The Linguistic Features of Nigerian English and Their Implications for 21st Century English Pedagogy
Chapter One
Preamble of the Study
One sociolinguistic implication of the diffusion of the English language – an amalgam of the three paltry languages of the Jutes, Angles, and the Saxon, unknown in the 6th Century AD – in the global scene is the emergence of World Englishes (WE) (Adegbija, 1994). English is now spoken all over the world among various categories of speakers.
The Kachruan ‘three concentric circles’ of English users are the Inner Circle, the Outer Circle and the Expanding Circle (Kachru,1985). These are normatively characterized as Norm-producing, Norm-developing and Norm-dependent users. This sociolinguistic scenario is also aptly captured by Quirk (1985:1-2) as English as a Native language(ENL) countries (Great Britain, United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa), English as a
Second Language countries (e.g. Nigeria, India, Singapore, Tanzania, Zambia, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, etc.) and English as a Foreign Language countries (e.g. Germany, Russia, China, France, Belgium, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Greece, etc.) (Adedimeji, 2006).
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE
The Linguistic Features of Nigerian English
The English language in Nigeria exhibits certain distinctive features that cannot be ignored. This situation results from the range of social, ethnic and linguistic constraints posed by the second language context in which the language operates. The term, “Nigerian English”, can be broadly defined as “the variety of English spoken and used by Nigerians” (Adeniyi, 2006: 25). Nigerian English has generated as a lot of scholarly interest since as far back as 1958 when L.F. Brosnahan published his article “English in Southern Nigeria.” The question of what Nigerian English is and what it is not has
pitched scholars into two camps: the deviation school and the variation school. The deviation school maintains that Nigerian English does not exist and what is referred to by the term is just a concatenation of errors underpinning the superficial mastery of the Standard British English (SBE) by Nigerians. Scholars in this school include Vincent, Salami, Prator, Brann, etc. To the members of this school, Nigerian English is anomalous
and the banner of the SBE is upheld as the existing form, “even though their own speech and usage provide ample evidence if its (Nigerian English) existence” (Bamgbose, 1982:99). The variation school represents the contemporary viewpoint and a vast army of scholars like Banjo, Bamgbose, Awonusi, Odumu, Adetugbo, Adegbija, among several others, belong here. The school affirms the existence of a distinct variety or dialect in
Nigeria, with its own subtypes along basilectal (non-standard), mesolectal (general, almost standard) and acrolectal (standard Nigerian English) lines (Awonusi, 1987, cf. Babatunde, 2001).
The question of which school is right or wrong as determined may be outside the scope of the present work though appropriate entailments to that effect are made. What is incontrovertible is that the use of English in Nigeria is characterized by the idiosyncratic norms reminiscent of the Nigerian linguistic ecology. The features reflect the submission of Soyinka (1988:126) regarding the use of English by Nigerian and other non-native
speakers:
And when we borrow an alien language to sculpt or paint in, we must begin by co-opting the entire properties in our matrix of thought and expression. We must stress such a language, stretch it, impact and compact it, fragment and reassemble it with no apology, as required to bear the burden of experiencing and of experiences, be such experiences formulated or not in the conceptual idioms of the language.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH DESIGN
Implications for the 21st Century English Pedagogy
The global spread of English within the last fifty years is unprecedented. What began some 1,500 years ago as a crude and “rude language originally spoken by obscure Germanic tribes who invaded England, now encompasses the globe” (Hasman,2000:3). It has been estimated that by the year 2010 the number of people who will speak English as a second or foreign language will exceed the number of its native speakers (Hasman,
2000) and the prediction has become true, even some five years before the target. The pedagogical implication of this is that more people will continue be interested in learning English and more people will be involved in teaching it. There is no evidence that the influence of English on the global scene will wane in many years to come. English will continue to be relevant as more scientists will continue to use it and more of electronic
retrieval system, already more than 90% English, will continue to be stored in the language.
CHAPTER FOUR
Conclusion
English continues to be the global standard language, having defeated its key competitors in versatility, dynamism and relevance. There is no major threat to the global popularity of English and in the constricting world where internationalism is becoming increasingly institutionalized, teaching and learning of Global English is critical to international communications (Adedimeji, 2006). The “standard varieties” of English used in Nigeria have to be harmonized such that as English is the window of the country to the outside world, international intelligibility will not be sacrificed at the alter of domestication and nativization campaign being preached in some quarters. This is because without systematically domesticating English, it is a natural process that evolves in all ESL contexts and languages must respond to the inevitable dynamics of change
across geographical boundaries.
This paper has provided a general overview of the linguistic features of Nigerian English, from phonology, morpho-syntactics, lexico-semantics to pragmatics. It is observed that Nigerian English is neither all deviant nor all variant and the two schools of variation and deviation are right or wrong by half. The fundamental pattern is that some forms of Nigerian English are variant and some are deviant. At the levels of phonology and morpho-syntactics, Nigerian English can be said to be largely deviant with few instances of deviation. With this, we reject the claim of Hasman (2000) that all dialects of English are acceptable and that the language has “no standard pronunciation”. At the levels of lexico-semantics and pragmatics, Nigerian English can be said to be largely variant with just some instances of deviation. With this, we validate and agree to the assertion of Hasman (2000) that “each country that speaks the language can inject aspects of its own culture into the usage”.
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