Cite this article as: Bello, M. & Abba, M. A. (2025). Exploring the Use of Language as a Cultural Identity towards Promoting Socio Economic Status of Speakers’: A Pilot Study. Zamfara International Journal of Humanities, 3(1), 121-127. www.doi.org/10.36349/zamijoh.2025.v03i01.013
EXPLORING THE USE OF LANGUAGE AS A CULTURAL
IDENTITY TOWARDS PROMOTING SOCIO ECONOMIC STATUS OF SPEAKERS’: A PILOT STUDY
Mohammed Bello
Department of English Language
Modibbo Adama University, Yola
AND
Mahdi Abubakar Abba
Department of Political Science
Modibbo Adama University, Yola
Abstract:
This article
discusses how language as a cultural identity is used towards promoting socio
economic status of speakers’ specifically in some part of southern zone of
Adamawa State, Nigeria. More specifically, it explores the responses of six
respondents through the means of an in-depth interview and probing carried out
as a pilot research precisely in Ganye local government area. With the aid of
purposive sampling technique, the respondents consists of four males and two
females who are all engaged in form of occupation or the other and they are
between ages of twenty-five and sixty years old. The primary data were derived
through the aid of in-depth interviews and probing by the selected respondents
as a result of purposive sampling technique. The interviews sections took
approximately ten and fifteen minutes for each respondent. The results
demonstrated that understanding language as a cultural identity helps in
promoting the economy of its target speakers’. Similarly, the research showed
two main themes that were embedded in the responses of the interviewees. The
identified themes are: language as a cultural identity is used as a means
towards enhancing economy of speakers and language as an identity is a window
for speaker to enjoy certain privileges. In a nutshell, the article recommends
that future studies should examines language as a cultural identity in other
domains using different approach.
Keywords: Language, Cultural Identity,
Socio Economy, Status, Speakers
1.1 Introduction
The aim of this paper is to explore how
language as a cultural identity contributes towards enhancing and promoting the
socio economic status of its speakers’. Adamawa state is one of the thirty six
(36) states in Nigeria is located in the north eastern region of the country
and it is created in 1991 from the defunct Gongola State with the approximate
population of over three million people (NPC, 2017). Similarly, the State is
enriched with various ethnic groups that coexist peacefully over a long period
of time. The major ethnic groups in the state are kilba, margi, higi, chamba,
basama, Fulani,yandang, mumuye lunguda, mbata and a number of others who lives
in peace with one another and contributes in no small measure for the economic
growth and development of the state in particular and the country at large
(Abba, 2018).
In a nutshell, almost all these ethnic groups
have their peculiar language that is distinct from another and as a mark of
identity at least during cultural festival which they use to observed onces in
a year to showcase their rich cultural heritage, to pass their cultural
heritage to the younger generation in order to protect it from extinction and
to boost their economy. In this regard, language as a cultural identity to the
speakers assists in enhancing the socio economic growth of the people of
Adamawa State as diverse State. This paper aims at exploring how Language as a
Cultural Identity contributes towards enhancing the socio economic wellbeing of
the people of Adamawa State, Nigeria.
2.1
Literature Review
This section of this particular article
discusses the conceptual and empirical relevant literature on the phenomenon
language as a cultural identity towards enhancing the socio economic wellbeing
of its speakers.
2.1.1 The
Understanding of Cultural Identity in Relation to Language
The concept culture helps tremendously
towards displaying specifically the target peoples’ identities (Hall, 1997). It
is no doubt that the phenomenon culture and identity have a rich literature
both conceptual and empirical. For instance, Jaber (2015) study the Palestinian
culture and its implication particularly on teachers’ classroom practices and
student’s cultural identity. The result reveals that the Palestinian students’
cultural identities are embedded in their written essays by using borrowed words
from Arabic language as one of the universal languages of the world. Fitri
(2015) explores the Almunawar Arab community cultures towards providing the
place-bound identity in Musi Riparian. The data for the study were collected
with means of field observation and in-depth interviews. The findings of the
research maintained that culture is part and parcel of the people’s identity
because of how it forms part of the referred people. In another development,
Bingol et al (2013) examines the relations that occurred between the other
variables such as organizational culture, identity and image within the domain
of pharmaceutical company. The respondents consist of ten Managers heading
different departments within the company, thirty employees of different status
and eighty-five different categories of customers of the company. The results
conveyed that there is a need for change of the present organizational culture.
