A Comparative Study On Strategies Of Second Language Teaching In Primary Schools In Tanzania And Kenya

Since independence,second language has become an indispensable part of Tanzanian and Kenyan education.Despite all the efforts and language policy statements to develop and popularize second language among primary school pupils,the outcome could not reach the expectations of the authorities.Second Language teaching strategies is considered critical to the ability to help learners to acquire skills of a target language.This particular study intended to investigate the strategies that second language teachers employ in teaching primary school students,using the ’Natural Approach theory’,which was guided by four objectives.To identify the strategies employed by primary school teachers for teaching second language in Tanzania,to explore the strategies employed by primary schoolteacher for teaching second language in Kenya,to discover the effectiveness of strategies employed by primary school teachers for teaching second language in Tanzania and Kenya and to compare the second language teaching strategies employed by primary school teachers in Tanzania and Kenya.This study was conducted in Loorng’oswani,Engonongoi and Acronis primary schools in Tanzania and Kotela,Luchanga and Kerio primary schools in Kenya.The data of this qualitative study were collected through structured interview;face-to-face interview were conducted to 48 primary school teachers 24 from Tanzania and 24 from Kenya.We conducted this study in three primary schools from each country where random selection of8 teachers who teach second language from each school were carried out.Focus group discussion was conducted,where a group which include researcher and 8 teachers from each school was created to discuss about the teaching strategies.The observations of second language classes in primary schools were conducted.A researcher used 20 to 30 minutes in Kiswahili and English classes and observes the teaching of these languages during the session.All these methods were used during the collection of data that used in this study.The finding of this research shows that,many of the mentioned strategies used by Tanzanian teachers are similar with the one mentioned by their Kenyan counterparts.They all mentioned strategies like code-switching,the use of songs,communication strategy,cooperative technique,use of games,jigsaw strategy language comparative technique,and repetition.There were few strategies mentioned appeared to be difference in which pair work strategy,use of different activities,and problem solving were mentioned by Tanzanian teachers while semantic features analysis,teaching fluency and comprehension,prioritizing and setting goals,contextual embedded vocabulary were mentioned by Kenyan teachers only.This study also identifies that the strategies that were used by second language teachers of these two countries found to be ineffective.The underlying reasons could be teachers’ poor knowledge on how students acquire second language,lack of teaching materials,overcrowded classrooms and unmotivated students on second language learning.This particular study concluded that due to different challenges,none of these two countries have succeeded on strategy use in second language teaching.