Zimbabwe Grade 2 Curriculum - English Language

This curriculum covers the learning and teaching of English from Early Childhood Development (ECD) through Grade 2. It emphasizes English as a tool for communication and overall development, incorporating Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) where applicable. The curriculum aims to equip learners with the necessary English skills for other learning areas and lifelong learning, promoting a communicative and functional approach.

Rationale

The English language curriculum focuses on learner-centered, interactive activities to help students understand and apply linguistic concepts in practical situations. As the medium of instruction, English supports learning across the curriculum. Its global significance provides learners with broader communication opportunities. Studying English cultivates skills in problem-solving, critical thinking, decision-making, conflict resolution, leadership, self-management, communication, technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

Learning Areas and Skills

The curriculum emphasizes four core language skills: listening/observing, speaking/signing, reading/signing, and writing/brailling. It also incorporates visual, tactile, and manual skills to accommodate diverse learning needs. The syllabus is designed to be inclusive, with continuous assessment and profiling used to track learner progress and identify areas for improvement.

ECD - Grade 2 Learning Areas

• Listening/Observing: Learners develop attentive listening skills for communication, understanding dialogues, narratives, and news items.
• Speaking/Signing: Learners practice speaking fluently for effective communication, including greetings, descriptions, requests, and short conversations. Non-verbal communication is also encouraged.
• Reading/Signing: Learners develop reading fluency and comprehension through engaging with dialogues, narratives, descriptions, and authentic materials.
• Writing/Brailling: Learners practice accurate writing, sentence construction, coherent narratives, dialogues, and creative writing based on visual prompts. Legible handwriting using the Nelson Script is emphasized.

Supporting Language Structures

Throughout the primary school English course, learners are exposed to various language structures. Teachers select appropriate structures based on the learners' level. These structures include:

• Nouns (various types, including personal, impersonal, proper, common, possessive, gendered, reflexive, relative, countable/uncountable, singular/plural, concrete/abstract, and collective)
• Antonyms and synonyms
• Similes
• Verb tenses
• Adjectives (including comparative and superlative forms)
• Adverbs and adverbial clauses
• Prepositions
• Problematic verbal clauses (e.g., "cope with," "succeed in," "reply to")
• Coordinate and subordinate conjunctions
• Punctuation marks
• Quantifiers and intensifiers
• Structures showing cause and effect
• Question tags
• Modals
• Conditional clauses
• Direct and indirect speech
• Active and passive voice
• Spelling
• Word formation (affixes)
• Word choice and register
• Abbreviations

Learners are also expected to construct simple statements, commands, and questions, and to understand sentences with omitted structures (ellipsis). This list is not exhaustive, and teachers can introduce other relevant structures as needed.

Assessment

Assessment is continuous and focuses on achieving learning outcomes for each topic and grade level. Learner profiling is used to monitor progress and identify areas needing further development. The learner profile records the learner's entry abilities, potential, acquired language concepts, skills, and knowledge at each level. Continuous assessment covers speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills.