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<div class="gmail-post-single-title"><h1 class="entry-title">How parents limit their children by neglecting local languages</h1></div> </header>
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<span class="gmail-byline gmail-thenation-meta-item gmail-thenation-icon-user">Posted By: <span class="gmail-author gmail-vcard">
<a class="gmail-url gmail-fn gmail-n" href="http://thenationonlineng.net/author/tunde/">Hannah OJO</a>
</span></span><span class="gmail-posted-on gmail-thenation-meta-item gmail-thenation-icon-calendar">On: <time class="entry-date gmail-published" datetime="2018-05-12T00:02:12+00:00">May 12, 2018</time></span><span class="gmail-cat-links gmail-thenation-meta-item gmail-thenation-icon-category"> In: <a href="http://thenationonlineng.net/category/saturday-magazine/" rel="category tag">Saturday Magazine</a></span> </div>
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<h3><em><strong>The dangers, by experts</strong></em></h3>
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<p>Given their penchant for choosing native names with quintessential
meaning for their children, one would be forgiven to vouch for the
cultural identity consciousness of Nigerian parents. This is because
most given names across the various tribes of Nigeria tell a story.
However, the essence of the identity consciousness pales the moment one
realizes that a four -year-old born in the south western part of
Nigeria, who has been named Oluwafirewamiri (God has located me with
favour), cannot hold a conversation in a mother tongue but English.</p>
<p>There is a growing trend in Nigeria where parents shy away from
speaking their native languages to children while adopting English as a
means of communication. The tendency is fuelled by the belief that
English, as the world’s foremost language of wider communication and
opportunity, signifies upward mobility and class. However, research
suggests that putting a cap on the number of languages a child is
exposed to is a disservice, as such children are denied the ability to
acquire language skills, which can be beneficial to both local and
global communities.</p>
<p>A language expert, Ignatius Usar, told The Nation that the child
language acquisition theory clearly explains that children are born
with a capacity to learn various languages while growing up, since their
minds are a tabula rasa–plain slate.</p>
<p>“It is as a child grows that experiences, including languages, are
written on that slate. That is why a child has capacity for many
languages than adults”, he said.<img class="gmail-size-medium gmail-wp-image-862313 gmail-alignright" src="http://thenationonlineng.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Children-283x170.jpg" alt="" width="283" height="170"></p><div class="gmail-xA2AwuzX">
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<p>Describing the decision of parents who neglect communicating with
their children in the mother tongue as poor judgment, Usar also lamented
the fact that virtually all indigenous Nigerian languages are
threatened since parents are not interested in the generational transfer
of language as part of the cultural identity.</p>
<p>Agreeing that intermarriages could be a reason why some parents
insist on their wards speaking English, he also conceded to the fact the
acceptability of indigenous languages for early childhood education has
not been helped by the apparent lack of a language policy in Nigeria.</p>
<p>“Nigeria’s language policy is geared towards English and to make
matters worse, we are promoting French and Arabic. When we do that as a
matter of policy, we are keeping our languages down and promoting other
languages. For instance, we have a Nigerian French language village in
Badagry, then we have another one for Arabic somewhere in the North, but
we do not have a centre for the study of any Nigerian language,” the
linguist lamented.</p>
<p>The low acceptance of indigenous language as a medium of instructions
during childhood development is a global problem not limited to
Nigeria. As English continues to gain preeminence as a global language,
some countries around the world come up with deliberate language
policies to ensure their indigenous languages do not go into extinction.</p>
<p>However, that is not the case in Nigeria where English has continued
to gain more grounds, to the extent that many parents, both literate and
illiterate, invest time and money in ensuring their children learn to
speak English, even though scientific evidence suggests that children
who first learn to read and write in their native languages learn all
subjects faster.</p>
<p>Nigeria’s national policy on education, initiated in the 80s, also
recognized this and there was a resolution that early childhood
education should be taught in a child’s mother tongue or language of the
immediate environment. Till date, the resolution has been a policy on
paper that has not seen the light of the day. One of the major
hindrances to the policy is that except in remote areas, many teachers
do not speak the language of the immediate community since Nigeria has
over 400 languages. Another practical consideration is that text books
and instructions materials are written in English. Majority of the
indigenous languages are not codified; hence they are not available in
written documents.</p><div class="gmail-PWghgUkm">
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<p>Despite these challenges, Usar believes that progress can still be
made if there are deliberate attempts to ensure that indigenous
languages are preserved.</p>
<p>“Language is a living thing. It is born, it grows, and it dies. If
