Alternative Perspectives to English Teaching in Bilingual Contexts

Under achievement in English as a second language (ESL) (the official language and language in education in many Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries refuses to go away despite revised policies,efforts and practices at relevant levels down to classroom and lecture room. At the same time, the extent and nature of the support that second language learners need to succeed academically remains a recurring elusive educational policy issue ever so urgent. This book identifies instructional pedagogies used in SSA as one of the main reasons for low achievement at both primary and secondary school. Using studies carried out at primary and secondary school in Zimbabwe as the backdrop, the book calls for teachers to explore alternative perspectives to ESL teaching by using classroom based data to develop methodologies that respond to their learners'specific langauge needs. The adoption of explicit pedagogy to ensure appropriate language proficiency and grammatical competence at all levels is advocated. This is a true teacher/faculty and learner companion as it uses their experiences to find ways of reforming education at classroom level through reflective pedagogy.