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English Language in Sudanese Schools a way forward Delivered at Humanities and Educational Studies Conference

University of Khartoum, Sudan February 25 28, 203 Dr. Josephine OBrien

1.0 Introduction

Reviewing a language-learning situation with all its variables is a major challenge involving

time and energy. Reviewing the state of English in the current Sudanese context is a

mammoth task involving consideration of the language learning environment, the needs of

students, the role of teachers and the appropriacy and relevance of language teaching and

learning materials. The current paper is in no way definitive but it does attempt to take a

backward look to a couple of decades ago and to compare past with present challenges. The

objective is to review what was learned in the past, to evaluate what has worked and what

has not worked and to chart a way forward that will accommodate all the stakeholders and

facilitate the students who are the ultimate winners or losers in all decisions made.

I was privileged to live and work in Sudan from 1983 to 1991 during which time I taught at

both secondary and tertiary levels. I was greatly impressed by the superior linguistic ability

of my colleagues and their competency in both Arabic and English in what appeared as a

seamless bilingual situation. However, over the eight years I worked in Sudan as an English

language teacher in the secondary schools and in Gezira University, concern grew about the

declining standards in English language in both the primary and secondary schools and

eventually even at the universities. It seemed that something had gone wrong along the way

or had it?

2.0 Context of and for English Language Teaching and Learning in the 1980s

In post independence Sudan (after January 1st, 1956), English at first retained its status as

the language of instruction, administration and business. English was the 'language of

earning a living', as El Tigani (1966) pointed out; English was considered vital in the fields

of science and technology and was viewed as the language of progress, possibility and

prestige. As English was used daily, a context existed which provided a strong motivation to

achieve competence in the language. Initially, the standard of English was high as the few

secondary schools were well equipped with resources and native speaker teachers. However,

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the developmental goal of increasing literacy levels resulted in the transition to Arabic as the

medium of instruction in schools, resulting in mass expansion of education and naturally,

increases in class sizes. Taha (1980) pointed out that the opening of educational

opportunities to the masses resulted in a rapid increase in the number of students without a

corresponding increase in teacher training and preparation of materials and methodology. He

pointed in particular to the failure to assess traditional approaches to teaching during the process of expansion that must be considered primarily responsible for such decline in

standards as there has actually been. (pp. 43) It was reported that crowded classrooms and shortage of equipment were permanent features of most schools. Research (OBrien, 1987) explained that 40 per cent of students were in classes of over 60 while 90 per cent had 50

students or more in the class. Many did not have an individual textbook and such an over-

crowded, ill-equipped context created logistical problems when efforts were undertaken to

shift the focus from a teacher dominated to a student centered methodology. Changes in the

educational ladder and with Arabic as the main medium of instruction and the consequent

reduction of hours allocated to English language instruction resulted in a drastic drop in

standards.

Through the decades following independence, criticism of the abilities of English Language

teachers and the paucity of teaching materials continued to mount. Several committees made

a range of suggestions but little practical action was taken. While students desire to learn English remained high as university education and advancement in the professional world

depended on English language competency, shortage of funds, books and teaching

equipment, decentralization, provincialism and poor teacher training programs resulting in

the recruitment of teachers with inadequate skills aggravated the declining standards.

During the same period in the greater global English language teaching context, the

structural syllabus with its focus on moving from the simple to the more complex was found

to be inappropriate for developing communicative language use. Communicative needs of

learners should be the basis of any syllabus aiming at communicative competence according

to Widdowson (1978), Wilkins (1976) and Munby (1978). These linguists worked from the

learners' needs back to linguistic forms rather than the other way round. Knowledge of

grammatical structure alone was inadequate and would not prepare the learner to function in

the real world. Both the notional functional syllabus and the communicative syllabus

focused on what speakers could communicate through the language and consequently

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material for language teaching was organized according to function rather than form. In the

context of Sudan, vagueness surrounded the teaching of English in the secondary schools, as

there was no immediate communicative objective for the language in everyday society.

Abdel Mageed (1985) stressed the importance of developing 'performance objectives'

building on Wilkins (1975) 'operational definitions' which would provide a way of

measuring what the learner was capable of doing in the language after he/she had completed

the course. Any such performance objectives should be measurable in strictly quantifiable

terms and should reflect identifiable aspects of behaviour i.e. a student should be able to

read a given book at a certain speed or at a certain time. These operational definitions or

performance objectives should give the learners a clear idea of what they were capable of

doing, of what was expected of them and of the point they must have reached after a specific

period of instruction or a learning activity. These performance objectives could also be a

guide for the teacher who instead of aiming to complete a textbook would have linguistic,

skill and communicative objectives to meet within a particular time frame and would share

these with the learners. Both teachers and learners would measure progress not by the

number of pages turned but by the level of progress and ability achieved in the specified

objectives.

3.0 Response to declining standards of English in Sudan

3.1 A new syllabus

To offset the perceived decline, the Longman project was drawn up and a new integrated

course was introduced in the early 1980s. The designing of the New Integrated Longman

English Course (NILE) for Sudan was a partial response to the declining standards of

English. The course emerged after long discussion between Ministry of Education officials,

Longman publishers, expatriate authors and some serving secondary school teachers. The

essential features of the course were that it was designed specifically for Sudan with content

relevant to the lives of the students; it was proposed as an integrated graded course that was

easy to teach given the constraints of the Sudanese classroom and with clear guides for

teachers in a teacher manual. The objective was to develop a realistic level of competence in

all four skills by the end of the sixth year. The course while focusing on developing

competence was deliberately not revolutionary so that teachers would find it easy and

straightforward. In a great spirit of optimism, Sandell (1983) referred to it as 'as a coherent

syllabus' (12) that answers the pleas of teachers while also describing it as 'a realistic course'

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and concluding that without any major political or educational changes ' it should serve the

Northern schools for years to come.'

