This study investigated the influence of television viewing frequency on the performance in vocabulary development of SS 3 students in Cross River State, Nigeria. Data were obtained through questionnaires and a vocabulary test administered to 993 students in selected public and private schools in Cross River State. Data analyses indicated that high frequency television viewers performed significantly better than moderate viewers, while moderate viewers performed significantly better than did the low frequency viewers in vocabulary development.

A B S T R A C TLiterature-in-English is a prerequisite for admission into certain programmes in the university in Nigeria. Courses like English and Literary Studies, Linguistics, Law, Theatre and Media Studies require at least a Credit pass in Literature -in -English at the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE). Unfortunately, students' performance over the years has been consistently poor, especially in poetry. Therefore, many students' career aspirations have been delayed or truncated. This poor performance is often attributed to teachers' poor attitude to the subject and the consequent poor pedagogy. This study, therefore, examined pre-service teachers' attitude to the teaching of poetry. Participants were sixty-seven (67) pre-service teachers of English in a federal university in South-Eastern Nigeria. Data collection was through a semi-structured questionnaire and an in-depth interview. The result revealed that only four participants (6%) expressed a preference for teaching poetry, while 63 (94%) said they would rather not teach poetry. An in-depth interview revealed that participants' developed the phobia for poetry (metrophobia) from their experiences of learning poetry at the secondary school level and beyond. The study suggests pathways to prevent metrophobia in pre-service teachers and students of Literature-in-English.

The level of job performance, international comparability and competitiveness of Nigerian university graduates are burning issues. Consequently, the academic quality of Nigerian universities has come under severe criticism. Since university lecturers are key players in quality assurance in universities, this study explored their perceptions of variables important to quality assurance in Nigerian universities. Five hundred lecturers from public universities in the South-South geopolitical zone responded to a 25-item survey. Five research questions were framed and descriptive statistics were used in analysing and presenting the data. The result showed that lecturers perceived availability of adequate number of qualified staff, students' attitude to study, early publication of students' examination results, availability of well-equipped laboratories and workshops, and funding of tertiary education as the most important variables in academic quality assurance.

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The study was to find out the influence of both students' achievement in the West African Examination Council's Senior School Certificate English Language examination and the faculty of study by the students in the university on their performances in Use of English and in specific courses of study. 964 undergraduate students of Cross River University of Technology, Calabar, Nigeria, were sampled for the study. The students' results in the Senior School Certificate English Language examination, scores obtained by them in the Use of English course at the university and their cumulative grade point averages in their specific courses of study at the university were the data collected and used for the study. Four hypotheses were postulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance, using mean, standard deviation and analysis of variance as statistical tools. It was found out that achievement in the Senior School Certificate English Language examination and Use of English course at the university contribute significantly to the variance in students' academic performance in specific courses of study; significant differences exist in the academic achievement of students in various faculties in the Senior School Certificate English Language examination; faculty of study does not significantly influence students' academic achievement in Use of English, and faculty of study does not significantly influence academic performances in specific courses of study. The study thus canvassed that admission of students into different faculties in the university should not be determined by their level of achievement in the Senior School Certificate English Language examination.