Transforming English Education in Nigeria: A Tale of Teaching Farming, Language, and Contextualization

I currently volunteer as an English teacher at a public school. During class last week, I announced that farming was the career path for the week. (If you would like to know why this information is important, kindly read our previous articles.)

In line with this path, I planned to teach the pupils how to use nouns, verbs, and conjunctions and also how to write invoices, letters, and text messages.

At the start of the class, I declared the entire class farmers, including me.

Some were offended. Others were intrigued. I was pleased.

I could tell they were confused. Was I teaching an English class or Agriculture? But I continued the lesson by explaining that while farmers may rear animals and plant crops, they can also read and write, just like any other person.

The entire class was shocked, and I had a five-minute argument with some of my students. They insisted that farmers do not, in fact, write, nor can they read.

The same reaction happened with a student I teach privately. She even insisted farmers do not have phones and, therefore, cannot send text messages. The argumentative students were aged 8 to 15 — all in primary school.

Their reactions are interesting. The issue may be that my pupils regard language as a subject rather than a tool that can be used in every aspect of life. This is partly because educators have yet to contextualise English Language learning, in particular, and language learning in general.

But English is a language and, hence, a tool.

Language teaching should be interdisciplinary in approach, covering as many aspects and opportunities of communication as possible.

This can mean, for example, ensuring language learners understand that language is used by people from different walks of life. This allows them to view every interaction and experience as an opportunity or reflection of language learning — from having a conversation with a friend on the best toys to walking down the street noticing how different banners and advertisements are displayed.

This way of contextualising language acquisition is effective for ensuring language learning beyond the classroom walls. It makes learning agents out of students.

Upon analysis of some British textbooks, I could already see this approach of contextualising language. However, I must cheekily insist that Vividly’s execution of the approach is unique and appreciative of Nigeria’s multi-ethnic background.

We must remember that English is generally taught and received as a first language in Britain while we experience English in Nigeria as a second language; hence, it is essential to modify their tried-and-tested strategies to our needs.

In short, English learning must respond to the heterogeneity of Nigeria, not deny it.

In an unrelated tangent, I cannot get on board with sidelining grammar instruction. It is counterproductive to assume that students will autonomously deduce grammar rules without direct instruction. This is because there are diverse definitions on what ‘standard’ English can mean; therefore, teaching the truly ‘standard’ grammar is still a must. I will delve deeper into this point in upcoming articles and the reasons for my air quotes, but for now, I thought it was worth mentioning.

Thank you for reading!