Abstract
This study investigated the effectiveness of Nigerian
Pidgin English in Nigerian senior secondary school in Lagos state. The study
employed a descriptive survey research design. An instrument titled:
Effectiveness of Nigerian Pidgin English in Nigerian Senior Secondary School
(ENPENSSS) was used to collect relevant data for the study. The four senior
secondary schools involved were selected based on simple random sampling
technique and the statistical tools employed to analyse the data collected were
simple percentages and frequency. 100 sample sizes were used for the
study. 3 research questions and 3
research hypotheses were designed and formulated for the purpose of the study.
The study revealed that there is a
significant difference between Nigerian pidgin and written English in some
selected senior secondary school student in Lagos State. It also revealed that there is
significant relationship between impact of Pidgin English and student’s
academic performance in English. The study further
revealed that there was significant relationship between student’s
communication with Nigerian pidgin and English language. Based on the findings of this study, recommendations
and suggestions were made for students, parents, teachers and school
administrators and relevant agencies for further research.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGES
Title
page i
Certification
ii
Dedication
iii
Acknowledgement iv
Abstract
v
Table
of Contents vi
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.0 Background to the Study 1
1.1 Brief History of Nigerian Pidgin English 5
1.2 Statement of the Problem 11
1.3 Purpose of the Study 13
1.4 Research Questions 13
1.5 Research Hypothesis 13
1.6
Significance of the Study 13
1.7 Definitions of Terms 14
CHAPTER TWO:
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Introduction 16
2.1 Origin of Pidgin in Nigerian secondary
schools 16
2.2 The Evolution of Nigerian Pidgin in the
written English of Senior Secondary 19
School Students
2.3 Attitudes of students towards Nigerian
Pidgin 21
2.4 The Language Composition of Nigeria
Pidgin 23
2.5 Relationship between Nigeria pidgin
English and student academic
performance 25
2.6 Empirical framework of the study 27
2.7 Summary of the related literature 28
CHAPTER
THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.0 Introduction 29
3.1 Research
Design 29
3.2
Population of the Study 29
3.3
Sample and Sampling Technique 48
3.4 Instrument and Instrumentation 48
3.5 Validity of the Instrument 48
3.6 Procedures for Data Analysis 49
3.7 Method of Data Analysis 49
CHAPTER
FOUR: PRESENTATION OF RESULTS
4.0 Introduction 50
4.1 Analysis of Respondents Bio-Data 51
4.3 Hypothesis Testing 54
4.4 Summary of Findings 56
4.5
Discussion of Findings 56
CHAPTER
FIVE: DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS, SUMMARY,
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1
Introduction 60
5.2
Summary of the Study 60
5.3
Conclusion 63
5.4 Recommendations 63
References 66
Appendix
68
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.0 Background to the Study
The
English language in Nigeria is a second language. It is a second language
because Nigerians already had their first language or Mother Tongue (L1)
before the incursion of this foreign language called ‘English’ into the country.
In this instance a foreign language (English) left its native environment and
met with another language or languages (Nigerian indigenous languages). It is
true that the culture and values of the people are embedded in the language
they speak. As such it is said that ‘language is culture’ and none can be
separated from each other.
Language is a very
important factor in the educational process. It is an indispensable aspect of
communication. It has
very strong basics for creative thought and without it there would be no
meaningful progress in civilization and culture, Makinde (1997:7). The above
citation explores the powers of language as a tool for communication and
creative thought. Language is used to communicate ideas through the process of
thinking, translated to either speech or writing.
Therefore the language of
wider communication of a country is crucial to the progress and growth of that
nation, even academically. Nigeria is a diverse and multi-ethnic country with
about four hundred and ten (410) languages Mackey (1992:12). However, with the
introduction of the English language in 1842, these numerous languages have
influenced, or if we might say, interfered in the way Nigerians use language on
the lexical, grammatical and phonological levels of communication. Though
English is Nigeria's lingua franca, a unique brand of English has emerged to
suit Nigeria’s socio-linguistic and communication needs (which is to an extent
a deviation from standard British English). This has led to a localization or domestication.
Since English has been influenced by our indigenous languages, the way we write
will also reflect this metamorphosis. These variations we referred to as
“peculiar Nigerianisms”.
English
language did not come to Nigeria just on its own. Its incursion into Nigeria
was caused by lots of factors like trading, slavery, colonization and
missionary activities in Nigerian by the Europeans and this was done in phases.
As such English as a language is a borrowed blanket which has been converted to
a personal use by the borrowers so as to suit their purposes.
The
exact date that English language usage started in Nigeria is not certain.
However, it is believed that the first intimate contact between the British and
some ethnic groupings in Nigeria was in Southern Nigeria. This must have been
at some period before the Atlantic slave trade.
The term pidgin is
used to refer to a language which develops in a situation where speakers of
different languages have a need to communicate but do not share a common language.
Once a pidgin has emerged, it is generally learned as a second language and
used for communication among people who speak differently.
Language is the
most creative and unlimited instrument for social communication and it helps us
to understand the deep seated social relevance, culture involvement and the
human relatedness of language. Having said this, we can therefore agree that
pidgin is a language of its own and not just a supplementary tongue as some
people see it, since it serves as an unlimited instrument of social
communication especially in a multilingual community as Lagos State.
According to R.
Linton he states that “the culture of a society is the way of life of its
members, the collection of ideas and habits which they learn, share and transmit
from generation to generation” (12). These cultures, ideas and habits can only
be transmitted from generation to generation through language. In linguistic,
every language is considered adequate to represent the communicative needs of
its people and as such should not be made to suffer any biases.
This cannot be
said of Nigerian Pidgin – even though it is a language – because various
attempts have been made by different faction to eradicate the use of Nigerian
Pidgin English. These attempts have however been unsuccessful because of the
significant value the language has to its users. It is a language that has
brought people together in spite of their differences in ancestral culture and
language by creating a local culture for itself which blends ideas from
different cultures.
According
to Adetugbo [1984:8], a certain Oba in Benin was reported to have spoken
Portuguese. The language was in use for economic interest and because it was
the language of commerce and diplomacy in the ancient Benin kingdom. Actually,
the advent of English in Nigerian can be classified into three major periods,
namely: the period before the missionary activities, the period during
missionary activities and the period after the amalgamation of the southern and
northern protectorate. It is important to add that there is no clear cut
demarcation between these periods as each period shades into another period.
The
structure of Pidgin is quite different from that of Standard English in its
Phonology, Morphology and Syntax. Nigeria is fast colonizing the West African
region with Pidgin English. Pidgin English as spoken in Nigeria is a kind of
language derived from English, Portuguese and Dutch. Pidgin English as spoken
in Nigeria is interesting with very unique pronunciations. Words in Standard
English could turn out to mean or denote something else in Pidgin.
As
Platt, Weber and Ho accurately observe in their book, The New Englishes, (RKP
1984) "In some nations...the New Englishes have developed a noticeable
range of different varieties linked strongly to the socio-economic and
educational backgrounds of their speakers." It borrows words, patterns and
images freely from the mother-tongue and finds expression in a very limited
English vocabulary.
Critics on the poor performance of English language at the
West African School Certification Examination have always commented that Pidgin
English has not only affected students in their subjects area but also hampered
their chances in other disciplines. It is the mind of the researcher to investigate
and verify the above claim and possibly ascertain the extent of the negative
effect of Pidgin English among students in Senior Secondary School in Nigeria
The researcher in this work is out to investigate the influence of Pidgin
English on the use of Standard English among senior secondary school students
and suggest the possible means of eliminating the adverse effects Stern
(1983:152),
It
is on records that as from 1553 English men paid frequent visits to the
Nigerian shores, especially the ports of Ancient Benin and old Calabar, and the
type of communication which evolved between the English men and the Nigerians
was a simplified kind of communication in English called Pidgin. Note, however
that Portuguese and not English was probably the earliest European language to
be used in Nigeria.
