A SURVEY OF PARENTS' PREFERENCE FOR ENGLISH IN NIGERIAN HOMES WITH LAGOS AS A SURVEY OF PARENTS' PREFERENCE FOR CASE STUDY

Abstract

L anguage is an environment. A child born and bred in a particular environment is likely to understand that environment better than another child born and raised elsewhere, and later brought to live in the environment of the first child. Following the logic of this argument, it is reasonable to conclude that the child's first language or mother-tongue is perfectly capable of influencing, to a considerable extent, his or her worldview and attitude to life. Language, then, is part of individual identity and personality, in addition to being a cultural emblem. Hence, attempts to impose a foreign language on a people usually meet with spontaneous resistance and hostility. According to Olukiran (2001:35), it amounts to enslavement if you deprive a people of their indigenous language. The Algerian situation provides a useful point of reference here. The ethnic Berbers (who constitute a third of the country's population) were once up in arms against the Algerian government, for the several years of the Arabic Language being imposed on them, since the seventh century Arab invasion. Their own language, Tamazight, was subsequently relegated to the background.