An Assessment of Language Clubs in the Teaching and Learning of English in Junior Secondary School Students in Northern Nigeria

This article is published by the Zamfara International Journal of Humanities.

By

Hauwa Tanko Muhammad (PhD)

Department of Languages, School of General Studies,
Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa,
Nasarawa - Nigeria
Nasarawa State
08069146691,

 

Saidu Yahaya Ojoo (PhD)

Department of English and Literature,
Federal University Gusau,
Zamfara-Nigeria
saiduoyahaya@fugusau.edu.ng

 08036498672

&

Abba Theresa  Iya

Department of Languages,
School of General Studies,
Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa,
Nasarawa - Nigeria
08067045541 

Abstract

This research articles investigates the active engagement of language clubs to enhance the teaching and learning of English among the Junior Secondary School Students in Northern Nigeria. English club is one of the language learning strategies which are mostly geared towards improving students’ speaking ability. The researchers reviewed literature from the previous researches on the subject matter. The main objective of the study is to investigate whether or not Language Club enhance teaching and learning of English among Junior Secondary School Students in Northern Nigeria. Survey design was used for the study, and questionnaire was used to elicit information from selected public junior secondary school students across the three geo-political zones of northern Nigeria. Likert Scale Analysis propounded by Rensis was adopted as the theoretical framework of analysis. On the wholly, the work discovers among other things that the introduction and the use of Language Club to teach and learn English language would no doubt improve the learning of English among the junior secondary school in Nigeria, particularly that of the Northern Nigeria. The paper also recommends that government should improve on the provision of infrastructural facilities at the villages to facilitate the teaching and learning of English through the use of language club. In other words, language clubs need to be powered by electricity to power the machine as well as made the environment conducive for learning activities.

Key words: Language, Language Clubs, Language skills, Northern Nigeria

Introduction

English language is widely spoken and taught all over the world. It is considered a lingua franca. It is also considered by many to be an international as well as the universal language. The multi-lingual and multi-cultural nature of Nigerian polity on the one hand and the absence of a national unifying indigenous language on the other have led to the adoption of English language as a medium of intra-national and inter-national communication (Fakeye 2006). More importantly is the fact that English language has become the pivot on which the educational wheel of Nigeria rotates. It is the medium of instruction for all school subjects from the primary school level to the university, in addition to being a compulsory school subject that must be passed at all levels of education in Nigeria Ajufo (2007).

English language is widely distributed and is currently the primary language of a number of countries. It is extensively used and taught as a second language around the world; and most especially in countries like Nigeria, India, Pakistan and South-Africa; and it is also used by more people across the globe. In Nigerian context,  English is taught as a second language to enable learners understand and speak English effectively, read with the required understanding as well as write in good English for effective communication. To achieve this aim, the focus of teaching and learning English language in Nigerian schools has been geared towards the acquisition of the four language skills in order to achieve the target priorities in the language. These skills include listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Listening means paying auditory attention with a view of getting meaning from the oral messages and the spoken linguistics exchanges carried out with people around you or far away from you. The best way to understand people is to listen to them. Listening is a communicative language learning activity. It is the first language skill to be developed. This is to say, before babies can even talk, read or write in whatever language, they must have logged in serious hours of listening. They listen to how their parents talk to them and to people around. We shall be discussing details of the four language skills under the literature review section of this article.

In the main time, the main purpose of teaching English is for communicative competence. Therefore, the implementation of English language teaching is a skill which has become an important part of student’s daily life. Thus, students must improve their ability to communicate in English or conversational skills to achieve the goal of spoken English. Indeed, it has been discovered by several researches conducted by scholars in English language that effective teacher strategies are adaptation, exemplary, accustomed, and a touch of the heart (Suriansyah & Aslamiah, 2018). The student’s achievement is related with learning strategy. The two scholars concluded that the habituation can be learned by a teacher to achieve communicative competence, especially in English, for example organization or activity in speaking skill (English club).

