Abstract
Effects of Bilingualism on the English of Tertiary Students as a mentorship and entrepreneurial tool were investigated. The term bilingualism is the use of two languages (repertoire) of an individual or a speech community. An important feature of bilingualism is that it is a consequence of language in contact which deals with the direct or indirect influence of one language on the other. Five research questions were used to investigate the effects of Bilingualism on the English of tertiary students. A total of three hundred students from two tertiary institutions were used. Fifty percent (50%) and above is regarded as a pass mark proving the effects of bilingualism on the English of tertiary students. The selected tertiary institutions are run by the State and Federal Governments. The data interpretation proved that bilingualism has overriding positive mentorship and entrepreneurial influence on students’ development. These benefits include enhancing and enriching the students’ language experiences/structure, offering insights and opportunities for developing cognitive skills, enhancing ability to interact in both languages, transfer concepts from one language to the other and a means of cultural transmission. Based on these findings, recommendations such as encouraging parents to maintain bilingualism at home and schools, language teachers to emphasis areas of difficulty and interference, more emphasis to be made by textbook writers, syllabus designers, curriculum planners, provision of instructional materials and financial assistance by the government were made to enhance proficiency.Keywords: Bilingualism, Mentorship, Entrepreneurial development, English, Tertiary Students, Sine-qua-non.
Highlights
One striking characteristic of a human being and something that distinguishes him from any other animal is the ability to use language in its most dynamic form namely speech
English and French are considered very important to the life of the people; Nigeria where several bilingual speech communities exist for example: Hausa/Kanuri, Igbo/English, Yoruba/English etc, 1.3 THE ORIGIN OF BILINGUALISM The genesis of bilingualism could be traced to the following factors namely; colonialism, conquest, trade/commerce, federation and amalgamation, annexation and border line areas (Akindele and Adegbite 1999:28)
Bilingualism has on the English of tertiary students as a mentorship and entrepreneurial development tool and to proffer solutions that will help in achieving proficiency in the languages
Summary
One striking characteristic of a human being and something that distinguishes him from any other animal is the ability to use language in its most dynamic form namely speech. Language is the source of human life and power‟ Fromkin and Rodman (1978) This definition suggests about five characteristics of language which include that: language is conventional, systematic, habitual, a vocal behaviour and a means of communication. Yule (1996: 25) identified the unique properties of human language as follows: displacement, arbitrariness, creativity, discreetness, duality and cultural transmission It can be described as system of sounds or vocal symbols by which human beings communicate experience. The language provisions of the National Policy on education (2004) clearly defines the functions of English in primary education in Nigeria : The medium of instruction in the primary school shall be the language of the environment for the first three years.
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