language
The Various Concepts Of Indigenous Language
According to Wikipedia, an indigenous language also known as autochthonais language is a language that is native to a region and spoken by indigenous peoples but has been reduced to the status of a minority language. This language would be from a linguistically distinct community that has been settled in the area for many generations. Indigenous language may not be national languages or may have fallen out of use, because of language deaths or linguicide caused by colonization where the original language is replaced by that of the colonists.
When we say the word indigenous we mean something is belonging to a particular place rather than coming to it from somewhere else (native).
In Lagos state Secondary School, it has become a thing of joy for students to speak their indigenous language whereas they do not understand the cultural values involved. This is due to the fact that though the students can speak the Yoruba language, they do not understand the nitty – gritty involved in the language. This has caused a lot of disorder in our secondary schools. The subjects are just taught but not made mandatory or compulsory for promotion. This has caused a major decline in its real usage as only the vernacular Yoruba language is used.
This is better buttressed by Soneye’s (2002 :) assertion quoting Ngugi thus:
The first sure sign of self colonization is when one does not know enough of one’s own language meaning that one knows more of another people’s language (p 237).
Emeniyi (2006) refers to the indigenous language state in our secondary schools as zero bilingualism which means a situation where an individual can neither speak his/ her mother tongue, because he/she is not permitted to use it in school, nor communicate effectively in English, since there are few qualified language teachers to teach it.
With this state, the students just speak the language but do not learn them well that is, the folktales, stories, poetry, Oriki, Ewi, chant songs, etc because there is no motivation of any such i.e. there are no benefits as in if a child does not pass the Yoruba language in the WASSCE, NECO or even JAMB, the child can still get promoted into the tertiary institution or even the next higher class.
Adejare (2009), states that when a child leaves school, theoretically, the child does not encounter the language again till the next time the Yoruba language is on the time table. Most times, the Yoruba language is only taught once in a week and it occurs most times only for a period of forty- five (45) minutes. This is very absurd compared to the number of hours given to the foreign language (English language) in a week. How then can we promote our cultural values?
We would take a closer look at some sub-topics that explain better the indigenous language (Yoruba). They are;
a. Language loss
b. Language acquisition
c. Language attrition
Language Loss
Language loss is not affected merely by attitudes about language parse. A lot of people have the perspective that the indigenous language spoken would not put bread on their tables, so why should they worry about preserving them. This is the bedrock of language loss in the Nigerian educational system.
It has become normality that while the English language have taken the priority of being the compulsory subject, the indigenous languages are treated as electives despite the fact that some of the local languages have very rich vocabulary even for the study of services. In the light of this some eminent scholars. Like Uzochukwu (2003) and Iwuchukwu (2003) comment as follows:
There has never been dearth of policies in the attempt to revive interest in Nigerian languages, as the government, scholars, and other stake-holders are fully aware of the potentialities of Nigerian languages in the learning process and as an agent for boasting our National awareness. What is lacking is the will to back up these policies with actions and the ability of changing the apathy of Nigerians to their languages. The national policy on education, for instance stipulates that a child should be taught in the mother tongue in the early years of his education, as is the case in other parts o f the world (p. 1).
Iwuchukwu (2003):
Two of the five main national goals of Nigeria, upon which the national policy on education is set, are: the building of a free and democratic society and just and egalitarian society. As a corollary, the language of immediate environment of the pupil shall be used for the first three years as medium of instruction to foster development of the individuals for their sake and for general development of the society. This is to ensure even development in both cultural interests of ethnic groups as well as of Nigeria in general (p. 120)
When there is a language loss, the custodians of the culture are seen as being neglected and this causes various rifts and riots we experience in our secondary schools in Lagos State.
At the heart of language loss is the desire as a young child to “fit in” with school friends. Too often languages loss is associated with other closely related features such as language attrition, semi-lingualism, language death and language change via learning. Actual language loss occurs when a minority group member cannot do the things with the minority language that they used to do. Some of the proficiency is no longer accessible Crawford (in Cantoni 1996) offers the following list of signs that a language is being lost.
i. The number of speakers is decreasing: this is very common in our secondary schools, in the sense that even though the students speak the Yoruba language, they do not speak the correct and efficient language. All they speak most times are just slang’s, petty language etc.
ii. Fluency in the language increases with age, as younger generations prefer to speak another (usually the dominant) language. In the secondary schools, the dominant language is neither the Yoruba language nor the English language; it is the Yoru-English language. They are neither fluent in Yoruba nor the English language.
i. Language use declined in “domains” where it was once secure (for example, social gatherings, churches, ceremonies, cultural observations and especially, the home.
ii. Growing number of parents discouraging the use of their indigenous language and the promotion of the English language.
