Papers by Michael O Gbadegesin
Michael Olanyinka Gbadegesin, 2025
This study examines the English pronunciation proficiency of Pentecostal pastors during sermon de... more This study examines the English pronunciation proficiency of Pentecostal pastors during sermon delivery and its impact on youth engagement in Saki, Oyo State, Nigeria. With the increasing influence of Pentecostal churches among young congregants, effective communication plays a crucial role in sustaining interest and participation. The study focuses on 25 youths from selected Pentecostal churches in Saki town, exploring their perceptions of pastoral pronunciation accuracy, clarity, and its effect on their engagement during sermons. Data were collected through questionnaires. Findings reveal that pronunciation proficiency significantly influences youths' comprehension, interest, and retention of sermon messages. While some youths demonstrate tolerance for minor pronunciation lapses, frequent errors contribute to disengagement and reduced comprehension. The study underscores the importance of linguistic competence in religious discourse and suggests targeted training for pastors to enhance sermon delivery effectiveness.
Language, Identity, and Racism in Postsecondary Classrooms
Language, identity, and racism are three concepts that define people's attitudes in all f... more Language, identity, and racism are three concepts that define people's attitudes in all facets of relationship. The system of interrelatedness which exists among the three concepts of language, identity, and racism can therefore be said to be reflective. This study investigated elements of language used in foregrounding identity and racism in multiracial classroom settings. The study gathered data through a self-designed Google questionnaire of a mixed structure. Forty Nigerian graduate students studying in different parts of the world were selected for the research. The study shows that use of language to establish identity and racism is covert in postsecondary classrooms of the selected respondents; hence, expression of racism among learners is mostly done unconsciously and basically unintended.
Michael Olayinka GBADEGESIN, 2019
The study investigated the effects of reading ability on the performance of 540 public secondary ... more The study investigated the effects of reading ability on the performance of 540 public secondary school students in English Language with a view to identifying the relationship between reading ability and academic performance. A standardised comprehension test, questionnaire and students' report cards were used for data collection from 12 public secondary schools in Saki-West local government area of Oyo State. The results showed that poor reading ability could affect the academic performance of the students; they also indicated that the lack of reading proficiency is a monumental problem among public secondary school students in Oyo State. Some of the factors responsible for this phenomenon were limiting the teaching of reading skills to elementary class students without any provision for the struggling readers who might have missed the opportunity when they were at that level; teacher's methodology; lack of reading materials, proliferation of social media and parental input were also attributed to the poor reading skill exhibited by the students. The study recommended a remediation programme as part of public secondary school programmes to achieve a better result in future.
Michael Olayinka Gbadegesin, 2024
Language, identity, and racism are three concepts that define people's attitudes in all facets of... more Language, identity, and racism are three concepts that define people's attitudes in all facets of relationship. The system of interrelatedness which exists among the three concepts of language, identity, and racism can therefore be said to be reflective. This study investigated elements of language used in foregrounding identity and racism in multiracial classroom settings. The study gathered data through a self-designed Google questionnaire of a mixed structure. Forty Nigerian graduate students studying in different parts of the world were selected for the research. The study shows that use of language to establish identity and racism is covert in postsecondary classrooms of the selected respondents; hence, expression of racism among learners is mostly done unconsciously and basically unintended.
Michael Olayinka Gbadegesin, 2019
Many digital resources are available to enhance the teaching and learning
of English Language amo... more Many digital resources are available to enhance the teaching and learning
of English Language among English as second language (ESL) learners.
However, many teachers and students of English cannot deploy these
resources in classrooms in Nigerian secondary schools. The result of this
is poor performance and lack of proficiency among the students. The
inability of teachers of English to use Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) resources to enhance teaching delivery is traced to the
training they received while in school. The study investigated the
awareness and ICT skills among pre service teachers in colleges of
education in Southwest, Nigeria with a view to examining the level of
inclusion of ICT in the teacher training programme. Data was collected
using a questionnaire administered on 80 final year students from 4
Colleges of Education. The results showed that, though there was
awareness that the deployment of ICT resources can enhance the
teaching and learning of English language, the appropriate skills to deploy
ICT tools for the teaching of English Language in classroom situations are
lacking. Lack of prerequisite skills, epileptic power supply and poor
internet facilities are the main challenges militating against successful
implementation of ICT in English Language classrooms. The study
concluded that, for better academic performance, communicative
competence and proficiency, ICT courses should be included in the
training of teachers of English. Teacher trainers should be equipped with
the prerequisite ICT skills to train the would-be teachers to deploy ICT
facilities to enhance teaching and learning of English language in Nigeria.
