LITERATURE REVIEW
AN INTRODUCTION
In this aspect of the thesis a review of literatures relevant to the topic is carried out. This includes work of other scholars that contains certain aspect of the topic to provide clarity also to show the stance of different scholars. It aims at the investigation of how the pidgin variety of the English Language, otherwise known as” brokin” has influenced the teaching and learning of the standard English Language in Nigeria. Having adopted the language as was introduced by the British as the lingua franca for over four decades, one and would have expected a thorough mastery of the language but the reverse is the case. It is quite obvious that the world has turned into a global village with the English language still gaining wide spread of usage, having other peculiar varieties: the Nigerian English, the American variety, the Pidgin English and the British to mention a few; which in themselves have other varieties. Relatively evident, is the fact that both students and teachers grabble to gain mastery of the standard English and this has brought about limitation in their competence and performance; the Nigerian graduate still finds himself code-switching from the standard English to pidgin ,and the may negatively affect both his spoken and written English.
Amakiri A.Igni B.(2015), claims that the” brokin” has a great effect on the teaching and learning of the standard English among students especially in Nigeria,it has different varities which has been mentioned above evidently teachers and students still find it very hard to understand the standard English.
According to the academic journals; in defense of Nigerian pidgin states that Nigerian pidgin as a contact language is currently witnessing ambivalent shift in status. As a result of diachronic development over the years, the use of Nigerian pidgin is becoming popular among many speakers. It is worthy to note that Nigerian pidgin is a term used to denote an English based pidgin ,a marginal language used to facilitate communication needs in certain interaction c context ,like any other pidgin language in other cultural climes where the language is not native to it users. Talking about Nigerian pidgin, it is a contact language that emerged from the infusion of indigenous languages and foreign language (English).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 others language. Pidgin usually combines elements of the native language of it users and is typically simpler than those native languages in so far as it has fewer words, less morphology, and more restricted range of phonological and syntactic options. Pidgin is commonly used in soap operas such as” Papa Ajasco”, “masquerade”,” village headmaster” etc based on it wide functional utilization in different strata of life ,some scholars like Elugbe and Omar(1991)have suggested that Nigerian pidgin should be used instead of continuing the search for a national language. Although Nigerian pidgin is allege for not having a generally acceptable model, the tense agreement as we have it in English is absent in the sentence below:
I am coming _______________ I dey come.
He is coming________________He dey come.
We are coming______________We dey come.
The above sentences show that, tense is not indicated whether in relation to time or agreement Gilsdorf (1974) many who teach business communication observe gradual change in standard English Jenny, English as we know change as a result of contact with other languages and through several other well-understood avenues of language evolution such as compounding, adding affixes, functional shift, coinage etc. The business public and many communicators think of Standard English as good English and English that varies from It as bad English, it is fairly easy to learn English, because the grammar of English is simpler than that of many languages.
Nigerian Pidgin English and Nigerian English are totally different, although there are occasional over laps between them. Broken English is a somewhat pejorative label used by native speakers of English to describe the often hysterical violation of the basic rules of Standard English syntax by non-native speakers of the language “.Halting” and “fluttering” are two other popular names for broken English.
I want to see you________me like see you.
The author further state that grammatical errors can’t be regarded as broken “English “on the other hand pidgin is a technical term in linguistics that refers to contact of trade ,a language that emerged from the fusion of foreign usually European, and indigenous (non European) languages ,in this infusion the European provides most of the vocabulary while the indigenous language provide the structure of the language for instance “wetin dey happen naw”the standard English equivalent of this expression would be “what is up”.
Pidgins are characterized by a simple, often anarchic and rudimentary grammatical structure, a severely limited vocabulary, and are used for the expression of really basic thought processes. The acquisition of standard English is considered one of the most import goals of formal education; when it comes to pidgin parent and the community at large frown against their children speaking it they refuse to see that pidgin is a bridge to learning the standard English. In a publication of 1920s pidgin was labeled with negative terms such as “lazy” ,”faulty””,sloppy”, ”slothful” and “ugly” (Da coup ,1999,pp,6-8) even today although there are more positive attitudes towards pidgin ,many people including teachers, administration still think of it as a deviant form of English . Terms such as broken English ,incorrect English and bad English are common and in class English speaking students are often considered not as learners of a new variety of language but as careless or lazy speakers of standard English one reason for the negative attitudes towards pidgin as opposed to other varieties is the misconception that it is haphazard that there are no grammatical rules ,and no correct or incorrect ways of speaking ,however since 1960 sociolinguistics have been showing that creoles such as pidgin are legitimate, rule governed languages that differ in systematic ways from the language, from which most of their vocabulary is derived. In Nigeria ,standard English co-exist with an English based pidgin, both language serve as a lingua franca amidst other 400 other Nigerian languages .the long existence of these two language varieties draws attention to the investigation of their mutual influence. These two languages have existed together for a long time and have been serving different purposes. English is the official language and serve prestigious functions as the language of the government, education, media; Nigerian etc. pidgin on the other hand is a contact language that originated in Nigeria as a result of European contact with local languages through trade transactions. it is accorded a low prestige in Nigerian because it is not officially recognized and was mostly used by speakers who could not acquire formal education.
