Influence of Parental Spoken English Proficiency on the Child’s Spoken English in Nigeria

Cite this article as: Balogun, B. (2025). Influence of parental spoken English proficiency on the child’s spoken English in Nigeria. Sokoto Journal of Linguistics and Communication Studies (SOJOLICS), 1(1), 21-26. www.doi.org/10.36349/sojolics.2025.v01i01.004

INFLUENCE OF PARENTAL SPOKEN ENGLISH PROFICIENCY ON THE CHILD’S SPOKEN ENGLISH IN NIGERIA

By

Bunmi Balogun

bunmi.balogun@fulokoja.edu.ng

Department of English and Literary Studies, Federal University Lokoja

Abstract

The language proficiency of parents is a significant factor influencing the development of children's spoken language skills, particularly in the early years of language acquisition. This study examines the relationship between parent and child language error rates, exploring the correlation between their spoken language proficiency. The participants of the study include twenty children aged 5-9 and (their) twenty parents. Data were obtained through audio recordings of parent-child spontaneous conversations at home, and through parental questionnaires to obtain information about their level of education. Adopting Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory as the theoretical framework, the findings reveal a strong positive correlation between parent and child error rates for Subject-Verb Agreement, Tense, Word Order, and Morphological errors, indicating that children tend to acquire language patterns and errors from their parents or caregivers. The findings also show that parents and children from lower socio-economic backgrounds tend to have higher error rates.

Keywords: input, language learning, spoken English, parental-language influence, Nigerian child

1. Introduction

Language learning is an integral part and a milestone process of a child’s life. This process is usually accompanied by an effective parent-child social interaction which is very important for children’s language acquisition and development. Such interaction serves as a key determinant of a child’s future progress in language and other areas (Hart & Risley 1995). Topping et al. (2011) note that amongst other factors that could hinder parent-child interaction leading to child language development is parents’ dominant first language. Consequently, a parent whose native language is not the target language employed in child-rearing may be unable to provide linguistic input that is error-free, thereby potentially compromising the child's language acquisition process.

Nigeria is a complex multilingual nation with over five hundred languages with English serving as the official language, shaping linguistic bahaviour across Nigerian speech community. One of the ways in which English has exerted a profound influence on Nigerian society is through the growing tendency among parents to adopt English as the primary language of communication with their children. As non-native speakers of English, many Nigerian parents are frequently confronted with difficulties in their spoken English proficiency, a phenomenon that is not uncommon in linguistic contexts where English serves as a second language.

Languages have rules which prescribe standard forms of expression, and a speaker's failure to conform to these established norms can result in linguistic deviation, and, they are likely to do injustice to the ideas they want to pass across (Batko, 2004) These problems are especially profound in grammatical errors, which happen when speakers use an L2 based on the structural system of their L1 (Manrique, 2013).

There is a relationship between socio-economic status (SES) and spoken English proficiency, with individuals from higher SES backgrounds often exhibiting more advanced English language skills. Roy and Chiat (2013) identified several factors that contribute to SES including living conditions, occupation, level of education, income. In the present study, education is the only social dimension by which participants’ socio-economic statuses are determined and grammatical variables will be deployed to analyze their utterances

The study therefore will examine the correlation between Nigerian parent and child error rates for different language error types, including Subject-Verb Agreement, Tense, Word Order, and Morphological errors; compare error rates across socio-economic statuses and examine the role of parental language input in shaping child spoken English acquisition and error rates.

2. Methodology

The study deployed a mixed-method design (qualitative and quantitative), sampling twenty primary-school children (ages 5-9) and (their) twenty parents. Spoken language samples were collected from each parent-child dyad during a 20-minute spontaneous conversation. The conversations were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim for analysis. Also, a questionnaire was administered to parents to gather information about their level of education Participants were divided into three parental-education groups: (i) Higher-educated (post-secondary, n=7), (ii) Moderately educated (secondary, n=5) and (iii) Low-educated (primary, n=8). Language error rates were calculated for four error types: Subject-Verb Agreement (SVA), Tense, Word Order, and Morphological. Descriptive statistics was adopted to summarize the language error rates for parents and children. Informed consent was obtained from adult participants for the recording and use of their data.

The study adopts Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory as the theoretical framework. The theory which is also known as the social development theory considers language as a vital tool for communication, and posits that a child’s cognitive development and learning capacity are guided and mediated through social interaction. The theory maintains that learning constitutes a fundamentally social process rather than an independent journey of discovery, and further elaborates that a child’s learning is enhanced greatly through guidance provided by a more knowledgeable individual, such as a parent or teacher.

