Of New Englishes and and New Literacies

Recommendations

In this lecture, we have shown that literacy in English is important for learning and living. In order to harness what we can do with new Englishes and new literacies, the following recommendations are canvassed for Nigeria.
9.1. Strengthening English in education in Nigeria and appropriating the affordances of digital humanities in English language teaching and learning
Generally, when we voice the concern that the standard of learning is falling, what appears obvious is the quality of our students’ performance in English whether written or spoken. And the point has been made in this lecture that students do not perform well in various school subjects not because of the inherent difficulties of these subjects, but simply that learners are unable to meet the language demands these content areas make on them. The National Policy on Education provides clearly that English is the medium of instruction from P4 and throughout the other educational levels in Nigeria. The place and role of English in the conduct of both private and public life in Nigeria is unassailable by any other language for the foreseeable future. If this is what English is in Nigeria and we hope to produce 21^st century students, who will compete globally, then Nigeria needs to invest more in strengthening the use of English in education by exploiting the new literacies that enhance teaching and learning in an ICT-driven world. The charge is that we need to appropriate the affordances of digital humanities for English language teaching and learning. The growing interest in digital humanities should redefine and guide how we teach and learn English if we are to move with global trend in English studies in Nigeria. We cannot continue with the traditional way we have taught English to our students and hope to produce globally competitive citizens. As teachers and students of English, we should explore and appropriate the various tools, apps and websites for English language teaching and learning whether as offline and online resources. That way, we will not create dull classrooms which do not inspire and motive 21^st century students to learn.