LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 11 : 10 October 2011
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.

HOME PAGE

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIAL

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Contributors from South Asia may also e-mail their articles to
    B. Mallikarjun,
    Central Institute of Indian Languages,
    Manasagangotri,
    Mysore 570006, India     mallikarjun@ciil.stpmy.soft.net.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2011
M. S. Thirumalai
Custom Search

Impact of Learner Conversations in ESL / EFL Classrooms: An Exploration With Nigerian Students

Dele Ashade, M.A. (TESOL)

Abstract

English language learning/teaching in Nigeria is based largely on an admixture of the moribund Grammar Translation Method and the Audiolingual method which hardly afford learners the opportunity to practise the language and skills they have learnt in the classroom. This has led to a situation where learners are unable to function in the language with the level of accuracy expected. This paper attempts to determine the factors that promise to encourage students from Nigeria who will be involved in learner conversations in the ESL classroom as well as present to the average ESL teacher elsewhere, tips on using conversations to achieve accuracy-learning goals. Thus, classroom activities, learners’ attitudes and the role of teachers which ultimately cement the gains of the theoretical learning of the structures and skills of the language are enunciated in this paper.

Key-words: verbal communication, production, accuracy and fluency, classroom, ESL

Introduction

One evidently missing aspect of ESL pedagogy in Nigeria is learner interpersonal verbal communication in the classroom. Cameron, (2001, p. 106) avouches that, “...being able to talk about language is very different from being able to talk in the language”. Tarvin and Al-Arishi (1991:24) suggest that, it is true that, “... learning is seen as totally a personal and subjective matter” and that, “... language acquisition is totally dependent on interactional negotiation”. Obanya (2002) believes that interaction, which should be multi-dimensional and multi-media exchanges (verbal and non-verbal) in the course of classroom language teaching and learning activities, is obviously absent in Nigerian schools.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Dele Ashade, M.A. (TESOL) ESL Department, Educare Continental Institute, P.O. Box 238, Ile-Ife Osun State Nigeria ashdelle@gmail.com
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you either cited or used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian scholarship.