Continuity or Rupture: An Analysis of the Fourth Cycle Literature Teaching Program in the Post-Fundamental Schools, Language Section ()
1. Introduction
The Burundian education system is undergoing profound changes. We are thinking here of the introduction of fundamental and post-fundamental schools as well as basic Baccalaureate-Master-Doctorate reform. This change in the educational system has also allowed for the change of teaching programs in fundamental, post-fundamental, and university schools. The French teaching programs must be developed in a continuous way allowing the learners to better master this language. Continuity of programs allows learners to use the prerequisites to understand the new subjects in the next grade. Understanding French as a subject and as a language of instruction is a major foundation for understanding other subjects, and thus the vehicle for all other knowledge. The analysis of the continuity of the teaching programs of the texts in French brings enlightenment and shows the importance of an elaboration of the teaching subjects in a hierarchical way. Will this analysis allow curriculum designers to draw inspiration from it to develop programs that are adapted to learners and that will allow them to combine efforts with their prerequisites to understand the new subjects in a higher grade? The themes and texts proposed in these manuals at the ECOFO level are limited, in most cases, to the daily life of the learner. In other words, they are written in the Burundian style. It is necessary to see if these texts are composed in such a way as to develop the learner’s linguistic or language skills in French in the Burundian context, or if they are real texts adapted to the teaching of French, which allows learners to acquire the necessary prerequisites to approach the texts proposed at the post-fundamental level.
This research is one of children’s rights to education meaning it is one among the others in the domain of the implementation of international children’s rights standards in Burundi (Sindayigaya, 2023) [1] . Much research has been made in the domain of the child’s right to housing (Sindayigaya, 2022) [2] , civil and social rights while they are with mothers in jails (Sindayigaya, 2020 [3] ; Sindayigaya & Nyabenda, 2022 [4] ), right to birth registration (Sindayigaya, 2023) [5] , and the way technical and vocational education is made in Burundi (Nduwimana & Sindayigaya, 2023 [6] ; Sindayigaya & Nduwimana, 2023 [7] ). Even research on refugee children’s education in Burundi has been researched (Ndericimpaye & Sindayigaya, 2023) [8] the same as the protection of children’s rights to image (Ciza & Sindayigaya, 2023) [9] . No study has been made now about the way languages are taught.
Our research is interested in these questions from the analysis of the programs of the teaching of works of literature in the Burundian educational system and more particularly in the fundamental and post-fundamental schools. It will be a question of seeing, on the one hand, if the texts taught at the ECOFO and post-fundamental levels present links and why, and on the other hand, if they have the necessary prerequisites for the introduction of new learning.
The reform of the Burundian education system has had five levels of education: pre-fundamental education, fundamental education, professional education, post-fundamental education, and higher education. The first four levels are under the supervision of the Ministry of Education, Technical and Vocational Training. The last level is managed by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. This reform of the Burundian education system has put in place a new introduction of French teaching programs at the ECOFO and post-fundamental levels. The program of French teaching elaborated in these schools is the program that puts forward the teaching of manufactured texts relating to the daily life of the Burundian learner. However, these texts of this 4th cycle never develop linguistic skills in the learners. These are literary texts that should be used in the development of the ECOFO and post-fundamental programs. This constitutes continuity of knowledge to the learners of ECOFO once they are oriented in the language section at the post-fundamental, at the University in a faculty with a literary character.
Many researchers have highlighted the importance of literary texts in the teaching-learning of French. These researchers show that the text is an object of communication with the learners and the teachers (Papo & Bourgain, 1989: p. 111) [10] . Moreover, this study specifies that literature is a language laboratory where the language is worked and solicited in an urgent manner and that this language reveals its structures and its functions. Afaf Ben Mosbah shows the exploitation of the literary text in the teaching-learning of intercultural competence in class (Fredet & Nikou, 2020: pp. 8-9 [11] ; Sperkova, 2009: pp. 6-7 [12] ). According to this author, the exploitation of literary texts in the learning of French as a foreign language certainly contributes to the training and intellectual development of learners, who are exposed to the socio-cultural reality of the people speaking this language and their ways of living and thinking. Thus, the literary text is also a source of motivation to discover the world of the other.
The teaching of literary texts in the language classroom is composed of several components. Another research suggests three components of reading literary texts that are comprehension, reaction to the text, and appreciation of the text.
・ Comprehension: This consists of the reader constructing the meaning of the text based on the explicit and implicit information transmitted by the author and his/her own knowledge.
