Category: ENGLISH AND LINGUISTIC PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS
English and Linguistics project topics and materials for undergraduate and post graduate students. Research project paper, seminar topics, proposals, titles, ideas and materials are available for dissertation, thesis and essay in English and Linguistics department. Find below the list of research project topics for Bsc, Msc and Phd English and Linguistics students.
In the words of our eminent African novelist, Chinua Achebe:
The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmark of true leadership (The Trouble With Nigeria, 1).
Without doubt, this perfect observation by Chinua Achebe, arguably one of the world’s most erudite literary scholars and social commentators, captures the cankerworm that has consistently plagued the Nigerian and, indeed, the African political landscape since the various countries got their independence from colonial rule. Ours is a continent with a teeming and resourceful population, abundant natural, agricultural and mineral resources, yet mired by misrule and glaring mismanagement.
In fact, leadership, in all its ramifications, has actually been the bane of our collective existence, such that today, most African countries are reference points of tyranny, oppression, power mongering, official corruption, electoral malfeasance, intolerance, victimisation, betrayal, sabotage, exploitation, ritual/wanton killings, and all kinds of humiliation and human degradation of the citizenry, especially the poor masses and those who advocate a functional model of society. Thus, everywhere in the post-independence African society, there is oppression, hunger and starvation, and the looming shadows of unmitigated greed and egregious ostentation in the face of crushing poverty, tyranny, betrayal and alarming insecurity have reduced Africa to everyone-for-himself and God-for-us-all society.
There are loud grumblings about the yawning gap between the rich and the poor. Serial failure of leadership has crippled the continent on the race-track of global competition for development. Unfortunately, there is conspiratorial silence on what is to be done with power so as to make the conditions of the vast majority of the people better, especially in the search for an egalitarian society, a society where resources are evenly distributed. The leadership class has not thought it wise to woo the masses—the oppressed, the deprived, the exploited, the wretched of the earth—on the strength and conviction of their vision for their societies to be optimistic of a better future.
To them, the African people should be quite easily exploited and oppressed, as the whites did to them under colonialism. Power failure, oppression, exploitation, indifference, betrayal of hope, bad roads, poor healthcare, inadequate housing, declining standards of education, massive unemployment, corruption, disillusionment, lack of basic necessities, safety, etc. have become the bane of the continent. In fact, this systemic rot is an urgent reminder of things to do in post-independence Africa. And the very first things to do are to change the way we have been doing things.
The African novel from this time on acquires a revolutionary ardour that aims to enthrone just and egalitarian system in place of the current inefficient and parasitic structures. But as Chidi Amuta states, there is a consciousness on the need for drastic social changes, differing and conflicting views have arisen on the kind of ideological base on which the emergent society should be launched. While some novelists seek social change in the idealistic resurrection of some traditional African social systems, others turn to socialism (169). The position of the first group is attributable to a non-dialectical understanding of historical and social process. They tend to regard revolution in the idealistic terms of Frederick Engels noted in Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, as inventing a new and more perfect social order” (52). For the other group, however, revolution revolves around the overthrow of the existent capitalist mode of production for a socialist mode, thereby effecting a change in the relations of production.
Even though these novelists are pursuing similar ideologies, they are from different nationalities and social backgrounds. While Habila and Ojaide are Nigerians, Ngugi wa Thiong’o is from Kenya. Of course, the differences in backgrounds have contributed to fashioning out their different approaches.
This project is an attempt to study some of the semantic redundancies found in students’ speech. This is with a view to identify some long observed peculiarities in the use of redundancy in the students’ use of English.
In the context of language studies, semantics occupies the end continuum. Semantics is at the top level because it deals with communication and interpretation. The major problem is with the definition of the subject simply as the study of meaning. Meaning is the target/goal in language. In whatever we do, we try to get meaning. The challenge is trying to find the meaning of meaning itself Ogden and Richard (1923) said the major problem in semantics is trying to control “what is meaning”.
This project work is concerned with the repetitions made by students while speaking.
However, any issue raised here would be considerably discussed and illustrated with adequate examples. Thus the findings of this work will on the other hand add to the existing literature(s) on semantic redundancy as a localized contribution to knowledge.
1.1 AIM AND OBJECTIVES
The aim of this project is to identify and analyze the features of redundancy in the speech of students of the Department of Mathematics of the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto.
The specific objectives of this project are to:
i. Determine the linguistic motivation for redundancy.
ii. Establish a clear demarcation between samples of data taken and their Standard English version.
1.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The importance of clarity and correctness in communication cannot be over emphasized. Therefore, this work on semantic redundancy is desirable because it provides some insights into the prevalence of redundancy in the verbal interaction of the students selected as the subject of the project. More so, the findings of this work will not only contribute to the existing literature on semantic redundancy, but would help anyone who goes through this work to avoid tautology in their speech.
The theme of this study
aims at finding out the effects of mother tongue interference in the learning
of English language in some selected secondary schools in Ilorin west local
government of Kwara State.
English is an
international, global and a universal language. It is generally refers to as
second language (English). It is the official and native language of Britain,
Ireland, North America, Australia, and most of the British Colonies especially
Nigeria which makes it our second language.
Mother tongue is one’s
native language and we have many native languages in Nigeria. Everyone has
mother tongue influence (MTI) in the use of sounds when speaking or
interacting.
Hence, our respective
mother tongue exists before colonization. This has necessitated the teaching
and learning of the English language and its consequent inference of our mother
tongue in various schools in Nigeria. It is therefore, glaring to state that,
Nigeria is a linguistically complex nation by the mere fact of the history of its
creation. It is estimated that there are about over 400 languages spoken in
Nigeria.
This linguistic
heterogeneity promotes the continued use of English language in Nigeria since
the role of English language in Nigeria is diverse and ubiquitous, especially
as a means of intra and international communication. It is as a result of the
negative effects which the mother tongue has caused in the learning of English
language in the educational structure and the attempt to determine the effect
of the use of mother tongue in the teaching and learning process in secondary
schools.
English words used must
be simple so that it can be reached to people easily as well as easily
understood by everyone. Nowadays English is being taught to students in
secondary schools. Students are strictly made to speak in English when they are
in the school premises. English is a trade language between various tribes in
Nigeria.
Mother tongue disrupts
the smoothness of communication as students with no confidence tend to use
mother tongue instead of English. Many students from different tribes cannot
pronounce many words correctly as an English native speaker will do e.g.
measure, pleasure, treasure, support, college, bus, school etc.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Before the advent of
British traders, missionaries and colonialists, indigenous Nigerian language
defined every aspect of speech within the community from religious, cultural,
political, economic and social function effectively to deal with everything
relating to the day existence of the people.
New sets of ideas,
concepts and values were introduced to the system where indigenous local
language had previously been self-sufficient rendering them inadequate to deal
with the new concepts introduced by the British, particularly in our secondary
schools.
The effect of mother tongue
interference in the learning of English language in schools.
The following problems are
identified when teaching English as a second language.
Problems
of mother-tongue interference arise the second language learner use the mother
tongue (native language) speaker’s acquisition of the English articles.
Encounter
problems in sentence and word stresses, vowel sounds, and English supra
segmental of pitch.
Problem
of pronunciation.
When a
learner makes use of some linguistic items in the mother tongue to replace
difficult words in the target language.
1.3 SIGNIFICANCE
OF STUDY.
The
significance of study will help to expose numerous factors that influence the
interference of mother tongue in the learning of English language.
The
study will identify the effects of this interference on the academic
performance of students in English language in external examinations.
The
study will enable teachers to identify their problems in the teaching of
English language.
It will
enable students to understand how to make use of English words especially
pronunciation, intonation, and phonology.
This
piece of work could equally be of immense help for those wishing to go into
more research in the area of study. The results of findings in this work will
be of great importance to provide necessary information to teachers and
education planners on how to help the students improve on their pronunciation
at the early stages of learning the second language.
It will
also ease the teachers’ method of teaching.
1.4 PURPOSE
OF THE STUDY.
To find
out the level at which mother tongue can interfere in the learning of English
language in senior secondary schools.
To
investigate the qualifications of English teachers in secondary schools in Ilorin
west of Kwara State.
To know
the teaching methods used by teachers in the teaching of English language in
secondary schools.
1.5 RESERCH
QUESTIONS
Does
mother tongue actually interfere in the learning of English language in
secondary schools?
Does English
language teachers uses correct teaching methods?
Do you
have qualified English teachers in your schools?
How can
you overcome mother tongue influence?
Does the
phonology of mother tongue affect the learning of English language in secondary
schools?
1.6 THE
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The study covers four
selected secondary schools in Ilorin west LGA of Kwara State.
The schools are:
Government
Girls Day Secondary School. Oko- Erin.
Queen
Elizabeth Secondary School. Ilorin.
Government
Day Secondary School. Oke-Aluko.
Government
Day Secondary School. Odo-okun.
The study is restricted to SSS1-3 in the
selected school and their continuous assessment and summative examinations of
schools such as WASSCE and NECO Senior School Certificate Examination in
English language (2015-2016).
1.7 DEFINITION
OF TERMS.
The following terms are
operationally defined as used in this research work.
This will go a long way giving direction to the work.
MOTHER-TONGUE: it is the native language one first learns
to speak before other language. It is the language a person learned as a child
at home usually from their parents. The children growing up in a bilingual
environment can have more than one mother tongue or native language. Mother
tongue refers to the language a person learns to speak first in life.
INTERFERTENCE: refers the influence of one language or
variety on another in the speech of bilinguals who use both languages.
BILINGUAL: is that person who has the ability to function in two languages.
Bloom field identified the bilingual as somebody with nature-like control of
two languages.
LINGUISTIC: is concerned with the structure of language which is subdivided into
subfields i.e. phonetics, phonology, and morphology. Syntactical and lexical.
HETEROGENEITY: consist of many different kinds of people or
things.
ETHNOLOGIC: is the branch of anthropology that analyses and compares human
cultures, as in social structure, language, religion and technology.
SECONDLANGUAGE: refers to the language a person learns in
addition to his first or native language. Encyclopedia defines second language
as any language whose acquisition starts after early childhood.
A second language (SL) is a non-native
language that is widely used for purposes of communication, usually as a medium
of education, government or business. English is the second language in
Nigeria.
LANGUAGE: is considered to be a system of communicating with other people using sounds, symbols and words in expressing a meaning, idea, or thought. This language can be used in many forms primarily through oral and written communications as well as using expressions through body language. Language remains the most common medium for the communication of ideas, feelings, requests, criticisms and needs.
PHONETICS; it investigates the whole articulating or audial system of language. It describes variants of pronunciation that occurs in different types of speech.
THE EFFECTS OF MOTHER TONGUE INTERFERENCE IN THE LEARNING OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN SOME SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ILORIN WEST LOCAL GOVERNMENT OF KWARA STATE
Inclusion
is an educational approach and philosophy that provides all students with community
membership, greater opportunities for academic and social achievement.
Inclusion is about making sure that each and every student feels welcome and
that their unique needs and learning styles are attended to and valued.
Inclusive education happens when children with or without disabilities
participate and learn together in the classes. Inclusive education is about
children with disabilities, whether the disability is mild or severe, hidden or
obvious, participating in everyday learning activities with the able children,
lust like they would if their disability were not present.
Inclusive
education is a child’s right, not a privilege, under this programme, all
children with non-disabled children of their own age and have access to the
general education curriculum. Including classroom practice is about making sure
that children are taught in ways that suits their needs. Inclusive education
has been adapted by a number of countries since recognition by the United
Nations in 1994.
Teachers
are the key implementers of the inclusive education programmes in the schools
in which children with special needs can be accommodated and provided equal
learning opportunities and support to meet their potential. But many teachers
claimed not knowing about inclusive education. They think children with special
needs, especially with disabilities have no place in regular schools. It was
established that special education (segregation/ isolation) was for children
with disabilities and specially trained teachers teach and cater for them.
Therefore, this research intends to investigate the teachers’ perception, most
especially the English Language of the inclusive education in the Universal
Basic Education in Kwara State.
Nigeria
adopted the policy of inclusion in her National policy on Education in 1998.The
policy stipulates the integration of special needs students into regular
classrooms and free education for exceptional students at all levels. In
practice however, not all states of the federation has started the implementation
of the policy. The benefits of inclusive education are numerous for both
students with and without disabilities. Such as meaningful friendships,
increase social relationships and network etc.
It also
needs to be noted that empirical evidence of research shows that not all
teachers are enthusiastic about inclusive education, for instance, Bothma, Gravette
and Swart (2000, pp. 201-202) conducted a study to explore the attitudes of
primary school teachers towards inclusive education. Their findings revealed
that teachers have a negative attitude towards inclusive education. Those who
participated in the study believed that learners with special needs can be
better served in special schools or classes by specialist teachers. This
skeptical attitude of teachers could be suggestive of the opinions and belief
that they have about their teaching experiences and efficacy. The belief are
based on the filet that teachers have tried and tested methods that have been
working well for them year after year and it is on the bases of these methods
that their teaching is meaningful to them. Inclusive education on the other
hand unsettles their minds because it is theoretically good but lacks clear
practical activities that are expected to happen in actual teaching. Vaughn and
Schumm (1995, p. 264) contend that there is little empirical documented
evidence that exists for the effect of fully inclusive programmes of learners
who have high incidence of learning disabilities.
The
uncertainty of teachers about the positive outcome of inclusive education is
not unique to South Africa In Western Australia, for instance, Forlin (1998,
pp. 98-99) conducted a study entitled, Teachers’
Personal Concerns about Including Children with a Disability in Regular Classrooms,
and the results showed that teachers were concerned about high expectations for
them to be accountable for all children in their classrooms as well as to
provide quality education equally for learners with special needs. The study
further revealed that regular class teachers were concerned about their own
efficacy and knowledge-base if they were to be involved in inclusive education.
They believed that they were not well prepared to cope with additional special
needs of a child with disability if placed in their classrooms. In another
study conducted in the south-eastern United State entitled, Teachers’ Views of Inclusion,
Vaughn, School, Jallad, Slusher and Saumell (1996, pp.104-105) found that
teachers who have not experienced firsthand positive aspects of inclusion
models that provide adequate support programmes for teachers did not have
positive view of inclusion and furthermore they were concerned that educational
and social needs of students with and without disabilities would not be met in
general education classroom despite the best effort of teachers and the good
intention of those who have advocated for those programmes. They also perceived
that with inclusion there will be demands to meet the needs of learners with
special needs and to potentially co-teach and co-plan with other educational
specialists.
