The Problems and Prospects of Teaching of English Language in Ife Central Local Government of Osun State

Abstract

Problems simply means factors affecting the  teaching of English, or factors militating the  teaching of English.  It could also, be define  as factor hindering or disturbed the teaching of English. Prospects means future optimistic  of teaching profession especially the teaching  of English language in Secondary Schools. If we compared and juxtapose the two words “Problems and prospects” we could simply deduced that, we are going to discuss in this project the problems  that arises in the  teaching of English language, on the part of teachers who is to teach, and learners students who are to receive instructions from instructors. The problems does not limits to these two people alone. It could cut across the role of the government societies, parents, non-governmental organization communities, and other international bodies like UNESCO, National University Commission (NUC), publics and private schools, sandwich progammes and other societies affiliated to education. In the case of prospects  for teaching profession, it is highly optimistic that  if some measures are taken into considerations, there is a great prospect for teaching profession in the areas of English language and other subjects.

In the first instance lets discuss factors responsible for the problems of teaching of English language in schools either private or publics in Ife Central local government of Osun State.  A state without education is a novice society, a society that is stagnant not ready to move forward in term of development, science and research. It is  estimated in UNESCO research that countries that has enough resources like oil, and other mineral resources could not develop in the areas of human resources management and personnel development, because attention and orientation will be shifted from educating the children, in the country to mining of these natural resources to give immediate money as IGR to the country. That is why most oil producing countries does not have enough or adequate man power and human resources management. That reminds me of one of the factor that affects the teaching of English in our societies. As we all know that English is a lingua Franca the language of communication in ministries and parastatals, we need to take the teaching of English to be more effective and efficient in our secondary schools be it public and private. In addition since English language is use to teach other subjects in the school either science, commercial. Arts and technology we need to make it effective in secondary schools. Our orientation in Nigerian societies has been shifted from learning to grabbing of National Cake, The idea of getting rich quick syndrome, couples with negative attitude to reading culture in our societies due value orientation to join politics and make money quickly has cause havoc in the effective teaching and learning of English in our societies. Charity begins at home. An average Briton often start teaching his child how to speak good English at an early stage. English language should start at the elementary schools. I mean, from pre-nursery, primary gradually to secondary schools. The inability of pupils to learn how to speak English at an early stage will affect them in secondary and tertiary schools.  I think it is better to start from bottom to the top and not from top to bottom analysis. Since the foundation is poor, at an early stage, most of our students finds it difficult to  speak good English when they get to secondary schools. No wonder you see a graduate of other disciplines find it difficult to communicate effectively in English. It has even come to a stage that, when you see professors in other disciplines apart from English speak a jaw breaking grammar that have concord disagreement. We should know that English is an official language in Nigeria, and whatever you want to do you have to communicate in English. As a result of this you cannot escape English language throughout your lives in your career of choice. If you want to study engineering, lawyer,  medicine, accounting and other subjects in the university English language is compulsory as a prerequisite for entering with the university. English and the use of English is compulsory in Jamb for all candidates seeking admission into the universities. That is why it is compulsory for English language learning seriously serious at the beginning of one education. Most of the problems that affect the teaching of English arises from the fact our government, could not train adequate English experts to be teaching English in most of our secondary schools. Imagine a teacher of history teaching English. It is a belief that teachers of arts subjects like History, Government, CRS, Yoruba, French should be able to teach English effectively. This is an erroneous notion since most of these people does not  know the structure of English, the syntactic, phonetic phonological aspect of pronouncing  English currently. Research have shown that Ghanaian people are good in pronunciation of oral English   than any other countries in West Africa including Nigeria. May be English teachers are scarce so says one Professor in one of the Nigerian Univeisties. That is why students fail in English. The question arises who is responsible for the employment of teachers. We have enough graduates of English roaming about the street of Nigeria without being employed.  Our government could be blamed on one areas, which I think they are faulty. Like one anonymous professor who put the apportion blame of mass failure of English, on planes of parents and children in schools coupled with the economic status of parents often determined their success in academics are equally right.