CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background of the Study

          In the time past, language attitudes has been analyzed and debated upon with respect to how languages can be endangered, and how they can die.  The two main points to be considered in this research are:  attitude and language, and how teenagers manipulate them. 

Attitude is defined as the way that one thinks and feels about somebody or something, the way that one behaves towards somebody or something that shows how one thinks and feels.  While language is defined as the system of communication in speech and writing that is used by people of a particular country. Also, another dictionary definition of language is a particular style of speaking or writing.

So for the purpose of further development and preservation of the Ibibio Language, this research is going to be concerned with the behaviour exhibited by teenagers In Uyo, AkwaIbom State particularly those in the Uyo Local Government Area of the State to their indigenous language

1.2     Significance and Scope of the Study

          The study “language attitudes among teenagers and its effects” is a study of how language is being approached and manipulated by teenagers in Uyo district of Uyo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, for their day-to-day interaction, fellowship and relationship.

1.3     Purpose of this Study

          This research aims at seeing why teenagers behave the way they do to language (what influence and inform the behaviour so exhibited to language), see the effect of their behaviour on their indigenous language, and proffer possible solutions aimed at internalizing the language in the minds of these teenagers thereby preserving the language.

1.4            Methodology

In analyzing various related texts in relation to this field, a socio-linguistic method of approach is used in examining the behaviour or attitudes exhibited by teenagers in Uyo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State to their indigenous language vis-à-vis English and pidgin.

Also, questionnaires are used in the observation of their attitude to language as a means of data collection.

1.5     Statement of the Problem

          Most language users do not see the language that they speak as a definition of their race, their culture, and their personality.  Negligence, ignorance and quest to follow the current trend have left Africans in general and Nigerians in particular far from their root – their source/who they really are.

          So in this research, ways in which we have drifted from our culture (through the embracing of a foreign language) are being elaborated upon, and suggestions on how to re-position our attitude to our indigenous language are made explicit.

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