English for Examination Purposes (EEP): A Norm or a Genre?

This is a paper proposing the recognition of English for Examination Purposes (EEP). It is a report of an‘ unscheduled‘ quasi experimental research over 278 college students in Nigeria getting prepared to sit for Senior School Certificate English. The researcher was consulted to bring in a palliative measure as an intervention model on a school at comatose for roughly four years with reference to making the students in the Certificate year acquire the qualifying credit in English to proceed after their graduation from the college. Relying heavily on Communicative English Approach, the researcher focused the in-coming examination in choosing the right strategies to carry out the consultancy. The seven week project saw the students writing over thirty essays (including letters), engaging in extensive practice in Lexis and structure with more than a hand on Summary and Comprehension while receiving immediate feedback in all cases. The highest mean grade of 4.51 was recorded in 2006 when the treatment and the examination took place compared to the previous years. Thus Exam focused English language strategy is recommended for practice in countries where students need a minimum of credit grade in English to make it into the university and the teaching and learning conditions were not favourable enough to equip them for their public examination under normal circumstances

Promoting EFL Learning through Group Dynamics

This paper discusses possible ways of making the learning of English as a foreign language (EFL), easy. The world of teaching and learning tends to consistently increase awareness of educators on the need to make learning easier, much more practical and learner centered. One of the ways of achieving this is through group dynamics which had been ‘tested’ time and again in sciences and social sciences. This paper counsels the language educators to use this strategy to enhance language learning at all levels of language teaching. What makes this article different from similar papers on this subject is that it centers on the elements of team work and grouping ‘therapy’ and not mere dividing into groups and then using some other methods to help groups learn. Rather, the paper is about the need to understand the EFL classroom and tap the nature of man (the learner) as a social animal who needs to function in groups, benefiting from and being a benefit to the same.Key Words: EFL, group dynamics, grouping therapy, team work, social trait conformit

Effect of Home Video on the Reading Habit of Literate Nigerian Housewives

The study investigated the effects of home-video on the reading habit of ahundred (100) randomly selected literate house-wives in one of the 752 local government areas of Nigeria. The descriptive survey method was used to field the views of the respondents on the use of home made video with reference to their reading habit. Through the four-point Scale it was found that, indeed, the emergence of home video in Nigeria and particularly its sporadic expansion in the recent time has a great effect on the reading habit of Nigerian house wives

Reading Culture and Internet Browsing: A Shift of Paradigm among Nigerian Adolescents?

This study was conducted to examine the state of adolescents’ readiness to project a stable reading culture in a society where the growth of ICT is catching their fancy, A total of 100 respondents, 52 awaiting admission into the university and 48 in their first year in the university, were used. Four hypotheses were tested to confirm the average number of hours the participants devout to browsing on one hand and to reading on the other, identify gender difference in respondents’ perception of the time they spend and what they use the time for and if their browsing indeed have any impact on their reading habit. The participants’ awareness of the existence of ICT language training programmes was equally tested and whether such have impact on adolescents’ attitude to reading or studying. All the four hypotheses were rejected and probable reasons advanced. The thrust of the recommendation is that it is possible to assist the adolescents to combine their drive for internet browsing with the essential culture of reading

Mother's Education, Age and Knowledge about Home Accident Prevention among Preschool Children in Ilesa Metropolitan City: A Relational Approach

This paper examines the effect of mother education on prevention of home accident among preschool children in Ilesa Metropolitan city. The study adopted survey method in data collection using structured questionnaire. Cluster random sampling technique was adopted based on the two Local governments in the city. 187 nursing mothers from both Local Governments were interviewed. The data collected were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings revealed that there is highly significant difference between mothers’ knowledge and their education attainment (?=39.93; p-value=0.0000) indicating that level of education attainment has significant difference on the level of knowledge regarding the causes and prevention of home accident among pre-school children. Furthermore, the result shows a high level of significant difference between mothers’ age and the level of knowledge display on the causes and prevention of home accidents (?=18.78; p-value=0.0000). This indicates that the older a mother is the more knowledge she would have acquired as far as home accidents are concern. The study recommends that high premium should be placed on educational programme on home accidents and how it could be managed if it occurs, especially for mothers who have pre-school children. This may be part of both Pre and Post-natal training programme in hospitals. Also, under-aged mothers need be monitored and educated by experienced mothers and Community Health workers on the causes and prevention of home accidents among pre-school age children and that we should be our brothers’ keeper. Keywords: Home Accident, Mother’s Age, Mother's Education, Pre-school Childre

