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Factors Affecting Secondary School Oral English Instruction
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Oral proficiency should be
made inherent in both Instructors (teachers)and learners (students).
Jowitt(1991) confirms that the emphasis on proficiency in spoken English
was introduced in the New National Curriculum in English language for
Nigerian Secondary Schools in the 1980s. It was previously neglected in
the teaching of English in Nigeria as oral English was made optional for
the West African School Certificate students (though a compulsory
course for teacher grade II examinations in those days). Roach (2000)
confirms that pronunciation teaching has not always been popular with
teachers and language theorists and in the 1970s and 1980s. It was
fashionable to treat it as a rather outdated activity. It was claimed
that it makes learners try to sound like native speakers of Received
Pronunciation, which became difficult and led to repetitive exercises,
and it also failed to give importance to communication.
Jowitt (1991)
comments about the negligence of oral English teaching on teachers. He
stated that pupils unconsciously relied on mother tongue models when
deprived them of consistent and reliable guidance from teachers, as
indeed many of teachers did: assuming that there was a perfect
correspondence between sound and spelling. They use orthography as their
guide to pronunciation. Anthony (2001) and Uche (1998) emphasise the
difficulties of acquiring oracy skills. According to Williams (1990),
the factors to be enumerated could be categorised under one factor – the
interference of mother tongue. It is worth noting that for the
non-native speakers, the mother tongue always affects the acquisition of
the second language. This has always, been a major problem in oral
English or pronunciation teaching especially in Nigerian schools. Unoh
(1986) also examines the situation of oral English in Nigerian secondary
schools. He asserts that teaching of English pronunciation in Nigeria
suffers from peculiar handicaps unknown to the teaching of English
language or any other school subject (for that matter). For any subject
to be effectively taught, there are at least three very important
conditions that must be met:
A high degree of motivation on the part of both student and teacher; and
The teachers’ competence in the subject, and his or her mastery of the techniques of imparting knowledge in it.
Availability of relevant books as well as standard facilities for practical.
While
the aforementioned conditions are rarely achieved in the teaching of
English Language, they are also hardly met in the case of the teaching
and learning of English pronunciation. Okoli (2000) comments on the need
to be proficient in the sound system of a new language and explains
that English should be pronounced in the accent normally chosen as the
standard form especially the model most often recommended for foreign
learners studying standard British English and also Received
Pronunciation.
The teaching of oral English in Nigerian secondary
schools has previously been overlooked. However, recent development in
the teaching of English Language requires greater emphasis on this
aspect of English language. Oral English complements the understanding
and the use of English language so as to improve the standard of spoken
English. According to Idris (2001), not much has been achieved since the
introduction of Oral English in our West African School Certificate and
National Examination Council due to the problems associated with the
teaching and learning of oral English. There are existing publications
on phonology written by Linguists such as A.C. Gimson, Daniel Jones,
David Jowitt, Peter Roach, among others. Recently, there is the
emergence of new publications particularly on Oral English by other
language teachers, researchers and scholars such as Mannell, Cox, and
Harrington (2009), Akperero (2000), Enyeazu (2001), and Idris (2001).
This development has gone a long way in bringing oral English into
focus. Its recent inclusion in the English Language Examination Paper
(Test of Orals) has drawn the attention of many teachers and students.
Consequently,
the teaching of oral English is rather weighed down by various factors
which have contributed to the slow pace and ineffectiveness in teaching
the course. These factors include:
Poor background.
Interference of mother tongue.
Unqualified teachers, poor teaching methodology
Lack of constant practice,
Lack of orientation and facilities
Shortage and limited accessibility to relevant books.
Most
of the students in our secondary schools are faced with either one of
the problems or the other. Some are deficient due to more than one
problem especially students from rural and poor backgrounds. This study
examines some of the major challenges that the teaching of oral English
could be faced with in Nigerian secondary schools.
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