Saturday, November 13, 2010

The Philosophy and Goals of Education in Nigeria

The overall philosophy of Nigeria is to live in unity and harmony as one indivisible, indissoluble, democratic and sovereign nation founded on the principles of freedom, equality and justice. Next, to promote inter-African solidarity and world peace through understanding.

The five main national goalsof Nigeria which have been endorsed as the necessary foundation for the national policy on education are the building of : ( a ) a free and democratic society. (b ) a just and egalitarian society, ( c ) a united, strong and self-reliant nation, ( d ) a great and dynamic economy, and ( e ) a land full of bright opportunities for all citizens.


The National educational goals deriving from Nigeria philosophy of education are : (1) the inculcation of national consciousness and national unity.To be continued.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

The Law of Contract

A contract is a legal document between two persons or corporations. Before entering into any contract the parties concerned must study carefully the provisions of the contract, and convince themselves of their ability to fulfil the stated conditions.Each of the contracting parties must be ready to fulfil the terms spelt out in the legal document. For instance if mr A has a work to be executed and B has entered into contract with A to execute that project, for example thebuilding of a two bed room flat.The terms of thecontract here runs like this: The owner of the house must provide the materials like cement, sand , gravel,zinc and wood. There must also be a contractual agreement on the price or cost of labour for building the house.

Mr A has to name his terms and negotiate fully and exhaustively with Mr B to reach an agreement on the price to be paid to Mr B who is now the contractor handling the buildingproject for Mr A . Once they sign the contract appending their signatures to the contract paper, it becomes binding on each party to fulfil his own part of the contract.Failure of any of the parties will attract the ire of the other and may trigger off unpleasant legal action by the aggrieved party.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

English: Grammatical Function of Adverb Phrases

English grammar is made up of eight parts of speech. In this lecture I shall discuss the grammatical functions of adverb phrases. First , what is an adverb? An adverb is a part of speech that modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb.For instance hwen we say "The man walks very slowly" there is a modifier here. The modifiwer is 'very' which modifies another adverb in the sentence which is 'slowly'.

Now to look at the adverb phrases .The following sentences show example of adverb phrases. 1.They went home after lunch. 2.Obi stayed until dismissal. 3.They studied until afternoon. In sentencew number 1 above the adverb phrase is 'after lunch'. Here the adverb phrase modifies the verb 'went'. In number 2,we identify the adverb phrase as being'until dismissal'.The next point is to identify the grammatical function of the adverb phrase.The grammatical function here is that it modifies the verb 'stayed'. The sentence also contains an adverb phrase thus: 'until afternoon'. The next point is to identify the grammatical function of the adverb phrase.The function is that it modifies the verb 'studied'.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Oral English for University Students:Plosives

What is a plosive? Why are plosives so called? A plosive consonant is the one whose pronunciation involves the blockage of air in some parts of the articulatory system.When the air is blocked there is also a release of the air before the sound is produced.For instance to pronounce a word like 'pat' which contains two plosive consonants /p/ and /t/,there is first of all a closing of the upper and lower lips which automatically blocks the air inside the mouth.Then there is a release of the air by the opening of the lips.This leads to the pronunciation of the consonant /p/ with a puff of air which is plosion.

This is the concept of air stream mechanism.In pronouncing the stop consonants there is always a stoppage of air movement at some parts of the articulatory system and consequent release of the air which leads to the production of the sound.For instance in the word 'pat' used as an example above we see that to finish up the pronunciation there will be another stoppage of air in some parts of the articulatory system in order to pronounce /t/. Here the tip of the tongue touches the upper palate at the teeth ridge to block the air flow.The tongue is then removed and the air is released leading to the production of the /t/ sound.This is the concept of air stream mechanism.

Friday, April 9, 2010

बेनेफिट्स ऑफ़ एक्टिवे Blogging

It is very beneficial to engage in active blogging in the internet. First, it gives one the opportunity for profitable academic activity. The academic engagement is such that one is trained latently on the techniques of article publications which in turn helps one to develop sound academic knowledge. One is tailored to making worthwhile academic exercises that will help one in future life. I recommend blogging as a good pass time to retirees who have a taste for further learning and a flair for writing.

Again the issue of blogging is also profitable financially. Although we are not saying one gets millions of dollars in blogging, it is pertinent to note that there is pay per click if people visit your blog and make valid clicks. It is gratifying that one gets a kind of income through relaxation by blogging. Even if one is employed one can use his own spare time to blog and earn more money to add to his income. Many have already understood the benefit of blogging and are already engaged in the relaxation cum business. I therefore recommend blogging to all.

Friday, April 2, 2010

इंग्लिश ग्राम्मर: फिनिते वेर्ब Phrases

In this lesson we shall discuss the use of finite verbs.Some people misuse verb tenses owing to lack of knowledge of the workings of both infinite and finite verb phrases in grammatical contexts.First it must be noted that finite verb phrases have tense distinction. In any given grammatical context, finite verb phrases have tense distinction, that is present and past tenses used to determine grammatical time relations. For instance in the sentence, 'Obi is going to the market', 'is' is a finite verb because it shows time distinction, that is differentiation, to show present or past. The above sentence shows present tense,by the use of 'is' but the action is progressive. The verbal action here refers to aspect which I shall discuss in my next lecture. The above sentence can be turned to past tense thus: 'Obi was going to the market.' In the sentence above 'going' is not a finite verb and as such does not undergo any change. It remains constant. For instance it is wrong to write or say 'Obi was went to the market' in an attempt to turn the above sentence into past tense, that is trying to turn 'going' into past tense which is not possible in the above grammatical conext. You cannot turn 'going' into past tense in the above sentence because it is not a finite verb. Non-finite verb phrases cannot be turned to past tense in any grammatical context. For instance, the sentence 'I want to go home' is in the present tense by the use of the finite verb 'want'. Its past tense is 'I wanted to go home'. 'To go' is an infinitive phrase and therefore cannot be turned to past tense. You cannot write or say 'I wanted to went home'.

In summary therefore, it is only finite verb phrases that have tense distinction, that is you can turn them to past tense and vice versa.