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PROBLEMS OF TEACHING NDEBELE AS-A-SECOND LANGUAGE
AT M.S.S.
MELTON MOYO
Facul ty of Education
Submitted in partial fulfilment of t h e requirements for the degree of
Masters of Education
Faculty of Graduate S t u d i e s The University of Western Ontario
August, 1997
O Melton Moyo 1997
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1 set out to exzrnine why the Ndobele Zimbabwe Z-ior
C e r t i f i c a t e examination results were so poor at Makholwa
Secondary School (M. S. S. - an e l i t e school) 1 am the
researcher and t h e researched, a former teacher of
Nd,ebele as a seconè language (NSL) at M. S . S., currently
a graduate student and teacher of S p e c i a l Education in
Ontar io , Canada.
1 tell rny personal story. With t h e aFd o f
conversational i n t e r v i e w s with 4 forner s t ~ d e n t s and 4
teachers of second languages, 1 r e f l ec t on my s tory to
i d e n t i f y the issues pertinent to the study. There are
f o u r main findings. The main finding is that the socio-
poli t i c a l environment of Zimbabwe has no t been conducive
to the adoption of Ndebele as a s u b j e c t to be taken
seriously ;ri an e l i t e school such as M.S.S. T h e teacher
preparation in Zimbabwe did not aàdress the teaching of
NSL. X founci the rnaterials, resources, and time allocated
for NSL to have Seen inadequate. In light of these
fac to r s , the ZZC NSL syllabus and examinations were.
unrealistic, thus the poor ZJC examination resuits.
The ficdlngs i m g l y that Z J C NSL results will
continue to be poor and the resources inadequate, Ln the
prevailing socio-political atmosphere.
1 am gratehl for the support that 1 have received from al1 my
professors at Aithouse. 1 am especially grateful to Dr. Suzanne Majhanovich
whose input about the procedure and her expedient reading of my drafts
allowed me to complete this thesis. Thank you very much Suzanne.
1 am also grateful to Dr. Geoff Milburn and to Dr. Derek Allison for
their input in editting the final drafis. 1 also want to thank Grace Morfitt who
helped me with data sathering and analysis.
Finally, 1 would like to diank my wife, Elen and my two children
for their patience and encouragement during the wriaen part of the thesis.
Inïroduczion Zimbabwe's h i s ï c r l c s l bûck-round
Conclus For-
CFAPTSR 3 (Xerhcaclcigy of zke scu&y) Methoa ,na necho~oicoy Xacicnal? f s r i h e p 2 r s a ~ â 1 S L O ~ Râcionâle for cb.3 z o n v e r s a t l c n â l interviews f t a t i o n a l e i c r c:?e Eocumeri~oq oviaence
The sylZâCus Z X exzminaclzc r e s r l ~ s E L 3 . S . S .
CHAITER 1
OUTLINE OF THE PROBLEM
INTRODUCTION
Prior to 1980, t h e teaching of two larg2st inciigenous
languaoes in Z i m b a b w e to non-nativz speakers was FOC dcne at
a national lavel. Sweeging political changes subsequently,
maae Fc possible for these two languages to be taught to
non-speakers as second languages. The two dominant
inàiqonoas languages iz Zimba~we a re Shona and K a e j e l t . U p
mti i 1980, English was the m e d i u m of comrnunicàtion f x
conduccigg most forma1 and many informa1 Cusizess m e t i n g s .
Traaitionally, E n g l i s h has been t h e language af i n s t r u c t i o n
in çchools i,r Zimbabwe and ~ h e main Fnuigenous langua~es a r e
- . accordeti ~ ~ t c l e importance. Not on ly a re z11 schccl s u n j e c t s
- ,augnc -. in Englisn but ch- materiai used to c-acn all ~ h e
sübjec-s Ls written in English. Even w n e n Naebele ana Shona
wero of f e r e a t o al1 students , they w e r î o n l y oiferii as'
courses, ûifer-a on ly fo r cwo years f û r ~ h e purposes of t h e
Zimbabwe Junior Certificate (ZJC) w i t h a lirnited aniount of
Fcscrxcticn.
Non-Naebele ana non-Shona speakers w e r e nec obligeà Lo
l e s r n eicher of the inàigencus languages p r i o r to Zimbabwe's
. . sxsepenàence; i ns tea t i ~ h e y coula cbooçe eirher Frênch as a
- - . - =-cvzs -anguage ( F S L ) or any o ï h e r Eurcpean language th2t
xcs L e i n 9 sffere~ at ï h e i r rzspective schozls. The 1980
p o l i ~ i c a l changes t h a t swept through t h e councry ma& i~
possible f o r Ndebele and Shona t o be îaught as second
languagss. The government of Robert Yugabe i n consul~acicn
w i i h ïhe Ministry of E d u c a t i o n and Culture nade it manàatcry
fûr al1 Zimbabwe J u n i o r Certificat- (ZJC) qraduates
(normâlly r e f e r r e d to as Form 1 and Form 21, to scudy
S n g l i s h and either Xdebele as a second la~guage (NSL) o r
Shor?a as a second languaçe (SSL) prior co aoing Form 3
s c ~ ~ d i e s .
This mandate was met with enthusiasm DY s o m e nêrnbers of
che sociecy ana with resistance Sy o t h e r s . Skepcicism was
aecec~ad from menbers of the educition field wno ciceci ~ h e
l a c k of r e s o u r c e s and materials for ~ t i e program. As a rosülz
of the n e w mandate, both Ndebele and Shona w e r e o f fe rea i n
hiqh schools as seconà l ang ïages to 211 studeocs who wero . 7 -
non-nacive languaqe speakers. Tnis c n e s i s W ~ L L focus on
ceack ing of NSL. Information about SSL will be US^ as an
exampie wnere it complernencs the discussion of NSL, anà also
. - * t o liiuminac= the àiscussions on p r o b l e m s r e l a t e d t o second
Lançuace ïeachino .
Z IM9AEWE ' S XISTORIC.% BACKGROUND
3efcre discussing how 1 came ta conducc this research,
- . the lxeracure r propose to ose in tne researcn, âna rhe
. - - T,echccs - ;àcpr~s = o r this scuay, it is irnpera~ive r h â c 1
. - . . c r - v l z e i-. n~stîricsl ovorview of Z imbabwe. aurr C e f s r e -ika-,,
7 d
d i s c u s s i o n , IL is impor tant t o know chat g loba l l y , t h e r e ar-
many problems associa~ed w i t n s tudy ing second languages, f o r
example, c u l t u r a l factors, motivacional f accors , and purpos?
of siudy ta mention a few.
In m y attempt t o provide a briei overvïew of Zimbabwe 1
w i l l d s sc r ibe Zimbabwe's lanouaçe composition, p o l i t i c a l
s i t u a c i o n , and the role of education. 1 will also give 5
briêf d e s c r i p t i o n of e l i t e schools i n Zimhbwe because rny
thes is deals with t2aching N S L in an elite school. Zimbabwe
lies i n the heart of Scuthern Africa. It is bounded in the
zorch S y Zambia, i n t h e west by 3ocswana. in t h e souch Zy
Souch Africa, and in the east by Mozambique, (Eiunter, 1991,
- p . 1521) . ~t is estimated that Zimbabwe's population is
9,369,373, and 57% of that popula t ion speaks Shona as t h e i r
firsï lanquaoe, 2 5 % speaks Ndtbele âs t h o i r f i r s r Language
ac home; less than 5% speaKs Engl i sh as c h e i r firsc iânguag~
ac home, wirh t h e rest of t he popu la t ion speaking the
rernaininc lancpages as first; languages at nome (Huntar,
1991) .
Likê niâny former 3 r i ~ i s h colonies, Zimbabwe has had
S n g l i s h as zhê o f f i c i a 1 language since colonization. As I
ment ioneà in my introduc;ion, soon a i t e r Zimbabwer s
inaepenàence in 1 9 8 0 . che ruiing p â r c y maàê an -.ffor: :O
maKe S hor&â and Naebele o f f iciâl lsnguages like 3ng l i sh .
2avir.c ï h e ~ w o Corninant lccai ianguages (Shona and Ndebele!
accair, the stacus comparâblt to thac of Snglish amongst the
citi2er.s has been an insurrnountable task for both t h e
language toachers and the politicians. Iî aopears chey have
facod rasistance, not only irom the white communiry buï d s o
from locals whose obsession with colonial educacion policies
has persisteà to îhis day.
London (1995, p. 92) contends thac because schools ar'
socializing institutions, they tend r o reproduce noc o d y
the values and ideologies of tne àcminant social groups bu=
also the scatus rankinqs of the existing ciass structure. I n
Zimbabwe for instance, it appears t h a ï the dominant languaqe
is Pnglish although it is spoken by less t h a n 5% of ~ h e
population as a f i r s c language. Yost business rnee thgs ,
formal interviews, and court proceedings a r e carriêd ouï I n
English. The lndigenous ianguages ccc t inue to cornpete ?or
second class status.
Although the ruling par ty nas scated that Shona and
Ndebeie shouid 5e given the same scatus as Enolish, t he ro
has ~ e e c very l i t t l e done to help îhis cause. For instance,
ail non-language subjeczs in schools are t a u g h t I n English
wherzas Nàebele and Shcna are snly caught as courses.
Snolisn ianguage is a pre-requisi'e for êntry i n t o alrnost
a l l professional anà semi-proiessi=cai careers . NSL iç cn17
=au-nt for r-do years z c a iz Is noï â pre-requisite for
anything. Stuàencs nc: 3 ~ 1 1 ~ r x e ~ - r e cheir ZJC cer;iiicates
oven if ihey have failed NSL, 9 u t they also procetd to Form
3 evên if ihey do noc obtain a passïng grade in NSL.
Although ~ h e languages used at the markec place are
preàorninantly indigenous, the t taching of local ianguaoes
d u r i n g and a f t e r colonialism was and has not been oiven
priorit:~; instead, English continues t o Be the desirêd
laquage of expression by both the settlers and the
indigenous peoples in a l 1 iormal and % t a t u s " places. My
s tudy fccuses on a schcol t h a t is in Bulawayo w n e r - Znglish
is v e r y m u c h the dominanc lanquage.
Buiawayo is ïhe second l a r o e s t city in Zimbabwe, w i ~ h û
population of aBouc 500 000 people (Hunter , 1991). With in
t h e c i t y t h e r e a r e 3 p r h a t e high schools which serre â
minoriry number of sïudencs. There are however, over 20
ç;overriment fundeà secondâry scnools serving the rnâjor i ty of
the high scnool student gopulation in Bulawayo. Staceats
t h a t atzend privace schools are from preàominantly r i c h
fami l ies . Although â11 stuàents pay m i c i o n co qo t o schco l ,
privacs schools tend to charge f n m seven co cen cimes w n a ~ . -
the government scnools charge. Resources ând macerlals SC
privacê SC?-001s are more accessiblt =han in governmenc
schools . For example, i n privac- çchoois sïudents do nori
snare cexcbooks while in most ccvernrnent schools c n e
têxcbook can be shared by up to I s ï r s tudencs . . .
At Hakholwa Sec3nciary Schcc l ' S . S . ; l n 1 9 9 0 , f sr
example, t h e student population was about 500, yec Amhiopce
Secondary School ( A . S . S . ) . a typical govornrnent school, hac
a populorion of about 2500. At M.S.S., school w a s cver ac
1 3 0 p.m. and the students either went for spcrïing
àctivities or they could go and çtudy material that needei
reviewing in the afternoon. On the other hana, a t A.S.S.,
school was over a t 12:30 p . m . f o r the morning group ana
another group of stuàents would corne in co sharo the same
resources and iacilities f rom 1:00 pm onward. Althougn
M.S.S. stuàznts had access to the school in che afzer?oon,
A.S.S. studencs did noc. M y investigation I s eritongleà in
chese 6ichotornies.
COMING TO THE RESEARCI-I
A f r z r teaching Ndebele as a iirst longuage f o r ï w o
yearç ac A . S . S . , I was offered a teaching posicion by
M.S.S., a private school in 3uiawayo. Private schools in
Z i m b a b w e , as mentioned earlier, ca ter to chilàren who came
from rich o r d i t e families. In Bulawayo f s r instence, m o s t
of the elïce 2eople speak a lanquage o t n e r than Ndebele.
Cne of rny responsibilities at M.S.S. was to teach NSi.
1 wecc to this school having been trained to teach Ndebel-
,-, os a rrrst language. The assumption was chat if I coulà
zsach Ndobele as a first language I coula a l so teach NSL. I
wzs ccc ~ n e n aware that second language learnino and P .
~eaching could be very d i f f e r e n c from r i r s c lanouage
lezrnirq and ï each ing . During rny Ceacher-prepsrscirn Ezys,
lectures concen t ra ted on teaching Ndebele as a firsc
language to çtudents who w e r e either firsc language
speaktrs, or to students who nad iearned i~ i n an imnsrsion
s i t u a t i o n .
M y stuàents a t M.S.S . , m o s t of whom câme £rom elire
families, did not do well i n the NSL ZZC examinacion as
compared cc the other subjects wricten at M.S.S. To rny
scudents, NSL appeareà to o i î e r no meaningful g a i n s ; t h a c
i s , they did not sae any erngloymenc o r o t h e r d e s i r a b l e
economic o r sccial o p p o r r u n i t i ê s r e s u l t i n g from learning :ho
ianguaqe. They aiso seemed unnotivated ~o l e a r n ana irnprove
cheir Nàebele marks despite t h e iact thac NSL oraàes
" s p o i l e d " t h e appearance of t h e i r ZZC certificates w i t h
either a failing mark o r a l o w mark compare6 C O ocher
subjec~s. As has been alluded to, most of the NSL prcbiems
were re i lec teà i n the poor grades thac were âssociatec w i t h
NSL at t h e Z J C exarninations. For example, Table 1 below,
which is a sürnrnary of t he M . S . S . 1 9 9 0 ZJC r t s u l t s , i n d i c a t o s
t h a t of t he fou r main subjects w r i t t e n ~ h a c year, (thac is,
~ h e sub jeccs f o r which the ZJC exarninations w e r e prepared
and rnarkêd centrally by the Ministry of ducati ion) NSL haà
rhe lowest pass rate. Given t h e availability of ïhe
resources oc M.S.S. I w a s always I n c r i y e t i by t h i s low pass
r a c e for NSL.
3
As nen t ioned earlier, s tudents a t M.S.S. haa access c s
nany resources and facilitiês to learn any Z J C s u b j e c r .
However the Z J C examination results seem to point out that
NSL had poor rêsults despite the fact cnat M . S . S . w a s a
private school . Why shou ld t h i s be?
Takle 1
1990 ZZC Examination r 2 s u l t s aï X . S . S . ( 4 subjects with cen~rally prepared and markeà exarninat ions)
1 1 8 OF STUDENTS 1 I OF STUDENTS 1 TOTAL $ OF
The f s u r sub jec ts seen i n T â ~ l e i, are consicerea as
PASSING
t he main subj=ccs at the ZJC by t h e Ninistry of Educaticn.
PASS I N G 1 STUDENTC I
Traditionally, most stuàents w o r k hard to pass al; ~~e mâin
subjects, but ny M.S.S. students did r.ot seem aff-cttd by
faiiing NSL. Why dià the students noc seem âifecceà fai1ir.g
one of the main s u b j e c t s ?
Hâving been brought up to believo t hac education was
the gatêwây to social mobility (F re i r e , 1 9 9 3 1 , I d i a not
quicè unàerstand why my scudents w e r e not ixterestêa in NSL.
MV ~revious exosriences at 4. S .S. in Swange, wnere 5 haà
- .,
NCebele as a firsï language ha6 been very cood. T h e
scudencs seemed t o uneor s t and ~ h e concept of upwâra
nobilicy and chey associatrd it with al1 the s~bjocis thât
wore being o f fe red a t the scnool.
At M.S.S . , just l i k e at W.S.S, 1 always prepared
myself c:?e b e ç t I knew h o w , b u t most of m y scudents àià coi
soem to learn t h e l a q u a g e and chcse cha t a p p e a r d CO
Be interesced "p idg in izod" it . Secause of t n e observàcions
t h a t I have rnentioned so f a r , and many o tne r issues r i l a t e à
to Ehe NSL Z j C examinat ion results, I ofce: a s k d xyseLE wky
m y NSL colleaguos ana I w e r e noc s u c c e s s f u l in t each ing zhe
suD jecz . Xecent c o n t a c t s w i t h colleagües i n Z i m D a ~ w e hâve
1êà m e to Selieve that Door results in NSL sr111 p e r s i s c . IZ
is therefore rny i n t e n t i o n i n tnis ~ h o s i s t o explore t he
p r o ~ l e r n cf why cne NSL examinacion r e s u l t s a t M.S.S. were
lower than those of o t h e r main sub jec t s , g iven the
resources , arid f a c i l i t i e s àvailable a t M . S . S . m a t h e - -
c a l i ~ r e cf students t h t a t t e n a pr iva ro schcols. 2xarnine
the following factors whicn I hypochesizo contri~uted to ~ h ê
poor ZGC NSL r e s u l t s at M . S . S . ;
1) teacher p z e p â r a t i o n ,
2 th? current NSL curr iculua i n terms of tirne,
c o n c e n i , and m a t e r i a l to be c ~ v e r e à .
3 ) soc ia l and cultural issues.
- In res-onaing CO che above rnenïioned issuts, s use ~ h e
"life historyu method of investication as my main ï o o l .
Having ïaught NSL for tnree years, I am v e r y familiar w i t h
2-e NSL curriculum used over the t w o y3ars and che problems
I encouncered with it. Through rny story, I dêscribe the
teacher-training for Ndebele I received, and relate thât
zraining to tne subçequsnt frustration that I experienceà
when I caughî NSL and t h e disappointment c h a t 1 haà when ihe
Z J C results arrived at scnool .
1 also enrich ;ne iniormatlon derived :rom rny -orsonal
storv v i c h documenïary evidence which inclïdes an a n a i y s i s
of the Z J C exarnicacion results, pâr~icularly during - 3 9 0 -
1 9 9 2 , a rêview of the prescribed c u r r i c u l u m in NSL, a n c a
review of the literature on secona language a c q ~ i s i c - i o n .
Zsing zhe q a d e results of al1 enà-oi-year ZJC subjeccs at
M.S-S., 1 t q l o r e pcssi3le roascns why ?ISL grades w e r ê l o w ê r
chan the orades in m h e r subjeccs .
N o t only do 1 use documentary evidencê to süpporz aRa
cricique rny personal scory , 1 also use conversational
interviews. These interviews w e r e conduccea among peoplê
w i r r h experiencos in either teâching or learning of
Zixbabwean, African, o r other i n t e r n a t i o n a l lanquages as
secona lanquages.
Throuqh ~ h e rev iêw of selected l i c a r a t r e ca seccnd
langnage acquisition and learninc theories, especiaily the
2roficLency Modal ana the American Counc i l for Teachinc
- - - -
Foreign Languages (ACTFL) guidel i i . es , 1 cri~iqu? ~ 3 - e c 7 ~ r r ? r ! . ~
c u r r i c u l u m in terms of the time allocaced f o r the subject.
LITERATtTE REVIEW
In chapter 2 , I provide an h i s ~ o r i c a l overview of
second language teaching as it relaies i n particular to the
problem I am invêstigating. Searches of data bases r e l a t t d
ïo seconà language toaching revealed that there is very
l i c ~ l e puBlisheà information about teaching N S L . Xowever,
Western ïnêories on secand language acquisi=ion snd learnlcc
are reviewed es I believ? t h a t they can 5e a-plie6 to the
tzaching of NSL in Z i m b a b w e .
The u s e of the local languages by non-natives in
Zimbabwe, and ta a c e r t a i n ex ten t by the loca l s ~hernselvaç,
was and is stiil being viewed by some as having a neozcive
impact on inceiligence and cognitive development. Sesrxing
second lan~uâgês is the re iore seen by some as ccntribucinq
neoativeiy t o the academic achievement of s tudencs . Recent
s c u d i e s have snown however, t h a c it i s not necessarily t ru t
r h a ~ learzing nacive languages harnpers acaaemic prooress o r
âchievemenc . Xesêarcn by D i Giovani anci 3 a n e s i ! i988) will
he reviswea in this regard.
T h e r e are many iheoriês rega rd ing second lancuâge
icqüisirion, learning ana ceaching. Because my ches i s
- ' -eTJizr& rxâminés why NSL ZJC results are so poor at M . S . S . ,
- -r.e Y ?r=f iciency and ianguage Acquisition T h e o r y ( P U T ) whic:?
acidresses some of the i s sues àealing uich syllabus drafrins, d
cime allocetion, levels of proficiency to be expeccod from
second lanquage lêarners ecc., al1 of which are p e r t i n e n t Z D
my stuay. Omaggio (1984) contends that " t h e best reasoR for
using sroiiciency definitions as an ongoing principle for
instruction is that lit] p:rovides [ t eache rs ] with a means io
'know' a language" (p. 4 4 ) . Omaggio (1984) also suggests
t h a t thsse proficiency definitions a r e ideally suiteà when
organizizg che instructional material Eor two reasons, a i
7 becausa they are eqeriential and -raccrca~, r a i h e r chan
rnerely theoretically based, and b) they desc r ibe how
language learners and acquirers tend c o function in a rance
of cornpetence levels, rather than in a way a cheorisc t h i c k s
l e a r n e r s ougnt to function.
As showr? by Omasgic ( 1 9 8 4 ) , the PLAT o f f e r s suggestions
CO the t e a c i e r of the pssible levels of -roiiciency secona
ianguzge s c u d e x s are capable of attaininq, cepenaing on the
time âca t h e purpose of taking the course. It woulà seern
that wnen a second language teacher knows wnat levei hisiher
scudents ar+ capable of attaining, some of the probiems in
NSL ieâchifiq may be avoiàed. For exanplr, if the teackr
knows thac h i s / h e r studencs are ac the ~ e g i m i n g stage in
the lânguage Eeing studied, s/he will proviae appropr ia t?
. - matzrlz- rs improve second lânguaqe lêarninq.
'P -he ?LA1 ais0 def ines whât it means to be 9roficieuc iz
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p r a c t i c e i s important because iï providas comprehensibis
i n p u t in an ênvironment conducive to a low affective filter
(i.e.. high motivation low anxiêty) . Krashen's (1981)
hypothesis oi fe rs an Lnsight into how second languaces a r e
acquired .
My observations at M . S . S . on students' and parents'
articuàes cowarà NSL rnadê me explora Zheories that percain
to the role learaers' attitudes and motivation play II
second language learning. Oxford and Shear in ( 1 9 9 4 j sugcesr
that motivation dirêctly influences not only how c f c o n
stadents use second language stracegias and interacr w i ~ h
. - U T
native speakers, bu^ also on how mucn input ïhey wil-
receive in the target lanquage and how long ~ h e y persever?
to rnain~ain C h e second language sicills after language scuày
is over. Oxford a d Shesrin's (19941 observations play a
signiiicant role as 1 ;ry to fina out wnether l a c k of
motivation may have played a role in the poor r e s u l t s
prevalent in NSL ZJC grades.
Secause loarning a new language involves learning a
second culture, I ais0 discuss the acculturation rnoàel. T h e
acculturation mode1 examines che processes of becoming
aaapted to s new c u l t u r e (Richard-Amato, 1988)' an6 parc of
aàapcing to a new cuiture is to be able to ccmmunicate in
that culture's iânguage anà to use appropriately rhz h s i c
The
scucy i s
zext
that
rheory chat is of parricular relevanco cg t k i s
aàapt-d by Richard-Amato ( 1 9 8 8 ) and known as
;he accommoàation theory. The accommodation theory is
concerned with the second language learner's perceivea
relationship between his/her group, "the in-groupH ana che
target language group ( f i r s t language speakers), Ilthe ouc-
groupH (Richard-Amato, 1988, p. 309) . The difierence between
ïhe acculturation model, and the accommodation m o a e l is c h a ~
thê laiter considers perceivêd social disrance. These iwo
cheories daal with humân interaction and the mosi importanr
factor in chis interaction is the motivation of r b e second
language learner. Richard-Ammato (1988) suggeszs char: "where
t h e motivation is hign as a result of favourable socio-
psychological attitudes, . . . the learnêr will noc onlÿ
beneii~ £rom formal instruction in ~ h e second language, buc
is also l i k e l y to avail himseif/herseli of tne opportunitieç
for informa1 acquisition" (p. 310) . I cherefore explore
tnese theories as I t-y ro finà out if studêntst rnotivarrion
m a y have contributed to the poor results somehow.
XETHODOLOC-Y
As mencioned above, ny stuay focuses on the probiems
associaced w i t h NSL, a s u b j e c t 1 câugnt for t h r e e years .
Because of the experience that I had with NSL, 1 m e a
persocal story as the main resesrc:? nethod. Use of a
perscnai scory is rneant to sr~vi5e an lnsignt into a
teacher's beliefs a b o u t the subject s/he teaches. Through
the personal story, 1 intend to demonstrate ~ h e problerns
that 1 had after investing onergy Fnto the subject and the
disapooinîment I haci when the ZJC results came back to t h e
school, and findinq out that of al1 the subjects written,
students had received the iowest graces in my suejeut. Using
rny story, I hope t o u t i l i z o what 1 have iearned at graduâce
school, ûnà to share what I think could be u s e f u i n o t only
in the teaching of NSL buï also in improving tne ZZC XSL
curriculum.
I have chosen s t o r y - t e l i i n g as m y research method,
knowing fully well that it is in i tself concroversial. To
enrich this approach, 1 gave rny story to people who nave hâà
second l a q u a g e t e a c n i n g and learning experience to comment
on it. But as C a r t s r (1993, p il) suwests, it is important
to know wny a story is b e i n g told in t h e first place.
Through my persona l story, 1 hope 1 w i l l capture tha idea of
experiance in such a way t h a t researcners can t a l k abouc
t o a c h e r s as not only knowledgeable b u t also as knowirg
people K l â n d i n i n & Connelly, 1986) .
Through my story, 1 address ïhe issue concerning rhe
prepareàness of NSL teâchers. During m y pre - service
trâinino, t h e f a c u l t y of educaticn âi the Cniversicy of
Zimbabwe, togeïher with i t s a f f i l i a r r ac r,?achers' colleges, - .
d L a not have a program char grepâroa :ES s r d e n t s =o =sach
NÇL. Graduates like myseli, who found thernselves being asked
to teach NSL or SSL, not only iound thernselves isolatea. bu^
they lacked the opportunity to make ïheir studies more
r e l s v a n t and r e a l to the s tuden t s .
A s 1 mentioned earlier, my s t o r y was also givon CO
other second language teachers to read and chen make
comments. Former students of NSL and SSL were given a copy
of rny sîory and asked to comment e i ~ h e r wri~ten o r orally.
Responses :rom E h e infornants were t hen used as *art of rny
daïa .
I also àiscuss t h e NSL presc r ibed curriculum an8 an
analysis of the 1990 th rougn co 1 9 9 2 ZJC resulis publisheà
by the Ministry of Education f o r M. S . S . These ZJC r e s u k s
are used to compare the overall grades of êach s u b j e c t in
which Che stuaents were exâminea at M.S.S. àurino zhis
period. NSLts grades are compared to t h e ocher languages
taughc at M.S.S.