2.1 The English Language

The English Language is one of the most widely used languages in the world. Its dynamism and multi-functional nature make it universally acceptable and relevant. It is a language that serves different purposes ranging from mother tongue, official language, national language, to second language. A speaker of only English may travel to any part of the world without encountering much of language barrier because speakers of English are almost everywhere. It is the language that people often turn to when other means of communication fails (Trousdale, 2010). The world-wide spread, the global acceptance and use of the English Language is profound as about two (2) billion people in the world speak English and another one billion are learning it (Nutt, 2009). Seventy-five (75) percent of world’s letters and postcards are written in English. Its vastness is projected in the function it performs in many international events that bring together participants from both English and non-English speaking countries. Such events include the Olympics, Miss World/Universe beauty contests, conferences, seminars, etc. Similarly, English is the language used in many African reality TV shows, awards that bring together various contestants and audiences from different parts of Africa comprising French, English, Portuguese, Swahili speaking countries. Many of the world’s top movies, books and music are published and produced in English. It is the main language of organizations like the United Nations, African Union, the European Free Trade Association, ECOWAS, etc. The importance of English language in the international business world cannot be over stated. One who speaks/writes English will have a better access to the internet to read, obtain information, and make contribution because more than sixty (60) percent of the information on the internet is written in English.

One of the features of English language is the enormous number of words it has borrowed and absorbed into its lexicon from other world languages. The borrowing of these foreign words has truly given English a global reach and acceptance. Knowledge of what is being borrowed and from where, provides an invaluable insight into the international relations of the English language. Overall, English has been described as the world’s lingua franca or common language (Trousdale, 2010).

In Nigeria, the use and relevance of English language is profuse. It is the official language as well as the medium of educational instruction. It is used to teach formal educational courses/subjects, and prominence is placed on it as a subject which requires primary and especially secondary school students to make a credit grade in before they can graduate to tertiary institutions. Even at the tertiary level, students are enforced to take English and Communication Skills at the first academic year irrespective of the course they have been admitted to study and required to make a pass in it before graduation. It is commonly assumed that students whose performance in English is credible often have no difficulties understanding and doing well in other subjects.

Many are the functions of the English language both at national and international levels such that it can be considered as the language of science, business, technology, fashion, education, entertainment, etc. There are many languages in the world and English is one of those that are highly impactful and as long as one wants to be a global person, the knowledge of it is required.

2.2 English Language Learning in the Nigerian Home

When a child is born, its environment starts a process of equipping the young mind with the tools of speech: vocabulary, grammar, in an unconscious manner. This process is more intensive and effective in the first decade of the child’s life. The phonological and grammatical systems of the language they hear around them are essentially established by the age of five or six along with the vocabulary of such language. Children begin “learning” languages at birth. Learning to speak and listen is a process which usually takes place spontaneously as part of the natural interaction between parent/caregiver and child (Crystal, 1986).

Young children like to model their behavior on what goes around them. Consequently, children’s use of language is usually through their parents first and later through other agents of socialization. Parents talk to their children about their experiences, their world, their lives, etc. and they learn about all these and more from what they are told. Simultaneously, they learn their parents’ language and how it has been used to tell them about these things. Therefore, at every point language is used with children, the learning of that language is going on.

Children can acquire fluency of the language if they are well exposed to it by their environment. Their pronunciation is naturally influenced by the regional and social varieties of the first language input they hear and as long as they are experiencing adequate input and interaction from people around them, the rate and sequence of their grammatical development does not appear to vary systematically according to its source (Trousdale, 2013). A child is likely to end up as a fluent speaker of a language only if there are significant people in his/her life who speak it fluently.

In contemporary Nigerian contexts, children are increasingly encountering English as their first linguistic input, effectively rendering it their first language. Many Nigerian parents are inclined to foster English language acquisition in their children, ostensibly due to the socio-cultural prestige associated with English proficiency. Often when parents raise their kids in English, they consider it a positive sign that they will be proficient and have a good command of the language. However, as L2 speakers of English, many parents are faced with second language constraints such as interference, code switching, code mixing, poor and limited vocabulary scope and inability to make input that will significantly expand their children’s language skills and expressions as they age.