However, a syllabus or set of materials is only one part of the whole and Taha (1980) had

already referred to three important elements in the equation: materials, teachers and teaching

style, students and learning style. The traditional teaching and learning style at the time was

that of the perception of education as the transmission of information in which the teacher is

the narrator or transmitter and the students are the passive recipients, a situation that was

described by Friere (1972) as one similar to banking as he argued the act of teaching was no

more than the act of depositing (45) "in which the students are the depositories and the

teacher is the depositor ...... This is the banking concept of education, in which the scope of

action allowed to the students extends only as far as receiving, filing and storing the

deposits." Revision of course material in such a situation is a contribution but not enough as

any course is only as good as its medium. Any assessment of a programme and analysis of

performance involves a triangular relationship that involves all players. A course had been

tailor made for the schools but there were still worrying issues to be resolved. Many

teachers were not even English language graduates and had little or no training. From the

beginning, reference was made to the importance of teacher training; methodology was

often traditional with a focus on grammar rules rather than communication. The method of

assessment was still testing of knowledge about the language rather than use of the language

and revision of the secondary school examination was important to reflect the materials and

methods introduced in the new course.

Teachers

Examination

Students Materials

Such was the context within which I undertook my research in the late 1980s as part of an

MA in Applied English Linguistics. The general responsibility for declining standards was

placed on the NILE course; however, I determined to take a more inclusive approach and

consider the three elements involved in what I saw as the language learning triangle:

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materials, teachers, students and the assessment tool that theoretically should measure the

performance of all three.

The research involved teachers, teacher training institutes, learners at both school and

university levels and analysis of examinations for the final Sudanese school certificate in

English. Findings revealed a range of factors that appeared to contribute to the declining

standards in English language performance. My initial hypothesis suggested that the course

was not being delivered as the authors and planners intended and that the teaching of the

four skills as set out in the text books was not being followed.

3.2 Teacher behaviour

The approach proposed in NILE course was one involving communication, interaction and

interpretation, an approach that conflicts with the traditional approach of a dominant teacher

and a passive student. Teacher educators in general and curriculum designers note the

importance of attitudes of teachers who are the people making explicit any materials given

to them. Many of the teachers delivering NILE course at the time of the research had no

qualification in English language, were untrained as teachers and had no exposure to any

classroom methodology and behaviour other than the traditional patterns they experienced

themselves as students. Even when a communicative course was introduced, the material

was generally adapted to a traditional type of teaching style and reflected more the approach

to content subjects than it did to any communicative language teaching and learning style.

Most of the teachers had little or no facility to practise English outside of the four to five

hours when they were actually teaching the language. This presented a major difficulty in

terms of their own English language competence and professional confidence and illustrated

a situation not specific only to Sudan as pointed out by Kourago (1987) in Burkina Faso

who noted that the level of English of teachers was that of advanced learners of the language

thus seriously eroding their confidence in the classroom.

Many Sudanese English language teachers had no opportunity to interact with native

speakers (personal interviews), apart from those in areas which hosted a native speaker

British or Irish contract teacher, many of whom while native speakers also did not have a

background in teaching methodology. Feelings of inadequacy among the Sudanese teachers

resulted in an approach that was closer to transmission of information about English than

functional and pragmatic exploration of the language. In general, learners remained passive

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participants. It could be concluded that teachers lacked three fundamental requirements for

effective teaching: a reasonable level of competence in English and training in and

understanding of various methods of teaching the four language skills in the classroom and

the ability to adapt methods and materials to their own classroom environment.

The involvement of teachers in decision making and in curriculum development and

materials writing is vital as a way of developing professional empowerment and building

teacher self confidence. Essential to teachers ability to select, modify and adapt materials to classroom contexts lies a broad understanding of principles that inform materials

development and methodology choices. However, in the Sudanese context, teachers

interviewed reported that in the main they received no training in delivering NILE course

and inspector visits were to be feared as a period of fault-finding, criticism and punishment

rather than an opportunity for support and enlightenment. Consequently, teachers were

unaware of the required pedagogical and methodological issues underpinning the course, the

rationale for the course and were not informed of what students had learned prior to arriving

in their class. Teacher reports indicated that their opinions on the course had not been

sought and illustrated the paucity of advice and support available in the day to day running

of their classes. Knowledge of reading and writing sub skills and approaches to developing

such skills was limited and teachers often read aloud to passive students or watched students

passively while they struggled to write a composition without any writing process input.

It could be argued that one of the major obstacles to the success of an integrated course was

the lack of a holistic knowledge of the course and expectations about learners performance based on what had been taught the previous year. Some teachers had taught or were teaching

only one of the books at secondary school level and had no idea what the other books

contained or what had been taught in intermediate school or the methodological approach

followed. While the author of books 4, 5 and 6 had worked in Sudan, he was only in

country during the preparation of Book 4. He reported that preparation of this book involved

extensive piloting and detailed feedback from teachers in a select number of schools that did

not reflect the large and super large class sizes found in many schools. Therefore, little or no

consideration was given to such classroom dynamics and to the differences in exposure to

education and English between the urban environment of Khartoum and more remote areas

that were the majority.

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The English language teacher was the primary generator of language and what he/she did in

the class could help or hinder students. Several teachers (65% of those surveyed) did not

have a degree in English language but had studied agriculture, economics, and geography

through the medium of English. Therefore, they had a good grasp of language for specific

purposes (ESP as it was called at the time) but had no qualifications in education and

certainly not in English language teaching. Unemployment in several of the professions was

quite high as the private sector was inadequately developed so graduates gravitated towards

public sector jobs for the security and certainty they provided. When any other job failed to

materialize, graduates turned to teaching; it was clear that teaching was the reluctant

profession and teaching English the most reluctant of all. Those teachers who had taken

professional development courses generally considered these too theoretical and not focused

enough on practical classroom issues or the language and pedagogical needs of trainee

teachers. Lack of professional knowledge and experience was particularly visible in

approaches to teaching skills. This was illustrated in the teaching of reading where few if

any of reading sub-skills such as developing a schema for the topic in pre-reading activities,

skimming for main ideas, scanning for specific information, inferencing and drawing

conclusions from information in the texts were explored or even introduced. Teachers

generally read the passage aloud to students, followed by comprehension questions that

were usually at the literal level that did not challenge students or develop text attack skills.

The comprehension questions were often used as a testing device rather than an opportunity

for discussion and expansion of language work. Little effort was made to guess the meaning

of unknown words from the context and no dictionaries were in use. Very often students

were asked to read aloud which has very little value as a way of developing the skill of

reading for comprehension and language development.

3.3 Student Attitudes and performance

For students of any discipline, motivation and attitudes are essential factors to successful

learning, and this is particularly true in language learning. Motivation can be integrative or

instrumental. In Sudan in the 1980s, it could be argued that motivation to learn English was

instrumental as a pathway to third level education and gainful employment upon graduating.

Arabic is the language of literacy, of culture, of religion but English was and still is seen as

necessary in science, technology, medicine, and other professional areas. Though some

would argue that integrative motivation is more powerful than instrumental, studies reveal

that both types can lead to success if other elements of the learning process are present.

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Even when motivation is high, attitudes and performance of teachers will certainly affect

students.

In discussions with students, it was found that most were not stimulated to learn English and

adopted a very passive approach to the English language class. They were unable to carry on

a basic conversation in English or to understand simple instructions. Schools provided little

in the way of extra-curricular activities or material that would stimulate interest in the use of

the language. As there was little opportunity for students to use English in daily interactions

it was pointed out that students should be encouraged to read extensively and thus enhance

and expand their language repertoire. The author of NILE (Julian Corbuth) actually pointed

this out and said that no English language course is sufficient and it must be supplemented by wide reading at appropriate linguistic levels. We assume as an absolute minimum that

six-out-of-class readers will be read by any pupil every year. This is the absolute minimum. However it was observed that very little supplementary reading was done and consequently

students were losing a valuable opportunity to enhance their language. Reading ability was

low, focusing on the meaning of each word rather than overall text comprehension

suggesting little or no ability to extract the main idea from a piece of reading. Detailed

observations, discussions and analyses of writing scripts indicated that students had a very

poorly developed understanding of syntax, poor word order, many spelling mistakes,

inability to develop a coherent paragraph and cohesive text and while often able to score

moderately well on a grammar test could not use this knowledge in any meaningful manner.

3.4 Rationale and delivery of NILE

NILE course was designed to incorporate some elements of the communicative approach

while keeping the context constraints in mind. However, no attempt was made to address the

fact that many class sizes were large and the opportunity for the teacher to move around the

room was seriously limited. Teaching speaking in such an environment was impossible and

this skill in particular suffered because of overcrowding and teachers' reluctance to practise

interactive methodologies in large classes. Similarly, group work presented so many

logistical issues that teachers often abandoned group participation and reverted to traditional

whole class transmission of information about the language. The lack of visual and aural

materials that would have facilitated the development of the skill of listening and speaking

were also missing. Teachers often gave instructions in Arabic so the only opportunity to use

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language for a realistic meaningful purpose was lost. Consequently, university students

reported that their ability to listen to lectures, comprehend and take notes was seriously

compromised. The course provided plenty relevant meaningful reading texts though

teachers said these were generally too long and impossible to complete in one school year.

The vocabulary used in the texts was relevant and reflected the lives and interests of the

learners though sometimes the use of technical vocabulary was too challenging for learners.

The teaching of the skill of writing through the course was criticized by many because

though there were many exercises that practised punctuation, gap fills, dialogue completion,

and some paragraph writing based on reading passages there was no consistent plan to

develop writing through process from basics to a coherent text. The Sudan School

Certificate tested students' ability to write by getting them to produce a free composition and

summary writing but this was not really taught in the course. No attempt was made to revise

the final school exam after the introduction of NILE course. The course writer saw the

production of practical functional writing as the goal whereas the school exam asked

students to produce an essay on such topics as 'Insects as an enemy to man', or 'The Ideal

Citizen', topics that require a high level of vocabulary, manipulation of ideas and arguments

as well as an expert knowledge of English sentence structure and syntax, skills that the

majority of students did not have. Teachers viewed writing as the most valuable skill for

students especially for those who wished to pursue a university degree but analysis of

examination scripts showed that the writing ability of students was very weak. There was a

serious mismatch between what was being tested in the exam and what was being taught in

the course.

Teachers also found the presentation of grammar in the course challenging as the implicit

teaching of grammar was new to many and therefore they argued that grammar was

neglected in the course. Both teachers and students wanted information they could transmit,

memorize and regurgitate. Many students depended on the explicit grammar questions in the

exam to gain grades especially those whose writing ability was weak. Most of the teachers

reported that students asked them to teach more grammar than that contained in the course

books. There was also material in the course that did not take the prevailing classroom

culture into consideration. Literature passages remote from students' lives were included and

suggestions for use of visual and audio aids were not practical in a resource light

environment. The suggested methodology for delivery of the course was often not practical

and relevant.

