The Effect of the Nigerian Pidgin English on the Academic Performance of University Students in Nigeria
Chapter One
Objectives of the Study
This work intends to examine how frequent NOUN students use Nigerian Pidgin and under what circumstances do NOUN students frequently use Nigerian Pidgin. Also the study seeks to find the extent Noun student’s use of Nigerian Pidgin in communicating with staff and students.
The study will also examine the gender difference in the use Nigerian Pidgin among NOUN students and determine if there is any significant difference among male and female students in the use of NP in communication.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
In Nigeria, Nigerian Pidgin used to be seen generally as the code of the non-literate as well as a bastardization of English and its use was, therefore, considered a mark of the level of one’s proficiency in English. For instance, Agheyisi (2001) claims that the typical users of Nigerian Pidgin are those that have little or no formal education. However, as Akande (2008:37) has noted, the sociolinguistic reality in Nigeria today is such that NP is spoken by university graduates, professors, lawyers and journalists. It has also been demonstrated that Nigerian Pidgin is not used only in informal settings but also in offices and other formal settings (Akande 2008). In other words, the claim that Nigerian Pidgin is the code of the non-literate does not seem to have validity as there are a lot of educated speakers in Nigeria who can use both Standard English and Nigerian Pidgin proficiently (Akande 2008).
In Nigeria today, the language policy on education prescribes a role for all Nigerian languages. Languages of the immediate environment are prescribed as languages of instruction for pre-primary and the first three of six years of primary education. English is to be a medium of instruction from the fourth year of primary education onwards, and is to be taught as a subject from primary four. At least one national language is recommended for learning as a subject at the secondary education level while French was recently introduced into the policy as a second official language and is expected to be learnt as a subject. In other words, the learner should be literate in a minimum of three to four languages at the end of the senior secondary education. The policy however, does not prescribe any language of instruction for mass literacy, adult, and non–formal education. Most of the time, the language of instruction adopted is the language of the immediate environment.
Generally, the origin of Nigeria Pidgin is traceable to poor use of a language either by the speaker or receiver. In Nigeria, Pidgin emerged in the Niger Delta as a contact language which served the need for communication and interaction (Ajibade et al, 2012). It should be noted that Nigerian Pidgin varies from place to place and has several peculiar varieties. Obiechina (1984) meticulously discussed the variants of the Nigerian Pidgin by identifying five varieties namely: Bendel which includes: Abraka, Warri, Isoko, Sapele, Agbor, Itsekiri, Effurun, Agbaraha-Oto, Urohobo and Ewu; Calabar which includes: Calabar, Cross River, Akwa Ibom and the Kalabari regions; Lagos variant which includes: South West, Eastern Part and South-Central; Kano/Maiduguri variant which includes: North-East, North-North, North-South and North-West; and Port Harcourt which includes: Port Harcourt and the Regional Suburbs. It must be noted also that despite the need to gain mastery of the Standard English, the Pidgin is fast evolving to the degree of being a national language. It serves as a lingua franca in higher institutions and even to some extent, among graduates. In fact, the Nigerian Pidgin started as a language of non-literates as Bamgbose, Banjo and Thomas (1995) put it. In their further descriptions they stated that, “not everyone had access to school and the process of acquiring English was decidedly longer and more tedious than that of ‘picking up’ Pidgin. It [therefore] remains a hall mark of the Nigerian Pidgin that its speakers use it with a lot of freedom and creativity.” Suffice it to say that the Nigerian Pidgin is identified as a language in its own right, with all the characteristics and potentialities of a natural language( Elugbe, B.O. and Omamor, A.P. ,1991).
An Overview of Nigerian Pidgin
Nigerian pidgin is a term used to denote an English-based pidgin; a marginal language used among Nigerians to facilitate communication needs in certain interaction contexts. Like any other pidgin language in other cultural climes where the language is not native to its users, Nigerian Pidgin is contact language that emerged from the fusion of indigenous languages and foreign language (English). Supporting this view, Elugbe and Omamor (1991), in their attempt to define pidgin, see it as “some kind of a marginal language that arises to fulfill specific communication needs in well-defined circumstances.” The above definition shows that pidgin is not an official language, but a marginal language used for communication especially by people who do not speak each other’s language. Writing further, Elugbe and Omamor, quoting Hall (1966), stated two conditions for a language to be qualified as pidgin. In their submission, for a language to be pidgin, “Its grammatical structure and its vocabulary must be sharply reduced; secondly, the resultant language must be native to none of those who use it” (Elugbe and Omamor, 1991). In consonance with the above position, Rickford (1998) said: “A pidgin usually combines elements of the native language of its users and is typically simpler than those native languages in so far as it has fewer words, less morphology, and a more restricted range of phonological and syntactic options”.
Rickford’s excerpt to some extent is contextually applicable to Nigerian Pidgin in the sense that its phonological, morphological and grammatical structures are basically restricted compared to any other standard language. The sociolinguistic reality in Nigeria today reveals that Nigerian Pidgin is not used only in informal settings, but also in other formal settings (Akande, 2008). There are quite a number of negative perceptions of Nigerian Pidgin. Such perceptions have culminated in a string of derogatory definition of Nigerian Pidgin as a mark of bastardization of English. Nigerian Pidgin has come to be understood as: ‘adulterated language,’ ‘an inferior language,’ ‘substandard and lesser language,’ ‘a deviated language form,’ ‘a marginal language,’ ‘a bad language,’ ‘a language with no history and no native,’ among others. Also, it is seen as a language used by the uneducated and above all, less important language. These derogatory qualifications probably inform the reason why its use in the past it was limited to jokes, cartoons, and entertainment in general.
