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European Journal of Foreign Language Teaching
ISSN: 2537 - 1754
ISSN-L: 2537 - 1754
Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu
Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved.
© 2015 – 2020 Open Access Publishing Group 68
doi: 10.46827/ejfl.v5i1.3181
Volume 5 │ Issue 1 │ 2020
THE NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY FRENCH TEACHER
AS INNOVATOR: AN INNOVATION IN THE UNIVERSITY
OF UYO FRENCH STUDIES CURRICULUM
Mike T. U. Edung
i
Department of Foreign Languages,
University of Uyo,
Uyo, Nigeria
Abstract:
This paper begins by aligning with the position of some curriculum theorists that
curriculum is a set of learning opportunities and experiences organized to enable the
learners in an educational system to attain societal aspirations and values, one of these
being development which begins at the individual level, with the attainment of self-
actualization and fulfilment, including a fulfilling employment. The paper then reviews
the University French studies curriculum in Nigeria from its inception, and reveals that
from the 1990s, the B.A. (French) curriculum in particular has increasingly produced
unemployed graduates because the curriculum has equipped them with unemployable
skills and competencies. “Français de spécialités” is proposed as a curriculum content
innovation that would give the learner employable skills and competencies. A B.A.
degree curriculum which combines the study of French language with that of another
discipline whose specialized French language the learner wants to master is proposed as
an effective strategy for the pedagogy of “français de spécialités”. Motivated by this
researcher’s studies, his Department has adopted and is in the process of implementing
this curriculum. The teacher’s innovative disposition is therefore an asset to French
studies in Nigeria, especially at the University level where innovative thinking and
research are of primary importance.
Keywords: curriculum, innovation, French studies, français de spécialités
1. Introduction
This paper essentially presents an innovation initiated by this writer in the
undergraduate French studies curriculum at the University of Uyo, against the
background of existing general content and practice in the French Studies curriculum in
Nigerian Universities. The aim is to invite critical consideration of the proposal by
i
Correspondence: email michaeledung@uniuyo.edu.ng, udoedung@yahoo.com
Mike T. U. Edung
THE NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY FRENCH TEACHER AS INNOVATOR:
AN INNOVATION IN THE UNIVERSITY OF UYO FRENCH STUDIES CURRICULUM
European Journal of Foreign Language Teaching - Volume 5 │ Issue 1 │ 2020 69
colleagues, and to stimulate an innovative disposition among them with respect to the
content and methods of the curriculum of our discipline. Following an attempt to clarify
the notion of curriculum used in this discussion, the paper shall attempt a review of
curriculum changes in French studies in the Nigerian University system in order to
provide a background and justification for the curriculum changes to be presented here.
The paper shall finally present the innovation announced here, and of course, the
justification for it shall appear as the presentation goes on.
2. The Concept of Curriculum
Experts in curriculum theory and practice have observed that the concept of curriculum
is a sorely debated issue among them. For instance, after presenting some definitions of
curriculum, including the very simple and the very elaborate ones, the International
Bureau of Education (IBE) Glossary of Curriculum Terminology (2013, 16) concludes its article
on the item “Curriculum” with the observation that this notion “has evolved into a topic of
considerable debate – with frequently conflicting perspectives”. Iteogu (2016) provides an
explanation for this state of affairs by telling us that “the field of curriculum practice possesses
several sides which present themselves to the various curriculum theorists, a fact which explains
the differences found among definitions of curriculum”. As teachers and therefore operators
of curriculum, and not necessarily curriculum theorists, we must agree on some
operational definition of curriculum for the purpose of the business at hand, but this must
necessarily find some point of agreement with what the theorists say. Fortunately, Iteogu
(2016) has pointed out that “despite disagreements… [among the theorists], various definitions
exist which agree”. And so avoiding the disputations among the theorists, we have aligned
with the simple formulation by the IBE Glossary of Curriculum Terminology (2013, 16)
which sees curriculum as “a logically connected set of conceptually and pedagogically analyzed
knowledge and value claims”, since the courses on our University French studies curriculum
can appropriately be described in this way. We have also found help in the definition of
curriculum offered by the Australian Thesaurus of Education Descriptors as cited in the IBE
Glossary of Curriculum Terminology (2013, 16): “a plan incorporating a structured series of
intended learning outcomes and associated learning experiences, generally organized as a related
combination or series of courses”. Equally helpful for our conceptualization of our French
studies curriculum for the purpose of this discussion is the definition of curriculum by
the notable curriculum theorists Saylor and Alexander as cited by Iteogu (2016) that
curriculum is “a plan for providing sets of learning opportunities to achieve broad educational
goals and related specific objectives for an identifiable population and served by a single school
centre”.