There are certain ways on the causes and cure of language loss.
1. Language shift is difficult to impose from without / outside
2. Language shift is determined primarily by internal changes within the language communities themselves.
3. If language choices reflect a change in values, so to a much effort to reverse language shift.
4. Language shift cannot be reversed by outsiders.
5. Successful strategies for reversing language shift demand an understanding of the stage of the language shift.
Language Acquisition
Children acquire language quickly, easily and without effort or formal teaching. It happens automatically, whether their parents try to teach them or not. Children acquire language through interaction. People wonder when a child learns to talk? There is no one point at which a child learns to talk. By the time the child first utters a single meaningful word, he or she has spent many months playing around with the sounds and intonations of language and connections words with meanings. (Fakoya, 2004).
According to Crystal (1998) language acquisition has long been thought of as a process of imitation and reinforcement. Children learn to speak, in the popular view, by copying the utterances heard around them, and by having their responses strengthened by the repetitions, corrections, and other reactions that adult provide.
The limitations of an imitation / reinforcement view of acquisition led in the 1960’s to an alternative proposal arising out of the generative account of language. It was argued that children must be born with an innate capacity for language development: the human brain is ready for language, in the sense that when children are exposed to speech, certain general principles for discovering or structuring language automatically begin to operate. These principles constitute a child’s language acquisition device’ (LAD).
The child uses its language acquisition device (LAD) to make sense of the utterances heard around it, deriving from this ‘primary linguistics data’ hypotheses about the grammar of the language - what the sentences are, and how they are constructed. This knowledge is then used to produce a sentence that, after of process of trial and error, corresponds to those in adult speech.
Language Attrition
According to Wikipedia (2008), language attrition is the loss of a language or a portion of a language by either a speech community or an individual. As much as cultural norms and governmental policies can preserve and even promote endangered and minority languages restrictions can lead to contraction and eventually extinction. When a country such as Nigeria feels that for the country to have economic utility and stability there is the need for a dominant language – a language of communication to the outside world and the only language that is encouraged is the English language, there is the high risk of language attrition.
When we say the word indigenous we mean something is belonging to a particular place rather than coming to it from somewhere else (native).
In Lagos state Secondary School, it has become a thing of joy for students to speak their indigenous language whereas they do not understand the cultural values involved. This is due to the fact that though the students can speak the Yoruba language, they do not understand the nitty – gritty involved in the language. This has caused a lot of disorder in our secondary schools. The subjects are just taught but not made mandatory or compulsory for promotion. This has caused a major decline in its real usage as only the vernacular Yoruba language is used.
This is better buttressed by Soneye’s (2002 :) assertion quoting Ngugi thus:
The first sure sign of self colonization is when one does not know enough of one’s own language meaning that one knows more of another people’s language (p 237).
Emeniyi (2006) refers to the indigenous language state in our secondary schools as zero bilingualism which means a situation where an individual can neither speak his/ her mother tongue, because he/she is not permitted to use it in school, nor communicate effectively in English, since there are few qualified language teachers to teach it.
With this state, the students just speak the language but do not learn them well that is, the folktales, stories, poetry, Oriki, Ewi, chant songs, etc because there is no motivation of any such i.e. there are no benefits as in if a child does not pass the Yoruba language in the WASSCE, NECO or even JAMB, the child can still get promoted into the tertiary institution or even the next higher class.
Adejare (2009), states that when a child leaves school, theoretically, the child does not encounter the language again till the next time the Yoruba language is on the time table. Most times, the Yoruba language is only taught once in a week and it occurs most times only for a period of forty- five (45) minutes. This is very absurd compared to the number of hours given to the foreign language (English language) in a week. How then can we promote our cultural values?
We would take a closer look at some sub-topics that explain better the indigenous language (Yoruba). They are;
a. Language loss
b. Language acquisition
c. Language attrition
Language Loss
Language loss is not affected merely by attitudes about language parse. A lot of people have the perspective that the indigenous language spoken would not put bread on their tables, so why should they worry about preserving them. This is the bedrock of language loss in the Nigerian educational system.
