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

According to Richard and Rodgers (2001), learning English as a foreign language generally entails the exposure of learners to the four skills that are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The amount of exposure to any of these skills varies according to the objectives set for the teaching procedure. As its name suggests, the Reading Method, for example, stresses the reading skill and thus gives priority to reading in comparison to listening, speaking, and writing. The Aural/oral Method for its part lays more emphasis on listening and speaking in relation to reading and writing.

Writing as a skill has come to play an important role in foreign language teaching because of the many benefits it provides. In much the same way as the other skills, writing may be described as helping learners to gain ability in the foreign language. Probably more than the other skills, and because of the great production time pupils take to plan and revise their text before, it is put in final appearance, the writing skill gives foreign language learners a sense of control over the language being taught, and allows them to learn more about how English works. In addition, writing is the skill mostly used to examine pupils’ performances. This is particularly the case of the Cameroonian educational system where written examinations are the means teachers and examiners use to qualify learners to pass to higher levels (Richards and Rodgers 2001).

The teaching of English in the Cameroonian educational system has witnessed many changes of methods from the Grammar Translation to more so called ‘modern approaches’. Within this development, the latest to date to be adopted is the Competency-based Approach. This new approach, which seeks to found competences in learners, has been embraced since the school year 2012-2014.

Competency-based education (CBE) is surging in popularity as schools around the world scramble to implement their own versions of competency-based curricula (Ash, 2012; Mulder, Eppin, & Akkermans, 2011; Nederstigt & Mulder, Wong, 2008). What is behind this newfound popularity and what does it really mean for language teachers, classrooms, and students? This leads us to our topic which is challenges faced by teachers using the competence based approach in teaching writing in the Buea municipality.

This work is divided into five chapters. Chapter one comprises of the background of the study, the justification of study, the statement of problem, research objectives, research questions, significant of the study and operational definition of terms. 

Chapter two reviews conceptual, theoretical and empirical literature apt to this study. Chapter three, sets out to present the methodology that this study will be analyzed. Chapter four presents the finding and analysis and chapter five discuss the presented findings and results of the challenges teachers face in teaching writing using the competence based approach. 

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 16^th 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).

Conceptual background

There have been paradigm shifts in approaches to teaching academic writing over the last few decades (Paltridge, et al 2009). There have been paradigm shifts in approaches to teaching academic writing over the last few decades (Paltridge, et al, 2009). From the mid-1940s to mid-1960s, controlled composition was practiced widely in writing classes. Such a teaching approach aims to improve the accuracy of students’ written works, based on a behaviorist view that repetition and imitation will lead to habit formation (e.g.,  writing grammatically correct sentences). An example of controlled composition is for teachers to give sample sentences of a chosen structure, and then students are tasked to write a few sentences following that pattern.

Given that writing is socially-situated in nature, yet another approach to writing instruction was introduced to help students acquire the genres that they needed to master in order to succeed in writing about specific topics.  Under this genre approach, through reading model texts from a subject area and guided practice, students master the language, text structure, and discourse practices for specific kinds of communication. We should take note that understanding the genre approach depends on genre traditions, such as English for Specific Purposes (UK), New Rhetoric (USA), and Systemic Functional Linguistics (Australia). These three genre traditions differ in both form and function (Hyon, 1996).  

The competency based approach is also referred to as the pedagogy of integration or to an outcomes approach. This approach entails the putting together of all the knowledge, know-how and attitudes required for the solution of real life problems or situations. Put simplistically and with reference to language learning, using all the grammar, vocabulary, punctuation and pronunciation to communicate effectively in real time listening, speaking, reading and writing situations. Furthermore, it consists of knowing what to do, where, when and with whom; or, being linguistically, communicatively and socio-linguistically competent with the learned language (Paula, 2013).

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.