Of course, the series of courses we teach in the French studies discipline as spelt
out in our Prospectuses, together with their respective aims and objectives, their
descriptions, their planned lecture topics, the various study activities, reading items and
other study materials, examination schedules, etc., are all organized and structured to
provide learning opportunities and experiences tailored to produce specific learning
Mike T. U. Edung
THE NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY FRENCH TEACHER AS INNOVATOR:
AN INNOVATION IN THE UNIVERSITY OF UYO FRENCH STUDIES CURRICULUM
European Journal of Foreign Language Teaching - Volume 5 │ Issue 1 │ 2020 70
outcomes in the learners within the context of broad educational goals which reflect “the
society’s common vision while taking into account local, national and global needs and
expectations” (IBE Glossary of Curriculum Terminology (2013, 16). Indeed, given the fact that
the educational enterprise, within which all curriculum design and changes are carried
out, is the very instrument par excellence for effecting national development, as enunciated
in our National Policy on Education document from its very first edition in 1977, it
follows logically that the curriculum, as the very tool for implementing education, must
reflect national development aspirations, which must reasonably carry along in them
worthwhile societal and individual developmental aspirations and values. It is therefore
understandable that French studies as an academic discipline in the university and in
general, has kept changing in the effort to keep reflecting these values and aspirations. It
is to say that changes in these values and aspirations are a major factor in curriculum
change and innovation activities.
2. The Nigerian University French Studies Curriculum: An Overview
According to Omolewa (1978), French studies began in the Nigerian University system
in 1959 when the then University College, Ibadan, appointed two lecturers to form the
nucleus of a Modern Languages Department which was later established in 1962. The
changes that the Nigerian University French studies curriculum has witnessed since it
first began at Ibadan is what we must now look at in order to see how we arrived at where
we are now, and why any further change may be necessary.
After its earliest beginning at the then University College, Ibadan, in 1959, French
studies in the Nigerian University system must have received a major boost from the now
famous 1961 Yaoundé Conference of Specialists on the Teaching of a Second European
Language in Africa. This Conference, which was organized by the Commission de
Coopération Technique pour l’Afrique (CCTA) and the Conseil Scientifique Africain
(CSA), and held from 15th to 20th November (see Inyang, 2014, 46), recommended that in
order to enable the upcoming African elite and intellectuals to communicate and
cooperate among themselves in science, technology and policy matters and fasten the
development of the continent, all African Ministries of Education South of the Sahara
should introduce one of the two major European languages used as official languages by
the majority of the nations on the continent as the second European language to be
studied in their schools as soon as the patterns of the first European language had been
properly mastered. This meant English for the French-speaking countries and French for
the English-speaking countries. (see Brann (1970) as well as Treffgarne (1975, 72) for
instance). This recommendation was soon given greater force when the African
continental body known at the time as Organisation for African Unity (OAU) also called
in 1963 for official English / French bilingualism on the continent to advance her Pan-
africanism ideology (Treffgarne, 1975, 72). It is little wonder then that in order to hasten
the growth and development of the nation’s intelligentsia, the Universities that came into
existence soon after Nigeria’s political independence in 1960 (University of Nigeria,
Mike T. U. Edung
THE NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY FRENCH TEACHER AS INNOVATOR:
AN INNOVATION IN THE UNIVERSITY OF UYO FRENCH STUDIES CURRICULUM
European Journal of Foreign Language Teaching - Volume 5 │ Issue 1 │ 2020 71
Nsukka in 1960; and then Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; University of Lagos; and
University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Ile-Ife; all three in 1962), did not
waste time in creating French teaching Departments. This trend has largely continued
with the establishment of more conventional universities in the country. The natural
question to ask at this point is what has been the content and methods of the University
French studies curriculum in the country ever since, and what changes there have been
and why.
