ISBN: 987-978-087-438-4 This e-Version is packaged by CardiNET www.cardinetnigeria.com Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 2 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 BEYOND PRINT LITERACY: THE IMPORTANCE OF MULTI-LITERACIES IN A DEMOCRATIC, GLOBALIZED SOCIETY Prof. Stephen E. HORNSTEIN Department of Teacher Training and Curriculum Development St. Cloud State University, Minnesota Keynote Address Key words: literacy education, democracy, multiliteracies 1. Introduction Honored guests, faculty and students, I want to thank the conference organizers for inviting me today. It is a great honor for me to be invited as your keynoter as I was deeply moved by the generosity of spirit, the hospitality, professionalism and commitment of the educators I met on my last visit to Nigeria, I learned a great deal about both my own country, and myself as well as about education in Nigeria and Nigeria itself on my last visit. The insights, ideas and practices I share with you on this visit can only begin to repay you for what I myself have already gained. The title of this address is “Beyond Print Literacy: the Importance of Multi-Literacies in a Democratic, Globalized Society” but before I begin I do want to share a little bit about myself with you as I believe that the information will help you to understand the perspectives and background I am coming from. I was a teenager in the United States in the late 1960’s and began my teaching career in the early 1970’s. That period was a time of great intellectual and social change in the United States with the Civil Rights movement, the Women’s movement and the anti (Vietnam) war movement coalescing to create a great interest in how citizens can genuinely participate in a democracy. Since the 1970’s I have worked as a preschool teacher, a kindergarten teacher (for ages 4 and 5), a primary school teacher, a school head, a university professor, a department chair and as president of an international literacy organization. The twin notions that schools are the soil in which democracy is cultivated, and that teachers are those primarily responsible for tilling this soil have been the underlying impetus of my work in education over the last 30 years. Three key assumptions underlie what I will have to say today about the importance of literacy in a democracy. First, democracy is not simply a matter of voting, with those in the majority having power over those outside of that group. Rather, a participatory democracy should seek to insure that the needs, wants and perspectives of all groups are served. This implies that finding a middle ground that serves all should be our goal. Such work requires a much different type of political discourse than the narrow self-interests and impassioned shouting at one another that currently passes for political discourse in the United States. Second, although I have shared with you my personal beliefs about the nature of democracy, I also believe that democracy cannot simply be imported from one setting to another. Rather, democratic governance must be developed to fit the needs, aspirations, history, values and cultures of its people. As such the democratic culture developing in Nigeria will by nature be different from that of the United States and my own perspectives on democracy may be of little help in Nigeria. Only you can decide that. My own country’s recent experience in Iraq demonstrates this well. Although elections were held in Iraq, and individuals elected, many Sunnis boycotted the electoral process and so few were elected. There then had to be an effort to bring more Sunni Moslems Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 3 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 into the constitutional process to insure the participation that will be needed to bring democracy to Iraq. I don’t mean to imply that democracy should be a free-for-all, with rules changed as those in power want them to be. Rather, my point is that the development of democracy must reflect its place, time, history and peoples. The attempt to install American style elections into Iraq failed to take this into account and thus needed modifications to insure genuine participation. The third major assumption that underlies my comments today is that literacy entails far more than just the ability to read and write. Although people and governments have long assumed print literacy a necessary pre-requisite for economic and social development, the demands of the 21st century will require much more expansive literacies than that. In fact some scholars see current literacy practice as intended to limit democratic participation. Stuckey (1991) posits “Becoming literate signifies in large part the ability to conform, or at least to appear conformist. The teaching of literacy then is a regulation of access” (p. 19). I personally don’t believe that’s what most educators hope to do and many educators have suggested ways that additional literacies can promote democracy and access as well work against such conformity. Brazilian educator Paulo Freire (1970) describes literacy as “people developing their power to perceive critically the way they exist in the world with which and in which they find themselves; they come to see the world not as a static reality but as a reality in process, in transformation” (p. 64). James Banks (noted in the United States for his work in multi-cultural education) defines multi-cultural literacy as “the skills and ability to identify the creators of knowledge and their interests, to uncover the assumptions of knowledge, to view knowledge from diverse ethnic and cultural perspectives and to use knowledge that will create a just and humane world” (2003, p. 18). Allan Luke (2003), formerly of Queensland University in Australia and currently with the National Institute of Education in Singapore, views literacy as “tool kits for understanding, critiquing and engaging with the global flows of images and texts that (citizens) confront daily” (p. 20). But also notes “No matter what we do with them in terms of basic reading and writing skills, numeracy and literacy skills unless the activities are somehow connected to the real world and unless there is a critical engagement with knowledge-unless there is an educative act going on, we might as well pack up and go home” (2003b, p. 75). So, educating for literacy in a democracy becomes both a function of what we teach and the contexts in which it is taught as well as extending beyond ourselves to the notions of creating a just and humane world. For me this means focusing on what Luke calls “multiliteracies (1998) and includes print literacy, critical literacy, multi-cultural literacy, mathematical and statistical literacy, internet literacy and media literacy all taught in a context that encourages dialogue, choice ownership and participation. Such literacies are not discreet and cannot be taught as such. Rather, these multi-literacies are continuous and intertwined. We can neither teach literacy, nor act as fully literate citizens without all of these pieces of literacy at once. A genuinely participatory democracy could function with no less from its citizenry and should expect no less from its schools. I certainly don’t want to imply that the United States has achieved this, and the current movement in the United States appears to be moving in an opposite direction. The current infatuation with testing and accountability in my country may actually be leading to a reduction in critical thinking and a concomitant reduction in multi-literacies and the growth of democratic values in our youth. Although the current focus on testing is intended to improve schools, to paraphrase Bracey (2004), repeated testing causes improvement in learning no more than repeatedly standing on a scale causes weight loss. I caution Nigerian educators not to follow the American example in this instance. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 4 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 In the short time allotted to me today I do want to speak briefly about each of the literacies noted previously, print literacy, multi-cultural literacy, critical literacy, mathematical literacy, internet literacy, and media literacy. 2. Print Literacy Print literacy is ordinarily assumed to simply be the ability to read and write. But the need for print literacy in a democracy extends beyond simply reading and writing. Some approaches to literacy instruction (including some of those currently favored in the United States) limit their foci to the decoding of words, low-level factual recall of textual elements and the reproduction of correct answers on tests. Literacy programs such as this, removed from any real world use of literacy by students can cause them to view reading and writing as a task done for some one else, rather than as a tool for empowerment and participation. Current approaches to writing can often be similarly limiting. In the context of building a democratic culture, such approaches are counter productive and can lead to the conformity and mindlessness implied by Stuckey (1991). Such conformity can then lead to the acceptance of simplistic ideas, explanations and solutions and to an increasing parochialism in the population. Instead Luke and Freebody (1999) have proposed a literacy model that focuses on the following four families of practices: Breaking the code of texts through alphabets, phonics, spelling, syntactic conventions, etc.; Participating in the meaning of texts by understanding and creating writing visual and spoken texts within a variety of meaning systems and settings; Using texts functionally within a variety of social settings and knowing how texts perform different functions across different settings and cultures; and Critically analyzing and transforming texts by understanding and acting on texts with the knowledge that they are not neutral and that texts represent some voices and viewpoints and not others, and that texts have the power to influence but can be challenged and critiqued. (p. 3). A focus on practices such as these moves the use of print literacy beyond simple recall, conformity and economic functions and moves it into the realm of genuine social participation and creation. Such literacy practices encourage students to become thinkers and actor so they will become thinkers and actors as citizens. Still, like democratic practices all uses of language are time, place and culturally situated (Barton, Hamilton & Ivanic, 2000). As such the literacy practices developed by Nigerian teachers and students in Nigerian classrooms will need to be those needed to fit the particular needs of 21st century Nigeria. 3. Critically Literacy Practices such as those suggested by Luke and Freebody (1999) help students develop the habits of critical literacy; the ability to see how various texts represent certain view points and agenda, and to understand how such texts might seek to influence ideas, behaviour, assumptions or cultural perspectives. Friere and Macedo (1987) note: Reading the world always precedes reading the word, and reading the world implies continually reading the world…. [T]his movement from the word to the world is always present; even the spoken word flows from our reading of the world. In a way, however, we can go further and say that reading the word is not preceded merely by reading the world, but by a certain form of writing it or rewriting it, that is, of transforming it by means of conscious, practical work. For me, this dynamic movement is central to the literacy process (p. 25). Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 5 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 What Freire and Macedo are saying here is that to be literate we must bring out understandings of the world to the understanding of any text. Because understanding the world is a process of conscious critical work, we are actually re-writing or transforming the world as we transform our understandings of the world and the text in relation to it. As I re-read Things Fall Apart (Achebe, 1958) this summer I was struck by the degree to which its characters were unable to read the world and as such were prisoners of it. The main character couldn’t perceive or understand beyond his own culture, and thus couldn’t respond to changes in ways that might have mitigated his circumstances. The District Commissioner, unaware that the imperialistic role in which he was placed caused the destruction of rich cultures and untold harm to people, couldn’t see beyond his own station to understand the role he was playing. To read the world requires that we step outside for our current assumptions to view things from a different perspective and neither of these characters could achieve that. Critical Literacy then requires the ability to interrogate the political, economic, cultural, social and religious assumptions, intents and perspectives of the texts, individuals, leaders, organizations, nations, cultures, societies and religions we encounter. Participants in a democratic society act both pro-actively and reactively to the multiplicity of forces that shape their worlds. Although the thesis of this paper is that we need to move beyond print literacy to truly create a participatory democratic culture, traditional print literacy retains a crucial role as much of the information we encounter will still come to us in print form. Citizens need to read the assumptions, intents and perspectives of all the texts they encounter, be they print, cultural, social, visual, or oral. The kinds of classrooms, the range of literacy practice, and the methodologies within classrooms are by nature a function of the goals, perspectives and intentions of the society in which the school exists, and the aims of teachers, local school authorities and parents. These practices in turn help to shape the continuation and or evolution of the society. From my own perspective, critical literacy can only be built in a classroom that empowers students’ voices, opinions and curiosity, and that actively seeks a multiplicity of perspectives, explanations and opinions about the content being studied and the larger world around them. 4. Multi-cultural literacy As noted previously Banks describes multi-cultural literacy as “the skills and ability to identify the creators of knowledge and their interests, to uncover the assumptions of knowledge, to view knowledge from diverse ethnic and cultural perspectives and to use knowledge that will create a just and humane world. Bank’s description adds yet another layer to literacy – that of ethnic and cultural perspectives (I’d add religious and mothertongue perspectives to this mix as well). In my own country creating multi-culturally literate citizens has been a daunting and controversial initiative. Some parts of the country are significantly less diverse than others – rural areas and schools may serve only white Christian children. In some areas the population may be even more homogeneous and be primarily white and from only one or two denominations. My own town is overwhelming Catholic, with a small number of Lutherans and very small minority of other groups. Larger cities represent much greater diversity with citizens from Europe, Asian, Central and South America and Africa. The diversity of our citizenship brings many different cultural, religious, ethnic and political perspectives to be learned, appreciated and folded into the fabric and understandings of our lives. The goal of Multi-Cultural literacy is to accept, embrace, respect, value and understand the contributions of all cultures and languages. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 6 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 At the same time there are people in the United States who believe that our country should be a Christian country, where others are welcome but secondary. The paradox here is that even the opinion of those who believe in a less multi-cultural society must be accommodated in our creation of a truly multi-cultural and democratic society. These developments are very much in their infant stages in American schools and are often limited to brief attention paid to African American “heroes” and minor holidays of non- Christian religions and cultures. In the schools I visit I have yet to see any formal attention paid to Islam, even though urban school districts have an increasing number of Somali and other Moslem students. Of course American schools are products of their own histories, assumptions and cultures and such cultural changes, even when promoted by schools take time. We have only scratched the surface in our understandings of the people within our own country and our understandings of the rest of the world are even more undeveloped. I can only begin to imagine the daunting task of creating “multi-cultural literacy” in Nigeria, with its vast number of ethnic and language groups. Of course the schools within any society reflect that society’s, history, culture, assumptions and biases. Yet, to be inclusive and democratic, we need to transcend those histories and build new understandings in full cognizance of the history, longevity and cultural origins of the old. To be multi-culturally literate requires one to critically literate and vice versa, and a truly a truly democratic culture cannot survive without both. 5. Technological Literacies Beyond the literacies of perspective I have described already are technological literacies of increasing importance to citizens of 21st century democracies. Whereas understanding how these technologies work can be of importance, it is of far greater importance for citizens to understand the circumstances in which these technologies operate, the contexts in which they are used, and how these circumstances and contexts impact what is presented, and how it is presented. 6. Mathematical Literacy I’ve included mathematical literacy among the “technological literacies” because it is often considered simply a matter of knowing which technique to use in specific instances, being able to manipulate the numbers within the algorithm, knowing the relationship of the calculations to one another within the algorithm and knowing why the algorithm works as it does. However, like any other system for communicating information, math can be used both to enlighten and to obfuscate. To be mathematically literate then we must be able to read the world in the math just as we need to read the world in any other text. Unfortunately math is typically taught as a series of operations on numbers instead of as a tool for understanding. The following two math problems are considered exemplars of good math teaching in the United States. Unfortunately, math teaching based on problems such as these can have the undesirable side effect of persuading students that math really is just a set of operations on numbers to no particular consequence. Problem One – The Chocolate Cake and the Banana A piece of chocolate cake has 405 more calories than a banana. The banana has twice as many calories as an apple. If all 3 together have 765 calorie, how many calories are in each item? (from Mathematics, A Good Beginning, 6th ed p. 62) Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 7 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 As a repeatedly failed dieter, I can testify that I never engage in the type of calculation required in the chocolate cake and banana problem (Troutman and Lictenberg, 2004). If I had the information about how many calories were in the total, as a person who cared about calories I would certainly have the caloric values of the individual items easily available, or already in memory. The probable reason I’m a repeatedly failed dieter is that faced with such a calculation, I’d probably just say “To heck with it!” and eat it all anyway. Whereas the Mabel and her mother problem (above) may be good practice for manipulating number it is of no genuine use in the real world. In the universe I inhabit, if I knew Mabel and her mom well enough to know all of that information about their shopping trip and I wanted to know what they actually bought, I would simply ask them. As opposed to the purposeless uses of math described above, in Mrs. Fahkreddine’s 4th grade class of 9-10 year olds math is often used for understanding the world. At least once a week, Mrs. Fahkreddine and her students and I listen to and discuss a brief local and national radio newscast. This past year, shortly before the Christmas season, it was announced in one of the newscasts that a major retail chain would no longer allow the Salvation Army (a large charitable organization) to collect money for the poor in front of its stores. The retailer’s rationale for this decision was that if they allowed one group to solicit funds in front of their stores, they really needed to allow any other group who requested it to do the same thing. Students this age are often most concerned with the literal interpretations of “fairness” and so this decision at first seemed perfectly reasonable to them. However, once we began to investigate what this might actually mean to individuals, the students’ opinions began to change. The newscast had told us that the Salvation Army’s goal for the year was $500,000 and the predicted impact of this decision was a 20% reduction in donations. The students and I then calculated how much was likely to be lost. Still it was only when we started exploring how a loss of $100,000 would affect the lives of individuals that students’ perspectives began to change. Students calculated that if each family received 100 dollars, 1000 more families could be helped; if each family received $50 then 2000 more families could be helped etc. At this point students began to change their opinions about the rigid fairness of “everyone must be treated the same” to questioning what was more important fairness to all, or helping needy families. Some weeks later, we heard on a newscast that despite the limitations on solicitation the Salvation Army had actually met their goal for the season. We then discussed why that might have been the case and what they thought might happen during the holiday season next year. Problem Two – Mabel and Her Mom Go Shopping Mabel and her mom are going shopping on Saturday. They bought at least one item from each of the 3 departments that they visited. Mabel gave the clerk $120 and she got back $11.76 change. What items did they buy? Think about how much they spent. NO TAX TODAY! HOUSEWARES CLOTHING TOOLS Dishtowels: $11.38 Shirt: $30.98 Hammer: $17.90 Curtain Rods: $12.98 Dress: $49.90 Saw: $23.80 Bath Mats: $29.58 Slacks: $39.90 Drill: $25.78 Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 8 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 There is no question that we had to use knowledge of the mechanical/ technological aspects of math to engage in this discussion and understanding and knowing how to do math were necessary for this task. However these children were not just engaged in mathematical calculations. They were also using the math to explore, understand and interpret the world around them. It is these types of uses that constitute true mathematical literacy. Because citizens in the United States generally see numbers as “accurate” descriptions, it isn’t often that what numbers mean is questioned, and this is one of the major areas of political manipulation in my country. Perhaps the most humorous, (were it not so distressing) such manipulation is our governments’ drive to have all of our students reading “at or above grade level”. Of course graded reading levels are really just averages of the reading abilities of students at particular ages. Being that grade levels are averages, it is functionally impossible for all students to be average or above. In any normal population distribution nearly 50% of the students should be below average. So here it is only when we use math knowledge to question the world that we realize that some other agenda might be driving this goal. Can our leaders really be so ill formed as to make such statements, or are there other hidden agendas at work? Some of my colleagues believe that the real goals of this campaign is to undermine public schools in the opinion of the American public, but it remains unclear if the truth will ever be known. Clearly, in order to be critically and multi-culturally literate, we’ll need to be mathematically literate in ways that move far beyond operating on numbers. To do this, schools will need to start teaching math differently than they have to date. Luke and Freebody’s (1999) notions of using texts functionally and the notion that texts can be critiqued need to happen in math, just as with any other text. 7. Internet Literacy The technological advances of the 20th and 21st centuries have made new and emerging types of literacies vital for a democratic society as well. Arguably, the Internet is the most free and democratic medium the world has ever known. Consequently, it is also the medium containing the most spin, dis-information and mis-information, as well as being an invaluable resource because its content is wholly unfettered and unregulated. The habit of questioning the perspectives, goals, and beliefs of an author or organization, that we have only begun to teach for print sources will become even more crucial as the speed of information movement increases. In the old print environment we could sometimes triangulate information by finding similar information from several different sources. In the Internet environment, where information is unregulated and replicated at the speed of light, it is harder to know if the information is coming from multiple sources, or merely being reiterated from the same initial source. The old print assumption of attribution no longer holds. In the United States as more data is collected about each individual through their credit card and internet use both retailers and political organizations have begun using this information to target individuals with product or political messages. As I worked making phone calls for the Democratic Party in last year’s election, we had computer generated records of households voting preferences and issues of concern that we could use to target phone calls or selected e-mail messages. As this new medium makes its way into our homes, schools, internet café’s and even into our cells phones citizens will need to be aware of its ubiquity, and be able to question the veracity, authorship, reliability and purposes of the information they receive. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 9 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 To this end, the Council of Europe (2005) has suggested that in the new information age all citizens will need · material means to access these marvelous new information webs, · technical skills to use the means at our disposal, · information strategies to navigate the labyrinth of information and to integrate the fruit of their information search as knowledge. · In addition, literate citizens in democratic societies will need to have the following skills: · Distinguishing fact from fiction – knowing how to determine authority and relevancy? · Understanding commercialism and recognizing online marketing techniques? · Understanding the need to keep personal information private as well as why students should be concerned with safeguarding personal information; · Dealing with inappropriate and illegal content and how students should deal with Internet content deemed inappropriate or even dangerous? · Intellectual Property concerns and who owns what’s on the Internet? (Rickets, 2000). 8. Media Literacy Lastly, democratic participation in 21st century will require a literacy that enables citizens to critique both broadcast news and entertainment media. The increasing proliferation of cable and satellite media outlets has forced nearly all of these enterprises into the role of constantly managing both news and entertainment content in order to maximize their audiences and thus their revenues. Different outlets do this in different ways. Some seek to do this by making news more palatable, both by making stories simpler and by combining news with entertainment. As I write this paper the local television news over the past two weeks has been dominated by stories about the Minnesota State Fair. On a daily basis, newscast include the daily attendance in comparison to other years, the daily weather in comparison to other years, and which politicians and or entertainers appeared at the fair on any given day. The local media outlets appear to believe that this is what the local audience wants and so compete to provide the best “fair coverage”. Whereas the tragedy in the southern United States now dominates much of the news, it still didn’t displace the importance of “the fair”. Other outlets attempt to carve out “niche” markets by catering to a very specific audience. Perhaps the cleverest twist on this approach is the clearly partisan news network that bills itself as ”fair and balanced” to entice and mislead mainstream viewers outside of its primary audience. Even those outlets attempting to present the best news possible are constrained by time, finances, audience preference and the zeitgeist of particular times. In the recent Iraq war, news organizations received much of their information either from official sources or “embedded reporters,” that is news personnel assigned to travel and live with specific units during the war. This initially seemed like an excellent way to get first hand information about the progress of the war. However, in hindsight it is now widely believed that embedding reporters actually caused a less critical reportage of the war as reporters were more likely to bond with, and report positively about those whose lives and dangers they shared. So literacy in a democratic society will require citizens who can unpack and critique the media as well. Once again this is not something that individuals naturally do once they can read and write. It is a skill and a literacy that is learned through discourse and experience. The following video excerpts, taken in Sherri Fahkreddine’s classroom just prior to last November’s elections, demonstrate one way this can be done. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 10 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 As I noted previously, the students, Mrs. Fahkreddine and I listen to and talk about the news most Friday mornings. In the excerpt we saw, the 4th graders had clearly been listening to the ads and knew from the news reports about the importance of the cache of missing weapons. They knew that the ads they had been seeing were intended to make the candidates “look” bad. By using the word “look” they were telling us that they understood that the ads had specific intents and may not have been unbiased truth. They also indicated an understanding that the politicians were not simply “reaching out to voters all over the country” but in fact were going where they believed the most important votes to be. The implication here, although I’m not sure that many of the students could verbalize it at the time, was that some votes really are more important than others, depending upon whether or not you lived in a contested state. Mrs. Fahkreddine also pointed out that some old “political wisdom” was actually a superstition, and encouraged the pupils to verbalize both sides of the story. Finally, the students knew that the individual candidates were liable to get additional votes if citizens believed that one’s perspective on the missing weapons was more believable than the other’s. In these brief excerpts these 9 and 10 year olds are beginning to see the machinations of the political system, and to question the intent and accuracy of the information they are hearing. This clearly isn’t sufficient, it’s only a beginning, but if students across grade levels were to work with teachers who could help them critique and unpack the news, our citizenry would be far better prepared and I believe more inclined to participate in the work of a democracy. There is also information beyond the news in the media that intentionally or not present biased views of the roles of women and men, stereotypical portraits of individuals, ethnic groups, nationalities and cultures and provide a skewed portrait of society. Ads seek to convince us that we need smoother skin, a better lawn, less gray in our hair, more hair in our heads, a slimmer waist, an I-Pod or a new cell phone. Television programs and movies present depictions of cultures, people, countries and events that may be at odds with reality. Literate critique will be needed if citizens are to understand and withstand this barrage of new needs and skewed perspectives being presented to them. Finally, the advances in available technologies themselves will make it continually harder to discern reality from fiction. To this day, some people in the United States believe that the government crafted an elaborate hoax by creating sets and movies to convince people that humans had actually walked on the moon. Whereas it is now almost universally accepted that we have visited the moon, creating realistic video to “prove” the existence of almost anything will soon be almost as easy as coloring a picture. The needs for citizens to be able to discern the truth will become even more imperative. The Alliance for a Media Literate America notes that media literacy “allows citizens to ACCESS, ANALYZE, EVALUATE and COMMUNICATE information in a variety of forms including print and non-print messages” (2005). Baker (2005) notes five key concepts that media literate citizens understand; · All media messages are constructed. · Media are constructed using unique language with their own sets of rules. · Media convey values and points-of-view. · Different people interpret the same media message differently. · Media are concerned with power and profit. We’ll need to use all of our literacies, reading the world in print, the understanding of different cultures, beliefs and perspectives, critiquing intents and assumptions, interrogating the meaning of numbers and statistics and understanding the internet and media to become citizens in a genuine participatory democracy. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 11 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 9. In closing It is clear that promoting literacy for the 21st century is a far more complicated and crucial task than we once supposed it to be. Practicing and promoting these multiple literacies in the classroom can be a powerful step toward the establishment of a new democratic culture. The kinds of discourse such literacy promotes, the recognition of different histories, cultures, perspectives and intents, and the investigation of why things happen as they do can actually serve as practice for the type of democratic society we desire. In short the literacy practices taught in Nigerian classrooms will both structure and reflect the kind of democratic community you wish to build. A number of the opinion pieces published recently in the Nigerian media (Ndanusa, 2005; Ngwodo, 2005) suggest the need for greater citizen participation in the work of Nigerian society. I am not literate enough in the context of the Nigerian media to know what may be underneath these assertions and I do not know the politics or perspectives of these writers. However, it does seem to me that Nigeria is still in the early years of developing its democratic culture. This presents a unique opportunity to create schools and approaches to schooling that supports this development. Although this is a long term task, probably spanning generations rather than years, I remain confident that Nigerian schools and teachers can teach the multi-literacies needed for the 21st century and aid in the development of a society that the great American educator John Dewey (1900/1990) characterized as “worthy, lovely and harmonious” (p. 29). Thank you. References Achebe, C. (1958) Things Fall Apart. London; Heinemann. Alliance for a Media Literate America (2005) Media Literacy. Retrieved from http://www/amlainfo.org/medialit/index.php Baker, F. (2005) What Every Media Specialist Should Know about Medial Literacy. Media Literary Clearinghouse, Retrieved from www.frankwbaker.com Banks, J. A. (2003) Teaching Literacy for Social Justice and Global Citizenship Language Arts 81,18-19. Barton, D. Hamilton, M. and Ivanic, R. (Eds) (2000) Situated Literacies: London: Routledge. Bracey, G. W. (2004) Setting the Record Straight. Responses to Misconceptions about Public Education in the US. (2nd Ed.) Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Council of Europe (2005) Internet literacy. Retrieved from www.coe.int/t/e/integrated_projectsdemocracy/02_Activities/03_Internet_literacy/Inte rnet_Literacy_Handbook. Dewey, J. (1900/1990) The School and Society; The Child and the Curriculum. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Friere, P. (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum Publishing Company. Friere, P, and Macedo, D. (1987) Literacy: Reading the Word and the World. Bergin & Garvey Publishers Inc. Luke, A. (1998). Getting Over It; Literacy Teaching Work in New Times. Language Arts 75, 308-313. Luke, A. (2003a. Literacy Education for a New Ethics of Global Community. Language Arts 81, 20-23. Luke, A. (200b). Making Literacy Policy and Practice with a Difference. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 26 (3), 58-82. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 12 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Luke, A. and Freebody, P. (1999) A Map of Possible Practices: Further Notes on the Four Resources Model Practically Primary 4 (2). Retrieved from http://www.alea.edu.au.freebody.htm. Ndanuza, D (2005) Time to Start Paying Attention to Our Future! www.nigeriaworld.com/articles/2005/aug/051.html Ngwodo, C. (2005). The Nigerian Revolution. www.nigeriaworld.com/articles/2005/jul/221.html Rickets, B. (2000) The Need for Critical Literacy Skills in Students’ Use of the Internet Unpublished paper, Memorial University of Newfoundland. Stuckey, J.E. (1991). The Violence of Literacy. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 13 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 ENGLISH, LITERACY AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA IN THE 21ST CENTURY Prof. Dele ORISAWAYI Department of English and Literary Studies University of Calabar Plenary Paper 1 Key words: national development, literacy demands, ESL in Nigeria 1. Introduction In this paper I intend to provoke some discourses on the subject embedded in the topic. Some parts of the paper have been taken from an earlier contribution to a Festschrift for Professor Okon Essien of the Department of Linguistics, University of Calabar (2004). In this current paper discourse on the subject is approached from three perspectives, based on the key sections indicated by the topic: (a) National development with reference to Nigeria in the 21st century; (b) Literacy and Literacy demands in the 21st century; (c) The role of the English language in the Nigerian Situation in the context of literacy and national development. The three perspectives are taken as operating in a network of interconnectivity and interdependence. Literacy is positioned as the foundation for development; it is indeed the life-support system for sustainable and continuous development of the individual human being, the community and nation as an entity, and the world at large. The role of English as a Second Language, the communicative and performance tool of literacy, is at the centre of the network. Each is first laid out in concepts and viewpoints and then wrapped up in a network of implications. 2. Development The concept of development can be perceived as an omnibus package of a number of multifaceted phases and defining characteristics. It could be seen or defined in terms of steady and systematic advances towards the following parameters or directions of growth: 1. Intellectual and mental expansion for the individual person in society. 2. A stable polity with a strong sense of commitment to nationalism/nationhood among the people. 3. Economic development, progress and equitable distribution of national wealth. 4. Socio-political integration of the constituent units that make up the nation. 5. Scientific and technological progress and its application to the improvement of the quality of life of the people. 6. Efficient and functional educational outputs at all levels. 7. Widely recognized, accepted and practiced democratic structures and systems. 8. Highly enlightened citizenry with 80% - 90% achieved level of functional literacy among the people, and highly sharpened awareness of individual and collective fundamental rights, with freedoms of speech and association. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 14 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 9. Stable employment for all citizens in private and public sectors of the economy. 10. A highly recognized and respectable network of understanding and positive relations among the constituent units and with other nations of the world. 11. A highly developed network of communication and transport systems. 12. A high sense of motivation among the citizenry towards the achievement of all the parameters or developmental indices outlined above. It is within the conglomerate of the above indices that national development can be meaningfully viewed and assessed. 3. Literacy A good number of terms and parameters have been thrown up by the literature on literacy in recent times. We have heard and read of such terms and parameters as the following: · Literacy as the ability to read, write and calculate (numeracy) · Initial Literacy · Basic Literacy · Functional Literacy · Advanced Literary · Permanent Literary · Occupational Literacy · Literacy acquisition or literacy learning · Literacy levels – kindergarten, adolescent and adult · Micro-literacy, and so on. These terms and parameters for defining literacy are all marked by undercurrents and networks of interactive agents and processes of education. Education is both individualistic and collective. Micro-literacy is seen to embody initial or basic literacy and functional literacy derivable from basic education. According to Emenanjo (1999), it is concerned with the acquisition and use of the six language skills of listening, understanding, speaking, writing and translation, as well as numeracy in whatever is the language or languages of the culture(s), state or nation. Macro-literacy is equated to good balanced education of the individual, what enables him or her to attain self-fulfilment and self-actualization, and thereby full integration into the society. Macro-literacy therefore is more concerned with the overall literacy of the society in general or a nation as a collective. Scott Walter (One-time Director of International Development of the International Reading Association) sums up the “entire picture” as: Not just the acquisition but the retention of literacy skills, with emphasis on learning not as a passive taking in of information but as an active, critical process that serves democratic citizenship, decision-making, creative problem-solving, and overall economic and social development. (Reading Today. October/November, 1998:27). I have also introduced a concept of “Applied Literacy” to account for and discuss the application of literacy. “Applied literacy” is here defined in terms of what the literate human beings and the literate society in general do with their acquired literacy skills in everyday living and socio-cultural development. Applied literacy can be likened to applied physics, applied linguistics, applied economics, applied mathematics, applied chemistry and, even, applied history. The concept simply reduces itself of a simple question: how do we apply knowledge and ideas gained or acquired through language and literacy learning to the Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 15 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 everyday problems of living? As already indicated earlier, most professionals are obviously aware of the popular concepts of literacy as the individual’s acquired ability to read and to write, in any language, and to use this ability in a variety of functional roles in society. However, once acquired, this ability has to be sustained through reading and writing in the language, if it is to be retained; otherwise, it could suffer progressive loss and abatement, thereby exposing the individual to what is popularly known as high illiteracy, which in turn leads to intellectual decay. A more current and perhaps latest view and definition of literacy has been thrown up by Peter Johnston and Paula Costello in their exposition on “Principles for literacy Assessment” in the April/May/June issue of the IRA Journal: Reading Research Quarterly (2005:256-267). Permit me to quote some substantial relevant parts that define literacy in wider and current perspectives. 3.1 Literacy is a complex construct Although we often think of literacy as a set of all-purpose skills and strategies to be learned, it is more complex, more local, more personal, and more social than that. Becoming literate involves developing identities, relationships, dispositions, and values as much as acquiring strategies for working with print (Brandt, 2001; Collins & Blot, 2003; Gee, 2000). Children becoming literate are being apprenticed into ways of living with people as much as with symbols. Consequently, literacy assessment must be grounded in current understanding of literacy and society (Johnson and Kress, 2003; Johnson, 1999). We have to consider what kind of literacy might benefit individuals, what kind of literate society we aspire to, and what assessment might best serve those ends. For example, what kind of literacy assessment will enable children to live in and contribute to an increasingly democratic society? Democracy has to do with “the way persons attend to one another, care for one another, interact with one another, (and) the capacity to look at things as though they could be otherwise” (Greene, 1985, p. 3.), and citizens who “have the convictions and enthusiasms of their own responses, yet… are willing to keep an open mind about alternate points that respect both individual diversity and community needs” (Pradl, 1996, pp. 11-12). In other words, our literacy assessment practices must foster a literate disposition towards reciprocity (Carr and Claxton, 2002); that is, “a willingness to engage in joint learning tasks, to express uncertainties and ask questions to take a variety of roles in joint learning enterprises and to take other purposes and perspectives into account” (p. 16). Literacy has complications that assessment must deal with. Not only is literacy complex and social but also the literate demands of the world keeps changing with exponential acceleration. The apparent boundaries between spoken and written words and their conventions have been obliterated by instant messaging, book tapes, cell-phone, text messaging, speech translation software, interactive hypertext, and the facility with which text and image (moving or still) are fused. Literate demands are changing so rapidly that we can’t predict with certainty what kindergartners will face in adulthood. We do know however, that they will need to be resilient learners (Carr and Claxton, 2002) to maintain their literate development in the face of the increasingly rapid transformation of literacy in their communities. 3.2 Literacy Demands in Modern Times Perhaps, it is pertinent to start a discourse on literacy demands in this millennium by first drawing attention to the illiterate population of the world at the close of the 20th century. In spite of global efforts at the eradicating of illiteracy, recent statistics provided by Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 16 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 UNESCO appear alarming. As reconstructed by Susan Mandel Glazer, 1994, President of the International Reading Association (in Reading Today, October/November 1994, p. 3-4) countries with the largest number of illiterate adults in 1990 include the following: India: 281 million, China: 224 million, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Indonesia, Brazil, Egypt, Iran, Sudan, taken together, account for 20 million, and the rest of the world: 243 million. The illiterate figure for Nigeria may be difficult to accurately determine across the ages. School population figures may be deceptive for literacy level because of the high rates of dropouts. There are those who are expected to be in school but they are not, due to poverty – how do we account for the number of “street children”? There are the adults who have no access to education. Those who drop out of the system after primary school education cannot be said to be literate, given the poor facilities and the low level of literacy learning in those schools. The demands can be categorized and elucidated as followed: 1. Total eradication of illiteracy – making the illiterate literate at all levels. 2. Sustaining and enriching the literacy skills of the literate population. 3. Identifying and creating new awareness of literacy demands in the light of new developments in science, technology, the arts, social living and economic survival. 4. Literacy requirements for the 21st century have advanced from what they used to be in the nineteen seventies and eighties, even in the last five years, particularly for people who aspire to be leaders in society and civil governance. Approaches to public issues have become intellectual and sophisticated, requiring critical knowledge and learning. Civil society has become more critical, more discerning and more knowledgeable in matters of fundamental rights and privileges. For example, Honourable members in the National and State Houses of Assembly now require higher level literacy skills for dealing with public issues and law making. 5. It is no longer adequate for the citizen to be able to read, write and calculate. The literate must learn and train in scientific attitudes to life, living social interactions. The scientific attitude is defined in terms of observing, classifying, measuring, interpreting data, predicting, making inferences, making operation definitions, formulating models, experimenting, analyzing, communicating, and so on. It is no longer adequate to be aware: one must be informed on issues of public and even private interest. To be well informed requires higher-level literacy skills acquired through unrelenting reading and acquisition of wider knowledge, in a shared language. 6. Public opinion has become a potent moderating factor in public administration governance and public morality. Expressing public opinion now requires the communicator to be well informed on the subject, which demands some high level research and analysis if it is to attract regard and respect. Free speech has to be made from a disciplined viewpoint – which requires high-level literacy skills. The audience must be able to detect fact from sheer propaganda. These demands place much burden on a sophisticated use of language, as distinct from the ordinary everyday use for less cultivated communication. 7. Literary in the work place is changing. “Now, we live in a post-industrial age. There are far fewer good jobs in the developed world for people without highly developed literacy skills. The job once done by carburettors is now done by computers… Many argue that we need to put more emphasis on adolescents’ literacy education if they are to flourish in a world that Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 17 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 demands ever more sophisticated skills in handling information”.(Reading Today, August/September, 1999, p.1). In the same publication above, we are informed that “Today, survey research shows that most Americans spend more time reading and writing in the work place than they do anywhere else” (p. 22). 8. The media – progenitors of modern public opinion – have now imbued the system with higher level literacy skills in their presentation of facts, opinions and perspectives. The press in particular in this country has in recent times raised the level of news reporting and the language of communication higher on the plane of informed intellectualism. Now the average literate reader of newspapers and magazines requires higher order text attack skills in order to effectively make positive gains from the paper. 9. We could conclude this section with this quote, once again from the August/September, 1999 issue of Reading Today. “At the start of this millennium, few people needed literacy skills. As a new one approaches, everyone does – young children, mature adults, and perhaps, most importantly, the adolescents who are beginning to find themselves and explore their place in the world”. However, it is also pertinent at this point to draw attention to some negative applications of illiteracy. As we are struggling very hard to make every human being literate, only one side of what literate people do with literacy appears to engage the attention of practitioners, sociologists, philosophers and educators in general. Unfortunately, all around us today, it is our educated literate elite that are trying to destroy the world. The illiterate did not create the atomic bomb or the nuclear and biological weapons we are using today against one another. The literate are developing more and more sophisticated tactics for cheating both the literate and the illiterate, using them as tools, not to achieve peace and understanding but to disorganize and to disorient. It is the literacy who engage, not in petty thievery, but in computerized fraud, corruption, indiscipline 419, smuggling, in political engineering that plays magic with the ballot box, in misgovernance, in power sharing that leaves the other literates and the illiterates perpetually guessing the next move on the chessboard of their future, dazzling monetary figures no longer in millions but billions and trillions, which indeed leaves the banks distressed! As we appear to advance in literacy, there appears to be a progressive deterioration in our sense of values. Higher literacy is also tending towards the development of higher levels of sophistication in language usage, in which lower literates cannot comprehend the higher ones in their practice of what George Orwell calls ‘double speak’. Perhaps when we have attained literacy for all, there would be a balance of probabilities that would require new directions in literacy and development. The critical literate would be able to counterbalance this negative application of literacy in order to achieve the positive outcomes that the world is struggling to attain. Just last week Friday, September 2, the Punch Newspaper reported in this screaming headline: “Police recover 50,000 fake foreign cheques in Oluwole’ As given by the Punch: Men of the Lagos State Command, Nigeria Police recovered the following (fake) items from suspected illegal producers in Oluwole market, Lagos Island: 50,000 assorted foreign cheques 4,000 Nigerian passports 1,500 foreign passports 10,000 blank British Airways tickets 10,000 United States Postal/money order - blank certificates of occupancy Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 18 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 - customs documents - over 500 printing plates - over 500 computers 4. The Role of English as a Second Language in the Nigerian Situation. It is obvious in the Nigerian setting that the language of literacy and modern development is English. However, it has and will remain a second language in the environment. As a second language it has its limitations in use. Only about 40%, or thereabout, of the population use it with some degree of proficiency. One significant limiting factor for the cultivation and spread of the language in Nigeria today is that its major source of acquisition and primary contact, for most learners, has remained largely the school-room. One might go on to claim that it is not yet a language of the street, even though it obviously enjoys social acceptability not only among the educated elite but also among some of the folk who admire its speakers in society and would often wish to be able to say a few words of it, particularly in the market places. There is no doubt that English will continue for the foreseeable future, to perform the utilitarian function assigned to it not only by official adoption but also by the sheer necessities of the linguistic situation of the country. As the dominant language of education and, therefore, of literacy and national development, scholars have always paid critical attention to it in all its forms, uses and usages in the environment, at all levels and in all kinds of contexts. This will be seen at this conference of NESA. Against the backdrop of our discourse on literacy and national development, English in the Nigerian situation must of necessity respond to the current settings and demands or pressures we have outlined here. Practitioners in the teaching, learning as well as assessment of English would need to respond to the modern demands and pressures in a number of ways. Two ways are suggested here: (1) Curriculum change or review, particularly at the tertiary levels of our educational system and practice – to accommodate the new skills required for literacy and survival in the 21st century. In this respect one would suggest two expansions in the curricula of the Departments of English of our various Universities and Polytechnics as well as Colleges of Education and so on: a. Expansion and extension of the current Use of English and Communication Skills programme, otherwise known as English for Academic Purposes (EAP) to cover some three years of course offerings by all Faculties and Departments. This is an old proposal by various scholars, some of whom have now retired. One finds interesting a recent observation by Dr. Reuben Abati of The Guardian newspaper about ‘The Dying Art of Letter Writing’. He reported that a few years ago, the World Bank, working in collaboration with a Nigerian NGO, had raised an alarm when it disclosed that graduates of Nigerian Universities since the 90s are of a lower quality than their counterparts elsewhere. In that view, they are either unemployable or they have to be retrained to enable them to acquire a necessary capacity to compete in a skills-dominated work environment. As part of the expose on some job-seekers’ inability to write some simple letters of application, even though they are university graduates, Abati goes on to cite some particular instances in his office: I have been asked to look at letters which carry no dates, no form of salutation, and written in absolutely offensive grammar. One particularly brash lady wrote a terrible Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 19 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 copy which I had marked all over with red ink… she had the temerity to tell me that she preferred to end her letter with “Yours lovely” rather than “Yours faithfully”. b. The various Departments of English in our universities should design specialized courses and programmes in Applied English studies to provide appropriate practical skills for various disciplines, including students in the Department of English themselves. Such courses should be available not only for undergraduate students but also for those already in the work place. (2) Pedagogical approaches would need reorientations and modifications. - What English do we teach? - How do we impart the required skills? - What teaching/learning strategies do we adopt? - How do we assess performance? - How do we accommodate the first language or mother tongue largely in perpetual competition with English? References Abati, Reuben (2005). The Dying Art of Letter Writing. The Guardian, Sunday, July 17, 2005, p. 52. Emenanjo, N. (1999). Micro-Literacy, Macro-Literacy and the Blessings of Babel. Keynote address at the 8th Biennial Conference of the Reading Association of Nigeria, Aba. Glazer, S. M. (1994) Equity and Education, A Global Issue as Old as Time. Reading Today, October/November, pp.3-4. Johnston, P. and Costello, P. (2005). Principles for Literacy Assessment. Reading Research Quarterly 40: 2, 256-267. Orisawayi, D. (2004). Language, Literacy and National Development. In Ndimele, O. (Ed.) Language and Culture in Nigeria: A Festschrift for Okon Essien. Aba: National Institute for Nigerian Languages and Emhai Publishers, pp. 139-145. Reading Today, August/September, 1999, pp. 1 and 22: Editorial Report. Walter, S. (1998) Goals Met and Unmet: Taking stock on International Literacy Day. Reading Today, Journal of the International Reading Association, October/November, p. 27. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 20 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 NESA AND RELEVANCE IN THE 21ST CENTURY: A SEARCH FOR NEW FRONTIERS Prof. J.O.J. NWACHUKWU-AGBADA Department of English Abia State University Plenary Paper 2 Key words: NESA centre, language, literature, HIV/AIDS control 1. Background As an association that is over thirty years old, there is a need to draw the attention of the Nigeria English Studies Association (NESA) to new directions away from the yearly academic congregations of paper presentations and exchange of informed ideas, and probably no more. Fertilizing as these annual meetings are, there is a time in the life of an individual, nay institution, when it becomes imperative for a re-assessment of values, strategies and outcomes so as to head for new frontiers. This need has become opportuned because of the way we academics are treated in auspicious places where we are regarded as mere unpragmatic people rather than men and women who have specific answers to specific social and civic problems. The point needs to be made that NESA is the most equipped of the various associations in contiguous areas of language and literature to uplift the status of these two broad spheres to the level of relevance in the affairs of this nation. Is this paper then advocating that we invade the corridors of national power? Not necessarily so. After more than thirty years since the establishment of NESA it should now be consolidated as a true institution ready to take its proper role in a populous English-speaking society. Outside the United States and, possibly, India, no other polity has such a population of English users as Nigeria. In short in Africa, Nigeria is numero uno as far as the ‘consumption’ of English and related spheres are concerned. To achieve some of the purposes for which NESA was created, there should be designated a NESA Centre whose duty shall include the coordination of all the activities of the association with the bounden task of serving as its memory. In other words, while NESA meetings could be rotated among Nigeria’s institutions of higher learning, particularly in those institutions in which English studies is taught or researched into, the NESA Centre should house NESA reports and findings, publications, newsletters, library and documentary units meant to attract grants and research funding. Here too, workshops and seminars could be organized for English and Literature-in-English teachers at all levels, authors and creative writers, essayists and communicators. It should house such programmes as in phonetics and phonology of the English language and general computer-assisted language learning activities (Omorodion 2002). The Centre could also organize primary lessons in English for those from the other West African countries desirous of learning the English language. To be even more relevant, nothing stops the Centre from including initial lessons in Nigerian mothertongues. There are other details which will need to be worked out. However, what I think that the lack of a specific locale for the habitation of NESA activities and their permanent articulation portends is that every issue raised at meetings like this one will remain at the level of academicism – full of fury and fire, good ideas in flowing words too but hardly impactful because there is no practical dimension with which these Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 21 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 activities are imbued. No doubt researches into several areas of English studies in Nigeria and Africa are scattered in universities across the globe, but we need more than that. We need a center where these researches and findings may be obtained without one having to pry into the various holdings in different university traditional and electronic libraries. One of the duties of a NESA Centre would include the codification of Nigerian English which has remained at the level of hunches and hints although it has attracted academic research interest since the early 1960s. We must not forget that Achebe’s baffling use of English first drew attention to this brand of English as a possible medium for a genuine articulation of the cultural and philosophical nuances of an African society. This English is in ‘full communion’ with its original abode in Britain, but this time pressed to bear a cultural service outside what it had hitherto been known to do. We need to understand the phenomenon of Nigerian English, how widespread its use is, its advantages or demerits over Queen’s English, what is lost to it in the call for the promotion of an African language, etc. (Banjo 1995; Okoro 2004). Allied to the codification of Nigerian English is the necessity for the codification also of Pidgin English, probably Nigeria’s major ‘buy-back’ into the English language. This demands an articulation of orthography of Pidgin English, no matter its flaws. This is a virgin area with lots of promise. Yet, every user of English in Nigeria, no matter how slight, speaks Pidgin when he or she wants to or when the occasion calls for it. Codifying Pidgin English does not entail directing people on how to speak or write it. What is needed is how it may be represented on paper, particularly in the area of mechanics, rather than in the area of tone or texture. That could be left to individual users depending on the part of the country one comes from or the texture of Pidgin one wishes to use (Elugbe and Omamor 1991; Egbokhare 2001). What is wrong with a NESA Centre which produces an SMS texting format? The Centre may produce a monograph or monographs on electronic text message orthography in English and some other Nigerian languages, and could by so doing attract funds from GSM companies into some other areas of cooperation. A recent study reveals that “the texts have shown that an informal lect within a written electronic setting is thriving as part of urbaneducated English in Nigeria” (Awonusi 2004: 45-62). I am aware that Tayo Olafioye, the Nigerian academic, poet and fiction writer, is already using the language of SMS text messages in some of his stories. Take his short story, “King Lion and Dah Tortoise” for instance: as dah lion lay der, pretending 2 be sick, a dog passed by dah lion said 2 dah dog, “pleez come here, I am very sick and unable 2 leave dah hut. Tell all of my subjects 2 come c me and pay their last respects.” dah dog replied, “oh king lion I am very sorry to hear of ur illness. I can see dat u r shaking. I will surely deliver dah message 2 your subjects.” (Tomorrow 84) As far as this paper is concerned, what I have so far said is only a background to the major thrust of this presentation. My major interest is in the area of pressing language towards social sensitization at a time of great danger such as the one we are currently facing in the world today. This has become even more critical in the Third World context in which leaders say little about important matters, and say much about little issues such as the socalled dividends of democracy (DOD). The crucial matter which requires our immediate attention today is HIV/AIDS which is the all-consuming ailment of the 21st century. My worry at this point hinges on the fact that as a language association, promoting English, and occasionally the mother-tongues, we have been unusually silent. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 22 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 2. Language and Literature in the Age of AIDS: A Call for the Lifting of Ban on Silence To seek to join the AIDS fray, as it were, would sound preposterous to certain professionals in the medical field who may suspect that those in the arts are angling to have a piece of the action. Such professionals would tend to see AIDS – acquired immune deficiency syndrome – as a subject which should remain exclusively their headache, and not one about which just anyone can blunder into. Yet there would be a sense in which the pedantic medical professional pitching his discourse in such exclusive overtones may be right. After all have we not been occasionally treated to sites of argument concerning politics at which the typical Nigerian politician would urge all others – mere mortals – to ‘leave politics to politicians’? The lawyer would quickly ask you, ‘what do you know about the law?’ And the engineer would remind you: ‘we’re talking science!’ etc. However, there is today more than one reason why a subject such as AIDS can no longer be the sole provenance of the medical expert. First, it has as yet no cure. Second, even if a cure is found today, a quarter of the victim-population currently ravaged by AIDS (rather than by HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS) is likely to die before medication gets to them. Third, it is a disease which, if unchecked – every evidence at the moment seems to indicate that not enough is being done yet to counter the pandemic – has the capacity of wiping out all the gains of human civilization and decimating half of humanity in the next half a century. Fourth, the protraction capability of the impact of AIDS on humanity is infinite since its epidemiology is linked to a basic human drive such as sex and the desire to reproduce oneself. Fifth, the cultural nexus of silence on matters concerning libido and sexuality kills any effort directed at raising consciousness on the facts about AIDS. This is where language and literature should come in. 2.1 AIDS and Africa: Facts and Statistics One is not concerned here with whether or not the following statistics are accurate or precise since the point at issue is that AIDS is a pandemic with a capacity to consume a large chunk of the African work-force in a matter of a few decades, if nothing is done. Secondly, we are interested in the African dimension of the statistics because Africa is the poorest in capacity-building meant to check the spread of the disease. Thirdly, the statistics is meant to draw our ire, to strike our consciousness because we seem to be docile on the matter; we do not seem to realize yet that we are under siege by a veritable enemy, the scourge of the 21st century. Relying on UNAIDS, WHO and World Bank sources and occasional publication, Index on Censorship a loud and reliable London-based journal whose interest runs deep in unearthing facts usually hidden from public glare – scores a bull’s eye in its January 2004 issue with the following revelations on the AIDS pandemic as it affects Africa. According to the periodical, 60 million Africans are known to have been affected by AIDS (not yet necessity infected). Of this figure, 30 million are living with the virus; 15 million of them have died and more than 11 million have lost at least one parent. Every year, 1.7m young Africans are infected. It is estimated that by 2010 there will be 20 million HIV/AIDS orphans in Africa. Of this figure 2.6 million shall be Nigerians; 1.7 million South Africans; 1.1 million Zimbabweans; 700,000 Camerounians; 600,000 Ivorians; and 400,000 Sudanese. In South Africa, 17% of the health workers are estimated to have HIV; nurses 50% and doctors 9%. This fact is disturbing since the care-givers are themselves in need of care as their patients. It is also saddening to learn that between 1985 and 2000, seven million African agricultural workers died from HIV/AIDS in the 25 most affected countries; and that in the next 20 years, some 16 million agricultural workers on small holdings are expected to Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 23 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 die. Between 1996 and 1998 HIV/AIDS killed 5 teachers each week in Cote d’Ivoire; and in Zambia within the first ten months of 1998, a total number of 1300 teachers died from AIDS and AIDS-related complications. In South Africa, it is believed that by 2010, life expectancy there is expected to hit an all-time low of 45.6 years, some 22 years less than it would have been in the absence of the pandemic. By the same token, it is estimated that by 2020, the total population of South Africa is expected to be 23% smaller than it would have been without AIDS. These are statistics, these are figures. Here and there, facts may have been exaggerated or even underplayed for strategic reasons. Some may even doubt that these events arising from AIDS portend in any significant way that the world is about to disintegrate. The optimists may even argue that AIDS is a way nature has chosen to implement the Darwinian principle of survival of the fittest; that it is a way by which humanity will cast off its slough and begin afresh. These counter positions are equally factors of language and nuances of speech. Even as counter theses, their arguments do not necessarily obliterate the fact that AIDS is the cobra hidden among household wares, the poisoner standing by the jamb of the door whose neglect might result in a universal catastrophe of inestimable proportions. 