English Language Teaching in Tunisia

The Outline

I. Setting:II. The status of English in Tunisia:III. ELT policy in Tunisia:1- Program planning:a) Needs analysis:b) Syllabus Design: 2-Program implementation:c) Design of teaching materials:d) Teacher training:3-Evaluation: IV. Innovation in ELT in Tunisia:V. The current approach to English language teaching in Tunisia:VI .Criticism:  

Setting

The linguistic situation in Tunisia:

1-Tunisians use Non-Standard Tunisian Arabic for every day communication. They learn the Modern Standard Arabic at the age of six in primary school.

2-French is considered as the second language of the country. It’s included in the basic school curriculum starting from the third grade which means at the age of 9.

• French is the medium of instruction in most high schools and universities, and the language of administration along with Modern Standard Arabic.

• There are some, However, calling for Arabicisation , i.e. to make the Standard Arabic language as the official language of administration and education.

• English is considered as a third language in Tunisia. It is taught in basic and secondary schools as part of the curriculum.

The status of English in the Tunisian educational system

• There has been a growing demand for English in Tunisia.• The Tunisian government had clear directives to enhance English language

teaching in secondary and tertiary education as well as in vocational training (Daoud, 1999).

• Why?

• The push for English is described as part of a wider policy to tackle the problem of youth unemployment by developing a workforce that will attract investment from Europe and can find work in wealthy gulf countries.

• Exp: Since 1996, English has become a compulsory subject in vocational training as a preparation for the challenges of economic partnership with Europe (Daoud, 1999).

• The consolidation of teaching English in Tunisia has been done through a series of measures:

In the early 90s, English started to be considered as the country’s second foreign language and became an obligatory subject in secondary education.

In the mid-90s, a decision was taken to start teaching English in the 8th grade.

In 2000, a decision was taken to teach English starting from the 7th grade.

In the academic year 2003-2004, English clubs were introduced for pupils of the 5th and 6th grades.

In the academic year 2004-2005, English has been introduced as an obligatory subject in the 6th grade.

• Hence, teaching English spans 8 years: from the 6th grade of

basic education to the 4th grade of secondary education.

• Hours devoted to language teaching

• 1-Basic education:

From 1st to 6th grade

From 7th to 9th grade

All basic education

French 924 392 1316

English 56 168 224

• 2-Secondary education:

Art section Other sections

French 448 392

English 392 364

3rd foreign language 168 168

• 3-From first year basic education to fourth year secondary education:

Language Teaching(Direction Générale des programmes et de la Formation Continue)

French Between 1708 and 1764

English Between 588 and 616

3rd foreign language 168

ELT policy in Tunisia

• 1-Program planning:• The Direction des programmes is the agency responsible for

program planning.

• A syllabus design team is appointed by this agency.

• It usually includes English inspectors with one university consultant. Their job is producing a needs analysis and designing the syllabus.

Needs analysis:• The syllabus design team discusses the learners’ needs and determines

them in terms of what they are supposed to already know and what their future academic needs would be.

• There is no use of testing and surveys in the current system even though they would enhance the quality of the needs analysis.

Syllabus design:• The outcome of the team’s work is a written syllabus which is eventually

published in the Journal Officiel de la République Tunisienne as the Programme Officiel d’Anglais (Daoud et al.1995, 1996).

• 2-Program implementation: Design of teaching materials:• Teaching materials include textbooks, teachers’ manuals and

answer keys.

• The Direction des Programmes is the agency responsible for producing teaching materials.

• It nominates a team of authors, usually a group of inspectors with one or two teachers, to produce a textbook for the students and a teacher guide.

Teacher training:• The agency that looks after teacher training is the Direction de la

Formation Continue.

• Teachers receive both pre- and in-service training under the supervision of inspectors and des conseillers pédagogiques.

• Teachers receive two years in-service training, one-day workshops and one-week summer training course.

