How to Teach English Language

[allyabdul07]

I worked in Norway for many years before immigrating to Canada. One of the things that amazed me in Norway was that many people could understand and speak English very well. The city I lived they started teaching English in grade 3. They do this, for the first whole year they just teach and emphasize on verbal communication, no writing or reading at all. Verbal and listening skills are the top priority in understanding the language. Many of us who grew up in Tanzania, were taught English the other way around, I mean they were very good at reading and writing. These are the top priority for English education in Tanzania. This is wrong because most of us learned our native languages by just listening and verbal communication. Children in the young age are easy to learn any language as long as they are surrounded by people who speak that language. If Tanzanians want to master the English language, there is no other way than follow the Norwegian's teaching method. To achieve this:

• the government needs to train high qualified English teachers for elementary school;

• hire only university graduates to teach English.

In Europe and North America you cannot teach K-12 if you don't have Bachelor of Education Degree and have a teaching license. It is a profession like any other profession, and they pay them a good salary.

I know it is hard in Tanzania because of the economy, but starting slowly to change the system, will eventually give positive results in the future.

[Eli]

@allyabdul07. This is a nice thought that can be a starting point towards curriculum revitalization. Verbal communication is naturally the first stage in learning any language. However, in most cases, language proficiency is judged depending on whether a person can fluently communicate verbally or not.

[Aggie]

This is a very interesting topic. The English language is not taken seriously, especially at government schools. At least for private schools where speaking English is compulsory. Learning and speaking go together.

[allyabdul07]

@allyabdul07. This is a nice thought that can be a starting point towards curriculum revitalization. Verbal communication is naturally the first stage in learning any language. However, in most cases, language proficiency is judged depending on whether a person can fluently communicate verbally or not.

I think fluency in communication should be judged to the teachers first rather than the learners.

[Eli]

@allyabdul07. This is a nice thought that can be a starting point towards curriculum revitalization. Verbal communication is naturally the first stage in learning any language. However, in most cases, language proficiency is judged depending on whether a person can fluently communicate verbally or not.

I think fluency in communication should be judged to the teachers first rather than the learners.

That is very true. A teacher should be a leader in what he/she is teaching. As you said earlier, there is a lot of support that English can best be learned through speaking (plus listening) it, and then other teaching approaches (in most cases reading, followed by writing) may be utilized later as a learner advances. Here are two TED/YouTube videos that suggest conversation as the best approach to learning any language/English. Their arguments, however, make the debate on the matter more interesting:

[allyabdul07]

The issue of teaching English in Tanzania needs a strong leader who can impose or encourage the schools to change their teaching methodologies. I only see one person who can do that ... The President. Whenever a President issues a decree, it gets implemented.

[Eli]

There has been a number of discussions (most of them are random) in the country that suggest the whole education system needs to be revamped. implementing changes, however, needs a proper research to clearly forecast whether the suggested changes will be effective or not. Before this is done, it takes a lot of effort to find out which changes are needed and why.