Mastering English

STUDENTS of schools in our national education system must be taught the fundamentals of mastering English in early primary school status.
For too many students in Papua New Guinea English is not a mother tongue.
It is a second language after vernacular or Tok Pisin and only learnt in schools.
Since English is not a native language and is only learnt in schools, students must be taught the art of mastering the language.
The change of curriculum from outcomes-based to standards-based which is reversal of the traditional objective based is a way forward to teaching English.
In the now abolished outcomes- based curriculum, the art of teaching English was missing. Students were not taught the basic skills of English.
English was taught as a general subject.
For example, students were taught how to develop advance writing skills like texts and essays.
These skills are fundamental for English development.
They are all about applying basic English skills into a practical context.
However, before these skills are taught, students would have been taught the basics so that they could apply the skills in literal writings.
The OBE curriculum contents assumed that students already mastered the nitty-gritty of English and that they would adequately write the language.
But this was not true. English is a foreign language and the basics had to be taught beforehand for students to succeed in their learning processes.
The ensuing discussions intend to reveal what impacts objective based curriculum had and how it can positively impact today’s learning.
The objective based curriculum adopted since independence and continued to be used in the 90’s prepared students well intellectually.
The curriculum books used post-independence was called Pacific Series.
This was later superseded by Our English Series for Melanesia.
Student’s resource books were called Using English books.
This text books contained most of students’ activities. Teachers used what was called Teacher’s Notes as guides.
The text books came in different series.
There were separate text books for each term. Daily, weekly and termly lessons were already aligned in them.
These lessons were accompanied with examples.
Teachers often did examples with students before they could do the actual activities.
English lessons included written sentences, handwriting, listening, oral expression, written composition, talking drills, spelling, reading, reading comprehension and dictation.
In written sentences, students were taught how to structure different types of sentences.
They were also taught how to develop varieties of questions and related answers.
These sentences included application of tenses, grammar, capital letters, verbs, adverbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, commas, apostrophes, punctuation marks and so forth.
In handwriting lessons, students were taught how to develop writing skills.
They practiced forming letters from A to Z in both upper and lower cases.
In grades one to three, students practiced modified handwritings.
Cursive writing began in grade four and continued to be applied through to grade six.
By the time students completed grade six and went on to high and secondary schools, they were confident in both written and spoken English.
In listening lessons, students were taught how to listen to and identify various sounds.
They were also taught how to identify letter sounds and syllables in words.
In certain cases, they were taught reading comprehension skills.
Students listened to read passages and answered related questions.
Other times, they were asked to retell in their own simple English what was being read.
This was done to develop effective listening skills.
In oral expression, students were taught how to develop speaking skills.
They were given opportunities to talk about news, events, stories and experiences.
This built confidence in English communication among students as well as learnt how to use correct vocabularies, punctuation marks and sentence structures.
In written compositions lessons, students practiced writing skills.
They wrote about anything heard or seen during weekends, holidays or on the way to school.
The objective of this lessons were to help students to recount events, translate experiences, construct stories and develop paragraphs.
In talking drills lessons students practiced English speaking in any form.
Questions to be drilled for each lesson was already in the text books.
After few demonstrations by teachers as a class, students were then given sufficient time to practice the talking patterns.
While they were practicing, teachers provided supervision by going around the groups and assisted them wherever possible.
This was the avenue where students were taught the elements of mastering English language and built confidence in speaking it.
In reading lessons, students were taught how to read books with speed and accuracy.
Additionally, they were taught how to recognise and pronounce words correctly.
They were also taught how to recognise punctuation marks like full stops, question marks, commas and exclamation marks as they read passages.
Students were taught how to read books in real contexts.
In certain instances, they were asked to translate what was read in their own words.
New words were often identified by teachers, listed on the chalkboard, charts or flashcards and drilled to students beforehand to define meanings.
Whenever students came across the words in actual reading contexts, they could easily pronounce them without much difficulty.
Finally, in spelling lessons, students were taught how to spell, pronounce and apply the words in sentences to grasp their meanings.
Students were given the opportunity to apply the spelling words in many other situations like in written sentences, dictations and so forth.
Virtually, it can be seen here that students were actually taught how to speak, listen, read, understand and write the art of English.
Education practices in the traditional objective based curriculum prepared students well for them to pursue their education pathways with confidence.
Interestingly, many Papua New Guineans occupying top positions in both public and private sectors today are products of this curriculum.
They speak some of the best English in the world.
Their spoken and written English is well structured unlike other non-English speakers.
This is attributed to the type of education they received from the old objective-based curriculum.
Despite the benefits of this curriculum, it was superseded by outcomes- based curriculum.
OBE Curriculum was in use for the last 18 years. However, seeing the negative impacts posed on students’ education, it has been opposed by many teachers, parents and stakeholders.
The curriculum was perceived to have been ambiguous and lacked vision, motivation and directions for human resource development of the country.
Teachers argued that the curriculum was too difficult to deliver without supplementary materials, thus did not effectively teach the contents.
This resulted in the backward drop in not only students’ academic performances but the general education standards in the country.
Many parents, including the educated populous, pleaded to the government for intervention to end the damages the curriculum was posing on students.
Having heard these pleas, the national government, under the leadership of former Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, intervened.
It engaged a committee headed by Fr. Jan Czuba, now, Secretary for Department of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, to review the OBE system.
The committee recommended for the abolishment of OBE and reintroduction of standards-based curriculum.
With the SBC, English is mandatory.
In 2015, the government endorsed English as a medium of instruction in all elementary and primary schools in the national education system.
In this curriculum, all the lessons which were taught in the traditional objective-based curriculum have being reintroduced.
SBC syllabuses and teachers’ guides for grades three, four and five have been already distributed to schools and teachers are implementing them to date.
However, for grades six, seven and eight classes, the SBC resource materials are yet to be printed and distributed.
In the meantime, the latter grades are still using the OBE resource books until SBC materials are written, printed and distributed to schools for implementation.
Interestingly, all the lessons which were once taught in the traditional objective based curriculum have now been reintroduced in the SBE curriculum.
This is a break-through by the education department to mend the shortsighted unprecedented educational damages which were done by the OBE curriculum.
If students are taught well by teachers using the SBC curriculum which are now in front of them, students can master English language.
The onus is now on teachers to be innovative, committed and loyal in implementing the SBC so that students are taught the art of English.

Steven Koya
Koalilombo Village
Kagua, SHP