Zambia Grade 12 School Syllabus - English Literature

This information is based on the 2013 Zambian Literature in English syllabus for Grades 10-12.

General Outcomes for Grades 10-12:

  • Demonstrate deep understanding and appreciation of Zambian and foreign cultures.
  • Demonstrate understanding of literary concepts.

Competencies for Grades 10-12:

  • Show understanding of literary concepts.
  • Apply literary concepts in both spoken and written works.

Grade 10

  • Introduction to Literature: Definitions of literature by various scholars; functions of literature (educate, entertain, rebuke, encourage); types of literature (oral and written).
  • Oral Literature: Forms of oral literature (folktales, songs, proverbs, riddles, praises, narratives); types of songs (hymns, political songs, funeral songs, love songs, thematic songs); interpretation and use of proverbs in context; recognition and interpretation of idioms and riddles; recitation and composition of praises; discussion of types of narratives.
  • Written Literature: Forms of written literature (prose, drama, poetry); types of prose (stories, essays, articles, plays, biographies, novels, poems); types of biographies (autobiography, biography); types of literary genres (comedy, tragedy, satire); distinction between fact and fiction.
  • The Story: Elements of setting (time, place); features of plot (introduction, exposition, conflict/complications, climax, resolution/denouement); types of characters (major/main and minor, protagonist and antagonist, round and flat, dynamic and static); identification and description of characters in stories; comparison and contrast of characters in short stories; identification and explanation of themes in texts; distinction between themes and titles.
  • Drama: Elements of drama (plot, characterization, dialogue, staging, theme, symbolism, irony); dramatization of specific events or episodes of recognized plays.
  • Poetry: Elements of poetry (voice, speaker, tone, diction, imagery, symbolism, allegory, syntax, sound, rhyme, alliteration, assonance, rhythm, meter, structure); figures of speech in poems (simile, metaphor, irony, hyperbole, personification, onomatopoeia); recitation and composition of poems.

Grades 11 and 12

  • Text Study (Novel): Understanding of preliminaries (bibliography, synopsis); discussion of setting, author's intention, and chapters in relation to themes; silent reading with understanding; dramatization and discussion of episodes; summarization of episodes and chapters; identification and description of characters and their roles; discussion of language used in the text (figures of speech, irony, symbolism); answering a variety of questions (factual, inference, short answers, essays); demonstration of understanding through retelling; production of various written works based on the text (poem, dialogue, biography, article).
  • Text Study (Play): Understanding of preliminaries (bibliography, synopsis); discussion of setting and author's intention; reading aloud and discussion of sections; dramatization and discussion of episodes; summarization of episodes and chapters; discussion of characters and themes; analysis of language used (diction, mood, symbolism, parts of speech, satire); answering a variety of questions (factual, inference, short answers, essays); retelling the story; review of the play (author, title, themes, conclusion); production of various written works based on the text (poem, narrative, report, biography, article).

Glossary of Literary Terms:

A comprehensive glossary of literary terms is included in the syllabus, covering terms such as aesthetic, allegory, alliteration, allusion, ambiguity, analogy, anti-climax, character, comedy, connotation, crisis, denotation, dialogue, didactic, drama, empathy, episode, euphemism, flashback, flaw, hero, heroine, humor, hyperbole, imagery, irony, literature, legend, lyric, metaphor, metre, miniature, monologue, mood, moral, myth, narrative, nostalgia, opera, pandemonium, pantomime, paradox, parallelism, partiality, personification, plot, premonition, proverb, poetic justice, rhyme scheme, sarcasm, satire, sensibility, sentimentality, setting, simile, soliloquy, structure, style, suspense, suspension of disbelief, symbol, symbolism, syntax, tautology, theme, tone, tragedy, vices, villain, and virtues.

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