Sense of National Identity and English Language Ownership Perception in Nigeria

It has been argued that, especially in non-inner circles of English, the extent to which language users consider a language as a “harbinger” of their national identity might determine how they position as “owners” of that language (Bokhorst-Heng et al, 2007). Whether within or outside linguistics, studies of national identities tend to consistently agree that language is of central importance in the formulation of national identities. In the case of Nigeria, the national language(s) rhetoric has been particularly contentious. As recent findings suggest a widespread awareness of an endonormative variety of English in Nigeria, it remains to be seen if perceptions of English as expressive of national identity might have changed to allow for its possible consideration as the national language.  Granted, identity construction has figured as one of the fallouts in most studies of English language ownership, the potential relationship between a sense of national identity and English language ownership has yet to be explored as the fulcrum of any study. In view of this, the study presents findings from a larger study which employed a mixed-methods approach to the study of English language ownership inNigeria. In this talk, I present findings fro survey (N=387) and interview sessions (8). The analysis revealed that respondents’ sense of national identity was a major factor while enacting notions of English language ownership. Consistent with the different degrees of ownership of English found in other non-inner circle (NIC) contexts, the findings from the study lead us to conclude that the extent to which speakers in the NIC can exercise linguistic ownership over English might be dependent on specific sociolinguistic milieus.

Keywords: National identity, Nigerian English, ownership of English, language attitudes, world Englishes

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Reference:
Bokhorst-Heng, W. D., Alsagoff, L., McKay, S. L. & Rubdy, R. (2007). English language ownership among Singaporean Malays: Going beyond the NS/NNS dichotomy. World Englishes 26(4). 424–445.