Abstract

This study was aimed at investigating how the Challenges faced by Teachers using the Competence Based Approach (CBA) Impacts the Teaching of Writing in Secondary Schools in the Buea Municipality. Three specific research objectives were formulated for this study which were: To measure the extent to which lack of in-service training of teachers using the CBA influences the teaching of writing. To examine the extent to which insufficient teaching and learning resources have an impact on the teaching of writing. To find out the extent to which overcrowded classrooms influences the teaching of writing. These research objectives were further translated to three research questions. The research design used for this study was Case Study research design. The purposive sampling technique was used. Only Arts teachers who teach English Language were used for the purpose of the study. The reason for this is to get first-hand information on teachers’ effectiveness in the teaching of writing using the CBA. Hence, the researcher took extra care to select those English Language teachers who can provide pertinent information which satisfy the requirements of the research purpose, on the aspect of professional development, teaching methods and materials as well as the methods of assessment used in the presentation of lessons. Data for this study was collected using interview and analyzed thematically. From the data analysis, it could be concluded that teachers encounter a series of challenges in the teaching of writing. In the area of in-service training of teacher, the findings reveal that teachers hardly attend pedagogic seminars due to lack of information, the issue of insecurity and high participation fee. They are highly involved in teacher reflective practices, clarity, peer observation which helps to improve on their professional development thus enhancing the teaching of writing and learners’ acquisition of knowledge. The ministry of Secondary Education should ensure that pedagogic workshops and seminars are organized frequently to impart teachers with the skills and competences required to teach the subject. Teachers should be informed where and when these workshops would take place since most of them are stationed in enclave areas. The cost should also be minimized so that teachers would be motivated to attend.

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION 

1.1 Background of the Study

Historical Background

Writing was a subject on its own under the German educational system in Cameroon. It continued throughout the British and French Educational system of Cameroon during the colonial era.

From 1976, the orientation of education in Cameroon was driven towards grooming young Cameroonians who will learn skills in school and be productive thus driving the Cameroon economy towards industrialisation. At this point, education was given a central role in making Cameroon industrialized. Cognizant to the role education will play in the drive towards industrialization, the 1995 forum of education in Cameroon became a major turning point in Cameroon’s educational history as focus was now bend on education for all (Weddel, 2006).

According to the document of the sector wide approach, in 1996 the consecration of education by the National Constitution as a major mission of the state was made. One of the major preambles of the constitution of 16th January 1996 states that: the organisation and control of education at every level is the responsibility of the State. Cognizant to this constitution, appropriate mechanisms were put in place to ensure that teachers effectively implement quality education with emphasis on the teaching methods that teachers were supposed to use to effect teaching in the classrooms and the quality of didactic materials and assessment techniques to be used in teaching and learning in the secondary schools (Folegwe, 2006).

Also, the official document Programmes de la Deuxième Année Moyenne states that the Competency-based language Approach (CBLA) at Secondary aims at the establishment of three competences: first, to interact orally which involves spoken communication in English. Secondly, to interpret authentic oral or written documents. This requires learners to display their comprehension through some mostly oral reformulation of authentic oral or written documents. Thirdly, to produce simple oral or written documents and this calls learners to generate simple oral or written messages (Dyson, 2017).

The fact that it is expressed as the first stated competence sought after, oral interaction in English may be described as being given prominence in this approach, and be considered as the “key competence”. This is further confirmed by the Document d’Accompagnement des Programmes de la Deuxième Année Moyenne when it clearly states that in the teaching of English as a foreign language, in second year middle school, priority is given to oral skills (82). Of course, one may wonder the reasonableness of aims that give priority to the teaching of audio-oral skills within a system that ultimately examines pupils’ performances in both internal and external examinations solely through writing. Still, official documents and recommendations remain to be taken as stating what ought to be the case (Richards, & Rodgers (2001).

Hence, in the light of such features as are described as prominent under the Competency-based Approach as expressed in the Cameroonian secondary school English programmes, the object of the present study is to investigate the challenges teachers faced in translating these writing skills in to practice in the classroom, thus to the audio-oral skills, on the writing skill in actual classroom practice. However, few studies to date have explored possible challenges facing the teaching of writing using the CBA (Brannon, 2010).

Later in the mid-1960s, English Language teachers realized that students needed to focus not only on grammatical accuracy of the sentences they produced but also the functions of writing. Thus, teachers adopted a rhetorical function approach where they shifted the teaching focus from sentence level accuracy to a discourse level that emphasized the purposes of writing such as description, comparison, and contrast. Since the 1970s, the process approach to writing has gained popularity. Instead of focusing primarily on the form/correctness of the writing, teachers now encourage students to pay attention to macro-level communicative purposes. The aim of the process approach is to let the students’ ideas decide the form of a piece of writing (Silva, 1990).

Contextual Background

The shift from the objective-based approach to the competence-based approach in English at the secondary level in Cameroon places too much emphasis on real life situations and the vocabulary thereof, in its current field implementation. Apart from vocabulary, the other structural components are very shallowly dealt with, not only grammar, but, much more the teaching of pronunciation and speech sounds. Using the contents analysis theory, the paper brings up the shallow presence of English sounds, paramount element in pronunciation and in oral communication in the curriculum (Nforbi, 2018).

The implementation of the Competency-Based Approach (CBA) has given teachers a hard time in several educational contexts worldwide, including Cameroon. In the domain of English language teaching, emphasis has been laid so far on the why aspect of the reform and on context-related challenges to its implementation, whereas very little has been said about how teachers in under-resourced contexts could implement it successfully in their classrooms (Leila, 2017).

Nforbi and Siéwoué (2016), put out that the implementation of the 2012 CBA curriculum was not adequate partly because of lack of understanding, and partly because of apathy on the part of the teachers. The understanding problems were recorded as the strange terminology (families of situations, categories of actions, outcome, and skills.

Again, the pedagogic seminars organized annually as a forum for teachers’ continuous training used to gather very few teachers, the heads of departments from the various schools, whereas it could be opened to all the teachers. Teachers in the study reported serious problems in lesson planning (scheme of work, lesson plan), lesson delivery (lack of didactic materials and uneasy individualization of the teaching) and language testing (no formal testing format, uneasy individualization, lack of testing guidance …). Though the seminars prove that this approach could be very promising for the development of learners’ four basic language skills, the teachers’ heart cry is for guidance, the explication of the new method (understanding, planning, teaching and testing) and adapted didactic materials such as relevant course books (Nforbi and Siéwoué, 2016).

According to Akum (2017), the challenges that teachers face, is as a result of their perception and view of the Competency Based Approach. While some secondary school teachers in the Buea municipality see this approach as good, other view it as not different from the New Pedagogic Approach (NPA). Dang & Chi Che (2016), also discuss the CBA-RLS in Cameroon’s secondary level ESL and EFL and propose pedagogic models on teaching, assessment and feedback with schemes of work, lesson plans and sample lessons. Their dream remains the making of learners into ‘autonomous language users’. Yet, they do not address the writing component. In this context, Nforbi and Siéwoué (2016) pose the hypothesis that most French-speaking Cameroonians in general and students in particular do not speak English eloquently because they possess no mastery of the writing aspect and system of English, as different from French.

1.2 Justification of Study

Years ago, people would not believe that writing is so important in language development, as such very little attention was giving to how pupils and students write (Chappell & Di Martino, 2006). “Just a few decades ago, the very notion that writing plays a vital role to our day to day life was unthinkable” (Ruffini, 2006, 159).

Also, we observe, ineffectiveness in the teaching of writing in secondary schools in the Buea municipality as a result of the challenges teachers face in using the CBA in teaching writing.

Moreover, lack of in-service training as well as lack of teaching learning resources, will hamper learner’s creativity because teachers will still use the rote methods of teaching which are not aligned to the needs of the learners. The CBA have laid modalities for the methods that teachers are supposed to use for teaching as a result, lack of the above critrias will retard teachers effectiveness.

1.3 Statement of the Problem

In our context (Cameroon), several teaching methods have been used to teach the writing skill. However, the Competency based Approach CBA has proved to be more workable. Thus, the mastery of writing is supposed to create an atmosphere for secondary school students to do a lot of writing in the classroom. But, there are some students who fear to make spelling or grammatical mistakes or even in punctuation and as such, it turns to reduce their performance in official examinations due to poor handwriting. However, this poor performance could be attributed to the fact that despite the stipulated methods cited in the secondary school English Language syllabus, teachers don’t still understand how to teaching writing effectively using the CBA (Chelli, 2015). Cognizant to the lack of in-service training to on the path of teachers, the insufficient teaching and learning resources, the quality of learning is hampered as reflected on students’ academic performance in the subject.

Also, besides the lack of in-service training for teachers and teaching resources, there is yet a bigger challenge that could hinder the quality of lesson delivery, that is the fact of overcrowded classroom. Due to the overcrowded nature of the classrooms, teachers might not be able to focus on the needs and learning styles of students. If this challenges are not handled, it is possible that even though the CBA is a good policy the quality of lesson delivery will be poor thus affecting students’ academic performance negatively.  It is against this background that the researcher set out to verify the various challenges faced by teachers using the CBA in teaching writing.

1.4 Objectives of the study

1.4.1 General objectives

To find out the extent to which the challenges faced by teachers using the competence based approach (CBA) affects the teaching of writing in secondary schools in the Buea Municipality.

1.4.2 Specific objectives

The following specific objectives were coined for the study;

1. To measure the extent to which lack of in-service training of teachers using the CBA influences the teaching of writing.
2. To examine the extent to which insufficient teaching and learning resources have an impact on the teaching of writing.
3. To find out the extent to which overcrowded classrooms influences the teaching of writing.