Teaching the Lower Secondary Syllabus: What Matters Most?

Abstract

The teacher of Form One pupils in the lower secondary school — at least the average school — is usually faced with a dilemma: on the one hand, a lengthy syllabus of grammatical items which need to be taught or retaught; and classes of pupils (whether streamed or unstreamed) who may have been taught the primary school English syllabus but who certainly haven’t learnt much of it: indeed many of them are still virtual beginners in English.