THE LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF NIGERIAN ENGLISH AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR 21ST CENTURY ENGLISH PEDAGOGY
THE LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF NIGERIAN ENGLISH AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR 21ST CENTURY ENGLISH PEDAGOGY
1.1 Background to the Study
The 21stCentury is the current century we are in now which began on January 1, 2001; and will end on December 31, 2100. It is the first century of the 3rd Millennium (Royal Observatory Greenwich). The idea of what the 21st century education should look like is open to interpretation and controversy.
Twenty-first-century education embodies an approach to teaching that marries content to skill. Without skills, students are left to memorize facts, recall details on paper, and relegate their educational experience to passivity.
Without content, students may engage in problem-solving or team-working experiences that fall into triviality, into relevance without rigor. The 21st Century education offers an opportunity to synergize content and skills, often referred to as the 21st Century skills.
The learning patterns and use patterns of language have undergone rapid changes across decades, cultures and geographic boundaries. Due to the emergence and expansion of the use of languages coupled with changing world patterns such as globalization, international relations, international trade, advancement in technology and the increased need for autonomy of language learners. There is an adage that says “the only thing constant about life is change”; and the acceptable wise course of action towards any change is to change with the change.
That being the case, such development makes it expedient that there ought to be a change in educational curriculum and patterns of teaching with English Language in particular (Hendriks, 2014). Globally, one in every four persons speak the English at a useful level (i.e. 1.75 billion people) and an estimate of an extra 2 billion will be speaking it at a useful level by 2020 (British Council, 2017).
Africa is not an exception in this trend.
Besides, more and more African countries have accepted English as an official language from the Botswana, Cameroon, Eritrea, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, South Sudan, South Africa, Somaliland, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe (Arnoud, 2016).
In Nigeria, English is the language that connects all the citizens given her diversity of native languages and this cultural hegemony and modernization has given hype and expansion to its use in Nigeria.
In Nigeria, the use of English in school begins from as early as Kindergarten under the 9-3-3-4 system which means that a Nigerian child has up to 15 years to learn English before he/she round up his/her Bachelor’s education. The English Language is regarded as the backbone of all Nigerian subjects from primary school to University as it is the medium of instruction.
In fact the national Policy on Education regards English Language as a core subjects and as such a prerequisite for further advancement in an educational endeavour in the country for which a “credit – C6” must be attained (Ajayi & Osalusi, 2013; Njoku, 2017).
Given this emphasis on the subject, it is expedient that the subject is properly taught so that students of the language can gain mastery.
Temmerman (2017) stated that “teacher feedback can have a huge influence on students learning”; thus, there is a great need for not only learning the English Language but also accepting the new and emerging trends of its use and teaching. Therefore, this study aim to examine the linguistic features of Nigerian English and their implications for 21st century English pedagogy.
1.2 Statement of the problem
It is not surprising to realise that the English Language has won ‘global status’ as the international language and evidence abound that this status will only get stronger in future. This issue however is not this phenomenon for English language but the teaching of spoken English to students remains a major challenge from inappropriate curriculum that do not fulfil the requirements of English learners, lack of feedback to lack of trained and qualified teachers.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
Specifically, this study aimed to examine:
- examine the morphological processes adopted by the Nigerian in formations to create peculiar words in Nigerian English;
- Trace the origin of some Nigerian English words
- Discuss how Nigerian Englishes has contributed to the learning of English language in the 21st century.
1.4 Significance of the study
The intention of this paper is targeted at drawing the attention of all stakeholders of Nigerian education to significant aspects of changing language climate globally and how quality and structure of teachers can play a huge part in this development trend not only in terms of contribution to the growth of English
Language in Nigeria but to its sustainability and would therefore benefit English Language curriculum planners, ministry of Education and help restructure the way English language is used in Nigeria.
1.5 Research Methodology
The methodology adopted for this work is qualitative. The study makes use of secondary data and content analysis to answer the research questions.
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