Abstract

TEACHER ATTITUDE AND STUDENT PERFORMANCE IN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE LEARNING IN LAGOS

 

Harrison Adeniyi

Rachael Bello

Lagos State University

 

Abstract

When the Federal Government of Nigeria in 1987 introduced the educational policy that required study of one of the three national languages, i.e., Hausa, Igbo and Yoru ̀ba ́, at the West African School Certificate / General Certificate in Education [WASC / GCE] level, Nigerians and especially advocates for the survival of the indigenous languages embraced the idea with great enthusiasm. The primary aim was to make more Nigerians speak indigenous languages in addition to the language of their immediate environment. However, this purpose was frustrated when students opted for, and indeed registered for, their mother tongues rather than a non-familiar indigenous language. If the policy had been actually followed, the country would have generated citizens, who not only speak their own indigenous languages, but also citizens who have a practical knowledge of all of their country’s traditional languages. But this did not happen. In this paper, we look at the attitudes of private school teachers to the teaching of the indigenous languages vis-a-vis the competence and performance of students in these indigenous languages. The study is not only comparative but also correlative. The methodological instruments included a questionnaire, interview, a quasi-test and examination of junior / senior secondary school leaving certificates. Our findings revealed that students’ performances, as reflected in their results, do not demonstrate their competence in the indigenous languages in question. Similarly, we observed that both the teachers and the learners are instrumentally and not integratively motivated.

 

Keywords: attitudes, private schools, indigenous language, performance, Lagos-Nigeria

 

Abstracto

En 1987 cuando el gobierno federal de Nigeria introdujo una política de educación que requería el estudio de uno de tres idiomas nacionales: hausa, igbo o yoruba para lograr obtener el West African School Certificate o el General Certificate in Education (WASC/ GCE), los nigerianos, en particular aquellas personas que abogaban por hacer sobrevivir los idiomas autóctonos, abrazaron la idea con entusiasmo. El enfoque principal de esta reforma era hacer que más nigerianos hablaran las lenguas autóctonas en adición a los idiomas de su ambiente inmediato. Sin embargo, este esfuerzo fue frustrado cuando los estudiantes optaron por sus lenguas maternas en lugar de los idiomas autóctonos. Si la política hubiera sido efectiva, el país hubiera generado ciudadanos que no sólo hablan su idioma materno, sino también posean conocimiento práctico de otros idiomas tradicionales de su país. En este estudio se observan las actitudes de los maestros de escuelas privadas hacia la enseñanza de los idiomas autóctonos con relación a la competencia y el desempeño de los estudiantes en estas lenguas tradicionales. El estudio es no sólo comparativo, sino también correlativo. La metodología y los instrumentos que se utilizaron incluyen un cuestionario, entrevista, un examen sencillo y una examinación de estudiantes de tercer y cuarto año de escuela superior. Los resultados demuestran que el rendimiento de los estudiantes no refleja un dominio de estas lenguas tradicionales. Asimismo, se observó que los maestros y los estudiantes ni estaban ni motivados ni integrados.

 

Palabras clave : Actitudes, escuelas privadas, idiomas autóctonos, desempeño, Lagos-Nigeria

 
Dr Harrison Adeniyi is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of African Languages, Literature and Communication Arts, Lagos State University, Nigeria. His main areas of interest are General linguistics with particular emphasis on Phonology, Morphology and their interface, Second language learning, language teaching and language use, working with English, Yorùbá and Edo languages, Communication and the teaching of African Languages.

 

Dr (Mrs) Rachael Bello is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English, Lagos State University, Nigeria. Her main areas of interest are Sociolinguistics, first and second language teaching and learning andlanguage in education

 

 


Glossa (ISSN 1931-7778) Publicada por la Escuela de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas de la Universidad del Turabo.
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