The discrepancies in the spelling pattern and oral articulation of words in the English language reveal the reasons why English is often regarded as a difficult subject to a second language learner. This could be exemplified in the six different pronunciations of 'ough' articulated thus in the following words: bough, cough, thorough, thought, through, and rough. This subtle, but obvious challenge of mastery could be attributed to pedagogical issues. The repeated abysmal failures in English language in West African Examination Councils and National Examinations' Council (NECO) SSCE examination and the consequent lamentation of the WAEC Chief examiners' report necessitated this research. This study adopted a pretest post test quasi experimental research design with four intact classes of SSII students, who were subjected to treatment and control. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study and a sample of 264 students (comprising 107 males and 157 females) were used. The validation and test of reliability were accurately done. The instrument for data collection was the English Language Achievement Test (ELAT) which was developed by the researcher. Data collected were analyzed using the inferential statistics of mean and standard deviation for the research questions and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) for the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The results of study revealed amongst others that there was a significant difference in the scores of students taught English language spelling with drills and those taught with the conventional method; while the second hypothesis was accepted, which shows that there is no significant difference in the performance of male and female students taught spellings with drills. Based on these results, recommendations were made on the need for teachers to adopt drill method in teaching spelling to SSII students because of its dynamic traits.

Most Nigerian students, do exhibit phobia for mathematics and its related disciplines because of its abstract and wired nature. Poetry being one of the genres of literature has its peculiarity of lyrical entertainment. Textmasters strategy establishes collaborative learning environment of literature circles in content areas. Students in textmasters are placed in groups of four with the roles of Discussion Director, Summarizer, Vocabulary Enrincher and Webmaster. They are often given a schedule of the reading of the upcoming chapter. All the students read the same section of the book, but usually complete a role sheet to guide their perspectives: Reading aloud of any entertaining and informative poems normally spark students' interest in posing and solving mathematics problems through textmasters. For example, while reading aloud, the students are actively involved and constantly comment on how the poems connect to mathematics, especially how they describe and illustrate the concepts, in this instance, simple interest.. This paper, proposes the feasibility of using poetry to teach mathematics in a textmasters' environment. It tries to explore the nature and concepts of textmasters and poetry in mathematics teaching; the connections between mathematics and literature; and practical ISSN 2325-0887 2015 www.macrothink.org/ijele 105 steps in a textmasters' environment for the teaching of mathematics through poetry. The crux of the matter is for teachers to see poetry as a wonderful aid that could assist in the teaching of the often dreaded mathematics. It is hoped that it will help teachers to investigate and reflect more on the power and potential of an interdisciplinary curriculum.International Journal of English Language Education

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The Language policy on Education (2004) states that the language of the immediate environment or mother tongue should be used as a medium of instruction at all preprimary level of Education until when a child gets to the upper primary level which would require the use of English as a medium of instruction. This is to enable a child who leaves home for formal learning to get acclimatize with the new learning environment. The status of the English Language in Nigeria has made it a world class language used across borders for all official purposes. However, many Nigerians today seem to have relegated the place of mother tongue to the background because of the erroneous assumption of the place of the English language. This notion, therefore, brought about the reversal status of the English language in a second language situation, which has posed danger to the national identity of some Nigerian children. Many Nigerian children have lost bearing on their MT and languages of the immediate environment because their parents frown at such usages. This paper, therefore, sees it as an emerging threat to the national identity of most Nigerian children, who are neither groomed well in the correct usage of the English language nor allowed to be nurtured in the language of the immediate environment. This study adopted a survey design where 441 respondents were interviewed orally on 16 question items. Data collected from the interview were analyzed with simple percentages. It concludes on the note that unless an emergency rescue mission is applied to correct this anomaly, MT usage in the southeast of Nigeria will be heading towards extinction and the national identity of many Nigerian children will become abysmally illusive. The way out of this problem is to go back to the basic and reintroduce the mother tongue to the child preschool entrance till after primary three as provided in the National Policy on Education (NPE).