UBE, LANGUAGE AND COGNITION:
A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF GENDER
Mrs. Frances Ngozi Chukwukere
Department of Linguistics and Igbo Studies
Imo State University, PMB 2000
Abstract
This paper discusses the interaction of language, reality and gender and the implications of these for education and human cognition. By an incursion through several writers' criticisms of sexist English language, the consequent development of non-sexist equivalent by publishers, women organizations and an international body, this work discusses the relevance of language and gender studies in Nigerian education. A close reading of texts, as in this paper's analysis of an Igbo reader, is an important discursive framework for revealing the way in which dominant images are filtered into learners' cognitive structure, informing their conceptions of selves and their world.
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Effective education is one that brings the present and anticipated worlds of the learner into the learning process and helps the learner to see the perceptual world from more than one viewpoint. Language is a system through which we are socialized, an unconscious integration into our daily behavior because of its intricate bonds with other social aspects of our lives, including formal education (in a broad sense of the word). The first part of this paper surveys the universal basic education(UBE), the interaction between language and relativity for the study of gender in language. This is followed by a brief historical account of criticisms by writers over what they regard as gender discriminatory language and how these have informed modern English, especially in the educational arena. The second and last part of this paper argues that different languages are positioned differently in their representations of sexist usage, which only a close reading or critical discourse analysis would reveal. By going through the discursive field of an Igbo textbook designed for adult literacy, this work makes new, the old and familiar structure, which have erstwhile been taken for granted but which nevertheless are subtle ideological frameworks that help reinforce learner's view about themselves, others and their environment.
1.1 THE GOALS OF UNIVERSAL BASIC EDUCATION
Universal Basic Education is a goal-directed government scheme aimed at eradicating illiteracy in line with United Nations declaration for the provision of functional literacy through learner's acquisition of reading, writing and numeracy skills. Functional literacy includes formal and non-formal educational activities and programmes designed to enable learners live meaningful and fulfilling lives, contribute to the development of the society and derive maximum social, economic and cultural benefits from the society. The term redemptive egalitarianism as used by Professor Ardo Ezeomah (1999) is an educational intervention aimed at equalizing access to education for the disadvantaged groups who are not in the mainstream of policy formulation, decision-making and implementation.
Redemptive egalitarianism used rather restrictively by Ezeomah above to argue for the nomads can in a wider context be applied to all other categories of the Nigerian population in dire need of education too. As contained in the submission of Dr. Musa Moda (1999), the disadvantaged groups include street children and Quaraimic school children, migrant fishing families, disabled people and isolated communities. Others include several categories of women including women in the purdah, rural women, market women and VVF patients. As Moda (1999) rightly submits,
To mobilize the population for any meaningful participation in our national life, be it political, economic or social, mass literacy is a basic necessity.
(Moda, 1999: 44).
As a gateway, to higher knowledge and awareness, the educational programme should have an enriched curricula, planned, implemented and revised by objective and well-trained stakeholders.
The educational philosophy in Nigeria is to integrate the individual into sound and effective citizen by charting a positively enhancing and purposeful direction. As Safiya Muhammed (1999) rightly observes, in order to enhance the access of Nigerian citizens to education, there should be a concomitant translation into action, of the philosophy of equality of educational opportunity for all. Education translated into functional literacy should be a tool for poverty eradication, “promotion of social justice and equity among all classes, gender and other groups of people (Olagoke, 1999: 41). As a cardinal link between education delivery and set national goals and objectives, curriculum should be relevant, appropriate and adequate. Major criticisms of educational curriculum include its overloaded and time-consuming content as well as poorly prepared teachers and insufficient resources for its effective deliverance. Review of curriculum should include among others, expunging irrelevant contents, inclusion of new ones that will be in line with the global demands for gender sensitivity, environmental and earth protection, peace education, health awareness especially on HIV and communicable diseases, VVF (Vesico Vaginal Fistula), nutrition and primary healthcare, to mention a few. Educational curriculum also stresses the need to enhance the use of the local, indigenous language as medium of instruction in the early years of learning, after which the English will be used in later educational instructions and development.
1.2 LANGUAGE AND REALITY: IMPLICATIONS FOR GENDER STUDIES
Language is one of the most powerful means of communication and expression. It influences as well as is influenced by speakers who use it and the environment where it is used. Although a range of views exists about the nature of relationship between language and reality, language scholars are agreed that there is some interrelationship between both. Without going too deeply into this debate, we shall briefly discuss two positions held by writers about the relationship between language and reality.
The first position subscribes to the view that language reflects reality while the second position views language as the constructor of reality. The first view, which is widespread among linguists (especially sociolinguistics) and anthropologists, is that the physical features and phenomena including social structures and organizations influence language structures, patterns and use. For instance, divergent political ideologies among several countries with a common language can affect their linguistic structures. Anne Pauwells (1998) cites an example with the German language in the former Federal Republic of Germany and the German democratic Republic, each of which differs from the other in word meanings and aspects of syntax. Pauwells observes that the differences in the German spoken by each “can be explained as resulting from their association with divergent political ideologies affecting the institutions in the respective societies” (Pauwells, 1998: 82). This framework of language-reflecting-reality informs the works of sociolinguistics like William Labov, Peter Trudgill, Lesley Milroy, and the anthropological linguist, Franz Boaz.
A second view known variously as linguistic determinism, linguistic relativity, or the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis believes that language determines how the individual constructs and views reality. According to Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf who propounded this position,
We dissect nature along the lines laid down by our native language. [T[he world is presented in a kaleidoscopic flux of impressions,
which has to be organized in our minds this means largely by the linguistic systems in our minds.
(Whorf, 1956: 213).
Consequently, human thinking and cognition occurs primarily through language; language thus determines how we construct and view the physical as well as the social world. Dale
Spender (1980) who holds a strong relativist view states,
[L]anguage helps inform the limits of our reality. It is our means of ordering, classifying and manipulating the world. It is through language that we become members of a human community, that the world becomes comprehensible and meaningful, that we bring into existence the world in which we live.
(Spender, 1980: 3).
However, there is little substantial evidence that supports the above claim of strong determinism, for, as critics have been quick to point out, translation from one language to another would have be sheer impossibility. As F.R. Palmer (1996) remarks,
If we do not have the “same picture of the universe” as the speakers of other languages, we nevertheless have a picture that can be translated to and in some degree “mapped upon” the picture that others have… That this is so is proved by the fact that we can investigate other languages… and that we can translate. It may well be that we can never totally absorb or understand the “world” of other languages, but it is clear enough that we can obtain a very fair understanding of them… There may be no exact equivalence but languages are never totally different.
(Palmer, 1996: 46).
The view that language totally determines human cognition is quite a limited notion for it does not take into account the fact that users of a language do not inherit a fixed set of linguistic usage patterns. In order to express their thoughts, humans have inherited the manipulative and creative ability over language, which sometimes leads to language change. As George Yule (1997) states,
If thinking and perception were totally determined by languages, then the concept of language change would be impossible.
(Yule, 1997: 248).