In order
for inclusion to work in practice, teachers in regular schools in Nigeria must
accept its philosophies and demands. According to Salend and Duhaney (1999), educators
have varying attitudes towards inclusion, their responses being shaped by a
range of variables such as their success in implementing inclusion, student
characteristics, training and levels of support. Some studies reported positive
outcomes for general teachers, including increased skills in meeting the needs
of all their students and developing an increased confidence in their teaching
ability. Negative outcomes included the fear that the education of non-disabled
children might suffer and the lack of funds to support instructional needs. For
special educators, the benefits included an increased feeling of being an
integral part of the school community and the opportunity to work with students
without disabilities.
It is
observed from the literature that available studies on inclusive education have
sighed away from including variables such as influence of gender, i.e. whether
or not the male teachers have better perception than their female counterpart;
similarly. Qualification, in terms of whether or not there is variation in the
teachers’ perception based on their qualification and the years of experience
in teaching. It is on this note that this current study intends to focus on
these variables in terms of determining whether they can influence teachers’
perception of inclusive education.
1.1 Statement of the Problem
Education
situation, according to Gunter (1990, P.34), is an inter-subjective relation of
mutual appeal and response which needs the correct and true cognitive attitude
of an educator towards the learner to be the person-attitude not observer
attitude. In view of this contention, therefore, the implementation of new
policy of inclusive education needs to be accepted by all people involved,
especially teachers who are expected to be the implementing agents. They need
to take ownership and have inter-subjective relation of mutual appeal with
learners with special educational needs. Given the nature of attitudes that
teachers hold towards inclusion in studies referred to above its success is
facing a tremendous challenge. Engelbrecht and Forlin, (Pp. 8-9), for instance,
contend that introduction of inclusion raises suspicion and conflict among
teachers, and its success rests on the ability of the process of implementation
not to alienate or threaten, but to meet teachers and students where they are
and responding to their needs in a supportive way. It also needs to be
considered that if inclusion is intended to provide quality education for all leaner’s
irrespective of their abilities, inclusive practices alone do not necessarily
lead to quality of educational opportunity instead it may constitute a great
educational inequality if educators are not accepting of and support with the
implementation (Forlin, Douglas & Hattie, 1996, p.l3O). Inclusive education
is not new but has not been practiced in the Nigerian schools, most especially
secondary schools over the years.
Literature
has revealed limited studies on inclusive education in the Nigerian secondary
school education context. For instance, Ajuwon (2008) examined inclusive
education for students with disabilities in Nigeria by considering its benefits
and challenges together with the policy implication. The author used a
theoretical approach at the expense of empirical investigation. So also
Fakolade, Adeniyi and Tella (2009) explored the attitudes of teachers about
inclusion of special needs children in their secondary schools in general
education. ‘The findings revealed that the female teachers have more positive
attitude towards the inclusion of special needs students than their male
counterparts. Mba (1991) carried out a study on the attitude of teachers towards
the inclusion of hard-of-hearing students in general education classroom; it
was revealed that the attitude of teachers indicated hesitancy of the teachers
to accept the hard-of-hearing unless the communication barrier was obviated.
The current study is different from this one because it focus on inclusive
education in general which the former focused on a specific special group i.e.
the hard-of-hearing students. Also, Ogbue (1995) reported an interview
conducted in Lagos State on the issue of inclusion of special need children in
general education classroom, The findings revealed that out of the 200 regular
primary school teachers interviewed, 60% of them rejected inclusion, while 35%
indicated they would want inclusion provided they were adequately trained. The
remaining 5% were undecided. This study is also different from the current one
in view of the fact that it focused on the acceptance or otherwise of the
inclusive education by the teachers. Looking at these studies all together,
only Fakolade et al. study seem to be a bit related in terms of focusing on
gender which is just one of the variables focused in the current study.
Therefore, including variables such as gender. Qualification and teaching
experience in other to determine whether or not the influence perception on inclusive
education by the English teachers is germane.
1.2. Purpose of the Study
The
purpose of this study is to determine the English language teachers’ perception
of Inclusive education in the Universal Basic Education in Kwara State. In view
of this, the research tends to investigate:
The difference between male and female English language teachers’ perception of inclusive education in the universal Basic Education.
The difference between rural and urban English language teachers’ perception of inclusive education in the Universal Basic Education.
The difference between special education teachers and mainstream teachers’ perception of inclusive education in the Universal Basic Education.
The difference of English Language teachers’ perception of inclusive education in the Universal Basic Education based on years of experience.
The difference between qualified and un-qualified English language teachers’ perception of inclusive education in Universal Basic Education.
There is no significant difference in the perception of the
qualified and non-qualified English language teachers on inclusive education in
the Universal Basic Education.
There is no significant difference in the perception of the
experienced and less experienced English language teachers on the inclusive
education in the Universal Basic Education in Kwara state.
1.5 Scope of the Study
This study will be limited to the universal basic education secondary schools in Ilorin west Local Government Area of Kwara State. All the English Language teachers in the secondary schools that would be randomly selected shall be participants. The study would focus on the English language teachers’ perception of inclusive education in the Universal Basic Education using the teachers’ gender, qualification, experience and location as independent variables of the study. A researcher-designed questionnaire would be used to collect data from the respondents. The data obtained would be analyzed using percentages and the chi-square.
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Political corruption is the use of power by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality is considered political corruption. Most economic political and social problems in under developed societies like Nigeria emanate from corruption. Some of these problems include lack of accountability, diversion of public resources to private ownership, different types of discriminations, ethnicity. Lack of competence, inefficiency etc. There are many causes of political corruption such as ineffective political processes, ineffective political financing, and poverty. Ethnic and religious difference. A lot of secrecy still pervades government document and this underlies the need for the passage of the freedom of information bill presently before Nigeria‟s National Assembly, also law public participation in Government to mention a few. The pervasive corrupt practices have been blamed on the colonial masters. According to this view, the nation‟s colonial history may have restricted any early influences in an ethical revolution. 10 Throughout the colonial period most Nigerians were struck in Ignorance and poverty. The level of corruption raised serious alarm that attracted the concern of both Nigerians and international community which rated Nigeria as one of the most corrupt countries. Although, the government embarked upon anti-corruption measures but were not sincerely and properly implemented such that the expected objective and goal were not achieved. The problem was rather aggravated. Since then, corruption has continued to militate against national development. In Nigeria corruption is a problem that has to be rooted out. Owusi (2002), however in his book, The Root Causes of Corruption in West Africa, was of the view that; Corruption is made up of opportunist manipulation or branches of existing laws and regulation for advantages. He emphasized that; Our inordinate desire for wealth, power prestige and high status and its desirous consumption of scarce, expensive and prestigious import commodities is no doubt one of the roads to corruption in the society”. 11 Over the years, the country has seen its wealth withered with little to show in living conditions of the average people. As with many other African nations, Nigeria was an artificial structure initiated by former colonial powers which had neglected to consider religious linguistic and ethnic differences. The causes of Nigeria Civil War were diverse although, in his memoir, journalist Alex Mitchell blames involvement of the British, Dutch, French and Italian oil companies whose battles for the rich Nigerian oil fields started the Civil War and kept it going. Nigerian‟s political problems also started from the manner in which the British took over power, administered and abandoned government and people of Nigeria. The British administrators did not make effort to weld the country together and unite the heterogenous group of people. Though many technologies we have today are due to their enlightenment. Northern leaders however, fear that independence would mean political and economic domination by the more westernized elites in the south, preferred the perpetuation of British rule. As a condition for accepting independence, they demanded that the country continue to be divided into three regions with the North having a clear majority. 12 On January 15, 1966, major Kaduna Nzeogwu and other junior Army officers (mostly majors and captains) attempted a coup d‟etat. It was generally speculated that the coup had been initiated by the Igbo and for their own primary benefit, because of the ethnicity of those that were killed. The two major political leaders of the North, the Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and the Premier of the Northern region, Sir Ahmadu Bello was executed by major Nzeogwu. Also murdered was Sir Ahmadu Bello‟s wife The coup was not only generally carried out in the Northern region, it was most successful there. The fact that the officer, Lieutenant Connell. Arthur Umegbe was killed can be attributed to the more fact that the officers in charge of implementing Nzeogwu‟s plans in the East were incompetent. The coup, also referred to as the coup of the five majors, has been described in some quarters as Nigeria‟s only revolutionary coup. This was the first coup in the short life of Nigeria‟s nascent democracy. Claims of electoral fraud was one of the reasons given by the coup plotters. This coup resulted in General Johnson Aguyi-Ironsi, an Igbo and Head of the Nigerian Army, taking power as General becoming the first Military Head of State in Nigeria. 13 By the late 1960s the literature of disillusionment was taking form as a reflection of the widespread violent conflict and political corruption which had began to take hold throughout African societies. Such conflicts inevitably threw the nationalist project into turnoil: how can one speak of a nation or even Pan-African identity when a national is at war with itself? In terms of the novel as genre, Gikandi states that in the mid-1960s the form and function of the novel changed almost overnight, moving the reader away from the sometimes celebratory and utopian tone of earlier novels to a grim critique of the narrative of cultural nationalism. This was a generation of writers who are consciously distancing themselves from the project of cultural nationalism. This interventionist reading of the contemporary problems regarding ethnic conflict in Africa is one that is shared by writers as diverse as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Ngugi Wa Thion‟o. Discussing Nigeria Adichie takes the view that the idea of the tribe has, its roots in colonialism as people did not consciously identify themselves as Igbo, Yoruba or Hausa until the involvement of the British. The British governed Nigeria indirectly through their traditional rulers, as a result the true leader of the masses were hamstrung and held down. Just because Africans were given authority to rule over her own 14 people. They saw it as means to maltreat those that have more than them and sell his or her brother and sister, mother to gain favour from the superior leaders. The British (Adewale Ademoyeya:why we Struck). These actions by the local and foreign leaders made the people to seek for independence. Many of them were not thinking straight anymore. The present leadership blame the colonial masters and fore runners of independence for their actions for not doing what is expected of them and also for the embezzlement and stealing of public fund. The political elicits in other to become rich and influential in the society, steal and blame it on the economy and leaders. No one takes responsibility for his own crime and actions. The politicians and military rulers blame one another for a bad government no one agrees that the other is better than himself. Emeka Nwabueze is of the opinion that, the question is not weather we should wage war against corruption or not, my quarrel is that the fight should be waged within the context of the constitution. Several opinions hold that Nigerian political and economic underdevelopment since independence has been as a result of pervasive 15 corrupt practices in both private and public fields: Nepotism which means favouratism granted in politics or business to relatives regardless of merit. Bribery which is an act of giving money or gift giving that alters the behaviour of the recipient. Political Scandal is a kind of political corruption that is exposed and becomes a scandal, in which politicians or government officials are accused of engaging in various illegal, corrupt or unethical practices. Electoral Fraud is the illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud affect vote counts to bring about an election result whether by increasing the vote share of the rival candidates, or both. Embezzlement, abuse of office etc. Arnold saw corruption as receiving or offering of money or other advantages in return for contract, acquiring an opportunity, unqualified favor, pervasion of Justice, leading ahead of a queue and the likes. He saw corruption as poverty in juxtaposition to great wealth and luxury or crook in order to live big. A symbol is an object that represents, stands for or suggests an idea, belief, action, or material entity. Symbols take the form of words, sounds gestures or visual images and are used to convey ideas and beliefs. 16 It‟s also a sign, shape or object which is used to represent something else. Symbol is seen in every culture, religion and society. This makes symbol universally acceptable in the sense that it does not exist in one society and is absent in another. There are cultural and religious symbols. Cultural symbols are seen in language, traditional attire, and tribal marks, sacred objects of ancestral qualities; like “ofo” in Igbo culture as the communion of the ancestors. In Igbo culture, grey hair is a symbol of old age and should attain contesy and respect, proverb also in Igbo society are symbolic because they are embodiment of wisdom and tradition.
This study is a stylistic analysis of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie‟s novel Half Of A Yellow Sun, which comprises four parts with a total number of 37 chapters and 433 pages. The aim of this study is to identify the predominant stylistic devices used by the author in the novel and the effects achieved by using them. To achieve this aim, the researcher uses quantitative stylistic analysis which entails the counting and writing down the number of times each device occurs in the selected chapters of the novel. Review of related literature is also done. The researcher chooses this study because Half Of A Yellow Sun is Chimamanda‟s second and most voluminous novel; it is also an award winning novel and not much has been done on the stylistic analysis of the novel. 24 chapters are selected out of the 37 chapters and tables are used to represent the frequency of occurrence of the predominant stylistic devices used in the novel. Random selection sampling was used in parts two and four respectively to select six chapters from each while part one and part three are selected because they have six chapters each and need no random sampling. At the end, the predominant devices found out to be used by Chimamanda are Compound sentences followed by Compound complex sentences, Parenthetical expression, Italics, Transliteration and Code-mixing. It is then recommended that other young writers should adopt Chimamanda‟s style since the aim of studying style is to improve the vigour of one‟s writing. viii
TABLE OF CONTENT Title Page i Certification ii Approval Page iii Dedication iv Acknowledgements v Abstract vi Table of contents vii CHAPTER ONE Introduction 1.1 Background of study 1 1.2 Statement of problem 5 1.3 Objective of study 5 1.4 Significance of study 5 1.5 Scope of the study 6 1.6 Research Methodology 6 CHAPTER TWO Review of Literature 2.1 Origin of Stylistics 8 2.2 Scope of Stylistics 9 2.3 Goal of Stylistics 11 2.4 The importance of Stylistics 12 ix 2.5 Meaning of stylistics and style 14 2.6 Linguistics features of style 30 2.7 Review of some works on Stylistic Analysis 35 2.8 Other researches done on Chimamanda Adichie‟s works 36 2.9 What other critics have said about Chimamada Ngozi Adichie 38 CHAPTER THREE Research Methodology 3.1 Introduction 40 3.2 Research Design 40 3.3 The Population for the Study 41 3.4 Sampling procedure 42 CHAPTER FOUR Data Presentation and Textual Analysis 4.1 Introduction 43 4.2 Part One – The Early Sixties 43 4.3 Part Two – The Late Sixties 45 4.4 Part Three – The Early Sixties 47 4.5 Part Four – The Late Sixties 48 4.6 Table showing total frequencies of the devices 50 4.7 Bar Chart Showing Total Frequencies 52 x CHAPTER FIVE 5.0 Summary 55 Conclusion 56 Recommendation 56 Works – Cited xi CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY Language is a tool or a code system used for human communication. It is made up of sounds or graphic symbols, which users or speakers have accepted to use as units of communication. Language is a symbol system based on pure or arbitrary conventions infinitely extendable and modifiable according to the changing needs and conditions of the speakers. Robins (1985). According to Lyons (1970) Languages are: The principal systems of communication used by particular groups of human beings within the particular society (Linguistic community) of which they are members. The use of language is not restricted to only human beings but for the purpose of this study, the researcher is concentrating on language used by human beings. Language as a human property is used to perform various functions in a society such as communication, instruction and socialization, which is why its study is xii indispensable. Linguists over the years have studied languages and have actually expanded the wings of language to various levels of Linguistic analysis or description such as phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and Discourse. The graphic representation of sounds (speech sounds) on paper is called writing. Writing is done in different ways for various purposes and by different people. It is because of this that the study of stylistics becomes necessary and an important area to both linguists and critics. According to Syal and Jindal (2010) “Stylistics is that branch of linguistics which takes the language of literary texts as its object of study”. Stylistics is the study of various styles used in literary and non – literary texts which distinguishes the uniqueness of a writer from another. Style is a pattern of linguistic features that distinguish a piece of writing from another; it also distinguishes the personality of an author from another. No wonder the French scholar Buffon said “Style is the Man”. xiii Syal and Jindal (2010) opined that: Out of the many types of variations that occur in language, it is the variation in literary style that is most complex, and thus offers unlimited scope for linguistic analysis. (61). Stylistics is very important in Literature because each literary text represents an individual‟s use of language which reflects his unique personality, thoughts and style. The study of literary styles shows the linguistics repertoire of a writer. We often hear of the style of Armah; the style of Milton and the simplicity that is associated with Wordsworth. Stylistics looks at the choice of words, the sentence patterns and figurative usage of words by a writer. Figurative expressions which are sometimes called “Rhetorical Expression” helps a writer to be vivid in his description of events and ideas. According to Ezugu: Figures of speech, sometimes called “rhetorical” figures are expressions, phrases or words used to convey more than their ordinary literal meaning. These figures, if properly used, not only enrich but strengthen and give life to our writing. Ezugu (2011) xiv Some of the features used in a achieving style include: – Diction, figurative usage and various sentence structures such as: – Parenthetical Expressions: These are words, clauses or even another sentence inserted at the middle or end of a sentence such as after thoughts. – Compound Sentence: A compound sentence is one which consists of three or more simple sentences joined together by a co-ordinating conjunction or semi – colon. – Complex Sentence: A complex sentence consists of two parts. The main clause and one or more subordinate clauses. – Compound complex sentence: This consists of two or more main clauses and one or more subordinate clause. Other features of style include: – Graphology: The analysis of hand writing to interpret character and personality. Aspects of which are ”Italics, Bold sentence” and capitalization”. xv – Code Switching: A system of switching from one linguistic code to another. – Code – Mixing: A systematic way of mixing two or more linguistics codes in an utterance or writing. – Transliteration: This is the literal translation of the syntatical structure of a language into another language.