Key Words: ICT, Teacher training, English Language, Integration,
competencies
Michael O. Gbadegesin, 2020
Digital world is a virtual space where technologically inclined people and social me din useres e... more Digital world is a virtual space where technologically inclined people and social me din useres e e te globe. The availability of Nollywood films to Nigeriais part of the entrenchment of diital in the world construct. The study is premised on the previous study on discourseintonation of females in selected textbooks, the Internet from intonation perspectives. The study foundthatNollywood films contributes greatly tothe socialisation of the modern girl-child and that there is a difference in the feminism agitation through intonation in the digitalised Nollywood films is 'mild' while the western against relegation and injustice with intonation. The study recommended that the society should wake identity to avoid incessant domestic violence.
Michael Olayinka GBADEGESIN, 2023
There is an increase in the application of new technologies in all spheres of human endeavour. In... more There is an increase in the application of new technologies in all spheres of human endeavour. Industrial 4.0 is one of the recently birthed industrial revolutions through which machines understand human speech, thinks and comprehends human intentions. It structures critical components for intelligent vehicles, intelligent offices, intelligent service robots, intelligent industries, and so on. This furthers the structure of the intelligent ecology of the Internet of Things. At the centre of all these is human speech which is used to give order to and ask questions from Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robots. Previous studies on AI and linguistics have discussed the use of AI in language classroom using AI modelling pronunciation to enhance pronunciation performance of the second language learners. This study examines Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) using Word Error Rate (WER) to measure the level of intelligibility of the pronunciation of man to machine. It investigates if there will be communication breakdown if the pronunciation is not intelligible. To achieve this, 30 L2 speakers of English were selected from Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba to read 135 crafted words into 5sentences using Google ASR application as primary data. The secondary data was drawn from journal articles, textbooks and the Internet. The result showed that the pronunciation model used to develop the application has made provision for several L2 speakers of English in reality of the new world Englishes.
Gbadegesin Michael O., 2021
The study examined how Nigerian final year university students of English realize English diphtho... more The study examined how Nigerian final year university students of English realize English diphthongs and the level of difficulty of each diphthong to the students. This is with a view to examining the influences of social factors such as gender and ethnicity on the articulation of English diphthongs. The study employed both primary and secondary data. The primary data consist of question items that elicited response from 15 sentences that were scripted with targeted sounds, as read aloud test. Sixty (60) final year university students from the Department of English of two universities made up the participants of the study. The study draws its theoretical insight from Social Differentiation theory of Trudgill (1979). This is relevant to this study because it accounts for the nature of the correlation between phonological variables and social variables.The results revealed that both male and female monophthongised and realized English diphthongs differently from the RP patterns and there are differences in the male and female articulations of English diphthongs. The study also revealed that /əu/ and /uə/ are the most difficult diphthongs for the respondents. There are differences in the articulation of English diphthongs among the ethnic groups, investigated.
Gbadegesin Michael Olayinka, 2016
Many secondary school students in Oyo state in particular and Nigeria in general are film-addicts... more Many secondary school students in Oyo state in particular and Nigeria in general are film-addicts, to the extent that it is already taking toll over their academic career. This study investigated some education stakeholders'awareness of using Nollywood films for spoken English proficiency in Senior Secondary Schools in Oyo State, Nigeria. The data corpus was got from twenty English language teachers and one hundred and twenty students selected from ten secondary schools within Ibadan which is a metropolitan city in Oyo State through the use of questionnaires as research instrument. The results showed that though the teachers were aware of the potentials of Nollywood English films to develop spoken English proficiency, they did not take advantage of this in their classes. The students who, on the other hand, gave good patronage to the films did not make use of the spoken English potentials inherent in some of the films. The paper concludes that it is important for a teacher to create an enabling environment for learners of English to explore the potentials in Nollywood films to develop their spoken English proficiency by engaging in film narration, play acting and dialogues as part of the language activities in the classroom.