In spite of the above and more limitations, Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis has been re-examined in the light of discussions of the problematic relationship between language and gender. Linguists, philosophers and psychoanalysts, especially those working under the post-structuralist theoretical framework have asserted that language is a site of oppression, for the way in which we use language to construct reality about maleness and femaleness is fraught with subjectivity and discrimination. Proponents of this view include among others Luce Irigary (1985), Julia Kristera (1986), David Graddol and Joan Swann (1993), Chris Weedon (1994), Sarah Mills (1995), Deborah Cameron (1998) and Mary Talbot (1998). A view of one psychoanalyst reads:
“The question of language is closely allied to that of feminine sexuality. For I do not believe that language is universal or neutral with regard to the difference of the sexes. A language which presents itself as universal, and which is in fact produced by men only, is this not what maintains the alienation and the exploitation in and by society?
(Irigary, 1985: 62).
1.3 English Language and Gender: Discussions on Sexism.
Works on language and gender especially the English language have pointed out other forms of gender discrimination, the use of masculine terms for occupational nouns and titles in which both men and women are involved, the use of masculine terms as generic terms, and the large volume of female derogatory terms as against the scanty terms for male.
Terms like “chairman”, “policeman”, other terms with no sex markings except when they describe females (e.g. lady doctor, woman professor, etc) have been highly criticized as sexist. There are yet other terms that have no sex markings but which nevertheless refer to women because of: the preponderance of women in such professions, the stigmatized nature of such professions or the inferior states accorded such occupations when compared to a predominantly male corresponding occupation. A nurse is always regarded as more inferior to a doctor, hence the gender for nurse is implicitly feminine but when a woman is a doctor, (an area regarded as masculine and more dignifying), her gender must be clearly specified as a female or lady doctor. A prostitute is a woman who collects money for sex, and interestingly there are no terms for a man who solicits her.
The use of man and masculine pronouns as generic terms has been largely criticized on the basis of empirical research conducted by Graham (1979), Schultz (1975), Martyna (1978) to mention a few. These studies reveal that when males use he/man in their speech and writing, they think of males alone. Examining the writings of many past and present leading sociologists of that period, Schultz (1975) identifies unintentional disclosures that point to the male specificity of he/man. Graham (1975) points to the work of Erich Fromm whose claims to he/man genericity betrays his contradictory stance in the following phrase,
Man's vital interests were life, food, access to females, etc.
(Graham, 1975: 62).
The above discussion about the sexist nature of English language has two important implications for education in Nigeria, especially the Universal Basic Education scheme. First, Nigeria as one geopolitical entity is characterized by many ethnic groups with their languages approximately two hundred and fifty. As a former British colony, Nigeria adopted English as an official language for the unification of disparate ethnolinguistic groups that make up the country. Secondly, the National Policy on Education and Universal Basic education strives to maintain a balance between the wider international scope of English language and the restricted but emotive and psychological function of indigenous languages in the identity and cohesion of to group. Included therefore in the curriculum of education is the stipulation that learners must be taught in an indigenous language at some point in the educational hierarchy.
Following criticisms about the sexist nature of English and the need for a methodological reform, several agencies and organizations have responded by stipulating certain measures to check indiscriminate, abusive and denigrating use of language against women. Some of these bodies include American Modern Language Association (MLA), Women's Studies International Forum, and UNESCO. MLA stipulates to academic writers and contributors below,
The MLA urges its contributors to be sensitive to the social implications of language and to seek wording free of discriminatory overtone.
(in Pauwels, 1998: 151).
In a notice to contributors, the Women's Studies International Forum states:
A deliberate attempt should be made to use non-sexist language. Man for example is not acceptable generic term.
(in Pauwells, 1998: 151).
Making practical,albeit in a linguistic way the United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, UNESCO has in 1981 issued gender guidelines for non-sexist language for English and French, and in 1991 for German.
Coming back home, it does appear as though our country Nigeria is oblivious of the non-sexist actions going around English, a common linguistic dominator at least for the educated group including stakeholders in educational planning. However educated group, is not by any standard, unaware of these changes but appear to be fastidious about a stiff hold to centuries of tradition, especially when such tradition protects group of interests. P.O. Fasoye (1995) demonstrates this awareness, but thinks it is insignificant, as in his submission below,
Nigeria is a patriarchal society and though there are obstacles to women's developments and self-fulfillment, the Nigerian woman is not downtrodden or held under servitude by the men.
(Fasoye, 1995: 50).
So far in the present paper, accounts of linguistic sexism and various international measures have been focussed on English by the reason of its significance in our education and national body politic.
Analyses of the intersection of language and gender have oftentimes focussed on the lexical structure of language including terms of address, genericity, derogatory words and markedness. However, experiences of researchers in the field of language and gender have shown that different languages have different ways of constructing meanings, and the absence of most of the above four characteristics does not generate non-sexist or fair-sex language. Even without these, a linguistic text can still bear messages, which work on users in ways they may not necessarily be conscious of. A close analysis of texts may reveal that choices made in language may serve the interests of some people over others. In an analysis of an Igbo educational text below, the present writer postulates that as much as there are ideologies, these ideologies are not simply passed on women by men; rather the limits of the discursive framework may be used to comply with ideological constraints.
2.0 LANGUAGE AND GENDER IN EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS:
A UBE IGBO TEXT BOOK
The National Planning on Education and Universal Basic Education stipulates indigenous language literacy at an early stage for learners. Below, we look at one Igbo text produced by the National Commission for Mass Education, Adult and Non-formal education. Below we briefly examine the facilitators/contributors of this book project for reasons that will come up later.
The chief editor of this Igbo book titled Ogugu na Odide Igbo Maka Ndi Okenye (Reading and Writing Igbo for Adults) is a female in the commission. The preliminary page is used by the chief editor to acknowledge the following facilitators of the project, namely: UNICEF, one female and two male consultants in the commission and three language experts. Two of these experts are from the National Language Development Centre, NERDC Abuja, while one is a lecturer in the department of linguistics and Nigerian Languages in a renowned college of education in the eastern
part of Nigeria. These three language experts are made up of one female in the NERDC and two males, one from NERDC and the other from the college of education.
2.1 OBJECTIVES OF OGUGU NA ODIDE…
The set objectives of Ogugu na Odide Igbo Maka Ndi Okenye are to teach reading, writing and numerical skills, agriculture and health especially family planning and primary healthcare delivery. Time, yearly calendar, simple scales of measurement, governments and letter writing are also part of the teaching and learning plan in the textbook. Considering learners' limited expertise in reading, teaching is backed up with illustrative drawings, though in black and white. We hereby classify for explanatory purposes, three groups of passages as follows: Group I: Alphabets and grammar; group II: comprehension; group III: comprehension and letter writing.
2.1.1 GROUP I: ALPHABETS AND BASIC VERBS WITH ILLUSTRATIVE DRAWINGS.
1. A handshake between two men to teach simple greetings in Igbo (P1).
2. Four Verbs are discussed by showing three men, each in a different activity of speaking, listening, and reading. The fourth activity shows a hand, writing (P2).
