SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS IN LANGUAGE NEEDS AND TEACHING STRATEGIES IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The primary of needs in language syllabus design hardly needs emphasis.  In seeking these needs, however, extra-pedagogical factors come to interact wit learner’s experience to affect teacher and learner’s perception of their needs.  The strongest of these factors relate to socio-economic circumstances of the learners.  Since the provision of relief to these factors are not within the competence of the teachers either within the classroom, as part of the curriculum or inclusive in the reaching approach, method or strategy, a neglect of the effect and importance of these factors will adversely affect the effectiveness or success of the language teaching design or strategy eventually produced from learner’s needs assessment.  The primacy of socio-economic factors in needs assessment thus forms the thrust of this paper which reviewed learner’s needs in language syllabus design and investigated the needs of students in relation to their socio-economic circumstances in two Universities of Agriculture in Nigeria.  The paper found that learner’s  needs has relationship with their socio-economic circumstances as established in a null hypothesis to corroborate the survey.  Recommendations were made bordering on teaching strategies that will accommodate learner’s needs based on their socio-economic circumstances.