APPRAISING RESOURCE READINESS FOR INTERNET-MEDIATED ENGLISH LANGUAGE PEDAGOGY IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES DURING COVID-19-NECESSITATED LOCKDOWN

Abstract

This study was carried out to assess the availability and utilisation of human and material resources for internet-mediated virtual classroom activities by English Language teacher education departments of selected Nigerian universities during the Covid-19 pandemic. The centrality of the English language to Nigerian life and the need to assess how well the experience of that period provided the pre-service teachers with necessary models for the deployment of resources for virtual classroom teaching prompted the study. A simple survey design was used. Two public and two private universities were selected through stratified random sampling. All the 197 English Language teacher education students of the sampled universities constituted the study sample. However, only sixty-four responded to the 20-item questionnaire that was administered via the google forms platform. The instrument had earlier been piloted and yielded 91.7 Cronbach alpha reliability. The obtained data were analysed using percentages and charts to answer six research questions. The findings show that lack of prior exposure to online classrooms hindered the faculty members’ and their students’ coordination. Inadequacy and non-affordability of Internet services on campuses and in the students’ neighbourhoods hampered the virtual classrooms. The conclusion, therefore is that the virtual classroom programmes were negatively impacted by inadequate readiness of both human and technological resources.