| English has been with us for sometime. It is therefore thought that it should by now have developed characteristics which are distinctively Nigerian.; Besides, many teachers, administrators, policy makers etc. have continued to lament "the falling standard" in education generally, and in English specifically.; Moreover, having marked the West African School Certificate Examinations (1976-80), and having moderated the Nigerian Certificate in Education (1980), and The Interim Joint Admissions and Matriculations Examinations (1980), it has occurred to me that Nigerians use English language in a way which is unique. This may explain "the so-called" poor performance in the subject.; These have motivated the present study--it is intended to establish a possible Nigerian Subset of English in an ideal World contextualization.; The study is divided into seven chapters. Chapter One sets out the general aims of the study, and delineates its scope. Chapter Two discusses the problems of delimiting a 'standard Nigerian English' from amongst the "manifold varieties" that exist in Nigeria. Chapter Three looks at the theoretical issues involved in the choice of "Educated Nigerian English" as a possible model of "Standard Nigerian English" which can be used prescriptively in schools and by various Examining Bodies. It examines previous theories in sociolinguistics, contrastive and applied linguistics. It suggests the Interlanguage theory (specially, the Transitional Grammar Hypothesis)--a concept in psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics--as a veritable framework for conceptualizing language teaching and second language acquisition. Chapter Four sets out the experimental procedures adopted for the study. In Chapter Five, we present results from the analysis of our data, and we attempt some preliminary discussions of such results. Chapter Six takes up the issue of "Varieties of a standard Nigerian English." Presenting a tentative inventory of the lexicon, and a rudimentary syntax--a grammar--it argues that these form "common core features" of NE. Chapter Seven is a summary and conclusion. There are also Appendices and a Bibliography. |
