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ERIC Number: ED273143
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1986-Apr
Pages: 27
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
On the Language-Literature Equation: Thoughts on English Language Teaching in Nigerian Universities.
Odumuh, Adama Emmanuel
The structure of English departments in Nigerian universities is outlined, the English curricula of seven institutions are examined, and problems associated with English instruction in Nigeria are discussed. Nigeria is in a crisis in English teaching, with a shortage of professional language teachers, phonologists, and phoneticians, inadequate language laboratories and equipment, low student and teacher motivation, confused educational policy, indifference on the part of the government and universities, and public apathy. Controversy exists over the balance of language teaching and literature instruction and over grammar and structural approaches to teaching the language component. The most difficult problem concerns which variety of English to teach, British standard English or the Nigerian pidgin, which is currently in the first of three stages of standardization referred to by Rage (1986) as reification, totemization, and institutionalization. It is proposed that this language variety is a Nigerian cultural artifact and may hold the key to its national language policy, and that it should be accepted for pedagogical purposes. (MSE)
Publication Type: Opinion Papers; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Nigeria
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A