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In developing the skill of writing, as pointed out already, NILE course was found to lack in

a proper writing process approach. No sense of purpose or writing for an audience was

presented to the students. Mistakes were corrected but it would appear that teachers did not

analyse the types of errors and come up with a meaningful way of remediation. Many of the

errors observed resulted from direct transfer from Arabic, a fact that was not dealt with by

teachers and in fact sometimes the transfer error was reinforced in the teacher's own

language. Little or no group work or functional writing was being done in class though the

course book encouraged such an approach. To counteract such deficiencies, it was

recommended that a remedial course dealing specifically with those frequent errors should

be prepared as the same errors occur at intermediate and university levels.

The teaching of speaking and listening was also found to be inadequate. A particular

problem in an environment such as Sudan is that of giving students practice in producing

and listening to authentic spoken English when English is not used in any meaningful way

on a daily basis. Spoken language is of course used to communicate information but our

primary use of language in its spoken form is interactional with the focus on developing and

maintaining social relationships. To do this, the speaker and listener have to be aware of the

cultural and pragmatic thrust of the language. Grammar is not enough. It was observed that

the Sudanese classroom did not provide any opportunity for interaction in English. As the

teacher had little or no exposure to the cultural and pragmatic use of English, he/she

therefore was unable to demonstrate everyday English in use. In most cases, Arabic was

used to give instructions and to explain and instruct on how English grammar worked.

Teachers claimed that this practice resulted from students' demands whereas many students

said the teacher used Arabic because he/she lacked confidence and was incompetent. The

use of the mother tongue does not have to be excluded but its use should be discretionary

and it should not be the major tool employed by the native speaker teacher. The dialogues

provided in the course were generally modeled first by the teacher with students repeating

after him/her though there was no guarantee that the teacher's modeling of pronunciation

was in fact correct.

Finally the teaching of grammar was a major concern for both teachers and students. The

course books tried to move away from explicit teaching of grammar and to develop

language functions that show how grammar operates in meaningful situations. However,

twenty per cent of final exam grades were allotted to explicit grammar questions and

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consequently there was huge pressure on teachers to provide overt teaching of grammar

rules. This certainly presented a major dilemma for teachers especially for those who were

diligent in trying to follow the aims of the course books. Students reported that they

memorized grammar rules, in fitting with traditional memorization habits; additionally, it

facilitated the acquisition of high marks in the Sudan School Certificate. When time was

limited and pressure was great from students, teachers reported that they did teach grammar

explicitly. Additionally, some teachers pointed to the fact that they were unfamiliar with the

concept of grammar in context and did not know how to manipulate material to help

students improve grammar knowledge. Explicit teaching of grammar allowed teachers to

walk in, open a book and teach a grammar point. Integrated teaching requires more

preparation and understanding of overall aims.

3.5 Sudan School Certificate (SSC) final examination

Evaluation of the assessment at the end of secondary school through the Sudan School

Certificate (SSC) revealed a complete mis-match with the aims of the course and indicated

that it was not a suitable test of what students could do in the language. The exam was

prepared by an examination committee, quite remote from the daily lives and classrooms of

the average English teacher who had no say or input into its preparation. Sixty per cent of

the marks were allocated to composition and summary writing, a situation that greatly

affected the outcome for each student. Teachers were very critical of the mismatch between

the testing of writing in the SSC and the teaching of writing in the course.

My analysis of examination scripts indicated that students depended on the discrete

grammar questions for most of their grades and were unable to complete a coherent

summary and composition and this of course negatively affected their final grades. Students

were required to write from a set of notes in Paper 1, but in most cases through my own

analysis and several reports on performance in the English exam, guides are copied with

little or no attention to subject and verb agreement, correct tenses, word forms and general

sentence structure; students appeared to have no idea how to plan a composition, structure a

paragraph, link information and organize paragraphs into a coherent whole. Free

composition grading is for grammar, sentence structure, tenses, spelling and paragraphing

rather than any content creativity or originality of ideas. The third writing question based on

summary writing generated a high level of anxiety among students who explained that they

had no idea what they were expected to do; many had not been taught summary writing in

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class. Based on the raw scores of the 1987 SSC, 75% of students achieved less than 30%,

the required pass mark, and marks gained were mostly on multiple choice questions in

grammar and reading while much of their writing was incoherent and often illegible. Two

issues in particular were raised about the final exam: it was pointed out that topics for both

reading and writing should reflect those taught in the course material particularly as the

students should be familiar with the vocabulary and a more general criticism questioned the

validity of the exam as a whole as it in no way reflected the skills taught through the course

material. The vagueness and aimlessness that resulted from such mismatches seriously

compromised the teaching and learning of English for the students.

4.0 Conclusions of the 1980s study

4.1 Teachers

In conclusion, findings from my 1980s study indicated that challenges existed at all three

corners of the learning triangle. Teachers lack of familiarity with holistic course goals and objectives and their lack of professional knowledge and access to such knowledge resulted

in practitioners who were ill -equipped to deliver the material in the way expected by the

designers. Teachers failure to grasp the concept of integrated skills and their inability to develop and practice their profession from the perspective of skill development meant that

students did not develop functional ability in English. Marginalization of teachers in course

development and assessment resulted in little or no communication of their ideas and

concerns to supervisors. Lack of training and in-service courses led to inefficient delivery of

the course. Low English proficiency among some teachers resulted in over use of Arabic for

transmission and explanation purposes in the English classroom. Naturally such translations

did not impede teacher student communication but it was worrying given that they were the

gate keepers of students' English language development.

