State of English Language in Ghana not impressive-Educationist

Nana Ebo Koomson, President of Western Region Ghana Association of Teachers of English (GATE) has expressed concern about the falling standard of English Language in the country.

He has therefore asked the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service and teachers of the language, to adopt measures to arrest the situation.

Nana Koomson, who doubles as the Head of Languages Department, Sekondi Methodist Senior High school, made this known in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Sekondi, as part of the Silver Jubilee anniversary celebrations of the academic facility.

Touching on the causes of the low standard of the English Language, he said most students were not utilising libraries to do extensive reading, and cited the modern craze of watching video and using electronic gadgets like mobile phones, thus worsening the situation.

Nana Koomson noted that, bad pronunciation of words was a major problem confronting students.

The case is even worsened at the primary school level where a teacher handles all subjects and cannot make ample time to train children in the right pronunciation.

Nana Koomson added that, spelling mistakes was also the bane of the poor standard of the language.

He said ineffective punctuation, capitalisation of letters; was also a factor which led to the state of English language in Ghana.

On the way forward, Nana Koomson said teachers in Secondary Schools must get tapes on pronunciation drills right from the first year.

He said much attention should also be paid to oral English at the basic school level, as well as the organisation of in-service training for teachers.**