BTP: PRODUCING LOCAL TEACHING MATERIALS

Twenty years of teaching learners using mostly foreign pedagogic support materials are enough for us to think of producing our own. We believe we have the know-how and the wherewithal to do it. There are certainly many reasons for this choice.

Our institution deserves to cut for itself an image that corresponds to the pride of place accorded it by its partners and be seen to do its own things. In designing and producing its own materials adapted to our local realities, we would be using local colour as a great source of learner motivation. It would reflect the learners’ own experiences, and take into consideration their learning patterns and attitudes and solve difficulties of availability and inadequacy of some of the existing materials.

The Yaoundé Pilot Centre was set to work and came up with a DVD containing still pictures of buildings: mud houses; bamboo made, grass and thatched huts etc., some of these finished and some unfinished. Cameroonian clothes also featured the kaba, the gandoura, the boubou, wrappers etc. Food like ndole, corn fufu, achu and yellow soup, eru among others were included. A collection of fruits from the Mfoundi market, landscapes showing villages, towns, a beach in Cameroon, Mount Fako etc., different places to see all featured. In teaching vocabulary, these pictures are used initially to involve learners in speaking about things they know and then they are now introduced to new vocabulary in the same register. A whole variety of other activities could be carried out with this support.

A second DVD was also produced. This time conversations on situations where language was being used functionally as in asking for and giving directions, making enquiries etc., were written and acted out for filming by staff. This in the classroom served to capture learners’ interest and generate enthusiasm in discussions led by the teacher. Such material proved to be versatile and greatly enriching to both Cameroonian and foreign learners who thus had a solid base from which to contribute to the activities in the classroom.

This experience led to real production of video support materials by staff of the Bilingual Training Programme at the Ebolowa 2006 seminar. Participants determined teaching objectives and with the above points in mind proceeded to write out scenarii, rehearsed and filmed scenes for video lessons at various levels. The experience made us aware, not only of how Herculean the task was, but positively, the great talent (that we had hitherto taken for granted) in the human resources of the Programme. Some of the materials produced are currently being trialled in our classrooms with great success.

Strengthened by this and the radio experience (teaching English and French by Radio over CRTV) plus chequered individual exploits in contributing to writing books for language teaching by some staff of the Programme, we decided to go all out to produce most didactic materials for our use: audiovisual material, textbooks and supplementary materials.

There are implications for the Programme for such a gargantuan project to succeed. There is need for specialist know-how in production of audiovisual materials, editing and publishing books. A large team will have to be constituted, a lot of time set aside for work, questions have to be answered on the need to streamline or not roles of our teachers and special incentives for those concerned. Most of all, the coordination and supervision of such an endeavour must be ensured. Needless to say that big investments like these require huge financial sacrifices.

Undaunted, we have taken the first steps in the production of audiovisual materials. A team is being constituted and a coordinator will be appointed to manage this large team whose members will come from all the Centres of the country. The materials we produce will certainly follow international norms thus they will conform to the Common European framework’s stipulation of competences for the learners at the various levels. This is to permit them integrate both the national and international scenes.

The Programme will certainly be living up to the expectations of the state that assigned it this mission and the staff will be fulfilling themselves and deserving their reputation in this country, sub region and the world. Above all, the trainees will benefit from experiences that are closer to theirs, and would hopefully achieve better, faster and more, in their quest for the mastery of the English or/and French languages.