When foreign language studies in general, including French studies, berthed in
the Nigerian University curriculum from Europe in the 1960s and 1970s, it did so with
the same content and methods operated back in Europe at the time: it was a literature
dominated curriculum, and the purely language aspect of the curriculum used the
grammar-translation method, both approaches dating back to the European
scholasticism. (Battestini, 1971). Though writing in a different but related context, (that
of the teaching of “European Literature in Nigerian Universities: The Case of German”),
Ihekweazu (1982) captured the issue quite vividly when she observed that this type of
foreign language curriculum was “designed to lead the students as quickly as possible to the
ethereal heights of literature. … The concept was inherited from the teaching of classical languages,
ascending through the aspera of grammar to the astra of Horace, Homer or Sophocles”. Members
of this writer’s generation can easily recall that materials that were used to illustrate good
grammatical usage in the grammar manuals and textbooks of that era were extracted
from the works of acknowledged good French writers, as were the passages that were
used to illustrate good writing in the composition manuals and classes of the era. We also
recall that for the literary appreciation and criticism exercises in the literature classes and
in examinations, students had the option of answering questions in English provided
they could demonstrate a good grasp of the literary quality of the work and/or the author
under discussion. Their competence in the use of the French language was evaluated only
in the French composition, comprehension, and the version exercises and examination
papers and in the oral or spoken French exercises and examination papers.
A slight review of his curriculum occurred from the middle of the 1970s, even as
it did not change in any way the intrinsically literary coloration of the curriculum. This
review had to do with the “africanisation” of the prescribed Literature works and
authors, which now included authors and works in African and Afro-Caribbean
literatures, while the prescribed literary doctrines now included Négritude.
Ihekweazu again has the credit of aptly pointing out the weakness of this
curriculum, as well as the changes that this weakness gave birth to. Ihekweazu (1982)
tells us that critics of this type of language acquisition for the sole purpose of reading
literature have rightly commented on the inability of such learners to communicate in the
foreign language on simple matters like the price of bread or the departure time of a train.
They not only lacked the active mastery of the language but also the necessary
vocabulary.
However, all was not altogether hopeless. If the graduates of this curriculum did
not possess much of active everyday vocabulary, it was evident that they were good at
Mike T. U. Edung
THE NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY FRENCH TEACHER AS INNOVATOR:
AN INNOVATION IN THE UNIVERSITY OF UYO FRENCH STUDIES CURRICULUM
European Journal of Foreign Language Teaching - Volume 5 │ Issue 1 │ 2020 72
their “dissertation française”, just as they could read any serious text with appreciable
understanding. The “Language Immersion Programme” (LIP) for which the French
Government usually sponsored all Nigerian students enrolled for the B.A. and the B.A.
(Ed) degrees in French, and which enabled them to spend a full academic year in France
or in a French-speaking African country, stood them in good stead in oral fluency and in
the active everyday vocabulary in the language, which the pre-LIP curriculum alone
could not give them. From the earliest days when the first five universities at Ibadan,
Nsukka, Zaria, Ile-Ife and Lagos produced just about a hundred holders of the B.A. and
the B.A. (Ed) degrees in French, or a little over, to the 1980s when all the Federal and State
owned Universities of the time produced about a few hundreds of the holders of these
degrees, all from the curriculum described above, the graduates were usually all
employed by the Federal and State Governments. And the competence of these graduates
as presented above was such that they could, with little extra effort or training if
necessary, use the French language in whatever positions or specialties they found
themselves in the Government services – Teaching at the Secondary and Tertiary levels
of Education, Government Civil Service Ministries, Foreign Service, Military and Para-
Military Services, etc. However, the need expressed at the 1961 Yaoundé Conference for
ease of communication between the Anglophone and Francophone intellectuals in the
different disciplines and fields of specialisation for the purpose of facilitating national
and African development was still largely unsatisfied by the graduates of the curriculum
presented above (Battestini, 1971).
The first major curriculum change came by the late 1980s, and certainly from the
early 1990s, when the wind of the notion of “communicative competence”, and courses in
French Linguistics blew refreshingly on the French studies curriculum in Nigerian
universities. Ihekweazu (1982) has captured this feature as follows:
““Communicative competence” became the motto of foreign language teaching with
emphasis on oral expression. Language laboratories were established, newspapers were
introduced into the classroom, and numerous books appeared on the market containing
topical information on day to day life in the respective foreign countries. … At the same
time, linguists asserted that the language of literature should be regarded rather as the
exception than as the norm, and was therefore certainly not the most suitable means to
enhance “communicative competence”, which was primarily understood as the ability to
participate in everyday conversation on practical issues.”
Much as Ihekweazu’s remark is revealing, it is useful to explain further that if non-
literary texts (which Ihekweazu, the passionate literature teacher describes further on in
her remark as “less elitist and less lofty categories of texts”) were used for the language
courses (mainly oral and written comprehension and composition courses), and if a few
basic French Linguistics courses (Phonetics & Phonology, Morphosyntax, Lexicology,
Semantics) were also added to the curriculum, this still remained essentially literature
dominated, but of course with more works in African literature in French, and less in
Mike T. U. Edung
THE NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY FRENCH TEACHER AS INNOVATOR:
AN INNOVATION IN THE UNIVERSITY OF UYO FRENCH STUDIES CURRICULUM
European Journal of Foreign Language Teaching - Volume 5 │ Issue 1 │ 2020 73
French literature making the list of prescribed texts for study. But a new problem arose
that has impacted negatively to a large extent on the French language competence of the
holder of the B.A./B.A. (Ed) degree in French.
By the end of the 1980s perhaps, but certainly from the early 1990s, the second
generation of the Federal Government Universities, and the State Government
Universities of the conventional type had considerably increased the number of
University French teaching Departments in Nigeria. However, of the number of students
that enrolled for the B.A./B.A. (Ed) degrees in French, a rapidly decreasing number
possessed the required Credit level pass in French at the Senior Secondary School /
General Certificate in Education Examinations. To make up for the shortfall that was
becoming more embarrassing by the year, Nigerian University Departments of French
had generally resorted to establishing One-Year Certificate Programmes in French, the
products of which would be admitted into the first year of the Four-Year B.A./B.A. (Ed)
degree programme. The Certificate programme was generally open to candidates with
the basic University admission requirements, and who had studied French in the
Secondary School but could not obtain a pass at Credit level and above, as well as to those
with the basic University admission requirements but who had not studied French at all.
It was believed, rightly or wrongly, that one-year intensive study of French alone would
afford the students the competence in French required to go into the Bachelor degree
programmes in French. The Pre-degree Certificate in French strategy considerably
increased student enrolment in the now very many University Departments of French in
Nigeria to between 80 and 120 or even more in some cases.