Moreover, Egorova (2014) examines the differences between Russian and British
fairy tales on the issues of reading comprehension. The data were obtained
through the help of using second language learners. The results demonstrate how
competency of students on a grammar of a specific language by a non-native
speaker or writer has great significance in the course of achieving academic
pursue. In another vain, Dalib et al (2016) investigate how the learners from
various countries showed their intercultural competence act in daily context.
In-depth interviews were used in compiling the data. The findings present two
themes that portray how language is use in showcasing intercultural relations
among Malaysian students in a school premises. Certainly, the research plays an
essential part towards enhancing the existing literature of intercultural
communication.
Similarly, the diversity in the area of
language assists to identify the identity of the language user at different
levels through the context of written discourse of the target audience (Tilman,
2001). Also, Muhammad et al (2016) explores how distinguishing characteristics
of Nigerian students’ identity in the Diaspora were embedded in their
descriptive writings. The researcher uses qualitative method towards gathering
and analyzing the data that are all samples of descriptive essays written in
Malaysia as postgraduate students who were pursuing their Masters and PhD’s in
different fields of studies at Universiti Utara Malaysia. Similarly, the
research employs purposive sampling technique in the course of selecting the
participants for the writing activity. The results reveal four emerging themes from
the sample of the written essays by the postgraduate-students participants
which consist of ethnicity, nationality, religion and gender as their
identities and also demonstrate through the means of their descriptive
writings. Bello (2019) examines how public secondary school students in Nigeria
convey their junior secondary school year’s experiences. Also, it explores the
patterns used in constructing ideas and relations with the other in writing.
Similarly, it seeks to comprehend how identity and self-other relations are
embedded in the students’ written language. Qualitative approach was employed
by the researcher in collecting and analyzing the data as well using purposive
sampling instrument in sorting out the forty-five students written narratives.
Similarly, interviews and observations were also used by the researcher for the
purpose of triangulations. The findings
communicate that the participants uses borrowed words, nouns and pronouns among
others which assist in no small measure towards displaying student-writers
identities in their narrative writings. Lee (2017 examines how Korean English
second language students constructed their unique identity in both narrative
and argumentative genres of writing. The study uses qualitative method in
collecting and analyzing the data through the means of interviews, observations
and sample of the participants’ writings. The results found out that the
students successfully constructed their confident identity in only narrative
essay whereas they constructed less confident identity in an argumentative
genre. The article recommends that future research should be geared towards
comparative study on how Korean students at the Diaspora and those Korean
students at home construct identity in their writing task. Finally, this present paper explores how
language as a cultural identity enhances the socio economic status of its
speakers in some part of Adamawa state, Nigeria.
3.1
Methodology
This specific study used qualitative method
to analyze how language as a cultural identity helps towards in enhancing and
promoting socio economic status of its speakers in Adamawa State, Nigeria. The
paper contributes in no small measure in understanding the phenomenon language
as a cultural identity specifically some of the major indigenous languages in
Adamawa state, Nigeria. The respondents
consisted six who are native and non-native speakers of Chamba language as an
indigenous language in the southern zone of Adamawa particularly Ganye, Jada,
Tongo and some part of Mayo Belwa local government areas. Similarly, all the
six participants drawn for the pilot study can speak and understanding chamba
and English language fluently. The article employed the use of pseudonyms names
to protect the respondents’ confidentiality in line with the ethical consideration
of the research (Creswell, 2012; 2014).
