FROM POLICY TO PRACTICE: BRIDGING THE GAP IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Language is one of the resources through which a nation or an
individual can meet his needs. The statement contained in the
National Policy on Education (1988) is therefore a perfect and noble
desire. It is compulsory that students at the Secondary School level
of education acquired proficiency in three languages: Immediate
mother tongue, first foreign language (English) and one of the three
major domestic languages. This paper examines these government
prescriptions about language in the education system in line with
the language practice i.e. what obtains in our schools and laments
that the sooner we shifted from policy to practice the brighter the
hope of English Language Education in Nigeria. The paper
concludes by emphasizing the need to master first language before
scrambling for the English Language.