I must say this is a serious topic that people are overlooking . We should be proud of our language . China and other developed countries value their languages .if you value your language nobody would ride you over .we need to start maximising our potentials in nigeria ,before it becomes too late .
The interview was very decisive and I am proud to be a Nigerian are you?
Why do parents resist teaching their kids in the local language?
Some very important questions were asked I only took the very important ones
Down.
Let’s take Lagos for instance. Lagos is a Cosmopolitan City, so English is used generally. There is no central local language. The lingua franca is English. The next to it is Pidgin English. But inspite of this, the English spoken today by these children or even youths is rubbish. They cannot speak good English and also cannot speak their mother tongue. They cannot write good English. To compound the situation, everybody loves English. You need to pass English Language in WASSSCE or WAEC among other things to enter the
They don’t hate Nigerian language. It is because there is no law to compel them do so. Before now, there was a stipulation by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council, NERDC, that Nigerian children must offer a local language at SSSI. But it is no longer compulsory now.
People hate things Nigerian in nature. We like only foreign things, treat things like speaking the mother tongue as “Idiotic” But if our children speak English wrongly, we are angry and reprimand them.
Access to internet, GSM and social media had compounded it. Children use SMS language while writing English nowadays.
How do you find the situation today?
Nigerian languages are gradually dying. While some parents can speak the native language, the children cannot speak the mother tongue.
Even grand mothers are forced to speak English to the kids, even if the English spoken is not correct.
In those days, there was a Yoruba proverb which says: “If you speak English in your in-laws house, you must interprete it.”
Inter-tribal marriages are now forcing people to speak English at home.
It is very simple for children to hear and speak the local language than adults. In some time to come, people who cannot speak the local language may not be considered for elective positions as governors or legislators. There was the case of some children who went for scholarship test in Bayelsa State and performed well. But when asked to count one to ten in their mother tongue, majority of them could not and so missed the chance of getting scholarship.
Why do parents resist teaching their kids in the local language?
Let’s take Lagos for instance. Lagos is a Cosmopolitan City, so English is used generally. There is no central local language. The lingua franca is English. The next to it is Pidgin English. But inspite of this, the English spoken today by these children or even youths is rubbish. They cannot speak good English and also cannot speak their mother tongue. They cannot write good English. To compound the situation, everybody loves English. You need to pass English Language in WASSSCE or WAEC among other things to enter the
They don’t hate Nigerian language. It is because there is no law to compel them do so. Before now, there was a stipulation by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council, NERDC, that Nigerian children must offer a local language at SSSI. But it is no longer compulsory now.
People hate things Nigerian in nature. We like only foreign things, treat things like speaking the mother tongue as “Idiotic” But if our children speak English wrongly, we are angry and reprimand them.
Access to internet, GSM and social media had compounded it. Children use SMS language while writing English nowadays.
How do you find the situation today?
Nigerian languages are gradually dying. While some parents can speak the native language, the children cannot speak the mother tongue.
Even grand mothers are forced to speak English to the kids, even if the English spoken is not correct.
In those days, there was a Yoruba proverb which says: “If you speak English in your in-laws house, you must interprete it.”
Inter-tribal marriages are now forcing people to speak English at home.
It is very simple for children to hear and speak the local language than adults. In some time to come, people who cannot speak the local language may not be considered for elective positions as governors or legislators. There was the case of some children who went for scholarship test in Bayelsa State and performed well. But when asked to count one to ten in their mother tongue, majority of them could not and so missed the chance of getting scholarship.
What advice do you have on this?
People should try to always speak the mother tongue at home. It would then be easier for children to speak it because it’s informal, in the natural setting. Curriculum should be revisited in order to enforce mother tongue in learning while at school.When there is inter-ethnic marriage, like Ibo married to Yoruba, the couple should decide what language the children will learn and acquire it at early age.
Language acquisition takes place informally. We can expose our children to more local languages and would be better for them. They have plasticity of being easily receptive to learning a new thing including language.
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