THE DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE RESEARCH IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Nigeria, after the island of New Guinea, is one of the most linguistically diverse countries on earth. There are nearly five hundred languages, and some of these languages have  a considerable range  of dialects. It is the meeting place of three of Africa’s four languages namely, Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan Africa, Hausa and severally endangered languages whose last speakers are now old. Yet its languages remain very poorly researched; compared with the effort that has gone into the indigenous languages of Europe, the America or Australia, Nigeria is barely known (Blench, R.M.1998). This paper contends, therefore, that development research in Nigeria has failed to make substantial improvements in the quality of life for the majority, mainly because development theory and practice have failed to exploit local language as media for research and development work.  This paper also discussed the importance of language, culture and communication in social research intended to promote development. In conclusion, some recommendations were made in connection with this issue of non-exploitation of local language as media for research and development work.