Abstract
The aim of this study is to investigate whether the form of English spoken by Nigerian newscasters enjoys the status of a standard in Nigeria. The study employs a verbal guise test and a questionnaire to measure the attitudes of 137 Nigerian participants towards the variety of English used by Nigerian newscasters. The findings show that an exonormative orientation is still present in Nigeria: both British and American English accents are preferred over a Nigerian one for Nigerian newscasters, and a British accent is perceived to be more prevalent than a Nigerian one in Nigerian newscasting. However, the results of the verbal guise test demonstrate that there are very positive attitudes towards all Nigerian newscasters’ accents. The results also show that neither gender nor a stay abroad has a significant effect on Nigerians’ attitudes towards newscasters’ English, but that the age group of the participants significantly influences their evaluations: the older participants rated the newscasters’ English accents higher than the younger ones. Overall, the findings of the study suggest a limited potential of Nigerian newscasters’ English becoming a model of English in Nigeria, as British English as an exonormative norm seems to continue to play a major role.
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Appendix I
Questionnaire on Newscasters’ English in Nigeria
Dear Participant,
We are undertaking an investigation with focus on Newscasters’ English in Nigeria. In the questionnaire, you will be asked about your thoughts on Nigerian newscasters’ English. Your participation will involve listening to some recordings and doing a rating task. The whole process should not take more than twenty minutes of your time.
The exercise is anonymous so please answer as truthfully as possible; there is no particular correct answer that is being sought. If you do not wish to complete any part of the questionnaire, you are free to leave it blank.
We assure you of complete confidentiality and anonymity. Furthermore, any information you give will be used only for the purposes of this particular research project.
Thank you for your cooperation!
Section A: Background Information
Please complete this section with information about yourself
Gender. MaleFemale
Age Group: ☐ (16–19) ☐ (20–29) ☐ (30–39) ☐ (40–49) ☐ (50+)
Occupation: ________________
Country of Birth: _________________
First language/s: _____________________
Other languages:
_______________________________________________________
Have you ever been to any English speaking country outside Nigeria? ☐ Yes ☐ No
If yes,
country(ies) and the duration of stay
_____________________________ ______________________
_____________________________ ______________________
_____________________________ ______________________
Section B: Nigerian English Evaluation
Do you speak Nigerian English? ☐ Yes ☐ No
What accents of English are you familiar with?
American English ☐
British English ☐
Ghanaian English ☐
Jamaican English ☐
Nigerian English ☐
What accent of English do you aim at when you speak English?
American English ☐
British English ☐
Ghanaian English ☐
Jamaican English ☐
Nigerian English ☐
In your opinion, is there a Standard Nigerian English?
☐ Yes ☐ No ☐ Don’t Know
If yes, what category of people do you think use Standard Nigerian English?
☐ All category ☐ non-literate ☐ semi-literate ☐ literate
Section C: Newscasters in Nigeria
How often do you listen/watch Nigerian newscast on the Radio/TV etc?
☐ Everyday ☐ sometimes ☐ hardly ☐ not at all
Which English variety do you prefer in a newscast?
☐ American English ☐ British English ☐ Nigerian English
☐ Ghanaian English
Other ______________________________________
What accent of English do newscasters in Nigeria use?
☐ Nigerian English ☐ American English ☐ British English
☐ Ghanaian English
Other _________________________________________
Are Nigerian newscasters influenced by their native languages while reading news?
☐ Yes ☐ No ☐ Not sure
How do you feel when Nigerian newscasters use an American accent or a British accent on the radio/TV?
☐ Satisfied ☐ not satisfied ☐ indifferent ☐ I don’t know
Is the Nigerian newscasters‘ English accent intelligible to you?
☐ Yes ☐ No ☐ Not sure
Should newscasters‘ English accent be adopted as the standard English variety in Nigeria?
☐ Yes ☐ No ☐ Not sure
Would you like to talk like Nigerian newscasters?
☐ Yes ☐ No ☐ Not sure
Section D: Accent Rating
Listen carefully to the recording and indicate your impressions of Speaker 1.
Strongly disagree | Disagree | Slightly disagree | Slightly agree | Agree | Strongly agree | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The newscaster’s pronunciation is refined | ||||||
The newscaster’s pronunciation is clear | ||||||
The newscaster’s pronunciation is pleasant | ||||||
The newscaster’s pronunciation is standard | ||||||
The newscaster’s pronunciation is intelligible | ||||||
The newscaster’s pronunciation is proper | ||||||
The newscaster sounds professional | ||||||
The newscaster sounds modest | ||||||
The newscaster would be a good newscaster in Nigeria | ||||||
The newscaster would make a good linguistic role model for Nigerians |
Section E: Accent Recognition
Please indicate by ticking from the options in the table below what you think the ethnicity of the newscaster is.
Newscaster 1 | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hausa | ||||||||
Igbo | ||||||||
Yoruba | ||||||||
Others | ||||||||
© 2020 Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Isoglosses and language change: Evidence of the rise and loss of isoglosses from a comparison of early Greek and early English
- The interaction of L2 and L3 levels of proficiency in third language acquisition
- Self-reported communicative distance between Polish and English in formal and informal situational contexts
- Mining historical texts for diachronic spelling variants
- Nigerian newscasters’ English as a model of standard Nigerian English?
- A cognitive semantic exploration of English plant phrasal verbs with the particle out and their Serbian counterparts
- Wordform-specific frequency effects cause acoustic variation in zero-inflected homophones
- Erratum
- Erratum
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Isoglosses and language change: Evidence of the rise and loss of isoglosses from a comparison of early Greek and early English
- The interaction of L2 and L3 levels of proficiency in third language acquisition
- Self-reported communicative distance between Polish and English in formal and informal situational contexts
- Mining historical texts for diachronic spelling variants
- Nigerian newscasters’ English as a model of standard Nigerian English?
- A cognitive semantic exploration of English plant phrasal verbs with the particle out and their Serbian counterparts
- Wordform-specific frequency effects cause acoustic variation in zero-inflected homophones
- Erratum
- Erratum