FROM TEACHER TALK TO STUDENT VOICE: REPOSITIONING LEARNERS AT THE CENTER OF ESL CLASSROOMS IN NIGERIA

Nigerian English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms have long been characterised by teacher-dominated discourse structures in which pedagogic authority is organised around teacher talk time (TTT) and the initiation-response-feedback (IRF) exchange pattern, leaving minimal space for authentic student voice, negotiated meaning-making, or communicative language development. This study investigates the nature and consequences of teacher-centred pedagogy in Nigerian secondary school ESL classrooms and critically examines the structural, sociolinguistic, and ideological conditions that inhibit the repositioning of learners at the centre of English language instruction. Employing a qualitative multiple-case study design rooted in critical ethnographic and discourse analytic traditions, the study draws on twelve lesson observations, six in-depth teacher interviews, three student focus group discussions involving twenty-four student participants, two interviews with heads of English departments, and document analysis of lesson plans and curriculum materials across six secondary schools in three geopolitical zones in Nigeria. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2019) and classroom discourse analysis informed by the Sinclair and Coulthard (1975) IRF model and Mercer's (2000) framework of exploratory talk. Findings reveal a systematic preponderance of teacher talk, averaging 68.2% of lesson time, driven by examination-oriented pedagogic cultures, structural overcrowding, curriculum overload, teacher habitus rooted in transmission epistemology, and students' sociolinguistic anxiety in L2 production. Simultaneously, the study documents emergent pockets of learner-centred practice in private school contexts and reflects on the conditions that enable such repositioning. The paper concludes by advancing a contextually grounded theoretical reconceptualization the Dialogic Repositioning Framework (DRF) as a pedagogic roadmap for transforming ESL classrooms in Nigeria from sites of knowledge transmission to spaces of collaborative, voice-affirming language development