• Pre- and in-service training have been enhanced by the work of the ESP resource centers in Tunis and Sfax (Daoud,); they organize seminars, conferences and intensive teaching training courses sponsored mainly by the British Council and also by the American Center.

3-Evaluation:• The only aspects of the ELT curriculum evaluated are

teaching materials and teacher performance (Daoud, 1999).

• Teaching materials are evaluated by a third party; a university teacher and/or an inspector of English without classroom observation or any sort of feedback from teachers and learners (Daoud, 1999).

• Teacher performance is evaluated by inspectors of English through classroom observation.

Innovation in ELT in Tunisia

• Since 1992, the Ministry of Education has been continuously conducting internal and external evaluations of its ELT policy.

• The results showed students’ limited skills of expression in Arabic and foreign languages, in speaking and writing.

• • To address these weaknesses, a policy of educational system

reform has been adopted since 1992.

• This reform has redefined the methods and purposes of language teaching.

• The English Reform Project:• The ministry of education and the British Council have signed an

agreement in January 2009 to develop The English Reform Project; a reform program for English teaching and learning in state primary and secondary schools.

MET and the British Council signinga memorandum of understanding.

• Three highly qualified consultants came to Tunisia from the UK for two weeks on October 2007 to undertake a scoping mission. They were joined by a MET representative and the British council’s regional English Manager, Fiona Pape.

• They visited schools, teacher training institutions, spoke to teachers, inspectors and MET officials and looked at curricula and materials.

• The recommendations made in the report have led to the instigation of the English Reform Project, a long term project aimed at systematic reform of ELT in Tunisia.

• “The project will introduce existing teachers to communicative teaching methods. The EFL curriculum will be completely overhauled with new course books and materials, and new systems of exams and testing will be introduced based on the Common European Framework for languages.”

The current approach to English language teaching in Tunisia

(According to the current official programs of English).

The status of English as a subject matter:• “Both as a means of communication and a subject of study, English

will be a means to collect information, process data and use communication technology.”

Principles, assumptions and methodology:• “The learner is at the core of the learning process. S/he is seen as an

intelligent human being who comes to class with an attitude toward the language and toward learning.”

• “Language is seen as a means of communication (interactional, transactional, and functional) rather than a set of decontextualized grammatical structures, word lists and isolated language skills.”

• “The teaching learning process should foster learner independence to enable the learner to use English effectively both in spoken and written forms so that he/she may continue learning by himself/herself, beyond the program.”

What follows from these considerations is that:• “The learner becomes an active user of English in the contexts

and activities proposed in each lesson rather than a passive recipient of input provided by the teacher.”

• “The teacher acts as a professional, creative manager of classroom activities and of student learning.”

Assessment:• “…It is both formative and summative, process and product

oriented.” That is it encompasses “not only outcomes but also processes, progress achieved and efficiency of the procedures followed”.

Criticism

• The weaknesses of Tunisian ELT include:• Limited involvement of ELT professionals (applied linguists,

language teachers, subject-specialist teachers.etc) and learners in the various stages of the process.

• Limiting evaluation to teaching materials and teacher performance.

• How much are the new principles of language teaching included in the latest syllabi reflected in the textbooks and followed by teachers in actual teaching?

References

• Jabeur, Mohamed, et al. English In North Africa. Tunisia: Tunisian Society for Anglo-Saxon Studies,1999.

• Hermessi,T.,2003. Motivation, Classroom Participation And Achievement in the Tunisian EFL context, Ph.D thesis. Institut Supérieur des Langues de Tunis.

• Daoud, Mohamed. “The management of innovation in ELT in Tunisia". The ESP Resource Center, IBLV, Tunis.

• De Lotbinière, Max. “Tunisia Turns to a new language partner”. Guardian Weekly, 6th February.2009.Retrieved October 27,2012,from

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/feb/06/tunisia-teflAlabbasi, Mamoon.”Tunisia launches English Language Teaching Reform

Project”. Middle East Online, 15th January 2009. Retrieved October 29,2012, from

http://middle-east-online.com/english/?id=29798