It has become normality that while the English language have taken the priority of being the compulsory subject, the indigenous languages are treated as electives despite the fact that some of the local languages have very rich vocabulary even for the study of services. In the light of this some eminent scholars. Like Uzochukwu (2003) and Iwuchukwu (2003) comment as follows:
There has never been dearth of policies in the attempt to revive interest in Nigerian languages, as the government, scholars, and other stake-holders are fully aware of the potentialities of Nigerian languages in the learning process and as an agent for boasting our National awareness. What is lacking is the will to back up these policies with actions and the ability of changing the apathy of Nigerians to their languages. The national policy on education, for instance stipulates that a child should be taught in the mother tongue in the early years of his education, as is the case in other parts o f the world (p. 1).
Iwuchukwu (2003):
Two of the five main national goals of Nigeria, upon which the national policy on education is set, are: the building of a free and democratic society and just and egalitarian society. As a corollary, the language of immediate environment of the pupil shall be used for the first three years as medium of instruction to foster development of the individuals for their sake and for general development of the society. This is to ensure even development in both cultural interests of ethnic groups as well as of Nigeria in general (p. 120)
When there is a language loss, the custodians of the culture are seen as being neglected and this causes various rifts and riots we experience in our secondary schools in Lagos State.
At the heart of language loss is the desire as a young child to “fit in” with school friends. Too often languages loss is associated with other closely related features such as language attrition, semi-lingualism, language death and language change via learning. Actual language loss occurs when a minority group member cannot do the things with the minority language that they used to do. Some of the proficiency is no longer accessible Crawford (in Cantoni 1996) offers the following list of signs that a language is being lost.
i. The number of speakers is decreasing: this is very common in our secondary schools, in the sense that even though the students speak the Yoruba language, they do not speak the correct and efficient language. All they speak most times are just slang’s, petty language etc.
ii. Fluency in the language increases with age, as younger generations prefer to speak another (usually the dominant) language. In the secondary schools, the dominant language is neither the Yoruba language nor the English language; it is the Yoru-English language. They are neither fluent in Yoruba nor the English language.
i. Language use declined in “domains” where it was once secure (for example, social gatherings, churches, ceremonies, cultural observations and especially, the home.
ii. Growing number of parents discouraging the use of their indigenous language and the promotion of the English language.
There are certain ways on the causes and cure of language loss.
1. Language shift is difficult to impose from without / outside
2. Language shift is determined primarily by internal changes within the language communities themselves.
3. If language choices reflect a change in values, so to a much effort to reverse language shift.
4. Language shift cannot be reversed by outsiders.
5. Successful strategies for reversing language shift demand an understanding of the stage of the language shift.
Language Acquisition
Children acquire language quickly, easily and without effort or formal teaching. It happens automatically, whether their parents try to teach them or not. Children acquire language through interaction. People wonder when a child learns to talk? There is no one point at which a child learns to talk. By the time the child first utters a single meaningful word, he or she has spent many months playing around with the sounds and intonations of language and connections words with meanings. (Fakoya, 2004).
According to Crystal (1998) language acquisition has long been thought of as a process of imitation and reinforcement. Children learn to speak, in the popular view, by copying the utterances heard around them, and by having their responses strengthened by the repetitions, corrections, and other reactions that adult provide.
The limitations of an imitation / reinforcement view of acquisition led in the 1960’s to an alternative proposal arising out of the generative account of language. It was argued that children must be born with an innate capacity for language development: the human brain is ready for language, in the sense that when children are exposed to speech, certain general principles for discovering or structuring language automatically begin to operate. These principles constitute a child’s language acquisition device’ (LAD).
The child uses its language acquisition device (LAD) to make sense of the utterances heard around it, deriving from this ‘primary linguistics data’ hypotheses about the grammar of the language - what the sentences are, and how they are constructed. This knowledge is then used to produce a sentence that, after of process of trial and error, corresponds to those in adult speech.
Language Attrition
According to Wikipedia (2008), language attrition is the loss of a language or a portion of a language by either a speech community or an individual. As much as cultural norms and governmental policies can preserve and even promote endangered and minority languages restrictions can lead to contraction and eventually extinction. When a country such as Nigeria feels that for the country to have economic utility and stability there is the need for a dominant language – a language of communication to the outside world and the only language that is encouraged is the English language, there is the high risk of language attrition.
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