4.2 Students and course

Passive attitudes of students resulting from too much teacher talking time affected

motivation and opportunities to use English in a functional manner. Classroom observation

clearly showed that lessons were mostly transmission of information about the language

rather than interaction between students or even students and teacher. Written work and

errors were rarely discussed in class and no attention was given to the presence of transfer

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from the mother tongue. Opportunity to develop oral and aural skills were seriously

restricted because of classroom dynamics and class sizes, all of which proved to be major

impediments to individual, pair and group work. The focus of the final examination on

explicit grammar questions meant that the implicit grammar approach suggested in the

course was ignored and sacrificed to explicit teaching of grammar rules. Within the course

itself, the inclusion of literary excerpts for the development of reading and writing skills,

though praised by the designers, was irrelevant for most teachers and students as they had no

background in English literature and culture and so could not exploit the passages for their

maximum effectiveness. Any supplementary material that was available in the schools was

unrelated to the course and the lives of the students.

5.0 Recommendations

It was clear that no one factor could be isolated as singularly responsible for the decline in

English language standards in Sudanese schools. A multitude of issues from psychological

to pedagogical to economic to social and linguistic were concluded to be contributors to the

observed decline. Recommendations suggested at the end of the study included the

following:

o revision of the status of English as a compulsory school subject as it was

suggested that it might be more practical for all students to take a basic English

course in intermediate school and to have the option of choice in the secondary

school. This was not a popular suggestion as many students saw lack of English

as an impediment to university entry. Alternatively, it was suggested that a two

tier approach might be a solution and also help overcome some of the classroom

constraints. High flyers could continue with a course that challenged them in an

interpretative and productive manner while the rest could follow a slower paced

course that would provide them with basic skills and allow them to continue at a

later stage if motivated to do so

o development of clear performance objectives was considered essential as the

vague goals defined by the Ministry of Education of producing students who

were able to understand and write English correctly was just not good enough.

These objectives needed to be specified and clarified so that it was clear as to

what students should be able to do in each of the four skills with in-built

grammar competence in these objectives

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o more clearly focused teacher training in methodology, pedagogy and classroom

management would benefit the teachers. This training would have to be

theoretical and practical, theoretical in that it gave teachers knowledge of

principles that lie behind classroom practice and practical in granting teachers the

opportunities to apply the new knowledge in situations that resembled their own

day to day classroom encounters. It was seen as important to develop what

Bolitho (1985) referred to as individualization in teacher training whereby the teacher's critical faculties are sharpened to such an extent that he is able to assess

his own performance as a teacher and evaluate the materials he/ she is using.

Teachers needed to understand the relevance of error analysis and error

remediation and also the direct relationship between teaching and assessment. In

addition, those teachers who were receiving training should be obliged to make a

commitment to the Sudanese educational system rather than seeking more

financially lucrative positions in Gulf schools.

o student motivation or lack of it was seen as a major deterrent to progress. The

student was generally perceived to be bored and passive in class and concerned

only with what he / she needed in order to succeed in the examination.

o major revision of the final examination was argued as being essential and it was

recommended that the exam be made more relevant to the needs and standard of

the students. It was suggested that teachers should be consulted on the

development of testing materials as well as the development of supplementary

teaching materials. A major overhaul was considered as vital in the teaching and

testing of writing with a three tier approach recommended in which there would

be graded development from simple sentence combination to paragraph

development to the production of a coherent text. Discrete grammar testing

should not be part of any final exam as this tests knowledge about the language

rather than use of the language in meaningful situations.

o regular focused classroom research was seen as important to monitor the

behaviour of teachers, the responses of students and to show that someone cared

about what was perceived to be happening in the classroom. This could be done

as part of action research projects in line with teachers' professional

development. Additionally, it was recommended that a group of professionals

whose function was to guide teachers through any problems should be available

at all times who would constantly and regularly assess the effects of particular

pedagogical approaches, design effective ways for teachers to function in

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difficult environments and provide regular even if brief in-service courses for

teachers. It was concluded that without action on all fronts, the decline of English

language and teaching was likely to continue.

6.0 Context for English in the 21st century in Sudan

Events in 1989 in Sudan ushered in major changes in many aspects of the average Sudanese

citizens life. This included the field of education. Decisions about changes in education policy and practice should be made from an informed educational and sociolinguistic

perspective and should not be driven by ideological one and careful planning should

accompany any changes. The decision to switch from English to Arabic as the medium of

instruction was a hasty one, and along with the dismissal of competent university staff

members for vague ideological reasons greatly affected the standard of education in general

and that of English language in particular. The repercussions for the country have been very

serious and have affected the quality of graduates in all areas and seriously hindered chances

for any to find employment in private sector jobs or in high-paying positions in the Gulf

countries ever since as had been the case in the 1980s.

In the early 1990s when these educational changes occurred, most university staff had been

trained and qualified at English medium universities. The decision to switch from English to

Arabic in the fields of medicine, the sciences, and agriculture needed time, preparation and

careful planning. This did not happen. The removal of English language books from

university library shelves occurred swiftly and these were replaced by Arabic translations

often of the same English books. Professors and lecturers were expected to switch teaching

languages overnight and deliver lectures through the medium of Arabic. Such a

transformation required proper planning and development of discipline specific terminology

that was consistent throughout. As far as I know no such task was undertaken. Through the

1990s, the medium of instruction alternated between Arabic and English but as far as

English language delivery was concerned college departments suffered a huge professional

blow with the dismissal of teachers and the classification of English language as

undesirable. On one visit to Sudan in the mid 1990s, I found that students were given the

syllabus at the beginning of the university semester and told to study themselves and return

for an examination at the end of the semester. Attitudes towards English were affected by

political developments and students motivation and interests were seriously affected. There seemed to be no rationale for including English in the school curriculum and though English

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continued to be taught in the schools, it was clearly not a popular school subject. English

was never widely used in daily life; however, in the past it was possible to get everyday

information through the medium of English but that is no longer the case. The only obvious

use of English is as the medium of instruction in some faculties in university. Even in such

situations, it would appear that students are provided sets of notes to memorize for final

exams. The average university student studying through the medium of English is not able

to conduct a basic conversation in English, listen to general English conversation with

comprehension, read material related to his/ her field of study or write a text of any length.

