Theodore Iyere (PhD) Assistant Professor /Senior Lecturer - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Theodore Iyere (PhD) Assistant Professor /Senior Lecturer

This study is a Scripto-therapeutic reading of Mariama Ba's So Long a Letter and Ferdinand Oyono'... more This study is a Scripto-therapeutic reading of Mariama Ba's So Long a Letter and Ferdinand Oyono's Houseboy. It examines the therapeutic relevance of creative writing at the personal, emotional and psychological level. It reveals how writers use language to manage their traumatic and grief experiences through writing and how their writings help them to achieve healing. The study further proves that creative writing is a fertile ground for therapeutic engagement as regards the effective and creative use of language devices. To achieve this in the course of the study, psychoanalytical theory is adopted as the theoretical framework. As a theory, psychoanalysis has prepared ground for the understanding of the mind of a creative writer. Using Mariama Ba's So Long a Letter and Ferdinand Oyono's Houseboy, the grieving and traumatic experiences of the writers as well as how the writers have been able use language to maintain emotional stability through scripting is revealed. The study concludes that creative writing is a therapeutic scriptorium that is effectively captured through the creative use of language. It also proves that creative writing is a useful tool for maintaining mental health.

Ifiok Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 8 (2), 1-28 , 2024

Given the recent established in critical security studies where security is beginning to command ... more Given the recent established in critical security studies where security is beginning to command attention beyond the locus of the state as the central frame of reference, the present study assesses the current understanding of security among Nigeria's security personnel attached to IDP camps as well as some IDPs too. Being a cross-sectional study, data was retrieved from IDPs and IDP security personnel attached to some of the IDP camps in Kano, Plateau and the FCT Abuja, between July and September, 2024, as a way of ascertaining the current state of living and perception of security among IDPs and security personnel assigned to these camps. In total, there were 157 respondents across the three states. 124 of them are security personnel whereas the remaining 33 are IDPs. The finding of the survey shows that the trado-realist approach to securitization is highly influential among Nigerians regarding the challenge of security. This study tenders that such an approach to securitization will not do. Relying on the Welsh concept of securitization where security is not different from emancipation, the present 1 study details the extent to which this may be true in addressing the causal factors responsible for the emergence and surge of IDPs and camps in Nigeria. It also offers some plausible recommendations in order to tackle the looming challenge of insecurity in the country.

Ifiok Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 2024

Informal and semi-structured interaction with the learners of National Open University of Nigeria... more Informal and semi-structured interaction with the learners of National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) during synchronous sessions indicated that there are some factors that militate against an academically-rewarding facilitator-learner experience. These factors span from the perception of the facilitation sessions by both students and learners as well as how external factors such as unstable electrical power supply and telecommunication/ICT challenge. Being a quantitative research, a survey was conducted among some of the academics of NOUN between July and September, 2024. Some 1, 046 learners who are attached to study centres in Lagos, Abuja and Kano participated in the survey as 152 facilitators or academic partook also took part. Overall, there were 1, 198 respondents who partook in the study. The preliminary hypothesis of the study that telecommunication network fluctuation/ICT challenge and electricity serve as the key impasse to a rewarding facilitator-learner experience in NOUN was proved right. Some suggestions were offered concerning how to overcome this challenge. Unless concrete steps are taken to address the possession of computer-assisted learning gadgets to enhance their studies through soft loans, as well as the challenge of power and network providers, the poor perception of ODL even by the learners of NOUN may surge eventually.

Top Linguistic and Language Journal, 2025

the students regularly used peculiar spelling forms for 1) entertainment, 2) convenience, 3) incr... more the students regularly used peculiar spelling forms for 1) entertainment, 2) convenience, 3) increasing social interaction, 4) seeking and sharing coded information, and 5) deliberately trying to restrict other people from comprehending the peculiarity of the language being selected. The study further found that English words and expressions used by many Nigerian university students in their e-language (social media chats) differed graphologically and morphologically from conventional ones. Interestingly, the omission of letters, unpopular academic abbreviations and acronyms, and the various spellings used by the students on their respective social media platforms did not constitute language or communication problems to them. Consequently, it would be of great benefit for language scholars to devise a way to accommodate these special language usages, which have become inevitable in the present dispensation due to the rapid nature of technological advancement in the world.