DATA
The aâta w i l l be derived uitimacely f r o m ;
1) my perscnal story
2) conversaticnal interviews
3) t h e Zimbabwe àocuments specifically: r h e syllabus for NSL
and the ZJC êxaminationn results ma,
4 ) what t h e iiterâcure has to say ab ou^ l e a r z i y a secon~
language .
RESE.iZRCX IMPLICATIONS
The delivery strategies identified and charâcterized
through this researcn could be correlated wirh lanouage
acquisiiior. ana l e a r n i ~ g stratagies identified in the
literature- The ultimate goal of this research is ta aàd new
knowledge regârding the teaching and learning of NSL and of
o;her second languages iearned in the African contexc.
LIMITATIONS
The fact Chat this study was r~searched througn the
lived experiences of the âuthor is a limiting facror.
Personal story methods l i k e any orner meçhoà of
investigation are very controversial in cerms of reliabilicy
and val ià ic ly as it can Se diificult to be "objecti~~e" when
telling one's story. The accuracy of m e m o r y is also
qcestionabie But the use of personal stories as eqiairied
ir my aiscussion of methoaology in Chapcor 3 offor a
perspective chat cannot be oifered by other research .
methods .
Because 1 used my personal story as a sprinoboard f o r
the incer ï tews, interviewees may have been encourageà to
- respond to support my story for reasons of solidârity. L ào,
however, use other independent data such as ïhe YSL syllabus
and the Yinistry of Eaucation ZJC examinacion resuits. ?se . .
of conversaçionai intervisws regaraing the z-acnrnc ~i
secona languages shoula ninimise t h e biâs f r s m n.y ?orsonal
SUMMMY
In summary, the problems of teaching NSL are examizec
i n t h i s t h e s i s i n t h e f o l l o w i n g ways: Chapter i, presenteà
t n e rationaie f û r the study, including background
i n fo rmat ion and an overview of the ways I addressea th2
topic being invescigated. Chapter 2 is a review of seconà
language licerature pertinent t3 my research topic, ana an
analysis of theories that r d a t o to language proiiciency acà
language acquisition and learning.
In Chapter 3 , 1 o u t l i n e the methodology and t h e ~ a c â
which I sought CO gain insignt into tne problem I am
investigating. The main tools of investigation wero irty
personal s t o r y . conversational interviews and document
evidence. I n Chapter 3 , 1 also d e t a i l the method aaopc-à fsr
the staay.
Chapter 4 incluaes m y per sona1 story, complemencâry
d a t a wnich illuminates the questions of t h i s stuay anu
selectio~s cf cûmments £ r o m Fnformantç with wnom 1 snarea ny
s t o r y . in a à d i t i o n , 1 provide rny analysis of c h e i r ideas i n
- relaticnship co themes t h a t emerged f rom rny scory. Chaptir 2
is a summary of the study. and of fers suggestions for f x - . x ?
researcn.
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
The litzrature on second language acquisition an2
learning is v a s t , especially as it pertains to European and
North Amarican language learning practices. I n tnis Chapter ,
I focus on selected second language literature which 1
believe is pertinent to the present study. Because the XSL
syllabus appears to B e proficiency-oriéntod 1 discuss ~ h e
proficiency guid~lines set out in Omaggio-Baàle:/'s (1393)
texc. 1 also review i<rashenls (1981) acquisition ana
learning theories because in any second language study chere
is need to know the theoretical framework for languzge
acquisiïion anà laarning. Language study incluties t h e ~ i u d y
of the culture, âna as a resuit, 1 explore îheories
associatea with c u l t u r e . M y study iocuses on t h e problems of
~eaching NSL in Zimbabwe and the threo central ïheories chac
I consiaer are; th2 prof iciency model, the monitor ïàeory
anà the acculturation theory. 3efore 1 discuss chese rnodels
or theories I have ta e x p l a i n why 1 had CO approach che
ênquiry from the perspectives providea by Western cheoriscs.
When I began the literature search 1 had serious Eoub~s
- about t h e availâbility of any publiçhed material on S S L . I
searchad the catalogue secrion ac the University of Wes~3rz - - .
Ontario ana I also checked Zimntc, (an incernariionai - ~ s z i n c
- - L I
40r Zimbabweans) both to no avail. tiowe7rer, when I ccnàuctzd
an E X I C search, it revealed that there was information on
the teaching of English as a second languago ana on issues
dealing wich the teaching of African languagtç as second
languages.
Olabode ( 1 9 9 5 1 , for example, addresses trends in
teaching African languages as second iânguages and l o o k s at
the instruc~ional environments where these languages are
taught. Ndayipiukârniye (1994) addrosses the ïeacbing of
Kiründi in Burundi. Ndaylpfukamiye ( 1 9 9 5 ) addr2sses ef f ects
of f o r e i g n ianguages in surundi. Of all the matorial founa,
none was specifically concerned with NSL, and I thereforê
came to the conclusion that p u b l i s n e à material on the
teaching of NSL is either non-exiscen~ or at best very
lirniïea. However, general rêsearch on secona language
acquisition anà lêarning can be theoretically applieà CO
second lanquage teaching in any situation (Omaggio-Haaley ,
1993) .
Ornaggio-Haaley ( 19 93 ) emphasizes that if a second
language is to be learned successfully, the iearner s h o u l à
be given aàequate tirne. Krashen ii981) also contends that
because children l earn ing ~ h e i r f i r s ~ language have a i cno
silenc period, it is important for second language learners
CO De given more time when they learn a second language.
Becâuse cf ckie involvement of the culture i n any languace
learning siîuaiion it is also important CD qive seccnd
language-iearners more time to adapt to t n a i r new culture
accoràing to che acculturation rnodel.
The NSL syllabus appears to be proficizncy-oriente&
because its main aim is to have students cornrnunicace ât a
certain proiiciency level by the end of t h ê program. The
proiiciency rnodel chat I review in this chaptor is bâsed on
tne American Council for Teachers of Foreigri Languages
(ACTFL) guidelines. Tho proiiciency rnodel is adaptzd by the
ACTFL as a rnodel that can be used in seconC language scuày .
The ACTFL, has drawn up pidelines (seê Wpenà ix 7 3 ) ïhât can
be adopted in order to meet the requiremenïs of zi
proficiency-oriented program.
The monitor theory (Krashen, 1981) is based on a
variety of hypotheses. i n t h i s study, I fûcus on one of the
hypotheses which d e a l s w i t h the conscious lângiiâoe l e a r n i n q
process and the subconscious language learning process.
Parcs of the mcnitor theory on second language, lzarners'
attitudes, a r e also discussed. The conscious aspect c a l k s of
how t h e second language learner wili actempt to monitor
h i s / h e r use of the n e w language in relacionship to r h e
ênvironrnenc s/he is i n . If the énvironment of the secona
ianguage loarner encourages input t hen there ri11 Se
motivation to l e a r n the language, b u t if the r p o s i ~ is
t r u e , the learner will not Se motivacad :O l o a r n .
aecâuse t h e second language s~udencs alreedy have
another language and t h e r e f ore another culcure, the;, âre
bound to have social, psychological, and economic issues to
deal wich when approaching a new language. Studiês by
Richard-Amato (1988) and Schumann (1978) suggest that 90th
che acculturation and accommodation t h e o r i o s explore t he
conditions under which second language learners view
themselves in relation to members of thê target group ( f i r s c
language speakers) . Schumann ( 1 9 7 8 ) looks ac t n o
pidginization process of a language and the efiecrs cf
pidginization. Schumann (1978) suogests that second l â c p â c t
learners may pidginize a language if they find c h a t ir m e c s
- - alL of t h e i r needs from members of the targez grcup.
Attitudinal factors play a significânt r o l e in szccnc
lacguage l ea rn ing . On attitudlnal issues, stuàies Dy I rashen
( ~ 8 1 ) suggesc t hâc where second language learnino
cînaitions encourage a low affecrive filter, che l o a r n e r
interaccs more freely witn members of the tàrgér group. 3 u z
~ c r i v e f i l t x if the conaitions are such that a hioh ai'-
persiscs, chen the learner doeç noc i n t ê r a c z willinqiy with - .
merbers of the t a r g e t group. I n the following pages, - w l l l
expnd on the above mentioned theories whic:? I belleve have
relevance to the teaching of NSL.
T T " 2s PROFICIENCY MODEL
Althouçn the proficiency modsi is che major mode1 - . s e &
in this thesis, I acknowledge that Ft is noc a cheory cf
second language acquisition or l e a r n i n g such as t h e mcni~cr
theory or acculturation theory. Omaggio-Hadlêy 1 1 9 9 3 )
contends that "proficiencyu is neither a mêchod nor a
specific blue p r i n t f o r designing a curriculum. Teachsrs z x
draw imclications, (for example, in designing a novice l ove2
syllabus, the teacner could focus on greecinçs and basic
q i e s t i o n s and answers) £rom the proficiency rnodel in rnakinç
Fnstructio~ai decisions, which is one of the reasons ïCat
encouraged me to choose the proficiency rnodel 3vzr o r k z
models of seconà ianguage teaching.
Cmaggio-Iiadley (1993) like Morris ( 1 9 8 2 ) aef i n e s
proficiency as "performing in a given a r t , skill o r l r a n c i
of learning w i t h expert correctness and facilicy'' (p. 2 ) .
She f u r t n e r s t a c e s tnat the t e m inplies a "high degr îe cf
cornpetence tnrough training" (p. 2 . With t h i s def inicLon iz
mind, the scnool could be seen as one of t h e places where
can obcain t h i s
and facility through training.
Omaggio-Hadley (1993 1 also suggescs that the
proficiency rnoàel is a product of many p a r s ~i h â r à work ix
second and foreign language teaching. The ACTFL has n o t o n l y
arafted a detailed outline on how and when EO use rke ACTCL
guideiines, Dut it has aiso devised a program that
y a c c i c i o n e r s can aàapt and modify according t o t n e n ê e ~ s - 5
? r C 3
their students. The program identifies different c r o E F c i z n c y
levels for seconu language learners. Each prof iciency 1 ê . d
as specific c r i t e r i a that have to be m e t Sefore the l e a r ~ z r
moves on to the subsequenc level.
PROFICIENCY LEVELS
Tha groficiency model recognizes four aistinct
proficizncy levels, narnely; t h e novice level, the
i~termediate level, the advanced level, and t ne s u p e r i o r
level (Omaggio-Hadky, 1993). The ACTFLfs praficiency
c r i t e r i a f o r each 7evel consider global tasks or funczic~ç,
context , csnt?nt, âccuracy, and cext = F e . These c r i ~ s r i â
are used for testing proficiency in speakinc, wricing,
listening, acd reading. Because of the size ânà scope sf
~ h F s research ~ncertaking, I explore proficiency examples
bâsed on speaking only. The prsficiency ievel definiticns do
noc specify parcicular grammatical sirucrures t h a t zeea =o
be c o n t r o l k d but outline a general guideline to heLp secona
languaqe learners anà teacners know what perfornance
c r i t e r i a should je met at each proficiency leve? (Ornaagio-
Xzaley, 1993) .
CXITERIA: Speaking Proficiency
This por~ion of the literic-~re review fscuses on =ho
c r i c e r i a aàopteà by t h e ACTFL in describin, zhe kinds û f
;asKs, cgntext, conten t , accuracy, and ïexc type a s s o c i a e 3
w i r h the four proficiency levels. The c r i c e r i a can h2L3 5 s
macher so r t ouc what students n e s d CO k m w , as well zs
acpropriate material to be covered at each lêvel.
T h e novice level is divided up into three sub-
ca~egories; t h a t is, the iow-novice, mid-novice, an6 h i ~ h -
novice. The subsewent ieveis ( . S . , incermediate , advazcsd,
and superior levels) are also o iv ided into low, m i d , an6
high catagories (Omaggio-Xaaley, 1993) . In c h i s chapter, I
do cor aiscuss the intermediate, advanced, and s u p e r i o r
l2vels in detail because I believe they ar2 n o t applicabh
to rny study.
Globsl tasks/functFons.
The global tasks/functions re fer tc real-wcrlE i i s k s
that the speaker can carry out in the language. At Che
novice l e v e l , the learner is expected to name basic o ~ j o c ~ s
sucn as tablé, ceacner, book, car, etc. S/he is aiso
expected co àe a b l e t o use Oasic greerings with ease i n ïbs
target ianguage. The global tasks are imporcanc in chis
stuay as they focus on whac is to be êxpected E r o m l e i r n e r s
st each level.
Cont exe
3uck, Byrneç, and Thompson (1989) , àescribe "concexc"
as the sectings o r circumstances I n which a person uses
language. aasea on the description g i v e n by Cnaggio-Xaclay
(1993), a second language learner at t h e nov ice l e v d skoul5
be able co hanale very predictable sicuacions "wnich 2errniz
g r e a t e r u s e of memorized or learned rnattriâl b e c a ~ s e cf r - e
prediccable, scripted nature of t n e settings and the
concrete nature of interactions firmly based in che p r ~ s z z r "
(Buck et .al., 1989, pp. 3 -21 . For exansle, âlthorigkr a n c v i r i
swden i rnignt be able to handls simple coniex t s such as
basic fârnily relationships, s/ho couid not c r e a t e or
unders tand aetailed descriptions of folk-stories.
At the novice ievel, depenaing on the n e î d f o r the
language, second language students operace best when
àiscussions are based on here-and-now topics. The c m : t ~ t
hâs CO be concrete rather than a~stract ac the novice l eve l .
3ue s s one's proficiency i n c r e a s e s , "the rance of topics cne
can d i s c u s s with facility increases" (Omaggio-Haàley, p.
16). For example, ar the novice level c o p i c s coverino narnes
3i objecco, names of family rnembers, narnes ai colours, r.â;r.ês
cf a r t i c l e s of clothing, months of t he year , 2tc., cm. ûe
covered; a t the in te rmedia te , aavancea, anà supe r io r levels
different tûpics can be coverod; f o r example, ât the
superior level seccnd language learners can comiortably 5e
engaged in various topics that n a c i v e speakers rnignt àiscxss
(Ornacgio, 1986).
Anocher point co noce is that àifferini t o p i c s can Se
- . ciisczssed at a11 levels. it 1s cke q a a i i t y of t h e discxssicx
that should be consiaerea i n ecch l e v e i . TaKe, for instance,
the copie of farnily, â t t h e novice level, scuàencs cân be
exsected ta know Che names of farnily mezbers and tell -ha
number of people i n each family, whereas a î the intermediace
i
level students can d i s c u s s where family m e d o r s ~ l ~ r e , work,
e t c .
Accuracv
I n m y r e s ea r ch , accuracy is seon as t h e quality,
prec i s i on , and a c c e p t a b i l i c y of t he message being conveyed
5 y the speaker (Buck e t a l . , 1 9 8 9 , p p 3 - 4 . Omaggio-XaCle?
(1393) sugcesis t h a t f luency , grammar, ~ro~nnciicion,
vocabulary. pragmatic competenco, and s o c i o i i n g u i s t i c
cornpetence are f e a t u r e s t h a t should be considered wnen
d i scuss ing accuracy i n any language.
Based on the d e s c r i p t i o n s provideti here , it may seon
d i f f i c u l t to &termine accuracy at the novice level, b u ~ os
Ornaggio-Hadley ( 1 9 9 3 ) p o i n t s c u t , i t is possibl? for nov ice
speakers t o S e q u i t e accurace , e s p e c i a i l y w h e n usin2
mernoriz-d material. Accuracy, t h e r e f o r e , cen Be linkea w i ~ h
the l e v e l reached by t h e second language I éa rne r .
T e x t T w e
The quantity and o r q a c i z a t i o n a l âspeccs of speoch Eorm
t h e b a s i c promise of zext type w n e n d i s cus s ing second
language l e a rn ing (Buck e t a i . , 1 4 9 9 , pp. 3 - 5 1 . A t t h e
novice l e v e l speake r s produce rnainl:~ fragmencêa ana isoiîced
phrases o r woras, whereas a t che iz.ctrniediâcz level ane
- - , -. - d
encouniers rneaningful sentence construction. The 9-CTZL a i sc
suggests t ha t to a t t a i n advanced level status t h e seccnc
language lsarner must dernonstrate h i s / h e r "abili~y t o
function in paragraph-length àiscourse, us ing appropriat?
connectors and transitional phrasesn (Crnaggio-Xaaley, 1 9 9 3 ,
S . 1 7 ) .
TXZ DLFFERENT LZVSLS
I now provide the different c r i t e r i a for speaking âr
each level. secause my thesis focuses on the novice bel, 1
will not go into much decail regarding the intameaiate,
advanced, ana supe r io r l e v e l s , but w i l l give brief
descriptions of what is expected at these levels. Knowiaiqe
of these levels is important, as w i l l be seen in chapcer 4 .
Th2 guidelines set the perimeters of whac the cêacher s k o u l 6
expect at each levei of pro f i c i ency f r o m his/her scacencs.
Novice Level
A s mentioned, the novice level is diviiiea up into throe
sue-categories : novice-low, novice-mid, â n à novice-high. The
novice-low is the lowest level at which one can funcrion Ln
ttrms of language proficiency. "Indiviauais 2erforining ic
the novice Level of proficiency, thougn pernaps capable zf
some limitéd expression in the language, have no r e a i
func~ional âbility to communicace wich whâc ~ h o y Xnow"
(Omaggio-Hadley, 1993, p. 18) . At this Itvel, 152 k a r z e r
can only recite memorized w o r a s or phrases because zsê zf
t n e l a q u a g e Fs limiced to whac nas beon l e a r x ü .
Questions at t h e novice leve l f o c u s mâinly on nanes of
places, ob jec t s , and people. The most important thing ~o
note a t the novice level Fs t h a t the learner's levsi 8eçencs
on the amount of memorised information thar s/hs Fs & l e IIG
access in memory o r request. For instance, "speakers r a c t c
at the novice-high level on the academic scale have
cansiderable memorised material w i t h i n c h e i r controi znd
some a b i l i t y to communicate their own message w i ~ h chac
naterial" (Omaggio-Hadley, pp. 18).
As Omaggio-Hadley (1993) suggests, at t h e novice l sve l
~ h e learners are unable t 3 create with t h e language. 'cr
second language learners to be able to create origica;
ucrerances, they need a greac aeal of cime, ss t h e i r
inabiliïy to handle a typical survival situation
demonstrates .
Intermediate Level
At the intermediate l eve l , second language lzarners â r l
able co create with the language, that is , make orlcirial
grammacically correct sentences as opposeu to rnerely
u t t e r i n q mernorized expressions. U n 1 ike the novice, ~ ~ ~ L ~ ~ ~ r s
a t ch i s l eve l can handle simple survival situaticns enà :+y
are also capable of asking simple an6 straightforward - -
questions. Language use at the intermediate i ove l is -sïa--:;
limitêd to the present t e n s e (Omaggio-Hadle:~, 1 9 9 3 i .
The main differences between rhe novict and the
intermeaiate proficiency levels arê that, (a) ac the
intermediatê level the speakers can ask and answer
qüestions, whereas at the novice level speakzrs respond z s
questions usually in one word or fragnencod sentences, (DI
at the intermeàiate lavel, speakers have a minimal ltvd ~f
sociolinguistic competence, zhat is, "they c m handle
everyday social encounters" (p. 19) such as greecings,
polite regiçters which are lacking aï the novice level, oxà
;c) at t n e intermediate level, speakers are intêlligible ro
native speakers who are used to dealinq wit5 forrigners" i c .
Advanced Levei
Omaggio-Xadley ( 1 9 93 ) has seven characteriscics f c r
second language speakers funccioning ZL more advance?
levels. She suggests that the second language speakers cân
(a) narrate and describe in major time f rames, (b) ~ a l k
about a wide range of concrete topics, includicg
autobiographical details, (c) participate in the economy of
the target culture, (d) show a greater àegreo of
sociolinguistic competencz in their speech and r e g i s t e r , i e !
paraphrase, ( f ) are capable of using cohesive devices CO
unify discourse and finally, (g) s t i l l make errors in c t e
basic strucrure, but more imporïantly, they have a rnuc?. a o r i
sopniscicated control of cheir grammacical system.
Suoer io r Level
At the superior level, the seconc-lançuage l e a r n s r i s
c o n s i d e r e d to be a s efficient as native speakers. The e r r o r s
s/ne makzs do not affect her /h i s comprehension of che
passage or content and the nature of a conversation. nven a r
the lower end of the superior level "speakers may l a c k scms
p r e c i s i o n i n vocabulary, but they arê rare;? ac a l o s s r~
express their rneâning through paraphrase or c i r c u m l o c u ~ i ~ r . "
(Omaggio-Hâdley, 1 9 9 3 , p . 20).
ISSUE OF TIME
Because of t h e concern that 1 had about the amount cf
instructional time âliocated to teacning NSL, this secclcn
explores litorature that deals with the importance of cine
when szudying a second language. Krasheri (1981) points ouc
that chilaren learning their f i rs t language have a long
s i l e n t period. He contends that secona language leârners
need m r î tirne t o learn the language to compensace for tbe
l o n g silent pe r iod that nat ive speaking children have Sefore
chey begin to t a l k . At the novice level stucents need more
t i m e to mernorize the basics.
Anorher important observation to keîp In rnind when
studying second language l earn ing and teaching is choc zhe
amount of time to reacn a given ievel of proiiciêncy will
Vary among students. Lt is also crucial CO a l loca te aàequâts
time for scudents of second lanquages to acquiro tbe targec
language. Stressing the need for more tirne for younger
scudents to acquire seconci languages, Omaggic-Hadley (1993)
States that:
if it typically takes 720 hours of instruction unaer t h e rather ideal conditions of incensiv- study a c t h e Foreign Services Institution ( F S I ) for an adult w i c n high aptitude to become proiicienc at ~ h e Superior level in French or Spanish, it is diificult to exoect students in a 4 year prcgram to reach that same leval of cornpetence after 200-300 hours. (p. 2 7 )
Thus, as Wilkins (1970) points out, whec àesigning a
language course or syllabus. the question. of how many i i ou rs
are available for teaching will, to a large extsnt,
àetermine what level of attainmenc can be reached.
SUMPLiARY ON CRITERIA, LEVELS AND TIME
Knowing the students' proficiency levels h e l p s t h e
teacher to set up not only a meaningiul program but also an
achievable one. Througn the use of the guidelines proviàeà
Dy ~ h e ACTFL the teacher can set reaiistic gcâls for hisiker
class because the "descriptions correspond to various
degrees of reai-llfe, 'usable', language proficiency,
racging £rom O at the botZorn (no funcrional groiiciency) CO
5 at t h e t o p (native or bilin9ual proficiency)" (Liskin-
Gasparo, 1982, p. 2 5 )
As discussed earlier. ACTFL has set guidelines f o r
aifferent compecencies and proficiencies. As a ceâcier, ic
Is irnperacive to know and to understand the ACTFL guidelines
becâuse knowing the next level of cornpetonce car. h d p r k
ceacher sequence material that conforms t o the n a t u r â l
àevelopmental p a t c e r n s of second language learners and chus
prepare the students as they make progress. These
aescriptions allow the teacher to keop in mind the ultirnaïe
goals his/her learners hope to achieve. Not only shou ld it
be the instructional material teachers are concerned a b c u ~ ,
but the design of their courses should be influenceà by
those ultimate goals (Omaggio, 1984).
A proficiency-oriented program trains scudents c î ü s ê
~ h e language outsiàe t h ê classroom, inàegendencl~i of tne
matarials and activicies of the course (Omaggio-iiaüley,
1993). A proficiency-orlenced program a l s o r e q i r e s a
functional/notional syllabus. A functional/notlonal syllabus
includes much of the same content as the grammatical
syllabus, while o r g a n i z i n g it àiff~rently (Liskin-Gâs-aro,
1982).
MONITOR THEORY
Krashen' s (1981) monitor theory hypothesizes that
aàults have two independent systems which they use for
aeveloping c h e i r abilicy in second languages, that is,
subconscious language acquis i t ion and a conscious languaqe
learning process. Klein (1986) suggests that su~conçcious
acquisiïion is baseà on the meaningfül and pur30ssful
communication with speakers of the targec language wheress
the conscious is based on formal training wnicn can bê
obtainad irom the classroom. Klein (1986) also çays that in
subconscious acquisition, the "learner is orientod not :O
tne form but to the content and effect of his utterances,
romaining unawaro of the linguistic rules and structures
used in C h e process" ( p . 2 8 ) . T h e conscious language
learning asgects of the rncnitor theory ara àiscusseS 3.
àetail under the heading attitudinal factors.
1 find the claims made by Kle in (1986) to be
significant in second language learning an6 âcquisi~ion as
they proviae a plausible account of how acquisition â n ~
F .
learaing of second languages occur. Because ~ h e r ~ r s t
languaqe learner is more concerned w i t h utîsrances, t h e r a is
noc rnuch concern for form, whereas in second language
learning there is a tenàency to focus on form as well as
attl-rance. This means that the acquirer hâs CO rnonitor
her/his lanquage before s/he speaks. The learzer t r i e s LO
souna and say the words the way s/he has heard the naïive
speaker saï thern and oiten attempts t o co r recc his/her
Language in order to be unders tood That is how second
languige iearners monitcr their language.
The rnonitor theory suggescs thair learnirig is always
eifected througn some mechanism (the nonitor) . This
nechanism is the learner's eiforr co control n i s / h e r
lanquaoe outoui. While controlling his/her ou~put, che
- * 2 9
learner also tries to self-corrzct wnenever necessary. C s i z
(1986) contends that "the monitor controls the learner's
language knowledge in the same way as a rider controls a
horse" ( p . 281 . The monicor theory does not try to specify
t h c rules that govern the process or t h e f a c t o r s r e s p o r s i b k
for different outcornes, but i t presents a hypothesis abouc
the way language acquisition rnighc be influenced by
conscious awareness ( K l e i n , lS86) .
Knowledge of and an underscanding of t h e monitor
checry, therefore, can he lp prac~iîioners not only CO
understand wnen acquisition takes place, Dut aiço c g kzcw
che difference between learning and acquisition. This
distinction is important because i c helps t h e tzacher
establish opportunities for acquisition an6 laarning a
secona l a q u a g e . For example, if the students are
iunct ioninq at the novice level , t h e teacher couià orqan izê
a dialogue based on greetings. Through this dialogue, -
scuaents rou ld be given an opportunity to practice t h e i r
newiy learzeà vocabulary o r registers.
