The role of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (Tetfund) in the teaching and learning Of English in Federal Colleges of Education in Nigeria
- April 19, 2022
- Posted by: rsispostadmin
- Categories: Education, IJRISS, Social Science
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue III, March 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186
Onoja, Joseph Ajogwu*
1 Department of English language, Federal College of Education, Okene
Abstract
In the face of global technological advancement, Tetfund has placed the teaching and learning of English at the most strategic position of empowering the teacher with required enhancement in form of funds and grants as special intervention to actualize the teaching objectives of the English with the current wave of learner-centered, participatory and practical approaches to pedagogy. In a world where teachers of English are fast becoming faulty models for the actual classroom experience, ineffective teaching methods are applied. More so, the special interventions of language laboratories which would have formed the basis for actual practical teaching and learning of language studies are either underutilized or not maintained. This research attempts to identify the role of Tetfund intervention with the provision of language laboratories and its effectiveness on the teaching and learning methods. Federal Colleges of Education from six geo-political zones were randomly selected for this research. It further recommends an improvement in funding, supervision and monitoring of the use of these practical models provided.
Keywords: Tertiary Education Trust Fund (Tetfund), English Language, Language Laboratory.
Introduction
The push for enhancement of knowledge and qualitative education by African education ministers in Abuja in May 2012 has slowly checked the problems of the dwindling standard of English education even in the face of salient emerging challenges such as models and methods in the pedagogical process of the present time. Several educationists have hinged much blame for the fall in standards on the teacher of English as he/she is in the driving seat with all tools of learning. Little wonder then, that the National Policy on Education (2004) draws attention to empowering the teacher with qualitative, cost-effective training and continuous retraining.
Even with the paradigm shift from teacher-centred learning to a form of learner-centred, participatory and activity-driven lessons/lecturers, Idusogie (2007) posits that, the teacher is the most strategic, crucial and critical professional for rational development and developmental sustenance. It is the opinion of Aghali (2010) that, national development rests heavily on individuals who are expected to have been molded towards positive growth and development through effective teaching and learning experiences. Thus, when teaching is ineffective, problems of its quality become the end result. These have been the position of the teaching and learning of English language over the years mainly because of the absence of quality models on the practical laboratory aspects.
Problems Statements/Justification
Emerging accents and current challenges in the teaching of English Language Phonetics and Phonology in tertiary institutions have undermined the essence of auditory, articulatory and acoustic branches of Phonetics. No wonder then that even at socio-political and religious spheres, significant conflicts have arisen due to poor knowledge of phonetic and phonemic implications of the language in spaces and time where accentual inflections differ. This paper examines the use of language laboratories in the teaching and learning of English Phonetics and Phonology in Nigeria tertiary institutions in the wake of diverse accents of English in the world. Nigeria is a multilingual society and possesses unique challenges as English in Nigeria and its second language (L2) status which interferes with already existing first language (L1) situations. This research recommends that, the teaching of English Phonetics and Phonology should take into cognizance the qualities and ingredients of the Received Pronunciation (R.P.) as the model sort after by effectively utilizing the potentials of the language laboratories. This is necessary as Nigeria, with over 3000 indigenous languages, cannot afford to imbibe the conscious impositions of other varieties of English from multimedia services on her that would complicate the already existing multi-lingual challenges. Even when Nigeria is not technologically as advanced as the Chinese, Americans, Canadians and others, Nigeria should strive to attain the Standard British Accent set by the native speakers of the language by the adequate use of the language laboratories especially where teachers of English are fast becoming poor models for teaching Phonics at the basic school level, Oral English at the post-primary school level, Phonetics and Phonology at the tertiary level.