you want to keep a language alive, what we suggest is that you codify by
ensuring there is a literature for it that can be transferred from one
generation to another. This is the area where Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo,
the three major indigenous languages can edge out other languages”, Usar
submitted.</p>
<p>The apathy for indigenous languages amongst Nigerian parents is not
only restricted to the preference for English as language of
communication. It’s also extended to the point that parents want their
children to speak in British and American accent.</p>
<p><strong>The craze for British and American accent</strong></p>
<p>Ayanfeoluwa Lawal, a diction and elocution coach, has created a niche
for herself in the business of teaching people how to speak well. What
confounds her, however, is the encounter of parents and school owners
who approach her to teach their children the British accent.</p>
<p>“We are in a generation of parents who want their children to sound
differently. It’s a misplaced priority and I’m so against acquiring a
foreign accent when it’s not coming to you naturally because the best
you can be is fake. This is the in-thing in schools right now”, she
said.</p>
<p>Lawal also offered that the in-thing amongst elite schools in
developed cities around the country is that children are taught to speak
in British accent, on parents and school owner’s insistence.</p>
<p>“The focus should be on the proper enunciation and articulation of
words. It is sounding your words accurately. What should be emphasized
is social intelligibility, which is the ability to be heard anywhere in
the world. Nobody cares about your accent when you are eloquent because
nobody expects you to have a British accent when you are not a Briton.</p>
<p>“The thing with parents is ignorance and social pressure, so a parent
sees a child speaking differently and they also want to transfer that
to their children. When I teach children elocution, I start from the
science of elocution so that they can understand how sounds work and
come together to make words and also how they have to produce the sounds
in a particular way.”</p>
<p>Ms Lawal, who manages Quints, a foremost communication and social
polish organization in Lagos, said she has encountered situations where
parents literary caution their children from speaking their mother
tongue in public. Lawal, who never spoke English at home while growing
up, said even illiterate parents want their children to speak English
in the public so that they can feel important.</p>
<p>“I have a full mastery of my indigenous language, yet I speak English
better than those who have spoken it all their lives. First, it’s a
thing of the mind because we feel our language is inferior; we feel it’s
vernacular; it’s not good enough so we feel that English language is
better. I am an advocate of people speaking impeccable English but not
at the expense of their local language. If you speak English language so
well and you cannot speak your local language, you have lost your
identity. One should not affect the other”, she submitted.</p>
<p><strong>Whither a comprehensive National Language policy?</strong></p>
<p>Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba have long been regarded as Nigeria’s major
languages. However, English remains the sole official language in almost
all spheres of national activities.</p>
<p>Scholars like Segun Awonusi of the University of Lagos suggested that
language policies that favour indigenous identity should be implemented
on a sustainable basis. Another linguist, Emmanuel Emenanjo, also
declared that Nigeria does not have a language policy but a document
that could be called a statement of intention of what a language policy
could be.</p>
<p>Since his appointment as the chairman of the National Technical
Committee on Language Policy in Nigeria on 10th of April 2018, Adeniyi
Harrison, a professor of Linguistics and African Languages at the Lagos
State University, carried a weight of high expectations. Harrison, who
is also the president of the Linguistics Association of Nigeria, wants
the Lagos State Language Policy, which mandates all schools to teach
Yoruba in Lagos, replicated in other parts of the country.</p>
<p>He said the Linguistic Association of Nigeria has been advocating
that parents, irrespective of the linguistic environment, should teach
their children at a tender age to read and write in their various
indigenous languages.</p>
<p>“Except for the fact that some give their languages social status,
there are some languages in Europe whose speakers are not as populated
as speakers of Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo, but for their social status in
the society, these languages are enforced on us. Indigenous languages
are an embodiment of the cultural repository of knowledge. When the
languages are not spoken, the languages die and the identities are
lost,” he said.</p>
<p>Prof Harrison said when children continue to bear English and
biblical names, it does not allow for information on the family
background, especially in the African context where people’s names are
stories of the family.</p>
<p>“If the person does not bear the name, how do people trace one’s
family?”, he asked, adding that the same goes for food where there could
be a loss of identity and economic opportunities when there is a
neglect of local delicacies.</p>
<p>“The more languages a person is able to speak, the more the horizon
widens. We are advocating for a multi-lingual society where Nigerians
learn each other’s language in order to ensure national unity and
cohesion”, Harrison submitted.</p></div></div>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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