(POSTS GRADUATE WEEKEND PROGRAM)

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 1. Introduction

According to Harmer (2007), English was already well on its way to becoming a
genuine lingua franca, which is a language used widely for communication
between people who do not share the same first (or even second) language. As
we know, English is a foreign language in Ethiopia. English is taught in formal
education institutions as one of the mandatory subjects in the education
system.

Both grade 6 and grade 12 English texts are designed for Ethiopian students
who learn English as a foreign language. The contents of the book are arranged
in themes and topics, which are contexts to present the language contents to
be imparted. That means a week's lesson is under a topic and three
consecutive weeks lessons The text book follows new approaches in language
content, organization of the contents, classroom methodology, teachers’ and
students’ roles, and techniques of assessment despite poor literary evaluation
methods.

First, the writer of this paper selected the old text book volume 1 for grade 6,
which was published in 2017. Three animal fables and one poem are presented
in the text. The book has five chapters. Though the language contents of the
book include word study, reading comprehension, vocabulary, listening
comprehension, speaking skills, grammar, reading fluency, and writing skills,
the concern of this paper is to evaluate literary text preparations based on
language parameters.

The second part of this study aims to evaluate the literary aspects presented
for Grade 12. The text generally consists of 12 chapters with vast informative
texts and some literary pieces or extracts, which are under the evaluation
agenda of this paper. In the text book, four novels, four poems, and one story
are selected to be evaluated, but detailed explanations will be given on limited
texts due to time constraints because they have similar contents.

2. Discussion

2.1 Evaluation of Grade 12 English text book.

Before we come to evaluate the text based on literary criteria, it is important to

look at the main points of literary texts presented in the Grade English text
book.
1. An African Child by Camara Laye 1953

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 Genre: Biographical novel
Message: The main concept of the poem is how blacks are bullied and
discriminated against around the world. This poem is the answer to all the
white's bullying based on ethnicity. The poem is written to encourage a positive
image
2. The narrow path by Francis Serolmey
Genre: Story
Theme: "The Narrow Path" is the coming of age story of a young Ghanaian boy
during 1920's colonial rule. Selormey, via the main character Kofi, takes us on
an educational and cultural journey as Kofu tries to navigate through
childhood and adolescence under the rigid cultural and religious guidance of
his father.
3. No longer at ease 1960 By Achebe
Genre: story
No Longer At Ease is set at the brink of Nigeria's independence, some sixty-
plus years later. This second novel vividly demonstrates the moral destruction
colonialism wreaked on Igbo society and culture.
4. Devil on the cross by Ngugi wa.....1980
Type: political novel
Theme: One of the cornerstones of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's fame, Devil on the
Cross is a powerful fictional critique of capitalism. It tells the tragic story of
Wariinga, a young woman who moves from a rural Kenyan town to the capital,
Nairobi, only to be exploited by her boss and later by a corrupt businessman.
5. Western Civilization by Aughostinho
Genre: poem
Theme: The poem is about the nature of Western civilization brought to Africa
which ironically turns out to be injustice, torture, exploitation and creation of
poverty to Africans. The labourer in the poem lives a poor life working hard for
the colonialists and finally dies of hunge. It is Ironical poem. It’s about
exploitation, injustice, torture etc.
6. A taxi driver on his death 1974 by Timothy Wangusha
Genre: poem
Theme: The poem speaker further explained that he wasn't risking his life
because of the passengers (he didn't even know them), or for proprietor's gain,
or for self-love. Concealing my blood under the metal". The poem has the
themes of anticipation, insinuation, judgment and guilt.
7. Vultures by Achebe 1971
Genre: poem
Theme: Vultures symbolize death and decomposition. The poet tells us that
these symbols of death and evil, who eat the decaying corpses, can have a

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loving side. This image of love contrasts with their evil nature. bashed-in head
– another image of violence that creates a terrifying/ugly picture of them.
Genre: Poem
8. Money order by Senegalese writer Sembene Ousmane 1968
Genre: fiction
Theme: The portrait of how a small sum of money, arrived in a poor country,
gets to corrupt and upset people, radically transforming everything that
touches.
9. Building The Nation by Henry Barlow 1973
Genre: poem
Theme: The poem deal with diverse themes like political opportunism and
sycophancy, war, the paradox of God and the richness and beauty of nature.
Any text that the teacher selects should have at least some potential interest
for the students. This is, of course, difficult to judge, as a new selection of
individuals appears before teachers each semester with different life histories,
ideas, and preferences. Seeking to address this when putting together a
literature or language textbook, the textbook authors endeavored to choose
texts that we thought would have a certain universal appeal and a common
humanity. We implied from the concepts that the literary works created for
grade 12 students are far from them, as the evaluation criteria are designed to
test vocabulary and general reading comprehension.