2.2 AIDS: Silence is no Longer Golden It is true that as specialists in the humanities, our prescriptions on such matters as AIDS is not directly curative, but by drawing the attention of all the stake-holders to the problem of the disease, by defying the culture of silence, we would have discharged our intellectual and professional duties with sufficient honesty and commitment. The artist and the linguist will have failed if in the face of a pandemic such as AIDS which threatens humanity with so much virulence they do not speak out using the mediums or media which are exclusively theirs to do so. For too long in African governance, there has been a tendency to play down on figures of casualties in any sphere of life – be they in the area of ethnic and sectarian wars, outcomes of demonstrations and riots, terrorist attacks, land, air and sea accidents, nature disasters etc. – whose divulgence tends to project the continent’s image as backward or disorderly. Yet we are backward and disorderly, and even more. The tendency to be glum on serious matters is a carry-over from our various cultures, and even religions. To zero in specifically to matters of sex, our culture(s) are secretive and insular. Sex is a tabooed subject, even among the promiscuous in Africa. It is because of this silence, this lid on sexuality, which is so crucial to human biological and psychic functioning and which is spiraling the number of AIDS victims, that we advocate linguistic and literary interventions. 3. The Role of Language in AIDS Control It is not the object of this short paper to begin to amass definitions for language. That would hardly be useful in driving down the necessity for the rousing portrayal of the seriousness of the subject of AIDS. It is rather crucial to note that Kwesi Prah (1995: 29) has observed that “language defines the reality of a people’s environment and mode of existence. Nothing underscores this fact better than the vocabulary of a given language”. However, with respect to Africa, not every phenomenon is even acknowledged and spoken about, and so the question of language defining ‘the reality of a people’s environment’ would not apply to a community’s socially inadmissible issues in the first instance. Thus the concept of AIDS and its frank discussion at family and community levels do not even stand the chance of enjoying any substantial position at the center-stage of intimate consideration. The place of language in the definition of a people’s ‘world-view of a culture’ (Kluckhohn, quoted in Carroll 1961: 115) has been underscored by KK Prah (1980). In that Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 24 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 essay, Prah observes that the announcement of a chief’s arrival among the Tswana with cries of ‘Pula, Pula’ (meaning ‘rain’) is due to the significance of rain in the arid and semi-arid heartlands of Southern Africa. According to him, for these people, ‘pula’ signifies in addition all that is bountiful, great and magnificent. The same goes for the Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania who as pasturalists rely so much for their livelihood on pasture and cattle. For them, therefore, the word ‘grass’ in Maa language has had to be linguistically atomized to raise a repertoire which stands for various kinds of pasture and grass. According to Fuglesang (1984: 43), there are twenty different words for various types of grass. Some of these include, 01-Kujita for long, coarse grass; o-sankash for hard grass; en-dis for grass after rain; em-pilili for new grass; enaimuruai for creeping grass etc. The same goes for their calves which they have had to classify in a baffling detail. For instance, o1-kedari refers to small calves which graze near human abodes; o1-medimi for older calves which graze a little away from human settlements; ol-aram for those calves which are fond of grazing with the more adult cattle etc. The ability of the Maasai to have developed atomistic names for the grass-types and cattle variants respectively is due to their constant interaction with cattle which is their source of livelihood. No doubt the Maasai’s closeness to their cattle and their tendency to have moulded specific words and expressions for these varying impressions of knowledge and contact with their intimate objects can be replicated across the length and breath of the African cultures. Such an intimacy or at least the ventilation in experience and expression which these tangible phenomena enjoy among the people has in turn enabled the community members to develop strategies for constantly keeping these occurrences in focus. The Maasai often times can cure their cattle when they fall ill; they know the best grasses on which their cattle can graze; they know areas where their cattle should not go to or the season(s) that are not conducive to the health of their animals etc. They were able to develop this depth of knowledge of their cattle by inclusivism, not by exclusivism; they were able to amass such a depth of epistemes regarding their cattle or the grass types by openness rather than closedness, by constant interrogation of each other’s experience(s), and through artistic and verbal articulation of these regular exposures which may have emptied into their folkloric heritage. As a consequence, this paper advocates the development of linguistic variants in different languages which would directly highlight and centralize in human consciousness the seriousness of AIDS. If you like, call it langaids. It will be a kind of idiolect which will directly address the subject of AIDS. This could be in the area of a list of shocking synonyms for the pandemic; its fatality rate as a disease; its deceptiveness; its damage to one who is ostensibly alive; its capacity to wipe off human existence; its image as a lion or demon disease etc. In one word, AIDS needs to be demonized so that it can shock. The position of the present writer is that not enough shocking expressions have been formulated to underscore the heinousness of the pandemic. For instance, in the entire corpus of the Igbo language which I know too well about, I know of no other term for AIDS than oria obiri n’aja ocha, meaning the disease that terminates in the red earth. As I write, there is no word or expression for HIV in Igbo. One can in fact say that the same experience pervades the reaction of the other ethnic groups in the country to the problem of HIV/AIDS. Of course, the paucity of words for this dangerous disease is a direct consequence of the silence with which sexuality and sexual issues are treated. Words and expressions for an experiential knowledge can only flower if such an experience is allowed to be socially examined without let or hindrance; if there are no restrictions and taboos; if there are no moralistic obstacles placed on the way of its discourse. For now to advocate that AIDS be frankly and openly discussed in this part of the world is akin to an affront on God, an apostasy. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 25 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 4. The Role of Literature in AIDS Control Because ‘literature’ recalls literacy, one would like to project literature here as the medium of writing meant for those of our population who can read and write. In a polity in which only about 40% are literate, and where out of the 40% only about a quarter of that figure may want to read anything after leaving formal educational institutions, one wonders as to the efficacy of the advocacy of litaids. By ‘litaids’ one is referring to the use of literature – prose, poetry and drama – to project and deepen the nuisance of the AIDS pandemic in the consciousness of those who are exposed to the kind of artistic writing which exposes the seriousness of this plague. However, if the adults are ‘busy’ and will not read these books, I am sure that the youths will. Thus, light stories for children, poems and dramatic sketches can be encouraged in schools. Government at all levels can commission individuals and writing groups to create literary works which will touch on the dangers and aftermath of this all-consuming disease. In doing this, such literary expressions need to be written in the local languages and English, and even Pidgin English. It is important to mention that ‘litaids’ is an umbrella-term for more than one literary option or input available to the creative and artistic writer and performer. We could have ‘prosaids’, ‘poemaids’, ‘versaids’ and ‘dramaids’ for the respective practices in prose, poetry and drama. Of sufficient interest is ‘dramaids’ which does not only involve enacting playlets and operatic acts for raising awareness by a professional group of theatre artists and trainees but also the realization of the aims of ‘dramaids’ through the people whose consciousness it is aimed at raising. In other words, such people, such community members can be encouraged to take up roles in a dramatic act meant to raise their awareness of the dangers of the HIV/AIDS tragedy. Ngugi Wa Thiong’o tried something like what is being proposed here for ‘dramaids’ in Kenya in the late 70s and was stopped half-way out of the fear that an unimpeded conscientization of the masses over their wretched plight through ‘co-operative drama’ may lead them to revolt against the establishment [(Ngugi Detained (1981:74-79); and Barrel of a Pen (1983:39-51)]. An experiment similar to Ngugi’s Kamiriithu People’s Theatre was briefly pursued by students of Drama at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in 1977. According to Olu Obafemi, the wasan theatre of ABU focused on themes which include, ‘the domestic problems which face the farmers and workers in the community, the massive exploitation of, and encroachment upon, the rural farmers by so-called urban agricultural experts, the alarming rural drift to pseudo-urban industrial centers in search of labour” (1988: 58). It was based on the one-off successes of the ABU wasan project (Abah 1984: 16-25; Abah 1985: 42-53; Ewu 1986: 66-72) that led Nwachukwu-Agbada (1989:5-9) to propose similar village theatrical performances towards solving such rural draw-backs as superstitution, water shortage, health issues, nutritional problems, corruption in village and clan leadership, male oppression of the female, women seclusion as in the purdah system, female education, polygamy, child marriage, theft, drunkenness, personal and communal hygiene etc. Targetted at striking people’s ire against HIV/AIDS, plays of the ABU wasan experimental category will yield tremendous positive results. 5. Filmaids In Nigeria at the moment, home films have become quite popular. However, while the proverbial houses burn, Nigerian film-makers are busy chasing rats. This is not to say that all Nigerian films must focus on HIV/AIDS; what we are saying is that there is a need to use the films more than has been done in the recent past to stir the people’s consciousness with respect to this social cankerworm of a deadly disease. If people cannot read books, they Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 26 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 can at least watch performances which put AIDS in the front-burner of artistic discourse. For sure, nothing can be more enlightening and educative as films, if properly handled. 6. Songaids If AIDS is taken to the center-stage of national discourse, one of the fall-outs shall be the blossoming of songs which will reflect concern on one aspect or the other about HIV/AIDS. One is aware of Oris Wiliki’s ‘One Drop’; however, his one record album on HIV/AIDS is like a drop in the ocean. There is a need to have many more musicians and songsters releasing discs and cassettes on this ailment. The campaign for such a medium will be even more effective if the challenge of producing such songs is taken home to the village songsters. Traditional dance groups which could be helpful in such a campaign would include Udje music among the Urhobo; Abigbo or Okoroshia among the Igbo; efe/gelede among the Yoruba; maroka among the Hausa etc. The more the songster sounds provocative, anguished and alarmist the better the message, and the more the issue of HIV/AIDS is given the attention that it deserves. This is more so because the world is about to face a major disaster which touches on its survival and longevity, its economic and social stability, its peace and emotional balance as the abode of homo sapiens, the abode of the most rational of all beings, the abode of man. 7. Conclusion I seem to hear the voices of patriots who think that we ought not as an association to spearhead the ‘edification’ of the English language in Nigeria. However, it is not true that promoting English in Nigeria is promoting Britain or the British culture. English is now a world heritage. Our attitude should be Achebe’s: “I have been given this language and I intend to use it.” For now this is the language that prepares us to participate in the globalization brouhaha about which we can do little to stop or re-direct. Secondly, it is not as if one has easy solutions to the issues already raised in this paper which include, the need for a central articulation and recording of researches in English studies in Nigeria, organization of workshops and seminars for English and literature teachers, organization of computer-assisted learning programmes in English studies, the codification of Nigerian English and Pidgin English, the pursuit of an orthography of the language of SMS texting, the use of language and literature in the sensitization of the Nigerian populace against HIV/AIDS etc. These issues are indeed of tall order nature although they are not insurmountable; what is needed is the will to take off, even on a small scale. Finally, to be merely silent or to meet yearly to present well written papers is no longer enough. We must “march right in front”, as Achebe would advocate for the African writer. We must begin to show leadership in any area of life that sufficiently makes an impact on our collective lives such as HIV/AIDS. This will ensure a place for us as an academic group in the scheme of things. We must do something, how modestly we do it based on the resources at our disposal is not important. We must indicate that we have a practical stake at problems confronting the larger society. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 27 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 References Abah, Oga S. (1984) The Crises of Urban Street Theatre. Saiwa (Zaria) 2. ______ . (1985) Intention and Practice: The Points of Divergence in the Samaru Project. Saiwa (Zaria) 3. Awonusi, V.O. (2004) ‘Little’ Englishes and the Law of Energetics: A Sociolinguistic Study of SMS Text Messages as Register and Discourse in Nigerian English. Awonusi, V. O. and Babalola, E. A. The Domestication of English in Nigeria. Lagos: University of Lagos Press. Banjo, A. (1995) On Codifying Nigerian English: Research So Far. Bamgbose, A. Banjo, A. and Thomas, A. New Englishes: A West African Perspective. Ibadan: Mosuro, pp. 203-231. Carroll, J.P. (1961) The Study of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Egbokhare, F.O. (2001) The Nigerian Lingustic Ecology and the Changing Profiles of Nigerian Pidgin. In Igboanusi, H. (Ed.) Language Attitude and Language Conflicts in West Africa. Ibadan: Enicrownfit Publishers, pp. 105-124. Elugbe, B. and A.P. Omamor (1991) Nigerian Pidgins: Background and Prospects. Ibadan: Heinemann. Ewu, Rachel (1986) Drama and Women’s Emancipation: ABU Studio Theatre Experiment. Work in Progress (Zaria) 4. Fuglesang, A. (1984) The Myth of People’s Ignorance. Development and Dialogue No. 1-2. Ngugi Wa Thiong’o (1981) Ngugi Detained: A Writer’s Prison Diary. London: Heinemann. ______. (1983) Barrel of a Pen: Resistance to Repression in Neocolonial Kenya. London: New Beacon Books. Nwachukwu-Agbada, J.O.J. (1989) Drama and Theatre for Rural Emancipation in Nigeria: A Modest Proposal. Nigeria Magazine Vol. 57, Nos. 1 and 2. Obafemi, O. (1988) The Development of Nigerian Dramatic Literature. Ogunbiyi, Y. (Ed.) Perspectives on Nigerian Literature: 1700 to the Present Vol. 1. Lagos: Guardian Books Ltd. Okoro, O. (2004) Codifying Nigerian English: Some Practical Problems and Labelling. In Awonusi, V. O. and Babalola, E. A. The Domestication of English in Nigeria. Lagos: University of Lagos Press. Omorodion, I. (2002) Computer-Assisted Language Learning: What the Language Teacher Needs to Know. In Babatunde, S. T. and Adeyanju, D. S. Language, Meaning and Society. Ilorin: Haytee Press, pp. 96-110. Owen, U. (Ed.) Index on Censorship Vol. 33, No. 1. Prah, K. K. (1980) The State and Traditional Responses to Drought among the Tswana. In Kiros, F. (Ed.) East African Social Science Consultative Group Conference Proceedings. _____. (1995) African Languages for the Mass Education of Africans. Bonn: German Foundation for International Development (DFID). Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 28 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 LITERARY STUDIES AND LITERACY ENHANCEMENT LITERATURE IN ENGLISH AND LITERACY ATTAINMENT IN NIGERIAN POLYTECHNICS: THE EXAMPLE OF WALE OKEDIRAN’S THE BOYS AT THE BORDER O. B. Ogundiran Lagos State Polytechnic Abstract This paper discusses the merits of a new method of teaching reading comprehension through literature in English to polytechnic students. This has been described as “reading and title-probing method”. The researcher administered the method on the National Diploma Year One Insurance Class of the Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu, Lagos State. The literary text used was The Boys at the Border by Wale Okediran. It was observed that the reading and title probing method, not only sustained the concentration of the students, but, also, boosted their interest in The Boys at the Border. Consequently, they wrote about the plot, language, theme and the characterization of the novel more knowledgeably and convincingly, unlike the previous classes of students who were not able to speak or write well about the same novel taught to them by the researcher. Hence, the “reading and titleprobing” method of teaching literature in English is highly recommended to all teachers of literature English to students taking professional courses in polytechnics and other Nigerian higher institutions. Key words: Wale Okediran’s The Boys at the Border, reading and titleprobing method, literature in English, literacy attainment 1. Introduction Literature is an effective motivating channel through which competence in the use of English is attained. The attainment of competence is aided further by the method adopted by the literature teacher. The teaching and learning of literature in English in the Polytechnic poses a major challenge to both the students and the lecturers. The word ‘literature’ is derived from Latin: literature, which means, “writing”. According to the Cambridge International Dictionary of English, Literature is written artistic works, particularly those with a high and lasting artistic value. Teaching and learning of literature in the polytechnic should not be done with the purpose of art for art’s sake. The intention should be primarily to help the students improve on their competence in use of English. To achieve that, the researcher downplayed the methods of teaching literature like the “questioning method”, (Richard et al. 1974) “reading aloud by the teacher and discussion”, Bright and McGregor’s (1979) “paragraph summarization technique”, “Take-your-book-and-read method” (Ogunnaike 2002) and “creative method” (Ogunsiji 2004). From this evolved the “reading and title-probing method” which was experimented on one hundred and twenty students, representative of the National Diploma students of the Lagos State Polytechnic. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 29 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 2. Language Learning and Literature Language learning and literature are closely interrelated although the primary aim of literature is aesthetics or artistic response from the readers or listeners. Literature as “Language committed to writing” cannot be ignored by both the teachers and the learners of English Language. This is because the basic language skills of listening, reading and writing are directly acquired by the learners of language from literature. In fact, in drama and poetry, the language skills of speaking and listening are directly activated. Throwing more light on the language-literature connection, Egbe (1981:11) acknowledges the role of literature in the development of language skills in a child. According to him, literature will build up his/her cognition and communicative skills. According to Williams (1990:48), the learner of English as a second language, if exposed to literature will internalize and consciously adopt the rhythm of natural speech, economy and richness of diction, rhetorical and organizational device from drama, poetry and prose. In the same vein Unoh (1981:17) believes strongly that a learner of English language through literature will achieve cultural assimilation, language development and competence, conflict resolution, emotional development and stability, development of positive and good attitude to life, entertainment, relaxation and the sharing of vicarious experiences of positive value, a stable and mature personality. According to Unoh and Ubahakwe (1979:364), the study of English language and literature should be integrated so that learners could develop a good creative writing – an index of language competence. Vincent (1979:126) asserts that the learner of a language acquires self-realization and awareness of the world around him/her transmitted to him/her through literature. According to him, “Literature is a rich store of language”, which, in effect, will facilitate the acquisition of competence in the language. Literature will continue to enhance language learning because literature represents life and presents role models of language arts to its readers. In effect, the readers naturally imbibe the language arts provided by literature to improve on his mastery of the language and enjoy the totality of the plot. This paper is not concerned with the examination of the use of all the three genres of literature – prose, drama and poetry – to the students in the Polytechnic. Rather, it will concentrate on the application of prose to the language needs of the Polytechnic students, whose language performance effect is brought to focus in this study. This is because The Boys at the Border (a novel) is in the genre of literature called ‘prose’ or fiction. Uwaifo (1979:196), quoting David Duchess, writes, “Fiction enables us to explore the recesses of man’s head and heart with a touch. Literature is here presented as artificial light directed, in our case here, to explore the store of language. In addition to the searchlight on the store of language, literature also exposes the students to other cultural values than what they already held on entry to the study of prose. The students can be given an opportunity to assess the new cultures in relation to their own and go ahead to form an opinion of what is culturally good or bad. 3. The Goals of Literature Learning and Teaching Generally, literature teaching and learning seek to achieve many goals. According to Alo (1995:102) the goals of literature teaching and learning may include a. acquisition of reading, speaking and analytical skills b. acquisition of cultural, humanitarian, service and ethical value, c. acquisition of social skills of initiating and negotiating relationships. d. acquisition of the knowledge of culture and language. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 30 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 None of these goals can be achieved without a good understanding of the language of prose to which we are exposing our students. The general aim of introducing literature into the syllabus of polytechnics is to aid the students to understand well the use of English and finally acquire all the language skills to apply to their studies in fields such as Agriculture, Business studies, Environment, Fine Arts, Engineering, Science and technology. According to Okunuga (1979:267), these skills will provide the Polytechnic students with “the tools for acquiring and verbalizing” technical concepts in their various studies. It is necessary, we repeat here, that the language skills are listening, speaking, reading and writing. The application of these skills by the students to their various studies is usually on a regular basis as the students have to listen to their lectures (using the listening skill) and later read (study) the lectures for the purpose of examinations. It is these goals in particular that the introduction of literature in the ‘Use of English syllabus’ seems to serve. The National Board for Technical Education (hereinafter called NBTE), the organization charged with the management of the polytechnic education, prescribed the following for the National Diploma (ND) students of Literature in English: · Give the meaning of literature · Trace the development of literature · Differentiate between the literary genres · Explain the functions of literature · Explain the terminology of prose fiction, e.g. plot, setting, characterization etc. · Answer an essay question on a given novel Our ‘given novel’ in this paper, is Wale Okediran’s The Boys at the Border. 4. How to Teach Literature-in-English Many scholars have suggested what to teach and how to teach in a literature lesson, with a view to realizing the foregoing goals. Bright and McGregor (1970:202) postulated that to teach play and poetry efficiently, the teacher must use play reading movement and mime production (dramatization), reading aloud of the poem by the teacher, to be followed by discussion. According to Ellis and Tomlinson (1980:181), understanding and retention of the story can be achieved through: · Silent reading by the students. · Reading aloud by the teacher · Listening to relevant tape recordings · Wh- questioning by the teacher; · Chapter summaries of the story and · Chain stories, that is, when a student tells a section of the story until s/he is stopped for another student to continue. It should be noted that these are six distinct methods of teaching the prose. Only very few of them, for instance, (a) and (b) may be combined. However, when the lesson is specifically designed to teach ‘plot’, (d) can be employed: the lecturer can ask a ‘wh-question’ which will enable the student, in groups and pairs, to discuss the answer to the wh-questions. Ogunsiji (2004:130) proposed what he called “the creative methods of teaching literature”, His creative methods include assignment dramatization, discussion group and project methods. The methods, he prescribed, “should also be employed in teaching prose”, particularly for the students to achieve communicative competence. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 31 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 5. THE BOYS AT THE BORDER The Boys at the Border is a novel written by Wale Okediran, a medical doctor, and currently a member of the House of Representatives, the lower Chamber of the National Assembly, Nigeria. The novelist artistically exploited the immediate environment of his birth, “Oke Ogun”, a border area between Benin and Nigeria, to write the novel. The thematic pre-occupation of the novel is the exposition of societal ills of Nigeria; the ills, which spread from home, office and market to the border. The attention is focused much more on the border, particularly the border between Benin Republic and the Republic of Nigeria. The novel is an expose of the corruption with which the Department of Customs and Excise is identified. Lati Baba, a ‘professional’ smuggler, is at the centre of the corruption that is rife at the border. He is ready to pay any amount of money for his contrabands to pass through the customs’ checkpoint without interception. When his ten trucks arrived outside Iganna around ten in the night, Bayo told Peter Ikoku, both of them customs men, how much bribe Lati Baba had paid to secure the illegal passage of smuggled goods. “Yes”. Ten trucks. You remember he gave you twenty thousand naira at two thousand naira per truck” said Bayo. Any suspicion that the illegal passage could be hindered is usually viewed with anger and may be met with homicide. In fact, Samuel, a superintendent of customs was killed by Atere, one of the notorious smugglers. It was the death of Samuel that led to some spiral events. The death of Samuel brought many customs men against one another. Mr. Emeka Emodi, the director of Customs and Excise Department – and his wife, Gladys, do not agree on how to avenge Samuel’s death. Mrs. Gladys Emodi organized the assassination of one of the smugglers, Lati Baba, but she failed. Lati Baba was the smuggler whom Mrs. Gladys Emodi believed, killed her brother, Samuel Adigwe. The problem Mr. Emeka Emodi had with the Head of State was that Emeka had not arrested any smuggler since the Head of State gave him the instruction to do so. What Emeka Emodi claimed was that the Customs and Excise Department was understaffed. It was on the basis of this report to the president, which was not verified by Emeka’s deputies when interrogated by the supreme Military Council, that he was dismissed. The take over started a show of hostility towards Emeka and his household by the new Director – Alhaji Jibo. Mrs. Gladys Emeka rose up stoutly to the occasion. She set up Alhaji Jibo whose conversation over the bribe he was expecting from Lati Baba was recorded by Maria (Jibo’s Secretary) in a tape recorder hidden in Alhaji’s office. Mrs. Glady Emodi used the recorded speech effectively before the Head of State, which eventually led to the dismissal of Alhaji Jibo and the assumption of office by Alhaji Hanayo as the new Director of the Department of Customs and Excise. It was Alhaji Hanayo who restored all the rights of Mr. Emeka Emodi which Alhaji Jibo had withdrawn. The story of The Boys at the Border is the story of Nigeria – the setting of the novel. There is corruption in every facet of life in Nigeria. In the army, in the police, in the Customs and Excise and in government, there is corruption. The author uses various images to achieve the apt depiction of corruption in the novel. A detailed analysis of the images is not our concern here. This paper is restricted to a statement of the best way to teach the novel to the students. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 32 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 6. The “Title-probing Method” This method involves reading each page, or each chapter to discover the message of the title of the novel, that is, The Boys at the Border. In the use of the method, we infused the ‘Wh-questioning method”. The Wh-questions used include. · Who are the boys at the Border on this page or in this chapter? · What is the relationship of the speakers/discussants on this page or in the chapter and the Boys at the Border? · What are the boys at the border doing here? · Where is the border in this chapter? Initially, the use of the method was strange to the students who were already used to story narration, vocal reading and the treatment of past examination questions which we completely abandoned. We were aware that the use of the method they were used to would not generate (1) the enjoyment of the story of the novel, (2) the adaptation of vocabulary and expression from the novel to their suitable context, and (3) the need to write at every lesson or every other lesson (subject to the dictate of the teacher) the short answers to our ‘Whquestions’ exemplified above. Subsequently, we all began to adopt and adapt to the method and the lesson became lively and effective. The students were aware they had to write short answers to the questions, which we had to grade on a weekly basis. One advantage of the method is that it improves the literacy skill of the students. In the lettering method (handwriting), spelling, diction influenced by the novel, expression and message communication, the students will perform better. Another advantage is that this method will generate a lot of interest or desire in the students to read further in order to be able to answer the questions, which bother on the title of the novel. 7. Discussion of Findings In an attempt to commence the use of the title-probing method to teach the ND I Insurance Students the message and other literary issues of The Boys at the Border, we administered a diagnostic essay titled “The Daily Border Activities between Nigeria and another African country”. There are one hundred and twenty (120) students in the class. Eight (8) of them were able to write a page each on the diagnostic essay leading them to the titleprobing method. Forty-Six (46) of them wrote one paragraph of two to four sentences, and thirty of them wrote down the topic of the essay and wrote just one sentence. Thirty-six students wrote down the topic and immediately after it wrote “No idea”. The foregoing picture shows that the lexicon of the students on border activities was very low. On the second treatment of the same topic by the students ten weeks after the study of the novel, their writing method changed. They could write more conceptually and make use of more new words directly lifted from the novel. 80 of them merely remembered to write some of their correct answers to the ‘Wh – questions’ used in the Title-Probing method. 66 of them merely remembered to write some of their correct answers to the ‘Wh- questions’ used in title-probing method to discover the activities at the Benin-Nigerian border. Among those who wrote more than two pages. thirty (30) of the students wrote about the activities likely to occur in Nigeria – Benin, Nigeria – Ghana and Nigeria – Chad borders. The remaining twenty four (24) did not participate owing to lateness or absence from the class. The role of literature as a vehicle of literacy is corroborated by our study. The students who wrote very well displayed good lexical choice of items in their correct British spellings as are found in the novel. For example, the following were commonly chosen from Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 33 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 the novel. Superintendent collector of customs, safe passage, custom officers, a truck, the country’s borders (p.7), smuggled out, Beninois counterparts (p.9), head driver, impatient to get rich” (p.15). Usage, which includes lexical items of office politics: “one’s detractors and some tribalist panels report (p.92), past good record, scapegoat, lose his job (p. 94) committee set up (p. 99), etc. We found out that the study of literature; particularly the prose genre can provide controlled information to enable the students write clearly and comprehensively, for instance, the answer to a wh- question like ‘What do the boys at the border do in the hospital? The lexical items will be provided from the novel, especially in the conversation of Mr. Emeka Emodi and the medical doctors who treated him in the hospital. Thus the study of prose will enhance the development of vocabulary in every field of endeavour the novelist may lead the readers. One important problem we discovered was that the lesson almost degenerated to a free-for-all talk shop. We nearly lost control of many of the lessons. However, each time there was to be a written exercise of the oral version, the class discipline reappeared. 8. Conclusion and Recommendation The significance of the title-probing method is that it is capable of keeping the students on their toes always. The teacher himself must concentrate. This is the method that naturally commences its probe from the surface message to the underlying message. Both the students and the teacher are charged with the task of discovering the metaphors of the title of the novel. This encourages deep thought and creative responses to the novel as a whole. The title-probing method is recommended for the development of language skills of the students and for the development of the psychomotor, cognition and affection in our students, especially those in the University, College of Education and the Polytechnic who are expected to be leaders of tomorrow. References Adeyanju, J. (1987) Teaching Literature and Human Values in ESL: Objectives and Selection. English Language Teaching Journal (ELT), Vol XXXII No. 2 Alo, M. A. (1995) Applied English Linguistics: An Introduction. Port-Harcourt, AEDDY Link,pp. 100 – 109. Bright, J. A. and McGregor, G. P. (1970) Teaching English as a Second Language, London, ELBS & Longman, pp. 201 – 235. Cambridge International Dictionary of English (1995) London: Cambridge University Press. Egbe, D. I. (1981) Learning English from Literature. In Unoh S. (Ed) Junior Literature in English, Ibadan: O.U.P. Ellis, R. and Tomlinson B (1980) Teaching Secondary English, A guide to the Teaching of English as a second Language. London: Longman, pp. 179 – 187. Gwing, T. (1990) Language Skills through Literature. FORUM Vol. XXVIII, No. 3 Ogunnaike J. (2002) Challenges of the teaching and Learning of Literature in Nigeria Secondary Schools in Lawal, A. et al. (Eds) Perspectives on Applied Linguistics in Language and Literature. Ibadan: Stirling-Horden Publishers,pp. 334 – 344. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 34 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Ogunsiji, A. (2003) Development of EL2 Learners’ Communicative Competence through Literature in English” In Oyeleye, L. and Olateju, M. (Eds.) Readings in Language and Literature. Ile-Ife: Obafemi Awolowo University Press, pp. 127– 135. Okediran, W. (1991) The Boys at the Borders, Ibadan: Spectrum Okunuga C.B.A. (1979) English for Science and Technology (EST). In Ubahakwe, E. (Ed.), The Teaching of English Studies Readings for Colleges and Universities. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press, pp. 267–297. Rivers, W. M. and Temperley, M. S. (1977) A Practical Guide to the Teaching of English As a Second or Foreign Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Taylor, R (1981) Understanding the Elements of Literature. Macmillan. Vincent, T. (1979) The Teaching of Modern African Poetry in Schools and Colleges. In Ubahakwe, E. Op. cit. Williams, D. (1990) English Language Teaching: An Integrated Approach. Ibadan: Spectrum Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 35 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 LANGUAGE AWARENESS AND LITERACY AWARENESS WORD STRESS IN NIGERIAN ENGLISH AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR NIGERIAN’S ENGLISH ORAL LITERACY Prof. R. O. ATOYE Department of English Obafemi Awolowo University Abstract This paper argues that the major distinguishing feature of Nigerian spoken English is its deviant word stress. It observes that this deviant word stress, itself largely a carry-over from the progressive stress shifting tendency of Yoruba English, is easily observable in the English speech of Nigerians of diverse language backgrounds, linguistic competence and educational levels. Exemplifying the deviant stress with words from radio and television broadcasts, classroom lectures and casual conversations, the paper laments that it detracts from the otherwise high English language literacy level of Nigerians. Key words: Nigerian spoken English, word stress, deviant stress, oral literacy 1. Introduction For the purpose of this essay, literacy acquires a much wider denotation than the conventional ability to read and write. It refers to the language users’ overall linguistic competence in their language. It therefore denotes a more than incipient level of proficiency in all the linguistic skills of writing, reading, listening/comprehension and speaking, especially the last two, which are normally employed in the communal use of language to perform everyday communicative social functions in both formal and non-formal settings. Thus, nowadays, persons who cannot effectively and efficiently express themselves orally in English are described as non-literate in that language, irrespective of their writing/reading ability in that language. Therefore, speaking, which is the oldest, the most natural, the most universal and most frequently used of all the language skills, is given precedence in this paper as the most obvious index of a person’s literacy level. Oral literacy (oracy) in English, within the conceptual framework of this paper, therefore, refers to the ability to use English orally with as high level of conformity to its lexical, syntactic, and its segmental and prosodic phonetic/phonological norms as determined by the educated native speakers’ usage. All instances of deviation from that norm in the use of English at any of those levels, therefore, constitute a veritable signal of poor literacy in the language. Syntactic errors such as those involving errors of Subject/verb concord, Noun/Number concord, Noun/Pronoun concord or Verb/Tense concord are indicators of a poor literacy level in English, whether in the written or spoken medium. By that same token, errors of wrong pronunciation, be it at the segmental level, such as the inaccurate realization of vowel or consonant phonemes, consonant clusters and inappropriate consonant and vowel elision and/or insertion or prosodic (supra-segmental) ones, such as wrong word stress or sentence intonation, all of which are potential problems pertaining to the oral use of language, are indicators of poor oral literacy. This paper’s preoccupation with deviant word stress as the Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 36 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 single most telling feature that sets Nigerian English apart from educated British English (currently adopted as the teaching model in Nigerian education) is informed by the natural precedence of oral literacy over reading and writing abilities that are traditionally associated with the notion of literacy or linguistic competence. 2. Nigerian English Literacy Nigerian English is one of the institutionalized regional varieties of English commonly referred to as the New Englishes. Some other examples of the new Englishes are Indian English, Chinese English, Malaysian and Singapore English. Nigerian English, like any of the other new Englishes, differs from British English in the written form, particularly in lexis, syntax, semantics and pragmatics and idiomatic expression. In the spoken medium, Nigerian English differs from the British Standard English or RP (Received Pronunciation) both in the segmental and supra-segmental aspects (Afolayan 1968, Atoye 1980, Adejuwon 2003). It has, however, been observed that the segmental differences between RP and most of the New Englishes are of very little significance for mutual intelligibility between native speakers of English, on the one hand, and the speakers of the New Englishes on the other. The poor intelligibility rating of Nigerian English, like that of any of the other New Englishes, is, therefore, largely accounted for in terms of the unique prosodic patterns exhibited by it rather than by any failure to identify the wrongly pronounced segmental phonemes. For one thing, many of the English language segmental phonemes are also in the phonetic inventory of the native languages of the non-native speakers of English. For another, those English sound segments that are not in the phonetic system of the non-native speaker’s native languages are very easily learned by them. Even where they are not successfully learnt by the non-native English speaker, any potential intelligibility problem arising from the nonnative speaker’s improper pronunciation of such strange sound segments is easily disambiguated by the phonetic environment in which they occur. For example, the pronunciation of ‘father’ as /fada/ in the English speech of such a non-native speaker does not lead to a breakdown in communication as it is disambiguated by the syntactic structure and the lexical as well as the phonetic environment of the word and the sound segments. It is easily recognized for what it is – an instance of poor wrong sound segment pronunciation, but it does not impede communication. In any case, most learners of English as a second or foreign language, except those at the very incipient or elementary stages of learning, get over such problems. The prosodies, in contrast, have been identified as the “final hurdle which a vast majority of speakers of English as a Second Language never manage to cross (Banjo, 1979). This opinion is also supported by Cruz Ferreira (1989) who observes that most nonnative users of English, including those with a near native-speaker command of the language, have problems with the English prosodies, particularly the two major English prosodies of Stress and Intonation. Though deviant Intonation has been shown to inhibit or adversely affect the intelligibility level of Nigerian English (Atoye, 2004, Adejuwon, 2003), the deviant stress pattern imposed on a large number of words in this national English variety appears, more than anything other linguistic feature, to account for a great degree of poor intelligibility of Nigerian English. This is quite plausible as intonation is, to a very large extent, disambiguated both by the situational and structural linguistic contexts of the spoken language. Wrong stress, in contrast, can very easily lead to a misunderstanding of the meaning of a particular word and, consequently, the meaning of a stretch of utterance in which it occurs. A well known example is the misunderstanding caused by the shifting of the primary stress from the final to the initial syllable in ”themselves” by speakers of Indian Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 37 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 English, which reportedly led some native speakers of English to perceive and consequently interpret it as “damsels” (Bansal, 1976). Consider the gross communication consequences of such a seemingly minor error of pronunciation when such a short sentences as “The boys were talking to themselves”, itself a syntactically illogical English construction often used by Nigerian and other non-native speakers of English, is rendered or interpreted as. “The boys were talking to damsels”, which is a much more syntactically logical English construction, going by the grammar of nativespeaker English. Because of the very foreign English accent occasioned in Nigerian English by its pervasive deviant stress and its potentials for reducing its intelligibility, this paper draws the attention of the teachers of English, here assembled at this international conference, to this neglected aspect of Nigerian English speech. Attention is focused on the -ism, -ize, -ate and - fy words, partly because of their preponderance amongst the generally mis-stressed words and partly on account of the rule governed nature of the deviant stress assignment on the words in this category of English words, which tends to imbue their wrongly pronounced Nigerian version with a stamp of authority. Nigerian English is treated as a homogenous variety of English in terms of stress assignment, in spite of the documented differences in the segmental make-up amongst its many sub-varieties such as Hausa English, Yoruba English and Ibo English. This is quite practical as all those sub-varieties exhibit a greater unity in their prosodic traits in terms of intonation and word stress than in their segmental features. 3. The Source of Deviant WS Contrastive linguists like to trace linguistic code differences to the difference between the systems of a source language and those of the target language (Weinreich, 1953, Lado, 1957, Odlin, 1989). Going by this established principle of linguistic interference, it can be claimed that the deviant word stress pattern of NE is, in part at least, traceable to the influence of the prosodic features, particularly the tone system, of the indigenous languages of the Nigerian speakers of English, especially that of the Yoruba language. The deviant progressive stress shifting pattern of Nigerian English has therefore been traced to the tone pattern of the Yoruba language (Atoye, 1989). This dominant influence of the stress pattern of Yoruba-English on Nigerian English can also be explained historically as a result of many factors. One of those factors is the major role of Yoruba-speaking bilinguals in the dissemination of spoken English both in the Nigerian education industry as well as in the electronic mass media. The Nigerian mass media at its inception, featured more Yoruba- English speakers for a long time, compared to broadcasters from other language backgrounds, particularly in the WNTV at Ibadan, which was reputed to be the first TV house not only in Nigeria but in the whole of Tropical Africa, and from where the typical Yoruba English wrong stress pattern was disseminated to other Nigerian speakers of English. Coming on air in 1959, the WNBS/WNTV, with its preponderance of speakers of Yoruba English, set the pace and in the process, indirectly transferred the prosodic patterns of Yoruba-English to the rest of the country. In addition, a large number of the broadcasters and teachers from other language backgrounds in Nigeria were either born in Yoruba Lagos, schooled there or trained and worked in the Nigerian Broadcasting Service (NBS), which operated only from Lagos,. Add to these, the fact that Lagos, being the seat of power as the nation’s capital, was, for several years, the production and distribution center of the nations’ work force, either in the Civil Service or the Education industry. Consequently, a very great part of the Nigerian teaching work-force was made up of teachers of Yoruba origin or of other Nigerian nationals Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 38 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 who spoke Yoruba or were, in one way or another, influenced by Yoruba speakers of English. The siting of the nation’s first university college at Ibadan in 1948 also contributed to the spread of Yoruba English pronunciation as the local language pattern influenced the students’ linguistic and other social and behavioural patterns. Listen to the English speech of the average Nigerian today, irrespective of his/her mother tongue background or ethnicity, you are likely to hear the pronunciation of “purchase” as “purCHASE” with the primary stress on the final syllable instead of “PURchase” with the stress on the initial syllable, or “identiFY” instead of “iDENtify” all of which conform to the progressive stress shifting tendency of Yoruba- English and which, as observed by Atoye (1991), has become a distinguishing feature of Nigerian spoken English (NSE). 4. Samples of Deviant Word Stress in NSE As pointed out in previous studies, many words are correctly stressed in NSE, either because they are correctly learned or because they do not satisfy the conditions for stress shifting. For example, monosyllabic words (such as house, book and laugh) have an invariant stress pattern, and can, therefore, not possibly be mis-stressed. In addition, the native speaker pronunciation of a large number of bi-syllabic words such as report, dismiss and conceive, which are stressed on the final syllable, appears to have fulfilled some of the conditions for stress shifting even in their correct pronunciation. They are stressed on the final syllable and are, therefore, correctly stressed in NSE. Furthermore, tri-syllabic and poly-syllabic words which are not stressed on the initial or on an early syllable in BSE are correctly stressed in NSE. For example, -tion words such as exemplification, examination, rustication which are stressed on the penultimate syllable tend to be correctly stressed in NSE as their stress pattern conforms to the stress pattern of that English dialect. In contrast, words that are stressed on the initial or a relatively early syllable in BSE, such as COMbat, PURchase, CERtify, doMEsticate, and BAPtism are generally wrongly stressed in Nigerian English as they are subject to the late-syllable stressing rule of NSE. Below are some examples of the classes of words that are generally wrongly stressed in Nigerian English to illustrate the pervasiveness of that tendency as well as the enormity of the difference it makes between Nigerian English and native-speaker English. The examples below, which are organized according to word-ending, were randomly collected from the radio and television broadcasts of the speeches of Nigerian politicians (including Federal Ministers, State Commissioners and Local Government Council Chairmen, Diplomats, Senior Civil Servants, University Professors, Bankers, Engineers and other high-ranking Nigerian professionals and sundry technocrats over the past ten years. 1. –ISM Words: triBAlism for TRIbalism canniBAlism for CAnnibalism jourNAlism for JOURnalism bapTIsm for BAptism sociAlism for SOcialism natioNAlism for NAtionalism barBArism for BARbarism chauVInism for CHAUvinism coMMUnism for COmmunism (from COmmune) 2. –IZE Words: Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 39 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 mobiLISE for MObilize utiLISE for Utilize anaLYSE for Analyse categoRISE for CAtegorise populaRISE for POpularise maxiMISE for MAximise paupeRISE for PAUperise privaTISE for PRIvatise miniMISE for MInimise recogNISE for REcognize diagoNISE for DIAgonise (dis)orgaNISE for (dis)ORganize marginaLISE for MARginalise adverTISE for ADvertise 3. –ATE Words instiGATE for INstigate motiVATE for MOtivate permeATE for PERmeate extermiNATE for exTERminate demonSTRATE for DEmonstrate necessiTATE for neCEssitate peneTRAte for PEnetrate palpiTATE for PALpitate discrimiNATE for diSCRIminate captiVATE for CAPtivate enumeRATE for eNUmerate estiMATE for EStimate cultiVATE for CULtivate exaggeRATE for eXAggerate 4. –FY Words identiFY for iDENtify nulliFY for NUllify qualiFY for QUAlify ratiFY for RAtify certiFY for CERtify clariFY for CLArify justiFY for JUStify quantiFY for QUANtify signiFY for SIgnify beautiFY for BEAUtify magniFY for MAgnify As observed by Atoye (1989), apart from the word classes above, many other English words are also regularly mis-stressed, some of them in accordance with the progressive stressshifting tendency described above. Here are a few examples: taLENted for TAlented (from TAlent) diffiCUlty for DIfficulty (from difficult) Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 40 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 faCULty for FAculty CompreHENDfor COMprehend coLLEAgue for COlleague POlice for poLICE ComBAT for COMbat 5. Phonological Implications/Consequences In 4.1 above, the –ism nominalization morpheme as a stress-neutral or stressinsensitive morpheme, normally does not affect the stress structure of the stem to which it is affixed. Thus ‘JOURNal + -ism is stressed on the initial syllable as JOURnalism. In Nigerian English, however, the –ism morpheme is realized as a stress-sensitive morpheme in jourNAlism, moving the stress to the penultimate or ante-penultimate syllable in the process and, , making the vowel a strong, even a long one, instead of a half-open weak central vowel –the schwa. The phonetic/phonological effect of the wrong stress assignment in these words is far reaching. First, a syllable that is normally stressed in a word becomes unstressed while a syllable that is not normally stressed becomes stressed. Secondly, a vowel that is normally lax is rendered tense as it is wrongly made to function in a strong syllable instead of a weak or un-stressed syllable. As a result, a vowel that is otherwise tense is rendered lax as it is made to function in a weak syllable. Thirdly, a syllable that should normally attract a relatively high voice pitch because of the primary stress placed on it becomes relatively low in voice pitch while another syllable in the word is heard as relatively louder and longer than the other syllables. Thus, the final syllable in a –fy word such as “ratify” is made louder than the initial syllable which should normally be the loudest in that word. The result is a misplaced prominence on that syllable in the word. Similarly, the normally strong first vowel / : / in “journalism” is weakened to a Schwa while the normally weak second vowel is wrongly tensed, made louder and longer than the medial, resulting in the wrong vowel quality and quantity. This inaccurate vowel weakening and strengthening, in addition to the inaccurate alternation of high and low pitch levels and the deviant juxtaposition of relatively loud and silent syllables, all combine to give Nigerian spoken English its much talked about un- English rhythm (Tiffen 1974, Adejuwon 2003). A spoken sentence or short speech in Nigerian English, therefore, has the tendency to become extremely un-intelligible to non- Nigerian listeners when word after word in it is characterized by the cumulation of that rather un-English word and sentence rhythm. The overall result of the general distortion of the normal rhythm of English speech is the loss of effective communication between a speaker of Nigerian English and a native-speaker. This rather un-English rhythm of Nigerian spoken English is clearly noticeable when Nigerians take part in international events such as diplomatic meetings, conferences and symposia. Participants from other parts of the world often get the impression that the Nigerian speaks a different language from English - or at the best, a different kind of English - while the Nigerian, on his part, fails to fully understand the English speech of his nativespeaker interlocutors. The impression often created in such forums is that the well known very high, native-like literacy level of the educated Nigerian in written English is not matched by his or her demonstrated low literacy level in the spoken medium of the language. In a nutshell, it creates the wrong impression that Nigerians are not really literate in English. 6. Recommendation To avoid the unpleasant consequences of the deviant word stress and other deviant prosodic characteristics of Nigerian spoken English, conscious effort should be made to Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 41 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 correct this aspect of Nigerian English at all levels of the educational strata. Lessons on word stress should be included in textbooks on English in the Primary and Secondary Schools and be effectively taught by the teachers who should, themselves, have studied and practised spoken (Oral) English at the University or College of Education. The correct stress pattern of every word should, as recommended by Roach (1991), be taught as part of the individual word, from the earliest stages of the learners’ education when the word is first introduced. Teachers at all levels of the educational strata, including university lecturers, should be made to undergo regular in-service training and workshops on spoken English. Similarly, politicians including Heads of Government, Federal Ministers, State Governors and their Commissioners, as well as political and administrative officials at the State and Local Government levels, should regularly undergo training in spoken English to enhance their oral and communicative performance in the use of English in their daily routine. Serving and prospective staff of Nigeria’s Foreign Service should be exposed to lessons in spoken English as part of the normal grooming process for their diplomatic posting. In a nutshell concerted effort should be made to bridge the gap between mother-tongue English and Nigerian English in the spoken medium, particularly in the area of word stress. Such enhancement of the spoken English of Nigerians will also bridge the equally embarrassing gap between the internationally acclaimed high level of literacy associated with educated Nigerians in written English and their disparagingly low level of oral literacy in the language. References Adejuwon, A.O. (2003) The English Intonation Patterns of some Radio Broadcasters in South-Western Nigeria, M.A. Thesis, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. Afolayan, A. (1968) The Linguistic Problems of Yoruba Users of English. Unpublished Ph. D. Thesis, University of London. Atoye, R. O. (1980) Sociolinguistics of Phonological Interference in Yoruba English. Ph. D. Thesis, University of Sheffield. Atoye, R. O. (1989) Progressive Stress Shift in Nigerian Spoken English. ODU: A Journal of West African Studies Vol. 35, 39-52. Atoye, R. O. (2004) Non-native Perception and Interpretation of English Intonation. Nordic Journal of African Studies Vol. 14 (1), 26-42. Banjo, A. (1979) “Beyond Intelligibility in Nigerian English” In Ubahakwe, E. (Ed.) Varieties and Functions of English in Nigeria. Ibadan: African Universities Press, pp. 7 – 13. Bansal, R. K. (1976) The Intelligibility of Indian English, 2nd edition. Hyderabad: Central Institute for English and Foreign Languages. Cruz-Ferreira, M. (1989) A Test for Non-native Comprehension of Intonation in English. International Review of Applied Linguistics 17(1):23-39. Lado, R. (1957) Linguistics Across Cultures. Ann Arbour: University of Michigan Press. Odlin, T. (1989) Language Transfer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Tiffen, B., (1974) “The Intelligibility of Nigerian English”, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Ibadan. Roach, P. (1991) English Phonetics and Phonology, 2nd Edition. Cambridge: University Press. Weinreich, U. (1953) Languages in Contact: Findings and Problems. The Hague: Mouton. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 42 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 PHONOLOGICAL ANALYSIS: A USEFUL TOOL IN ENHANCING LITERACY SKILLS ACQUISITION Adebukunola A. ATOLAGBE Department of English Lagos State University Abstract In this paper, an attempt is made to show how the knowledge of principles of phonological analysis can help the language teacher, especially the English teacher - at whatever level of education - to impart literacy skills in students, in a multilingual class or environment. The terms "phonological analysis" and "literacy" are defined in broad terms, with a view to explicating the universal applications of phonological analysis to world languages that avail learners the benefits of literacy skills, such as English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and Hindu, but with specific reference to English. The theoretical basis of the paper is hinged primarily on phonological principles from the phonemic school. A number of phonological processes - both natural and assimilatory - which influence listening and speaking skills and, ultimately, reading and writing skills are discussed, with examples. How the recognition of such processes at play in the students' spoken English enhances the teacher's success in imparting the basic language skills is emphasized. The paper concludes by reiterating that to enhance literacy skills, a fundamental knowledge of phonological analysis in speech work isrequired by the teacher of English. Key words: literacy acquisition, literacy skills, phonological analysis, phonological processes, English language teaching 1. Introduction Most societies today are pre-occupied with improving the literacy levels of their members. Indeed, there are sound reasons for attempting to spread literacy, such as social improvement and economic development. Several United Nations studies have shown that at the individual level, education can indeed raise a person's income, promote health, and increase productivity, especially for women. Literacy does not guarantee a job but increases the probability of getting or creating one. Nevertheless, there are still nearly one billion illiterate adults in the world today, mostly in developing or Third World nations, and historically in rural areas (Stromquist, 1999). 2. Research Questions The views of Stromquist expressed above capture the impressions of this researcher about the importance of education and literacy to any society that hopes to move ahead in today's globalized world. It is as a result of such impressions that this paper addresses the following research questions: Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 44 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 1. How can we enhance literacy through pedagogy? 2. How do we coordinate the four basic learning skills to impart literacy? It is these two research questions that guide the focus of this research paper. 3. Research Method To answer the research questions posed above, it was observed that there is a direct link between speaking and writing. That is, how people speak often affects how and what they write. In other words, written materials are often a reflection, not only of the "grammatical" knowledge of the writer, but also, the "phonological" knowledge of such a speaker. Spellings may not necessarily be a reflection of poor knowledge of grammar (such as in subject-verb concord-"This are/ these is" - but a reflection of poor knowledge of phonology or spoken language skill. In fact, performance in listening and speaking skills ultimately translate into performance in reading and writing skills. Consequently, exams scripts of about two hundred students taking a two hundred level English course provided the bulk of the data for this research, together with other freeoccurring utterances spoken by different people on different occasions. Words that were "apparently" wrongly spelt or pronounced but which could be traced to phonological influence were recorded and subsequently analyzed. These analyses form the premise on which our discussions and conclusions are based. 4. Literature Survey Human language must, first and foremost, be perceived as basically spoken, consisting of speech sounds that combine meaningfully and acceptably for communication purposes. Language is only secondarily written, since the written form is an attempt to capture what is spoken or what would otherwise have been spoken. Many more people can often speak a language better than they can write it as language users encounter many problems in their written work. The focus here is on how speech can be used to improve the writing skills of learners. 4.1. Phonological Analysis Phonological Analysis refers to the observations of specific spoken language in specific contexts, with the aim of describing, explaining, evaluating and accounting for what we find, through phonological rules which involve notations that can be regarded as "phonological formulae". Phonological analysis deals with single texts, samples of idiolects, dialects, diverse varieties of actually spoken language texts, which are then described phonologically, explained and accounted for via "phonological rules” (Atolagbe 2000). There are different approaches to analysing phonology, whatever the language used. We could employ a linear or non-linear approach (Durand 1990, Goldsmith 1976, 1990, Harrison and Atolagbe 2004) or we could employ the phonemic, prosodic or distinctive feature approaches, depending on whether we are analysing "phonemes", "prosodies or suprasegments" or "speech sounds". Phonological analysis is useful to the language researcher, linguist, dialectologist, language teacher, literary person or anyone interested in language, basically in its spoken form. In discussing the psychological basis of phonology, in contrast to the phonetic (or physical aspect) of phonological description, Sloat, Taylor and Hoard (1978:3, 4) state that although absolute values of length, loudness and pitch are not important in phonology, the relative values of these properties play a significant role. Relative length, loudness and pitch play a role in English, just like the quality of speech sounds relative one to another play an important role. For example, the noun REbel when contrasted with the verb reBEL bear Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 45 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 relatively different pitches/stresses on both the first and second syllables respectively, differentiating one as a noun and the other as a verb. Also, pan and ban with initial consonants as "voiceless" contrasting with "voiced" respectively, result in two totally different words, which if wrongly used, could mar comprehension. Thus, the fact that such relative values play a significant role in languages generally, while their absolute values may not, indicates that the mind is disposed to consider some aspects of sound as more significant linguistically than others. This disposition therefore limits the kind of phonological processes that can occur in languages, as well as constrains the kinds of sounds that can occur or co-occur in languages. Sloat et al (Op.cit) conclude that human beings are genetically programmed to accept certain sounds and processes as relevant to language and to reject all others; and this psychological bias on the part of speakers, accounts for the remarkable similarities to be found in the Phonological systems of culturally diverse and unrelated languages. The mind's predisposition toward certain sounds and rule types is part of the subject matter of Phonology. It is such predisposition that the language teacher must capitalize upon in imparting literacy skills in his students - first, through teaching them to "listen" out for such significant distinctions and be able to "speak" out such distinctions of sounds that are significant for meaning. Thereafter, the students can then carry over such sensitivities into their reading and writing skills, to become highly literate persons. 4.2 Literacy When we talk about literacy, we mean "the ability to read and write" and consequently, to be well educated. People are able to read and write through languages which themselves are well developed and have written forms. Discussing the importance of the English language - the number one world language- under the language demands of globalisation in Nigeria, Adetugbo (2001) points out the global domains of the use of English. His discussions reveal the wealth of resources, information, data, etc. stored or recorded in English and which could be retrieved by persons that are literate in English, to their own advantage. Such sources of useful information include proceedings or activities of international conferences or organizations, scientific publications, advertised global or local brands, international banking, economic affairs and trade, cultural products: film, TV, popular music, CNN, MTV etc, International tourism/safety/law documents or matters, technology transfer systems, internet communication; etc. Realising the benefits that literacy confers on literate persons, it is pertinent that teachers, who are the prime agents or channels of imparting literacy skills in members of a society, ensure that they themselves acquire skills that would better equip them in performing this task most effectively. 4.3 The Learning Skills The basic learning skills are, in an ascending order: listening, speaking, reading and writing. It is the duty of the language teacher, in fact the English teacher-where English is the language of formal education - to impart these basic learning skills in students. How well we master our listening, speaking, reading and writing skills determines to a large extent, how well we succeed in life. Communication often breaks down between "uneducated", "illiterate" persons who do not have a good grasp of a language, both in terms of functions or meanings to which linguistic expressions are put. Privileges and opportunities are often thrown away by illiterate persons who can not really read or write effectively or adequately. These disadvantages underscore the importance of literacy skills acquisition to all and sundry. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 46 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 4.4 Socialization, Culture and Language Acquisition Omokhodion (1996) comparing socialization with education, points out that the former is unplanned type of learning outside the classroom, through which behavioural patterns approved of by society are passed on to the individual. She ties culture to socialization, pointing out the influence of culture on learning patterns and habits of individuals in a society. In the same vein, Stromquist (1999) states that reasons for the relatively slow progress in improving female literacy in particular, are, as with most educational issues, complex and intimately tied to the cultural, ethnic and political histories of each society where large gender disparities continue to exist. She dwells on such gender issues and how to overcome them. The issue here is that cultural, ethnic or political reasons may be adduced for poor literacy levels in certain societies, especially developing nations. Moreover, the antecedents of colonialism in such communities may have adversely affected prospects of "Foreign Language" acquisition, including English. Nevertheless, as more individuals seek to become literate, all negative influences of culture, socialization or ethnicity, must be over-looked by the language teacher, in so far as they do not contribute positively to his/her task of imparting literacy skills in his students. 