English as a Second Language Bridging Course: Implementation Dilemma

Cathrine Ngwaru 
(Department of Teacher Development, Great Zimbabwe University, Zimbabwe)

Abstract: This study uses a qualitative design employing document analysis, personal narrative accounts and active participant observation to investigate the challenges in academic writing and speaking encountered by forty two prospective undergraduate Namibian students undertaking the English as a second language (ESL) bridging course at Great Zimbabwe University. The study, which is a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) based on the researcher’s personal experience in teaching this unique group of students, aims to gain an insight into the type of errors students make in written assignments and the difficulties they have in classroom participation. The study further wishes to; establish how these challenges negatively impact on students’ ability to communicate effectively during learning and to find possible ways of alleviating them. The study is based on Cummings’ (1981) views about academic proficiency and Halliday’s (1972) idea of communicative competence. The results revealed that; due to historical, political and pedagogical reasons; Namibian students face a lot of challenges in academic language both writing and speaking which subsequently impact negatively on their learning. There is a significant gap between their performance and the academic standards expected of them by the University due to limited proficiency levels in ESL. The study concluded that; there is an urgent need to provide these students with a wider range of academic and linguistic support measures in the ESL bridging course than is currently offered and, the one semester they are given to do the bridging course is not enough to improve their communicative competence to make them ready to embark on the B.Ed. programme.

Key words: academic proficiency, academic standards, bridging programme, prospective undergraduate students, support measures