This project work is on political corruption and symbolism. This project work brings out the corrupt practices by politicians and military rulers. To also brings out the symbols used in the novels. Chapter one is an introduction on political corruption in Nigeria and the way the military took over and ruled Nigeria. Chapter two is on the related literature review, chapter three is on political corruption and symbolism in Adichie Chumamanda Ngozi Half of a yellow Sun. Chapter four is on the political corruption and symbolism in Okey Ndibe’s Arrows of Rain chapter five of this project work is the conclusion. This project research concludes that though the coming of the British to colonise us brought civilization and also divisions among the ethnic groups which led to war. War leads to destruction of lives and properties, it should therefore be avoided. 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page————————————————————————–i Approval Page——————————————————————-ii Dedication————————————————————————iii Acknowledgments————————————————————–iv Abstract—————————————————————————–v Table of Contents—————————————————————vi CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION—————————————————————–1 Statement of Problem————————————————————–8 Purpose of Study——————————————————————-9 Scope of study———————————————————————-9 Significance of Study————————————————————–9 Research Methodology————————————————————10 CHAPTER TWO Literature Review——————————————————————11 CHAPTER THREE The Political Corruption and Symoblism in Half of 8 a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie———————————20 Symbols in Chimamanda Adichie‟s Half of a Yellow Sun——————-24 CHAPTER FOUR The Political Corruption and Symbolism in Arrows of rain by Okey Ndibe———————————————————————–32 Symbols——————————————————————————-37 CHAPTER FIVE Conclusion————————————————————————-41 Works Cited———————————————————————44 9 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Political corruption is the use of power by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality is considered political corruption. Most economic political and social problems in under developed societies like Nigeria emanate from corruption. Some of these problems include lack of accountability, diversion of public resources to private ownership, different types of discriminations, ethnicity. Lack of competence, inefficiency etc. There are many causes of political corruption such as ineffective political processes, ineffective political financing, and poverty. Ethnic and religious difference. A lot of secrecy still pervades government document and this underlies the need for the passage of the freedom of information bill presently before Nigeria‟s National Assembly, also law public participation in Government to mention a few. The pervasive corrupt practices have been blamed on the colonial masters. According to this view, the nation‟s colonial history may have restricted any early influences in an ethical revolution. 10 Throughout the colonial period most Nigerians were struck in Ignorance and poverty. The level of corruption raised serious alarm that attracted the concern of both Nigerians and international community which rated Nigeria as one of the most corrupt countries. Although, the government embarked upon anti-corruption measures but were not sincerely and properly implemented such that the expected objective and goal were not achieved. The problem was rather aggravated. Since then, corruption has continued to militate against national development. In Nigeria corruption is a problem that has to be rooted out. Owusi (2002), however in his book, The Root Causes of Corruption in West Africa, was of the view that; Corruption is made up of opportunist manipulation or branches of existing laws and regulation for advantages. He emphasized that; Our inordinate desire for wealth, power prestige and high status and its desirous consumption of scarce, expensive and prestigious import commodities is no doubt one of the roads to corruption in the society”. 11 Over the years, the country has seen its wealth withered with little to show in living conditions of the average people. As with many other African nations, Nigeria was an artificial structure initiated by former colonial powers which had neglected to consider religious linguistic and ethnic differences. The causes of Nigeria Civil War were diverse although, in his memoir, journalist Alex Mitchell blames involvement of the British, Dutch, French and Italian oil companies whose battles for the rich Nigerian oil fields started the Civil War and kept it going. Nigerian‟s political problems also started from the manner in which the British took over power, administered and abandoned government and people of Nigeria. The British administrators did not make effort to weld the country together and unite the heterogenous group of people. Though many technologies we have today are due to their enlightenment. Northern leaders however, fear that independence would mean political and economic domination by the more westernized elites in the south, preferred the perpetuation of British rule. As a condition for accepting independence, they demanded that the country continue to be divided into three regions with the North having a clear majority. 12 On January 15, 1966, major Kaduna Nzeogwu and other junior Army officers (mostly majors and captains) attempted a coup d‟etat. It was generally speculated that the coup had been initiated by the Igbo and for their own primary benefit, because of the ethnicity of those that were killed. The two major political leaders of the North, the Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and the Premier of the Northern region, Sir Ahmadu Bello was executed by major Nzeogwu. Also murdered was Sir Ahmadu Bello‟s wife The coup was not only generally carried out in the Northern region, it was most successful there. The fact that the officer, Lieutenant Connell. Arthur Umegbe was killed can be attributed to the more fact that the officers in charge of implementing Nzeogwu‟s plans in the East were incompetent. The coup, also referred to as the coup of the five majors, has been described in some quarters as Nigeria‟s only revolutionary coup. This was the first coup in the short life of Nigeria‟s nascent democracy. Claims of electoral fraud was one of the reasons given by the coup plotters. This coup resulted in General Johnson Aguyi-Ironsi, an Igbo and Head of the Nigerian Army, taking power as General becoming the first Military Head of State in Nigeria. 13 By the late 1960s the literature of disillusionment was taking form as a reflection of the widespread violent conflict and political corruption which had began to take hold throughout African societies. Such conflicts inevitably threw the nationalist project into turnoil: how can one speak of a nation or even Pan-African identity when a national is at war with itself? In terms of the novel as genre, Gikandi states that in the mid-1960s the form and function of the novel changed almost overnight, moving the reader away from the sometimes celebratory and utopian tone of earlier novels to a grim critique of the narrative of cultural nationalism. This was a generation of writers who are consciously distancing themselves from the project of cultural nationalism. This interventionist reading of the contemporary problems regarding ethnic conflict in Africa is one that is shared by writers as diverse as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Ngugi Wa Thion‟o. Discussing Nigeria Adichie takes the view that the idea of the tribe has, its roots in colonialism as people did not consciously identify themselves as Igbo, Yoruba or Hausa until the involvement of the British. The British governed Nigeria indirectly through their traditional rulers, as a result the true leader of the masses were hamstrung and held down. Just because Africans were given authority to rule over her own 14 people. They saw it as means to maltreat those that have more than them and sell his or her brother and sister, mother to gain favour from the superior leaders. The British (Adewale Ademoyeya:why we Struck). These actions by the local and foreign leaders made the people to seek for independence. Many of them were not thinking straight anymore. The present leadership blame the colonial masters and fore runners of independence for their actions for not doing what is expected of them and also for the embezzlement and stealing of public fund. The political elicits in other to become rich and influential in the society, steal and blame it on the economy and leaders. No one takes responsibility for his own crime and actions. The politicians and military rulers blame one another for a bad government no one agrees that the other is better than himself. Emeka Nwabueze is of the opinion that, the question is not weather we should wage war against corruption or not, my quarrel is that the fight should be waged within the context of the constitution. Several opinions hold that Nigerian political and economic underdevelopment since independence has been as a result of pervasive 15 corrupt practices in both private and public fields: Nepotism which means favouratism granted in politics or business to relatives regardless of merit. Bribery which is an act of giving money or gift giving that alters the behaviour of the recipient. Political Scandal is a kind of political corruption that is exposed and becomes a scandal, in which politicians or government officials are accused of engaging in various illegal, corrupt or unethical practices. Electoral Fraud is the illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud affect vote counts to bring about an election result whether by increasing the vote share of the rival candidates, or both. Embezzlement, abuse of office etc. Arnold saw corruption as receiving or offering of money or other advantages in return for contract, acquiring an opportunity, unqualified favor, pervasion of Justice, leading ahead of a queue and the likes. He saw corruption as poverty in juxtaposition to great wealth and luxury or crook in order to live big. A symbol is an object that represents, stands for or suggests an idea, belief, action, or material entity. Symbols take the form of words, sounds gestures or visual images and are used to convey ideas and beliefs. 16 It‟s also a sign, shape or object which is used to represent something else. Symbol is seen in every culture, religion and society. This makes symbol universally acceptable in the sense that it does not exist in one society and is absent in another. There are cultural and religious symbols. Cultural symbols are seen in language, traditional attire, and tribal marks, sacred objects of ancestral qualities; like “ofo” in Igbo culture as the communion of the ancestors. In Igbo culture, grey hair is a symbol of old age and should attain contesy and respect, proverb also in Igbo society are symbolic because they are embodiment of wisdom and tradition.
The aim of this study is to find out the extent to which audio-visual materials are used in teaching the English Language in Junior Secondary Schools in Enugu East Local Government Areas of Enugu State. The work will be divided into five chapters. Chapter one is the introduction; chapter two reviews the literative; chapter three is the methodology; chapter four is the analyses while chapter five is the summary, conclusion, recommendation and implication of the study. The study will be guided by four research questions. Survey design will be used. A portion of the entire population will serve as the sample size. The instrument of the study will be adopted to get the sample size. The instrument of the study will be questionnaire. It will be face validated. A reliability exercise will be carried out whereby the questionnaire will be given to ten teachers from another local government Area for the first time; after two weeks they will be given the same questionnaire items to respond to. Their responses in the first and second times will be analyzed using Pearson product moment correlation co-efficient. Any result from 0.50 and above that is realized shows that the instrument is reliable. The research questions will be answered using mean scores. The analyses will be presented in tables and statements of inter-presentation will be made after each of the tables. Findings will be made. There will be recommendation and implications for the study. Finally, suggestions for further studies will be equally made.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study:
English is a language of the people of England. It originates from the Jute, Angles and Saxon, who are the early settlers in Britain. It is part of the Germanic branch of the Indo European language family. At the initial state, English was confined to Britain alone. Later, it grew wide within the British Empire as a Prestigious Core Language among all other European languages in the upper classes of London, Oxford, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Cambridge and England. It further developed and got to other people of the world. It spread to Asia, Germany, Africa and other continents as a Native Language, Second Language or Foreign Language. Progressively, English Language has spread virtually all over the world.
English, throughout the world, is a significant everyday language. It is a global language and widely distributed medium of instruction and communication. It has a prestigious official status and has acquired a constitutionally endorsed legal right. It has gained explicit recognition, which has established it as a medium of administration, education, international relations, commerce and law. Throughout the world, English language is very important (Mac Arthur, 1996).
In Nigeria, English language is a second language and a lingua franca. This means that it is the language for unit, communication economy, national pride, law, press, trade and instruction. As a language of instruction, it is an essential prerequisite for an advancement and career succession in the country. It means a lot in the life and progress of a child as it is a key subject with profound influence on all the school subjects.
The English Language is used in the Junior Secondary Schools as core school subject. It is a solid foundational course. The key elements of the course are designed to cover the basic four language skills, which are listening, reading, speaking and writing. It is expected that after learning these skills in Junior Secondary School, the students who choose to work can use the language fluently while those who wish to go further can be very proficient in the language. According to Harold (1995), the teachers are to integrate the key elements of the language experiences at school. English at this stage tends to receive more critical attention. He posits that the professional English language teacher is one who has been trained or has trained himself to do a competent work. He should at least possess a college major in English or a strong minor. He must have deep interest in literature and a solid knowledge of the language skills. Moreover, he has to acquire strong skill in the handling of the instructional materials and educational problems. The emphasis here lies on training and qualification of the teachers.
The importance of instructional materials in teaching the English Language in Junior Secondary School cannot be under-estimated. It makes whatever amount of work being done at Junior Secondary School easy and fast. It promotes greater acquisition and high retention of actual knowledge. They provide increased interest and integrated experience (Eya and Ofoefuna, 1999)
Vikoo (2003) observes that the most suitable instructional materials for the effective teaching and learning of the English Language at this information age are audio – visual materials. He describes the audio – visual materials as the instructional system which uses the operations of the scientific and technological equipment combining both visual projections and sound productions to provide tangible experiences to learners. Some of such materials are computer assisted instruction, video – taped instruction and film shows. Baldeh (1990) states that audio – visual aids have been introduced, tested and tried in the school system and found effective.
In spite of the importance of the English Language and the effectiveness of the audio – visual aids in teaching English Language in Nigeria, the students’ performances are found low in the Junior Secondary Examination in Chief Examiner’s report (2006), it is stated that the students attainments in English Language have been dwindling every year while the enrolments of the candidates are astronomically increasing. Rowtree (1994) still, describes audio – visual aids as the most fitted materials to aid the teachers to inculcate the language competence in students. It uses electric method to enhance learning. Yet, the results of the students are found low.