3. Simple objects and activities. Two human figures are a boy and a man (P4).
4. Two human figures to teach two Igbo alphabets: two men greeting each other, and a male clergy (P5)
5. Four human activities teaching four Igbo alphabets: a man cutting grass, a boy eating oranges, a boy regarding himself in a mirror, and somebody sweeping. The sex of this fourth person is unclear.
2.1.2 GROUP II: COMPREHENSION WITH ILLUSTRATIVE DRAWINGS.
The second and subsequent units in this group consist of short essays and comprehension passages with illustrative drawings:
1. A male, Okeke introduces his family comprising his wife, Amaka and his three children, Obi, Ngozi and Uche (P9).
2. Same picture above but this time an authorial voice describes the Okeke family (P13).
3. Another family is introduced starting first with the wife. Mr. and Mrs. Okoroafo have three well-spaced children (P17).
4. A third family comprising Okoafo, his wife and their four children (P20, 21).
5. A fourth family comprising Okere and his wife Ugomma (P51).
6. A male doctor and a female nurse attending to patients in the ward (P61).
7. A woman nursing a baby in a maternity ward (P62).
8. A woman nursing a baby, and a female nurse giving an injection to patients (P69).
9. A man standing in salutary attention by the flag (P86).
2.1.3 GROUP III: COMPREHENSION AND LETTER-WRITING.
This group, like group II above is made of comprehension passage but unlike the second group, there are no illustrative drawings. Unlike the second group, the third group contains one unit of study on the techniques of letter-writing. Briefly, we look at two passages in group III below:
First, The basic principles of banking are introduced by a short narrative about three women: Adaobi, Ugomma and Obiageri, who make good earnings from their respective trades but have different ideas about financial management. Adaobi chooses to conceal her earnings under her bed and robbers stole them. Ugomma spends hers only on expensive clothing and goes bankrupt, but
Obiageri takes good care of her family with her earnings as well as deposits some in the savings bank account.
In a second passage in Group III, a father Mr. Ogbonna in Owerri writes to his son Uche in Abuja telling him how he has immensely benefited from the adult literacy scheme.
2.2 Ogugu Na Odide Igbo: A close reading of gender in Igbo language.
In the illustrative diagrams of the first group under study, only male characters are shown. The second group has pictures of both men and women especially in the four families made up of Okeke, Okoroafo, Okafo and Okere families. Wives/mothers are shown standing side by side with husbands/fathers and their children. However, these picture passages contain discursive ideologies that pass as commonsensical because of their familiarity. First, only two out of these four family passages mentioned the names of the wives/mothers (Amaka and Ugomma) whereas the husbands/fathers are introduced with their names, which are also names of their households. Secondly, three of the four wives/mothers are introduced with a prefix oriaku. Consequently, the two unnamed wives/mothers only have the title oriaku. The term oriaku used as the English equivalent of Mrs. comprises two stems: an agentive (ori: consumer/eater) and a common noun (aku: wealth). The literal reading of oriaku is “eater/consumer of wealth”, and when used as in three out of the four passages, it literally reads as “eater of somebody's wealth”:
…lee oriaku Okoroafo…
…Mazi Okoroafo na oriaku ya…
(Look at the consumer/eater of Okoroafo's wealth…
…Mr. Okoroafo and the consumer/eater of his wealth…) P17.
…Mazi Okafo na oriaku ya
(…Mr. Okoafo and the consumer of his wealth…) P20.
Okere na oriaku ya, Ugomma
(Okere and the consumer of his wealth, Ugomma) P51.
The term oriaku can be used as an equivalent for wife, as seen in the first of the four family passages in which a male first-person point of view introduces his wife:
Onye a bu nwunye m
Aha ya bu Amaka
(This person is my wife
Her name is Amaka).
As discussed elsewhere (see Chukwukere, 2002), the phrase oriaku as an honorific title for a wife or a married woman is adopted from the Igbo areas of Ohafia and Arochukwu where women are generally greeted by males (especially in public gatherings) as ori ihe ,i.e. eater/consumer(of things). Women on such occasions reply to the male greetings with a corresponding male honorific: maazi. Towing the line of the colonial English language, many Igbo elite coined ori aku as an equivalent of “Mrs.” and maazi as an equivalent of “Mr.”. However, the extent to which the term oriaku (consumer of wealth) represents in convincing terms the position of a married woman in an Igbo matrimonial is debatable.
Pictures in group II do not merely represent a family arrangement, but are suggestive of stereotypical roles and occupations (PP61, 62, 64 and 86). In page 61, the doctor is a male while the nurse is a female. In page 62, a mother breastfeeds her baby. Page 69 contains two pictures: one is a mother breastfeeding her baby and the other a female nurse giving an injections. P86 describes the principles of good citizenship, showing a picture of a man, Okoro as a patriotic Nigerian who pays his taxes and is therefore qualified to vote as well as contest in an election.
The first of the two passages in the last group (Group III), which teaches banking does so by using three women to demonstrate the consequence of human indiscretion. It is significant that this is the only passage that touches upon the perils of human excesses, and women are used as points of reference. The second and last passage in this group contains a letter in which a father proudly writes to his son, congratulating himself for learning successfully the skills of letter writing as well as the procedures of banking transactions.
3. CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS, COGNITION AND THE IDEOLOGY OF GENDER IN EDUCATION.
Critical discourse analysis considers among other issues, how texts address readers as well as how readers, according to their sexes, are positioned by the texts in the interactive framework. It is a textual analysis that moves away from examining sexism at or below sentence level and focuses in greater details on the analysis of sexist discourse from a critical linguistic perspective. As Talbot (1998) clarifies, the word critical as specifically applied to this type of analysis is the process of “examining something in order to unearth hidden connections, assumptions, etc.” (Talbot, 1998: 149). While it is widely acknowledged that the effects of sexism including linguistic sexism is most pernicious in the early stages of socialization and education (nursery, primary, and post-primary schools), it is pertinent to address, as in the attempt by the present study, the ways in which adult learning maintains and reaffirms stereotypes. A close examination of texts through critical discourse analysis demonstrates among other issues, that artistic and verbal codes are drawn from a repertoire of choices; Although choices may appear familiar and natural as per the scope of human reality, each is only one choice out of many. Some female protagonists are nameless, consumers or wives of, or are used to teach a moral lesson. The male protagonists from the first group through the second to the last groups are used in grammatical teachings, they have names, one is a good citizen and one can communicate his learning experiences through letter writing. Claims to an egalitarian system of education is questionable in this type of discriminatory arrangement as well as in a submission by a renounced scholar in curriculum development, below:
So education is (and must be) concerned with the transformation of the total environment physical and social for the sake of man.
(Onwuka, 1996: 40).
The genericity of man as used by the writer above comes fifteen years after the UNESCO guidelines for nonsexist language for English and French.