As I have already indicated, the moni tor theory p lays a
signiiicanc role in second languace knowledge. The concexc
in which the secûnd language is beino k a r n e d or acquired
neecs ~o provicie t he acquirer w i t h an "ânxiecy f r e e "
e ~ v i r o n r n e n t . Krashen (1981) says t h a t :
language acquisition is v e r y similar co che process
c h i l d r s n use i n a c q u i r i n g f irst ana secgnà lançuaass. It requires a meaningful interaction in the t û rg t ï l a n g u a g e - n a t u r a l communication-in which speakers ar3 concerneci not w i t h t h e form of t h e i r with t h e messages they are conveying (r. 1)
T h e meaningf ul i n t e r a c t i o n l a rge ly p o i n t s
" p x p o s e " f o r learning a second language.
u t t e r a n c e s but and underscsndinç.
c o che "neeà" c r
When stuCencs 352à
che sec~nd Languaoe f o r basic communication, ïhe sy l l akcs
should p rov ide t h e students w i t h more interac~ive
o p p o r c u n i t i e s . C o n t a c t w i t h t h e teacher alone is kat-quac-;
as Krashen (1981) suggests, s txdents need to ~e e x p x o c i LQ
an enviromnent ï h a c encourages utt2rance wFch minimal c r 20
e r r o r c o r r e c t i o n at cimes.
The instructions fo r t h e second language learner ouqkt
zo be comprehensible anà relevant t o ~ h e l e a r n e r . 3ecause
. . - ~ h e iaeal Lnpuc Cor acquirinq a second lancuaqe is sinr'âr
che inpuc received By the child, it is necrssary c 3
provide the second language learner with examples c h a c a r e
comprehensible and r e l e v a n t t o his/her Immediace i n i e r ? s t ,
and t h a ~ à r o not too cornplex (Littlewood, 1980). L i m l - w o o a
( 1 9 8 0 ) also suggests t h a t "in an environment where learzers
Fee l anxious or insecure, tnere are l i k e l y to be -
psychological barriers CO cmmunicat ionM ( p . 5 8 1 . - .
As L s ~ h e case w i t h chii~ren learninq their x r s c
language, i; is important that îeachers of sêcond lar.guages
3roviàe z h e i r sruaents with casks c h a t mini rn ize anxiacy.
T â s k s can sLarE w i t h wnac the scudonïs alroacy Xnow whlch
Krashen (1981) calls che (hl) process (i = input, +i =
slightly beyond the active comprehension) - The (i+lj process
operates irom t h e prernise that the teacher provid?~ inpuc
- j u s t slightly above the level ai masçory of the l e a r n e r . 15
this way che laarner starts irom the known and then adcs new
information to the old knowledge. As the second languao-
l~arner ad& on the new information, there is a lot cf
monitoring chat goes on; anà, in addition, ch2 lêârning I s
drawn inca even higher levels of language as the teacher
ernploys an i+l approach.
ACCULTUXAT ION MODEL
Acculturâcion is the process whereby a secsnà l a r q u a g ~
m learner adapcs to a new culture (Richard-Amato, 1988) -ho
acculturation mode1 is important in this study because 51
explores the @itics of leârning a secona languâge.
Ricnard-rimaco (1988) states that :
language is one of the most obsemable expressions cf culture because in second language seccings the acquisition - . of new language is seen as îied to t h e w a y in wnlch :he learner' s community and the ïaroec language community view each other (p. 3 0 5 1 .
Althoucn in most sicuacions the secona lancuage l ea rxe r Is
not in a position of power, tne reverse is true for - -,
Zimbabwe. The W . S . S . students Icsrnirig Ndebele r i s u â i ~ y crme
G - r o m ei f l u e n c homes ana are in a ~csltion of hion 1c9ncr. i~
ana social scatus, anà i h e native speakers are in " c o n ~ r a l "
of ~ h e political status. As a r o s u l t oL zhis Cicnotcny,
power struggles exist. Unfortunately, tnese power s ~ r q g k s
t e n d to affect t h e social and psychologicaL distance of t k
learner .
Schumann (19781, suggests :3at certain social v a r i a b i l s
govern whether t h e ov2rail learning situation is "qooàu C r
il baà 11 . and these variables contribute considerably ;II t h e
procoss of Learning a second language. For 5xample. a "gccàl'
learcing situation takes place when (a i t h e ï â rgê t lânquags
and the second language groups view each orner as s o c i a l l y
equal, and (b) when members of the second language groü?
envisage staying i n the target language arêâ f o r an excence3
9erioa. However, wnen t he opposite is t r u e chero is r h a ï is
considered as a "bad" learning s i t u a t i o n .
Xow does t h e social ana psychological aiscance
influence second languaqe acquisition? f i r s c of all, I c
àetzrrnines che amount of contact t h e s2cona Lzncuage I l a r n e r
experiences with members of the targer: g r o u p . Seconàly. iï
affects t h e degree CO wnich ïhe seconà language learner is
open to r h e input availabie. For instance, In %adu h a r n i n g
sicuacions the learner will choose 20 receive very i i t tk
second language i npu t (Richard-Amàïo. 1988 . whereas i n a
good learning environment t h e o c p o s i t o woula be :rue.
Cansequencly, such "baàn leîrninc _ = i t q ~ a t i ç n s . or what
Ricnawd-Arnaco (1988) refers c 3 3s h w d q r e e s of
acculturation, ltad to pidgin-like
but incompletely developed form of
r e s u l t of social and psychological
pidgin ianguage.
1 -l -, CI
. - languace. A s i n p h r i e c i
speech evolves as the
distance, leaàing to
Klein (1986) cites two features of pidgin language (a)
F t serves " s t r i c i l y limited communicative purooses, br iso ing
extrerne social divisions, for example between co lon ia l
masters and the indigenous population, (b) [it] d i sp lays
fea tures of both the dominant and subordinaco l a q u a g e s as
w e l l as independenc featurzs" ( p p . 3 0 1 . The pidginizacisn cf
the second languagt leads me F n t ù the discussion of
atticuaes and motivation of second language l e a r n e r s .
ATTITUDES AJW MOTIVATION
Attitudinal Factors
When scudents l e a rn â s e c m c i languâge, t h e scücie-?Ys
attitude towaras t h e second language plays a si~nificant
r o l e . For example, if the l e a r n e r is keen on learning ch=
language s/he will likely put a lot ci êffsrt into c h e
process. But if the re is no motivation to iearn the
languag-, the students will not learn it. Enrnotivateà
scudencs may view t h e subjecc as boring ânà chus aecide c o ~
to icceract w i t h menibers of t h e target groug. Attituces 50
hand-in-hand with motivation in second language learnins.
Oxford and Shearin ( 1 9 9 4 ) suggest t na t :
mocivâcion c i r e c t l y influences h o w of t e n s t x a e n ~ s ~2
second language strategies, h o w much stuàencs incorâcc w i t h n a t i v e speakers, how much inpu t they receive i n the language being learned (the target language) , . . . how high their general proficiency level becames, an6 how long they oerssvere and maintain secona lzncuaçe skills â f ~ e r language study is over . (p. 12;
Communication with members of the tarçet group i s
impor tan t because the acquirers "obtain t h e necessary input,
or intake, for langusge acquisiticn'' (p. 21) . Krashen Il9841
suggrsts that attitudinal factors relateci t o second languagt
acquisition are those faccors which encourage intak~.
Faccors that promote intake enccurage the second l a rquag l
acquirer t o comrnunicate with members 3i ;hé car--t group.
As demonstrated by Krashen ( 1 9 8 4 ) , the a c q u i r e r musc
not only unaerstand the input, but s /he must a l so be open t~
it . The learner should be in a posicion t h a c he lps her/hirn
t o want tc I5arn the second lanyage, m a by positing =he
presenct of a socio-affective filter, Krashen (1984)
captures this conce-t. If the learner has high f i l t e r s or
has negat ive a c t Ltüdes towards Learning t h e socond Isnguâge ,
s/he wili acqu i re very Little.
Intearative Motivation
Integrative motivation is defined as " t h e des i ro CO be
I i 1- valued members of the communicy chat speaks the seconc
m language" !Krashen, 1984, p. 22). ~ h e languaoe c e a c h e r ' s
goal is to provide an environmenc in whicn ~ h e seconc
language learner wiil have a lûw language f i l t e r , and hence
s/he wii; not fee l i n t i r n i ü a t 2 d i n the classrcom. In ckc
presence of i n t e g r a t i v e motivation, t h e second language
l earner interacts "freely" w i t h rnembers of the tarçet srou-.
The macerial t h a t is used t o teacn a second language piays
an important role i n determinirig i n t e g r a t i v e motivation. A
baù learning experience could be caused Sy use of mat2rFal
chat Fs beycnd the students' cornprehension level. The
presenco of integrative motivation in t he ciassroom
therofor? provides s tuden tç w i t h an cpportunity ïo enjoy
? . - a
subject. Finally, where there is a low a f f e c t i v e ;i;itr,
scudents w i l l be rtcaptive to lesrning and thcy w i l l noc
àefensive ihrashen, 1980).
Instrumental Motivation
Instrumental motivation is the "desire to âchisve
proiiciency in a language for ucilitarian, or praccical
reasons" (Krashen, 1 9 8 4 , p. 2 2 ) . When teaching a seconà
language t ha t students v i e w as having a g a i n i u l rêsult,
i n s t r u m e n t a l motivation will p r o ~ a b l y be p r e s e n t . The seconà
lacguage k a r n e r s tend r o ince rac t with rnembers of t h e
targec çroups in order to iearn the language and receive th?
gainful product.
When comparing instrumentai motivation to i n t e g r â t i - $ 2
motivation, there is a slightly higher chance of fizaing a
nign affective f i l t e r with the former case. This h i g h
affective f i l t e r is a result of the f a c ~ t h a t seconà-
J ': - 4
linguage leàrners on ly need ï h e iûnguâgê f o r i gainfrl znc
result. If t h e learners harbour any resentment t o w â r a s
rnembers of the target group and see lânguage study as an
imposition, they may l e a r n the basic elernents of t h e
language, Suc not maintain cne language long afïsr c h - i r
stuay of th2 language.
CONCLUS I O N S
The prof ic iency model, monitor and acculturation
t h e o r i s s have neen exarnined Secause they appear to
illuminate i s s u e s which t h i s s t u d y explores. The proiiciency
rnodel o f f e r s gu ide l ines t h a t can be aàapted by second
languaoe t-acners. It a l so suggests proficiency levels c h à ~
s h o u l d be expected in a proficiency-orientza progran. T h e
monitor theory deals with the ways second language
acquisition and learning takes place whereâs the
accuituration ïheory o i f e r s a perspective on t h e s o c i a l ,
- r psychoicgical, and economic issues t h a t ar roct language
learning .
It is important for teachers to create an atmospherê
conàucive cs l e a r n i n g the second language. Bichard-Amato
(1988) ca lks of the llcornprehension training" amongsc second
language learners and suggests that cornprehension rraining
is the process wheroby intake is provided in an
S .
"îcquisiricn- r r c n l classroom environment. When c t e classrcorn
environment is accpisition-rich, scudents are willlng znd
capable of following directions. As Richar--Amaco (1988)
suggests, t h e teacher and the school shoulà provide i n 2
students w i ~ h a curriculum they can hanàle und with which
they cari i d e n t i f y . Richard-Amato (1988) suggests î h a ~ "ïhe
initial training start with implicit learning and sradually
nake transition to explicit learning as students progress
into the advanced stages of language acquisition" ( p . 3 2 6 ) .
When a secofid language teacher has identified t h e k v e l
of hisjher students, s/he should take the leârner's aesired
communicative cagacity as t h e starting po in t (Omaggio l ? 8 S i .
By starting at the studentsf communicative capacity the
teacher can attract the studentsf attention and be able ïo
motivate the students to l e a r n the language. Secause
at:icudes play such a big rcle in second language loarnicc
ana acquisition, it is ve-ry important for the second
ianguage learners to ieel that they are valued mernbêrs of
the society.
Finally, it is possible thac parental at~icuàes rnay
i n f l u e n c e ~ h e role playea by t h e students i n class. The
p a r e n t a l role may either enhance or inhibit the effects on
seconà l a n p a g e learning. Lafiguage acquisition rnay âlso be
influencod or motivated by t h e soc ia l factors, specif i c a i l y
the linguistic charâcter of the students' languagê. Cxfora
and S h o a r i n (1090) suggest t h a t mocivacion is t h e prirnar-y
ciettrrzinûni of second language proficiency. They consider
. - + 3
ïhe ievel of motivation CO be a r e f l e x of h o w Individydal
learners define themselves.
In this chapt2r, I explored theories that p e r t a i n t 3
second language acquisition arid s e c o ~ d l a rquâge learninc,
focus ing on theories d i r e c t l y related CO chis study. The
issue of time w h e n learning a second language was alsa
explored, and wili ne revis i ted in àetail in Chapter 4 .
In Chap te r 3 , 1 will focus on t h e methodclogy uszd fo r
this study. T h e central point will De t h e motives f o r
choosina a personal s tory , conversâtionai in tz rv iews , anC
àocumentary evidence as che tools of investigation.
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY AND METHOD OF TEE STUDY
In this chapter, 1 discuss the methodology for this
study and provide rationale for my data selection. Personal
çtory celling, conversational intêrviews, and docurnentary
analysis were used to conduct the research. I used these
descriptive tools so as t o provi.de differenr "lenses" or
perspectives with whicn CO investigate the problems of
teaching NSL. Morse ( 1 9 9 4 ) suggests that diffêreni l ê n s e s
offer different perspectives and can help the researcher
gain a more holistic view of the research. Al~hough ~ h e use
of dif ierent "lensesu can narrow one's focus , In ~ h i s
research the three data sources were useà to support each
other and to dernonstrate h o w they lend to the t é n e t s ar?à
hypotheses of t h e study.
Docurnentary analysis involved the scrutiny of zhe ZJC
results at M . S . S . f rom 1990 to 1992, and a critique of =hz
NSL syllabus. The analysis of the document evidencs was
based on che literature review discussed in Chapter 2 an6 on
thernes that emerged f rom the analysis of rny story an6
responses from the conversational interviews. The personal
story lookea at my l i f e history focusing on my educâcianal
experiénces, as a stsdent of bot:? grade and high school, as
? 3 - - !
scudent-teacher, and as a qualified ceacher. 1 ussd my s ï o r y
as a sounding board to stimulate discussion during the
conversational interviews (DeLuca, 1996) and as a s p r i n g
board f o r analyzing documenta-ry evidence . The conversa t i o n a l
interviews and docurnentary evitience were employed not only
to broaden the perspectives, but also to add distance ânil
encourage reflection within the interpretation of t he
narrative (DeLuca, 1996).
My story also sets the way in which the thesis ovolves
as it gives a picture of the NSL situation in Zimbabwe. The
s to ry a lso responds to t h e specific research copie of "why
che NSL examination results wero so poor a t M.S . S . " z s w e l l
as attendant sub-problems of teaching NSL. My hypotheses t o
explain the problerns include consideration of t he
effzctiveness of t h e teacher ?r- arac ci on and t he ciernanas of
t h e p resen t NSL syllabus £rom t h e êye of the narr- a C O r .
Studies by L e w i n (1984) , assertinq that a person stanàs
at the contre of his/her own life space, ana that an
understandino of that life can only be accomplished by
beginning with the perspective of that inaividual, persuoded
me to use my persona1 scory , supplemented by conversational
interviews and documentary evidence. It is one of m y goals
in this research to idencify reasons why NSL ZSC examizacion
results at M . S . S . were poor as compared to the o t h e r i k ~ o
r .
main subjects, and then t o share the r ~ n à i n g s of rny stxdy
not only with NSL taachers in Zimbabwe but also wich oiher
second language teachers. Narrative study allows me n o t on ly
to identify these reasons but also to investigate anc
describe how participants r e a c t to d i f f e r e n t situations and
reach consensus. I believe that narrative research
supplemented by conversational interviews and documentary
evidence can expcse some of t h e roasons why NSL had ocor
grades at M. S . S.
Use of documentary evidence has become popular anon9
educat ional researchers (Bell, 198 8) . 1 chose aocurnen~ary
evidence becauss ic adds distance, and Ft provides the
reader with another window for observing the problems
associated with NSL Z J C examination results.
METHOD AND METHODOLOGY
In t h i s section of the sçady I discüss t he tsms
'rnethod1 and 'methouology' in oràer t o give t h e reaaer ac
understanding of how 1 have adopted my methods and
methodology. This thesis is mainly a narrative stuày
combining briei conversational interviews with documentary
evidence. For purposes of t h i s study, 'methodology' means
t h e disciplined pursuit of knowledge whereas the wora
'methoà1 i rnp l i e s the way research is conaucceà (Van Monen,
1 9 9 0 ) . "Methodology is t h e theory behinà che mechoa.
including the study of what mechoa cne s h o u i a foilow anà
whyH ( p . 2 7 - 2 8 ) . I concur w i r - h V a r . Mane~'s ( 1 9 9 0 )
4 3
discription of me;nodolo~ that sliczgests that it is r,cï jus^
a philosophical frarnework, but a fundamental assumptior. zkaz
deals wizh the characteristics of a human science
perspecïive. Knowledge is thus viewed £rom the ge~erâl
orientation of life which in turn is associated with ce r rà i r
research methods.
In reading a story, readers of the research can
interpret the findings according to what resonates (sirnilar
experiences to mine) with them, and they can reconsider some
issues that they may have ignored in their teaching
experiences . As Van Manen (1990) has suggested, narracive
descriptions demonstrate lived experience and this liveà
experience tends to resonate with each individual's sense of
experience.
RATIONALE FOR THE PERSONAL STORY
Connelly and Clandinin (1988) suggest that when doing a
research project, one needs to consider various tools of
investigation. These tools could be in the form of story
telling (autobiographical), participant observation,
interviews, document evidence, and journal entries. Due to
the size of this research 1 did not deem it practical to use
a l1 of the above tools. 1 chose the tools that I thought
would serve the purpose of my inquiry adequately.
The autobiographical method aims at seif-understanding,
in which the individual assumes "a critical posture towards
one's self-reporc, scrucinizing one's frêe associative
account looking for functions of one's explanations of
oneself (Pinar. 1981, pp. 2 7 8 ) . The free associative accs
"involve giving voice to one's inner speech" (DeLuca. 1996,
p . 5 6 ) . Pinar (1981) notes that through the uncierstandino of
this inner speech, linguistic forms and conversat ionai
anderstandings of the lived experience are achieveà. Thrsuqh
conversational interviews and documentary êviaence my story
and t h e problems 1 set out to invtstigate are either
verif ied or not .
DaLuca (1996) also s u g g e s t s that "as an
autobiographical account draws meaning from its nârra~ion,
so does it expose possibie meanings that have not been
understood" ( p p . 5 6 ) . Denzin (19891, on i h e other hand,
poincs out thac "there is no truth in t h e painting of a
life, only multiple images and traces of whac has been, ubac
could have been, and what is now" ( p p . 81) . Autobi~qrap~y.,
theref ore, serves a two-fold purpose, the "firsc concorns
the author's s t o r y , whicn represents a moment of the life
that it reccunts" ( p p . 5 7 ) and, secondly, it "represencs an
acr, of kzowing or [the author's] contribution to whac is
being knownlt (p. 57). My story as will be seen in Chaottr 4
presents one historical perspective on ~ h e Zimbabwe NSL
education system. Conversational inctrviews ana Coclmencâry
evidence are intended to supplement r he conttncs cf my
s tory.
D e L u c a (19961 suggests that autobiographiczl n a r r a c i v e s
uncover and c o n t r i b u t e t o one's personal knowledge and
thinking, which are formed within a h i s t o r i c a l ana cultural
context. Although my story lends itself to the period of che
study, it c a n be r ev i s i t ed and d i f f erent i n t e r p r x a t i o n s
drawn £rom it. DeLuca (1996) also notes thac an
autobiography given to others to read "may actually serve CD
£ree i t s e l f from egocencricity and its location FE t h t pas:,
i rnpregnating itself with the potential for future
possibilities" (pp. 5 8 ) when it is revisited. I c h e x f o r e
gave my story to others to read and the i r responses weze
vaiuable as 1 anaiyzed why NSL ZJC examination resul ï s *der2
Foor a t M.S .S . .
Huebner (1987) p o i n t s out that when teachers t e i l t h e i r
own stories t o ochers they might help each other in the
teaching profession, because stories tell of who we are in
the p r o f s s s i o n and they also he lp ~eachers to k n o w h o w o c h e r
teachecs feei about the profession. In this t h e s i s , iny sisry
in p a r t shares t ke problems of teaching NSL, and ïhe
conversationai interviews, together with docurnentâry
evidence, add another perspective to the probiem being
investigated. The conversational interviews wero incenàed z 3
provi.de ancther perspective not on ly on t he teacninc 3f YS2
at C . B . C b u c also on teaching second languages
internationally, and to suggest s o l u t i o n s that have Ceen
discovered and used in other par t s of t h e w o r l a which inay 59
applicable to Zimbabwe.
I hope that through exarnining rny personal story 1 rnay
provoke a dialogue t h a t w i l l , t h rough critique, a6d n e w
knowledge not only t o NSL but to the entire second lançuacp
teaching world. 1 concur with Altrichter, Posch, and Scrnekh
( 1 9 9 3 ) when t h e y suggest that by opening up individual
prac t ice t o s c r u t i n y and discussion t-achers broadên t h e
knowledge base of t h e teaching p r o f z s s i o n . 1 hope that rny
story, as a l 1 p e r s o n a l stories shouid do, will aeepen
people's understanding of who teachers are in t h e i r
profession.
Van Manen (1990) suggests that because my l i f e
êxperiences ar- accessible to me in a way that no one -Ise's
are, personal stories can provi i i e u s e f u l àata i n educationâl
researcn. 1 chose t h e use of a persona1 story because ny
describing my own experiences from the insiàe, 1 can f o c u s
on particular incidents and give t h e readers a "truc"
represen ta t ion of how NSL teachers see t h e i r ro le i n
Zimbabwe. Through t h e personal s t o r y , I can a t t end to ~ h e
observations of NSL t e a c ~ e r s in Zimbabwe.
Goodson anà Walker (1991) suggest cha t persona1 s io r i es
can be u s e d t o improve not only the t s a c h i n g of t he
individual, b u t of o t h e r t r a c h e r s i n t h a t ciscipiiz~.
- - 2 3
Through the critique of my lived experiences, irnproved
teaching methods for NSL may ernorge. Sy analyzing rny
persona1 story, teaching strategies that facilicate,
rnaxirnize, and capture teachers' voices can be àevelopea
(Goodson and Walker, 1991) . M y story is n o w open for
critique and other teachers may learn h o w second languages
particularly indigenous languages are viewed in Z i m b a b w ê .
Goodson and Walker (1991) s t r e s s that liveà exgeriznces . .
are obviously key i n g r e d i e n t s of the person being stuciea r n
educationai r e s e a r c h . Because my tnesis investigat2s t h 2
r ea sons w h y NSL Z J C r e s u l t s are poor cornpareci to ocher
subjects ac t h i s level, 1 found i t important t o investioate
some of the people who taught NSL, and I hâppen t o be one of
those people. Investigating m y own story allows me to
coni ront nyseli Ceeply because a personal experiênce àces
not confront me as something perceived, nor is it given to
me, b u t its reality is there-for-me (Van Manen, 1990).
Through t h e use of my personal scory 1 hope CO achieve
the fsilowing objectives aescr ibed by Altr icnter , ?osch an6
Somekh (1993) : to develop and improve secona language
practlce înrough t h e i n t e r e s t of a l 1 those concerne& cc
develop t h e knowledge and practical underscanding of chcse
involv'a i n the research process, t o àevelop the
professional knowledge of NSL teachers as a wnole, ana ~3
irnprov? educaticn as a discipline.
2olkFnghorne ( 1 9 8 8 ) a iso suogests that explanatory
narrative research provides an account t ha t supplies t n e
events necessary or causal for the outcome undes
investigation to have occurred. M y story describes t h e
events of teacner preparation and the events ~ h a t LOOK - lace
during my teaching of NSL. T h e l a t t e r results have led to
thFs investigation. Through my narrative 1 will provide
meaningful answers to the problem being investigacec
(Polki~ghorne, 1388) .
RATIONALE FOR US ING CONVERSATIONAL INTERVIEWS
As part of niy investigation I chosa to supplernen~ ;he
aczounE of t h e context i n which my story i s lived by
eliciting other people's perspectives of the concexï. Yy
story is a specific account of one person's and ochers '
experiences. T t is a close look at the àynarnics of the
learcilg and czaching of second languages. As such, 1 chink
the reader gecs a valid account of a t least the educacicnal
context i n which t h i s s t o r y o r segment w e a re analyzing
occurs . Although ny story or rny account àoes not neea
excerna1 vâlidation, a view of tne contexc thxough eyes
oche r than mine can help capture the stage on which the
scory happens, thereby allowing for a richer anà more
rneaningfui interpretation of the experi-nces. Becaüse I am
âlso teliing whac happened to me in cne s t o r y , 1 Seerneà ic
necessary to e n r i c h C h e readers' knowleàge of the soclâl ana
- - - - d 4
political educational context in whicn the story cccurs E y
listening to t h e voices of o t h e r s that have gone through a
similar or different educational experience. A view of the
context through other eyes as obtained through the
interviews should help the reader get a fullel understznàins
of the educational dynamics in Z i m b a b w e .
As the inforrnants responded t o rny story, t h e i r own
scories turned out to be another episode of the cultural and
"familial dramas tncit [map] the territory of possible rc les
- . and possible worlds that an individual may enter" I W i t h e r e ~ ~
& Noddings , 1991, p . 91) . The responàencs' views were
incended to illuminate the issues thac 1 discuss in rny
story. Their scories illuminate the discussions associacea
not only with the Z J C NSL examination results nut with the
teaching of NSL and SSL in Zimbabwe.
Each reader of the story brings with :?irn/her a niscciry
and a prasent which play a big role in achieving ana
i n t e r p r e t i n g the work-as-evoked (DeLuca . 1996). The scories
that each respondent brings help to illuminate the problems
be ing discussed because some of t h e problems associated with
NSL ZJC examination results and , by extension. t h e ceaching
of NÇL, are universal. A s a result of the r e f l e c t i o n by che
o t h e r voices there is a multi-faceted clarification.
,PATIONALE FOR US I N G DCCTjMENTARY ZVIDENCC
As has been rnentioned before , documentary evide-?ce was
- - 2 3
uçed to supplernent data derived from my personal s t o r y . 3211
(1987) suggests that documentary evidence can be used io
supplement information obrained by other means. aell ( 1 9 3 8 )
f u r c h e r suggests that most educational research work
requi rcs the analysis of documentary evidence because iï ï s
independent of t he researcher' s stuày, and can t h e r e f or-
e i t h e r support o r cocnter the d a i m s of the researcher.
Altrichter, Posch, and Sornekh ( 1 9 9 3 ) suggest that
" teachers have access to a variety of existing material
whicn can be used as data. The matpria1 can proviae eviaencê
of past events relevant to a research question" ( p . 81). In
this study, the documentary data that were used includeà t h e
ZJC results and the o f f i c i a l N S L syllabus. The ZJC results
prov ide evidence of how students periorrned at M . S . S . berrween.
