LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 14:1 January 2014
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIAL

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2012
M. S. Thirumalai
Custom Search

An Examination of the Approaches Adopted by English
Language Teachers in Teaching Composition Writing in
Cape Coast Basic Schools, Ghana

Gertrude Afiba Torto, M.Phil., B.Ed. (Hons.)

Abstract

The Chief Examiner’s report for the Basic Education Certificate Examination English language paper has over the years reported on candidates poor demonstration of the mechanics of writing such as; grammatical errors, wrong tenses, wrongly spelt words and many other errors, which sadly leads to the poor performance of the English language paper by candidates.

This study examines the approaches that English Language teachers in Cape Coast use when teaching composition writing to their upper primary pupils. Seventy-five teachers were selected out of the 213 upper primary teachers in the Metropolis. The instruments used for the data collection were questionnaire, interviews and observation guide. All the 75 teachers answered the questionnaire. The composition writing classes of these 75 teachers were also observed. Twenty-five teachers were selected out of these 75 teachers to be interviewed, based on their teaching of composition writing.

The study revealed that the sample used does not know about the current approaches to the teaching of composition writing. The teachers used the techniques which are similar to that of the product approach in teaching their pupils. The study also revealed that in the teaching and learning of writing situations involving these teachers, the role pupils played was passive. The teachers played the active role doing most of the talking. The writing difficulties that teachers encountered in their teaching of composition writing were the lack of vocabulary on the part of the pupils which lead to the pupils’ inability to express themselves to compose a creative text.

This study recommends that teachers, who teach composition writing, should spend more time on the teaching of the subject, involve pupils in the writing composition lesson and also use a combination of the approaches in helping their pupils to write better compositions.

Introduction

Ghana is English as a second language (ESL) country. Ghana uses English in pedagogy throughout the curriculum. The reason for the use of English is that as a member of the Commonwealth, Ghana has adopted the English language as her medium of instruction in schools. In Ghanaian basic schools, English is both a subject and a medium of instruction.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Gertrude Afiba Torto, M.Phil, B.Ed. (Hons.)
Department of Basic Education
University of Cape Coast
Ghana
afibatorto@yahoo.com
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.