English teachers get training

Apr 10, 2012

AS I paced around a training room at Nob View Hotel in Ntinda, I noticed it was decorated like a Kindergarten classroom. The walls were decked with pictures of domestic animals and stick figures in bright colours.

By Martin Kanyegirire
AS I paced around a training room at Nob View Hotel in Ntinda, I noticed it was decorated like a Kindergarten classroom. The walls were decked with pictures of domestic animals and stick figures in bright colours.

However, the adults attending the training scheduled there did not seem to mind. They looked enthusiastic and jolly as they went about. They jumped, sang nursery rhymes and even wore children’s birthday caps, masks and their faces were painted with bright colours.

They were primary school teachers of the English language chosen from different regions of Uganda to train in a professional development course, a Certificate in Primary English Language Teaching (CiPELT). The course aimed at developing knowledge and practical skills required to teach English to young learners since, according to researchers, the primary level of language learning lays the groundwork for language proficiency and education in general.

Wendy Arnold, a consultant in English language training and the trainer of the course said that for a kid to be good at a second language, they have to learn it well at a young stage because language, unlike other subjects, it can’t be memorised.
Arnold adds that a teacher for young learners has to be practical and have something useful to the learners, such as memory sticks and pictures, a reason why the teachers wore masks and sang rhymes.

In a bid to build the ability of English teachers and address the worrying levels of English competence in Uganda, the trained teachers, who were drawn from UNELTA were also trained to become instructors after which they will train up to 300 other teachers in the development course.

“We can not keep having organisations come up with short-term projects here to improve the declining levels of English language,” Rodney Rugyendo, one the trainees and chairman of UNELTA explains.

“It all begins with teachers here. We the teachers training can tutor other practising teachers, who can help teach the English language faster,” Rugyendo added.

The persistent poor performance in English Language as a subject in the country chiefly in the National Examinations is fast becoming a concern in affecting the performance in National Examinations according to UNEB officials.

CiPELT provides practical ideas on how to approach and plan for Young Learner courses as well as materials and ideas for specific activities. UNELTA is a non-profit association, that was founded by former students of Makerere University who studied English language.

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