Help Mozambique improve English teaching and learning

SOS-Mozambican Education Sector

Greetings,

Problems in the Teaching and Learning of English in Mozambique

I am a Zimbabwean teaching English in Mozambique and I would like to present my feeling about the teaching and learning of English in Mozambique. I do appreciate that English plays a very important role in shaping the economic, political and social lives of Mozambicans but the process of teaching and learning it is a big problem. There are many issues that make teaching and learning English a problem.

The first thing that I can say is a major issue is that, there is no motivation given to the students and new teachers. Learners must see the reason why they need to value English. It is noted that the subject is one of the compulsory subjects at high school but students need to be motivated by means of Scholarships to study outside. My findings are that students put effort in the studying of the subject when they want to achieve something in their life. This, I discovered it when I got involved into helping some of my students in getting places to study at Midlands State University of Zimbabwe. My 2004 and 2005 groups of English could communicate better than the other groups, but with the introduction of international fees which were far higher than what the Mozambicans could achieve the moral was low in the learning of English. The road to Midlands State University was closed and there was no need for an in-depth knowledge of the subject. Thus, most students only studied to have the lowest possible mark to gain a certificate.

Still on motivation, I would have wished if the sponsors of French were English because they hold yearly interschool competitions for French students. If it was possible the British Council, American Embassy and other existing English speaking organizations could come up with a program to sponsor these students in a way to promote the Language ahead of French and even Portuguese that I feel isolates the country from its neighbours. They can come out with a scholarship package, which can see students studying in English speaking countries. These are the students who would come back and develop the country further. As a foreigner I could be happy working as an English teacher but the truth is there are some explanations and examples that I give which do not conform to the students cultural background and general understanding.

The second problem is poor reading materials for the students. There is need to have a variety of reading materials that will help to build up a nation which reading culture. It is here in Mozambique where I discovered that a student only relies on the teacher’s notes to prepare for examinations. The fault, according to my finding is not of the students, neither is it of the teacher. There are no libraries, neither are there visible books worth studying in the local bookshops for the students to buy. Some say good bookshops exist in Maputo, but does it mean to say students have to rely on the capital which is very far away them. Besides, if ever there are books their costs tend to be far from the reach of an ordinary citizen. On this issue I suggest that Mozambique follows an example of Zimbabwe where a Curriculum Development Unit was created to make sure basic reading materials are availed to the schools. In addition, the country must accept work from different publishing Houses to beef up the reading stuff. In other countries you can find out that books which cover newly introduced syllabi come in different versions from different publishing houses like Longman, Ventures, The College Press and others. The government therefore must be encouraged to give licenses to publishers of English books as a move to promote reading and variety of reading materials.

Thirdly, the system of examining students of English leaves a lot to be admired. One would wonder how these students would be able to develop their creativity when they are not being examined in the writing of compositions. As foreigners we are not the right people to argue against the decisions of the Mozambican government but my idea was; knowing that there is something that is lacking in the area of English, those would be sponsors could create a condition where possible candidates are encouraged to have skills to produce written essays.

The forth problem is that due to the lack of English teachers most of the English teaching staff are hand picked and are not exposed to some staff development workshops on the teaching of English. Unknowingly they use poor methods that may reap negative results thereby creating a student with a negative attitude towards English. In other words I am trying to say that there is need to have some in-service training courses that will see the ministry of Education having a good number of skilled teachers. Each province has some known qualified teachers who could be taken advantage of to train these young teachers at weekends and vacation weeks.

My recommendations to who ever wishes to assist in the development of English teaching and learning are:
 To source a variety of meaningful reading materials for the country.
 Encourage or help the government in developing curriculum development units, which will see to it that there are alternative learning materials before a new curriculum is introduced.
 To provide and monitor finances in the in-service training of new English teachers.
 Revise the examining system of English language in a bid to produce a student who is able to write essays for the subject is there to create journalists, report writers and other professions that are related to English usage.
 To sponsor brilliant English learners from different provinces of Mozambique.
 To organize English festivals where students from different schools can compete.
 To help in the publishing of English reading materials through establishment and licensing of publishing houses.

I wrote this basing on the seven-year experience I have in Mozambique as an English teacher, curriculum evaluator and examiner. For e-mail communication you can find me on alfredmaf@hotmail.com or my mobile +258 82 2601000

[Your name]