Method of the Course

METHOD OF THE COURSE

1. Methodology and Structure of the Course.

Contrary to a normal class, the self-paced instructional program in Swahili places the entire responsibility \ on the learner. The latter will be assisted by the coordinator (in devising the syllabus) and the drills instructor (to conduct drills and do some assignment correction) as the language resource person. As an example, here is a model suggested by the program at Princeton University. In our program, although the pace of the program rests essentially with the student, weekly activities (conceived as for 3 credit hour course) could be structured as follows:

three fifty-minute sessions to be devoted to self-instruction by the student of the subject-matter (grammatical points or reading of a text) mostly in the language lab

three sixty-minute sessions devoted to assigned homework and Mazoezi.

two forty-five minute drills sessions with an instructor. Each drill session will have two parts: correction of homework and drill exercises.

2. The Program

Once the self-instructional program and responsibilities of each of the participants have been defined, the program will run as follows:

Meeting with the tutor and learner(s) to establish term goals: material to be covered, skills to develop (mainly oral skills). When these points have been agreed upon, they are written up as a "contract".

Every week, the learner writes up a lesson plan detailing the breakdown of the activities.

Meetings with the drill instructor are twice a week. Assignments can quickly be shown to the instructor for correction.

E. Evaluation

There will be three kinds of testing to evaluate the student's progress and assignment the final grade. The first kind of tests will be administered on a periodic basis on the material covered. The second kind will be two summative tests, one in the middle of the semester and another towards the end of the semester, to measure language proficiency developed by the learner. The third category is the final exam that may be administered by an outside evaluator. The learner is strongly encourged to some form of self-assessment.