Last week this column talked about the problem of foreign languages in our education system. Many teachers find a huge problem when teaching languages like French and English. The fact that our students have to sit their examinations using these same languages makes it critical for us to focus on them a little more. Rwanda should be proud of its rich language policy that is aimed at creating people who can work anywhere in the world. It’s a very forward looking policy that we must work hard to achieve. Engendering effective language learning requires that learners get lots of practice as far as reading, speaking, listening and writing skills are concerned. Language is simply communication. Competence is in the ability to communicate using a given language. I will start with the reading bit. Students need to do lots of reading because it is through reading that they will acquire the necessary vocabulary for both spoken and written language. Many teachers emphasise grammar by compelling students to learn the various rules governing the language without considering the fact that by reading, the students will see how these rules can be applied. Books give students a variety of not just vocabulary but also numerous sentence patterns and expressions. From dialogue and stories in a book, the learner will learn how different phrases may be used in different contexts. Head teachers should know that buying books for students to read is as important or even more than just hiring teachers. A teacher may be very good but he/she will not have the capacity to teach the students all the vocabulary and expressions of either English or French. More so, there is no time to achieve such a feat. The teacher should do his part and then students complement that with reading of story books. If schools promote reading very well, the country will certainly have citizens with a good reading culture. Many times I see articles in The New Times with writers lamenting the poor reading culture in the country. Charity begins at home and thus reading needs to be promoted at an early age, more precisely in primary schools. Apart from reading, students must be encouraged to do a lot of writing as well. Schools should help students to establish writing clubs. Students can regularly write about their school experiences and pin them on a board for their colleagues to read. I have seen something like this at FAWE Girls’ School and I wonder if other schools have tried the same. If not, then their students only get a chance to write when it is examination time, and this may be too late. Writing is a skill that is developed over time and school can be a good time to start. Oral skills can be developed by organising debates and public speaking exercises. A teacher can organise debates in class to encourage his/her students to practise speaking a language. A more serious debate may be held after a week or fortnight where the speakers present their arguments in front of the whole school. This not only helps them to master the language more, it also builds their confidence as far as pubic speaking is concerned. Teachers should desist from translating the things they teach into Kinyarwanda. A language cannot be taught by translating everything because language is a figment of culture and thus cannot be easily interchanged. This habit causes students to make errors as they always attempt to perceive issues in their mother language. They end up using the Kinyarwanda grammatical patterns in English and French. To effectively teach languages, students need to be accorded lots of opportunities to practise and encounter language contexts. Schools should invest in buying reading books for students. Parents should also buy books for their children to read both at school and at home. Practice surely makes perfect. Contract: ssenyonga@gmail.com
