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Abstract
The introduction of the Communication in French course by the Nigerian Universities 
Commission (NUC) into the Nigerian university system for it to be learnt as a General Studies 
(GS) course has not come without the peculiar challenges and problems of starting something 
new. This study is a field report of what were encountered as the major problems and some 
novel solutions applied to make meaningful progress while teaching the course for two 
sessions at the University of Africa, Toru-Orua, Bayelsa State and as the Ag. Director of the 
Institute of Foreign Languages and Biomedical Translations (IFL-BT). The challenges 
include: the problem of learning a new language, lack of motivation, lack of a language 
laboratory and textbooks, lack of sufficient lecture periods and lack of sufficient number of 
teachers to attend to the large classes for effective teaching. The study found out that 
improvements in the attendance and participation of students can be recorded if French 
language teachers can motivate the students and remain persistent in the task, instead of 
losing interest because the students themselves are not showing much interest. Also, the use of 
call and response system for learning can minimise the absence of the language laboratory 
and leverage on the short period of time allotted for the course. This study is of the view that if 
these problems are attended to by the French language teachers and other relevant 
authorities, a lot of improvements could be recorded in the teaching and learning of the course 
in Nigerian universities.  

Keywords: Teaching, Communication in French, UAT, IFL-BT, Nigerian Universities, 
Motivation.

Introduction
This paper is a field report of the challenges and problems experienced teaching the 
communication in French course at the University of Africa, Toru-Orua, Bayelsa State and 
observing the language lecturers as the Ag. Director of the Institute of Foreign Languages and 
Biomedical Translations (IFL-BT) at the Bayelsa Medical University. In the last few years the 
teaching of French has been added to the list of GST Courses by the Nigerian Universities 
Commission. The fact that the French language is essential to Nigerians as Nigeria is 
surrounded by French speaking countries and the fact that French is an important language to 
the business world must have been important in arriving at the decision. According to an article 
written by the Startupr Hong Kong, French is the official language of over 29 countries of the 
world, and it is the second-most widely spoken first language in the European Union. So, if a 
Nigerian student is to travel to European countries upon graduation, French is the second 
language needed after the English language and in some cases, the only language needed (cf. 

COOU Journal of Arts and Humanities (CJAH) Vol. 5 No. 3, 2020

01

MARIE THERESE TEIBOWEI 
(mbemt@yahoo.com)

Department of Linguistics and Nigerian Languages,
University of Africa, Toru-Orua, Bayelsa State.

THE PROBLEM OF TEACHING COMMUNICATION IN 
FRENCH IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES: 

A FOCUS ON UAT AND IFL-B



Idegbekwe & Teilanyo, 2019). Also, the colonial history of France has helped spread the 
language in the modern world in the same way as English. This has led to a situation in which 
there are more non-native French speakers than native speakers. So, there is a justification for 
the course as a GST course.

In accordance with the NUC Benchmark framework, the course Communication in 
French is taught at the University of Africa (UAT) as a two semester compulsory course for all 
first year students.UAT is not alone in embracing the teaching of the French course in Nigeria 
as other universities such as (as listed by Ezeodili & Ezeafulukwe, 2016, p.3)  Imo  State  
University,  (IMSU)  Owerri,  Chukwuemeka Odumegwu  Ojukwu  University,  Igbariam,  
Michael  Okpara  University  of  Agriculture,  Umudike, Federal  University  Ndufu-  
Alukwu,  Ebonyi  State  (FUNAI)  Abakaliki and other private universities in the country. The 
Institute of Foreign Languages and Biomedical Translations(IFL-BT) offers foreign 
languages such as French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese-mandarin, German, Portuguese and 
English as a second language. Being a new course as it were both to the students and the 
lecturers, there are bound to be teething problems which are discussed here.

This is not the first study in this area. Teibowei (2017) carried out a study on the 
problems of teaching and learning French grammar in Bayelsa State. The study revealed that 
unqualified French language teachers, lack of retraining exercises for teachers, lack of 
standard textbooks and poor remuneration affect the teachers in teaching of the French 
grammar. Also, learning of the French grammar is hindered because the rules are too many and 
confusing, the students lack good role models in the teachers, there is no motivation on the part 
of the students and there are no standard textbooks to consult for further insights. The study 
focused on the entire state with emphasis on the teaching of grammar. 

