English Language Proficiency Facilitator's Guide

The guide aims to equip teachers with skills for using English effectively in their classes, enabling learners to acquire skills, knowledge, and concepts through English correctly. The development of the guide involved a participatory process with inputs from language and literacy specialists, curriculum specialists, and project officers from the Malawi Institute of Education, as well as practising teachers from various primary schools in Balaka and Machinga districts. The guide is designed to improve the English proficiency of teachers, particularly in upper primary classes where English is the medium of instruction. The importance of improving teachers' proficiency in English is highlighted, as it enables them to deliver lessons efficiently and competently. The guide is part of the ASPIRE initiative, which aims to bridge the gap between early and upper grades in reading achievement by empowering teachers through skills-based Continuing Professional Development (CPD) activities. The guide consists of five units, each focusing on a specific aspect of English language proficiency. Unit 1, "At the health testing and counselling centre," introduces participants to vocabulary and concepts used for talking about health issues. Participants will listen to a conversation and respond to it, and also write a speech. The unit emphasizes the importance of listening and speaking skills in language acquisition and development, and provides opportunities for participants to practice these skills through dialogues, debates, and interviews. In Unit 1, participants will focus on the use of dialogues to enhance oral language development. They will listen to a dialogue between a counsellor and a client, Dalitso, who wants to have an HIV test. The dialogue covers various aspects of HIV testing, including the process, the results, and the importance of continued protection against contracting HIV. Participants will take notes on the key events in the dialogue and compare and contrast their experiences with what they heard. The guide is designed to be used by teachers who use English as a medium of instruction in upper primary classes. It is intended to support teachers who are struggling to use English effectively in their classes, and to provide them with the skills and confidence to deliver lessons efficiently and competently. The guide is part of a broader initiative to improve the quality of education in Malawi, particularly in the primary school sub-sector, where learners have been registering low scores in national and international learner achievement studies.