The Entrepreneurship Literacy of Pre-service English Language Teachers: the Nigerian Spectacle

Abstract

Among the various results of the increasing understanding of the concept of literacy is its classification into basic literacy and functional literacy. Acquisition of entrepreneurial skills can be conceived as included in the functional dimension of literacy. A graduate from a four-year university programme who is unable demonstrate entrepreneurial acumen but waits helplessly for an uncertain paid employment can be rightly described as functionally illiterate. Many graduates from English Language teacher education programmes are under-employed or unemployed despite the entrepreneurship courses offered to all undergraduates in Nigerian universities. This survey of the ex post facto type was thus conducted to ascertain the concerned students’ assessment of the impacts of such entrepreneurship courses. Responses of three hundred and eleven pre-service English Language teachers got through a multi-stage sampling procedure to a self-constructed twelve-item and validated questionnaire were collated. Frequency counts and percentages were employed in analysing the obtained data to answer three research questions. The findings reveal the respondents’ general limited knowledge of employment opportunities open to them, unwillingness to venture into self-employment, and lack of confidence in the entrepreneurship courses offered them, which they judged too general and theoretical. A serious review of the entrepreneurship content is thus recommended.