One negative consequence of the explosive student population from the situation
just presented was the decreasing quality of Teacher-Student personal attention and
contact which is very essential in language teaching in beginners’ classes, but which is
difficult or impossible in large classes, depending on the class size. Even if it is only for
this reason, the Pre-degree Certificate in French strategy generally resulted ultimately in
poor quality graduates of French. Another unfortunate result of the student population
explosion in the Departments of French in the 1990s was that the French Government
could no longer sponsor Nigerian students of French in the Bachelor degree programmes
for the “Year Abroad” in France and the Francophone countries where the students
would spend a school year interacting with their Francophone peers as room-mates,
friends, etc., living their entire lives on everyday basis with them, and in the Francophone
cities, as it used to be in the 1960s up to part of the 1980s. The alternative arrangements
of creating special centres in the very nearby francophone countries where the Nigerian
students would be dumped together, having only their Francophone teachers and other
workers of the centres to interact with in French, while they have only themselves to
interact with, and of course in English, Pidgin English and their Nigerian Languages,
could not yield good results. Worse still was and has been the Badagry experiment – the
experiment of creating a so-called “French village” on Nigerian soil.
If the Pre-degree Certificate in French innovation, as well as the Alternative “Year
Abroad” strategies count as curriculum changes, the student population explosion that
Mike T. U. Edung
THE NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY FRENCH TEACHER AS INNOVATOR:
AN INNOVATION IN THE UNIVERSITY OF UYO FRENCH STUDIES CURRICULUM
European Journal of Foreign Language Teaching - Volume 5 │ Issue 1 │ 2020 74
resulted from the Pre-degree Certificate in French innovation had produced another
result that would adversely affect University French studies in Nigeria. The very few
graduates of French that were produced by the few Nigerian University Departments of
French up to the 1980s were easily employed into the then available posts in the Federal
and State Government Services. Since the 1990s, the thousands that pour out from all the
University Departments of French could no longer find jobs readily in the Government
Services. For decades now, it has become a very common feature for University graduates
in general, and graduates of French in particular to remain unemployed for up to ten or
more years, except if teaching for a pittance in a private nursery or primary or secondary
school can be regarded as suitable employment for these graduates. Yet, as earlier studies
on the issue by this writer in particular have shown (see Edung and Udung (2008), Edung
(2009), and Edung and Nyah (2010) for instance), there are other employment
opportunities for the Nigerian University graduates of French provided the curriculum
equips them with the appropriate knowledge, skills, and competence. Since the scenario
just painted continues to the present day and links the unemployment of Nigerian
graduates of French to the curriculum that has produced them, it logically suggests
curriculum innovation. But before we turn to this issue, it is pertinent to consider one
consequence of the unemployment (or is it unemployability?) of the Nigerian university
graduate of French on University French studies and on its curriculum in Nigeria.
The inability of the products of our University French studies curriculum to get
suitable employment has resulted in decreasing population or decreasing student
enrolment in our University Departments of French. Parents and their wards are usually
interested in disciplines and study programmes that will enable these wards to earn a
living and be successful in life, and this is only natural. In order for them not to close shop
due to empty lecture halls in French courses, our Departments of French are compelled
to admit second rate students using our Certificate in French programme, and they make
up the greater percentage of our students these days. These second rate students are
mostly those who could not obtain the minimum matriculation examination score for
admission to study their preferred disciplines, or again those who, in spite of having
obtained the acceptable matriculation examination score for admission to study their
preferred disciplines, could not obtain the required level of pass in the secondary school
subjects required for admission to study their preferred discipline. Needless to add that
many of these students never studied French in the secondary school, and generally do
not like it. They accept our offer of admission to study French because they must be in
the University like their friends. The more important point to make here is that being
intellectually second rate, they are just unsuitable for university studies in general, least
of all, for university foreign language studies. This category of students generally
graduates with little or no competence in the use of the French language, and so with
little or no chance of employment in any post that would require such competence. The
scenario just painted may not necessarily raise the question of curriculum innovation,
since no kind of curriculum may turn an intellectually weak person to a good student.