Over the years, Nigerian pidgin has gradually gained importance because the educated Nigerians also use it in communication. Nigerian pidgin is a promoted language as well because it reflects national identity in Nigeria through its use in the propagation of national ideas, values, political and socioeconomic development peace and unity, because virtually every class and creed identify with it. Akande says Nigerian pidgin is “a maker of identity and solidarity it is an inter ethnic code available to Nigerians who have no other common language”(2008).what this means is that pidgin English with the effect it has on standard English ,stand out on it own, it plays a very important role not just in Nigeria but the world at large ,but focusing on pidgin ,in a way we can say that Nigerian pidgin is a toleration language because its existence is publicly recognized but officially ignored .in the words of Akande and Salami (2010).
Nigeria Pidgin tolerate the fact that it is publicly recognized as a language that can be used for communication but it’s not officially recognized to be used for official use as ,it can’t be used for government, education, media and other official uses .student are not allowed to use it in class and teachers do not teach it. each of the 250 or more ethnic groups in Nigeria can communicate in this language ,though they usually have their own additional words for example ,the Igbo’s added the word “ Nna”,at the beginning of some sentences to add effect to the meaning of their sentence. For example” that test was hard” becomes “Nna men that test hard no be small”. This same additional effect can be found in other language such as the Yoruba’s who normally use to add the word “se” and “abi” to their own dialect of Nigerian pidgin. such native words are often used at the start or end of an intonated sentence or question having concluded on this the neighboring country, Ghana there was emergence of student pidgin (SP) in the late 1960s and 1970s, a pidgin began to be heard in the high prestige of multi-ethnic coastal secondary schools and from there followed it speakers into the tertiary institutions. Magnus Huber suggests a clime of pidgin in Ghana a post-basic continuum and view student pidgin as the acrolectal manifestation.
Kari Dako earlier state that the essay is about a language that apparently does not exist, it was spawned about thirty years ago and has developed into an extended pidgin. using Ghana as a focus ,we reveal how students fell about pidgin English (PE) use majority of student consider pidgin English use beneficial and comfortable because it gives them a sense of belonging although they recognize that pidgin English is not standard English but unashamed speaking it .however they think it is not good enough to speak pidgin English all the time as it will distort their efficiency in standard English and also attract wrong public perception about them as poor scholars. In Ghana there are two kinds of pidgin English the “educated variety” and the “uneducated variety “Huber (1999;2004a,2004b) describes the two varieties respectively as institutionalized pidgin and non institutionalized pidgin (see osei-Tutu 2016,p 191) generally, pidgin English in Ghana ,whether educated or uneducated has been as one and the same ,and therefore perceived negatively as a result of the history pidgin English in Ghanaian society as pointed out by Ahulu (1995)and Obeng(1997) this is because pidgin English is mainly seen as an incorrect form of the English ,we go to school to learn and use it since it appears to be a strange mixture of English and other languages which are usually the local language or dialects of the speaker.
The question of pidgin English in school and university campus appears irritating and almost unthinkable for most parents ,therefore they would choose to speak English at home to their children for success .although in their respective studies Omari (2010),and Auzu and Azingor(2016) do not find any link between pidgin English use by students and poor performance in these students standard English on the other hand Huber (1999)finds pidgin English use to adversely affect standard English and Mireku-Gyimah (2014) observes that pidgin English use has the likelihood to negatively affect students standard English use .English proficiency in our universities is falling and the blame falls squarely on pidgin use by students (cited in Wiredu 2013, p. 162).
CONCLUSION
In this aspect of the research, the researcher has presented overview of related topics and ideas relevant to the topic of discourse. Research work mostly on pidgin and it effects has been carefully examined to form the body of this paper by analyzing similar works by other scholars.
