Learning Spanish Online during the Lockdown in Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects

Abstract

In spite of the growing number of internet users in Nigeria, the classroom method persists in foreign language education. However, because many young Nigerian students of foreign languages are keying into the internet as a reliable source for foreign language learning, this paper examines the attempt by students studying Spanish as a foreign language in a Nigerian public university at using Yabla, an online Spanish language platform during the Lockdown in 2020. The overall findings reveal that while Yabla is a commendable platform for learning Spanish because it is multitasked; the actual challenges the students encountered are rooted in general infrastructural deficit in power supply, internet accessibility and high cost of data. What this means is that the average student of foreign languages in Nigeria‟s public universities is deprived of continuous learning through the use of information technology. With the future of learning now geared towards the virtual class, the paper recommends an overhaul of the electricity and telecommunications sector, and massive investment in the creation of platforms to facilitate the online learning of foreign languages in general, in Nigerian public universities.