AY 2007-2008 Projects - Africa

Country                       Malawi
City                              Domasi
Host Institution           Domasi College of Educ./U of Malawi Chancellor College

Project Description
The EL Fellow will be hosted by Domasi College of Education (DCE) and University of Malawi Chancellor College (Chanco). The EL Fellow will be based at Domasi College of Education and also commute to Chancellor College, 15 minutes from Domasi. Domasi College of Education is the most practice-focused teacher training college in Malawi; it has a full demonstration primary school on campus for student teachers to get first hand experience in methodology and practice. Domasi College is also ideal for hosting a Fellow since it trains teachers on a year-round basis. The EL Fellow will work with teacher trainers in demonstration classrooms to practice TESOL theories. The EL Fellow’s responsibilities at Chancellor College would be two-fold and include capacity building and teaching with occasional curriculum review sessions. The EL Fellow will work closely with the Head of the Language and Communication Department (LAC) and also the Head of the English Department. The EL Fellow’s primary focus with LAC will be on participating in the department’s curriculum reviews, and training some of the lecturers within the department since most of the staff is comprised of junior lecturers due to high turnover. The English department expressed interest in Theoretical Linguistics in terms of classroom instruction. The EL Fellow will be expected to: work with faculty and administration at Domasi College to develop a curriculum for teaching English as a foreign language in primary and secondary schools; work with teacher trainers in demonstration classrooms to practice TESOL theories; teach TESOL classes to primary and secondary educators studying at Domasi; assist the Language and Communications Department at Chancellor College to perform a curriculum review and conduct occasional workshops with teaching staff in the Language and Education departments (capacity building).

Project Objectives
While English is the official language of Malawi, English literacy currently stands at roughly 10%. Only 20% of the population can speak and comprehend English at a secondary level. Lack of English language skills is a major impediment to Malawians seeking educational and professional advancement. This is due in part to poor instruction, and a lack of adequate training of instructors in teaching English to Malawians as a second language. The EL Fellow program at Domasi College of Education will support the goal of strengthening democratic institutions buy improving the quality of teacher training and English writing in Malawi. The demonstration classrooms will allow the EL Fellow to demonstrate various styles of teaching (interactive teaching methods) since Malawi’s education system is more exam based. Both Chanco and DCE have teacher training programs and place English language teaching high on their priority lists; therefore it will not be very challenging to incorporate an EL Fellow into their programs. The Language and Communication Skills Department at Chancellor College was established in 1994 in an effort to combat what was at that time regarded as serious English language expression problems amongst students of Chancellor College. The department is therefore mandated to service all faculties of the college through the provision of compulsory English language courses to all students from first to fourth year. Theoretically these courses are grounded within the academic discipline of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and are currently being offered to first year students only due to staffing shortage. The department is facing under-staffing and inadequate training challenges; hence the urgent need to train the current staff in English writing. The department also has plans of introducing new courses in the areas of human communication studies and media literacy. The EL Fellow will be beneficial to the department in terms of conducting media literacy workshops and also writer’s workshops and short courses for the rest of the University. The ideal EL Fellow will be one that has a strong background in media/ communication studies, willing to teach English language courses, participate in curriculum development for both English language, human communication studies, media literacy studies and media literacy short courses. 

About the Host Institution
Domasi College of Education (DCE) is a Government institution which was established by the Ministry of Education in 1993. The College became operational in 1994, with 32 professional staff members and 72 administrative and support staff members. In 1999 the College had 36 professional staff members and 64 administrative and support staff. The College was established for the purpose of alleviating the shortage of teachers in secondary schools in Malawi. DCE offers diploma courses in three Faculties (Education, Sciences, and Humanities). The mission of Domasi College of Education is to respond to the needs of the Malawi nation in providing quality teacher education so as to provide diploma teachers with knowledge and skills and sound ethical principles. Between 1994 and 1999 the College has graduated close to 900 teachers. Malawi needs about 1,000 secondary school teachers every year in order to achieve a pupil-teacher ratio of 35:1 in all schools by 2012. The conventional teacher education program is not adequate and indeed appropriate to fill the teacher gap. This is the reason why the College has taken the initiative to apply distance learning delivery modalities to the training of teachers. The College has collaborated with the Commonwealth of Learning and is currently developing modules for this purpose.