5. Phonological Analysis of Data and Discussion In rapid or connected speech, individual sounds within a word or phrase often have an effect on one another, although not all of such effects result in processes that are significant for meaning. However, certain processes of sound change are extremely widespread in the languages of the world, whereas others are relatively rare. These processes are called phonological processes and many of them are "assimilatory" - such that a sound assimilates another (i.e. seems to be like some other sound in some similar respect). Sloat et al (op.cit) cite the following as assimilatory phonological processes: nasalization, palatization, assibilation, intervocalic voicing, intervocalic weakening, obstruent voicing/devoicing, vowel harmony, umlaut; non-assimilatory Phonological processes are identified as rhotacism, breaking, vowel reduction, apocope and syncope, prothesis and epenthesis, metathesis, dissimulation. In addition to those identified by Sloat et al. (op. cit.), some equally rampant processes which are particularly common in the English speech of Nigerian speakers generally are: substitution, omission elision or deletion, insertion or intrusion, cluster reduction, metathesis, neutralization, vowel harmony (and secondary articuclations such as nasalization and palatization-mentioned above) (Atolagbe, 2000) 5.1 Data The following expressions were observed. Those in written form are under (A), while those in spoken form are under (B). (A) 1. Phonology can be describe as -> described 2. Some definate obstruction -> definite 3. Measured in circles -> cycles 4. Kenetic tones - > kinetic 5. Rhythm an accent -> and 6. Has been stress - > stressed 7. Phonym - > phoneme 8. This are called -> these 9. Bucal - > bucaal 10. Carvity -> cavity Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 47 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 11. Bilabia -> bilabial 12. Alveoli -> alveolar 13. Palat-> palate 14. Plocade - > blocade 15. Rhythem - > rhythm 16. Flunctuation -> fluctuation 17. Flusuation - > fluctuation 18. Sequance -> sequence 19. As early defined -> earlier 20. Unit, sound, syllable, consonant, stop, plosive, -> omits final consonant each time 21. Prominent then -> than 22. Stress-time -> timed 23. The - they 24. They author uses -> the author uses 25. The are bilinguals-> they are bilinguals. (B) 1. Element -> [element] 2. follow-folo -> [folo] 3. oil- oyel -> [ojel] 4. man-mon-> [m n] 5. tube -tuub -> [tu:b] 6. certificate -cerfiticate -> [s :f t ke t] 7. omnipotent-ominipotent -> [ um n p utent] 8. teacher -chicher -> [tS :tS ] 9. we can come -we can’t come ->[w kæn k m] 10. fellowship -fellowchip-> [fel utSIp] 11. worship- worchip -> [w tSIp] 12. house - ause -> [aus] 13. milk- milik -> [m l k] 14. little - litul -> [l tul] 15. button -butin -> [b t n] 5.2 Analysis We observe that most of the examples in A must have manifested first in the speech of the individual speakers, before being transferred to their written scripts; they might appear to be spelling or grammar errors, but most of them are speech errors that need to be corrected, first, at that level. We can identify the above examples under the following phonological processes: (1) Omission/deletion/elision: many of these speakers do not produce their final consonant sounds in words when speaking and this is a feature they have transferred into their writing unconsciously. Examples: described, and, stressed, bilabial, earlier produced as early (a case of syncope - loss of one or more segments within a word), loss of /s/ in units, sounds, consonants, syllables, etc., but all consistently used with the plural verb "are". This process can be represented by these rules: 1. /d/ -> 0 /{-//} /d/ becomes omitted in word final position 2. / / -> 0 /{-#} 3. /s/ -> 0 /{-#} (2) Substitution: This has been proved in many works on Nigerian English, to be a feature of Nigerian English (Jowitt 1991, Awonusi and Babalola 2004) Most of the substitutions easily Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 48 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 give away the ethnic leanings of the speakers, e.g. definate, rhythem, palat, the for they and vice-versa were produced by Igbo speakers while mon, tuub, flusuation, plocade, circles, were produced by Yoruba speakers. Some of these examples involve both substitution and elision. We can represent some of the rules thus, without stating the environments: 1. / / -> /e / in definite 2. / / -> /e/ in rhythm 3. /e /->/æ/ or /a/ in palate 4. /e / -> /e/ in they and vice-versa in the 5. /ae/ -> /o/ in man 6. /ju:/ -> /u:/ in /tju:b/ tube 7. /tS / -> /S/ in fluctuation 8. / b/ -> / p/ in blocade 9. /a / -> / : / or /a/in cycles (3) Vowel Harmony: This feature is very common in Igbo phonology and Yoruba morphology. (Atolagbe, 1999, 2000) and we see it in the words "follow"and "element". The rules for these are: 1. /D/ -> /ou/ /{C-C} /ou/ -> /ou/ /{C-C} This may be seen as neutralization too, where /D/ and /ou/ are neutralised into a single vowel - the diphthong /ou/ 2. /e/ -> /e/ /{#-C-} or {C-C} / / -> /e/ /{C-C} This also may be a case of neutralization or syncretism. Chicher for teacher could be a case of consonant harmony. (4) Insertion or Intrusion: we see this in "flunctuation" and "Oyel" where extraneous phonemes are inserted into the words. (5) Man as "mon" is a case of nazalization. (6) Cerfiticate is a case of metathesis. (7) Ominipotent, buttin, milik are all cases of cluster reduction. (8) Tuub for tube may be a non functional realization of palatization where /j/ is not realized. 5.3 Discussion The above analyses suggest that the speakers have actually transferred defects in their spoken English into their written English, thus putting their ability to read and write to question. Such errors might manifest on a larger scale if not detected early and corrected on time. When the teacher of such a multilingual class begins to notice errors of this nature in the spoken or written English of his/her students, he/she can easily identify them as a manifestation of shortcomings at the level of the listening and speaking skills. Such students have probably not been able to recognize those relative differences in sounds or features of speech which are significant for meaning. The teacher needs to point the students’ attention to such distinctions e.g. this [d s] as distinct from these [di:z]; milk [m lk] as distinct from [m l k]; [folou] as distinct from [folo], etc. In doing this, the teacher is dealing with thestudents’ psychological disposition to pay attention to degrees of variation in sound patterns and their realizations, even when such variations seem minor and probably insignificant to the student. In essence, the student's listening skills are being sharpened. From this point, the teacher goes on to help the student Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 49 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 translate this achievement at the listening level to a better, more accurate speech rendition at the speaking skill level. Consequently, the student masters his listening and speaking skills. With little help or guidance, the student can invariably proceed to a more competent acquisition and use of the reading and writing skills. This is possible because he/she is already predisposed to recognize and utilize sound differences or variations that are significant for meaning in that language - English in this case- and is quick to identify such when they translate into grammatical or spelling differences. In this manner, the teacher has used his knowledge of phonology and phonological analysis to assist the student in acquiring literacy as defined earlier, and with its attendant benefits. This is irrespective of whether the teacher knows the names by which these processes are called or not. What matters most is to be able to observe what is happening in the speech of his/her students and be able to explain this from a phonological perspective, relating it to the cultural or multi-lingual context of the students. In explaining what is happening, the teacher should also be able to account for such processes (through factors affecting languages in contact), be able to predict such occurrences and help the students overcome their speech problems. Overcoming the speech problems, invariably results in overcoming the writing problems as well. Thus, phonological analysis would have been used to enhance the literacy skills acquisition of the learners. 6. Conclusion We have demonstrated how shortcomings at the level of listening and speaking translate into shortcomings at the level of reading and writing. We have also shown how a knowledge of phonological analysis helps the English language teacher (or any language teacher at all) to predict, identify and explain such phonological shortcomings in the speech of the learners, with a view to helping them overcome those speech problems, thereby preventing them from manifesting as writing problems. We realize that becoming literate has a lot to do with being able to read well and write well. Writing, as earlier mentioned, is purely an attempt to capture what is spoken or could otherwise be spoken -the use of punctuations underscores this fact. Hence, a mastery of speech, with an understanding of minute variations in sounds that are significant for meaning, enhance a mastery of writing and reading, for the mind is predisposed to pay attention to such minute differences which also occur in writing but which are significant for meaning. We conclude, therefore, by stating that in acquiring literacy skills, the knowledge of phonological analysis sharpens one’s listening and writing skills. As more people become literate, the society becomes more productive and individual lives are enriched. Achieving literacy for all is the goal we must all strive for as English language teachers. . References Adeniyi, H. O. and Atolagbe, A.A (2004) Vowel Harmony in Nigerian English: a Nonlinear Approach In Awonusi, S. and Babalola, E. A. (Eds) The Domestication of English in Nigeria: A Festschrift in Honour of Abiodun Adetugbo. Lagos: University of Lagos Press. Adetugbo, A. (2001) "The Language Demands of Globalisation in Nigeria" Paper Presented at the Sociolinguistics conference Held at the University of Lagos from 15th - 18th August. Atolagbe, A. A. (1993) "Ensuring Continued National Unity through the Use of English as the Medium of Communication in Nigeria" Proceedings of the Linguistic Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 50 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Association of Nigeria Conference held at the University of Abuja, Abuja, Nigeria. Atolagbe, A. A. (2000) Elementary Phonological Analvsis: A Course Text for Tertiary Schools. Nigeria: Jehovah Shammah. Atolagbe, A. A. (2003) "The Pragmatics of Nigerian English: a Reflection of Nigerian Indigenous Languages" Unpublished Paper delivered at the WOCAL 4 Conference, Rutgers University, New Jersey from June 17-22. Atolagbe, A. A. (2003b) "Linguistic Convergence in Diversity: Nigerian English as a Developmental Tool" Paper presented at the ALASA Conference, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa from July 5-10. Durand, J. (1990) Generative and Non-Linear Phonology. New York: Longman. Goldsmith, J. (1976) Autosegmental Phonology. Indiana University: Linguistics Club. Goldsmith, J. (1990) Autosegmental and Metrical Phonology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. Jowitt, D. (1991) Nigerian Enqlish Usage: An Introduction. Ibadan: Heineman. Omokhodion, J. O. (1996) Sociology of Education: An African Experience. Lagos: Olu- Akin Publishers. Omokhodion, J. O. and Dosunmu, S. A. (2002) Invitation to Sociological Foundation of Education. Lagos: Heavenly Wisdom Communication. Sloat, C., Taylor, S. H. and Hoard, J. E. (1978) Introduction to Phonology. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc. Stromquist, N. P. (1999) Literacy and Gender: a Global Perspective. Literacy Innovations Vol. 3 Issue 1. Tiffen, B. W. (1974) The Intelligibility of Nigerian English: An Unpublished Ph.D Dissertation. University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 51 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL FEATURES OF MASTERS’ THESES ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS IN A NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY Caroline. S. OLAGUNJU Department of General Studies\ Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Abstract The paper examines the structural and functional features of Master’s theses acknowledgments in Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso. It identified the patterns of progression of themes and rhemes in the texts and related the patterns to the functions of texts. Fifty acknowledgements were selected from each of the Faculty of Science and Faculty of Technology of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso. An analysis of thematic patterns (TP) in the texts was done via the framework of Functional Sentence Perspective as propounded by Danes (1970 and 1974). An insight was also gained from Searle’s (1976) speech functions. The findings showed that two types of thematic progression patterns featured. They are the Constant TP pattern and the Simple Linear TP pattern. The Constant TP dominates the texts. The Constant TP pattern was realized largely by certain linguistic features such as pronouns (first and second person) and nominal phrases, which some messages in the texts. Key words: Theses acknowledgements, thematic patterns, Functional Sentence Perspective 1. Introduction Thesis writing is very important in the academic enterprise. It is one of the requirements for the award of any postgraduate degree in Universities. In the structure of the thesis as an academic genre, we have what Swales (1990) called the ‘front matters’ like dedication, certification, acknowledgement, abstract and table of content. The writing of an acknowledgment in a thesis is very important. Acknowledgement bears the name(s) of some people who have contributed to the success of the research work. Though it is part of the “front matters”, it still has to be well constructed in order to reveal the intention of the writer. This work intends to look at the thesis acknowledgment and see what accounts for the structure and what it is meant to achieve in the thesis as a genre. Fifty acknowledgements of Masters’ theses were sampled from the Faculty of Science and Faculty of Technology of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso. An analysis of the progression of themes and rhemes was done on the elected acknowledgements mentioned. The analysis was done using the framework of the Functional Sentence Perspective (FSP) as propounded by Danes (1970 and 1974). Also, an insight was gained from Searle’s (1969 and 1976) speech functions to link the messages of texts to the structural realization of the texts. 2. Studies on Text Analysis Scholars have considered different texts using different approaches. Adegbija (1987, 1995) describes texts from the approach of pragmatics of discourse. Fries’ (1995, 2001) description of text is based on conversational analysis. Osisanwo (1997 and 2001) utilize the Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 52 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 stylistic approach and Adegbite (1991 and 1995) describes texts utilizing both text grammar and discourse analysis and Olagunju (2004) analyses literary texts using the stylistic approach. Despite the different approaches utilized by these scholars, all of them aim at analyzing texts with the intention of explaining how a text can be understood, interpreted and constructed. Several studies have been undertaken on the academic genre such as grant proposals (Connor and Mauranen, 1999; Connor 2000), discussion sections of research articles (Holmes 1997, Birla and Tahririan 1997, Fallahi and Erzi 2003), abstracts (Hyland 2000), dissertation acknowledgements (Hyland 2003, 2004), editorial letters (Flowerdew and Dudley-Evans, 2002), academic book reviews (Motta-Roth 1995, Babaii 2003 and Ansary and Babaii 2004). The study by Ansary and Babaii (2004) is based on Swales’ (1990) move-analytical tradition. The present study is not specifically on genre analysis but it acknowledges the fact that the acknowledgement is itself a text included in thesis writing as an academic genre. Several studies have been carried out on thematic progression in texts. We have scholars who have analyzed thematic progression in texts such as the medical text, biomedical texts, journalistic texts, poetry, conversational text, instructional text and novels. Among these scholars are Nwogu and Bloor (1991), Dubois (1983), Fries (1991), Giora (1983), Adegbite and Ajayi (1995), Adegbite (2007) and Olagunju (2004). Dubois (1987) and Nwogu and Bloor (1991) have analyzed TP patterns of the scientific text and both studies have found the Simple-Linear and Constant TPs to be frequent, while the manifestation of Derived type makes the work different. Nwogu and Bloor (1991) observe that the Derived TP is represented in their research article data but not in their more popular medical texts. Dubois (1983), in the analysis of bio-medical research texts, finds one single instance of the Derived TP. She reduces Danes’ three main patterns of TP into two, namely ‘themic’ and ‘rhemic’ each of which may be simple or multiple, contiguous or grapped. She (Dubois 1983) then subsumes Derived TP under the ‘themic’ type. Her account of TP deviates from Danes’ own theory. Adegbite (2007) observes that all the TP patterns feature in the thesis abstract, although the Constant TP dominates. The present study benefits from all the works cited and they provide background information that is relevant to this study. 3. Framework of Analysis In analyzing text or discourse, the concepts of theme and rheme are often used and this work is also employing them. There are two schools of thought that are very crucial to the discussion of theme and rheme and the analysis of textual organization in general. We have the systemic school led by M.A.K. Halliday and the Functional Sentence Perspective (FSP) associated with Jan Firbas, Christen Mathesius, Frantisek Danes and others. The two schools of thought aim at making resounding contributions to how best textual structure can be analyzed. The framework herein adopted for this study is that of the FSP, which came as a result of the Prague school’s efforts in providing functional explanations of the grammatical structures in textual materials. Downing (2001) opines that the FSP as a theory of language deals with how the sentence function is fulfilling the communicative purpose intended. Nwogu (1991) also states that the FSP is a model for explaining how information is organized in a sentence or an utterance, discourse or text in accordance with how language functions in situational contexts. The concepts of theme, rheme and TP are very central to the FSP, which examines coherence in texts in terms of its structure and meaning. Many definitions of theme and rheme have been given by scholars who describe the theme as “what comes first in the Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 53 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 clause”, “what is being talked about”, “the point of departure of the clause as a message”, “that which the clause is concerned” while rheme is seen as “what comes after the theme” or “the remaining parts of the clause”. Four types of TP have been identified by Danes (1974). He defines TP as the choice of ordering of utterance themes, their mutual concatenation and hierarchy, as well as their relationship to the hyper-themes of the superior text unit (such as paragraph, chapter and others to the whole texts and to the situation. Danes (1974) illustrates the four types of thematic progression thus: i. The Simple Linear pattern. Each rheme becomes the theme of the next utterance. In Danes (1974:18), this pattern is considered the most elementary or basic TP. It is represented graphically thus: T1 R1 T2 R2 T3 R3 ii. Constant /Continuous TP. This is the pattern of TP in which the same theme appears in sequence in a series of utterances, though not necessarily making use of identical wording. T1 R1 T2 R2 T3 R3 iii. TP with Derived themes. Themes are derived from hyper-theme as super-ordinate terms to which all themes relate. Danes (1974:114) represents it thus: T1 R1 T2 R2 T3 R3 Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 54 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 iv. The Split Rheme TP pattern. Danes (1974:120) ascertains that the combination of patterns 1-3 gives birth to the fourth one, which is called the Split Rheme TP. It is illustrated thus: T1 R1 (R1 (R11) T2 R2 T3 R3 The speech act theory, a prime anchor for textual functional considerations, was developed by J.L. Austin. According to Thomas (1995:51): Austin originally (1962:52) used the term ‘speech act to refer to an utterance and the total situation in which the utterance is issued’. Today the term ‘speech act’ is used to mean the same as ‘illocutionary act’ – in fact, you will findthe term speech act, illocutionary act, illocutionary force, pragmatic force or joist force, all used to mean the same thing – although the use of one rather than another may imply different theoretical positions. The speech act theory was developed in reaction to the belief of the logical positivists like Bertrand Russell, G.E. Moore and others that language is imperfect and illogical, and that the illogicalities should be refined and an ideal language created. Austin posits in his posthumously published book How to do things with words that instead of getting rid of language illogicalities and imperfections, it is necessary to understand how it is that people manage with it as they do. Austin stresses further that when we speak, we perform certain action(s). He perceives such as performatives. Austin’s performative is described as when certain verbs correspond to certain actions. Other verbs are seen as descriptive verbs. The differences between performatives and constatives (which Austin also dwelled on) are seen in terms of truth-values. Constatives are believed to have truth values because they can be true or false while performatives do not have this value. Furthermore, Austin elaborates on the speech act theory by concentrating on its three components: locutionary act, illocutionary act and perlocutionary act. The locutionary act has to do with the exact utterance of the speaker. Illocutionary act refers to the specific intention of the speaker, while perlocutionary act is the effect of the speech on the hearer. For instance, a word uttered may have the intention to serve as a warning, request, persuasion, threat, greeting, etc. Austin goes further to classify illocutionary acts into five groups; namely, “verdictives”, “excercitives”, “behabitives”, and “expositives”. Searle (1969) develops his speech act theory based on Austin’s (1962). Searle (1976:27) discusses five main speech acts as (i) Representatives, which are used in making assertions, conclusions, claims; (ii) Directives, which are used in commanding, begging, requesting and asking the hearer to do something; Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 55 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 (iii) Commissives, which require commitment from the speaker like promising, vowing, offering, threatening; (iv) Expressives, which concern the psychological states of the speaker such as thanking, welcoming; (v) Declarations, which have to do with declaring, marrying, firing etc. Many other scholars have given these functions different names, all in an attempt to describe the functions of language in use. These scholars include Jacobson (1960:350 – 377) and Adegbite (1991:47) who utilized their own functions of texts for the analysis of poetry. Searle’s (1976) functions will be utilized in this study because its role in supplying the speech functions of utterance will serve as a good complement to the theme-rheme analysis. The study will also utilize Searle’s (1979) speech functions because the relationship of linguistic thematic patterning to the messages / themes of the texts is an arbitrary one. So, Searle’s functions will serve as a link between them. This functional category also has a great value for this kind of structural and functional linguistic analysis. 4. Structural Analysis of Masters’ Theses Acknowledgments The table below shows the frequencies of the TP patterns that feature in the texts. Table 1: Structural Analysis of Masters’ Theses Acknowledgement CTP SLTP DTP SRTP Acknowledgements from faculty of Sc. 322 58 - - Acknowledgements from Tech. 306 34 - - Total 628 92 - - From the table, it was discovered that the Constant TP and the Simple Linear TP feature. The Constant TP pattern dominates the acknowledgements from both faculties. The difference in the frequencies may be as a result of varying lengths of the acknowledgements. Different linguistic items realize the themes of the sentences. We have the use of pronoun ‘I’ (1st person singular) ‘He’ (3rd person singular) and ‘they’ (3rd person plural pronouns). These pronouns, especially the personal pronoun ‘I’, appear in sequences most of the time and are associated with the Constant TP patterns. We also have the use of these phrases ‘special thanks’, ‘my gratitude’ etc. The writers employed different linguistic items to write the themes of the sentences. The use of these linguistic items cut across all the acknowledgements from the two faculties. Below are examples of the Constant TP pattern. Example 1 I/ thank the Almighty God, the fount of wisdom and knowledge for his infinite mercies and protection till this period … Also, I / am expressing my sincere and immense appreciation to everybody who has contributed either directly or indirectly to the success of this study. Mr. Okunsami, my supervisor/ is of special importance. (Excerpt from the Faculty of Science). Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 56 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 From the above example, the constant TP is used by the author to express his thanks and appreciation to God and individuals who have contributed to the success of the work. Another example of the Constant TP from Faculty of Technology is given below: Example 2 I / acknowledge with profound thanks the contribution of my supervisor – Prof. I.A. Adeyemi towards the successful completion of this work. I / also appreciate his sincere academic guidance without which the quality attained would have be difficult. The good Lord / shall continue to bless and prosper you. Here are also some examples of the Simple Linear TP from the acknowledgements: Example 3 I / am expressing my profound gratitude to my supervisor Prof. R.O Ayeni for his encouragement, advice, patience and readiness to assist throughout the work. He / is indeed my role model and a father. I / will forever be grateful to him (Excerpt from the Faculty of Science). Example 4 My indebtedness / also goes to the Head of Department, Dr. J.O. Olajide. He / encouraged me in several ways particularly of mention is his keen interest on this work and my life at large. I / am equally grateful to Prof. I. A. Adeyemi, Dr. (Mrs) Akintunde and Mr. M.O. Oke, my very good friend. 5. Functions Projecting the Messages of the Texts The messages of the texts serve the uses of thanks, appreciations, gratitudes and prayers and these are mediated by two types of functions. Table 2: Functional Analysis of Masters’ Theses Acknowledgements Acknowledgements from Faculty of Science Rep. 123 Exp. 229 Dir. . Comm. - Dec. - Acknowledgements from Faculty of Technology 165 203 - - - 288 432 - - - The functions expressed are representatives and expressive, while directives, commissives and declaratives did not feature. The expressives are used to reveal the emotional feelings of the writers of these acknowledgements as thanks, appreciations and prayers.For example: Example 5 My sincere gratitude also goes to the Dean of Faculty of Pure and Applied Science LAUTECH, Prof. R.O. Ayeni … and Prof. A. Adediran, Dean, Faculty of Arts, University of Ibadan, for their concern and help at all times. (Excerpt from Faculty of Science) The author here expresses his/her heartfelt gratitude towards the contributions and concern of the listed individuals. Here is another example of the expressive that indicates a prayer: Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 57 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Example 6 I pray that Almighty God will continue to shower his blessings on you all for the various roles you have played in ensuring my successful completion of this programme. We also have situations where the authors express their appreciations and thanks in the acknowledgements, for example: Example 7 Thanks and appreciations go to the Almighty God for giving me opportunity to undertake this research work and to end it in good time … (Excerpt from the Faculty of Technology.) Furthermore, the representatives that feature are used in giving information. We have examples of texts from both Faculties of Science and Technology as follows: Example 8 I should not forget my colleagues in class. I will always remember the time we had together. They have all made history in my life. (Excerpt from the Faculty of Science) Another example of the representative from the Faculty of Technology is given below Example 9 Infact, words are not enough to express my appreciation to every body that has contributed to the success of this work. The roads have really been very rough but for your support I have been able to weather the storm … The functions of the acknowledgments are described here in terms of the purposes they serve as link between the thematic patterning and the messages of the acknowledgments analyzed. The functions that realize the TP patterns of the texts are interwoven. At times, we have mainly the expressive realizing the Constant TP that dominate the texts and at another time, it may be a combination of expressives and representatives. The observation is the same for the Simple Linear TP that features across the corpus. We can only ascertain that from the structural analysis, it is the Constant TP that dominates the texts while from the functional analysis, the expressive functions predominate. 6. Summary and Conclusion Having gone through the structural and functional analysis of the Masters’ theses acknowledgements, it was discovered that the Constant TP predominates the texts. The dominance of the Constant TP is supported by the expressive functions with respect to the messages of the texts analyzed. The study thus shows that the Constant TP characterizes the acknowledgements written in the Masters’ theses of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso and these perform the functions of expressives Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 58 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 References Adegbija, E. (1987) Speech Act Functions. Dimensions of Communication and Meaning in the English Language in Nigeria. ITL Review of Applied Linguistics 76, 43– 62. Adegbija, E. (1995) ‘I, Major-General X’: Discourse Tacts in Military Coup Speeches. TEXT 15:2, 253-270. Adegbite, W. (1991) “Some Features of Language Use in Yoruba Traditional Medicine.” Ph.D Thesis, University of Ibadan. Adegbite, W. and Ajayi, B. (1995) Thematic Progression and the Structure of Yoruba Divinatory and Incantatory Texts In Adediran, B. (ed.) Cultural Studies in Ife, pp. 175-192. Adegbite, W. (2007) “Thematic Patterns and Progression in the Research Abstract” Mimeo, Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria Amirian, Z., and Tahririan, M. H. (2003) Analysis of E-mail Genre: A New Perspective to EAP Writing. Iranian Journal of Applied Linguistics 6(1), 21 – 39. Ansary and Babaii (2004) The Generic Integrity of Newspaper Editorials: A Systemic Functional Perspective. Asian EFL Journal, pp. 1-28. Austin , J. L (1962). How to do things with words Oxford : Clarendon Press. Connor U. and Mauranen, A. (1999) Lingustic Analysis of Grant Proposals: European Union Research grants. English for Specific Purposes 18(1), 47 - 62. Danes, F. (1970) FSP and Organization of Text. In Danes, F. (ed). Papers in Functional Sentence Perspective. Prague: Academia. Danes, F. (1974) Functional Sentence Perspective and the Organization of the Text. In Danes, F. (Ed.) Papers on Functional Sentence Perspective. Prague: Academia/ The Hague: Mouton, pp. 106-128. Downing, A. (2001) Thematic Progression as a Functional Resource in Analyzing Text. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Dubois, B. L. (1987) A Reformulation of Thematic Progression Typology TEXT 7:2, 89-116. Fallahi, M. M. and Erzi, M. (2003) Genre Analysis in Language Teaching: An Investigation of the Structure of the Discussion Section of Language–Teaching- Journal Article. Iranian Journal of Applied Lingustics 6(1), 69 – 81. Firbas, J (1964), On Defining Theme in Functional Sentence Analysis. In Travaux Linguistic de Prague Vol. 1, 267-280. Firbas, J (1974) Some Aspects of the Zechoslovak Approach to the Problem of Functional Sentence Perspective. In Danes, F. (Ed.) Papers in Functional Sentence Perspective. Prague: Academia. Flowerdew, J. and Dudley-Evans, T. (2002) Genre Analysis of Editorial Letters to International Journal Contributors. Applied Linguistics 23(4), 463–489. Motta- Roth, D. (1995) “Book Reviews and Disciplinary Discourse. Defining a Genre” Paper Presented at the 29th Annual Meeting or the Teachers of English to Speakers of other Languages, Long Beach,CA . Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 59 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Nwogu, K. (1991) Thematic Progression and Structure of Text: Implication for Academic Writing Systemic Functional Linguistic Forum Vol. 1 No 1, 44-50. Nwogu, K. and Bloor, T. (1991) Thematic Progression in Professional and Popular Medical Texts. In Ventola, E. (Ed.) Functional and Systemic Linguistics: Approaches and Uses. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, Olagunju Sade (2004) “Themes and Rhemes in Femi Ojo-Ade’s The Almond Tree and Dead End” Unpublished M.A. Thesis Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. Osisanwo, W. (1997) A Linguistic Analysis of English-medium Soccer Commentary on Radio. In Lawal A. (Ed.) Stylistics in Theory and Practice. Ilorin: Paragon Books, pp. 70-92. Osisanwo, W. (2001) Textuality and Nigerian Newspaper Editorials: the Example of the Guardian. Ife Studies in English Language Vol. 5, 1-9. Searle, J. L. (1969) Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Searle, J. L. (1976) A Classification of Illocutionary Acts. Language in Society 5:1,1- Swales J. (1990) Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge University Press. Thomas, W. (1995) Meaning in Interaction: An Introduction to Pragmatics. London and New York: Longman. Wales, K. (1989) A Dictionary of Stylistics. London: Longman. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 60 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 EDUCATIONAL VERSUS FUNCTIONAL LITERACY: A STUDY OF ATTITUDES OF MOBILE PHONE USERS TO THE ACQUISITION OF BASIC ICT SKILLS Dr Christine I. OFULUE National Open University of Nigeria Abstract Literacy, in basic terms, refers to the acquisition of reading and writing skills. Functional literacy on the other hand, has been described as the acquisition of the basic ‘know-how’ of life. Although one would assume that the latter is subsumed under the former, the new functional skills required of users for various technological devices within the current Information Communication Technological age (ICT), for example, seems to indicate the contrary. This study seeks to examine the adequacy of literacy in the light of the attitudes of literate GSM users to the functional skills required of them to effectively operate their mobile phones (otherwise known as the GSM). Data consist of responses from questionnaires and structured interviews aimed at eliciting the attitudes of literate GSM users towards the use of their phones as a means of measuring their level of functional literacy. Results indicate that despite having English language skills, which imply an ability to comprehend instructions such as those guiding the operation of mobile phones, a fairly high percentage of users are still functionally illiterate. Key words: functional literacy, Information Communication Technology, GSM users 1. Introduction Nigeria, having adopted a democratic form of government, has the task of increasing literacy rates because literacy has been described as the strength of any successful democracy. Before 1991, the adult literacy rate was about 34%. However, following the nation’s adoption of the Education for All (EFA) initiative, literacy rates appear to have improved significantly to about 57% (Nigeria 1998). According to UNICEF reports, total adult literacy rates as at 2000, stood at 60% while total school enrolment rate was 64% (UNCEF 2005). These statistics are based on the definition of literacy as the number of adults who can read and write. If these figures are anything to go by, it means that literacy rates in Nigeria improved significantly by 26% between 1991 and 2005. However, the gains of this period appear to be in jeopardy with the emergence of a growing group of those who Olaofe (1992) refers to as ‘educated illiterates, that is functional illiterates’. In other words, although educational literacy rates are improving, there does not seem to be a corresponding increase in functional literacy. . Literacy, the ability to read and write is the foundation for other forms of literacy as shown by research into cognitive modes of early reading acquisition, that the central task in early reading is learning to recognize printed words (Konold et al 1999). However, the emergence of the information technology age and the skills required to function in this age have made functional literacy in terms of ICTs just as important as basic literacy. Madhu Viswanathan (2003) defines functional literacy as “not only learning history, math or science. It is about knowing things that one is required to do everyday.” In other words, functional literacy is the knowledge of the basic know-how of life, such as how to effectively use your GSM phone. According to Govinda (1997), a functionally illiterate individual is one “who Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 61 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 cannot engage in all those activities in which literacy is required of his group and community and also for enabling him to continue to use reading, writing, and calculation for his own and the community’s development”. Functional literacy in terms of ICTs has been described as “media literacy because it entails the use of ICTs such as mobile phones, Internet and computers” (Tiemo 2006:81). Literacy is a dynamic and not static process. As such, an individual who is literate today can be adjudged illiterate in a few years depending on how well he/she updates his/her competencies. In this view, functional literacy refers to the ability to use basic literacy competence to access other competencies such as use of ICT devices. This study investigates the relationship between educational and functional literacy as evidenced in the attitudes of educated mobile phone users to the use of their mobile phones. The study sought to know the extent to which the educationally literate group could use this ICT device. It also sought to know if their educational status correlates positively with their ability to use the mobile phone basic functions, as an indication of their level of functional literacy. 2. Literature Review The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) has changed the Nigerian communication landscape dramatically with its introduction in 2001 following the liberalization of the telecommunications sector. Before the introduction of the GSM, Nigeria’s teledensity rates stood at 1 line to 165 users thus surpassing ITU’s minimum standard of 1:100 users. By 2002, Nigeria had through GSM achieved a teledensity rate of 1:52, 1:17 in 2004 and with a projected growth rate of 1:10 by 2007 (2006:8). With over 25 million lines in five years (2006), the Nigerian mobile market is reported to have become the ‘fastest growing national mobile market in the world’ (Ndukwe 2005). However, there are a number of barriers to accessing the wide range of benefits of ICTs, one of which is the general low literacy rates in Africa (Hamilton 2005). According to a comprehensive report on mobile telephony in Nigeria (Nigeria 2006:23), poverty, illiteracy, lack of computer literacy and language barriers are among the factors impeding access to ICT infrastructure especially in developing countries. Media literacy is the term used to refer to the use of ICTs such as mobile phone, Internet and computers (Nigeria 2006: 81). As mentioned earlier, literacies such as media literacy are is an aspect of functional literacy. Olaofe (1992) paints a grim picture about the level of functional illiteracy in Nigeria. According to him, “there is a backlog of educated illiterates: those who are functionally illiterate.” He attributes this phenomenon to the absence of extensive reading as a lifestyle. In addition, Olaofe notes from his findings that Nigeria is dominated by a non-reading culture due to her history of oral tradition; examination-oriented educational system; faulty approach to the teaching of reading; lack of up to date libraries and reading materials and lack of motivation, to name a few. He is of the view that there is a relationship between functional literacy development and extensive reading. There is relatively little research on ICTs and functional literacy. This is perhaps because the use of ICTs and mobile phones in particular are relatively new in the Nigerian communication landscape. A study on the literacy level of rural mobile phone users (Nigeria 2006:80) attributes the lack of media literacy, which also constitutes functional illiteracy in the use of ICTs, among rural mobile phone users to low literacy levels; that is, inability to use the functions on the phone which are in English, and the perceived lack of need for those functions. The study noted that most of the users were comfortable with being able to receive calls as the only function they could perform on their phones by themselves. Elegbeleye (2005) noted that although mobile phone use was prevalent, it did not affect interpersonal competencies. In this study, an additional perspective of functional literacy is presented as Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 62 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 that which takes into consideration new and faster ways of acquiring information and knowledge other than reading of print material. From this perspective, to be functionally literate is dynamic, not static, because you have to continually update your knowledge and acquire new skills that enable you to engage in an information society. As the world is becoming more connected, and information moves at a faster speed, Nigeria is faced with the danger of being left behind, because there is a growing number of educated illiterates who are unable to access information and knowledge that is available through Information an Communication technologies. The mobile phone is one of such technologies, and to be adjudged as a functionally literate mobile phone user means that one is able to use it and benefit from a wide range of its features, while at the same time manage its distractive tendencies. 3. The Purpose of the Study and Methodology The survey reported in this paper was conducted to evaluate the attitudes of educated mobile phone users to the use of their mobile phones. It sought to know how effectively they are able to use the wide variety of functions of their mobile phones. It is also an assessment of the activities of a sample selection of mobile phone users. The primary goal of the survey was to determine the level of functional literacy among educated mobile phone users through their attitudes to the use of mobile phones. The following research questions guide the study: 1) To what extent does educational literacy inform functional literacy? 2) Is there a correlation between the level of education and level of functional literacy? and 3) Why do literate mobile phone users allow their phones to ring at inappropriate times? Is it because they do not know how to use the silence feature on their phones? Or is it because they do not perceive a need for the feature? The survey group comprised forty mobile phone users who work in an academic environment in Lagos, Nigeria. The respondents are educated comprising twenty academics, and twenty administrative personnel. The highest qualification was a PhD, and the lowest was a diploma. The survey was based on the responses of the target group using a simple questionnaire on mobile phone use as an ICT device. After their profile was elicited, respondents were asked questions that would give a history of their phone use. They were also asked about various features on their phones, and how they learned to use the features. They were asked if they were computer literate and whether they had been embarrassed before by not knowing how to use certain features on their phones. The survey took into consideration the fact that some respondents may not be truthful about how well they know the features on their phones, and so specific responses were elicited to test their knowledge by asking them to identify specific phone functions. The survey may also be limited in that it was restricted to a single academic environment. Further research into the subject matter may require multiple academic environments. However, this delimitation was aimed at testing the hypothesis that the level of education of mobile phone users presupposes a corresponding level of functional literacy in the use of their mobile phones. 4. Data Analysis and Findings The questions were aimed at testing the socio-demographic characteristics and attitude of the respondents. The responses obtained from the questionnaire and informal interviews were analysed using simple percentage distribution. However, a more rigorous statistical analysis, which is the Chi-square, was used to test the hypothesis for the study. The results of the analysis are presented in the tables that follow: Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 63 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Table 1: Demographic Characteristics of Respondents Sex Frequency (over 40) Percentage % Male 25 62.5 Female 15 37.5 Age of Respondents 25-39years 15 37.5 40-49years 19 47.5 50 years and above 6 15.0 Marital Status Single 10 25.0 Married 29 72.5 Other 1 2.5 Highest Educational Qualification Diploma 3 7.5 1st Degree 11 27.5 2nd Degree 14 35.0 Ph.D 12 30.0 Occupation Academic 20 50.0 Administrative personnel 20 50.0 Years of work Experience 1-5years 10 25.0 6-10years 3 7.5 11 years and above 26 65.0 No response 1 2.5 I am IT literate (e.g. competent in use of the computer) Strongly Disagree 3 7.5 Disagree 4 10.0 Agree 16 40.0 Strongly Agree 17 42.5 Source: Survey 2005 Table 1 presents the frequency distribution of respondents’ gender as 25 male (63%), and 15 female (38%). Frequency distribution of respondent’s age has the largest group as 40 – 49 (47.5%) followed by 25 -39 years (37.5%), and least 50- above (15%). Frequency distribution of respondents’ level of education showed second degree (35%) followed by Ph. D (30%), first degree (27.5%), and diploma (7.5%). Frequency distribution of respondents’ work experience shows 11 years and above (65%), followed by 1- 5 years (25%), and 6 – 10 years (7.5%). Frequency distribution of respondents’ perception of their level of computer literacy shows that 42.5% and 40% believe that they are computer literate, while 10% and 7.5% are not computer literate. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 64 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Table 2: Mobile Phone Use Profile How long have you used/owned a mobile phone Frequency Percentage % 1year 3 7.5 2years 8 20.0 3years and above 29 62.5 Type of phone Nokia 16 40.0 Samsung 8 20.0 Siemens 2 5.0 Others (e.g. Motorola etc) 14 35.0 Network MTN 23 57.5 GLO 7 17.5 V/Mobile (now Celtel) 10 25.0 Source: Survey 2005 Table 2 indicates that most respondents used for this study have used mobile phones for 3 years and above (62%), followed by 2 years (20%) and 1 year (7.5%). This result suggests a high level of competence in mobile phone use among this group. The most common type of phone was the Nokia (40%) and the most subscribed to network was MTN (57.5%). A few of the respondents indicated that they had more than one mobile phone, and subscribed to more than one network. Table 3 shows respondents’ answers to the functions of their mobile phones. The results show that all the respondents use their phones to receive calls very often (90%) and often (10%). Also, 77.5% of the respondents say they make calls often, 15% make calls often, while 7.5% do not make calls often. 55% of the respondents say they send SMS/text messages very often and 27.5% often. 15% of the respondents do not use the SMS/text message feature often while 2.5% do not use the feature at all. 47.5% check for missed calls very often and 30% often, while 17.5% do not check often and 5% do not use the feature at all. For the checking credit balance feature, 57.5% of the respondents say they use the feature very often and 25% often, while 17.5% do not check their credit balance often. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 65 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Table 3: Functions Performed on Your Mobile Phone Options Frequency Percentage % Receiving calls Often 4 10.0 Very often 36 90.0 Making calls Not often 3 7.5 Often 6 15.0 Very often 31 77.5 Sending SMS/Text messages 1 2.5 Not at all 6 15.0 Not often 11 27.5 Often 22 55.0 Very often Checking Missed calls Not at all 2 5.0 Not often 7 17.5 Often 12 30.0 Very often 19 47.5 Checking my credit balance Not often 7 17.5 Often 10 25.0 Very often 23 57.5 Table 4 examines the means by which respondents learned to use their mobile phones and whether their knowledge reflects on practice. 31 out of the 40 respondents, 32.5% strongly agree and 45% agree that they studied the instruction manual to learn how to use their mobile phones. 21 out of 40 respondents, 32.5% strongly agree and 20% agree that they learned how to use the features of their mobile pones through trial and error. 30 out of 40 respondents, 22.5% strongly agree and 52.5% agree that they know how to use a specific feature, the silence mode. 45% of respondents were able to identify settings while 32.5% identified tones as the location for the silence feature on their phones. The last three results seem to suggest that the respondents know how to operate their mobile phones and therefore are functional literates in this regard. However, 17 out of 40 respondents (22.5% very often and 17.5% often) indicated that their phones often ring at formal gatherings instead of being in the silence mode or switched off. 37 out of 40 (57.5% very often and 35% often) indicated that they had often witnessed people’s phones ringing, not in silence mode at formal gatherings, thus pointing to the fact that it is a common phenomenon. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 66 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Table 4: Learning How to Use the Mobile Phone I studied my phone’s manual after I purchased it Frequency Percentage % Strongly Disagree 2 5.0 Disagree 7 17.5 Agree 13 32.5 Strongly Agree 18 45.0 I learned to use the functions in my phone through trial and error Strongly Disagree 6 15.0 Disagree 12 30.0 Agree 13 32.5 Strongly Agree 8 20.0 No response 1 2.5 I know how to put my phone in the silence mode Strongly Disagree 3 7.5 Disagree 5 12.5 Agree 9 22.5 Strongly Agree 21 52.5 No response 2 5.0 My silence mode can be found in the MENU under this heading Message 3 7.5 Call register 4 10.0 Settings 18 45.0 Tones 13 32.5 No response 2 5.0 I have been embarrassed before because my phone rang in a formal gathering Not at all 4 10.0 Not often 20 50.0 Often 7 17.5 Very often 9 22.5 I witnessed someone’s phone ring at a formal gathering Not often 3 7.5 Often 14 35.0 Very often 23 57.5 Source: Survey 2005 The findings of this study thus indicate that 1. All the respondents are educated with the highest qualification being a Ph. D and the least a diploma. Most of the respondents are computer literate with 17.5% not computer literate. All respondents own and have used mobile phone for over one year, thus suggesting a high competence in the use of mobile phones. A cross-tabulation of highest educational qualification and computer literacy (Table 5) did not show any significant correlation: Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 67 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Table 5: Highest Educational qualification by I am IT literate (i.e. competent in the use of the computer) I am IT literate (i.e. competent in the use of the computer) Strongly Disagree Disagree Agree Strongly Agree Total Highest Educational Qualification Diploma 1 - 2 - 3 1st Degree - 1 4 6 11 2nd Degree 1 1 6 6 14 Ph. D 1 2 4 5 12 Total 3 4 16 17 40 2. All the respondents received calls often, but did not make calls often. Also, only about half of the respondents used the other functions often, of sending SMS messages, checking for missed calls, and checking their credit balance. This result is similar to that of another study conducted among rural women (Tiemo 2006). In that study, the findings indicated that most respondents were comfortable with only being able to receive calls. Their low level of literacy was identified as a major factor responsible for their inability to use the other functions on their mobile phones. In contrast, the respondents in this study have a relatively high level of literacy, and yet reflect similar patterns of mobile phone use. 3. While most respondents indicated functional competence in how to use their mobile phones, almost half of them admitted that they neglected the use of a basic feature most needed for formal environments such as the academic setting of the respondents, the silence mode, thus resulting in mobile phones ringing often in formal contexts. The frequency of such occurrences suggests the presence of knowledge, educational literacy, but absence in practice, functional literacy. 4. Cross tabulation of highest educational qualification with how respondents learned to use their mobile phones showed no significant correlation. This finding further confirms that respondents’ educational competence does not translate into functional literacy in the use of their mobile phones. 5. The respondents who could not identify the silence mode feature on their phones were also not computer literate. However, not all of the respondents who knew how to use features on their phones were computer literate. This suggests a correlation between computer literacy and other functional literacies in the use of IT gadgets like the mobile phone. 5. Conclusion and Recommendations There is no doubt that the emergence of the mobile phone has had a profound effect on the Nigerian society as well as provided several benefits for the users. However, the observation of a high occurrence of distractions caused by mobile phones, such as phones left to ring in formal contexts, constitutes a negative side to the emergence of mobile phones. Indeed, a most embarrassing experience of this author was at a conference when a main presenter’s phone started to ring in her bag while in the middle of her presentation. Informal discussions with the respondents confirmed that the phenomenon was a problem. However, the lack of significant correlation between level of education of the respondents and knowledge of how to utilize the functions on their mobile phones vis-a-vis the phenomenon Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 68 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 described above suggests that the respondents have some knowledge of the use of their mobile phones with no corresponding functional competence. One explanation may be that mobile phone users, regardless of their level of education, tend to familiarize themselves with only the function(s) they need. A similar finding was made in a study of rural mobile phone users, most of whom knew only how to receive calls and seemed to be content with it (Nigeria 2006:88). Further informal discussions with the respondents revealed that many of them who claimed to have studied the instruction manual of their phone sets only did so to find specific information about the use of one feature or the other. Others said they were taught by someone else. Thus, the hypothesis of this study which states that the level of education of mobile phone users presupposes a corresponding level of functional literacy in the use of their mobile phones is null. Based on the findings and informal discussions with respondents, three categories of mobile phone users are identified: 1) those who know how to use the features on their mobile phones; 2) those who do not know how to use the features of the mobile phones; and 3) those that know in theory, but do not in practice. Majority of the respondents belong to the last category. In this regard, this study is of the view that the respondents of this study, in spite of their level of education, exhibit a considerable level of functional illiteracy because ‘to know and not to do’ constitutes ignorance. This study recommends that in view of the new literacy skills required in the information-driven society of the 21st century, and the increasingly complex nature of daily tasks, there is the need to incorporate functional literacy into the educational curricula so that students are better equipped. Because literacy (whether educational or functional) is dynamic process, the concept of life long learning becomes a crucial one that needs to be reflected in the curricula. There is also the need for paradigm shifts from teacher-centred curriculum to a learner-centred design that will enable learners make appropriate connections between their experiences and the new information that they have acquired in the course of their learning. References Elegbeleye, O.S. (2005) “Prevalent use of Global Systems of Mobile Phone (GSM) for Communication in Nigeria: a breakthrough in Interactional enhancement or a drawback?” In Nordic Journal of African Studies (14) 2: 193 – 207. Govinda Shrestha (1997) Literacy Education at a Distance: Developing Curriculum for Functional Literacy http://www.undp.org/info21/public/literacy/pb-lie.html Hamilton, P. (2005) “m-Commerce in Africa – Innovation Overcoming Barriers” http://www.comesaec.org/hamiledit.pdt Konold, T. R., Juel, C. and McKinnon, M. (1999) Building an Integrated Model of Early Reading Acquisition, http://www.ciera.org/library/reports/inquiry-1/1-003/1-003.html University of Virginia. Madhu V. (2003) “ Literacy, literate vs functional.” http://www.chennaionline.com/education/2003/education19.asp Ndukwe, E. (2005) Address of Executive Vice Chairman/CEO, Nigerian Communications Commission, IT & TELECOM DIGEST: 5TH West African International Telecoms & ICT Exhibition & Conference. The Eko Hotel, Lagos. http://www.ncc.gov.ng/speeches_presentations/EVC’s%20Presentation/EVC’s%20A DDRESS%20AT%20THE%20%20NIG%20%&%20WA%20MOBILE%20TELEPH ONY%20CONFERENCE.doc Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 69 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Nigeria,“Literacy Statistics” (1998)http://ncal.literacy.upenn.edu/sltp/country/nigeria.htm Ofulue, C. (2007) “Interconnectivity in ‘other tongues’: A Sociolinguistic study of SMS text messages in Yoruba”. In Issues in Intercultural Communication 2007 2(1) Samuel Gyasi Obeng (ed.) United States of America: Nova Science Publishers, Inc. Olaofe, I. A. (1992) “The Relationship of Teachers’ Reading Habits and Functional Literacy Development in Nigeria”. READ Magazine October 1992, Vol. 27:2 Tiemo, P. A. (2006) “An Assessment of the Literacy level of Global System of Mobile Communication (GSM) among rural women in the Niger Delta region in Nigeria’ Mobile Telephony: Leveraging Strengths and Opportunities for Socio-Economic Transformation in Nigeria, Christiana Charles-Iyoha (ed.) Nigeria: Centre for Policy and Development pp. 80-89. UNICEF. At a Glance: Nigeria: Statistics. 2005 http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/nigeria_statistics.html Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 70 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE: ITS RELEVANCE TO TECHNICAL/VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN NIGERIA Eunice O. ADEDEJI Alumni Relations Office Obafemi Awolowo University Abstract This paper investigated the importance of communicative competence in English Language to a meaningful and result-oriented vocational /technical education in Nigeria. The subjects who participated in this case study were 225 final year technical college students drawn, on equal basis in terms of number, from three technical colleges in Osun State. A 20-item fill-in Multiple Choice test (FMCT) and an essay writing exercise were administered on them. The study found out that Technical College students did not have competence in the use of technical registers relevant to their different areas of specialization as they normally made mistakes resulting from overgeneralization of rules, wrong analogy and wrong spelling. The paper offered useful suggestions to the government, English teachers and writers of English textbooks on measures to be taken in order to improve the communicative competence of the technical college students. Key words: communicative competence, technical register of English, vocationalEducation in Nigeria, English errors 1. Introduction The English language is an indisputable second and official language in the country. English as an official language serves three broad functions namely, accommodation, participation and social mobility. It occupies a unique position in the country because it is the language that facilitates communication between Nigerians regardless of the linguistic, cultural, ethnic and social barriers. Indeed, the status of English is that of “a stable and important second language” (Ogu 1992:79). Seweje (1998:174) confirms this by noting that “the Nigerian child’s access to the cultural and scientific knowledge of his world is largely through English”. English is also the main language of literacy as it is the major medium of expression in the Nigerian educational system. The National Policy on Education (NPE 1998, Sections 3 e & f) emphasizes among other things that: e) The medium of instruction in the primary school shall be the language of the environment for the first three years. During this period, English shall be taught as a subject. f) From the fourth year, English shall progressively be used as a medium of instruction and the language of immediate environment and French shall be taught as subjects. This means that English is the medium of instruction right from primary four to secondary and higher education levels. All other subjects (except Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo and perhaps other Nigerian languages) are taught and examined in English. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 71 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 The fact that any newspaper which aims at national coverage must necessarily publish in English is a better confirmation that English is the lingua franca in Nigeria. In the words of Banjo (1996:69): No African country is better served with English medium newspaper than Nigeria, and the scene has been further enriched in recent years by profusion in all manner of periodicals spanning the whole range from the basilectal to the acrolectal. In spite of the above, and other numerous roles that English language plays in Nigeria and worldwide, it is unfortunate that many Nigerians are either completely illiterate in it, or have a grossly inadequate mastery of it. That many Nigerians are illiterate in English has been confirmed by many studies. For instance, Adetugbo (1979; 167) asserts that the English language remains today a second language “used with some degree of proficiency by 10 to 15 % of Nigerians.” This might be connected to the poor performance of its users. The poor performance of English users, especially students, may be as a result of a lot of factors ranging from lack of communicative competence, lack of proper understanding of required skills, lack of adequate textbooks to paucity of professional competent teachers (Adedeji 2005 & Akande 2003). The present study is, therefore, designed at investigating the lexico - grammatical problems in the English of Technical Colleges’ students in Osun State. Consequently, the study will identify the level of their communicative competence and usage of technical registers, and discover from their written English the wrongly used words, spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. 2.1 Communicative Competence in English Language The ultimate goal of English language teaching is to develop the learners’ communicative competence, which will enable them to communicate successfully in the real world (i.e. passing on a comprehensible message to the listener). The problem of cultural differences, which second language speakers often bring along with their communication in ESL usually affects their acquisition of communicative competence in ESL. Cultural differences between EMT and ESL on the one hand, and differences in the learning and use of ESL and EMT on the other, as a matter of fact, may pose problems in ‘efficient operation’ of communicative competence in ESL (Adejare, 1995, Akere, 1979 and Alo, 2003). Akintola (1988:80-81) opines that: The basic function of communicative competence (CC) is to generate communicative activity i.e. acts in different situational domains. A user of language is expected to acquire a level of competence that will enable him to participate in various communicative acts as a member of the sociolinguistic community … Communicative competence, according to Yule (1996: 191), is a broad concept, which subsumes the grammatical competence, the socio-linguistic competence and the strategic competence. This is why he opines that language acquisition is the gradual development of ability in a language by using it naturally in communicative situation. Also, following Alo (2003: 117), “linguistic competence entails the knowledge of linguistic forms (phonology, lexis, grammar and usage)”. The language user will be able to produce wellformed utterances and sentences on the basis of the knowledge of linguistic conventions of usage and acquisition of English communicative skills (Adejare 1995). Deviance or total departure from the linguistic conventions of usage will result in bad usage. This will affect communication and also attract unfavourable reactions from listeners and readers. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 72 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 2.2 The Roles of English in Vocational / Technical Education in Nigeria. Technical education in Nigeria is the kind of education targeted towards impacting technical skills and manpower (Oni 2004). The NPE (2004) defines vocational education as: …Those aspects of the educational process involving, in addition to general education, the study of technologies and related sciences and the acquisition of practical skills, attitudes, understanding and knowledge relating to occupations in various sectors of economic and social life (p. 29). For the goals and objectives of vocational education, see Section 42 of the NPE (ibid.). Section 44 of the NPE states the admission requirement into technical colleges thus: Minimum entry requirement into the technical college shall be the Junior School Certificate (JSC). Entry could also be based on evidence of aptitude shown in the technical courses and a reasonably good performance in Mathematics and Science. Students who have proved exceptionally able in the artisan training centres shall also be considered for admission. The relevance and importance of vocational/technical education to the socioeconomic well being of Nigeria can only be realized through effective teaching and learning of technical instructions in our technical colleges. The NPE places emphasis on the acquisition of appropriate skills, abilities and competence both mental and physical as equipment for an individual to live and contribute to the development and progress of his/her community. Nneji (1996) asserts that it is in line with this policy that technical colleges were founded to meet the vocational needs of the people and train them to acquire physical (psychomotor/industrial/practical/manual) and mental skills which include educationaloriented ones. Alao and Obilade (2000: 1) suggest that one of the aims of the 6-3-3-4 system of education in Nigeria is to “arouse interest in technological and vocational education through actual fields of study in preparation for later educational and vocational choices”. They further assert that “total vocationalization” would entail giving the Nigerian educational system a well integrated pre-eminently pronounced work orientation.” The main goals of the proposed vocationalization of the education system, therefore, would be the production of graduates with adequate vocational skills and competence to make them duly capable of taking up either self-employment or salaried work. In view of the foregoing, it is evident that the English language has vital roles to play for vocational education to be effective. This is because all the textbooks and technical manuals are written in English and it is also the language of instruction for all the subjects being offered by the students. It then follows that for graduates of technical colleges to be skilled and competent and to function adequately in their chosen careers, they must have sufficient knowledge of English lexical items, especially those that are relevant to technical registers. Technical college students should also acquire communicative competence in English in order for them to function effectively in the community. Babalola (2003:137) defines English for Specific Purposes (ESP) as an “enterprise involving education, training and practice, and drawing upon three major realms of knowledge: language, pedagogy and the students/ participants or specialists areas of interest.” He further opines that it requires the appropriate selection of language content, lexical and grammatical items as well as “rhetorical and communicative capabilities.” It was clearly stated in UNESCO (1983:41), reported on Trends and Issues in Technical and Vocational Education, that “Nigeria is interested in solving problems of transition from technical and Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 73 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 vocational schools to work” and that her primary innovative approach to realize this interest is through “the Industrial Training Fund” (p. 42). Adequate teaching and learning of ESP relevant to academic and professional needs of the technical college students would go a long way in helping government to realize this aim. Technical college students/graduates should be able to express themselves correctly in English and, especially, possess a good mastery of the registers of their professions. However, as important as communicative competence in English is in this age of science and technology, studies have shown that ESL learners are deficient in the acquisition and learning of English Language, since there are always many lexico-grammatical errors in their English (Akande 2003a, Aremo 1987). This deficiency of ESL learners in Nigeria manifests through their poor performance in either written or spoken English (Adedeji 2005, Jowitt 1991). Jowitt (1991: 25), concerning the poor performance Nigerians in English, noted that “the quality of the English spoken and written by Nigerians is perceived by Nigerians qualified to judge to have been deteriorating over a long period.” Given its roles and importance, the need for learners to master every aspect of English language (i.e. lexis, morphology, phonology, syntax and semantics) in order to be able to communicate well in the language cannot be underrated. It is common knowledge that the level of educational achievement in the country’s schools has been quite low, and no one seems to doubt that one of the most potent factors responsible for this is the language barrier created by the students’ inadequate knowledge of English language. This is one reason this paper focuses on the communicative competence of the technical college students in three schools in Osun State Indeed, the present work has arisen out of the consideration for the urgent need to make the proficiency of technical college students in English match the English skills required for their vocations and in the long run, communicate comprehensibly well with the people in the society. This is because of the fact that to communicate adequately, especially through one’s second language, a command of its lexis is as necessary as that of its grammar. A good mastery of English lexical items goes a long way in facilitating communicative competence in English. The subjects of our study must be well versed in English lexical items relevant to their academic needs because, as has been mentioned above, all the textbooks and manuals of instructions for their chosen vocational careers are written in English; and most importantly, to enable them relate functionally well in the society either as private or salaried vocational practitioners. The objectives of Vocational/Technical Education as stated above (cf. NPE 1998: section 5: 31) imply the ability to be productive and the ability to communicate effectively in the society. Ogunsiji (2003) also believes that it is essential for a Nigerian citizen to be able to ‘create’ and communicate effectively in English language if he is to be fully integrated in the society in this ‘age of science and technology’. The need to acquire competence in English as a second language has become more urgent in these days of high technology. Equipment are becoming more and more computerized and practitioners have had to upgrade their skills by acquiring computer skills and by reading instruction manuals of different equipment so that they can be installed properly and used efficiently. Perhaps the most intricate situation that has confronted technicians in the last ten years or so is the advent of software which, in themselves, are tools for accomplishing designated tasks either on the computer or as accessories in instruments. The software come with elaborate files of ‘Help’ written to assist users to understand how to use them efficiently. A thorough understanding of the English language is a basic condition for being able to use the software. Many technicians are already falling out of business because they lack the language skills to upgrade their knowledge to cope with the influx of Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 74 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 utility instruments embedded with chips. Therefore, it is hoped that, this paper will help to improve the communicative competence of technical college students in English. 