LEXICAL FEATURES OF NIGERIAN ENGLISH WHILE TEACHING ENGLISH

Abstract

The article is aimed at identifying the main lexical features of Nigerian English while teaching English as the foreign language. English is the official language of Nigeria, but still it is a foreign language for all Nigerians, therefore, teaching English process is based on the language knowledge of Standard British English but adapted to linguistic and cultural peculiarities of Nigerian reality. The specific features of Nigerian education system lie in the diversity of language majorities and minorities used on the level of primary education. The secondary education level comprises the usage of local languages, practically oriented on language majority (Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo) and English. Practically the profound knowledge of English is a necessity for all Nigerians, it is the language of economy, politics, education, trade, it dominates due to everyday needs. According to the research work, lack of qualified professional staff is the reason of poor English of many Nigerian state schools. Private schools education is an alternative to state school education, providing the sufficient level of knowledge in English. According to the research work, teaching English as the foreign language in Nigerian educational system should take into consideration the peculiarities of local cultures and languages. Finally, the authors stress while teaching English in Nigeria, exactly lexical training, teachers should pay special attention to words meaning adaptation process which is revealed in the form of expansion and narrowing of the word's meaning.

Keywords

• нигерийский вариант английского языка
• обучение английскому языку
• обучение лексике
• изменение значения слова
• расширение значения
• сужение значения
• nigerian english
• english language training
• lexical training
• word meaning change
• meaning expansion
• meaning narrowing