But it is worthy of note as it may help us to decide what type of curriculum to design to
Mike T. U. Edung
THE NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY FRENCH TEACHER AS INNOVATOR:
AN INNOVATION IN THE UNIVERSITY OF UYO FRENCH STUDIES CURRICULUM
European Journal of Foreign Language Teaching - Volume 5 │ Issue 1 │ 2020 75
make our products employable, and thus attract the right category of students to our
discipline, and shut out the second rate students.
3. An Innovation in the University of Uyo B.A. (French) Curriculum
Perhaps the commonest innovation in the Nigerian University French studies curriculum
that has resulted from what has been presented above is what has been commonly
referred to as French for specific purposes (FSP), or more appropriately in our view,
“français de spécialité”. (This is not the place to bother about the fine distinction between
the two terms.) It all began with the view mentioned above that the language of literature
was different from the language for everyday usage. After that came the clamour for
“communicative competence” in French for everyday living. It was then realised that
employment and employability lay in competence in the French language of specific
fields of human activity, for example tourism, commerce, science and technology,
banking and finance, journalism, law and order, security, agriculture, diplomacy, etc. At
Ahmadu Bello University for example, there are now courses bearing titles such as
French for Scientists, French for International Studies, French for Social Scientists and
Mass Communication. The introduction and teaching of this type of courses in the B.A.
(French) curriculum seem to have followed a period of advocacy, best illustrated by such
studies as Simire (2005, 2002a, and 2002b) and Edung (2006), to mention but these.
The Department of Foreign Languages at Uyo has taken a different approach to
the teaching of FSP. In all modesty, this is a direct consequence of the studies carried out
by this writer, either alone or in collaboration with colleagues, on the FSP issue. On the
whole, this writer’s studies on the teaching of FSP in the B.A. (French) curriculum in
particular, revealed some facts that would underpin the new approach he would later
propose to his colleagues in the Department. The first of these facts is that a B.A. (French)
curriculum that would enhance employability must include “français de spécialité”,
understood as “la langue française considérée en tant que vecteur de connaissances spécialisées”
(adapted from Lerat, 1995 : 20). The second is that this “français de spécialité”, like any
other “langue de spécialité”, does not only consist of specialised terms, understood as
linguistic or symbolic or formulaic designations of concepts, objects, or systems in a
specialised field of human knowledge or activity, but also consists of specialised phrases
which express diverse types of relationship between the concepts, objects, and systems
designated by the terms, the totality of the specialised terms and phrases making up what
is now technically known as the terminology of a specialised field of knowledge or
activity. The third and a very important fact is the revelation by Coseriu, as cited by Lerat
(1995 : 21) that “On connaît les “signifies” des terminologies dans la mesure où l’on connaît les
sciences et les techniques auxquelles elles répondent et non pas dans la mesure où l’on connaît la
langue ». But then, this writer’s research agreed with Simire (2002b) that with the category
of students who usually enrol in the B.A. (French) programme.
Mike T. U. Edung
THE NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY FRENCH TEACHER AS INNOVATOR:
AN INNOVATION IN THE UNIVERSITY OF UYO FRENCH STUDIES CURRICULUM
European Journal of Foreign Language Teaching - Volume 5 │ Issue 1 │ 2020 76
“Nous n’avons pas affaire à des professionnels dans un domaine donné et qui n’ont besoin
de la langue de spécialité que pour la compréhension de documents. Nous avons plutôt
affaire à des apprenants qui auront aussi besoin des compréhensions sémantiques … qui
ne pourront être obtenues grâce à un dictionnaire sectoriel bilingue.”