3. Analysis and Discussion of the Errors in Students’ Performance The study conducted on some lexical problems in the written English of technical college students in Osun state was indeed an eye-opener that led to the writing of this paper. The results of the data analysis revealed that the overall scores out of the 1,500 possible scores were 776 (51.7%), 697 (46.5%), and 811 (54.0%) in the three colleges used. It was also observed that the students made seven types of errors consistently in their essays. The errors were collocation errors (CE) owing to lack of understanding of lexical sense relation; duplication errors (DE) owing to improper learning; generalization errors (GE) due to lack of good mastery of the register of their specialized areas; similarity errors (SE) resulting from lack of proper understanding or confusion in the use of certain homophones; wrong (or inappropriate) lexical choice (WLC) resulting from improper learning and partial synonymy; translation errors (TE) owing to low level of proficiency and natural problem of bilingual situation, and error of wrong word formation (WWF) resulting from the misapplication of morphological processes. The results revealed the occurrence of the errors in the following decreasing order: GE (168), WLC (133), SE (101), WWF (79), CE (66), DE (59), and TE (54). The following tables 1 and 2 revealed the errors committed by the students clearly: Table 1: Overall Performance of Subjects across Schools and Subject Areas in the Objective Test School Subject Areas Overall Scores within Schools Typewriting Catering Electrical Score % Score % Score % Score % School A 240 48.0 247 49.4 289 57.8 776 51.7 School B 242 48.2 222 44.4 233 46.6 697 46.5 School C 280 55.8 263 52.6 268 53.6 811 54.0 Overall Score within Subject Areas 762 50.9 732 48.7 780 52.8 Table 2: Frequency of Errors in Schools A-C Type of error School A School B School C Total Rank Order N % N % N % N % CE 28 42.4 26 39.4 12 18.2 66 100 5 DE 23 39.0 14 23.7 22 37.3 59 100 6 GE 55 32.7 43 25.6 70 41.7 168 100 1 SE 24 23.8 39 38.6 38 37.6 101 100 3 TE 15 27.8 23 42.6 16 29.6 54 100 7 WLC 50 37.6 37 27.8 46 34.6 133 100 2 WWF 26 32.9 38 48.1 15 19.0 79 100 4 Total 221 33.3 220 33.3 219 33.2 660 100 Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 75 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 The following are some of the examples of errors committed by the subjects of the study: Some of the lexical errors our subjects made are as stated below: 1. Examples of Errors in F/MC Test (a) Wrong lexical choice resulting from wrong analogy 1. Hygiene in the kitchen begins with the *cooker for many diseases can be caused by dirt carried by him/her. Some of our subjects chose cooker instead of cook as a result of analogy with such items as “barber” and “murderer”, barb + -er, murder + -er. Thus, the students thought cooker should be the best option. This is an example of misapplication of suffix. (b) Wrong lexical choice resulting from partial synonymy 2. It is difficult for anyone to cook well without good and sufficient *kitchen vessels. In Example 2 above, our subjects took “vessels” to be synonymous with “utensils” in all contexts. This is wrong because “vessels” and “utensils” are only synonymous with “containers” in some contexts. However, “vessels” and “utensils” are themselves not synonymous, since “cooking vessels” and cooking utensils” are not the same word. 3. It is better to use oil to *clear manual machine. Clear and clean are interchangeable in some other contexts like: Please clear the table. Please clean the table. However, in sentence 3, clear is inappropriate, as it cannot be used in place of clean in that context. (c) Inappropriate lexical choice resulting from improper understanding of antonyms 4. It is economical not to buy more of *non-perishable food that can be used quickly. 5. A good house keeper plans ahead, makes a list of what she needs in the house and buys only *perishable foods in bulk. Inappropriate choice of “non-perishable” and “perishable” in Examples 4 and 5 respectively instead of “perishable” and “non-perishable” reveals the subjects’ lack of understanding of the lexical items. (d) Inappropriate lexical choice owing to improper understanding of lexical sense relations 6. The maintenance of an electric type machine is better left to a *skilful mechanic. 7. All spelling, capitalization, and numbering, on a typed script should be *consistently. In example 6 above, our subjects wrongly chose ‘skilful’ instead ‘skilled’. Even though both lexical items are adjectives, the appropriate one in this context in terms of meaning is ‘skilled’. Example 7 is an instance of wrong selection of adverb instead of adjective. The right option our subject could have chosen is consistent. Generally, in the objective exercise given to them, our subjects’ performance was just average. 2. Examples of Errors in the Written Essay of our subjects (i) Collocation Errors (CE) Nouns and verbs in English usually collocate with some particular prepositions and the knowledge of such nouns and verbs is incomplete without knowing which prepositions usually accompany them. The violations of such collocations, even where intelligibility is Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 76 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 not interfered with, mark the usage as a non-standard variety of English. Some examples with this kind of deviation are stated below: CE1: Boiling can be *consider by *putting water on the pot and put on the fire. CE2: In any time if you *made mistake it can *easy to be correct with. In CE1 and CE2, there are prepositional errors as ‘on’ is used instead of ‘in’ in CE1 while in CE2 ‘in’ is used instead of “in”. The examples here show improper mastery of prepositions that collocate with expressions of place and time in English. This confirms the earlier studies carried out by Hill (1999), Ojetunde (2005) and Taiwo (2003). (ii) Duplication Errors (DE) The deviations identified here involve double itemization of lexical items where the second item is unnecessary. Some examples of this kind of errors are itemized below DE1: We should keep a typewriter machine in a good condition. DE2: … like primary school, secondary school or higher institution school In DE1, “machine” is unnecessary at all. Also in DE2, “school” should not have been written after “institution” again. (iii) Generalization Errors (G E) The deviations identified here involve non-specificity of key items in the subjects’ academic field. Owing to improper learning, some of our subjects were more comfortable using general terms than specific ones. This may be due to their limited knowledge of the specific forms required for explicitness. Examples of such errors are listed below: GE1: Type *machine *need a good operator. GE2: What you want *to do on manual machine you *do there because the machine is very *easily to *practice. The word “machine” which our subjects used in GE1-2 above is a general term used to cover any mechanical device with parts working together to apply power. Also, words like “to do” instead of “to type”; “do” instead of “type” and “operator” for “typist” are words that subsume a wide variety of items and they should be avoided where specific items are more appropriate. (iv) Similarity Errors (S E) The errors in this category could be referred to as sound similarity errors and there are two kinds of these errors in the data. The first one shows that the writers lacked proper understanding or were confused in the use of certain homophonous words, for example: SE1: Boiling *make tough food become soft to it (instead of “eat”). SE2: We must clean it at *list one’s in a week (instead of “at least once”). The second kind is one in which the words used are not necessarily the homophones of the intended ones, but they still sounded similar to the writers perhaps owing to their inaccurate pronunciation or lack of familiarity with the words, e.g. SE3: Manual machine is the machine* will *used when will go for training (instead of “we”). (v) Translation Errors (T E) The following sentences are examples that contain errors and deviations that are due to translation from a first language (Yoruba) to the target or second language (English): TE 1: You need to service it month to month (instead of: once a month or monthly). TE 2: Boiling *make food cook fast fast (kiakia) (instead of very fast) Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 77 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 The errors and deviations above perhaps arise because of two reasons. First, the transfer of Yoruba concepts into English at the incipient stage or primitive level of L2 acquisition, the data reveal the inability of students to effectively transfer some concepts in Yoruba into English based on their level of proficiency in English. . (vi) Wrong Lexical Choice (WLC) The following examples are those of inappropriate or wrong lexical choice owing to improper learning and partial synonymy. WLC 1: It is good to handle our machine with extra careful (adjective instead of noun: care). WLC 2: Boiling is very useful in cooking many meals (instead of foods). WLC 3: It is better to use oil to clear manual machine (instead of clean). In WLC 1, the writer used “careful” (adjective) instead of “care” (noun). Examples WLC 2 is that which results from partial synonymy. In WLC 2, meals are taken to be synonymous with foods whereas meal and food are only synonymous only in some contexts like: What time are you having your meal? What time are you having your food? However, they are not synonymous in all contexts because we can say: Can I take you out for a meal? But we cannot say: *Can I take you out for a food? WLC 5 is another example of partial synonymy. Our writer used “clear” instead of “clean” which is the most appropriate here. While both words connote removing something from a place or something; their exact full meanings are different. “Clean” means “to remove dirt from something by rubbing or washing”, while clear means “to make a surface or place emptier or tidier by removing things that cover it” according to the Longman’s Dictionary of Contemporary English. (vii) Wrong Word Formation (WWF) The errors in this category are the unacceptable lexical creations resulting from the misapplication of morphological processes. Some of the errors found in our data are listed below: WWF 1: It is important for typer to place fingers well on the machine. WWF 2: Care of the machine when you are typeing. WWF 3: A good electric *types writer machine is good in typewritten office. WWF 1 and 2 above are instances of misapplication of the suffixes –ance, -er and –ing which are all conversion suffixes. The origin of this problem is not only morphological but syntactic. This is what is referred to as the “system of polarity” (Muir 1972: 137). The wrong formations above are formed as a result of analogy with lexical items as acceptance, barber and dyeing, that is: barb + -er dye + -ing In like manner, the students combined prefixes with the lexical items type + -er type + -ing WWF 3 is simply errors of unacceptable lexical creations which are due to the writer’s creative ability or improper learning as a result of their level of proficiency in English. The writer wrote “typemachine” instead of “typewriter” while in WWF 6, the writer wrote “typewritten office” instead of “typing pool”. Our subjects might have thought that if a Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 78 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 person who writes is a “writer” and one who reads is a “reader”; then, any person who types must be a “typer”. 5. Conclusion In this paper, we have discussed the relevance of communicative competence to a resultoriented Vocational \ Technical Education in Nigeria. We have examined some lexical and grammatical problems that hinder adequate communicative competence of technical college students in Osun State. It was observed that the students made seven types of errors consistently in their scripts and did not perform up to our expectation in the competence scores (FMCT). The study opined that, as a matter of fact, the technical college students in Osun State, and indeed in Nigeria as a whole, need to be able to communicate effectively in social and everyday situation and most especially and specifically, in their areas of specialization or chosen career or profession. They require an understanding of lexical items usually found or used in the registers of their chosen areas of specialization or profession. They should also be able to use them in different contexts appropriately. Some of our subjects who did well in the FMCT could be said to have a receptive knowledge of a wider range of technical registers in their specialized areas. However, their productive use of these registers could be regarded as limited on the basis of our findings. This is one of the areas that need greater attention. The lack of qualified English teachers in the three technical colleges could have contributed to the students’ lexico-grammatical problems. There should be qualified English teachers in all technical colleges. Also, writers of English textbooks for teaching students should make sure the books they write make good provision for an up-to-date-knowledge of basic linguistic forms and technical registers relevant to the students’ academic and professional needs. These English textbooks must be such that are written by ESP specialists and they must be well graded and above all, the content must cover as many vocations as possible. Teachers should not only be concerned with students understanding the meaning of words, but also being able to use them appropriately. Finally, the government, at the three levels (i.e. Local, State and Federal) must assist in bringing the above suggestions into reality in our Technical Colleges if the goals of technical education as stated in NPE Section 5: 34-25 must be achieved. This is because English is the language of instruction and technology. Provisions of good and qualified teachers; relevant English textbooks, well equipped libraries, organization of workshops for teachers and students alike will go a long way to improve the students’ English and communicative competence. Thereafter, on graduation from college, they will be useful to themselves and the society, and by so doing, Nigeria as a country will benefit from them technologically and economically. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 79 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 References Adedeji. E. O. (2005). An Investigation of some Lexical Problems in the Written English of Technical College Students in Osun State, Nigeria; Unpublished M.A. Thesis, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Adejare, O. (1995). Communicative Competence in English as a Second Language. In Bamgbose A., Banjo, A. and Thomas, A. (Eds.) New Englishes: A West African Perspective. Ibadan: The British Council/Mosuro Publishers, pp. 153-177. Adetugbo, A. (1979) Appropriateness in Nigerian English” In Ubahakwe, E. (Ed.) Varieties and Functions of English in Nigeria. Ibadan: African Universities Press and Nigeria English Studies of Association, pp.137-166. Aileen, M. Prince (1977) Walmsley’s Commercial Typewriting, English edition. Great Britain: Pitman Press. Akande, A.T. (2003) Acquisition of the Inflectional Morphermes by Nigerian Learners of English Language. Nordic Journal of African Studies, Vol. 12 No. 3: 310-326. Akere, F. (1979) Grammatical Competence and Communicative Competence in Relation to Uses of English as a Second Language. Lagos Review of English Studies. Vol.1: 22-32. Akintola, A. (1988) An Assessment of the New National English Curriculum for Nigerian Senior Secondary School as a basis for Communicative English Teaching. Ife Studies on English Language. Vol. 1, Nos 1 & 2: 78-88. Alao, K. and Obilade, O.O. (2000) Vocationalising the Nigerian Educational System: Prospects, Procedures and Problems. Ife Journal of Theory and Research in Education, Vol. 5 No. 2: 1-10. Alo, M.A. (2003) Communicative Competence and Academic Discourse in an ESL University Setting In Oyeleye, L. and M. Olateju (Eds.) Readings in Language and Literature. Ile-Ife: OAU Press, pp. 115-126. Anyakoha, M.W. (2000) New School Physics for Senior Secondary Schools. Onitsha: Africana – Fep Publishers Ltd. Babalola, E.T. (2003) English for Specific Purpose (ESP): An Overview In Oyeleye, L. and M. Olateju (Eds.) Readings in Language and Literature. pp. 137-151. Banjo, A. (1996) Making a Virtue of Neccessity: An Overview of the English Language in Nigeria. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press. Federal Government of Nigeria (1998) The National Policy on Education. Lagos: Government Press. _____________ . (2004) The National Policy on Education. Lagos: NERDC Press Hill, J. (1999). “Collocational Competence” English Teaching Professional II: 3-6, Quoted in Solange Moras, C.S. (2001). “Teaching Vocabulary to Advanced Students: A Lexical Approach”. Karen’s Linguistic Issue. Brazil. Wen Article: 1-7. Johnston, R.O. (1960) About Your Cookery. London: Longmans. Jowitt, D. (1991). Nigerian English Usage: An Introduction. Nigeria: Longman. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (Third Edition) (2000): Longman. Nneji, N.G. (1996) Perspectives in Skill Measurement. Technical Education Review. Vol. 2, No 1: 65-75. Ogu, J.N. (1992). Historical Survey of English and the Nigerian Situation. Ibadan: Kraft Books Ltd. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 80 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Ogunsiji, A. (2003). Developing EL2 Learners’ Communicative Competence through Literature in English” in Oyeleye, L. and M. Olateju (eds.) Readings in language and Literature, Ile-Ife: OAU Press,pp. 127-136. Olorode, C.S. (1999) Issues on the Development of Vocabulary for Learners of English as a Second Language. Papers in English and Linguistics. Vol. 4: 35-43. Oni, C. S. (2004) The Place of Information Technology in Vocational-Technical Education in Nigeria. The African Symposium, Vol. 4 No. 4, December 2004 (Online). Read, J. (2004) Research in Teaching Vocabulary. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 24: 146-161, Cambridge University Press. Seweje, E.O. (1998). “English Language Teaching and the Present Day Economic Situation in Nigeria” in Journal of English Studies. Vol. VII: 111-180. Taiwo, R. (2003). Collocational Errors in the Written English of Senior Secondary School Pupils in Six Yoruba-Speaking States in Nigeria. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. UNESCO (1983). “The Transition from Technical and Vocational Schools to Work: Problems, Current Efforts, and Innovative Approaches and Measures to Improving the Transition” in Trends and Issues in Technical and Vocational Education 2:13-100. Yule, G. (1996). The Study of Language, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 81 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 SYNTACTIC PROBLEMS IN NIGERIAN UNDERGRADUATES’ USE OF THE ENGLISH REPORTING VERBS J. O. Ojo Department of English Adeyemi College of Education Abstract Using data from test instruments, in form of continuous writing, administered on one hundred freshmen in the degree programme of a College of Education in Ondo, this study reveals the syntactic problems faced by undergraduates in the use of reporting verbs, resulting in monotony, limited vocabulary choices, inappropriate substitutions of other verbs for reporting verbs, wrong sequence of verbs paired with reporting verbs, excessive inflection for tense and nonmarking of aspect in these verbs. These problems have great implications for the subjects’ use of tense and aspect and definitely inhibit their fluent communication in the English language. As a result of this, this paper suggests that more emphasis should be laid on this aspect of English, especially in the secondary schools. Key words: syntactic problems, English reporting verbs, tense and aspect 1. Introduction Most people would agree that language users differ in their ability to communicate effectively. The question of how to speak or write more effectively is one that has been of interest to scholars for hundreds of years. Users of English (particularly in a second language situation) have always experienced one problem or the other in their communicative endeavours. One of these problems has to do with reporting events and actions. Studies in the Verbal Group (See Adewuyi 1966, Oladejo 1988, Asiyanbola 1998, Babalola 1999) have not particularly addressed the reporting verbs in narratives, which is a very important tool in effective communication. Though there have been studies in the evaluation of reporting verbs used in academic papers (see Thompson and Yiyun 1991) and reporting verbs in medical journal articles (see Thomas and Hawes 1994), not much seems to have been done on reporting verbs in narratives. The role of reporting verbs in communication cannot be over-emphasized. The art of reporting, narrating or giving an account is a day-to-day activity among human beings. It is also noted that reporting verbs form the nucleus of this activity and good mastery of them enhances better communication. In the writings of our undergraduates, it is observed that many of them are not at ease when it comes to reporting and this is traceable to the problems they have in the use of reporting verbs in English. This is where the present study becomes significant. The research is borne out of the desire to get to the root of the difficulties our undergraduates have with these verbs when narrating. This is as a result of obvious errors discovered in the writings of these students in the course of teaching them over the years. The findings reveal quite a lot of interesting developments principal among which is the limited stock of vocabulary that is available to them. This is what leads to the subjects’ over-reliance on the use of certain reporting verbs and inappropriate substitution of others among other factors. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 82 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 2. Theoretical Framework The theoretical framework adopted for this study is the Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG), (Halliday 1964, 1985 and 1994). The reporting verbs are those commonly used in reported or indirect speech. They are found in narratives as well as in research articles. Using the functional classification of the simple sentence into the declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory, we can identify various reporting verbs that are peculiar to each class. These are: i. Declarative - said, told, pointed, stated, etc. ii. Interrogative - asked, questioned, queried, etc. iii. Imperative - ordered, commanded, etc. iv. Exclamatory - exclaimed, blurted, etc. These examples, if critically observed, would readily be associated with narratives. This is traceable to their past tense forms. Reporting verbs have also been employed in academic writings where they commonly function as projectors (Bloor and Bloor 1995:225) as in the following examples. 1. Fafunwa points out that… 2. Halliday explains that…. 3. Muiv claims that …… In the sentences above, the reporting verbs are used to introduce the ideas and views of cited authors whose works are being reported. Their use in research articles has attracted some attention, usually with the objective of preparing teaching materials for overseas learners of English for academic purposes. For instance, using a functional model, Thompson and Yiyun (1991) investigated the reporting verbs used in the introductions to one hundred research articles from a variety of fields. They proposed a three-part classification of reporting verbs as follows: i. Textual – verbs referring to processes in which the verbal expression is an obligatory component, e.g. state, write, challenge, point out, deny, etc. ii. Mental – verbs referring primarily to mental processes, e.g. believe, think prefer, etc. iii. Research - verbs referring primarily to the mental or physical processes that are part of research work, e.g. measure, calculate, quality obtain, find, etc. They also considered, for instance, the attitude of the author cited to the reported information and the stance of the writer as revealed in the reporting verbs chosen. Thomas and Hawes (1994) had followed up this study with a detailed analysis of the reporting verbs used in medical journal articles and had identified the patterns of choice available in terms of a network. The following are the major categories they identified: i. Real-world Activity verbs such as observe find, categorise, etc. ii. Cognition verbs such as think, believe, consider, etc. iii. Discourse Activity verbs such as state, suggest, report, etc. It is observed that there are points of convergence in the above classifications. For instance, (i) and (ii) in the first have equivalents in (ii) and (iii) of the second respectively. 3. Data Collection and Analysis The data for this study derived from a test instrument administered on one hundred undergraduates (drawn from ten randomly–selected departments) in the degree programme of Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo. They were all involved in the service course - SER 001 (Use of English) programme of the college. It should be stressed that the majority of our subjects had Yoruba as their L1 (89 to be precise) while those with Igbo as their L1 were 11. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 83 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 There was none with Hausa as L1. It was also observed that most of those with Igbo as their L1 were fluent in Yoruba. The rationale for using undergraduates as our subjects was because they had attained a level of proficiency in the English Language. All of them had passed the language at least at the credit level in the GCE /School Certificate Examination. The test instrument consisted of two questions: -Narrate an experience you had or have heard about, which illustrates either of these statements: 1. ‘All that glitters is not gold’ 2. ‘Look before you leap’. Their scripts were examined for errors related to the verbal group and specifically to the reporting verbs as well as the implications of this on the subjects’ marking of tense and aspect on these verbs. An analysis of the frequency of occurrence of these reporting verbs in the scripts of our subjects is presented in the table below. Table 1: Frequency of Occurrence of Reporting Verbs in Students’ Scripts Reporting Verb Frequency of Occurrence No. of Scripts Said 1,412 100 Told 1,363 100 asked 1,024 100 Ordered 117 42 Command 99 36 Believed 46 18 Thought 40 16 Felt 32 12 Considered 28 10 Suggested 21 11 Wished 20 12 Exclaimed 18 7 Reported 15 6 Stated 11 4 Assured 10 6 Explained 3 2 Preferred - - Pointed - - Claimed - - 4. Discussion of Findings From the data collected, it is observed that our subjects face some difficulties in the use of the English reporting verbs, which also manifest in the choices made in the tense and aspect systems of the verbal group in English. One of the syntactic problems observed in the writings of our subjects is the over-use of particular reporting verbs. Such verbs are said, told and asked. For instance, those verbs occurred in all the scripts with said having 1412 occurrences, told 1363 and asked 1024. This tendency to over-rely or depend on these reporting verbs makes their narrative monotonous because of the unnecessary repetition of these verbs. Also, as most of our subjects have Yoruba as their L1, the interference of Yoruba cannot be entirely ruled out as a causative factor. Consider these textual examples: Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 84 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 4. He said he would abide by what his parents told him on the lady after consulting with some of his friends who told him the girl might not make a good wife. 5. They said the matter was beyond them but could not hold on for long before approaching his colleague at work who said he would offer the required support. We are able to identify the problem of limited vocabulary among our subjects as being responsible for the unnecessary repetition they indulge in their use of reporting verbs. For instance, in Sentences (4) and (5) above, nothing stops the respondents from using advised or counseled instead of told in (4) and stated for said in (5). Such dynamism makes for an interesting reading. Closely following that is the problem of inappropriate substitution of other verbs for reporting verbs by the subjects. When this happens, meanings are affected one way or the other. For instance, while exclaimed occurs 18 times in 7 scripts, shouted occurs 25 times in 20 scripts respectively. Consider: 6. The man suddenly shouted “I am dying” and everybody started running (exclaimed). 7. He was preparing to leave the office when his friend begged him for a favour (asked) 8. Those on the other side wanted the man to explain why he alighted them (asked). This is a common problem observed in the response of most of our subjects. A lot of verbs were used in this way, which gives no credit to their narratives. Another syntactic problem observed is misplaced usage of these reporting verbs by the respondents. It is our view that some of them might not even have regarded the usage as an error. Consider: 9. The officer asked Akin to get out of his office (ordered/commanded). 10. He said to his mother “who is the lady over there?” (asked). 11. Akin was so angry with his wife that he told her to desist from such a nagging behaviour (warned). It is clear that though there is an element of communication in these sentences, the reporting verbs used do not fit into the contexts. For instance, ordered and commanded occur 117 and 98 times in 42 36 scripts respectively. However, considering the number of times they are excluded in context, their frequencies of occurrence should have been higher than the times recorded for them. The same applies to other reporting verbs in the same category. It is also observed that there is less emphasis on certain reporting verbs by our subjects. We can identify those verbs which have relations with the cognitive/mental process (See Thompson and Yiyun 1991 and Thomas and Hawes 1994) such as believed, thought, considered, preferred etc. as belonging to this group. For instance, believe is used 46 times in 22 scripts, considered 27 times in 10 scripts, thought 40 times in 16 scripts, and preferred which is not used at all by any subject. This can also be identified with other reporting verbs like pointed, explained, claimed etc. Only explained occurs 3 times in 2 scripts while the other are not used at all. It is noted that this is a general trend among our subjects as the frequency of use of these verbs is far lesser than the others. Once probable reason for this might be the problem of adaptability of these verbs in their writing since they are not as frequently used as the other prominent reporting verbs. Another syntactic difficulty observed in the writings of our subjects has to do with the verbs paired with some of the reporting verbs used in sentences. As some of these verbs are in wrong sequence, they, most of the time, render the sentences ungrammatical. Consider: 12 His father said he will be there the next day (would). 13 It was then he realized that not all that glittered were gold (was). Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 85 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 14 “I wish I marry another wife” Akin told his friend regretting his marriage to Sade (married). There is no denying the fact that the subjects who generated the sentences above (particularly 14) are not quite familiar with the use of the exclamatory reporting verb ‘wish’. This, of course, usually poses some confusion in terms of tense and aspect. With reference to tense and aspect, it is observed that the difficulties our subjects have with the use of reporting verbs pose problems in the way they mark tense and aspect on these verbs. It is noted that some of these errors by subjects are related to the issue of the morphological change in the form of the verb to reflect tense in English which their mother tongue does not recognize. Consider: 15 When John was in School, he believe so much in handwork (believed). 16 His friends explain the process involved in the revenue collection of the department. (explained). Most of the subjects retain the present tense forms of these verbs to reflect the past tense. One could see the influence of their mother tongue here. Closely related to the above is the issue of inflecting almost all the verbs used in their narrative to reflect the past tense. Almost all the subjects committed this error. Consider: 17 As a result of this, the principal had to assured him on his safety (assure). 18 The other students even decided to go and appealed to the principal (appeal). 19 It was reported that Oluremi had actually ran away from school (run). 20 The news on the fatal accident was broadcasted on the television (broadcast). Another difficulty noticed in the writings of the subjects has to do with the point of marking aspect on the verbs. English differs from the mother tongue of our subjects on this. Consider: 21 He was been questioned when his parents got there (being) – imperfective for imperfective/continuous aspect. 22 His father told him that Uncle Bayo had shift base to Lagos (shifted) – present tense for perfective aspect. 23 Somebody even told him that when one was face with a problem, it is better to seek advise (sic) (faced). 5. Implications for Pedagogy The syntactic problems highlighted above have great implications for pedagogy. These problems faced by these undergraduate subjects had taken roots right from their secondary school days as it is evident this syntactic aspect had not been fully taught at that level. This, therefore, poses a great challenge to the language teacher who needs to be dynamic and resourceful. The teaching of reporting verbs as well as their implications for tense and aspect in English should be adequately emphasized. It is noted that there is much neglect of this aspect by the teacher of English particularly at the secondary school level. The teacher seems much interested in other areas forgetting the fact that this enhances the reporting skill of the pupils. This is what has been responsible for the poor English, spoken or written, by most of the undergraduates in our tertiary institutions – when they are faced with the task of reporting (which is a daily activity). On his own, the language teacher should display his innovativeness through his methods as well as exposure of his learners to adequate exercises on this aspect of the language. This would help alleviate their syntactic problems as they use these verbs. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 86 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 6. Conclusion This study has investigated and revealed the syntactic problems ESL users (particularly undergraduates) face in their use of the English reporting verbs with some implications for how they mark tense and aspect on these verbs. This calls for caution on their part in the use of these reporting verbs. The same thing applies to the English language teacher (particularly at the secondary school level) who must pay attention to this as well as other relevant syntactic aspects so as to fully equip the learner/user. In that way, effective communication in English would not only be ensured but also guaranteed. References Adewuyi, D. A. (1988) An Examination of the Meaning and Usage of the Modals in English Grammar Arts Link Vol. 1 No. 2, 23 -32. Adeyefa, O. G. (1998) “Grammatical Errors in the Written English of J.S. III Pupils in Selected Secondary Schools in Ile-Ife” Unpublished M.A. Dissertation Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. Asiyanbola, A. A. (1998) Contrastive Analysis of English and Yoruba Verb Phrases. Journal of English Studies Vol. VIII, 99-107. Babalola E. T (1999) The Misuse of Auxiliary Verbs in the Essays of Some Senior Secondary School Pupils in Oyo State. Papers in English and Linguistics Vol. IV, 65-72. Bloor T. and Bloor M (1995) The Functional Analysis of English: A Halliday an Approach. New York: Oxford University Press. Halliday M. A. K. (1961) Categories of the Theory of Grammar Word Vol. 17, No.3. _______. (1985) Introduction to Functional Grammar (1st Edition) London: Edward Arnold. ______ (1994) Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd Edition) London: Edward Arnold. Oladejo, J. A. (1988) The Acquisition of the Semantics of English Modals by L2 Learners JESEL Vol.2 Pp. 42 – 48 Thomas S. and Hawes T. P. (1994) Reporting Verbs in Medical Journal Articles English for Specific Purposes Vol. 13,171 -186 Thompson G. and Yiyun Y. (1991) Evaluation in the Reporting Verbs Used in Academic Papers” Applied Linguistics Vol. 12, 265-82. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 87 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 GRAMMAR AS A TOOL OF LANGUAGE LITERACY: AN EVALUATION OF THREE NIGERIAN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL ENGLISH COURSEBOOKS Dr A. A. Asiyanbola Department of English Obafemi Awolowo University Abstract The paper makes a case for English grammar as an instrument for English language literacy against the background of the review of some studies in English language teaching (ELT) and learning, curriculum/syllabus development and English coursebook evaluation. Using a prepared coursebook evaluation checklist drawn from the review above, an evaluation of the grammar units of three selected Nigerian Senior Secondary School English coursebooks, namely, Effective English (EE), Senior English Project (SEP) and Intensive English (IE) was carried out. From the foregoing, recommendations are made for improvement on the grammar units of each of the coursebooks under study. Key words: English coursebooks, evaluation, grammar units, language literacy, checklist, syllabus 1. Introduction The present paper focuses on how grammar has been instrumental to the learning of the traditional literacy skills: reading and writing, as reflected in three selected Senior Secondary School English textbooks (Effective English, Senior English Project and Intensive English) used in Nigeria. The instrumentality of grammar is obvious in that in the use of a language, grammar serves as a guide. It can be prescriptive and descriptive (Lyons 1971 and Tomori 1977). When we say it is prescriptive or normative, we mean that it contains rules that we need to obey in order to produce well-formed sentences. And, when we say it is descriptive, we mean that the grammar rules can be used to describe, explicate or analyze the language data that are produced in order to determine their function or meaning in the context of usage. The objective of this paper, therefore, is to evaluate the grammar units of Effective English, Senior English Project and Intensive English, using an evaluation checklist drawn from our review of studies in English language teaching and learning, language syllabus development and coursebook evaluation produced in Nigeria and some English as a second language (ESL) countries right from Tomori (1963) to the present time. 2. Grammar and its Relevance to Language Literacy Grammar can be subsumed under two categories of morphology and syntax. Morphology is the study of morphemes, i.e. the smallest meaningful units of grammar (Tomori 1971, Scott, et al. 1971 and Muir 1971). Morphemes can be further divided into free, bound, derivational and inflectional morphemes. Free morphemes can function as words while bound morphemes cannot function as words but as word-parts or affixes. When affixes come before the root, they are referred to as prefixes, but when they come after the root, they are called suffixes, e.g. the word international can be divided into three morphemes namely inter- (prefix)+nation (root) + -al (suffix); and the word education can be broken into two morphemes: Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 88 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 educate+-ion (root+suffix). Derivational affixes are those bound morphemes that cause a word to change its part of speech. Not many prefixes are derivational but many suffixes are derivational. Examples of words that reflect derivational prefixes are en+danger (endanger) and em+power (empower), while those of derivational suffixes are brother+-hood (brotherhood) and educate+-ion (education), marry + noun suffix(-age)(marriage) etc. Inflectional affixes are grammatical or structural affixes which cannot cause a word to change its word class or part of speech but that can only indicate structural changes such as obtained in plural suffixes, e.g. –s, -es, -n, -ren etc; verb suffixes such as those reflecting past form (- ed), past participle form (-ed or -en), present participle form (-ing), comparative adjective form (-er) and superlative form (-est). Syntax, on the other hand, is the study of grammatical units that are larger than a word. In syntax, we study phrases, clauses and sentences. When we are considering the cooccurrence of words in order to form larger sequences other than words, we are within the realm of syntax. Systemic linguists have combined the two aspects of grammar (morphology and syntax) into a rank scale; i.e. the study of sentence, clause, group (or phrase), word and morpheme. Rank scale is the hierarchical arrangement of structural units in such a manner that the immediate smaller unit can be obtained in the next higher unit (Muir, 1971 and Scott et al, 1977). From the foregoing, we are able to see that grammar serves as a guide to reading and writing skills in English. This is because learners need to recognize concepts such as morphemes of various kinds, lexical and grammatical words, groups or phrases of different kinds, various kinds of clauses and sentences together with their inter-relationship in a text before they can read and decode meaning. Even, modern literacy involving viewing and manipulation of modern technology such as the computer, internet, cellular phones and various other information technology devices require the knowledge of English grammar in order for the users to communicate through them in English. This is because grammar involves a body of rules that serve as a monitor for the production and consumption of information be it through the traditional or modern sources of literacy. 3. Literature Review The relevant literature review on this paper involves studies in English language teaching (ELT) and learning, English textbook evaluation and syllabus design in Nigeria, in particular, and other ESL countries, in general, over the years past. These specific aspects are very relevant because our evaluation checklist, tested on the three selected textbooks (SEP, IE and EE), is drawn from the submissions identified from the sources reviewed. Firstly, some scholars have identified various learning problems through the contrastive analysis of pupils’ mother tongue (MT) and the target language (TL), English, on the one hand, and through the error analysis (EA) of the written output of ESL learners, on the other hand. From their findings, some of the learning problems of Nigerian English language learners identified were those of wrong tense, agreement between subject and verb, wrong determiners, wrong use of prepositions and their omission, wrong delineation of sentences, confusion between countable and uncountable nouns (Tomori 1963 and 1967, Afolayan 1968, Banjo 1969, Aremo 1982, Asiyanbola 1997 and 2003, for example). Also, other scholars in this perspective suggested, in the light of the problems, the remedial work that should be carried out to improve on the language competence of the pupils (Horgan 1969, Etim 1980, Williams 1981, Oluikpe 1984, Orisawayi 1987, Asiyanbola 1997 and 2003, Dornyei 1998 and Andrews 1999). In summary, the scholars are of the opinion that part of the work of the English teacher mentioned is the need for identifying which structure is the Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 89 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 most difficult and concentrating on the corresponding collective and individual drills; providing necessary background experiences through oral conversations, visits to places, and extra-curricular activities; diagnosing the pupils’ problems in English professionally and choosing the best means of dealing with the problems, using the right method of instruction and appropriate materials, including textbooks; developing pupils’ interest and motivation for English while working for the remedial teaching of English; realizing that there should be a place for explanation as well as practice in the second language teaching; noting that communication should be the ultimate goal of language teaching; realizing that English language teaching should be related to pupils’ MT experiences in dealing with mistakes in phonology, lexis and structure; making the coursebook writers to be realistic in their expectations of what the teacher can do in the English language classroom in Nigeria; noting that remedial activities of teachers should be centred on the pupils’ problem areas such as tenses, cases, number, references, agreement, comparison and sentence formation. Furthermore, Dornyei (1998) advocates the use of motivation at three levels in ESL classroom: language, learner and learning situation levels. He maintains that there should be motivation to meet learner’s needs for achievement and self confidence, and that consideration should be given to course-specific, teacher-specific and group-specific motivations. In addition, Andrews (1999), in his own submission, emphasizes the importance of the teacher’s intervention to filter the English teaching syllabus materials, coursebook materials and learners’ written target language production. This can only be possible when we have qualified teachers who have a good knowledge of the grammar of the target language. Secondly, the importance of the coursebook in facilitating the teaching and learning of any course material cannot be gainsaid. This is because the textbook serves as a guide for the teacher and a source of consolidation to the subject matter for the learners when the teacher has left the classroom. In this section of the paper, therefore, we review the works of some scholars in the field of English coursebook evaluation since their viewpoints together with those in ELT and syllabus design form the basis for the coursebook evaluation checklist tested on EE, SEP and IE in this paper. The studies involved are those of Williams 1968, Oluikpe 1974, Taiwo 1974, James 1980, Aboderin 1980, Aremo 1982, Emenyonu 1988, Nwogu 1988 and Asiyanbola 2003. The submissions in these studies include the fact that there should be a revision of the coursebooks used in secondary schools to take care of the pupils’ learning needs in the areas of tenses, agreement, morphology, vocabulary and structures, and that the language structure should be sequentially organized from simple to complex. They come out with coursebook evaluation parameters such as content, methodological, pedagogical, technological and ecological factors. The content refers to the subject-matter to be imparted, while the methodological factor refers to the ‘how’ of presenting the subject matter. The pedagogical factor refers to the science of teaching such as knowing the psychology of the learners. It answers questions on the background of the learners (i.e. previous knowledge relevant to the present subject matter to be imparted); time duration that learners are capable of concentrating; and the maturity of the learners required to cope with the language task involved in a topic. The methodological factor answers questions about the identification or selection of the content, sequence or grading of the content, repetition or reinforcement of learning materials, possibility of using teaching aids and systematic handling of confused forms of the TL. The technological factor refers to the print, illustrations, pictures, colours, textbook cover and binding that the book should have. Other suggestions of scholars in the field of coursebook assessment include giving introductory guidance on the presentation of language items and skills, offering meaningful Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 90 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 situations and variety of techniques for teaching structural units and distinguishing the different purposes and skills involved in the teaching of vocabulary. Thirdly, aside from the aspects of English language teaching and coursebook assessment, the present paper is also impinged on syllabus design as it serves as a forerunner to coursebook design. This is so because the topics presented in the syllabus are normally the ones being treated in the coursebook. We also need to clear the air initially about the distinction between curriculum and syllabus. The important distinction is that the curriculum is more general in nature; while the syllabus is more specific, particular, local and more detailed. However, some applied linguists use both terms interchangeably, because the syllabus looks like a minor curriculum while the curriculum, also, looks like a supra-syllabus. This is so because the two have the same features in common, however, we want to stick to the use of the term syllabus in this paper since it is an important instrument in the hand of the classroom language teacher. Nunan (1988) identifies four components of an integrated syllabus, namely structural, notional-functional, spiral and process. Both structural and notional syllabuses, according to Nunan, can be jointly classified as product or synthetic syllabuses. This is because the two have their base in the synthetic language teaching strategy in “which different parts of the language are taught separately and step-by-step so that language acquisition is a process of gradual accumulation of parts until the whole structure of language has been built up” (p.28). While the structural syllabus features language patterns to be presented to learners from simple to complex ones, the notional-functional syllabus deals with communicative acts that can be presented in systematic and step-by-step manner. Nunan further contrasts the synthetic syllabuses with the analytic syllabuses which “are organized in terms of purposes for which people are learning a language and the kinds of language performance that are necessary to meet those purposes” (p.29). It is the same analytic syllabus that is being referred to as the process (procedural or task based) syllabus. The spiral syllabus refers precisely to the mode of specification, grading and reinforcement of items. It has to do with the principle of “practice makes perfect”. In other words, the practitioners believe that there are simple and seemingly difficult aspects of language; and for learners to learn these seemingly difficult but useful aspects, these aspects should be presented frequently in the classroom and at various intervals. They recommend that learners should be made to practise those seemingly difficult aspects at various intervals of the learners’ course. White (1988) reviews various types of syllabus designs which can be categorized into two broad types, namely, Types A and B. The Type A- syllabuses are content-based or what Nunan refers to as the synthetic syllabuses. They are the means-end, situational, notionalfunctional and structural syllabuses. The Type B syllabuses, on the other hand, are those which Nunan calls the analytic syllabuses comprising the process, skill-based and methodbased syllabuses. It is very important, at this point, to delineate the syllabus types mentioned so far that have not been discussed; such as the means-end, process, situation, skill-based, and methodbased designs. The means-end approach, as the name implies, has the statement of objectives as its starting point before moving to other stages such as that of content selection, learning activities and evaluation. The process design graduates from the stage of teachers’ context to the stages of learning situation, aims/purposes and evaluation. The situational approach, on the other hand, involves the analysis of the situation, definition of objectives, design of learning activities, interpretation, implementation and evaluation of the teaching-learning programme. The skill-based syllabus involves the development of skills in two perspectives, namely, language and learning skills. The Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 91 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 language skills refer to the four language communication skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing, while the learning skills are those of understanding, expressing, interpreting, extracting and recognizing. The method-based syllabus involves both the process and procedural aspects. The process aspect has a learning focus and it is learner-led because it takes the direction determined by the learners, so that it is impossible to predict in advance exactly what route the syllabus will follow, since it is the pace and direction set by the learners that dictate the shape (p.95). The procedural aspect, in another vein, has a cognitive focus and it is task-based as it implies “that the acquisition of an element in language structure is not an ‘instant onestep procedure’ for it may take several instances of intensive exposure to different samples of language data before any abstraction is made, or cognitive structure formed and particular instances may or may not lead to such result” (p.104). This syllabus design is credited to Prabhu, cited in White (1988), who has developed a learning-centred as opposed to learner-centred approach. 4. Course book Evaluation Checklist As we have hinted earlier, our coursebook evaluation checklist is drawn from the submissions of scholars in the fields of language teaching, coursebook evaluation and curriculum design in English language that are reviewed in the fourth section of this paper. We have chosen the following points for consideration in the evaluation of the grammar units of Senior Secondary School volumes of Effective English, Senior English Project and Intensive English: selection and coverage of required topics, sequence or ordering of the topics, appropriateness of introduction, adequacy of presentation, depth of practice, adequacy of reinforcement, relevance to Nigerian setting, relevance to teaching syllabus and provision for communicative language teaching. In order to arrive at the required topics in grammar that the learners need for their language competence, research has to be carried out on the linguistic needs of the target learners. This can take various methods of elicitation such as supply-response, essay, objective, oral-reading tests, comprehension tests, questionnaires and interviews (Weir 1988). Also, the researcher can employ, as methods of investigation into the language problems of the learners, error analysis (EA) or contrastive analysis (CA). EA involves a systematic linguistic description of the language learning problems inherent in the language repertoire of the target learners without necessarily making recourse to their mother tongue, while CA involves a systematic linguistic account of the learners’ performance with regard to the extent their mother tongue interferes with their mastery of the target language. After all this investigation, necessary grammar points that can improve the learners’ language competence are, therefore, noted and selected for presentation in the teaching syllabus, and for treatment in the textbook. Another phase to be considered immediately after the selection of relevant topics is the sequencing or ordering of these selected topics. This is very important because it is easier for learners to learn from simple to complex ideas than the other way round. This is the point of departure of conscious language learning from the unconscious natural acquisition of language which occurs at random and as at when learners encounter the language data “on the streets” or “right from one’s mother’s knees” as Corder, 1977 puts it. Language learning, as we have noted, is more organized and stereotyped as it normally occurs in the four walls of the classroom. The learning material being selected for presentation are usually graded using various principles of presentation such as that of frequency, coverage, teachability, learnability, simplicity, complexity, combinability, relevance, interest and affectivity, generalizability, availability etc (Halliday, McIntosh and Strevens, 1964; White, 1988:44- Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 92 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 61). In other words, the teacher needs to consider how frequent the grammar point occurs in the syllabus. S/he should also consider the coverage given to the grammar point in the syllabus. How easy is the grammar point to teach? How simple or complex is the grammar point in presenting to the learners? Can the learners easily learn the topic? Or does the topic increase the learning load or burden of the target learners? Does the topic demand a lot from the learners before they can comprehend it? How relevant is the topic in the learning of English or generally in the educational programme of the learners? Will the grammar topic catch the interest of the learners? Does the grammar topic or point affect the lives of the learners at present or in the future? Are we able to generalize some rules in the grammar presentation? How available are the materials to teach the grammar points? Do the grammar points relate to the life experiences of the learners? All these principles are directly referring to the pedagogical qualities of the topics to be sequenced and they border on which topic will follow which. Appropriateness of introduction refers to the way grammar points are introduced. Two notable methods common in textbooks are inductive and deductive methods. In the inductive method, particular examples or illustrations are given before a grammatical rule is established, e.g. Ade, love, school, bags, Friday etc. are nouns (particular examples) Nouns are, therefore, names of persons, places, things or ideas. (Grammatical rule). In the deductive method, the grammar rule is first stated before examples or illustrations are given, e.g. Adjectives are words that qualify nouns. (Grammatical rule). Beautiful house, ugly girls, fat woman (Particular examples). Adequacy of presentation follows the introduction phase which is actually where the coursebook writer demonstrates the content of the subject matter. It is the procedural steps taken to fixate the subject matter in the minds of the learners and it involves giving examples and grammatical rules. It involves drills of various kinds and pupils’ involvement in the lesson. The depth of practice is as equally important as any of the other phases that we have mentioned. This is the step when the learners will be evaluated at the end of the lesson. It can be oral or written, however, the written form is more important because it serves as the apex of language literacy and should be given prominence in language lessons. Apart from that, it apparently shows the record of the linguistic performance of target learners. Adequacy of reinforcement refers to opportunities given to the learners to practice, most especially the seemingly difficult but useful grammar points. According to Nunan’s (1988) spiral curriculum theory, seemingly difficult but necessary items should be reinforced, that is, presented very often at various intervals (weekly, monthly, semester, term or yearly) in order for the learners to master these items. This is rooted in the principles of “practice makes perfect” and that “what one does very often is never forgotten”. The next factor considered in the textbook evaluation checklist is that of relevance to Nigerian setting. The English language in coursebooks used by Nigerian learners should, as a matter of fact, be standard in two ways; firstly, in Nigeria and, secondly, in the world at large or, put simply, intelligible to users where the language is used as mother tongue (MT), second language (L2) and even foreign language (FL). The four factors of language standardization are: grammaticality, that is, the grammar or grammatical rules that guide the usage of the language as treated in the text considered should be uniform in Nigeria and in other places where the language is used; intelligibility, that is, the language as used in the text, should be intelligible to all the people using the text in the four parts ( i.e. north, south, Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 93 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 east and west) of the country, Nigeria and in other places where the language is used in the world; acceptability, that is, the use of the language as presented in the coursebook should be acceptable to people in the country and elsewhere; and lastly, appropriateness, that is, various registers of the language according to users, field, setting and topic of discourse as we have in the coursebook are appropriate. The type of English used in each text evaluated should be standard both locally, that is, in Nigeria and in other countries of the world where the language is used. Furthermore on the checklist is the relevance of the material in the text to the teaching syllabus. The English teaching syllabus refers to the syllabus or curriculum as handed down to schools by the Federal Ministry of Education with the intention that it should be followed in all secondary schools in Nigeria. Normally, all English coursebooks designed for the pupils in the secondary school category are expected to be in line with the teaching syllabus. However, there are other syllabuses such as learners’ syllabus; that is, the syllabus that states those topics that the learners need to learn in order for him/her to be competent in the target language. This can be obtained through the use of various elicitation techniques in the forms of contrastive and error analyses in order to identify the language learning problems of the learners. There is also the classroom syllabus which is the interpretation of the teaching syllabus at the level of the classroom. It is arrived at through negotiation between the learners’ syllabus and the teaching syllabus. There is the teacher’s syllabus which is the teacher’s interpretation of the teaching and learners’ syllabuses. There is also the examination syllabus which is handed down by examination bodies such as West African Examination Council (WAEC) or National Examination Council of Nigeria (NECO) on English Language at Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) level. The teaching syllabus, however, is the base while the classroom syllabus is the ultimate. In most cases, it is the culmination of the results of findings from various researches into the language problems of the learners in this category right from Tomori (1963, 1967) to very recent studies such as Asiyanbola (1997; 2003) that form the rubric of the teaching syllabus. Lastly on the checklist, we considered the employment of communicative language teaching in the presentation of language materials on the grammar aspect of English Language in the texts evaluated. This is because language in whatever media is meant for communication and we expect that to be reflected in the language data presented to the learners in the grammar units of the coursebooks. 5. Application of the Evaluation Checklist In this section of the paper, we attempt to discuss the result of the application of the checklist on the three selected textbooks, namely, Senior English Project, Effective English and Intensive English. On each of the text evaluated, a table containing information on the scores obtained on the eight points of the checklist is presented. The two aspects of the rating were done by the researcher and a colleague, making two scorers, in order to ensure an appreciable degree of objectivity. Senior English Project Both scorers agreed that the book series cover almost all the grammar items needed for the language competence of the target learners for which the textbook was designed. Hence, the series was scored (4) and (4) respectively, making 16 on the (scorer-scorer) X-Y product scale. This rating is quite appropriate as it shows that the learners will benefit more than above average regarding the grammar items presented in the textbook. As regards the sequential arrangement of the topics from simple to complex in order to facilitate the comprehension of the pupils, the book series scored 16/25. That is to say the Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 94 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 writers took cognizance of the organic relationship amongst the topics and ordered them in a way that will encourage the learners to assimilate the content easily. The remark is not the same with the next criterion as shown in the table below, Senior English Project (SEP) series are rated 9/25 with regard to appropriateness of introduction of grammatical items including sentence types. The deductive method of grammar presentation rather than the inductive method is used in the series. This implies that grammar rules are stated first before specific examples are given. The deductive method as used in SEP series would have been all right but for the paucity of the examples. The SEP series are also rated 9/25 in the table below with regard to the depth of exemplification. However, SEP series are rated 12/25 and 16/25 in respects of adequacy of presentation and depth of practice as shown in the scorer-scorer (X-Y) product scale. This revelation implies that learners will appreciably benefit from the series with regard to adequacy of presentation and depth of practice as shown in the table below. The series adequately contain the grammar rules guiding the use of English and equally enough exercises are given for learners to enable them practise the language using the rules presented. However, the series are not rated well on adequacy of reinforcement. That is to say, seemingly difficult items that should be repeated throughout the series are not treated as spiral-curriculum items, that is, items which should be reinforced throughout the series. As regards item 9, provision for language communication, the book series was rated poor (9/25) on the X-Y product scale. This is to conclude that enough language communication is not reflected in the mode of presentation of grammar in the text considered. Effective English for Senior Secondary Schools Table 3 shows the ratings in respect of sentence types and grammar presentation in Effective English. Effective English was rated 16/25 as regards the selection of required topics since most of the grammar topics needed for the learners to master are treated in the texts. However, the books did not pass our second criterion test which is the sequence or ordering of topics as it scored 9/25. There was an unnecessary separation of grammar items and structure which we assume should be treated together. As regards appropriateness of introduction, Effective English series are rated very poor with 6/25 on the scorer-scorer (X-Y) product scale. This rating is similar to that of Senior English Project series. Also, on the adequacy of presentation, Effective English series are rated 9/25. The series are also rated poor in their depth of exemplification and adequacy of reinforcement. However, the topics treated in the texts are relevant to the teaching syllabus as they were rated 16/25, but the book series do not provide for the pupils’ adequate language communication through the presentation of grammar as it scored 9/25 on this criterion. In corollary, the series are so rated because the linguistic data that should guide the learners to master sentence patterns in particular and grammar in general are either not enough or sometimes totally absent in some units. We can observe that there is an appreciable depth of practice in the series. The learners cannot adequately practise the language, however, when linguistic items are not properly introduced, not adequately presented, not well exemplified, and not adequately reinforced on the part of the coursebook designers. Another inadequacy that should be revised in the series is about too many discrete grammar points that are meant to be covered within school time. It seems the coursebook designers are being too ambitious by including a lot of grammar points meant to be covered by the teacher and target learners within a term time. Intensive English for Senior Secondary Schools In the Intensive English series, required topics for learners are well selected as it scored 16/25 under X-Y product scale. The same comment is true of our second criterion where the book series were rated 20/25 in the X-Y product scale since the topics were well Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 95 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 sequenced for easy mastery of the pupils. The series are equally excellent 20/25 on the appropriateness of introduction. Unlike Senior English Project series where deductive method of grammar presentation is used, grammar points are presented in Intensive English through inductive method. The inductive method, as employed in this series, is more helpful to the learners to fixate teaching points in their language repertoire than the deductive method where the definition of general rules is presented before actual illustrations. In inductive method, particular examples are presented first before the general rule is established. Learners can, therefore, establish the rules by themselves when they have observed the regular patterns of linguistic data that generate the rules. Table 1: Table Showing the Rating with Regard to Grammar Presentation in Senior English Project Series Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Arithmetic mean (m. bar) = 12.2 S/N CRITERIA X: SCORER 1 SCALE Y: SCORER II SCALE X-Y PRODUCT 1 Selection of required topics 0123(4)5 0123(4)5 16/25 2 Sequence of the topics 0123(4)5 0123(4)5 16/25 3 Appropriateness of introduction 012(3)45 012(3)45 09/25 Adequacy of presentation 012(3)45 0123(4)5 12/25 5 Depth of exemplification 01(2)345 012(3)45 06/25 6 Depth of practice 0123(4)5 0123(4)5 16/25 7 Adequacy of reinforcement 0123(4)5 0123(4)5 16/25 8 Relevance to Nigerian setting 0123(4)5 0123(4)5 16/25 9 Relevance to teaching syllabus 0123(4)5 0123(4)5 16/25 10 Provision for language communication 012(3)45 012(3)45 09/25 Total X-Y product 122/225 (54.2%) Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 96 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Table 2: Table Showing the Results of Ratings in Respect of Grammar Presentation in the Grammar Units of Effective English for Senior Secondary Schools S/N CRITERIA X. SCALE Y. SCALE X-Y PRODUCT 1. Selection of required topics 0123(4)5 0123(4)5 16/25 2. Sequence of the topics 012(3)45 012(3)45 09/25 3. Appropriateness of introduction 01(2)345 012(3)45 06/25 4. Adequacy of presentation 012(3)45 012(3)45 09/25 5. Depth of exemplification 01(2)345 01(2)345 04/25 6. Depth of practice 01(2)345 01(2)345 04/25 7. Adequacy of reinforcement 0123(4)5 0123(4)5 16/25 8. Relevance to Nigerian setting 0123(4)5 0123(4)5 16/25 9. Relevance to teaching syllabus 0123(4)5 0123(4)5 16/25 10. Provision for language communication 012(3)45 012(3)45 09/25 Total X-Y product 105/225(46%) Arithmetic mean (m. bar) = 10.5 The Intensive English series are equally rated good (16/25) on the adequacy of presentation, excellent (20/25) on the depth of exemplification, good (16/25) on the depth of practice and lastly, 25/25(excellent) on the level of adequacy of reinforcement on the scorerscorer product scale. The series just like Effective English and Senior English Project series also did justice to the relevance of the grammar units to the teaching syllabus as it scored 16/25 on the X-Y product scale. Lastly, on the provision for the pupils’ language communication through grammar, the book series scored 20/25. We wish to point out that it is only in Intensive English series, out of the three selected texts, that the largest number of sentence type inputs in the grammar units are presented both informally, that is, the presentation of grammar points using sentence illustrations, and formally, that is the presentation of actual structural and functional sentence types. The series have the highest score on the scorer-scorer (X-Y) product scale as can be seen in Table 3 below. 6. Concluding Remarks In this paper, we set out to identify ten criteria that an English language coursebook used in the Nigerian setting should be able to meet in its grammar units in order for the target learners to be adequately literate in the language. These criteria are drawn from the findings of studies carried out in the fields of English language teaching and learning, syllabus and coursebook development, both in Nigeria and other ESL countries of the world from 1963 to the present time. These criteria are, therefore, tested on each of Senior English Project (SEP), Effective English for Senior Secondary Schools (EESS) and Intensive English for Senior Secondary Schools (IESS). We are able to find out that it is Intensive English that passed our evaluation test with reference to all the criteria on our checklist. It scored very good 185/225, a percentage of 82.2% in all the Table 3: Table Showing the Ratings with Regard to Grammar Presentation in the Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 97 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Intensive English Series S/N CRITERIA X. SCALE Y. SCALE X-Y PRODUCT 1. Selection of required topics 01239(4)5 0123(4)5 16/25 2. Sequence of the topics 0123(4)5 01234(5) 20/25 3 Appropriateness of introduction 0123(4)5 01234(5) 20/25 4. Adequacy of presentation 0123(4)5 0123(4)5 16/25 5. Depth of exemplification 0123(4)5 01234(5) 20/25 6. Depth of practice 0123(4)5 0123(4)5 16/25 7. Adequacy of reinforcement 01234(5) 01234(5) 25/25 8. Relevance to Nigerian setting 0123(4)5 0123(4)5 16/25 9. Relevance to teaching syllabus 0123(4)5 0123(4)5 16/25 10. Provision for language communication 0123(4)5 01234(5) 20/25 Total X-Y product 185/225(82.2%) Arithmetic mean (m bar) = 18.5 Criteria tested. The arithmetic-mean score of the text is 18.5, which implies that it is able to score at least that figure out of 25 marks allotted to each of the ten criteria tested. Secondly, we have the Senior English Project scoring an average mark of 122/225, a percentage of 54.2% as the total score on all the criteria tested. Its arithmetic-mean score is 12.9, which shows that the text is able to score at least 12.9 marks out of 25 on each of the ten criteria tested. This textbook is closely followed by Effective English which scores a below average mark of 105/225, a percentage of 46.7% in all the criteria tested. The arithmetic-mean score of the text is found out to be 10.5, which indicates that out of 25 marks allotted to each of the criteria, the text is able to score 10.5 which is not a pass mark. The present paper is not trying to condemn any textbook at the expense of the other, rather, it is encouraging the coursebook writers generally to pay proper attention to the ten criteria of grammar presentation that we have identified. Also, the paper is still enjoining the writers of both SEP and EESS to improve upon the grammar units of their textbooks, when revising them, by paying specific attention to appropriateness of introduction, depth of practice and exemplification, sequence of the topics and provision for language communication, as these are the criteria the above two texts are mainly deficient in and in which IESS excels over them. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 98 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 References Aboderin, A.O. (1980) Writing Skills in the Nigerian School Certificate English Programme, an Unpublished PhD Thesis, Florida State University. Andrews, S. (1999) Why do L2 Teachers Need to Know about Language? Teacher Metalinguistic Awareness and Input for Learning. Language and Education 13(3) pp. 161-177. Afolayan, A. (1968) “The Linguistic Problems of Yoruba Learners and Users of English” Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Ibadan. Aremo, W. B. (1982) “The Presentation of Grammar to Secondary One Pupils in Oyo State: The Example of Ogundipe and Tregidgo’s Practical English, Book One.” Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Ife. Asiyanbola, A.A. (1997) “Some Problems Associated with the Verbal Group in Texts Written by Senior Secondary School Learners of English in Ife Central Local Government Council Area, Osun State, Nigeria”. Unpublished M.A. Thesis, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. Asiyanbola, A. A. (2003) “Sentence Formation Needs of Yoruba Speaking Senior Secondary School Pupils and Sentence Inputs in their English Coursebooks” Unpublished PhD Thesis, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. Banjo, L.A. 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((1980) “Guidelines for Evaluating Books for Classroom Use” The Nigerian Language Teacher 3(2), 45-51. Lyons, J. C. (1971) Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Muir, J. A. (1971) Modern Approach to English Grammar London: Batsford. Nunan, D. (1988) Syllabus Design Oxford: Oxford University Press. Nwogu, K. N. (1988) “Textbook, Grammar and Second Language Development - A Study Based on English Language Coursebooks Used in Nigerian Secondary Schools” JESEL 2 (2). Oluikpe, B. A. (1974) “A Neglected Problem of English Language Education in Nigerian Primary and Secondary Schools” JNESA 6(2), 28-38. Oluikpe, B. A. (1984) “On the State of English Studies in Nigerian Secondary Schools: A Need for a New Teaching Strategy” Journal of Language Arts Communication 2(3&4), 17-34. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 99 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Orisawayi, D. (1987) “Sentence Patterns in the Written English of Freshmen in a Nigerian College of Education: An Investigation” Unpublished Ph D thesis University of Ife, Ile-Ife. Scott, F. S., Bowley, C. C., C.S. Brockett, C. S., Brown, J. G. and Goddard, P. R. (1971) English Grammar, London: Heinemann and The English Language Book Society. Taiwo, O. M. (1974) The Essentials of Universal Primary Education. JNESA 6(2), 16- 27. Taylor, I. and Taylor, M. (1990) Psycholinguistics, New York: Prentice Hall Inc. Weir, C. J. (1988) Communicative Language Testing. Exeter: University of Exeter Press. White, R. V. (1988) The ELT Curriculum, Basil Blackwell. Williams, D. (1968) Developing Criteria for Textbook Evaluation, ELT 3713, 251-255. Williams, D. (1981) Guidelines for English Language Teaching in Nigeria The Nigerian Language Teacher 4(2), 22-29. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 100 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 LITERACY AND FACES OF ENGLISH IN RECENT AFRICAN WRITING LITERACY AND FACES OF ENGLISH IN NIGERIAN POETRY: A STUDY OF SEVEN NIGERIAN POETS Mrs Eunice C. NWODO Department of English Shehu Shagari College of Education Abstract This article seeks to examine the faces of English in the works of seven Nigerian poets in order to ascertain the relationship between literacy, faces of English and the readership of poetry among the students of the Department of English, Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto. The word “literacy” is interpreted here as the “ability to read and write” while “faces of English” connotes the varieties of English. The claim made in the paper is that the level of literacy differs from one individual to the other, especially in Africa where literacy level is comparatively low. Mindful of such disparity in literacy level in their continent, African writers use faces of English in their works in order to create a scenario in which characters, themes, and situations are appropriately portrayed. The paper recommends measures that would improve the readership of poetry among Nigerians. Key words: literacy level, Nigerian poetry comprehension, Nigerian poets, faces/ varieties of English 1. Introduction 1.1 The Faces of English The issue of varieties of English has attracted the attention of many scholars among whom are Moody (1970, 1979), Odumuh (1987) and Oyeleye (2005). Moody outlines twelve basic varieties of English which include “language as art,” “dialect,” and “irony of Language” while Odumuh outlines three basic varieties of Nigerian English – “near – native speaker” type, “local color type,” and “the incipient bilingual type.” Among other varieties outlined by Oyeleye is that which he terms “Globalised English in Nigeria.” These faces of English outlined by the afore-mentioned authors have featured in Nigerian poetry. Thus, the issues of language in Nigeria poetry has generated a lot of discussions with some people arguing that the different faces of English used in Nigerian poetry influence its readership. This assertion necessitates a brief survey of the development of Nigerian poetry in English with a focus on language. 1.2 Literacy and Nigerian Poetry Writing on the relationship between language and accessibility of poetry, Olamigoke (1993:1), quoting Millar and Currie, states that “… a knowledge of devices of language used in poetry can contribute to a fuller, more perceptive judgement of a poem”. This view is true of Nigerian poetry, for it is believed in many circles that “obscurantism” arising from the complex nature of the faces of English used by Ibadan-Nsukka poets contribute a lot in Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 101 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 removing poetry from the barely read and enclosing it in the four walls of the university, thereby making it a rare thing for the average literate Nigerian to pick any book of poetry and read for pleasure. Thus, most Nigerians who read poetry do so for academic purposes. It is based on this premise that this article seeks to survey the faces of English used in the works of seven selected Nigerian poets in order to ascertain the relationship between literacy, faces of English and the readership of poetry among the students of the Department of English, Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto. The article will recommend some measures that would improve the readership of Nigerian poetry. The poets whose works are surveyed in this article are: Chimalum Nwankwo (1987) Feet of the limping Dancers, Ezenwa Ohaeto (1995) “I wan bi President,” Isidore Diala (1998) Pain Remembers love Rekindles, Tayo Olafioye (2000) Ubangiji The Conscience of Eternity, David Odinaka Nwamadi (2001) The Age of Maggots Poems, and John Jekpe (2001) Verses of Vitriol Why I’m a Fool and Other poems. 2. A Survey of the Faces of English in the Works of Seven Nigerian Poets This part of the article would have read “A Study…”, but for the fact that the length of an article of this nature is restricted, a survey is done on one poem from the works of each of the poets. The works of the poets are surveyed one after the other. 2.1 Feet of the Limping Dancers The poem surveyed in this collection is “Chorus of the Limping Dancers.” The poem is rendered like a folk song which borders on religion. The poet makes extensive use of the variety that Moody calls “Language as art.” He uses innuendo instead of making a direct statement: Blood on stone at night and the bull-roarer Our dance is over gates close on miracles (p. 12) There is no verb in the first stanza and although there are two verbs in the second stanza, this type of usage is beyond the comprehension of the barely read at it demands a high degree of literacy on the part of the reader. The word “Limping” aptly depicts Nigeria’s tottering steps towards self-governance. The reader can only deduce what is being said from the images used. The image of “Blood on stone” symbolizes a religious sacrifice to an unmentioned god while “bull-roarer” suggests the secrecy of the sacrifice. The poet does not make a direct statement as to the reason why there is a sacrifice but the reason is suggested in the second stanza. The sacrifice must have been for the purpose of appeasing a god in order for it to bless the people with wealth which would in turn make them happy and dance but what the people witness at the end of their “dance” is the closing of “gates/… on miracles.” This image is a clear indication that there is hardship and their sacrifice does not obtain the desired relief. 2.2 Pain Remembers Love Rekindles The poem being surveyed here is entitled “Letters to Mama.” I Mother You have closed your eyes now. Goodbye. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 102 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 II You have closed your eyes For ever. Your lips have hardened Like closed doors, drained of song And I cry, Maami Not because I do not understand …………………………………. (p. 36-7) These stanzas, on the surface level, appear to be written in a simple language but a close look would reveal that the language is not plain. Although the stanzas lack the ellipsis of Nwankwo’s stanzas quoted earlier, they also manifest the use of “Language as art.” The poem is an elegy but the poet does not call death by its name. He uses both simile and metaphor: You have closed your eyes For ever. Your lips have hardened Like closed doors, drained of song The lexical items, “closed your eyes/For ever,” and “Your lips hardened/Like closed doors, drained of song” describe inactivity – death. It takes a reader who has “… a knowledge of devices of” the English language to appreciate these stanzas. The word “Goodbye” which implies departure and the word “cry” are what reinforce the idea of death. Thus, while Launko’s usage is not as tasking as that of Nwankwo, his usage, judging by the poem surveyed in this article, demands erudition on the part of the reader. 2.3 The Lure of Ash “The Dentist” is the poem taken from this collection. It is a short poem, thus the whole of it is surveyed. Here is the poem: Says a white dentist To a black patient: “These r-ash-es running furrows On the wilted lipscape of your mouth Smell like filthy columns of edicts Ah, calvaries of soldiery l-ash-es Root the teeth in boils And the tongue in a gabbage of stench These teeth are all rotten From the gn-ash-ing of iron decrees: Man, are you a Nigerian? (p. 42) The above poem is a fusion of what Oladele Taiwo (1986: 98) refers to as “the language of the speaking voice” as well as “Language as art.” The language is similar to that used by Launko in “Letters to Mama.” It also lacks the ellipsis of Nwankwo’s stanzas, yet its use of imagery is such that the poem is not easily appreciated. Such lexical items as “r-ash-esh running furrows,” “wilted lipscape,” “filthy columns of edicts,” “calvaries of soldiery l-ashProceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 103 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 es/Root the teeth in boils,” “the tongue in gabbage stench,” and “gn-ash-ing of iron decrees” are all features of Moody’s “Language as art” about which Odumuh (1987: 30-31) observes: Standard (educated) English … is the prestigious variety associated only with high educational attainment. It is the form favoured and used in schools and for official government business at the highest levels. Thus, it takes “high educational attainment” for the reader to appreciate the poem because of the poet’s use of connotative faces of English. The poem is an allusion to the fact that Nigeria was ruled by military dictators who milled out oppressive policies – “filthy columns of edicts” “calvaries of soldiery l-ash-es” and “iron decrees.” It is the effect of these oppressive policies on “a black patient” which necessitates his visit to “a white dentist” who, after examining the patient’s teeth and noticing “r-ash-es running furrows,” “wilted lipscape of your mouth,” “tongue in a gabbage of stench,” and “teeth… all rotten” asks his patient “… are you a Nigerian?” Another thing about this poem is the word “lipscape” which appears to be the poet’s own neologism, and the hyphenation of the words “r-ash-es” and “l-ash-es,” and “gn-ash-ing.” All these contribute to inaccessibility/obscurity in the poem. 2.4 The Age of Maggots Poems The poem surveyed in this collection is “HE MISTOOK POWER FOR A WHORE:” Because he mistook power for a whore That could be loved without genuine affections, He made a virtue of emptying his incontinent Bowel on the heads of his subjects. Bringing adolescent wildness to bear on The notion of power is no mean task: This novel boost to political thought shall be A scroll of remembrance unto his name. (p.55) The above stanzas are written without the ellipsis of the Ibadan-Nsukka poetry. But it makes extensive use of imagery which makes its appreciation difficult for the barely read. Although the first two lines of the first stanza can be easily understood, the last two lines are not so easily understood. The expression, “incontinent/Bowel,” is symbolic. It symbolizes evil/oppressive policies of the leader who holds “power” which “he mistook for “a Whore/that could not be loved with genuine affections.” Because “he” does not know the import of leadership – “power,” “he” rules his people without “affections,” “he” is inconsiderate and lacks self-control as suggested by the expression, “incontinent/Bowel…” which he empties “… on the heads of his subjects.” The meaning of the second stanza will completely elude the barely read. The lexical items, “adolescent wilderness,” “notion of power,” “no mean task,” and “novel boost of political thought” are all connotative, and it is the connotative nature of poetry which makes it a difficult enterprise especially for those whose literacy level is low. 2.5 Ubangiji the Conscience of Eternity “Barkin Zuwo” is the poem surveyed here. It is a relatively long poem, what is surveyed here is part of the poem: You were the dank gong barking tuos* of limitations Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 104 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 in the holocaust of want, blazing like a comet, …………………………………………….. just as the walking-dead TALAKAWA* the Amala* without stew Onidodo* without moin-moin* Jero without kupewa Varsities without pens and papers …………………………………… The supreme Head of State. ………………………………… Fate too will level miscreants To dusk. Ask Gegere*, the General… (p. 18-19) Although the above extract, in the words of Odumuh (1987: 29), shows obvious influence of local ideas, attitudes and conceptual peculiarities, it also shows the variety known as “Language as art.” On the whole, the poem cannot be called “the hawker’s ditty” despite the fact that such words as “tuos,” “TALAKAWA,” “Amala,” “Onidodo,” “moin-moin,” “Jero,” “Kupewa,” and “Gegere,” (“local colour type) are used. This is so because of the many figures of speech used. For instance, it takes a certain degree of literacy for the reader to appreciate the fact that the persona of the poem is bemoaning bad military rule in Nigeria as well as the dearth of ideas in the military dictators – “You were the dank gong/barking tuos* of limitations of want, blazing like a comet.” Even the word “tuos” poses a little difficulty for the reader because it is a Hausa word which is spelt “tuwo.” Apart from Anglicizing it, the poet has also added an “s” to it; thus, the word is now the poet’s own neologism. Furthermore, it takes a reader with high literacy level to decode the last two lines – “Fate too will level miscreants/to dust. Ask Gegere*, the General …” While the barely read would understand the word “Gegere” as “a short person” (if he/she understands the Hausa language) and this will bring to mind the fact that Nigeria had one short soldier (“the General”) who was a “Head of State.” However, it is not so easy for the barely read to understand “Fate too will level miscreants/to dust” which simply connotes that even dictators die. 2.6 Verses of Vitriol Why I’m a Fool and Other Poems The poem taken from Jekpe’s collection is “The Teacher” which is a short poem: While others make chairs He with care produces men When other’s lot is to cheat He dedicates his life to teach No one ever complains If a lawyers client gets jailed The doctor is not accountable In case the patient succumbs to death Is the mechanic ever rebuked For a vehicle’s breakdown? But the teacher takes the blame If his student is half-baked If his reward is in heaven Must he starve on earth? (p. 59) Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 105 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 This poem is lyrical and easily accessible due to the fact that it is devoid of the complexity of “Language as art” hence it is easy to discern that the poem is concerned with the plight of the teacher who is poorly paid, despite his toils. The barely literate can appreciate the poem. Thus, the average literate Nigerian would appreciate the poem. 2.7 “I wan bi President” The poem is very long, so part of it is what is taken: E get one dream Wey dey worry me I don dream am tire, ………………….. Di dream bi say I wan bi President I never see President hungry I never see President thirsty President no go worry for road President to go worry for house ……………………………….. President dey go where e like President dey do wetin e like ………………………………. (New Poets of West Africa: 62-63) There is no gainsaying that the face of English used in the above poem is the pidgin variety. If the poem is recited, even an illiterate who has encountered urban life is likely to appreciate both the surface meaning and the connotative meaning because he is likely to liken the President’s situation with that of the masses and then arrive at the conclusion that the masses of his country are suffering. From the foregoing discussion, it is evident that there are many faces of English used in Nigerian poetry. The faces of English in Nigerian poetry are numerous ranging from the simple to the obscure. In the main, “obscurantism” has not disappeared from Nigerian poetry because even writing what Aiyejina ( ) calls Alter-Native poetry make such uses of imagery that make their poetry that which Osundare ( ) tags Greco-Roman lore. 3. The Study of Poetry at the Department of English, Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto. The students whose study of poetry is studied in this article are those admitted to the Department in 2001. Their possible year of graduation was 2004. The Department runs a single major programme. 3.1 Students’ Attitude to the Study of Poetry Generally speaking, the students do not like to study poetry. They take poetry courses only when they are compelled to do so. This assertion is substantiated by the fact that the number of those who offered the two elective courses in Table 1 is negligible in comparison to the total number of students. Although the students’ performance in the other genres of literature is not excellent, their performance in poetry is woeful. The table below is a graphic presentation of students’ results in poetry. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 106 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Table 1: Students’ Results in Poetry Session & Semester Scores and frequencies Total no. of students 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 2001/2002 1st semester 44 51 10 1 20 5 7 - - - - - - - - - 138 2001/2002 2nd semester 40 34 21 13 16 9 6 - 1 - - - - - - - 140 2002/2003 1st semester 2 - 2 1 2 3 1 1 2 1 - - - - - - 15 2003/2004 1st semester 2 2 - 2 - 2 1 - - 1 1 1 - - - - 12 2003/2004 2nd semester 15 20 11 14 19 5 10 4 2 - - - - - - - 100 Interpretation of Table The mean score falls between seven and eight. All the students who attempted the questions on poetry scored below the mean in the first semester of 2001/2002 session. Sixteen students did not attempt any of the questions on poetry. During the second semester, only one student had the mean score while the remaining one hundred and thirty one scored below the mean. Fourteen students did not attempt any question on poetry. In the 2002/2003 session, only fifteen students offered the elective course. Out of the fifteen, three students had the mean score, one student scored nine, which is slightly above the mean, and eleven students scored below the mean. In their final year, only twelve students offered the elective in the first semester. One of them had the mean, three scored above the mean and eight scored below the mean. The last column of the table shows the students’ performance in a compulsory course. Six students had the mean score, ninety-four scored below the mean, and none scored above the mean. Thirty students did not attempt any question on poetry. 4. Observations a. With persistent effort on the part of both the teacher and the taught, there would be an improvement in the students’ performance in poetry as is evident from their performance in Table 1 because it was the same students who offered the second year elective course (with the exception of three of them) that offered the third year elective course. b. Getting poetry texts was a herculean task. In fact, most of the texts that the course lecturer wanted to teach were not available either in the market or in any of the libraries in Sokoto. A case in point is Niyi Osundare’s Songs of the Market Place. c. The teaching and learning of poetry cannot thrive in an over-populated class. d. The students’ performance improved when they were assessed on poems whose language is easy to comprehend. e. Most of the students studied had not studied poetry at all before gaining admission to the department because only two secondary schools in Sokoto State teach literature and there is no primary in Sokoto that exposes children to the subject. Even those who studied literature at the secondary school level pointed out that their teachers skipped the poetry aspect of their syllabus. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 107 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 5. Recommendations i. Literature should be taught in all secondary schools in Sokoto State in order to afford the student in Sokoto State the opportunity of competing favourably with students in other states of Nigeria. ii. Membership of literacy clubs should be made mandatory to all students at the Secondary School level, and all the students in the department of English at the tertiary level. Furthermore, membership of literacy clubs should no longer be seen as an extra-curricula activity. There should be qualified staff in every school in the country, whose sole responsibility is the running of literacy clubs; therefore the school timetable should accommodate vigorous literary activities. iii. The issues of over-population in Nigeria classrooms should be addressed in order for effective teaching and learning of not just literature but other subjects to take place. iv. Children’s literature should form part of the primary school curriculum while literature should be compulsory for all secondary school students since there is a symbiotic relationship between language and literature and a sound knowledge of the English Language would enhance students’ appreciation of literary texts and this, in turn, would enhance students’ performance in other objects. v. The government and other stakeholders in education should equip school libraries with current and relevant poetry books in order to make students have access to books with the slightest inconveniencies. vi. Teachers should be given in-service training in the teaching of poetry both at the secondary and tertiary levels of education. 4.2 Conclusion From the foregoing, one can conclude that the students’ performance in poetry is not encouraging. Their performance highlights the symbiotic relationship between language and literature because it was discovered that the students’ level of literacy was such that they did not have adequate knowledge of the English Language that would have enabled them to appreciate poetry in the same way they did drama and prose. The discrepancy in performance is attributable to the complex nature of the faces of English used in Nigerian poetry. Thus, a reader’s level of literacy can either enhance or hinder his appreciation of poetry. There is no gainsaying that the standard of education in Nigeria is on a daily decline, hence the level of literacy is relatively low. It is on the basis of this that one can conclude that the gap between the level of literacy and the faces of English used in the bulk of Nigerian poetry available for readership is still very wide. Due to this situation, it is necessary for Nigerian poets to step down a bit in the use of complex faces of English in their poetry while the Nigerian public should step up her literacy level in order for Nigerians to benefit from the innumerable opportunities which both the appreciation and writing of poetry offer. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 108 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Bibliography Primary Texts Diala, I. (1998) The Lure of Ash. Enugu: Tonyben Publishers. Jekpe, J. (2001) Verses of Vitriol Why I’m a Fool and Other Poems, Kano: Gidan Dabino Launko, O. (2000) Pain Remembers, Love Rekindles. Ibadan: Opon Ifa Nwamadi, D.O. (2001) The Age of Maggots Poems, Ibadan, Nigeria: Spectrum Books. Nwankwo, C. (1987) Feet of the Limping Dancers. Enugu, Nigeria: CECTA (Nigeria) Ltd. Ohaeto, E. (1985) “I wan bi President” in Tijan Sallah (1995) New West African Poets, Lagos: Malthouse Press Olafioye, T. (2000) Ubangiji The Conscience of Eternity, Ikeja, Lagos: Malthouse Press Limited. Secondary Texts Bamgbose, A., Banjo, A. and Thomas, A. (Eds) (1995) New Englishes, Ibadana: Mosuro. Hornby, A.S. et al (Eds) (1963) Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, New York: Oxford University Press. Minimum Standards (2002) Nigerian Certificate in Education by National Commission for Colleges of Education, Abuja. Moody, H.L.B. (1970) Varieties of English Practice in Advanced Uses of English. London: Longman. Nwodo, E.C. (2004) Modernist Poetry and Chimalum Nwankwo’s Volumes: An Analysis of Feet of the Limping Dancers, Towards the Aerial Zone and Voices from Deep Water, An unpublished M.A. Thesis at the Department of English, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Odumuh, A.C. (1987) Nigerian English. Zaria: Ahmadu Bello University Press Ltd. Ogunbiyi, Y. (2004) Nigerianism in the Nativised Variety of English in Nigeria in Omale, A.S. (Ed.) Journal of Language and Literature Vol III, No 1, Sokoto: Usman Danfodiyo University Press. Olamigoke, O.V. (1993) Language and Technique in Modern Poetry: An Examination of Omolara Ogundipe–Leslie and Femi Fatoba Unpublished M. A. Thesis at the Department of English, University of Ibadan, Ibadan. Oyeleye, L. (2005) The New Linguistic Order: Critical Examination of the Impact of Globalization of the English Language in Nigeria. In Iwuoha-Uzodidimma et al. (Eds) Journal of Languages and Literature Teaching, Abeokuta: Satelite Printing & Publishing Ltd. Taiwo, O. (1986) Social Experience in African Literature, Enugu: Fourth Dimension. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 109 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 THE INEVITABILITY OF LANGUAGE INTERLARDING AMONG BILINGUALS Dr Yemi Ogunsiji Department of English Adeyemi College of Education Abstract The use of language is inevitable in the lives of the human species. In fact, without language, one wonders what the society will be like. Language itself is a complex phenomenon and its complexity is compounded by the plurilinguistic nature of our societies today. Because of the popular Biblical Tower of Babel and because of the fact that people need to interact, not minding the linguistic nature, it then becomes logical and inevitable that languages have to interact. In the present society, the English Language is competing with many other languages, especially local languages in Africa and English has become an inevitable reality in much spoken discourse. The bilinguals studied in this paper are the Yoruba-English bilinguals and with different data and observations, it has been found that almost all speakers of the Yoruba language, one way or the other, mix some aspects of English with Yoruba, especially in informal conversations. By implication, one begins to wonder whether it is possible for bilinguals to avoid the mixing of codes when speaking. This paper concludes that since interlarding is almost unavoidable, it then becomes logical to think whether there is a birth of a language variety, which some scholars have called “Engloruba”. Keywords: Bilingualism, interlarding, code-mixing, code-switching, assimilation 1. Introduction Language is an important index of identifying an individual or a group. It is an organizer of knowledge, which is stored as a social and a propositional representation. It is through language that individuals re-present to themselves the outside world and their own actions and experiences. Whatever a language does cannot be done independently because as the users of languages interact, the languages as well interact. When we therefore talk of bilingualism, we need to bear in mind that the bilingual development and behaviour cannot be envisaged independently from society, its structure and its cultural dimension. These make bilingual and multilingual societies more complex in terms of cultural and linguistic identities and Nigeria is an interesting community which is made up of monolinguals, bilinguals and multilinguals with different cultural traits. Bilingualism has been given various definitions by different scholars. This concept appears simple at first sight but when given serious scrutiny, one finds out that there is more in that concept than its superficial interpretation. Macnamara (1967) proposes that a bilingual is anyone who possesses a minimal competence in the four basic skills of language, i.e. listening, speaking, reading and writing. Weinreich (1974) has described bilingualism as “the practice of alternately using two languages” (p.1). According to Titone (1972:11), bilingualism is “the individual’s capacity to speak a second language while following the concepts and structures of that language rather than paraphrasing his or her mother tongue”. Earlier, Bloomfield (1935) has defined the concept as a native-like control of two languages Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 110 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 while the Webster’s Dictionary (1961) has described bilingualism as a process of having or using two languages, especially as spoken with the fluency characteristic of a native speaker. The definitions go on and it is observed that they are referring to a single dimension of bultilingualism and this is the level of proficiency in both languages. The non-linguistic dimension of bilingualism is ignored. One must not lose sight of the fact that bilingualism is multi-dimensional, as Harmers and Blanc (1990) have observed. There will not be a complete interpretation if other dimensions, in addition to linguistic ones, are neglected. It is not the intention of this paper to review series of definitions of bilingualism; rather we intend to touch areas that are operational and can be applied in empirical research. While it is said that one should not ignore other non-linguistic dimensions in the description of bilingualism, it should also be noted that if the non-linguistic dimensions are not adequately handled, the description will not be balanced. So, apart from the linguistic dimensions, the non-linguistic dimensions relevant to this study are those, which Harmers and Blanc (1990:8) have mentioned. These are relative competence, cognitive organization, erogeneity, socio-cultural and cultural identity. These dimensions will help in giving a better description of bilingualism. The dimension of competence, which is relative, has allowed us to look into the relative nature of bilingualism more so when it has focused on the relationship between two linguistic competences. With relative competence, a distinction has been made between the “balanced” and “dominant” bilinguals. A balanced bilingual has equivalent competence in both languages while a dominant bilingual has superior competence in one language (especially the speaker’s mother tongue) than the other. It should be noted that balanced bilingualism should not be confused with a high degree of competence in the two languages. One must not equate equivalent competence with the ability to use both languages for all functions and domains; each language has its own dominance configuration. When one is trying to define or describe bilingualism, relative competence should be addressed rather than native-like competence in the two languages under focus. Looking at cognitive organization, one observes that there is a high correlation between it and the age and context of acquisition; there is no one-to-one correspondence between the forms of cognitive representation and the age of acquisition. A bilingual who learned the two languages involved as a child in the same environment or context is more likely to have a single cognitive representation for two translation equivalents. Again, a child who learned a second language in a context that is different from that of his MT will likely have a coordinate organization (Dodson 1983, Cook 1991). We need to note that in a coordinate language system, equivalents in the two languages correspond to two different sets of representation, while in a compound language system, two sets of linguistic signs come to be associated with the same set of meaning. The age of acquisition plays an important role in cognitive organization. A bilingual may acquire the two languages while being very young or as a grown up. We can thus have what has been called childhood bilingualism, adolescent bilingualism or adult bilingualism. The competence cannot be of the same level when these groups of bilinguals are examined. Looking at the social environment in which one uses language, we can talk of endogenous or exogenous bilinguals. Harmer and Blanc (1990) define an endogenous language as the one used as a mother tongue in a community. This language may or may not be used for institutional purposes. An exogenous language is one used as an official, institutionalized language but has no speech community in the political entity using it. In the Western part of Nigeria, Yoruba is the endogenous language while English in the exogenous language. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 111 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Another factor associated with cognitive development and the degree of bilingualism of the user is the sociocultural environment in which the language is used. This has to do with the relative status of the two languages involved. One can ask whether one or both languages are highly valued. If the two languages are highly valued, the child’s cognitive development will derive maximum benefit from the bilingual’s experience. This is what Lambert (1974) calls additive bilingualism. If the socio-cultural context is such that the MT is devalued in the speaker’s environment, the cognitive development may be delayed when compared with that of a monolingual peer. This is subtractive bilingualism. The issue of cultural identity is another cogent thing in bilingualism. A bilingual may identify positively with the two cultural groups that have the languages concerned. Such a person is bicultural. In the other way, a person may be a fluent bilingual but can identify culturally with one of the groups only. Such a bilingual is monocultural. Another extreme case, according to Berny (1980) include, someone who has renounced his/her MT group and has adopted that of the second language (a second language acculturated bilingual); and a bilingual who has given up his/her own cultural identity and at the same time has failed to identify with second language cultural group (de-cultured). The last two are difficult to come by, but one may not rule them out. Whichever way we look at it, bilingualism has to do with the use of two languages in the same environment with a relative degree of competence, acquisition and functionality along a social and cultural dimension. In Nigeria, the Yoruba-English bilingual group is a popular one where the Yoruba language is the mother tongue with English as the second Language. In day-to-day informal oral interactions, the two languages usually interlard making the bilinguals to mix languages or switch from one language to the other according to appropriate changes in the speech situation. It then becomes apposite to have a closer look into the interlarding between English and Yoruba. The fact that series of works have been done on Yoruba-English bilingualism notwithstanding (see Goke-pariola, 1983; Oyetade 1995; Ogunsiji 1999, 2004), the present work is not contesting the facts that have been stated in those studies; rather, interlarding of Yoruba and English is looked at from a slightly different perspective. 2. Statement of Problem The Yoruba-English bilinguals usually deploy the two languages in a characteristic manner. In the present society, especially in informal conversations, it has been noted that speakers cannot do without mixing the two languages. It has also been noted that Yoruba monolinguals are as well involved in this process of interlarding because there are some lexical items in English that have been assimilated into the Yoruba language to the extent that the original Yoruba lexis has become moribund. With these, we have observed that there are some problems that need to be attended to and they are stated in the following question forms: a) Why has it become almost impossible for Yoruba-English bilinguals to speak with just one code without mixing or switching codes? b) Is language interlarding not a result of lack of competence in either of the languages? c) Why do Yoruba monolinguals at times make use of aspects of the English language in their conversations? 3. Methodology The traditional ethnographic techniques, which are interpretive and which involve participant–observer and informal questioning methods, were used for data collection. The Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 112 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 subjects used had no previous information that their conversation was being recorded. The discourse type focused in the data is the informal, casual or spontaneous conversation among bilinguals and the collection was done through tape recording. Some Yoruba monolinguals were also involved in some of the conversations recorded. It might be difficult to identify who really are Yoruba monolinguals. However, in the interview conducted, there are some Yoruba speakers who are not educated in the Western sense and these groups of people admitted that they could not converse in any other language except Yoruba. These groups of people are taken as monolingual even though there are times when some lexical items from other languages stray into their utterances. The data collected were analyzed by looking into the frequency of code-mixed sentences, complete Yoruba sentences and complete English sentences. A comparative study of these sentences is done through simple percentage method so as to find out the degree of language interlarding among the Yoruba-English bilinguals. 4. Findings and Discussions In the data elicited, different topics of interest were involved and it was easy to elicit a large volume of data. Altogether, a total number of twenty five (25) texts were collected with a total number of 276 sentences. A count was made of the number of complete Yoruba and English sentences. A count was also made of the number of sentences where Yoruba and English were interlarded. The whole texts give the following breakdown: Table 1: Textual Data Information Number of Complete Yoruba Sentences Number of Complete English Sentences Number of Yoruba- English interlarded sentences Total 78(28.26%) 41 (14.86%) 157 (56.89%) 276 (100%) The data collected were further broken down into texts and we have the following results: Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 113 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Table 2: Further Information on Textual Data Texts No of Complete Yoruba Sentences No of Complete English Sentences No of Yoruba- English interlarded Sentences Total 1 3 2 6 11 2. 1 - 4 5 3. 5 3 8 16 4. 2 1 4 7 5. 5 3 9 17 6. 3 4 8 13 7. 2 1 7 10 8. 4 2 7 13 9. 3 1 3 7 10. 4 2 6 12 11. 4 2 6 12 12. 4 2 7 13 13. 4 2 6 12 14. 2 1 5 8 15. 3 2 7 12 16. 3 1 6 10 17. 4 2 7 13 18. 3 2 8 13 19. 2 - 5 7 20. 4 2 7 13 21. 4 1 8 13 22. 2 1 6 9 23. 3 1 6 10 24. 2 2 5 9 25. 1 1 6 8 Total 87 41 157 273 The tables have shown the nature of the discourse produced by the Yoruba-English bilinguals. A close examination of the sentences will reveal that interlarding takes place at different parts of the sentences. Subjects In the texts, the switch is noted in the subject position: a) Goalkeeper yen de try….(That goalkeeper tried) b) Analysis re o correct. (Your analysis is not correct) c) Se e mo, understanding lo matter (You know, understanding is what matters) Predicator At the verbal position, interlarding is commonly noticed here: a) Maa win election yen (I will win the election) b) Jowo ba mi inform Tola (Please, help me inform Tola) c) Maa call e to ba d’ola (I will call you tomorrow) Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 114 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Complement Switches are noted at this position as well as can be seen in the following examples: a) Man yen serious gan ni o (That man is very serious) b) Analysis re o correct (You analysis is not correct) c) E je ka wa realistic (Let us be realistic) Adjunct At adjunct position, interlarding is noticed as well: a) Really, mi o like omo yen (Really, I don’t like that guy) b) In actual fact emi gan o le gba (in actual fact, I too cannot take that) c) Wo ore e re bo se nrin majestically (Look at your friend walking majestically) In the examples given, it is observed that interlarding occurs in the nominal and verbal group positions, while the adjectives and adverbs are also not left out. The codes mixed are not necessarily at the level of single lexical items, but also take place at the levels of groups and clauses. In a single sentence, it is observed that the mixing or switching of code is not limited to a single position or a single grammatical element. A sentence can have series of English words mixed with series of Yoruba words. The following are examples: a) Boy yen o serious rara (That boy is not serious at all) b) Lecturer yen ni ka inform yin pe lola la maa se test yen o (That Lecturer asked me to inform you that the test will be taken tomorrow) c) Maa call e instantly ti mo ba ti de’ le. (I will call you instantly I get home) d) Iruu issue ti mo raise lana yen wa important o (The type of issue I raised yesterday is important). In the above examples, interlarding is noticed in different parts of each of the sentences either as a noun or nominal group, verb or verbal group, adjective or adjectival group, adverb or adverbial group. One or more of these groups or lexical items are noted in a sentence. It depends on the nature or length of the sentences produced. One important thing still noticed in the texts is that there are cases where the Yoruba monolinguals are involved in the mixing of codes. These monolinguals are the speakers of Yoruba who are not educated in the English language but are involved in the use of some English words that have become integrated or assimilated into the Yoruba matrix sentences. A point of note here is that it is not only monolinguals that use integrated or assimilated words in the Yoruba sentences. Educated Yoruba-English bilinguals are also using sentences like: a) O wa lorii beedi (It is on the bed) b) Se o ti ra buredi? (Have you bought bread?) Both mono- and bilinguals are fond of using these forms of expressions, but it is very common with the Yoruba monolinguals. As hinted earlier, it is difficult to set apart monolinguals since, one time or the other, those who claim that they speak Yoruba only are oftentimes involved in the use of some English or other languages that are already integrated or assimilated. In the examples given above, Yoruba-English bilinguals can vary the expression by saying: a) O wa lori bed b) Se o ti ra bread However, there are some English words, which Yoruba speakers do mix with their English sentences, not minding the processes of their articulation. The Yoruba syllable structure pattern is used in such words. Here are some examples: a) O ti lo si ibi pogiraamu (He/She has gone to a programme) b) Taa ni tesora? (Who is the Treasurer?) Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 115 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Not that there are not Yoruba words that can be used to replace these words, but for easy referencing and understanding, such words are used. The absence of consonant clusters in the Yoruba language and the inability to articulate the words correctly often cause some laughter when a Yoruba monolingual attempts to articulate such words. From such examples we can differentiate between assimilated and unassimilated loan-words in the Yoruba language. Banjo (1996) has described the instances of the use of either assimilated or unassimilated English loan words into the Yoruba language as instances of borrowing. The assimilated loan words are made to conform to the phonological system of the recipient language whereas unassimilated loan words retain their English phonological shape. A Yoruba monolingual often uses the assimilated loan words, whereas a bilingual may even use both assimilated and unassimilated forms of the same words. The following words are examples: Teacher, minister, school, church, bed, Pastor, bread and so on. They become assimilated when they are articulated as tisa, minisita, sukuu, soosi, beedi, Pasito, buredi. All these instances are noticed in the language of Yoruba-English bilinguals. In our data, the mixing of Yoruba and English has a very high percentage and when speaking informally, such interlarding is almost unavoidable. Even when one is conscious of this act, as one goes along in his/her speech, unconsciously, the other language creeps in. However, we need to know that it is the syntax of Yoruba, the matrix language, that governs the sentences. We have instances like the following: a) Boy yen (Boy that) That boy b) Won draw picture yen lana (They draw picture that yesterday) They drew that picture yesterday c) Mi o like didraw ti won draw picture yen (I neg like nom-draw which they draw picture that) I don’t like their drawing of that picture. All these follow the Yoruba transformational rules in terms of structure and tense. The Yoruba language does not mark tense in the lexical verb like English. This is also true of number since Yoruba nouns are not marked morphologically. In our present society, it is often difficult to find a bilingual who can claim to be totally monolingual in English and in Yoruba as far as casual conversational discourse is concerned. One begins to ask whether this is as a result of lack of competence in either of the languages. The fact that the linguistic bank of bilinguals is blessed with two different sets of languages is incontrovertible. The same phenomenon observed among Yoruba-English bilinguals is noticeable among speakers of other languages of the world today. The vocabulary of any language bears the history of cultural and linguistic contacts. Banjo (1996) has observed that when two languages are in contact, borrowing may be mutual. However, the more dominant language must be expected to leave a more conspicuous mark on the other language. That is why Yoruba is putting a more conspicuous mark on English here in terms of its syntactic rules, and not the other way, whereas English is more dominant in terms of involvement, use and social prestige. We need to know that language interlarding is a continuous process and if a language refuses to borrow from another language, such a language will die . 5. Conclusion Language interlarding is a serious issue in Nigeria today (Essien 1995). According to Adegbite (2004), the society is living under the dominance of the English language and, as such, most speakers cannot help using unassimilated loan words freely when interacting with Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 116 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 other bilinguals. The fact is that it is difficult to have a speaker who is completely monolingual. Whether educated or not, items from other languages often stray into the speeches of our so-called monolingual speakers. So, when addressing such speakers, one needs to be necessarily more careful. When two or more languages are involved, there is the need to look for the equivalents in the Yoruba language before we resort to loan translations, assimilated loan words and finally unassimilated ones. This is the ideal among bilinguals because people rarely attempt to follow that organization. Bilingualism is increasing daily and the mixing of codes has become a day-to-day affair. The fear of some purists today is that with the inevitability of the interlarding of English and Yoruba, the two languages may be integrated and get consolidated as ‘Engloruba”. The same fear is observed for English and Igbo, and English and Hausa. The question we can ask is the possibility or otherwise of the consolidation of such an admixture and the eventual displacement of either Yoruba, Hausa or Igbo, which will constitute another area of research work entirely. References Adegbite, W. (2004) Bilingualism-Biculturalism and the Utilization of African Languages for the Development of African Nations. In Oyeleye, L. (Ed.) Language and Discourse in Society. Ibadan: Hope Publication, pp. 13-31. Banjo, A. (1996) Making a Virtue of Necessity: An Overview of the English Language in Nigeria. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press. Berry, J.W. (1980) Acculturation as Varieties of adaptation. In Padilla, A. (Ed.) Acculturation: Theory and Models. Washington: AAAS. Bloomfield, L. (1935) Language. The Hague: Mouton. Cook, V. (1991) Second Language Learning and Language Teaching. London: Edward Arnold. Dodson, K. (1983) Bilingualism, Language Teaching and Learning. British Journal of Language Teaching 21, 3-8. Essien, O. (1995) The English Language and Code-mixing: A case study of the Phenomenon in Ibibio” In Bamgbose, A., Banjo, A., and Thomas, A. (Eds) New Englishes: A West African Perspective. Ibadan: Mosuro, pp. 248–268. Goke-Pariola, A. (1983) Code-mixing among Yoruba-English Bilinguals. Anthropological Linguistics 25 (1) 39 – 46. Hamers, J. and Blanc, M. (1990) Bilinguality and Bilingualism. Cambridge: C.U.P. Lambert, (1974) Culture and Language as Factors in Learning and Education. In Abred, F. and Neede, F. (Eds) Cultural Factors in Learning. Bellington: Western Washington State College. Macnamara, J. (1967) The Bilinguals’ Linguistic Performance. Journal of Social Issues 23, 58-77. Ogunsiji, Y. (1999) “The Discourse of Buying and Selling at the New Gbagi Market, Ibadan: A Sociolinguistic study”. Unpublished M.A. Project, University of Ibadan Ogunsiji, Y. (2004) “Aspects of Code-Mixing and Code-Switching in the Conversational Discourse of Yoruba/English Bilinguals in Ibadan Metropolis”. Unpublished Ph. D Thesis, University of Ibadan, Ibadan. Titone, R. (1972) Le Bilinguisme Precoce. Brussels: Dessort. Webster (1961) Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language London: Bell and Sons. Weinreich, U. (1974) Languages in Contact: Findings and Problems. The Hague: Mouton Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 117 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 LITERACY AND MULTILINGUALISM THE ROLE OF ENGLISH IN THE ACQUISITION OF LITERACY IN MULTILINGUAL NIGERIAN SOCIETY Dr. Pius A. EZEMA Department of English University of Nigeria Abstract This paper discusses the status of English as a world language. Opinions of scholars on the importance of English as a world language are presented to buttress this fact. Also represented in the paper is the fact that Nigeria is a typical multilingual country. As a country with diverse ethnic groups, there are hundreds of different native languages. Most of these languages are, however, yet to be fully developed. There is no standard orthography for many of the languages. Given the fact that English is a second as well as official language of the country and the fact that most Nigerian languages have not been developed into a written form, English is the major medium through which the majority of Nigerians acquire literacy. This unique role of English in the country is likely, from all indications, to continue for a long time. The paper, therefore, advocates that, while making effort to see that the native languages are developed, attention should also be directed towards improving the standard of English in Nigeria. Key words: literacy acquisition, literacy types, roles of English in Nigeria, multingualism in Nigeria 1. Introduction Literacy pertains to the ability of a person to read and write. Consequently, an individual who can read and write is said to be a literate person. The ability to read and write is not acquired in a vacuum. It is within the context of a language that we can talk of literacy. Literacy is acquired through the medium of language. It is for this reason that literacy is regarded as a visual representation of an oral/aural means of communication which is language. It should be noted, however, that literacy is not simply a reading and writing affair. A comprehensive understanding of literacy goes beyond this concept. Knowledge and skills acquired through reading are also a part of literacy. According to Hirsch (1987), literacy also refers to the network of information that all competent readers possess. It is this background information which is stored in their minds that enables them to take up a newspaper and read it with an adequate level of comprehension, getting the point, grasping the implications, relating what they read to the unstated context which alone gives meaning to what they read. It is in line with this comprehensive view of literacy that the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO 1976) declared that: a person is literate when he has acquired the essential knowledge and skill which enable him to engage in all those activities in which literacy is required for effective functioning in his group and community, and whose attainments in reading, writing and arithmetic make it possible for him to continue to use these skills towards his own and community’s development. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 118 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 It follows from this declaration that attainments in reading and writing are only a subset of the requirements for literacy. The ability to read and write without the background information that facilitates the effective use of the skills of reading and writing does not make one a complete literate person. 2. The Importance of Literacy to an Individual and Society The roles and uses of literacy within societies are inestimable. The past one hundred years have witnessed a serious drive towards universal literacy as seen in the publications of the UNESCO. Within this generation, numerous literacy campaigns have been mounted by various governments and organizations. All these efforts are borne out of the realization of the glaring importance of literacy to individuals and societies. The importance of literacy to an individual is quite outstanding. One of the areas in which literacy has proved very useful to an individual concerns the method of obtaining information. For instance, where only memory and speech are available for getting information, one person cannot use the information held by another unless that other person is physically present. Literacy, by contrast, permits a person access to information independently of others. Literacy plays a crucial role in the intellectual development of an individual. It provides the ground both for strengthening the power of thought and for pushing thought beyond current boundaries. Literacy has made possible the growth and development of the human reason and its power to combine different sources of information to produce even more understanding and inspiration. The positive impact of literacy on the mental horizon and attitudes of people is worthy of mention. Literate people are more willing to reason for themselves, less willing to take opinions on authority and, therefore, apparently more willing to participate in voluntary organizations and politics. It is this far-reaching impact of literacy on the intellectual quality of people that has prompted Goody (1968) to describe literacy as the technology of the intellect. Nowadays, literacy is an indispensable factor in the lives of people in a modern society. It facilitates economic progress and harmonious relationship among people. In most societies today, the complexity of organization and information is such that society could simply not continue without some form of literacy. In such societies, everybody at one time or another needs recourse to literacy for some purpose or another and would be at a serious disadvantage without it. For a simple illustration, one can imagine the plight of somebody who is in a strange town but cannot read road signs. Furthermore, the wider experiences made available through reading materials enable people in society to be less parochial and less intolerant of cultures different from their own. Literacy, in short, is an important element in the process of modernizing a society through the cumulation of changes in the abilities and outlook of its individual citizens which, in turn, bring about economic progress. To press this point home, UNESCO pointed out in 1965 that the world map of illiteracy coincided very closely with the world map of poverty. The poorer countries of the world tend to have the highest proportions of illiteracy. The richest countries of America and Europe, on the other hand, have achieved almost universal literacy. The importance of literacy to man is beautifully summed up in Good’s (1968) words as follows: Literacy is for the most part an enabling rather than a casual factor, making possible the development of complex political structures, syllogistic reasoning, scientific enquiry, linear conceptions of reality, scholarly specialization, artistic elaboration and perhaps certain kinds of individualism and alienation. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 119 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 As pointed out in the introductory part of this article literacy and language are inseparable. It is in fact in the context of a language that one can talk of literacy. It is for this reason that Oxenham (1980) sees literacy as an extension of language. With the background information concerning the importance of literacy as fully highlighted above, the place of English in Nigeria as the language through which literacy is largely acquired in the country should be fully appreciated. Consequently, the next two sections of this paper focus on a general overview of English as a world language as well as the status of the language in Nigeria. 3. General Overview of English as a World Language It is now universally accepted that English is a world language. The language is used in all the corners of the globe. As McCrum (1986) aptly puts it, “The English language surrounds us like a sea and, like the waters of the deep, it is full of mysteries.” Stressing the universal nature of the language, Brumfit (1995) similarly makes the following observation: Certainly it is now true that the English language is no longer the exclusive property of speakers of English as mother tongue or first language. The ownership of English rests with the people who use it, however multilingual they are, or however monolingual they are. According to him, the current competent users of English number up to 700 million living on every continent. Less than half of these users of the language are actual native speakers. The rapid expansion of the English language was tremendously aided by the Second World War. According to Lieberson (1982), interaction both within and between nations, increased dramatically within the post-world war II period. This development came as a result of the technological improvement in transportation and communication which also brought about increased international commercial activities. Consequently, one would expect changes in language usage that would reflect this new intensity of interaction. This explains the rapid expansion of English as an international commercial language during the period. Overwhelmed by the widespread of the language, Baugh (1959) sees English as the mother tongue of nations. Adducing reasons for this status of the language, he asserts that the combined political influence, economic soundness, the commercial activities, the social wellbeing and the scientific and cultural contributions of these nations to civilization account for the large number of the users of the language at the international level. It is through this very language that literacy is largely acquired in Nigeria. 4. The Status of English in Nigeria English is the official language of Nigeria. As Akere (1995) correctly observes, there is a great diversity of varieties and functions of English in Nigeria. The language is extensively used in both the electronic and print media, in the judiciary, the police, the armed forces, the legislature and so on. It is the language of education in the country and is also used in the political mobilization and ethical orientation of Nigerians. This fact explains the entrenchment of English as the dominant official language of Nigeria. As well as being the official language, the status of English in Nigeria is that of a second language. Banjo (1989) defines a second language as one which, although not indigenous to a community, plays a very important part in the social, professional and educational life of the members of the community. On his part, Afolayan (1995) defines a second language as a language in which a bi-or multilingual person conducts some of his everyday activities, sharing this role with another language in which the person has greater linguistic or intuitive knowledge. These two definitions of a second language apply aptly to the status of English in Nigeria as a second language. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 120 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 5. The Multilingual Nature of Nigerian Society Nigeria is a typical multilingual country. Quoting Greenberg, Olagoke (1979) puts the number of indigenous languages used in the country at 248. Tiffen puts it at over 150, while Bamgbose puts it at over 400. The number of languages spoken in the country as of now is a matter of speculation. What is certain, however, is that there are hundreds of languages in Nigeria. It is remarkable to note that, notwithstanding the existence of these numerous indigenous languages, English continues to play the role of an official language in the country. This is as a result of certain limitations facing these languages. In the first place, most of the languages are at a very low stage of development. For instance, most of the indigenous languages are yet to have an orthographic system. In other words, the languages have no written form. Worried by this state of affairs, Nigeria Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) recently embarked on developing orthography for some of the languages. Another problem associated with the indigenous languages is the limited number of their users. In short, most of them are just ethnic languages which are not known beyond the ethnic/geographical areas where they are spoken. Summarizing the handicaps associated with the indigenous languages, Ikegulu (1989) asserts that English has continued to play the role of an official language in the country because the language enjoys a greater geographical spread, a greater popular acceptance and a greater status as a language of communication and learning at the national level than does any of the Nigerian languages. As a result of the linguistic situation in the country, as highlighted above, it is not surprising that English is the major linguistic medium for the acquisition of literacy in Nigeria. As a modern industrial nation, there is the need for a complex communication system on a large scale to meet the needs of the growing economy of the country. A complex communication system, in turn, requires widespread literacy. Stressing the importance of literacy, communication and a common language in an industrial society, Gellner (1983) points out that universal literacy and a high level of numerical, technical and general sophistication are among industrial society’s functional prerequisites. Its members … must be able to communicate by means of written impersonal … messages. These communications must be in the same shared and standardized linguistic medium and script. Hirsch (1987) cautions that multilingualism enormously increases cultural fragmentation, civil antagonism, illiteracy and economic/technological ineffectiveness. These views of Gellner and Hirsch strongly underscore the important role of English as a means of acquiring literacy in Nigeria. 6. English and the Acquisition of Literacy in Nigeria 6.1 English and the Acquisition of the Basic Literacy The relevance of English to the educational system in Nigeria is of two dimensions. The language is studied as a separate discipline in the country’s schools. All the classes in the primary school system study English as a subject. Similarly, the language is one of the core subjects prescribed for all students in the secondary school curriculum. English is also pedagogically important as the language of instruction in virtually the entire school system, from the upper primary to the tertiary level of education in Nigeria. As stipulated in the National Policy on Education (1981), English is the medium of instruction from the upper primary, while the mother tongue or the language of the immediate Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 121 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 environment is used as the medium of instruction in the lower primary. However, English is used as a medium of instruction even in the lower primary in many areas of the country contrary to the provisions in the National Policy on Education as stated above. Among other factors, the low stage of development in which most indigenous languages are accounts for this situation. As a result of the situation, it is through English that most Nigerians initially acquire the skill of reading and writing. As far as many Nigerian languages are concerned, the skill of reading and writing is out of question. 6.2 English and the Acquisition of Information Literacy Language has been described as the store house of ideas. It is language that opens the door to people for acquiring ideas. English plays a central role in information literacy in Nigeria. As the official language of the country, it is through English that information which emanates from the government is disseminated to the people. The role of the English language in information literacy in Nigeria can also be appreciated from the way the major media organizations operate in the country. The majority of the programmes of the radio and the T.V in the country are carried out in English. The print media are not left out. The language of the leading newspapers and magazines in Nigeria is English. It is an indisputable fact that the world is becoming a global village. No country can now exist in isolation. For an individual to perform effectively in this global village, his level of awareness in terms of information has to be high. The English language is an effective means of attaining a high level of awareness at an international level. It is in view of the importance of the language in information awareness that Fashola (1991) observes as follows: more people learn English today more than ever before, not in order to have access to English literature, nor to understand more about the cultural life of English-speaking peoples, but simply because it is an instrument, a tool to get at the desired information. 6.3 English and the Acquisition of Scientific and Computer Literacy Science and language are inseparable. There is no way a study of science can be possible without language. Language provides the tool for scientific investigation, report and dissemination of scientific information. Highlighting the need for language in the study of science, Adedeji (1984) points out that A science student needs language for acquiring and communicating knowledge and skills in science and technology. He needs language to help him define concepts and describe substances, objects, locations and processes. He needs language to explain procedures and processes, report facts, draw inferences, make conclusions, classify items and make generalizations. It is in the context of Adedeji’s observation, as stated above, that the role of English in the acquisition of scientific knowledge in Nigeria can be fully appreciated. As the dominant medium of instruction, it is through English that scientific knowledge is acquired in Nigeria. It is the language of technical and scientific writing. Most indigenous Nigerian languages are deficient in scientific terms. For instance, the Igbo language has no names for such scientific terms as oxygen, nitrogen, atom, electron, velocity, rays, current, etc. English has actually helped Nigerians to have access to information in numerous international scientific texts and journals. The role of English in acquiring computer literacy is quite outstanding. The amount of international relations services conducted through computer in English is tremendous. EProceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 122 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 mail, Fax, internet and other computer services are carried out mainly in English. It is estimated that English is the medium for 80% of the information in world computers. Nigeria, just like other modern nations, benefits from the computer services through English. 7. Conclusion It has been demonstrated fully in this article that English is the major medium through which literacy is acquired in Nigeria. In spite of the existence of numerous indigenous Nigerian languages, English will likely continue to play this role for a long time. The current linguistic landscape of Nigeria, with reference to the stage of development of Nigerian languages, justifies this assertion. Recently, there have been some arguments in favour of using Nigerian languages for the purposes of conducting education in the country. Judging from the stage of development of most of the indigenous languages, this is not likely to happen in the foreseeable future. While it is proper to intensify efforts to develop these languages, attention should also be paid to the need to improve the standard of English in the country. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 123 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 References Adedeji, R. (1984) The English Language Teacher and the Technical Student. In Freeman, R. and Jibril, M. (Eds) English Language Studies in Nigeria Higher Education. London: British Council/NESA. Afolayan, A. (1971) Contrastive Linguistics and the Teaching of English as a Second or Foreign Language. ELT Journal 30, 41- 49 Akere, F. (1995) Language in the Curriculum: An Assessment of the Role of English and Other Languages in the Educational Delivery Process in Nigeria. In Bamgbose, A., Banjo, A. and Thomas, A. (Eds) New Englishes. Ibadan: Mosuro, pp.178-202. Banjo, A. (1989) The Status and Roles of English as a Second Language. In Jibril, M. et al. (Eds) Handbook for Junior Secondary School English Language Teachers. Lagos: NERDC, 1989. Baugh, A.C. (1959) A History of the English Language. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Brumfit, C.J. (1959) English as a Second Language and English Language Teaching: Retrospect and Prospect In Bamgbose, A., Banjo, A. and Thomas, A. (Eds) New Englishes. Ibadan: Mosuro, pp. 99-112. Fashola, J.B. (1991) An Introduction to the Literature of ESP in the Area of Science and Technology. Journal of English as a Second Language 2, 175-183. Federal Government of Nigeria (1981) Federal Ministry of Education. National Policy on Education. Lagos: Federal Government Press. Gellner, E. (1983) Nations and Nationalism. New York. Cornell University Press. Goody, J. (1968) Literacy in Traditional Societies. London: Cambridge University Press. Hirsch, E.D. (1987)Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. Ikegulu, B. (1989) The Place of English Studies in the Search for Cultural Integration in Nigeria. In Jibril, M. et al. (Eds) Handbook for Junior Secondary School English language Teachers. Lagos: NERDC. Lieberson, S. (1982) Forces Affecting Language Spread: Some Basic Propositions. In Cooper, L. (Ed.) Language Spread: Studies in Diffusion and Social Change. New York: Centre for Applied Linguistics. McCrum, R. (1986) The Story of English. London: Faber and Faber. Olagoke, D.O. (1979) The Mother Tongue and ESL in Nigerian Education. In Ubahakwe, E. (Ed.) The Teaching of English Studies. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press. Oxenham, J.C. (1980) Literacy: Writing, Reading and Social Organisation. London: Routledge and Kegan. UNESCO (1976) Literacy in the World Since 1969. London: UNESCO Secretariat. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 124 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 ENGLISH STUDIES AND COMPUTER LITERACY COMPUTER LITERACY: AN INEVITABLE FACTOR IN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING IN NIGERIA IN THE 21st CENTURY Mohammed T. SADIQ Federal College of Education, Kano, Nigeria Abstract The computer has been a veritable tool in the advancement of man in all spheres of human endeavour, especially in the education sector. The computer, as an instructional aid in language teaching and learning, is a diverse and rapidly expanding phenomenon. The focus of this paper is to examine the impact of computer aided instruction in the area of language education and also attempt a general overview of the role of information technology in language acquisition. Key words: computer literacy, computer aided instruction, information technology, language teaching/learning 1. Introduction The computer is a machine used for storing, retrieving and monitoring data. Quirk and Widdowson (1984:89), refer to it "as a powerful means of manipulating symbolic codes”. The computer machine acts as the "knower" who corrects all forms of errors, e.g. spelling, repetition, etc. At the same time, it monitors the learners’ progress if given sufficient sophisticated software. It has succeeded in breaking the barrier between the classroom and the outside world. This is why it is considered it recent times to be the most effective aid in teaching. In recent years, the computer has established itself as an important feature of modern life. Many of us use computers daily, sometimes without being aware of the fact. According to Ahmad, et al. (1985:1), the computer revolution is more than just a technological development; it has changed society as radically as did the industrial revolution. Various innovations exist through the use of computer. It facilitates visualization, which consolidates the understanding of abstract ideas used to facilitate the cooperative learning process, higher order thinking skills such as applying theoretical constructs in practical exercises, teaching the capacity to express ideas logically and fluently and teaching collaborative problem solving via computer technology. 2. Information Technology and Language Teaching At present, language teaching, learning and technology have become virtually inseparable. According to Adegbija (2004), technology has become the backbone and lifeblood of contemporary language teaching methodologies. He maintains that several technological strategies, facilities and devices such as audio conferencing in distance learning courses, networked collaborative interaction and computer assisted processing training have become common place in language teaching in most parts of the world. To lend credence to Adegbija’s assertion, the internet contains a lot of resources that teachers can access and use to prepare teaching materials. These range from sites specifically designed for teachers and learners to sites from national and international newspapers, galleries and so on. The incredible expanse of the internet means the teacher has the ability to tailor lessons very specifically to students’ needs and interests. The material is modern and up to date, which helps to motivate students; good websites continually update their materials. The Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 125 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 internet is a dynamic medium involving movement from site to site and promoting decisionmaking and learner-independence. Using the internet brings the real world into the classroom and gives the students the opportunity to explore learning in different ways. With it, learners tend to respond better when they feel involved and engaged in the subject and the extent of the webs means that if you can find out what the students are interested in, you can find it on the web. The internet is a fantastic tool for teachers. It is not the answer to simple teaching or learning, but it is an incredibly motivating resource for both teachers and learners. The information technology assists us, to a large extent, in dealing with problems in language teaching relating to large class, boredom and lack of interest. Students are exposed to be able to access the wealth of information available on the internet. Through increased use of technology, the well-informed language teacher can also achieve more professional tests that are more rigorously conducted and relevant to real life situations. Information technology has the immense potential to enhance the language teacher’s ability to wade into many problems confronted in the learning/teaching environment. Effective management of language teaching programme can also be achieved through the immense capacity of computer technology. From the foregoing, one will agree beyond reasonable doubt that information technology can enhance course delivery and facilitate independent and autonomous learners and enhance self-development and self-improvement for the achievement of high level of professionalism, expertise methodology, strategies and materials for the efficient teacher. 3. Role of Computer and Information Technology in language acquisition: A socio-linguistic fact of second language acquisition is that acquiring a second language, particularly for educational purposes, implies a form of contact with culture and history of the speakers. Language teaching has witnessed several approaches and trends. Some of these include the academic style, aimed primarily at the learning of a second language as an academic subject, the social communicative style that focuses on the ability to use a language appropriately and the communicative approach that focuses on the ability to use a language for a purpose or function (Bruncano and Ribeiro 1999). All the above- mentioned approaches have the same objectives which are to function as a tool for understanding and explaining eventualities and the reasons for them. It is this common objective that incidentally provides the basis for the use of technology in language learning. Although these methods provide an individual with very sound skills, the different applications of the computer, such as for information and knowledge transfer, have made the introduction of technology an inevitable factor of language teaching and learning. The goal of language learning is communication and since technology aims at understanding the nature of the complexities involved in a language based communication, the use of technology in language teaching and learning becomes more desirable for this reason. The objective of language learning and teaching can only be best achieved through technologically enhanced teaching and learning. Undoubtedly, the objectives of English teaching and learning in Nigeria are to develop in learners a proficiency in communication, which is socially adequate. It is for this reason that this paper wishes to focus on the role of computers in language acquisition, otherwise known as Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). Kohn (1999:5) has observed that the aim of CALL is to address “the specific needs of second language learners tutors in computer-based learning and training environments”. CALL has undergone transformation in recent years. Although, many of the changes in CALL originated from economic and social changes, the changes also affected the role of the teacher. Teachers who were formerly considered the sole source of language information were now seen as facilitators of learning. As facilitators, teachers had their own Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 126 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 duties re-defined. They were required not only to know how to instruct learners in the effective use of materials but also to become more responsive to learners’ needs instead of just dogmatically following the laid down concepts in the curriculum in their teaching. The resultant effect of this mode is that its success became hinged on teacher training because of the very flexible classroom the teacher is now confronted with, where he requires the ability to use networked computers as well as other resources effectively. Today, language teaching, learning and technology have become virtually inseparable. In effect, contemporary technology has brought about a revolution in language teaching. It is the kind of revolution that can assist us in solving some of the language teaching and learning problems in Nigeria. The principal problem with contemporary technology in the Nigerian context, however, is that access and familiarity with the internet are fundamental requirements for successful use or instructional communication. 4. Applicability of Computers to Language Teaching in Nigeria Despite the fact that the computer has been introduced into language teaching for over 40 years in Europe, it is yet to impact a great deal on innovations in language teaching in Nigeria. Yet, there is no doubt that a great deal of innovation in language teaching has come about through new technologies. There is also evidence to show that the present technology will alter the way we teach language. A statement which cannot be truer of our situation is that: If the education system is to take advantage of the new digital technology, it will have to change its attitude of resistance to change and accept the new technology, it will change and accept the new technology (i.e. computer) and as such, make it a subject itself and view it as a revolutionary tool that will change the process of teaching and learning (Broncano and Ribeiro, 1999:15). There is need for teachers of English in higher institutions to regard the application of computer skills as a positive feature of self and career development. There is, therefore, the need for appropriate training in the use of these new technologies which teachers can undertake at their own expense without waiting for government sponsorship 5. Problems and Suggestions on Computer Assisted Language Teaching/ Learning in Nigeria The following are some of the problems facing CALL in Nigeria: a. Computing equipment is generally in short supply and if available, is either obsolete or under-utilized or of low memory. b. There is no forceful policy to direct the statuses and use of computers and computer educational systems in institutions of learning in Nigeria. c. There is lack of technical personnel. d. There is also constant interruption of electricity. The following are proffered as suggestions to address the problem of computer assisted instruction. i. Government should formulate policies on the development of computer assisted instruction. The integration of computer education into the Curriculum from primary to tertiary institution is necessary. ii. Computer education technology requires careful planning. Therefore educational goals and operational objectives must be harmonized to clearly Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 127 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 define the mission of the computer in view of the related activities, in support of the overall educational programme. iii. The willingness and ability of teachers to use the computer as an everyday teaching tool should be encouraged. 6. Conclusion Although Nigeria is at the infant stage in the development of computer assisted instruction compared to the standard in the world. If efforts are intensified and other laudable suggestions towards enhancing the programme are accepted and adopted, the development rate will improve. References Adegbija, E. (2004) “Language, Technology and Democratic Culture” Lead Presentation at the English Language Teaching Today Annual Conference, Federal University of Technology Minna, May 2004. Ahmad, K. et al. (1985) Computer, Language Learning and Language Teaching. London: Cambridge University. Awuya, M. A. and Sunday, A. (2003) Computer Assisted Language Teaching/ Learning in Nigeria: Problems and Prospects. NATECEP Journal of English and Communication Studies 1, 94-100. Broncano, B. and Riberio, (1999) The Shape of the Future; Computers and Multimedia Resources in the Teaching of Portuguese a Foreign Language and Culture. Recall. 3,13-24. Ibrahim B. F. (2002) The Usefulness of Educational Technology in the Remediation of Errors in the Teaching and Learning of English Language at the Tertiary Level. Nigeria Educational Digest 6 and 7, 72-82. Rajaraman, V. (1999) Fundamentals of Computers. New Delhi: Prentice – Hall of India Private Limited. Shitu, K. O. (2003) The Applicability and Adoptability of Computers in the Teaching of Language (English) HUDU-HUDU 1, 1-7. Shobomehin T. O. (2002) The Role of Computer in English Language Teaching and Learning, The way forward in Nigeria Education. NATECEP Journal of English and Communication Studies1, 101-107. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 128 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 PEDAGOGY AND LITERACY ACQUISITION IN ENGLISH LITERACY INSTRUCTION IN THE UBE PROGRAMME: TRAINING IN-SERVICE TEACHERS ON THE USE OF EFFECTIVE LITERACY INSTRUCTION COMPONENTS Dr. Nonye R. IKONTA Dept. of Arts and Social Sciences Education, University of Lagos Abstract Literacy development is about the most important objective of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) in Nigeria, while the National Policy on Education also stresses the acquisition of appropriate levels of basic and functional literacy as well as professional development of serving teachers. These informed the present study which adapted five components of effective literacy (Steward 2004, Ellery 2005) to train 68 in-service language teachers on the strategies and techniques of developing literacy. A literacy instruction package based on the components – phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension was used to train the teachers. The design of the study was descriptive survey as well as case study, using a holistic set of individuals in an intact class. The instruments were questionnaire, package for training literacy, observation and interview. The training lasted for three weeks while reference to them continued for eight weeks. Results showed that the teachers were highly sensitized on the components and performed creditably well on the question that tested their use. A follow-up monitoring in their schools revealed that they focused on the components during their reading instruction. The teachers also affirmed an increase in the number of independent and strategic readers in their classes. Key words: literacy instruction, Universal Basic Education, teacher training, National Policy on Education 1. Introduction One of the major education reforms in the United States of America is “The No Child Left Behind Act” (NCLB) of 2001. Its main purpose is “to ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high quality education”. It is already changing the literacy classrooms and schools and having a positive impact on literacy instruction (Stewart 2004). A contributory factor to the recorded success story is the new focus set forth by NCLB that reading instruction must be derived from scientifically based reading research. Consequently, the NCLB Act focuses reading instruction on five components: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, fluency and comprehension. For a balanced literacy development, emphasis on oral language and literacy experiences as well as connections between reading and writing are also important. This is because literacy involves all aspects of reading, writing, listening, viewing and speaking. In Nigeria, a current issue in education, the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme was launched in 1999 by the President. This programme, akin to NCLB, aims to Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 129 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 universalize access to basic education and eradicate illiteracy in Nigeria within the shortest possible period. Specifically some of the objectives include: · to provide free, compulsory, universal basic education for every Nigerian child of school – going age. · to ensure the acquisition of appropriate levels of literacy, numeracy, manipulative and life skills needed for laying the foundation for life-long learning. And some of the approaches to achieve the goals and objectives of the scheme are to raise the level of general education of teachers will be pursued, broadened and intensified, while the very crucial issue of career–long professional development of serving teachers will no longer be an ad-hoc affair (Federal Ministry of Education, 2000). One of the goals of basic education as put forward by the National Policy on Education (NPE 2004), Section 4, Subsection 18a is to: inculcate permanent literacy and numeracy, and ability to communicate effectively. Similarly the NPE, with regard to professional development of teachers states: Teacher education shall continue to take cognizance of changes in methodology and in the curriculum. Teachers shall be regularly exposed to innovations in their profession (Section 8 subsection 74) Section 8, subsection 75 adds: In-service training shall be developed as an integral part of continuing teacher education and shall also take care of all inadequacies. The writer therefore decided to find out the literacy status of students of the UBE classes in Lagos State and the preparedness of some in-service teachers in the study to face the challenges of current literacy development processes. 2. The Problem, Objectives and Research Questions The problem of the study was that from the pre-study survey responses of the teacher participants, only 42.5% of their 2,212 students can read seemingly fluently, while 67.5% could not read well. This is a serious problem, which needs a very urgent attention in order to put the UBE students on the right track to benefit from the programme. Another problem of the study was that the teachers’ responses revealed that none of them was familiar with the five essential components of reading instruction. Our teacher training institutions also do not equip the teacher trainees with such best practices to enable them train strategic readers. The objectives of the study are to 1. identify the in-service teachers that teach the UBE classes; 2. determine the reading capability of the students in their classes; 3. investigate the teachers awareness and competence in developing literacy, based on the essential components of reading and literacy instruction, namely, phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, fluency and comprehension strategies, without neglecting the reading-writing connection; 4. formally instruct the teachers on the components and how to effectively use them to develop literacy in their classes using relevant strategies, techniques and activities. The following research questions guided the study: 1. What is the status of literacy in the UBE classes? 2. Are the teachers familiar with the components of an effective literacy instruction? 3. Will explicit and systematic reading instruction based on the five components improve the teachers’ competence in developing literacy? Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 130 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 4. What impact will the training make on the teachers’ job performance in schools? 3. Methodology The design of the study was descriptive survey as well as case study. The holistic set of individual case study was adopted, since the subjects have some features in common. It is also an action research and so does not focus on a sample population but on a single classroom case, i.e. the entire population in the writer’s final year sandwich class. The final year class was chosen because having come to the end of the course, it was expected that they would have become fully equipped to teach the different components and skills areas of English Language. The main instrument for data collection was the “In-service Teachers’ Questionnaire on the Development of Literacy”. The questionnaire was validated by two experts in English Language Education through item analysis to ensure face and content validity. The test-retest reliability of a similar population yielded a coefficient of .83. The other instrument was the package of the components, and the strategies and techniques for teaching them. Observation and interview schedules were also used for follow-up monitoring. The questionnaire was administered to teachers during the first contact with them with a plea to fill it as honestly as possible, since its purpose was to elicit their current focus on teaching literacy and to enable the Department to plan an enrichment programme that would expose them to effective literacy instruction practices. The questionnaires were duly filled, with some clarifications from the writer, and collected on the spot. The responses were subsequently analyzed and the findings are recorded in the Tables 1 and 2. 4. Pre- and Post-intervention Action and Findings 4.1 The Pre-intervention Findings Table 1: General Information on the Teachers Class Taught Primary: 47 JSS: 21 Total 68 School Type Private 38 Public 30 68 Qualification NCE 49 TC II 19 68 Teaching Experience: 0-5 yrs: 14; 6-10: 28; 11-15: 10; 16-20: 6; Above 20:10 68 Total Students Taught by them: 2212 Fluent Readers: 940 (42.5%) Intermediate: 637 (28.8%) Frustration: 397 (17.9%) Cannot Read 238 (10.8%) The responses to the questionnaire revealed that 47 teachers taught at the primary level, 21 at the JSS level while two, who taught the senior classes, were not used, since the focus of the study was on those who taught at the UBE classes. In addition, 38 of the teachers taught at the private schools while 30 taught at the public ones. Out of the 68 teachers whose responses were analyzed, 49 of them had Nigerian Certificate in Education (NCE) as their highest qualification while 19 had Teachers Grade II Certificate (TC II). The total number of students taught by the subjects collectively was 2,212. Out of this number, they approximated that 940 (42.5%) read fairly fluently, 637 (28.8%) read at intermediate level, 397 (17.9%) at frustration level while 238 (10.8%) could not read at all. These figures were only estimated, thus it was possible that the number that can read fluently may be much lower than what was given here. It was also revealed that most of the teachers had more than 10 years of Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 131 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 experience so they were experienced enough in the job. Moreover, they were at the last lap of their in-service training; therefore, they were supposed to be fully equipped to handle any aspect of English language and literacy studies in their respective classes. Table 2: Information on Teachers’ Familiarity with and Use of Literacy Instruction Components Yes No Total I Phonemic Awareness: * Knowledge of Phonemic Awareness 36 32 68 * Use of Visual and auditory discrimination Activities 38 30 68 * Use of segmenting and blending activities 29 39 68 II Phonics * Familiarity with Phonics 47 21 68 * Use of Phonics to teach sounds 40 28 68 * Familiarity with high frequency word list 13 55 68 * Use of spelling analogy 48 20 68 III Vocabulary: Ways of Developing it: N % * Wide reading 48 70 * Observation and discussion 14 20.6 * Explicit instruction 8 11.8 * None of these 2 2.9 Teaching of Vocabulary by: * Use of dictionary 39 57.4 * Use of listening and speaking activities 36 52.9 * Use of context 18 26.5 * Use of excursion 7 10.3 * Expanding the context of words 14 20.9 * Students’ written retelling of stories 7 10.3 * None of these 1 1.5 IV Fluency: Yes No Sometimes * Most students read with speed, accuracy and expression 23 39 6 * Most students recognize words and understand the passage 33 30 5 * Students have enough reading materials 27 41 -- Students are taught to read mostly through: N % * Word by word reading 39 44.1 * Attending to words letter by letter 10 14.7 * Processing words holistically 25 36.8 * None of these 3 4.4 Repeated reading practice is ensured by: N % * Oral reading by students in turns 55 80.9 * Turning stories into drama pieces 12 17.6 * Acting different parts for other classes and teachers 6 8.8 * None of the above 2 2.9 V Comprehension: Yes No * Knowledge of comprehension strategies 45 (66.2%) 23 (33.8%) * Mention two of such strategies Not given 0% * Provision of time and opportunity for reading, writing and discussion of text read 33 (48.5%) 35 (51.5%) * Engage students in shared book experiences to encourage self-motivated reading and writing 32 (47.1%) 36 (52.9%) Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 132 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Table 2 shows that many of the subjects claimed knowledge and use of activities for teaching phonemic awareness and phonics. However, during the actual teaching of these components; it was evident that they were not familiar with them. For instance, some claimed that phonics specialists come in to teach it in their schools. With regard to vocabulary development, 70% of the subjects were aware that it can be developed through wide reading, 20.6% supported its development through observation and discussion of things seen in and out of class while 11.8% stated that vocabulary is best developed through explicit instruction. However, when asked how they actually taught vocabulary development, more than half of them 57.4% revealed that the use of the dictionary ranked highest in their choice followed by use of listening and speaking activities (52.9%), use of context (26.5%), use of excursion (10.3%), expanding word context (20.9%) and students’ written re-telling of the stories which gives them opportunity to use the new words in writing (10.3%). Also 1.5% of the subjects used none of these in teaching vocabulary. As regards fluency, the responses showed that more of their students do not read with speed, accuracy and expression or recognize most words than those who do not. Also the students do not have enough reading materials to enhance fluency development. Moreover, more students were taught reading through word by word (44.1%) and letter by letter (14.7%) than those who were taught to process words holistically (36.8%). In addition, repeated reading practice to promote fluency was practised through oral reading by students in turns (80.9%), while other best practices such as turning stories into drama and acting different parts for other classes and teachers were done by only 17.6% and 8.8% of the subjects respectively. 2.9% of them did none of these and it is difficult to believe that they do nothing to develop fluency. Lastly, comprehension items focused on strategies among other things. The table reveals that 66.2% of the respondents claimed they were familiar with comprehension strategies but when asked to give just two, none of them could give even one. Also 48.5% stated that they provide enough time and opportunities for students to read, write and discuss the text while 51.5% did not. Again 47.1% engage students in shared book experiences to encourage self-motivated reading and writing even outside school while 52.9% did not do so. Based on the findings, the following strategies and activities were adapted and used to teach them effective literacy instruction practices for a period of three weeks with the hope that they will impact positively on their students’ literacy performance just as NCLB has been doing in the US classrooms and schools. It is expected that even with the challenges of implementation of our own UBE programme, these teachers can still quietly make a change in their own small way in their schools. They were informed that literacy development was a topic in the ASE 405 course and would form a compulsory examinable topic, so that they would make effort to learn them for subsequent use. It is like a drop in the ocean but we have to start somewhere. According to the NCLB Act, the term ‘essential components of instruction’ means explicit and systematic instruction in the variables discussed above. To be able to undertake instruction in these areas requires competent teachers. According to Berliner and Biddle (1995), Haycock (1998) and Marzano (2003) in Stewart (2004), the teacher is the key, i.e. the most important element in the effectiveness of classrooms. This study therefore adapted the grouping of the components into four with some of the suggestions for fitting them into classroom instructions (Stewart, 2004, Ellery, 2005). Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 133 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 4.2 Teaching the Effective Components for Developing Literacy: Phonemic Awareness and Phonics This integrates instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, spelling, word recognition, and vocabulary. Phonemic awareness is the ability to focus on and manipulate phonemes in spoken words; it deals with how phonemes or speech sounds are connected in print. Phonics instruction is a way of teaching reading that stresses the acquisition of lettersound correspondence and their use to read and spell words (Harris and Hodges 1995). The following activities were taught for developing phonemic awareness: rhymes, games, songs, poems etc. were used for practice of phonemic patterns, also think sounds, blending phonemes and segmenting them respectively (Griffith and Leavell 2005; Ellery 2005). Teaching the consonants and vowel letter– sounds, visual and auditory discrimination activities were also taught and practised. They were taught how to get pupils to explore lettersound correspondence, spelling pattern and word families, e.g. matching objects that are the same colour, shape, size; sorting mixed up objects according to how they are related, puzzle to fix parts of an object together, matching letter forms, tracing letter forms; then listening to sounds around, listening to recorded sounds, grouping students and objects according to the initial consonants of their names after teaching them beginning consonants. Also, they were taught breaking words into their onsets and rimes (vowel and letters after it), e.g. Pat = P – at instead of P-a-t and using word families to teach phonics e.g. pan, fan, ran, can, tan before another group such as cat, hat, bat, hat, mat; sit, hit, fit, bit, pet, let, jet, met, set, pot, cot, hot, got, etc. The teachers were exposed to some high frequency and utility phonegrams/word lists such as that of Umolu (1985) (-ack, -ate, -an, -ake, -uck, -ing etc.), which they should teach their students. Also, spelling analogy was taught and practised because once children can read and spell some words, they can use those words to help unlock unknown words (Goswami and Bryant 1990), e.g. take, cake, make can help them unlock snake, stake, stale, state etc. The use of vowel contrast for developing word power was taught and practised e.g. bat – bet, met – mat, sat – set, pat – pet; also giving children words with blanks to fill with given vowels, e.g. ‘a’: b-t, c-n, m-n; ‘e’ b-d, r-d, j-t; u: b-s, g n, r-n; ‘o’ c-t, m-p, h-p, etc (i.e. synthesizing). By using these activities and more, children would develop phonemic awareness, phonics, spelling ability which aid reading and writing. 4.2.1 Vocabulary Vocabulary is the ability to use words orally and in written communication by applying word reading effectively. Wide reading builds vocabulary, language and world knowledge. According to Beck and Mckeown (1991), strong motivated readers gain more vocabulary than do less able readers. The following hints and activities were taught and practised with the in-service teachers to help them develop students’ vocabulary. · Explicit instruction that teaches students to use the context effectively to build rich vocabulary instead of using the dictionary. This was practised using selected passages. · Instruction focused on the most useful words, i.e. high frequency words that have broad utility across various domains of knowledge, and having students apply word knowledge in multiple contexts. This was done using various types of topics for learners to see the use of these words in different contexts. · Beck and McKeown (2002) encouraged teachers to take advantage of students’ listening and speaking competencies, which are usually ahead of their competencies in reading and writing to enhance their vocabulary. To achieve this, teachers were Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 134 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 encouraged to use oral activities such as literary awareness programme, news on the board, language experience approach, oral composition and dialogues and monologues simulated for various contexts. These were of necessity demonstrated to them and practised with them. Interesting passages were read to the students to expand the context of words encountered. Such passages provide activities that encourage students to interact with words, e.g. talking of their meanings, their word class, similar and opposite words, etc. · Teachers were taught to read aloud to students and thereafter discuss the book read with them employing the words met in the text as a way to promote vocabulary growth and language development in meaningful ways (Dickinson and Smith, 1994). · The teachers were told to solicit home support for literacy development. For students whose parents were literate in English, home support was to be encouraged in form of provision of reading materials and interacting with children on the books read. · The teachers were encouraged to ensure their students’ wide reading, especially nonfiction reading, by assisting them during library periods to select easy to read but challenging books and by the use of class invisible library to promote reading culture. · They were taught to promote reading and writing through observation and discussion. They can do this when students read together and discuss a variety of genres and after purposeful journeys outside the classroom to learn through close observation; and as they deliberated in order to find strong words for their writing (Stewart 2002a and 2002b). For instance, a written retelling of a passage read provides students the opportunity to use vocabulary learnt in the original version of the story, thus the context of the story provides meaning which can be used in a similar story. 4.2.2 Fluency Fluent readers can read a text with speed, accuracy and proper expression. Fluency is enhanced by well developed word recognition skills, but it actually develops from reading practice (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development 2001 in Stewart 2004). According to Pressley (2002), skilled reading is that reading which is fluent, with little effort being required for word-by-word reading, i.e. readers recognize most words without having to sound them out. Fluent readers are able to decode and comprehend simultaneously, for they decode words quickly and automatically seemingly unaware of the process because of their automatic recognition of approximately 300 words that comprise 85% of words encountered in everyday reading (Samuels 2002). To get the UBE students to be fluent readers the teachers were trained to · Ensure that their students are made to spend enough time on reading everyday because researchers have found that wide reading is one of the best ways to develop automaticity and fluency in reading. When they read more, they have more encounters with common words that increase their fluency. The school, the teachers, parents and students themselves can all help to flood the classes with good books, and teachers by talking about these books will motivate students to read. The subjects were challenged to read more in order to motivate their students to read. They were asked to introduce SSR in their respective schools. · Repeated reading is another technique for increasing fluency. According to Samuels (2002), repeated reading practice produces statistically significant improvement in reading speed, word recognition, and oral reading expression on the practised passages. The subjects were taught how to use drama pieces and poems to achieve this. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 135 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 · Other strategies: Phrasing/chunking, modelling, expressing, pacing/ flexibility and shared book experience were also taught and demonstrated. · The teachers were told to develop fluency by turning stories read in class into “Readers’ Theatre Productions.” Students are grouped according to the number of parts or characters in the story. More than one group can even prepare the same script depending on the number in the class, so that there will be multiple readers. There can therefore be multiple “Readers Theatre Productions” for the class, for other classes (Stewart 2004), other teachers and even for parents on Parent–Teachers’ Association meeting days. 4.2.3 Comprehension Comprehension is the goal and essence of reading. It is the ability to apply meaning to what is read (Durkin 1993). It is essential not only to academic learning but to life-long learning as well. Comprehension is critical for effective reading and must be fostered even when students are still learning the words (Ivey 2002). According to Duke and Pearson (2002), a balanced comprehension instruction is “comprehension instruction that includes both explicit instruction in specific comprehension strategies and a great deal of time and opportunity for actual reading, writing and discussion of text” p. 207. Teachers are therefore expected to explicitly describe various comprehension strategies and teach students when and how to use them. “Comprehension strategies are specific procedures that guide students to become aware of how well they are comprehending as they attempt to read and write” (NICHD 2000 in Ellery 2006). Strategies enable readers to make connections and move beyond literal recall. Teachers should explain and model them directly. Some of the comprehension strategies highlighted, explained, and modelled in this study include: · Previewing – activating background knowledge using the title or chapter heading or pictures before the passage. · Predicting using interesting titles like “Nothing is free in Lagos”, “Lagos wife to be knifed”, “Even nothing is something” etc, illustrations, use of key words and key sentences. · Questioning before, during and after reading by teacher and students. · Think aloud to monitor comprehension. · Inferring, drawing conclusion and interpreting text. · Visualizing – using mental images to aid comprehension. · Reading selectively (flexibility), skimming and scanning. · Summarizing/Restating/Retelling. · Evaluating – encouraging students to form opinions and support them, or make judgements. · Using context clues to work on and understand unfamiliar words or concepts. These strategies help to generate a lot of talk, thinking and writing about the text read. In addition to the strategies, the subjects were taught how to engage students in shared book experiences in order to enhance comprehension development, oral reading, fluency and vocabulary development as well as increase their desire to read for themselves. For example, they learnt that a simple book read by both teacher and students can attract over 200 simple questions, which promote comprehension and reading interest. This is to achieve the goal of having students grow into and remain self-motivated readers who choose to read and continue to read even after they leave school (Gambrell 1996, Guthrice and Anderson 1999). Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 136 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 The teachers were encouraged to ensure explicit instruction in different skills – listening, speaking, reading comprehension and writing. They should flood their classrooms with books from different sources suggested earlier, for students to encounter and get busy with actual reading and writing based on the texts read. They were also encouraged to create time to attend to the needs of individual students where the class population is manageable; otherwise they should use ability groups to cater for children who read fluently, those at intermediate reading level, those at the frustration level and those that cannot read at all. The activities for literacy instruction discussed above may be relevant in different class levels. For instance, the phonemic awareness and phonics activities are more relevant at the primary level while the reading comprehension strategies will be more amenable at the JSS and upper primary levels. The teachers in the study were instructed to the extent that they became familiar with the components. It is now left for each teacher to choose the ones that suit his/her class level more. To ensure that they were motivated to familiarize themselves with the strategies, the topic on literacy instruction components was added to their course outline, which made it one of the examinable topics in their course of study. The training on these components lasted for three weeks while reference to them continued throughout the eight-week duration of the in-service period. At the end of the course, the subjects were given a package containing the components and the relevant activities for developing and enhancing literacy. 4.3 The Results The teachers performed well in a compulsory question on literacy development asked them at the end of their course, 50 got between 15 and 18 marks while 18 got 14 – 16 marks. The question was: 1a. Give four major literacy instruction components for effective development of literacy among students (4 mks) 1b. Suggest and discuss fully two activities you can use to develop each component (16 mks) It was evident that a lot of awareness on literacy development instruction has been created among the teachers. It is hoped that even when they forget the practical training done in the class, they can refer to the package given to them when teaching literacy in their schools. After six months, a follow-up monitoring of the teachers took place. Since many have left Lagos after the course, the researcher was able to observe 28 of them in class and interview ten of them. The observed teachers were incorporating some of the components in their teaching of reading, especially the word study, comprehension and fluency in that order. But they complained that their students’ poor background in English is making the components not very easy to teach, but they were persisting. Typical responses to interview question are: · Teaching the components to achieve literacy among students makes a lot of demands on the teacher but it is worth the effort (public school). · Since I started focusing on these components, poor readers in my class have made remarkable improvement while good readers are now reading more than before and are anxious to discuss what they are reading. In fact, we the teachers have to read more to lead the shared book reading with the children. My school has bought more supplementary readers for the library after my course due to my request (private school). Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 137 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 4.4. Recommendations Literacy is a pivot skill for educational success and specifically at the UBE programme, which forms the springboard for all other levels of education. Therefore it must be systematically developed to enable students’ benefit from learning at that stage and beyond. As many teachers at that level have TC II & NCE qualifications, we recommend that training at the NCE level should include explicit training in literacy components so that UBE students’ literacy development will be ensured, as stipulated by the NPE. Where this training has not been fully realised, schools and state education authorities should organize seminars, conferences and plan in-service training to ensure that the teachers are competent in literacy development strategies and activities. As of now, such training is still ad-hoc and largely planned and undertaken by the teachers individually, contrary to what was stated concerning the professional development of serving teachers (FME, 2000). 5. Conclusion The study has focused on literacy development practices. It found out that majority of our UBE students cannot read well and that their teachers were not competent enough to develop literacy skills in them adequately. A programme of best practices for literacy instruction was planned and taught to the subjects. A follow-up monitoring revealed that the training is impacting on the teachers’ teaching of reading in their schools. The researcher suggests that the components be included in language teacher training at the NCE level and beyond in order to empower teachers to teach literacy with ease and confidence, and thus deliver strategic readers. References Beck, I., McKeown and Kucan, L. (2002) Bring Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Development. New York: Guilford. Berliner, D. C. and Biddle, B. J. (1995) The Manufactured Crisis: Myth, Fraud, and Attack on America’s Public Schools. Reading, M. A.: Addison, Wesley. Dickinson, D. and Smith, M. (1994) Long-term Effects of Pre-school Teachers’ Book Readings on Low-income Children’s Vocabulary and Story Comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly 29, 104-122. Dickinson, D. and Tabors, P. O. (Eds.) (2001) Building literacy with Language. Baltimore: Brookers. Duke, N. K. and Pearson, P. D. (2002) Effective Practices for Developing Reading Comprehension. In Farstrup, A. E. and Samuels, S. J. (Eds.). What Research Has to Say about Reading Instruction (3rd ed.) Newark, Delaware: IRA. Durkin, D. (1993) Teaching Them to Read (6th ed.) Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Cited in Stewart 2004. Ellery, V. (2005) Creating Strategic Readers. Newark, USA: International Reading Association. Federal Ministry of Education (2000) Implementation Guidelines for the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Programme. Abuja: Federal Government Printer. Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004) National policy on education (4th ed.) Abuja: Federal Government Printer. Gambrel, L. (1996) Creating Classroom Cultures that foster Reading Motivation. The Reading Teacher, 50, 14-25. Cited in Stewart 2004. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 138 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Goswami, U. and Bryant, P. (1990) Phonological skills and learning to read. Hove, UK: Psychology Press. Griffith, P. L. and Leavell, J. A. (2005). Phonemic Awareness: Teaching Segmenting and Blending. In Pandis, M. et al. (Eds.) Reading, Writing, Thinking. Newark, D. E. USA: IRA. Guthrie, J. T. and Anderson, E. (1999). Engagement in Reading: Processes of Motivated, Strategic, Knowledgeable, Social Readers. In Guthrie, J. T. and Alvermann, D. E. (Eds.) Engaged Reading: Processes, Practices, and Policy Implications. New York: Teachers College. Harris, T. and Hodges, R. (Eds.) (1995) The Literacy Dictionary. Newwark, DE: International Reading Association. Haycock, K. (1998). Good Teaching Matters… a Lot. Thinking, 16, 3(2), 1-4. In Stewart M. T. 2004. Ivey, G. (2002) Building Comprehension When They’re Still Learning to Read the Words. In Block, C. C. and Pressley, M. (Eds.), Comprehension Instruction: Research-based best practices. New York: Guilfold. Marzano, R. J. (2003). What Works in Schools: Translating Research into Action. Alexandra, V.A: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Pressley, M. (2002). Metacognition and Self-regulated Comprehension. In Farstrup, A. E. and Samuels, S. J. (Eds.) What Research Has to Say about Reading Instruction. (3rd Ed.). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Samuels, S. J. (2002) Reading fluency: Its development and assessment. In In Farstrup, A. E. and Samuels, S. J. (Eds.) Ibid. Stewart, M. T. (2002a). Best “Practice”? Insights on Literacy Instruction from an Elementary Classroom. Newark, D. E. International Reading Association and Chicago: National Reading Conference. Stewart, M. T. (2002b) Writing. “It’s in the bag”. Ways to Inspire Your Students to Write. Peterborough, NH: Crystal Springs Books. Stewart, M. T. (2004) Early Literacy Instruction in the Climate of No Child Left Behind. The Reading Teacher, Vol. 57:8, 732-743. Umolu, J. J. (1985) High Frequency Word Lists for Nigerian Children Nigeria Educational Forum, Vol.8, 1-5. Zaria: Institute of Education, Ahmadu Bello University. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 139 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 PRACTISING TEACHERS’ FORUM, NESA 2005 Discussion on the Learning, Teaching and Use of English in Nigeria Prof. Dele Orisawayi Department of English and Literary Studies University of Calabar, Calabar Dr. Wale Adegbite Department of English Obafemi Awolowo University And Miss Ngozi Akobundu Federal Government Girls College, Onitsha The Practising Teachers' Forum was an aspect of the NESA Conference aimed at allowing practising teachers to air their views about the problems they encounter in the classrooms. The session was moderated by Prof. Dele Orisawayi, while Dr Wale Adegbite and Miss Ngozi Akobundu recorded the views. The moderator threw the floor open for all to contribute to the discussion, especially on the factors that negatively affect the teaching and learning of English language. The first question asked was what teachers could do to solve the problem of low standard in speaking and writing well in English language. Participants observed that teachers in secondary schools experience a lot of problems in continuous writing. The students are very poor in the use of tenses, word spellings and use of prepositions. They traced the problem to mother tongue interference. There is also overpopulation of pupils in the classrooms. Another problem is the inefficiency of some teachers who are half baked academically. There is the wrong impression that anybody that graduated in English language can teach the subject. There were various suggestions made on what could be done to solve the problem. First was that the government should recruit all the qualified teachers around to teach the subject. Since there are only a few qualified teachers available, the government should, as a matter of priority, train more teachers to teach the language. It was suggested that ‘library reading’ should be introduced right from the primary school level. Students should be compelled to read or rather cultivate the habit of reading. The moderator echoed this suggestion and advised teachers to always involve the students in text reading in the classroom rather than doing it all alone. Reading can be interesting if interactive. Put books into pupils’ hands. Let them read and make books of their own. Each pupil can make two books in a year. In addition, students should be compelled to use the dictionaries; this could be achieved through assignments on spellings, synonyms and word meanings. Considering the problem of large classes, this can be tackled via group studies/ group teaching. Teaching and learning can be done through seminars. This would offer the students the opportunity to practise both the written and oral aspects of the language. Another question asked was on the model of assessment of students’ performance in classroom work. What actually are teachers to test the children on, in view of the conflicting influences of American, British and Nigerian English? There was an argument on the realisability of the real pronunciation of English language of English words just like the owners of the language. Teachers can have the R.P. as the model, but what can be realisable is the Nigerian version. One of the speakers even solicited for consistency in the variety of Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 140 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 English language to be taught or written (American or English), but quickly observed that an attendant problem to this is the inability of some teachers to recognize words that are either American English or British English. Another speaker also asked what has become of an earlier proposal of the domestication of English language. The moderator tried to remind all that there is the Standard English; that is, World Standard English. This model is internationally intelligible and flexible enough to accommodate local, lexical and phonological features. The movement towards this target in Nigeria is largely towards the direction of British English R.P., but, in practice, it will end with educated Nigerian users’ English. A participant spoke on the regular and part time programmes in higher institutions and pointed out that the programmes have different influences on the attitudes of students in their studies. The speaker opined that something be done to bridge the gap, especially as it affects the teaching and learning of English language. The last problem addressed at the Forum was the non-implementation of policies on the teaching and learning of English language as an L2. Participants asked why the policies are not implemented in some schools. The provisions state that the child should learn the English Language, a mother tongue or language of immediate environment and a major indigenous language (out of Hausa, Igbo or Yoruba). The moderator commented that a child can learn two languages at a time and still maintain the command of both. He advised participants to respect the dialects of languages, respect the home language, but keep the Standard English. Parental attitudes matter a lot on the issue of language learning, choice and use by their children and are thus a crucial factor for discussion at some other time. The moderator thanked participants for their contributions and promised that the questions and opinions of the teachers would be reviewed for better outcomes in the future. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 141 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 CONNECTING READING AND WRITING THROUGH WHOLE LANGUAGE ACTIVITIES: A STRATEGY FOR ACHIEVING LITERACY FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT Dr. A. O. Adeosun and Dr. A. N. Maduekwe Department of Arts and Social Science Education Faculty of Education University of Lagos Abstract Given the persistent decline in the literacy level of school children, despite the several measures taken to improve the situation, and in recognition of the growing awareness of the importance of literacy in the world of knowledge economy, this study investigated the effect of whole language based instructional strategies on students’ achievement in and attitude to reading and writing. It also examined the interaction effects of parental educational support on the dependent measures. Pre- and post-tests on composition writing and reading comprehension were applied to control and experimental groups of two hundred and ten Junior Secondary School III students drawn from two secondary schools in Lagos State. This was further complemented with a 33-item Likert (four-point) attitude scale as well as the Parental Educational Support questionnaire. The results the instructional strategy was seen to be effective because it all encouraged the students’ active participation in their learning. Students played more active role in the learning process, acquiring and developing critical thinking and cooperative learning skills. However, the attitude of the students towards reading and writing generally was found to be low, even after treatment had been administered. It was then concluded that some other factors, apart from instructional strategy, could account for the students’ attitude towards literacy in English language. It is the teacher’s greatest challenge, therefore, to motivate and meet the needs of each literacy personality in the classroom. Key words: literacy, Whole Language Activities, instructional strategies, students’ reading and writing attitudes, parental educational support 1. Introduction Of paramount concern to all countries of the world is the need to adequately develop their citizenry to cope with the challenges of the today’s knowledge societies. This concern recognizes the fundamental importance of teaching literacy skills, not only as a means for people to be able to read and handle words, sentences and ideas, but also for them to take the information they have read, apply it for their own purposes, and also learn new things. Good reading, comprehension and communication skills are, therefore, essential in handling the wide range of knowledge people are exposed to in their daily life. Literacy is not a static concept. Leu (2000) saw it as a deictic term, because its meaning is continually changing, depending upon the context in which it occurs. It is fundamental for learning in school and Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 142 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 serves a crucial role to the success of individuals in both their career aspirations and their quality of life. Strong literacy skills are deemed necessary for employment, decent earnings, and access to varied opportunities. Literacy is also a basic need in our world. Without an ability to read and write well, people suffer poorer health, unemployment and poverty. A population's literacy skills also have a bearing on how well a country performs economically. Countries that are successful in endowing their populations with strong skills are usually in a better position to meet the economic challenges of operating in a globalized information economy and in meeting complex social challenges such as health and population issues, governance, resource-allocation, education, infrastructure and other social issues. A measure of the importance of literacy is the fact that two of the six goals of the Dakar Framework for Action (2000) in providing education for all by 2015 emphasized literacy. In fact, it is seen to permeate all the six goals. (UNESCO, EFA GMT, 2006). As a signatory to the Dakar Framework of Action, Nigeria, not willing to be left behind in the 2015 target, has initiated some moves to ensure that its population moves beyond the 46% literacy rate recorded in 2004. Key among these moves is the introduction and launching of the Universal Basic Education in 1999. The UBE has as one of its key goals the acquisition of functional literacy by the country’s population. In fact, one of the principal objectives of the National Policy on Education is "to inculcate permanent literacy and numeracy, and the ability to communicate effectively (NPE, 2006). Before the introduction of the UBE, the federal government embarked on a nationwide assessment of its primary education system between 1991 and 1995. Tagged Monitoring Learning Achievement (MLA), the project, under the joint sponsorship of FGN-UNESCO and UNICEF, was the first nationwide assessment of learning achievement of pupils in primaries one to four. The results, as reported by Aderinoye (2002:15-16) showed that: 1. The mean percent scores on the literacy, numeracy and life skills test were 25.1% 32.29% and 32.6% respectively. The performances were generally poor, but pupils demonstrated less competence in English Language skills and displayed relatively more understanding of the tasks in Mathematics and Life Skills. 2. The poorest piece of performance of the pupils nationwide was on the writing subtest of the Literacy test, where they obtained a mean percentage score of 18.2. This is against the mean scores of 39.2 and 31 they obtained on Reading Comprehension and Lexis and Structure respectively. The score of 18.2 indicates that the pupils had had little or no exposure to writing skills. Since a key indicator of educational progress is the extent to which schools are successful in equipping their students with strong literacy skills, it can be concluded from this report that schools could be impediments in the achievement of EFA and UBE literacy goals. Available literature tends to blame students’ poor reading and writing skills on ineffective mode of teaching these skills (D’ Angelo 1981, Adesanoye 1990, Kolawole 1991 and Maduekwe 2007). According to Weaver (1988) the traditional teaching methods obviously have failed many students with its consequent increase in dropout and illiteracy rates. Recognizing these inadequacies, UNESCO-EFA GMR (2006) suggests that for literacy challenges to be met, countries need to · Expand quality primary and lower secondary education. · Base literacy programmes on an understanding of learners demands, in terms of language preferences and motivations for attending class. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 143 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 · Develop curriculum on the above demands, with clearly stated learning objectives and the provision for adequate learning materials. (p.17) This position has been previously established by Allen (1984:63) that: Where English is serving as lingua franca or second language, course materials for use need be firmly rooted in the culture and traditions of the country where the teaching is to take place. English can be presented realistically and naturally in its role as second language in use for a variety of purposes within the learner’s own country, this has the advantage that learners can see the direct relevance of English to their daily lives and future prospects, with all that entails in terms of positive motivation. Such realistic and natural teaching, according to Williams (1990), include the awareness of the problems faced by students who are required to express themselves in the language that is not native to them. Allen (1984) therefore concluded that our teaching must have at its base a consideration of what our students need to learn, that is, what they will do with English on completing their course. This involves the teacher looking beyond the confines of the classroom into the outer worlds and focusing his attention on the use the individual will make of what he has learned in a situation that is not primarily a learning situation. Using language beyond the confines of the classroom involves using language wholly and integrally, hence, the skill-oriented approach to teaching reading and writing and English language in general has been variously criticized. Weaver (1990) asserted that the traditional transmission concept of education has resulted in extensive and relatively ineffective skills in instruction in reading and writing at the expense of real reading and writing that foster literacy development. He observed that reading and writing are often taught as a matter of mastering discrete isolated skills rather than the ability to construct meaning from language (reading) and through language (writing). Czerniewska (1992:20) supported this view: The curriculum in English clearly separates writing from talk and from reading in its profile components with little reference to their interrelationships. Of course, it is convenient for analysts of language structure to isolate certain aspects of language for close inspection, but the separation made in theory can develop a false sense of reality so that we forget how much our use of one mode depends on our use of other modes. With these attributes, language teaching lacks integration, the central cord without which language as communication does not emerge. Goodman (1986) therefore summarized that if language is learned best and easiest when it is whole and in a natural context, integration should be a key principle for language development. This view is strongly held by language educators (Krashen 1981, Breen 1984 Goodman 1986, Caudlin 1987, Prabhu 1987, Freeman and Freeman 1992) that language as communication is blocked and can hardly be achieved when · Language is being explicitly taught, focusing on grammatical rules rather than use. · Language is not made to do things or used in solving problem. · Language is released in fragments rather than discourse units. Since communicative competence is the ultimate goal of any worthwhile languageteaching programme (Widdowson 1978, Lawal 1989 and Adeosun 1998), this premise emphasizes the need for integration in language teaching. This could be emphasized in the Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 144 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 proper connection between the rather isolated skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing to lead to effective language communication (Williams 1990). Again, language learning should be made natural by relating language teaching to other subjects in the curriculum as well as the linguistic and socio-cultural background of the learners (Weaver 1990, Ubahakwe 1999). This study therefore responds to the need to teach literacy integratively through a holistic strategy. Apart from the students’ inherent problem with literacy skills, other variables are known to affect greatly students’ achievement in reading and writing. These include students’ attitude to the English language and the level of parental support for children’s’ literacy development (Nesser 1996). It is therefore essential to further ascertain the moderating influence of these variables on students’ performances in reading and writing as a step towards facilitating and enhancing the students’ literacy skills. 2. Theoretical Framework: Whole Language Philosophy Mohan (1986) opined that since English is only a means to an end for most students in ESL classes, teachers must make the best use of learners’ time by concentrating on the kind of English and English related skills that will best serve their academic needs. Based on this, he suggested that the integration of language learning and content learning should be an important consideration in the field of pedagogy and research. It is on the premise of integration that the skill-model of language teaching and learning is faulted. This is because rather than focus students’ attention on interesting content and require students to think, generate original responses and make real linguistic choices, many skill oriented classrooms and textbooks are replete with ‘exercises of fragmented language related only by linguistic operations the learner is expected to perform’ (Blanton, 1992). A radical reaction against such traditional methods evolved in the concept of Whole Language. Bullock (1975) observed that a child learns language primarily by using the four modes of talking, listening, reading and writing in close relationship with one another. Thus Zerniewska (1992) surmised that looking at language events rather than language systems points to the fact that writing practices are intertwined with talk and reading. This showed that the different modes of language are not separable in practice as they are in theory. As an evolving philosophy, Whole Language is a belief system about the nature of learning and how it can be fostered in the classroom. Freeman and Freeman (1992) posited that Whole Language brings together modern scientific knowledge of teaching, learning, language and curriculum and puts it into a positive humanistic philosophy that teachers can identify with and which offers them strong criteria for the professional decisions and teaching practice. Weaver (1990:12) gives a summary of its features: Language is kept whole, not fragmented into skills, literacy skills and strategies are developed in the context of whole authentic literacy events, while reading and writing permeate the whole curriculum; and learning within the classroom is integrated in the whole life of the child. Harste (1999) also gave three key ideas in Whole Language; (i) Language is learned through use (ii) The child as informant, and (iii) Education is enquiry. These ideas define Whole Language as an open invitation to learn about language and to support it using children as curriculum informants. It is a radical departure from the traditional classroom where learners are regarded as “banks into which teachers deposit knowledge” (Freire 1970); it is therefore learner-centered as learners are expected to “construct their own learning” (Freeman and Freeman 1992). It is also based on the assumption that as the human mind Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 145 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 seeks unity among parts for a wholeness of understanding, so do English language arts require integrating all the elements of language before students can make sense of the processes of thinking, listening, speaking, reading and writing (Freeman and Freeman 1992). Quoting an American Arts Framework of 1987, they further asserted that in-depth learning of any kind presumes various levels of efforts and involvement of all the human senses and facilities, therefore the whole perception is necessary in learning. This is related to Gestalt Theory, which maintained that learning involves restructuring, reorganization of perception and gaining of insight in a purposeful activity (Anozie 1997). This organization allows the learner to perceive new relationship, solve new problems and gain basic understanding of the subject. Whole Language therefore emphasizes, among other things, the teaching of language, not as isolated or artificially contrived skills but within the context of reading a variety of genres and writing for a variety of purposes and audience (Weaver 1990). One can conclude that whole language is therefore a broad philosophy which covers every sphere of language teaching and learning. However, the tenets of integration of skills, functional use of language, and learner-centeredness shall be explored; through the following steps: · Writing will be taught in relation to other language skills of reading, speaking and listening, particularly by emphasizing the reading-writing connection through selected reading passages within learners’ experience. · Learners are involved in the selection of content materials, as well as the evaluative procedures. The activities in the class are selected based on learner’s interest. · Reading and writing shall be taught as a process by guiding the learners through the process of thinking through ideas to elicit information, drafting, redrafting, editing and evaluating to rewriting. Within this process, children are exposed to a lot of reading materials to help their creative process. 3. Statement of the Problem, Aim, Research Questions and Hypotheses The traditional language classroom has been variously criticized for impeding the development of communication and literacy skills in second language learners of English (Weaver, 1990, Omojuwa, 1992, Oglan 1997). Given the persistent decline in the literacy level of school children, despite the several measures taken to improve the situation, and in recognition of the growing awareness of the importance of literacy in the world of knowledge economy, this study investigates the effect of whole language based instructional strategies on students’ achievement in and attitude to reading and writing. It also examines the interaction effects of parental educational support on the dependent measures. The following research questions will be answered: a. Will students exposed to reading and writing through whole language strategies perform better than those taught through the skill-oriented traditional methods? b. What possible impact does Parental Educational Support has on developing the literacy ability of students? c. What other factors are responsible for children’s poor achievement in reading and writing? The following three hypotheses are tested: HO1 There is no significant main effect of treatment on students’ (a) Achievement in reading and writing. (b) Attitude towards reading and writing. HO2 There is no significant main effect of Parental Educational Support on students’ (a) Achievement in reading and writing. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 146 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 (b) Attitude towards reading and writing. HO3 There is no significant interaction effect of treatment and Parental Educational Support on students’ (a) Achievement in reading and writing (b) Attitude towards reading and writing. 4. Methodology The study adopted a pre-test, post-test, control group quasi-experimental design. It made use of intact classes that were randomly assigned to different treatment conditions. This is to prevent the disruption of the normal classroom programmes that occurs when students are selected into different study groups. One experimental group was exposed to Whole Language Based Instructional Strategy, while the control group was exposed to its normal lessons in composition using Conventional Strategy. The subjects for the study consisted of two hundred and ten (210) Junior Secondary School III students drawn from two secondary schools in Ifako-Ijaye local government area of Lagos State. Three response instruments were used: English Composition and Comprehension Achievements Tests (ECCAT) which was designed to measure the attainment level of students in composition writing and reading comprehension before and after the treatment. It consisted of two essay topics and two comprehension passages of JSS standard, which was presented to experts in English Language curriculum for face and content validity. The reliability coefficient was established using test-retest method and was found to be 0.8. The English Composition and Comprehension Attitude Questionnaire (ECCAQ) consisted of 33- item Likert (four-point) attitude scale, consisting of Strongly Agree (SA) Agree (A) Disagree (D) and Strongly Disagree (SD) graded on points ranging from 4, 3, 2 to 1 respectively and with a reliability alpha value of 0.78, The Parental Educational Support Questionnaire (PESQ) consists of 23-point instrument designed to determine the various levels of parental supervision and parental promotion of students’ literacy and academic development both within and outside school. It also includes information on age, sex, and socio-economic background of the subjects. The Coefficient Alpha was established through test-retest and valued at 0.76. The instructional guide for the experimental group constituted the stimulus instrument. It is basically an activity oriented and learner-centred instructional package where learners were exposed to a wide range of whole language strategies such as Reading-Writing Conferences, Author’s Circle (Burke 1983, Graves 1986), Author’s Folder (Newkirk and Artwell 1988), Generating Written Discourse (Kucer 1983), Group Composing (Harste, Short and Burke 1988), Schema Stories (Watson 1994), and Folktales (Ubahakwe 1999). The content of teaching was drawn from the Junior Secondary School Integrated English Studies Curriculum. The initial procedure involved visits to the schools to familiarize and inform them about the research. Once the permission was granted the experimental treatment was mounted in one school, while the second school served as control and the exposed to the conventional strategy. Both groups were exposed to the same language content but through different instructional strategies. Four English language teachers in both schools were recruited as research assistants. The teachers were trained on the purpose and principles governing the study and the handling of the treatment. The study lasted for twelve weeks between January and March. It took the researchers two weeks for training of research assistants, one week for administering pre-test and questionnaires, eight weeks for treatment and the last week for post-tests. The researchers visited the school/classes during each treatment session to ensure that the teachers comply with the instruction given in the manuals. