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ANALYSIS OF THE EXPECTED AND ACTUAL ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEEDS OF THE NIGERIA CERTIFICATE IN EDUCATION (NCE) STUDENTS IN NORTH-WEST ZONE

Abstract

The study investigates the needs of NCE trainees in order to fill the gap between the actual and the expected English language needs of these subjects. It examines the adequacy or otherwise of the minimum standards used to train NCE English Language students. Students from the North-West geographical zone were used as case study to determine what the NCE trainees need to perform effectively at the primary school. The study employed an opinion scale on questionnaires on experts and NCE III students to elicit the respondents views on what should constitute the expected language skills needs of the NCE English trainees, which they considered important in the minimum standards, the availability of the skills in the program of study and their understanding of the teaching of the skills. The trainees were also observed on practical teaching using the observation checklist to rate their performance in classroom practices. Five (5) colleges of education were specifically selected. A total of four hundred and fifty (450) respondents were used for the study. Three (3) research questions and three (3) null-hypotheses were raised, tested and answered. Descriptive statistics was the major statistical tool used to analyze the data. The study revealed among other things that deficit needs were observed in the actual minimum standard of NCE III English students in the language skills of listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammatical structure and teaching methodology. The implication of the gaps observed is that the minimum standard in use is not sufficiently adequate to meet with all the English needs of the trainees. Consequently, the study proposed a merger or marriage of the gaps established with the actual needs by providing a comprehensive syllabus that would meet the needs of NCE English language trainees in all the language skills in the North-west zone. It focuses on the discovered appropriate knowledge and skills required by these trainees to function effectively in the primary school, based on the assessment of their perceived needs that arose in the course of the study.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background to the Study

Needs analysis has been widely accepted as a vital prerequisite to the specification of language learning objectives. This development constitutes one of the fundamental principles underlying learner-centered systems of language learning; that, teaching/learning programmes should be responsive to the learners’ needs (Urah & Urah, 1984 in Isyaku, 2002).   

In recent years, there has been a good deal of disagreement in English Language Teaching (ELT) circles over the meaning of ‘needs’ and what ‘needs analyses’ entail. According to Bower (1980), this agreement has resulted in the emergence of two orientations to needs analyses. The first is termed the ‘narrow’ or ‘product-oriented interpretation of needs; whereby the learners’ needs are seen solely in terms of the language they will have to use in a particular communication situation. Needs analyses, therefore, become a process of finding out as much as possible, before learning begins, about the learner’s current and future language use.

On the other hand, proponents of the second interpretation of needs, which is called the ‘broad’ or process-oriented interpretation, see it primarily in terms of the needs of the learner as an individual in the learning situation. If this view of needs is adopted, then needs analyses mean much more than the definition of target language behavior. Need analysis means trying to identify and take into account a multiplicity of affective and cognitive variables which affect learning; such as learners’ attitudes, motivation, awareness, personality, wants, expectations, and learning style (Baddeley, 1986). The necessity of finding a balance between the two approaches to needs analyses and by extension, to curriculum design and evaluation has been echoed by Bowers, (1980).

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