Spanish as a foreign language in Guyana: An analysis of participants' views on the curriculum and the factors influencing these views
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Date
1985
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Abstract
This study examined the objectives of the Form 5 Spanish programme that prepared students in Guyana for either the Basic or General Proficiency version of the Caribbean Examination Council's (CXC) Secondary School Certificate examinations. The emphases assigned to specific objectives by teachers and students were compared with the emphases they would have preferred to assign to the same objectives. Data were collected from samples of teachers and students in 24 schools, using questionnaires and an interview schedule. It was found that, at both levels, for teachers as well as students, their emphasis on grammatical competence objectives far outweighed the emphasis on sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic competence objectives. Subjects' responses also indicated a large gap between the emphasis actually assigned to the specified objectives compared to the emphasis they would have preferred to assign. However, their responses suggested that they would have preferred to place more emphasis on all of the objectives. There was no indication that they would have liked to see a major redistribution of the existing emphasis on the four dimensions of communicative competence. Teachers' responses indicated that the important influences were relatively few in number, and included the available resources, teachers' own experience, the external examination, and their students' knowledge and abilities