By Shamsudeen Abubakar
It was Monday 9th September. The sun had separated from the moon and the birds were chirping from their nest outside on the Neam and Baobab trees at Makasi hostel. The fuss of people in the room is mixed with the fluctuating fan that could even wake the sleeping dead.
Other students were still snoring, some were reading in the room while others were busy romancing their mobile phones. The gleam from the window woke Safwan to call his pot for cooking.
Amidst the rays of the sun outside was the 200L student of Literature in English, Safwan Abubakar, who finds it difficult to navigate what he was taught in the class and how to utilize it in his day to day conversation. He never knew about the existence of the UDUS Language Laboratory that will help him produce his English sounds easily and correctly.
“We have not been introduced to the Language Laboratory since my UG1. I don’t even know what is in there and it’s important to us.” Safwan said he didn’t even know about the lab not until they went to call their lecturer Dr. Balkisu.
He sees the lack of access to the laboratory to have implications on his learnings because they had learnt a course on phonetics that requires them to produce sounds. Students lack the practical aspect of what they were taught which hinders them from producing the sounds correctly.
“ Our Lecturers were supposed to introduce the lab to us so that we will know it’s important. We are just trying our best in producing the English sounds being taught to us in class.”
“ There was a time we went to see Dr. Balkisu in the lab. We tried entering and someone shouted at us. Who are you? What are you doing there?” Safwan recalled that they thought that the lab is a restricted area and it’s not meant for students like them.
“I haven’t been to the lab since my first year in school till date”- Rabiu Hamad.
Hamad, 400 level Student of Arabic and Education is another victim who has not been to the language laboratory since his 100L.
He recounts his 200L when the Pure Arabic students had the chance to use the lab for practicals on a course titled “Ara 215, E-learning”.
However, their stay in the Library was for a short period of time, they couldn’t even finish what they started when the lecturer promised to bring them some other time.
“ The lecturer in charge promised them to go there again but failed to do as he promised and before he could fix time again, it was exam period.”
“ We did some courses in our level 1,2 and 3 that required practicals in the lab but we never had the chance to use it. We sometimes felt bad. It has become constant, that’s why we don’t feel bad anymore.
“I believed that it would be hard on us when we go out there. We don’t have knowledge or experience in navigating our knowledge and the laboratory. This is not fair at all,” adding that, “ other languages are using it but not ‘We’ Arabic students.” He said feeling disappointed.
A Different Story From Islamic Student
“We have been using the Language Laboratory on a course titled ‘ISL 212, Aruwayat’, which has been taught by Dr. M.K Sabo.” Mukhtar Safi’u, a 200L Student testifies.
“ It was my first time visiting the lab. The only problem we encountered when we got there was that there was no light.
“ The lecturer in charge of the course told us that we would have used the lab in reciting the Qur’an with its correct articulation hadn’t been light,” he recalled.
Like others, Dahiru Naziru, a 300L student of the English and literary studies department, had not been to the lab before. “ I feel very bad when I am paying for what I am not using.
Lawan Nasiru, a 400L student of the Education and Hausa department said that a lot of it requires practical skills; drawing the human organ of speech.
Moving one, he stressed that theories and practical aspects need to be taught together for better understanding.
“ No matter how good teaching goes, if they were not explained to you practically, you will still have something lacking somewhere. You need to see and understand.
“Lack of using the laboratory hinders students from understanding the knowledge given to them.” He emphasized.
Similarly, Aberugba Mubarak, a 100L Student of Linguistics observed how the lab remains a building without its users despite being new in the system. “ We have not been using the lab for any of my linguistics courses,” he shared.
He had been there not less than four times but it’s not through his departmental courses, rather through the French course he borrowed last semester,” Mubarak affirms.
Language Laboratory Management Weighed In
Professor Shehu Sidi, Dean faculty of art, complained about the way students are only getting the theoretical aspects of the courses they are studying without practicals.
However he said that the problem is from the Lecturers teaching the courses because he was not aware of any lecturer that was prevented from using the lab when he requested.
“If students don’t have access to the lab, the lecturer in charge should be blamed as he was not deprived from using it.” He assured this reporter.
“ If a lecturer wants to use the lab, he is supposed to write to me for permission and I would grant it to him. Nobody has ever told me that he wants the laboratory, they have not been coming to me at all.”
Mallam Aliyu Danladi Danko, the Technologist of the Language Laboratory told the News Digest Press that the lab only needs Council to be connected and a stable electricity.
Furthermore, he emphasized that the problem is from the lecturers and it’s very unfortunate for language students not to know how to use the lab in sound production.
“They didn’t show the students the way to the lab, they only showed them when they got to UG 4 during accreditation. The problem is definitely from the teachers because they are lazy.
“ The lecturers are equipped with the knowledge of the lab but they are not using it. I am just a technolost that works out every aspect of the lab problem.” He concluded.