Implications / 174
was made, in tune with declared government ideology, it would probably be
found alien and rejected.
2 Input is more important than interaction in language teaching.
This conception reflects what Freire <1972) would call a 'bank-like
conception of knowledge' and the consequent perceived function of the
teacher as the repository and transmitter of knowledge, somebody one
learns froɪ, not with, that can be derived from practices of formal
education in traditional societies (for example initiation schools) as
well as from pedagogical models prevalent at the time of colonization.
The current teacher-pupil ratio and the scarcity of materials actually
reinforces this position and therefore teachers are likely to use these
arguments to justify their rejection of 'communicative' methodologies - a
rejection which actually has deeper roots. Theories in linguistics and
psychology which tend to blur the distinction between learning and
acquisition in general, and of the L2 in particular, would as a result be
difficult to accept, as would those in pedagogy which suggest that school
learning Is not exclusively the result of teaching. Yet these are the
theories that are at the basis of the emphasis on oral practice as a pre-
requisite for the acquisition of literacy, and of the importance of the
fluency component in language teaching. Teachers do not feel strongly
about them and this may explain the lack of creativity in devising
activities for language use within the constraints of crowded classrooms.
Alternatively, the Importance given to input may be the result of
particular cognitive strategies for learning not fully explored by Vestern
educational researchers and therefore dismissed by them (as hinted at by
studies on 'rote' learning in Quranic schools, see Vagner et al.t 1986)
3 Schooling promotes modernity while family environment Impedes it.
This is a key belief that deserves careful consideration because it
undermines all efforts to link home and school, parents and teachers,
out-of-school experience and classroom learning, real life and teaching,
and is ultimately responsible for the split in personality and roles
experienced by teachers. How can teachers maintain their social role and
at the same time recognize the skills of illiterate parents in promoting
effective learning? How can they reconcile the onerous responsibility