1 9 9 0 and 1 9 9 2 i n NSL compared to o t h e r subjeccs caught at
the school at that time. ~lthough the ZJC results are pu~lic
knowleàge, the syllabus i s n o t , and 1 hàd the privilege io
access it Secause 1 am a former teacher of Ndebele. The ZJC
results were intended to illuminate t h e problem of t he
results associateà with teaching NSL which 1 set ouc to
investigat?. My examination of the syllabus w a s intencied tc
explore t k e degrees to which the affixed learnings whic:? k
specified were consistent with theoretical stacàards.
1 chose ta use existing data because of the advânïâoes
it has over data t h â t have been collscted "thrcugh a
contrived process . . . I n mosc cases it has higher
credibility because it is independent" (Altricher. Poscn,
and Somekh, 1993, pp. 81) of the researcher's question. My
story which is the springboard for most of the research
could be seen as my story only. bu t an inclusion of
independent data gives it higher credibility . Altnough 1
col iected the ZJC results £ r o m M. S. S . , 1 did not parïicipac-
in the gathering of the results beiore they went to t he
schooi, as they were compiled by the Ministry of Educa~ic?.
for MatebeiolanS The NSL syllabus was draf~ed by the
Winistry of Education and it is an official nacional
document.
METHOD OF RESEARCH
'Multiple narratives make i t possible for us CO go
beyonà and arouna the ï e xc , to research it withouc accusing
it of false consciousness" (Grumet, 1991, p. 7 5 ) . I snarîd
m y story with other people w h o have been involved e i ~ h e r as
students or as teachers in the educational systom noc c n l y
in Zimbabwe buï in ocher parcs of A f r i c a , thê Unitaa States
of A m e r i c a (USA), and Canada. Same of their questions ana
anecdotes helped recapture relevant highlights of my scuày.
Sorne of the issues they raised helped me analyze not on ly m y
story buc ;ne document evidence t h a t I h a d collectê5.
The story is set up around three areas. The firsc ârêa
focuses on the participation and construction of t h e
- - 2 C
. . c u r r i c u i u m t h a t existed during in- elementary a n a e a r l y nrgh
school years. The second area focuses on the post co lon ia l
construcci~n of t h e curriculum with special emphasis on
critical awareness. T h e third area focuses on "beating t h e
systern". T h i s t h i r d area deals not only wich my t e a c h i n o
career and the way 1 believed I had to h e l p my pupils pass
the ZJC examination, but also with the way some of my
students participated in t h e lessons so tha; they would be
able to pass the ZJC examinations.
The documentary evidence was obtained by contacrizg the
principal of M.S.S. in Zimbabwe a f t a r requests to th?
Ministry of Education f o r Matebeleland were unsuccessiul
(Pe te r s , D. personal communication, 1997). This documente-
evidence consisted of t he Z J C results àating from 1 9 9 0 to
1 9 9 2 , and tne ZJC NSL syllabus. The ZJC r e s u l t s a r e public
knowleage .
I had planned to conduct a t o t a l of 11 interviewees
when I began the interview process. Some of the interviewees
were pecple c h a t I had corne to know through t h e Africân
c~mrnunity in Souch-Western Ontario; others were r e c r u i t e c
from Zimnet (an international listing fo r Zimbabweans), and
ânother was a coileague of mine here in Canaaa. 1 approâcheà
chcse nenibers wno had exgerienco e i t h e r learning or t a a c h i n ç
a seconà language, informed them aî rny stuw, and t hen askêd
chem if chey would be wiiling to participacê in my scudy. I
3 3
also pos ted a message on Z i r n . n e t soliciting vo lün iêers who
might be interested in m y study. I n t h e message thac 1
posted 1 b r i e f l y described what m y thesis was about . 1 had
an overwhelming response £ r o m Z i r n . n e t subscribers. I t was
interesting CO note that people who had learned Ndebele in
an immersion situation wanted to participat2 in the s t ü c y . I
therefore sent a message to al1 my respondents informing
them that 1 only neeoed people who nad gone t o ur workod in
former Group A schoois (schools that ha6 been reserved fsr
w h i t e childron p r i o r t o Zimbabwe's independence! for zhe
study.
Because of t i m e constraints and dis tance , I conduc~ej
the interviews in three different ways. I had 3 one-cn-on2
interviews, 2 interviews using e-mail, and 2 group
interviews, civing me a total of 11 respondents ( 3 - 2 A 6 =
il). The cwo group interviews involve6 3 people ex.".. T h e
f irst group had one Zimbabwean and two Burund ia r .~ . 1'- h i ~ i
one male interviewee and two female interviewees. T h e second
group was composed of one male and two £ e m a l e interviewees,
al1 Zimbabweans .
P r i o r :3 conducting the interviews 1 gave al: m y S o u t h -
Western Ontario respondents my story and t h e questionnair-
shown in Appendix 4 in advance. I asked thern to r a a d che
- s t o r y an5 ~ h e n :CI resoonà io t h e questions in wriiing. I
s e n t a surnrnary of ~ h e stuay and t he s t o r y via e-nail cc, my
5 2
two Zimnet respondents. 1 also asked t h e m to r e a u ever:~thing
that 1 sent and t h e n t o respond t o t h e questionnaire a n a
send their rosponseç to m e . 1 carried out one i n t 2 r v i e w p e r
group and per ind iv idua l because al1 the respondents e i t h e r
had a copy of their responses to the questions thât they had
received or they told me t h e i r answers , which 1 l a t e r
t ranscr ibed.
I used 3 c i f fe ren t questionnaires t o solicit rcsgonses
to my scory because of the diversity of my responàents (se?
Appendix 4 ) . 1 had one f o r che two former Zimbabwean
teachers, one f o r the Burundi ( a l s o FSL ceacher i n Canadû)
and for the former FSL ceacher, and one f o r t h e stuàencs
!see Tzble 2 , f o r more information on the responaencs) . T k s
ques~ions f o r the former Zimbanwean teachers had a coca1 of
10 questions, with the last question soliciting comrnents r.oc
only on my personal s t o r y but a lso on the i r experiences
wnile teaching in Zimbabwe. The questicnnairo f o r the
Burundi and FSL teachers haa 8 questions in ail, and aoain
t h e lasr question was similar to the Zimbabweanst last
question. There were two fewer questions on this
questioncaire Secause I i e l t thair information on quesiions 4
& 5 in t h e Zim~abwean's questionnaire woulc! nct be relevanc
to t h e i r experiences. The student quescionnaire c o n t a i ~ e à 9
questions in d l , with che last question again soliciting
comrnenrs on my s m r y a n a their experiences l ear r i ing t h e i z
r -
9 1
second language. The former ÇSL studen~ and n o w t e s c h e r cf
SSL in the USA was given t h e student's questionnàire and ~~5
Zimbabwean former teacher's quesrionnaire and a sked t o
comment only on the information r d e v â n t to her ex?erilnces.
T h e f i rs t group i n t e r v i e w w a s carried o u t at t he home
of one of the Burundians i n London, O n t a r i o . When I ar r ive6
a l 1 t h e respondents w e r e there and 1 w a s o f £ e r e à a cup af
coffeo before the interview began. 1 asked zhe rêspondents
if they had any cornments t h a t they wanted to s b r e wich me
a f t e r reading rny story. The interview was I n f o r n i a l l y carried
out. The secona group interview w a s i n K i c c h e z e r . The
interview fo rma t for the second group was s imi la r ta rhe 0112
in London, Ontario. T h e one-on-one interviews were c a r r i e ë
o u t a t t h e hornes/offices of the 3 informants.
T h e ccmversational in te rv iews sought CO compare
experierices between rny s to r y and the o t h e r people's stcries.
I agree with Greene (1973) when she suggests t h a t Che aini of
a researcner is not only t o make t h i n q s clearer, and snarpez
awareness cf alternatives, buc also to indicate
relationships and connections, "a l1 in the hope of making
pract i c a l judgernents t h a t w i i l affect t h e
A L I the interviews were â u d i o - ~ â p e d . I listened zo t k e
t a p e s t o f i n à out i f 1 needed co go back co rny respondents
. C . for more information or cLarl=rcacLon. Baseti on whac 1 neara
from t h 2 audiotapes and t he themes t h a t emergec fzom iny
scory I concluded that there was not enough data 1 could use
from one of the group interviews. A l 1 the respcndents in
* l groxp 2 had cornmented on experiences that did not deal w x n
t h e teaching ana learning of NSL; insteàd, they haa
commented on their personal educational experiences wnich
were relevant to my elementary and high school y e d r s , DUC
not to the learning or teaching of NSL or seconà lâncpaoes
in genera l .
After discarding interview data £ r o m one of the groLps
1 w a s convinced that thero would 5e no need to go Dack c s
-,me, che rernaining respondents fo r more information ar: c h i s -:
and I proceedea to transcribe the responses. There was a l o t
of Fnformation derive6 £rom the datzi, some of iz noc very
u s e f u i for this study and some of it ver! u s e f u l . As w i l l Be
seen in Chapter 4 the transcribed data seemed to indicacz
t h a t there were more areas of resonance with iny s t o r y , buc
it also seerned co be poin~ing to other causes of poor NSL
ZJC examination results ât M.S.S..
In analyzing t h e iniormants' response I aàopced a
technique suggested by Moustakas (1090). The cechnique
involves t h e use of themes cornmon arnong t h e responses given
by the iniormancs. The responses â r - acaiyzeS ü s i q ~ ? e
composite-textural aescriptions. This kind of analysis
focuses on the meanings the r e s e a r c h e r identifies in che
respondents' t e x t . As will bê cernons~ra~eà in Chagter 4
ihese meanings i l lurninated the problem 1 set out t o
investigate.
1 also 7ooked at the themes that emerged from rny s m r y
and compared t h e m to m y informants' rosponses. Thesê chones
were analyzeà using " thought unicsI1 (Allison, Demaerschalk,
& Allison, 1996) . 1 designed a narrative check-skeet ( see
Appendix 5) with six entr ies for oach issue for which I
wanced to find out ar5as of resonance and areas cf
difference. A t h i r d section was added to cagcure o t h e r
issues that came out of tnese conversational int2rviews chût
were neither d l f f e r e n t nor sirniiar to rny 2xperiences. T h e
check-sheot (see Appendix 5 ) was basea on the transcribed
data that 1 oot from the conversational interviews. Appendix
5 , whicn includes an exarnole of one of the transcripcs,
shows how 1 idenrified t he thought units Zo correspond ~3
the six entries on the check-sheet.
Weber (198s) iaentifieç s i x c3rnmoniy used units: word,
word sense , sentence, theme, paragraph, and whole t e x c .
Depending on the purposes of the research, each researcher
chooses a unit that best meets his/her research. In rny case,
1 thoughc that themes would be apprcp r i a t e f o r my s t u a y .
3ecause my research was predominantly narrative, Z ~ h o u g n t
ïhat individual sentences anci indivi5ual norcs w o u l a n o t
capture the essence of what the infornan~s woulà have saià,
5 ,' '=
thereby l o s i n g the meaning of the other storizs. 2aragrapk.s
or whole context woulu be too overwhelming ( A l l i s o n et-al.,
1996) resulting in t oo many cornplex i s s u e s . Such overiy
cornplex i s s u e s would n o t be adequately a e a l t w i t h i n
paragraphs. I t h e r e f o r r chose to u s e " t h o u g h t units" ana
t h e s e tnought units were derïved frorn what 1 thought ~ h . 5
informancs were al1 uding to .
PROFILES OF THE INFORMANTS AND TWEIR REACTIONS
As mentioned e a r l i e r , I composed the s t o r y and gave it
to my informants. Aizer discardino t h e p a r t i c i p a n t à a t â f r o n
one of t he group interview 1 had a t o t a l of 8 iniorrnânts f u r
my data, al1 of whom had à i f f e r e n t backgrounds. O f t he 8 , 2
w e r e c u r r e n t l y working as second language teâchers, 2 were
former second language t e a c h e r s , 1 w a s a former S L s t i l ~ e n t ,
i was a fomer SSL student who was now teaching Shona as â
second language in t h e USA, and the lsst 2 had Learned
seconà languages outside the school environment (1 will
r e f e r t o t h e lâst 2 informants as informa1 students) .
The 2 current teachers have been in the teaching fiela
for o v e r 15 years each, and when they spoke of teaching
second l anguages t h e y spoke w i t h passicn for t h e i r native
l anguages . The former Zirnbabwean teacher described the
frustrations he had, ana the desire to see Shona and Nuebels
5eing introduced as second languages ac prirnary/elernencar-
level and in high schools. T h e former Zimbabweân SSL ~ e a c h t r
ho lds a doctorace degree, and currenciy teaches i n the üS-?i.
The Burundi teacher on thê o the r hand stresseà ~ h ê
importance of having appropriate materiais wnên teachicg
second languages, citing his e a r l y years of loarning a
second language. The former Burundi teacher is a doccoral
graduate and is currently teaching French in Alberca . 30th
ceachers hac caughc in an African setting and Ln che western
setting.
The ofher 2 former ieachers of sêccnd languages spoke
, Loàs . of the f r u s t r a t i o n s they had during their ~ e a c h l n g pe-;
They boch s~ressed the lack of moclvatior? thac t h e y :?ad
observed among their students . B o t h teachers are c u r r a n t l y ~
pursuing dif f o r e n t fields : the Canadian works a t a
u n i v e r s i t y , and the Zirnbabwean is pursuing scuaies i n
psychology. The Canadian is a h o i d e r of a Mâster's ciegr-e
whereas the Zimbabwean is a holder of a aSc. Xonours cegree
The Zirribabwean former student of SSL works i n Canaaa
and ho las an E. 2 . 3 . Diplorna. She hopes t= ?ursue furcher
education in c h i l à psycholooy ac the ena of her work
cont rac t . The former SSL student, and now teacher of SSL,
t e a c h e s i n the USA. R e r course was de signe^ by a Zimba~wean
who also teaches SSL t o people i n tne USA wno a re slanning
to v i s i t Zimbabwe.
O f t h e last two participants, one of then learnes
F r e n c h in an immersion situation and English as â s e c m a
- - 2 C
l a q u a g e . She is c u r r e n t l y pur su ing a M a s t e r ' s aegr5e. Th-
Zimbabwean also learned English in a immersion situacior- but
also learned NSL informally, and sne is curr2ntly p u r s u i n 9
graduat? w o r M . Both wonen not o n l y spoke passiona~aly of h c w
they learried rheir second languages Europeari l , Dut also
angrily when they reflected on what chey went chrough to
learn these languages. They were, however, prouci 3f t h t i r
accornplishments Ln t h e i r rszipect ive foroign languages.
t h e
no t
the
='ay
Althougn 1 was concerned about the effec: of zecoràing
intêrviews, rny F n f ornants f ortunately said thac c h q aia
mina being aüdio-taped. 1 noticcd however, thaï scme 3f
informants àid no t express themselves as weLL as chey
have done had they been u s i n g their native lanouaces.
Bêcause they had been g iven the ç t o q i n advance, ï h e y were
always quick to respcnd to t h e questions and îo comrnenc on
m y s t o r y . Many mernories were rekindied àuring t he
conversationaL i n t e r v i e w s .
Although the respondents had indicated t h a ~ chey aia
not mind use of their reai names, f o r purposes of anonymity
1 Gave them Ndebele names. Table 2 sumrnarizes t h e i n f o r r n a ~ c s
profiles and gives t h e Airican names that wiil be usea ~9
refer t3 them in t h e study.
A Surnmary of t h e informants profilzs with c h ê i r X f r i c a n names
Of the 8 respondencs from w h o m data was analyzeà 5 *der-
fernale, ? were teachers and 3 were students who learnea
Ndebele or Shona as second languages; al1 burr 1 have
university degrees including 3 graduate degroes ( 2 3 . 3 s ) .
LIMITATIONS OF THE HETHODOLOGY AND METHCDS aDOPTED
Lived experience research has been c r i t i c i s e d by
scno la rs s u c h as Milburn (1990) and o tne rs , because t h e y
argue that " t h e cacegories and procedures f o r the analysis
of personal accountsu (p. 198 a re not convincing . Alchcugh
the argument has force, scholars like V a n Manen (1990)
suggest that personal stories try to grasp t h e essential
meaning of w h a t is being investigated. Personai s c o r i e s
offer researcn results that cannot 5e achieved by any oche r
means for certain types of questions
Because the bulk of the data consiàered in t h i s t hes i s
ar2 from a persona1 story, the findings rnay not be
generalizable. However, the discussions that were heid w i ~ 4
other scholars may help alleviata some of the fears that
scholars l i k e Milburn (1990) have. Although both the eoticn
and the value of objectivity âre debacable, 1 musc admit
t h a t by v i r t u e of being immersed in what 1 am investigating,
it may ~e àifficult for me to give a well-rounded t reacment
of some cf the issues. By complementing the personal story
with conversational interviews and the analysis of
aocumentary evidence i n the form of ZJC results and the Z J C
NSL syllabus I hope to minimize the impact of the a~ove
Limitations on my study.
Althouch on ly 8 interview transcripts were analyzea 1
beiieve thât this process yielded r i c h data because r e s u l ~ s
of narratives usually draw cn ail the evidence relevani tc
~ h e outcome including inaividual Fnterpretaticns of the
outcome (Poikinghorne, 1988) . A greater limitation nay j e
tnat my interviewees were selected on the basis of
convenience, and 1 had to use à i r e c t e d i n t e r v i e w s and l i m i t
t h e time of the interviews.
1 also acknowledge that my lit~rature review of s ~ c o n d
language instruction may have i n f l u e n c e d my reading of the
transcripts. However, I asked another çraduate student ta
read the transcripts znd to categorize t h e informants'
staternents into themes £rom m y s t o r y . We d i s c u s s e d chose
cat2gczies t h a t were different and then came to amicable
conclusions.
I acknowledge the possibility that my informancs c o u l à
have had a hidden agenda. The documentary evidence, snould
however, minirnize the impact of such conspiracy t h â ~ m i g h t
have bern there among m y informants because 1 dia n o t
disclose ta them t h e kind of documentary eviaence I was
going to ana lyze . The literatüra review analysis sBculS alsû
minirnize ïhe r i s K of any agenda my informants might have
had .
CONCLUD ING REMARKS
Chapte r 3 has been a description of how I cocducced the
rosearch. Conversational interviews provided me wich ocher
scories àealing wich second language learning a n a teach ino +
and tney illuminateà t h e initial data. The aocurnent evidence
provided me w i t h an o p p o r t u n i t y t o r e f l ê c t on how r e s u k s
and tne syllabus nave not changed much since 1 lefc.
The next chapter will t e l l t h e story as it is described
By my cwn experitnces and will review t h e conversational
int2rviews and analyze t h e aa ta t h a t were collecced. The
interviews and t h e story are aiscussed in light of ~ h e
literature review presented i n Chapter 2 . F h a l l y , an
analysis of the docurnentary evidence will also ne przsen ted
in C h a p t e r 4 . The documentary evidence is also analyzed in
t he context of t h e literature review discussed in C h a p c 2 r 2 .
PERSONAL STORY AND DATA ANALYSIS
In this chapter, I present my persona1 story, couplad
with a commentary on issues that arise from it. These
include discussions of the NSL syllabus, the examination
results, as well as reactions £ r o m the informants with w h m
i shared my story. XeactFons to the story were diverse and
plentiful but, for purposes of this study, only areas of
sirnilarities/resonance and difierence relating to tne
teaching and learning of second languages will be aàdresseà
in detail. Areas of rssonance were those statements thac
seemed to be simiiar to ~ h e experiences that 1 had iêachi~g
XSL, whereas the opposiis represented the areas of
difference. Finally, in chis chapter 1 àiscuss how oicen the
seven themes chosen from my story were alluaed to Dy t h a
respondents .
The chapter is presented in three sections: a) zhe -
story and chemes that emerge from it, 5) discussion of
ceacher preparation ana analysis of the ZJC syllabus and
examination results, and c) a commentary on the themes :rom
my story, given by the iniormancs and the analysis of rheir
reçponses The cheories that were discussed in Châpter 2 are
used =O crame C h e themes chat emerge from my story and ths
ZJC XSL syllabus. The inf ormants' resoonses are used
i l l u m i r i a c e che discussion on m y narrative and the
C a n my l i f e bt regardad as - an etrênc char 1 experioncz, az 2xperience 2 have. . . cr perhaps an aczian 1 perform. 1s ir t h u s t h e sort of s t o r y i n which 1 a m a c h a r a c c ~ r , s c o r y - t e l l e r , anà audience al1 a t once? (Carr, 1990)
- The journey t - i ~ 1 a m about r o cake is very unfimil iar
- :O me i n the sense rhat I have never expiorad ic. ~n rnaiiy
ways, i t is similar zo t h e day 1 decided zs imrnigra~- c c
. . Canada. That day was filled wïïn excitemenc and f e a r .
Excitement, becausê Z w a s going ~3 "Canaan" the land filltd
w i ~ h m i l k and honey, and f e a r of the unknom. iqhile ï may
- 9
have "livedM t h e exseriences chat I am ref lcccing cn, L nave
never sac dom and ~houghc of writing them cown as one
?iece, and now a piece t h a c can be s t u a i o d . The road that I
- embark on r e c p i r e s zha t L reflectl on a number of chinos.
Cerra in incidences ~ . â y n o t be discxssei nsc because they Art
n o t important but l a rge ly because I have forqoccen then o r 1
ao not think that t5êy c o n t r i b u t e to r h i s scudy in âny
significant w a y . Because this s t o r y âàdresses i s sues r d a t e t i
- 'm 0 r o the ceaching of Xàebele as a second lanquage N , L,,,
sco ry will Se an e l x a t i o n a l weD. Zeicre I explore t n e
3gucational t r a i l s , ?a ths , r oâà s , and hignways chere is a
t l s t i l l voice" t h a c 1s urg ing ma r c explair, who 1 a m . Anà I
will obey that voice.
I was borri in 1961 and r a i s x i in Z i m b a b w e - M y f a t k i r
was a policeman until 1994 an6 m y mother was a h c r z e - m a k e r
when we were going to school as children. 1 was Sorn i n t a a
f a m i l y of three boys and t w o girls. Although rny m u n anà àad
could read, writt, and speak in 2nglish, tkere was nevs r a?
occasion when English w a s used as t h s medium of
communication at home. We always spoke in Ndebele and when
we went shopping, everything was done in Ndebele. Everyore
around us spoke Ndebele a c home and practised the Ndebek
culture .
As a young boy 1 werit to grade school and enjoyed most
of the times at school. M y parents as well as my friends'
parents always stressed the importance of education and as a
child 1 took education seriously not only because of my
parents' advocacy, but because of th- social gains
associated with it. Education w a s seen as the gateway to
social mobility. My neighbours' children did the same thir-g
and as a result there was cornpetition at school amongst us
children.
EL3MENTAA?Y ALVD HIGH SCHCOL EXPEQIENCE
Most of rny elementary eàucacion was done àuring the
colonial years of Rhcdesia and t h e r s f o r é 1 a l w a y s felt î hac
if 1 goc "enough" education 1 would be like the %iasau'.
T h e " B a s a " issue w i l l glay an important part when 1 describe
m y experiences at a privace school in Bulawayo. As mentione6
earlier, everything around me was Ndebele, but once I set rny
foot on the school premises, eve ry th ing autcmacically Decame
cnglish. We w e r e expectea noc only to converse i n E n g l i s h
buï also expectsa to learn eve-rything in EnglLsn. Most of
t h e students felt good when they spoke in English. It was a
shame to be unable to converse I n English even at the
elernentary level.
From Grades 1 to 5 , 1 was anle to live ac home while
attending school during the day. Although t h e local lanouâçe
and my niother tongue was Ndebeie, at school we nad to do
Math, geography, sociai scuàies, religion, and ail che ocher
subjeccs in English. We learned English in an immersion
situation. Ndebele was tiught to us as a subject like a l 1
~ h e other subjects. Our culture w a s learned at home anà '
there was no re inforcemenc of it at school.
My h i g h school years ï o o k place during Zimbabwe's
transition years (i.e. from the colonial period to the post-
colonial period) . The f irst p a r t of my high school journey
w a s f u l l of anxiety and tension as t h i s was the tirne chat
Basa a term used to describe mainly the colanisers. c a m e f r o m t h e C n g l i s h w o r d b o s s .
- r 1 3
Zimbabwe's war of Fndqendence haa escalated to ics peak.
Schools were being shut down, but as students we thought
that school closur~s were fun and a good break.
Again at the high school love1 everytni~g was àone in
English. I spent my high school yeârs in a boaraing schoo l .
At t h e boarding schooi we were n o t allowed to speak o u r
mother languages until Saturday at 1 o'clock. If you were
caught speaking your native language during t h e week and
before 1 p.m. on Saturaay you could be punished. During our
l e i s u r e tirne, we reaà EnglFsh novels. You would be t h e laüoh
of ïhe school if you were seen rêading a Ndebele novel.
M y l a s t t w o years of high school were fiileà wich hope:
hope for more o p p o r t u n i t i e s , t h a t is. eaucationally,
socially, politically, and economicâlly. Zimbabwe had gaineà
independence and m o s ï A i r i c a n s f e l ~ c h a t opporcunities f o r
zpward rnobil i ty woulà increase. My iriends and 1 always
spoke of living in the secluded suburbs, driving Porsche
cars. L i f e was full of hope and t hac nope lêd u s in our
p u r s u i t for higher eclucacion. It was ~ h i s hope thac :?as
carried me th rough to graduate work as well. Even a f t l - r
independence, the medium of instruction at school is s t i l l
Cnglish.
TEACHER PRSPARATION
In 1982, I enroiied at one of r h e presrigious ccachers '
colleges of the time i n ZimDobwe. Y i l l s i à e Teacners
77
College" had ini~iaily been reserved f o r the white s c u à e n t s
only and when my fellow students and 1 enrolled, t h e r e w a s
an influx of the iess privileged. Because I e n r o l l e d late, I
could no t get my first cnoice courses , nonecheless, I was
enrolled in Physical Education ana Ndebele; Physical
Education was an interesting subject i n many ways because I
learned a lot of new things. I was actually surprised t h a t
it cou ld be t augh t llkt d l the other courses. Throujhout iny
elementary school years and hign school years physical
education had been a t i m e which one spent aoing a f s w drills
w i t h his/her s p o r t s coach.
Ndebele was very fascinating; 1 learned more about ïhe
r i c h n e s s of t h e language and I was fascinated by the à e p t h
of some of t h e literature texts and disappointed by the 7ack
of depth in some novels that X nad held in high regard. One
of t h e m o s t mernorable days was when we had a guest speâkec
(an â u t h o r ) who explainea t o u s one of his novels which w e
considered t o be very difficult. H e maàe us aware of t he
u n d e r l y i n g s i m p l i c i t y of nis novel, when one unaerstooa his
r
intentions i n w r i t i n g it. At t e a c h e r s ' college I met a rew
other a u t h o r s d u r i n g my teacher p r e p a r a c i o n days.
O n e of the th ings w e stuàied in Ndebele w a s literature
a p p r e c i a t i o n . We were to c r i c i que books and look â t rhe
varied meanings of c e r t a i n t e x t s that w e r e in t he markoc.
