IHETC School
English — Lower secondary
The pupil mentally translates each sentence before producing it, which is too slow to hold a conversation. The block is worsened by fear of making a mistake in front of the class. The way out is not more grammar: it is listening volume and short spoken turns, with no audience.
What is at stake in this subject
In Guinea, English is not a decorative subject: mining and banking partly operate in it. A pupil who disengages in secondary school finds themselves shut out ten years later, without ever having made the connection.
- Listening comprehension
- Core and thematic vocabulary
- Fundamental tenses and structures
- Simple written expression
- Speaking
They understand in writing and freeze when speaking
The pupil mentally translates each sentence before producing it, which is too slow to hold a conversation. The block is worsened by fear of making a mistake in front of the class. The way out is not more grammar: it is listening volume and short spoken turns, with no audience.
How the tutor works on it
The tutor favours repeated listening to short content and speaking practice with no witness, where a mistake costs nothing. It corrects form afterwards, never during, so as not to reinstall the very block being removed.
- It changes angle when an explanation does not land
- It never gives an exercise answer
- It has the pupil check rather than correcting them
- It goes back to the missing prerequisite, even from an earlier year
Parents' questions
We do not speak English at home. Is that disqualifying?
No. That is nearly every family's situation, and exposure can come from elsewhere: short audio, subtitles, songs. What matters is regularity — fifteen minutes daily achieves more than two hours on Saturday.