Teach English in Yuexi Zhen - Shaoyang Shi

Challenges that learners of English language face in Rwanda. Learning is a process of acquiring knowledge and skills. A learner or student is an individual who is being taught a given set of skills to achieve a goal in mind. Learning a second language like English is both a challenging and exciting experience. In this writing, we are going to focus on the learners between the ages of 12 – 18 years and the problems they encounter in the learning of English language in Rwanda. Rwanda being a former Franco-phone nation, which of recent (8 – 10 years back) has made a shift to Anglo-phone, requires all teaching from primary four to the university to be done in English language. It is therefore against this background that we are going to look at the numerous challenges ranging from; background, motivation, structure of English language, methodology among others that a student has to contend with. To begin with, the learner is faced with a problem of poor exposure of the language as they lack enough skilled teachers to act the role of proper role models. Most of the existing teachers, who were trained under the Franco- phone system, adopted English language teaching during tertiary training. Thus, this limited exposure in turn hinders the learners whom they teach to acquire proper basics of the language and understanding. Relatedly, the learner also lacks the environment within which to practice the language. Rwandan society is monolingual in nature. Most of the population uses the national language ‘Kinyarwanda’. This type of setting inhibits the learner’s ability to acquire language naturally, sine English is used only at official and formal functions. As a result, the learner is limited to only using the language during the lesson of English language. The next hurdle learner’s face is the teacher centred methodology. Here, the teacher spends most of the time talking to the learners who are obliged to keep quiet and listen. This minimizes student talk time. Consequently making them less productive and giving them little time to experiment with the new language structures being taught. Teachers also have a tendency to translate and explain language concepts in mother tongue while teaching English language. These translations are detrimental to the learners because as mentioned earlier, it limits their exposure and experimenting with English language. The other challenge lies in the design of a highly academic syllabus. The students are subjected to a curriculum that does not suit their level and experiences. The course materials do not cater for the learner’s interests and needs but are geared towards the preparation to pass examinations. In so doing, the language is taught in an academic way for high scores. In fact, the design promotes competition among learners other than cooperation. This puts undue pressure on the learners who end up detesting the learning process other than embracing it. The nature and structure of English language. The lack of uniformity and regularity in the grammar and phonology of English confuses learners. English language has a lot of irregularities in its sound systems, tenses, verb conjugations that do not exist in the mother tongue. These disparities give learners a hard time to study and reconcile them. This in turn affects their mastery and fluency in the language. Learners also lack access to the basic instructional materials. For instance; tapes and CDs for listening practice are non-existent. Dictionaries, internet and course books are expensive, leaving learners to only rely on the little the teacher provides. Likewise, the learners are also subjected to only two language skills which are examined in the syllabus, that is; Reading and Writing. Listening and Speaking are largely ignored denying the learner a wholesome learning experience of the four skills. The other challenge is the lack of motivation and interest to learn. As mentioned earlier, English language is very scantly used out of the school setting. This added to the fact that the society is monolingual decreases the love for the student to learn, due to lack of use of the language in his natural environment. In the same way, schools tend to approach the learning of language with zero tolerance to mistakes. This can at times lead to punishment of the learners. So to protect their image and self-esteem, learners adopt a ‘silence approach’ to avoid punishment and losing face. This added together with other social biases erodes their morale to learn the language. Largely, the learner of English as a second language in Rwanda is faced with numerous challenges. Though, measures are being put in place to address some of the above issues. Like the current adoption of a Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) and more training and seminars of teachers of English language. This is geared towards the learner getting the best from the learning process and being able to use English language fluently and accurately.