In fact it became clear to me on a recent visit that the English of my contemporaries, people

I had worked with through the 1980s and early 1990s was far superior to that of their

childrens generation.

My knowledge of what has happened in Sudan over the last 15 years is somewhat sketchy

and I am depending on second hand reports rather than my own direct experience for my

discussion from here on. It would appear that many stakeholders in the educational system

are currently unhappy with educational standards in general and in particular the standard of

English language of graduates seeking work. Gumaa Siddiek (2010) quotes al Busari (2008)

who explains that the standard of English of recent graduates is worryingly low as many are

unable to construct even a simple elementary sentence. He attributes this situation to the

unfortunate educational decisions referred to above in addition to poor teaching, paucity of

teaching aids and poor quality materials. Gumaa Siddiek reports that many teachers and

students are unhappy with the current situation and refer to the irrelevancy of courses and

examinations to the needs of students.

6.1 Teachers

Throughout the 1970s and 80s, teacher training courses were conducted in institutes at

Bakht er- Ruda, SELTI and some in-service courses at universities in order to address the

declining standards of English at secondary level. Unfortunately, many of the teachers

trained under these schemes now serve the students of Gulf primary and secondary schools

and universities. Continued declining standards of English at school and university levels in

Sudan have meant that candidates for English language teaching jobs today are themselves

not competent in the language. Gumaa Siddiek reports that 90% of the trainee teachers

participating in his course in the College of Education in Khartoum stated that they ended up

doing an education course because their grades in the Sudan School Certificate were too low

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to qualify them for any other faculty in the university. With such a de-motivated approach

and low level of academic performance among teacher trainees before they even entered the

classroom, it is unlikely that such candidates will motivate students.

Mohammed (2009) expressed deep concern about the state of teacher training in Sudan.

Having summarized the major contribution made by teacher training institutes in the past, he

goes on to identify the many difficulties facing the training of teachers today. He is

extremely critical of programs for training teachers in the colleges of education and pointed

out that they had no particular vision or mission, lacked administrative organization and

consisted of staff who themselves were unqualified to train teachers. He cites statistics

which show no college of education has sufficient staff or adequately trained staff. Colleges

vacillate between preparing trainees, attempting to interact with the community and carrying

out educational research, none of which they are doing effectively. Mohammed also noted

that these colleges delivered a theoretical syllabus and did not provide trainee teachers with

the opportunity to practice what they were studying or get constructive feedback on how

they managed the classroom. In addition, the actual language ability of trainees was low and

most undertook the training only to find employment. Trainees also lack development in

independent learning skills and consequently would not be able to develop these skills

among their learners in the classroom. The picture as presented by Mohammed is quite

bleak.

6.2 Students

The general consensus among all concerned is that the standard of English has dropped

drastically among students and that they are not able to cope with studying at the university

through the medium of Arabic. Baffoka (2006) referred to the significant decrease in the

standard, and attributes this to the teaching and learning situation practices, class sizes and

the classroom environment, all of which are major contributing factors to the poor

performance of individual students.

6.3 Textbook

As indicated in my preceding discussion of the situation in 1980s, several elements

conspired to lower the standard of English language but the major blame was placed on the

NILE course. Consequently, a new home-grown course was designed and developed The

Sudan Practical Integrated National English Series (SPINE) which has been the main

textbook for almost two decades. The developers of the course were all Sudanese though

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there appears to have been some minor input from Longman Group and British Council for

the later books. According to the introduction to Book 1, the course was prepared with the

specific goal of developing communicative competence at both basic and secondary levels.

The designers of the course point out that language learning should be fun with learner

centered activities and meaningful situations, all of which are highly laudable descriptions

and objectives. However, I am afraid I have to point out once more that it takes more than a

course book to make learning fun and learner centered and once more I would argue that

educational planners were convinced that if they produced a course that was rooted in

Sudanese life with some element of communicative competence included that the job was

done.

While the focus of the early books particularly Book 1 is on introducing everyday

vocabulary and kinesthetic activities, material in the later books i.e. 5 and 6 focus primarily

on reading texts, vocabulary items and grammar with some writing instructions. Content of

the reading texts is culturally appropriate with a concentration on topics and themes related

to the lives of Sudanese. In this respect, it incorporates understanding of the importance of

schema theory and activating students existing knowledge of subject matter. Topics include development issues, urban and rural lifestyles, income generating projects, Sudanese

hospitality, womens issues, technology, expressing opinions through reading letters to an editor about everyday problems and so on though I think the ideological thrust could have

been downplayed a little. While the content of the reading material would undoubtedly

strike a chord with students, the lexical items are extremely challenging and technical and

there is little in the way of pre-reading vocabulary to prepare students for what occurs in the

text. Vocabulary items: income generating activities, self-help programmes, community participation, indigenous social practices, indigenous service exchange system are all complex noun phrases that take quite a bit of unpacking to get to the meaning (Book 5,

chapter 1). The presentation of topics does not seem to have been graded with the students

in mind as Book 6 reading texts are far more accessible than those in Book 5 and contain

topics more appropriately related to student life such as education and transport; even the

text on Women and Participation in Book 6 Chapter 5 is written with the student more in

mind than most of the texts in Book 5. Both books are listed as having been developed by

the same writing team with the addition of one author to Book 6 so the gradation of

materials should have been a manageable undertaking in the development of the course

books. Reading activities and development of reading sub skills focus on skimming quickly

through the text for the main idea and scanning for specific information to answer

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comprehension questions. There is little development of inferencing and drawing

conclusions that would take students reading ability to a higher level and develop the skill of unpacking a text for ideological content and other hidden meanings.

