Zimbabwe Grade 4 Curriculum - Languages (Indigenous Language as medium of instruction)

This curriculum focuses on developing listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in learners, using their indigenous language as the medium of instruction. It emphasizes visual, manual, and tactile skills to accommodate diverse learning needs. The curriculum builds upon the foundation laid in Grades 3-7, preparing learners for further indigenous language study. It aims to foster creativity, critical thinking, research, and problem-solving skills, while promoting cultural understanding and effective communication.

Curriculum Structure (Forms 1-4):

The curriculum is structured around four main components:

• Composition: This component focuses on different types of compositions (narrative, descriptive, factual, letters), their structure (introduction, body, conclusion), creative writing, orthographic accuracy, and style of writing.
• Language Usage and Registers: This involves studying figurative expressions (proverbs, similes, idioms), homophones, synonyms, antonyms, counting, relations, ancient and modern communication methods, directions, announcements, and appropriate registers for various contexts.
• Comprehension and Summary: Learners engage with various texts (stories, news, songs, poems, folktales, reports) and visual materials (graphs, pictures, maps, puzzles, cartoons). They develop skills in answering questions, inferring meaning, and summarizing information.
• Language Structure: This component covers parts of speech and their construction, including nouns, pronouns, qualificatives, verbs, adverbs, copulatives, conjunctives, and ideophones.

Indigenous Language Instruction:

While English is the medium of instruction from Grade 4 onwards, indigenous languages like Shona and Ndebele are taught as subjects. The indigenous languages curriculum aims to:

• Develop learners' love, respect, and appreciation for their indigenous languages.
• Enable accurate, appropriate, and effective communication in the language.
• Cultivate a lifelong reading habit.
• Foster an appreciation for cultural norms and values.
• Develop aesthetic appreciation of language.
• Promote cultural diversity and understanding.

Assessment:

The curriculum employs both continuous and summative assessments. Continuous assessment includes practical assignments, theory tests, and creative projects. Summative assessment involves two papers covering composition, comprehension, summary, language usage, registers, and language structure.