Michael O. Gbadegesin, 2021
Much of the of the research on social media language in the Nigerian socio-cultural context have ... more Much of the of the research on social media language in the Nigerian socio-cultural context have concentrated on exploring its usage, decrying spelling irregularities, its effects on academic performance of the users (who are mainly school age youths) and language use; thereby neglecting the creative and innovative aspects of the spelling patterns and their impact on language change. This study therefore investigated English spellings on social media platforms; categorised them into patterns and investigated the purpose of their use. This was with a view to examining the impact of social media spelling patterns on language and their potential for language evolution. A structured questionnaire was used to collected data from 676 tertiary institution students in southwestern Nigeria. Ten streams of conversations from WhatsApp, Facebook,Twitter and Instagram were sourced. The theoretical insight was drawn from Invisible Theory of Kelle (1994). The study found that eight different spelling patterns are common among most social media users in Nigerian tertiary institutions of learning. WhatsApp was found to be the most preferred social media platform among the students of higher institutions in southwestern Nigeria. Placing the results of the study side by side with some types of language change and their factors, the study concluded that the spelling patterns on the social media platforms are a stèp towards language change. It then recommended that the stakeholders in the education sector should be discrete in their approach on social media spellng and its language use in general.
Godprovides Ayoyemi JAMES-IDOWU & Michael Olayinka GBADEGESIN, 2021
Proverbs comprised of everyday experiences as well as common observations in concise and formulai... more Proverbs comprised of everyday experiences as well as common observations in concise and formulaic language; hence they are easily remembered and used. Proverbs essentially harmonise the life rhythm of any society. In the Yoruba society, for instance, the uses of proverbs are reserved for the elders as they are considered the custodians of wisdom. This study focuses on unravelling the speaker's intended meaning of all the Querying Proverbs employed in Shola Mike Agboola's O to Gee using Searle's (1969) speech Acts and Grice's Conversational Maxims as tools for analysis. The study discovered that proverbs one and two perform direct assertive act of informing and indirect directive act of querying, proverb 3 performs a direct directive act of questioning and indirect directive act of querying, Proverb four performs direct directive act of questioning and indirect directive act of querying while proverb five and six perform direct expressive act of detesting and indirect directive act of querying. All the six proverbs observed the maxims of quality and quantity but flout the maxims of relation and manner. This then pinpoints a second level meaning. Further subjecting the proverbs to their context of use helps in unravelling the speakers intended meaning of the proverbs. The study concludes that flouting of any of the conversational maxims pinpoints a second level of meaning (speaker's intended meaning) and that the contexts in which the proverbs were used play a major role in deducing the speaker's intended meaning. This then reaffirms Grice's postulations on conversational maxims. Based on the findings, the study recommends that any study on pragmatics should be done with a distinct focus on context of situation in which an utterance is made in order to understand the speaker's intended meaning of such an utterance.