Omoniyi (2012) focused on the socio-politico and pedagogical problems of language 
teaching in Nigeria. The study devoted a section of the study of the French language and the 
Arabic language in Nigeria as foreign languages as a status. According to Omoniyi (2012, p. 
35), 

Although French and Arabic are elective subjects in the Secondary School Curriculum 
at both Junior and Senior levels. The Government is hardly aware of the problems that 
are likely to affect the teaching of both languages in the nation's schools, knowing that 
they are foreign languages for which pupils will not readily find models to interact with 
on a daily basis. However, the nation has now established two Special Language 
Villages, one for Arabic in the north-east of the country, and another for French in the 
South-west, where students can, over periods ranging from six months to one whole 
year, experience full immersion in those two languages. This approach to the teaching 
of French and Arabic, has the unexpected benefit of pointing at or highlighting what 
would appear to be a fundamental fallacy in the teaching of English based on the 
assumption that the language is a second rather than a foreign language in Nigeria.

He goes further to note in the study that as long as this assumption continues to hold sway, with 
the result of proficiency attained in it by teachers and necessarily by their pupils also, will 
persist in the nation's school system, and this will continue to pose a big problem to the nation's 
educational planners.

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COOU Journal of Arts and Humanities (CJAH) Vol. 5 No. 3, 2020



Oyebole (2014) focused on some of the ordeals involved in learning a Foreign 
Language in Nigeria with a focus on the French Language. Using the sociological approach to 
language study, Oyebola's (2014) study is of the opinion that the biggest problem facing the 
teaching of the French language in Nigeria is the lack seriousness of the Nigerian government 
to adopt the French language as an official language side by side the English language as has 
been advocated by UNESCO and corroborated by the generous efforts of the French 
government in adopting some secondary schools and other programmes aimed at promoting 
the French language.  At the end, Oyebola suggests that for a language as complex as French, 
learners at all levels should be encouraged and motivated to learn the language in a conducive 
environment. Also, the Nigerian government should do all things possible to give the 
importance of learning the language adequate and wide publicity. The Nigerian government 
should endeavour to subsidize French books and teaching materials; and make them available 
and accessible to learners of the language. It is also of necessity to equip language laboratories 
with various modern technological gadgets in order to aid learners' knowledge of how to 
pronounce the French sounds correctly. 

Also, Ogunbiyi (2012) focused on the problems associated with implementing the 
French language curriculum in Secondary Schools in Lagos state, Nigeria. The study 
identified shortage of qualified language teachers, inadequate teaching aids, lack of relevant 
text books, the problems of multi-lingualism, Lack of well-equipped language laboratories 
and libraries, lack of interest on the part of the students and lack of motivation for both students 
and teachers alike as the major problems preventing the full scale implementation of the 
French curriculum in the state. At the end, the study concludes that: 'It is very important that 
Nigeria should study French language for international mutual understanding and 
cooperation. It is also essential for socio-economic and technological development of both 
Anglophone and the Francophone neighbours. Re-training of French teachers through in-
service programmes would be necessary for the effective implementation of the curriculum. 
French language educationists should be invited to prepare textbooks for the students' 
integration of their learning experiences and their everyday activities' (Ogunbiyi, 2012, p. 4).

The introduction of the Communication in French course by the NUC is a relatively 
new exercise. Attention of researchers has not been focused on the challenges that came with 
it. Perhaps, they have been busy in their own universities too trying to overcome. Hence, there 
is a need to present the challenges here and the humble and novel ways in which the challenges 
were resolved or managed as the case may be.

Learning a new language altogether 
If there is any problem faced at the beginning of the teaching period, it is the fact that the 
lecturer needs to convince the students that they are learning a new language. This usually 
comes with an initial protest from some of the students especially students studying courses 
not related to language or art based courses. The protest usually comes from the science and 
social science students. Learning a new foreign language could be taxing for an undergraduate 
who has always been taught the English language as the only foreign language and medium of 
expression in a formal environment. According to  Comben (2016) it takes a lot of guts, 
curiosity, time and effort to learn a language as an adult. In the opinion of Carl (2019), learning 
a foreign language is one of the hardest things a brain can do. What makes a foreign language 
so difficult to learn is the effort the learner has to make to transfer between linguistically 
complex structures.

COOU Journal of Arts and Humanities (CJAH) Vol. 5 No. 3, 2020

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Due to the above, the first sets of classes for all the students in the various departments 
are usually slow or having a slow start. This is because the basis of the French language is 
focused on for few weeks and laced with motivational speeches on why the subject should be 
learnt. For most persons, beginning a thing is usually difficult especially beginning from the 
very beginning. Almost every language learning journey starts with the alphabet, which can be 
difficult for some people. However, after the first part of learning alphabets, then proceeding to 
learn greetings; the students' interest increases. In as much as starting is a challenge especially 
with the alphabet, there comes another one, such as greetings and everyday phrases in French. 
It has been observed that the interest of the students pick up at this point as shown in three 
evaluation areas which are represented in the table below using data from the science group:

Table 1: Showing the improvements after the first few weeks of teaching GST French 

