Children growing up in such area use the Pidgin English officially and do not anything wrong in it. Often, several families live in the same compound or in a geographical area who do not understand one another’s language Pidgin becomes a convenient means of communication among them. Subsequently, they carry the language to school where it becomes difficult for them to learn the proper language. They may learn it from their parents of within the environment which they live. They learn this language early in life too. Notwithstanding, pidgin English though plays an important role in Nigeria, it also has some adverse effects on students’s learning of the English language. In most of his works, the level of pidgin compared with English seems to increase in favour of the former with the degree of informality of its speakers particularly worth mentioning is the road. Soyinka (2004.65) in his work, The Trial of Brother Jero and The Road respectively used the pidgin English to accent the socio-economic aspects of Nigeria of them. Also the work of Amos Tutuola, the Palm Wine Drinkard is also written in the Pidgin English. Apart from using pidgin English for advertisements on radio and television, some bill boards disseminate their information using the pidgin English to communicate to their readers.įor example, Ken Saro Wiwa (2005) in his work, Sozaboy (2005) used pidgin English. The popularity of Pidgin English can be seen in the various ways in which Nigerian business world and the media use it. It is the most effective means if interaction among the illiterate servants of the learned masters, the market women, and several other groups of people. This version of English cuts across institutions, establishments and societies yet it remains the unofficial lingua-franca in Nigeria. The importance of Pidgin English in Nigeria cannot be over emphasized. Spencer ( 2001) opined that Nigerian pidgin English developed as a result of intertribal marriages. It also originated as a result of the need for communication among Nigerians living in towns and cities from different ethnic groups who have no common language. According to Opara (2009.52), pidgin English in Nigeria originated as a trade language that is made up of foreign language and the local language. Yule (2006.) is of the view that it is a variety of a language which was developed for some practical purposes, such as trading among groups of people who had a lot of contact, but who do not know each other’s language. The oxford advance learners dictionary defines pidgin as any of several languages resulting from contact European traders and local people, for example, in West Africa and the far east, containing elements of the local language(s) and French or Dutch, still used for internal communication. Pidgin English is therefore defined as a language variety used for inter-ethnic context. He stressed that Nigeria Pidgin English is a variety which is very strong among the less educated and educated people too. He stressed that when two people come in contact, the necessity for communication would necessitate the evolvement of a language of communication, a kind of inter-language, which will be a mixture of the two languages in contact. He sees it as a first variety of the Nigerian English. 40) is of the opinion that Pidgin English is developed from a contact English (ce). As a result, the English language started having varieties, among which is, Pidgin English also known as Nigerian English.Īdedoyin (2009. The fact that most Nigerians are illiterate and semi-illiterate made the using of English language as the language of official communication a big problem. Nigeria, being a multilingual nation, is one of the reason why English is accepted as the language of official communication. In other words, English which is also Nigeria’s official language was brought to Africa by her former colonial masters. The advent of the colonial master in African presumably marked the beginning of the use of the English language in the West Africa sub-regions. EFFECTS OF PIDGIN ENGLISH ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |