LITERACY AS LOCUS OF TEACHER PREPARATION IN AN ESL CONTEXT OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
By
Olajide Stephen
Department of Arts and Social Sciences Education
University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria
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 the 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 implication 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 and can ensure the socio-economic, political and technological emancipation of the
nation.
Introduction
Nigeria is fully aware that effective education is a strong factor of national development and integration. This has
been demonstrated in 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 Universal Primary Education (UPE) scheme was introduced,
leading to drastic increases in school enrolments across the nation. Consequently, the classroom became more
complex. Learners with different linguistic and socio-cultural backgrounds came on. At the same time, the entire
world was (and is still) experiencing information explosion. It then means that the Nigerian teacher has greater job
to do. More than anything else, he/she requires 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. Mare teachers and teacher trainers had to produce and employed, so that
they could fulfill their communicative tasks. The teachers and their trainers had to master English Language 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 languages skills of reading and
writing, which Olajide (2002) viewed as being the most crucial factor of national development, integration and
progress. Indeed, it may be said that literacy goes beyond mere reading and writing; it produces the total man. The
urge to emphasis 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, all the arguments against its status in
the country (of Schmied, 1991) have 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 Atkinso (1974) view
behaviour as knowledge, foreshadowing Schmied’s (1995) hypothesis that performance in a second languages
(which English in Nigeria) is a function of thinking in the learner’s mother tongue. Indeed, it has been suggested
(Whorf, 1941; & Schmied, 1995) that semantic differential based on languages structure can explain and typify the
performance of a fairly large group of learners.
142
Educational Thought Vol. 6 No. 2, October, 2007
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 lanes to locate and use stored information. The teacher in particular should be adept at drawing from
linguistic resources to sensitize 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 more through
languages 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 should 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 of 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 to intensified, and the existing methodology for English language be overhauled for
greater teacher literacy.
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 had had to be tailored towards the national
setting with a view to preparing the Nigerian learner for altruistic living and international cooperation (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) had advised development-oriented governments 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 experiences 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’ domain 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 facilities of education are a testimony to the lingering premium placed on
teacher preparation in the country.
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 indicate (Levy-Bruhl, 1918; Vygotsky, 1934; Whorf, 1941; Lennerberg, 1953; Piaget, 1954; Chomsky, 1968)
that knowledge (behaviour), thought, and languages 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 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 –
Literacy Locus of Teacher preparation in an ESL Context of the Twenty First century
143
learner actions when he suggests, “the teacher may wish 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 analyzes 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 languages behaviour of the
environment.
Consequently, teacher preparation should include a medium course, which approximates the actual
condition of languages use in national context. Nigeria is a multilingual society, with the effect that a typical
classroom must contain learners with heterogeneous linguistic backgrounds. The only way the teacher can succeed
in modifying the behaviour of such learners it to be proficient in English that not only unifies the class, but also is
also statutorily guaranteed as a medium of instruction as well as a course in the curriculum. The learners should
also be helped to develop 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 always be on, to enhance the
language component of Nigeria teacher education programme. Right now, trainee teachers in the Colleges of
Education and University Faculties of Education do not appear to be proficient enough in English language
communication skills (Abe and Olajide, 1995; Olajide, 2004).
Literacy in English as the Capstone of Teacher Preparation in the Present Millennium
English, the main medium of formal education 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
language 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 English language. In any educational institution, 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, Colleges 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).
144
Educational Thought Vol. 6 No. 2, October, 2007
Thus, most of the trainees return to their various departments with little improved communication skills
(Olajide, 2004a). Not even those of them that specialized in English can be described as possessing absolute
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 do. English language
has come to stay in Nigeria, at least for now, and its advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Showing the
preeminence of the language world-wide, Schmied (1991) maintains “….as English is still the stepping stone to
well-paid employments in many Anglophone countries, the expansion of English teaching may be the only way to
undermine its elitist character” (p. 105).
Strategies for Enhancing Literacy in English in Teacher Education in Nigeria
That Nigeria is a multilingual setting call for entrenchment of appropriate teacher education programme
based on English languages 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 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 commence, 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 language to solve problems, describe, analyze, compared 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 exploit the genres of the different specializations of the teacher
trainees, requiring them to express sentential relations, imposed grammatical cohesion, and transcode
information from charts to texts.
