3.2 English

All the English Units in Handbook focus on teaching the students methods and skills: the HOW TO rather than the WHAT. In Shulman’s terms, there is little knowledge base involved, apart from some knowledge of the primary school curriculum. The Units are structured around teaching these skills: the pedagogy involves explanation, discussion, demonstration, role-play, and other student activities, usually in groups. The classroom interaction is almost all oral; there is very little reading or writing either suggested or carried out.

The tutors commonly started with a recap of the previous lesson, but none reviewed the current lesson at the end, nor used the short exercises in the Handbook to check students’ learning. Most lessons ended abruptly without summaries, and without guidance for preparing for the next lesson. There was no evaluation; we wondered how much students had actually absorbed, whether they understood the rationale behind the methods, and whether they would be able to apply them in a real classroom. Students were seldom invited to link the activities to their own recent teaching experience.

We selected four English tutors for observation, two from each college. At St. Joseph’s we were invited to observe a further English lesson, making five in all.

3.2.1 Supplementary Reading Materials

Fortuitously, we observed two tutors teaching the same Unit on ‘Using Supplementary Reading Materials’ (SRMs), which enabled a detailed comparison to be made. These lessons illustrate the following points, which are confirmed by the other lessons we saw:

1) Different tutors can and do interpret the Handbooks differently, but within quite narrow limits

2) Very few resources other than the handbooks are used, even when easily available

3) The Handbook sometimes sets unrealistic objectives in the light of a) time constraints b) the academic level of the trainees.

The Handbook set two objectives for this one-hour unit:

(1) Students will be able to use supplementary reading materials effectively
(2) they will produce their own supplementary reading materials

It is clear that even (1) would be difficult to achieve in a one-hour session, and that (2) would require much more time and support. Suggested teaching/learning resources included: examples of stories, poems, plays, folktales, commercially produced readers, newspapers, magazines, book boxes. Of these, only a book box was produced.

The Handbook offered the following lesson structure:

Fig. 3.1: Unit 26, Using Supplementary Reading Materials - handbook version

Discussion	Discuss what SRMs are why they are used in Stds. 3-8 how to acquire SRMs
Demonstration	Tutor demonstrates how to use the Std. 5’book box’ supplied to schools, following 5 steps, from displaying contents to answering questions on books after reading them
Discussion	Discussion of demonstration
Student activity	Students in groups practice using such readers with Std. 4 book box

Neither tutor achieved the set objectives; there was not enough time and the hour was not used to best advantage. Neither tutor brought in all the required materials, but they emphasised different activities. The figures below show how the lessons were structured.

Fig. 3.2: Unit 26, as taught by Ms. D, BTC

No. of Minutes	Activity	Description
2	Late start	Students still entering, furniture already arranged in groups
6	Recap of last lesson	Student invited to dramatise a poem as in previous unit
12	Discussion	Q & A covering what counts as SRM, and why they are used. Tutor shows the book boxes; tells students to bring a folktale from home next week.
25	Demonstration	Tutor organises all students through the 5 steps as though they were a class, circulating while they are reading; finishes with asking one student to summarise what she has read.
3	Discussion	Tutor gives brief advice on how to organise the process
10+	Video	Class goes off to watch video of a book box being used, which continues into lunch hour.

Fig. 3.3: Unit 26, as taught by Mr. A, St. Joseph’s

No. of Minutes	Activity	Description
3	Recap	Students sit in untidy rows. Tutor gives brief resume of an earlier lesson
26	Discussion	Q & A session on what are SRM, what are their advantages, and how to get pupils to produce them; suggests the students all bring their own ‘tomorrow’. Tutor writes student answers on the board, often paraphrasing them into the words of the handbook.
23	Demonstration	Tutor shows the boxes, how to lock them, how to put books on a table, how to use the register. Invites 6 students to select a book; registers their names; they return the books without reading them.
5	Discussion	[after bell] 3 students asked practical questions about how to use these e.g. with large classes, etc.

Ms. D’s lesson was more in keeping with the spirit of the curriculum, in that students were more involved; it went beyond the suggested activities by including a video. The tutor chose to make the overview very brief, and then to demonstrate the use of one particular type of SRM by making the students act the part of pupils, using the boxes, before taking them to see a video. The students were involved in six different activities, either individually or in groups, and thus were active for most of the time (although one can query whether just reading a Std. 5 book rather than discussing its use with pupils was the best use of time). The video provided examples of real classroom practice, but unfortunately there was no time to discuss what they saw and relate it to their own experience.

Mr. A spent more time going through the different kinds of materials - though without showing any of them - in a whole-class question-and-answer routine. For more than half the time the students were just sitting and watching the tutor. The demonstration of the book box only involved 6 students, and time was wasted finding out how the locks worked. Only at the end did it transpire that some of the students had already used such boxes during their time in school!

However, it was clearly impossible to get the students to produce their own materials in such a short time. Both tutors mentioned this briefly, exhorting them: ‘Bring a folktale from home next week!’ ‘Bring your poems tomorrow’ but students would have needed detailed guidelines and much support to write anything suitable.