Eng 224 Advanced English Composition II

nou.edu.ng

Page 1. Page 2. ENG 224 COURSE GUIDE ENG 224 ADVANCED ENGLISH COMPOSITION II Course Developer/Wri... more Page 1. Page 2. ENG 224 COURSE GUIDE ENG 224 ADVANCED ENGLISH COMPOSITION II Course Developer/Writer Moji Olateju (Ph.D) Department of English Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, Nigeria Programme Leader ...

This paper reports the findings of an investigation of lexical errors in the Open and Distance Le... more This paper reports the findings of an investigation of lexical errors in the Open and Distance Learning students' essays at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). The study made use of tagged sample essays to find out the frequency and types of lexical errors in different registers of guided writing administered to randomly selected 300 and 400 level students undergoing the B.A English programme in the university. These categories of students were selected because the university regulation stipulates that all their examinations have to be manually written. The findings of the study reveal that ODL students in the B.A English programme in NOUN committed lexical choice errors more than lexical form errors. Lexical choice includes individual and combined choice of lexical items. Lexical form involves derivational errors and spelling errors. There are broadly two kinds of errors including interlingual errors and intralingual errors. Transfer errors mean a failure to keep a conceptual separation between L1 and L2. They represent interlingual errors. Transfer errors are different for each L1-L2 pair, while intralingual errors are the result of inadequate knowledge of the second language. The study postulates that simplification and overgeneralization errors might be made by any language learner based on low L2 proficiency. It then concludes that lexical errors are a natural and a necessary phenomenon in language teaching and learning and they benefit learners immensely, especially as they will try to avoid committing such errors in subsequent writings. Indeed, teachers should not prevent students from making errors but should always find ways to identify and correct them in the ODL classroom.

The aim of this case study is to extend the work of Jenkins (2000, 2002) in identifying aspects o... more The aim of this case study is to extend the work of Jenkins (2000, 2002) in identifying aspects of speech which decrease intelligibility in spoken interactions between non-native English speakers. Two native Hindi speakers and one native Spanish speaker (the first author) were recorded engaging in a two-hour spontaneous conversation in English. Speech transcripts from only four separate episodes of communication breakdown were analyzed for aspects of speech which caused unintelligibility. Data analyses revealed that substitutions of individual sounds and deviations of lexical stress were the factors which affected intelligibility the most. Implications for researching and teaching English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) are discussed.

Work in Progress, 2024

The paper discusses how AI language models, such as ChatGPT, can be used for automated essay scor... more The paper discusses how AI language models, such as ChatGPT, can be used for automated essay scoring (AES) in Open and Distance Learning (ODL) by leveraging the GPT-3 model to score essays and comparing the scores to benchmark levels. Recently, some colleagues and I experimented with an AI essay grader, accessible even to non-tech-savvy users and found that it performs the basic function of grading essays, provides additional features like summarizing content, detecting plagiarism, identifying errors, and even offering feedback-making it an excellent tool for marking essays in an Open and Distance Learning institution like the National Open University of Nigeria where essay answers are still being manually marked by lecturers. This experiment further validates the fact that AI can be used to score essays by utilizing natural language processing, machine learning techniques, and pre-training models. These AI-powered systems can analyze the syntax, semantics, grammar, and content of written essays to provide accurate grading and feedback. The paper further reviews the various approaches that have been proposed, including the use of graph-based techniques to assess the similarity of sentences and the integration of multi-level semantic features. Models such as BERT, convolutional neural networks, and recurrent neural networks are employed to extract deep semantic features, while feature fusion techniques enhance the accuracy of scoring. Pre-training and fine-tuning mechanisms, along with prompt feature fusion and auxiliary tasks, have also been explored to improve performance in essay scoring systems. The paper concludes, that these advancements in AI technology have the potential to revolutionize the evaluation and feedback process in essay grading, providing more efficient and accurate assessments especially in ODL institutions such as the National Open University of Nigeria.

An Exposition of Lexical Errors in ODL Students’ Essay Answers

Academia Letters

Academia Letters, 2022

Among various language skills, efficient retrieval of vocabulary is of vital importance in timed ... more Among various language skills, efficient retrieval of vocabulary is of vital importance in timed writing examinations. Therefore, this study is mainly concerned with analyzing lexical errors occurring in the written samples of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) students' examination answers in the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), and aims at throwing a spot light on both the theoretical development and practical teaching methodology in the area of error analysis.