This writer’s research also agreed with Crystal (1997: 382) that “analysis [and
mastery] of the language used [in a specialised field] would require an exposition of the conceptual
system that gave rise to it“. On the basis of the above facts, this researcher sought for an
approach to the teaching of français de spécialité that would expose the learners to the
conceptual system that constitutes the specialised field of knowledge or activity
concerned as well as to the specialised French language of the field. This approach was
found in a B.A. degree syllabus that would combine French with some other relevant
disciplines like Accounting, Banking and Finance, Business Management, Economics,
Mass Communication/Journalism, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Theatre and Film
Studies, Music, International Relations, Security and Strategic Studies, to mention but
very few, provided a suitable syllabus is worked out that would enable the student to get
the essentials of both of the combined disciplines to make him optimally functional in
both.
In reality, the idea of studying courses in two disciplines for a Bachelor degree is
not new in Nigeria. However, when it was widely practised in Nigerian Universities,
particularly in the very early days of University education in Nigeria, combinations with
French were largely limited to other disciplines in the Humanities, including the other
language disciplines. French was hardly ever combined with disciplines in the Natural
Sciences or even in the Social Sciences. Today this degree syllabus has been almost
entirely abandoned in our Universities, the only survivor being the B.A. (Ed) programme
which essentially seeks to train graduate teachers in the various secondary school
subjects. To the extent that it seeks to combine French with disciplines in areas that were
hitherto unheard of in the Nigerian University system, in addition to other measures that
are proposed for the successful and rewarding implementation of this type of curriculum,
it can be considered an innovation. For instance, Edung (2009) has proposed a “Year
Abroad” strategy in which students combining French with these other disciplines could
be given some form of Industrial Attachment placements, even if informally, in relevant
establishments in the host countries during the Year Abroad, while others who so prefer
could audit university courses at any level in the disciplines they are combining with
French while on the Year Abroad programme.
With respect to the modalities for managing such a curriculum alternative, we
have the experience of other countries to fall back on and learn from. As Edung and
Udung (2008) have remarked, French, and indeed other European languages have been
studied together with other non-language disciplines in British and American
Universities. In the words of Edung and Udung (2008),
Mike T. U. Edung
THE NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY FRENCH TEACHER AS INNOVATOR:
AN INNOVATION IN THE UNIVERSITY OF UYO FRENCH STUDIES CURRICULUM
European Journal of Foreign Language Teaching - Volume 5 │ Issue 1 │ 2020 77
“Indeed, such combined degree programmes are in great currency in the European
countries and in America where French is taught as a foreign language. In Lancaster
University in Great Britain, to cite but just one example, French and other European
languages like German, Italian and Spanish, can be studied together with Chemistry,
Computer Science, or Geography or Mathematics or Psychology in the School of Science
and Engineering; with Accounting and Finance or Economics or Marketing in the School
of Management; with Philosophy or Politics in the School of Social Sciences; as well as
with English or History or Music or Theatre Arts or with another foreign language in the
School of Arts and Humanities.”
This researcher and his collaborators did not simply stop at merely proposing that
the study of the non-language disciplines together with French be introduced into the
Nigerian University curriculum. Edung and Udung (2008) for instance also presented a
syllabus structure, outlining the work load for French and for the other disciplines to be
combined with French. To give a simple idea of what this state of affairs could look like
(and thus save the much space that the reproduction of a sample syllabus here would
take), let us simply say that the courses in each of the subjects to be combined with French
would take the place that literature courses occupy on the current standard syllabuses of
the B.A. (French) curriculum in Nigerian universities. This may not sound like good news
to the Literature specialists in our French Departments. Indeed, one such senior colleague
had seriously frowned when these ideas were initially presented to colleagues for
consideration at Uyo. “What will I then teach, or do you want the rest of us to go home?”,
she had queried. It must therefore be explained here, as it was done then, and particularly
in Edung and Udung (2008), that the combined degree syllabus is not meant to replace
nor can it ever replace the current Literature-dominant syllabus of the B.A. (French)
curriculum. As the survey carried out by this writer on the students of his Department
has shown, there will always be students who love and register for the literature courses.