H.D. Thornburg (1975) has rightly remarked that effective teaching process is one that brings the present and anticipated world of the learner into the classroom and helps the learner to see the perceptual world from more than one viewpoint. By precipitating a positive direction for learners, education incorporates into the learners' cognitive structure, new ideas that will give some measure of self-understanding. Language is a system through which we are socialized; an unconscious integration into our daily behaviour because of its intricate bonds with other social aspects of our lives. As remarked by Joyce Penfield (1987), language touches “the most ingrained and unconscious aspects our personal social identities” (Penfield, 1987: xi). The characterization of language as a
reflective neutral mirror to an objective reality presupposes an expression of rigid, closed truths about reality. Contrary to this view, language can shape and create reality by filtering a dominant set of properties, images and information, which map out the role of the learner. Elements are presented as commonsensical, obvious or self-evidentially true. As Christine Hendricks and Kelly Oliver (1999), and David Lee (1992), variously assert, language has the ability to “help our conceptions of self and of the world” (Hendricks and Oliver 1999”: 1). In Lee's submission below;
Given that language is an instrument for the adjustment of the phenomena of human categories to conceptual categories it is clearly not simply a mirror that reflects reality. Rather it functions to impose structure on our perceptions of the world. Language… is highly selective, and in this sense… the process of linguistic encoding involves significant degree of abstraction from reality.
(Lee, 1992: 8).
To the extent that our educational materials such as Ogugu na Odide Igbo Maka Ndi Okenye contains selective constraining models of gender representation, language can be said to impose into learners' cognition a dominant, one-sided, subjective form of reality, the sex of contributors and facilitators of this project notwithstanding. The problem of sexist language in education is an important task for curriculum planners, language educators, publishers, editors and all stakeholders in education and, most importantly women working as individuals, group, in ministries, etc. As examples in the work of Cooper (1989) show, languages of Palestine, England, Norway, Greece, Slovakia, Bohemia, Estonia to mention a few gained official recognition from pioneering works of single individuals in these countries. Similarly, Gordon Lindsay (1990) in a chapter titled A Dead Language Comes Alive gives an account of how Ben Yehuda “single-handedly… made Hebrew the generally accepted language of the people of Israel” (Lindsay, 1990: 26). The lesson of this information is that demand for changes, renovation or official recognition of interests seldom comes from government or official language agencies, they come from individuals and groups who are directly affected by what they deem discriminatory or reinforcement of prejudice. Citing an example with the humor and prejudice with which speakers of standard language perceive other dialects, W.N. Francis (1983) recalls that provincial newspapers in England and the United States often had weekly columns of jokes and anecdotes in local dialects and minority languages. However,
[w]ith our increasing sensitivity about ethnic minorities and their languages and customs, this sort of essentially innocent humor has declined in recent years.
(Francis, 1983: 7).
The blueprint for non-sexist reform proposals is better taken up in further discussing that is outside the scope of the present paper; but an important lesson to learn from reforms in other languages, is that individuals, women groups, government or semi-government agencies, and international or super national organizations do engage in nonsexist language planning in pursuance of the philosophy of egalitarianism in language, education and society.
CONCLUSION
The category of gender is an important one that helps us to make useful sense of our selves, others and our environment. From birth, our biological makeup of maleness and femaleness are defined to a large extent by the instruments of language. Language thus helps us form important distinctions that assist in constituting a way of life for us speakers. Nigeria as a signatory to United Nations declaration for the eradication of illiteracy and the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, has an obligation to translate these ideals into practical actions in its educational planning, implementation and evaluation. Since language does not only reflect but also helps construct and perpetuate a gender discriminatory reality, a linguistic action through critical discourse analysis could, not only help alert people in the pervasiveness of sexism in language, but also give opportunities for the expression of other perspectives and experiences. For sure, linguistic action alone cannot eliminate all forms of discrimination, but by increasing people's awareness that language is not a neutral medium for translating ideas and values, this paper argues for a self-reflective, objective educational programme designed under a broader context of redemptive egalitarianism.
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FREQUENCY OF CODESWITCHING
AMONG ENGLISH-IGBO BILINGUALS
R. I NDIMELE
DEPT OF LINGUISTICS/COMMUNICATION STUDIES
ABIA STATE UNIVERSITY UTURU
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Most speakers command several varieties and codes, and bilingualism, even multilingualism is the norm for many people rather than unilingualism. In multilingual or bilingual speech communities, languages in contact influence each other through borrowing, codeswitching and codemixing. We will begin by defining these terms. The data used in this study are from conversations recorded during research. Most of the speakers were not aware of the writer's intention so there were no external motivation. A simple percentage method is adopted in the analysis to determine the frequency of codeswitching among English - Igbo bilinguals.
1.1 BORROWING
Hudson (1980:56) treats borrowing as one of the mixtures of varieties alongside codeswitching and codemixing. According to him
another way in which different varieties may become mixed up with each other is through the process of borrowing… what is meant by borrowing is when an item is taken over lock, stock and barrel from one variety into another….
An attempt at a distinction between borrowing and codeswitching is necessary here. According to our investigation, borrowing may occur in the speech of those with only monolingual competence while codeswitching implies some degree of competence in two languages. Borrowing shows monolingual speech behaviour. It is the occasional use of items from one language in utterances of another language. It is also a feature of monolingualism.
Borrowing arises from the fact that no language can be regarded as self-sufficient. Every language borrows from another. Essien (1995:270) notes that such borrowings commonly and eventually become the property of the language as a whole, not just that of the first person or group of persons who first introduced them. And Abdul-Kadir (1998:3) states that borrowing is
natural for the expansion of lexicon through importation, modification, translation, substitution and creation of new words to enable the recipient language to cope with the exigencies of modern science and technology, philosophy, et cetera.
Borrowing between languages goes beyond temporary possession, as the loan words most of the time remain permanent in the recipient language. This is why monolinguals use such loan words without being proficient in the lending language. A good example of borrowing from English to Igbo language is 'window”.
1.2 CODESWITCHING
Gumperz (1976:59) defines codeswitching as “the juxtaposition within the same speech exchange or passages of speech belonging to different grammatical systems or subsystems. Codeswitching according to Hudson (1980:57) is a situation in which a single speaker uses
different varieties at different times. He equally notes that this phenomenon is an automatic consequence of the existence of many registers. Hudson (ibid) distinguished between metaphorical and situational codeswitching indicating that in the former, a change in topic involves a change in language, and in the later a change in situation involves a change in language. When a speaker however switches within a single sentence and may even do so many times, it is conversational codeswitching.
Codeswitching occurs equally in diglossic situations where there are socially based and culturally valued functional differentiation between the codes in the speech community. In this situation for example, a man may use his L1 in his house and switch over to another code while on the bus, and yet switch to another when he gets to his office.
1.3 CODEMIXING
Codemixing is the use of usually single lexical items from one language in an utterance made in another language. We can go ahead to say that codemixing involves the speech and the mixing of different languages in a particular stretch of speech utterance. Essien (1996:2) defines codemixing as “a language phenomenon in which two codes or languages are used for the same message or communication”. The emphasis here is on the use of two or more codes in a single speech event.
1.4 CODESWITCHING AND CODEMIXING
It is necessary for a distinction to be attempted between codeswitching and codemixing. Ahukanna (1990:175) uses the two terms interchangeably. He defines codeswitching and codemixing as “intrasentential switching in language which characterise the speech behaviour of bilinguals”. Kachru (1978:80) states that both show evidence of language interference but that in codemixing, “mixing takes place rapidly, frequently and almost unconsciously within a single social event within a text and in fact several times within a single sentence”. The observation of this writer during research shows that
v Codeswitching is more of a conscious act while codemixing is subconscious.
v Codemixing comes naturally. It is as if there is a pressure that cannot be resisted. Sometimes the required expressions are not readily available to the system of the speaker.
From the definitions cited above (Hudson 1980, Essien 1995/6) we can deduce that:
v codeswitching and codemixing are complex phenomena of language use, which involve the use of more than one language by interlocutors in the execution of speech utterances.
v codeswitching takes place among bilinguals or multilinguals but that codemixing takes place among monolinguals as well, and
v while codeswitching is regarded as a norm in multilingual speech communities, codemixing is seen as a deviation from the norm, or as Lipski (1982:192) prefers to call it, “evidence of internal mental confusion'.
Codemixing can take place amidst codeswitching. Below is an example of a single utterance exhibiting instances of both codeswitching and codemixing in English and Yoruba.
Mo drive lo si Ibadan lana, but I didn't see the accident at Ikare. (I drove to Ibadan yesterday but I didn't see the accident at Ikare). With this example, we can agree that codeswitching is inter-sentential use of two codes while codemixing is intra-sentential use of two codes. If Essien (1996:5) accepts this view, then his examples on inconsistencies in codemixing among speakers of the same language needs to be re-examined.
1. Mmaakid the man. Owo Odo odo stupid. (I saw the man. The man is stupid).
2. I saw the man. Aseesime. (I saw the man. He is stupid).
Could it be that in sentence 1, the speaker codemixed, but in sentence 2, he codeswitched? Where then does codemixing end and codeswitching begin?
From a socioloinguistic point of view, codeswitching implies some degree of competence in two languages. Since individuals play many roles, participate in multiple social relations, belong to many groups and play different roles, they need different codes.
Nigerian speech communities are prone to the linguistic phenomena of codeswitching and codemixing because of their multilingual nature. Ahukanna (1990:175) however notes that the Nigerian situation is unique in the sense that it is 'unidirectional'. Unlike in other situations where languages in contact are complimentary, the Nigerian situation portrays the predominance of the exoglossic official language (English) over the indigenous languages during codeswitching or codemixing. In the case of the Igbo-English bilingual, the English language almost always interfers in Igbo based speech events in both formal and informal settings and rarely vice versa. The dimension and direction of this act is one of the aspects we shall attempt to determine in this study.
1.5 REASONS WHY THE IGBO ENGLISH BILINGUALS CODESWITCH.
The Nigerian linguistic situation recognizes the exaggerated importance of the English language in the Nigerian speech community. This upliftment among other factors influences the choice of code in a speech event. There are many reasons why the Igbo-English bilinguals codeswitch or codemix. Our findings reveal that these reasons among others are based on
v Lexical inadequency
v The situation
v As a stylistic device (for emphasis)
v Portrayal of language competence
LEXICAL INADEQUENCY
The Igbo Language, like other indigenous Nigerian languages, seem to lack some expressions for modern scientific and technological items. The lexicon of the Igbo language is updated with the use of loan words. Technical items without Igbo equivalents/expressions therefore lead to borrowing.
Data 1 reveals the unavailability of Igbo expressions for the words in italics.
i. Ada, gbanye radio ahu, (Ada, switch on that radio)
ii. Uche biko mechie window ahu, (Uche please close that window)
iii. Moto m kuru engine. (My car knocked engine)
iv. Bia hu m na classroom (come and see me in the classroom)
v. Anyi ebidola lectures. (We have started lectures)
The lexical items in italics lack Igbo expressions because they are modern scientific and technological items which the Igbo culture inherited through contact with the Western world. In the third example above, moto has an Igbo equivalent (ugboala) but Igbo speakers, even the not so literate, simply use the English expression. In most cases the Igbo expressions adopted to replace the English items are so long and cumbersome that speakers prefer the shorter and simpler English ones. For example, the item Radio in Igbo expression is Igwe
na-ekwu okwu. This is rather too long (Igbo being an agglutinating language) for a speaker when a shorter and simpler form (radio) is available.
SITUATIONAL REASONS
The situation a bilingual speaker finds himself determines the code(s) he/she uses. The speaker may as well switch from one code to another to suit the situation. During a visit to a government establishment, this writer noted the variation in the speech event of an applicant in his interaction with a messenger and a senior officer.
Applicant: Goodmorning sir,
Messenger: Goodmorning. Kedu? (Goodmorning . How are you?)
Applicant: Fine. Biko achoro m ihu your director.
(Fine. Please I want to see your director).
Messenger: Baa gaa hu ya, but ewestikwala time.
(Go in and see him but don't waste time)
Applicant: Good morning sir,
Boss: Good morning. What can I do for you?
Applicant: Please sir, I need employment in your office. Please nyere m aka.
(Please sir, I need employment in your office. Please help me.
Boss: What is your qualification?
Applicant: I am awaiting my result. The last G.C.E efevoghi m.
(I am awaiting my result. The last G.C.E did not favour me).
Boss: All right. Go and come back next month. I will see what I can do for you.
Applicant: Thank you sir. Adi m very grateful. (Thank you sir.
I am very grateful).
From the above data, we can observe that in his discussion with the messenger, the applicant used more Igbo expressions than English. Likewise the messenger in his replies. But in his discussion with the boss, English is the dominant code. This can be explained by the fact that the applicant considers where and whom he is speaking with. With the messenger, he feels at 'home'. With the boss, he uses 'good English' to impress the boss and sound more educated. The Igbo words mixed during their discussion could be an unconscious act, or to elicit ethnic sentiment. Therefore, the situation an Igbo-English bilingual finds himself determines the extent and direction of his codeswitching or mixing.
CODESWITCHING AS A STYLISTIC DEVICE
Another good reason why an Igbo-English bilingual switches codes (either way) is for stylistic effect. If a speaker wants to be emphatic, he devices a method that is different for his usual style. This is more noticeable when an instruction is given or a threat issued. Consider this discussion between a mother and her child, and that between a buyer and a seller.
Mother: Si ebea pua before I change my mind
(Go away from here before I change my mind).
Son: Mummy biko gbahara m. Forgive me (Mummy please forgive me. Forgive me).
Mother: I metu cup a aka, I will break your head. (If you touch that cup,
I will break your head).
Buyer: Resi m akwa nwere good quality (Sell a good quality cloth to me)
Seller: Quality nke a bu the best, ma na o bu N100.00 last.
(This quality is the best, but the last price is N100.00)
What these examples show us is that the Igbo English bilingual can switch from Igbo to English when he wants to be emphatic on an issue. The question now is this: is this type of codeswitching unidirectional? Can the Igbo language be interposed in an English speech event to show emphasis? The writer observed some cases and recorded these examples.
I was going to his house before I noticed that their road jogburu onwe ya.
(I was going to his house before I noticed that their road was terrible)
Please start reading your books, makana e me ngwangwa, e meghara odachi. (Please start reading your books because a stitch in time saves nine).
