AN EVALUATION OF MIDDLE BASIC EDUCATION CURRICULUM FOR ENGLISH STUDIES IN NIGERIA UNDER THE NINE-YEAR UNIVERSAL BASIC EDUCATION CURRICULUM

Great importance has been attached to curriculum design and pedagogy in syllabi in Nigeria, particularly in language teaching and learning. The paper makes an evaluation of English studies curriculum designed for primary four in Nigeria under the Nine-Year Universal Basic Education Curriculum (middle basic). The 69-page curriculum was designed organized by the four language skills –listening, speaking, reading and writing. Three Principles for language teaching-learning have been identified in the curriculum. They are: Linguistic Principles, Socio-affective Principles and Cognitive Principles. The study found that the curriculum recommends the use of two teaching methodologies: Grammar Translation Method (GTM) and Audio-Lingual Method (ALM). However, the curriculum is dominated by the use of GTM which means written language has an upper hand over spoken language. The paper recommends for a paradigm shift from GTM and ALM which are traditional approaches to language teaching to Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) which promotes communicative competence for enhancing the quality of education.