The writing component covers important aspects of the writing process with information

about paragraph writing, brainstorming for ideas for compositions, developing cohesion in

texts with connectors and putting sentences in the correct order. There is also a range of text

types such as descriptive, narrative and argumentative writing. In addition, some of the

academic type tasks that students would have to deal with at university are included such as

writing from notes, writing a summary and understanding the difference between formal and

informal writing. The main issue I would have with the writing in the course books is the

lack of focus on writing process. Though activities include brainstorming, joining sentences,

ordering sentences, using linking words, all occur in an inconsistent and haphazard manner

as though meeting the requirements of a check list to be ticked rather than addressing the

needs of students and consideration of how these elements fit into the overall process. The

teaching of summary writing is addressed but never fully developed. In addition, writing

rhetoric as developed in a range of text types is ungraded and it would make more sense to

introduce narrative and descriptive writing before expository and argumentative writing.

The skills of listening and speaking are seriously neglected. The omission of listening

activities may stem from the issue of availability of resources such as a player and CDs

while speaking could be seen as very time consuming and difficult to manage in a large

class. Opportunity for speaking practice is present in brainstorming activities and discussion

of some topics with partners or in group work but there is no consistent development of the

skill of speaking for everyday and workplace situations.

In my view, the material is top heavy on language items so I would classify the course

overall as an attempt to teach students about the language rather than the meaningful use of

language in communicative situations. Vocabulary development is also addressed in the

same transmission of information manner, as the focus is much more on word form than

function within a text. Many aspects of vocabulary development including word building of

adjectives from verbs, compound nouns, noun formation from verbs, phrasal verbs, prefixes,

suffixes are touched on and are overtly tested in the SSC. In addition, a whole range of

grammar items are included from verb tenses to passive, modals, relative pronouns, question

formation, and indirect questions. This is not done in a systematic manner but as part of a

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process that involves ticking the boxes of done or covered. In terms of developing language,

it might be more productive if clearly focused language issues were developed such as the

difference between the present simple and present progressive/ continuous, the many uses of

the present perfect from a functional perspective and the issues that arise for native Arabic

speakers when using these forms in English.

6.3 Examination

An analysis of the final examination of the SSC of 2009 shows that there are four main areas

tested: reading, language, summary and composition. In total the examination is 100 marks

with 30 marks for reading, 35 for language, 17 for summary and 18 for composition. It is

difficult to figure out exactly how and for what the marks are allocated in the test. The

reading component consists of a text of approximately 170 words with five comprehension

questions requiring short answers, the first of which necessitates the test taker making

connections between the information given and that required. Questions 2 4 are literal and require little more than a quick glance at the text to find the answer. Question 5 is

problematic as at the literal level, the answer is one hour but in reality this is not clear from

the information given. The text topic reflects the approach in SPINE of developing reading

around issues that reflect the lives of the students. This is good but the questions need to

challenge the test takers. The 10 comprehension questions require little exploration of the

text with the exception of the last question which requires global understanding. It is not

clear how the 30 marks allocated for these 15 questions are distributed.

Section 2 of the examination is summary writing. Gumaa Siddiek describes the passage

given in the examination as too short and I would concur with this. He also points out that

the summary passage does not challenge students or prepare them for the more difficult

tasks of listening and making notes in lectures, radio or TV discussions or from longer texts

in books. The passage is 96 words in length and I wonder if a student wrote the passage discusses the advantages and disadvantages of scooters over bicycles (11 words) would this be considered an adequate summary. This in fact captures the main idea of the passage

without providing any details. The task appears to be threefold: the actual summary written

in connected writing and outline in a specified number of words on the advantages and

disadvantages of scooters. How the 17 marks are distributed for this task is not clear.

Section 3 is the language part of the paper and contains four sections: A, B, C and D. In A,

word form is being tested both in terms of how use in sentence affects form and how

21

meaning affects form in part II of A. Part 1 could certainly benefit from more

contextualization as there is little in these short sentences to help students comprehend

meaning in context. The second part appears to be testing how a prefix changes meaning in

numbers 1, 2 and 4. There is a problem in 2 as disagree does not collocate with quite while

agree does. Therefore a well-informed student might leave 2 as is and probably lose marks.

Numbers 1 and 4 are fine and the other signals in the sentences help the students to

contextualize and understand the intended meaning. Number 3 is not actually a prefix as the

meaning of come and overcome are quite different. Similarly in 5, fore could hardly be considered a prefix for head but rather another word. Section B is a gap-fill but does not

follow suggested guidelines about where gaps should be and the amount of information

required between each gap. The task is not difficult but it is not clear what is being tested

here. Section C explores students understanding of verb forms but each example given requires more contextualization to help students fully understand the time of the event. The

first sentence illustrates the lack of contextualization. In fact, student choice could be is falling, may fall, or has just fallen. No 2 checks the co-occurrence of two past tense verbs and should be familiar to students. Q. 3 tests subject and verb agreement of the verb to be; Q. 4 looks at a two verb phrase and asks students for the appropriate part of the second verb.

