, these studies enlighten me on their findings. They highlighted the problem areas that learners face as well as the strategies that learners employ in learning their second language. They inform me of the probable language problems that second language learners of English have when writing English. These studies shed light on the strategies that second language learners use and also they provide guidance in the methodological procedures that are employed in the study of Error Analysis.
The next section discusses the teaching methods that are used in teaching English in the Oshana region.
33 The communicative approach, as Richards and Rodgers (2001) mentioned, emphasises learning a language through authentic communication. The assumption is that learning a new language is easier and more enjoyable when it is truly meaningful. The teacher sets up a situation that learners are likely to encounter in real life, for instance interviews, answering calls, giving police reports, a weather report or a radio announcement. This approach’s focus is to engage learners in communicative processes such as information sharing, negotiation of meaning and interaction (Hart, 2007). As outlined in the Namibian English syllabus for grade 11 to 12 of 2010, learners should be engaged in activities such as role plays, interviews, games, pair work, group work, listening to dialogues and learning by teaching. The syllabus is designed to cover skills such as listening, speaking, reading, writing and language usage. All these should be incorporated in communicative lessons. In addition, the curriculum aims to develop learners’ ability to use language in formal and informal settings.
There is not much literature pertaining to what is currently being done in schools in Namibia regarding the teaching of English. However, studies carried out by Nyathi (1999; 2001) indicate that teachers still apply traditional teaching methods which involve activities such as controlled exercises, drills and rote learning. Nyathi (ibid) further pointed out that teachers sometimes also make use of the communicative approach but exclusively applied it in language teaching. The general practice to date seems to be that teachers neglect the teaching of grammar as they believe that communicative language teaching says no to grammar teaching.
From personal observation and teaching experience, secondary school teachers of English as a second language in the study area are unable to effectively implement the communicative approach due to the following reasons:
(a) The classrooms are overcrowded, with up to 45 learners per classroom. Activities such as role plays which require lots of discussion and conversation cannot be carried out within the given class periods (45 minutes for single lesson, five classes per week).
(b) It is difficult for teachers to effectively monitor communicative activities in a large classroom. Therefore, learners hardly receive individual feedback on the communicative activities carried out.
34 (c) The communicative approach neglects reading and writing skills as the emphasis is on listening and speaking skills and does not explicitly focus on the grammatical aspects of language. This is because grammar is said to be discovered through meaningful communicative interaction rather than through direct instruction (Hart, 2007). Hart (ibid) pointed out that the language aspects such as grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary are effective tools in communication and thus learners should have a sound knowledge of these aspects so that they will be able to communicate.
(d) Learners with low English proficiency levels hardly feel like participating in interactive activities because of the inability to express themselves fully. Therefore, this approach is most suitable for learners with a sound knowledge of the English language. Crookes and Schmidt (1991) stressed that learners should be encouraged to actively participate in classroom activities so that they all benefit from teaching.
(e) The school libraries are under resourced with reading materials such as magazines, novels, up-to-date newspapers, comics and short story books which may help facilitate language learning. In addition, audio-visual materials such as television, radio and video recorders, where learners may listen to native speakers of English, are not accessible to learners.
The above mentioned weaknesses were likely to influence the teachers to simply focus more on learners’ writing skills. Learners are often given grammar-based exercises which cover aspects such as tenses, prepositions, singular/plural forms, concord and articles. Due to limited supplementary teaching materials, reading activities given to learners are usually extracts taken from previously written exams along with their structured questions. Learners therefore do not get enough exposure to long texts because the given texts are short and have been purposely chosen for the limited examination time. Bishop and Snowling (2004) stressed that teachers need to expose learners to various reading materials so that they get a broader view of the world and develop or expand their vocabulary.
The listening materials currently available in schools in the Oshana region are the past national listening examination cassettes which schools often keep so that they may be used during the April, August and December examinations. Learners therefore get much of their spoken English from their teachers who are non-native speakers of the target language (that is their first language is
35 Oshiwambo). If teachers’ English language proficiency is poor, then they will not be able to transfer the correct forms of the target language nor will they be able to explain concepts to learners (Clegg, 2001). This will negatively affect the learners’ language proficiency and in the end result in poor learner performance in English.
Although the Communicative approach is chosen as the best approach to teaching English as a second language in Namibian schools, its successful implementation in the Oshana region requires an incorporation of different methods of teaching English in order to cater for the current learning needs of the learners.
Other methods that may be used to complement the communicative approach are the cognitive code, analogise-rhyming and blending methods (Ehri, 1998; Adam, 1990 and Ur, 1996). The cognitive code method refers to any conscious attempt made to systematise material around a grammatical syllabus while allowing for meaningful practice and use of language (Wilson, 1983).
The skills used in listening, reading and writing, for instance sound discrimination or pronunciation, are learned before the learners participate in real communication activities. Lessons are thus structured on the assumption that language is ruled governed. Learners need to be taught the complex structural system of the target language (ibid). In addition, the learners need to apply rules in order to express themselves in communicative situations in and outside the classroom setting. In my view, this method is essential in reducing errors that arise from the misapplication of language rules as well as ignorance in applying the correct language rules. Hence, the language errors recorded in this study (see chapter 4, section 4.2 to 4.4.3 for details) hint that the learners lack adequate grammar knowledge of the English language. Therefore more emphasis should be placed on grammar.
The analogising-rhyming method emphasises the teaching of grapheme correspondence, segmentation and blending (Ehri, 1998). The aim of this method is to teach learners to use known words in order to decode unknown words. For instance, learners look at the rhyming sound which is either a vowel or consonant and then think of a known word that contains that same vowel or consonant pattern. The teacher may give, for example, the word “cat”; then the learners think of words that have the same pattern such as “mat”. This strategy not only creates phonological and orthographical awareness (ibid) but the blending method is also similar to the rhyming method.
Learners learn how to decode words. They retrieve from their memory the sounds that each letter
36 has and then blend the sounds into recognisable words (Ur, 1996). In addition, learners should be taught how to break words apart, specifically words with more than one syllable and then assemble words again. This helps learners improve their decoding and spelling skills.
This section has discussed the communicative approach to language teaching and its drawbacks in terms of its effective implementation in schools in the Oshana region. The shortcomings of this approach call upon the Namibian Ministry of Education to devise materials that help facilitate language learning, build more classrooms to lessen the burden on overcrowded classrooms, employ more English teachers in order to balance the teacher and learner ratio per class, and develop training programmes to help teachers in implementing the communicative approach. I have also pointed out three useful methods, namely cognitive, analogizing and blending methods that may be used conjunctively with the communicative approach to help cater for the learning needs of the learners in the Oshana region. These three methods are helpful in teaching English as a second language because they focus on key aspects such as grammar. In addition to the teaching methods, learners need lots of exposure to the target language through various activities that cover listening, reading, speaking and writing. The relevance of outlining the teaching approaches to English as a second language in this section is based on the argument posited by James (1998) and Brown (1980) that learners’ errors may be caused by the teaching approach that the teacher uses.
Therefore remedial methods should not only focus on learners but on teachers as well. Given the fact that teachers are not native speakers of English, they need to have a sound knowledge of the target language in order to transfer the right knowledge to learners.