On the other hand, For the sake of this
study, the researcher adopt purposive sampling techniques (Creswell, 2014) to
enable the work select the required participants for this study through the
following identified set of rules: (a) Chamba language is use as an indigenous
language particularly in areas that are predominantly Chamba by tribe. (b) the
target respondents can speak fluently and understand English and Chamba
respectively and (c) the identified participants are interested in the study
and are also willing to contribute in the research. The selected participants
consist of males and females who are native and non native speakers of Chamba
language. Likewise, pseudonyms names were used to refer to the selected
participants as p1, p2, p3, p4, p5, p6. In a nutshell, the reason of using
pseudonymsnames was to give the respondents assurances’ of their
confidentiality of their responses (Creswell, 2014; Gray, 2004). The interviews
interactions were conducted through the medium of English language because all
the interviewees are literates this means they can read and write in English
language. Similarly, the respondents were able to understand the prepared
interview questions and more so the entire activities of the interview sections
were recorded with the aim of helping the researcher during transcribing. Table:
1 presents the respondents’ profile
in this pilot study:
Table: 1 Participants’
Profile
|
S/N |
Participants’ (Pseudonyms Name) |
Age |
Gender |
Occupation |
Native Language |
|
01. |
P1 |
35 |
Female
|
Farmer
|
Chamba
|
|
02. |
P2 |
60 |
Male |
Retiree
|
Fulani
|
|
03. |
P3 |
25 |
Male |
Civil
servant |
Chamba
|
|
04. |
P4 |
45 |
Male |
Business
Man |
Hausa |
|
05. |
P5 |
30 |
Female |
Business
Woman |
Fulani |
|
06. |
P6 |
50 |
Male |
Farmer |
Chamba |
Source:
The Researcher (2024)
Furthermore, the data for this research were
gathered through the aid of in-depth interviews with the four (4) participants.
The interviews discussions were conducted face-to-face with each of the
respondents. The in-depth interviews were to understand about the interviewees’
opinion on the phenomenon of language as a cultural identity towards enhancing
the socio- economic status of its speakers. Moreover, the interview session was
scheduled to take about exercise took about 10-15 minutes for each of the participants
and it was audio recorded and transcribed for the purpose of the research.
Similarly, the semi- structured interview questions and probes were used.
In addition, in the process of analyzing the
interviewees’ responses for this study, the researcher used the seven steps as
identified by Kvale (1996) towards designing and implementing in-depth
interviews and probing in qualitative method of research. Also, the study
employed the use of ethno linguistics theory in order to assist the analysis. To sum it up, in line with the identified
seven stages the researcher classified the responses of the interviewees’
according to themes. Similarly, in the course of analyzing the responses of the
participants, the recorded responses were transcribed and ascertained together
with the note taking in order to achieve reliability.
4.1 Findings
This specific segment of this article
presents the results from the interview conducted with the six (6) participants
as pilot research. Similarly, the results explored two (2) main themes from the
responses of the six (6) respondents. These are presented in the table 2 below:
Table: 2 Emergence Themes
on Language as a Cultural Identity towards Enhancing Socio Economic Wellbeing of the Speakers
|
S/N |
Title of the
Emerged Themes |
|
01. |
Language as a cultural identity is used as a means
towards enhancing economy of the speakers |
|
02. |
Language as an Identity is a window to the
speaker to enjoy Certain Privileges |
Source:
The Researcher (2024)
4.1.1
Language as a Cultural Identity: Use as a Means towards Enhancing Speaker’s Economy
All the four participants in this specific
pilot study were interviewed and as well probe adequately through the means of
face to face interview particularly on how speaking Chamba language whether as
native or non native speaker can serve the user as a means towards enhancing
his or her economy. In this regard, the submissions from the six respondents
attested to the fact that speaking Chamba as native or non native speaker
particularly in the Chamba dominated areas can boost his or her socio-economic
status. The following excerpts are from the participants responses:
In this our area if you are running a particular business
such as trading or any form of skill and
it happen you cannot speak Chamba it will be difficult for your product or
skill to be patronize. (P1 & P6)
…If you want to capture market for your goods in this
area, one must know how to speak Chamba
to his or her customers because most of the buyers here prefer to buying from the person that speak their language (Chamba).
