Language Teaching and Language Policy in Nigeria

Abstract

In recent years there has been renewed interest in the study of languages in Nigeria. There is no doubt that we have multiplicity of languages among different ethnic groups in Nigeria with each group guarding its language jealously, yet there has not been a separate language policy, rather the bits and fragments in the National Policy on Education (1977) revised in (1981). This paper therefore tries to examine the language situation in Nigeria, the need for the language policy that will address the national language question and the pedagogical relevance of such policy. The paper does not lose sight of the efficacy of the English language in the advancement of the nation’s technological, social, economic, educational and in facts, all round development. The language, which is being used by a large percentage of the world population, has come to stay in Nigeria. However, there is also the need to develop our local languages even though the task of evolving a national language in Nigeria is a Herculean one. The paper therefore agrees with Banjo’s suggestion of a gradualist approach since a lot of operational factors will be taken into consideration in a pluralistic nation like Nigeria.