English teachers and thelexical attrition of the sudanese basic school pupils

Author: 
Sawsan Abdel Aziz Mohammed Nashid and Gaafar Ali Elhassan

There are different variables involved in the teaching and learning process. Taha (1980) had already referred to three important elements in the equation: materials, teachers and teaching style, students and learning style. Each one of these variables and many other factors may be a cause of language attrition. The present paper investigates the phenomenon of language attrition among the basic school pupils; particularly, lexical or vocabulary attrition, i.e. why the linguistic information becomes inaccessible to the individual. There are many factors of language attrition. The present paper approaches this issue from teacher's perspective. Could we argue that the teachers' lack of the three fundamental requirements for effective teaching: a reasonable level of competence in English and training in and understanding of various methods of teaching, the four language skills in the classroom and the ability to adapt methods and materials to their own classroom environment may be one of the reasons of lexical attrition among the basic school pupils in the Sudan; Omderman? To achieve its objectives, two tools of data collection were used: evaluation checklist and observation. It is found that the teachers by their behavior inside the classroom contributed in the occurrence of the phenomenon of lexical attrition among the Sudanese basic school pupils.

Paper No: 
1857