SCHOLRS JOHNSON, Professor of English and the Head, Department of English Language and Literature, ABTI-AMERICAN UNIVERSITY, YOLA, is a prolific writer. JOHNSON, who is the youngest professor in his University, has brought joy to many students and others through her numerous works including the popular Common Errors in the Use of English.
You are now a prof., how do you feel?
I can summarize my overall feelings in three sentences: I feel excited. I feel greatly honoured. I feel humbled. I thank God for being my helper and for seeing me through all the hurdles to this elevated academic position. It is indeed a challenge, an empowerment. I am encouraged to do more work.
Were you surprised at the promotion?

I was not surprised. But this is not to sound immodest! I was simply confident, because I had assessed myself and felt comfortable. My Faculty assessed me and the University Appointments and Promotion Committee (Academic Staff) also assessed me and confirmed my creative output well enough for external assessment to the rank of Professor and, thereafter, made a prima facie case for my papers to be so assessed.

I was however, surprised at the speed of the return of the reports. Some external assessors are slow or are too busy but some are fast readers and are able to conclude reading the usually bulky papers quickly. My anxiety only rose when the reports of some colleagues in my Faculty whose papers were submitted with mine or after mine returned positively. But this did not last very long.
I thank the University Management and whoever that assessed my papers for being prompt. By the outcome of this assessment, we can conclude that our internal mechanism for assessment is very objective.

Our university
The current administration is part of the previous administration in all ramifications. Yes, because the acting Vice-Chancellor,who was the Deputy Vice-chancellor in the previous administration. All the other principal officers in the University working with him were also in the previous administration. The, management of pastadministration worked like a family and from what we have seen so far, that conviviality and esprit de corps are continuing in the present administration.

My advice to students is that they should have some self-confidence. Indeed, self-confidence is the first requisite to any great undertakings, examinations inclusive. Having worked and prepared for an examination, a student should believe firmly and unflinchingly that he would succeed with an excellent grade. He should not allow an iota of doubt to creep into his confidence. This is very essential because to be an achiever, one must be a believer. We achieve success by believing that we can succeed. Examination is a victory only to those who keep themselves self-motivated.

Besides, success favours the brave and courageous. Students generally should not be afraid of problems or failures. If a student has failed an examination and still has the courage to try again, he is on the track for success. Many candidates take the number of times they have failed in an examination to mean that they will never succeed in it. This is sheer misconception and historical evidence does not support it. A student should know that each failure draws him closer to the solution, as long as he does not repeat his mistakes. As a result he should not be discouraged about his previous failures.

Failures are as much natural part of life as successes. To win is sometimes to lose. Great achievers never give up when rocked by failures. Abraham Lincoln, for instance, had a long series of attempts, some successful, most failures, before he was finally elected President of the United State of America.

Thomas Edison is also another good example. He tried two thousand experiments in search of a filament for light bulb. When none worked to his satisfaction, his assistant complained bitterly: “All our work is in vain. We’ve gotten to nowhere”. But Edison was never discouraged. He replied on the contrary: “we’ve come a long way and we’ve learnt a lot. We now know that there are two thousand materials which will not make a good light bulb.”

Students claim that some lecturers mark them down.
That has been the usual claim of some students. I am, however, happy you said “some lecturers” not all. Normally in a department, when a particular student has done so well in his entire course except in one or two, it raises some doubts and questions. We often set up a mechanism to verify the validity of that failure. In most cases the script of the student helps to remedy the situation. Departmental board owes every student this duty. It is one of the reasons for departmental moderation of results.

But, more importantly, there is an in-built mechanism in our General and Academic Regulations (GAR) for any student who does not agree with the grade he or she is given to seek redress. Students should be bold enough to ask for a re-mark whenever they feel a markdown of their script. Ideally, it is the right of any student NOT a privilege. Unfortunately, a good number of students who make such complaints are those who are weak academically.

Life as a lecturer
Lectureship position is one that gives me immence satisfaction, life as a lecturer is the best life any one can think of. I am happy in my profession as a lecturer. I do not think there is any other profession that would give me the kind of satisfaction I derive from teaching and writing.

Work and family
I think I am one of the luckiest women when it comes to coping with family life and academic work. Certainly because my husband is such a caring person. He never constituted a stumbling block to me in any way. Indeed, I would say that my husband is the perfect consort of an academic. As such, he is a blessing to me; the backbone with which I stand as a lecturer. In his hands, I have no reason not to succeed. More importantly, my children are not troublesome. They too are determined to work hard. And so I have a peaceful home, that I call my home of joy. I owe every gratitude about this to the almighty God.

Why I wrote the book “Common Errors in the use of English”
I wrote the book because I am aware of the prominent position the English language has occupied in our national affairs; it is the language of the mass communication, the language of the law courts, the language of administration, the language of instruction in our schools.

