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Poor English Language Usage among Fresh Undergraduate Students in Nigerian North-East Universities: Causes and Solutions

Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Poor English language usage in both oral and written communication has been observed among Nigerian fresh university undergraduate students, especially in the North-East. While existing studies on English language usage in Nigeria have largely focused on its teaching and learning in secondary schools, little has been done on how to tackle the problem of poor English language usage among Nigerian fresh university undergraduate students in the North-East. Therefore, this paper examines the causes and problems associated with poor English language usage among fresh undergraduate students of Federal University, Gashua, and selected Universities in the North East. The paper also offers solutions to the identified causes and problems. The study adopted a quantitative research method and employed frequency and simple percentage in the analysis of data. Questionnaires were employed to elicit information from the respondents. 400 Fresh undergraduate students comprising both males and females, studying diverse courses were randomly selected from four North East universities---Federal University, Gashua, Federal University Kukari, Gombe State, Yobe State University and University of Maiduguri, Borno State. One hundred (100) respondents from each of the selected universities were selected. The data were analyzed using frequency and simple percentages. The results of the responses were tabulated, percentages computed and charts were used to show pictorial results. The study found that the majority of the respondents claimed that they were not exposed to items relating to learning of English language and usage of the English language in various communicative settings. While there were also respondents who indicated that they were exposed to such linguistic features. The results of the study showed that a larger percentage of respondents’ lack of exposure to important aspects of English language learning and usage in various communicative settings was mainly responsible for poor usage of English language among fresh undergraduate students in the North-East. The study, therefore, recommends that language skills viz speaking, writing, reading, and listening should be given priority right from basic school as they help greatly in improving students’ performance in the English language
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14285246
Authors: Gabriel Adeyinka OKUNADE, Fatima YUSUF
Language: English
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6893030152
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