Linguistic Hegemony of the English language in Nigeria

Abolaji Samuel Mustapha

doi:10.17533/udea.ikala.15315

Authors

Abolaji Samuel Mustapha Lagos State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.ikala.15315

Keywords:

Hegemony, English, global, dominance, resistance, Nigerian languages

Abstract

the subject of linguistic hegemony and language dominance has been taken up in many studies since the wake of the twentieth century. The common denominator among these studies appears to be the linguistic hegemony of the English language as a global language and the survival of the other languages of the world. This paper critically reviews the trend that has been reported in Nigeria and re-assesses some of the proposed resistance mechanisms in literature. The aim is to proffer solutions to the reported domination of English and its effect on Nigeria's local languages. The author believes that some views about the linguistic hegemony of English might have been exaggerated thereby influencing some suggested resistance mechanisms. Thus, this paper proposes a context-sensitive and pragmatic resistant mechanism that might place the hegemony of English in the right perspective and thus conserve local languages in multilingual societies, especially in Nigeria.

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Author Biography

Abolaji Samuel Mustapha, Lagos State University

I hold a doctoral degree in Sociolinguistics from the University of Essex, Essex, UK and teach in the department of English, Lagos State University, Ojo as senior lecturer. My research interests are in multilingualism, pidgins and creoles, gender and language, English as a second language, politeness in speech functions among others. I have held a number of academic awards - University of Lagos Scholar Award, Nigeria; Association of Commonwealth Universities Scholarship Award, UK; DAAD Scholarship, Germany; British Academy Visiting Scholar Award

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