3. Literature Review

Children’s developmental processes are undeniably influenced by social environments, such as the family; parents or other caregivers who are the first teachers of children and this function continues throughout the transition to formal schooling. Part of the role the family plays in a child’s development is the parental engagement in language learning. Previous research suggests that parental involvement exerts a substantial influence on children’s language learning and development. In contemporary Nigeria, an increasing number of families are opting to raise their children in English from infancy. Consequently, for a growing group of Nigerian children, English functions as a simultaneous first language. Nagy et al. (2014) found that speaking native languages in the home environment fosters meaningful conversations and lexical acquisition in both languages. However, limited exposure to English impedes the development of English proficiency. Huttenlocher et al. (2010) note that families that employ English as a medium of communication exhibit lexical diversity, expanding children’s word repertoire. However, only accurate language input helps children learn grammar, idiomatic expressions, and proper pronunciation. Ntabwoba&Sikubwabo (2024) investigated the influence of family background on English language proficiency among learners in Nine- and Twelve-Years Basic Education (YBE) from selected schools in Musanze district, Rwanda. Deploying the convergent parallel design, the findings revealed that alongside other factors parents’ and siblings’ educational levels and family language of communication have a positive and significant influence on English language proficiency among learners in 9 and 12 YBE schools. Thomas and Collier (2012) explored challenges faced by English-speaking families who are non-native English speakers. These include linguistic confusion, limited English proficiency, and cultural pressures. Extending these challenges, Hoff and Core (2013) observed that families who adopt English as their primary language face challenges in enhancing their children’s English language proficiency owing to limited contact with native speakers. Native speakers provide models for accurate pronunciation, vocabulary, and cultural nuances. To address these challenges, families might pursue interaction with native speakers, partake in immersive linguistic engagements, and harness multimedia resources (Kim and Elder, 2019).

4. Data Presentation and Discussion

English Language has a set of principles in its formation. Consequently, when a speaker deviates from these principles when speaking it, their utterances are regarded as not grammatical. An ungrammatical string of words is one in the formation of which the grammatical rules of the language-system are not respected (Lyons, 1986). The study aimed to examine the correlation between parent and child error rates for different language error types and explore the impact of socio-economic status on language proficiency. The presentation of data below outlines the key findings of the study, investigating the relationship between Nigerian parent and child language error rates in spoken English. The analysis explains the role parental language input in shaping child language acquisition.

Table 1 summarizes the parents’ language data, including the number of utterances, their socio-economic statuses, types of errors, and error rates. Table 2 presents the corresponding data for the children, while Table 3 provides a comparative overview of the mean values for both groups.

Table 1

P_ID	SES	Utterances	Err_A	Err_Rt	Err_B	Err_Rt	Err_C	Err_Rt	Err_D	Err_Rt
P01	Low	110	15	0.13	30	0.27	06	0.05	05	0.04
P02	High	98	03	0.03	05	0.05	0	0	02	0.02
P03	Low	102	13	0.13	26	0.25	08	0.08	07	0.07
P04	Mid	80	10	0.12	18	0.22	05	0.06	03	0.03
P05	Mid	95	08	0.08	15	0.16	04	0.04	04	0.04
P06	Low	102	12	0.11	27	0.26	08	0.08	06	0.06
P07	High	73	01	0.01	06	0.08	0	0	01	0.01
P08	High	101	03	0.03	08	0.08	02	0.02	02	0.02
P09	Mid	91	09	0.10	18	0.20	03	0.03	04	0.04
P10	Mid	83	11	0.13	20	0.24	04	0.04	03	0.03
P11	High	96	0	0	02	0.02	0	0	0	0
P12	Low	90	11	0.12	26	0.28	06	0.06	08	0.08
P13	High	79	02	0.25	07	0.08	01	0.01	03	0.03
P14	Low	93	11	0.19	25	0.26	09	0.10	08	0.09
P15	Low	97	14	0.14	27	0.28	07	0.07	09	0.09
P16	High	98	0	0	05	0.05	0	0	02	0.02
P17	Mid	78	09	0.11	17	0.21	04	0.05	03	0.04
P18	High	87	03	0.03	10	0.11	03	0.03	04	0.04
P19	Low	99	12	0.12	28	0.28	09	0.09	08	0.09
P20	Low	81	14	0.17	25	0.30	08	0.09	08	0.09
				0.0100		0.1840		0.0450		0.0465