International Journal of English and Literature, Dec 31, 2013

This paper reports the findings of an investigation of lexical errors in the Open and Distance Le... more This paper reports the findings of an investigation of lexical errors in the Open and Distance Learning students' essays at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). The study made use of tagged sample essays to find out the frequency and types of lexical errors in different registers of guided writing administered to randomly selected 300 and 400 level students undergoing the B.A English programme in the university. These categories of students were selected because the university regulation stipulates that all their examinations have to be manually written. The findings of the study reveal that ODL students in the B.A English programme in NOUN committed lexical choice errors more than lexical form errors. Lexical choice includes individual and combined choice of lexical items. Lexical form involves derivational and spelling errors. There are broadly two kinds of errors including interlingual and intralingual errors. Transfer errors mean a failure to keep a conceptual separation between L1 and L2. They represent interlingual errors. Transfer errors are different for each L1-L2 pair, while intralingual errors are the result of inadequate knowledge of the second language. The study postulates that simplification and over generalization errors might be made by any language learner based on low L2 proficiency. It then concludes that lexical errors are a natural and a necessary phenomenon in language teaching and learning and they benefit learners immensely, especially as they will try to avoid committing such errors in subsequent writings. Indeed, teachers should not prevent students from making errors but should always find ways to identify and correct them in the ODL classroom.

International Journal of English and Literature, Jul 31, 2013

This paper analyzes some pronunciation challenges of English learners newly admitted into the B.A... more This paper analyzes some pronunciation challenges of English learners newly admitted into the B.A English programme at the National Open University of Nigeria, Lagos. It was discovered that factors leading to these problems are interference of the students' mother tongue, their ages, attitudes and their insufficient knowledge of sounds and the sound system of English. From this study, we could reiterate that having a clear understanding of the distinctions between phonetics as the general science of speech sounds and phonology as the sounds systems of particular languages can help to clarify what it is we have to deal with when we teach and learn pronunciation in the Open and Distance Learning environment. In the course of this study, it was subsequently discovered that the contrastive analysis of the target language and the learners' Mother Tongue can greatly facilitate the second language acquisition. This is why we advocated that it is necessary to make learners in the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) system know the phonological differences between their languages and English and consciously compare the two languages themselves during the learning process. From the various observations acquired through this study, we postulated that in order to learn English well, the second language teachers and learners in the ODL system should pay attention to the need to learn English pronunciation effectively.

This paper presents an overview of the challenges often faced when teaching the Spoken English co... more This paper presents an overview of the challenges often faced when teaching the Spoken English course in the Open and Distance learning system in Nigeria. The Spoken English course is a vital component of the B.A. English language programme in many Open and Distance Learning institutions in the country, and provides the base for growth in other courses related to grammar, reading and writing abilities. As learning and applying the skills of spoken English are so closely related, the ODL classroom should be a place where the use of spoken language is sensitively supported and where active listening is developed and valued. The strategies required to successfully teach Spoken English to the students in the ODL environment are carefully outlined in this study.

Keywords: Spoken English, Open and Distance Learning (ODL), Open & Distance Learning Quality Council , on-line learning (e-learning), synchronous and asynchronous technologies.

This paper reports the findings of an investigation of lexical errors in the Open and Distance Le... more This paper reports the findings of an investigation of lexical errors in the Open and Distance Learning students’ essays at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). The study made use of tagged sample essays to find out the frequency and types of lexical errors in different registers of guided writing administered to randomly selected 300 and 400 level students undergoing the B.A English programme in the university. These categories of students were selected because the university regulation stipulates that all their examinations have to be manually written. The findings of the study reveal that ODL students in the B.A English programme in NOUN committed lexical choice errors more than lexical form errors. Lexical choice includes individual and combined choice of lexical items. Lexical form involves derivational errors and spelling errors. There are broadly two kinds of errors including interlingual errors and intralingual errors. Transfer errors mean a failure to keep a conceptual separation between L1 and L2. They represent interlingual errors. Transfer errors are different for each L1-L2 pair, while intralingual errors are the result of inadequate knowledge of the second language. The study postulates that simplification and over generalization errors might be made by any language learner based on low L2 proficiency. It then concludes that lexical errors are a natural and a necessary phenomenon in language teaching and learning and they benefit learners immensely, especially as they will try to avoid committing such errors in subsequent writings. Indeed, teachers should not prevent students from making errors but should always find ways to identify and correct them in the ODL classroom.

