Abstract
Mozambique is a country surrounded by English language speaking countries such as: Malawi, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. The use of English language in the country is of paramount importance in several ambits such as education, politics, economy, trade and social communication and interaction. However, the practice of English language teaching constitutes a challenge for English language teacher trainers and teacher trainees in the Teacher Training Colleges in Zamb??zia province. This article discusses the challenges faced by English language teacher education programme for primary schools in Zamb??zia province, in Mozambique. The study employed a qualitative approach using a a case study of three Teacher Training Colleges (TTC) for training primary school teachers designated as TTC A, B and C. The paper discusses the challenges the programme faces and presents suggestions for the improvement of the programme. To generate results the researchers used interviews, document analysis and focus group discussion as a means of data generation. The authors analysed the data generated and discuss the findings taking into account the responses from the participants and the real situation observed in the field where the research took place. Through the analysis from the interviewees, focus group discussion and information from the documents it was concluded that lack of constant interaction among English language teacher trainees, teacher trainers?? commitment at the TTCs and lack of continued professional development for TTCs teacher trainers are some of the critical challenges that teacher trainers and teacher trainees face during the implementation of the English language teacher training programme for primary schools in Zamb??zia province.
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