Statement of the Problem:
English Language emerged from a common origin of the Germanic branch of indo European language family, and has far–reaching spread and uses in Nigeria, it is her lingua franca and a second language. It is the official language, which has gained it’s endorsed statutory legal position. It is the language of education and all other transactions in Nigeria. In effect, it is of paramount importance for all users of the language in the country; in education, all students of Junior Secondary School should gain competence in it.
In order to gain the required competence, audio – visual materials are specifically used in instructional activities to mitigate the instruction problems and improve knowledge of both teachers and students in relatively short time. Incidentally, the failure rate of the students is disturbing.
This poor performance may imply that the students have not grasped the basic language skills. Secondly, it suggests that the teachers may use it on a minimal level or may have ignored the use of the materials in their classroom practices. Thirdly, the training of the teachers may contribute to its success or failure in the students’ performances.
Again, there is controversy on gender differences. It is not certain whether female and male teachers react differently in the extent of use of audio – visual aids. The question here is, to what extent does the teachers use audio – visual materials in learning English Language in Junior Secondary Schools in Enugu East Local Government Area? Finding an answer to this question is the major concern of this study.
Purpose of the Study:
The purpose of this research is to elicit from the English Language teachers the extent of use of audio – visual aids in teaching and learning English language in Junior Secondary Schools in Enugu East Local Government Area. Specifically, the researchers intend to
(I) Determine the degree of the use of audio – visual aids in teaching the English Language.
(II) Find out the level of the use of audio – visual aids to improve the students’ performances in English Language.
(III) Examine whether the male and female differences affect the extent of use of the audio – visual aids in teaching and learning in Junior Secondary Schools in Enugu East Local Government Area
(IV) Ascertain whether the difference in the education of the teachers affect the extent of the use of the audio – visual aids in the teaching and learning of the English language in Junior Secondary Schools in Enugu East Local Government Area?
In effect, there is no clear cut stand as there are generally varied opinions. This therefore, emphasizes the need for the study to be carried out.
Significance of the Study:
It is hoped that this study will inspire teachers and inspectors of the State and Federal Ministries of Education to improve their competence and performance by adopting instructional audio – visual materials to suit their proper use in the classroom. This will improve the teaching and learning of English language in particular and other subjects in general. This study also will help educational planners to lay more emphasis on teachers’ use of the audio – visual instructional materials when drawing up an English Language curriculum. The Federal Ministry of Education and State Education Commission, when recommending text books for English Language, should ensure that text books should contain CD ROMS, films and tape recorded work of the same text books and that teachers should be made to have and use audio – visual materials such materials should be available for the teachers’ use in the classrooms. Finally, this study shows that each of the students has absolute control of his potentials and as such is capable of developing his potentials and attain high academic excellence commensurate with those potentials through the use of audio – visual ads.
Scope of Study:
This study was carried out in all the secondary schools in Enugu East Local Government Area. The study investigated the extent of usage of the audio – visual materials in Junior Secondary Schools. Some percentage of teachers and students was used.
Research Questions:
The following research questions addressed and guide the study
(I) To what extent do teachers make use of audio – visual material in teaching and learning English in Junior Secondary Schools in Enugu east Local Government Area of Enugu State?
The teaching and learning of English Language is very important in our society today. This is because of the various roles it plays in the geo-political structure of the country. In Nigeria, English Language is used for communication, education, economic and social purposes. In the school system, English Language is not only taught as a subject but it is also the core subject by which over school subject is being taught. Despite the above, less attention is given to the grammatical aspect of English in the primary school. Today, the nature of teaching and learning of English grammatical structure in the primary school has become area of great interest to teachers, researchers, and policy makers because through it the acquisition of the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) is greatly enhanced. In view of the above, grammatical structure which entails English tenses, parts of speech, punctuation, concord, clauses and phrases, is of immense importance to the teaching, learning and mastery of English language among primary school pupils. Therefore it must not only be taught to the pupils, but it should be taken seriously at the primary school level since primary education is a better foundation on which the future depends. Looking however at what is applicable in some selected primary schools in Kaduna North Local Government Area of Kaduna State, the general practice by both teachers and pupils towards the teaching and learning of English grammatical structure is not encouraging. Emphasis has shifted from learning the grammar of the language to teaching of writing and reading comprehension, the use of past common entrance examination question papers, teaching of spellings, dictation etc instead of adequate instruction/explanation on the aspects of English grammatical structures which is much needed by the pupils. Lack of trained/qualified teachers, inadequate materials (textbooks and teaching aids), poor classroom facilities, ambiguity of some English syllabi, inadequate evaluation of teacher’s work by the supervisory authority, the teacher’s inability to properly evaluate pupils’ work on grammar, are all contributory factors to pupils’ poor performance in not only grammatical structure but other aspects of English language at large. Therefore the teaching and learning of English language in the primary school should be to ensure that pupils have good knowledge and mastery of the grammatical structures and the ability to use these effectively for a better improvement in English language. This is what has actually prompted the need for this research.
1.2 Statement of the Problem The problem to be investigated in “An evaluative study of the teaching and learning of English grammatical structures in some primary schools.” The research work is aimed at identifying the causes of pupils’ poor performance in using English structural items correctly. As a result of this, and other problems, this research will specifically investigate the following:
How pupils in the primary schools are motivated to learn and use English grammatical structures.
The methods and techniques employed by teachers in the teaching of English structural items in the primary school and the effectiveness of these methods and techniques.
The types of materials (textbooks/teaching aids) used by the teachers and how relevant these materials are to the teaching and learning of English grammatical structures.
The types of teachers employed to teach English language in the primary school.
The areas of difficulty faced by teachers and pupils in the teaching and learning of English grammatical structures in the primary schools.
Suggest how best to improve the teaching and learning of English grammatical structures in the primary school.
1.3 Objectives of the Study The objectives of this research are:
Find out how English grammatical structures are being taught in the primary school.
Address the various challenges faced by teachers and learners of English especially in the aspects of grammatical structures.
Make educational planners, language policy makers, curriculum developers and educational administrators to be aware of what is happening in the field (class room).
Identify problem areas in the teaching and learning English grammatical structures in the primary schools and to proffer solutions to such identified problems.
Assess and evaluate the quality of teachers teaching English and the materials used in the teaching of English grammatical structures whether the materials are adequate, relevant or not.
Finally this research work will suggest and recommend some measures for improving the standard of English language teaching and learning with special focus on grammatical structures at the primary school level.
This research work was conducted to ascertain the comparative analysis of academic performance in English language and computer science in junior secondary school, Enugu North Educational Zone. A survey design was adopted for the study. A sample of 42 teachers both English language and computer science 110 students were drawn from 7 (seven) junior secondary schools in Enugu North.
A structured Questionnaire was used to collect data and data collected were analyzed using frequency and percentage. The finding of the study showed that lack of quality instructional materials in the school can cause poor performance of students, inability of a teacher to give test and assignment to student will make student dull in their study, effectiveness of note making and note taking by the student will activate their attitude of learning, continuous assessment tasks practicing will embark on the academic performance and government should make incentive regular payment of salaries and allowances to the teacher to motivate them into effective teaching.
Language is the most distinctive human quality and attribute. Language is characterized by a set of vocal sounds which can be decoded. Language does notexist in a vacuum. It is always contextualized. There is a relationship between language and society. The importance of the relationship between language and society cannot be over-emphasized in the education of a child. Language is a guide to social reality. English language is one of the languages used in Nigeria. English language has become a valuable legacy of the !ritish which has provided Nigerians with yet another means of expressing their culture. English language is Nigeria”s official language dedime%i& ‘(()*. English language performs numerous functions in Nigeria. It serves as lingua franca. It is the language of instruction& language of constitution& language of nationalism& media& government& education among others. This is because Nigeria is a multilingual country and English language serves as a lin, among the people.English language is introduced to a child from the fourth year of primary school up to the university level #la%ide& ‘((*. This is clearly stated in section / paragraph 0& subsection on primary education& ‘((/ of the 1ederal republic of igeria”s national policy on education.In Nigeria& much importance is attached to English language. It occupies avital role in the educational system& such importance could be seen in terms of thefunctions English language perform in igeria. It is an act of political expedienceand in addition& it helps to remove the fear of ethnical domination. The practicaloral aspect of English language becomes even more important for the purpose of interaction and articulation in our day to day use of the language. Furthermore& the use of English language paved way for participation at national and international levels. To be able to participate in the social& politicaland economical life of the country& one must be able to understand and use English language effectively and efficiently. English language is used for vertical mobility#$dedime%i& ‘(()*. It enables one to move from a lower social class to higher one.It is the language of prestige not because the users are more intelligent than the illiterates but because they can spea, it. 3o it has become a language of personality#$dedime%i& ‘(()*. The role of English language in Nigeria stresses the need for Nigerians to learn& understand and ma,e use of English language proficiently.There is no doubt that interference is the ma%or effect of mother tongue language on English language.Interference has been observed as a cogent influence that mother tongue language has on English language. Sources of the interferences therefore could be phonology- #a science which deals with the study of sounds in language* that is how different sounds or phonemes are combined. Morphology #this deals with the combination of morphemes to form words& morpheme is the smallest indivisible unit of a language that has a significant meaning*. Syntax #the arrangement of words in a language according to rules*. The concern of this project is on the phonological aspect of English language #oral English*.
CHAPTER 1 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 differently. 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 community as Madona University. According to R. Linton he 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” (12). These cultures, ideas and habits can only be transmitted from generation to generation through language. In linguistic, every language is considered adequate to represent the communicative needs of its people and 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 faction 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.
Statement of Research Problem: Nigerian Pidgin is a language just as English and there is enough room for both language to co-exist and be mutually enriching. Despite this – and the fact that Nigerian Pidgin English appears to be the most popular means of communication among diverse groups and is easier to learn than any other language in the country today – it is generally asserted that it is not the suitable language for use in formal setting and its use in such setting is usually frowned at. This research work will explore the potentials of Nigerian Pidgin English as a language. If Nigerian Pidgin English does have this potential, why is its usage and status denigrated? Also, does the speaking of Nigerian Pidgin affect the student’s academic performance? Answers to these questions will enable us make useful recommendations for future studies.
Purpose of the Study: This work intends to look into the effectiveness and status of Nigerian Pidgin English. It is inherent that for a long period of time that Nigerian Pidgin English has been the means of communication among students in the higher institutions. This research will bring into light if the use of Nigeria Pidgin English has any effect on the students and their academic performance in Madona University. The finding will be regarded to be generic, affecting also students in other institutions who equally exalt Nigerian Pidgin English above standard English.
Significance of the Study: This study is important because its results can go a long way to finding out the causes of students’ negative or positive academic performance. If Nigerian Pidgin English has contributed negatively or positively to the students. This work will in no doubt contribute to one’s knowledge especially in the department of English, Madona University, Enugu as it will highlight some issues in educational planning. It will be a guide for the federal government in planning for effective educational system. Scope and Limitations: The scope of this project is on the effects of Nigerian Pidgin English in university community. An assessment of its use in various forms will be carried out. This research is limited to Madona University, Enugu even though the findings might be generic.
Research Methodology: Questionnaires were distributed to hundred (100) students in Madona University, Enugu State which is my case study and these questionnaires were filled and collected and the hundred questionnaires were returned. The result/total of responses from the respondents is tabled in the yes/no format. The collection of data was done in two parts. The secondary and primary source. The primary source is the questionnaire; the secondary source includes textbooks, journals and so on. The materials were researched upon in libraries: Benue State University and Madona University libraries.The total number of hundred (100) questionnaires were distributed and the percentage system is the method used in calculating the different responses.
This Research Work focused on the gramatical errors in the English essays of Secondary Schools Students. The research was conducted on essays written by thirty (30) Students of the above school. The analysis of the essays revealed the deficiencies of some of the Students in using English tense. In the use of the present tense, for instance, Students had more difficulties in the use of present tense compare to the use of other tense. It has also been observed that students commit these errors as a result of their mother tongue interference. It was also found out that the errors were as a result of poor teaching methods, lack of adequate textbooks and qualified English teachers. To minimize these problems, we suggest that the government should provide adequate textbooks on English grammar and qualified English teachers. So that student in the lower classes should be exposed to the various situations in which tenses should be used.
TABLE OF CONTENTS CONTENTS PAGE Title Page – – – – – – – – – i Declaration – – – – – – – – – ii Approval Page – – – – – – – – iii Dedication – – – – – – – – – iv Acknowledgement – – – – – – – – v Abstract – – – – – – – – – vi Table of Contents – – – – – – – – vii CHAPTER ONE: GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1.0 Background of the Study – – – – – – 1 1.1 Statement of Problem – – – – – – – 1 1.2 Aim and Objectives – – – – – – – 2 1.3 Significance of the Study – – – – – – 2 1.4 Scope and Delimitation – – – – – – 2 1.5 Justification of The Study – – – – – – 3 1.6 Methodology – – – – – – – – 3
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Meaning of Tense – – – – – – – 4 2.1 Types of English Tenses – – – – – – 5 2.2 Error Analysis – – – – – – – – 8 2.3 Types of Errors – – – – – – – 10
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 3.0 Introduction – – – – – – – – 15 3.1 Sources of Data – – – – – – – 15 3.2 Method of Data Presentation And Analysis – – – 15
CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS, AND INTERPRETATION 4.1 Introduction – – – – – – – – 17 4.2 Data Presentation – – – – – – 18 4.3 Data Analysis and Interpretation – – – – 26
This chapter contains the background to the study, a brief profile of the presidential candidates in this study, a brief over view of political campaigns in Nigeria, statement of the problem, research questions, aim, and objectives of the study, justification of the study, scope, and delimitation of the study. Therefore, this chapter provides an insight into the study.
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The ability to communicate effectively is the hallmark of all known politicians wherefore the use of English as an international language has made more people aware of the immense power of words in politics and communication.
Thus, Kamalu and Agangan (2007:35) state that language plays an important role in manifesting political wills and accompanying political actions; this is the case with political campaign, especially in Nigeria where campaign affects the electorate who are on the receiving end. Language is therefore used in a unique way; to achieve set goals and objectives. Consequently, campaign speeches are largely dependent on language which is the focus of this study.
Language provides the individual with a tool for the exploration and analysis of his conceptual ideas and this is what has distinguished and given man his unique position in the world. This is why Isa (2004:1) maintains that one of the most important functions of human language is its role as a means of communication or interaction between members of the society. She further notes that language helps man to establish social relations and other forms of networks which only language can facilitate and which obviously makes man superior to other animals lacking in the instrumentality of language.
