Enhancing the performance of female students in spoken English.

Benson Idahosa University is a Christian University with the aim to change Nigeria and change the world by producing men and women who are sound in mind and body and who would by precept and example carry the gospel of Jesus Christ to all the comers of the world. There are one hundred and twenty-five (125) students in the 100 level Spoken English class in Benson Idahosa University. Fifty-one (51) are females, while seventy-four (74) are males. The Spoken English course is meant to enhance students spoken English, by concentrating on exercises on conversational English, using relevant phonological materials.

Research Methodology

The Research Methodology used includes library research and observation of students at work. The last semester's result sheet in Spoken English was examined and the percentage passes for the male and female students were analysed.

Impediments

Female students in Benson Idahosa University have been discriminated against from birth in their various cultures and this affects the way they perform in the Spoken English class and the way they rate themselves. This discrimination is universal and women have been crying against it. It is the bone of contention in the forever raging war between the sexes. Moreover, it militates against meaningful development in the society. Ezigbo (1996) laments that:

 
   gender discrimination is the worst 
   form of oppression the woman suffers 
   worldwide. Her sex is used 
   against her. She is ridiculed, raped, 
   calumniated, used, condemned and 
   sometimes abandoned. In her natal 
   home the woman is expendable, and 
   in her matrimonial home, she is a 
   nonentity and is not reckoned with. 
   We have heard of societies where 
   the female child is often murdered 
   at birth. In some places like India, 
   the bride pays dowry to the bridegroom 
   and his family; thus it 
   becomes a "curse" to have too many 
   female children in a family. 

The female students in the 100 level Spoken English class find themselves contending with male students who already have a stereotyped idea about who a female member of the society should be: