scholarly journals Globalization as a Factor for Language Endangerment: Nigerian Indigenous Languages in Focus

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (9) ◽  
pp. 521-527
Author(s):  
Sale Maikanti ◽  
Austin Chukwu ◽  
Moses Gideon Odibah ◽  
Moses Valentina Ogu
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
English Language ◽  
World View ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Native Languages ◽  
Language Endangerment ◽  
British Colony ◽  
Global Language ◽  
Major Factors

Globalization can be viewed from economic, cultural and socio-political perspectives including information and communication technology (ICT). In view of this, it is seen as the increasing empowerment of western cultural values including language, philosophy and world view. In many African countries Nigeria inclusive, English language which is the language of colonization is gradually becoming a global language due to its influence and subsequent adoption as the official language by many African nations which are largely multi-cultural and multilingual under the British colony. This trend has not only relegated the status of Nigerian Indigenous languages to the background but has also threatened their existence in Nigeria which accommodates over 500 native languages. If this trend is left unchecked, the ill-wind of globalization will gradually sweep the native languages including the so-called major ones (Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba) out of existence particularly in Nigeria. This paper discusses globalization as one of the major factors for language endangerment with respect to Nigeria as a nation, with a view to proffering possible solutions capable of sustaining and empowering the nation’s socio-cultural and economic stability.

scholarly journals Two approaches to reversing language shift and the Soviet publication program for indigenous minorities

2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 131-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolai Vakhtin
Keyword(s):  
State Policy ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
The State ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
Native Languages ◽  
Language Endangerment ◽  
Soviet State ◽  
Publication Program ◽  
Publishing Policy ◽  
Indigenous Minorities

AbstractThe present paper discusses the interplay between the Soviet state policy towards indigenous languages of "Northern Minorities" and the attitudes of the indigenous communities to their languages and to language endangerment. The author uses statistics on the Soviet state program of publishing books (primarily school books) in indigenous languages that was launched in the late 1920s and underwent considerable changes in the course of the decades to follow. It is argued that the publishing policy for all languages of indigenous minorities of the Far North followed the same consistent pattern that included several phases: "a glorious beginning" in the 1930s interrupted by the war, then a strong continuation in the 1950s, then a drop in the 1960-70s, and a resurrection in the 1980s, interrupted by the economic crisis of the early 1990s. The most interesting and the least clear period is the two and a half decades between mid-1950s and late 1970s where changes of the state policy may be connected with changes in community attitudes towards their native languages. A successful policy of language preservation and revitalization is possible only if it is supported simultaneously by the state and the indigenous community.

Potential words in English: examples from morphological processes in Nigerian English

English Today ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dare Owolabi
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
English Language ◽  
World View ◽  
Common Knowledge ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
British English ◽  
Figures Of Speech ◽  
Linguistic Family ◽  
Global Language ◽  
Local Languages

It is now common knowledge that the English language has become part of Nigeria's linguistic family, albeit as a second language that has been ‘home-grown…adapted and tamed to suit the Nigerian environment’ (Adegbija, 2004: 19). Summarizing Alamin A. Mazrui (2004), Akere (2006: 9) describes this domestication as ‘the transformation of English as an alien medium, to make it respond to local imagery, figures of speech, sound patterns and the general cultural milieu of the region’. This has been the practice of many writers where English is the colonial masters' language and is now adopted as a second language, but with ‘local colour’, as noted by Emenyonu (2006: xi). This dynamic and creative variety has helped Nigerians express their world view in a more international medium. In addition, there are more ‘pragmatic’ sub-varieties, including what Omolewa (1979: 14–15) calls ‘working English’. This is, however, different from the widespread Pidgin English, which continues to serve as the linguistic bridge across the linguistic Babel of Nigeria. While Pidgin is greatly influenced by the immediate local languages, thus making uniformity difficult to achieve, the emerging Nigerian English (henceforth NE) is not as heavily dependent on indigenous local languages. According to Igboanusi (2002: 4), ‘NE has its origin in British English, and the lexicon of NE has therefore shown a strong British influence.’ In other words, while Pidgin is common among the uneducated and spoken by the educated when necessary, NE is spoken by the educated and the level of education determines the variety of NE used by individuals. NE should be seen as an autonomous variety, showing acceptable departures from the rules of standard diction, pronunciation and grammar. The contact of English with indigenous languages in Nigeria is bound to lead to greater deviation from the standard in the future. Since Nigeria has one of the largest populations of speakers of English as a second language in the world (Akere, 2009; Jowitt, 2009), this is bound to have implications for English as a global language.

scholarly journals Islamic Habitus in English Language Textbooks Produced by Boards in Pakistan

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (101) ◽  
pp. 288-310
Author(s):  
Ashar Johnson Khokhar ◽  
Yaar Muhammad
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
English Language ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
World View ◽  
The State ◽  
Muslim Country ◽  
Public Places ◽  
Globalizing World ◽  
The Social ◽  
Global World