INCOMPETENCE IN NATIVE LANGUAGE
Some Igbo speakers codeswitch or codemix because they are not proficient in their native tongues. This is common among children brought up in linguistically heterogeneous towns where the medium of communication is usually Pidgin. When these children get to their native homes, they mix the few Igbo words they were able to learn to facilitate communication with their people. The observation of this writer while recording the data below is that the pattern of such mixes/switches are haphazard.
I want to yiri my dress (I want to wear my dress)
O ji my thing n'aka left (He is holding my thing in his left hand)
M choro to see my uncle (I want to see my uncle.
M choro ihu my uncle (I want to se my uncle).
The above sentences are ungrammatical because switches will tend to occur at points where the juxtaposition of elements from the two languages does not violate a syntactic role of either language.
PORTRAYAL OF LANGUAGE COMPETENCE
This could be bi-directional. Our investigation shows that it is not only Igbo based speech events that witness English interference. In some cases (few) Igbo words interpose in English speech events. When an Igbo speaker of English wants to prove his Li competence, he switches from English to Igbo. In the few cases we observed, speakers switched to Igbo to use the rich Igbo proverbs for effective communication.Data V were recorded during an orientation programme for students in a higher institution. Majority of the students happen to be native speakers of the Igbo language.
It is our duty to train you to become responsible citizens. Your success is ours and so is your future because O na-abu
otu mkpisiaka ruta manu, o zuo mkpisiaka dum.
(It is our duty to train you to become responsible citizens. Your success is ours and so is your failure because when one finger touches the (palm) oil, it will stain other fingers).
Any other Igbo speaker who is not conversant with Igbo proverbs and the norms for their usage would complete the address without switching. The speaker's act of switching from English to Igbo is deliberate and conscious. On the other hand, in Igbo based speech events, it is very common to find speakers switch to English. Sometimes it is subconsciously done and sometimes a conscious way of proving to their listeners that they are proficient in the two languages. Below is an excerpt from the conversation of two classmates in a higher institution.
Speaker A: Nna, ndi a chokwara ka m risitie this course.
Kezi ka izu handout si di compulsory?
(Nna, this people want me to resit this course. Why is it that buying handouts is compulsory?.
Speaker B: The thing gwuru ike. Can you believe that na m emefuola N500.00 na only
Handouts.
(I am fed up with this issue. Can you believe that I have spent N500.00 on handouts only).
2.0 THE FREQUENCY OF CODESWITCHING AMONG IGBO-ENGLISH BILINGUALS
This section seeks to examine the pattern and frequency of codeswitching in the
discourse of Igbo-English bilinguals. Evidence from the various datacollected show that the frequency or degree of codeswitching is high and consequently, this phenomenon has unofficially acquired a name- Engligbo (a hybrid of English and Igbo languages) (Okore 1997:20). This alarming rate of codeswitching has attracted the attention of Igbo scholars like Ogbonna (1985:150); Okore (1998:32) and Ahukanna (1990:175) among others. These scholars see this new medium of communication among Igbo-English bilinguals as 'linguistic sabotage. Our reaction to this is that the positive influence should be considered too, because codemixing (in particular) enriches Igbo language as codemixed expressions can become loan words when they have earned wide currency thereby increasing the lexicon of the language. Evidence of the high rate of codeswitching can be got in the markets, churches, (especially during testimonies) schools or even when one listens to Igbo programmes on the radio or television.
The pattern of Igbo-English codeswitching can be said to be unidirectional as postulated by Ahukanna (1990:175). The evidence available to this writer shows that the switches are rather more frequent in Igbo speech events than they are in English speech events. This should be attributed to the fact that the English language has a richer lexicon with more technical items/expressions, and because of the institutional support English enjoys as the dominant language. A dominant language in a multilingual situation enjoys what Essien (1996:2) labels 'prestige', “self confidence' and 'power'.
The data below will help us to calculate the number of complete sentences in Igbo and English languages as against those codeswitched or codemixed, to enable us determine the frequency and pattern in percentages.
Setting:- A Pentecostal church
Nature of discourse:- Testimony.
Audience congregation.
Textual evidence
Praise the Lord.
Testimony m na-enye bu ihe mere just last month. O tego ekwensu ji na-e use friends na edeceive m. O nwere one boy mu na ya di friendly, but amaghi m na o bu onye oshi. This boy gara zuru ego the father wee disappear, ndi police wee bia mee m arrest. O nweghi ihe m na-emeghi explain iji gupu onwe m but the dad gwara ndi police na m di aware of the boy's hideout. M wee kpokuo Chukwu, O wee za ekpere m. Ndi police nabatara aririo m wee release em Nke a na-egosi na chi anyi na-efe di mma. The Lord is good.
ENGLISH:
(Praise the Lord.
The testimony I am giving is what happened just last month. The devil has used friends to deceive me for a long time. There is one boy who is friendly with me and who is a thief without my knowledge. This boy stole his father's money and disappeared. Then the police arrested me. There was nothing I did not explain to exonerate myself but the father told the police that I was aware of the boy's hideout. I then called on God and he answered my prayers. The police accepted my pleas and released me. This shows that the God we serve is a merciful God. The Lord is good).
Table showing frequency of switches among English-Igbo bilinguals
The table above shows that the frequency of switches, 63%, is higher than complete Igbo and English sentences, which recorded 18% each.
CONCLUSION/IMPLICATIONS
The result of the study we carried out seems to reveal these facts about codeswitching among Igbo-English bilinguals:
v that codeswitching makes for easy communication because it is speech accommodating,
v that codeswitching is more common in Igbo based speech events than in English based speech events,
v that switches are often random,
v that codeswitching among Igbo English bilinguals can be conscious or subconscious. We observed that the motivation of a speaker need not be conscious always, for apparently, many speakers were not aware that they have switched/mixed languages,
Codeswitching among Igbo-English bilinguals have some sociolinguistic implications no doubt. Firstly, it affects the proficiency of the speaker. Instead of searching for the Igbo equivalents of English words, he switches into English or mixes English expressions. Secondly, it could lead to culture conflict when these bilinguals become schizophrenic.
Most speakers however see nothing wrong in exhibiting their ability to speak more than one language since they will end up communicating, any way. Since this act seems inevitable, we would suggest that when switches or mixes occur, either because there are no synonymous lexical items which can adequately express the intended concepts in the receiving language or because such concepts are culture based therefore not subject to direct translation, appropriate loan words should be adopted to enable speakers use such words without difficulty.
REFERENCES
Abdulkadir, H.N. (1998) “Linguistic diffusion as an aspect of development of Hausa language”
(A paper presented at LAN conference, Aba)
Ahukanna, J.C {1990 }“ Billingualism and codemixing in language use in Nigeria: the case of Igbo-English Bilinguals” (pp 175-185) in Emenanjo (ed)
Emenanjo, E,N (1978) Elements of modern Igbo Grammar. Ibadan : Oxford University Press
Essien, O. (1995) “The English language and codemixing: a case study of the phenomenon in Ibibio.
