TITLE:
Syntactic and Lexico-Semantic Variations in Nigerian English: Implications and Chal-lenges in the ESL Classroom
AUTHORS:
Uriel Okunrinmeta
KEYWORDS:
Syntactic, Lexico-Semantic, Variation, Nigerian, Classroom
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Modern Linguistics,
Vol.4 No.2,
June
5,
2014
ABSTRACT: The
present study traces the poor performance of Nigerian students in English to
the sole use of British English for teaching and evaluation purposes in the
Nigerian ESL classroom thereby neglecting the local Nigerian variations
which, as it should be expected, reflect the linguistic and cultural contexts
that English must, as a necessary condition, accommodate if it must function effectively in Nigeria’s multilingual socio-cultural setting. The study, after
presenting some syntactic and lexico-semantic variations in Nigerian English
and highlighting their appropriateness within the Nigerian socio-cultural
context, argues that, if students must perform well in English and even in
other subjects taught and examined in English, it is necessary to teach them and
evaluate their performances by using an endonormative model (that is, Standard
Nigerian English), which is capable of reflecting the local variations that
English has, in a bid to satisfy the demands for communicative appropriateness,
manifested in the Nigerian setting. This is so because Standard Nigerian
English as an endonormative model is, because of its ability to appropriately
reflect the Nigerian experience, more supportive to the students in the
Nigerian ESL classroom than the foreign British model which, though used as the
standard in Nigeria as a former British colony, is culturally inappropriate in
the Nigerian context and does not, therefore, appeal to the sensibilities of
the students who, in their quest for communicative appropriateness in English
in the Nigerian socio-cultural setting, have to use the language to reflect the
Nigerian worldview.