The use of past perfect is not that common but perhaps this has been taught in class and

therefore is a reasonable test item. Q. 5 has two possible answers is building or will build but only one answer may be acceptable. Section D tests a range of items from comparatives,

to passives, phrasal verbs, conditions and ability to express reason. Again the test items lack

context. Question 4, composition writing, asks students to write 120 180 words while the prompt provides 65 words that can be used in the answer. In fact, by joining the given words

into complete sentences, a text of about 124 words results. Therefore what is really being

tested is students ability to write correct sentences. For this section, eighteen marks are allocated bringing the total to 100.

In conclusion on the exam front, most items lack any kind of contextualization; the writing

is not challenging and neither are most of the reading questions. The language items tested

appear to be drawn from a lengthy list of items that were used in the development of the

course book and there appears to be little or no rationale behind the choice of items. Bashir

(2006) concluded, English language assessment in Sudan is more judgmental than

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developmental; summative rather than formative. Learners do not perceive any value in such

an assessment. (50)

7.0 Conclusions and recommendations

Overall, a lot of time, thought and effort went into the development of these materials and it

is sad that students have not benefited more. Before a huge costly revision is undertaken,

attention should be paid to a number of factors:

o The concerns of the stakeholders must be taken into consideration in any changes

in how English language is presented, developed and taught in the schools. It is

important to remember today that English is a global language and does not have

to come laden with a lot of cultural baggage. English is needed as the language of

science, technology, medicine and academic life. Should language change

tomorrow to Chinese, we will all have to learn Chinese! The stakeholders in the

current situation are:

o the students many of whose future employment prospects depend on a good

working knowledge of English (Nur, 2006). Knowledge of English can now be

classed as a basic skill requirement in the 21st century (Graddol, 2006). The

countrys future depends on having highly qualified personnel in the fields of business, engineering, medicine, agriculture and technology. Whether we like it

or not, English is still the medium in all of these areas.

o the teachers whose livelihood, reputations and future depend on being able to

deliver what is expected of them. Attitudes towards the selection of teachers

have to be revised so that only those who are capable of evolving into competent

teachers should be selected. This means that the job of English Language

Teaching must be made attractive to high achievers before entering university.

Technology and the use of modern aids should be an essential part of teacher

training and delivery of a course.

o curriculum planners and developers whose professional personae depend on

producing material that meets the needs of both students and teachers. Any

curriculum development should be done keeping the needs of students,

contextual constraints and teacher ability in mind. Attention should be given to a

methodology that will help teachers deliver and students benefit from the

material.

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o education planners who are making decisions that will affect the three previous

groups. These people need to develop regulations and systems as pointed out by

Mohammed that will ensure effective delivery of courses. Mohammed also

pointed out that attention has to be paid to the environment in which teacher

training takes place and some attempt made to make the teaching/ learning space

more conducive to success.

o government which is providing the money, effort and time for the above

endeavours. Effective and competent personnel, fluent in both Arabic and

English are vital in the workplace.

o private businesses in finance, management, education, engineering (Nur, 2006).

They all need well educated employees who will be able to keep abreast of recent

developments in their chosen field of expertise.

8.0 Guidelines for the revision and delivery of a new syllabus:

o Any course material must be contextualized in situations that are familiar to the

learners. The developers of the current SPINE have worked very hard at

incorporating the world of Sudan into the materials and some of these are well

directed. However, material needs to be pitched always at what the students are

capable of and not be delivered because of some ulterior political, social or

cultural goals.

o A meaningful and purposeful activity should be provided so that learners use the

language in a way that makes sense to them and is relevant to their daily lives.

Individual presentations and group discussions can contribute towards oral

fluency.

o Materials must be interactive. Language use is all about exchange and interaction

and transmission of information is one part of this. However, transmission of

endless pages of information about the language does not qualify as interaction.

Tasks must be presented where students have an opportunity to interact with each

other in everyday situations and though this may seem extremely challenging in a

large class environment it is fundamental to the successful delivery of any

language. The situations should provide students with a task where

communicating with the other is essential and for which there should be some

meaningful objective.

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o Students need to be taught strategies and skills that can be used over and over

again in different situations. Attention should be paid to the question of transfer

of skills from the L1 Arabic. Research should be conducted to find out whether

or not students have reading skill and strategy abilities that could be transferred

to English reading. Similarly in writing texts, attention should be paid to whether

or not students are acquiring understanding of writing as process in the L1 and

the possibility of transfer of skills.

o A practical assessment should be conducted of what is actually possible within

the context of basic and secondary school curricula and a course developed that

fits into this framework. The aim should not be to cover everything there is to

know about English grammar. The focus should be much more on providing

students with a good foundation in the language so that they can carry on

developing their skills with confidence and ability.

o Attempts should be made to deliver a course that is attractive and appealing and

that is skill based.

o The training of teachers to meet the demands of the classroom is vital. This

training while incorporating theoretical knowledge should be weighted heavily

towards classroom practice. At the same time any teacher training course should

include opportunities for language remediation for the participants.

o revision of final examination is once more an issue that has to be addressed.

9.0 Conclusion

Unless all of the foregoing are addressed without vested interests, the standard in English

language will continue to decline.

References

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Longman Ltd.

Corbluth, J. (1976) A Report on the Factors Responsible for the Decline of English with

Suggestions and Recommendations for Action. Report to H.E. Ministry of

Education, Khartoum.

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Friere, P. (1972) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Harmondsworth: Pelican.

Kourago, P. (1987) Curriculum Renewal and INSET in difficult circumstances, ELT,

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Munby, J. (1978). Communicative Syllabus Design. Cambridge: CUP.

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