・ Reaction: This encompasses the reader’s attitudes towards the text, for example by identifying with a character, preferring one part to another, or experiencing emotions.
・ Appreciation of the text: This occurs when the reader goes beyond the text to judge and appreciate the author’s work. The reader identifies the main information of the text throughout the reading from beginning to end (Giasson, 2013: pp. 286-287) [13] .
The same author highlights four positions of the reader as they travel through the text. First, the reader enters the text: she forms an initial idea of the content based on her knowledge and some clues from the text. Second, the reader is immersed in the text, asking questions about the character’s motivation, and the relationships of causality. Third, the reader steps outside the text to reflect on his or her own life. They identify with the characters and make connections to their own experiences. Fourth, the reader leaves the text to objectify his experience. They reflect on the content and structure of the text.
2. Methods and Methodology
In order to report on the current state of literature teaching in the 4th cycle of basic education in Burundi, we used two types of surveys: a questionnaire survey and an interview survey. In order to describe the current situation of the teaching of literary texts in the 4th cycle of basic education in Burundi, we submitted our questionnaire and interview to a population of 12 teachers, 6 from the 4th cycle of basic education and 6 from the post-fundamental education.
We submitted our questionnaire and interview at the same time to a population of 72 ECOFO learners and 30 post-fundamental education learners. The aim was to collect the views of these respondents, who were from both public schools and had varying degrees of experience in teaching literature in the fourth cycle of basic education. The purpose of the interview technique was to report on the teaching of literature in the schools. We visited six schools in the city of Bujumbura, each having the fundamental and post-fundamental levels. The schools are:
1) Lycée Schepers Nyakabiga & ECOFO Mgrs Scheppers;
2) Lycée Municipal Rohero;
3) Lycée Municipal Nyakabiga;
4) Lycée clarté Notre Dame de Vugizo;
5) Lycée Notre Dame Rohero;
6) Lycée du Lac Tanganyika.
At each school, we interviewed one teacher from fundamental school and another one from post-fundamental school. A printed questionnaire was distributed to 12 students in the 9th year of the fundamental school at each school (to totalize 72) and 5 students from the 1st language class section in post-fundamental level at each school (totalizing 30 students).
Results from Table 1 show that the reliability test of Cronbach coefficient is 87.6% and help us to conclude that the questionnaire used is reliable and valid.
Several questions that we had prepared in advance were addressed to the interviewees who are language teachers. These included the teaching of literature in the fourth cycle of basic education. The questions consist of whether they had received training in teaching languages, the skills they had developed in this area, and whether literature was integrated into the fourth cycle of their respective schools. They were also asked whether there are difficulties they encounter teaching texts or if there is a link between texts in fundamental books and others in post-fundamental classes. During the interview, we first introduced ourselves to the interviewees and asked them if we could note down their answers to different questions. They promptly allowed us to note down answers. We actively and peacefully conducted the interview. After, we sincerely and eagerly addressed our thankful message to the interviewees.
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Table 1. Reliability and validity of the questionnaire.
Results were analyzed using Microsoft Office Excel and SPSS software while Zotero helped with referencing.
3. Analysis Results
The data presented in this section are based on the responses of the teachers surveyed to the various questions they were asked and on the learners in the schools (Figure 1).
On the question of whether our respondents study literary texts in current classes, 72 ECOFO learners did not admit to having studied literary texts in their current classes. The answers are different to the all 28 learners’ of 1st-year post-fundamental language who answered affirmatively. They accept that they study literary texts in their current classes. This justifies that it is the 1st language learners who actually learn literary texts.
On the question about experiencing difficulties when using texts in class, all of the 72 learners surveyed from the 4th cycle admitted that they had difficulties using the texts in class. However, for learners in the 1st year of post-fundamental language, 3 out of 30 learners have difficulties using the texts in class while the 25 learners left answered do not experience any difficulty.
Targeting to know if students find they should be advantages studying literary texts with a logical sequence, 6 out of 72 students in fundamental schools accept oppositely to their peers 66 that esteem it is no worth studying literary texts with a logical sequence. For the learners of the 1st-year post-fundamental, 26 out of 30 affirm the advantages of studying literary texts having a logical sequence. While 2 out of 30 would not find the advantages of studying literary texts with a logical sequence. From these observations, we notice that the learners of the 9th grade do not find advantages of studying literary texts having a logical sequence
compared to those of the post-fundamental. 64 out of 72 learners of the fundamental schools are not able to differentiate between a literary or a non-literary text. Compared to first-year language learners, 21 out of 30 agree that they can differentiate between literary and non-literary texts.