The
global spread of the English language is one of the most far-reaching
linguistic phenomena of our time. Evidence of this worldwide phenomenon of
language contact, variation and change can be seen through such designations as
world Englishes, new Englishes, modern Englishes, West African Englishes, South
African English, Australian English, Indian English, to mention just a few. The
phrase “Nigerian English” has also appeared in the last four decades or so. Out
of the Nigerian variety of English some sub-varieties have emerged like the
Nigerian Pidgin English.
1.1 Brief History of
Nigerian Pidgin English
The
Portuguese were the first Europeans who traded in pepper and slaves from the
Nigerian coastal area. They first arrived in Benin (city) at the end of the
15th century. From the mid 16th century, the British took over as major trading
partners. With the abolition of the slave trade at the beginning of the 19th
Century, British colonial interests shifted to agricultural production for
exportation to Europe. In 1842 and 1846 the first missionary stations were
established in Badagry (near Lagos in the Southwest) and Calabar (in the
Southeast) respectively. The missionaries were mainly interested in spreading
Christianity among the African pagans. In the schools they established in the
Southern part of Nigeria (they were not allowed to settle in the Islamic North
of the country) they also taught agriculture, crafts and hygiene. In order to
easily reach the population, the language of instruction was usually the mother
tongue of the natives. But the Africans refused to send their children to
school because they needed them to work in the house and on the farms.
Consequently, the missionaries paid compensation to the parents. All the same,
the first generation of students was made up mainly of children of slaves who
the village communities thought they would not miss much. The mass withdrawal
of English colonial officers just before and after Nigeria’s independence down turn
in the Nigeria economy and the disappearance of the middle class with the
attendant breakdown in social and family values.
The
British colonial government increasingly felt the need for Africans who were
literate in English and would serve British colonial and trade interests (for
instance as teachers, interpreters and clerks for local native courts and the
trading companies). Therefore, missionary stations were ordered in the 1880s to
teach English in their schools. In the long run, however, the missionary
schools were unable to meet the demands for educated Nigerians, and the
colonial government began to establish state schools from the turn of the
century. The first state school was in fact founded as a result of pressure
from Muslims in Lagos in 1899 who had no access to missionary schools and felt
they were at a disadvantage. Despite all these efforts, communication was
indeed difficult between the Nigerians and the colonial masters thus a means of
easy communication had to be devised which was a simplified way of structuring
and speaking English. The simplification could be seen in all the levels of a
new contact language that emerged (Pidgin). The emergence of churches and the
use of pidgin English to evangelise people.
1.1.1
CHARACTERISTICS OF NIGERIAN PIDGIN
The
new contact language is a simplified language in the areas of Lexis, Phonology
and Grammar
1.1.11 NIGERIAN PIDGIN
LEXIS
Pidgin
draws its lexical items from the dominant language namely English, while others
are drawn from the indigenous languages. For examples,
a)
Yoruba: oyibo – ‘white man’,
wahala - trouble
b)
Portuguese: pikin – ‘child’
palava – ‘trouble’
sabi – ‘to know’
c)
Hausa: wayo – ‘tricks’
Secondly,
there is extensive use of reduplication in its lexis. This is partly to
identify meaning and partly to avoid confusion which could result from
phonological similarity. Examples: katakata (confusion, chaos), wakawaka (walk
or wander perpetually), toktok (talk, gossip).
In
addition, Pidgin lexis is filled with Compound Words like ‘kresman’ – (crazy
man), ‘switmaut’ – (flattery), ‘wochnait’ – (night watchman).
1.1.111 THE GROWTH OF
NIGERIAN PIDGIN
The
growth of Nigerian Pidgin from a rudimentary speech form which was strongly
aided by gesture to an elaborate form is examined in some details by Elugbe and
Omamor (1991). At first, it was used between the visiting English and their
Nigerian hosts. Later, the Nigerians, who had no common language of their own,
began to use this form among themselves. This had the effect of stabilising and
expanding the language because it then had to cope with the expanding
experiences of its Nigerian users.