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 147 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 5. Results The descriptive statistics for the pre-test and post-test scores on the two dependent variables, achievement and attitude, were computed for the experimental and control groups. This is presented in Table 1. An examination of the mean scores of both groups reveals that there are differences among the post-test scores of the experimental and the control groups. The experimental group obtained higher post-test mean scores than the control group in achievement. The table also reveals that the attitude of the students to reading and writing is very low. The differences in the post-test mean attitude of the groups are close, with the control group having the highest gain score in attitude. In order to estimate the effects of the independent variables and the intervening variable in the observed differences in the pre- and post-treatment scores of the subjects on the dependent measures, an Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was run, using the pre-test scores as covariates and the post-test scores as criterion. ANCOVA is used to adjust for the initial differences that existed within the groups, since they were randomly selected. The results of these analyses are presented in Table 2. Table 1: Descriptive Statistics on Pre-test Post-test Achievement and Attitude Scores According to groups Experimental N =55 Control N = 50 Test Type Pre-test Post-test GS Pre-test Post-test GS ECCAT X 21.02 27.69 6.67 16.76 17.74 0.98 SD 8.03 9.79 8.96 9.53 ECCAQ X 68.40 60.05 8.35 56.86 57.86 1.35 SD 10.11 11.35 9.99 8.07 Table 2: Summary of Analysis of Covariance of Subjects’ Post-test Achievement Scores According to Treatment and Parental Educational Support Source of Variation Sum of Squares DF Mean Squares F Sig. of F Covariates PRE-ECCAT 19356.554 1 19356.554 917.039 .000 Main effect TRT PES 2932.031 2931.379 .634 5 3 1 586.406 977.126 .634 27.782 46.292 .030 .000 .000* .862 2-way interactions TRT PES 57.916 3 19.305 .915 .453 Explained 22544.200 16 1409.012 66.754 .000 Residual 4073.781 193 21.108 Total 26617.981 209 127.359 *Significant at P < 0.05 Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 148 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Table 2 shows a significant main effect of treatment on students’ mean achievement scores {F (3,209) = 46.292, P < 0.05}, while there are no significant main effects of Parental Educational Support {F (1,209) = .030, P > 0.05}. The table also shows a 2-way interaction effects, and there are no significant interaction effects of Treatment and Parental Educational Support {F (3,209) = .915, P > 0.05}. Table 3 gives an indication of students’ post-test attitude. The summary of ANCOVA as shown in Table 3 above indicates that Treatment was found to have no significant effect on subjects’ mean attitude scores {F(3,209) = .141, P > 0.05}. Also, there were no significant main effects of Parental Educational Support {F(1,209) = .000, P > 0.05} on subjects’ mean attitude scores. The 2-way interactions show no significant effects of Treatment and Parental Educational Support {F (3,209) = .023, P > 0.05 on subjects’ mean attitude scores. Table 3: Summary of Analysis of Covariance on Subjects’ Post-test Attitude Scores According to Treatment and Parental Educational Support Source of Variation Sum of Squares DF Mean Squares F Sig. of F Covariates PRE-ECAT 1434.127 1 1434.127 16.234 .000 Main effect TRT PES 83.034 37.353 .033 5 3 1 16.607 12.451 .033 .188 .141 .000 .967 .935 .987 2-way interactions TRT PES 233.095 6.209 7 3 33.299 2.070 .377 .023 .915 .995 Explained 1888.115 16 118.007 1.338 179 Residual 17049.866 193 88.341 Total 18937.981 209 90.612 *Significant at P < 0.05 6. Discussion: Instructional Strategy and Achievement in Literacy It was shown that treatment contributed significantly to the gain scores of the subjects in achievement. Oxford et al. (1993) and Thompson (1993) noted that the use of appropriate language learning strategies often result in improved proficiency or achievement. By providing learners with both cultural context and all broad content for reading and writing, the power of idea generation is greatly enhanced. Learners wrote from concrete things, about real situations instead of abstractions, and by making use of both the previous and present knowledge in the processes of reading and writing. This finding corroborates that of Harste, Short and Burke (1988) that learning occurs when we connect our current experiences to the past ones. The strategy also involves the process approach to writing which exposes the students to how to generate ideas through brainstorming and dialogue, and how to organize and express these ideas. During the instructions, students were made the focus of the learning process in the sense that they often supply and determine the curriculum context; hence, they saw the instruction as relevant. This is what Olisen and Muten (1990) describes as teaching to and from the experience of students. However, its effectiveness is mostly felt through its techniques for generating ideas. It gave room for students to brainstorm, expand and reexamine their experiences prior to actual reading and writing. July (1980) confirmed the need to teach students how to explore topics, develop ideas and discover relationships between ideas. It emphasizes integrating the skills of language focused on reading and writing as an Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 149 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 interactive process that promotes cognitive thinking. According to Quinn (1995), reading with writing promotes knowledge transformation, extends and enriches students’ engagement in learning, and encourages more thoughtful exploration and elaboration of ideas. This observation also supports Tierney and Shanahan’s (1991) findings that integrating reading and writing engage the learners in a greater variety of reasoning operations than when writing or reading is taught separately. Whole language strategies ensure high teacher and student input. Teachers in whole language classrooms have high expectations for the students and facilitate their taking significant responsibility for their own learning. In support, Kelly (1996) gave some conditions that facilitated learning and which were clearly demonstrated in the use of this strategy. According to him, learning English is facilitated, among others, in an atmosphere that: · Encourages people to be active. · Facilitates individual’s discovery of personal meaning of ideas. · Emphasizes the uniquely personal and subjective nature of learning. · Consistently recognizes the right to make mistakes. · Encourages openness of self rather than concealment of self. · Perceives evaluation is a cooperative process, which emphasizes self-evaluation. · Encourages students to trust themselves as well as in external forces. · Creates the conditions whereby the most effective teacher loses the teaching function. On the whole, the instructional strategy is seen to be effective because it all encouraged the students’ active participation in their learning. Students played more active role in the learning process, acquiring and developing critical thinking and cooperative learning skills. According to Johan (1989), involvement in meaningful and communicative use of language is central for the development of critical literacy for second language learners. Through conversations and discussions in class with both teachers and other students, learners developed their English language skills as they broaden their knowledge and understanding of the subject matter (Brisk & Harrington 2000). 7. Implications of Findings for Literacy Development The study was necessitated by the concern arising from the observed failures in English in general and specifically in literacy development in Nigeria. The findings of this study have confirmed the need to explore appropriate instructional strategies in teaching reading and writing in schools, especially in the area of idea generation and exploration. Since language teaching is often subjected to many variables, Osisanya-Olumuyiwa (1990) suggested that there is need for teachers to be innovative in employing and exploiting instructional strategies. Though scholars have variously established the importance of the home in the process of learning to read (Clark 1984, Onocha 1985, Cochram 1986, Ezenwu 1987), this study found no significant effect of parental educational support on students’ attitude to and achievement in reading and writing. Keith (1991) suggested that the effects of parental support may vary with the age of the students. It was observed that parental level of involvement in academic and literacy development of their children tend to decline as the children grew older (Hess and Holloway 1984, Maccoby 1984). This has implication for this study. The average age of the subjects was thirteen years. This age is often referred to as adolescence which is marked with greater independence of parents. Maturing students have a growing need to develop a sense of self and independence that is separate from their families. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 150 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 8. Conclusion and Recommendations In conclusion, this study has shown that though the gain scores was found to be significant, the attitude of the students towards reading and writing generally was found to be low, even after treatment had been administered. One may therefore conclude that some other factors, apart from instructional strategy, could account for the students’ attitude towards literacy in English language. It is the teacher’s greatest challenge therefore to motivate and meet the needs of each literacy personality in the classroom. All children may learn in different ways and all teachers may teach in different ways, but we can celebrate that diversity. Perhaps, we need a total re-orientation focusing instead on intrinsically motivating students to become independent readers. This corroborates Onukaogu’s (2001) assertion that our students and teachers need an English Language curriculum that is sustainable, rich, diverse, vibrant and holistic in all its ramifications. Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are made: 1. Teachers should realise that if learning is indeed a catalyst for literacy and personal growth, it must be more than acquiring basic skills and accumulating information, it must help students develop reasoning and valuing abilities. Therefore, English Language curriculum should aim at developing both the linguistic and communicative competence in the learners. This attempt will not only serve the purpose of enabling the students to achieve high grades in examination, but will also equip them with English competence and life coping skills needed beyond the formal school system. 2. Language instructions should be learner–focused. Instructions should be such that can arouse and stimulate the interest of their students. This can be achieved not only through activity-oriented teaching, but also involving students in the selection of the curriculum content and the evaluating procedures. Teachers need to discover what turns their students on, as well as design units on challenging lessons of which the students are not even aware. This will motivate the students to learn and also help to build a positive attitude to English language and literacy in general. 3. Reading and writing are significant aspects of language that is acquired and perfected through constant practice. Teachers should give their students reading and writing assignments regularly, examine such and give feedback to the students. Their marking approach should look at the cumulative efforts of the students as they struggle through the processes of deriving information from materials read, and the writing process in perfecting their skills. Self discovery and peer assessment should be encouraged in literacy classrooms. 4. Curriculum designers should inculcate the holistic approach within the language curriculum. Apart from selecting language content that merges skills of listening, speaking, and reading and writing, efforts should be made to imbibe the attributes of the first language in promoting second language competence. Nigerian (and Africans generally) students come from a varied rich language and cultural background and our best African writers do often dip into this rich source of knowledge and experience to polish their writings. Why not encourage it from the onset? 5. English language teaching should be literature based. Students should be encouraged to see the connection between reading and writing and should be exposed to wide variety of Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 151 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 literary inputs (facts, fictions and even recommended books) to get ideas of what to write about and how to go about writing it. References Adeosun, A. O. (1998) “A Critical Evaluation of Effective English for Senior Secondary Schools: A Pedagogical Case Study.” Master’s Dissertation, University of Ibadan. Adesanoye, F. (1973) “A Study of Varieties of Written English in Nigeria.” Unpublished Ph.D.Thesis, University of Ibadan. Aderinoye, R. (2002). “Nigeria: LAP Country Case Study”. Working document available at www.literacy.org downloaded 29/04/2008. Philadelphia: ILI. Allen, H. B. (1984) Teaching English as a Second Language: A Book of Readings. New York: McGraw Hill. Anozie, B. O. (1997) Introduction to Human Learning. Aba: Muse Book Publisher. Blanton L. L. (1992) A Holistic Approach to College ESL: Integrating Language and Content. ELT Journal 46 (3). Breen, M. (1984) “Process in Syllabus Design and Classroom Learning.” In British Council General English Syllabus Design ELT Document. Caudlin, C. (1987) “Towards Task-Based Language Learning.” In Caudlin C. and Murphy, D. (Eds.) Lancaster Practical Papers in ELT. London: Prentice Hall International. Clark, H. H. (1981) Research on Teaching Reading and Writing. Cambridge: University Press Cochram, O. (1990) Questions and Answers about Whole Language. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann. D’Angelo, J. D. F (1981) “The Search for Intelligible Structures in the Teaching of Composition” In Tate G. and Edward, R. J. C. (Eds.) The Writing Teacher’s Sourcebook. New York: Oxford University Press. Ezenwu, E. E. (1987) Social Psychology Factors in Human Learning in School. Onitsha: Leadway Books Ltd. Federal Republic of Nigeria (2006) National Policy on Education (Revised) Federal Ministry of Information. Freeman, Y. S. and Freeman, D. E. (1992) Whole Language for Second Language Learners. Portsmouth: Heinemann. Fries, C. C. (1975) Teaching and Learning English as a Foreign Language. Michigan: University Press. Graves, D. (1983) Writing: Teachers and Children at Work. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann. Kolawole, C. O. O. (1998) “Linguistic Inputs and Three Methods of Presentation as Determinants of Students Achievement in Senior Secondary Students Essay Writing.” Unpublished Ph.D Thesis, University of Ibadan, Ibadan. Krashen, S. O. (1981) Second Language Acquisition and Learning. Oxford: Pergamon. Lawal, R.A (1989) “Relationship Between Attitude to and Achievement of Goals in the Learning of a Second Nigerian Language.” Unpublished Ph.D Thesis, University of Ibadan. Leu, D. J. (2000) “Our Children’s Future: Changing the Focus of Literacy and Literacy Instructions.”The Reading Teacher 53, 424-428 Maduekwe, A. N. (2007) Principles and Practice of Teaching English as a Second Language. Lagos: Vitaman Educational Books, pp. 30-50. Nesser, U. (1996) “Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns” American Psychologist, 51(2) Oglan, G. R (1997) Parents, Learning and Whole Language classrooms. Urbana, Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 152 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Omojuwa, R. A. (1992) “Integration in Language Arts” In Adaralegbe, A. (Ed.) Integration and Innovation in Nigerian Education. Nigerian Academy of Education. Osisanya-Olumuyiwa D. O. (1990) “Introduction to Writing skills” In Unoh S. O (Ed.) Introduction to Language Arts. Kaduna: NIT Press. Oxford, R. L., Parck, Y., Uto, S. and Sumral, M. (1993) “Leaning Japanese by Satellite: what Influence Students’ Achievement.” Systems 2 (21), 31-45 Prabhu, N. S. (1987) Second Language Pedagogy: A Perspective. London: Oxford University Press. Short, K. G. (1986) Literacy as a Collaborative Experience. Ph. D dissertation, Indiana University, Bloomington. Thompson, I. and Rubin, J. (1993) Improving Listening Comprehension in Russian. Washington DC: Department of Education, International Research and Studies Programme. Ubahakwe, E. E. (1999) “CRT: A New Dimension in Curriculum Development” In Obemeata J. O. (Ed.) Evaluation in Africa. UNESCO (2006) EFA Global Monitoring Report: Literacy for Life. Paris: UNESCO Weaver, C. (1990) Understanding Whole Language: From Principles to Practice. Portsmouth: Heinemann. Widdowson, H. (1978) Teaching English as Communication. London: Oxford University Press. Williams, D. (1990) English Language Teaching: An Integrated Approach. Ibadan: Spectrum Books. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 153 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 THE ROLE OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS IN LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROCESS Sylvester O. Idowu, Institute of Education Lagos State University Epe Campus and Biola Akinkugbe Lagos State Polytechnic Isolo Campus Abstract Against the backdrop of English as a Second Language (ESL) to most Nigerian scholars, this paper focuses on its effective teaching in primary and post-primary schools through efficient application and utilization of instructional materials. Towards this end, the paper describes the status of English language as second language vis–a–vis problems confronting Nigerian children in the process of learning and those confronting teachers in the process of teaching. It also examines the place and role of instructional materials in the teaching and learning process and also the selection of appropriate instructional materials for specific lessons. It is observed that the use of instructional materials in the teaching and learning of the English language in Nigerian public primary and secondary schools today is pathetic. Most of the relevant resource materials necessary for effective teaching and learning are not provided in the schools. The paper is concluded by opining that the application and utilization of instructional materials for effective teaching and learning in primary and post primary schools be a matter of urgency, to avoid continual educational under–nourishment of Nigerian children. Key words: ESL, instructional materials, learning activities, primary and postprimary schools, Nigerian children 1. Introduction One of the problems of teaching young children in Nigeria is that the teaching of these children is very formal. Primary classes one, two and three for children aged six, seven and eight respectively are usually organized. Teachers follow a rigid time table, yet most children in these classes are from homes where children learn information from undirected activities. If schools are to help children to formal, directed activities quickly, the first few years of their primary school life should provide them with gradual transitional experience similar to that experience in the child’s home. The first year in the primary school is sometimes the first year of the child’s school life. Activities planned and experiences provided, including attractive classroom environment, should help the child to like school. One important way to make the school look like home to the children is the use of instructional materials to facilitate learning. Instructional materials are information carriers designed specifically to fulfill objectives in a teaching–learning situation. Hitherto, teachers have often been accused of over–verbalization. By this, we mean excessive use of words to Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 154 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 convey meanings. Some teachers often devote all their attention to talking without remembering to consider whether the students actually understand and enjoy whatever they say. With the advent of modern technology, teachers no longer have to rely solely on words to make their meanings clear. There is a great variety of materials around that can be used to make meanings more vivid and more interesting. These materials are often referred to as instructional aids or devices, in as much as they are used to supplement and complement the teacher’s tasks. They vary from very simple and inexpensive ones such as the chalkboard, flat pictures, diagrams, illustrations and maps, to more complicated and expensive ones like the television, movie projectors, slides and filmstrip projectors. The mere use of these materials according to Asoga–Allen (2002) does not guarantee effective communication, nor effective teaching. It is therefore important for teachers, especially language teachers at the primary school and secondary school levels, to become familiar with the various relevant types of instructional materials as well as the values that are desirable from their proper use. It is also necessary for language teachers to have a working knowledge of the criteria to be used in selecting and evaluating them and the principles underlying their effective use. In recent years, the teachers and administrators of English as a second language (ESL) have been subjected to persuasive propaganda designed to convince them of the qualities of a variety of sophisticated and often expensive teaching aids. Many of these aids do help to make the teaching of English as a Second Language (ESL) more effective and efficient, but, sometimes, such aids are purchased without a critical appraisal of their limitations and without sufficient awareness of how and when to use them. This lack of forethought can lead to a waste of money and of valuable teaching time. One of the foci of this paper is the highlight of appropriateness in the use of instructional materials. 2. Teaching and Learning English as a Second Language The objective of English teaching according to the National Policy on Education (1981) is to “give children permanent literacy and the ability to communicate effectively”. This position is amplified in Banjo’s (1989) observation that instructional efforts should be geared towards helping the Nigerian child to become a bilingual or tri lingual “who is endowed with the requisite skills to enable him to interact fully and efficiently in the national life and make a success of his professional career” (p.4). He elaborates on this as follows: ………the Nigerian school boy has to learn how to behave appropriately in English, which is second language, over a wide area which we define as the national life of the country, and he has to behave both in written and in spoken English. (p. 3). Perhaps what needs to be added is that the type of English that is taught and learnt should not only be nationally acceptable but must also be internationally intelligible. The subject of language teaching–learning improvement should be of great interest to all those who have to do with educational planning, administration, and implementation. Indeed, the general public should be concerned about the quality of language education in schools. One basic reason for this, according to Boyer (1996) is that language is central to learning and to life itself. This may explain why the success of language education is believed to be the success of education generally. And it is equally true that educational failure is basically a linguistic failure. Language, therefore, is not just one of the subjects in the curriculum, it is the essential vehicle for learning all other subjects. The foregoing is meant to draw attention to the close relationship between language competence and educational achievement and to emphasize the need for improved English teaching and learning in Nigerian schools. The teaching of English as a second language in Nigeria therefore has some important implications, especially as they relate to instructional Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 155 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 goals. English is a second language in Nigeria, not necessarily because it is the second language the average Nigerian child acquires or learns after his/her mother–tongue. We know that some children learn it as the third or even the fourth language. English is a second language because of the many important roles it plays in the Nigerian society. For example, it is a common language in Nigeria, a language of communication between and among people from different linguistic background. It is also the official language, that is, the language of government, the judiciary, of most of the mass media, and of commerce. And it is also the language used to interact with the outside world. Interestingly, English language is the language of education. Beyond the elementary level of schooling, English becomes the medium of instruction and a subject in the curriculum. The National Policy on Education (1981) leaves no one in doubt about this: “Government will see to it that the medium of instruction in the primary school is initially, the mother –tongue or the language of the immediate community and, at a later stage, English” (p. 13). The status of English as a second language implies that it “plays a very key function in the social, professional and educational life of Nigeria” (Banjo, 1989, p. 3). One important implication of all this is that English has to be taught and learned very well. According to Tiffen (1969) “it is a question of ensuring that pupils have a complete mastery of the language, an ability to use it which is almost second nature.” This certainly would not be the case if English were a foreign language in Nigeria. According to Oyetunde and Muodumogu (1999), one does not really need to master a foreign language thoroughly since it is usually needed for very limited purposes. This is the status of the French language in Nigeria, at least for now. In other words, one does not need to learn French very well, or learn it at all to participate effectively in the activities of the country. This distinction needs to be borne in mind by teachers. It is also important to point out that English is not the mother–tongue of any ethnic group in Nigeria and this means that its teaching in schools is not a question of refining a language already known. Oyetunde and Muodumogu (1999) posit that well over 95% of Nigerian children depend on the school to learn English. This has tremendous instructional implications, one of which is the need to give priority attention to the development of oral language competence. Children should be helped to understand and speak the language first before reading and writing are introduced. In other words, its basic sounds and structures need to be taught. Another is that emphasis should be placed on teaching the language and not information about the language. This means that practical examples of how the language is used in different contexts have to be provided. That is, situations demonstrating the use of the language items being taught have to be created to make English learning meaningful and interesting. It is important at this juncture to state that one important way by which all these instructional efforts could achieve the desired goals is effective and purposeful utilization of instructional materials. 3. The Place and Role of Instructional Materials The role of instructional materials in the instructional process cannot be overstressed. What is specified with respect to objectives, content (i.e., the syllabus) learning activities and learner and teacher roles suggests the function for materials within the system. The syllabus defines linguistic content in terms of language elements – structures, topics, notions, functions – or in some cases in terms of learning tasks. It also defines the goals for language learning in terms of speaking, listening, reading or writing skills. The instructional materials in their turn further specify subject matter content, even where no syllabus exists, and define Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 156 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 or suggest the intensity of coverage for syllabus items, allocating the amount of time, attention and details particular syllabus items or tasks require. Instructional materials designed on the assumption that learning is initiated and monitored by the teacher must meet quite different requirements from those designed for student self–instruction or for peer tutoring. Some methods require the instructional use of existing materials, found materials and realia. Some assume teacher–proof materials that even poorly trained teachers with imperfect control of the target language can teach with. Some materials require specially trained teachers with near–native competence in the target language. Some are designed to replace the teacher, so that learning can take place independently. Some materials dictate various interactional patterns in the classroom; others inhibit classroom interaction; still others are non-committal about interactions between teacher and learner and learner and learner. The role of instructional materials within a method or instructional system will reflect decisions concerning the primary goal of materials (e.g. to present content, to practise content, to facilitate communication between learners, or to enable learners to practise content without the teacher’s help), the form of materials (e.g. textbooks, audiovisuals, computer software), the relation of materials to other sources of input (i.e. whether they serve as the major source of input or only as a minor component of it), and the abilities of teachers (e.g., their competence in the language or degree of training and experience). A particular design for an instructional system may imply a particular set of roles for materials in support of the syllabus and the teachers and learners. For example, Richards and Rodgers (1988) highlight the role of instructional materials within a functional communicative methodology in the following terms: (1) Materials will focus on the communicative abilities of interpretation, expression and negotiation. (2) Materials will focus on understandable, relevant and interesting exchanges of information, rather than on the presentation of grammatical form. (3) Materials will involve different kinds of texts and different media which the learners can use to develop their competence through a variety of different activities and tasks. By comparison, the role of instructional materials within an individualized instructional system might include the following, as averred by Richards and Rodgers (1988): (1) Materials will allow learners to progress at their own rates of learning. (2) Materials will allow for different styles of learning. (3) Materials will provide opportunities for independent study and use. (4) Materials will provide opportunities for self evaluation and progress in learning. 4. Selection of Appropriate Instructional Materials for Specific Lessons Young children are naturally active and curious. But their ability to concentrate, to pay attention to one thing, is very limited. We refer to this ability to concentrate as the child’s attention span. The younger the child is, the shorter his or her attention spans. He or she becomes bored and moves to another activity. The primary school teacher needs to make use of the fact that children are naturally active and needs to plan activities for the children to do. There is a well known educational saying that children learn by doing. Children learn through what they do and not what the teacher does. Learning activities are the things we expect the children to do in the lesson. The first principle for selecting a learning activity is that the children’s activities should help them successfully achieve the objective. For instance, if one wants them to learn about metres and centimeters – they should be measuring with sticks showing metres and centimeters. If one Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 157 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 wants them to learn about the life cycle of the mosquito – they should be observing mosquito larvae in standing water. If one wants them to learn to recognize individual letters of the alphabet – they should be working with individual alphabet cards. The second principle for selecting learning activities is that the learning activities should be satisfying to the children. The learning activity should be a positive experience. This does not mean that the children should only be playing, but the children should feel good about what they are doing. If we like what we do, we work harder to do it well. The same principle applies to children. The final principle for selecting learning activities has to do with readiness. The learning activities should be within the children’s ability to understand and perform. We couldn’t ask a child in class one to do the same activity as a child in class six. We know it would be too difficult for him and he would become frustrated and unhappy. Therefore, it is necessary for teachers to understand the children they teach. Then they can plan appropriate learning activities and expect that the children will learn and enjoy learning. While learning activities are the things children do to learn, learning resources, or instructional materials or teaching aids are the things children use. Textbooks and blackboards are learning resources. We expect every classroom to have these resources but there are many others that the teacher and the children use and can even develop to help learning become easier and more enjoyable. We would now examine the divisions instructional materials could be classified and the appropriate use each of them could be put into. 1. Audio – Visual Equipment These are resources the children can listen to (audio) or look at (visual). They include the radio, tape recorder, television and film projectors. Although, some ministries of education are placing more emphasis on this type of instructional materials and are developing television and radio school broadcasts and other educational programmes, few primary schools can actually make use of these resources. The cost of the equipment is high and lack of electricity is still a major factor. Radios and cassette tape recorders are available, however, and the fact that they can be battery operated is an advantage. Pre–recorded tapes can be used to dictate spelling lists or pronunciation drills to small groups while the teacher works with the other children. a. The Radio The advantages of the radio can be summarized as follows: (i) It can help overcome shortage of teachers (two or more classes can listen to a programme at the same time). (ii) It can help to overcome a shortage of trained teachers. Specialists can be used to write, produce and teach the lessons, which would probably be of a much higher quality than those produced by an inexperienced and untrained class teacher. (iii) It can present a variety of native speaking models. (iv) It can take advantage of the technical amenities of the radio studio (e.g. sound effects) to give greater reality to situational exercises. The disadvantages of the radio are also noteworthy viz: (i) Listening to a radio programme is essentially a passive process and thus the lessons will lack the active practice of language so vital to the acquisition of a second language. (ii) Supplementary written material must be produced and sent to the schools for all lessons except aural comprehension, speech training or extensive listening, if the teaching is to be really effective. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 158 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 (iii) It is difficult to arrange the English periods in the time table so that they coincide with the English lessons on the radio. (iv) The English lessons will be written for the whole country and will therefore lack the particular local relevance which the class teacher can give to his lessons. (v) The class teacher needs to know how to prepare for and follow up the radio lessons. We should note however, that if the radio programmes are put on tape, some of the above disadvantages can be overcome. b. The Tape Recorder The tape recorder can be used effectively in so many ways. It is relatively cheap, mobile and can be taken to wherever it is needed. It can be worked with batteries and it requires little skill or knowledge to operate. Below are some of its uses in the classroom: (i) Real speech situations can be recorded and can be used as the stimulus for composition, summary and fluency lessons. (ii) Scripted dialogues can be recorded by teachers and used as models for structure lessons. (iii) Aural comprehensions can sometimes be recorded (especially if they consist of dialogue material). (iv) Material for the much neglected skill of extensive listening can be recorded. (v) The performance of pupils can be recorded, played back, commented on, re– recorded, etc. (vi) Group discussions can be recorded and later criticized. Utterances have linguistic and situational meaning. If the non–linguistic features of the situation are removed, then the utterance is deprived of some of its meaning and can no longer be fully understood. This happens when a television set is switched on in the middle of a programme or during non–situational classroom exercises which teach and practise only linguistic meaning (e.g., substitution tables, drills). The semantically essential situational element can be added to classroom lessons by making use of visual aids which are thus able to help exemplify the “full meaning” of the language items being taught. Also, it has been shown that most people learn and remember better through seeing than through any other sense, so the English teacher should make use of whatever appropriate visual aids he/she can make or find. 2. Natural Visual Aids a. The Teacher The teacher him/herself can be the most valuable of visual aids provided that he is aware of this potential and he/she fully exploits it through the use of mimes, gestures, pointing, dramatization, etc. The teacher need not be a great actor to make himself into a useful visual aid but he/she does need self–confidence and imagination, for example, if a pupil wants to know the meaning of the word ‘agony’ in a comprehension passage, the teacher, instead of giving an unhelpful definition, can immediately collapse on the table and roll around in exaggerated agony. The pupils will probably laugh at the teacher but they will also be startled into attention and will remember such a dramatic exemplification of the meaning of an unfamiliar word. b. The Pupils The teacher can use his/her pupils to help put language items into context for each other by involving them in games, mimes, dramatic dialogues, comparisons, etc. Most junior pupils love to perform in front of the class and prefer to comment on the actions or appearance of their friends or those of often uninteresting and irrelevant characters in Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 159 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 textbooks not written especially for them. By using the pupils as visual aids for themselves, the teacher is able to put his language items into context in the most relevant way possible. For example, instead of using an artificial substitution table to practise the form of result structures, pupils can be asked to perform certain tasks while under a handicap (e.g., tying shoe laces with eyes closed; carrying a desk with one hand behind his back; a small boy trying to touch the top of the door, etc.) If the pupils fail, the teacher can ask, ‘Why could he not tie his shoe laces?’ etc. In the same way, instead of practising the form of the Present Prefect Tense solely through mechanical drills, pupils can be asked to mime an action and then say to the other pupils ‘What have I just done?’ This approach leads to enjoyably useful lessons in which the pupils practise both the form and the function of language items. However, the teacher must be careful that he/she does not expose sensitive pupils to ridicule (e.g. ‘Ayo is much uglier than Biodun’) and that he does not ask self–conscious senior pupils to do things in front of the class which they might find embarrassingly childish. c. The Environment What the pupils see everyday from their desks is obviously relevant to them and objects in the classroom (e.g., desks, chairs, tables, door, windows, etc.) are of great potential as visual aids. For example, the functional difference between the prepositions ‘on’, ‘in’, ‘above’, ‘on top of’, ‘near’, and ‘beneath’ can be exemplified by putting objects on desks, in desks, above desks, etc. However, classroom objects are very limited and their over–use can lead to boredom. To prevent this, the teacher can bring a variety of familiar objects into the classroom (e.g. bottles, balls, oranges, bananas, etc.) or he/she can direct pupils’ attention to the world outside the classroom either through making use of actions and objects visible through the windows or through taking the class outside the artificial confines of the classroom to different parts of the school or even into the local community. The important thing is to relate new language items to objects or actions that are real, visible and relevant to the pupils. 3. Reading Materials (a) Supplementary readers, (b) Magazine and newspaper articles Supplementary readers are books that are used in addition to textbooks. Both teachers and children can be involved in writing supplementary readers. If class two is studying the market, the children or the teacher can write a simple story about the market. A class which has visited the post office can put the materials and information they collected into book form. The teacher can use pages from exercise books, fasten them together and put on a cardboard cover. Children can cut out pictures from newspapers or magazines or a child can illustrate the stories. These books can be kept on a library shelf and children will enjoy reading them. 4. Portable Boards (i) Portable blackboards – a movable board painted black. It is particularly useful for group activities. (ii) Flannel boards – the board is covered with soft materials such as flannel cloth or a cotton blanket. Paper figures with fine sand or the same soft cloth glued on the back, will stick to the flannel board. It has the advantages of (a) Not depending on the artistic ability of the teacher. (b) Having a certain representational sophistication yet having a clear focus of attention (unless the teacher unwisely clutters up his cloth with a confused profusion of figures). (c) Being fairly easy to carry from place to place. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 160 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 (iii) Bulletin board – a display board where children’s work can be fastened using drawing pins. (iv) Pocket board – boards on which strips of cardboards have been fastened, forming shallow pockets. Word cards, sentence strips of figures can be slopped into the pockets. 5. Charts a. pictures, b. cartoons, c. diagrams, d. graphs and e. maps While making and using this category of instructional materials, teachers should remember that the chart is to be seen from a distance. An example of a lesson plan for a composition lesson using a flip chart by Williams (1990) is presented below: i. Teacher shows the sequence of drawings to the class without comment allowing sufficient time for the pupils to see and understand each drawing. ii. Teacher shows each drawing again to the class but this time adding the narrative appropriate to each card. (Note: If the teacher is not confident that he can remember all the story he can draw the appropriate section of it on the back of each card.) iii. Teacher shows the card again, asking questions about what is happening in each drawing. iv. Teacher holds up the first card and asks a pupil to start to tell the story. Teacher then flips over and holds up the other cards one by one and asks different pupils to tell the relevant section of the story. v. The teacher flips over and holds up the cards one by one allowing sufficient time for the pupils to write the section of the story appropriate to each card. (Note: If the teacher has sufficient confidence in the ability of his pupils he can omit the presentation of the final drawing of the series from stages i- iv and present it for the first time in stage v.) Teachers should note that since the chart is to be seen from a distance, the printing should be bold and very neat and the pictures simple. Calendars can be a most useful source for pictures. The chart’s major purpose is to give information. A cluttered, messy chart portrays confusion, not information. 6. Cartoon Strips A cartoon strip is a series of pictures which tell a continuous story. Very often, the dialogue of the characters in the pictures is reproduced either in front of the pictures or in ‘balloon’ frames coming from the characters’ mouths. Cartoon strips can be found in newspapers, comics and magazines and either traced and duplicated (with the cartoonist’s permission) or imitated. They can be very useful for putting language into context through the narrative as they can focus attention on one aspect of a story at a time yet still achieve easy continuity. The repetition of the same interesting character in different situations and the use of humorous absurdity within a context of reality have been found to aid motivation and to make the situation and language striking and memorable. Certainly, cartoon strips are a useful aid in primary and junior secondary school composition and structure lessons, provided that: (a) the narrative is simple and obvious; (b) the humour is overt and is not culturally alien; (c) The dialogue is structurally and lexically appropriate. Diagrams, graphs and maps are rarely used as instructional materials in the primary schools because of their abstract nature. They are sketchy–visual representations of facts and ideas, general patterns or essential features of a process. They contain only the key elements essential for advance intelligent interpretation. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 161 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 5. Using Instructional Materials Instructional materials by themselves cannot do much to improve or promote learning. Their values lie in the professional skill of the teacher using or handling them. In essence, for instructional materials to play any significant role in promoting learning, the teacher using such materials must know how and when to use them. The following fundamental steps would help in ensuring a more effective use of instructional materials. (a) Self Preparation The teacher needs to familiarize himself/herself with the materials he/she intends to use. This will enable the teacher to decide exactly when and how materials should be presented. It will also enable the teacher to plan the questions to ask the students and the follow –up activities that might be appropriate. In addition, the teacher will be able to determine the part of the audio –visual experience that needs emphasis or extended elaboration. (b) Materials Preparation All materials to be used need to be arranged and positioned in such a way that they come in handy at the exact time the teacher wants to use them. All equipment and machines should be tested for proper functioning and set ready for use with just a click of a button or a knob. The idea is not to waste time arranging the sequence of pictures or threading a movie projector in front of the class since this may generate impatience and consequently misbehaviour. The delay might be enough to kill the dramatic impact with which materials must be presented, if they are to catch the concentration of the students. (c) Environment Preparation This involves making sure that the environment is conducive to audio–visual experience planned. If motion pictures slides or filmstrips are to be used, the room should be properly darkened in order to improve visibility. If audio aids are used, the room should be free from distracting noises. The important thing is that students can see clearly and hear distinctly what is sham and pronounced (d) Students’ Preparation For students to gain tremendously, they should have sufficient background information about the subject under study. This is especially true of materials such as filmstrips, slides, radio and television. It is often necessary to stress what important thing they can learn from the experiences, and identify what problems the materials hope to solve or shed light on. Students should be told of what they are to do while and after using the material. (e) Use of the Materials All materials used must be properly and adequately introduced; students must be made to be aware of the teacher’s intention and purpose for using them and how they fit into the topic or subject being studied. The presentation should be accompanied with the necessary explanations, comments or demonstrations. This implies that the teacher must prepare him/herself for their use. In short, materials should be used in the most professional way possible in order to get the desired effects. (f) Materials Evaluation The teacher needs to ask him/herself certain fundamental questions after using an instructional material. These include: i. Did it help achieve my purpose? ii. Did my students understand and appreciate or were they bewildered or confused? iii. What portion of the audio–visual experience needs improvement in future? Was it worth the time and energy spent to prepare and use it? Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 162 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 6. Situational Assessment The place that the use of instructional materials occupies in the teaching and learning of the English language in Nigerian public primary and secondary schools today is pathetic. Most of the relevant resource materials necessary for effective teaching and learning of the English language in the public primary schools are not provided (Obanya, 1982). The situation remains the same today. It is so bad that pupils are requested to bring pieces of chalk from home. If the Schools Management Board through the Local Government Education Authority could not provide such basic essential teaching needs, attaining literacy at the primary school level as stipulated in the National Policy on Education might not be feasible. While researching into problems confronting primary school pupils in Epe Local Government of Lagos State in the learning of the English language, Joseph (2003) avers that the non–availability of teaching aids is a big handicap. He posits that teachers are so frustrated that they hardly assist the pupils by improvising required instructional materials. He states that the teachers’ salaries are not regularly paid and as such, they are not motivated to go extra mile for their pupils. According to Joseph (2003) only three out of the twenty four English teachers he watched teach made use of instructional materials which were improvised by them. Hardly could head teachers procure or purchase instructional materials for teachers to aid or complement their teaching efforts since they are no more given adequate funds to run the schools. 7. Concluding Remarks Application and utilization of instructional materials for effective teaching and learning in primary and post primary schools should be a matter of urgency to avoid continual educational under–nourishment of Nigerian children. This, however, becomes a major function of political will. Education, the world over is a worthwhile national investment. It is not cheap. Schools have to be funded adequately. Parents, the business community and the society at large have to contribute to an education fund for the sake of our children. We cannot afford to continue to deliberately underdevelop our own children and so inadvertently make them academically inferior to their contemporaries in other countries of the world. This is an era of information technology where computer plays a prominent role. Nigerian children are waiting for the opportunity to catch up with global development in information and communication technology. According to Akinpelu (1999), as at March 1996, public primary schools in United Kingdom had on the average thirteen (13) computers each, while more than 80% of their secondary education curriculum is computer controlled. Nigerian children deserve a better deal than they are getting now. All stakeholders in the education section should be alive to their responsibilities. Nigerian children cannot continue to be quarantined as a result of low level exposure. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 163 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 References Asoga–Allen, K. (2000) Teaching Profession: A Pragmatic Approach. Ijebu-Ode. Femtol Integra (Nig) Ltd. Akinpelu, A. (1999) Application and Utilization of Instructional Materials for Effective Teaching –Learning Process in Primary Schools. A Paper Presented at a Workshop for Lagos State Public Primary School Teachers. 17th – 18th October, 2000. Ikeja, Lagos. Banjo, A. (1989) The Status and Roles of English as a Second Language. In Nigeria Educational Forum, 12 (1), 1 – 4. Boyer, E. L. (1996) Literacy and Learning. In Graves, M. F., van den broek, P. and B.M Taylor, B. M. (Eds). The First R: Every Child’s Right to Read. New York: Teachers’ College, Columbia University, pp.1-12. Federal Republic of Nigeria (1981) National Policy on Education. Lagos. Federal Government Press. Joseph, B. (2003) “Problems Confronting Primary School Pupils in the Learning of English Language”. An Unpublished Diploma Project Report, LASU Institute of Education. Lagos. Oyetunde, T. and Muodumogu, C. (1999) English Teaching and Learning as a Second Language. In Effective English Teaching in Primary and Secondary Schools. Jos. Conference on Educational Improvement (CEI). Tiffen, B. (1969) The Nature of Second Language Teaching. In Tiffen, B. (Ed.) Language in Common. London, pp. 14-22. Williams, D. (1990) English Language Teaching: An Integrated Approach. Ibadan. Spectrum Books Limited. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 164 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 JOURNALESE, ENGLISH LITERACY AND THE CHALLENGE OF THE NEW MEDIA Joseph OBE Department of Mass Communication Covenant University Ota, Nigeria Abstract Journalese, the newspaper’s English or, simply put, the style in which newspapers are written, is a veritable tool for advancing English language, particularly in the developing world. Through repeated exposure to journalistic products, readers who are semi-illiterates in English language have been able to write and communicate in at least simple or elementary English. This paper shares the view of some English scholars who faulted journalese because they claimed journalese does not fully comply with setdown rules of English language. The paper then posits that the new mediainduced online journalism will generate more scholarly criticism because online journalism products do not pass through the traditional gatekeepers - the editors, sub-editors, and proofreaders. The paper then calls for urgent move to censor on-line journalism and introduce gatekeepers to enable it checkmate the arbitrary use of ‘wrong’ language, all in the name of journalese. Key words: English literacy, journalese, new media, on-line journalism, ‘wrong’ English usage 1. Introduction Ask an average Nigerian on how to personally enhance one’s spoken and written English skills, he or she will probably recommend regular reading of newspapers and literature. Testimony and personal reflections from people have shown that repeated exposure to media products that are written in English language has greatly improved their understanding of the English language. That is why the media have been regarded as a veritable agent of English literacy in Nigeria. Despite the efforts of the media to enhance English literacy, English scholars frown at the arbitrary use of customized English and caution on the implications of such usage on their discipline. Their argument is that media contents are not written according to the laid down rules in English language. They see media language, otherwise referred to as journalese, as deviation from English norms and rules, although journalistic language was not discarded as not grammatically correct but as improper and unethical. For instance, the use of double negation in a sentence that is the practice in newspapers sharply contradicts the rules of English language. As a matter of fact, it is outlawed in English. Double negated expressions like not unconnected, not ungrateful are common in newspapers but forbidden in English. It is equally the practice of the media to start sentences with conjunctions like and, as well as, etc. The forceful erosion of our traditional way of doing journalism marked the beginning of illegitimate journalism as it ushers in the use of incorrect language forms. These unwanted, crude and unedited messages are being passed across because most of the on-line media sites publish what they see. The cyber journalists do not bother about the ethical quality of what Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 165 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 they are disseminating because there are no gatekeepers. Dominick (2005) identifies three damaging implications of this ‘no gatekeeping’ disaster. One, the risk of over-loading the system with unwanted, trivial, worthless or inconsequential messages is increasing. Two, the information obtained on the net are not evaluated by professionals (editors) thereby losing in authenticity and objectivity. Three, since on-line journalism, has no gatekeepers; their information does not pass through censorship. The concern of this paper is that on-line journalism products have a catalogue of these unwanted language forms and nobody cares to know because of two factors. One, the level of adoption of the internet is relatively low in Nigeria; even in the United States where the internet seems to have the highest number of adopters, half of the population still does not have access to it. Another crucial factor is the lack of a monitoring mechanism which allows anybody to write what he/she wants and the way they want it on the net. Unlike in the hard copy version where the editors and sub-editors act as gate-keepers, on-line journalism has no gate-keepers, thereby enabling the “journalists” to use enough clichés and jargons all in the name of journalese. With the unfettered use of jargons and clichés, English scholars now have a lot of headache. With the rapid growth in internet adoption, and the coming of the predicted globalised village, many more people are likely to adopt on-line journalism and by implication, the whole world will soon rely on such media with unfettered use of journalese as their main source of information. This paper then attempts to raise an alarm of the impending implications such incursion is likely to bring into the teaching and understanding of undiluted English language, especially in the developing world. The paper proffers possible ways of arresting this problem. 2. Operational Clarification 0f Journalese Joe Grimm, Detroit Free Press Recruiting and Development Editor, clarifies: journalese is the peculiar language that newspapers have evolved for talking to readers. Journalese is not jargon because it is neither specialized nor technical. It is not cliché because it is too awful to be repeated by anyone. We write journalese out of habit, some times from misguided training and to sound urgent, authoritative and well journalistic. But it does not do any of that. Part of journalese is in the words; part is in the construction. John McIntyre, Chief of the copy desk at the Baltimore Sun, offers three kinds of contorted construction that creates journalese. The first two have to do with handling time. · Time element and verb: In English, the adverb of time typically comes at the start of the sentence or after the verb not after the noun as in The governor Thursday · Time element with nouns: Usually, a time reference before a noun is taken as a restrictive modifier: I will catch the 6p.m… (as opposed to the train at 7:30 p.m.) Journalists, however write about the Nov.22, 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy. Not even conspiracy theorists, McIntyre says, challenge that date of the assassination. If time does not distinguish the event from other events, put it at the end of the sentence, McIntyre says. · Adverbs with compound modifiers: Somewhere along the line, we got the idea that it is bad to let an adverb come between the auxiliary verb and the main verb as it does in we have always lived here. Writing (or editing) that as we always have lived here contributes to journalese but neither to grammar nor clarity. Seventy years ago, says McIntyre, H.W. Fowler speculated that this ill-founded rule rose as a corollary to the equally misguided prohibition against splitting infinitives. Theodore Bernstein, in “The Careful Writer”, wrote that the most proper and natural place for the adverb is safely tucked between the verb and auxiliary. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 166 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 3. Quickches as On-line Journalism Language? Having overused clichés and jargons in both the print and broadcast media, quickches seem to have been greatly employed by on-line journalists. These are expressions that ‘burst upon the nation’s eyes or ears simultaneously and that are already threadbare before journalists start using them to dress up their copy’. Often times, these new language constitutes catch-phrases that journalists will recycle again and again. They may be quick but they last long. Words like Watergate, Buharigate Okadigbogate, Clintongate, Monicagate, are quickches that are used to parrot or raise alarm. Cappon (1982) in his book The Word: An Associated Press Guide to Good News Writing, gives guidelines on using quickches. Use them sparingly. One may help the story; several usually do not. Use them when they fit the story precisely. Don’t use them to inflate simple situations. Get the right. (Do not throw the baby out with the dishwasher). Don’t try to freshen them up by tinkering. If you must use one, don’t apologize for it by putting it in quotes or introducing it, “As the old cliché says.” Cappon says that inviting readers to hold their noses just calls attention to the odour. Make an old saw cut in new ways by rearranging it. “Bedfellows make strange politics.” 4. The New Media-induced On-line Journalism and Its Unprecedented Adoption “New media” is the general term given to the constantly changing way in which entertainment and information is being delivered to consumers. In many ways, it is a moving target; but at present, it encompasses the internet, WAP phones, digital television and set top boxes, as opposed to our traditional means of communicating like newspapers, analogue television, books and analogue radio, sometimes known as the old media. In recent years, the emergence of the e-mail and internet in the home as well as at work means that the new media have come to play an ever-increasing part in our lives. One of the more respected practitioners in the business has described it as everything that is not old media. It includes the digital developments and interactive television. Anywhere the user has controls over the content and it is delivered in a digital format. (Hollingsworth 2003: 35). Before any medium can be considered a mass medium, a critical mass of adopters must be reached. Generally, a critical mass is achieved when about 16 percent of the entire population has adopted an innovation (Markus 1990), although, in the case of mass media, fifty million users seems to be the milestone (Neufeld 1997). Researches have shown that the rate of radio adoption crawled along for thirty-eight years before hitting the magic fifty million users; television took thirteen years, while cable took ten years to hit this mass medium status. In less than six years of its existence as a consumer medium, internet has reached the fifty million users mark. Between 1995 and 1997, the estimated number of US on-line users ranged from 58 million to about 51 million. (“About One in Four Adults” 1996; American internet user survey 1997; commerceNet and Nielsen Research 1995; GVU’s seventh www user survey 1997; Hoffman Kalsbeek and Novak 1996a; McGarvey 1996; MIDS 1995; O’Reiley Survey Sets” 1995; Taylor 1997). In 1998 and 1999 between 57 million and 64 million people in the United States used the internet (Decoits 1999; relevant knowledge rank the sites 1998). In 1999, Jupiter Communications claimed that in the United States alone, there were as many as 90 million internet users (Guglielmo 1999). The computer industry almanac claims that the use has topped 100 million people - 40 percent of the population “US tops” 1999. More alarming is Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 167 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 the data monitor’s claim that by year 2003 about 545 million internet users will be around the world Data monitor; 545 users, 1999. Obviously, the new media is a thousand-step above the conventional media. The internet crosses the boundaries that have traditionally delineated the three modes of communication: mass (one–to-many), interpersonal (one-to-one) and computing (many-toone). By virtue of its nature, the internet allows for all three types of communication with a fourth communication mode: many-to-many. On the internet, everyone can be a producer or a receiver, individual can receive and send personal or mass messages and information can be provided by many and accessed by many as a mass audience or stored for individuals to select and retrieve. The internet is a vehicle for interpersonal communication and interactivity, mass delivered messages and information storage and retrieval. It is a true communication phenomenon and one that allows many forms and styles of communication (Kaye and Medoff 2001). The BBC has greatly adopted the new media technology in its operation. Its new media division, the BBC on-line has become the UK’s most popular website with over 190 million page impression requests per month. Besides, it has also introduced the BBCi meaning, the BBC interactive that takes in computers and interactive digital television across sky, ITV digital and the cable companies. CNN and other leading broadcast stations in the world over are following suit. Obviously, the new media is virtually taking over the global media. Apart from being ubiquitous, it has virtually taken over the audiences of the conventional media, otherwise referred to as the old media. Besides, the rate at which the new media is gaining adopters is alarming and unprecedented. 5. Conclusions and Recommendations It is the concern of this paper that the new media has greatly reduced people’s patronage of the old media. The new media which covers digital developments in communications, including the web, mobile phones, digital TV and radio with broadband transmission, could lead to more people watching television on their own computers and abandoning the conventional TV media gadget. Web-only radio and TV are on the increase and it is affecting the way we use the old media. Of more concern to this paper is the fact that people are jumping at ‘goodies’ that accompany the new media without being mindful of the fact that the content is full of wrong and deviant language. With unfettered access to the use of journalese, slangs and jargons under the cover of media language, alien and undesirable language styles are being introduced into the subconscious minds of the people who rely on the media as their main tool of English literacy. The paper specifically exposes the implications of such new media language to include misguided exposure to illegitimate, unrefined and irresponsible journalistic products as paraded by online journalism. On exposure to illegitimate journalistic products, on-line journalism, because of its lack of gatekeepers and non-compliance with the ethics of journalistic practices packages all sorts of news items, junks and so on that are capable of confusing and giving wrong orientations to people craving for literacy through the media. This paper observes that with the growing trends in globalization agenda driven by the Information and Communication Technologies, the future time is fast approaching when the whole world will shrink into a small village with the internet as the public place where people will do virtually everything, including receiving information that are written in deviant language. The paper then recommends that attempts should be made to censor on-line journalism products and checkmate on-line journalists and that the traditional gate keeping treatment of the conventional media should be introduced to on-line journalism. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 168 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 References American Internet User Survey (1997) Emerging Technologies Research Group http:// etrg.findsvp.com/internet/findf.html Accssed on Jan.7, 1998. Cappon, R. J. (1982) The Word: An Associated Press Guide to Good News Writing. Associated Press CommerceNet and Nielsen Research (1995) CommerceNet/ Nielsen Internet “Demographics Survey: Executive Summary” http:// www.commerce.net/resources/work/pilot/nielsen_96/exec_95.html Dominick, J. R. (2005) The Dynamics of Mass Communication: Media in the Digital Age. New York, Boston: McGraw Hill. GVU’s Seventh WWW User Survey (1997) Georgia Institute of Technology’s Graphic, Visualization and Usability Center. http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/user_surveys/survey (1997). Hoffman, D. L., Kalsbeck, W. D. and Novak, J. P. (1996) Internet Use in the United States: 1995 Baseline Estimates and Preliminary Market Segments http://www.2000.ogsm.vanderbilt.edu/baseline/1995.internet.estimates.html Markus, M. (1987) Towards a “Critical Mass” Theory of Interactive Media: Universal Access, Interdependence and Diffusion. Communication Research, 14(5), 491-511. McGarvey, J. (1996) Latest Net Survey: 9.5 million Active Suffers. Interactive Week 9. MIDS. (1995) Third MIDS Internet Demographic Survey. Matrix Information & Directory Services, Austin, TX . http://www3.mids..org/ids3/pr9510.html. O’Reilly Survey Sets D. S Internet Size at 5.8 million. (1995) Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Publishing. Available: http://www.ora.com/research Taylor, C. (1997) Net Use Adds To Decline in TV Use, Radio Stable. Billboard 85, July 5. