In Nigeria, you need to have at least a Credit in English to get into the university. We studied English to the death, guy no vex me. Ordinary delve, nuisance
We actually had English clubs, literary and debating clubs. We had English syllabus divided into Grammar itself and Lexis. Then we had Literature in English a different subject to English divided into drama, poetry and prose where we had to read books, translate poems and even make songs out of them (e.g babes in the woods), act out the dramas and summarize the books. We did too much for English mahn!
We were taught well, from parents to teachers, we also taught ourselves by also reading the dictionary. Do you even know what antonyms and synonyms are? Admit you don't know words