Keywords: Lexical Errors, Open and Distance Learning, L1-L2 Proficiency, Language Teaching, Pedagogical Techniques.

This study is aimed at evaluating some critical factors associated with computer-based versus pap... more This study is aimed at evaluating some critical factors associated with computer-based versus paper-based testing in Open and Distance Learning institutions. The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) is used as a case study. The factors considered in this investigation are computer familiarity/literacy of test takers, content familiarity and competitiveness. 100 randomly selected 100 level undergraduate students undergoing the GST 101 – Use of English course were randomly assigned to either a computer-based or identical paper-based test. The study used several but simple quantitative and qualitative instruments to gather data which subsequently showed that the computer-based test group performed better than the paper-based test group. Although content familiarity and computer literacy were related to this performance difference, gender competitiveness was not. Students with high scores appeared to have benefitted immensely from the computer-based assessment when compared with the students who performed very well under paper-based testing. Our submission therefore, is that with the fast rate of technological innovations in computer related facilities in Nigeria, coupled with the current increase in computer – based assessment, Open and Distance Learning institutions must consciously anticipate and plan for possible test mode effects as it is now practised in the National Open University of Nigeria.

Key words: Computer-based test, Paper-based test, Open and Distance Learning (ODL), National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Computer familiarity, Content familiarity.

ENG 141 is a three - unit course that is taught in the first semester of the B.A English Programm... more ENG 141 is a three - unit course that is taught in the first semester of the B.A English Programme. It introduces you to the basic concepts and techniques of spoken English. It is also designed to equip you with the ability to speak English in a variety of social and academic situations, and to enhance your understanding of academic and non-academic
spoken discourse.

The emerging technological revolution – especially in electronic communication in different parts... more The emerging technological revolution – especially in electronic communication in different parts of the world has inevitably led to the introduction of a sizeable number of English words. Subsequently, contemporary Nigerian university students have systematically embraced this tide of ‘Techno-Linguistic’ globalization which has combined to shape the linguistic engineering process commonly witnessed in most university campuses in Nigeria. This study was therefore undertaken to investigate the extent to which undergraduates of English studying at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) could accurately pronounce some commonly used communication technology – related words with regard to the English consonant and vowel sounds that often pose pronunciation challenges to the students. A total of 50 students were randomly selected from the 300 level undergraduate category in the department of English and were given the opportunity to pronounce each of the selected words as well as read a passage where the same words were embedded. The students’ performance was recorded and subjected to qualitative analysis. The result showed that the frequencies of pronunciation errors was high when the words were pronounced in isolation and very high when the words were read aloud (in the given passage) by the students. A clear case of Mother Tongue interference was evident in the data collected. This clearly confirms the fact that many undergraduate students of English in NOUN still experience some difficulty in pronouncing English vowels and consonants not present in their Mother Tongue (L1). This study therefore posits that teachers/lecturers of spoken English in Nigerian universities need to devote more pedagogical and research attention to these ‘problem sounds’ as such a move will ensure the practicability of training the students to become proficient language users.

Key words: Pronunciation errors, Technology – related words, Mother Tongue Interference.

Modern language learning materials are no longer exclusively based on books or faceto-face lectur... more Modern language learning materials are no longer exclusively based on books or faceto-face lectures. More and more lessons now make use of interactive multimedia and personalized learning methods. Many of these are based on e-learning solutions. Subsequently, learning via the internet provides non-stop services that are currently contributing to the improvement in language learning as regards high quality and efficiency. This paper therefore, presents an overview of issues and implications that derive from using modern technology to facilitate and improve pronunciation teaching in the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) environment, using the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) as a case study. It is maintained in this paper that the considerable expectation of using modern technology as an instructional tool for developing language learners' pronunciation skill in an ODL environment like NOUN has not been fully realized in practice, but can go a long way in impacting the desired listening and speaking skills to the students in the ODL classroom.