It is like a veritable passport to educational advancement, the University gate closes to any student who fails to make a credit pass in English language. We have to put in every amount of interest to learn to acquire effective competence in that.
It is somehow very painful when we see that a good number of Nigerians including the educated ones do not know how to use the language correctly. So my own contribution in that work is to help educate Nigerians on the correct use of the English language.

It was first published in 2002, and Africana Publishers took it over in 2003.
Impact of the book
It has achieved so greatly because from time to time, I receive calls from people. I have heaps of files of people’s comments on the book. A good number of people particularly my students are very active in the campaign to educate people on the correct use of the English language. If the language must be used, it is important that it is used correctly.

Challenges of teaching English language
There are a good number of challenges facing us in a bid to study the English language particularly because this language is learnt not as a mother tongue but in a second language situation and so you face the problem of the mother tongue interference. One of the major problems we face is the inter-lingual problem.

We call it inter-lingual because the mother tongue interferes with the second language, English.
The other challenge is the interference of items within the English language itself. That I have called intra-lingual problem.
It is not easy to learn the English language because there are so many inconveniences that when you begin to teach as a teacher definitely you have to start from the simple to the difficult ones, from known to the unknown that is the procedure in teaching the language.

Teaching the language is a very difficult task, you talk about the past-tense of the verbs and forming the past-tense. Teaching the past-tense of the irregular verbs would constitute some difficulty.
How can parents help their children?
I have always maintained that practice makes one perfect. Knowing the position of this language, it is important that we give our children the opportunity to practice the use of the language, not only in the school but also in their homes.

If the parents are illiterates, they should encourage the children to pay more attention to the use of the language in their school, reading newspapers, listening to good users of the language. Children should be encouraged to read effectively. Our reading culture is really on the decline that is very painful. Students are no longer motivated to read. You give them a novel to read and in two weeks time, they have not been able to finish it.
It is not only in our primary schools or secondary schools but also in the Universities, the reading culture is on a very low level.

Parents should encourage their children right from primary school to read novels, there are novels for pupils at the kindergarten level, and parents should endeavour to get novels for their children according to the levels so that they begin to learn at the cradle.
Children should also be encouraged to read newspapers and listen to good speakers of the language, people who can use the language very well on the television, on the radio. The best way to attain perfection in the spoken English is effective listening.

What about adults?
It is effective listening. There must be a good number of people you like the way they speak, you give attention when they speak, when you listen, do not stop at learning, try to imitate them. Also make use of pronunciation dictionaries.
For writing, the best way to go about it is reading. If you are competent in reading, you would be competent in writing.

Why our graduates can’t write or speak good English
That has been a problem. It is painful when we look at the type of students from their secondary schools, it does appear that teachers with insufficient knowledge of the subject matter taught them.
If you go to some schools, you would see that people who teach English are not experts in that language.
A bad teacher is a perpetuator of error. A bad teacher fertilizes error that is on the verge of extinction. The English language is not the kind of language anybody can teach.

We can get competent teachers by looking at the production of such teachers. Employers must be very cautious of who they employ to teach in their school, not just the public schools but also private school teachers must be seriously interviewed.

Their certificates must be confirmed to be authentic before they are employed. We must be careful of who we employ to join the teaching profession.
It is not a profession where people who could not find jobs elsewhere should come and join. It is not a profession for people that are already frustrated. But when we don’t employ professionals we contribute to the problem of teaching and learning of English language.

Why students fail English
It is all about the teachers, the students and the environment. An unqualified teacher can perpetuate errors in the classroom or fertilize them. There could be students who do not have interest in learning the language. The students attitude can also contribute to a mastery or otherwise of the language. but where a child is motivated instrinstically, then the activities of the teacher would yield some fruits.

How to motivate the children
A good teacher inspires. there are two kinds of motivation, instrinsic and extrinsic. the teacher should tell the pupils the benefits of learning the language. He must be abl e to stimulate them into wanting to learn because the determination must be there before success is achieved.

My other works
I have A Grammar of English: The student’s companion, Phonetics of English; a handsome Guide to correct pronunciation. The Mechanics of Reading Comprehension and Summary Writing, Oral English for Successful Performance, it is for secondary school students to help them in their oral English. I am aware that one of the causes of poor performance in WASSCE, or JAMB is because of the poor knowledge of the oral English.

Teachers at that level are ignorant about so many things about the oral English and they do not like teaching it. You see them teaching other aspects of the English language but neglecting this section because the pronunciation is different from our mother tongue and they do not want to make a mistake about it and don’t want to feed the children with wrong information, so you see them shying away from the teaching of the oral English.

That is one of the reasons why the performance of our students at that level is poor. I have another, Hints on how to succeed in any examination, the secrets of academic success. English for academic purposes. I have about 13 books.

Hmmmmm

Gender and Secondary School Students’ Performance in English Language in Isoko South Local Government Area of Delta State

The performance of students in English language basis on gender is another essential part of this study. Admittedly is the fact that women are hypercorrect in speech, they (women) also use succulent words while their male counterparts are coarse and husky.

http://www.scharticles.com/gender-and-secondary-school-students-performance-in-english-language/