LANGUAGE AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: CHALLENGES AND IMPEDIMENTS IN A MULTILINGUAL SOCIETY
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Human Beings are social animals and language is an instrument of the society which is acculturated into a given society. Through the instrumentality of language, man identifies and make finding about his environment.
Thus, language, in the hand of man preserves, conserves, transmits and appropriates functions and does so across space and time, thereby enabling him to overcome those physical limitations to human endeavours and achievements.
Armed with his linguistic tool, man appropriates all that others before him have acquired, persuades and convince others to his line of reasoning and action, deceives and dominates others, controls his entire environment and exploits whatever is found therein, and also achieves as much as it is within his capacity.
The problems of man's development and growth become increasingly complex and intricate when the individual is not monolingual and mono-cultural. The failure of any development programme becomes greater and more dismal when the individual has got to operate within a multilingual and multi-cultural community. It is these problems which Nigeria encounters as a result of her multilingual and multi-cultural composition that this research intends to highlight. At the end of the exercise solutions will be proffered in order to help solve the challenges we have as country.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Inspite of all efforts to unite and develop society such as Nigeria politically, economically and socially, the state remains an under developed state. This is due to her multilingual and multicultural nature. Language pluralism has generated a lot of problems in the state. Prominent among them include;
The communication gap between the various people, each sees his own language as important, thus creating an impediment to commerce and industry. A warped sense of nationhood whereby genuine unity becomes difficult due to suspicion as various ethnic groups pursue selfish and sectional interests. Picking a national language that is acceptable to the people therefore, becomes difficult.
HYPOTHESIS
The hypotheses of study are
(a) Language is a hindrance to national unity
(b) Language is an instrument for National development
(c) How is language diversity a deciding factor toward national development?
AIMS OF THE STUDY
The aim of the research is to discover the effect of linguistic plurality in a given multi-ethnic society like Nigeria, particularly in Nasarawa State where I live and the University of Abuja where I school. It also intends to prove the success or failure of any society. And if language diversity has helped in national growth and development, such as economic, social, political, religious growth, and educational advancement of mankind. The study also hopes to attempt in resolving the issue of “lingua Franca”
SCOPE AND DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The scope of the research is on the use of language to achieve national development especially in a multilingual environment which is delimited to the sociolinguistics of language and society.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The importance of this study is that it will showcase how to promote ethnic harmony among all linguistically and ethnically diverse communities in Nigeria. The study is also significant because it will contribute to many of the existing works in this regard especially for both academic and social utilization respectively. It is also significant because it will provide the picture of the issue in question from the perspective of a university community.
METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY
The methodology of the research is empirical in nature, in which the researcher intends to administer questionnaire as well as an observation within the chosen area of the study being University of Abuja, FCT
The respondents to be administered with the questionnaire are selected through single random selection method of one out of every ten respondents in the delimited areas of the research.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 INTRODUCTION
The inadequate level of attention that has often been given to the language situation in Nigeria tends to reflect on the level of general development. Nigeria is one of the countries with the largest number of indigenous languages. This situation should be seen as blessings rather than a curse. Contrary to this expectation, countries of this nature has rather turned into ethnic and religious struggles.
Considering the multilingual and cultural differences, the issue, of adopting an indigenous national language in Nigeria is described as complex in reality. The relevance of language to development of any society cannot be over emphasized.Developmentcannot be achieved in any society unless the linguistics reality of such a society is put into play.
It is evident that different languages in Nigeria coexisted in peace before the advent of the colonial masters which brought together the diverse socio-cultural, backgrounds into one fold through the amalgamation of Nigeria in 1914. This act resulted into the imposition of English language as an official language in Nigeria Adenipekun, (2010).
In reality, there are two possible reasons that neglect language issues. The first reason is that development is often conceived of in a rather narrow turn to the calculation of the Gross Domestic Product and Gross National Product and other economics metrics of income.
The consequence of this quantitative approach to development are that economic indicators are often erroneously equated with national development and societal well-being. In this narrow sense, the role of language in national development may rather be seen as a bit too marginal to be taken into reality.The second challenge is why the language issue has not featured well in Nigeria’s development discourse. This is as a result of the nature and role of language in the society which is often completely misunderstood. Probably, it may be from the irresponsible declarations of some Nigeria writers and intellectuals. However, Nigerian languages can be used for effective expressions, irrespective of the diverse cultural situation.
Contesting all these positions and challenges, this chapter therefore reviews the concept of “Multilingualism” and other concepts relevant to the topic of the research. It covers; Meaning of Language, Characteristics of Language, Strengths and Weakness of Language Diversity, National Development, National Language and Theoretical Framework.
2.2 MEANING OF LANGUAGE
Language is considered to be a system of communicating with people using sounds, symbols and words in expressing a meaning, idea or thought. Language can be used in many forms, primarily through oral and written communications as well as using expressions through body language.Manyanimals and even plant species communicate with each other. Humans are not unique in this capability.
Language is the means by which man communicates his thoughts and ideas. It is man's most efficient means of communication it is central and most integral to humanity and as AdegbijiAdesoji (1989) puts it, … “lt is the skin in which aspirations are couched, the skin of thought and the flesh of the mind.” (3) That means language as we can see, is a double edged sword capable of keeping a people together as well as tearing them apart.Languageis therefore both a uniting and disuniting force.According to Bloch Bernard and Trager George (1942) “Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group cooperates' this definition stresses the unifying function in the society. (5)
To William Labov (1968), language is the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with another by means of habitually oral auditory symbols. (158)Sapir cited in David (2008)
Language is purely human and non-instructive method of communicating ideas, emotions and thoughts by the means of the system of voluntarily produced symbols. (4)
That is, everyday use of language involves several different senses. At its most specific level, it may refer to the concrete act of speaking emotional and thought in a given situation language, however, is a distinctively human system of communication, based on oral and written symbols. It is a Pan-human development a behavoural aspect of human beings which serves as a point of differentiation from animals.
