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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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.ri .rl tri ai tnx cd E * * O d

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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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