The Role of Gender in English Language Teaching
THE ROLE OF GENDER IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING IN NIGERIA CASE STUDY OF KANO STATE
BY HAUWA MAGAJIYA BALA (MRS)
DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE MASTERS DEGREE [MA] IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE [TEFL]
SUBMITTED TO LONDON METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY
FEBRUARY 2004
DEDICATION
DEDICATION OF THIS PIECE OF WORK GOES TO MY BELOVED PARENTS, HAJIYA FATIMA ZAHRA AND ALHAJI YUSUF MUSA. MAY GOD BLESS THEM, AMEEN.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I thank the almighty God for giving me the strength and health to go through the rigours of postgraduate degree in the United Kingdom. Needless to say that, this was a turning point in my life. It was an experience that I will never forget in my life. I gratefully acknowledge the help of my supervisor Mr Tim Marr, my personal tutor Fiona English and I will never forget the endless assistance of Dr Janet Enever who was never tired of my enquiries from the start of my course to the end.
I confirm that this dissertation is all my own work Hauwa
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
The roles of education and English language learning in Nigeria have become inter twined. One cannot simply talk about the learning of the English language in Nigeria without reference to education .Education is very important to the Nigerian child especially because of the diverse nature of the society, which made education to be the most important aspect that can unite the whole nation. It is with this in mind that the policy leaders chose the medium used in attaining it, to be the English language. Some of the reasons for choosing the English language could be because of colonisation and as a global language. The future of students in terms of career depends largely on their knowledge of the English language because it is the medium of communication in all government and business places. The question of speaking a standard or acceptable pronunciation of the English language is not however, too much of a bother
BY HAUWA MAGAJIYA BALA (MRS)
DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE MASTERS DEGREE [MA] IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE [TEFL]
SUBMITTED TO LONDON METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY
FEBRUARY 2004
DEDICATION
DEDICATION OF THIS PIECE OF WORK GOES TO MY BELOVED PARENTS, HAJIYA FATIMA ZAHRA AND ALHAJI YUSUF MUSA. MAY GOD BLESS THEM, AMEEN.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I thank the almighty God for giving me the strength and health to go through the rigours of postgraduate degree in the United Kingdom. Needless to say that, this was a turning point in my life. It was an experience that I will never forget in my life. I gratefully acknowledge the help of my supervisor Mr Tim Marr, my personal tutor Fiona English and I will never forget the endless assistance of Dr Janet Enever who was never tired of my enquiries from the start of my course to the end.
I confirm that this dissertation is all my own work Hauwa
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
The roles of education and English language learning in Nigeria have become inter twined. One cannot simply talk about the learning of the English language in Nigeria without reference to education .Education is very important to the Nigerian child especially because of the diverse nature of the society, which made education to be the most important aspect that can unite the whole nation. It is with this in mind that the policy leaders chose the medium used in attaining it, to be the English language. Some of the reasons for choosing the English language could be because of colonisation and as a global language. The future of students in terms of career depends largely on their knowledge of the English language because it is the medium of communication in all government and business places. The question of speaking a standard or acceptable pronunciation of the English language is not however, too much of a bother
References: Aboderin, Yemi (1986): Problem Areas in English Language Learning: Experiment with Some College Freshmen, Paper presented at 5th Annual Conference of Curriculum Organization of Nigeria, Ibadan. Adegbite, W. (1993) “Towards an Efficient Bilingual Program for Teaching language Skills in Nigerian Primary Schools” Literacy and Reading in Nigeria Vol. 6, 340-351 Ako, O. O. (1998). Language and feminism: Sexism in the slang expressions of Obafemi Awolowo University students. B.A. Long Essay, Obafemi Awolowo University . Awobuluyi, O. (1992): Language Education in Nigeria: Theory, Policy, Policy and Practice. Paper presented at the Special National Educational Conference. Bamgbose, A. (1973) `Linguistics and Language Education: Problems and prospects ' Anthropology and Language Science in Educational Development (UNESCO Educational Studies and Documents No.ll) Paris, UNESCO (1973): 27 - 31. Bamgbose, A. (1 971). The English Language in Nigeria. In J. Spencer (ed). The English Language in West Africa. London: Longmans. Bamgbose, A. (1982). Standard Nigerian English. Issues of Identification. In Kachru (ed). The Other Tongue: English across Cultures. Pergamon Press. pp. 99 ~ 1 1 1. Bamgbose, A. (1995). English in the Nigerian Environment. In Bamgbose et al (ed). New Englishes: A West African Perspective. lbadan: Mosuro. pp. 9 - 26. Bate, B. (1988). Communication and the sexes. New York: Harper and Row, Publishers. Cameron, D. (1985). Feminism and linguistic theory. New York: St. Martin 's Press. Cheshire, J. (1985). A question of masculine bias. English Today, 1, 22-26. Crystal, D (1987) The Cambridge encyclopaedia of language, Cambridge: CUP Freed, A. F. (1992). A global perspective of language and gender research: A bibliography. Women and Language, XV.2, 1-7. Hormell, S. J. (1976). Speaking of people: Teaching about sexism in language. In D. Dieterich, (Ed.), Teaching about doublespeak (pp. 166-171). Urbana, Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English. Jacobs, G. M., Qiong-Yan, Z., Jocson, P.C., Wah, O.C., & Austria, M.E.D.(1996). Asian second-language educationists ' views on gender-inclusive English. Working Papers on Language, Gender and Sexism, 6.1, 75-94. Linguistic Society of America (LSA) (1997). LSA guidelines for nonsexist usage. LSA Bulletin, (December), 66. Nilsen, A. P., Bosinajian, H., Gershuny, H.L., & Stanley, J.P. (Eds.) (1977). Sexism and language. Urbana, Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English. Nilsen, H. Bosmajian, H.L. Gershuny and J.P. Stanley, (Eds.), Sexism and Language (pp.71-106). Urbana, Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English. Nilsen, A. P. (1987). Guidelines against sexist language: A case history. In J. Penfield, (Ed.), Women and language in transition (pp. 37-52). Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. Okonkwo, C.E. (1983b): Language Development in Nigerian Education - 1800 to 1980. Journal of Research in Curriculum. Vol. 1, No. 2, 78-92. Pearce, M. O. (1997). Feminism and language in Nigeria: Media role in sexist language use and the case for desexed writing. B.A. Long Essay, Obafemi Awolowo University. Ponterotto, D. (1995). A hint about the attitudes of Italian university students towards the question of gender and language. Working Papers on Language, Gender and Sexism, 5.2, 75-87. Stanley, M. L. (1987) Women 's rights, feminism and politics in the United States Washington, D.C. The American Political Science Association. Schulz, M. R. (1975). The semantic derogation of woman: In B. Thorne, & Henley, N., (Eds.), Language and sex: Difference and dominance (pp. 64-75). Rowley, Massachusetts: Newbury House Publishers, Inc. Sunderland, J., 1990, "The Representation of Gender in Language Classrooms". Paper presented at the World Congress of Applied Linguistics, sponsored by the International Association of Applied Linguistics (9th, Thessaloniki, Greece, April 1521, 1990). ERIC Document ED 323807. Sunderland, J., (1992). "Gender in the EFL Classroom" ELT Journal, 46/1, pp. 81-91. Sunderland, J. (Ed), (1994a) Exploring Gender Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire: Prentice Hall International (UK) Ltd. Thorne, B. & Henley, N. (Eds.) (1975) Language and sex: difference and dominance. Rowley, Massachusetts: Newbury House Publishers, Inc. Tollefson, J.W 1991: Planning language, planning inequality. London and New York: Longman. Van Den Bergh, N (1987) Renaming: Vehicle for empowerment :In J. Penfield, (Ed.), Women and language in transition (pp. 130-136). Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. Yusuf, K. (1989) English imposed sexism in Yoruba language The case of `baby ' and `aya ' Women and Language, XII.2, 27- 30. Yusuf, Y. K. (1994) Proverbs and misogyny Working Papers on Language, Gender and Sexism, 4.2, 25-45. UNESCO, 1953. African Languages and English in Education. Paris