Sweet, cited in Obisakin, (1993) describes language as the expression of ideas by means of speech sounds combined into words. Words are combined into sentences. This combination answering to that of ideas into thought. (17)
Aristotle, cited in Obisakin (1993)
Language is the universal code ofcommunication that fosters exchange
and expression of thoughts feelings andideas among humans (17)
On his part, Obisakin, (1993) defines language as a mode of expression, a manner of expressing thought or feeling which make communication possible (18)
Harold (1981) sees language as the medium through which thoughts are conveyed from one person to another.
TrudgillPeter (1974) argues that:
Language is not simply a means of communicating information about the weather or any other subject It is also very important means of establishing and maintaining relationships between other people (Pp16)
Atchison cited in Yusuf (2006) describes language as
a patterned system of arbitrary sound symbols, whose characteristic features of displacement, cultural transmission, productivity and duality are rare or absent in animal communication (106)
Although, language is a means of communication yet it is not secondary to It but equally important, Kenneth Kaye, an American paediatrician views language as a vital tool for communication.
Language does not exist merely for the sakeof naming things, nor does it exist for the sake of propositions about the world. It consists of interpersonal communication about shared and sharable intentions.Communication, which is a social need, an economic requirement and a political necessity, is partly achieved through language It may be difficult to precisely communicate ideas without a vocal language, as it may be difficult to achieve development without communication. Hence language is the basis instrument for any recordable development
2.3 CHARACTERISTIC OF LANGAUGE
By characteristic of language we mean the peculiar features or properties by which language can be identified, and how language is seen as away or a medium of communication, Harold (1981) clarified the characteristics of language as follows
2.3.1 Language is a System of Speech Sound
Language is primarily a speech act. One of the basic features of all human language is vocalization that is, production of meaningful organized "noise" or sound verbalization or talking is therefore a feature of all human language. In fact, language can even be seen as "the speech of man" different from other systems of communications.
2.3.2 It is Acquiredfrom Childhood
Another important characteristic of every human language is that it is acquired as the child grows from childhood to adulthood. It is an acquired behaviour from generation to generation, in other word, language behaviours has to be acquired, although researches have proved that humans are born with innate ability to learn any language without being taught. The belief is that nobody is born with the ability to speak a particular language. For example, no child has the ability from birth to learn Hausa language.
2.3.3 Language is Dynamic
Like all other aspects of human culture, language is subject to change. Our material culture like tools, utensils, cloths, does change with time. The non-materials aspects like language will also vary from one generation to another. Change should be seen therefore as a general attributes of all language In other words, all languages are creative and openended New words come into being and some die out Thus language indeed is dynamic, this change is sometimes fast or slow, radical or superficial but it goes on all the time.
2.3.4. It is Conventional
All human languages are codified. They have a code, a kind of unspoken or unwritten public agreement by the community which uses the language that certain things should be done in certain ways. In other words, every language has grammar. Grammar here is used to mean the description of the ways in which the language uses patterns of structure to convey meaning. The essence of language is communication, that is, communication cannot take place where everybody insists on using his own arbitrary names for things, objects or ideas. Every language therefore, must have a code that is acceptable and meaningful to all users of that language.
2.3.5 It is Complex and Systematic
Every human language is complex and systematic. Every language has very complicated yet systematic multiple structures to enable it communicate infinite number of messages made up of a small number of vocal signals.
Human language is also unique in the sense that it has its own structure, its own system of organizing its component units, into a meaningful pattern. In other words, there are rules governing the organization of sentences such as rule of tense and concord.Language as a social phenomenon. Thus, it is considered in the social context as the basic ingredient of social interaction, however, the importance of communication to human has however been emphasized by American writer Paul Goodman....... "Speaking is a commitment not only to a human relationship with the one spoken to, but also to the existence of the thing spoken about.
2.4 Multilingualism (Language Diversity)
Multilingualism is taken to mean the same with language diversity. Multilingualism or language diversity is sociolinguisticallyused to describe situation where two or more languages exist within the bounds of one society.Elugbe Ben (1990) says multilingualism involves balanced, native-like command of all the languages in the repertoire is rather uncommon. It is a purely sociolinguistic and socio-cultural phenomenon in which more than one language exists in society.
The term given to the linguistic situation where two or more languages co-exist within the bounds of one society, or are kept in constant contact by politically and economically determined interest (p170-176).
In line with the above definition, Akindele Femi and Adegbite Wale (1992) see Nigeria as a typical example of a multilingual and a diverse society. According to them, Nigeria is made up of "more than 250 ethnic groups, with a conservative estimate of languages, each with its culture and behavioural pattern". Despite a recent history of tribal rivalry among some of the ethnic groups, they all continue to exist within the bounds of the country. Based on this argument they conclude that Nigeria is therefore a multilingual and multi-cultural speech community where, apart from the different indigenous languages, there are foreign languages and cultures such as English, French and even Latin (the CatholicChurch Hymns).
Since ethnic lines follow linguistic diversity, the great variety of languages in Nigeria tends to suggest that Nigeria is an assembly of ethnic nationalities.
Get Full Material
