ABSTRACT
This study investigates the misconceptions of the Igbo language acquisition over the English language by parents of bilingual children. The Igbo language emerged from the Proto-Niger linguistic groups about 8,000 thousand years ago. It is spoken in the South Eastern part of Nigeria.
This study which was carried out on Igbo parents who reside in Ilisan Remo, Ogun State (a Yoruba speaking community) is aimed at investigating the factors responsible for parents’ inability to transfer their mother tongue to their immediate descendant. The parents involved are the native speakers of the Igbo language, who because of one reason or the other, exhibit non-Chalant attitude towards their children’s acquisition of the Igbo language. The most salient reasons identified by these parents among others includes: environment and their children’s competency in the English language. The data collection employed for this study was though face-to-face interview on four (4).
The data obtained via-interview will be examined, presented and analyzed. Using the mentalist theory as proposed by Noam Chomsky which states that every child has an innate ability that enables him to acquire language.
The instrument employed is a questionnaire and a total number of one hundred and twenty (120) questionnaires are distributed to the appropriate respondents. The data obtained via questionnaires will be grouped, presented analyzed and illustrated in a tabular form. The result of the major finding of this research is that most children that are raise outside their speech community are not proficient in their mother tongues.