Sapir (1927:7) in Abaya (2009:195), Oladayo (2011:38), and Anifowoshe (2006:11) define language as purely non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions, and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols. According to Harris (1979:53) language is the means by which political ideas are transmitted to the community and that the strength of language in politicking are enormous.
However, language conveys different kinds of information relating not only to the speaker’s beliefs but also his identity and relationship with his listeners and hearers which re-enforce that language is vital to human experience. In other words, language serves as an important tool through which effective interaction, mobilization for national development and transformation are achieved.
Hence, Ayeni-Akeke (2008: 83), submits that “political life, like other aspects of social existence, is made possible by the ability to communicate.” He argues that “communication underlies the dynamics of political life.” In order to buttress this view, Pie (1978:2) in Joshua (2003: 109), points out that “politics exists not only to push parties and candidates but covers also the pushing of ideas and point of view.” So, politics involves a series of connected activities designed to bring result. These include: campaign, advertising, canvassing, lawn sign, and so on. Behind these bits and pieces of political power games, is language which ‘is an important aspect to political campaign and an interesting vessel of post election communication’ (patriorstatesman).
The language of political campaign speeches usually comprises of the use of foreign phrases known as political jargons, three part statements, use of rhetorical questions and pronouns to influence and impress the target audience. There is a large use of quotations and adequate use of repetitions. The mode is manipulative, persuasive and the language is ideologically embedded. (myspeechlab.com)
The inability of the electorate to grasp the extent to which politicians use language in order to manipulate, persuade and deceive them into winning their vote is the concern of this study. This is because understanding a language could be difficult without examining fully how such a language is being put to use. Hence, Amodu (2010:1) observes that for a long time, particularly from the early 40s to the late 70s, the study of language concentrated more on the language form, at the expense of how language functions as the case is in functional linguistics and pragmatics. He goes on to say that scholars are gradually shifting ground from paying attention on language structure to studying how language can be functionally used in the society especially if the language has been developed. This reveals that interest in language for communication should be viewed as a good step forward from the narrower and still popular focus on language as grammar. This is not to undermine the importance of the study of language structure but it is an acknowledgement of the fact that the study of how language is being used is now receiving a greater attention and in a new dimension.
By studying language in circumstances where all its functions and variations are taken into consideration, it is possible to learn more about how perceptions, convictions, and identities are influenced by language. More so, words and expressions are used or omitted to affect meaning in different ways. In political speeches during election campaigns, ideas and ideologies need to be conveyed through language so that they are agreed upon by the receivers as well as by others who may read or hear parts of the speech afterwards in the media. Thus, citizens of democratic countries have the option to go to the ballot boxes on election days and vote for one person or one party. Whether their decision goes along with a political conviction or not, it is most likely based on communication through language. Black, (2005) in Kulo,(2009:1) states that within all types of political system, from autocratic, through oligarchic to democratic, leaders have relied on the spoken word to convince others of the benefits that arise from their leadership. The study attempts to unravel the features of language that are peculiar to the speeches of the presidential candidates using the linguistic stylistic approach.
Aristotle in Anifowose and Enemuo (1991:1) mentions that “man is by nature a political animal.” By this, he means that the essence of social existence is politics and that two or more men interacting with one another are invariably involved in a political relationship. Therefore, it is evident that both language and politics intersect at the point of interaction. Similarly, Merk (1967:13) cited in Anifowose and Enumuo (1991:1) argues that politics is the “art of influencing, manipulating, and controlling others; which are all indubitable functions of language in verbal communication.
Moreover, political speeches are composed by a team of professional speech writers, who are educated in the use of persuasive language. Beard, (2001:18) in Kulo (2009:1) throws more light, that adding rhetorical devices to a pre-composed speech may be of crucial importance to election results. He adds that a political speech is not necessarily a success because of correctness or truth rather politicians use language in presenting valued arguments to achieve their aims of winning votes. To examine the most prominent linguistic/stylistic features of language is a cardinal focus of the research.
1.2 A BRIEF PROFILE OF THE CONTESTANTS.
Many presidential candidates publicly declared their intentions but we shall look at two for this study.
General Muhammadu Buhari was born on December, 1942 in Daura, Katsina state in the North West zone, Nigeria. He became Nigeria’s Head of State on December 31, 1983. He was over thrown on August 27, 1985. His administration introduced the “War Against Indiscipline” (WAI) campaign which, despite its highhandedness, it still landed to have created the most orderly conduct in both public and private life of the country since independence.
Before becoming head of state, Buhari had been chairman of the Nigerian National Petroleum Cooperation, minister of petroleum and natural resource and governor of north eastern state of Nigeria. He was also chairman of Petroleum (special) Trust Fund under General Sani Abacha; since 2003, Buhari has sought to become Nigeria’s civilian president, without success. He contested in the 2003 and 2007 presidential elections under the platform of the All Nigerian People’s Party, losing out on both occasions to the Peoples Democratic Party candidates. He fell out of the leadership of the All Nigerian People’s Party and succeeded in pulling out with him some of the supporters of the party which formed the Congress for Progressive Change. He was ratified as the presidential candidate of the party in 2011 elections. He declared that CPC is ready “to get the PDP off the backs of Nigerians and hammers on the need for change. (starAfrica.com/en/news)
Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was born on Nov 20, 1957 in Otuoke, Bayelsa state south-south zone, Nigeria. He is a Ph.D. holder in hydrobiology and fisheries. He was appointed as Science Inspector of Education; Rivers state Ministry of Education between 1983 and 1993. He took up employment as a lecturer in the State College of Education. He was appointed Assistant Director of the defunct Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission. His desire to better the lot of the people motivated him to go into politics in 1998. Simplicity, charisma, quiet strength, and determination made him an ideal running mate to chief D.S.P, Alamieyeseigha on the Bayelsa PDP gubernatorial ticket. They won the elections and he served as a deputy governor from 1999 to 11, December 2000. But on 12, December 2005, he became the substantive governor of Bayelsa state. After that, fate once again beckoned on him to a higher height. As he was busy preparing for a re-election as a state governor, the PDP, nominated him as a running mate to the presidential candidate, Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua. On May 29, 2007; he was inaugurated as Nigeria’s Vice- President.
In February 9, 2010, Dr. Jonathan assumed office as Nigeria’s Acting President by virtue of a National Assembly’s resolution empowering him following President Yar’Adua’s long absence for Medical attention in Saudi Arabia. Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was sworn in on May 6, 2010 as President, Commander-in-chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
In April, 2011 the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan was re-elected as President, Commander-in-chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and with a transformation agenda. (http://www.goodluckjonathanfor2011.com)
1.3 AN OVERVIEW OF POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS IN NIGERIA
A campaign is a series of actions that are intended to achieve a particular result, especially in politics or business. Oota (2011:1) adds that campaigns are exciting events where oratory is on display and love shared though sometimes thugs and other violent characters may be out to unleash mayhem on innocent party supporters.
The Nigerian saga of political campaigns, which has great bearing on our contemporary situation, has its roots in the pre-independence era with the formation of political parties. Appadorai (2003:282) states that a political party is an organised group of citizens who hold similar political opinions and who work to get control of the government in order that the policies in which they are interested may be carried into effect. Since the Pre-Independence and First Republic of 1959 and 1964 respectively, political parties have participated in political campaigns which prepared them for the general elections. But, political parties have had their ideological differences, which were reflected in their manifestos. Mohammed J. (2004:144-145), (Ogbodo, 2011:109), (Mohammed, A. 2004:143).
Thereafter, other successive elections in Nigeria were the 1979, 1983, 1993, 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011. Each of these elections was not without vibrant political campaigns by the various parties that aspired to rule the country. Some of these were transition elections organized by military regimes that had to hand over power to a democratic civilian government (1979,1993 and 1999) while the elections held in 1964, 1983, 2003, 2007 and 2011 were organized by incumbent civilian governments whose offices and positions were also in contest. (Sekibo, 2010), (Ogbodo, 2011:140).
In the 2011 elections which is the period under study, there were 63 political parties but a total of 54 submitted candidates for various elective positions (Ogbodo, 2011:162) and (Corcoran 2011). This is against the 9 political parties that participated in the 1959 and 1964 general elections. However, this set the stage for a tougher presidential campaign, for no fewer than 21 political parties presented candidates for the elections. Prominent among the 21 political parties are: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Labour Party (LP), Democratic People’s Alliance (DPA), and All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA). This, therefore, made the political atmosphere in Nigeria to become undoubtedly charged and political campaigns took centre stage. Ogbodo, (2011:162) observes that instead of parties competing to better the lot of the electorate, it has become warfare with each party trying to defeat and if possible eliminate the opponents.
The contest for who occupies the exalted office of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is certainly democratic (Oota, 2011:1). However, one of the major avenues which the electorate’s minds were prepared for the elections was through the political campaigns of these various presidential candidates. This was also the same avenue whereby these presidential candidates sold their party manifestos and (also) made their campaign promises to the electorate. The people then took out time to watch their candidates exhibit their understanding of the economy, security and their welfare in terms of programmes and policies.
1.4 TYPES OF CAMPAIGNS
There are different kinds of campaigns, some of which are political campaign, advertising campaign, and military campaign.
Political campaign is vote-seeking activities: a series of events, for example rallies and speeches that are intended to persuade voters to vote for a specific politician or party (Encarta 2009). Also, Ayeni-Akeke, (2008:83) adds that political campaign is an important exertion in presenting or marketing a candidate for an elective office. In other words, it is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making process within a specific group. The message of the campaign contains the ideas that the candidate wants to share with the voters. The message often consists of several talking points about policy. These points summarize the main idea of campaign and are repeated frequently in order to create a lasting impression with the voters. The objective of every campaign speech is to convince the electorate that they have the blueprint for tackling the numerous challenges facing the country. For example, in Nigeria issues like power generation and distribution, job creation, the nation’s general economic revival, industrial development, repositioning of the education sector, revival of health sector delivery, security situation in the land and the fight against corruption featured prominently as they indeed dominated the campaign speeches of the presidential candidates. As such, language use in political campaigns has certain characteristics which differentiate it from other varieties of language use. For instance, certain words are repeated, the objective being to condition the minds of the electorate. However, it is noted that some of the features of language use are without timelines and specific strategies for actualization.
Talking point is a succinct statement designed to persuasively support one side taken on an issue. Such statements can either be free standing or created as retorts to the opposition’s talking points and are frequently used in public relations, particularly in areas heavy in debate such as politics and marketing (Wikipedia).
However, in many elections, the opposition party will try to get candidate “off message” by bringing up policy or personal questions that are not related to the talking points. Most campaigns prefer to keep the message broad in order to attract the most potential voters. Unfortunately, a message that is too narrow can alienate voters or show the candidate down with explaining details. For example in the 2008 American presidential election John McCain originally used a message that focused on his patriotism and political experience. “Country First”; later the message was charged to shift attention to his role as “The Original Maverick” within the political establishment. Barack Obama ran on a consistent, simple message of ‘change’ throughout his campaign. In other words, if the message is created carefully, it will assure the candidate victory at the polls.
In addition, in modern politics, the most high profile political campaigns are focused on candidates for head of state or head of government, often a President or Prime-Minister (Wikipedia). This was the situation in Nigeria in the 2011 presidential campaign.
Kessel, (1998:79) observes those substandard differences that exist between nomination politics and electoral politics. He says nomination campaigns are aimed at getting delegates but electoral campaigns are aimed at winning votes and are party wide and nationwide. This takes off fully after the acceptance speech, division is put aside, and the party is transformed into a victory rally. He further explains that the presidential candidate is joined by the vice presidential candidate, and both are joined by their families. Other party leaders, those who have held key positions and others who have sought the nominations themselves, make appearances at the presidential campaigns to symbolize the party wide support to be given the nominee.
Also important is that campaign in politics has assumed a complex dimension in recent years due to the major breakthrough in Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Unlike the campaigns in the past, advances in media technology have streamlined the process, thereby giving candidates more options to reach even larger groups of constituents with very little physical effort.
This claim is further supported by Oota, (2011:1) that in advanced democracies, particularly in the United States of America, oration and conduct at debates and rallies are some of the benchmarks used to gauge the popularity of all those seeking political offices. Suffice it to say that packaging of campaigns in terms of slogans and contacts are also the main key in advanced democracies and this window of popularity and acceptability was well explored by the current president of the USA, Barack Obama through his grassroots mobilization of the people. We can say that to some extent the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan employed a similar campaign pattern, as in the neighbour to neighbour campaign advertisement and the frequent sophisticated electronic campaign.
Advertising campaign is another form of campaign which is similar to political campaign in terms of its language use. It is a planned and organized series of actions intended to achieve a specific goal, especially fighting for or against something or raising people’s awareness of something. Wright (1983:8) remarks that advertising is a powerful communication force and a vital marketing tool helping to sell goods and services, image and ideas. Similarly, Roderick (1980:4) defines advertising as “a message specified by its originator, carried by a communication system intended to influence and/or inform an unknown audience.
However, military campaign tends to address a series of military or terrorist operations taking place in one area over a period, intended to achieve a specific objective. It is related to the political campaign in terms of military coup speeches and military heads of state’s speeches as the purpose is political and having some elements of political language (Abaya 2008:2).
Finally, there is a common thought unit on the definitions of political, advertising, and military campaigns that is geared towards achieving a specific goal. The study of the presidential campaign speeches is concerned with the political campaign speech types, to seek votes.In particular, the linguistic stylistic analysis of the speeches of the presidential candidates of the two opposing parties, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari Rtd. of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), will be carried out.
1.5 STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM
Political campaign speeches are one of the major avenues through which the contestants vying for the various political positions in their parties and the government of the country win votes. The speeches of these candidates are conveyed through the most effective tool of communication which is language, to achieve their objectives. Apart from making attempts to garner vote and to canvass for supports, political aspirants try to make themselves understood by their listeners. Often times, misconceptions arise because of the electorate’s level of education, their linguistic background, and the complex nature of language; these phenomena at times result in the aspirants loss of massive support, as the major tool the aspirants rely on is language. In view of this, there is the need to critically examine the speeches of the presidential aspirants in the 2011 election in Nigeria; since meanings are not just in the lexical entities that make up a sentence but to a very large extent, determined by the syntactic casing that houses an utterance and the context of the expression. Furthermore, Leckie-Tarry (1995:5) observes that understanding language must take into account not only the nature of the text, but also the discursive processes by which text is produced and interpreted in this regard, the speeches. Bearing this in mind, the study seeks to investigate the structure/nature of the campaign speeches that generated the specific semantic configuration that emerged and the contexts that enhanced this meaning outcome which was directed at achieving specific goals (objectives) by these politicians.
This study is therefore an attempt to answer the following questions:
a. How does the language use of these presidential candidates reflect their idiosyncratic nature?
b. What role does context play in these presidential campaign speeches and how do the speeches vary in different contexts?
c. Which rhetorical and linguistic devices are most prominent in these presidential campaign speeches?
d. What common linguistic/stylistic traits are prevalent in these speeches?