(pp 269-284) in Bamgbose, et al (ed)
______ (1996) “ Code switching and code-mixing in Nigeria: a study of the phenomena among some ethnic groups (A paper presented to the Department of linguistics, University of Ghana, Legon.
Kachru, B.B. (1978) “Towards structuring codemixing: an Indian perspective” International Journal of sociology.
Goke-Pariola, A. (1982) “ Codemixing among Yoruba-English bilinguals”
Anthropological Linguistics Vol. 25, N0 1.
Gumperz, J. (1976) “The Sociolinguistic Significance of Conversational Codeswitching”. Working paper of the language behaviour research laboratory. #46 Berkely: University of California.
Hudson, R.A (1980) Sociolinguitiscs. Cambridge: University press.
Hymes, D.H. (ed) (1964). Language in culture and society. New York: Harper and Row.
Lipski, J.M (1982) “Spanish-English Language Switching in Speech and Literature: Theories and Models”. The Bilingual Review. Vol 9. N0. (pp 191-200)
Ogbonna, C.C. (1985) “Immortalizing Igbo Language” Nigerian Statesman Jan. 8, Owerri (p5)
Pride. S. N. (1978) “ On the Functions of Codemixing in Canada.” International
Journal of the Sociology of language. No 16.
Wardhaugh, R. (1996). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics Great Britain: Page Bros. Ltd.
THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE FACTOR IN THE UNIVERSAL BASIC EDUCATION (UBE) PROJECT
VALEN EMEKA OBINNA (PH.D)
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS,
IMO STATE UNIVERSITY, OWERRI.
ABSTRACT
Over the years, the language question, in general terms, has always occupied a pride of place in Nigeria’s Educational Policies - Maternal / Mother Tongue. Official and Foreign (French)
In case of the present programme, University Basic Education (UBE), which seems a greater dimension. As regards foreign languages, th question directs Nigeria and no longer foreign )
French in the Universal basic Education (UBE) Programme poses these issues that demand urgent answers:
- The whole concept of Universal Basic Education
- The language in Nigeria in general;
- Foreign language in Nigeria and in Education
- French in Primary School Teaching
- The French factor in Nigeria’s overall development.
We intend therefore in the paper, to highlight basic areas of interrogation, problems and challenges in order to arrive at a more harmonized Educational situation (systems) and truly developing and progressing society that is Nigeria - both domestic and international
INTRODUCTION
The launching in September 1999 of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Programme could be likened to a “Renaissance”. It is indeed a “Rebirth” by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, as he had earlier as Military Head of State, in 1976, launched the Universal Primary Education: could it be that the earlier programme failed or that it was abandoned by succeeding regimes? “Yes” for both or one or “No” for both or either could be the truth. It only needs to be affirmed that Nigeria continues to grapple with a general “Education blindness” not for lack of ideas but more for a surfeit or them and “Tokunboism” (Borrow and Jettison).
When a coordinator was first appointed for the programme (UBE), he was charged, according to NUT NEW LETTER (2002:11)
“With the task of restructuring the National Primary Education Commission (NPEC), as a platform for i9mplementing the UBE” (1).
We have always had noble policies but the zeal and will for implementation lack and slack often and too soon. We now have a very brilliant and well-packaged programme with the best of intentions: for the development in the
“Entire citizenry a strong consciousness for Education and strong commitment to its vigourous promotion” (2)
In very “strong terms, the University Basic Education (UBE) scheme provides a good opportunity to launch Nigeria into a well balanced, organized and developed society. Our best brains have put in the best wording into the programme. The NUT NEWSLETTER (March 2002: 12) again puts it so aptly thus:
“The Basic Education is programme to be all embracing and incorporating all forms of education formal, non formal and informal approaches. It is equipped to inculcate all values in the Young school ones and to bring Nigerian Literacy to the level of advanced world” (3).
As these brilliant ideas and intentions keep thriving and recurring (re-occurring in our Educational policies over years and decades, we intend to confront the language component to the programme more specifically the French Language implication.
THE LANGUAGE QUESTION IN THE UNIVERSAL BASIC EDUCATION (UBE) SCHEME
Generally, Education is about “knowing” via teaching and learning the teachers and the learners (pupils, students, apprentices, et cetera). In this “knowing transaction”, we talk about imparting knowledge”, including “ideas, facts and thoughts, including literacy and “numeracy”. Information summarizes all the above: Education is about informing and being informed.
Thus the information enterprise is again tied up in “Communication” without which Education would resemble the dumb talking to the deaf. Especially in our modern world and “the global village” reality, communication is as perfectly presented by Roger and Albert Hesse (1984: 14).
“Springing from the deepest roots of man's history, spreading its branches through out the ages, the tree of communication has now reached the stars. Man and communication are inseparable” (4).
Bringing even closer the communication matter to a much closer “globalization” reality, Agba (2001:VIII).
“Thanks to the advances in communication technology, the entire world has shrunk into a small community. Thus, one's neighbour is no longer only the fellow who lives next door. He could be in the remotest part of the hemisphere separated from one not only by time and distance but also by differences in Language, culture, norms and values. Yet what happens to one is known by the other and vice versa within a split second” (5).
The Language component in the educational system is at the root of the matter as Human beings make the greatest communicative sense and impact through speaking and writing and other more sophisticated forms, audio-visuals, computers and now Fax, Electronic mail and Internet.
The Language issue in the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Scheme poses an almost existential question for our country in terms of identity, identification and definition. As Noah (1998:1) says it all:
“The faculty for language stands at all center of our conception of man… Man's speech makes him human and his literacy makes him civilized” (6).
Our Nigerian situation poses a very knotty linguistic situation and makes the Universal Basic Scheme equally challenging. Our Pluri-ethnic and multi-lingual complexion is quite daunting as we count up to three hundred different kinds and groups with as many “tongues” that break further into distinct and “confused” dialects. Our colonial experience has brought us into the English Language “Lingua Franca” obligation as a convenient official language We still have the pidgin or broken English fall out - some bit of Arab in the Northern Islamic reality. All these language facts matter in the formulation of educational policies, especially with regards to the language question itself.
As we experiment with the compulsory vernacular philosophy of teaching and learning in the primary school for the first three years, English coming in thereafter, it all remains to be seen how Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo (the three main languages have been incorporated in all Nigerian Primary and Secondary schools (in the first three years of Post-primary education).
Are the teachers and pupils grappling well with the various Nigerian languages and pidgin English and the official standard English? Are our general literacy and numeracy reflecting well in a balanced linguistic environment? The Universal Basic Education Scheme still has more questions than answers for now as we battle with sundry odds bothering on qualification (professionalisation, materials, environment, motivation, remuneration, promotion, and students' attitudes, aptitudes, orientation, perspective and socio-cultural “Packaging”).
2. FOREIGN LANGUAGES IN NIGERIA'S EDUCATION PROGRAMMING
In our context (Nigerian), the concept of “foreign languages” should apply to all those “means” of expression and communication that are non-indigenous and “local” maternal/vernacular Nigerian languages. All languages that were “imported” into the Nigerian language family of families should ordinarily fall into the “foreign” language constituency.