 English club is one of the language learning strategies. For institution especially, as empowerment English club to the student’s achievement in speaking ability. Empowerment in this context simply means ability to do something or ability to act. This means, getting to become empowered means to be empowered, capable, powerful, to have the intellect, ways to deal with something, etc. Thus, the need for the inculcation of an active engagement of language clubs for the enhancement of teaching English in junior secondary schools students in Northern Nigeria is the crux of this current research.

 

Statement of the Study

As earlier stated in our introduction of this research article, that English is an important language spoken by the vast majority of the world population; hence, a country that master the use of English, can be said to have entered the era of globalization and can establish various kinds of international relations with other countries of the world. People can communicate with people from other countries of the world. Therefore, this paper propagate the active use of language clubs to enhance the teaching and learning of English among the Junior Secondary Schools across the three geo-political zones of North-Central, North-East, and North-West- Nigeria .

 

Objectives of the Study

1.       To determine the use of language clubs to enhance the learning of English among the junior secondary school students in Northern Nigeria.

2.       To determine the students’ commitment and attitude towards the use of language Club in learning English language.

3.       To determine the school environmental factors responsible for the lack Language Club in learning of English by JSS students in Northern Nigeria.

 

Related Literature and Conceptual Classifications

Language is the divine gift of God. It is language that distinguishes human being (man) from animals. It is a means for the collection of words strung together in sentences but each word having a separate identity and meaning. Language is not a random behavior, but a system where certain orderings are accepted as having prescribed meanings. For example, “The boy is handsome” is not the same as “Is the boy is handsome”. Thus, English is also a language used to give expression to thoughts and feelings of a social group or strata. Though English is an official language yet it is a foreign language for Nigerians. Language is essentially a skill. It is not a content-based subject like- Basic-Science, Biology, Geography, Social Studies, Commerce, and Mathematics, etc., which aim is to impart information and fill the human mind with knowledge. Language is a skill, and it naturally comes under psychomotor domain. A skill may be called the ability to do something well. Driving, swimming, dribbling, playing, etc. is skills which people perform after acquiring them. Knowing about these things is an intellectual exercise (cognition) and using or doing them is a skill (action).

 

Listening: this is the first language skill to be developed. This simply means that, before a baby can talk, read or write, he must have logged in serious time of listening to people around him, especially to his parents as they talk. It is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process. Being a good listener helps solve problems, resolve conflicts, and improve relationships. In the workplace, effective listening contributes to fewer errors; less wasted time, and improved accuracy. In fact, effective listening helps build friendships and careers. People make mistake for taking listening as a passive activity, where one just sit and orient his ear to the audio or sounds. Far from that, as listening as a skill requires serious active activity in order to get the required information.

 

Speaking:  this is the second in hierarchy of language skills. Indeed, it is the real meaning of language acquisition. In other words, it is what comes to mind whenever language acquisition is mentioned. It is the most vivid proof of one’s linguistic gobs with complex cognitive and linguistic skill. Speaking effectively is defined as speaking in such a way that your message is clearly heard; and if possible, acted upon. There are two major factors to speaking effectively: what you say, and how you say it. What you say means your choice of words. The words you might use when chatting to a friend are likely to be quite different from those used in a formal presentation or interview. Moreover, the way that you speak will also vary in different situations: for example, whether you naturally talk quietly or loudly, and how you use body language.

 

Reading: it is a skill that every student must aspire to acquire. Just as there are many readable materials to read so also there are different approaches of reading. Some books are to be tested; others are to be swallowed; and some few to be chewed and digested. Thus, some books are to read only in parts; others to be read but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others (quoted in CCEUCC 2014). Therefore, reading goes with comprehension. In other words, the aim of reading is achieved, only if the reader can comprehend whatever he or she has read. It is also a very important aspect of the language skills

.

Writing: it means putting letters or symbols together to form a meaningful concept. In any communication, writing has a very remarkable place. Good writing skills allow you to communicate your message with clarity and ease. Writing is a creative skill as other skills proficiency comes with practice same case in writing, and are highly essentials because organization needs professional writers. Some people develop writing skills as career like poets, authors and historian etc. in many respects, writing can actually be easier than speaking the target language. This means, that with the written form, language learners actually have a visible record in front of them. Written texts are more pliable than spoken words.