Everything that we did was meant to equip us to x a c h f i r s ï
7 3
language speakers. I must also adc that we w e r e ''thcrougklyM
trained in Ndebele after Our three-year teacher preparation
period. We had covered most aspects of the l i t e r a t u r e ,
grammar, p o e t q , and language a r t s .
For example, when 1 came to teachers' college 1 Ùid n o t
have a good understanding of how t h e Ndebele grammar was
structured. By the end of the three years at coliege, 1 f e i ~
competeni to explain how the g r a m m a r was structrired. At
czachers' college, cur lecturers usea a Ndebeie grammar t e x t
that had been wricten by C. Doke a whits South Africân. Zven
though Ndebele was a national language of Z i m b a b w e , ïhe text
was written f r o m t h e point of view of an English speaker.
The tsxt was based on the Zulu language to whicn Naebele is
related bu t d i f f e r e n t .
1 enjoyed rny teacher preparation days and lookeà
f o r w a r ~ to t h e 6ay that 1 would go f o r my firsc teachicg
practice. The first prac~icum was about six weeks h n q . My
f i r s c day seems to have beon a total disaster. 1 was
thrilleà to stand in front of students but I could n o t open
- . m y mouth and Say anyrihing meaningful. I spent the r x s E
twenty minutes or so trying to find a beginning spot ana
chen the l a s t twenty minutes telling t he students a ~ ~ a r i ê t y
of s t o r i e s . 1 did noc want to look at t he leçson p l a n
because I w a s afraid chat my students would rhink zhac I 5ic
n o t know what 1 was doing by referring CO t he nocss.
However, as t h e days wenï S y , 1 gainea my composure and
began to use rny lesson p i a n s and a l s o ta enjoy my t each ing
practicum,
During the six weoks of m y practicum I founc out thac 1
could not apply Che literature kr-owledgê 1 had learned
because 1 was teaching at the ZJC level ( t .hàt Fs, the first
two years of high school i n Zimbabwe) . A t the Z J C Level all
1 was required to do was to teach them î o unders tanà , enjoy
and be able t o answer general questions r e l a t e d to th? ncvei
at t h e end of t h e i r second year.
After my first prac~icum, I rernember v i v i d l y one of ~ h e
Ndebele lecturers saying that there was a b ig demand f o r
young teachers who could go ouc and teach literacure
a p p r e c i a t i o n and not only s c r e s s the Ndebele language ~ u c
revive t h e Ndebele culture. T h i s l e c tu r e r stressed the f a c t
t h a t most of the students knew the lanauage w e l l enouoh ~o
writ? it down; Fnstead, wnat they needed was a revival of
their culture through the appreciation of l i ce ra tu-ce anà
poetry.
As a Naebele, 1 was proud that 1 couid be a p i o n e e r iz
reviviag ~ h e Ndebele culture and r e s t o r i n g the Ndebele
dignity thzr had been l o s t during colonialism. 1 t h e r e f o r e
took my stuàies more seriously not only for social rnob i l i cy
reasons buc also for t h e revival of the c u l t u r e that L hac
grown to love so much.
3 G
During my second year , a lot of emphasis was p i a c d on
the teaching of grammar. As a teacher, one had to understand
the basic structure of N a & e l e and be able t o explain Fc to
the pupils. During the grammar activity, we were expert26 c o
know what a ve rb , conjunction, noun, etc. were and Our
students were also expected t o acquire this kind of
knowleage because tne students w e r e tested at t he end of
t h e i r fourth and s i x c h years of high school. Students'
understanding of gramrnar cou ld aiso be tested when they
wrote essays and when they did comprehension exercises .
Opportunitirs f o r studying Ndebele were many. As can be
seen , my teacher prepara t ion was geared towarcs teaching
f i r s t language speakers.
Throughout my teacher preparation, it never occurreà co
m e chat 1 might have co teach Ndebele as a second language.
As a matter of fâcc, no t o n l y did 1 not know anything abouc
Ndebele as a second language buï 1 had no idea of any
langcage beino taught as a second language. I knew that
English was rny secona language but I d i d no t know that Ft
could be caught as a second language. 1 believed that I haà
learned English as a first language and 1 was prcuà chat 1
had learned Znglish as a first Language. Except f o r Ndebeiê,
al1 of my final exârns in high school were s i m i l a r CO those
wricten by a l 1 students in t h e world (incîuuing t h e B r i r i s h
studeccs f o r whom E n o l i s h vas a flrsc language) who sat for
the Cambridge txams in t h a t ~ h e y were s e t ând w r i t c t n in
English.
POST GRADUATION
My f i r s t teaching school was in a mining town and cfie
of my r e s p o n s i b i l i t i e s was to teach Ndebele as a firsï
language t o s t u d e n t s f o r whom the language w a s a second
language. These boys and girls were in an immersion
situation. Everything arcund them was either in Nàebele o r
Tonga. Amongst themselves they spoke Tonga b u t w h i l e t h e y
were a t school they were t o speak e i t h e r English o r Ncebelz.
Trior to my arriva1 ac the schoo l , t he students nad to speaK
in English only while on school grounds. 1 nanageà t o
persuade t h e principal to allow Ndebele to be an alternaiive
lancjuaga since teachers could use it i n the staff-room.
Amhlope Secondary School was pre-dorninantly non-
Ndebele. Ndebele was a second language to mosc of the
students that I taught. These studerits had learned NdebeL-e
in an immersion s i t u a t i o n since Grade 1. Akhough t h e i r
unàerstanding of t h e Nàebele culture was not that greac,
they could iaentify w i t n i t and t h e y had ample t i m e to learn
the language. I observed the determination that these
students had in order to learn the language. Most of t he
teachers at the school were e i t h e r Ndebele or Shonâ
speaking .
M y exper iences a t Amhlope Secondary Scnool w e r ê v e r y
plêasan~. While most of che çïuaents t h a c I tacghc w e r a
from l o w socio-economic backgrounds, 1 enjoyed teaching
them. I unconsciously assimilat2d thern. My s t u d e n t s always
appeared t o admire m e and would tell m e t h a t they likeà ny
tiaching style. Ac t h e enti of my f i r s ~ y e a r of
teaching my Ndebele students ha? the Dest " O " level r e s u l r s
a t t h e school compared t o the other "0 " level subjeccs
written t h a t year and I was very happy.
M y second year w a s also a success story in many w a y s .
F i r s t of a l l , I w a s engaged and t h i s would al:-r âll ny
teaching plans. I had t o move t o a big city where m y fiance
could find a job. 1 began CO apply to rnany schools and one
of the privai- schools invited me for an interview.
Two weeks after t h e interview, 1 w a s o f f e r ed t h e
position to teach Ndebele as a second language ( N S i ) at
Makholwa Secondary Scnooi ( W . S .S. ) . 1 was very exciteà a c
the n e w s t h a t I would be t e ach ing a t a p r i v a t e schooi 5 u ï I
did not know wnat exactly I was going t o be doing. When I
went to talk CO t he teacher who had been t k r e , she t o i d m e
chat t ho re w a s noching to f ea r , every th ing would be a l r i g h t .
I looked a t t h e texts she nad been u s i n g and could not
unaerstand why s h e used them. It did not tâke me ve-ry lonq . -
CO figure c u ~ why she nad beon using such "simple" mater~â-.
Bêfore discussing rny teaching experiences ât X . S . S . le^
m e s t a r t off by exp l a in ing tne composition of the school.
a 3
M 3 . S . was o r i g i n a l l y designed t o cater for a srna11 minority
of white students. When 1 w a s hi red , 1 w a s the only "blackU
teacher there for the first part of t e r m 1, and there w e r e
Eewer than f o r t y black students in t h e whole school. My
appoin tnen t t o the school was a very big success story for
me because 1 was now on a par w i t h the 'basa'. I c o u l d now
teacn the "basa" something and t he 'basa ' now cal led m e s ir .
1 haà rea l ized one of my dreams in life, that is, to be a t
par with the "basan. The material t h a t 1 would teach t n e m
was very sirnpla to me and 1 expected them to find it very
easy .
The material appeareà very s imple , bu t m o s t of t h e
scudents found it very d i f f i c u l t . I n i t i a l l y I thought that
my students were pretending that the material w a s very
aifficult. I also thought cha t t n e i r d a i m t h a t the rna t~r ia l
w a s d i f f i c u l t w a s a way of refusing to l earn a language
which they t h o u g h t w a s not only i n f e r i o r b u t also useless c o
them. M y firoc three mcncns as a teacher at M . S . S . were f u l l
of frustrations.
It seemed to ne ac that tirne that my s t u a e n t s d i a noc
fee l motivated to learn t h e language. 1 t r i ed to f i n a ways
of getting them to like ~ h e language and aventually learn
t h e Languaqe. I woula go home a i c e r school wondering whât
kina of t n i n g s wouid mocivate rny students. At t i m e s 1 calleu
my colleagues w h o also t a u g h t NSL, and chey would a l 1 t e l l
me t h a t tney were having the same pronlems. The maserial
that 1 was using seemed very easy n o t only t o m e but to rny
colleagues as well.
1 w a s overjoyed when 1 w â s inviced t o a confer-nce ~ h a c
woulà aadress issues related to the teaching of NSL. The
meeting turned out to be a discussion of the problems that
we (the NSL, teachers) were facing. We spent most of the tirne
snaring our f r u s t r a t i o n s but t h i s meeting d id noc gravide
us, or at ieasc me, with any solutions to our -roblems. What
I did get, was a method that 1 could use to teach my
s t u d e n t s in such a w a y that t h e y could j u s t pass the final
examination. 1 wzs aavised co d r i l l t h e students with
comprehension passages t h a t had been set i n t h e provious
years. I had to repeat these passages over anà over again.
By the t i m e students had :O w r k e t h e i r f i n a l exâm they
would know these passages i n s i & out. While chey knew the
sassases i n s ide o u t , they c o u l a noc a c ail speâk the
language. I could not ccEverse with thern.
In an attempt t o a l l e v i a t r r h e teaching problems we
faced, anotber NSL teachers ' mescinq w a s scheduleà. At ~ h i s
meeting the ZJC NSL syllabus was to be reexamined to s u i t
t h e needs of t h e students. Most of the teachers did t h e i r
best and what we came up wich wzs â s i rnpl i f ied v e r s i o n of
~ h e previous syllabus. This sy l labus Oid noc change mosc cf
t h e axpec ta t ions for o u r studenrs. The students were s t i l l
P7 expected to wricê shor t scorias of about 1 5 0 worcc. ~ h e y
w e r e a l s o expected to read a cornprahension passage ana then
respond to questions in writing. The syllabus also roquirea
t n a t these students be t e s t e d f o r o r a l proficiency and yet
we did not have t h e resources to f u l l y e x ~ l o r e and prartisz
t he language orally.
During t he PJSL teachers' conferences, w e explored t h e
possibility of ofiêring some form of reward f o r l e a r n i i q
NSL. W e l ooked a t t h e fact chat n o t zuo many businesses am3
parents were going to invesc a l o c of money into a program
c h a t on ly l a s t e d two years and those two years targeted
young boys and girls between t h e ages of 13 ana 14. S e o r , C
form 2, students w e r e not expected to pursue NSL. We also
àiscusçed the idea of having NSL incroduced ât ~ h e lower
levels but most of these discussions could only be eff2c~ivz
if t h e policicians f e l t that t h i s was an irnporcant national
issue.
Besiaes t h e motivation and attitudinal problem, chere
was t h e problem of pidginization. Some of iny stuaencs useà
to pidginize the language ana there was nothing 1 couid ào
- to he lp r h e m avoid it. While chey p i r ig in ized t h e language, L
must admit that it was not fossiliçea; that L s , it was s t F 1 1
possible to correct their mistakes. I felt nopeless because
those who pidginizeci the languâge were the 'bet~er' speake r s
and t h e Gnrs who were more wiilino Z D zackle ~ h e çubjecc.
3 5
They were willing t o a t least converse w i t h me C' e v ~ n â m r ~
themselvcs. These students were proud of the fac t îhat they
could "speaku the language. To me pidginization was one of
che many w a y ç the eiite students refused to learn the
language. Any attempt I cried to c o r r e c t t h e pidginized
language was met wich r e s i s t a n c e £ r o m ~ h e scudents ana
parents. Both parents and stuàencs seemed content t h a ~ they
could Say something i n what 1 ended up calling the
".Lzglicised Ndebele" .
The saddest p a r t of rny time w a s when t h e Z X r e s u l t s
w e r e out and 1 found out that of the s u b j e c t s t h e students
had written, NSL seemed t o have the lowest grades. Sorne ~f
the students would pass t h e e x a r n s b u t would not hâve good
grades. When 1 lookea a t Afrikaans, one of t h e o the r second
languages being taughr: in the schools I found our: that i c s
ZJC resuits were among the best. Although French Sid n o t
have signiiicant success over NSL, students appearec :3 ac
leist put more e f f o r t tnan chey did w i t h NSL. French a s a
second language was offered well Deyond ZJC levels . D u r i n g
the scnool year 1 would go and observe w h a t t h e French and
Afrikaans t eachers were doing and then tr/ to irnpiernen~ some
of the strategies they were using. When I was i n these
classrooms I did not understand what the teachers were
çaying because they taught in either Zrench cr A f r i k a a n s .
H o w e v e r , 1 obçerved chat whiie I naa chrze-43 ninut? c e r i o a s
3 7
p e r week p e r class, my c o u n t e r p a r t s i n 'rencn and Afrlkaâzs
had iive-40 minute p e r i o d s per class per w e e k . English
language classes were a l l o c a t e d e ight f o r t y m i n u ~ e per loCs
w h i l e Engl i sh literacure nad f o u r . When 1 tri& ta a s k f o r
an e x t r a period, 1 was c o n s t a n t l y t o l d t h a t c h e r e was no
room f o r t i rne tab le changes.
It w a s tne above mentioned i r u s c r a t i o n s t h a c Isà me ïo
c o n s t a n t l y i d e n t i f y some of the problems of teacning NSL.
was i t p u r e l y m y f a u l t , o r was it a combinat ion of t t a c h e r
preparedness or lack c h e r e o f ? , scndent a t ~ i t u d e s ,
m o t i v a t i o n a l factors, and c u r r i c u l u m design?
SND OF STORY
THIMES
Reflecting on rny s tory , 1 noted t h e following seven
themes; teacher p i q a r a t i o n , teaching methods, macerials to
be used ( i n c l u d e s s y l l a b u s ) and rîsources availzible f a x
language s t u d y , student achiêvement , assessrnent techniques,
s t u d e n t motivation, and tirne allocation. Teacher prepâration
w a s important because 1 b e l i e v e d t hen that i f I nad jeen as
w e l l 2repared f o r second l anguage t e a c h i n g as 1 nad ~ e e ~ to
teach first languages, some of the problems thac I
expe r i enced could have been avertod. As will be shown F n rny
discussion of t h e s y l l a b u s , some of the problems of coach in5
NSL stemmed £rom the high dernands of the syllaDus. 1 a l s o
b e l i e v e d t h a t time and t h e availability of appropriate
resources strongly contribute to the success of second
language teachino anà i t a r n i n g . Secause t h e education system
in Z i m b a b w e seems to measure academic achievement by b o w
we17 one àoes in al1 s u b j e c t s , I founti i t important tg
a i scuss stuàent acnievernent ana assessment recRnicpes. Tt
always seemed that m y students were not motivatêd to learn
NSL, and â s a r e s u l t of t h e s e observations 1 chose
motivatim as one of t h e themes t o be analyzed. Finally, 1
always felt t h a t i f NSL hâd been o f f é r e d o v e r a l o n g e r
p e r i o d of t i m e as it had been for êxàmple, a t schools like
A.S.S., there would be bet te r NSL resuits ât t h e ZJC love:.
M y teacher prepara t ion years d s a l t with teaching of
Ndebele as a first language. As a first language t e a c h t i , I
was well equipped after the thrst-year program. As can je
seen from t h e story, ernphasis w a s placed on h e l p i n g ï r x h e r s
not only critique Ndebele literature t e x t s eut also to
understand and teach Ndebele g r a m m a r . After graauating from
teachers' college, 1 was very cornforcable tzaching Ndebels
grammar. This knowledge of oramma= helped me sornewnat as I
taught NSL at M . S . S. , but it was not enough.
Novei stxày and poem analysis were ver- rewardinq
experiences f o r my stndencs at A.S.S.. Knowledge zf
critiquing Ndebele novels had to t a k e a back seat wnile 1
was teaching at M.S.S. because I aid not teach literaturo or
p c e t r y atl t h i s school. My s t tüd=nts at M.S.S. neîded the
basics of NSL. As mencioned in the s t o r f , I aid n o t have ar,y
f o r m a l preparation in teaching seconci languages when 1 occ
the jon at M.S.S.
the s t o r y , discuss was prouà
among che pioneers of reviving the Naebele culture. When 1
wenc to M.S.S., this waç an opportunity to promote c l e
Ndebele culture and to accord the non-Ndebele speakers an
opportunicy to learn and experiênce inotner c u l t x r e . As vas
discussed in Chapter 2 , learninq a second language involves
learning a second culture (Richara-Amato, 19881. During che
ceacher grêparation s tases , 1 dia noc have an o p p o r ~ u c i c y rû
learn about how 1 could introducz others to ând enrich t h r m
through my culture. 1 was taught how to enrich those who
alreaay knew t h e language relatively well. I was unable ;O
h ê l p t h e students in t ne i r process of acculïuration, ;bac
is, aàap~ing to the n ê w culture chat came with the learning
of NSL. 1 also lackzd tne knowledge of how tne social anc
psychological àiscancr which Schumann (1978) talks abouc,
influences second language acquisition. Schumann (19781
suggesis that when learners of the second language and
members of the f i rs t language view each other as socially
oqual. thcse learning the language are in a good learning
environment. Lack of this knowleàge causes frustraticn if
those learning the language do n o t v i e w m e m b e r s of t he f i r s ~
language as ecpals. iCnowledge of the scc ia l and
psychologicai àistanco h e l p s the ceacher p r e p a r e for i i s / h e r
class as s/he is going to be aware of h o w much t h e seconu
language learners are preparod to take. This kncwledge iiso
ne lps the t e a c h e r understand whether o r not t h e p iag in
language is eicher a deliberate actempt t o mock ~ h e language
or a fair atcempt by the students. Richard-Amato (1988)
scates that low degrees of acculturation leaa to -idgin-likê
languaqe anC second language teachers need CD Xnow t h a t
information.
In àiscussing the issue of teacher preparedness, one of
che respondencs to m y story w h o is currtnc7y a u n i v e r s i z y
professor in the USA, whom I have named Mbalisi f o r purposes
of anonymlty, said that in Zimbabwe:
t h e r ê are almost no teaching facilities and equiprnenc to prepare those that have to teach Shona/Ndebele as a second language .
This corresponcs to rny own experi2nces and h e l p s expiain why
1 nad to improvise almost everything I did at M . S . S . . Ther-
was no sec text book that could bs followed other than bits
of grammar books ;bar nad been used ~reviously, and these
did nct seem ta meet the needs of t h e scudznts. F o r a cz rscn
who has not been trained to teach second l a n p a g e s , failurî
t o provide appropriace material or iacilities does not h e l p
the piight of both the teacher or the stuàencs. Muyskens
(1984) suggests that one of the ooals of any coacher's
college is to design effective second lanouage programs.
There âlso should be effective in-service education for
second language teachers , contends Muyskens ( 1 9 9 4 j .
Makhelwana, who currently ceaches French as a secona
language in Canada, had t h i s t o Say about teacher
preparation in Africa: 'fmosr of the frustracions oür young
Eeacners face are due r o inaaequâci toacher preparation."
Makhelwanz seems to share the sûme sentiments about che lack
of o t h e r adequate toacher preparac ior i programs in Africa.
Bis stacement also seerns co imply that my f r u s t r a c i o n s were
largeiy due to Che lack of iacili~ios for ~reparlng sec3n6
languaoe teachers in Africa. Mbalisi a ~ d Makhelwanafs
s t a t e m e n t s seem t o po in t out one of t h e themes that ernsrged
from rny s t o r y .
As has been shown in t h e ciscussion of t h e prof ic lenc-y
mouel in Chapter 2, t h e îeacner of secona languzges nstds cc
Know t h e level his/hsr studentç are functioning ac in oràrr
to provide t h e student w i t h meaningful and a p p r o p r i a t e
material (Omaggio-Hadley, 1 9 9 3 ) . The students' level
suggested by the ACTFL and knowledge of these levelç rnighc
h e l p t he ceacher to prepare morr appropriate macerials f o r
his/her stuaents. Xrashen (1980) also suggests chat second
language learners need t h e (i + Il approach for them to
a c q u i r e a second language. It would therefore seem CO be
irnperative t n a t ~ h e teacher of a second Languaoe have t h i s
- prier knowledge nefore teaching seconc Languâges. lacksà
this knowledge .
During m y teacher preparation p e r i o d , there was a
desire to revive t h e Ndebele c u i t x e . 1 haà Degun to view
Ndebele es a languzge wor:h learning and I was no longer
ashamed of it as 1 had been during m y high schooi years. As
a result, when I went to teach ac M . S . S . , 1 was sornewna~
awzrt of t he fac t that my culture and language would not
hâmper anyonets lêarning âbilities, as has been sugoested by
Ci Giovani and Danesi ( 1 9 8 8 ) . :Knowiedge of Ndebele f o r ny
çcuaents would e n r i c h them with a n e w c u l t u r e . 1 thouqkt
chat if rny stuàents, b o t h a t A.5.Ç and M . S . S . , couia
communicate in Ndebele, they would enrich themselves
culturally. However, some parents and s t u d e n t s t h o u g k t h â ~
learning N S L would hamper t h e i r childrens' academic
âchievernents.
DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
TI-IE SYLlX9'tTS
The Z J C NSL syllabus k e e Agpendix l! c h a t 1 followeci
at M.S.S . was designed to cover macerials t h a t would be
t e s t e d on the ZJC final examination. After a two-year s t g a y
period, students wera expected co tavê covereà t op i cs
rangin9 f r o m phonetic worà-at~ack skills to scûry-wrlïing
skills in Ndebele. F o r examols, item $20 i n t h e syl labus
requires thac at the end of the Z J C Srograrn studencç s h o u l d
write essays as long as 150 worcs. T h 2 syllabus alss
requires that the studen~s be able ;O translate f r o m Znglish
to Ndebele and vice versa (item % 1 8 ) .
Graduates of NSL were, and are s t i l l e x ~ e c t e d , CO r e a c
ana comprehenc shorc novels by t h e end of ~ h e i r two-year
study per ioa . The students are a l s o expected t o know basic
greetings, basic relationships, and const ruct basic
sentences (items #3 & 8 in the syllabus). A l l these
expeccacions are gooà in any stuey ~i a language as long as
they are contextually placed. In o r ü e r to achieve o r meet
zhese sxpectations, a number of f a c t o r s oughî t 3 5e
2 f 2 -z
cgnsiâered, especiaily tirne a l l o c a c e c CO che study, purgos2
of stuày, cultural and economic context of the study, and
the availability of resources (Omaggio-Fiadley, 1993) .
At M.S.S. and o the r "elitz" S C ~ O O ~ S , NSL was allccatec5
4 0 minutes per day and it was only offered t h r e o cimes a
week (see Table 5 ) . The total t i m e allocated for the
language was t h u s 120 minutes per week and in a school year
chis amounts to about 3 , 9 6 0 minutes or 6 6 h o u r s p e r year .
A f t e r two years students have had 1 3 2 nours of instruction
in NSL. This is insufficient tirne according to Omaggio-
Hadley (1993), who suggests that w i t h intensive training, a
stuaent needs ac h a s t 2 0 0 hours to be p r o f i c i e n t üc novice
level in languages that are consiaerea oasy c o lêârn. >na
Ndebele is not an easy language to l e a r n considering its
o r i g i n from multipie languages. Consequentiy, 65 -.ours
year of NSL over t w o years wouid n o t suffice to bring
scudents to the novice level, let alone t h e far h i s h e r
of proficiency demanded by the syllabus L e . , writing
stories). Omâggio-Hadley (1993) sugoests that at t h e novice
level second ianguage stuàents tend to deal with common
aiscrete e l emen t s of daily l i f e (see Appendix 2B).
T h e ZJC syllabus seems to begin at t he novice level
(see Appendix 1, itorns #1, 3 and 4 ) buc then ~ h e dernanas ci . -
t he Z J C examination focus on rnaterral that would ~e e x ~ e c ~ t à
ac aavanced or superior proiiciency levels !seo Appendix 1,
items G. 14,18,19, 2 0 , & SI) . 3ased on Ornagoio-Xaclzyt s
(1993) comrnents and on m y experiences at M.S.S. F t is
unrealistic to expect t h a t stüdents can cope wich items fi
2 4 , 18-21 in the syllabus in t he s h o r t period of ~ i m z
a l l o c a t e d t o NSL.
Cornmen~ing on the syllabus and t h e tirne allocated to
teaching of SSL, Mbalisi said t h a t "in t h e USA 1 teach rny
ciasses 70 hours a week." Mbaiisi's program appears to C e i n
lir-e w i t h what Ornaggio-Sadley (1393) and t h e ACTFL recommena
fo r students learning a secand language. At M . S . S . 1 h a c
three-40 minute perioas per week, which amounts t o 2 h c u r s a
week. The time t h a t was allocatea to the sübject would not
meet the demands of t h e NSL syllabus ( e . g . paragraph
writing) . m .he syllabus seems to suggest that NSL stuàents coula
a t t a i n an aavanceà level a f t e r 1 3 2 hours of instruction, S y
axpecting the stuàents CO be able to ïranslace Erom Znglish
to NSL and vice versa Ln that short tirne, to w r i t s i n
paragraphs a language they had only studieà f o r 132 hours,
to wrice unguidea stories, and zhen CO have literature set-
books reâd and understooà within the time allocated.
Cmaggio-Hadley (1993) sugoests that it is impossible c o
actain ï h e aavanced level in a sho r t pe r ioa of tirne. Afitr
132 h o u r s g f instruction in zn 'leasyu lanquage like
Afrikaans, scuàents wouid noc be expected LO have actaixd
33"
novice level status (Omaggio-Xadley 1993) ( a l s o sêe Appsnaix
2 A) .
Because t h e sylia~us appears to be profickncy-
o r i e n t e d , the s t u d e n t s and t e a c h e r s need t o Be aware of the
reaiistic ievel the students should attain in 132 h o u r s . The
syllabus did noc s i a t e the level expected for its stüdcnïs
after the two-year period, b u t its contents and t he
examination expectations suggest tnat stuàents shoula be
expected to be at the advanced k v e l by the end of the i r
s tudy . For example, one would expecc s t o r y writing of up to
150 words £ r o m advanced 7evel students, and not novices
(Omaggio-Hadley, 1993) .
