Zambia Grade 11 School Syllabus - English

This syllabus builds upon the Junior Secondary School English Language Syllabus and covers five key areas: Listening and Speaking, Reading, Composition, Summary, and Structure. It aims to develop learners' ability to communicate effectively in various contexts, preparing them for tertiary education and the world of work. Six periods per week are allocated to English Language, with weekly homework recommended. The syllabus suggests using both the Communicative Approach and the Text-based, Integrated Approach. Entrepreneurial projects are also encouraged to provide practical application of language skills.

Grade 11

Listening and Speaking

• Giving and receiving factual information when giving directions and instructions.
• Expressing and understanding emotional attitudes in different situations (e.g., funerals, exam results).
• Expressing and understanding intellectual attitudes when making agreements and disagreements.
• Getting things done (e.g., seeking clarification, advising, warning, giving instructions).
• Using socially acceptable language in different situations (greetings, invitations, initiating conversations).
• Imparting and seeking factual information in verbal reports and oral messages.
• Expressing and understanding intellectual attitudes when making inquiries.
• Expressing and understanding emotional attitudes when addressing people of different classes, age groups, and sexes.
• Interpreting, expressing, and understanding moral attitudes when expressing beliefs and opinions without causing offense.
• Stating alternatives and priorities.
• Using socially appropriate language in different situations (interrupting discussions, accepting offers).

Reading and Comprehension

• Efficient Reading: Reading passages with understanding and recalling details, skimming for main points, scanning for specific information, answering factual and inference questions, retelling stories or passages, deducing meanings of unfamiliar words and idiomatic expressions, drawing inferences from texts, and describing characters' feelings, qualities, and motives.
• Intensive Reading: Locating details and answering factual questions, showing understanding of underlying meaning, and describing characters' feelings, qualities, and motives.
• Extensive Reading: Reading unabridged books, newspapers, magazines, and journals critically and making discriminating judgments, practicing reading for purpose (e.g., newscasting).

Composition

• Descriptive Writing: Writing advanced descriptive compositions on various topics (e.g., machines, processes, ceremonies).
• Narrative Writing: Writing advanced narrative compositions, using first-person or third-person narration.
• Essay Writing: Writing advanced essays on topics from other subjects.
• Article Writing: Writing newspaper and magazine articles, including letters to the editor.
• Book Reports: Writing comprehensive book reports.
• Minute Writing: Writing minutes of meetings.
• Speech Writing: Writing speeches, including votes of thanks.

Summary

• Verbal Summaries: Reporting messages by summarizing main points and giving speeches.
• Tabulation Skills: Tabulating information from texts into graphic representations (e.g., tables, charts, graphs).
• Prose Summaries: Summarizing given texts.

Structure

• Relative Clauses: Using relative pronouns (who, whom, which, that) correctly.
• Conditional Sentences: Using likely/probable, unlikely/improbable, and impossible conditional sentences; using variations of conditional sentences (unless, even if); and recognizing inverted forms.
• Direct and Reported Speech: Using direct speech and changing direct speech into reported speech.
• Verbs and Expressions Followed by -ing: Using the correct verb + -ing construction.
• Verbs Followed by Object + Infinitive: Using the correct verb + object + infinitive construction.
• Verbs Followed by the Infinitive: Using the correct verb + infinitive construction and the "verb + how to" construction.
• Intensifiers (Adverbs of Degree): Using adverbs of degree correctly (e.g., very, much, too, fairly, rather, quite, hardly, barely, scarcely, almost, nearly, just).
• Phrasal Verbs: Using phrasal verbs correctly, including those formed with adverb particles before or after the object and those formed by verb + preposition + adverb.