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 169 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 EMERGENT TRENDS IN ENGLISH USAGE EMERGENT TRENDS IN NIGERIAN ENGLISH USAGE Moses A. AREMU Department of English Oyo State College of Education Oyo, Lanlate Campus Abstract English is a language that is resilient in nature. Te dynamism in its usage has made it adaptable to any social and cultural context in which it has found itself. Emergent trends in Nigerian English usage portray that the English employed by native speakers is distinguishably different in form from the English used in Nigerian milieu. This paper identifies the different variants of the emergent Nigerian English usage by examining the language of Nigerian undergraduates, policemen, popular musicians among others, in order to gauge how these professionals have tried to indigenize the English language through their hybridization of new English expressions and lexical patterns. Relevant literature has been reviewed and relevant perspectives utilized as bases for analyzing and describing data gathered through oral interview. Key words: Nigerian English usage, varieties of Nigerian English, emergent trends in Nigerian English 1. Introduction Language is always chameleonic and elastic both in form and usage depending on the speech community in which it is being utilized. The English language has therefore experienced a lot of metamorphosis in structure, meaning and usage right from the ages of Brythonic Celts, Jutes, Angles, Saxons and the Norman occupation, among others, to its present age of globalization with significant influence on modern science, technology, foreign policy and international politics. This flexibility of the English language shows that language and culture share a common social symbiosis (Halliday 1978). The language used in a society often reflects the norms, ethos and social structure of the people in that society. For instance, scholars like Dell Hymes, Benjamin Lee Whorf, William Labov, Basil Bernstein, Lesley and Milroy have carried out researches on the effects of sociolinguistic variables like societal values, norms, culture, ethos and beliefs on language. It has been discovered by Malinowski (1923) that the way the people in Trobrian Island used language fitted into their daily activities. The Eskimos, in the same vein, have different vocabularies and expressions for “snow” such as: “dry snow”, ”soft snow” and “hard snow”, since they live in the coolest region in the world (Sapir 1956, cited in Babajide 2000). As a result, Nigerian users of the English language have hybridized new varieties of English which are distinctively different in locution, structure and phonology from the one being used by the native users of the language. The Nigerian users of the English language employ the English language for ‘phatic communion’ to start or end a discourse. For instance, a boy can tell his brother thus: Brother Sola, I saw Daddy on the way and they said that Alhaji/Dr. Isola is coming. This particular expression has been used to start a discussion. It is an expression which differs from the native-speaker’s variety: Sola, I met Daddy on the way and he told me that Dr. Isola will soon arrive (Adegbija, 1998). It is expedient to assert Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 170 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 here that Nigerian English is different in semantics from native speakers’ English. However, it is a variety that suits both the flora and fauna of the multilingual Nigerian social contexts. 2. The English Language in Nigeria The advent of the missionaries and British merchants in 1842 culminated into not only the importation but also the implantation of the English language in Nigeria. Prior to this period, Portuguese merchants have in the 15th C. introduced pidgin into the Niger Delta area of Nigeria. There is another divergent view that Nigerian Pidgin English was introduced by the ‘Creoles’ who came for commercial purpose. Different scholars such as Elugbe (1995) and Eghokhare (2001) have explained that more Nigerians speak pidgin than any of the Nigerian mother tongues (MT). However, Akere (1981) is of the opinion that Pidgin English is a “smattering of the English language”. The missionaries from Britain, Scotland and Germany came and started using the English language in Nigeria. The contact of English with more than 400 indigenous Nigerian languages has led to the cross-cultural pollination and interference of Nigerian Mother-tongues (MT) with the English language. This has then resulted in the different hybrids of the local colour variety called Nigerian English. Coupled with the above, the Education Ordinances of 1882, 1898 and 1926 gave the English language the dominance over MTs and made proficiency in the English language a parameter for measuring intelligence and for the award of certificates. According to Omolewa (1974), the Nigerian educated elite also have had greater interest in the English language than in Nigerian indigenous languages, believing that encouraging Nigerian youths to use the Nigerian languages would slow-down their educational progress. Possessing a certificate in English has, right from then, become analogous to making it in life. It must be stated here that English has been functioning in the administrative, educational, commercial, religious and socio-political domains of usage in Nigeria. It is a lingua franca understood by people of diverse socio-political backgrounds in Nigeria. The English language is the language of commerce used at the capital market and banks in Nigeria. Nigerian preachers, medical personnel, lawyers, advertisers, students, pressmen, politicians and military men utilize the language. It serves both as the language of science, global network and foreign policy in Nigeria. Commenting on the status of English in Nigeria, Roger Bowers (cited in Bamgbose, et al. 1995) stated thus: The status of English around the world has more to do with databases than with the Victorian novel, more with diplomacy than with Dickens, less to do with Chaucer and more to do with CNN… Roger Bowers continued by saying that “English is a major asset for a (multilingual) country like Nigeria” 3. Lexico-Semantic and Functional Varieties of Nigerian English The English language employed in Nigeria has different typologies that are regional, occupational, stylistic, attitudinal and social in character (Adegbite 2004). A variety of language refers to any form of the language that can be identified in a speech community. For instance, we can have the British, American, Nigerian, Italian and Canadian varieties of the English language. The regional variety called Nigerian English occurs as a result of the socio-cultural differences between the native and non-native users of the English language. According to Hymes 1972, in the popular article titled “Ethnography of Communication”, regional varieties of English are caused by ethos, norms, beliefs and attitudes which a speech community has towards the language. Hence, the socio-economic and political experiences of Nigerians have led to the hybridization of items in the creation of a new lexicon of words such as “June 12”, “419 man”, “annulment”, “expo”, “step-aide”, “a political confab”, Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 171 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 “INEC”, “NAFDAC”, “molue”, “yellow-fever”, “okada man”, “OPC”, “amebo”, “vigilante group”, “SAP”, “UBE” among several others. Scholars like Brosnahan (1958, 1963), Banjo (1971), Bamgbose (1983), Adesanoye (1973), Akere (1983), Odumuh (1987) and Adegbija (1989, 1994, 1998) have identified the different varieties of Nigerian English. According to Brosnahan (1958), Nigerian English could be distinguished through the degree of deviation which that variety has from the “exoglossic standard norm”. His Variety 1 is Nigerian Pidgin which according to him is employed by non-literate Nigerians while the Variety 2 is the English of primary school leavers. The Variety 3 of Nigerian English is the English of the secondary school leavers while the Variety 4 is the English of university graduates. Banjo (1971) also identifies four varieties of Nigerian English thus: Variety 1: wholesale transfer of L1 to L2 (English); Variety 2: resembles standard variety of English in syntax but differs from it in lexical patterns and phonology; Variety 3: resembles standard British variety in both syntax and semantics but different in phonological features; and Variety 4: identical with British English in syntax, semantics and lexical features, but socially unacceptable among Nigerians. For a variety of Nigerian English to be standard in usage, Banjo (1971) opines that such a variety must be both internationally intelligible and mutually acceptable among Nigerians. Odumuh (1987) has identified the following varieties of Nigerian English: i. local colour variety, ii. incipient bilingual variety and iii. near-native speaker variety. Lastly, Adegbija (1989, 1994, 1998) identifies the following parameters in characterizing varieties of Nigerian English: (i) analogy (ii) language transfer (iii) acronymns (iv) semantic shift and (v) neologism. 4. Methodology Data were gathered for this paper through participants’ information and oral interview among Nigerian students in selected Nigerian tertiary institutions such as The Polytechnic Ibadan, Eruwa campus, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo State College of Education, Oyo and Bowen University, Iwo. Selected Nigerian politicians, pressmen and medical personnel such as nurses and medical doctors were interviewed to gauge how these professionals employed face-saving devices and euphemisms in their pragmatic uses of the English language. 5. Findings/Discussion Nigerian English usage varies according to the socio-class, attitude, experience and exposure of people to its usage. It has been discovered through this work that Nigerian students have hybrids of slang and Nigerian English expressions, which could only be understood in their speech community. The Nigerian undergraduates always code-switch in their English language expressions and, at times, their expressions are garnished with code mixing, semantic-shift, lexical borrowing and neologism which make them speak a different variety of Nigerian English. Example 1: Code mixing Nigerian English Meaning 1. Mo phone many yen but ko through. 1. I phoned the man, but the line was not Through 2. E tete urge won pe ki won send recharge card si mi. 2. Urge him to send a recharge card to me. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 172 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Example 2: Neologism Words Meaning 1. A stalite A returning student 2. An efiko A person who reads too much 3. A pedite A pre-degree student 4. A UITE An undergraduate student of University of Ibadan 5. A UNILORITE An undergraduate student of University of Ilorin 6. I am now at Ago. I am now a student of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye 7. He is a member of sacts Special Anti-cults squad 8. A carry-over An academic failure 9. He has three igbos He has filed three courses 10. He lives off-campus He lives outside the campus 11. She is an orobo She is a fat girl It has also been discovered that Nigerian popular musicians’ slangs are common in the language use of contemporary Nigerian students. The studio of the popular Nigerian music has now become the ‘factory’ where new Nigerian English expressions are hybridized and formed. Examples: (i) Akin: Is there anything for me? Bola: ---Nothing for you (ii) Me I go dance, I go dance with my susy o. (iii) Rise up and dance to new Fuji garbage (iv) Grammar, grammar, grammar to be my language” (v) Congratulation for your freedom” (vi) Apala syncro, e ma ra mo (vii) Sanna make sure you rise up… The Nigerian students always make use of the expressions used by Nigerian popular musicians like Sunny Ade, Ras Kimono, Lagbaja, Ayinde Barrister, Uwaifo and Shina Peters. In the same vein, in popular political adverts, Nigerian English expressions are always employed, for example: (i) M. K. O. is our man o (ii) Action Alliance is our party Action Alliance is our party Action Alliance is our party (iii) Power joo, power jare” The pragmatic usage of the above expressions could only be understood by Nigerian users of English as a second language. According to Adegbija (1995), the Nigerian military men employ face-saving tacts in announcing their aberrant coups in order to convince his unseen audience: “Fellow Nigerians, I Major – General “X”. Apart from this, they use the following expressions, which make their English to be of a different variant. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 173 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Examples Expressions Meaning (i) Ajuwaya Stay as you were (in military parade) (ii) Officers’ Mess A special domain of relaxation for military officers (iii) Non-commissioned officers Lower-ranked military officers (iv) Yellow fever Traffic warden The Nigerian military personnel and Nigerian police use the English language that is full of commands in illocutionary force. Examples (i) All political parties are now disbanded. (ii) All borders are now closed. The Nigerian press also hybridizes sometimes help to popularize certain some outlandish expressions of politicians, for example: i. Our state has different minerals like Coke, Fanta and Mirinda. ii. I will step aside. iii. He is a man of timbre and calibre. iv. It is a peculiar mess. v. The election will be a do or die affair. In the same vein, Nigerian medical personnel use euphemistic expressions and facesaving tactics in their use of the English Language. Examples: Nigerian English Standard British English Give him nay Camo Give him any drug which can make him rest psychologically He has packed up He has died The differences in the socio-cultural backgrounds of British and Nigerian users cause the following varieties of Nigerian English. Yoruba Nigerian English Standard English 1. Oba wo aja. The king climbed the ceiling. The king died. 2. Mo gbo oorun. I hear a smell. I perceived an odour. 3. Mo n bo, duro de mi. I am coming, wait for me. Excuse me, I’ll be back. 4. Baba mi so pe won n bo. My father said that they are coming. My father said that he is coming. Apart from the foregoing, the press has also popularized the following Nigerian English expressions: i. She used bottom-power. ii. The player has been yellow-carded. iii. Get your bearing right. iv. Akin is backing the camera. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 174 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Under semantic analogy, uncountable nouns are often wrongly employed by Nigerians, for example: Examples: Nigerian English Standard British English (i) I have an advice for you. I have a piece of advice for you (ii) They have an information for you. They have a piece of information for you. (iii) Everybody are cordially invited. Everybody is cordially invited (iv) All are here. All is here (v) We got power-failure. We got power-outage (vi) Congratulation for your freedom Congratulation on your freedom (vii) The luxurious bus somersaulted The luxury bus somersaulted Nigerian users of English often borrow lexical items from Nigerian mother tongues in their use of English, for example: (i) I want to buy tuwo. (ii) Do you have gaari? (iii) Give me egusi stew. (iv) I want to eat amala. 6. The Global Effect of Nigerian English Some of Nigerian English expressions have no international intelligibility, but they are mutually acceptable among Nigerians. For Nigerian English to be internationally intelligible, it must be codified and standardized. The English language has been empowered by legislation to serve both as the lingua franca as well as the language of global network in Nigeria. It is the language that is being employed at the UNO, G14, Africana Union and the British Commonwealth by Nigerian presidents and plenipotentiaries. At the just concluded political confab, the English Language was the medium of instruction. Also, at the Aburi Meeting of 1970, the English Language was used to settle the differences among the rank and file of the Nigerian military. The following are examples of globalized English in Nigerian English expressions: (i) Political freedom (ii) franchise (iii) press freedom (iv) equity (v) press censorship (vi) political marginalization (vii) resource control (viii) on-shore and offshore dichotomy (ix) globalization (x) glib speak (xi) liberalization (xii) imperialism (xiii) monetization (xiv) free-market enterprise (xv) egalitarianism, (xvi) e-mail (xvii) text message (xviii) Microsoft (xix) download (xx) browse (xxi) software/hardware (xxiii) computer literacy (xxiv) VOA, CNN, Sky News, etc. Nigerian English usage has made Nigerians to understand current development of the global village through the internet, CNN, VOA, BBC, among others. It is the language of Nigerian international policy and polity. 7. Conclusion In concluding this paper, it is imperative to re-emphasize here that Nigerian English needs to be codified so as to be both internationally intelligible and mutually acceptable among Nigerians. To my mind, the real language identity of the Nigerians is Nigerian English. Though Pidgin English has a wider usage, it has been stigmatized to be the language of the marginalized illiterate Nigerians. As a result of the multilingual and multi-ethnic contexts of the Nigerian society, none of the over four hundred Nigerian mother-tongues can be adopted as Nigeria’s national language without creating socio-political problems. Therefore, Nigerian policy-makers need to sponsor research programme on how to internationalize the English Language in Nigeria. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 175 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 References Adegbija, E. E. (2001) “Globalization and the Management of Pluralism: A Comparative Sociolinguistic Study of Nigerian and India” Paper presented at the International Conference on Identify, Politics, Social Conflicts and Globalization Nehru Centre, India. Adegbija, E. E. (1989) Lexico-Semantic Variations in Nigerian English World Englishes 8, 165-177. Adegbija, E. E. (1995) “I, Major–General X”: Discourse Tacts in Military Coup Speeches in Nigeria” Text 15(2), 253:270. Adegbija, E. E. (1994) The Context of Languages Planning in Africa: An Illustration with Nigeria. In Putz, M. (Ed.) Language Contact and Language Conflict Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 139-163. Adegbija E. E. (1998) “Nigerian English: Towards a Standard Variety”. A Keynote Address presented at the 5th Conference of International Association of World Englishes (IAWE) held at the University of Illinois, U.S.A, Nov. 5-7. Adegbite, W. (2004) Towards A Delimitation of the Status of English in Nigeria. In Owolabi, K. and Dasylva, A. (Eds) (2004) Forms and Functions of English and Indigenous Languages in Nigeria. Ibadan: Group Publishers, 523-37. Akere, F. (1983) “Functional Variation and the Communicative Use of English in and the English Language, University of Calabar, Calabar from May 20-23. Adesanoye, F. A. (1973) “A Study of Varieties of Written English in Nigeria” Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Ibadan, Ibadan. Bamgbose, A. (1983) Standard Nigerian English: Issues of Identification. In Kachru, B. B. (Eds)The Other Tongue: English Across Culture Oxford: Pergamon, 99-111. Bamgbose, A (1995) English in the Nigerian Environment. In Bamgbose, A. Banjo, A. and Thomas, A. (Eds) New Englishes: A West African Perspective. Ibadan. Banjo, A. (1971) Standards of Correctness in Nigerian English. West African Journal of Education 15:2, 123-127 Bowers, R. (1995) You Can Never Plan the Future by the Past: Where Do We Go with English” In Bamgbose, A., Banjo, A. and Thomas, A. (Eds) New Englishes: A West African Perspective. Ibadan, Mosuro Press, pp. 87-98. Brosnahan, L. F. (1958) English in Southern Nigeria. English Studies 39:3. Elugbe, B. (1995) Nigerian Pidgin: Problems and Prospects. In Bamgbose, A. Banjo, A. and Thomas, A. (Eds) New Englishes: A West African Perspective. Ibadan, Mosuro, pp. 284-299. Eghbokare, F. (2001) The Nigerian Linguistic Ecology and the Changing Profiles of Nigerian Pidgin. In Igboanusi H. (Ed.) Language Attitude and Conflict in West Africa Ibadan, Enicrownfit Publishers, pp. 105-124. Halliday, M. A. K. (1978) Language as a Social Semiotics. London: Edward Arnold. Hymes, D. (1972) Foundations in Sociolinguistics: An Ethnographic Approach. Philadelphia University of Pennysylavania Press. Malinowski, B. (1923) The Language of Magic and Gardening. London, Allen and Unwin. Odumuh, A. E. (1987) Nigerian English. Zaria: Ahmadu Bello University Press. Omolewa, M. (1974) The English Language in Colonial Nigeria, 1862-1970. A Study of the Major Factors which Promoted the Language. Journal of the Nigerian English Studies Association 7, 103-117. Sapir, E. (1956), cited in Babajide, (Ed.) (2000) Studies in English Language. Ibadan: Enicrownfit, p. 20. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 176 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 PROBLEMS OF AN EMERGENT WRITTEN LANGUAGE OF THE GLOBAL SYSTEM FOR MOBILE COMMUNICATION (GSM) IN NIGERIA Dr Victoria A. ALABI Department of English University of Ilorin Abstract This paper examines a looming warfare on effective writing by the GSM technology in Nigeria. In what seems like a ‘method in madness’, the paper identifies an emerging ‘written language of the GSM’ via the lexemes, morphemes, syntax, and mechanics of punctuation, capitalization and spacing and use of symbols in sampled messages written in English on the Short Message Service (SMS). Lurking in this language, however, are many problems. Among these are its serious aftermath for correct spelling, arbitrary use of affixation, consequent difficulties with well-formed sentences as well as with mechanics. Most important, is the overall chaotic effect of this language on formal teaching and learning in English in an ESL (English as a Second Language) situation. The paper calls on writers using the English medium to strive to keep ‘the written language of the GSM’ out of good or formal writing so that it will not be a death knell of the language. Key words: Emergent Written English, GSM communication, SMS, ESL 1. Introduction The Global System of Mobile Communication (GSM) came into use in Nigeria in 2001. Precisely, MTN, the first GSM Company to arrive in the country, commenced commercial services in August 2001. Other companies like Globacom, Vmobile and M’tel also operate at present in the country. Nigerians, thus, now have access to telephoning and sending messages on the Short Message Service (SMS) as much as they wish, the major limiting factor being the high cost of telephoning via privately used lines. The cheaper option to telephoning is sending messages on SMS, especially by literate persons. Even then, most people usually avoid exceeding a page, made up of one hundred and sixty (160) characters, per chargeable page of a message. This has placed a constraint on writing and no Nigerian sender of an SMS message would seem to be left out of the constraint, not even the GSM companies! For example, on July 18, 2005, MTN sent the following text in 176 characters (with spaces) to its customers: Y’ello. Pls only the first 160 characters of ur SMS is free in the SMS Promo. Anything extra is charged. Ur phone will show u when it’s over 160 characters. (Underlining is mine, for emphasis.) The constraint has engendered a habit which has in turn crystallized into what this paper identifies as ‘the written language of the GSM’. The paper highlights components of good writing, briefly reviews these components and then discusses the distinguishing features of the lexemes, morphemes, syntax and mechanics of punctuation, capitalization, spacing and symbols of sampled messages written in English on the Short Message Service (SMS) which can be termed ‘the written language of the GSM’ in Nigeria. The paper then presents the implications of the findings and conclusion. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 177 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 2. Components of Good Writing Writing is one of the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Literature abounds on the acquisition of these skills. For instance, according to Lyons (1981:15), it has been “demonstrated experimentally that babies are capable, in the very first weeks of life, of distinguishing speech sounds from other sounds and are predisposed, as it were, to pay attention to them”. Indeed, “all normal children acquire the language that they hear spoken around them without special instruction” (Lyons 1981:253) and they start talking in what are traditionally termed one-word sentences (i.e. the so-called holophrastic period) from the age of about nine to eighteen months (Lyons 1981:256). Langacker (1973: 12) asserts that “every normal human child who is not reared in virtual isolation from language use soon comes to speak one or more languages natively”. This is not so with reading and writing which must be learnt with special instruction (see Diringer 1962; Unoh 1969; Segal & Pavlik 1976; Jordan 1980; Hamp-Lyons & Heasley 1986 and Grellet 1988). Reading and writing are so vital in the life of a modern literate man that Pearson (1977:270) says “writing is so pervasive in modern society that it is difficult to imagine life without it”. Little wonder, the great philosopher essayist, Sir Francis Bacon, asserts that “Reading maketh a full man; and writing an exact man” (cited in Oguine, Gowon and Gochal 1998:367). The reading text, according to Otagburuagu (1998:134), “is a complex matrix of ideas woven into a neat (sic) embroidery with words and sentences. The words may comprise simple or complex morphological units which the author believes can most adequately convey his ideas. These words enter into certain syntactic patterns to form the text”. Thus, writing, citing Oguine, Gowon and Gochal (1998:367), is “a highly sophisticated and individualistic activity comprising five general components, namely; content, organisation, grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics” and “for good writing, all these components must be properly taken care of”. In this paper, the components of good writing that would be examined are restricted to grammar (morphology and syntax), lexis and mechanics. Randomly selected messages on SMS sent or received by University lecturers, postgraduate and undergraduate students are the data used for the analysis. The selected components of writing are briefly reviewed in the next section. 3. Lexis, Morphemes, Syntax and Mechanics The Greek word lexis means ‘word’. Lexis is also used for the term vocabulary. Lexemes are made up of morphemes ! " "# " # $ % & ' ( ) affix ( $ % ) * & + , - . - & - & - && - ( ' ' / 0 ( "- ! " $ ! . ) && , ion. Clipping, according to Quirk and Greenbaum (1973:448), denotes the “ subtraction of one or more syllables from a word” . The shortening may occur at: (a) the beginning of the word: phone~telephone (b) the end of the word (more commonly): photo~photograph (c) at both ends of the word (rare): flu~influenza Bound morphemes or affixes, as generally known, occur as prefixes, infixes and suffixes. A prefix precedes the core of a word (that is, the root) while a suffix follows the root. Less Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 178 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 common than the prefix and suffix is the infix which is inserted into a root but manifested in very few languages including English in which the infix is realized as a replacive morpheme. Words in English are grouped into eight classes. The major word classes nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are open class items and are also referred to as content words or full morphemes. Close class items which are grammatical words or empty morphemes are pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections. When a bound morpheme is conjoined to a free morpheme (or word) to form a new word still belonging to the open class group, such is called a derivational morpheme. On the other hand, a bound morpheme conjoined to free morphemes merely show concepts such as number tense, possession and gender is called an inflectional morpheme. Syntax, according to Langacker (1973:90), entails “ the principles or rules specifying the set of grammatical sentences of a language and their structures” . There are thus constraints in any language on the ways in which words can be combined to form acceptable sentences. For instance, among several others, for a grammatical English sentence are the rules of agreement of verb and subject or object and noun and its modifiers or the principles of forming simple, compound, complex, compound-complex or minor sentences (completive, exclamatory and aphoristic) (see Osisanwo, 1999:18-24). Mechanics has come to be used to refer to non-grammatical features of a sentence such as punctuation, capitalization, spelling, abbreviations, spacing and the use of symbols among others. Crystal and Davy (1969:18) refer to the “ distinctive uses of punctuation, capitalization, spacing, and so on” as patterns of writing that distinguish, or assist in distinguishing, varieties of English. The concern in this paper in mechanics will be with the employment of the full-stop, the question mark, the apostrophe, capitalization, spacing and symbols in writing. 4. The Written Language of the GSM in Nigeria This section discusses the distinguishing trend identified in the SMS messages: a. Substitution of lexemes with the letters of the alphabet or Arabic numerals In messages on SMS, whole lexemes are sometimes substituted with the letters of the alphabet or Arabic numerals as in the following: (1) Lexemes replaced with letters of the alphabet: a is used to replace ‘are’ b is used to replace ‘be’ c is used to replace ‘see’ d is used to replace ‘the’ or ‘this’ or ‘that’ e is used to replace ‘he’ f is used to replace ‘for’ m is used to replace ‘morning’ n is used to replace ‘and’ or ‘in’ r is used to replace ‘are’ or ‘your’ u is used to replace ‘you’ w is used to replace ‘with’ or ‘which’ or ‘we’ x is used to replace ‘times’ (as in I cald 3 x) y is used to replace ‘why’ or ‘your’ z is used to replace ‘is’ (as in datz- that is) (2) Lexemes substituted with Arabic numerals and the alphabet: 1 is used to substitute ‘one’ (as in anyl, everyl) 2 is used to substitute ‘to’ , ‘too’ Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 179 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 4 is used to substitute ‘for’ (as in 4ever) or ‘fore’ (as in 4cast) 4m is used to substitute ‘form’ 8 is used to substitute ‘ate’ (as in immedi8ly) or ‘eat’ (as in gr8) 10q is used to substitute ‘thank you’ 10x is used to substitute ‘thanks’ b2 is used to substitute ‘between’ b4 is used to substitute ‘before’ T4 is used to substitute ‘therefore b. Lexical shortening through: (1) pseudo clipping of one of two similar and contiguous letters (2) pseudo clipping of the beginning, middle or ending of lexical items: Clipping, as has been explained, has to do with syllabic shortening at the beginning of a word, more commonly at the end of a word and rarely at both ends of a word. All the clips in our data can best be seen as pseudo clipping as they do not follow syllabic patterning. Instances are: (1) Clipping of one of two similar contiguous alphabets as in: adres (address) hapi (happy) asignments (assignments) helo (hello) al (all) miror (mirror) beta (better) sori (sorry) cal (call) tel (tell) cary (carry) til (till) cros (cross) tomoro (tomorrow) discus (discuss) wori (worry) getn (getting) wil (will) (2) Pseudo clipping at the beginning, middle or ending of lexical items as in the following: at the beginning of lexemes includes: nd (and), xperience (experience), xtra (extra), ow (how), appy (happy) in the middle of lexemes: i. the omission of a single letter and letters ‘e’ and ‘o’ are predominant here; ii. the omission of two letters, which I call compound omission and iii. the omission of more than two letters, which I call complex omission. Examples are as follows: (i) Clipping of single letters: Letter ‘e’ e.g. bhind (behind), bgins (begins), knw (knew), lft (left), nxt (next), prayd (prayed), prfect (perfect), usful (useful) Letter ‘o’ e.g. dwn (down), gt (got), nw (now), hme (home), wnt (wont), wmen (women), wrk (work), nt (not), lng (long), hw(how), knw (know), tday(today), tld (told) (ii) Clipping of compound letters e.g. bls (bless), wn (when), gl (girl), arnd (around), mangr (manager), aftnoon (afternoon), lvly (lovely), jorny (journey), nsrnce (insurance), grt (greet) (iii) Clipping of complex letters e.g. ard (around), assmnt (assessment), bot (bought), celbrns (celebrations), chrn (children), lkng (looking), rt (right), cnscnce (conscience), cnfrmd (confirmed), endorsmt (endorsement), inconvnces (inconveniences), std (student), undrstndng (understanding) (iv) ‘Clipping’ at the end of lexemes. Two types are identified: single letter omissions & ' 1 2 & , Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 180 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 following: (i) Single letter omission e.g. abl (able), com (come), mak (make), strik (strike), ar (are), gam (game), giv (give), tak (take), hav (have), mayb(maybe), leav(leave), lif (life), lik (like), tim(time), writ(write), som(some) (ii) Complex letter omission e.g. dif (different), dist (distance), prob (problem), acc (according), proj (project) c. Multifarious shortening of lexical items Many times, a single lexical item is shortened in many different ways. Instances are: (i) about ( - ( ii) and - iii) are - - - iv) been ( - ( (v) between ( - ( - ( ) vi) could - - - vii) good - - viii) have ve, av, hv, hav ix) morning - - - - '- - - - morn’ n x) night - xi) see - - xii) the - xiii) through - - - xiv) thanks ,- - - , (xv) weekend ) - ) - ) xvi) yesterday ' - ' '- ' '- ' '- '3 ' xvii) your y, yr, ur, r d. Substitution of inflectional and derivational morphemes and creation of pseudo affixes The following twelve English letters, of which the underlined nine are possible morphemes, are either used to substitute some inflectional and derivational morphemes or are used as pseudo affixes at beginning, middle or ending of lexemes as in the following: a is used to substitute (i) ‘er’ e.g. in better = ‘beta’ , prayer = ‘praya’ (substitution of inflectional and derivational morpheme ‘er’ with ‘a’ respectively) It is also used to substitute ‘er’ in ever = ‘eva’ and ‘ear’ in heart = ‘hat’ (creation and recognition of pseudo suffixes and replacive morphemes respectively) d is used to substitute ‘th’ e.g. in that = ‘dat’ , then= ‘den’ , they = ‘dey’ (creation and recognition of pseudo prefixes) e is used to substitute ‘ai’ e.g. in said = ‘sed’ (creation and recognition of pseudo replacive morpheme) f is used to substitute ‘ph’ e.g. in phone = ‘fone’ , laugh = ‘laf’ (creation and recognition of pseudo prefix and suffix respectively) g is used to substitute ‘ing’ e.g. in bothering = ‘botherg’ , getting =‘getg’ (substitution of inflectional morpheme ‘ing’ ) i is used to substitute (i) ‘ea’ e.g. in read = ‘rid’ , dream = ‘drim’ (creation and Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 181 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 recognition of pseudo replacive morphemes) (ii) ‘ee’ e.g. in seen = ‘sin’ , green = ‘grin’ (substitution of replacive morphemes ‘ee’ ) (iii) ‘ey’ e.g. in money = ‘moni’ , journey = ‘jorni’ (creation and recognition of pseudo suffixes) (iv) ‘ie’ e.g. in believe = ‘biliv’ (creation and recognition of pseudo replacive morpheme) (v) ‘y’ e.g. in happy = ‘hapi’ (substitution of derivational morpheme ‘y’ ) n is used to substitute ‘ing’ e.g. in getting = ‘getn’ (substitution of inflectional morpheme ‘ing’ ) o is used to substitute ‘ha’ e.g. in what = ‘wot’ (creation and recognition of pseudo replacive morpheme) s is used to substitute ‘ce’ e.g. in assistance = ‘asistans’ (substitution of derivational morpheme ‘ce’ ) u is used to substitute ‘oo’ e.g. in school = ‘skul’ , food = ‘fud’ , proof = ‘pruf’ (creation and recognition of pseudo replacive morphemes) x is used to substitute ‘ks’ e.g. in thanks = ‘tanx’ (creation and recognition of pseudo suffix) z is used to substitute (i) ‘as’ e.g. in was = ‘wz’ (ii) ‘ese’ e.g. in these = ‘dz’ (iii) ‘ce’ e.g. in rice = ‘riz’ (iv) ‘s’ e.g. in busy = ‘bizy’ , dreams = ‘drimz’ (creation and recognition of pseudo replacive morphemes\ suffixes and substitution of inflectional morpheme ‘s’ in ‘dreams’ ) e. Use of Elliptical Sentences Many elliptical sentences are also employed in SMS messages. Some instances are cited as follows: Ellipted portions are put in parenthesis · Not steppd out once. [I have] not steppd out once. · So not in sch 4 a while. So [I have] not [been] in sch 4 a while. · Cookg and washg done. Cookg and washg[have been] done. · called but no response [I] calld but [there was] no response · wil call way hom. [I] wil call [on my] way hom. · Hop revisn going on fine. Hop revisn [is] going on fine. · ?s productn in progress: nothñ in schöl ?s productn [is] in progress: nothñ [is happening] in schöl · am getn beta [I] am getn beta · Wil writ pastr Olu [I] wil writ [to] pastr Olu · feeling shy to come home. [He is] feeling shy to come home. · Came bak ystdayNow sure who 2 vote 4? [I] Came bak ystday[Are you]Now sure who 2 vote 4? · C U THEN, GODS GRACE [I shall] C U THEN, [by] GODS GRACE · In school afterwards [I was] In school afterwards · Teaching till 5 or so [I am]Teaching till 5 or so · Hope rats ok [I] Hope [the] rats [are] ok · Later [I shall see you] Later Mostly, ellipted in sentences are nouns (subject), verbs and verb phrases. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 182 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 f. Peculiar use of some punctuation marks, capitalization, spacing and symbols Often, the apostrophe, the full stop and the question mark are not used in the written language of the GSM. It is usual to find the omission of the apostrophe for example in the following: ‘Im’ , ‘Gods grace’ , ‘its’ , ‘theres’ , ‘didnt’ , ‘isnt’ , ‘janes’ , ‘todays message’ , wasnt. Many times, double quotation marks are mistakenly used for the apostrophe as in: ‘it” s getting fierce’ , ‘PLS SEND IT TO MY MAIL BOX AT THE PORTER”S LODGE’ . Full stops are also sometimes omitted in the middle and at the end of messages as in: ‘Be ready 2 lead the group on Mon^i called but no response’ , ‘Came bak ystday^Now sure who 2 vote 4?’ , ‘she sent d appl by DHL 2 Abuja yestday^’ Question marks are also not often used when questions are asked as in: ‘Thomas, Whatz up.’ ‘How you dey.’ ‘Hope revisn going on fine’ . Most of the time, capital letters are not used after the full stop. Two examples are: ‘Hes back finally trying to settle down. caros husband could not make it. feeling shy to come home. bye’ and ‘Gd pm. had d intavw late yest. still in Abuja. askd 2com bak 2moro. hope 2return after seeiñ dem tomoro. thank you sir.’ Noteworthy is the pervasive use of the lower case forms of ‘i’ and ‘u’ which may be viewed as having a dehumanizing effect especially when reinforced through repetition as in: Yes, i was neva brave enuf 2 tell u---- bt now i will---- i---- i i---- i lo---- lov---- i love---- i love y---- i love yo---- i love youghurt(sic)---- ha ha c u. God will be above u 2 bless u, below u 2 support u, B4 u 2 guide u, behind u 2 protect u, beside u 2 comfort u & inside u 2 sustain u. God bless u. Many people, to avoid switching between upper and lower case letters, use capitalization throughout as in: MORNING MADAM. IF D LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE IS READY PLS SEND IT TO MY MAIL BOX AT THE PORTERS’ LODGE OF MY DEPT. THANX. Many times characters are also squeezed together sometimes to save space or out of habit as in examples a) and b) below respectively. a) Hi girl!E tie ta si wa mo.Hop revisn going on fine.Doi tel dguys abt her? Chated wit Joshua on dnet yestdy.Pikd d leta tdy funny one.Wil writ pastr Olajide (=155 characters (with spaces) + 4 spaces at the beginning to ensure a reply that the message has been received at the intended destination). b) How are you?its been a while,I just wanted to^ hello 2 you and remind you that I still remember you.Shalom! (107 characters with spaces) Certain symbols which are not used in conventional writing are also employed in writing SMS messages. Examples are: @ used for ‘at’ ? used for ‘question’ ñ used for ‘ing’ ö used for oo (as in bök = book) / used to divide words (as in c/man, chairman; f/ship, friendship; u/stand, understand ) 5. Implications of the Findings and Conclusion This paper has examined a looming warfare on effective writing by the GSM technology. Among the distinguishing characteristics identified in an emerging ‘written language of the GSM’ are substitution of lexemes with the letters of the alphabet or Arabic Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 183 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 numerals; lexical shortening through pseudo clipping of one of two similar and contiguous alphabets, pseudo clipping of the beginning, middle or ending of lexical items; multifarious shortening of lexical items; substitution of inflectional and derivational morphemes and the creation of pseudo affixes; use of elliptical sentences and peculiar use of punctuation, capitalization, spacing and symbols. It is clear that almost all the identified distinguishing trends of the ‘written language of the GSM’ are problematic. Replacing lexemes with letters of the alphabet or Arabic numerals is not practicable for good writing. Clipping of lexemes, especially compound and complex types, and the employment of multifarious shortened lexical items have serious negative repercussions for spelling. In addition to this is the confusion that would, in the long term, emanate between the spelling of a word and its shortened form. Examples of such words are: better/beta; been, being/ bin; caught/cot; could/cud; discuss/discus; green/grin; greet/grit; heard/herd; heart/hat; hope/hop; know/no; matter/mater; over/ova; read/rid; seen/sin; sleep/slip; some/sum; then/den; those/dose; things/tins; write/writ. Substitution of inflectional and derivational morphemes and the creation of pseudo affixes would definitely affect the learning and usage of affixation. The types of elliptical sentences in our data are also not acceptable, following the principles or rules for good writing in grammar. The peculiar use of the punctuation marks, capitalization, spacing and symbols discussed in this paper are also not permissible for good writing. The proper employment of these features of mechanics should normally help to break a mass of writing into smaller more manageable portions and reduce the burden of the reader. While experienced writers are still able to switch between this ‘written language of GSM’ and formal writing, many students, who send and receive the most messages, have not been able to switch easily or are not willing to switch at all. Rather, they seem to be basking in this new mode of writing. For instance, how else would one account for words that are merely changed without any visible rationalization? Cases in point are: du for do 2 characters each dey for day 3 characters each bizy for busy 4 characters each bozs for boys 4 characters each meni for many 4 characters each hause for house 5 characters each luvers for lovers 6 characters each anibodi for anybody 7 characters each Many times too, more than half of a text message is coded in this new language as in: ‘On d route 2 destiny, dre r meni paths 2 travl on, smoth or rouf, drk or brite. Don’ t 4get LIFE IS SWIT’ Thus, within four years of sending messages on SMS, students’ formal writing, including long essays, and in fact examination papers have come to be punctuated with this ‘written language of the GSM’ . This fact is attested to by some lecturers. Writing, in the process of formal teaching and learning in English, is thus becoming confusing and more complex than it should be. If, however, it is difficult to imagine life without writing and if writing makes an exact man, then good writing should not be allowed to be killed. Writers in the English medium should strive to keep ‘the written language of the GSM’ out of good or formal writing so that it will not worsen the standard of English usage in Nigeria. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 184 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 References Crystal, D. and Davy, D. (1969) Investigating English Style. England: Longman. Diringer, D. (1962). Writing New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Fromkin, V. and Rodman.R. (1993) An Introduction to Language, 5th ed. Orlando: Harcourt Brace. Grellet, F. (1988) Developing Reading Skills. New York: Cambridge University Press. Hamp-Lyons, L. and Heasley, B. (1986) Study Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Jordan, R. R. (1980) Academic Writing Course-Collins Study Skills in English. London and Glasgow: Collins. Langacker, R.W. (1973) Language and Its Structure. 2nd ed. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Lehmann, W.P. (1972) Descriptive Linguistics: An Introduction. New York: Random House. Lyons, J. (1981) Language and Linguistics: An Introduction. New York: Random House. Oguine, P. N., Gowon, R. P. and Gochal, G. (1998) Cooperative Writing as a strategy for communicative Skills Teaching in Large Classes: The Unijos Example. In E.J. Otagburuagu, E. J. (Ed.) Common Frontiers in Communication Skills:Focus on the Nigerian University System. Abuja: National Universities Commission, pp. 366- 374. Osisanwo, W. (1999) An Introductory Analytical Grammar of English. Lagos: Femolus- Fetop. Otagburuagu, E.J. (1998) “ The Reading Skill in English Language Studies: A Conceptual Analysis and Teaching Model for the ESL University.” In Otagburuagu, E. J. Common Frontiers in Communication Skills: Focus on the Nigerian University System. Abuja: National Universities Commission, pp.132-140. Pearson, B.L. (1977) Introduction to Linguistic Concepts. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Quirk, R. and Greenbaum, S. (1973, rpt.1985) A University Grammar of English. (Low Price Ed.) : Longman: Essex. Segal, M. K. and Pavlik, C. (1976) Interactions II- A Writing Process Book. New York: McGraw. Unoh, S. O. (1969) Reading to Remember: A Guide to Efficient Reading. London: OUP. Y’hello! Sept. – Dec. (2002) Vol.1. No.3. Lagos: MTN NIGERIA Communications Limited. p. 47. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 185 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 LITERACY AS LOCUS OF TEACHER PREPARATION IN AN ESL CONTEXT OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY Dr Stephen B. OLAJIDE Department of Arts and Social Sciences Education Faculty of Education University of Ilorin Abstract Nigeria, as an English-as-a-Second- Language (ESL) context, places premium on effective literacy in the language. And formal education remains the most powerful means of ensuring the desired literacy development, with the teacher being an unrivalled agent of education. Crucial as the role of the teacher is in the education process, not all Nigerian teachers are sufficiently literate in English, the language they are expected to use in their classroom practices. The situation has implications for teacher preparation in Nigeria of the Twenty-first Century. This paper canvassed greater emphasis on literacy in English in teacher preparation during the century. It also suggested strategies that could be adopted in achieving the emphasis. The paper maintained that only sufficiently literate teachers could produce vibrant, all round educated citizens that can ensure the socio-economic, political and technological emancipation of the nation. Key words: literacy enhancement strategies, teacher preparation, ESL context 1. Introduction Nigeria is fully aware that effective education is a strong factor of national development and integration. This has been demonstrated with her policy to produce learners who can defend themselves and the country intra-nationally and internationally (National Policy on Education (NPE), revised 2004). In that connection, the country recognizes the need for adequate teacher preparation, which explains her persistent preoccupation with teacher preparation programmes that have always been expanded as necessary. For example, in the 1970s, new socio-economic, political, and technological aspirations made the nation to change her educational goals and objectives. The University Primary Education (UPE) scheme was introduced, leading to a drastic increase in school enrolment across the nation. Consequently, the classroom became more complex and learners with different linguistic and socio-cultural background came on. At the same time, the entire world was (and is still) experiencing information explosion. It then means that the Nigerian teacher had a greater job to do. More than anything else, he/she required the abilities to digest and communicate ideas to his/her eager learners. The stressful situation was arrested only by applying the strategy earlier suggested by Harrison (1965), and found quite useful in similar circumstances elsewhere in the world: the existing educational facilities and manpower resources were overhauled. More teachers and teacher trainers had to be produced and employed. So that they could fulfill their communicative tasks, the teachers and their trainers had to master English, which has always been the main medium of educational instruction in the country as well as a subject of specialization in the curriculum. Literacy may be viewed as the acquisition and effective utilization of the language skills of reading and writing, which Olajide (2002) viewed as being a most crucial factor of national development, integration and progress. Indeed, it may be said that literacy goes Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 186 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 beyond mere reading and writing; it produces the total person. The urge to emphasize literacy in English in teacher preparation programmes in Nigeria, even today should be understandable. Aside from being the most influential language in the country (Adekunle 1995, Akere 1995), English grants its user good access to international communication. Hence, a lot of the argument against its status in the country (cf. Schmied, 1991) has been puerile. Education, like language, is an interpersonal behaviour (neither can be acquired without appropriate contact). The teacher will therefore fail in his/her task of behaviour modification unless he/she possesses the right linguistic (English language, here) skills. Moreover, behaviour and thinking are deeply related. Hilgard, Atkinson and Atkinson (1974) view behaviour as knowledge, foreshadowing Schmied’ s (1995) hypothesis that performance in a second language (which English is in Nigeria) is a function of thinking in the learner’ s mother tongue. Indeed, it has been suggested (Whorf 1941and Schmied 1995) that semantic differential based on language structure can explain and typify the performance of a fairly large group of learners. Thus, language is a most formidable tool of education as a problem-solving enterprise. The teacher and trainee-teacher must confront problems which can only be solved by undertaking linguistic journeys down the memory lane to locate and use stored information. The teacher, in particular, should be adept at drawing from linguistic resources to sensistize his/her learner to specific problems which the latter should resolve as desired. Paltridge (1995) found that teaching and learning a second language is most effective if the learners move through language modes that reflect the literacy expectations of the environment. The Nigerian teacher of whatever discipline must digest and sequence information and present it logically to his/her learners in English. Towards this end, Odumuh (1984) recommended that the teacher be encouraged to be sufficiently literate in the Nigerian variety of English. The emphasis placed on teacher proficiency in English has been informed by the fusion the language has enjoyed with the Nigerian environment. Indeed, in Nigerian Colleges of Education and University Faculties of Education, the trainee must take and pass prescribed courses in the Use of English. Commending such a decision, Kachru (1992) viewed it as an attempt to intra-nationalize and internationalize Nigerian education. In the same vein, Paltridge (1995) reiterated that in any nation where English is a second or foreign language, the native should be blended with the non-native varieties. However, that cannot be done effectively unless good strategies are evolved for the teaching and learning of the adopted variety. Hence, Akere (1995), frowning at the permitting of unqualified teachers to teach English in Nigerian schools because of increased learner population, suggested that teacher preparation efforts be intensified, and the existing methodology for English language be overhauled for greater teacher literacy. 2. An Overview of Teacher Preparation Efforts in Nigeria Nigeria, like most other developing nations, has had an enduring preoccupation with teacher preparation. How best to equip her teachers has always engaged the attention of her educational planners and administrators. In the process, the classroom practices and intellectual stuff of the teacher have had to be tailored towards the national setting with a view to preparing the Nigerian learner for altruistic living and international co-operation (NPE 2004). During the UPE years, the structure of learner population in the schools compelled the teacher to be more sensitive. Unfortunately, there were not enough classrooms and instructional materials. Thus, for the UPE scheme to be meaningful, proper staffing and provision of instructional aids had to take place (Yoloye, 1973; Bajah, 1975). Harrison (1965) Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 187 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 had advised development-oriented government across the world to insist on efficient teacher education programmes. Thus, Nigeria embarked on large scale teacher preparation in the 1970s, taking cues from the pioneer efforts of the Anglo-American programme spearheaded by UNESCO. Related experience got from the Ashby courses introduced years earlier also had to be applied (Alao 1991). One dominant focus of the UPE teacher preparation efforts was producing teachers that could successfully appeal to the learners’ domains of learning as postulated by Bloom (1956). Nigerians then equated teacher education with the conscience, growth, and actual survival of the nation. The numerous colleges of education and faculties of education are a testimony to the lingering premium placed on teacher preparation in the country. 3. The Linguistic Dimension to Teacher Education There has always been the linguistic dimension to teacher education. Whereas education deals with the modification of behaviour, thinking is responsible for behaviour. Thinking is itself rooted in behaviour. Research findings (Levy-Bruhl 1968, Vygotsky 1934, Whorf 1941; Lannerberg 1953, Piaget 1954 and Chomsky 1968) are that knowledge (behaviour), thought, and language are intricately and contagiously related. According to Hilgard, Atkinson and Atkinson (1971), thought applies to a wide range of content, dealing with perceptions in all ramifications. Hence, appropriate literacy skills offer a rich source of symbols that can be employed to sensitize, recover and evaluate human knowledge. The teacher trainer, in particular, requires a good control of language to be able to modify the behaviour of the trainee who, in turn, with no less of language control, should cause his/her learners to learn. Schmied (1991) implied the reality of this chain of teacher-learner actions when he suggested, ‘The teacher may select a text to eliminate the students’ specific grammatical problem areas’ (p.111). It is not all the things a teacher does in the classroom, however, that draw directly from linguistic resources: the dance, song, and other gestures used in order to facilitate learning have linguistic implications only because they have communicative values. Thus, the teacher makes the greatest use of language when he/she is faced with classroom problems. Then he must exercise his brain to locate the extra information that may have been buried there over a long period or available directly in the proximate environment. Mere stimulus and response or associating of events will not enable the teacher to resolve the problem desirably. The way the human brain yields knowledge can be likened to the manner the computer utilizes a statistical package to analyses given data. Hence, it is possible to formulate some models of thinking. The role of language in the learners’ interpretation of the world around him/her is significant. Whorf’ s (1941) study confirmed that people with different languages perceive the same world differently, partly because of the differences in the structures of the language. This postulate has been buttressed by Hilgard, et al. (1971) who maintained that language use largely determines the user’ s perception of things. The strong links between language, thinking and knowledge possibly informed Paltridge’ s (1995) suggestion that a teacher should make his/her learner move from one mode of language to another, always reflecting the language behaviour of the environment. Consequently, teacher preparation should include a medium course which approximates the actual condition of language use in national context. Nigeria is a multilingual society, with the effect that a typical classroom must contain learners with heterogenous linguistic backgrounds. The only way the teacher can succeed in modifying the behaviour of such learners is to be proficient in English that not only unifies the class, but is also statutorily quarantined as a medium of instruction as well as a course in the curriculum. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 188 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 The learners should also be helped to develop a healthy attitude to the language, so that they can imbibe learning experiences which they require to be able to think desirably. Schmied’ s (1991) observation that the ‘debate about educational language is unending’ (p. 103) is quite relevant to Nigeria. Since the teacher and his/her learners need literacy skills in English to digest intranational and international information, efforts should be on always to enhance the language component of Nigerian education programme. Right now, trainee teachers in the colleges of education and University faculties of education do no appear to be proficient enough in English language communication skills (Abe and Olajide, 1995; Olajide 2004). 4. Literacy in English as the Capstone of Teacher Preparation in the Present Millennium English, the main medium of formal educational instruction in Nigeria, is the most influential language in the world today (Schmied 1991, Adekunle 1995, Akere 1995). Attesting to the dominance of the language in the country, Schmied (1991) opined, “ . . . English . . . proved far more durable than other parts of colonial inheritance” (p.119). By policy (NPE 2004), it is the nation’ s medium of instruction right from the primary school, which implies that English begins to influence the thinking of any Nigerian learner early in life. A further implication of the policy is that, as canvassed by Hilgard et al. (1971) and supported by Schmied (1991), Adekunle (1995) and Akere (1995), the Nigerian teacher must be literate enough in English to make him/her succeed in influencing the learner’ s thoughts positively. Teacher preparation in Nigeria should ensure that the teacher does not just allow the thoughts of the learners to interact with English aimlessly. Right now, not all trainees do well in the English. In any education instruction, the spread of effective language teaching and learning depends on whether there are enough qualified teachers and instructional materials. Class size is another factor to be considered. These days, college and university faculties of education experience student population explosion, resulting in an over-stretch of the manpower and material resources available for many courses, particularly the general ones, like English and Communication Skills. The classes are usually large, with no technological devices to aid teaching (Olajide, 2004). Thus, most of the trainees return to their various departments with little improved communication skills (Olajide 2004). Not even those of them that specialized in English can be described as possessing absolutely efficient communication skills. On a more encompassing note, Akere (1995) found that the efforts made by organizations like the Nigerian English Studies Association and the British Oversees Development Agency (through the British Council) to revitalize the teaching and learning of English across educational levels have not yielded absolutely good results. Sequel to this, Akere (1995) called for the enhancement of the use of English curriculum for the Nigerian learners and their teachers, although he did not suggest very far-reaching strategies for doing so. English has come to stay in Nigeria, at least for now, and its advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Showing the pre-minence of the language world–wide, Schmied (1991) maintains “ . . . as English is still the stepping stone to well-paid employment in many Anglophone countries, the expansion of English teaching may be the only way to undermine its elitist character” (p.105). 5. Strategies for Enhancing Literacy in English in Teacher Education in Nigeria That Nigeria is a multilingual setting calls for the entrenchment of appropriate teacher education programme, based on English Language learning experiences, which should link the classroom with the communication realities of the environment. Hence, as suggested by Hilton (1974) and Nunan (1988), teacher preparation efforts in the country must emphasize Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 189 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 communicativeness always. If the classroom English of the twenty-first century derives from the needs of the learners and society, education would become a stronger tool for fully integrating the country with the international community. Literacy in English would empower the teachers and their learners to engage in international education and research, international commerce and communication network. For that purpose, a careful blending of the native with non-native varieties of the English language will be required for teacher preparation in Nigeria. The trainee teacher should be able to undertake discourse and specific types of writing: he/she must be able to write good summaries, case studies, annotated reports, bibliographies, and research projects. By so doing, he/she would be able to use English to solve problems, describe, analyse, compare contrast, synthesize, and show cause-effect relationships among phenomena, in line with Davies (1988). Also, literacy in English for teacher preparation in the next millennium must explore the genres of the different specializations of the teacher trainee, requiring them to express sentential relations, impose grammatical cohesion, and transcode information from charts to texts. Specifically, reading and writing (the literacy skills) should be more powerfully integrated in teacher education English. Apart from being exposed to the nature and scope of reading, the trainees must be enabled to read for specific and general purposes. Redressing reading disabilities and their causes among the learners of English as a Second Language is also important. The trainees should be able to recognize and remediate the disabilities. The materials used for reading comprehension should derive from the environment. The teachers in training, like their trainers, must be able to locate and effectively apply information buried in text. And, through tutorial presentations, micro-teaching and seminars, the trainees must learn to write and deliver good speeches (speech-making is a dominant task of any serving teacher). This implies that he/she should also be a good listener. He/she should be trained to listen for facts, pleasure, and so on. In other words, literacy in teacher preparation should be holistic (Onukaogu and Arua 1997) in the twenty-first century. Teacher education English curriculum should focus on personal language development, as recommended by Dickinson (1987) and Paltridge (1995) which involves the defining of individual needs, setting of individual goals and objectives, and evolving a valid mode of evaluating learning. This would enhance the trainees’ communication skills and enable them to perform well in the disciplines they learn English to teach. Again, that the methodology recognizes and caters for the trainees’ individual differences makes it healthy, appearing to be in consonance with Nigeria’ s philosophy of language education (NPE 2004), which seeks to develop a learner’ s literacy and oracy skills and develop in him/her a critical consciousness that would enable him/her engage in discourse practices that conform to the practices in the speech community he/she will enter on graduation from the college or faculty. Above all, there should be adequate supplies of English-related teaching and learning materials, to teacher training institutions in the new millennium. Such materials have to emerge from the immediate speech communities of the trainees, so that they could appropriately induce voluntary communication activities among the trainees. Then the teachers and trainees should be competent to utilize such technological devices as the internet computers, closed circuit television, and video tape recorder, which can help them to handle large audiences effectively. The authorities of teacher training institutions should avoid the herding of students into large classes for English language learning, as that would not allow total development of good communication behaviour among the trainees. The government should make the funds and manpower needed for the effective teaching and learning of English available. In the process, they should encourage private Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 190 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 organizations and general lovers of education to subvent to teacher education. Foreign institutions and international development agencies, particularly in Britain, U.S, Canada, Australia and the Scandinavian countries could be approached for additional aids (with no string attached) for the teaching of English in Nigeria. 6. Conclusion How effectively education contributes to national development and integration depends on how qualitatively and quantitatively education has been given. The quality of education is also congruent to the quality of teacher preparation, which is in turn proportionate to the attention given to the development of the language that serves as the medium of instruction. Despite the integration of English –Nigeria’ s dominant language –into teacher preparation in the concluded century in order to meet the psycholinguistic, sociocultural and scientific needs of the country, not all teachers and teacher-trainees have been able to use the language to intra-national and international standards. The consequences of poor teacher literacy skills have been grievous: learners have not been challenged enough to think in desirable directions; the nation’ s educational goals and objective have remained unattainable; the teachers themselves hardly have self-confidence and self esteem; and international goodwill seems to have been wasted on Nigeria. Hence, there is an urgent need to plant literacy in English firmly in the nation’ s teacher education programme. The language is likely to remain the country’ s lingua franca for much of the twenty-first millennium. Literacy for teacher education must also be taskbased, its learning experiences to be derived from the multilingual nature of the Nigerian society. In order to make teachers use English functionally, the nation and her foreign promoters must be forthcoming in terms of needed materials and manpower. Nigeria needs teachers who can penetrate the intricate minds of learners and help such learners to become successful nation-builders. References Ade. E. A. and Olajide, S. B. (1995) Relationship between Subject Specialization and Student Performance in Reading Comprehension in English. Institute Journal of Studies in Education, 1,3,1-7. Adekunle, M. (1995) English in Nigeria: Attitude, Policy and Communication Realities. In Bamgbose, A., Banjo, A. and Thomas, A. (Eds) New Englishes: A West African Perspective. Ibadan: Mosuro, pp.57-86. Akere, F. (1995) Languages in the Curriculum: An Assessment of the Role of English and other languages in Education Delivery Process in Nigeria. In Bamgbose, A., Banjo, A. and Thomas, A. (Eds) New Englishes: A West African Perspective. Ibadan: Mosuro, pp. 178-202. Alao, D. A. (1991) The Role of Teacher Education and Educational Fostering Literacy in the third World: An Integrative Review. Institute Journal of Studies in Education. 1,2. Bajah, S. T. (1975). Scope and dimension of science curriculum improvement in developing countries with particular reference to Nigeria. Journal of the Science Association of Nigeria 13,3. Bloom, S. T. (1956) Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. London: Longman. Chomsky. N. (1968) Linguistic Contributions to the Study of Mind: Future. Language in Thinking in English. England: Penguin. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 191 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 Davies, F. (1988) Designing a Writing Syllabus in English for Academic Purposes: Process and Product. Basinstoke: Modern English Publications in Collaboration with the British Council. Dickinson, L. (1987) Self-instruction in Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004, revised) National Policy on Education. Lagos: NERDC Press. Harrison, F. R. (1965) Manpower and Education:Country Study in Economic Development. London: Mc Graw Hill. Hilgard, E. Atkinson, R. and Atkinson, R. L. (1971) Psychology. New York: Harcourt Brace. Hilton, J. B. (1974) Language Teaching: A Systems Approach. London: Methuen Kachru, B. B. (Ed.) (1982) The Other Tongue: English across Cultures. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Lennerberg, E. (1953) Cognition in Ethnolinguistics. Language in Thinking in English. England: Penguin. Levy-Bruhl, L. (1918) Les Functions Mental dans les Societies Inferior. Alean. National Commission for Colleges of Education (1990). Guidelines on Minimum Standards for NCE Teachers (Languages). Kaduna: Author. Nunan, D. (1988) The Learner-centred Curriculum: A Study in Second Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Odumuh, A. (1984) Educated Nigerian English as a Model of Standard Nigerian English World English Language 3, 231- 5. Olajide, S. B. (2002) Revitalizing the Nigerian Literacy environment. In Lawal, R. A., Isiugo Abanihe, I and Ohia, I. (Eds) Perspectives on Applied Linguistics and Literature. Ibadan: Stirling – Horden Publishers. Olajide, S.B. (2004a) Promoting reading skills in the Nigerian Certificate in Education (NCE) programme. Institute Journal of Studies in Education. 2, 1,10 –111. Olajide, S.B. (2004b) Strategies for Effective Instruction in Large ESL Classes. In Abimbola, I. O. and Abolade, A.O.(Eds) Fundamental Principles & Practice of Instruction. Ilorin. Department of CSET, University of Ilorin, pp. 443 – 452. Onukaogu, C. E. and Arua, A. E. (1997) Towards a Better Understanding of Reading by the Nigerian Primary School Teacher. In Onukaogu, C. E., Arua, A. E. and Jegede, O. B. (Eds) Teaching Reading in Nigeria: A Guidebook to Theory and Practice. Ile-Ife: TAWL, pp.1-29.. Patridge, B. (1954) An Integrated Approach to Language Programme Development. Forum, 33, 3. Piaget, J. (1954) Language and thought from the genetic point of view Language in Thinking in English. Penguin, 170-179. Schmied, J. J. (1991) English in African: An Introduction. London: Longman. Whorf, B. (1941) The Relation of Habitual Thought and Behaviour to Language. Language: Culture and Personality: Essays in Memnory of Edward Sapir. Utah: University Press. Yoloye, E. A. (1973) The Training of the Teachers of Primary Science. West African Journal of Education XIX, 1. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 192 ENGLISH AND THE CHALLENGES OF LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY | Proceedings of the 22nd Annual NESA Conference, 2005 NIGERIA ENGLISH STUDIES ASSOCIATION (NESA) 22ND ANNUAL CONFERENCE COMMUNIQUE Nigeria English Studies Association (NESA) held her 22nd Annual Conference from September 7-10, 2005 at the Conference Centre of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. The theme of the conference was “ English and the Challenges of Literacy in the 21st Century” . The conference, which brought together practitioners (Lecturers, teachers, educationists, media practitioners and publishers) of English at primary, secondary and tertiary levels all over Nigeria, was declared open by the Vice-Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Prof. R.O.A. Makanjuola, represented by the Deputy Vice- Chancellor (Academics) of the University, Prof. Abiodun Adediran. The conference deliberated on the state of the English Language and Literacy in Nigeria and observed as follows: 1 while literacy demands and practices in the world are becoming more advanced and sophisticated, it is sad to observe that even our achievement of basic and functional literacy in both English and our indigenous Nigerian languages seems to encounter formidable difficulties; 2 as we advance in literacy, there appears to be a progressive deterioration in our sense of values; 3 the language of literacy appears to have been wrongly conceived as only English and the major source of acquisition and primary contact for most learners has remained largely the school room; 4 even the schools, which constitute the primary contact for literacy, have poor infrastructures and library facilities and lack adequate teachers, essential equipment and instructional materials; 5 Nigerian English is now drifting apart from the acceptable international norm in pronunciation and the standard of usage has fallen at all levels of the educational system. The association calls on the Nigerian government to a. pay the greater attention to the training of teachers of English at all levels and pay them a special allowance as done to teachers of science subjects; b. increase the level of funding to language education and provide adequate language laboratory equipment and other teaching facilities; c. increase the number of years of teaching the Use of English course in Nigerian tertiary institutions to three; d. retain English as a Second Language in the country and ensure that it keeps its close contact with its first language variant; e. promote adult literacy programmes; f. encourage a reading culture by providing well-stocked public and school libraries; g. and encourage learning and teaching of indigenous languages. The Association expresses her gratitude to the authorities of the Obafemi Awolowo University for facilitating the successful hosting of the Conference, the British Council and other donors for financial support and the Local Organizing Committee at the Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria for providing logistic support. Signed Signed Signed Prof. Segun Awonusi Dr Wale Adegbite Prof. Segun Adekoya President Asst. Secretary Chairman, (NESA) (NESA) Communique Committee