The English Language and the Mass Media as Tools for Sustainable Development in Multilingual Nations

Abstract

In many multilingual nations of the world, the multiplicity of indigenous languages and cultures makes the choice of a national language for the purpose of sustainable development difficult. This paper considers the media as major sources and vehicles for development through the choice and use of appropriate language. The English language, which has transformed from its initial status of a foreign language (EFL), has since assumed the status of a second language (ESL) in many former British colonies, of which Nigeria is one, and so fits the bill as the language of wider communication (LWC). This paper shows how English can be used effectively in the mass media of communications to galvanize the populace into participating in national development, through the adoption of a level of language intelligible to the majority of the people who are consumers of mass media products through reading information as news published in the mass media. The paper considers English as used in many developing multilingual nations of the world as ideal for the purpose of mass communication for sutainable national development. Without an indigenous language as a vehicle for national integration and development in many developing multilingual nations, the one language available which is English, can be properly adopted and domesticated in the various mass media of communications to achieve national integration and development in a mutually intelligible form among all consumers of mass media products from across the various ethnic divides. The paper believes the English to be used is not the one that appeals to the Queen of England or to native speakers, but alienates the people for whom it is written. It should rather be the domesticated version of the English language that is simple enough but not a representation of linguistic errors.That version of English should reflect the local nuances of the environment that the language has found itself, since we can only speak the English that we can naturally speak.