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
This chapter presents the method and procedures used in carrying out the study. It is primarily aim is to investigate the effect of Nigerian Pidgin English on the academic performance of university students in National Open University of Nigeria, Benin Study Centre. This chapter consist of headings which include research design, population of the study, sample and sampling techniques, instruments, reliability of instrument, method of data collected and method of data analysis.
Research Design
This study is a descriptive research. It is designed to survey the effect of Nigerian Pidgin English among National Open University of Nigeria students in Benin Study Centre. Ihemere (2006) refers to descriptive research as the best method which includes the use of questionnaire or interviews in the collection of data. The research used questionnaires to obtain information needed for this study. To identify the strength of the responses to various questions, percentage would be calculated and all the data obtained would be analyzed.
Population of the study
The population of the study is made up of all the students in Faculty of Education in the National Open University of Nigeria, Benin Study Centre which were used for the investigation. The populations used in the study are one hundred and twenty-five in number. The population for the study is randomly selected from National Open University of Nigeria, Benin Study Centre.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
This chapter deals with the analysis of the data collected. The statistical technique employed for this study is the frequency count and simple percentage.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Summary
Nigerian Pidgin bridges communication gap in certain sociolinguistic situations where there are no other mutually acceptable language of communication. Nigerian Pidgin is spoken more widely than the Standard English, though the Standard English is the official language and language of education in Nigeria. It belongs strictly to the elites. It is inaccessible to illiterate member of the society but an appreciate number of uneducated Nigeria can speak or at least understand Nigerian Pidgin.
Nigerian Pidgin is widely used in Nigeria. It is used as the first language, second language and lingua franca. It is virtually used in all spheres of life. It is used in schools, media, business circles, church programmes, advertisement etc. it is used by literate, semi-literate and illiterate member of the society. The language expands on daily basis. In-spite of this wide converge, Nigerian Pidgin is mostly used in informal settings and non-governmental transaction. It is not recognized in any of the language policies made in Nigeria. Hence, official documents are not recorded in the language. Undergraduates of various higher institutions in Nigeria hold the highest percentage of Nigerian Pidgin usage. It is now fashionable for students to communicate with their course mates or peers in Nigerian Pidgin. They equally use it in social network; this of course is mixed with a lot of jargons which are popular among the youths. Most of them speak Standard English in their formal academic pursuit. An appreciate number of the students prefer Nigeria pidgin to English in informal discourse. They claimed that Nigeria pidgin is easier to speak than English language.
Findings and Conclusion
From the research, findings showed that Nigerian Pidgin is gaining strong ground in educational environment instead of standard use of English language. Though people have conflicting attitude toward Nigerian Pidgin but the attitude is more positive than negative.
The study also revealed that Nigerian Pidgin is substantially being used in communication between staff and students on a daily basis. This in essence has an effect on the flow of fluent English language communication in learning environment in and out of lecture rooms. Also the study unveiled that students frequently use Nigeria pidgin more than Standard English. The lack of effective usage of English has prompted students to use Pidgin in their communication which has negative effect on students’ academic performance. The use of Nigerian Pidgin by male and female students varies from one form to another. From the data analyzed, it is found that male students practically engage in Nigeria pidgin more than female students. This indicates that the Nigeria pidgin is more communicated by the male counterpart. The Nigerian Pidgin as a language is no doubt widely spoken, understood by the people and accepted for effective communication by all classes, illiterate and literate, all over Nigeria. By this, one cannot but agree that Nigerian Pidgin English has an advantage over any other language to be officially adopted as a lingua franca for Nigeria and Nigerians.
In order to attain this height, it is strongly suggested that language planners must work on its codification, which will assist it in serving wider part of the populace, since it is not ethnically bound. When language planners and government indicate practical interest, the attitude of different people towards Nigeria pidgin will change drastically. To gain the proposed ground, it will be pertinent to include it in the National Policy on Education.
Recommendations
Based on the findings of this study, the following were recommended to enhance proper use of language which can promote positive communication within learning institution;
- The Nigerian government should improve on his language policy and accommodate Nigerian Pidgin as Nigeria’s lingua franca and a second official language of the country.
- Nigerian Pidgin has no stable orthography. There are different variants of the language. Linguists should endeavor to collate these variants and developed a standard form of the language.
- Staff and students in tertiary institution across the federation should engage the use of Standard English language in the communication rather than use of Nigerian Pidgin.
- The use of Nigerian Pidgin by students during communication should be discouraged by implementing laws that can combat wrong use of English in the school environment.
- Students should positively engage in the use of standard English more often than the use of Nigerian Pidgin in order to improve the right usage of language in communication
- The National Orientation Agency, the National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-formal Education will also play significant roles in propagating, mobilizing and re-orientating the populace on the imports and rationale of using Nigerian Pidgin.
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