THE TEACHING OF COMMUNICATIVE CHICHEŴA GRAMMAR IN THE SOUTH EAST EDUCATION DIVISION SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate how teachers of Chicheŵa taught grammar amidst lack of clarity displayed in the current Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) curriculum. The main goal of CLT is to help learners to develop communicative competence. In CLT instructional materials, grammar is matched to language functions or situations. However, the design of grammar in the current Chicheŵa curriculum is generally form-focused as promoted by the Grammar Translation Method (GTM) on which the old Chicheŵa curriculum was based. The study used the multiple case study approach of the qualitative dominant-less quantitative dominant model. The sample comprised eight qualified practicing teachers of Chicheŵa, purposively selected from the South East Education Division (SEED) secondary schools. Data were collected using document review, questionnaire, lesson observations, checklist and interviews. All the participants preferred teaching form-focused grammar out of context. The results revealed that the teachers were generally driven by the following factors in their choice of teaching procedure: lack and low understanding of CLT principles; form-focused grammar in the instructional materials and national examinations; poor orientation and sporadic curriculum monitoring; and teachers’ own experiences and beliefs.