A Socio Phonetic Analysis of TH Digraph Rendition Among Selected JSS1 and SSS3 Students in Saki West Local Government Area of Oyo State
M. A Thesis, 2013
Ethno-Intonation: In Nigeria, like every other part of the world, intonation varies from region t... more Ethno-Intonation: In Nigeria, like every other part of the world, intonation varies from region to region. This is the possible differences in intonation among users of English as second language occasioned by ethno-dichotomies. Nollywood: It is coined after the popular Hollywood and Bollywood. Nollywood is a space where Nigerian film industry operates. It produces both English-medium and local language films. But the consideration in this study is English-medium films. Gender: Gender is the social status which is above mere sex classification. It is a personality identity constructed about sex based on the sociocultural view of a given society. Gender is determined by the conception of tasks, functions and roles attributed to women and men in the society and in public and private life. Gender refers to the characteristics and behaviours that different cultures attribute to the sexes. Gender Equity: Gender equity is mild or moderate feminism quest in Africa. It demands equal opportunities to both women and men in terms of social, value, political, service, education, resources, etc. Gender equity does not mean that women and men are the same, but that their opportunities and life chances are equal. It is different from gender equality agitated for in the western world. Fundamental Frequency (F0): It shows how the pitch of the voice changes through an utterance in intonation. It is how many a time per second one cycle of vibration occurs. It usually expresses as the number of cycles per second as Hertz and abbreviated Hz. Transcription: The process that is referred to as transcription in this study is the writing of the extracted dialogues from the selected films. It is not the phonetic or phonemic representation of sound wave or representing sound with phonetic symbols. It is the
Proverbs comprised of everyday experiences as well as common observations in concise and formulai... more Proverbs comprised of everyday experiences as well as common observations in concise and formulaic language; hence they are easily remembered and used. Proverbs essentially harmonise the life rhythm of any society. In the Yoruba society, for instance, the uses of proverbs are reserved for the elders as they are considered the custodians of wisdom. This study focuses on unravelling the speaker's intended meaning of all the Querying Proverbs employed in Shola Mike Agboola's O to Gee using Searle's (1969) speech Acts and Grice's Conversational Maxims as tools for analysis. The study discovered that proverbs one and two perform direct assertive act of informing and indirect directive act of querying, proverb 3 performs a direct directive act of questioning and indirect directive act of querying, Proverb four performs direct directive act of questioning and indirect directive act of querying while proverb five and six perform direct expressive act of detesting and indirect directive act of querying. All the six proverbs observed the maxims of quality and quantity but flout the maxims of relation and manner. This then pinpoints a second level meaning. Further subjecting the proverbs to their context of use helps in unravelling the speakers intended meaning of the proverbs. The study concludes that flouting of any of the conversational maxims pinpoints a second level of meaning (speaker's intended meaning) and that the contexts in which the proverbs were used play a major role in deducing the speaker's intended meaning. This then reaffirms Grice's postulations on conversational maxims. Based on the findings, the study recommends that any study on pragmatics should be done with a distinct focus on context of situation in which an utterance is made in order to understand the speaker's intended meaning of such an utterance.
Gender markers are different concepts that define masculinity and femininity. Expectedly, languag... more Gender markers are different concepts that define masculinity and femininity. Expectedly, language and gender identity cannot be divorced. Language has played and still playing vital roles in gender construction. This paper however, presents the results of a study on hesitation as a gender maker from discourse intonation point of view. It reports how the males and the females deployed hesitation in these Nollywood films titled Compound Fools, Caro's Workshop and Mr. & Mrs. Gender identity is how persons identify and express their gender. Commonwealth of Australia (2014) describes gender identity and expression as how a person expresses their gender identity, or the characteristics (e.g. mannerisms, dress etc) that allow someone to identify another person's gender. It encompasses a person's level of masculinity, femininity Nsibirano (2009) submits that gender identity is expressed in the use of Information Communication Technology because more female develop cold feet towards it. Apart from genital organ that herald the sex declaration at birth, gender is determined by a number of cues like dressing, body shape, voice, mannerisms. Very often than not, the hesitation a person uses is part of their mannerism and therefore express gender identity. Gender identity is determined by gender expression.
Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology
The study investigated the effects of reading ability on the performance of 540 public secondary ... more The study investigated the effects of reading ability on the performance of 540 public secondary school students in English Language with a view to identifying the relationship between reading ability and academic performance. A standardised comprehension test, questionnaire and students' report cards were used for data collection from 12 public secondary schools in Saki-West local government area of Oyo State. The results showed that poor reading ability could affect the academic performance of the students; they also indicated that the lack of reading proficiency is a monumental problem among public secondary school students in Oyo State. Some of the factors responsible for this phenomenon were limiting the teaching of reading skills to elementary class students without any provision for the struggling readers who might have missed the opportunity when they were at that level; teacher's methodology; lack of reading materials, proliferation of social media and parental input were also attributed to the poor reading skill exhibited by the students. The study recommended a remediation programme as part of public secondary school programmes to achieve a better result in future.