The textbook is an important and powerful tool used by the state to reproduce the social and cultural habits of a group, most often, of the majority group’s social and cultural imaginations. The habitus produces and instills the world-view about society, the social and cultural values that a state valorized and would like pupils to internalize and make it part of their world-view. This study analyzes the English textbook published by the state textbook boards (Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Sindh) for the academic year 2018-2019 for pupils of classes four to eight. The textbook content was analyzed using the Qualitative Content Analysis method. The content of 15 textbooks was digitized (scanned and made readable) to electronically categorized the text into categories using Nvivo 12 Plus software. The analysis revealed that the content is focused on developing and promoting Islamic habitus through stories weaved around family, making it a core component of a Muslim country. The family members practiced Islamic values, social and cultural, not only through their everyday lives at home, in school, and at other public places but also within their community through the celebration of cultural and religious festivals. The textbooks presented the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and his family’s life as an ideal life to be lead by all, whether Muslims or non-Muslims. The textbook highlighted the ‘good,’ the ‘bad,’ valorizing the former and stigmatizing the latter to encourage pupils to develop an Islamic world-view. The textbooks fail to look into the micro-level national habitus, that is, portraying the habitus of its minorities, ethnic and religious, as the content did not integrate their habitus into the national habitus of Pakistan, making it the habitus of the majority. The current fast globalizing world needed to be presented to pupils a world-view, and this required, broadening the scope of textbook content to make it reflective of true Pakistani habitus aligned and rooted in the humane global world-view.

scholarly journals THE TRANSFORMATION OF ENGLISH AS A GLOBAL LANGUAGE IN THE FUTURE

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 90
Author(s):  
Salmon Pandarangga
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Global Community ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Potential Threat ◽  
Native Languages ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
Global Language

<p align="left">Abstract: It is argued that English as a global language has some advantages to people around the world. One of the advantages is that English language is used as a tool of communication, empowerment and unification of people in the global community. In other words, English plays a very important role to unite all the people around the globe regardless their nationalities, cultural backgrounds, or races. However, for some scholars, English is seen as a potential threat to linguistic diversity in the world (Florey, 2010; Graddol, 1997; Tsuda, 2008; Phillipson, 2008). These scholars strongly believed that the dominant and powerful of English use in the global community has destroyed and killed most of the languages in the world. Some of the languages, as Florey claimed, become death languages. These scholars thus believed that English is responsible for the loss and death of thousands of minority native languages around the world. Instead of debating and taking side,  it is argued that non-native speakers will use their own English teaching materials with their own context culturally , English will share the role as a global language with other languages e.g. Arabic, Spanish, Bahasa Indonesia, Mandarin, and there will be more new and various of English (es) forms around the world. </p><p align="left"><em> </em></p><strong>Keywords:</strong><em> </em>a global language, English, communication, linguistic diversity, transformation.<em> </em>

Borrowing As A Tool To Fill The Ideological Thoughts: The Role Of Code-Mixing In An American Brat By Bapsi Sidhwa And The Escape By Qaisra Shiraz

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (II) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Native People ◽  
British Imperialism ◽  
Native Languages ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Bapsi Sidhwa ◽  
Code Mixing ◽  
Language And Literature

This research article highlights the temperament, inference, scope, and motives of code-mixing in Pakistani English works. One novel from Pakistani English novels namely, An American Brat by Bapsi Sidhwa, and one short story namely, The Escape by Qaisra Shehraz are being selected as an illustration of this reading. In this novel and short story, the writers have already dealt with the characteristics of postcolonialism. English language and literature pierced into the privileged civilizations of the sub-continent, after the end of British Imperialism. Pakistani writers in English are the best interpreter of the post-colonial communal language. In this study, I have hit upon code-mixing in English works written by Pakistani authors to a bigger echelon. These works are paragons of arts and the unbelievable mixture of rhetorical and fictitious study. In these works, the writers have not abased the confined diversities. They have tinted the value of Pakistani English in order to achieve the chatty desires of native people. These borrowings from the native languages are used to fill the lexical fissures of ideological thoughts. The reason of these borrowings is not to represent the English as a substandard assortment. Through the utilization of native words, we conclude that the significance of native languages has been tinted to question mark the dialect as well. The words of daily use also have an area of research for English people without having any substitute in English. That’s why in English literature innovative practices and ideas of code-mixing have been employed.

Borrowing As A Tool To Fill The Ideological Thoughts: The Role Of Code-Mixing In An American Brat By Bapsi Sidhwa And The Escape By Qaisra Shiraz

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Native People ◽  
British Imperialism ◽  
Native Languages ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Bapsi Sidhwa ◽  
Code Mixing ◽  
Language And Literature

This research article highlights the temperament, inference, scope, and motives of code-mixing in Pakistani English works. One novel from Pakistani English novels namely, An American Brat by Bapsi Sidhwa, and one short story namely, The Escape by Qaisra Shehraz are being selected as an illustration of this reading. In this novel and short story, the writers have already dealt with the characteristics of postcolonialism. English language and literature pierced into the privileged civilizations of the sub-continent, after the end of British Imperialism. Pakistani writers in English are the best interpreter of the post-colonial communal language. In this study, I have hit upon code-mixing in English works written by Pakistani authors to a bigger echelon. These works are paragons of arts and the unbelievable mixture of rhetorical and fictitious study. In these works, the writers have not abased the confined diversities. They have tinted the value of Pakistani English in order to achieve the chatty desires of native people. These borrowings from the native languages are used to fill the lexical fissures of ideological thoughts. The reason for these borrowings is not to represent the English as a substandard assortment. Through the utilization of native words, we conclude that the significance of native languages has been tinted to question mark the dialect as well. The words of daily use also have an area of research for English people without having any substitute in English. That’s why in English literature innovative practices and ideas of code-mixing have been employed.