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COOU Journal of Arts and Humanities (CJAH) Vol. 5 No. 3, 2020

While learning Alphabet 
and Numbers

While learning greetings 
and common phrases

Average Class 
Attendance

Class Concentration 

Participation in class 
Activities

Submission of 
Assignments 

42

Low

11/42

19/42

79

High

73/79

67/79

Source: the present study

The three areas used as evaluation are arbitrary. However, it represents vividly the 
improvement made from overcoming the setbacks of the early beginning of learning the 
French language which is a new language to the students. It is also observed that many of them 
did not learn French in either the primary or secondary school days. Their systems of 
communication on a large scale have been the use of English for formal speech events and the 
use of their various indigenous language for informal. This could go a long way in justifying 
the reasons why the alphabets of the new language seemed difficult. The low attendance to 
classes at the beginning could be for different reasons apart from the fact that they do not like 
the lectures. It could be that they do not enjoy the lectures and they stayed back; it could also be 
that as first year students, they do not understand fully how the university operates with the 
GST courses. However, it is observed that with the introduction of greetings, the number of 
students in class almost doubles and the students are kind of excited of learning new ways of 
greeting in another language which many of them said they have heard in movies or songs. 
They made fun out of it and the interest to learn new ones could be observed.

There is the observed quickness to speak amongst the students at this stage especially 
when asked to repeat a greeting or a common expression in the language. This is very much 
different with the level of attentiveness at the beginning. What this means is that the 
motivational talks on the importance of learning such a language and the persistence on the 
part of the teacher not to give up could go a long way in helping the students gain interest with 
time and that there is a need to spice up classes with what students can enjoy and find joy in. 



Lack of motivation attitude

Though it was stated earlier that the researcher needed to present series of talks on why the 
students need to learn French at the university level, it was observed that on a regular basis a 
negative shift in the kind of progress recorded in the table above. The usual feedback from 
them can be summarised as the course being an avenue for the university to stress them as 
nothing can be gained. One of the main obstacles in learning a foreign language is attitude. 
According to Okoh (2013), the attitude of the language learner determines the altitude of the 
output. If one believes that the language is difficult and that, even if one works hard at it, one 
might not succeed; then one's brain will not try enough. Most students say the French language 
is very difficult and complicated and full of rules and conjugation. In my assessment, this 
attitude has a way of affecting them as it reduces their efforts and learning and trying to achieve 
new things. 

Again, this is followed this up with more inspirational talks. The main idea here to the 
solution is to direct or influence the students to think positive, have a positive attitude. It 
should not be misunderstood, no one is saying that it is easy, but they should try to always keep 
in mind that if they are persistent enough, there will be nothing they cannot achieve or do, same 
goes with language learning. The people speaking the language as a foreign language, how did 
they do it?' Are they aliens? Of course not; they try hard, they have a positive thinking, and they 
aren't afraid to give it a try.' When such a statement is put up, most students usually calm down 
and make attempts and various times to either pronounce the word or present the right verb 
conjugation task or any other task as the case maybe. The truth is it is not entirely true that 
learning a foreign language is tricky. It is a way of thinking, and above all, it is an attitude. 

Lack of language laboratory and learning textbooks
This is the challenge that has not been fully solved as the dynamics are not in hands of the 
researcher in many ways. The problem of having a good textbook or reading material for the 
course was partly solved as books that are readily available to the students were sourced out 
using books that are accessible in most bookshops in the state where UAT is located. However, 
it is disappointing that only few students bought them. The issue of textbooks may not be 
associated with French alone other teachers also complain of students not buying textbooks 
relevant for the various courses. According to the UNESCO report for African countries for 
the year 2017, in many countries students at all levels either lack books altogether or are 
required to share them extensively with others. Without textbooks, students can spend many of 
their school hours copying content from the board, which severely reduces time for engaged 
learning. The report went on to state that the cost of textbooks is a key barrier that prevents 
students at all levels from having unhindered access to the learning materials they need. Also, 
it is noted in the report that although systematic data are lacking, and generally exist only for 
core textbooks, existing information shows that in many countries, students at all levels either 
lack textbooks altogether or are required to share them with their peers. This is not different 
from my experience teaching the communication in French course at UAT. Students waste 
more time following my dictation methods of note taking as there are no reference materials to 
fall back on. 

