Report on institutions' constraints and successes of French language education in Lesotho

Abstract

The aim of the baseline study is to find perspectives of various institutions involved in the teaching of French language in Lesotho. The student-teachers from the National University of Lesotho who specialise in French language education failed to implement the teaching methods that they acquired theoretically during their internship program in various local schools which offer French language. They indicated that in-service teachers did not let them use the communicative approach to teach French language. As the study is interested in institutional constraints and successes of French language in various institutions, qualitative methodology was used because it allows the researcher to have the personal contact [sic] and insight , getting close to the people , the situation and the phenomenon under study (Sarantakos, 1998:47). Focus Group Discussion comprising of eight participants was used as the data collection tool while the stakeholder theory constituted the theoretical framework for the study. Findings show that all the participating institutions experienced both successes and challenges even though the latter outweighed the former. It is concluded that challenges in one institution affect operations in another in various ways hence it is recommended that stakeholders meet regularly to review their progress in relation to solutions envisaged by this study.