The Role of the Teacher's Guide in Enhancing English Language Education (a Review of Literature)

Language Education is drawing attention all over the world and in particular the teaching and learning of English as a foreign or second language. The importance of teaching and learning English stems from the fact that English is a Lingua Franca for more than two thirds of the world. It is the language of science, business, tourism, aviation, cinema diplomacy and literature. But it is mostly needed as the language of the Internet, where more 60% at the top 10/M websites of the Internet is written in English. Teacher training is a key element in education as it helps to secure the attainment of the educational agendas of one particular organization at both personal and communal levels. This is applicable to all disciplines including the foreign language teaching. Foreign language teacher training in Sudan is carried out by colleges of education as well as other training institutes founded all over the country. These colleges offer English programs at B.A or B.Ed. level for a period of four to five years. During this time; students are provided with some knowledge and skills in English Language teaching. In addition to some training during their apprenticeship in these colleges. They are usually attached to primary or secondary government or private schools to do their training that usually takes 3 weeks training session, during the 4th and the 5th year. Novice teachers are provided with instructions of how to manage their classrooms and do the teaching of the four language skills. A supervisor from the college is usually assigned to pay at least two visits to help these trainees practice teaching in a real school environment. Sometimes an official visit may take place from the Directorate of Education, where a supervisor may come to see how the teaching is done by such trainees. But despite these efforts of providing novice teachers with the suitable knowledge and training to acquire teaching skills; there still remains a gap to be filled by providing additional teaching aids that a trainee may need to consult in the absence of trainer or supervisor. These teacher traineesincluding graduates from English Departments -are exposed to insufficient training in language teaching. Some are lucky to go to some good training institutes but the majority is poorly trained and left to take the job with little help, in poor infra-structured school environments.