Zimbabwe Form 3 Shona Syllabus

This information is derived from the Zimbabwean Indigenous Languages Syllabus for Forms 1-4 (2015-2022). While this syllabus covers all indigenous languages, the topics and assessment criteria apply to Shona.

Curriculum Overview:

The syllabus aims to enhance learners' listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills, including non-verbal communication. It emphasizes visual, tactile, and manual skills to accommodate diverse learning needs. The curriculum promotes cultural identity, Unhu/Ubuntu/Vumunhu, and enterprising skills.

Form 3 Specifics:

The Form 3 syllabus builds upon the skills developed in Forms 1 and 2, focusing on the following areas:

• Composition: Students refine their skills in various composition types (narrative, descriptive, factual, letters, reports), focusing on structure, creative writing, and orthographic accuracy. Emphasis is placed on appropriate style and register.
• Language Usage and Registers: Students explore figurative expressions (proverbs, idioms, metaphors), homophones, synonyms, antonyms, counting, relations, ancient and modern communication methods, directions, announcements, and appropriate registers for various contexts.
• Comprehension and Summary: Students practice comprehension skills with diverse texts, including stories, news articles, songs, poems, folktales, reports, graphs, pictures, maps, puzzles, and cartoons. They develop summarizing skills and learn to infer meaning from words and phrases.
• Language Structure: Students deepen their understanding of parts of speech and their construction, including nouns, pronouns, qualificatives, verbs, adverbs, copulatives, and conjunctives.

Assessment:

Continuous assessment (30%) includes practical assignments, theory tests, and creative projects. Summative assessment (70%) consists of two papers:

• Paper 1 (40%): Composition, Comprehension, and Summary.
• Paper 2 (30%): Language Usage, Registers, and Language Structure.

Cross-Cutting Themes:

The following cross-cutting themes are integrated throughout the Shona curriculum:

• Heritage studies
• Gender
• Health issues, HIV and AIDS
• Disaster Risk Management
• Children's rights and responsibilities
• Respect for human rights
• Environmental issues
• Enterprise
• Financial literacy
• Cross-cultural issues
• Conflict management
• Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

This syllabus promotes a communicative approach to learning Shona, encouraging active participation and real-world application of language skills.