1.6 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
It is an indubitable fact that campaign speech is an important tool employed by politicians to express views and feelings to the public with the sole intention of reshaping and redirecting the electorates’ opinions to agree with their manifesto. Hence, campaign speeches are generally full of persuasion, manipulation, deception, lies, hyperbole, and ambiguity which are conveyed through a deliberate choice of words.
This study examines the presidential campaign speeches of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flag bearer, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) flag bearer, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) in the 2011 elections. It critically examines these presidential speeches within the scope of linguistic stylistics. Specifically, the research intends to achieve the following objectives:
a. To show that the language use of these presidential candidates reflect their idiosyncratic nature.
b. To project that context plays a dominant role in presidential campaign speeches.
c. To critically explore the rhetorical and linguistic devices that are prominent in these presidential campaign speeches.
d. To determine the common linguistic/stylistic features or traits that are prevalent in the speeches of these candidates.
1.7 JUSTIFICATION FOR THE STUDY
Nigeria has witnessed one civilian government after the other since independence and the campaign speeches made by the various presidential candidates helped to determine who ruled the country at each point in time. However, the electorate was not cognizant of the linguistic stylistic significance of the campaign speeches. Therefore, there is need for this study to broaden their understanding of the varying linguistic stylistic features of the speeches. Its findings are of benefit to students of language and those who want to take part in politics, to re-awaken the consciousness of Nigerian politicians to the use of language and suggest a better way of using language to carry people along. The study is significant to the extent that though several researches have been carried out in pragmatics, critical discourse analysis and linguistic stylistic analysis of political speeches in such areas as the language of politics, propaganda in politics, the language of political campaigns in the print media, military coup speeches, advertisement and religion, just to mention a few, hardly is there any of such research effort specifically on linguistic stylistic analysis of Nigerian presidential campaign speeches of 2011 elections.
1.8 SCOPE AND DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY
This research does not constitute a linguistic stylistic analysis of the campaign speeches of the 21 presidential candidates that contested the 2011 elections but, focuses on the candidates from two major opposing parties namely: Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and General Mohammed Buhari rtd; Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). The choice of these parties is based on the fact that these major parties (PDP, CPC,) have captured the majority of the electorate in the country, though CPC is more of a regional party, however, the PDP has a national outlook.
The study looks at the 2011 elections so as to make the research more current and reliable. The focus of this work is the linguistic stylistic study of the campaign speeches. It is difficult to study all the campaign speeches of the presidential candidates. As a result, the study has been restricted to some selected speeches in the north-west and north –central zones. A total of eight (8) speeches for both candidates are examined in this research. Relevant portions of the selected speeches are extracted and analysed from the perspective of the adopted linguistic framework, which is the systemic functional linguistic approach.
Corruption has long been harmful and dangerous to the development of Nigeria systems. This study therefore, sheds light on the scourge of materialism and relevant institutions. The sociological theory, which supports investigation unto the function of systems in the society, has been deployed in this study. One of the findings of the research is that, social systems, presently, malfunctions. The researcher concludes that the only antidote to this is a total war on corruption.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter one: General introduction
1.0 Introduction and Statement of the Research Problem
1.1 Purpose of Study
1.2 Justification of the Study
1.3 Scope and Deliminitation
1.4 Research Methodology
Chapter two : Literature Review
2.0 Introduction to Literature Review
2.1 Sociological Theory
2.2 Views of Critics on Sociological Theory
2.3 Sociological Perspectives
2.3.1 Functionalist Approach
2.3.2 Marxist Approach
2.3.3 Feminist Approach
2.3.4 Moralist Approach
2.4 Review of the Literature on Corruption
2.5 Perspectives on the Phenomenon of Corruption
2.6 Conclusion
Chapter three: critical analysis
3.0 Introduction to Critical Analysis
3.1 The Scourge of Materialism
3.2 Traditional Materialism
3.3 Conclusion
Chapter Four: conclusion
4.0 Introduction to Conclusion
4.1 Antidotes for Corruption in Adaobi’s I Do Not Come to You By Chance and Labo’s The Climate of Corruption
4.3 Conclusion
Bibliography
Chapter one
General introduction
1.0 Introduction and statement of the research problem
Corruption refers to any act of practice which is deviant to the norm of a given society. It signifies a form of behaviour that departs from morality, ethics, tradition, law and civic virtue.
Corruption is a phenomenon which reaches far beyond the giving, demanding, and receiving of bribes, by money by public officials. Corruption is an “Umbrella offence” as it covers a variety of illegal activities.
Bayley David supports this perspective. He argues that corruption, while being tied particularly to the act of bribery, is a general term covering the misuse of authority. In essence, it is a result of considerations of personal gains, which need not be monetary (720).
Joseph Nye opines that corruption is behaviour which deviates from the normal duties of a public role because of private-regarding (family, close private clique), peculiarly or status gains or violates rules against the exercise of certain types of private-regarding influence. This includes such behaviour as bribery (use of reward to pervert the judgement of a person in a position of trust) nepotism, (bestowal of patronage by reason as ascriptive relationship rather than merit), and misappropriation (illegal appropriation of public resources for private – regarding uses), (419).
According to Carl Friedrich, individuals are said to be engaging in corruption when they are granted power by society to perform certain public duties. The result of societal expectation from public officer sometimes precipitate corrupt tendencies because the holder of the office is expected to meets certain demands above his income (15).
Bayart and Hibron, cited in Akano see corruption as a malaise that currently afflicts African states. Due to this, Governments in Africa have ceased to operate as political entities and become willing participate in a wide-range of corrupt and criminal activities (69).
In another perspective, Alam defines corruption in developing countries as an unavoidable outcome of modernization and development. “In Africa, many people see corruption as a practical problem involving the Outright theft, embezzlement of funds or other appropriation of state property, nepotism and the granting of favours to personal acquaintances the use of public authority and position to exact payments and privilege (Harsch: 33).
Pita Agbese has observed that in post independence Nigeria, all political coalitions and groups have been engaged in determined efforts to capture the apparatus of state in order to use the state’s redistributive powers to a mass wealth for themselves. Soon after capturing the government, the incumbent regime usually erects significant barriers to entry and monopolizes the study of legislation, thus making certain that other groups do not participate in the allocation of resources. For locked out groups, participation in the economic systems must be obtained through payment of bribes to incumbent bureaucrats, all of whom are members of the politically dominant group (229-230).
Nigeria is not the only country in Africa in which the apparatus of government has become an instrument for the enrichment of members of the politically dominant group. South Africa, long regarded by many scholars in the West as a bastion for free enterprise in Africa, has for many years promoted laws that allowed white minority to use the redistributive powers of the state to enrich itself, while sentencing the black majority to perpetual poverty and deprivation (Mbaku).
Odugbemi cited in Akindele, support this perspective. He argues that corruption is a major problem in developing countries, a problem which diverts countries scarce resources away from development and eradication of poverty (7).
Corruption has affected the entire social systems in Africa and especially in the Nigerian society. Kurata cited in Akindele, quotes former United States of America Bill Clinton as describing Africa as “A continent with enormous potential afflicted with the devastating effects of corruption” (18).
Corruption at the level of religion is the act of using fear and ignorance to control and manipulate people for the betterment of a select group or individuals.
At the level of education, corruption is any attempt to influence, illegitimately, the process of endorsing the capacity of learners for a higher academic level, acquisition of knowledge or skills with a view to obtaining undue advantages for one or more parties.
Advanced Fee Fraud is a phrase used to describe scam related offences on large-scale projects and investments or illegal huge currency transactions. Basically, the scam involves pre-payment of some amount of money to the fraudster for an agreed course of action, which the fraudster may never execute.
Many of the Nigerian writers have written about corruption as a theme. Nigerian writers exposed the social ills in terms of socio-cultural, racial, political, economic exploitation between the blacks in the Nigerian society. For instance, Achebe’s A Man of the People (1966) attacks corruption as a way of using one’s position to become rich.
Similarly, in Olu Obafemi’s Wheels (1997) corruption is a dishonest way of misusing power for ones advantage especially for money. Also, in Helon Habila’s Waiting for An Angel (2002), corruption manifests through excessive government regulation that hinders the proper functioning of the people. Teju Cole’s Everyday for the Thief (2007) exhibits the greedy and selfish dimensions to corruption.
Understandably, then, scholars have shown great deal of interest in the problems of corruption. Scholars have been equally pre-occupied with the work of literature and re-interpretation of the work by examining and re-examining of matters related to the social development of the country.
An interesting dimension is, however, seen in Adaobi Nwaubani’s I Do Not Come To You By Chance (2009) and Labo Yari’s The Climate Of Corruption (2009) major attraction lies not only in its dramatic depiction of life in the Nigerian society but also in how the events and developments they describe fictionally for the contemporary society equally hold true under sub-sequent regimes in Nigeria. Adaobi and Labo explore how ordinary people are affected by the larger issues of found in the Nigerian society.
This research questions could be rendered thus:
[i] Is education an achievement?
[ii] Can Advanced Fee Fraud be an alternative to unemployment?
[iii] Do religious values stand for materialism?
[iv] Could family support enhance success?
1.2 Purpose of study
The purpose of the study is to identify the presentation of corruption in the two novels of Adaobi Nwaubani’s I Do Not Come to You By Chance (2009) and Labo Yari’s The Climate of Corruption (2009).
This study seeks to examine the action and reaction of both writers toward the problems of corruption and the way they have proffer solutions to solve the problems that faces many young Nigerian society.
This research work will discover the peculiar levels of corruption in two novels to show how corruption has eaten deep into the family, education and religious institutions.
1.3 Justification of the study
In recent times, more and more attention has been devoted to corruption in Nigeria and the effects of racism, struggle for societal refinement among the black race and corruption as a state of despair.
This study is being embarked upon because corruption is dangerous and harmful to the systemic existence of any society. It should be discouraged in the society because once it sets into any part; it automatically contaminates all the society.
This study also aims at seeing the effective role played by literary artists in correcting social ills in the society. This is therefore highlighting the presentation of corruption in the two novels chosen in order to expose the social decadence in the Nigerian society.
1.4 Scope and delimitation
It will be clear from the purpose of study that even though the impetus for this study that even though the impetus for this study was generated in the Nigerian society, the scope of the study has been restricted to the novels of Adaobi Nwaubani’s I Do Not Come To You By Chance (2009) and Labo Yari’s The Climate Of Corruption (2009). This restriction has been dictated by the need to attempt social issues within the novels. This will enable the researcher to focus attention on the aspects of religion, education and Advanced Fee Fraud in the novels.
The restriction notwithstanding, however, there is strong indication from the available literature that the conclusions will be generalized to many people in the contemporary Nigerian society.
1.5 Research methodology
The intention of this research work is to examine corruption in novels of Adaobi Nwaubani’s I Do Not Come to You By Chance (2009) and Labo Yari’s The Climate of Corruption (2009) through sociological theory.
Sociological theory is the internal motive of the work of art which exposes the relationship between art and society. This will lead to the critical analysis of the two novels which aim is to identify corruption as a problem in the Nigerian society.
Ogunjimi argues that sociological theory is relevant because art has a role to play in the development of the society.
Inkeles cited in Lai Olurode states that the major proponents of sociological theory namely Comte, Spencer, Dukheim and Weber support the opinion that sociological theory is the appropriate theory that believes in the didactic nature of literature because it sensitizes the society (21).
In this study, we undertook a pragmatic study of newspaper comic strips, using “Efe and Jude” as an example. Pragmatics deals mainly with the use of language by a speaker and how the meaning can be interpreted by the hearer. The aim of this research work was to examine the use of language used by Efe and Jude and to explain what was not said by the participants. This research used the random sampling technique to select data from The Punch newspaper between the months of January 2010 and July 2010. We also applied the principles of pragmatics such as Austin’s theory of speech act, Grice’s theory of implicature, Bayo Lawal’s theory of context and Bach and Harnish’s theory of Mutual Contextual Beliefs. The use of the elements of pragmatics such as presupposition, participants, context, MCBs, Inference, Intention and Implicature help in decoding the message (s) that are encoded in Efe and Jude. At the end of this study, we discovered that directives are largely used by Efe to show her superiority over Jude. We also found out that the cartoonist made use of Efe and Jude to make the public aware that the reversal of roles between couple in the family is a threat to the society.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
1.2. Purpose of the study
1.3. Justification of the study
1.4. Scope of the study
1.5. Methodology of the study
1.6. Data Description
1.7. Summary of the chapter
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Introduction
2.2. Definitions of Pragmatics
2.3. Theories of Pragmatics
2.3.1. Austin’s theory
2.3.2. John Searle’s theory
2.3.3. Bach and Harnish theory
2.3.4. Bayo Lawal’s theory
2.3.5. Grice’s theory
2.4 Elements of Pragmatics
2.4.1. Presupposition
2.4.2. Contextual Beliefs
2.4.3. Inference
2.4.4. Implicature
2.4.5. Intention
2.4.6. Participants
2.4.7. Speech acts
2.4.8. Context
2.5. Summary of the chapter
CHAPTER THREE: ANALYSIS OF DATA
3.1. Introduction
3.2. Analysis
3.3. Discussion
3.4. Summary of the chapter
CHAPTER FOUR: SUMMARY, FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS
4.1. Introduction
4.2. Summary
4.3. Findings
4.4. Conclusions
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Communication is an important aspect of human life. Man has been known to communicate with himself, his environment and his fellow being from time immemorial. Language is the means of communication through which man communicates and its development has made human communication powerful and relevant to human existence. Babatunde (2009, p100), asserts that communication is the chief purpose of language and the ability to use language for meaningful and purposeful interaction by man is one great edge man has over every other living thing.
Lehman (1976, p4), sees language as a system for the communication of meaning through sounds. Through language, we generate meaning and information which can be exchanged between interlocutors to generate communication because without communication, there will hardly be survival in the society. Language is an art that is made up of an arbitrary code in which intra and inter personal communication takes place.
However, human’s thoughts and perceptions are passed as a message to the receiver who will store, process and change it into meanings. Language is important in decoding meaning and the aspect of linguistics that specializes in this act of meaning decoding is pragmatics. Yule (1996, p127) defines pragmatics as “the invisible meaning or how meaning is recognized even when it is not said or written”. He further explained that for invisible meaning to be recognized, speakers must be able to depend on a lot of shared assumptions and expectations.
Comics are any piece of entertainment that is funny. Therefore comic strips according to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2000, p222) are “series of drawings inside boxes (panels) that tell a story and are often printed in newspapers”. It has been discovered that many readers of comic strips widely known as cartoons read it because of its funny nature without having a deeper understanding of the non-literal aspect of the utterances.
