Instituto Superior de Ciências de Educação do

Huambo
‘‘ISCED – HUAMBO’’
Departamento de Estudo E Investigação de Línguas
Sector de Inglês
2ª Prova de Metodologia de Formação Para
Professores de Inglês

INSTRUCTIONS AS AN INDISPENSABLE TOOL FOR

SECOND LANGUAGE TEACHING EDUCATION: AN
ESSAY ON THE IMPLICATIONS OF SECOND
LANGUAGE TEACHING EDUCATION FOR ENGLISH
TEACHERS AT EKUNHA HIGH SCHOOL.

Name: Alice Seteco

Number: 4
Course: English

HUAMBO, MARÇO DE 2024

CONTENT PAGE
Introduction...................................................................03
Aims of the work………………….....…………….03/04/05
Structure of the work………………………………….....05
Chapter one………………………………………………..06
Conclusion…………………………………………………07
Recommendations………………….…………………….08
Reference...…………………………………………………09
Appendix I; Teachers’
questionnaire…………...10/11/12
Appendix II: Students’ questionnaire………………
13/14

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 Introduction
There are many factors involved in knowing a language. If
it is difficult to master our own first language, the one we
first learn as children and use on daily basis, than, is only
natural to assume that it might be even more difficult to
learn a foreign language. Learning a foreign or second
language takes time, effort and dedication, reason why is
always better to start learning since childhood.
We live in Angola and Portuguese is our official language
for education, meaning, Portuguese is the only language
of teaching and learning, as a result, is the only
intervening path of instruction. English and French are
compulsory Foreign Languages that every student in
Angola must learn at school, being English the option the
majority of students chooses to learn. Each student as his
own background on learning, not every one of them gets
the same studying opportunities. Even if they are high
school students doing either 10th, 11th, 12th or 13th grade, is
not acceptable for teachers naturally assume that the
entire classroom knows at least the basic about English
and teach thinking they all understand everything he -
teacher says. Teachers must think about the possibility of
not every one of them had English Language as subject
on elementary school and their first contact with the
language is happening at high school. Let us take Ekunha
High School as an example. English Language teachers
there have complained that whenever they instruct their
students, they have to repeat instructions, and sometimes
even translate them. Looking at this case we can wonder,
why so? Are teachers doing a bad job at instructing? Are
students really not understanding teachers’ instructions,
or they say they are not just to sabotage the lesson?
Should either teachers and students be blamed or maybe
both?

Importance the topic

Many questions are raised when talking about Second
Language Teaching Education, even though they
opposite each other, we cannot leave out the topics
teacher training or education and teacher development
when talking about instructions as indispensable tools for

3
Second Language Teaching Education. As affirmed by
Edge (1988) cited in Wallace (1991, p.4), the distinction is
that training or education is something that can be
presented or managed by others; whereas development is
something that can be done only by and for oneself.

Teacher training or education is something that every

teacher regardless of the subject they teach should go
through before teaching, even if you, teacher have
received ``the call´´ to teach, you still need to receive
proper training to do so. Teaching is a profession and as
any other profession, there are certain requirements to be
done before embarking on it, and preparation is one of
them. That preparation is made with the help of others
who have more knowledge and experience in the field of
desire and is necessary. Imagine a person that speaks
English, but has never received pre-service teaching
training of any kind and all of a sudden starts teaching
English to a class filled with students who think that
learning English is irrelevant, so, they decide to sabotage
the lesson? This person may even try this or that to gain
students’ attention, but how effective would her trials be
compared to what a trained teacher would have done?
This can be answered even without being tested and the
predicted result may not be a total failure, yet, the
teaching would still be lacking, as this person knows
nothing about English Language Teaching Methodology,
which is taught at pre-service teacher training. The fact
that it will still lack something in the way he will teach is
the reason why teacher training or education is needed.

Moreover, on the other hand, we have the opposite of

teacher training or education – that is done by others, that
is teacher development. Education is not static, it is in
constant development, thus, teachers must develop their
teaching skills accordingly. They cannot settle with what
they learnt while they were still being trained to teach,
they must instead have a critical spirit and actions to
acknowledge when they are lacking and aim to develop
and improve their teaching skills. If a teacher recognizes
that not every lesson he goes as planned because he
couldn’t achieve his lessons’ goals and pass on
instructions as he should, then it means that he knows

4
 how to do self-criticism, in addition, if he knows how to do
so, then it means that there is space for personal and
professional development, which is what is expected of
every teacher.

