The Limitations of Yoruba-English Bilingual Undergraduate Students in the Expression of Yoruba Greetings
Loading...
Date
2008
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Linguistic Association of Nigeria
Abstract
This study investigated the limited ability of some Yoruba-English speakers to express Yoruba greetings in either Yoruba or English. The responses of 120 Yoruba-English bilingual undergraduate students in a Nigerian university were elicited via the questionnaire and interview techniques and then analysed to determine, first, the strategies employed by the students in the expression of greetings and, second, their levels of competence in expressing greetings in both languages. The findings revealed that the students expressed the greetings via specific or general (socially acceptable), individual non-acceptable, and silence (no response) forms in both Yoruba and English; and that they found it more problematic to express greetings in English than in Yoruba. It was concluded that the non-expression of greetings as well as inability to express greetings appropriately is fast becoming a habit among the youths and that education and enlightenment efforts should be made to reverse this retrogressive trend.
Description
Keywords
Yoruba greetings, Yoruba native speakers, Expressing greetings in Yoruba, Strategies of expressing Yoruba in English
Citation
Adegbite, Wale and Akinwale, Layi (2008). The Limitations of Yoruba-English Bilingual Undergraduate Students in the Expression of Yoruba Greetings. In Ndimele, O.; Udoh, I. L. and Anyawu, O. (Eds.) Critical Issues in the Study of Linguistics, Languages and Literatures in Nigeria. A Festschrift for C. M. B. Brann. Port Harcourt: Linguistic Association of Nigeria, M and J. Grand Orbit communications Ltd and Emhai Press, pp. 165 - 184.