Another objection to the study of French together with non-language disciplines
may come up as it did in our Uyo experience, regarding where the students who wish to
register for such a syllabus will come from. This objection “dies” naturally in the face of
our general experience over some time now that most of the students that populate our
Departments now are those who could not gain admission to study other disciplines. Our
survey revealed that such students would gladly welcome an opportunity to study these
disciplines with French, given the value that their knowledge of a foreign language may
add to their knowledge of these other disciplines.
The question posed about the management of the mandatory Language
Immersion Programme (LIP) or the Year Abroad Programme in respect to the third year
courses in the disciplines combined with French does not also arise, since the matter will
be handled in the same way it has been handled with students in the B.A. (Ed)
programme in all our Universities offering this programme.
With respect to the general administrative management of the students in these
combined disciplines degree programme, it must be pointed out that these students
Mike T. U. Edung
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belong administratively to the Department of French or Foreign Languages, howsoever
called in the respective Universities. For one, it is the Department of French that admits
them, draws up their syllabus, and so decides what courses they study in the other
disciplines. Needless to say, that this must be done in consultation with the experts of the
other disciplines in the other Departments, who are better placed to know which course
is fundamental to a functional knowledge of the discipline. Since they are primarily
students of French, only sent to the other Department to get the bit they require to grasp
the conceptual system of such disciplines, the question raised by authorities of the other
disciplines that they would not get enough to qualify them to hold a degree in their
discipline does not arise. Students registered in the B.A. (Ed) programmes in Nigeria and
elsewhere certainly do not do all the courses they would have done in Education had
they not combined the latter with another discipline. Yet they are students of the Faculty
of Education. Needless to say, that our students who combine French with Portuguese or
German or whatever else do not study all the courses studied by those who study only
French. But we have not seen any serious handicap in their competence once they are
intellectually strong.
It is an indication of the acceptability and indeed the desirability of the type of
curriculum change proposed here that this writer’s Department had set up a Curriculum
Review Committee, with this writer as the Chairman, and had given the Committee the
mandate to draw up a syllabus for a B.A. degree programme in which French will be
combined with other disciplines along the lines we had repeatedly proposed. The Draft
syllabus produced by the Committee prescribed among other things, admission
requirements, graduation requirements particularly in terms of minimum credit load,
courses to be studied in each of the two disciplines, taking into account the other
University required courses, etc. The proposed syllabus which is currently being
processed for the approval of the University Senate provides for the combination of
French with a limited number of disciplines for a start, and these are: Accounting,
Business Management, Communication Arts, Economics, International Studies,
Marketing, Music, and Theatre Arts & Film Studies. There is no doubt that the products
of this type of syllabus will be competent and functional in the specialised French
language usage of their fields of interest, and that this will enhance their employability.
It is also logical to believe as a corollary of this that as more holders of the Bachelor degree
in French will get more easily employed, more candidates for University admission will
be attracted to our discipline.
4. Conclusion
We can only add here by way of conclusion, and in line with the objectives of this
presentation as earlier announced in the opening lines of this article, that this proposal is
one case and an example that the innovative disposition of a teacher will guaranty the
survival of our discipline in the Nigerian educational curriculum as we had argued in an
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earlier study (see Edung et Nyah, 2010). This is all the more important at the University
level where innovative thinking and research is of primary importance.
About the Author
Dr. Mike Edung is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Foreign Languages, University
of Uyo, Nigeria, where he teaches courses in French Phonetics and Phonology, French
Lexicology, French Stylistics, French Language in Africa, Français de spécialité,
Terminology, Technical Writing, and Discourse Analysis, mostly in the M.A. and the PhD
programmes. He is a widely published researcher in diverse aspects of French Language
and Linguistics, both in his native Nigeria and internationally. Dr. Edung is also a
member of several professional and scholarly societies and associations, including the
very dynamic University French Teachers’ Association of Nigeria (UFTAN), and has
been concerned for quite some time now, with curricular innovations in university
French studies, focusing on the teaching of “français de spécialité”.
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