English Language Teaching and Learning in English as a Second Language (ESL) Society: Challenges and Prospect for National Development

Abstract

English Language has become the lingua franca in so many societies all over the world. Thus, this research paper is based on the investigation of the status of English language vis-a-vis its teaching and learning in (ESL) society. Its teaching and learning in such society were x-rayed with the view of finding out the challenges through the analysis of our data (West African Examinations Council’s results). Reasons why users (students) of the language perform poorly/unsatisfactorily in its assessment, compared to their performances in other subjects at the certificate level were also revealed through this research work. The validity of WAEC records justifies its choice for this work and it gives an insight into the actual performance of the users of the language, hence its veracity. Working within the Linguistic framework, this study considers the Sociolinguistic approach in the interpretation of the data. Our basic findings show that the English Language plays some significant roles in any ESL society and learning the language is not without its numerous challenges. This paper concludes that English language teaching and learning in non-native speakers’ society has some challenges despite its crucial place. Besides, the performance of nonnative speakers/users as seen in our data, the prospects of English Language in ESL society cannot be overestimated in terms of its indispensability for national development. Thus, the would-be teachers in schools should be adequately trained and well equipped with necessary and modern trends in the subject. Good reading materials should also be made available and affordable for the students.