The ManicaPost
Morris Mtisi Education Correspondent
I HAVE said this in the past. ‘‘A good English Language teacher is not good enough.’’ I have asserted, ‘An effective teacher is passionate, committed, above all able and creative.’ That succinctly defines a competent teacher.
We have a critically important role to play in education . . . and that role demands competent teachers, not half-baked graduates who are holders of the Masters of Incorrect English (MIG) degree.
I have emphasised, “Nothing ever replaces competence and an excellent English Language teacher is a creative asset. I have observed, ‘he or she creates fun from nothing, enjoys teaching and is thoroughly enjoyed by his or her students.’’
I have said, ‘‘a clumsy and boring teacher invites resentment from his or her pupils,’’ and remembered to add, ‘‘sometimes even quiet hostility.’’
The tragedy with the new crop of teacher is that he/she hardly understands or appreciates the dynamics of the subject area. He or she has no idea of the unique demands of the tasks he/she is looked upon to perform.
The teacher has become cold and boring . . . as cold and boring as the textbook. The students know what she/he is going to say before they come to their lesson.
They know even the first few statements he or she is going to say and indeed the corner of the classroom she or he is going to sit before someone calls on her phone and she goes out giggling to answer the call . . . and this happens every day of the week except on pay day when she is going into town to do her shopping.
Instead of enjoying the fun and excitement of learning, students are daily subjected to sickening never-changing routines of instructions. The teacher is an actor or actress in a Big Brother sort of drama called school where he or she is not sure what she must teach others and how to do it.
But it is well rehearsed all the same. Life-size robot acting according to instructional modes of command programming! Do this. Do that. Don’t do that. Thank you. See you tomorrow!
And teacher education colleges are too busy cooking or manufacturing these kinds of teachers, least worried about the quality of teacher coming out at the end of the conveyor belt.
Teaching is not for all types of characters and personalities. It is a profession, and not just a job. This does not mean we need professors to teach in schools. While one must be knowledgeable, ability to impart that knowledge is not automatic though. It is a gift that comes with training and not surprisingly with talent.
I know of professors who cannot meaningfully share their professorial knowledge or wisdom with anyone. They are as moribund and lifeless as the volumes of encyclopedias they read. Books contain knowledge. They cannot and do not teach it.
The teacher as a role model
Over and above being an example of decent dress code and the Ubunthu/Hunhu factor, both which are very important, I am referring to a perfect model of beautiful command of the English Language.
What attributes of the language do your children learn from your example? Is your own language as you teach, as you joke with them, as you interact with them, a natural code of language skills coaching?
What special skills do you impart in your teaching style?
Do your children have something to admire and learn in your own speech . . . use of metaphor, a suitable proverb here and there, an intelligently thought out and fresh(original) simile or comparison, an acute sense of humour, tasteful flavour of descriptive detail? If your children go away from your lesson not having learnt a new word or expression from your mouth, what are you modelling as an English Language teacher?
If you have no speech or written skills to show-case or display on the bulletin board to your students, what skills can they learn from you as their mentor? What kind of protégés do your students become if you are not a model of excellence? How many compositions do you write your students as a model of distinction material?
The English Language teacher is the first textbook. He or she is a mirror in which students see themselves. You must be the source of reflection of knowledge and skills . . . a model to emulate and celebrate. If you teach your lessons in Shona all the time from beginning to end, do you know what your students think of you? Poor role model!
“You want to teach us to master the skills you do not have. You want us to master skills which you failed to master.” If you love Shona so much and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, join the Shona department then sir or madam and swop with the Shona teacher. He or she may have a few crucial English Language skills to impart and demonstrate to the class.
Give History, Divinity and Geography students, lots of relevant books to read, take away their teacher, but give them a copy of the syllabus! They can do well in their examinations.
Give your English Language students, hundreds of excellent novels and textbooks to read, give them the syllabus, but take away their teacher and you will forever know how to spell disaster. This helps to illustrate one simple point.
Good students can read facts on their own. If they remember them well they pass their examinations. No matter how good students of English Language may be, they need effective hands-on coaching and drilling.
There are not many facts to master in the study of English Language but skills. They need to be taught by precept and by example by a skillful teacher. They need a coach with the skills himself/herself to learn them from.
They need a mentor who showcases the exact skills tested in their examinations in almost every single lesson. They need an artist who is a role model of all that the examination systematically endeavours to test. Students first acquire these skills from a skillful teacher assisted and guided by a good textbook.
They do not acquire them from a good textbook assisted and guided by a good teacher. It is the other way round. An ideal English Language teacher is one who is a bank . . . a fund of skills from which the students can readily withdraw.
He or she is far above the levels of his or her students . . . not at par with them. I know a few some of whose pupils are slightly above their teacher’s proficiency. Common sense does not allow this kind of reversal of values.
School heads, at all levels of education, primary, secondary and high school must ensure the teachers who take learners in English or Literature in English, for they are two inseparable sides of the same thing, know their stuff thoroughly.
Do not be guided by funny through-the-nose accents in your allocation of English language and Literature classes . . . not even by the ‘‘colours’’ of their degrees. Degrees do not teach students; they are pieces of paper framed beautifully and hung on the walls of lounge rooms or bedrooms. Check the experience of teachers before allocating them classes.
If you (school heads) have no idea of assessing the competence of an English or Literature teacher, you need orientation workshops. This is critical. A lot of school heads have no idea how they can monitor and assess effective teaching even through the learners’ exercise books.
How does the learner’s exercise book reflect meaningful learning? Often-times, school heads think assigning many written compositions is a sign of meaningful teaching and learning.
So they confidently put their office stamp on every page and record “Excellent teaching going on” and a few other flaming remarks against the name of a teacher who window-dresses and tests learners but does not teach. School heads need special monitoring and evaluation skills to assess the levels of teaching and learning going on.
This is critical. They must learn these skills so that they can accurately and effectively assess the performance of their teacher against that of the learner. They must learn these skills so that English is taught well in the school because it is a pole learning area that feeds into all other learning areas except vernacular languages. It therefore significantly determines the pass rate.
