The Sunday News
THERE are interesting aspects about the new curriculum. Issues which were taken for granted are emphasised. When some teachers went over the various parts of speech like nouns, giving the different types showing their formations and other facets, they were said to be drilling learners.
Drilling means listening to a model provided by the teacher, or a tape, or another learner and repeating what is heard. I would say this was a repetition drill, a technique that was used by many teachers when introducing some language items to the learners. Going through vocabulary this way many times in a single lesson will be boring for learners and they will be less inclined to perform well. The way I see it, the activities given in the new curriculum encourage functional approaches to teaching and learning.
I think teachers are using the latter method and to suggest otherwise is to despise them. Teachers take their time planning how to present their lessons effectively for the benefit of learners, then at the end of the day ignorant individuals talk of drilling learners as wrong. When asked to support their assertions they fail as they have no evidence.
Learners are more involved in the learning activities. For example, when teaching registers, the key objective is that learners should be able to use registers appropriate to different situations. This is achieved through having learners conversing in the appropriate register in situations like giving advice, accepting advice or expressing gratitude. Interesting activities involving a large number of learners can be created along these lines.
Learners should be able to use appropriate language structures for descriptions. This can be achieved by describing processes, people and scenes within their environment and applying appropriate language structures in descriptions. Many learners will agree that they are uncomfortable when asked to write descriptions. The stumbling block is limited vocabulary to use.
Restricted language makes learners struggle and write unco-ordinated sentences.
This problem could be overcome by being knowledgeable in parts of speech. Learners should be able to use adjectives, adverbs, adverbial phrases and clauses, metaphors and similes. As alluded to earlier learners should understand and describe processes, people, scenes and events. Descriptive language makes written pieces interesting. Experts state that writers use descriptive techniques so that the reader gets a really clear image in their head of what the writer is describing.
Descriptive language includes imagery, for example, metaphors, similes, personification, irony and others. Good descriptions are based on the writer’s five senses (what they can see, smell, hear, touch or taste). Another sign of descriptive language is when the writer uses lots of adjectives — describing words like “temperamental” or “ large” that give a specific impression of something. In addition, it is said, the way the piece of writing is structured can also help to develop description.
Lots of simple, short sentences create a fast-paced exciting description. Learners need to understand terms used. For example, I said descriptive language includes imagery and went on to list examples of imagery. Imagery has quite a number of definitions, including the following: to use figurative language to represent objects, actions and ideas in such a way that it appeals to our physical senses or the formation of mental images, figures, or likenesses of things or of such images collectively.
In simpler terms imagery could also be described as that picture you get at the back of your mind when reading a literary work. We talk of imagery when discussing literary texts and the following description of imagery comes in handy: Imagery — visually descriptive or figurative language especially in a literary work. Metaphors and similes are both types of imagery. They are comparisons.
Metaphors and similes describe one thing by comparing it to something else. Writers use them to create a picture in the reader’s mind. Metaphors describe something by saying that it is something else. For example, he is a lion. Here I am comparing two unlike things in which one thing becomes another without the use of the word like, as, than, or resembles.
Similes are easily identified because of their connectives (like, as, than, resembles).
Examples of similes: as ageless as the sun, as blunt as a hammer or back of a knife, as boisterous as stormy sea winds etc.
Personification is a special kind of metaphor in which human qualities are given to something that is not human — an animal, an object, or even an idea. Sometimes personification simply involves giving life and feelings to things that are inanimate, or lifeless. Examples, when we say, tooth is angry, a computer is friendly, or the most common one, love is blind, we are using a kind of personification.
Personification in simple terms is describing a thing as if it is a person or sometimes an animal — in the way it looks, moves, sounds or some other aspect of it. Personification makes descriptions seem to come to life. It can also help to give a sense of how the writer feels about something. Understanding such terms leads to better answers resulting in higher grades.
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