Literacy Teaching: How Much Grammar Is Required in Writing as an Expressive Skill?

This paper is a one hypothesis research that investigates the perception of teachers on the effect of grammar on the expressive or productive skill of writing to provide a good platform for literacy teaching. One hundred undergraduates and post-graduates participants—50 each—were given a fifteen-item questionnaire to show their opinion on the relevance of grammar to the teaching of continuous writing. The hypothesis tested at 0.05 level of significance was rejected. Obtaining a mean score of 2.93 above the undergraduate students’ 1.92 in the t-test of the data collected, the findings show that the post-graduate students believe grammar is an essential part of good writing. The researcher consequently suggests ways of slicing up grammar teaching for better performance in writing

Health Literacy Amongst Tuberculosis Patient in a General Hospital in North Central Nigeria

Background: Healthy literacy has been shown to improve health care access and adherence to Tuberculosis (TB) treatment. Still it remains largely unstudied in many high risks, underserved and low literacy African populations. This study aims to bridge the existing knowledge gap by assessing health literacy among patients with TB in a rural town in Northern Nigeria.Methodology: A cross sectional study was conducted among patients who attended the TB clinic of a secondary health care facility in Babura, Jigawa State, Nigeria between Oct 2008 and March 2009. All patients who visited the TB clinic during this period were interviewed.Result: Many (71.6%) reported having been educated about TB by a health worker, mostly on predisposing factors 43.2%, general facts (31.1%) and disease process (21.6%) but less on patient's role in disease management (1.4%). Functional health literacy was high; mean score was 7.9±0.3 out of 10. Knowledge about the disease process, diagnostic requirements and treatment regimen were the highest. However 97.3% felt drugs were no longer necessary once symptoms abated. Patient involvement in treatment decisions was also suboptimal as only 52.7% reported making a joint decision about drug “pick up” options with their physicians.Conclusion: Very high functional literacy score seemed to have been achieved among these rural low literacy TB patients even without a structured health literacy program. However patient participation in treatment seems to be underemphasized and was thus suboptimal. An important gap in patient education regarding continued TB treatment was identified and should be targeted for intervention.Keywords: Health Literacy, Tuberculosis, General Hospital, Nigeri

Variant Word Stress Patterns in the Spoken English of Selected Nigerian Teachers

Earlier studies on word stress patterns in Nigerian English (NE) have focused mainly on how it differs from British English (BE) and have presented a picture of homogeneous and deviant word stress patterns in NE. Currently, little is known about the variant word stress patterns in NE. In line with the above statements, this study examines empirically the variations in the stress patterns in spoken English, but does so in relation to selected Nigerian teachers. The data were sourced through a text-based research instrument designed to test the stress placement of some English words by purposively selected teachers drawn from Kano, Oyo and Imo states, representing the three major ethno -linguistic groups in Nigeria. From each of the three states, 108 teachers who were indigenes were selected from primary, secondary and tertiary levels of education making 324 in all. They were made to read prepared passages made up of 50 items in context and in isolation. A close perceptual analysis was carried out to ascertain the differences in the performance of the respondents on word stress. The paper employed Metrical Theory for the data analysis. The study revealed that the subjects manifested sophisticated (VIII), standard (VII) and non-standard (VI) variant word stress patterns in their articulations. It concluded that variant stress patterns of the NE are direct consequences of some sociolinguistic variables