Right at the onset, I must admit. Teachers of English and Literature in secondary schools have an onerous task. I know this because before I became a peripatetic public speaker, I spent a short stint teaching this important subject.
Therefore, I will ask a question and strive to answer it going forward: Why are top grades quite elusive in English? I attribute it to dearth of interest, poor reading culture, dead language policy, mediocre teaching methods and toying with English.
Scarcity of interest springs from a defeatist attitude. In my opinion, attitude is equal to mindset plus beliefs. Zig Ziglar observed, “It is our attitude, not aptitude that determines our altitude.” Cheerful pessimism and lack of intense interest makes students fail to evince excellence in English. Scant interest denies them the opportunity to attain marvellous mastery. Then, lack of eloquence lowers their levels of self-esteem, confidence and communication skills. They fail to walk heads held high.
Ideally, we should help students to express love for language, to make them learn it daily thereby attaining proficiency and profundity. Likewise, great interest will make them navigate through problematic areas with ease. Piquing their interest in aspects such as poetry will simplify and demystify it.
The English syllabus in secondary schools, explores four major skills: Listening, reading, speaking and writing. The first two skills — listening and reading — are input skills. While speaking and writing are output skills. On this, I am cock-sure, reading and writing are close cognates. Reading is breathing in, while writing is breathing out.
Meaning, students who yearn to learn, and pass English with flying colours must read avidly. Reading voraciously hones critical and creative thinking skills. Reading improves imagination. This is necessary because Albert Einstein observed, “Knowledge will take us from point A to B, but imagination will take us everywhere.” Reading builds vocabulary and enriches word banks. It adds glamour to grammar.
Somewhat, students who read mend mistakes related to subject-verb agreement, sentence structure, tenses, direct translation, et cetera. Therefore, when we want Form Four candidates to score the highly-coveted A’s in KCSE, we should ask ourselves: Did we strive to hone reading skills in them? Did they savour the class readers in lower forms to augment their creativity and ingenuity in writing? Did they read set books to help them tackle extracts and responsive essays? Did they read passages in their approved course books to help them handle comprehension passages and cloze tests?
Somehow, great schools abut on firm foundations of culture and tradition. Then, great schools have heroic teaching, testing, evaluation and monitoring systems. Moreover, great schools have practical programmes that eventually entice peak performance. Then, policies make several schools access success. Language policy looks simple but it contributes to academic performance of students. Why? Because English is a language of instruction in most subjects except Kiswahili and foreign languages.
Therefore, we should urge students to listen to and learn good stuff. In turn, they obtain new vocabularies, wise words, pithy phrases and strong statements. Then, they blend theory with praxis: speak and write. You now have a clear and clever clue on why sheng slang affects mastery of English.
In serious search for quality grades in English, we should re-examine our teaching approaches. Just to be blunt about it, some schools register poor performance in English because they adhere to teaching methodologies that are out of date. Yet, it is utterly wrong to trace new towns using old maps. Albert Einstein warned, “Our problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.”
Teachers of English should be conscious of climes and times. This is what will make them focus on emerging trends and interact with new sources of knowledge. Consequently, it is what will compel them to attend academic seminars to compare best practices. Somewhat, doom and gloom will loom large when a teacher decides to teach in isolation. In turn, woe will betide schools with such type of teachers.
Moreover, there are schools that are keen on what happens in the candidate class. But pay scant attention to lower forms. Teachers with wide ken of knowledge and rich experiences, focus on upper Forms as they relegate and delegate lower forms to teachers who are newbies in the profession. I am not proposing that preceptors on teaching practice, internship or entrants in the service should not teach. With the acute-teacher shortage, they have to teach. Again, if we block them from teaching, where will they gather experience and expertise?
Heads of Department of English should organise the department, taking note of every ambit — teaching and testing. Instead of waiting to deal with an irreparable damage in Form Four. English is a skill-based subject. Therefore, if we fail to hone skills such as reading and writing in lower forms, it will be very difficult to achieve them in the upper forms.
Again, my mortal mind thinks of four types of teachers by William Arthur Ward. A mediocre teacher tells. A good teacher explains. A superior teacher demonstrates. A great teacher inspires. A mediocre teacher of English just tells learners things. S/he fails to demonstrate practical aspects of language such as proficiency in reading, writing, speaking and promotion of performing arts.
Mediocre means average or being on top of the bottom. Somehow, a mediocre teacher should graduate to greatness. The great teacher is able to fan fire and desire in learners. No wonder, Johann Gottfried Von Herder observed, “Without inspiration, the best powers of the mind remain dormant; there is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks”
Students get dismal grades in English because they are toying with it. They fail to study it sedulously thinking it is easy thus they miss the desired A’s; when, in actual sense, no subject is easy or difficult. It depends on the effort allotted to it.
By Victor Ochieng’
The writer rolls out talks and training services on Best Academic Practices. vochieng.90@gmail.com. 0704420232
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