This study examines the discourse intonation features that distinguish the females" voices from m... more This study examines the discourse intonation features that distinguish the females" voices from males" and their sociocultural implications. Discourse intonation attempts to explain how intonation patterns in English affect the communicative value of speech, through the use of falling and rising tunes along with changes in pitch (Mark Chapman 2007). Previous researches on discourse intonation paid attention to theory, pitch variations and its functions (Brazil 1994, Chun2002, Ibrahim and Faleke 2013, Raúl J.V. (2015). However, none of the many studies has been dedicated to studying the socio-cultural implications of female discourse intonation of Women in Nollywood film titled Mr & Mrs; hence the need for this study. This study will add to available corpus for phonological analysis, it will also throw light on the pattern of female intonation as means of seeking identity and expression in Nigerian society. This will be done by purposively selecting fifteen dialogues involving women in different context from Nollywood film-Mr& Mrs. this is with a view to examining the sociocultural implications of the discourse intonation patterns of women for the Nigerian society.
Thesis Chapters by Michael O Gbadegesin
M. A Thesis, 2013
CHAPTER FOUR DATA ANALYSIS OF QUESTIONNAIREAND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS 4.0. Introduction 63. 4.1. ... more CHAPTER FOUR DATA ANALYSIS OF QUESTIONNAIREAND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS 4.0. Introduction 63. 4.1. Data Analysis 63. 4.2. Discussion of Findings 89. CHAPTER FIVE DATA ANALYSIS OF DEBATE AND READ ALOUD TEST AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS 5.0. Introduction 91. 5.1. Data Analysis 91. 5.2 Discussion of Findings 120.
PhD Thesis, 2018
Ethno-Intonation: In Nigeria, like every other part of the world, intonation varies from region t... more Ethno-Intonation: In Nigeria, like every other part of the world, intonation varies from region to region. This is the possible differences in intonation among users of English as second language occasioned by ethno-dichotomies. Nollywood: It is coined after the popular Hollywood and Bollywood. Nollywood is a space where Nigerian film industry operates. It produces both English-medium and local language films. But the consideration in this study is English-medium films. Gender: Gender is the social status which is above mere sex classification. It is a personality identity constructed about sex based on the sociocultural view of a given society. Gender is determined by the conception of tasks, functions and roles attributed to women and men in the society and in public and private life. Gender refers to the characteristics and behaviours that different cultures attribute to the sexes. Gender Equity: Gender equity is mild or moderate feminism quest in Africa. It demands equal opportunities to both women and men in terms of social, value, political, service, education, resources, etc. Gender equity does not mean that women and men are the same, but that their opportunities and life chances are equal. It is different from gender equality agitated for in the western world. Fundamental Frequency (F0): It shows how the pitch of the voice changes through an utterance in intonation. It is how many a time per second one cycle of vibration occurs. It usually expresses as the number of cycles per second as Hertz and abbreviated Hz. Transcription: The process that is referred to as transcription in this study is the writing of the extracted dialogues from the selected films. It is not the phonetic or phonemic representation of sound wave or representing sound with phonetic symbols. It is the
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Papers by Michael O Gbadegesin
of English Language among English as second language (ESL) learners.
However, many teachers and students of English cannot deploy these
resources in classrooms in Nigerian secondary schools. The result of this
is poor performance and lack of proficiency among the students. The
inability of teachers of English to use Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) resources to enhance teaching delivery is traced to the
training they received while in school. The study investigated the
awareness and ICT skills among pre service teachers in colleges of
education in Southwest, Nigeria with a view to examining the level of
inclusion of ICT in the teacher training programme. Data was collected
using a questionnaire administered on 80 final year students from 4
Colleges of Education. The results showed that, though there was
awareness that the deployment of ICT resources can enhance the
teaching and learning of English language, the appropriate skills to deploy
ICT tools for the teaching of English Language in classroom situations are
lacking. Lack of prerequisite skills, epileptic power supply and poor
internet facilities are the main challenges militating against successful
implementation of ICT in English Language classrooms. The study
concluded that, for better academic performance, communicative
competence and proficiency, ICT courses should be included in the
training of teachers of English. Teacher trainers should be equipped with
the prerequisite ICT skills to train the would-be teachers to deploy ICT
facilities to enhance teaching and learning of English language in Nigeria.
Key Words: ICT, Teacher training, English Language, Integration,
competencies
Thesis Chapters by Michael O Gbadegesin