Abstract
The current Kenyan secondary English curriculum (2002) has adopted an integrated approach not only to teaching, but also to the assessment of English language and Literature. This re-organisation is meant to improve the standards of teaching and performance in English. However, national performance in integrated English has remained consistently below average, contrary to expectations. This paper is based on a research that was conducted in Nairobi North sub-county, Nairobi County, Kenya on The Promise of Integrated English: Teachers' and Head teachers' Reactions and Reflections. The study mainly used a qualitative approach and employed questionnaires, interview and observation schedules to collect data from 101 teachers of integrated English and 20 head teachers. Further, the heads of English at Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development, Directorate of Quality Assurance and Standards and Kenya National Examinations Council were interviewed. Raw data collected from questionnaires, interview and observation schedules were organized into significant patterns so as to easily interpret and understand the essence of the data. The study revealed that despite the promise of the re-organized English curriculum, teachers were teaching the integrated English curriculum without proper understanding of the methodology involved. Consequently, they faced difficulties and resorted to teaching English language and Literature as two separate subjects. The study concluded that there has been no effective implementation of integrated English curriculum in Nairobi North sub-county as was/is intended by the curriculum developers. The study recommends proper and continuing professional support to the teachers of integrated English curriculum in the form of in-service training for the promise to hold.
Highlights
The current secondary English curriculum (2002), in its re-organized form, has adopted an integrated approach to teaching, and to the assessment of English language and Literature (Kenya Institute of Education - KIE) [1]).This re-organization is meant to improve the standards of teaching and performance in English (Ministry of Education - MoE) [2]; KIE [1])
Teachers’ reactions towards secondary integrated English curriculum were sought through the use of a questionnaire structured into five areas: Level of difficulty of integrated English curriculum, teachers’ attitudes towards secondary integrated English curriculum, need to integrate English language and Literature, integrated English curriculum and learners’ needs and objectives of secondary integrated curriculum
The fact that 44.6 % of the teachers (45 teachers) and 80 % of the head teachers (16 head teachers) said that integrated English was difficult to implement, it means that a substantial number of teachers faced difficulties when implementing integrated English curriculum. This could be the reason as to why in 80 % of the lessons that were observed (64 classroom lesson observations), the concerned teachers taught English language and Literature as separate entities. They did not exploit the complementary relationship between the two subjects to teach the integrated English curriculum
Summary
The current secondary English curriculum (2002), in its re-organized form, has adopted an integrated approach to teaching, and to the assessment of English language and Literature (Kenya Institute of Education - KIE) [1]).This re-organization is meant to improve the standards of teaching and performance in English (Ministry of Education - MoE) [2]; KIE [1]) At this point, it is important to note that performance in integrated English has been consistently below average, contrary to expectations, at both the national and provincial levels since 1989 when the first 8-4-4 examinations were conducted. The teacher should, endeavour to understand the integrated approach
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