Error Analysis for English Language Teachingat Primary Level

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (9) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Dr. Shreeja Sharma ◽  
Prof. Shubhra Tripathi
Keyword(s):  
Error Analysis ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Primary Level ◽  
Indian Schools ◽  
Prime Concern ◽  
School Teaching ◽  
Linguistic Code ◽  
Global Language

The prime concern of every language teacher, and to some extent every linguist, is to device pedagogical methods and strategies which facilitate language acquisition. The concern of any teacher or applied linguist is, though not explicitly stated anywhere, to equip the learners with “correct” features of the language being learnt. Emphasis on “correctness” is due to the presumption that erroneous structures or deviations from linguistic code will lead to incomprehensibility and impediment in communication.As a result of such convictionsContrastive Analysis (CA) and Error Analysis (EA) focussed their attention on “correct” grammatical, lexical and syntactical features of Target Language (TL), in this case English.Both  Contrastive Analysts and Error Analysts analysed the language and tried to predict areas of ease or difficulty. This was often achieved with ‘some’ degree of success. However, in the present socio-educational milieu of Indian schools, where English language teaching is a significant stake, insights from CA and EA, particularly the latter, are either not taken into cognizance, or found inadequate. CA is taken into consideration, though obliquely, indirectly and cursorily, where English language is taught resorting to bilingualism. EA is usually ignored completely. Even when teachers correct students’ assignments and copies, they point out mistakes/errors, suggest corrections, but neither take into account why these mistakes/errors have occurred, nor how to prevent such cases in future. With the ever growing importance of English as a global language and a second language in India, no stakeholder in education can afford to undermine the significance of ELT.The time is therefore ripe to take a fresh look at Error Analysis (EA) and assess how it can be deployed as a powerful tool in school teaching.

Impact of Social Media on English Language: A Review

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
Dr. Neha Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
English Language ◽  
Major Influence ◽  
International Level ◽  
Class Society ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Media ◽  
Subsequent Rise

Language being a potent vehicle of transmitting cultural values, norms and beliefs remains a central factor in determining the status of any nation. India is a multilingual country which tends to encourage people to use English at national and international level. Basically English in India owes its presence to the British but its subsequent rise is not fully attributable to the British. It has now become the language of wider communication which is now spoken by large number of people all over the world. It is influenced by many factors such as class, society, developments in science and technology etc. However the major influence on English language is and has been the media.

Creative Reconstruction: A Systematic Approach to Reinventing Large Cities in Democratic Republic of Congo

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1485-1497
Author(s):  
Mia Nsokimieno Misilu Eric
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
Mineral Resources ◽  
Capital City ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Republic Of Congo ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Current State ◽  
Legacy Cities

The current state of large cities in Democratic Republic of Congo highlights the necessity of reinventing cities. More than fifty years after the independence, these major cities, like Kinshasa the capital city, are in a state of are in a state of disrepair. They are damaged, dysfunctional, and more vulnerable. Today, these legacy cities do not meet the international requirements of livable cities. Democratic Republic of Congo faces the challenge of rebuilding its cities for sustainability. The movement for independence of African countries enabled the shift from colonial cities to legacy cities. It is important to understand the cultural and ideological foundations of colonial city. Commonly, colonial cities served as purpose-built settlements for the extraction and transport of mineral resources toward Europe. What's required is a creative reconstruction to achieve a desired successful urban change. Creative reconstruction tends to ensure urban transformation in relation with urbanization, by making continuous and healthy communities. Creative reconstruction seems appropriate way of building back cities in harmony with cultural values. The article provides a framework for urban regeneration. The study is based on principle of thinking globally and acting locally in building back better cities.

Rater variation in pragmatic assessment: The impact of the linguistic background on peer-assessment and self-assessment

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-85
Author(s):  
Sunni L. Sonnenburg-Winkler ◽  
Zohreh R. Eslami ◽  
Ali Derakhshan
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
English Language ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Peer Assessment ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Native Languages ◽  
Social Rules ◽  
Language Background ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe present study investigates variability among raters from different linguistic backgrounds, who evaluated the pragmatic performance of English language learners with varying native languages (L1s) by using both self- and peer-assessments. To this end, written discourse completion task (WDCT) samples of requesting speech acts from 10 participants were collected. Thereafter, the participants were asked to assess their peers’ WDCTs before assessing their own samples using the same rating scale. The raters were further asked to provide an explanation for their rating decisions. Findings indicate that there may indeed be a link between a rater’s language background and their scoring patterns, although the results regarding peer- and self-assessment are mixed. There are both similarities and differences in the participants’ use of pragmatic norms and social rules in evaluating appropriateness.

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