English on my lips: let’s get young Rwandans speaking English fluently

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Young Rwandans need jobs but have low levels of English fluency. The Rwandan government is growing and attracting new jobs, but these jobs require English fluency. The good news? There are three ways to fix for spoken English fluency.

Just 10% of the nearly 7000 young Rwandans assessed by Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator speak English fluently. Yet this is arguably the most valuable skill needed to work in the formal labour market, with thousands of net new jobs projected over the next few years where English fluency will be the entry requirement.

This is because the Rwandan Government has been hard at work growing sectors to stimulate its economy, attract jobs and deal with a youth unemployment rate of 22%, according to the 2020 Labour Force Survey. And their effort is paying off, but the jobs created or attracted require fluent English speakers.

But what does it mean to speak English “fluently”?

Fluency is defined by Daniel Morgan, Head of Learning Development at the Shenker Institutes of English, as how “smoothly” and “efficiently” a second language speaker is able to speak on “a range of topics in real time”.

So, to fill a talent pipeline with “smooth” and “efficient” English speakers to meet employer demand, the 10% spoken English fluency needs fixing. We propose this could be achieved in three ways.

First, understand and then make a distinction between the four different language skills or abilities. These include reading, writing, speaking, and understanding a language. If we fix for this, on the lips of everybody will be the question: “What language skill(s) needs development and mastery?”

Second, be able to assess for competence between these four different language skills. How well does a person speak English? How well does a person understand or write English? And if we resolve this, falling from each person’s mouth will be the question: “have we assessed for spoken English competence?”

And finally, change how young people are taught English as a second or third language.

How?

By shifting from teaching which over emphasises receptive language (where young people hear the language), to teaching that promotes production or expression of language (where young people are required to creatively produce or speak the language). Fixing this would require educators to answer: “Have we designed an English language programme that helps young people to speak the language fluently?”

The demand for spoken English

Employers in the Tourism and Hospitality industry want “smooth” and “efficient” English speakers able to interact with their international clientele. This was especially true prior to Covid 19, when in 2019, tourism contributed 15,1% to GDP on the back of Government efforts to draw domestic and foreign tourists to Rwanda.

In addition, Rwanda was recently awarded: “Upcoming BPO Location in the Top Offshore Delivery CX awards of 2021”, in a survey conducted by Ryan Strategic Advisory. A clear signal that the Government’s efforts to establish a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector has begun to pay off.

BPO’s typically offer thousands of entry level jobs but the ability to speak English fluently and confidently is highly valued in this world of servicing customer queries and complaints.

The emergence and growth of this demand should be seen in the context of the skills needed by Rwandan Employers in adjacent sectors. In interviews conducted by Harambee with over 100 of these Employers, fluent English speakers were identified as their single biggest barrier to finding talent.

So, for young people seeking economic opportunity in the formal labour market, speaking English fluently provides a significant competitive advantage. And for the government to grow the economy, and solve for youth unemployment, the country needs a talent pipeline of fluent English speakers.

And this can be achieved through three fixes.

Fix number one: To get young people speaking English fluently we need to better understand that any language has four language skills or abilities

To test this theory, think about your own languages. Do you speak each language equally well? Do you understand one language better than speaking it? Can you write and read at the same level in all your languages?

Even though we would likely rate our speaking, reading, writing and comprehensive abilities differently across our different languages, we commonly refer to a person’s language ability holistically.

We tend to describe a person as being good or poor at a language. And when we use this shorthand, we lose sight of the subtle but essential distinctions in a person’s ability across the four different language skills or abilities.

The four basic language skills being listening, speaking, reading and writing, as described by Columbia George Community College.

This means a person may be good at speaking a language but poor at writing it. Or a person may understand a language but not necessarily be able to speak it.

In the context of Rwanda, young people display a very different competence between the language skill of listening (understanding) to English as opposed to the language skill of speaking it. Twice as many young people assessed by Harambee can understand English than speak-it at an intermediate (fluent) level.

So, it’s in the application of this shorthand that the problem becomes clear.

Firstly, if young people made the distinction between the four different language skills or abilities they would be better empowered to:

· Realistically assess their spoken English ability;

· Sign-up for English programmes that focus on improving their specific English language skill(s) gaps; and

· Understand the need to, and spend more time speaking English to improve their fluency.

Secondly, providers of English Language Programmes would be better equipped to orientate their programmes to better understand the individual language skill needs of their learners.

Fix number two: to improve spoken English fluency we need to test the different language skills or abilities differently

Making the distinction between the four different language skills or abilities is only the first step towards remediation of spoken English fluency. The next, is to understand a young person’s competence in the different language skills. Assessments provide a picture of this.

Harambee’s own experience of using an English assessment designed to cater for different language skills, highlights the importance of making a distinction.

Using assessment results which measure ability to comprehend English and ability to speak English, Harambee has been better able to:

· Match young people to jobs by understanding the exact mix and level of the different English skills required.

· Offer young people with English fluency gaps, programmes designed to accelerate their spoken English.

Fix number three: to improve spoken English fluency, English programmes need to get young people to speak, speak, speak!

“By the time we got to A-Levels, I would say most of us were A2’s [beginner level on the Common European Framework for Languages scale] in English. This was from learning English as a subject. When we did our A Levels, most of it was listening to what the teacher was teaching us. We didn’t produce English a lot unless we did a presentation which was rare. That was our only opportunity to produce [speak] English:”

These are the words of 27-year-old Clement Nizeyimana recollecting his experience of studying English at school.

Clement lives and works in Kigali as an English Assessor at Harambee. Until he completed his O-Levels in 2009, Clement learnt English as a subject at his public school in Ruhungo District. Clement then completed his A-Levels entirely in English.

Seven-language-speaker Benny Lewis, who left school at age 21, only speaking English despite having studied Gaelic at school for 11 years offers some insight into why Clement, like many other young Rwandans, leave school speaking English at a beginner level:

“The biggest problem people have is they study, study, study and think if I study enough, I’ll just magically speak the language. But it doesn’t work like that. It’s like riding a bike, you have to get on it, [and] start practicing. It’ll be wobbly, but you’ll make progress”.

Young Rwandans complete their secondary school having studied English as a subject. And even at two hours a week, with approximately 25 weeks in a school year, and 12 years of formal schooling most young Rwandans cannot get on the “bike” and ride it.

This is with exposure to around 600 hours of guided English learning. Enough exposure, according to Cambridge University to be able to achieve English fluency.

And this remains true for whether you leave school or university. Harambee’s assessment results show no significant distinction in the level of spoken English fluency between young people leaving secondary school and those graduating from university.

So why can’t young people get on the “bike” and ride it?

Clement’s experience of speaking English is common to many of the young people within Harambee’s network of work seekers. And it is reflective of the Rwandan education system’s tendency to favour receptive language learning rather than the production or expression of English, which would benefit spoken English fluency.

But as Dr Lee Conway, Clinical Psychologist explains: “The medium of education lends itself to receptive language. It’s easier to teach receptive language to large groups of people. It’s harder to teach expressive language. Teaching expressive language is a more individualised process.”

So, to get young people speaking English fluently all educational providers need to double-down on providing young people with spoken English practice.

This may be more difficult to design for and requires a radical shift from the way languages have traditionally been taught, but it is essential for improved spoken English fluency.

And educational institutions, such as universities, provide a unique opportunity to create ideal spaces for young Rwandans to learn to speak English fluently. These are safe spaces where mistakes can be made without fear, and where the culture of speaking English may be encouraged and fostered.

If we plan to fix spoken English fluency in Rwanda, we need everyone to make the distinction between the four different language skills or abilities. This will stop us from speaking about a person’s language ability holistically. And in doing so, we will be able to assess young people’s language competence in these four different skills, empowering them to close their own gaps. And when educators design programmes that aim to measure their success by competence in spoken English fluency, we will begin to see a positive shift in the 10% spoken fluency rate.

As Erin from Education First, says: “Basically, the best way to speak better is to, well — speak!”

So, let’s get English fluency on everyone’s lips.