The Impact of Pidgin English on Students Competence in Nigeria University

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

The term pidgin is used to refer to a language which develops in a situation where speakers of different languages have a need to communicate but do not share a common language. Once a pidgin has emerged, it is generally learned as a second language and used for communication among people who speak different languages.

Language is the most creative and unlimited instrument for social communication and it helps us to understand the deep seated social relevance, culture involvement and the human relatedness of language. Having said this, we can therefore agree that pidgin is a language of its own and not just a supplementary tongue as some people see it, since it serves as an unlimited instrument of social communication especially in a multilingual society like Nigeria.

Linton (1982) states that “the culture of a society is the way of life of its members, the collection of ideas and habits which they learn, share and transmit from generation to generation”. These cultures, ideas and habits can only be transmitted from generation to generation through language. In Linguistics, every language is considered adequate to represent the communicative needs of its people as such should not be made to suffer any biases.

This cannot be said of Nigerian Pidgin – even though it is a language because various attempts have been made by different factions to eradicate the use of Nigerian Pidgin English. These attempts have however been unsuccessful because of the significant value the language has to its users. It is a language that has brought people together in spite of their differences in ancestral culture and language by creating a local culture for itself which blends ideas from different cultures.

Moreover, this use of Pidgin as a lingua Franca affects many Nigerians in academic careers, especially, those students that come from the environments where it is spoken.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

It is very pertinent to note that what actually started as an “emergency language” between the white merchants, to ease communication with the natives has now become “an elitist campus language” spoken among the teeming population of the Nigerian students in higher institutions of learning, thereby overlapping the standard English to such an extent that the students’ competence is impaired.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This Study is important because its results can go a long way in finding out the causes of students’ competence. This work will in no doubt contribute to one’s knowledge, especially in the Department of English, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto as it will highlight some issues in relation to written English. It will be a guide for the effective educational system.

AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

This research is carried out to examine the effect of Pidgin English on students’ competence. It is a fact that students deviate from the norms of codified English in most of their essays and communications.

The following are the set of objectives to be achieved

a. To show the impact of Nigerian Pidgin in a University Community; using 300 level students of MELL

b. To assess the extent of its popularity and the communicative situation within which it is used.