The
continued use of the English in Nigeria made the number and interest of its
speakers to continue to expand, and this encourages the growth of Nigerian
Pidgin. The continual growth and use of Pidgin English challenges was a
challenge and threat to the existence of English and this brought about the
emergence of Standard English. This development was a logical consequence of
two factors.
In
the first place, the English recognised that they could not do business in a
language in that they could keep records, which they considered inferior and
was unintelligible to English speakers newly arrived from Britain. Nigerian
pidgin was thus relegated to situations involving only Nigerians, or the
English and those Nigerians who could not speak or understand the standard
variety of English.
Secondly,
schools were established and a standard variety of English was being taught.
This variety became the language of trade and industry, missionary work and
government. So important did this variety become that its possession became a
passport to a good position in society, with its social and material benefits.
The
growth of English in Nigeria did not remove the usefulness of Nigerian Pidgin.
Not everyone had access to a school and the process of acquiring English was
decidedly longer and more tedious than that of ‘picking up’ Nigerian Pidgin. It
remains a hallmark of Nigerian pidgin that its speakers use it with a lot of
freedom and creativity.
In
the days of the colonial government, the missionaries were very influential and
they used that influence to ensure that activities leading to the development
of Nigerian languages were not banned. Adopting a mother-tongue approach to
evangelism, they believed that the gospel was best delivered to potential
converts in the language they understood best. Thus, they doubled as
missionaries and linguists, studying the local languages, committing them to
writing and attempting to translate the Bible, or parts of it, into these
languages. There were also colonial administrators who doubled as civil
servants and linguists. Thus, the colonial government had to grant some recognition
to the ‘vernaculars’- as the indigenous languages were called.
The
recognition of the local languages did not extend to Nigerian pidgin. Even
those who helped to sustain it by speaking it refused to recognised it, a
situation that exists even today. One meets highly placed government officials
who speak Nigerian Pidgin but do not believe it should be allocated a role in
the language policy in Nigeria. It is therefore obvious that Nigeria Pidgin has
survived and flourished by generally being readily useful and handy, thus
filling a veritable communication vacuum in Nigeria.
1.1.1V THE BENEFITS OF
NIGERIAN PIDGIN
Nigeria
Pidgin has major benefits which are not exploited in language planning in
Nigeria. Since the search for unity is a primary concern of government, one
would have thought that Nigerian pidgin would be brought into the planning
process. It is a major asset, for example, it shares with English the unique
feature of being the only ethnically neutral language in Nigeria.
Another
of its assets is that it is a national language. As Elugbe (1990: 10) has
pointed out, a language may be national by being spoken all over Nigeria, by
being indigenous and by being declared ‘national’. Nigerian Pidgin is national
because it meets two of these requirements:
1)
It is geographically spread all over
Nigeria and spoken by Nigerians of different ethnic origins.
2)
It is indigenous to Nigeria because it
originated, is sustained and is expanding here in Nigeria.
It
should be added that Standard English meets only the condition of being spoken
all over Nigeria. In fact, only Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba, which are the major
indigenous languages, meet all three criteria in the definition of ‘national’
in Nigeria.
In
education, Nigeria has a mother-tongue policy which requires that every child
be taught in a mother-tongue medium at the pre-primary level and during the
first three years of primary school. The policy also states that, where the
mother tongue should be used as the language of the immediate community (LIC),
that is, the dominant language of the community which the child already speaks
is recommended. There are areas in Nigeria where Nigerian Pidgin has acquired
the mother tongue status and there are many Nigerians for whom it is as much a
first language as the mother tongue (because they speak it with the same
facility as they speak their different mother tongues, such that they are
bilingual in their mother tongues and Nigerian Pidgin). It therefore follows
that Nigerian Pidgin can be used in teaching many Nigerians where many local
languages would have been required. This would remove the psychological shock
which pupils experience when they leave home and find a new language which they
do not speak and understand well. It is also a matter of common sense that a child
(or anybody for that matter) learns better when taught in a language he
understands very well. Therefore, our language policy ought logically to lead
to the development of Nigerian Pidgin for use as official medium for teaching
in our schools.