Because NSL was to be corngleted in two yesrs, oEe woula
expect a proficiency-oriented syllabus to be desionea as an
intensive program. M y experiences at M.S .S . k d me to
believe that the syllabus was not designed as such. I n Zn
intensive program, students neoà to be immersed in rhe new
l aquage for almost the wnole day (Omaggio-Hadley, 1993) ,
and t h e environment they are in should provide additional
oppor~unities for cultural integration. My NSL students at
M.S.S. w e r e nor in this kind of envimnmenc, nor 6Ld ~ h e y
attempt ;O engage i n it by inttractinq w i t h Iccai Ndenele
s p e a k e r s outside the school. The A.Ç.S. stuàents, on che
o t h e r hand, who nad stuciied Ndebele sincr G r d e i w e r 2 i i~ a
much Deczer posicioc CO perform â c an advâncr i level.
-- y !
Students at X.Ç.S. had access to NdeDele while i n m y
classes, but all other social interactions were in F~-glish.
Because of the limited t h e zvailabie f o r NSL, and the
arguments brought f o r t h so far, it seems unreâliscic c o
expect t h e s e students t o be at any other level o t h e r chan
t h e novice l eve l a t the end of t h e i r two-year scudy. They
coulà be expectzd to name var ious objects o r u s e basic
greetings (Omaggio-Xadley, 1993), but l i t ~ l ê beyond t h a c .
Gnguided s tory writing is a s k i l l t h a t could be expeccad of
students w h o are at the advanced and supe r io r levels. At ~ h r
novice level, students shcüld be expectzd to use cuidea
story writing methods. The NSL syllabus that 1 followeà âc
M.S . S . did not allow for guided story w r i t i n g .
It appears that the lirnited time available for rhe N S i
students lent itself to ano ther problsm, char is, poor
attitudes and motivation for learning t h e language. A s
discussed in Chapter 2 , attitudes and motivation play a
significan~ role in t h e learning of second ?snçuages. Oxfora
and Shearin (1994) concond ~ n a t " rnoc iva t i~n direccly
influences how often stuaents use second language
strategiesu ( p . 1 2 ) , ana how oitan the students will
interacc or use che kriowleàge learneà ac school with rnenjers
of the target group.
Because some of t h e expecrations ai the syllabus were
too n i ~ h , s tudencs rnighc have beon aiscouragea and fûund ic
not necessary to learn the language. My oxperienc~s âc
M.S.S. also led me to believe that students knew that chey
did not gain anything by learning NSL, anà as a result t h e y
did not seem motivated CO lêarn che language. My sxperitnces
at A . S . S . on the other hand led me to ~elieve chat when
students value the language they become motivated to learn
it. Commenting on motivation and her stuàents atti~uaes
towards the language, MaSibanda (former seccnd languaoe
teacher) said:
rny students did not find any value in the language and so they were not motivated to learn the languâoe.
In my experience at M . S . S . , stuaents oid not seom motLvac2a
to l earn NSL. NSL t o them was not associated with social
mobility, but with downwàrd mobility, and as a result, ~heir
attitude toward t h e subject was negarive. Students ac
A . S . S . , however, associaced Naebele with social mo~ilicy ana
were motivated to learn it.
Mbâlisi, referring to his stuaents in the USA wno -
really needea to learn the lanquage, commented that:
the m~tivation is high, because only volunceers corne co the 9roqram. 1 teach it to groups of students wno intend to go to Zimbabwe in exchange programs. They are very keen to learn che language, and each one of thon phones me in Shona irom Zimbabwe wnen chey go t h e r e .
Mbalisi seems ïo suggest chat his scuàencs are rnociva~ed
because t h e y a r e volunteers. Mbalisi's sruaents also appeir
to be learning in an environment ckâi fosters a gcoa
loarning acmospnere wRich i referreà zo as inscrurnencal
motivation in Chapter 2. Althougn I do not have Mbalisi's
current syllabus, the fact that he evaluates it yearly k a d s
me to believe that his syllabus is more realistic for Ris
stuàents, chan is the NSL ZJC syllabus. The availabilicy of
resources and m a t e r i a l s probably plays a big part in the
àesigning of the program sinco ~"2balisi is an author.
As discussed in Chape-r 2, Ornaggio-Hadl-y (1993) an2
Oxford and Shearin (1594) suggesc chac it 1s i m p o r ~ a n t for
second language students to be rnotivated to learn a
language, o t h e r w i s e they will appear t o resemble MaSiSanda ' s
students who were not mocivâted. My experiences at M.S.S.
resemble those mentioneà by MaSibands vhen she s ta r - s chat
her students did not find any value in learnlng the
language. In analyzing MaSibanda's staternent, ner stuaencs
dia not see âny meaningiul o a i n s in lesrnino the lacguage,
and this would obviously affect how much inceraccion they
would have with menbers of the r-argec group. The amount ci
interaction with rnernbers of the second language is also
determined largely by the attituaes second languaga learners
have (Krashen, i984) . My experiences âc M . S. S. ânà
discussions w i t h other NSL teachêrs in Zimbabwe led me CS
believe that most NSL students naa a negative atEicude
tswaràs ihe language. On the ocher h n 4 , Mbalisi's s ~ u à e n c s
were motivated t3 learn t he lânguagê because zhey saw a
benefit in doing ço.
Mbalisl has an intensive p r o g r a m with buili i n benefirs
i n t h â t h i s students l e a r n the language willingly and they
see sorne gains at the end of their program. XSL students il
Zimbabwe on the other hanü are aware t h a t tney can obcain
alrnost anything they neod wichout che knowleàge of tnis
second language.
As rnentioned e a r l i e r , the issue of time and value
placed on a subject p l a y s an important part in teaching any
s u b j e c t . In my experience NSL students in Zimbabwe ?id no t
find the subject va luab le . Hâving C h e NSL p r o g r a m run for
t w o years and for cnly three-40 minute p e r i o d s per weok a i d
noc help the s tuaen t s , o r the program. To gec t h e scudents
m o t i v a c e à o r i n t e r e s t e d requires a c a r e f u l l y planned
2rogram. Wilkins (1974) suggests t hac , when àesioning a
second language course o r syllabus. the question of cime
available for teaching the Laquage w i l l obviously 50 much
t o c e t e r m i n e the level of attainrnent f o r the s c u d e ~ t s .
a r i n t o n , Snow. and Wesche (1989) suggest t h a t " f o r
succassful languago learning t o occur, the language syllabus
musc tâke inco account t h e everitual u s e s the iearner will
make of the target language" ( p . 3 ) . In my experiences ât
M.S.S. . most of the NSL scudents wouid o n l y have to use zhe
langüage probably when on f i e l d ï r i g s o r on camping
excurs ions .
As proviously alluded to, ic also apgears c h â ~ ch2
syllabus was designed for advanced second language l e a r n e r s
(see Chapter 2, for a discussion on levels) in w r i t i n g
proficiency Students are expected to write stories of
between 100 and 150 words. With the total time spent i n the
sîudy of NSL over two years (132 hourd it is not reasonable
to expect students to write stories of rhis l e n g c h . After
all, t h e i r total vocabulary in my experience, numbered only
a f e w hundred words and few grammatical structares that
would enable thêm to put together a coherent story. At Sest,
perhaps they could have wriiten a "guidedr1 composition, that
is, one derived frorn their answers to a series of s i m p l e
questions on a simple theme such as "My f amily" or "4
typical school day" .
In a proficiency-oriented program the syilabüs coulà
take a more functional approach. A functional syllabus'
fundamental principle is that i; fltâkes the learner's
desired communicative competence as che starcino point"
(Allen, 1988, p. 0 0 2 ) . The officia1 NSL syllabus àoes not
meet the criteria for a functional syllabus. In a funcrional
syllabus an activity such as completing a form would be
familiar to the students, ana it could instill a sense of
bêlonging or need and also act as a motivational facror. a u ~
sucb accivities could not be accommoàated because of 3 2
tirne conçtraincs and ~ h e demanas of the ZJC syllabÿs âfia
examination,
In concluàing my discussion about the syllabus, I w i i l
need to consider the issue of grammar l essons and the
conversational opportuni~izs available CO m y sruàents.
According to the standards established in the proficiency
model, even at the novice level the students should be
exposed to some form of grammar in order to be effl-ccive in
their communication. The çtudznts should be able to
construct two-word or three-word sentences using th2 grammar
they have learned. "Grammar instructior. can facilitate the
acquisition process as an advanced organizer, as a technique
for providing input with multiple occurrences of the same
meaning-form relationship, and to provide forms of
nonitoring" (Omaggio-Hadley, 1993, p. 49). Without some
knowledge of grammar, the stuaen~s l ack coherence ic spesrh
and writing. The current syllabus seems t o suggest thac
students should study orammar, but one of the questions îhis
study leads me to ask is, " f o r which level is this grammar
suitabk?" It appears to me that the grammar expectations i n
this syllabus are geared to intermediate and advanceà level
learners. For example when 1 tried t o address items 10 to 1 2
( c p a l i f icaïives, verb cerises and verbal derivatives) in ::le
syllabus as shown in Appênaix 1, 1 had many difficxlties
because the students dia not have t h e vocabuiary to
comprehend what was being discussed.
Considering the cime allocated to the s t u a y of NaeBele
and given t h a t the NSL students at M.S.S. w e r e à t the novice
l e v e l , they should only have been expected to discuss b a s i c
macerial such as the name of the scnool, h o w rnany f â m i l y
rnembers they had, general grseti~gs, e t c . I t seems cloar
that the syllabus was not realistic in terms of what had to
be covered, considering t h e amount of tirne allocated t o t h e
subject. IL zlso seems that the high demands of the s y i l a b u s
a l so c c n t r i b u t z d to the 2oor performance by the scueents.
Students at A. S. S. , however, who had a much m o r e demandicg
syllabus appear to have done relatively weli i n Ndebele. Of
course they had been learning Ndebele over a much ?on-r
period of t h e . But I believe chat maybe there were ocher
factors that caused M . Ç . S . stuàents to perform poorly in
NSL, such as lack of rnotivatioc, anà poor attitudes, because
they àid noc view NdeDele as e useiul language, nor dià they
find Ndebele speakers to be their social ecpals.
Last l y , Liskin-Gasparo (1980) contcnds that studencs in
a proficiency oriented program should n o t be rneroly declareà
p r o f i c i e n t in communication, b u t the functions that they can
perform should be taken into consideration before they are
placed ac a c e r t a i n level . For example, "the deoree of
proiiciency required to survive as a tcurist or a s tuden t I s
n o t the same as that r equ i r ed to negotiate treatiesM ( p .
3 7 ) . The syllabus therefore needs to be speciiic ia iorms of
w h a ~ studenis are expectod t o do ac ;he end of ckeir
program.
THE ZJC EXAMINATION RESULTS
The ZJC exarnination results investigated in ~ h i s
incuiry are those irom 1990 to 1992. When I f i r s t atïenpcea
tu get the ZJC results £rom M . S . S . 1 had indicacea chat I
needed the results for the three years that I taught ar;
M.S.S., that is, 1997-1990. I w a s informed however, that
during the office crans£-rs those documents had suffered
wacer aamage and w e r e eventually thrown away; hence 1 enaed
up with oniy the 1990 to 1992 results. As chey reflect rny
recollection of trends in results L e . Ndebelê recelving
the lowest grades), I believe tney support m y arguments and
sa will include them. In addition, the concinued poor
results in NSL provide evidence that the cause was nec m y
o m inadeqace teâching.
After studying NSL for two years in Form 1 and Form 2 ,
Zimbabwean students parcicipate in a national examination
that measuros wnether or not they have achievea the
proiiciency level expeccations set out by the Niniscry ci
Education in the syllabus. The final examination consiscs of
iwo sections, the first being an oral examination thar; lascs
15 minucas, and the second parc being the writïen, which
lasts two heurs. In the orel examination stuaen~s are
required to read a shorc passage 3 i t h e r out loud or
silently, anci t h e n answer questions that art asked orally S y
the examiner. The oral examination tests comprehension and
çpeaking proficiency of the students, according to syllabus
items $14 and 15. The written part, consists of story-
writing ( item t 2 0 ) , comprehension questions and answers,
item %lot and translation f rom eitner English to NSL or v i e
The ZJC examination is graded using nine divisions. As
specified by the Mlnistry of Educat ion Cul tue, and
Division 1 represents results better than 96% of t he candidates that wrote the examination in the counrry that year, division 2 means resuits are better :han 8 9 % of the candidates, division 3 means results are b e t c s r than 77% of the candidates, division 4 means results are better than 60% of the candidates, division 5 means results are better than 40% of the canàidates, division 6 means results are better than 235 of the candiaaces, division 7 means rêsults are better than 11% of che canaidates, division 8 means results are bercer b han 4 % of the candidaces, ana division 9 in the lowesc 4% cf the candidates (Miilistry of Education ana Culture, Zimbabwe, 1982, p . 1).
The following Table presents overall pass r a t e s
subjects The subjeccs are
importance accoraing ~ h e Ministry guidelines.
The examinations f o r the f i r s t four subjects'
Xathemat ics , Science and Ndebele) are set and graded
Ministry whereas the rernaining sub j ect examinac ions for
The resuits are presented ZJC are set
in percentages.
T-ABLE 3 1990 Gverall pass rate in percontages at M.S.S.
SUBJECTS I % PASÇ 1 I
MATHEMAT ICS 1 6 6
SCIENCE 91
NSL 3 1
FSL 4 7
, ASL I
1 GEOGRAPHY I
Table 3 is a summary of overall pass ratrs of a l 1 t h e
7 5
92
COMMERCE
TECXNICAL DRAWING
subjeccs that were writtên in 1990. NSL had rhe lowosc pass
95
7 8
rate (31%) of any subject i n t he school. These resuizs a l so
indicate t h e extent of the pcor resulcs thac were associated
with NSL, considering t h a t M.S.S . was an "elitl" school. The
facc that these students passed other subjecrs well
indicates that they are capable and ic also po in t s tg
another issue that c o u l a have causea tnese poor results. I
am i=clined to believe t h a t my n o t i o n s of downward rnobi l i ty
may have played â significant r o l e in t h e poor resulïs f o r
NSL at M.S.S..
Table 4 provides a summary of t he ZJC NSL results frîn
M.S.S. only , for the years 1990 anà 1 9 9 1 .
C o m r n e n t s on Table 4
Table 4 snows t h a t in 1990, of t h e 15 division one
orades obtained at M.S.S. in NSL, eight of t h e m came
from the 2ai class which is composed of t h e %rigncW
sïudencs. If a close look is takon a t the rosuits, one
finds cha t in t he 2Al class, :ne âchievements ar?
higher than in t h e o the r t w o classes as might be
expected. As MaSibanda observed i n one of t h e
interview:
In form 2A [2al] w e would have our sharpesrr studencs and tnese woulC do weli, chen in ch2 2 3 1 2a2] groups it was a mixture and in t h e 2C [2a3] t h e grades were n o t t h a t exciting because t h i s was the weakest class. B u t âgain that woula be expected.
TABLE 5 XISTORIC-9L TiME ALLOCATED TO LANGUAGES AT M . S . S .
TIME IN M I ~ T E S / W E E K
300 MINUTES L
S m JZCTS
ENGL I SX L%iVG'J'AGC - 120 MINUTES
r
Table 5 offers a pcssiblt êxplanation to this
ENGLISH LITERATU'RE
I
discrepancy. This Table liçts tne instructional cimê
120 MINUTES
allocated for language teaching at M.S.S. and, as can
NDEBELE LAVGUAGE
be readily seen, Table 6 shows that these shârper
I -
szudents haà a substantially lower pass r a t - i n NSL
than in other ïanguages.
The literature suggescs t ha t f a i l u r e co prov ide
incentives t3 l ea rn a language could be another reason
for these poor graàes. In my scory I mencione0 how rhe
A.S.S. students wero rnotivated to l e a r n Naebêle jecause
they saw it as a venicle f o r upward rnobility. Z a l so
mencioned chat at N.S.S., NSL w â s associa~eà w i t h
downward mobility, knowiedge of English being
associatêd with upward mobility. As ciiscussed in
C h a g ~ e r 2, Richarà-Amato (1988) suggêsts thât
motivation is a primary àeterminanc of second language
learning. Given that scudents at H . S . S . typically
lacked motivation and did not seom to care if t h e i r ZZC
rosults were poor in XSL t h e n the ZZC r e s u l t s a r l l e s s
s u r p r i s i n g .
MfundF (a former SSL student, working in Canâda)
had this to Say about the Z J C examination results:
F i r s t of all, t he non-Shona speakers flunkec che exam because they dici n o t speak the language aï home and ac school. We w e r e to speak i n English only. S i n c e i t was a two-year course nobody ielc t he need t o take it seriously.
Mfundi's comments seem to echo t h e situation f o r NSL
students at M.S.S. who seemed not to car2 if they
Eailed the s u b j e c t . They were n o t as rnotivaced as ~ h e y
were in Englisn or other subjects which were consicereà
more important. The fact tha t t he prooram w a s o n l y f o r
t w o years f u r t h e r undermineà the oerce ived importance
of NSL, and students were probably âware cf thût .
Xaving looked a t NSL results by themsslves I will
now compare NSL results aoainst the ocher laquages
taught a t M.S .S. The following 3 t ab le s prcvide a
cornparison of t h e ZJC examination r e s ü l t s in Englisn,
NSL, FSL , and Afrikâans as a second languaçe (ASL) f o r
1 9 9 0 , 1991 ând 1 9 9 2 . There were no r e s u l t s submitreà
f o r FSL ând ASL for the year 1 9 9 2 .
TABLE 5 1990 LANGUAGE RESULTS AT M.S.S.BY DIVISION
Il Note: 1) Included in the table is the t o t a l percontage of stueents w n o gassed it.
ENG
NSL
2 ) The above exolanation on Table 6 wili be used f o r Tables 7 & 8 .
Comments on Table 6
The r e s u l t s i n Table 6 , show that of al: t h e
language courses written at the ZJC level at M . S . S . in
9
O
26
1990, NSL had the lowest grades . A s noted earller, c ime
may have been a iaccor. As shown in Table 5 Engiish
l anguage wnich had 8 periods in one week nad a 100%
pass rate, while NSL with 3 perioas a week had a 31%
pass rate. Also, although 52% of the students obtaineà
a Division 1 in English, only 15% of NSL stucents haà a
Division 1. In m y story 1 rnentioned that the poor
resuits associated with the NSL ZJC examination w e r e
d i r e c t l y re la ted CO the probiems of teaching NSL.
Student awarezess that NSL haa an unrealistic sy l l abus
and that it was oniy a two-year program coulci have l ed
1
%PASS
100
3 1
12
- 7
4
10
1
4 7
75
5
6
1
5
3
3
9
3
1
5 5
15
7
O
19
6
3
7
4
- 7
4
2
2
15
3
8
O
21
15
2
14
3
3
I
FSL
ASL
14
2
7
5
- - - I I I ---
t o the poor r e s u l t s .
Although FSL did not f a r e very well i n 1 9 9 0 , ir
had a higher pass rate t han NSL. ASL on the other hand
had a higher pass rate compared with NSL anu FSL. A s
will be discussed l â t e r , ASL was scudiod by only a f e w
students at the scnool and most of rhese w e r e hopsful
of attending universities that had ASL as a ore-
requisite.
T m L E 7 1991 ZJC NSL LANGUAGE RESULTS AT M.S.S.
DIVISION
Comments on Table 7
O,
PASS
I n 1 9 9 1 , NSL had the secona worst ZJC results at the
9 9
3 9
2 1
3 7
ENG
NSL
FSL
ASL
school. English had a 9 9 % pass rata, whereas NSL has a 39%
pass rate; in other words 61% of the students failed NSL
while only 1% failed Engiish. Once again these results seem
to point out thac there are problems in NSL. Mfundi
8
9
i9
21
2
commented that âc the school that she wenE to,
9
3
2 8
19
1
6
1
4
9
O
5
5
2
5
I
the Shona speakino meople w n o were àoing it as a secona
7
1
10
20
2
4
8
5
2
O
3
-- ; I
3
1
4
1
50
13
O
4
2
2 0
10
O
1
language knew thac ïhéy wouid pass the axaminacion while about 7 5 % of the other szuaents ~ n e w c h a i ~ h e y woula fail t h e subject . To them it w a s j u s t anocher subject that did not matter.
In my discussions w i t h other teachers of NSL t hese resul~s
appear to represenc a oeneral patcern of mosi, elita schools
ofiering NSL ir? Zimbabwe.
TABLE 8 ZJC 1992 LANGUAGE RESULTS AT M.S.S.
Comments on Table 8
The 1992 results as snown in Table 8 ar- a rep l ica of
Tables 6 and 7. English s t i l l has a pass racr above 90%
while NSL has dropped to 5%. This Table also shows a large
drop of students obtaining a Division 1 pass in bot*
subjects; however, t h e pass levels seem to be evenly
aistributed in English. These results also show a possibly
greater incentive to do well in Snoiisn at al1 COSES while
ENG
NSL
negiecc ing NSL.
3
20
O
1
15
O
2
17
1
ZJC Examination Summarv
When one cons ide r s t he r e s u l c s oDtained on the t k e e
second languages taught at M.S.S. , t hose for NSL w e r e t n e
wors t , the FSL success rate was aarginally better, and
Afrikaans' pass rate w e r e quite respectable. The results in
Afrikaans could be attributed to the fac t chat m o s t of the
students who took Tt had some background in the languâge.
Secondly, and as noted earlier, students who studied
Afrikaans were hopeful of registêring a c u n i v e r s i t i - s in
South Africa where Afrikaans Fs a pre-requisits fo r c e r ~ a i n
c o u r s e s . Appendix 2A indicatês thât it takes about 2+0 hours
to a t t a i n level 1 !Novice l eve l ) in Afrikaans. Based on the
5 periods aliocated to Afrikaans a t M.S.S . , by t h e m d ci
t h e two-year program students will have haà 240 hours of
instructions. T h i r a l y , the ZJC Afrikaans examinat ion was s e c
and marked internally. Both Afrikaans and French had more
resources than NSL, even thougn they were borh tzughs as
second languages.
The pass r a t e f o r English Fs very high cornpareà to t h e
o the r languages. In 1990 f o r example, the pass r a c e for
English was 100% compared to 31% in XSL. In 1991, the pass
rate for English was 98% wwheroas ;:le NSL rata was at 39%
and finally, in 1992, t h e Engiish pass r a t e stood ât 99%
whereas the NSL pass rate was a mere 5 % . One of t h e roasons
7 why English languaqe has such a high success r a t s rs -ikely
r e l a t e d to t h e alloca~ion of more teaching tine t hün XSL.
Also, English is the first language for most scudents, and
t h i s necessarily ccntributes to greater success. Since L t is
alço the language associaced wiïh what Fre i re 11993) cermed
upward mobility, the students are motivated CO learn it. NSL
on t h e other hand, is not associated with upward m o b i l i t Y -
Mfundi described NSL as a subject w b i c n the s u d e n t s dicl not
feel r o be important to them.
T h i r d l y , because NSL is n o t s e e n as a v e h i c l e of upward
mobility, students, administrators, and parents are not
motivated to see l c being taught as oxe of the important
çubjects; instead it is viewed as one of those mandatory
subjects, whicn is iikely t o be fâi~ed. Failin9 NSL is noc
seen as a setback at al1 and therefore i t s success Fs àoometi
bef ore its teaching begins . Ironically though, the
government tries to give it importance since the NSL
examination is one of the four s e t D y the Minisc,-, w h i l ~
the rest are SZL locally. Perhaps because ASL and CSL were
s e t and graaed iocally, t h e students d i a bec~er than in NSL.
THEME -4NALYSIS
As mentioned a t the beginning of this Chapter, che
thernes Seing discussed in this seccion of Châpter 4 were
derivea from rny personai s t o r y . These themes were not m l y
. . notions of the problems that I raertified a ï ~ h e beginning
of my investigation but they a i so trnergeà from my p e r s o n d
story. The informants were given the sco ry to rea9 ~ e f u r e
the conversational interviews were carried out, and w e r e
asked to respond to the questions shown in Appendix 4 . The
l a s t question on the questionnaire was "Coulà you comment on
my persona1 story, now t h a t you have read it? Does it have
any parallels w i t h your own experiencos?"
As mentioned in Chapter 3, coriversational inrserviews
were conducted not only to add aistance and mcourage
reflection in my research but also to brcaden the discussion
and minirnize bias sincc t h e researcher was a l so t h e
researched. The following analysis is an eluciàation of 21-
themes that were set out at the beginning of this Chapcz.
The discussions are based rnainly on responses to the l a s c
question in the questionnaire. The themes are àiscussed in
t h e o rder thac was important to me after 1 wrote the story.
I summarize the themes using the composite/textural
descriptions aaapted from Moustakas (1994) .
1. Teacher crt~aration. In this theme, che "teacheru
interviewees di£ f ered f r o m the student " interviewees. The 4
teachers (Vhalisi , MaNkosi, Makhelwana, & MaSibanda) t hougn t
t h a t they haà been adequataiy prepared io ceach their
subject areas. Although the scudents had no doubt abouc
their ïeachers ' ~horough preparât ion, chey chougnt that :he
tzschers did not explain clearly t h e raticnale f o r ceachinç
second languages. My observat ion a f c e r my scuàies of secrnci
. - language teacning znd learning, ana a x e r revizwing t h e
literature on second languages, is that a l t h o u g h Zimbabwearr
teachers are adequately prepared t o taach Nde~ele/Shona a s
f i rs t languages, they are not at al1 prepared î o teach these
t w o subjects as second languages.
I n m y s tory, 1 showed bow I was prepared t o teacn
Ndebele a s a first language. 1 was however n o t prepared C G
t e ach NSL. During m y teaching days ac M . Ç . Ç . , stnàents w h o
spoke Ndebele a s a first language e i t h e r studied it as a
first language or chey got bored Ln a second language
classroom. I tend t o agree w i t h sentiments exprassea by
Mfundi when she sa ld that:
In school, for some strange reasons, you teachers n3ver t e l l us why we study SSL. Y o u t e l l us t h a t ït's a seconà ianguage and L e t ' s do i t . F o r people like me, w h o alr-ady have some knowledge of Shona I neoà someone t o expla in why it is being done. Our teacher s p e n t mosc of t h e t i m e speaking Engi ish and noc encouraging t h e scudsnts to use Shona.
2 ) The teachinq methods. Oxford and S h e a r i n (1990)
conrend t ha t there a r e three main factors that help stuaencs
want t o learn 3 second language; (a) the purpose of the
stuày; (b) a welcoming environment; and ( c ) time allocated
for the st r rdy . T h ê s e 3 i s s u e s accounted for how informants
viewed t h e success of t e a c h i n g second lançuages in t h e i r
r e s p e c t i v e areas.
MaNkosi haa this to Say about toaching nethods;
For instance, they said that never, never speak ZngLish
when you are teaching French . . . Gmm..rnm anà if you azo speaking only in French and the students do not understand what you are saying they will not be happy and will be uncornfortable. Unhappy students tend c o acc out and you do not get much done. Crnm..rnm, now 1 want to Say here that rny students in grade 7 and 8 were given five-40 minute periods p e r - week, which is quite a bit of tirne, Rowever, as L
mentioned, they had to be motivated. The youngîr onzs had fivo-20 minute periods.
My experiences at M.S .S . did not allow me to use only
Ndebele in the classroorn. My students would not only have
been bored, but would not have understood what 1 was sâying.
X S i c n l y had three-40 minute periods which. as discusseà
earlier, is not enough time to learn a second lanauage,
according to Omaggio-Hadley (1993) .
Mbalisi's comments on the curriculum are:
the currLculum that I designed myself was based on conversation. I t incluued the following sections, each of which was designeà CO introcuce new vocabulary; greetings (general and daily) , self introductions, asking for information, basic questions and answers , narnes of foods, travelling, simple d e s c r i p t i o n s of people, s imple narration, drama, and acting out a p l a y . My course has three stages, elernencary, intermediaïe anc aavanced. M o s ~ of t h e s tuaen ts take a l 1 the stsges. One of rny former stuàents is alrêady helping w i c h the teaching of Shona a i te r going through a l l t h e stages and a l s o having been CO Z i m b a 8 w e .
Mbalisirs comments appear to suggest that with appropriacé
materials and content to be learneà, second language
studants can meet the goals of their syllabus. His course is
also dividea into threo different stages, which my NÇL
course did not do. Instead, NSL had a program chat required
a certain level of understînding at the end of a two year
study. Omaggio-Hadley (1980) appears to be in agreement w i c i
Mbalisi when she suggests that a realistic syllabus atternpïs
to train L t s students to use the language outside of the
classroom by sequencing materials that coniorm to the
natural development of the learner.
Commenting on the time al located for her second
language MaSibanda sa id t h a t "we had four periods a week anà
t h i s was not suff icient" . MaSibandat s comments axe t~ypica l
of what most NSL teachers would Say. 1 had th ree periods a
week at M.S.S. and that was not near ly enough. Lltérature by
Omaggio-Hadley (1993) also suggests ~ h a t to be successful in
second language learning, s t u d e x s need more time to
p a c t i s e w i t h t he language. A t M . Ç . S . students àid noc have
t i m e to p r a c t i s e the language.
3. Material and resources w a i l a b l e . My informanrs
indicated that there were no appropriate materials for both
learners and ceacners of second la~guages. In their
experiences where appropr ia te material iç available,
especially in the USA for example, the students ofcon
excelled.
Commencing on matarial used i n Zimbabwe, Malukazana
saia:
The material used w a s diificuit even though 1 had a grear: àeal of help i rom Zimba~wean f r i e n d s anà relatives.
The ZJC syilabus, â s has been dernonstrated earlier in z h i s
Chapter demands an approach that 1 have deemed ( i 4 ro
learning NSL. I n m y story I mentioned that students are
expected to write stories when they do not have t h e
vocabulary. Malukazana's comment c e r t a i n l y seems tc i m p l y a?
approach beyond itl. For students to be successful they need
an i+l approach (Krashen, 19841 when learning a second
languaige .
MaSibanda had this t o Say about macer ia ls used for
teacning NSL in Zimbabwe:
T h e students seemed to find t h e material very difficult buc 1 do n o t know why. They had to pass an oral examination and writ2 a composition and language written examination.
MaSibanda's observation of the materials available are
sirniiar to mine wnen I was at M.S.S. and arê also, i n rny
experience, typical comments from most NSL teachers in
Zimbabwe, These comments seem t o suggest t ha t NSL teachers
lack an understandinç of teaching second iânguages. I f :he
materiâl is too d i f f i c u l t for tne studen~s, ~ h â t rnight
affect how much i npu t the students have of t h e second
language Xrashen, 1984), and i f reacners lack an
understanding of teacning second languages they likely would
agree with MaSibanda's cornments.
Referring ;O the t i m e allocation in the USA 2nd
resources âvailable in Zimbabwe, NbalLsi s a i d chat:
In the USA I teach rny classes ten hours a week in a crash program that sees ~ h e s u d e n c s converse in Shona
at the beginners i eve l af~er t e n weeks . There ar2 also alrnost no teacning facilities and oquipmenï in Zimbabwe.
Mbalisi's comments on time are very interesting in that he
only axpects his students to be ac t h e beginnerfs/novice
l eve l a f t e r 1 0 0 hours of instruction, almosc as much tirne os
1 had at M . S . S . after two years, and yet the NSL syllabus
expectations are much higher than the novice level.
Appropriate materials, a realistic syllabus, student
motivation, and gcod time schedules (Ornaggio-Xadlsy, 1393
appear to be helping Mbalisi's students become succesçful in
SSL. The reverse w a s true f o r me at M. S. S .
4 . Student achievement. My respondents thought chaï
êven tnough some stuaents passed the test or examinacion,
the aims of t h e syllabus had noc ~ e e n achieved. The
consensus was that i f there w â s t o be any success, t he
syllabus had to be r ea l i s t i c .
This is what MaSibanda had to Say abcut s t u a e n t
achievement ;
They passea alrignt, but what is it t h a t t hey passed? Could they speak the ianguage l a t x on? I am noc convinced at al1 they could do t h a t .
When Mankosi mrnmented on student achievement sne sâi6 t ha t ;
I cuess my i e s c scores w e r e i o w because 1 lowered my standards. The test r e a l l y àid n c t test comprehension a~ility, ic j u s t t esce t i how well t ney had learned t h e vocabulary. Whecher or not rhey cculd recall it or use it a month l a t e r or incorporate it into t h e i r languace,
I do n o t know. There w a s n ' t a l o t of s p e a k i n g ana in teract ion i n the classrooms.
I n my s tory , 1 talked of the success of the studencs at
A.S.S. These students spoke a lanquage other than Ndebele
but they were successful in Ndebele. One of the reasons for
this success was that for these s t u d e n t s , izarning Ndebelz
was prestigious. Those who could converse w e l l and do well
i n Ndebele examinations were seen as Detter prepared for
adult life t h a n those who could not.
A t A . S . S . students w e r e willing CO l e a r n Ndebele fcr
the socio-economic reasons rnentioned above. These s tuaen ts
felt the need to adapt CO a new culture which has ~ e e n
described as acculturation by Richard-Amato (1988). Although
the A.S.S. students were t he "outn group, they saw the need
t o be p a r t of t h e "in" group (Ndebele) whereas che M . S . S .
students preferred r o maintain the s o c i a l distance b e t w e e n
t h e m s e l v e s and rnembers of the Ndebele culture. Althougn the
A.S.S. students spoke a language o t h e r than Ndebele, t h r y
had t h e privileoe of learning it from Grade 1 and that gave
them more tirna t o develop p r o f iciency. Ndebele to t h e
studencs at A.S.S. was a vehicle for upward mobility 3 s
describeti by Freire (1993) . M. S . S . stuaents aid noc seo it
that way, as suggested by Mfunui when çhe says t h a ~ "to chem
it was j u s t another subjecc c h a t ais n o t r e a l l y matcor".
5. Assessrnent techniaues. Most of the teacher parcicipanis
i n the interview thought that they had to lower their
standards in order f o r tneir students t o pass . T h e teachers
thought t h a t the curriculum had to be realistic and ïhe
assessment techniques had to measure what the studznts had
learned. For example, MaNkosi said "1 tested them on t h e
units that I had taught," pointing out the need to be
specific and realistic. MaSibanda also said:
Our aim was to get the students to pass the course at t h e end of the day. W e therefore maae ïhe stuàents study past examination questions most of the t h e leaving them no chance to use the lanouage.
Just as in M.S .S. NSL grades appear t o be among the worst
ZJC r e s u l t s in m o s t e l i t e schools in Zimbabwe, and in an
attempt to irnprove this many teachers tend to rospond as
de scribe^ by MaSibanda.
6. Motivation. Clearly probiems with zime, the
unrealistic expectations of the syllabus, poor results,
etc., exisr, DUC as 1 reflect on m y experionces and cocsider
them in lignt of the comments of ocher t eacne rs in Zimbabwe,
i t appears t h a t a key problem w a s one of n o t i v a t i o n among
the M.S.S. students.
- issues r e l a t i n g t o student nocivarion cover a wiae
speccrum. Informants (both toacners anà scüdents) strtssed
thac if anyone knew t h a t they would Beneiit fros a second
language they would take it se r ious ly . Those who learneà
NSL/SSL because they neeàed i~ for a personal reason or
intended to visit Zimbabwe a t some point sêerneà to have done
well, as can be seen in NaTigo's comments:
I learned NSL informally. 1 was keen ta learn ic because ny fiance was Ndebele spêaking and I dià everything I could to know his c u l t u r e and be able ïo have any meaningful conversations w i ~ h his parênts ana grandparents.
O n ïhe other nand, MaNkosi speaking about FSL t l a c i i n g s a id :
Umm..mrn you see, there was the motivational picture/issue and t h e n the comfort Thatrs wanted to come to. The older children weren corniortable. You couldn' ï just walk in and France in French. You had to motivate tnem in English to make sure chey knew what was
tne I b point . as calk abou by s p e a k i going on
t ng and
whac ;as expected of them.
Mbalisi said that:
The motivation is there because only volunteers come CO the program. I toach groups of students who incegd to go to Zimbabwe on some exchange programs o r to visit Zimbabwe They are very keon to learn ~ h e ianguage ana each one of chem phones me in Shona from Zimbabwe when ~ h e y go there.
Motivation does seem to play a very significant role when.
learning a second laquage. Those who are not motivaced ào
not work hard at the subject. Lack of incentives also can
the poor motivation that stuaents might have.
THOUGHT 'UNIT ANALYSIS
Thought units
As mentioned earlier in this chapter "thoughc unir"
analysis was also employed in this stuay. F o r tne purposes
of this study, a "thought unit" is a scacemenc l ssuea by che
informants which can be ap~ropriatoly matchea with any on-
of the six issues that were identified in my scory. With the
"thought units," I not only tried to find areas of
similarities between ny story and the coaments of the -
informants but 1 also sought to idenîify differences. l n
analyzing these data, I had a column for similarities anà a
column for dif ierences - A quick overview showed ïhac there
were more areas of similarity with my s t o r y in terms of
motivational factors, followed by the appropriaceness of
material and resources used. Appendix 5 provides a saniole
transcript irom one of my i~formants, s h 0 w i r . g the way I
iaentif ied thouont units f r o m responses to my story. Beicre
ciscussing t h e areas of resonance and areas of clifference I
xi11 provide Table 9 which lists t h e total number of thouqnc
units identified in transcript analysis for eacn
participant.
Table 9 SUMMARY OF THOUGHT UNIT (TTJ'S) RESPONSES
Table 10 provides a summary CI£ t h e areas of resonanc t
cnat iniormants shared w i t h m e , cha t is, wnen tneir
experiences as exprêssed in thoir ccaed thought mirs
coincided with m y own.
UNCLASS - I F I E D
6
0
7
10
12
3
4
9
51
# OF DIFFERENCES
12
13
5
4
O
1
3 3
2 7
95
# OF RESONANCES
3 O
4 3
7
Il
6
14
13
7
128
NAMES
MFUND 1
MANKOS 1
NATIGO
MAKHELWANA
MAMOMDALA
VAS I BANDA
MBALISI
MALUKAZANA
TOTAL
# OF TU'S IDENTIFIED
48
5 6
19
25
18
18
4 7
43
274
Table 10
Areas of Resonance CODED TU'S
PREP METHODS TERIAL I
NAT 1 GO O 1 3
MAKHELWANA 2 2 1 b I
OTAL 11 19 2 6 KEY
ACHIEVE ~ S S E S S MOTIF
8
9
3
5
4
3
2
2
37 4
1) prep - teacher prepara t ion 2 ) mechoas -ceachinq met hods 3) material - materials and resouxces 4 ) achieve -stadent achievement 5 ) assess - assessment tecfiniques 5 ) motif -stuclent motivation
Comrnents on Table 10
Table I O shows 37 cornrnents relating to motivation. This
suggests that motivational factors play a large r o i e when ic
cornes to learning a second language. This seoms to concur
w i t h Oxford ana Shea r in (1990) contena that "motivation
directly influences how often scudencs use their second
language strategies and Row long they persevere and maintain
second language skills after languâgé study is overu ( p .
12). Malukazâna, a former stuaent ci SÇL anci now a teacher
of SSL i n the USA had this to Say about motivation 02 h~
students :
Most of them a r e taking Shona because they are planning a t r i p t o Z i m b a b w e . Other scudents a r e married o r related to Zimbabweans and t h u s use it on a regular basis.
Materials and resources necessary for learning a second
language were also identified irequently in t h e coded
thought units. In c o n t r a s t , teacher preparâ t ion dià not
ernerge as a frequantly cocied therne. My overall impressions
about the 8iscussions around teacner preparations are two
fold: (1) informants discussed issues which t n e y felt
corniortable discussing, ana (2) it could be t h a t m y ceacher
~reparation was different f r o m t h e ocner teaching FnEormancs
because 1 graduated £ r o m a teacher's college and rny têacher
praparation period l a s t e d 3 years. The other informants were
direct graduates of the university. They s t u d i e d for theFr
BA degrees t h e n enrolled for t h e i r B.%& crograns wnich -
l a s t e d 7 year if they were f u l l - t i r n e stadencs and 2 years if
they were a part-time scudents.
Table 11, provides a differenc way of looking at t h e
themes, tha t i s , the r e s p o n à e n t s mentioned the t h e m e areas
i d e n t i f i e d in t h e s tory b u t their experiences with chose
themes were not considered t o be the same as mine at N.S.S .
when coding îhought units.
Table II Areas of difference
Comrnents on Tâble II The largest area of diiference in Table 11, is noced i n
the area of motivation once again. Conversational interviews
a l s o seem t o point o u t thac stuàent achievement is nigh when
motivation CO learn the language is rhere, an example of
which is sêen i n V ? a l i s i t s comments. He observed t h a c USA
students often excel because they are motivated CO l eârn
SSL. The results a lso indicate chat materials were
considered to be very signif icânc by the responaents.
The acnievement scores also inaicate t h a c with
appropriate material and motivation students tsnd to do
b e c t e r in second ianguage lêarning. The areas of à i f ference
. e shown in Table 11. suggest that 11 t h e r e is appropriace
macerial . and t h e students are rnocivated to iearn, the
MOT1 F
3
1
3
O
O
9
12
8
27
ASSESS
O
O
O
O
O
O
& I
I
3
ACHIZVE
3
1
O
O
O
I
5
8
18
MATERIAL
3
6
1
2
O
O
8
4
2 4
METHODS
2
2
I
O
O
O
4
3
12
ID
MFUND 1
MANKOS 1
NAT 1 GO
MAKHELWANA
WAMOMDALA
MASIBANDA
MBALISI
MALUKAZANA
TOTAL
PREP
1
3
O
2
O
0
3 - -
3
12
students will navz a higher chance of succeeding in the
language being studied. As w a s ïhe case in the areas of
resonance, assessment and teacher preparation came in as t he
least frsquently coded c c p i c s .
Although there were many other areas of resonaxo in
the responses, and other areas of diiference among the
informants' responses, I chose crnly those that dealc w i c h
the issues of teaching NSL.
SbMMARY
In this chapt+r, af Z e r presencing rny story I identifias
main themes chat I believe related to t 5 e probloms
experienced in teaching NSL. My subsequent reflections OR
the themes and my discussions and interviews with
respondents tenaed to coniirm the majority of the
hypothesized factors concributing to che poor results of NSL
teaching at M.S.S., particularly an inappropriate syllabus,
and insufficient time to achieve ~ h e level demanded by the
syllabus as reflected in r h e ZJC examination. Xowever. ocher
issues that 1 at first haa not considered as important began
to emerge as more central to the problam, especially.
motivation (or the lack thereof) to learn the language- As I
reflecc on the two schools where 1 taught Ndebele and the
very different results that the studencs achieveà in the
subject, 1 am forced to admit that perhaps the single mosï
important reason for the high failure race in NSL ac Y. S . S .
- 1 1 - 4 u
was aerived f r o m the facc that t h e X .S .S . s t ucen t s san 20
advantage in learning Ndebele. The h i g h socio-economic love1
of t h e s ê s t u d e n t s practically e n s u r e d that they would have
no n e e d t o become p r o f i c i e n t in Ndebele; inglish w i t h
perhaps pidgin Ndebele would always suffico f o r tneir f u ï ü r e
C . In Chapter five, 1 will expand f u r t h e r on ;bis r m d i n g ,
along with a sümmary of ~ h e wnole study including a review
of t h e problêms t h a t wero ident if ieà, and recommenda~ions
f o r f u r t h e r studies in t h i s a r e a -
CHAPTER 5
FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
In C h a p t e r 1, 1 outlined the roasons why 1 was
interested in studying t h e problem of teaching NSL in
Zimbabwe, and specifically my concerns with the poor
examination results of NSL ar rny school, M.S.S. 1 also
discussed the struccle for upward mobil i ty and shcwed h o w
chose wirh the knowiedge of English had the cnance to
succeed in ZFmbabwean society. f also gave a b r i e f overview
of che 3istoricai Background of Z i m b a b w e .
My second chapter was a review of t h e literature on
iheories of s e r ~ n d language têaching and how it illuminates
rny research. I àiscussed the sionificance of t h e proficiency
moael ana ïhe rols ic, plays in Learning second languages. I
7ooked at mot ivat ional
these Fmpzct on second
Krâshen' s 1984 monitor
and actitudinai cheories and h m
language learning. 1 also toucned on
theory; its role on young second
language learners ana its role on atcitudinal and
motivacional issues. Las t ly , 1 focuseà on the competeficies
and levels chat can be attained when learning a second
language i ~ - a specific seriod of time.
Chapcêr 3 vas a review of the methodology t t iac I used.
1 explâined the çignificanco of using rny personâl s t o q as a
sounding board to t he conversacional interviews.
Justificaïion f o r using documenta-ry evidence in analyzing
the problem of teaching NSL was a lso presented. In that
Chapter, 1 a l so o u t l i n e d t h e method of investigation tiat 1
adopted, and sxplored the impact this method m i g n t have cn
my study.
se fo re taking graduate courses I had never heara of
narrative research methods and so when 1 began this
investigaticn t h i s methodology was r e a l l y new to me, As 1
wove through the t a p e s t z y , 1 learned moro &out t h e
methodology and 1 could see its potential for ny researcn. 1
began to question some of my taken-for-granted assumptions
about teacning in general and I learnea to listen to o c h e r
voices and in t u r n to check my personal account of the
events in she story.
The f û u r t h chapter explored h o w the data illuminacsd
the question. 1 found out that motivation played a ver- big
role in che teaching and learning of NSL, m u c h bigger than I
had anticipaced. 1 also discovered that materials and
resources vere very significanc for meaningful second
language learning to occur. As was shown by Mbaliçi's
comments, where there is motivation and appropriatz
resources, a second language czn be learnea quickly an6
successf ully. The literatüre r e v i e w , conversational
interviews, and documencary evidence also suggested that ~ h e
i n t h e teaching of NSL at a school like M - S . S . . The
intervisws showeà that motivation and attitudes directly
affected how often second languâge l e a rne r s would use t R e F z
language strategies. It appears t h a t NSL students at M.S.S.
were not rnotivat2d to l earn the language, as supporteci by
comments from Mfundi. NSL was n o t a medium of communication
for the students and there were no tangible gains associated
w i t h learning it, unlike in English where Altbach and Kelly
(1978) argue thac "those who command [English] a r e able to
enter t h e professional sector and C h e mouern business worlci
but those who l a c k [it] are barred from positions witn the
potential of upward rnobiiity" ( p . 3 0 7 ) .
The Cata presented in this stxdy a l s o indicated that
NSL had 5een allocated only 66 instructionai hours Fer year
(see T a b k 5 ) . Considering the environment chat NSL students
a re in, t h a t creates a problem. This tirne the problem
Eocuses on tne amount of t h e students need tc> l e a n MSL.
Conversational intêrviews and the literature rzview poinr
out tnat students need to be in an snvironment that promocîs
and siipporcs second language learning. Not only do çtudents
need to be motivated, but they benefit from an intensive
program. If the program is no t intensive, scuaents c o u l a
benefiï :rom more tirne being aliocated to ~ h e subjecc. The
NSL program at M.S.S. with three-40 minuté per ioàs a week
hardly offered the intensive environment needed ~3 develop
prof iciîncy.
As was notsd in Chapter 4 on many occasions, socio-
economic factors clearly play a large r o l e in teaching NSL
in Zimbabwe at e l i t e schools like M.S.S. The studencs seom
unmocivated to learn because they are aware that there are
no diminishing r e t u r n s associated with failing NSL. Studonts
at A.S.S. on t h e o the r hand do well necause for t h e m ,
passing Ndebek is prescigious .
S ' L i W Y OF IDENTIFIED PROBLEMS
M y i n i t i a l purpose for t h i s s tudy was to discuss
problems associaced wi th tzaching NSL which çeemed to me îo
be d i r o c t l y related to t he poor NSL ZJC r e s u l t s t h a t my
studenrs haa at t h e end of each school year. After analyzing
my data, I have a liçt of problems t h a t are associated with
t h e teaching of NSL. These probierns are; a ) l a c k of
motivation co learn the language, b) inadequate t e a c h e r
preparatiûn for seconà language têaching, c) ünclear
p u r p o s e s f o r ceaching and learning the language, dl ïhe
appropriatoness of the materials used, e ) the ZJC syllabus
and examinarions, and f ) limited tirne f o r learning the
language. The summary drawn here does not imply that the
problems iaêntifieà in tnis îhesis a r e the o n l y problems
assocla t ià with ceaching NSL in Zimbabwe, but they are t he
problorns chat emerge as a result of analyzing m y data.
Lack cf notivation. It appears c h a t t h e NSL s c u à e x s 2-
1 3 5
M.S.S. w e r e unrnocivated to lsarn the language. Listêc B e l o w
are some of the reasons t h a t emerge £rom analyzing the
sy l l abus , reviewing second language l i t e r a t u r e , and
listening t o rny informants' points of view. Cons ide r ing whac
Omaggio-Haàley (1993) and Krashen (1984) have to Say about
language syllabi and ways t o approach them, it would appear
t h a t the NSL syllabus' expectations used an approach beyond
reasonable expectations, an approach I have deomed (1 - 5 )
in contrast to Krashen' s (1981) recommendations c h a t àn
(i+l) approach be used.
Secondly, ic appears that rnembers of the ëarget group
ar,d merbers of t h e second language group dia not view sach
other as s o c i a l l y equal. According to the âccuituracion
rnodel, chis view of inequality determines the amount of
contact the second language learners wLll have wich rnembers
of the t â r g e t group. Inequality also affects t h e degree to
which the second language learner is open to the input .
available. Richard-Amato (1988) suggests that these low
degrees of accu l tu ra t ion lead t o pidgin-like language.
Pidgin language not only serves very limited comrnunicacive
purposes Sut it a l s o displays features of both the dominant
and subordinate groups (Richard-Amato, 1988). The f ac t that
some cf m y sïudents ac M.S.S. spoke a pidginized form of
Ndebelt serhaps r e f l e c t s ïhe notion chat Ndebele has â l c w e r
s t a t u s t h a n English.
i 7 7 A d
T h i r d l y , t he lack of tangible social and economic y s h s
associated w i t h t h e language could have caused the lack of
motivacion. As mentioned in t he literature review, there was
a lack of instrumental m o t i v a t i o n i n the attitude of M.S.S.
studencs. Students fe7t that there was ncthing to look
forward to at the end of rhei r two-year study.
Teacher orenaration. Ifi m y story, I mentioned how w e l l
jreparea 1 was t o t e a c h Ndebele as a Eirst language. 1 was
n o t , however, propared for NSL as 1 was f o r t e a c h i n g it as a
first language. Lack of preparation r e su l t ed in rny being
unable t o i d e n t i f y the s t u d e n t s ' l eve ls and i n d i f f i c u l t i z s
i n t e - q r e t ing and implementing the syllabus.
Although 1 did not expect my scuàents to be able ta
discuss o r communicate like first language speakers, I was
f r u s t r a t e d by t h e lack of interest t h e students displayed.
R e v i e w of the literature by Omaggio-Hadley (1993) suggescs
t h a t lsck of i n t ~ r 3 s t could be a result of stuàents not .
comprehenaing t h e material.
P u r ~ c s e f o r studvina t h e lanquaue. I n any s tudy of a
second language, t h e teacher ought t o have a n unders tanding
of the purpose of stuciy; that is, is t h e language being
studied for communicative purposes or for something else?
Knowieàge of the purpose he lps the teacher i n à e t e m i n i n g
t h e kind of i n s t r u c ~ i o n t o be used for the program.
Althouqh 1 be l i eve t h a t the NSL program w a s uesiqned to
enrich the l e a r n e r s , i n reality t he re w a s v e r y l i t t l e
material t o assist i n pursuing t h a t goal. Instead, t h e
syllabus required its graduates to be at an advanced ievel
of proiiciency by the end of their two-year study p e r i o d .
Data also shows tha t USA SSL students spend more tirne
cornrnunicacing in SSL at school because t h e course has been
designad f o r communicativê purposes. NSL studênts sper?t nisst
of t h e i r time regurgitating examination rnaterials. At the
end of t he program, according t o Mfundi, none of t h e m
appliea tne i r knowledge of the language f u r c h e r . 1.
unfortunacêly, nad a sirnilar experiênco with m y scudencs.
Time allocation. As can be seen £ r o m t 5e discussion of
the p r o b l e m s mentioned this f a r , the problems seem Co Elow
?rom one area to another. Time i s an important fac tor when
studying second languages. The amounc of t i m e required to
complete a stuày is also determined by the purpose of t h e
study. The syllabus contents a r e a lso determined by t h e .
amount of t i m e allccated f o r t h e study.
NSL srudencs ac M . S . S . , an e l i t e school, only had 66
hours of time-tabled instruction in NSL per year f o r â total
of 132 h o u r s by t h e end of the îwo-year program. Considering
the other problerns associaced w i t h NSL one would expeci chat
stuaents c o u l d perform only ac tne ncvice lêvel. The
s tudents ar A. S .S. on t he o t h e r hanu, who had been stuaying
NaeDek s i n c e Grade 1, h a a accumulated more language ana
w e r e âbls CO communicate in Ndenele at a much h ighe r
groiiciency leve l . In the USA as well, motivated students
perform at the n o v i c e level after 1 0 0 hours of intensive
study. failure to give more time to ïeaching NSL c l o a r l y
restricts t h e amount of content the students will learn.
RECOMMENDATIONS
A s a r e su l t of t h i s s tudy 1 have chcsen th? following
recommendations fo r those invoived w i t h NSL. The t each i rq of
NSL could be approached from an eclectic point oi v i e w . One
approach could be to use the experiential learning process
t h a t Nunan ( 1 9 9 2 ) suggests. Experiential learning fmlises
mainly on che immediate persona1 e x p e r i e n c r s of t n e loarner
by giving meaning to abstrâct concepts. Nunan' s ( 1 9 9 2 ) v i e w s
parallel itrashen's (1980) notions of second language
practico wiiich suogests that stucents should be exposeà CO
materiai trhac is slightly beyond their comprshension level.
For NSL students, this mat3rial would be at the novice
level .
