SOURCE:

Faculty: Arts
Department: English Language & Literature

CONTRIBUTORS:

Nwaiwu, C.O;
Chukwu, E;

ABSTRACT:

This study centered on the communicative needs of students of Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic, Unwana, in Afikpo North Local Government Area of Ebonyi State. It was observed that the language courses taught the students are devoid of specific needs that positively facilitate their performance outside the world of school. This is an oversight that makes it herculean for the students to use the English language to actualize their professional practices. The theoretical framework is Genre Analysis with emphasis on Critical Genre Analysis (C.G.A) by Vijay K. Bhatia while Contextualization was used as supporting theory. C.G.A examines language use by professionals and accounts for how they use communication to excel in their professions. Contextualization on the other hand is concerned with meaning of words in context. The main instruments used to obtain the data were questionnaires, oral interview and written works (Project and S.I.W.E.S) of final year students of the institution. One hundred and fifty (150) students and Twenty (20) lecturers were used for the study. The findings showed that the subjects recognized the importance of language skills in actualizing the communicative needs of polytechnic students. It however identified a number of challenges which students encounter in the right use of English in their written works. The study concluded that the challenges these students encounter in the right use of English affect them negatively in their professional practices. It recommends adequate Needs Analysis in planning the English course programme of polytechnics in the country by ensuring that English for Specific Purposes is made the focus of the type of the English language they should be taught. It also harped on the need for a collaborative effort of linguists, textbook writers, lecturers and the Federal Government of Nigeria to reach an agreement through workshops and conferences, on the best way to ensure that the polytechnic students meet their communicative needs using the English language.