Towards the Globalization of Language and Culture in Nigeria: Stakeholders, the State and Action Steps

Abstract

The word globalization and what it stands for is no longer a novel idea in the world of today. However, there is still no universal definition of globalization. This has led to erroneous interchangeable use of the word with internationalization and liberalization. Suffice it therefore to say that globalization is the transcendence of the economic, political, environmental, social and cultural constraints across territories. The task of this paper, essentially, is to ascertain the level of involvement of Africa via Nigeria in this new international economic power and order. This is necessary because Nigeria, particularly, has become a good consumer of information technology which is an essential ingredient of globalization. The issue then is how prepared are Nigerian languages in the challenges of information technology as demanded by globalization. Many relevant materials were perused with a view to ascertain Nigeria’s extent of preparedness in making Nigerian languages globalization compliant. The study observed that though Nigeria, vis-à-vis Africa, has been making frantic efforts in the development of its indigenous languages, a lot is still needed because of the obvious dynamism of globalization. It concludes that though Nigerian indigenous languages are very vital in this context, the study of other foreign languages like Russian, German, Arabic, and Chinese, apart from English and French, should be encouraged and supported. This is based on the understanding that the wider the scope of knowledge of other vital foreign languages, the better.