International Journal of Language Studies Volume 8, Number 1, January 2014, pp. 89-108 ISSN: 2157-4898; EISSN: 2157-4901 © 2014 IJLS; Printed in the USA by Lulu Press Inc. Discordant notes and scores in students’ performance Adeleke A. FAKOYA, Lagos State University, Nigeria Lendzemo Constantine YUKA, University of Benin, Nigeria Students’ recurrent disappointing performance in university semester examinations seems to suggest that there could be a number of problems that teachers and educationists need to attend to for standards to be redeemed. Using about a hundred final-year English Studies students’ answer scripts in a Nigerian state university as data, this paper advances indicators of students’ unpreparedness for examinations and, in the light of these indicators, hints that: (a) students’ lack of basic writing and expressive skills overshadows their knowledge; (b) students’ answers seem to point to certain reading and learning problems; (c) in instances where students seem to have a good knowledge of a topic, their lack of strong argumentation skills obfuscates their writing; and (d) teachers and other educationists may need to be more attentive to students’ reading, comprehension and integration skills to improve the students’ proficiency in basic writing and expressive writing for better grades in examinations. While the typology presented in the paper may not yet be evidence of a national problem, it indicates, at least, that many of our students are yet to get the hang of the essential requirements of academic writing. Keywords: Learning Disorders; Neurologically-Based Processing Problems; Argumentation Patterns; Psycho-Social Disorders; Reading Problems 1. Introduction As a member of the National Assembly, Abuja, Nigeria, once said: Many . . . of us use to say that our education has gone to dogs. I think I want to agree with you. Our children don’t know nothing. Yes, they don’t. And I stand to be corrected. But many of us just like to point accusing finger. Because, let’s look at it- in this room, how much of us are educated? I mean, well educated. I’m sure, few. And I think it’s high time we all look into it . . . . Numerous academic papers and dissertations have doubtless been written on several aspects of classroom interaction (e.g., Compernolle, 2010; Howard, 2010; Salmani Nodoushan, 2006, 2007a; Sinclair & Coulthard, 1976), learning tasks (e.g., Hellermann & Doehler 2010), teacher attitudes (e.g., Gourneau, 2005), students’ academic performance (e.g., Agba, Ogaboh, & Noah, 2010;