Fig. 3.4 shows in graph form how the tutor and student activity differed. Ms. D was attempting to work in the new MIITEP spirit, managing and supervising student learning rather than spending her time in direct instruction, while Mr. A followed a much more traditional approach. It is relevant to note that Ms. D had studied outside of Malawi and had taught in other countries in the region; she brought a wide experience and knowledge of other methods, although she professed herself happy with the Handbook approach.

Fig. 3.4 (a): Unit 26, Supplementary Reading Materials - Tutors’ Activity Pattern

Fig. 3.4 (b): Unit 26, Supplementary Reading Materials - Students’ Activity Pattern

3.2.3 Different kinds of questions

Mr. B’s lesson at St. Joseph’s on ‘Different kinds of questioning’ was the only lesson we saw where the tutor had made the students prepare beforehand; he also departed from the text more than most. After an introductory session reviewing ‘comprehension questions’ as given in the Handbook, two groups performed short role-plays demonstrating the use of different kinds of questions to a primary class.

The extract below gives a flavour of the dialogue; it is typical in many ways of the teaching style we saw in other lessons and other subjects as well:

Fig. 3.5: Unit 23, ‘Different kinds of questioning’ taught by Mr. B., St. Joseph’s

Time	Tutor	Students
8.42	[Lesson begins with a brief recap of the last lesson, in which two groups of students had apparently demonstrated asking ‘pre-questions’] Today we shall add: asking comprehension questions
	Give me one variety of questions	WH questions
	1. WH
	How are they framed?	[many hands up, various students called on to answer] What, which, who, whose, when how, where
	Another type?	Yes/No
	2. Yes/No
	What kind are these? give example	Is your father a teacher?
	Pupils responses are just yes/no
	3. Multiple Choice questions
	What type are these?	[some hands; a mumbled answer] 4-5 [in chorus]
	Teacher gives options. How many?	A/B
	Another type?	Where you choose one or the other
	4. A/B questions. What are they? [expands on the answer]	Statement with question tag
	Any other?	[give several examples]
8.50	Statement with question-tag	[silence]
	What rule must you adhere to? Can you tell me the rule?
	We use auxiliary verbs. How do we choose them? We use the same auxiliary. If the stem has no auxiliary?	didn’t he [chorus]
	James went to town We take part of the verb to do What tense? All right? Any questions? [he moves on after 2-3 seconds]	did, does past
8.54	We also have true/false questions [sums up what they should do: put pupils in groups, ask pre-questions before silent reading, include comprehension questions, which must be clear and grammatically correct. Make lessons lively; even in a class of 100, try to satisfy everyone.]
	Move into groups of 8 for the demonstration Those observing should note any weaknesses and suggest improvements	[although this activity was prepared, they are slow to move]

NB: bold indicates words/phrases written on the board by the tutor, [italic square brackets indicate observer’s comments]

The tutor then spent the last ten minutes explaining a structured way of ‘teaching spelling and dictation’. He told the students although it was not in the Handbook it was a useful strategy; unfortunately he had to go very fast and although it provoked some questions from students there was no time to discuss them. Mr. B had been a tutor for many years, and probably both the role-play and this last topic came from his own repertoire of teaching approaches.

3.2.4 Teaching Reading Skills in Stds. 3-8

For this lesson at BTC four classes were combined in a large hall because of staff shortages, forming a group of over a hundred. Having listed the six reading skills given in the Handbook, Mr. C demonstrated three of them, playing a teacher’s role and calling on the students act as the pupils. Pupil textbooks were handed out, one between 5-6 students. The lesson was fast-paced, delivered in a lively, humorous manner which kept students’ attention; a good number responded, sometimes in chorus, and the tutor tried to alternate between male and female. (In spite of the majority being women, more men than women made individual responses). The lesson was focused entirely on methods, and the implication was that this is the only right way to do it; there was no discussion of the rationale behind these skills. Again, one hour is not long enough for students to comprehend and practice teaching such complex skills.

3.2.5 Pre-Reading Activities

The Handbook showed, with full illustrations, six different kinds of pre-reading activities - matching and copying shapes, jigsaws, etc. - and suggested students should discuss these and then do certain activities from Teacher’s Guide for Std. 1. However, at St. Joseph’s Mr. N. interpreted these suggestions in a traditional transmission style. The lesson as delivered consisted almost entirely of the tutor talking, writing definitions, purposes and examples on the board, while the students mainly listened, watched and copied. There were about 25 student responses during the lesson, mainly one word or phrase. The tutor distributed some copies of the Teacher’s Guide, but no opportunity was given for students to practise or even talk about the activities. Five minutes was spent explaining the concept of making a jigsaw, using a large picture of a housefly (apparently a biology teaching aid, too valuable to cut up), but we felt the students needed concrete examples to handle before they understood the concept of a jigsaw puzzle.