English Language Teaching in General Teacher Training Colleges and Development of Teachers' Competences in Teaching Language Systems

Master's Thesis from the year 2019 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Grammar, Style, Working Technique, grade: 16, University of Yaoundé 1 (Faculty of Education), language: English, abstract: This work set out to investigate English language teaching in General Teacher Training Colleges (GTTCs) with focus on strategies that can enhance trainees' oral competences in the teaching of oral aspects of English during micro-teaching and beyond. The study was motivated by our observation that pronunciation is hardly taught in primary schools in the Francophone sub-system of education in Cameroon.

It was hypothesized that the initial training received by French-speaking student teachers in Government Bilingual Teacher Training (GBTTC) College Nlongkak does not equip them with adequate skills to teach English pronunciation activities effectively. The data for this qualitative study was collected through lesson observation and document analysis. The typical sampling method was applied in order to come up with the sample population. This population consisted of trainers and trainees of GBTTC Yaounde-Nlongkak.

The data collected were analysed following the content analysis method and against the back-drop of the research questions that guided the study. The following findings were obtained. First, the frequency of lessons on English pronunciation pedagogy was not the same in all classes. Second, schemes of work found in most logbooks studied pay little attention to the oral aspects of English. Third, methods and techniques that trainers used to teach English pronunciation pedagogy were not informed by current methodologies in pronunciation pedagogy.

Fourth, it was revealed that most trainees taught very few lessons in the domain of oral language. Fifth, most of the trainees had difficulties preparing lessons on English pronunciation according to the exigencies of the Competence Based Approach. Sixth, all student teachers showed no mastery of the subject matter and the teaching of the oral domain of English Language during micro-teaching. These findings imply that the input received by trainees does not build their competences in teaching activities of the domain of oral language.

It is therefore suggested that initial training of teacher trainers at GTTC should be revisited. School administrators, policymakers, trainers, and trainees should reconsider the importance of teaching activities of the domain of oral language and the building of trainees' and trainers' competences.