![]() ![]() This language has contributed immensely to the growth of commerce and entertainment within our country and in diaspora. Thousands of foreign nationals relish hearing us speak Nigeria Pidgin-English and some even make efforts to learn and speak with us too. ![]() Today we have more than 70% of our population within the country and several millions in diaspora speaking Nigeria Pidgin-English everyday. Chiefly amidst all these native languages we speak, is Nigeria Pidgin-English (a version of English). While some countries like those in Europe have English as a native language, we in Africa and Nigeria to be precise do have several native languages and dialects we speak. Also other types like American English, Chicano English, Australia English, Canadian English, Ameridish (Jewish American) etc are all versions of English. Nigeria Pidgin-English (NPE) can be defined simply as "A VERSION OF ENGLISH, just as BRITISH ENGLISH is a version of English. 5 No.9 September 2015 pp.Several folks are wrongly opinionated that Nigeria Pidgin-English is bad English. Ogunmodimu, M 2015 ‘Language problem in Nigeria: prospects and perspectives’ International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Vol. 1987 Minority Language and lingua franca in Nigerian In: Nigerian Languages Studies. ‘The national language question in Nigeria’s multilingual setting: a proposal’ in: Journal of English Language Teachers’ Association of Nigeria Vol.7 2017 pp.24-37 Keywords: Lingua Franca, Exogenous/ Indigenous, Mother Tongue, National language, Igbo. This paper appraises the progress of the SNL programme vis-a-vis the progress of the national policy of education on Nigerian languages, proffering a way forward and pointing the government and other stakeholders to the steps needed for revitalizing the SNL/NL2 programme or for revising the instrument establishing it, and action steps for addressing the national language issue. Oral interviews among staffers from the minority language groups shows a greater percentage of the respondents not being in terms with the goals of the policy,which they see rather as the majority’s ploy to develop their own languages to the detriment of the minority’s. Over 60 percent of the students interviewed through structured and unstructured questionnaires claimed to have spoken more than one language therefore see no reason bogging themselves with another language. This paper based partly on experience and on a recent research at the college of education Akwanga Nasarawa State, on ‘the problems and prospects of teaching and learning Igbo as second Nigerian language (SNL),’ notes a downward turn in the SNL programme. Though efforts have been made through some constitutional proposals and national language policy statements to give some of the indigenous languages a face-lift, birthing the second Nigerian language (SNL/NL2) programme in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions, for producing Nigerian languages teachers for secondary and primary schools, and for beefing up the major Nigerian languages as to choose one of them as a lingua franca, no appreciable result has been archived. Nigerian has a multilingual (about 500 languages) and multi-ethnic (over 300 tribes) landscape due to the amalgamation of the northern and southern protectorates in 1914. ![]() Also, the clash of interest between the exogenous and the indigenous languages subjecting the latter to stiff competition, has affected the goals both of the national language policy and the national language question, making them elusive. The second Nigerian language programme (SNL/ NL2), of the national language policy on education (NPE) on Nigerian languages, is facing setbacks ranging from linguistic, political, administrative to non-administrative. ![]()
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