Aims of the work

The aims of this work are:
 To uncover the reason why Ekunha High School students
sometimes do not understand their English teachers’
instructions, which makes them repeat instructions and
sometimes even translate them, and provide useful
suggestions to overcome this problem.
 To observe (pre and post-test observations) the dynamic
between teacher-students in classroom during a lesson.
 To compare students’ performance in class of before and
after putting into practice the suggestions made to
teachers after observing their lessons
 To formulate recommendations on how English Language
teachers at Ekunha High School can surpass the
difficulties they are currently facing.

Structure of the work

This paper will be structured in the following way:
Introduction: will provide an introduction talking about
the most important aspects of our work, such as the
importance of study and aims of the work.
Chapter one: this chapter describes the topic of the work
using situation, problem, solution,and evaluation of the
solution.
Conclusion: will summarize the main ideas presented
throughout the work; provide recommendations related to
the work.
Apart from these, this work will include a reference page
that lists literature work mentioned on it. The appendices
will include all necessary relevant data supporting the
study, including two questionnaires, one made for
teachers and the other for students, given to them to know
their respective point of view on the topic under
discussion.

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 CHAPTER ONE:

As previously mentioned, there are many factors involved

into knowing a language, be it our first language, the one
we use on daily basis or a second or foreign language,
hence, is natural for English teachers to encounter
students who struggle to understand instructions, as the
case seen in Ekunha High School. Before a case like this
where teachers have to repeat instructions multiple times
and sometimes even translate them, is expected to raise
some questions
 Why do teachers have constantly repeat instructions?
 Are the lessons not well designed?
 Is this happening because teachers are not doing a good
job at instructing?
 Are those classrooms being well managed, can you say
that learning is taking place there?
 At the end of the day, who is the one to blame, students,
teachers or both?

Those questions cannot be easily answered. Before

making any assumptions, is necessary to have a direct
interaction with both teachers and students. First,
individually, by asking them to answer a questionnaire
with a series of questions, because, as stated by Nunan
(1992: 143), it facilitates the collection of data in field
settings and the information gathered is more amenable
to quantification than data coming from, say, interviews. It
aims to show both teachers and students point of view on
the topic (check appendices II and I) and, second, on
altogether by observing the type of teacher-students
interaction they display in classroom during a lesson. The
observation will be done considering teachers’ lesson
preparation, presentation, communicative language
teaching, teacher-students interaction, students’
participation in the lesson and classroom management.

After applying the questionnaire and observing lessons, it

will be easy to provide answer to those questions based
on data collected from students and teachers answers

6
from the questionnaires and to what was observed in the
lessons.

CONCLUSION
There are many factors involved in Second Language
Education. As our topic says, instructions are
indispensable tools for Second Language Teaching
Education for they play an important role. By instructing,
teacher communicates with students. If Ekunha High
School English Language teachers’ instruction cannot be
understood, then it means that learning is not taking place
inside the classroom. When learning is not taking place, it
means that teachers are failing at doing their job, so
teachers must develop within themselves a self-criticism
spirit to admit when they are wrong and creating space for
personal and professional growth along with an
improvement of their teaching skills.

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 RECOMMENDATIONS
That being said, here are our recommendations for
Ekunha High School English Language teachers who
faced a slump of not being able to pass on to their
students instructions as they would sometimes ask them
(teachers) to repeat instructions and sometimes even
translate it:
a) First, always remember that you are teaching a class with
different students who have different learning needs and
not a single student with different faces. Always make
sure to class
b) When facing a slump in teaching, try to change the
methodology previously used to one that can
c) Make sure to establish your authority as the teacher so
that students will not try chaos and disturb your lessons.
d) Be flexible and understandable with students, but make
sure to draw limits they can never cross to remember that
you are their teacher and they are your students.

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 REFERENCES
- Edge, J. (1988). Training, Education, Development:
Worlds Apart? (Paper given at the Annual Conference of
the British Association for Teaching and Research in
Overseas Education, Moray House Colege, Edinburgh).
- Nunan, D. 1992. Research methods in language learning.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- Wallace, M. J. (1991). Training Foreign Language
Teachers: A Reflective Approach. Cambridge University
Press. (Page 4).

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 APPENDIX ONE TEACHERS QUESTIONNAIRE

Dear teachers, we are conducting a research study on

instructions being an indispensable tool for second
language teaching education. We would like your help as
this a topic that affects both teachers and students, and
knowing more about it would benefit not only our study,
but you as teacher since it will enlight you on the way you
and your students interactions in the classroom. This is an
anonymous questionnaire, so you don’t need to fear being
judge over something you said, so, we ask you to answer
the questions as honestly as possible.