Specifically, reading and writing (the literacy skills) should be more powerfully integrated in teacher
education. Apart from being exposed to 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 texts. And, through tutorial
presentations, micro-teaching and seminars, the trainees must learn to write and deliver good speeches (speechmaking is a dominant task of any serving teacher), which implies that they should also be good listeners. They
should be trained to listen for facts, pleasure, and so on. In other words, literacy in teacher preparation should be
holistic (Onukaogu & Arua 1997) in the twenty-first century).
Teacher education English curriculum should focus on personal languages development, as recommended
by Dicknson (1987) and Paltridge (1995) which involves he defining of individuals 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
Literacy Locus of Teacher preparation in an ESL Context of the Twenty First century
145
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 (FRN, 2004) which seeks to develop a learner’s literacy and oracy skills, and develop in him/her
engage in discourse practices that conform to the practices of 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 would 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 languages 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 organizations and general lovers of education to
subvent to teacher education. Foreign institutions and international development agencies, particularly in Britain,
United States, Canada, Australia and the Scandinavian countries be approached for additional aids (with no string
attached) for the teaching of English in Nigeria.
Conclusion
How effectively education contributes to national development and integration depends on how qualitatively and
quantitatively education is attended to. 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, socio-cultural 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 objectives 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 task-based, its learning experiences are to be derived from the
multilingual nature of the Nigerian society. In order to make teacher 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. & 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 New Englishes:
A West African Perspective. Ibadan: Moyero Publishers.
146
Educational Thought Vol. 6 No. 2, October, 2007
Akere, F. (1995). Languages in the Curriculum: An Assessment of the Role of English and other
Languages in Education Delivery Process in Nigeria. New Englishes: A West African Perspective.
Ibadan Moyero Publishers.
Banjo, A. and Thomas, A. (Eds.), New Englishes: A West African perspective. Ibadan: Mosuro, pp. 178202.
Alao, D.A. (1991). The Role of Teacher Education and Educational Technology in Fostering Science
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, B.S. (ed (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. London: Longman.
Chomsky, N. (1968). Linguistic Contcibutions to the Study of Mind: Futuremm. Language in Thinking in
English. England: Pengium.
Davies, F. (1988). Designing 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, Federal Government
Press.
Harrison, F.R. (1965). Manpower and Education: Country Study in Economic Development McGraw-Hill.
Hilgard, E., Atkinson, R. & Atkinson R.L. (1971). Psychology. New York: Harcourt Brace.
Literacy Locus of Teacher preparation in an ESL Context of the Twenty First century
147
Hilton, J.B. (1974). Language Teaching: A Systems Approach. London: Urbana University of Illinois Press.
Kachru, B.B. (Ed.) (1982) The Other Tongue: English across Cultures. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Lannerberg, 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.
Nuna, D. (1988). The Learner-centered 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 language
English 3, 231-5.
Olajide, S.B. (2002). Revitalizing the Nigerian Literacy Environment in Lawal, R.A., A. Isiugo Abanihe, &
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. (Institute of Education, University of Ilorin), 2, 1, 105 –
111.
Olajide, S.B. (2004b). Strategies for Effective Instruction in Large ESL Classes. In Abimbola, I.O. &
Abolade, A.O. (Eds), Fundamental Principles & Practice of Instruction (pp. 443-4582). Ilorin.
Department of CSET, University of Ilorin.
148
Educational Thought Vol. 6 No. 2, October, 2007
Onukaogu, C.E. & Arua, A.E. (1997). Towards a Better Understanding of Reading by the Nigerian Primary
School Teacher. In Onukaogu, C.E., Arua, A.E. & Jegede, O.B. (Eds), Teaching Reading in Nigeria:
A Guidebook to Theory and Practice (pp. 1-29). Ile-Ife: TAWL. Centre of Excellence for Literacy
and Literacy Education, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
Paltridge, B. (1995). An Integrated Approach to Language Programme Development Forum, 33, 3, July.
Piaget, J. (1954). Language and Thought from Genetic Point of View. Language in Thinking in English.
Penguin, 170-179.
Schmied, J.J. (1991). English in Africa: An Introduction. London: Longman.
Whorf, B. (1941). The Relation of Habitual Thought and Behaviour to Language: Language Culture and
Personality: Essays in Memory of Edward Sapir. Utah: University Press.
Yoloye, E.A. (1973). The Training of the Teachers of Primary Science. West African Journal
Education, xix, 1.
of