Integration of the French language teacher-trainees experiences of the teaching practice into the course quality enhancement at one university in Lesotho

Abstract

The study focuses on integrating student-teachers’ experiences of the teaching practice into the quality enhancement of the course on Curriculum and Teaching of French language at a university in Lesotho. It was noticed during the lesson observations that students’ teachers who have registered for the course struggled to apply teaching methods learnt theoretically in practice. This called for immediate intervention in the form of research undertaking as the situation impacted on the quality of the course. Hence the investigation centres on “how does the integration of teacher -trainees’ experiences of the teaching practice improve the quality of the course on curriculum and teaching of French language at the university?” was conducted. The nature of the study called for both qualitative and quantitative data, hence mixed methods approach is used. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection because the study sought both experiences, opinions on how the course could be improved as well as the aggregation of some responses. Fourth year students undertaking the course on curriculum and teaching of French language during the 2016/2017 academic year constituted the population for the case under study. Findings indicate that most student-teachers of French language found the teaching practice to be challenging. In conclusion the study shows that integrating student teachers’ experiences of the teaching practice can contribute to the quality enhancement of the course under investigation.