The second problem is the lack of a language laboratory in UAT and in most Nigerian 

COOU Journal of Arts and Humanities (CJAH) Vol. 5 No. 3, 2020

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universities. The IFL-BT has also not gotten a language Laboratory. Lecturers have to 
improvise with practical lessons on You Tube and Whatsapp. Even when they exist, their 
capacity either in the number of students the laboratory can take or the existing infrastructure is 
usually very limited. The case becomes futile when language based departments in the 
university do not have a standard language laboratory then one makes a case for a GST French 
course laboratory. According to Alufohai and Aziegbe (2016, p.56), the language laboratory 
gives every learner the freedom to learn at their own speed and it does not require the teacher to 
be present every time. Using the lab, the teachers can render assistance to the students 
individually or collectively. The language laboratory is a very helping tool for practicing and 
assessing one's speech in a language. Language laboratory is used in learning pronunciation 
and all other aspect of the phonetics of a language. How important a language laboratory is 
cannot be overstressed in the area of learning for the purposes of communication. The 
language laboratory, exist to help one use technology effectively to communicate. It is usually 
recommended in language teaching for a learner to hear the best samples of all spoken 
language in order to get the best sensibilities in the course of learning. This declaration is 
validated by David-Wilson and Thayalan (2007) who opined that language laboratory is 
required by any language learner to have a good command of the language for communication 
purposes, with clarity and accuracy being vital for effective and efficient communication.  

Language laboratory among other facilities is very important in the effective 
implementation of the French language curriculum in Nigeria (cf. Adebayo 2007). This view 
was further stressed by Mambo (2004) who described the language laboratory as one of the 
foundation of language instruction. Thus, language laboratory is seen as an important 
instructional tool for language teaching. A language laboratory is an environment designed to 
enhance foreign language learners' skills. It is generally equipped with analogue and digital 
hardware and software (tape recorders, video cassette recorders and computers). Language 
laboratory provides practice in listening comprehension speaking (listening and repeat), with 
the goal of reinforcing the grammar, vocabulary and function (grammatical structures) 
presented in class. The language laboratory is an audio or audio visual installation used as an 
aid in modern language teaching.  

As important as the instructional material is, it is not readily available for use. However, in 
order not to miss out completely in the area of sounds and pronunciation in the course of 
learning, the call and response system was introduced. This is possible when the class is calm 
and words are pronounced loudly, the students also do the same in response while the teacher 
listens to hear variations. If the teacher is not satisfied, he/she moves round and asks 
individuals to pronounce it. The problem with this is that if the teacher makes a mistake in the 
pronunciation, it is also learnt in that manner. 

Insufficient number of lecturers and lecture hours

Using the information of the NUC Benchmark, 2016, the Communication in French course is a 
two unit course which means by the university system of time allocation, the course is allotted 
two hours of lecture periods in a week. This is grossly in adequate if a new language is to be 
learnt. One can argue that the Communication in English course taught side by side is also 
given two hours; however English is a language most students are conversant with already 
before gaining admission into the university. The same cannot be said of the French language.  
With the two hours class a week, even the language laboratory might not be too useful to the 
students as there is not period for practical except it is divide into an hour each; this too has its 

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COOU Journal of Arts and Humanities (CJAH) Vol. 5 No. 3, 2020



consequences and the time for theory lessons is greatly reduced.  It is really difficult finding 
enough time to learn a new language like French. However, taking a trip to or living in the 
country where French is used would not be a bad idea either through excursions or field trips. 
French speaking countries are Nigeria's neighbours; getting there with students may be 
possible with careful planning.  

Related to the insufficiency in the lecture hours is the problem of insufficient teachers. For the 
period which this report covers, the researcher taught the course alone to entire university first 
year students numbering over 1,500 with carry over students especially in the second year. 
This is achieved by dividing the students into three groups using related faculties and 
departments; Faculties of Arts and Education, Social and Management Sciences and Basic and 
Applied Sciences. . Each group learns for two hours maximum a week. This could be made 
better if each group is at least assigned to one teacher in order to ensure smooth operations in 
the marking of assignments monitoring the development of the students. 

Conclusion
The study presents that improvements in the attendance and participation of students can be 
recorded if French language teachers can motivate the students and remain persistent in the 
task instead of losing interest because the students themselves are not showing much interest. 
Also, the use of call and response system for learning can minimise the absence of the 
language laboratory in the course of teaching. The present study highlighted the problems of 
teaching the Communication in French course at the University of Africa, Toru-Orua, Bayelsa 
State. The study presented the challenges to include: the problem of learning a new language, 
lack of motivation, the lack of a language laboratory and textbooks and the lack of sufficient 
lecture periods and the lack of sufficient number of teachers to attend to the large classes for 
effective teaching to be done. This study is of the view that if these problems are attended to by 
the French language teachers and other relevant authorities, a lot of improvements could be 
recorded in the teaching and learning of the course in Nigerian universities.  

REFERENCES

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David–Wilson, D. & Thayalan, V. (2007). Significance of language laboratory in                 
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Ezeodili, S. & Ezeafulukwe, O. (2016). French language a basic G.S course for 
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