Considering social, political, and cultural expectations, most of the literary

texts presented in grade 12 are far from the cultural background of the
students. The poems mentioned above, Building the Nation, and Vulture, may
be related to the culture of our students.

For students with literary backgrounds, some of the texts are familiar to them
as they learned some extracts from the same novel in their previous grade
levels. For instance, The African Child by Camara Laye is also presented in
grade 10 so that students have background knowledge about the novel. They
can understand the text, but not with a sense of literary interpretation. The
students can understand through a bird's-eye view and are keen to know the
meaning of words since the text is aimed at grading or scoring better marks.

Unfortunately most of the literary texts from grade 12b text book are not
available at book shops but soft copies of them are available online. No more
resources to allocate activities from the texts coz accessibility of internet is not
reliable for all learners of grade 12 students throughout the country.

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Except evaluating techniques of literary texts, students’ level of maturity and
emotion is not too far from grade 12 students.

2.2. Evaluating grade 6 English text book

What sparks the writers of this paper is that fables are purposely designed in
unit five of grade 6 English old text book. There are three animal fables in unit
six of old text book part one.
According to our ancient sources, the fable's use of animals primarily serves
to underscore the fictionality and lightness of the stories. The risibility of the
humanized animal allows the fable to make its point without boring or
insulting an addressee. In addition to the animal fables, there is one poem
about food entitled, ‘Food for kids,’ written by Anitapoems.com. Children need
art and stories and poems and music as much as they need love and food and
fresh air and play.

2.3 Findings from the text books

 Strong side observed from the texts
A. Because of the artistic way of presenting stories in a short and precise
way, besides dozens of formative passages.
B. The story presented in sixth grade about food is related to the
students’ cultural background.
C. Linguistically, both the grade six and grade 12 text books are good, as
the book aims to provide comprehension and vocabulary questions.
D. The literary texts are all available online.
E. As stories are presented in both texts, it catches the students’
interest.

 Weak sides observed from the text

A. The themes of the two texts are beyond the social, political, and cultural
expectations of the students of Ethiopia, except for two texts. Most of the
text's agenda is about the hardships of colonialism; it also states the
unexpected African dream of democracy. Most of the literary texts tell us
more about neocolonialism. This is beyond the background of Ethiopian
students who were never affected by colonialism.
Our literary works circle the point around bravery, patriotism, and religious
practice, unlike any other African countries.
B. When we see a literary background, the students are not highly connected
with series and integrated literary texts except grade six.

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C. Surprisingly, the literary text presented in both text books is not available in
printed form. They are only available online, but how many students can
access the internet countrywide in Ethiopia? It's really challenging. If the
texts are not readily available, it is impossible to supply pupils with extracts
from them in the class room.
D. Is the level of difficulty of the texts equally understandable for all pupils in
private and government schools, as well as in remote areas of the country as
well as towns? It is doubtful. It doesn’t fit all students equally.
E. Some of the extracts are difficult to understand, even the concepts, because
of linguistic difficulty. All the texts don’t invite students to share their prior
knowledge literary texts.

3. Conclusion and recommendation

It is very important to consider certain issues to select literary works for
students. The story should be well written and age-appropriate language is the
minimum requirement. The language should be also imaginative, rich and
challenging. New and right vocabulary difficulty levels are wonderful when
meanings can be inferred from the context of the story. Observed based on
specific criteria, literary books chosen for grade six and grade twelve pupils for
English courses have their own strong and weak points. Here are some
suggestions from this paper's author.

As an African student, it may be important to learn about other African

countries literary works and concepts, but who will promote our literary works
in the world tongue, English, unless we design literary works based on the level
of the students at schools? Sadly, almost all the texts are not mentioned from
Ethiopia in these evaluated text books. So, we need to work hard to teach
literary works early in school.

When selecting literary works, educators, as the evaluator strongly believes,

should take into consideration the availability of the texts for students
everywhere schools are located to teach their pupils without difficulty.

Evaluation techniques for literary works must go beyond one-time evaluations

like formative texts. We must evaluate literary works in accordance with
elements, themes, and general appreciation so as to help students enjoy
literature well.

The texts must fit our students emotional and maturity levels.

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Literary texts should get along with Ethiopian students social, cultural, and
literary backgrounds.

The author of this essay concludes by advising teachers, students, and other
interested parties to study the whole literary masterpieces included in both the
grade 6 and 12 text books for enjoyment and research and to see alternatives
to design better literary works for our country pupils.

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Reference
Harmer, J. (2007). How to teach English new edition edn. Oxford: Pearson
Education Limited.