 

Language Clubs

English language club program could simply be defined as students’ extra learning program besides the regular English class. This activity is geared towards the mastering skills of English in teaching and learning activities. This is to say, that an English club is a group exercise which focuses on the teaching and learning of the target language. This activity, in most cases where it is practice occurs three times a week for between ten and eleven year old children. The emphasis of the English club is on exposure to the English language rather than the development of a strict set of English language skills.

The type of activities found in English language club is more like the types of hands on activities found in a Boy Scout’ meeting than the teacher centred activities found in a formal classroom activity. Activities of the English club include storytelling, speech and debate competition. For these activities, English club needs an instructor. A number of schools get English teachers as its instructor or ask an instructor from external school even a native speaker of English. English club as an extracurricular program of English contributes to students in developing their speaking skill in the classroom or outside the classroom. English language club makes an enjoyable and stress-free language learning situation. It can only increase and find its way to a successful outcome and it could be a vehicle to light the spark of interest.

 

Procedures

An Overview of the Study Area: The Northern, Nigeria

The study investigated a number of selected public junior secondary school students in the three northern geo-political zones of North-Central (NC), North-East (NE), and North-West (NW). The North-Central geopolitical zone comprises of Kwara, Plateau, Niger, Benue, Kogi, Nasarawa, and FCT, Abuja; North-West geopolitical Zone comprises of Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, and Kebbi states; North-East Zone made up of Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Taraba, Bauchi, and Gombe states.  The entire states within the northern Nigeria are our study areas. Thus, junior secondary school students in the areas would be brought forward to investigate the use of active engagement of language clubs in teaching English to Junior Secondary School Students. 

 

Fig.1   Map of Nigeria showing the six geopolitical zones and 36 states

 

Population of the Study

The population of the study comprises of selected junior secondary school students in public schools from the three Northern geopolitical zones of Nigeria. There are well over 500,000 junior secondary school students in the three Northern geopolitical zones of North-Central, North-West, and North-East. Participants were randomly selected from public junior secondary schools of this area through a stratified random sampling technique. Each zone would be stratified along component states. For instance, North-Central comprises of six states with FCT, Abuja; the North-East comprises of six states; and North-West comprises of seven states. This study involves 19 states of the northern region with FCT, Abuja. A number of three states were selected at random from each geopolitical zone. Nine (9) public junior secondary schools were equally selected from each of the state selected for the study (that is, three schools from each senatorial district).  Thus, twent-seven (27) schools were selected for the study from each geopolitical zone, making a total of eighty-one (81) schools from the zones under investigation.

 

Method of Data Collection

The subjects were selected from a large pool of students who indicated interest after the objective of the study was explained to them. Questionnaire, oral interviews and informal interaction were employed to elicit information from the students. Key Person Interview (KPI) was also used to verify/supplement the information obtained from the oral and informal interactions. A few members of participants were interviewed to ascertain whether the active use of language club in the teaching and learning of English have improved the standard of the students’ spoken and written English.

 

Research Design

The research design employed for the study was purely the survey design. It was designed to gather data on the need for language clubs for the learning of English language among the selected junior secondary school students within the three geo-political zones of Northern Nigeria.

 

Instrumentation

Likert Scale Theory which undertake that the strength of an attitude is linear on a continuum from strongly agreed to strongly disagreed; and makes the assumption that attitudes can be measured is used for the analysis of our data. Relevant data were collected by researchers’ questionnaires. It is based on the four (4) Likert Scale Theory which was developed in 1932 by Rensis Likert to measure attitude of typical Likert Scale of 5-7 points’ ordinary scale used by respondents to rate the degree to which they agree or disagree with a statement (table). In an ordinary scale, responses are not measurable (Likert, 1932). Therefore, in this present research work, Scale responses are as follow: Strongly Agree (SA), Agree (A), Disagree (D), and Strongly (SD). The respondents were asked to tick only one option. The structured questionnaire is in two categories.

 

Category A: demanded demographic into the personal details of the students’ age, sex, school type and class.

