IALE tasks govt on language teachers without teaching qualifications
• Participants at the event
The International Association of Language Educators (IALE) has advised government to ensure language teachers without teaching qualifications to embark on further studies in education to improve on their content and pedagogical knowledge and quality.
The call is contained in a communiqué at the end of IALE 3rd biennial National Conference and capacity building for language teachers, with the theme: “Blindspots in Language and Literature Education” held at the University of Ibadan,
The event attracted keynote speaker, Prof. Peter Barasa, Vice Chancellor, Allupe University, Kenya, lead paper presenter, Prof. S.A. Amusegham and several members of the association.
The conference recommended that language teachers must attend conferences, workshops and seminars periodically to hone their content exposure and teaching skills to improve on their classroom experiences and for effective classroom practices.
The body tasked government to implement bilingual/multilingual medium of instruction policy in order to create more inclusive learning environment linguistically given the multicultural nature of our classrooms today.
The association urged teachers of language to explore the benefits in the use of Internets and other emerging technologies in teaching their areas of specialisations.
It also called on literature teachers to organise reading clubs and embrace other reading programmes to complement classroom teaching.
IALE urged teachers of language to pay attention to factors such as teacher-student interaction, pedagogical practices, motivation, demographic variables and cultural sensitivity in order to promote positive and inclusive language learning classrooms.
In a development, the association called on WAEC and NECO to either examine the oral aspect of English Language appropriately or rename their Paper 3 of the English Language examination “Alternative to Test of Orals.
The conference also recommended that teaching of French Language should be given more attention in order to give wider international opportunities to students