Syntactic Variation in Nigerian English and Students achievement in english language

This paper examined the issue of syntactic variation in Nigerian English as it relates to students achievement in English language.Syntactic variation stems from the fact that no two languages are the same.The concept of Nigerian English was discussed.It was observed that when English language is not the mother tongue of the speakers who use it for communicative purpose, another variety is bound to emerge.Nigerian English has been described as being strikingly different from the standard British English variety.Characteristics of the Nigerian English were analyzed viz-a-viz the Standard British English.It was observed to be full of errors and variants.Students" achievement in English language over the years has been a cause of concern to not only the students" but to the generality of Nigerians.One may blame the failure on the interference of the mother tongue on the target language coupled with the insistence that English language exam should be marked based on the standard British English.Based on the above, one of the recommendations is that English language curriculum should be structured to include areas of syntactic variation in Nigerian English vizaviz the standard British English. I. INTRODUCTIONOne of the important functions of English language in Nigeria lies in its use as the language of education.By this we refer to it as the language of instruction in educational institutions.It is the official language of Nigerians and makes communication possible among the diverse ethnic groups in the country.Nigeria is a second language user of English language.That is, second after the mother tongue (MT).English as a second language (ESL) is used to refer to a community, which use English as their official language, even though it is not native to them, (Awonusi, 2004).Consequently, as was the case in Nigeria, English came to be used not only as the language of government but also that of education, commerce and the mass media.Thus, English language occupies a very important position in the history of Nigeria.It is the pivot in which all the facets of the society revolve.The notion of syntactic variation in Nigerian English is based on the fact that no two languages are the same.According to Quirk and Greenbaum (2000) English language developed from old English to modern English and has continued to change with time.From the geographical angle; what we call British English has variations.They also note that there are numerous varieties of the English language and what we mean by English is a common core or nucleus, which is realized only in the different forms of the language that we actually hear or read.Thus, variations exist even between the British English and the American English.Actually the notion of syntactic deviation in Nigerian English stems from the fact that a wide variety of "Englishes" are spoken in Nigeria and diversity in terms of phonology.Vocabulary and syntax are great, ranging from Pidgin English to a near approximation of standard British English (Gut 2005).The point is that every human language is subject to change and several factors responsible for this may range from geographical, educational, social and stylistic varieties.Each particular usage exhibits peculiar geographical, social or stylistic variations, which are interrelated in varying degrees.A typical example is that of Nigeria which is made up of many ethnic groups with more than 500 different Languages especially Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba, which are regarded as the major Nigerian languages.Basically, when a language such as English language is removed from its native habitat and placed elsewhere, there is always a tendency to preserve some of the characteristics of the old of the old language and absorb new one.Similarly, Meierkord (2004) also observes that another form of English emerges when speakers of different varieties interact with each other.When English is not the mother tongue of the speakers who use the language for communication purpose, another variety of the language emerges.Thus, from the geographical angle, varieties of English language have emerged among the many ethnic groups in Nigeria especially Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba.Okoro (2004) observed that geographical varieties do exist in Nigerian English and the level at which they are most manifested is phonology.One can usually tell what part of the country a Nigerian comes from by his accent when he speaks English.Jowitt (1991) supports this view when he states that the type of English spoken and written by Nigerians varies according to the level of general education attained because there is an obvious correlation

Topic: Multilingual Education and Policy
Subfield: Linguistics and Language
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences