This inspired the Namibian Ministry of Education’s efforts to devise a new lower
primary English syllabus upon independence from South Africa in 1990. The syllabus proposes
the use of a communicative approach to teaching speaking and listening skills. In this article
the extent to which this approach is appropriate to the Namibian context will be explored. This
exploration is based on a 3 year (1995–1997) action research study of an INSET programme,
which sought to support unqualied and underqualied primary teachers’ efforts to implement
the communicative approach. The research study’s finndings raise the issue of transfer. They
suggest that communicative approaches are transferable to the Namibian context if they are
simplied and adequate prescriptive guidelines are provided to support teachers. Otherwise,
they are beyond the professional capacity of teachers to implement.