English as an Agent of ‘Lingua-Cide’ and ‘Native Tonglocaust’ in Adekunle Ajasin University, Nigeria

Kehinde Olufemi OGUNYEMI, Olamide Opeyemi POPOOLA

Abstract


This study examines the role of English as an agent of lingua-cide, more specifically the case study of native tonglocaust among undergraduates in Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State. This work evolved out of the sociolinguistic consciousness that the entire populace needed to be re-orientated about the impending sociolinguistic effect and danger their indifferent language attitude posed towards native tonglocaust in term of national under-development, cultural alienation, individuals’ loss of ‘native’ identity, educational and mental incapacitation and social disintegration. Through re-orientation and affinity with one’s cultural value, the linguistic badge would be preserved; national vis-à-vis educational development would be enhanced; and most importantly, efficiency and effective development of mental ability and capacity in individuals would be encouraged.

The study employed the descriptive research design. The data was collected using a self-designed questionnaire as the research instrument with a reliability coefficient of 0.73. Simple random sampling technique was adopted in the selection of the respondents for this research work. One hundred and eighty (180) students were randomly selected from the six faculties in the institution. Simple percentage was used in analyzing the data generated.

The results revealed that many Nigerian native languages are beginning to experience a gradual ‘self-actualized’ crime of ‘native tonglocaust’ and ‘lingua-cide’ based on the ‘status’ prestige granted to English in its sociolinguistic usage.

It is recommended that much more than ‘little love’ be shown towards the use of native languages while the ‘vernacular syndrome/consciousness’ be eradicated among the populace in order to encourage individuals to ‘develop mentally’, the nation to fully get ‘developed’, and affinity with the cultural vis-à-vis linguistic identity be restored so as to avoid native languages from moving into a state of being ‘loss’, ‘dead’, or ‘extinct’.

 


Keywords


Lingua-cide; Linguistic agent; Linguistic war; Native tonglocaust

Full Text:

PDF

References


Adegbija, E. (1994). Language Attitudes in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Sociolinguistic Overview. Australia: Multilingual Matters Limited.

Adegbija, E. (2004). Multilingualism: A Nigerian case study. Africa World Press: New Jersey.

Adegbite, W. (2010). Enlightenment and attitudes of the Nigerian elite on the roles of languages in Nigeria. Language in Culture and Curriculum, 16(2), 185-196.

Akere, F. (1997). Languages in the curriculum: An assessement of the role of English and other languages in the education delivery process in Nigeria. In A. Bamgbose, A. Banjo and A. Thomas (Eds.), New Englishes: A West African Perspective (pp.178-199). Trenton, NJ: African World Press.

Bamgbose, A. (1995). Three decades of African linguistic research. In A. Akinlabi (Ed.), Theoretical approaches to African linguistics. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, Inc., pp. 1-17.

Bamgbose, A. (2000). Language and exclusion: The consequences of language policies in Africa. London, Hamburg: Transaction Publishers.

Bamgbose, A. (2001). Language Policy in Nigeria: Challenges, Opportunities and Constraints. A Paper Presented at Nigerian Millenium Sociolinguistic Conference, University of Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria.

Beck, D., & Lam, Y. (2011). Language loss and linguistic sucide: A case study from the Sierra Norte de Puebla, Mexico. University of Alberta.

Denison, N. (1977). Language death or language suicide? International Journal of the Sociology of Language, (12), 13-22.

Gramci, A. (1971). Selections from the prison notebooks. Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith. New York: International Publishers.

Kaplan, R. B. (1993). The hegemony of English in science and technology. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 14, 151-172.

Owolabi, K. (2006). Nigeria’s Native language modernization in specialized domains for national development: A linguist’s approach. An inaugural lecture delivered at the University of Ibadan. Universal Akada Books. Ibadan.

Oyetade, S. O. (2001). Áttitude to foreign languages and indigenous languages use in Nigeria. In Igboanusi, Herbert (Ed.), Language attitude and language conflict in West Africa (pp.14-29). Ibadan: Enicrownfit Publishers.

Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic imperialism. London: Oxford University Press.

Wiley, T. G. (2000). Language planning and policy. In S. L. McKay, and N. H. Hornberger (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and language teaching (pp. 103-147). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/11257

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2019 Kehinde Olufemi OGUNYEMI

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Share us to:   

 

Online Submission: http://cscanada.org/index.php/sll/submission/wizard


Reminder

How to do online submission to another Journal?

If you have already registered in Journal A, then how can you submit another article to Journal B? It takes two steps to make it happen:

1. Register yourself in Journal B as an Author

Find the journal you want to submit to in CATEGORIES, click on “VIEW JOURNAL”, “Online Submissions”, “GO TO LOGIN” and “Edit My Profile”. Check “Author” on the “Edit Profile” page, then “Save”.

2. Submission

Go to “User Home”, and click on “Author” under the name of Journal B. You may start a New Submission by clicking on “CLICK HERE”.


We only use three mailboxes as follows to deal with issues about paper acceptance, payment and submission of electronic versions of our journals to databases: caooc@hotmail.com; sll@cscanada.net; sll@cscanada.org

 Articles published in Studies in Literature and Language are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY).

 STUDIES IN LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE Editorial Office

Address: 1055 Rue Lucien-L'Allier, Unit #772, Montreal, QC H3G 3C4, Canada.
Telephone: 1-514-558 6138 
Website: Http://www.cscanada.net; Http://www.cscanada.org 
E-mail: office@cscanada.net; office@cscanada.org; caooc@hotmail.com

Copyright © 2010 Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture