ENGLISH LANGUAGE
American English Live Series:
Rejuvenating
English Language
Education
Participating teachers display their certificates on completion of the English Language program
by Fatima Umar
14
E
CROSSROADS | May/June 2018
nglish is Nigeria’s official
language and the primary
language of instruction. As
a result it is the country’s
most important medium of
communication. English also
serves to unite Nigerian citizens
throughout the country, who speak
more than 300 different languages,
because it is the lingua franca for
educated persons.
Sadly, however, there is a high failure
rate in English at the secondary school
level. Among the reasons for this
poor performance are lack of funding,
cultural bias, and high rates of child
labor to name a few. The English
teaching landscape is characterized by
too few trained teachers, exponential
growth in enrollment rates, erratic
government funding, lack of
infrastructure, economic hardship,
and early marriage for girls. There