The Use of ICT for the Teaching and Learning of English as a Second Language in Nigeria: The "What", "Why", and "How"

In language teaching, the use of computers has been on since before the coming of the internet. Later computer assisted language learning (CALL) developed and concerned itself with the pedagogical applications of the technology. Information Communication Technology (IT) which is an offshoot of science through its internet and computer-mediated communication (CMC) has gone beyond science to broaden the lexical inventories of the English language. It is against this backdrop that this paper tends to conduct a study on computer-mediated communication with a focus on the teaching and learning of the English language in Nigeria. The study aims to bring to the fore the issues and challenges associated with this new normal. The study also examines the benefits associated with the use of this technology in the teaching and learning of the English language. The study also employs Direct Participatory Observation and a questionnaire as means of gathering data for the research. Famous Mclunnham’s Technological Determinism Theory was employed as the theoretical framework of analysis. On the whole, the paper discovered among other things that the use of CMC made students confident and gives them the zeal of being online and wanting to discover and learn via the medium of computer-mediated communication. The study concludes that the use of this method of teaching and learning English in Nigeria has to be encouraged for efficiency and exactness for both in the teaching and learning of English in Nigeria. Solutions and recommendations were proffered to ameliorate the challenges associated with the use of these technological devices.