However, English has become a “home-boy” in Nigeria due to historico-colonial intervention and its adoption as our official language of education and work and a “lingua franca” of convenience in the absence of a consensus on any other.
As things are now, when we talk of “foreign languages”, Nigerians very readily mention French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Russian and the rest of them (Japanese, Chinese, et cetera). Even Arab seems to be a very “local” foreign language especially in Northern Nigeria where, due to the Islamic Religion cultural admixture, the language of the Koran plays a very vital linguistic and cultural role.
There are some good reasons to mention these foreign languages in our educational and developmental programmes. GERMAN leaves a historical echo in Cameroun (Anglo-German pact of Bakassi) and Togo (ECOWAS) as well as the present technological importance of German. Portuguese equally leaves a historical reference in Nigeria of the earlier centuries and in the present Angola and Mozambique. Spanish has left a mark in Equatorial Guinea, in Spanish Sahara, Libya and elsewhere. Other languages of today only have peripheral or politico-sentimental implications for us (Russian, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, et cetera).
The main foreign language which occupies a special place and a seriously solid mention, consideration and recurring” experimentation” in our Educational system as well as in economic, political and diplomatic permutations is indeed “French” language intricately symbolized in France as a very beautiful powerful country in the world and an inevitable super force in Africa especially in West Africa.
3. THE FRENCH LANGUAGE IN NIGERIA'S EDUCATIONAL PLANNING.
French is known all over the world as a Super International Language of communication and diplomacy. Only second to English World-wide in importance and in the United Nations and in the African Union, French carries along the historical, cultural, technological and diplomatic greatness of France universally.
Right here in Africa, and even more in West Africa, Nigeria looks like a big “Anglophone island”. Our francophone neighbours seem overwhelming in number and the implied unavoidable French connection (France is right here within and around Cameroun, Chad, Niger, Benin Republic, Togo, Burskina Faso, Mali, Guinea, Senegal, Cote d' Ivoire (all these ECOWAS members are French speaking).
The Head-quarters of ECOWAS is in Nigeria (a minority Anglophone country, not minding our population) most of the member countries are Francophone. So many French enterprises and
companies have been and are springing up in Nigeria ELF, MICHELIN, PEUGEOT, SCOA, CFAO, AFRIBANK, SOCIETE GENERALE, DUMEZ, UTA, FOUGEROLLES, BOUYGUES, and many others.
The problem has not been the recognition of the above facts and statistics. It is not even in the formulation of beautiful policies such as three years of the secondary school system. The main problem is that of meaningful and significant commitment to the entrenchment and sustenance of French into our Educational frame-work.
All that fill the books and Hand-outs of Education and language policies in Nigeria are perfect wordings and structuring of dreamy intentions. As Dada (1979:32) quotes so well R. Akpofure, a former Federal Commissioner (Minister) of Education:
“We are interested in French language itself because of its importance as an international as well as an intra-African vehicle of communication. We are also interested in it because of our multi-lingual problems, we can open the doors of solving many other problems both national and international” (7).
Earlier in 1970, S. Cookey, a former Federal Commissioner (Minister) of Education had established the same beautiful framing of the French language implication in our Educational development. said he:
“We in the Federal Ministry of Education regard French as a very important subject in schools all over the federation. We want our schools to produce people who can speak the language and thus help to establish more contact between English speaking and French speaking African countries” (8).
Anyaehie (1998:3) brings back the issue and raises further the question of our National Planning seriousness and our educational and linguistic philosophy:
“It is finally assumed that the view, vigorously canvassed, of making French a second non-indigenous national language in Nigeria would fit harmoniously into the existing language arrangement so as not to repeat the futile experiment of the early seventies when French was projected to an enviable status in Nigeria and in other newly independent Anglophone African countries. The idea then was to make every African speak English and French fluently so as to form one continent family without communicative problems” (9).
While other Anglophone African countries pursue vigorously the policy of positive “French Assimilation” into their education and linguistico-strategic programme, and while the francophone countries have been striving to catch up and meet up in English (sometimes about to surpass the Anglophones), Nigerians continues to make just beautiful and accurate pronouncements that end up in the archives and “libraries”.
We need to rethink and rethink the French “Priority” reality: we need to support the private primary schools that have introduced French in the fifth and sixth years let all primary schools borrow the good idea. Their secondary schools need to really and seriously incorporate French into the programme of learning. The Tertiary institutions need more encouragem4ent and motivation to give French a larger, wider and deeper ground in their curricular and syllabi
CONCLUSION
The foreign languages factor in the Universal Basic Education (UBE) project and the overall educational system of Nigeria specifically revolves around the French and its variety of linguistic, cultural, historical, economic, political and international implications. As we re-emphasis the need to introduce French in all Public Primary School in the fifth and sixth year, we equally insist that all Secondary Schools should be made to have French compulsorily taught and learnt from JSS 1 to JSS 3 with a serious motivation for continuation at the senior secondary level.
Beyond the secondary level (in Colleges of Education, Polytechnics and Universities), French has to be taken more seriously and in specialized institution/institutes like the Defense Academy, Nigerian War College, Nigerian Institute for Strategic Studies, Law School, Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Nigerian Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Voice of Nigeria (International Services).
French in Nigeria should be made more pronounced and entrenched in schools, in public service, in private enterprises and in general application. We need a higher literacy of French among our teachers, soldiers, priests, diplomats, journalists, business tycoons, lawyers, sportsmen and women, musicians and tourists these are the Ambassadors of Nigeria and they can better influence the world by knowing French. The only way (the best indeed) to play greater roles in the United Nations, African Union, ECOWAS and such International bodies is by knowing French along with English to become Secretary General of United Nations, influencing the World Court and the International Court of Justice (Bakassi again!), to have a strong voice in FIFA, CAF, OLYMPICS, INTERPOL, UNESCO, UNICEF, et cetera, we should take French much more seriously.
For a truly balanced linguistic situation, we should take our maternal languages as the first assignment, then English, our official language and the first world language, and then French, a very strong force in Africa and in West Africa, and the second most important language in the world and in the United Nations.
We thus disagree entirely with the suicidal suggestion of Omari (1985:20) in his quest for total indigenization and “backward integration”.
“English and French are imperialist and colonial languages which must be abandoned if we want to engage ourselves in the emancipation process. To write in these languages is to support the imperialists and colonialists in their exploitation of the Masses” (10).
We do not need to wait until our Ambassadors and representatives are embarrassed at international fora for inability to speak or write French. We should stop grumbling about exclusion and disqualification of our citizens from world bodies and international positions let us go back to the school of simple and basic French for a real strategic integration into the “global village” and the intricacies of World and African Politics.
If we refuse to assimilate French and combine it with our Anglophone disposition, we might continue to be assimilated by French and Francophony via a concatenation and network of intrigues, manouevres and diplomatic superstructuring. We need to boldly embrace the French language in order to make the best of all the Science and Technology, philosophy, literatures, history and civilization as well as the geopolitical and economic permutations on the super high way of communication, computerization, and ideological manipulation.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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