The answers provided by the teachers of the 9th year of the fundamental schools show that the teachers experience difficulties during a lesson on a text. 4 teachers out of 6 teachers declare that they encounter difficulties. They explain that the major difficulties are related to vocabulary and comprehension for learners cannot understand what is said in a text, so the teacher can ask a question about a text and no learner can open his mouth. From this, learners feel demotivated during the exploitation of the text. On the side of the teachers of the 1st-year post-fundamental, 5 teachers out of 6 answered that they encounter difficulties during the exploitation of a lesson of a text. Their justifications are due to the lazy and distracted character, a low level or less solid background in French of the educated nowadays; the learners are disinterested in literature because they have no basic notions in the matter, literature being new for them. In addition, they explain that literature is taught in a summary manner, which means that the learners do not manage to understand the interest of learning literature or to differentiate between literary genres or literature, because the program is limited to the sole aspect of “text typology”, which explains their demotivation. 1 teacher said that he had no problems with the text-related lessons. He explains that the learners have no problem with the text; they have a sufficient level of understanding and learning the text types for them is not a problem. He added that literature is not taught but rather the types of texts.
The teachers’ suggestions in response to this question show that 5 out of 6 teachers from the post-fundamental classes declare that the texts offered in ECOFO and at the post-fundamental level have links and would have advantages in teaching-learning for the learners. They insist that if these texts taught in the 4th cycle have links to those of the post-fundamental level, they will facilitate the understanding of the lessons related to literary texts. In this case, they will have prerequisites on the latter. There would be a continuity of the programs and the learners will understand better and without any difficulty the notions of the literary texts that are proposed to them in the FP. They will have the necessary prerequisites or representations to begin new learning. This would justify the continuity in their learning. They also affirm that learners who finish the 4th cycle without having any notion of what a literary text is, experience certain difficulties at the post-fundamental level in teaching and understanding literary texts.
4. Discussion of the Results
The ECOFO learners do not admit to studying literary texts in their current classes. In this sense, some researchers state that literary texts are studied to acquire linguistic knowledge, to improve spelling, to increase vocabulary, to improve style, etc (Bo & Li, 2009: pp. 149-150) [14] . Because learners do not study literary texts in class at Fundamental schools, they encounter difficulties when using literary texts. Moreover, according to the teachers surveyed, these difficulties are related to a lack of vocabulary and comprehension, laziness and distraction, and a low level or less solid background in French of today’s educated people. Literary texts help either to acquire cultural knowledge, to improve vocabulary, or to improve language skills (Mekhnache, 2010: p. 123) [15] or to acquire cultural knowledge, to share knowledge, experiences, a way of life, and a vision of the world (Allam-Iddou, 2015: pp. 99-100 [16] ; Attali, 1998: p. 56 [17] ; Chartrand & Lord, 2013: pp. 87-88 [18] ). Learners fail to understand what is said in a text, so the teacher can ask a question about a text and no learner manages to answer the question. Learners are disinterested in literature because they have no notion of it, literature is new for them. The same conclusion has been remarked on research and is denoted as a crisis to literature learning (Daunay, 2007: p. 144) [19] . Faced with these difficulties, teachers suggest the advantage of teaching literary texts (from fundamental to post-fundamental) with links. This teaching will facilitate the understanding of lessons related to literary texts at the post-fundamental level. This joins the opinion expanded in research as a means leading to a follow-up of learners for many years (Boutet & Villemin, 2014) [20] . It also insures the continuity of the programs. The learners will understand the concepts of the literary texts that are proposed to them at the FP (Pomey et al., 2015: pp. 42-43) [21] . We need to consider the huge advantage of using literary text is that it can be used as such and an opportunity to learn the difference between the target languages (Amor, 1997) [22] . In this case, they will have prerequisites to start new learning.
5. Conclusions
The teaching of literature, which seems to be sidelined, is a source of lament among ECOFO and post-fundamental learners. ECOFO learners (Grade 9) claim that they do not study literary texts. However, post-fundamental learners admit to having introduced literary texts in 1st language in a superficial manner. This causes a break in the learning of literary texts for ECOFO learners once they are oriented to the language section. Teaching literature allows learners to have the ability to read and understand a literary text from any author. The introduction of literary texts in the 4th basic cycle would ensure the continuity of the programs, is essential for learners to be able to get used to the notions of literature and ensure the necessary prerequisites to approach them deeply in the post-fundamental.
We had few financial means but it would be better for further researchers in this area to be funded that such research may be expanded to many schools all over the city of Bujumbura.