Impact of Linguistic Insecurity on the English Oral Productivity of Students of Selected Colleges of Education in South-Western Nigeria

Dr. Okedigba Segun Ogunniyi (), Omowon Aderonke Abiodun () and Adelowo Abimbola 'Dapo ()

International Journal of Linguistics, 2023, vol. 4, issue 2, 40 - 53

Abstract: Purpose: This work studied the phenomenon of linguistic insecurity among colleges' of education students in South-Western Nigeria to determine its impact on their English oral productivity. Casual observation has shown that a good number of colleges' of education students in South-Western Nigeria are usually not at ease communicating in the English language. So, they seldom communicate in the English language when they interact with one another. Methodology: The Deficit Hypothesis as postulated by Bernstein (1971) provided the theoretical underpinning. It used purposive sampling to sample three colleges of education in South-Western Nigeria. Random sampling technique was employed to sample 120 respondents from each of the colleges; yielding a study sample of 360. A self-constructed questionnaire tagged "Impact of Linguistic Insecurity on English Oral Productivity Questionnaire (ILIEOPQ)" was the instrument employed. Data generated were analysed using frequency counts and simple percentages. Findings: The results showed that majority of colleges' of education students in South-Western Nigeria did experience linguistic insecurity whenever they communicated with their friends and course-mates in English language; a phenomenon which is not unconnected with their deficiency in English language. Lack of confidence was found to be a major factor for this. Linguistic insecurity in English language also had negative effects on the English oral productivity of students of colleges of education in South-Western Nigeria resulting in many of them speaking their first language more than they did speak English language while in school. Findings also showed that colleges' of education students in South-Western Nigeria employed some strategies to cope with their linguistic insecurity in English language. This notwithstanding, the standard or quality of the English language they spoke was not good enough. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The findings have shown linguistic insecurity as a major cause of the poor oral performance of Nigerian learners in English language. The findings could help stimulate the initiation of appropriate measures by concerned stake-holders. Such measures could include learners of English as a second language endeavouring to speak the English language more regularly at school. Similarly, teachers should lay more emphasis on the spoken English of their pupils/students.

Keywords: English Language; Linguistic Insecurity; Oral Productivity; Colleges of Education; South-Western Nigeria (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://iprjb.org/journals/index.php/IJL/article/view/2150 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bdu:ojtijl:v:4:y:2023:i:2:p:40-53:id:2150

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Linguistics from IPRJB
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chief Editor ().