By
Oluwole Taiwo Adebowale
AN INTRODUCTION
In this aspect of the thesis a review of literatures relevant to the topic is carried out. This includes work of other scholars that contains certain aspect of the topic to provide clarity also to show the stance of different scholars. It aims at the investigation of how the pidgin variety of the English Language, otherwise known as” brokin” has influenced the teaching and learning of the standard English Language in Nigeria. Having adopted the language as was introduced by the British as the lingua franca for over four decades, one and would have expected a thorough mastery of the language but the reverse is the case. It is quite obvious that the world has turned into a global village with the English language still gaining wide spread of usage, having other peculiar varieties: the Nigerian English, the American variety, the Pidgin English and the British to mention a few; which in themselves have other varieties. Relatively evident, is the fact that both students and teachers grabble to gain mastery of the standard English and this has brought about limitation in their competence and performance; the Nigerian graduate still finds himself code-switching from the standard English to pidgin ,and the may negatively affect both his spoken and written English.
Amakiri A.Igni B.(2015), claims that the” brokin” has a great effect on the teaching and learning of the standard English among students especially in Nigeria,it has different varities which has been mentioned above evidently teachers and students still find it very hard to understand the standard English.
According to the academic journals; in defense of Nigerian pidgin states that Nigerian pidgin as a contact language is currently witnessing ambivalent shift in status. As a result of diachronic development over the years, the use of Nigerian pidgin is becoming popular among many speakers. It is worthy to note that Nigerian pidgin is a term used to denote an English based pidgin ,a marginal language used to facilitate communication needs in certain interaction c context ,like any other pidgin language in other cultural climes where the language is not native to it users. Talking about Nigerian pidgin, it is a contact language that emerged from the infusion of indigenous languages and foreign language (English).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 others language. Pidgin usually combines elements of the native language of it users and is typically simpler than those native languages in so far as it has fewer words, less morphology, and more restricted range of phonological and syntactic options. Pidgin is commonly used in soap operas such as” Papa Ajasco”, “masquerade”,” village headmaster” etc based on it wide functional utilization in different strata of life ,some scholars like Elugbe and Omar(1991)have suggested that Nigerian pidgin should be used instead of continuing the search for a national language. Although Nigerian pidgin is allege for not having a generally acceptable model, the tense agreement as we have it in English is absent in the sentence below:
I am coming _______________ I dey come.
He is coming________________He dey come.
We are coming______________We dey come.
The above sentences show that, tense is not indicated whether in relation to time or agreement Gilsdorf (1974) many who teach business communication observe gradual change in standard English Jenny, English as we know change as a result of contact with other languages and through several other well-understood avenues of language evolution such as compounding, adding affixes, functional shift, coinage etc. The business public and many communicators think of Standard English as good English and English that varies from It as bad English, it is fairly easy to learn English, because the grammar of English is simpler than that of many languages.
Nigerian Pidgin English and Nigerian English are totally different, although there are occasional over laps between them. Broken English is a somewhat pejorative label used by native speakers of English to describe the often hysterical violation of the basic rules of Standard English syntax by non-native speakers of the language “.Halting” and “fluttering” are two other popular names for broken English.
I want to see you________me like see you.
The author further state that grammatical errors can’t be regarded as broken “English “on the other hand pidgin is a technical term in linguistics that refers to contact of trade ,a language that emerged from the fusion of foreign usually European, and indigenous (non European) languages ,in this infusion the European provides most of the vocabulary while the indigenous language provide the structure of the language for instance “wetin dey happen naw”the standard English equivalent of this expression would be “what is up”.
Pidgins are characterized by a simple, often anarchic and rudimentary grammatical structure, a severely limited vocabulary, and are used for the expression of really basic thought processes. The acquisition of standard English is considered one of the most import goals of formal education; when it comes to pidgin parent and the community at large frown against their children speaking it they refuse to see that pidgin is a bridge to learning the standard English. In a publication of 1920s pidgin was labeled with negative terms such as “lazy” ,”faulty””,sloppy”, ”slothful” and “ugly” (Da coup ,1999,pp,6-8) even today although there are more positive attitudes towards pidgin ,many people including teachers, administration still think of it as a deviant form of English . Terms such as broken English ,incorrect English and bad English are common and in class English speaking students are often considered not as learners of a new variety of language but as careless or lazy speakers of standard English one reason for the negative attitudes towards pidgin as opposed to other varieties is the misconception that it is haphazard that there are no grammatical rules ,and no correct or incorrect ways of speaking ,however since 1960 sociolinguistics have been showing that creoles such as pidgin are legitimate, rule governed languages that differ in systematic ways from the language, from which most of their vocabulary is derived. In Nigeria ,standard English co-exist with an English based pidgin, both language serve as a lingua franca amidst other 400 other Nigerian languages .the long existence of these two language varieties draws attention to the investigation of their mutual influence. These two languages have existed together for a long time and have been serving different purposes. English is the official language and serve prestigious functions as the language of the government, education, media; Nigerian etc. pidgin on the other hand is a contact language that originated in Nigeria as a result of European contact with local languages through trade transactions. it is accorded a low prestige in Nigerian because it is not officially recognized and was mostly used by speakers who could not acquire formal education.
