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Findings and Suggestions
Suggestions for Experts
5.4 Suggestions for Experts
(a) Syllabus Makers
The course in writing may be prescribed in the form of broad guidelines and kept flexible. By specifying the topics in the syllabus, the freedom of the teachers as well as the learners is curtailed. The schools boards further restrict both the learners and the teachers by making a list of topics like, the postman or the visit to a zoo, which are repeated year after year. Since these topics are based on the coursebook lessons, and since the learners are aware of what they are required to write, the whole activity becomes very mechanical, more often more reproduction of the coursebook material. Both the learners and the teachers need freedom to choose topics, which are interesting to them.
(b) Examiners and paper setters
In the examinations, again, similar topics are included and learners are expected are expected to write a paragraph based on the outlines provided by the examiner. These tasks do not require the learners to use language for purposes of communicating their thoughts and feelings. These composition topics and other manipulative exercise often used in examinations do not give any indication of the level of achievement of the learners’ language proficiency. It is desirable to replace these by tests which give an indication of the learners’ competence in the language and which have practical utilitarian value.
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