The English course aims to develop students’ ability to understand, communicate, read and write accurately at the level prescribed by the programme.
At the end of the first secondary cycle, students should read and understand English texts about their immediate environment and the outside world and communicate orally and in writing with simple lexical and grammatical structures.
Further detail
The course also develops knowledge of the socio-cultural aspects of English-speaking countries.
English is taught for 3 hours per week, with a minimum of 25 teaching weeks in the school year.
💡 Memory Hook
Understand → communicate → read → write
📖 2. Road Travel and Bus Journeys
🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions
Road vocabulary: Road vocabulary includes road = route, avenue = avenue, asphalt or tarred road = route asphaltée, roundabout = rond-point, car = voiture, bus = autobus, motorbike = motocyclette, bicycle = bicyclette, cyclist = cycliste, pedestrians = piétons, police = police, traffic lights = feux de circulation, crossroads = carrefour, taxi = taxi, accident or car-crash = accident, ambulance = ambulance, to run over = renverser, crash helmet = casque, to run into = heurter, to hit = frapper, road regulations = code de la route, to speed = rouler vite, and to slow down = ralentir.
Bus travel vocabulary: Bus travel vocabulary includes bus station = gare routière, bus = autobus, passengers = passagers, driver = chauffeur, driver mate = aide-chauffeur, bookman = vendeur de billets, apprentice driver = apprenti-chauffeur, to speed = rouler vite, luggage = bagages, bus ticket = billet de bus, and bus stop = arrêt de bus.
★ Must-know
📌 When, as soon as and while introduce time relationships in sentences about road activities.
📌 Ago is used with the simple past to state how long before the present an event happened, as in “The driver took me to Accra a week ago.”
Further detail
📌 Frequency adverbs describe how often an action occurs, as in “My uncle always travels to Lagos.”
💡 Memory Hook
Road → bus station → passengers → destination
📖 3. Air Travel and Airports
🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions
Air-travel vocabulary: Air-travel vocabulary includes airport = aéroport, airplane = avion, passengers = passagers, passport = passeport, flight attendant = agent de bord, pilot = pilote, to land = atterrir, to take off = décoller, luggage = bagages, customs = douane, guide = guide, departure lounge = salle d’embarquement, flight = vol, to fly = voler, to travel abroad = voyager à l’étranger, transport fares = tarifs de transport, and air ticket = billet d’avion.
★ Must-know
📌 Since expresses the starting point of an action or situation, whereas for expresses its duration.
Further detail
Collective nouns include:
luggage
police
people
fish
furniture
cattle
sheep
💡 Memory Hook
Since marks a starting point, whereas for marks a duration
📖 4. Town Services and Banking
🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions
Town vocabulary: Town vocabulary includes streets, one-way street, no parking, buildings, storey buildings, university, banks, cinema buildings, cultural centre, library, bookshop, public conveniences, embassy, ministries, Parliament, butcher’s, hairdresser’s, tailor’s, barber’s, right, left, straight ahead and opposite.
Banking vocabulary: Banking vocabulary includes bank, banker, money, savings, crossed cheque, cashier, payment, bank note, traveller’s cheque, receipt, investment, interest rate, current account, deposit account, to open an account, credit card, cash card, ATM, to cash money, to deposit money, and bank charges.
📝 Essential Points
📌 “Would you please tell me the way to …?” and “Excuse me, can you show me the way to the bank?” are structures used to ask for directions.
📌 The first conditional expresses a realisable future condition using an if-clause and a result clause.
💡 Memory Hook
A town map leading from directions to a bank counter
📖 5. Health and Pharmacy
🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions
Health vocabulary: Health vocabulary includes hospital, clinic, disease or sickness, medicine, treatment, doctor, nurse, ambulance, patient, symptoms, health record, pain, headache, stomachache, fever, temperature, thermometer, X-ray, surgery and injection.
Pharmacy vocabulary: Pharmacy vocabulary includes medicine, tablet, pill, antibiotic, prescription, to serve, pharmacist, on duty, drugs, syrup, form, bill and “I need…”.
★ Must-know
📌 Short and long adjectives form comparatives differently, as in “A hospital is bigger than a clinic” and “Coartem is more efficient than Paracetamol.”
📌 Frequency and dosage expressions include twice a day and three times a day or thrice a day.
Further detail
📌 Adverbs can be formed from adjectives by adding -ly, as in slow → slowly and quick → quickly.
💡 Memory Hook
Symptoms → hospital → prescription → pharmacy
📖 6. Environment and Forest Protection
🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions
Environmental vocabulary: Environmental vocabulary includes environment, soil, sea, climate, desert, desertification, forest, deforestation, bush fire, water pollution, ozone layer, fertilizer, wildlife, animals, erosion, flora, fauna and extinction.
★ Must-know
📌 Must and should express obligation or advice concerning the protection of the environment.
📌 Advice about pollution can be expressed with “I would advise you to …” or “It is advisable to …”.