Over the years, Nigerian pidgin has gradually gained importance because the educated Nigerians also use it in communication. Nigerian pidgin is a promoted language as well because it reflects national identity in Nigeria through its use in the propagation of national ideas, values, political and socioeconomic development peace and unity, because virtually every class and creed identify with it. Akande says Nigerian pidgin is “a maker of identity and solidarity it is an inter ethnic code available to Nigerians who have no other common language”(2008).what this means is that pidgin English with the effect it has on standard English ,stand out on it own, it plays a very important role not just in Nigeria but the world at large ,but focusing on pidgin ,in a way we can say that Nigerian pidgin is a toleration language because its existence is publicly recognized but officially ignored .in the words of Akande and Salami (2010).
Nigeria Pidgin tolerate the fact that it is publicly recognized as a language that can be used for communication but it’s not officially recognized to be used for official use as ,it can’t be used for government, education, media and other official uses .student are not allowed to use it in class and teachers do not teach it. each of the 250 or more ethnic groups in Nigeria can communicate in this language ,though they usually have their own additional words for example ,the Igbo’s added the word “ Nna”,at the beginning of some sentences to add effect to the meaning of their sentence. For example” that test was hard” becomes “Nna men that test hard no be small”. This same additional effect can be found in other language such as the Yoruba’s who normally use to add the word “se” and “abi” to their own dialect of Nigerian pidgin. such native words are often used at the start or end of an intonated sentence or question having concluded on this the neighboring country, Ghana there was emergence of student pidgin (SP) in the late 1960s and 1970s, a pidgin began to be heard in the high prestige of multi-ethnic coastal secondary schools and from there followed it speakers into the tertiary institutions. Magnus Huber suggests a clime of pidgin in Ghana a post-basic continuum and view student pidgin as the acrolectal manifestation.
Kari Dako earlier state that the essay is about a language that apparently does not exist, it was spawned about thirty years ago and has developed into an extended pidgin. using Ghana as a focus ,we reveal how students fell about pidgin English (PE) use majority of student consider pidgin English use beneficial and comfortable because it gives them a sense of belonging although they recognize that pidgin English is not standard English but unashamed speaking it .however they think it is not good enough to speak pidgin English all the time as it will distort their efficiency in standard English and also attract wrong public perception about them as poor scholars. In Ghana there are two kinds of pidgin English the “educated variety” and the “uneducated variety “Huber (1999;2004a,2004b) describes the two varieties respectively as institutionalized pidgin and non institutionalized pidgin (see osei-Tutu 2016,p 191) generally, pidgin English in Ghana ,whether educated or uneducated has been as one and the same ,and therefore perceived negatively as a result of the history pidgin English in Ghanaian society as pointed out by Ahulu (1995)and Obeng(1997) this is because pidgin English is mainly seen as an incorrect form of the English ,we go to school to learn and use it since it appears to be a strange mixture of English and other languages which are usually the local language or dialects of the speaker.
The question of pidgin English in school and university campus appears irritating and almost unthinkable for most parents ,therefore they would choose to speak English at home to their children for success .although in their respective studies Omari (2010),and Auzu and Azingor(2016) do not find any link between pidgin English use by students and poor performance in these students standard English on the other hand Huber (1999)finds pidgin English use to adversely affect standard English and Mireku-Gyimah (2014) observes that pidgin English use has the likelihood to negatively affect students standard English use .English proficiency in our universities is falling and the blame falls squarely on pidgin use by students (cited in Wiredu 2013, p. 162).
CONCLUSION
In this aspect of the research, the researcher has presented overview of related topics and ideas relevant to the topic of discourse. Research work mostly on pidgin and it effects has been carefully examined to form the body of this paper by analyzing similar works by other scholars.
By
Oluwole Taiwo Adebowale
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