Recognition
and development of Nigerian pidgin would also greatly reduce the cost of
implementing the language provisions of our educational policy because the LIC
option is basically a cost and time saving device and because Nigerian Pidgin
is a dominant language in many communities across many states. This was the
thinking of the national Commission for mass literacy, adult and Non-formal
Education in 1992 when it set out to produce literacy materials in Nigerian
Pidgin. Unfortunately, the project has since been suspended.
Nigerian Pidgin as a veritable tool of interaction
serves as a ‘bridge’ between the mother tongue and Standard Nigerian English
(NSE). According to Faraclas (nd),
‘Nigerian
pidgin has most of the linguistic features of (NSE) and those that typify many
other Nigerian languages. Therefore, as long as Nigerian Pidgin is not accorded
the place it deserves in Nigerian education, an invaluable tool for the
teaching of English will continue to lie wasted and unused’.
Faraclas
concludes by recommending that ‘official recognition should be extended to
Nigerian Pidgin as a major Nigerian language’. Such a step would make
Nigerian Pidgin fully national in all the three senses of the terms, as
mentioned above.
The
creativity of Nigerian Pidgin which has been mentioned is probably linked to
the relative ease with which it is acquired or learned. A simple comparison
shows what the difference is between learning Standard English and learning
Nigerian Pidgin:
Nigerian Pidgin English
Rait Write
He de rait He is
writing
He rait He
wrote
He don rait He has
written
I dey come I’ll be
back
Dem Them
Sometin/Sontin Something
Wetin happen? what
happened?
The
invariable form of Nigerian Pidgin ‘rait’ contrast sharply with the
parsing of ‘write’ in English. In addition, Nigerian pidgin is made easier by
the fact that its lexicon can and does take words not only from English but
also from other Nigerian languages. This means that speakers resort to words in
their own languages where they think that the Nigerian Pidgin form should be
strengthened. Elugbe and Omamor (1991) suggest that such creativity is
reflected in the ease with which songs are composed and sung in Nigerian
Pidgin. One should now add that songs written or song-composed require a
certain relaxed and assured ease with a language. Therefore, Nigerian Pidgin
speakers are always very much at ease with it. This creativity also reflects in
a popular comedy show called ‘Night of Laughter’ where the entire programme is
done in Nigerian Pidgin English. The modern information technology (Mobile
Phone) on seeing the ease and creativity in Nigerian Pidgin has created a soft
ware in Pidgin for its teaming population of clients. To be sincere, prompt
customer care information service are better and are more understandable in
Nigerian Pidgin than in Standard English. People from Warri, sapele, Kwale,
benin-city, Ibusa among others are famous for their excellent ability to
communicate eloquently in the language. Interestingly even the country leaders,
clergy men and women, Justices, Judges, professors, the educated and
non-educated understand and fully communicate in Pidgin English.
The
language is fast growing and the idea once held that the language is a language
of the illiterates is fast eroding and gradually getting replaced as the unique
language of Nigerians as even national team footballers of the country use the
language as means of communication on the playing field. At least Nigeria now
has a name in Pidgin English which is “Naija’ so the next time you hear Naija
mentioned know it refers to Nigeria our beloved country.
1.2 Statement of the
Problem
A
pidgin is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication
between two or more groups that do not have a language in common, in situations
such as trade. Pidgins are not the native language of any speech community, but
are learnt as second languages. Pidgins usually have low prestige with respect
to other languages. The word ‘pidgin’, formerly also spelled ‘pigion’,
derives from a Chinese Pidgin English pronunciation for ‘business’. This
was originally used to describe Chinese Pidgin English; it was later
generalized to refer to any pidgin. Pidgin may also be used as the specific
name for a local pidgin in places where they are spoken. For example, the name
of ‘Tok Pisin’ is derived from the English words ‘talk pidgin’, and its
speakers usually refer to it simply as "Pidgin" when speaking it.