Further detail
📌 “It is no good + verb-ing” expresses that a practice is bad or useless, as in “It is no good destroying the forest.”
💡 Memory Hook
Pollution and deforestation → environmental damage → protection
📖 7. Village Life and Traditions
🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions
Village-life vocabulary: Village-life vocabulary includes farming, agriculture, cooperative work, solidarity, friendship, community life, polygamy, big families, lack of water or food, poverty, famine, rural exodus, dowry, illiteracy and slums.
★ Must-know
📌 Be or get used to is followed by a verb ending in -ing to describe an activity that someone is accustomed to doing, as in “We are used to going to farm every Saturday.”
📌 Used to or would followed by a bare infinitive describes a repeated past activity, as in “Atsupe used to dance agbadja when she was very young.”
Further detail
🔄 A simple letter is organised as follows:
introduction
body
conclusion
💡 Memory Hook
Used to describes past habits, whereas be used to describes familiar activities
📖 8. Traditional Festivals and Naming
🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions
Traditional ceremonies: Traditional-ceremony vocabulary includes crops, yam, feast, yam festival, drink, food, pounded yam, libation, custom, dance, drum, harvest, sacrifice, animals, traditional priest, to dance, to meet, to perform, event, to celebrate, to enjoy oneself and to kill.
Naming ceremony vocabulary: Naming-ceremony vocabulary includes name, naming ceremony, baby, parents, relatives, presents, guests, kolanut, to clap, to cheer, a speech, ancestors and to perform a ceremony.
★ Must-know
📌 The simple past of regular verbs describes completed past events, as in “The villagers danced kamou the whole afternoon.”
Further detail
Traditional dances and ceremonies named in the course include agbadja, gagalo, kamou, akpèsè and bobobo, while traditional instruments include atoupani, kamou, cora, flute, castanets, drums and gong.
📌 Enough expresses sufficiency, and stop, start and begin can be followed by a verb ending in -ing.
💡 Memory Hook
Gathering → ceremony → food and music → celebration
📖 9. Cinema, Music and Football
🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions
Cinema vocabulary: Cinema vocabulary includes ticket, screen, movie, actor, actress, star, cow-boy, fight, exciting, horrible, western, horror film, thriller, soap opera, newsreel, cartoon, love film, to watch, to enjoy and “What is on?”.
Music vocabulary: Music vocabulary includes orchestra, music, concert, song, songster, singer, tune, melody, drums, trumpet, trumpeter, guitar, saxophone, piano, violin, microphone, to attend, to enjoy oneself, to be well dressed, exciting and wonderful.
Football vocabulary: Football vocabulary includes football field, football player, goalkeeper, goal mouth, referee, penalty, offside, corner kick, shot, whistle, red card, yellow card, supporter, spectator, opponent, to beat, to score a goal, to defend, to win, to kick a penalty, to shoot, jerseys and football boots.
★ Must-know
📌 The superlative of long adjectives and the simple future are used to talk about cinema and future events.
📌 Relative pronouns include who and whom for people and which for things; that can refer to people or things, and the relative pronoun may sometimes be omitted.
Further detail
📌 Coordinating conjunctions such as and, but, so and or link words, phrases or clauses with different relationships.
💡 Memory Hook
Who refers to people, whereas which refers to things
📖 10. Restaurant Reception and Meals
🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions
Restaurant vocabulary: Restaurant vocabulary includes receptionist, counter, bill, meal, price, discount, cashier, starter, appetizers, main course, desserts, soft drinks, hot or cold drink, spirits, to order a drink, to pay the bill, to book a room, to check and balance.
Meal vocabulary: Meal vocabulary includes menu, breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper, appetizers, vegetarian food, dessert, fast food, main course, rice, beans, rice and beans, to serve food, delicious, tip, tea, “What is on the menu?”, to order a meal, to pay the bill, balance or change, waiter, waitress, cook and appetizing.
📝 Essential Points
📌 Would rather and had better are used to express preferences and tastes.
📌 Exclamative sentences express joy or satisfaction with patterns such as “How + adjective!”, “So + adjective!”, “What a/an + adjective + noun!” and “Such a/an + adjective + noun!”.
💡 Memory Hook
Reception → menu → order → meal → bill
📖 11. Pizza Recipe and Instructions
🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions
Pizza ingredients: Pizza ingredients include wheat flour, cheese, butter, salt, tomato, egg, garlic, sweet pepper, green bean, oil, fish, meat, chicken, beef, pork, mutton, jam and vinegar.
📝 Essential Points
The pizza-preparation verbs taught are to mix, to spread, to bake, to slice, to hit, to stir, to boil, to warm, to taste, to add and to pound.
📌 The present perfect progressive with since and for describes an activity that began in the past and continues over a period, while the imperative gives instructions.
💡 Memory Hook
Ingredients → mix → spread → bake → taste
Test yourself
Take a 36-question practice quiz on Grade 5 English Programme, with every answer explained.
1. What is a central aim of the English course?
2. What should students be able to do at the end of the first secondary cycle?