Teaching and assessing reading to meet the requirements of the COSC English examination in selected Lesotho high schools.
Date
2012-03-09
Authors
Mosothoane, Matumane
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Abstract
The comprehension of English plays a significant role in Lesotho’s education system, as it determines students’ access into tertiary studies. Teachers of English therefore have an important role to play in developing students’ English reading comprehension skills. The COSC examinations provide a formal assessment of reading comprehension in English. This study investigates how Lesotho English teachers teach and assess reading comprehension to meet the requirements of the COSC English examination in six selected Lesotho high schools. Data was collected through interviews and the reading comprehension tasks that the six teachers devised for COSC students. They also drew marking memoranda for the tasks. Five selected COSC English past question papers were also analysed against the tasks devised by teachers. The results indicated that all the six teachers did not teach effective reading strategies to students. Although they asked questions of high instruction in the tasks, the data collected also reflected that teachers did not teach students to read as text users nor text analysts. This also was the case with the five selected COSC past question papers that were analysed. Both the COSC questions and the teachers asked questions that tested readers’ roles as text participants. Recommendations in this study are that another research be made on teaching English as a subject which will encompass other elements of English teaching which were not within the scope of this research report.
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Keywords
Reading, English examination, Lesotho