1. What motivated you to teach English?

______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
2. How long have you been teaching English?
______________________________________________
______________________________________________

3. How do you prepare your English lessons?

______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
4. How do you begin and end your English lessons?
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
5. Why do you think that is important to keep on
learning ways of improving teaching skills?
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
6. Do you believe that is important to receive proper
formation to teach English as a foreign language?
(Put across (X))
Yes___
No____

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 7. Who do you think should be blame when
students can’t understand well the lessons?
(Put a cross (X))
a. Students___
b. Teacher____
c. Both____
d. Justify your answer________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
8. What do you think are the most important elements of
a lesson?
______________________________________________
______________________________________________

9. Do you practice your English speaking skills outside

the classroom?
(Put a cross (X))
Yes____
No_____
10. Are you aware of any English teaching methods?
(Put a cross (X))
 Yes ____
 No _____

11. If yes, name it/them say how you found out

about it/them and provide a brief description of
its/their main principles.
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________

12. Put a cross (X) next to the statements you agree with.
1. The teacher should be the only authority in the
classroom ( )
2. Most of the class time should be spent on translating
()
3. Teaching should be a one-way interactional activity:
Teacher-to-Student ( )
4. Written language is superior to the spoken one ( )
5. Teaching should focus on grammar, vocabulary,
reading and writing at the expense of speaking,
listening, and pronunciation ( )
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6. Translation should not be allowed in the English
classroom ( )
7. Self-correction is as a key point in error treatment ( )
8. Students learn a Foreign Language for
communication ( )
9. Purposeful interaction is helpful for language learning
()
10. The contact with meaningful and interesting linguistic
input helps language learning ( )
11. The teacher should be a facilitator ( )
12. Learning activities should have a communicative
purpose ( )
13. Students’ feelings should be taken into consideration
()
14. A well thought-out use of students’ L1 is allowed in
the EFL classroom ( )
15. Errors are an essential part of the learners’ language
development ( )
16. Students’ opinion about the way you teach are not
that important ( )
17. The lesson should always be taught as planned ( )
18. If teachers make noticeable mistakes and students
correct, they should be scolded ( )
19. Teacher-student interaction isn’t that important ( )
20. A lesson should not be adapt for students’ need, it
should instead go as the told by the programme ( ).

13. What do you think you need to improve in your

teaching?
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________

Thank you for your cooperation.

12
 APPENDIX ONE TEACHERS QUESTIONNAIRE

Dear students, we are conducting a research study on

instructions being an indispensable tool for second
language teaching education. We would like your help to
learn more about students’ point of view on this topic that
affects both teachers and students. This is an anonymous
questionnaire, so you don’t need to fear being judge over
something you said, so, we ask you to answer the
questions as honestly as possible.

1. What is your favorite moment during English

lessons?
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
2 From which grade did you start having English as
subject?
______________________________________________
______________________________________________

3 Have you ever learnt English outside school?

(Put a cross (X))
Yes___
No____
4 If yes, do you think the way they teach English at the
place you learnt is easier than way they teach at your
school? Give a brief explanation
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
5 Do you think your teacher is good at giving
instructions? (Put a cross (X))
Yes___
No____
6 Do you wish to change something in the way you are
taught English at school? If so, what would you
change and why?
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________

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 ______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
7 Do you speak English outside the classroom?
(Put a cross (X))
Yes____
No_____

8 Put a cross (X) next to the statements you agree with.

1. The teacher should be the only authority in the
classroom ( )
2. Most of the class time should be spent on translating
()
3. Teaching should be a one-way interactional activity:
Teacher-to-Student ( )
4. Written language is superior to the spoken one ( )
5. Teaching should focus on grammar, vocabulary,
reading and writing at the expense of speaking,
listening, and pronunciation ( )
6. Translation should not be allowed in the English
classroom ( )
7. Self-correction is as a key point in error treatment ( )
8. Students learn a Foreign Language for
communication ( )
9. The teacher should be a facilitator ( )
10. Learning activities should have a communicative
purpose ( )
11. Students’ feelings should be taken into consideration
()
12. Students’ opinion about the way you teach are not
that important ( )
13. The lesson should always be taught as planned ( )
14. If teachers make noticeable mistakes and
students correct, they should be scolded ( )
9 What do you think you need to improve in your
teaching?
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________

Thank you for your cooperation.

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