Zambia Grade 8-9 English Syllabus

This syllabus outlines the curriculum for English Language in Zambian Junior Secondary Schools for Grades 8 and 9. It is based on the principles of Outcome Based Education, aiming to equip learners with practical language skills applicable to real-life situations. The syllabus is divided into five key areas: Listening and Speaking, Reading, Composition, Structure, and Summary.

I. Listening and Speaking

This section emphasizes developing effective communication skills in various social contexts, both within and outside of school. Learners are expected to use appropriate vocabulary and grammar, understand stress and rhythm patterns, and correctly pronounce English sounds. Specific skills include socializing, asking for explanations or permission, apologizing, giving directions, making offers, and handling situations in different environments like hospitals, police stations, post offices, and public transport stations.

II. Reading

This section focuses on developing both intensive and extensive reading skills. Intensive reading involves critical analysis of texts, deducing meaning, answering factual and inferential questions, and summarizing information. Extensive reading encourages learners to explore a variety of materials for enjoyment and to improve reading speed and comprehension. Reference skills, such as using dictionaries, encyclopedias, and periodicals, are also emphasized.

III. Composition

This section covers various writing styles, including narratives, descriptions, letters (formal and informal), reports, and articles. Learners are expected to develop clear and coherent writing, using correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Emphasis is placed on logical sequencing of events, descriptive language, and appropriate language registers for different audiences. In Grade 9, the syllabus expands to include unguided compositions, CV writing, filling in forms, and essay writing on current issues.

IV. Structure

This section covers grammatical concepts such as tenses, parts of speech, and sentence structure. Learners study the present simple, present continuous, past simple, past continuous, future, present perfect, and present perfect continuous tenses. They also learn about possessive nouns, countable and uncountable nouns, irregular nouns, determiners, intensifiers, coordinators, subject-verb agreement, comparisons, and expressing reason, purpose, result, contrast, and condition. Grade 9 expands on this with reflexive pronouns, adverbs of degree, phrasal verbs, relative clauses, question tags, and direct and indirect speech.

V. Summary

This section focuses on developing summarizing skills, including identifying key information, composing titles, and writing concise summaries of sentences, paragraphs, and longer prose passages. Learners also practice tabulation skills, organizing information into tables, charts, and graphs. Grade 9 extends this to writing short messages using abbreviations, composing advertisements, and constructing frameworks for presenting information.