Exploring the Methods and Challenges of Teaching International Languages under the Competence-Based Curriculum: A Case of English and French Languages in Uganda

Abstract

Uganda, as part of the global village, adopted the teaching of international languages like English, French, German, Arabic, and Chinese to facilitate international relationships and communication (NCDC, 2019). Despite the potential benefits of teaching international languages (Atuhuura & Nambi, 2023), teachers in Uganda are reported to be struggling with the selection and utilisation of appropriate approaches to the facilitation of learning foreign languages to nurture appropriate competencies expected from a 21st-century citizen. This paper comes out of a project whose aims were to train secondary school teachers in innovative teaching of French and English as international languages. The objectives of this paper were to find out how secondary school teachers are teaching international languages and to describe the challenges teachers face when teaching international languages. This study used qualitative approaches to find out how international languages are taught and the challenges that teachers of international languages face. Data was collected using questionnaires and interviews. Our major findings were that the most common approaches used to teach international languages were: Communicative Approach, Task-Based Approach, and the use of ICT. Their major challenges were resource constraints, poor attitudes of stakeholders, and a lack of sufficient ICT. The study concluded that teachers do not fully understand the approaches they are using, which also contributes to the major challenges that they are facing in teaching international languages. Therefore, we recommend more continuous development workshops for teachers who have already been trained in how to teach international languages under the Competency-Based Curriculum