Let’s delve into this issue: Nigerians taking tests to prove their English Language proficiency
Recently on X (formerly Twitter), there’s been the issue of attributing a cold email to have been written by AI software like chatGPT because of the use of the word ‘delve’.
The fact that people now use ChatGPT for school essays and applications is true. What’s truer is that people still use Human Intelligence (HI) and that’s at its finest.
Delve and other related words are regular vocabularies for Nigerians.
Back then in school, My Dad bought a big dictionary for us that came with a CD. Students had pocket-sized Oxford dictionaries where they checked and learned new words.
We had debate clubs. We still have them. We argued constructively with the English Language. We won competitions and got awards with prizes for communicating via English Language. We had queen premier up to the highest number. We learned from the foundations. The alphabets.
English was not only taught in one subject. We had English Language as a stand-alone subject, Literature in English, and Phonetics (in some schools). We read novels, poems, prose, fiction, and non-fiction. During Literature in English, the whole 2 hours class would be to read a chapter in the designated novel and the literature teacher will dissect each paragraph, pointing out the figures of speech, the new words to learn, the plot and character, the antagonist, and the protagonist. It was really interesting.
We took notes and dictations in English Language. The English Language was used to pass other subjects including Mathematics. From birth, we learned how to speak the English Language. You can’t even get a good job if you don’t speak English Language at a level.
Nigeria is one of those countries that should not be made to prove her English Language proficiency. We’ve been speaking, reading, writing listening to this language from birth. It’s our official language.
This piece would not be complete without recognizing the efforts of prominent individuals and institutions at home and abroad who have stood up for the call to stop Nigerians from taking the English Language proficiency test.
Here’s one of such work from Policy Shapers. https://x.com/PolicyShapers/status/1778438824973992191
Kudos to International Educational Institutions and Universities who are waving this requirement for Nigerians. More needs to be done.