Hence, the researcher will do a pragmatic examination of the drawings and utterances by using the elements of pragmatics to analyze the special ways in which language has been used to entertain and pass across message(s) to the people or readers since pragmatics according to Levinson (1983, p6) is “the study of those relations between language and context that is grammaticalized or encoded in the structure of a language”.
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of this study was to examine and reveal what is not said by the participants in “Efe and Jude” and to examine the use of language of this comic strip. This study was aimed at using the pragmatic elements to examine the special ways in which language has been used in “Efe and Jude” so that at the end of this study people will not just read the comic strip for entertainment alone but have a fuller and deeper knowledge of what the comic strip is trying to convey.
JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY
This study was embarked upon because no study of this nature to our knowledge has focused specifically on the pragmatic study of ‘Efe and Jude’ in The Punch newspaper. The study was aimed at making the members of the public understand utterance meaning and to make them know that utterances always mean more than what is said.
The value attached to this work was based on the families that are confronted with the issue of the reversal of roles where the man is acting as the wife and the woman acting as the husband. This work will also be of interest to sociologists who are studying human society.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
We limited our analysis in this study to the aspect of linguistics that specializes in the act of decoding meaning which is pragmatics using cartoons as our data. There are different kinds of cartoons but this study based its analysis on a comic strip. This study intended to take a look at the pragmatic study of ‘Efe and Jude’ in The Punch newspaper selected from the months of January 2010 to July 2010.
The analysis of this comic strip selected from The Punch newspaper was done by using some pragmatic tools. These tools include participants, context, presupposition, inference, implicature, speech act, mutual contextual beliefs and intention.
METHODOLOGY
Due to the size of the target population, the researcher made use of random sampling technique. The comic strip, Efe and Jude were selected from The Punch newspaper from January to July, 2010. The comic strip does not appear regularly during the week but appears thrice a week or approximately four times on Saturdays. Therefore, twenty cartoons were selected to represent the entire population.
DATA DESCRIPTION
Cartoons
A cartoon according to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary is “an amusing drawing in a newspaper or magazine, especially one about politics or events in the news”. Longman Active Study Dictionary defines cartoon as “a funny drawing or set of drawings in a newspaper or magazine”.
We can therefore conclude from the above definitions of cartoons that it is an imitation of what happens in our society. Kunzle (2007, p1) identified various types of cartoons but the most relevant to this study is comic strip which is used to entertain the public on the things that are happening in the society.
EFE AND JUDE
Efe, who is the speaker in most of the scenes of the comic strip, is depicted as a huge woman who comes from the eastern part of Nigeria because of her name. She is married to Jude but instead of the normal husband and wife relationship, there is a sort of reversal in their roles in the home.
Efe always acts as the husband while the husband acts as the wife. Even though she is the wife, she provides every need of the family; she provides the money for food, transport fares and every other essential needs of the house.
The comic strip focuses on what is happening in the society with a view of proffering solutions to the problem of the reversal of roles in homes so that it will not be a constant occurrence which could be a threat to the society.
It is believed in the society that a husband must always be the head of a family but in the case of ‘Efe and Jude, the reverse is the case. This makes the cartoonist use ‘Efe and Jude’ to make readers aware of what is going on in the some families. It is also used to satirize women who behave like Efe in the society.
SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER
In this chapter, we have attempted to define all our variables. We stated the aim of the study, the reason why we have embarked on the work, the limitation of the work, the methods that would be used in this study and a brief description of our data. Having done these, we will now move to the next chapter to review our related literatures.
This work investigates how meaning is derived in an utterance through cartoons. It aimed at a pragmatic analysis of selected cartoons from these Nigerian dailies: The Guardian, The Punch and The Nation, in order to know the different functions of language in relation to context using Participants, Implicature, Inference, Presupposition, Intention, World Knowledge, Mutual Contextual Beliefs. The cartoons were chosen randomly for the analysis. It is found out that utterances are not uttered but for a purpose. At the end of the analysis we have been able to have understanding of how language is used to pass across some intended message.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
General introduction
Background to the study
Purpose of the study
Justification of the study
Scope of the study
Research methodology
Data description
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
Pragmatics a conceptualization
Theories of pragmatics
Elements of pragmatics 8
Participants
World knowledge
Presupposition
Implicature
Inference
Context
Intention
Message
Mutual contextual beliefs
CHAPTER THREE: DATA ANALYSIS
Introduction
Analysis
CHAPTER FOUR: SUMMARY, FINDING AND CONCLUSION
Introduction
Summary
Findings
Conclusion
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.0 INTRODUCTION
This chapter begins by giving the general background to the study. It then gives the purpose, the justification, the scope of the study, research methodology, data description and finally, it includes by giving a summary of a pragmatic analysis of selected cartoons from Nigerian dailies.” The Guardian, The Punch and The Nation”
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The power of language makes man so distinct and different from all other creatures. Language allows man to communicate since the effective communication means the appropriate use of language in a relevant content. This work intends to investigate how communication is achieved among interlocutors and language has been used as a means of conversation.
In everyday interactions, we use language to communicate with other people either in oral or within form. It has been observed that many newspaper readers do not show interest in cartoons reading as the way they do to other part, of the Newspaper. Meanwhile, there are many things to pass across to the readers through the cartoons. It is entertaining and informative.
Therefore, the main focus of this work is to look at the pragmatic features in a cartoon text, some selected cartoons from Nigerian dailies “The Guardian, The Punch and The Nation will be analyzed using features of pragmatics analysis.
1.2 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of this study is to examine the pragmatic features of cartoon from Nigerian dailies. The Guardian, The Punchand The Nation 2010. It also investigates how communication is achieved among the participant, how meaning is derived and the pragmatic features employed by cartoon writers to pass across their intended messages to readers.
1.3 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY
Interaction gives the meaning of certain word when an utterance is uttered. There is a need for a research work on this study to pay attention to on cartoons. By doing this, the pragmatic features and element will be identified. This will assist students and readers to read cartoons at their leisure time.
1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This study is being carried out using cartoons as a data from Nigerian dailies The Guardian, The Punch and The Nation. The cartoon chosen are twelve in all, these cartoons will cover three (3) months editions 2010 i.e August, September and October 2010. Some chosen features of pragmatic analysis include Context, Participants, Mutual Contextual Beliefs (MCBs), Intention, Message, Inference, Pre-supposition, Implicature, Reference and World Knowledge.
1.5 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The data for this study are cartoons selected from Nigerian dailies “The Guardian, The Punch, The Nation. This research work will cover three months edition of newspapers published in the month of August, September and October 2010. The cartoons are twelve in all. Examples of the pragmatic features used will be identified in the conversation of characters in the text.
1.6 DATA DESCRIPTION
The data chosen for this research work are cartoons selected from Nigerian dailies “The Guardian, The Punch and The Nation. Cartoons are interaction between two or more people, these people are usually sketched with a box pointing towards each of them. It contains their various utterances, some are political others are not .e.g Adult, Children and Government etc. The cartoonists of the selected cartoons are Femora, Neearo, Prasad Golla, Edun, Didi Onu, Obe ESS, Mayowa Adetula, Tayo Olujimi, Chukky, Stanley and Azeez Sanni.
Language and style never moves beyond a concentration on the supremacy of words. These words somehow contain meanings style is effectively language manipulated in ways that signal it as different from ‘ordinary’ language. A stylistic analysis of the selection of some Wole Soyinka’s poems is carried out to educate, explicate and expose to everybody that comes across this write up, in guiding them on how to analyse. The data used to illustrate and substantiate our claims are systematically sourced from some selected poems of Wole Soyinka. The lexico-syntactic patterns and choices, the phonological, morphological and graphological devices are the main stylistic elements used to prove our claims. Finally, we find that each of the elements however, has identifiable functions which contribute to the effective meaning of the poems. It can therefore be concluded that these elements trigger and play important roles in passing the intention of the writer across.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE : GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Research Problem
1.2 Aims and Objectives
1.3 Scope of the Study
1.4 Justification
1.5 Research Methodology
1.6 Biography of the Poet
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Introduction
2.1 Style
2.2 Stylistics
2.3 Approaches to Stylistic Analysis
2.4 Levels of Stylistic Analysis
2.5 Elements in Stylistic Analysis
2.5.1 Lexico-Syntactic Patterns
2.5.2 Lexico-Syntactic Choices
2.5.3 Phonological Devices
2.5.4 Graphological Devices
2.5.5 Morphological Devices
CHAPTER THREE: DATA ANALYSIS
3.0 Introduction
3.1 Textual Analysis
3.2 Discussion of Tables
3.3 Conclusion
CHAPTER FOUR: SUMMARY,FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION
4.1 Summary
4.2 Findings
4.3 Conclusion
Bibliography
CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Stylistics is a word derived from style; it is a discipline which studies different styles. It can refer to the study of proper use of words or language in proper places. Widdowson (1975, p 3) defines stylistics as “the study of literary discourse from a linguistic orientation”. He goes further by saying that what distinguishes stylistics from literary criticism on the one hand, and linguistics on the other, is that it is essentially a means of linking the two and has (as yet at least) no autonomous domain of its own. He also added that stylistics, however involves both literary criticism and linguistics, as its morphological make-up suggest: the ‘style’ component relating it to the former and the ‘istics’ component to the latter. Style has grown to mean so many things to so many people today. Carter (1989, p 14) is of the view that it is generally recognized that the style of a work can depend on linguistic levels-often simultaneously and that one fairly crucial factor is our expectation concerning the literary form or genre employed.
Haynes (1989, p 3) believes that the study of style is the study of distinctions: looking at what was said against what might have been said. Style is almost synonymous with variety. Style refers in a simple way to the manner of expression which differs according to the various contexts.
Style, being a versatile field, is defined depending on one’s field of study. Adejare (1992) makes this clear when he said that style is an ambiguous term. Lawal (1997, p 6) however, describes style as an aspect of language that deals with choices of diction, phrases, sentences and linguistic materials that are consistent and harmonious with the subject matter. He added that it involves the narrative technique of a writer in terms of choice and distribution of words and character. Lawal (1997, p 6) also added that it may be reckoned in terms of the sociolinguistic contexts and it may also be reckoned or analysed on linguistic, semantic and even semiotic terms.
RESEARCH PROBLEM
This research notes that the stylistic analysis of this selection of poems has not been done so this research will address itself to analyzing these poems stylistically and examining the uniqueness of stylistics as it combines both linguistics and literary studies as it pertains to these poems. It is also addressing itself to examining how words are put together in transferring of message to the readers.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The ultimate aim of this research is to explore ways in which language use has been integrated in the selected poems. It is also aimed at analyzing some of the distinctive features that give the selected poems their identity. This refers to the recurrent features of stylistics employed by the writer.
In the same vein, this work will be concerned with striking and marked use of words in these poems in order to enhance effective transfer of message. The effects and functions of the stylistic elements as regards the poems will be looked at in the analysis.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This work shall be exclusively stylistic, and analysis will be conducted through the use of the following levels of analysis: lexico-syntactic patterns and choices, phonology, graphology and morphology. Analysis will be conducted using the stylistic elements in each of the above mentioned levels of analysis, such that it could provide a guide and be relevant to future researchers in a related field.
JUSTIFICATION
What fascinated the researcher into doing this work is the uniqueness of stylistics as it combines both linguistics and literary studies. The choice of words of Wole Soyinka marked by great scope and has also made the researcher to embark on this project and to choose some of Wole Soyinka’s works as the data.
This work will be of great benefit to those students in the field of language and literature who also have interest in stylistics. It will also inspire them more on how to analyse texts using the levels of stylistic analysis employed in this work.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The data for analysis have been randomly selected from the “Selection of African Poetry”- introduced and annotated by K. E. Senanu and T. Vincent. All the poems of Wole Soyinka in the selection have been selected. The poems are seven in number and they are ‘Abiku’, ‘To my first white hairs’ and ‘Post mortem’ written in 1967. ‘Telephone conversation’ written in the 1960’s, ‘Night’ and ‘I think it rains’ written in 1988 and the seventh poem ‘Procession 1-hanging day’ written in 1969. The poems will be analysed stylistically and the five levels of analysis already mentioned will form the basis of the analysis.
BIOGRAPHY OF THE POET- WOLE SOYINKA
Wole Soyinka was born on 13 July, 1934 in Ake in Abeokuta, near Ibadan in Western Nigeria. After preparatory University studies in 1954 at Government College in Ibadan, he continued at the University of Leeds, where, later, in 1973, he took his doctorate. He showed interest and ability in poetry and drama while in the University.
Soyinka has published about 20 works: drama, novels and poetry. He writes in English and his literary language is marked by great scope and richness of words. His writings are sophisticated and show a profound exploration of human themes and concerns through a unique exploration of his cultural milieu. He has won many international prizes for his contribution to literature. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986.
It was obviously vital that African should be treated for culture preservation. This research attempted the exposition of Camara Laye’s The African Child and The Radiance of the King with a view to appreciate the African Aesthetics in the novels. Formalism approach is used to critically study the aesthetics in the selected African novels and we made wide consultation of books on African aesthetics. We observed that with all rapidly changing conditions of life today, African aesthetic such as circumcision, rituals and rites, sacrifices are in a very grave danger of getting lost forever, unless something is done to redeem this situation. Aesthetics of any society should not be taken with levity.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
Introduction
Purpose of the study
Scope and limitation of the study
Justification of the study
Methodology of the study
Structure of thesis
CHAPTER TWO
Literary critic’s view about the author
CHAPTER THREE
Introduction
Ritual of passage in The African Child
Tom-Tom and Rice Harvesting in The African Child
African Totemism in The African Child
Traditional music and dance in The African Child
Respect in The African Child
Traditional Occupation in The African Child
Religion and rituals in The African Child
Traditional occupation in The African Child
CHAPTER FOUR
Cultural Rainbow in The Radiance of the King
CHAPTER FIVE
Introduction
Summary
Findings
Conclusion
Bibliography
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Literature always depends on human reality, thus all literary works depict human actual situations. So, Literature is a mirror which reflects man’s actual life in the society where he is found. Literature also borrows from history and relies on everyday events. Awotunde (1999:7) asserts that literary critics, poets, authors and playwrights are engaged in the process of adapting, inventing and recreating certain life situations to sustain the make belief and the suspense that are part of the key ingredients of literature. Literature is characterized by its aesthetics or pleasure and its edification.
Literature, like all other art forms, draws on human experience and tries to reflect the same and communicate it to man in an order and artistic form. It can also imply an artistic use of word for the sake of art alone. Omotayo Oloruntoba Oju (1999) observes that
The term literature may be used to refer to any material in written form or any other material whose features tend themselves to literary appreciation or appraisal… The term in a specialized sense refers to work of art in any of the established literary genres, prose, poetry and drama.
