English Language Teachers’ Attitudes to the Promotion of the Standard Nigerian English: A Survey from a Nigerian City

Abstract

Against the backdrop of the near-impossibility of attaining a native-like command of the English in a second language situation, which is one of the major factors found to be militating against Nigerian learners of the English language, this study examines the prospects of promoting the Standard Nigerian English to end the futile struggle of aspiring to a perfect mastery of the Standard British English. It attempts ascertaining the psychological readiness of English language teachers to embrace the teaching and assessment of students based on the more easily attainable SNE. Copies of a self-constructed twelve-item questionnaire were validated and administered to one hundred and forty-seven randomly selected secondary school English language teachers in Ibadan. Frequency counts, percentages, and chi-square statistics were employed to answer a research question and test two null hypotheses. The results revealed no significant difference in the language teachers' attitudes to the promotion of the standardized variety of the Nigerian English based on gender but significant difference according academic qualifications. It is thus recommended that Government undertakes research on the prospects and problems of elevating the standard Nigerian English and meticulously implement the policy emanating from ensuing findings.