Ìgbò and Yorùbá
The potentials of pragmatics and discourse should be explored in
lexicon in structure. However, it is not all the time that the
lexicon has an obvious ordinary meaning in communication. The ability of the learner to understand the intended or applied meaning in a communication situation is pragmatics. According to
Yule, 3003:127):
When we read or hear pieces of language, we normally try to understand what the words mean, and also what the writer or speaker intended to convey. The study of speaker‟s intended meaning is
a) teaching the lexis of the three major Nigerian languages beyond the surface level;
lexis and structure to discover invisible or hidden meaning;
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language the strategies of recognising and using the appropriate pragmatics of deictic expressions and utterance function and focus. The examples of deictic expressions are i. deixis of place or location – here, there, this, that, ii. deixis of time now, then, yesterday, today,
iii. deixis of pronouns, I, you, he, she, such and so on.
utterances to the components of communicative events and 2), to distinguish between different functions when different components are in focus (Faerch, Haastrup and Phillipson, 1984, p. 40). The objective of doing this will be to enable the students to make out
“inferred meaning” from encoded meaning (McGregor, 2009, p. 148).
Function Focus On Expressive Addresser Directive Addressee Referential Setting Metalinguistic Code
Phatic Contact
Poetic Message form (Faerch, Haastrup and Phillipson, 1984, p. 41).
and Yorùbá as a second language to be able to bring out hidden meaning when communicating in the second language. We will briefly explain function- focus in second language communication.
The learners of any of the three Nigerian languages should be able to distinguish the various function and foci of utterances such as are listed below:
1. an expressive function when the focus is on the addresser;
2. it performs an directive function if the focus is on the addressee, that is the listener or hearer;
3. it performs a referential function if the focus is the communication/utterance setting;
4. an utterance performs a Metalinguistic function when the focus has to do with the language code;
5. it performs a phatic function if the focus if there is physical contact between the speaker and the hearer, and
6. it performs a poetic function if the focus is on the form of
the message (Faerch, Haastrup and Phillipson, 1984, pp. 41- 43).
The communication functions and foci listed above should be seen as
mere guidelines because there are no sacrosanct rules for the classification of communication functions and foci. The Nigerian
students to the contexts and situations of sentences and communication in order for them to make out the hidden meaning in oral and written communication. To make pragmatics effective, the
1. specify the various contexts for communication and give extensive opportunities for the students identify the focus of the utterance or communication;
2. create opportunity in class for interaction in pairs for the class to identify language function and focus;
4. encourage dramatisation in the second language for contextual analysis.
the study/ analysis of the written code or speech above the sentence level (Hudson, 2001). The Nigerian language teacher must
are those of cohesion and cohesive links, coherence, consisting of cohesive links which make sense and those which do not, speech events, conversational interactions, the cooperative principles in terms of quantity, quality, relation- relevance and manner- brevity, clarity and sequence (Yule 2003).
texts in the language through reading and analysis of the code.
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read, analyse, and interpret texts based on the author‟s writing in spite of what he says and how he has said it. Students are expected
to be able individually recognise connected discourse as opposed to jumbled or incoherent discourse.
represents a shift emphasis away from the rules of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation towards an emphasis on the ability to use language (Faerch, Haastrup and Phillipson, 1984, pp. 167). To
1. the phonology and orthography of any of the three major languages;
2. the grammar of any of the three major languages;
3. the lexicon of any of the three major languages;
4. pragmatics;
5. discourse, and
6. communicative strategies (Faerch, Haastrup and Phillipson, 1984).
c) promote pragmatic competence, that is, make the students act by means of language in ways appropriate to their communicative intentions, the contexts in which they communicate and to the discourse in which their verbal contributions fit;
d) make learners able to use strategic competence to solve their communicative needs whenever they find themselves unable to activate the necessary linguistic and/or competence to communicate, and
e) promote fluency in their learning the three major Nigerian languages (Faerch, Haastrup and Phillipson 1984).
At the methodological level, the students would require individual and group work and attention in the skills of speaking, reading and writing of the three major languages. The attention could be given through group discussions, debates, oration, dramatisation in any
of the three major Nigerian languages.