 

Category B: this contains 10 items: the student factor, students’ attitude and commitment, method s of learning English language, the use of English language clubs and societies, the use of other instructional materials in learning English and the school environmental factors.

 

Objective 1: to determine the use of language clubs to enhance the learning of English among the junior secondary school students in Northern Nigeria.

 

The above table reveals that the factors listed in the items geared towards the use of Language Club to enhance teaching and learning of English language among the junior secondary school students in Northern Nigeria.  It also indicates that teachers’ responses to items in the questionnaire were more on agreed and strongly disagreed columns. The means response ranges between 3.41 and 3.00.  It is of important to note that teachers strongly agreed that lack of qualified teachers/instructors to use language club to teach the students is also part of the problems.

 

Objective 2: to determine students’ commitment and attitude towards the use of language Club in learning English language.

 

S/N	ITEMS	SA	A	D	SD	MEANS RESPONSE
1	Students lack interest in the use of Language Club for learning English.	10050	0	0	0	3.26
2	Lack of commitment by the students in learning English.	97556	59110	18700	550	3.44
3	Students need to be actively involved in using language Club for learning English	105755	52630	17535	-	3.50
4	Students have psychological fear of English language.	111760	43634	5016	15450	3.43
5	Parents should support the students with necessary learning materials.	112342	40180	11120	12278	3.43

Table 2

 

The result in above table indicates lack of commitment and attitude towards the use of language club to learn English by the students. Indeed, commitment and positive attitude on the part of students is a necessary requirement. This is because, commitment is paramount to learning. Therefore, from the available data, it is clear that the means response of 3.50 to 3.26 which is in line with the criteria for disapproving a course of action. 

 

Objective 3: to determine whether the school environment factors responsible for the lack Language Club in learning of English by JSS students in Northern Nigeria.

 

The means response in the above table shows that, teachers accepted the school environment as a factor affecting the use of Language Club in teaching and learning of the English language.  Thus, the means value range from 3.66 to 3.38 which is in line with the criteria for acceptance. The largest number of respondents simply agreed to the fact that learning environment should be made conducive for effective teaching and learning.

 

Findings and Discussions

On the use of language clubs to enhance the learning of English among the junior secondary school students in Northern Nigeria; it was discovered from the analysis of our data that, the use of Language Club enhance teaching and learning of English among the JSS students. It was discovered that English club gives improving motivation, improving speaking, improving vocabulary, improving grammar, improving pronunciation, improving their achievement in English. Students’ activities in learning speaking process are very good. Majority of the respondents agreed to the fact that Language Club enhances teaching and learning of English language.

On students’ commitment and attitude towards the use of language Club in learning English language, it has been proven that a student who has a positive attitude towards his or her learning will no  doubt, be highly motivated to engage in activities that will promote learning. Thus, self- commitment is fundamental to whatever a student is interested in doing. Students should develop positive attitudes and commitment to the use of Language Club in learning English language.

On the school environment factors responsible for the lack Language Club in learning of English by JSS students in Northern Nigeria. it was discovered that, most villages are without adequate infrastructure to drive the use of Language Club to teach and learn English language. available data points to the fact that, most villages have no electricity supply or befitting halls where students can learn the various activities of learning through language club.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Language is the vehicle of social interaction and we need effective language to function properly in work place, social interaction and indeed for functional literacy. It must be emphasized that a person is functional literate when he has acquired the knowledge and skills in reading and writing which enable him to engage effectively in all those activities in which literacy is normally assured in his culture of group. Thus, works concludes that the state of English language teaching and learning, especially among the junior secondary school students in the three geo-political zones of Northern Nigeria needs to be improved and modified for better results. This means that there is the need for the provision of effective Language Club to enhance the learning of English language among the junior secondary school students of northern Nigeria. Thus, from the evidence abound from this research paper, it is crystal clear that the introduction and the use of Language Club to teach and learn English language would no doubt improve the learning of English among the junior secondary school in Nigeria, particularly the that of the Northern Nigeria.

 

On Recommendations, this research article recommended as follow:

1.       That effort should be made by the government and the stakeholders to train teachers/instructors on how to operate language club to teach the students at the junior secondary school levels.

2.       Government should improve on the provision of infrastructural facilities at the villages to facilitate the teaching and learning of English through the use of language club. In other words, language clubs need to be powered by electricity to power the machine as well as made the environment conducive for learning activities.

3.       There is also the need to provide funds for the operation of language clubs in our schools. The machines need to be constantly maintained for optimal performance.

4.       Above all, there should be adequate recruitment and training of qualified teachers to run the language clubs in our schools.

 

 

References

 

Adeyanju, D.  (1998). “A Comparative Sociolinguistics Analysis of the Form and Function of Taboon in English and Yoruba’’. A Thesis Submitted at the Department of Modern European Languages University of Ilorin, Ilorin.

----------(2006) Sociolinguistics In Nigeria Context. Ile Ife: Obafemi Awolowo University Press.

Agheyisi, R. (1994). “linguistic Implication of the Changing Role of Nigerian Pidgin English”  English World-wide.  

Allen, Irving L. (1983). The Language of Ethnic Conflict. Social Organization and Lexical Culture. New York.

Alufohai, P.J. (2017). “Short message services (SMS)texting language among students in Nigeria: implications for writing English language”. European Journal of language studies, vil4 (2)

Aziza, R. (2003)“Pidgin and the Indigenous Languages of the Warri of Delta State. In Ndimele,  O.  (ed.) Languages and Linguistics In Nigeria: National Institute of Languages. 

Barber, C.  (1968). The flux of language. London: University of London Press

Crystal, D. (2003). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English language. 2^nd ed.                 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Dabalem et al. (2000). Labour market prospects for university graduates.

Ellis, R. & Tomilson,, B. (1982)Teaching secondary English: a guide to the teaching of  English as a second language. London: Longmann Group Ltd

Gumperz, John. & Hymes, Dell. (1972). (eds.) Directions in Sociolinguistics: The  Ethnography of Communication. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and  Winston.

Gumperz, John. (1976). “The Sociolinguistic Significance of Conversational Code -switching.” In, Cook- Gumperz, J and Gumperz J. Papers on Language and Context. California: Language Behaviour Research Laboratory, University of California.

Heller, Monica. (1995b) “Code-switching and the politics of Language”. In Milroy, L.&Muysken,

Pieter. (eds.), One Speaker Tow Languages: Cross- Disciplinary Perspectives on Code-switching. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Holliday, A. (1994). “Students culture and English language education: an international  Perspective”. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 7 (2)

Holliday, A. (2005). The struggle to teach English as an international language. Oxford:  Oxford University Press.

Kachuru, B. (1991). “Liberation linguistics and the Quirk concern”. English Today 7 (1)

Kolawole, C. O. (1998). “Linguistics imports and three models of presentation of students’ Achievements in senior secondary school essay writing” (Unpublished) PhD Dissertation, university of Ibadan

Myers-Scotton, Carol. (1993b) Duelling Languages: Grammatical Structure in Code -switching. New York: Oxford University Press.

Myers-Scotton, Carol. (1996b) Multiple Voices: an introduction to Bilingualism: London: Blackwell Publishing.

Myers-Scotton, Carol.  (1996b) Social Motivations For Code-switching: Evidence from  Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Oluikpe, B.  (1979). “Teaching the art of continuous writing in tertiary education”. In  Ubahakwe, E. (ed). The teachers of English studies. Ibadan: Ibadan university press

Saidu, O.Y. (2021). “A study on the decline in the proficiency level of english language among senior secondary school students in northern Nigeria. in Mobi Journal of Language (MOJULA). A publication of the Department of English, Adamawa State University Mubi,

Salami, O.L. “Sociolinguistic Survey in Africa: Prospects and Problems of Urban  Sociolinguistics Survey in Africa-notes from Ile-Ife Nigeria.”Anthropological Linguistics.  1986. (4),28. 

Widdowson, H. G.  (1994). “The ownership of English”. TELSO Quarterly, 28 (2)