PHONOLOGICAL FACILITATION AND INTERFERENCE IN THE LEARNING OF ENGLISH BY IBIBIO NATIVE SPEAKERS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background of the Study

Colonialism and missionary in the eighteen century brought English Language in their trial and since then most Nigerian have become bilingual. Bilingual as used in the context is refers to contact in convergence between two different languages of culture resulting in a sociological situation were in the same individuals learns the element from a linguistic or cultural system other than his/her native system. Ibibio learners and user of English (Like all others who are in this second language situation) encounter problems which may be phonological, syntactic, semantic or morphology. Really, the feedback from the production of our school system as observed by Ekah (2005: 4-5) shows that the Nigerian child lacks worth and dignity as long as he cannot use the instruments of his Education to influence in the positive direction in the society in which he/she lives. Ekah (2005) stressed, rather than a clear-evidence is the ungrammatical English spoken by most Nigerians in the midst of experts in the language.

The Errors arise from the fact that Nigerian blessed with a multiplicity of ethnic group, each with a clear distinguishable system of communication. The number of language spoken by these ethnic groups is uncertain, hence, Nigeria is said to be multi-lingual nation. This research study shall conduct a comparative study on the phonological facilitation and interference; the case of English and Ibibio language.

PHONOLOGICAL FACILITATION AND INTERFERENCE IN THE LEARNING OF ENGLISH BY IBIBIO NATIVE SPEAKERS

Recently, claims have been outrageous over the ways English language is handled in Africa. Milieu (Environment). Besides, the status of English in Nigeria as an official language, and a medium of instruction in schools and colleges, brings up challenges regarding how it is handled in our schools by the learners. It is disheartening and pathetic as the pronunciation of English words has been subjected to all forms of disformation and reckless attention.

The researcher as earlier discussed is concerned with examine a comparative study on phonological facilitation and interference, in English by its users as a second language [examples, Ibibio speakers and learners of English].

1.2       Statement of the Problem

The problem of this study is that some Ibibio and English bilinguals are likely to encounter problems like semantic, syntactic phonological or morphological when speaking English. English and Ibibio share more areas of dissimilarities than similarities and this can cause learning difficulties. Example, the dental fricatives /Ɵ/ and /ð/ are sometime realized as /t/ and /d/; the voiced alveolar fricative /z/ tends to be realized as /s/ by Ibibio learners of English at the early stages.

Contrastive analysis hypothesis emphasizes that when two languages differ in their structure we expect cases of interference but when they are similar in structure we expect facilitation in the learning. Most Ibibio native speakers of English falter in areas were facilitation and learning is expected while other area will expect cases in interference.

PHONOLOGICAL FACILITATION AND INTERFERENCE IN THE LEARNING OF ENGLISH BY IBIBIO NATIVE SPEAKERS

1.3       Purpose of the Study

The basic purpose of this study was to investigate the phonological facilitation and interference in the learning of English by Ibibio native speakers.

Specifically, the study sought to:

1. Identify areas of facilitation and areas of interference between English and Ibibio.
2. Examine Ibibio native speakers performance in English, in the area of facilitation.
3. Examine Ibibio native speakers performance in English, in the area of interference.
4. Make judgement on Ibibio native speakers performance in English in the area of interference.
5. Propound theories on the outcome.

Originally posted on April 29, 2021 @ 4:01 pm