Table 2

C_ID	Utterances	Err_A	Err_Rt	Err_B	Err_Rt	Err_C	Err_Rt	Err_D	Err_Rt
C01	88	9	0.10	18	0.20	02	0.02	03	0.04
C02	50	03	0.06	04	0.08	0	0	02	0.04
C03	65	05	0.08	21	0.32	03	0.05	03	0.05
C04	55	05	0.09	13	0.24	01	0.02	03	0.05
C05	51	04	0.08	07	0.13	01	0.02	01	0.02
C06	62	06	0.10	12	0.10	06	0.10	05	0.08
C07	42	03	0.07	02	0.04	0	0	02	0.04
C08	55	03	0.05	05	0.09	0	0	0	0
C09	47	04	0.08	08	0.17	01	0.02	02	0.04
C10	51	05	0.10	08	0.16	01	0.02	01	0.02
C11	59	02	0.03	02	0.03	0	0	02	0.03
C12	48	06	0.12	12	0.25	02	0.04	03	0.06
C13	53	01	0.02	04	0.07	0	0	03	0.06
C14	44	04	0.09	11	0.25	02	0.04	04	0.09
C15	54	05	0.09	12	0.22	02	0.03	04	0.08
C16	62	01	0.01	0	0	0	0	0	0
C17	57	03	0.05	06	0.10	01	0.02	03	0.05
C18	66	0	0	05	0.07	01	0.05	03	0.05
C19	59	07	0.12	15	0.25	04	0.07	04	0.07
C20	60	09	0.15	14	0.23	04	0.06	04	0.08
			0.0745		0,1500		0.0280		0.0475

 

Table 3

Error Type	Parent Mean	Child Mean
Subject-Verb Agreement	0.10	0.07
Tense	0.18	0.15
Word Order	0.04	0.03
Morphological	0.05	0.05

The influence of parents' spoken English proficiency on the Nigerian child has significant implications for language learning and development. This study investigated the language error rates of 20 parent-child dyads, examining the relationship between their spoken language proficiency. The analysis revealed a strong positive connection between parent and child error rates for all language error types, which are Subject-Verb Agreement (SVA), Tense, Word Order, and Morphological errors.

The mean error rates for parents were highest for Tense errors (0.18), followed by SVA errors (0.10), Morphological errors (0.05), and Word Order errors (0.04). Similarly, the mean error rates for children were highest for Tense errors (0.15), followed by SVA errors (0.07), Morphological errors (0.05), and Word Order errors (0.03). These findings suggest that both parents and children struggled with Tense errors the most. The correlation analysis revealed strong positive correlations between parent and child error rates for all language error types. This shows that parents who made more errors in a particular language area tended to have children who also made more errors in that area.

The analysis also examined the impact of socio-economic status (SES) on language error rates. Studies (e.g. Trudgill. 2010) have shown that differences in language are tied to social status The results showed that parents and children from lower SES backgrounds tended to have higher error rates for all language error types, compared to those from higher SES backgrounds. For example, parents from low SES backgrounds had a mean SVA error rate of 12.75, compared to 1.71 for those from high SES backgrounds. Similarly, children from low SES backgrounds had a mean SVA error rate of 6.38, compared to 1.86 for those from high SES backgrounds.

5. Conclusion

Parents' language proficiency can shape a child's language skills, with children often learning language patterns and vocabulary from their caregivers. This study analyzed spontaneous parent-child conversations to assess the influence of home environment on the spoken English skills of Nigerian children.

The findings show strong positive correlations between parent and child error rates for all error types, indicating that children are likely to acquire language patterns and errors from their parents or caregivers. Therefore, there is almost no way of stopping children speaking in bad English since their parents do it themselves.

Raising a child in a language fluently can be successfully achieved if only both parents speak it well enough to converse daily in it where the child can hear them (Harding & Riley, 1986). In addition, except parents speak the non- native language exceptionally well, the child will learn the mistakes that parents make in that language. To have one’s child speak proper English, one would need to speak proper English to them from young age. All grammar mistakes should be corrected when heard otherwise the mistake is engrained in the child’s memory for a long time. Alternatively, parents should wait until the child has mastered their native language well enough to have long meaningful conversations before introducing a language they do not speak well (ibid). Moreover, the child will go to school where the language of teaching, learning, and instruction is English and do well in it even without input from the parents. Having a foundation of their parents’ first language will be helpful in learning English by for instance, referring to the mental lexicon of the L1 to understand English better.

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