(P4 & P5)
…here Chamba as a major language in Ganye one cannot in
anyway shy away from speaking the
language if one wants his or her goods and services to be patronized. …in fact, it is one of the strategies that can
help one’s economy to grow. (P2)
Note: P =
Participant
From the above three different excerpts drawn
from the participants (P1, P2, P4, P5 & P6) respectively demonstrated that
knowing and understanding how to use Chamba language in Ganye and other
environs of Chamba tribe is necessary particularly for one to sell his or her
goods and services because the people gives more attentions to whoever that can
speak their language whether he or she is a native or non native speaker of
Chamba language. Similarly, if one can speak their language that means to them
the person is part and parcel of the tribe and he or she must be given that
recognition.
4.1.2
Language as an Identity is a Window to the speaker to enjoy Certain Privileges
The responses of most of the participants revealed how
language as an identity provides window to the teaming speakers to enjoy
certain privileges than others that are not using the language within the
community that the language is predominantly used. The following excerpts
conveyed how language as an identity to the speakers is use to enjoy certain
privileges:
Yes, I have an opportunity to witness one incident where
a person is given more consideration above
another person who intends renting a house because he can speak Chamba language
which is used as an identity for him. (P2 & P5)
Certainly, speaking Chamba language in their land
specifically by non native speakers will give them room to enjoy privileges
such as using farm lands and a host of others… (P3 & P6)
Note: P =
Participant
5.1 Discussion
This particular paper demonstrated two
emerging themes from the analysis of the responses of the four purposely
selected interviewees as the unit of analysis of the research. Similarly, the
identified themes are: Language as a cultural identity is use as a means
towards enhancing speaker’s economy and Language as an Identity is a Window for
the speaker to enjoy Certain Privileges.
The first theme “Language as a cultural
identity is use as a means towards enhancing speaker’s economy:” showed how
language as a cultural identity is use as a means towards enhancing speaker’s
economy particularly in the research areas such Ganye, Tongo, Jada and some
part of Mayo Belwa where Chamba as a tribe are found as majority and the
language is use as medium of communication in form business and other sectors
of human interaction. In this regard, the findings maintained that language as
a cultural identity helps the speaker of that specific language to boost his or
her economy by attracting patronages from teaming customers who feel and
believe that because the person is speaking our language is one of us and needs
to be supported in order to grow economically. In a nutshell, the article
revealed that the participants maintained that through their responses during
the interview and probing sections that language as an identity to the speaker
is also useful towards promoting and enhancing the prospects of his or her
economy. The results of this research conformed with the opinion of a number of
studies on how language as a cultural identity is use in different domain for
the sole purpose of drawing sympathy, support and above all enjoy certain
privileges from other users of that particular language (Dalib et al, 2017;
Lee, 2017; Bello, 2019).
The second theme “Language as an identity is
a window for the speaker to enjoy certain privileges” this article conveyed how
the participants through the medium of in depth interview and probing admits
that possessing language as an identity is an important avenue for speakers of
that target language to enjoy certain privileges within the area in which the
language has a majority speakers or users. To sum it up, the results of this
specific study align with that of the researches of (Jaber, 2015; Muhammad et
al, 2016; Lee, 2017; Bello, 2019).
6.1 Conclusion
Indeed, with reference to the findings found
from this research, it is glaring that language as an identity to a speaker
plays a significant role towards promoting ones economy because how the users
of the language consider their language and by extension the teaming speakers
within that particular environ. In addition, the results drawn from the
conducted interview demonstrated Creswell, J. W. (2012). Educational research: Planning, conducting and evaluating quantitative
that language as a cultural identity is used as an opportunity for one to
enhance his or her economy. Similarly, comprehending the phenomenon of language
as an identity specifically to the users and indeed to others is paramount. This
pilot research contributed in no small measure in conveying and displaying the
identity of native and non native speakers of Chamba language in Ganye and
other areas that chamba language is predominantly used.
Finally, the article recommends that special
efforts should be made by different stakeholders such as traditional rulers,
teaming youths, elders, parents, the elites of the Chamba land, Policy
Makers and relevant agencies should work
together with the sole aim of promoting the language which in turn enhances the
socio economy of the area and her people. Also, the paper recommends that
similar research should be carried out on the language as an identity of the
users for the promotion of peace disperses the diversity that can exist within
a community.
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