*Teaching English in Nigeria: a Communicative Approach*
Ganiu Abisoye Bamgbose (GAB)
English is many things to different people at different times. As a language, it is the first language or mother tongue of native speakers like British, Americans, canadians; and the second or official language to Nigerians, Indians, Ghanaians and many others. It is a foreign language without any official status in some other countries like China and many other countries in Asia. When the world populatuon was about four billion in the early 90’s, it was reported that English was spoken as either a mother tongue, a second language or a foreign language by about one quarter of the world population (see Crystal, 2006). The wide geographical spread of the English language across the globe and its influence as the language of the super power have made its acquisition a prerequisite for personal and national develooment on the world stage.
The international status and prestige of the English language have made many countries, especially those where the language serves as official language (the language of governance, education, commerce, journalism, legislature and upward mobility), adopt the language as a compulsory school subject. This is to help the citizenry grab the basics of the language and to help them use the language effectively. The major concern of this article is to address the approach taken by many schools and teachers in teaching the English language. A methodological deficiency that I have observed over the years in the teaching of the English language in schools is the abstract or formalist approach to language teaching which leads to the memorisation of terms and definitions.
It is important to note that English is first a language before being a subject and the primary essence of teaching it as a subject is to help students gain a mastery of the language. On this premise, anything short of a communicative approach to language teaching cannot yield the end result of attaining fluency in the language. Many students have crammed the definitions of word classes such as noun, verb, and adjective but cannot identify such words in sentences not to say being able to tell when such words function as other word classes.
A communicative approach to language teaching pays attention to how language is used in real life contexts. The approach demands that language teaching and learning should be approached using real life situations. Such approach brings about communicative competence. No one asks anyone what a verb is or what its types are during interactions; such questions are even rarely asked in examinations. It is however surprising why the teaching of English among many second language teachers focus on terms and definitions at the expense of communicative competence.
Hymes (1972) defines communicative competence as the level of language learning that enables language users to convey their messages to others and to understand others’ messages within specified contexts. Teachers should therefore focus more on the interactional use of the language rather than giving attention to the rules of correctness and incorrectness. Language teachers should also be sent on trainings on the methodologies of language teaching. Rules of grammar are primarily the tools in the hands of the language teachers for helping the students cimmunicate well. They are the least of what students need to communicate. A more communicative approach to language teaching will reduce the rate of failure in external examinations and proffer solution to the poor usage of the language among Nigerians.
(c) 2019 Ganiu Abisoye Bamgbose
University of Ibadan
References
Crystal, D. (2006). English worldwide. In Denison, David; Hogg, Richard M. A History of the English language. Cambridge University Press. pp. 420–439.
Hymes, D. (1972). On communicative competence. In J. Pride and J. Holmes (Eds) _Sociolinguistics: selected readings_ (pp 403-413). Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin.