Any good definition of literature therefore, cannot do without the oral composition of a community from which the written and established genres and still emanates according to society changes.
Also, Akande and Ibrahim define Literature as
Any creative imagination which uses a specialized form of language and style for effective communication in prose, poetry and drama.
A modern definition of Literature by Terry Eagleton (1973) says:
Literature is a liberating force, freeing us from inherent shackles placed upon us by the society. Literary criticism is therefore born out of the struggle against a loss of culture and its feature becomes defined as a struggle against the foreseen bourgeois state and it has no predetermined future.
Aesthetics refers to the appreciation or appraised of value. Whenever a judgement is made about the nature, worth or significance of a phenomenon, an aesthetic appreciation is being made. In a more narrow sense, aesthetics refers to the philosophical contemplation of a work of art. Thus, a discipline, aesthetics is concerned with the appropriate modes of evaluation of works of art. An unending debate in aesthetics is: which aspect of the object, or phenomenon being evaluated should be assigned a great weight of appreciation. The two main elements involved in any such appreciation are the form or appearance of the object or phenomenon on the other hand. Correspondingly, there are two extreme aesthetic attitudes: aestheticism and utilitarianism or functionalism.
Africaness refers to elements in works of art that express themes, ideas or notions, aesthetic features and objects relating to Africa. Africaness is predominant in the literature of the diaspora in foreign languages. Africaness include the deliberate infusion of African linguistic and non-linguistic elements into literature to give a natural touch. At a moderate level, such Africaness is seen as representing the African aesthetic matrix. At the extreme, such Africaness may be an expression of cultural nationalism. In Literature of Africans in Diaspora, Africaness takes the form of the theme of the black beauty and of the African homeland. It is often a romanticization of the African heritage.
According to Oloruntoba-Oju (1999:213) similarities between African and Caribbean aesthetics have been demonstrated at various levels because of the numerous African elements preserved in several sectors of the diaspora. One thing stands out when one reads a novel by an African on Africa. It’s the fact that it is dominated by element that reveal not only the cultural realities of its people but also the peculiarities of the region the novelists dwells in furthermore, a particular ethnic community’s belief and practice reflects in its actions and reactions to issues and life generally.
Therefore, African Aesthetic seldom appears in literature instead such words such as ‘Negritude’. The African personality, the African outlook and more recently, the black aesthetic. The African world views are more common. A large body of literature has grown up around most of these terms, particularly ‘Negritude’
Susan Vogel from the New York Centre for African art described an African aesthetic in African work as having the following characteristics: youthfulness, other African aesthetics include myth, legend, oral tradition, history, poetry, folktales, folklores, riddles and jokes, song, performance narrative etc.
From the above definition, it is clearly seen that literature and aesthetics has a relationship, since aesthetics also has it impact on African literature, therefore, these refers to element in works of art that express theme, and ideas or notions relating to Africa. In order to examine and know what exactly African literature is, there are certain things one has to guide against and these according to Achebe are known as common fallacies which we must avoid. Achebe goes further to say: (Achebe:13)
The first is to see African literature as so different and special and so removed from the realm of other literatures that it can share no common approaches with them.
In as much as one would not see African literature as different and special, it is therefore logical to accept the fact that literature, being a product of human culture, cannot develop in a vacuum, rather it has to develop in a tradition or traditions.
So the emergence of the writing culture in Africa and the foreign traditions on the African literature, no doubt gave birth to the literature of colonial experience, which eventually turned the Africa literature to a protest against colonialism and its effects. These were literary works purely concerned with cultural rehabilitation and thus grew in response to the cultural values of Africa.
Example of such works include Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958), Amos Tutuola’s Palm Wine Drinkard (1952), Peter Abraham Mine boy (1946), Bayo Adebowale’s The Virgin (1986), Camara Laye’s African Child (1953) and The Radiance of the King (1954). These are the books written to show case the rich cultural traditions of the Africans. According to Dada, they were historical or ethnographical designed to explain African culture to the foreign reader.
With these, it has become very difficult to separate African literature from its root because day in day out, the tradition of the past still continues to wield much influence on African literature. No doubt then that Ngugi Wa Thiongo asserted in article on “The African Writer and his Past” that:
The African in spite of his modernity, has never been wholly severed from the cradle of a continuous culture from folklore, tales, proverbs, riddles and all oral components that made him what he is today.
Camara Laye’s The African Child (1953) and The Radiance of the King (1954) for example, can be conveniently classified into the volume of contemporary African writings of the prose traditions, which is fully loaded with the traditional value of the past.
It is clearly seen that different scholars have tried to look at what African aesthetics is and some uses fictional works to show this aesthetics value in his works. Among this numerous authors, Camara Laye uses virtually all his novels to portray this concept especially his African Child (1953) and The Radiance of the King (1954).
Camara Laye as an African writer uses this two novels to disengage the mind of the westerners who believed that Africa is cultureless. His African Child (1953) reveals the peaceful and happy childhood of the boy Laye. He traces the hero’s life from about the age of six when he attended the Koranic school, the time he graduated from the technical College to finish his studies in France. The author laid special emphasis on love, respect and concern for one another in the village community. He dwells on the communal nature of African societies in a way to show the European reader that Africa societies are very different from the individualistic societies of Europe.
The Radiance of the King (1954) tells a long story but straight forward story of a while man’s adventure in a particular corner of Africa. The hero Clarence has gambled all his money among his fellow Europeans. He owes money to all of them and he is thrown out of the hotel because he has no money to pay, therefore, action, it is seen that Africans are very accommodating and they do not discriminate as the while does.
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
As earlier said, literary works of art are studied by considering the aesthetic and pleasurable value of such works. This refers rather to a sense of aesthetic appreciation, that is, the feeling that a particular work of art satisfies or fulfills the expectation that the reader or audience brings to it. In this study, attempt will be made on the examination of African aesthetics in the works of Camara Laye. The exploration of Africaness in his work will be on the use of African aesthetics prominent in The Radiance of the King (1954) and The African Child (1953).
SCOPE AND LIMITATION
The focus of this study will be on the use of African aesthetic in Camara Laye’s The African Child (1953) and The Radiance of the King (1954). Apart from some cursory references to some texts of similar thematic thrust, this study will be limited to observation made from aesthetic appraisal. Analysis therefore will be made available by a close reading of the two novels.
JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY
This work is to examine how Camara Laye emphasizes the conscious effort to capture the traditional tones of speech and action with which he draws his audience closer to his novel. His infusion of African elements like songs, dance, customs, beliefs, traditions, divination, dance, praise singing, proverbs, idioms and so on into his novel will also be analyzed. He intentionally uses these elements to bring out the beauty and aesthetics of his dramatic works and evoke a burst of emotion from the audience. This work is chosen in order to show the westerners that Africans are of great cultural heritage.
METHODOLOGY
In this study, all the elements of Africaness and aesthetics employed by the author within the scope of this study will be carefully examined. In doing this, the formalist approach to literature will be used. Formalism developed and flourished in Russia in the twentieth century. It was propounded by Immanuel Kant, Bishop Joseph Butler and W.D Ross. The formalist theory looks at the aesthetics of any literary work. Therefore since this work aims at bringing out the beauty in The African child (1953) and The Radiance of the king (1954). Therefore the theory is the most suitable for this work.
STRUCTURE OF THESIS
This thesis contains five chapters. Chapter one by way of introduction capture matters like the definition of key terms, purpose of the study, scope and limitation of the study justification of the study as well as the methodology of the study. In chapter two, perspectives on Camara Laye’s works are examined under the literature review. The title of chapter three is Africanism and social in Camara Laye’s African Child (1953), the chapter considers the African aesthetics and its element in the novel. Our concern in chapter four, under the title: Toward a Cultural rainbow in Camara Laye’s The Radiance of the King. The chapter five of the thesis is the summary and conclusion of the research.
This project work deals with a critical evaluation of Africanism in relation to theme and techniques of Amos Tutuola’s novel – THE PALMWINE DRINKARD. This study tends to examine the important of African culture and promotion of its cultural heritage which was bastardized by the colonial masters during colonization.
In the course of this essay, chapter one will deals with introduction, background of the study, purpose of the study, scope and limitation, justification, methodology and authorial background. Chapter two forms the literature reviewed about past scholars’ view on Africanism, the concept of Africanism as theme, the concept of Africanism as techniques. Chapter three focuses on analysis of the novel- the palm-wine Drinkard. Chapter four encompasses summary, findings and conclusion to the whole essay. In our finding, we are able to discovered.
That “Africanism especially the aspect of African culture in Tutuola’s texts enable the readers to appreciate and value their own traditions.
That Africanism as a concept is capable of generating its own body of literature and attracts criticism to itself.
That through the concept of Africanism, the efficacy of African culture has been proved using Tutuola’s text, the palm wine Drinkard.
Also, that the writing of the palmwine drinkard has been greatly influences by oral tradition.
Furthermore, it is discovered that Tutuola through the palmwine drinkard has proved that African writer are not writing in vacuum, but concentrate on Africa background.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE: GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Purpose of study
Significant of the study
Justification
Scope and limitation
Methodology
Authorial Background
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
Concept of Africanism as Theme
Concept of Africanism as Techniques
CHAPTER THREE: TEXTUAL ANALYSIS
Setting of the Novel
Plot structure
Characterization
The summary of the Novel
CHAPTER FOUR: SUMMARY & CONCLUSION
Summary
Findings
Conclusion
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CHAPTER ONE
Introduction
“Pan-African” unity is important in African identity politics, because the African ancestry of Afro-American community cannot be derived from an identifiable African people. Therefore, it has become necessary to minimize the differences between the various peoples of African favour of a generalized “African” heritage.
Background to the Study
The word “Africanism” connotes pan-Africanism. Pan-Africanism represents the aggregation and the projection of historical, cultural, spiritual, artistic, scientific and philosophical legacies of Africans from past times to the present. Pan-Africanism as an ethical system traces its origin. From ancient times and promotes values that are product of the African civilization and the struggles against slavery, racism, colonialism and neo-colonialism.
However, Pan-Africanism is usually seen as a product of the European slave trade. Enslaved Africans of diverse origins and their descendants found themselves embedded in a system of exploitation where their African origin becomes a sign of their service status. Pan-Africanism set aside cultural differences, asserting the principality of these shared experiences to foster solidarity and resistance to exploitation.
Alongside a large number of slave insurrections, by the end of the eighteenth century political movement developed across the Americas Europe and African which sought to weld these disparate movements into a network of solidarity putting an end to these oppressions. In London, the sons of Africa were political group addressed by quotona Ottobah Lugoano in the 1791 edition of his book thoughts and sentiments on the evil of slavery. The group addressed meetings and organized letter-writing campaigns, published campaigning material and visited parliament. They wrote to figures such as Granvile sharp, William Pitt and other members of the white abolition movement, as well as king George III and the prince of Wales, the future George IV.
Modern Pan-Africanism began around the beginning of the twentieth century. The African Association latter renamed the Pan-African Association, was organized by Henry Sylvester – Williams around 1887, and their first conference was held in 1900.
Purpose of study
The purpose of this study can be seen from different perspectives. First and foremost, to see how Amos Tutuola has promoted the richness of African culture. He wants Africans to cast a favourable look at their indigenous traditions, unique cultural heritage forgetting the culture impose on them during the colonial period, secondly, the study is desirable at discussing how Africanism has been used as theme and techniques in Tutuola’s the palmwine drinkard in order to convey his message to his readers.
The Significance of the Study
This research work is significant in the literary world where it adds to the body of knowledge and making known some hidden riches of the book The Palmwine Drinkard. This work will convey why Tutuola wrote in such of manner with imaginary pictures of places which are often told in Yoruba myth. In this generation where culture and ethnics are not well regarded, this work shall carve out our culture of Africanism and enlighten all to value our culture.
Justification
Many researchers have worked on Amos Tutuola’s the Palmwine Drinkard discussing different issues such as Ajayi A. (2002) “Language and style in Amos Tutuola’s The Palm-wine Drunkard” brought out to appreciate the asteriated use of language in the book and also Baiyerohi, P. (2008) “Folklore in Amos Tutuola’s “The palm-wine Drinkard” to diverse perspectives of folklore but for the purpose of this work, we shall be using “Africanism” to analyze themes and techniques in The palmwine drinkard by Amos Tutuola.
From the foregoing, more researches have been made by scholars and students of English to analytically criticize Tutuola’s The Palm-wine Drinkard but for the authenticity of this work, we shall be exploring the richness of African culture messaged by Tutuola which from our understanding has not been worked upon before now.
Scope and Limitation
This work shall studied the concept of Africanism as portray in the palm-wine drinkard. Furthermore, we shall be examining how the concept of Africanism, its themes and techniques is been use to show the efficacy of African’s culture and tradition.
Methodology
Tutuola’s the palmwine Drinkard is our primary source of information in this essay. All the concepts of Africanism used as themes and techniques shall be critically examined.
Our secondary source of information will include books consulted in the process of the study which are articles, done on the author which can be found in journals, seminars, projects.
Authorial Background
According to Parrinder (1954). Tutuola was born in the Nigerian city of Abeokuta in 1920. His parents were Christians and cocoa farmer of Yoruba race. At the age of twelve, he had began to attend the Anglican central school in his home town. His formal education lasted only five year as he had to leave school, when his father died. This made him to go to Lagos and train as a blacksmith in 1939 from 1942 to 1945; he practiced his trade for the Royal-Air force in Nigeria. After which, he then worked as a messenger for the department of labour as a store keeper for Radio Nigeria in Ibadan.
Furthermore, he married Alake and they were blessed with six children, Tutuola was not highly educated. He wrote in English language rather than his mother tongue, Yoruba language, because he wanted to reach a wider audience to which this local material may have more general interest but the English he uses in his stories is “not published or sophisticated” instead, Tutuola used English language the way it is being spoken in Nigeria by ordinary people.
Tutuola is a fascinating writer, whose works are interesting not only because their style is so vibrant but also because they reflect Africa folklore and tradition. Other books by Tutuola include, My life in the bush of Ghost (1952), Sumbi and the Satyrs of the dark jungle (1955), The Brave African thuntress (1958), herbalist of the remote Town (1981). He died at Jordan Hospital in Ibadan on June 7th, 1997.
Amos Tutuola was a recognized scholar in the world of folklore. He won some honours and awards such as: Meridian award –odu themes (1983), honorary fellow in writing of the University of Iowa USA (1983), the second prize winner Grin Zane Cavour Arnold in literature in Italy (1983). the honorary fellow of modern language Association of America (1989), the Nobel patrol of arts pan African writer association (1992), the special fellow National League of veteran journalist (1996) and the Egba merit award (post honours) 1997.