The use of Pidgin English in our society has assumed a wider
dimension than previous periods in history. The widespread is so much that it
has spilled over into classrooms in schools. According to Akporero (1989), the
use of Pidgin English by student and teachers in our school has assumed
alarming proportions that there is no longer any unidentifiable factor as
causative. From Akporero’s assertion, only one characteristic remains prone
factor- literacy. The implication here is that literacy is tending to
accelerate the use of Pidgin English rather than eliminating it Akporero is of
opinion that Nigerian Pidgin is a language of its own, whose formation is
consequent on a multiple borrowing of different words from more than one
language. This in itself goes to emphasize the convenience of its use
especially by persons from different linguistic communities who have no need
for a bi-lingual intermediary. Gilbert Ansré (1971) observes that “it is not
quite correct to say that one language has influenced the other. By this, he
implies that language itself is an abstraction from human social behavior and
so one language cannot influence another except through the mediation of users
of the two languages. Thus when we say one language has influenced another, we
are merely inferring that the speaking of the language have incorporated items
of another in their own. The
problems were created:
Problems in students
spoken and written of English language which often result to mass failure in
English language secondary school examination.
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is;
i.
To
examine the impact of Nigerian pidgin on the written English of selected senior
secondary school students in Lagos State.
ii.
To
evaluate the impact of Nigerian pidgin on students performance in English
language.
iii.
To
determine the reason why students communicate in Nigerian Pidgin.
1.4 Research Questions
i.
Does
Nigerian pidgin affect the written English of selected senior secondary school
student in Lagos State?
ii.
How
does Nigerian Pidgin affect student performance in English language?
iii.
Is
there any reason why students communicate in pidgin English?
1.6 Research
Hypothesis
H01: There is
significant difference between Nigerian pidgin and written English in some
selected senior secondary school student in Lagos State.
H02: There is significant relationship between
impact of Pidgin English and student’s academic performance in English.
H03 There is significant relationship between
student’s communication with Nigerian pidgin and English language
1.6 Significance of the Study
As more and more people including students speak pidgin, the
need therefore arises for the examination of its influence on standard English
among the secondary school students in Nigeria. However, the study will look
into the following significance.
the researcher will bring to light the possibility of
standardizing the use of Nigerian Pidgin English and finding solutions to the
problems caused by Nigerian Pidgin English in the proper mastery of the
standard English.
The result of this study may expose the teachers in
secondary schools in Lagos state in particular and in Nigerian in general
to the problems posed by Nigerian pidgin in learning of English language and
will enable them adopt corrective methods to suit students need especially in a
multi-lingua society like ours.
1.7 Definitions of Terms
Pidgin: The word pidgin
seems to have had its origin in the inability of 19th century Chinese to
articulate the word business.
It came out as bigeon or bidgin, and since it is a short step
from B to P, it finally flattened out as pidgin.
Pidgin can be
defined as a simplified form of speech
formed out of one or more existing languages
and used by people who have no other language in common.
A pidgin is a new language which
develops in situations where speakers of different languanges need to
communicate but don't share a common language.
Written:
Written is a method of representing language in visual or tactile
form. Writing systems use sets of symbols to represent the sounds of speech,
and may also have symbols for such things as punctuation and numerals.
Students: This means a person who is studying at a
college, polytechnic or university; boy or girl attending schools; anyone who
studies or who is devoted to the acquisition of knowledge.
Academic Performance: This
refers to the level or rate at which students in school perform in their
academic career. It also shows the level at which students carry out their
school works at a given period of time and the result of it.
Academic
performance: This is how well or how bad a student
did in an examination that involves reading and studying in the Nigerian
secondary education sub sector. It has to do with the cognitive, affective and
psycho motor domain of learning.
Teacher’s
performance:
These are work related activities expected of a Teacher in secondary
school and how well these activities are executed. It involves the level of productivity of the
teacher in the secondary school organisation.
Secondary
school: Secondary
education is a sub-set of the Nigerian educational system. It is the six (6)
year programme received by children after primary education and before the
tertiary stage. It is grouped into junior (first 3 years) and senior (last 3
years) secondary schools.
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