Perennial poor performance in English language in public examinations has been linked to the proliferation of social media tools in the classroom. However, contrary to the general belief that social media hinders learning and distracts learners’ attention, this study attempted to improve the quality of instruction through social media-supported audio-visual resources in teaching reading comprehension. Pretest, posttest, control group, quasi-experimental research design was adopted for the study and participants were randomly selected from intact Grade 11 classes in two educational provinces in the Gambia. Data were analyzed using inferential statistics, results show a significant main effect of treatment on students’ interest and achievement in reading comprehension. There were recommendations on how to support language instruction using social media.

The outbreak and subsequent spread of COVID-19 to the West African sub-region have brought significant changes to the different aspects of our lives and grounded educational and socio-political and economic activities of ECOWAS member states. The pandemic has exposed the poor state of the health systems and shortage in medical supplies and protective gears to cope with the health emergency. In response, strict restrictions were put in place to curb the spread of the virus and these have drastically affected peoples’ lifestyles. However, there has been huge increase in the use of technology in business, education, religion and other activities as people adapt to the changing times in the sub-region. It is the argument of this paper that things cannot return to the way they were before the pandemic, but West African states must strategically plan for the Post COVID-19 era to survive the massive wave of unemployment, socio-economic meltdown and changes in lifestyle. The paper concluded that while the fight against the virus in the sub-region was not collective, post-pandemic recovery must be coordinated, strategically plannedamong member states. It was recommended that the governments should be flexible enough to retain the use of ICT and technology alongside the conventional ways of doing things in the post-pandemic era.

Performance in the English language especially in public examinations in Nigeria has been very poor with summary writing identified as one of the dreaded aspects of the subject. Research efforts have shown that instructional practices in English studies are not tailored to learners’ personality traits such as cognitive style and gender. Cognitive style is an individual’s preferred means of receiving, processing, and making use of information. Gender also plays an important role in the teaching-learning process. This study considered the global and analytic dimensions of cognitive style. This study determines to what extent cognitive style and gender can predict students’ achievement in summary writing. The research design is descriptive with 350 participants drawn from four senior secondary schools in Ibadan. Data were analyzed using regression analysis, and the results show that cognitive style and gender are predictors of students’ achievement in summary writing. Teachers are encouraged to individualise instruction through the knowledge of learner-related variables.

Recent research efforts in teacher education in Nigeria have largely focused on innovative instructional delivery with little attention to learner-related variables such as language anxiety and prior knowledge that can influence learning outcomes in English composition in ESL classrooms. Notwithstanding these interventions, the problems of mass failure and poor quality of essays still persist in Nigerian schools. Studies have confirmed that language-related anxiety and prior knowledge in ESL classroom can influence students’ achievement irrespective of the quality of instruction received by learners in a second/foreign language classroom. Therefore, this study examined the relationship between language anxiety and prior knowledge on achievement in expository essay. Three null hypotheses were tested at a 0.05 level of significance, and 350 participants were randomly selected from four senior secondary schools. Data were collected using two research instruments and the results showed that there was no significant relationship between the independent variables and students’ achievement in expository essay. Also, there were no composite and relative contributions of language anxiety and prior knowledge on students’ achievement in expository essay. The study was concluded by making recommendations to ESL teachers and students on how to improve achievement in expository writing.

Studies have shown that several factors predict students’ achievement in any second language classroom. These factors include learner, school, text, and teacher-related variables. The teacher is indispensable in the instructional procedure; therefore, the quality of a teacher in terms of teaching experience, subject mastery, and questioning behaviour can determine ESL students’ learning outcomes to a large extent. This study examined the relationship between teachers’ subject mastery and questioning behaviour and students’ achievement in English grammar in the Gambia. The research design is a descriptive survey that comprised 300 students and 10 English language teachers from four senior secondary schools in Kanifing Municipal Council. Two research instruments were used and the data were analysed using PPMC and MRA. The result showed that independent variables predicted students’ achievement in English grammar. Teachers’ subject mastery (β = 0.476; t = 12.132; p < 0.05 ) and questioning behaviour (β = 0.204; t = 5.195; p < 0.05 ) contributed significantly to students’ achievement in English grammar relatively and jointly. Recommendations were made to stakeholders to ensure regular training of in-service and preservice language teachers on the teacher and teaching-related variables in ESL classrooms.