The X i , syllabus snou ld c l ea r ly be re-drafcêi using t h e
same proficiency-oriented program but speciiying r e a i i s t i c
levels of achievement f o r each student based on t h e ACTFL
guidelines. When t h i s work is àone, a linguistic description
of t h e structures of Ndebele should be included. This should
facilitats clear deliniations of levels of prof i c iency
inaicacing a t w h a t point v a r i o u s structures shoula be
1'0
preseat. The ZJC examination snould a l ç o Be based on whac
the purpose of the study is to be. This underlines t h e
necessity of recognizing appropriate levels of proiiciency
the laarners pass through when they study second lacguoges.
Considering the amount of time that is a i loca ted for the
study of NSL over the two-year per iod of the program,
stuaents should be expected to perform at t h e novice level
o n l y and the ZJC examination should be rnodifiad to rcflect
s u c h realistic expeccacions by the end of the two-ytar
programme. At the novice level, students should also have
opportunitiês to pracrise using the language in a range of
concexts likely to 5e encountered in the target cultur-
axpresseà in simple language (Omaggio-Hadle:~, 1993 ) . XSL
teachers cguld attend in-service courses or sessions ïo
familiarize them with the proficioncy approach and the
underiying theory.
S t u d e n ~ s should be expectea t3 nake errors and t heF r
dialogues should depict aspects 05 learners ' d a i l y lives
such as the school, self, weather, e t c . Teachers c c ~ u l d be
made aware t h a t a f ï e r 132 hours , stucients should only 5e
expectac to use limited memorized mater ia l in simple
stûtzmenis. At the novice level students wili prcbably writ?
Qowc 3r x s n s c r i b e something they w o u l d Say. Omaggio-iiadlêy
( L S 9 3 ) suqgests t h a t because of tnis l o w levei of
vccabuLary, students can be expectea to use journal entries
as opposed to scructured composicions.
T h e syllabus should be designed in sucn a w a y cha t
students are given more opportunities to practise the
language. The content for them should cover things that the-
are farni l iar w i t h . 1 a l s o suggest that there should be m o r e
in-service sessions for NSL teachers and that thess NSL
teachers should produce some of t he material to be used in
their classrooms. NSL could follow a communicative syllabus.
NSL could also S e o f f e r z d at t h e primary level in t h e
elitê schools so that by the t h e students enter high schocl
they have a basic familiarity with t ne laquage. At t h e high
school level, NSL could also be studied f o r at least four
years, ânà have incentives actached to i t . Beginning to
stuày che subject at the primary level and of isring an
incentive a f c e r four years in hign school could ensure t hac
it is viewea as an important sub jec t .
Lascly, t n e data discussed in Chapter 4 also inaicâto
that there were some socio-cultural issues relaced to the
teaching ci NSL at M.S.S. Although I anticipated that the
poor results in NSL ZJC examination were la rgely r e l a t e d to
some r a the r technical factors which could be easily overcome
(that is , syllabus, time, resources , and unrealist ic
exsections on the exornination), probably the most ser ious
problems i nvo lvê accicudes ana motivation C D learn Ndebelê
or Shona sn ~ h e ? a n of the stucents i n e l i t ê schools. This
motivacional problem will not Be e a s i l y remedied u n t i l the
indigenous languages gain status and, in a practical sense,
unçil incentives to learn the language are introduced, such
as a language requirornent in Ndebele/Shona i c r enmance into
higher educacion, government jobs, and the l i k e .
Çtudents a t A.S.S. tiad learned Ndebele from Grade 1,
D u t they tackled a more rigorous syllabus which was used by
first language speakers. They had three-40 minute periods as
w d l but tney did well at t h e end of t h e i r tougb Z J C
- . examina~ions which were similar t o those w r i t t m by x r s r
language speakers. At M.S.S. mosc of t h e stucents di6 pocriy
in NSL anà ~ h e y dià n o t seem t o be worried i f they failêa
t h e subject. To h e l p improve these poor grades for NSL, th?
M i n i s t q of Eaucation cogether with its affiliatee
u n i v e r s i t i e s and colleges may want t o consider making it
mandatory to have a pass grade i n NSL before entry i n t o
these post-secondary institutions.
FUTUFLE STUDIZS
In this scudy, aata were obtained v ia my personai
story, using interview reactions to my s t o r y and the
collection cf Uocument eviaence. I w a s the pr inc ipa l
investigator and a c che same rime t h e spring boarà for the
conversatio~al in te rv iews . Use of a dif ferent approach in â
similar format coula o f f e r additional insights i n t o the
k ,aaching of NSL, o r other African languages a s secînà
languages. ?or example, one could ask the inforrnants to
share tneir experiences/stories before reading the
researcher's s ro ry . After reading the reseârcher's s t o r y ,
the interviewees could be a s k e d t 3 share their s to r i e s
again -
Although my study was dorninated by responses from
teachers, inclusion of the same number of former o r cu r r e r i t
NSL stuàencs c o u l d have offered more insights into the
teachinq anà learning of NSL. In addition, parents of the
second language learners could be interviewed separa te ly or
togetner with c h e i r cn i l d r en to find out their concerns
a ~ o u t the subject.
1 would recornrnend that a narrative approach be useû in
conduc~ing a similar stuay because it is "multi-layered in
i t s make-up m a cherefore open to concinual àiscoveryn
(Moustakas, 1990, p. 163). Through rny stuày, 1 nave
endeavourec ta bring out t h e problems associatea with t h e
poor resulcs at the NSL ZJC examinations in e i i t e schools in
Zimbabwe. Eowever, 1 a m awaro thac not al1 the pro~lems welre
mentioned ând therefore the solutions f o r teaching NSL are
still âwaiting discovery. Therefore, further studies ir. chis
r e g a r a woula be valuable.
FINAL REFLECTIONS
In my atternpt to fûcus =n probiems d i r e c t l y ro la ted zs
NSL teaching a t Makholwa Seczndary School, 1 had t o discarà
ocher dato Ehac I had receivea includirg somr of rny
reflections on the journey 1 had t a k e n in my story. Mosc of
the data that were discarded w e r e full of emotions ~ h a t
allude ~o the "power struggles that exist in society in
general a d in Zimbabwe in particular. Secause 1 sae the
silenced voices as potentially t d l i n g , 1 hope to revisit
them in the future.
APPENDICES
Appendix 1 Ndebele Syllabus (Current ZJC official document extract) (M.S.S. Personal communication, 1996).
i. Sounds (a) alphabet (b) syllables (cl
2. Spelling and dictation
3. Greetings at different times of the &ay
4 . Relationships : umarna (rnother) , uDaba ( father) , umalume
(uncle! , ubabakazi (aunt) , umzawami (cousins) -
5 . Vocabclary a) nouns 5 ) verbs .
6. Classes of nouns (Doke) .
7. Nouns and t h e i r concoras according to classes.
8 . Short sentences
9. Absolute pronouns Mina (I), wena (You) , etc.
10. Qualificatives adjectives, relative, possessive, and
descriptive
11. Verb tenses
1 2 . VerBs (verbal derivatives)
13 . Ukuvuma lokulandula (acceptance and deniai 1
1 4 . Cornprenension (Questions and answers
15. Situational oral work
16. Giving and carrying out directions
17. Conjunctions
18. Translations (From English ta N d e ~ e l e ana vice versai
1 9 . ?aragraph writ ing
20. Composition writing
2 1 . Literature sec bocks.
A) Expected levels of speaking proficiency in ianguages taugnc
ac the Foreign Service Instit~tt
gr ou^ 1 A£ rikaans, Danish, Ducch, Hairian, Creole,
Norwegian, Portuguess, Romanian, Spanish, ana
Kiswahili
APTITUDE
TIME
8 WEEKS ( 2 4 0 HRS)
MINIMUM
2 4 WEEKS ( 7 2 0 HRS)
I
AVERAGE
2
SUPERIOR
l/l+ I +
1
2 + 3
qi 1.1 ,c:
O (1) nl LJ 'cl k V
Cu .l-i ,n 24 rn r i I d br (11 crJ > l > l 3 L l 3 > Y O .C E O IJ .* 1 ~j $ i i J i < i J E W i J û J
O f a - . { o c . 1 - t rd LI t ~ l c: . P - I 3 u O 'r j r:: rri
Melton Moyo
20 Fairview C o u r t ,
London, Ontario N6C 2C6
Phone (519) 438-1220
February 17, 1997.
Problems of teachina Ndebele
as a second larisuacre (NSL) in
Zimbabwe.
MY name is Melton Moyo and 1 am a graauace studenc at - C h e University of Western Oncario, Faculty of Educacion. L
am a teacher by pr3iessionI and Z am currentiy conducting
r2search into the roaching of Ndenele as a Secona language
(NSL) in Zimbabwe. -6 IL is m y intention CO invescigacr th2 probiems - of
taachl~g NSL in Zimbabwe by using several sources of - iniormat Lon; rny personal story, selected literacure on
second language teaching, ana public results of NSL
exâminaïions, as well as open-êndeà i n t ê r r i e w s conducced
with people whose axperience m a y he lp ta illuminate che
issue. In addition to a short questionnaire, I will provide
you with my stsry and 1 wili ask you to reaci the s t o r j . As
you rcaa ïhe story feel Cree to m a ~ e comments if chere are
issues chat resonate w i t h you or if chere are issues you 6c
noï agree with.
1 will audiotape the conversations, ço that 1 can
review trie discussions when 1 make t h e final àraft for my
studv. You will be qiven iranscripts of the tapes to ensure
your agreement to material you have provided that I may use
in the final drafc of my study. The discussions or limiteà
interviews will last about one hour at most and I anticipate
rio more t han two sessions wich each interviawee. The
information collecced will ne used for research purposes
only and neither names nor specific information chat coulE
identify participants will be used.
Flnally, 1 would like to assure you that your
participation is voluntary and you may withdraw at ar.y cime
if you so wish. You are a l s o encouraged to respond on ly CO
quescions you ieel cornfortabla rosponding CO. - 4 = il you have any questions about t h i s research, or wish
to discuss this informa~ion further, please f e e l Cree to
con tacz me a t ,
Melton Moyo
20 Fairview Courc,
London, Ontario
or concacc my supervisor,
Dr- S . Majhanovlch,
98 Rollinqwood Crescenc ,
N6C 2C6 London, Ontario.
Phone ( 5 1 9 ) 0 3 8 - 1 2 2 0 Phone (519) 473-3977
Please sign the actached consenc fcrm as an inuication t hac
you are willinç to participate in the
discussions/interviews.
Yours t r 7Ay ,
Pleltor- Moyc
CONSENT FORM
Problems of teâching NSL in
Zimbabwe.
1 have read t h e L e t t e r of information relating to tne
research being conducted by Melton Moyo r q a r d i n g "problerns
of teaching NSL in Zimbabwe. I unaerscand chê proposed
research and m y questions regarding t h e reseârch have been
answered CO rny satisfaction.
X e l ~ o n icloyo has made it cleâr co me tharr I can withdrâw
from t h e s t u d y at any cime wi thout incurring a pena l ty of
any k i n d , and that 1 have a r ignt to decline answering âny
specific quescions that I am not cornfortable answering.
I a ~ r - e î 3 3articipace i n tnis study unàer no pressure
- z r o m anyone .
D a t e
QUESTIONNAIRES
(Teachers)
i) Wkat is your native languaçe?
2 ) D i d you sa ch your nacive language as a second language?
For X o w long?
3 ) Could you briefly describe the curriculum you useci?
4 ) What was your opinion of the curriculum? A) Too harCï? a )
Too easy? C ) .zlbout right?
5 ) How much time was allocated to your naiive language?
6) What was the native langusge of your students?
7) In your opinion, how s u c c e s s f u i wêre your students?
9 ) In your opinion, how many of your studen~s would use
c h e i r knowledge of theFr second language? Would an- ccnc inue
C k e i r studies a f t s r finishixg the rsquired caurse?
9 ) In your opinion, what level w e r e che stuaents ac cho enà
of t h e compulsory program? Still beginners? 1r.t-rrnediace?
Advanced?
10) Coula y s u -lesse comment on rny personal s t o r y , now thars
you have reaà ic. Does it have any parallels w i t n your own
experiences?
Once acain thank you for your parclcipation.
Teacher (surundi)
1) Could you please t e l l me a l i t t l e bit about your
expêriences as a t e a c h e r i n Burundi.
2 ) Whar is your iirst language? Did you toach it as a
or second language?
3 ) F o r how many years?
4 ) P lease aescribe b r i e f l y the curriculum you useà?
5 ) What age group of students d id you teach?
6 ) In your op in ion , how succossful were your scudents
learning Kirundi? Can you offer any reasons why t h e y
w e r e / w e r e not succossful in learning Kirundi?
7) Did your stuàents wanc to pursue Kirundi f u r c b e r ?
8) Couid you please comment on my personal s t o r y , now
f irsi
rri
t h a t
you have reaa it. Does it have any parallels with your own
experiences?
Oncs âgain thank yoü for your participation.
STUDENT
What is your native language?
Under what circumstances dia you learn Shona?
Flow many years did you stuày it forrnally?
What d ï d you think about t h e program? Was t h e t e x t
material hard?
5 ) How did your classmates f2ei about t h e s u D j e c t ?
8 ) H o w o ld were you when you s t a r t e d to learn Shona as a
sscond language?
7 ) Whac was tne reaction arnong your peers when you goc ycur
Z J C r c s u l t s ? How did your examinx ion results in Shona as â
second language compare c o o the r subjecrs you sc i~d iec? Can
ycu sucrgesL any reasons why your rssulrs i n Shona w e r s
ett ter, worse chan in other subjecrs?
3 ) D i d J o u r p e r s want to gursue Ndebele as seconà Language
a f t e r t h e initial t w o years? CÛR YOU suggest any reasons why
or why rioc?
9 ) Now ~ h a c you have rcâd my persona1 story, could ycu
comment an I t please Ln r e l a t i o n to your own exper ience in
Isarnifig SSL.
Once again thank you f o r ~arcicipation.
5 . 3 - i a ~ e ~ y Chair of C r a d u ~ r c Educ3uon iC5air) f. Paquecrr tiriversiru E h c a f 2eview aoard G. Diclinson Division of Sdua t ions l Poiic? Siuciics
,LI. Sitko Division of Educauonal ?sycRoic>gy .A. P~L-nan Dimsron oi Curncuiurn Sruciics:
- 1
n e Facuin, Eriiicai Rcvicw Cornmittee nas cxarninca &c rcscîrch ?roiec: c n G U t Ç : ?r?i~icz:s ci .r. -.
: :zcni l~ 5 2 L :n i:ncao--c.
DATE: Iktarcl? i ! .
APPENDIX 5 CHECK-SHECT AND A SAMPLE OF A TRXLVSCRIBED INTERVIZW
NARRATIVE RESPONSE CHECK-SHEET
Teacning m e t hods
w total : 1 T o t a l : T o t a l : I
OTHER CCMMENTS
IÇS-UE SIMILAR TO NrnRATOR ' S
~aterials/Xe sources
Teachez Prepaxation
S t u à e n t Motivation
DIFFERENT FXOM NXIPATOR1 S
T o t â l :
T o t a l :
~ a t a l :
Tocal:
T o t a l :
T o c a l :
I
T o t a l :
T o t a l :
AssessmeEc Techniques
S t u d e m Achievement
T x a l :
T o t a i :
T o t a l :
Tccal :
Interview T r a n s c r i p t . ('hriown as Mfundi ( R . 1) for purposes of anonymity)
Noce. Staternents that are underlined in this t r a n s c r i p t are
examples of those scatemrnts c h a r 1 àeemed CO be ê icher
similar or differen~ Erom rny experiencos. 1 also underiined
statements that d i 6 not appear to be similar or d i f f e r e n t
from chose Ldentified in t h e s t o ry and I marked t h e m wich
t h e leicer ( O ) . Similar e x p e r i o n c e s w e r e marked by a riunbar
(e . o . 1) whereas diiferpnt experiences w e r e noïêd by a
number and t he l e c t e r D ( e - g . ID) (See Table below for
classification of thought units) .
O OTHER COMP?ENT/ S
TEACHING METHODS
Y,TERIALS/RESOURCSS
TZACIIER ?RE?$-RAT I 3 N
STUDENT MOTIVATION
AÇSESSMENT TECIiNIQUEÇ
STUDENT ACHI EVEMENT
1
2
3
4
ID
213
3D
4D
SC
OD
March 11, 1 9 9 7 . 2 : 0 0 y.
1 first spoke w i t h Mfundi in Feb, ac a ZFmbaDwean dinner
gatherino. After informino her of rny research, she agreed to
par~icipatz in t h e interview and said that s h e would 1Fke
t h e interview to cake -lace at her home.
I called her as soon as 1 knew t h a t zhe ethical review had
been approved and she said chat 1 could corne and i n t e r v i e w
her t h a t hour and I did j u s c t h a t .
1. represents me che interviewer and 3.1 represents che
in fo rman t .
1: R . 1 Thank you f o r partlcipating i n this in terview and f o r
accornmoda~ing me ac such s h o r t no t i ce . I hsve a few
* . quescions t h a c 1 would liks you r o respond CO. 3uc zrrsc cf
al1 I woüld like you Co know t h a c you a re on ly supposea to
responà to questions t h a t you f s e l cornfartable responaing
to.
- . MY rirst ouest ion is; What is your native ianouage?
(Laughter)
R.1 Hi Melton. My nacive language is Shona ind 1 will t r y m y
b e s t tg ûnswer a11 t h e questions thac -ou a s k me.
1. ThàRk you. Unaer whac circumstâncss aià you lrarn Çhona?
R.1 Weli, tha t ' s kina of a funny way r o put it 1 learzt iz
as a seccnd language.
1. Nhy? - .
R . 1. M a i n l y because I wecc to a n x x - r a c i a l school(4) ana
since it was a mufti-racial schcol t hey haà hu..m people
speak ing different languages w i t h people frcm differenc
o t h e r councries.
So we had to 60 it as a second lanauâse. ( 4 )
1. My c h i r d question is; For how m a n y yea r s did you stüdy
Shona as a second language?
R . 1 H u . .m for cwo years. ( 2 )
1. Question 4 . What did you think of the program, i.e
learzing Shona as a second lânguage?
R . 1 . Well, for me it was verv easv. ( 8 ) 1 enioved it. !OE)
1. How aia your class mate f eol about the sub j e c t ?
R . 1 W e i l , we had about 75% being foreigners or white and
Ndebela speaking. people who u i a not know how ïo speâk
Shona. For those 2eople Ft was more or i e s s , 1 can sav ic
was var./ difficult for then ( 5 ) . Thev dià not f s e l
cgmfortabie doina it because thev aia not unaersiand a t h i ~ a
about it. i ç j The remaining 25% gecpie were Chonâ speaKin9-
people, w e :?ad learnea this la~auaae ac home and is was
easv. ( 6 ) It wàs m i t e a s i m ~ l e thins to ac 5 x 0 . (6) Sc *de
enioved i c . M D )
1. Lets look ac my nexc question. How olà were you when you
s t a r t e d to learn Shona as a second languaae?
R . 1 . As a second lanquage, I was t h i r c a e n vears o l C . Suc as
1 s a i d , t h i s w a s xv first lancuase. 1 h a a sïarced s ~ e s M i n c
ic when 1 l e a r n c hcw t o s ~ e a k . ! O )
1. Um..
was t h e
r e s u l t s
compare
- - - 13=:
movinç, going Sack t o the i s s u e of yccr peers, w h a ~
reaction among your pesrs when yox got your Z J C
and Bow did your own sxamina t ion results i n Shona
with t h e o t h e r s u b j e c t a r e a s ?
R . 1 Well, t o answer the f irst p a r c , w e k i n d of knew what w e
were g e t t i n a , evervbodv kzew what thev were aec t i r i s . ( 5 ) The
Shona s~eakina p e o ~ l e who were Soina i t as a s e c o ~ d lanauacze
k n e w t h a t t h e v had obvious lv ~ a s s e d i t . 6 ) You did zoc have
r o p u t any e f f o r t into i t .
1. What do you mean by îhsy had passed it?
2.1 Thev haa 2 Üisti2ction. ( 5 ) As f o r the other 75% thev
kriew that thev would f a i l i t . ( 6 ) To them it w a s i u s t a n c t h e r
ç u b i e c ~ that did not r ea l lv m a t t o r . ( 4 ) Going t o your seccnc
p a r c , cornparing t o o t h e r s u b j e c t ç , 1 ~ a s s e d i t wich flvina
coicurs, ( 6 ) . Ir was verv sasv f o r m e but fcr m v o e e r s it was
one of t h o s e s u b i e c t s one w a s bound t~ f a i l ! 4 & 5 ) .
1. Car. ycu sugges t any reasons w h y your r e s u l t s were bcct - r
in Shona t h a n i n any o tne r subject?
R.1. F i r s t , the Nàebel t s~eakina s tuden t s flunked the
examinat ion because thev d i d not s ~ e a k che lanauase ac homo
and scnooi w e were t o s ~ e a k i n Enalish on lv . ( 2 ) Sinco it ??as
a two v e a r course, nobodv f e l t t h e need t o t a k e it
s e r i o u s l v . ( 4 l
1. H M . . Dià your p e e r s want t o p u r s u e Shona a s a seccca
ianguace a i t e r t h e i n i t i a l two yoars? Why o r ww n o t ?
R . 1 . That again has two s i d e s . T h e 75% did ncc w a n t :O
Dursue ii . ( 4 ) Thev had no use f o r it and thev k n e w t h a t if
thev ~ u r s u c d F t thev w e r e ~ o t aoinq to D ~ S S t h e
exarninations. FGT them it w a s non-starcer. ( 4 ) &ci half of
the 25% which were Shona s ~ e a k i n s decided t o Dursue it for
th2 simmie reason that when vou Dass with a distinction vou
:-11 vourseli, well if 1 have to fail i c ai "0 " level a f t e r
f ou r years, maybe it vil1 br wirh a " C u which is scill a
oass and so whv no t do it? ( 4 3 ) And thê o t h e r h a l f o f t h a t
2 3 % r z a l l y knew that i t w a s d i f f i c u l t for thern.(oD)
1. Yrnrn. . so thê o t h a r haif thought t hac because chey coulà
pass the ZJC SSS wiïh a d i s t i n c t i o n t h e y coulà pursue Shonâ
as a first languâge? 1s t h i s whac you are çaying?
R . 1 Y o ç . Thar's what I ' m saying. T h e thina is rhev thouaht
îhac wher. t h e v ~ ÿ r s u e c i it for the riêxt iuo v i a r s . z h e v woulc
be dolnc it as a second lanauace(5D) not knowing that t h e
second l aquage only had t w o years ana thereaf ter it w a s
be ~ u r s u e d as a first lanquaae. l2D) So you w e r e alreaay
behind and you would no t make ic whên the oxam finally came.
1. Thank you 3.1 f o r answering my questions. Now I am go ing
c o a s k you ta make a comment on my personal story.
R . 1 F i r s t of al1 1 would like to say thac I f e o l for you
guys whc wer? teaching second languages. 3ecause I rernember
when 1 was at school, we would oivo che Shona teacner a ha rc
cime. (1) NOW t h a t 1 have s e e n h o w you felt I woula l i k e r3
- ,-- 2 5 -
- . o f f e r an apolooy LO m y tsacher . L K n o w ::lac t h i ç signe nor
make a differsnce but 1 reallv - feel sor rv for vou auvç.(O)
I would however, wculd like t o say this, i ts a ~ i t v t h a t we
c m r-ot do anvthinu abcut it now ( 0 ) eut maybe your chesis
will h e h t h e Zimbanwean sovernrnent h e l ~ teachers w k o are
teachina second lansuases r e in fo rce doins it as a second
lanauaqe.(3D: Because t h e wav 1 see it is t h a t when vou
s t u d v 3 second lanquace vou a r e h o ~ i n u EO do it and be abie
t o us2 i t r i u h t ? ( 0 )
1. Y a n !
R . 1 T h a t ' s t h e whole idea. B u t in scnool, for some strange
reasons, vou teâchers n e v e r tell u s w h v we scudv SSL. ! I D ?
You jusc tel: us t h a ï its second language and lets do IE.
For people l i k e m e , w n o already have some knowledge of Shma
1 need sorneoRe to explain why ic is being done. 1 aiso neeà
CO be able co see that che t eacher means business w n e n thev
teach the s u b j e c t . f l D ) O u r teachêr soent most of the t i m e
soeak ina in Enalish and no t encouracina t h e stucients :O use
Shona. ( 7 )
1. I think we are to blarne as weli. but âgain the program
was only designeà for a ;wo year period and i t is aifficult
to implernent some cf t h e requirements of the program for
îveryone .
R i L e t s look a c i a this way. If we a re to iearn it for
four v e a r i t hiah school it miaht not benefit us a Lot.(2)
- I F -
-5.L
What I t h i n k shou ld be done is f o r it co be introcuceà a t
t h e orirnarv level and al1 the wav UD to "0 " level. ( 2 ) if w2
studv it at ~ r i r n a r v level , w e could also be s i v e n an o ~ t i o n
t o cake ic as e i t h e v a first lanauaqe o r second lanccaae at
hish school . ( 2 D )
1. I rhink it can still bs p u r s u r d as a sêcona l a q u a g e up
t o iiOil love1 if students are prepared in advance. Going GE
tangent again, can you right a letter to your parents in
Shona n o w ?
. - R . 1 (Laugnter) 1 would be lvins I r 1 said vos. ( 6 ) Xe11 you
see, when we went inco class t h e r e was this orob lem chat we
haà onlv four ~eriods Der week, (2D) which is, each ~ e r i o d is
4 0 minuces lona. ( 2 ) For i h e shona speaking people, we knew
t h a t t h e staif/rnaterial that t h e t eache r was oivinq to us
was f o r a small ch i l à learninq the lanouase for che firsz
- * time!2D). Xe already knew the s t i i z r and so ciurina r h i s rime
we did anv o t h e r homework that ue would have or 'ust ?ive
the teacher a hard time (lauahterj. (1)
I have j u s t cnought of something in your scory. The boss. M y
e x p r i o n c e learriing with t h e s e children who came f rom
àifferent countries and t h e local w h i t e s made rr.e Eeol aood
because each time 1 did well I would sav that 1 hûd achieved
a h i a h stanaard(4) because 1 sat next to t he srnall "boss" . 2
believeQ then thac T cguld bê a boss. ( 4 At hign S C ~ O O ~ Z
believec t h a t 1 was t h e same as they were .
g: - - i d
The ocher ching, iï was alwavs assumeà t k a t necaiisa vcu w i n t
. - to a multi-racla1 school vou werî Betcer o f f chan a kid
coina to a zroum "9" schcol i n everv wav.(O) I therefore
worked hard to Drove that 1 w a s better to t h e whites anci to
t h e fellow black kids who went to sroup "BI' schools. ! 4 D I
1. Thank yoii v ê q much 2 . 1 . When tnis thes is has been
successfully defendeà 1 will gjrovide you w i t h t h e copy so
thac you can read it.
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in che second ianquaoe classroom: F r o m t h eo rv Co oractice. New York: Longman.
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