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Language education policy in post-colonial Africa 195 rather, from upper primary school onwards of the programmes of extensive reading that were a prominent feature of secondary school syllabuses in East Africa in the 1960s and Malaysia in the 1970s, and which have since been successfully implemented in English medium Hong Kong secondary schools (Hill 1992: 2). Properly implemented (Hill 1992), these can significantly increase exposure to the target language with beneficial effects, the evidence suggests (Day and Bamford 1998; Hill 1992; Krashen 1993), on reading fluency, vocabulary learning and overall proficiency in the second language. Thus far, unfortunately, there appears to be few widely accessible accounts, or evaluations, of such schemes in African education systems, an exception being Cunningham (1990), who reports on the problems and successes of an extensive reading programme in Zanzibar. Attention, too, could usefully be given to redesigning the English language subject curriculum in such a way as to systematically prepare pupils for the forthcoming switch to English medium. Desiderata here would include (1) an increased emphasis on reading and listening skill development prior to the switch; (2) the use of instruction material with content reflecting the future necessity of study reading in such subjects as geography, science and mathematics; and (3) a vocabulary development component aimed at equipping pupils with the type and size of vocabulary necessary for studying through an L2 medium (see Clegg 1995: 16), a further justification, incidentally, for an extensive reading programme. 7.3.1.4 Learning materials: quantity and readability Moving on now to issues of materials, classroom pedagogy and teacher education, we turn first to the crucial matter of L2 learning materials, starting with the simple question of quantity and availability. One of the more robust findings of studies conducted by the World Bank and other agencies (e.g. Fuller 1987, Fuller and Heyneman 1989, Heyneman et al. 1983) into factors associated with school quality is that in situations where there is a shortage of textbooks, as is the case in many African schools, an increase in their quantity, improving the ratio of pupils per textbook, is one of the most effective single inputs towards raising levels of pupil achievement. No medium can be effective without textbooks, and it is plainly important, then, that the basic resources are made available. Quantity, however, will not suffice if the textbooks are not used properly and if they are not readable. The latter point is a particular matter of concern in view of accumulating evidence (see e.g. Chimombo 1989) that many of the books currently in use are linguistically unsuitable because they take little account of the fact that readers are learning through an L2 medium. Peacock (1995: 394), for example, refers to research from a range of countries showing that ‘the demands of science texts are often above the level and capacities of the primary school children they are intended for’. He also cites MacDonald’s (1990) South African study, which exposed a substantial gap between the language used in science texts and that taught in the English language syllabus up to that same stage both in terms of vocabulary (‘from 38 per cent to 55 per cent of the vocabulary used was not taught in the (English)
196 Language Planning and Education schemes’) and previously untaught logical connectives (Peacock 1995: 393). Clearly, then, there is ample scope for research into the readability of the textbooks used across the curriculum in L2 medium situations, the aim of which would be to generate guidelines for textbook authors and publishers. Such research would need to take account not just of vocabulary and syntax, the usual inputs to traditional readability formulas, but also other factors impinging on comprehensibility: discourse, lay-out, visual support, use of metaphor and analogy, and rate of information unloading, not forgetting important non-textual factors that play a role, specifically the manner in which teachers mediate L2 medium texts (see Martin 1999). 7.3.1.5 Classroom pedagogy and teacher education This last point leads us directly to the crucial area of effective pedagogy in a second language, which, in turn, connects with questions of teacher education. As regards pedagogy, Clegg (1995: 17) urges teachers to carry out routine analyses of the linguistic demands of the material they are about to teach so that they consider ways of modifying their input communicatively to maximise comprehensibility and devise appropriate presentation strategies. These are sensible suggestions, clearly, but of doubtful feasibility in situations where teachers are poorly paid and sometimes poorly motivated, where they lack confidence in their English proficiency and where pedagogical training for the particular demands of L2 medium instruction may be rudimentary. One of the more reliable routes to improved classroom pedagogy, then, may lie in revised and improved teacher education, and it is here that the ideas just mentioned may best find expression, for they draw attention to the fact that in an L2 medium system all teachers, whatever their subject, are condemned to be language teachers with a responsibility to attend to their own as well as pupils’ use of the various languages in their repertoires. The implication is clear: components on bilingual education, second language learning theory, L2 language improvement and language awareness could profitably feature on the training curriculum of teachers of, say, biology or geography as well as on that of language arts teachers, particularly at secondary level (see Benson 2004: 215 for further suggestions on teacher training in developing countries). The latter, meanwhile, could benefit from curricular components imparting knowledge of principles of bilingual education and modelling second language teaching methods, with both supplemented by study visits to effective schools. 7.3.2 Concluding remarks Many of the measures proposed above are not new, and many may well turn out not to be feasible. But this is testimony in itself to the need for further research and experimentation, and at least the preceding discussion may contribute to the elaboration of a fresh research agenda focusing on practice as well as policy. Such an agenda is needed, for much current education is inefficient, wasteful and inimical to
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