GTLE English Subject Specialism case studies
GTLE English Subject Specialism · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The GTLE English Subject Specialism paper is the English-specific component of Ghana's teacher licensure examination, taken by candidates who intend to teach English at basic or secondary level. It tests subject mastery and classroom application together: grammar and structure, oral English and phonology, lexis and semantics, comprehension and critical reading, literature in prose, poetry and drama, composition and rhetoric, curriculum and methodology, assessment and error analysis, and the relationship between language and society. The GTLE English Subject Specialism case studies are 5 cases and about 4,809 words.
1Three Sound Features, One Timetable: Prioritising in a Crowded Oral English Slot
At a junior high school in Cape Coast, a Form Two class of 48 learners has three 35-minute English periods a week, no language laboratory and one chalkboard. A diagnostic read-aloud of 24 sentences showed that 31 learners said 'three' as /triː/ and 'think' as /tɪŋk/; 27 merged /l/ and /r/, so 'play' became 'pray' and 'collect' became 'correct'; and 19 dropped the final consonants in 'asked' and 'walked'.
1,035 words, about 5 min2The Copying Habit: When Students Answer Every Question as a Retrieval Task
At a senior high school in Tamale, a Form One class of 40 has two 50-minute English lessons a week. On a mock paper built around a 700-word passage about plastic pollution, the department's item analysis shows 78% correct on literal retrieval, 61% on vocabulary in context, 34% on inference and 22% on a question asking students to judge the writer's attitude with supporting evidence.
958 words, about 5 min3Sixty-Two Scripts, Two Weekends: What an Essay Score Should Represent
Madam Owusu teaches English to a Form Three class of 62. She sets a 350-word argumentative essay: 'Should mobile phones be allowed in secondary schools?' She marks at home over two weekends, correcting every error in red and writing one score out of 30.
901 words, about 5 min4Fourteen Copies, Fifty-Five Students, Four Weeks: Teaching Drama as Performance
At a girls' senior high school in Kumasi, Mr Boateng has four weeks - twelve periods of 40 minutes - to teach a prescribed drama text, Soyinka's The Lion and the Jewel, to a Form Two class of 55. The school owns 14 copies.
933 words, about 5 min5Reading the Item Statistics: A Flawed Question, a Real Error Pattern
After a term of teaching English structure, a teacher gives 44 Form Two students a 40-item multiple-choice test. The class mean is 18.4 with a standard deviation of 5.1.
982 words, about 5 min