1st School of Languages Conference and Workshop
Tai Solarin College of Education

Background Tai Solarin College of Education, Omu-Ijebu is the first tertiary institution and the only state-owned College of Education in Ogun State mandated to train and provide middle-level professional teachers for the teeming population of primary and junior secondary students in the state and even beyond. From inception, the graduates of the Institution have proven themselves able to provide quality teaching at all levels of education following the dearth of both personnel and quality instructors in many schools, in the state in particular and Nigeria in general. In line with this realization, the school has continually made it a quality watchword, to ensure that the society continues to feel its impacts beginning with a proportionate spread of its students on Teaching Practice and the eventual discharge of their professional duties after graduation. The College was named the best College of Education in Nigeria only a few years ago, a position we are relentlessly maintaining. Besides the actual function of training fresh graduates to join the teaching workforce, there is the all-important function of re-training of teachers often referred to as ‘training-the-trainer’. Our responsibilities as lecturers of the College are to teach, research and do community service. As researchers therefore, the needs constantly arise to re-orient teachers on the field and keep them in the loop on innovation and technique for handling emerging challenges that confront them in the discharge of their duties. Meanwhile, the English Language needs of the students and other language teachers continue to grow. Their command of the language weakens by the day and the results of their final examination as conducted by the West African Examination Council, National Examinations Council and other higher school examinations continue to baffle and irritate everyone. The reasons for their poor performance are not far-fetched. They largely stem from the fact that teachers are over-whelmed by the volume of work required to be done in order to bring the students at par with the requirements of the examination. Other factors like teacher deficiency (mainly lack of capacity), limited supervision, as well as lack of commitment and shortage of personnel cannot be denied. The outcome is that students are built on faulty and deficient foundations. The gap between what they are and what they ought to be continue to widen as they climb up the classes and soon, they face the final examination with far less than they should have. This worsening situation has reached a stage it can no longer be ignored. The school of Languages (TASCE) realizes that if ever there was a time to deal with this challenge, it is now that we have  a coordinated approach to tackling the aspects of the challenges that fall on the researchers and teachers of language. So that this positive actions geared towards grooming the teachers is now expedient to make teachers more effectively and productively face the challenges that characterize our education in the 21st century. It is in the light of the foregoing that we invite Language scholars to the Conference and the Workshop on the re-training of language teachers and ensuring quality control particularly for teachers of English, French, Arabic and Yoruba during the school of Languages Annual workshop/conference coming up between 2nd and 4th of November 2021. The serving staff of these various departments at Tai Solarin College of Education as well as other astute Professors and professionals in the education industry, who are willing to contribute to the training of the teachers will be of immense benefits to teachers, students, parents and the generality of the scholars, apart from paper presentations by members of various interested academic communities. Program Description The programme is the Annual Conference/Workshop of the school of Languages holding between 2nd and 4th November 2021. The essence of combining the conference with a workshop is to be able to refresh language teachers on the current theories of language, the new teaching and learning methodologies and their applications in classrooms. Worthy of note is the interactive section where all teachers/lectures/instructors will come together to identify and jointly rectify ‘transferred problems’ i.e. lapses from one level constituting problems to the next level of education. Participants are language teachers (English, French, Arabic and Yoruba) from all primary and secondary schools, colleges of Education, Polytechnics, Universities and other relevant institutions, in and around Nigeria as well as interested members of the public, both locally and internationally. Resource persons are Professors, Academicians and related Professionals from different Nigerian Universities and Institutions, who are willing to deliver the keynote address, lead papers and chair our plenary sessions. Their presence, experience and names are relied upon to re-orientate all the participants in line with the new global practices. The conference will be in dual mode i.e. physical and virtual modes. Theme for the Conference/Workshop The theme of the conference/workshop is in line with the current global practices and it is titled: ‘Adapting to the New Normal: A Therapeutic Approach to Language Teaching and Learning in Humanities and Education, while the sub-themes are:

• Language and ICT in Language Education
• Covid 19 challenges and online language teaching
• Indigenous languages and language education
• Culture and Technology in Language education
• Translation and Literary Studies
• Dimensions of African Literature
• Contemporary issues in Literature
• Gender Study in Literary Studies
• Techers’ personality as a factor of learning
• Quality control in language teaching

Resource Persons Reputable people in the society and astute Professors of English, Yoruba, French and Arabic Languages have already been contacted to deliver the keynote address, lead papers and chair different plenary sessions. They are:

1. Prof. Adewale Adegbite of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU, Ile-Ife) Keynote Address
2. Prince Dr Yemi Adefulu MFR Chairman Governing Council TASCE Lead Paper Presenter
3. Mrs Soyombo special Adviser to Ogun State Government on Education Lead Paper
4. Prof. Akinola Odebunmi of the University of Ibadan (UI) Lead Paper Presenter
5. Prof. Sola Babatunde – University of Ilorin – English
6. Prof. Arinpe. Adejumo – University of Ibadan – Yoruba
7. Prof. Olatunde Ayodabo – Ajayi Crowther University – English
8. Niyi Ogunbade – LAUTECH – English
9. Dr. Mukail Folorunsho – Osun State University, Osogbo – Arabic
10. Dr. Temidayo Onajobi – Olabisi Onabanjo University – French
11. Seasoned Lecturers from School of Languages TASCE

This program is designed to be flexible in its execution and this is to enable the state government to adjust it to suit its needs. The program is also designed to cost as little as possible since it is not profit-making for the facilitators of the workshop. It is instead the contribution of the school of languages of the College in conjunction with the government to revamp the education sector. Additional Value The following values will be an addition apart from paper presentations.

1. The teachers get a chance to update their teaching capabilities as the quality of instruction will improve both in content and methodology.
2. Teachers get acquainted with innovation that can enable them create 21st century classrooms for their students.
3. Teachers can acquaint researchers and the government of the challenges they face and receive assistance especially with methodology for tackling these challenges.
4. The state can benefit from the expertise of the teachers/researchers in her employment.
5. The education drive of the current administration will get a strong boost as the government re-builds the state.
6. The implementation of this proposal could spur other bodies/institutions to rise to the challenge of improving our education without making profit their priority.
7. The students in the schools will be the eventual beneficiaries as they stand a chance of doing better in their examinations.
8. Teachers will be linked with different registered sites and institutes where they can down load free course wares, books and journals for better and qualitative teaching.
9. The French institute for teachers, a global based educational platform will grant access to trained teachers after the workshop.

Other details An interested participant is expected to send in Abstract to langcontasce@gmail.com latest by September 30th, 2021. An acceptance letter will be sent out by October 15, 2021. Early bird Registration for conference is N10,000, N5,000 for Master’s students while Primary and Secondary School teachers will pay N5000 being workshop fee. Late registration is N15,000 and Assessment fee for presented papers is N5,000. You are expected to pay all monies into ECO Bank 5450050648. You should please call 08058873454 for confirmation of payments.  Thank you.