Obra ressenyada: Ayo BAMGBOSE, (ed.). New Englishes: A West African Perspective. Ibadan: Mosuro, 1995

Pandey, Anita

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 Book reviews Links & Letters 5, 1998    263 under the label Black South African Eng-lish must become a focus of research;black attitudes towards these and otherlanguage varieties must also be investi-gated. But in addition, Wright notes a‘tremendous imbalance’ in research intolanguage in South Africa, in so far as‘(l)anguage policy has been emphasisedto the virtual exclusion of any attentionto language cultivation’ (Lanham et al.1995: 5). This is certainly true; but thepublications under review here shouldperhaps be seen as an indication of a newinterest in issues of language cultivation:the clarification and implementation ofthe standard-to-be, and the developmentof strategies to facilitate and enhance theacquisition of L2 English, especially inthe multicultural classroom.Elizabeth de KadtDept of Europe StudiesUniversity of Natal, Durban,South Africa Ayo B AMGBOS ' E , et al. (eds.).  New Englishes: A West African Perspective.  Ibadan: Mosuro, 1995. xvii + 417 pages. This volume is a compilation of severaltalks presented at the international con-ference on «Communicative Compe-tence and the Role of English as a SecondLanguage» organized by the BritishCouncil in December 1993 in Ibadan, tocommemorate its fiftieth anniversary inNigeria. It contains a tasteful and timelycollection of papers and opening ad-dresses, the bulk of which discuss the roleof English in Nigeria. On a broad level,the papers reflect three geographical per-spectives —that of noted Nigerian lin-guists, language teachers, and adminis-trators; that of the British representativesof the British Council and the BritishHigh Commission in Nigeria; and theview of a few Cameroonian and Ghana-ian linguists. The book contains 21 articles (14 ofwhich are written by Nigerians) and isorganized into five parts, viz. «English inLanguage Policy» (Part I), «English Lan-guage Teaching» (Part II), «Varieties ofEnglish and Domains of Use» (Part III),«Literature in English» (Part IV), and«Corpus Research on English» (Part V).Four opening addresses delivered at theconference are also included in this vol-ume. They include the one given by theDirector of the British Council in Niger-ia, the speech delivered by the vice-chan-cellor of the University of Ibadan, theBritish High Commissioner's openingaddress, and the one given by the Nigeri-an Minister for Education and YouthDevelopment. The powerful foreword iswritten by none other than the guru ofNew Englishes, Braj Kachru. Attentionwill be drawn to points of interest in thedifferent articles. The volume emphasizes the pivotalrole English plays in Nigeria (and also inCameroon and Ghana) and identifies le-gitimate linguistic concerns such as theneed for a current language census inGhana and in Nigeria (see Dolphyn:27-33; Jowitt: 34-56), the need for acurricular change to address the «massfailure syndrome» at the Nigerian sec-ondary level (see Mohammed: 130-52),the nonchalance displayed by the Eng-lish language examination boards such asWAEC and JAMB in Nigeria towardNigerian English (see Jowitt: 34-56;Adekunle: 57-86; Bowers: 87-98; Brum-fit: 99-112; Afolayan: 113-129; Akere:178-202), and the continued stigmatiza-tion of Nigerian Pidgin, in spite of itswidespread use, its inherent creativity,and the unique process of «de-pidginisa-tion» it appears to be undergoing (see Ji- 264    Links & Letters 5, 1998 Book reviews bril: 232-247; Elugbe: 284-299). Whatadds authenticity to the issues raised inthis volume are the varieties of Englishemployed; most of the Nigerian writersuse Nigerianisms. Take, for instance, theuse of the verb  sanctioned  in the sentence«[C]ode-mixing involving English andthe not-so-statusful Nigerian languagesis seriously sanctioned in Nigeria» (273),and on page 281 (line 15). Numerouslexical mirrors of the mesolectal varietyof Nigerian English (see Bamiro, 1991)can also be found.A most detailed repudiation of thelinguistic status quo in Nigeria is provid-ed in Mohammed's article, which ad-dresses a fundamental problem —the in-effectiveness of the Senior SecondarySchool (SSS) English curriculum. AsMohammed rightly observes, the WestAfrican Examinations Council (WAEC)creates English tests that are «dysfunc-tional and inappropriate” (139). Nigeri-an universities require a credit pass inEnglish, but statistics indicate that 70-75% of Nigerian students get F9 —afailing grade. Poor performance in Eng-lish in the WAEC English test and in theGeneral Certificate in Education test arealso reported for Ghana (see Dolphyn:33). Another important point Moham-med raises is the faulty assumption thatStandard British English is being taughtby the teachers. This is clearly not thecase, as most speak Nigerian English. Afew speak Indian English. Having at-tended high school and college in Niger-ia and having sat for both the WAECand JAMB examinations, I recall beingtested on idioms that contained items(italicized) foreign to the culture andnatural environment. Examples includedthe following: having a finger in every pie , comparing  apples  and oranges, look-ing for a needle in a  haystack , and overthe  grapevine . I also recall being tested onnoncount nouns like  information , and equipment  and hearing every Nigerianuse the plural Nigerian English forms.The SS1 English curriculum lists(un)countable nouns and phrasal verbsas the focus areas. One is tempted to ask:«In which dialect?» The mismatch be-tween what is taught and what is expect-ed of the students in English examina-tions therefore deserves immediateattention. While Mohammed makes val-id suggestions, he advocates primarilymethodological changes and some struc-tural ones. Like Bamgbos ' e (9-26) andAkere (178-202), he does not give exam-ples of inappropriate test items or of howthe curriculum can be redesigned. Inother words, only passing reference ismade to this paradigm gap (see Sridharand Sridhar, 1982). Interviewing thestudents who fail, and their Englishteachers, would be a good start. Holdingnational and regional conferences inwhich language teachers, English exami-nation preparers, and examiners are in-vited to exchange ideas and arrive at a so-lution is another possibility. What isquite surprising is that this golden anni-versary conference did not have a paneldiscussion on this very important topic.Ironically, in the September 1991 «Re-port of the Language Group», the Com-mittee, chaired by an advocate of Nigeri-an English, concluded that: «TheEnglish Junior Secondary School andSSS curricula are adequate as they are atthe moment». In view of the fact thatthese reviews are conducted only at 10-year intervals, one can expect no majorcurricular changes in Nigeria in the nearfuture. Another surprising thing about thisvolume is that the contributors refer toNigeria as an ESL environment. This isa misnomer, and so is the use of theterm ESL in the theme designated forthe conference. The theme should haveread «…the Role of English as a Nativ-ized/Indigenized Language». After all,English does serve as the L1 for someNigerians (see Adekunle: 86), and as thethird for others, so the terms «bilingual» Book reviews Links & Letters 5, 1998    265 and «second» are not as appropriate.Having lived in Nigeria for 12 years, Iknow from personal experience thatearly English acquisition is the norm inNigeria. Several of my Nigerian friendswere most fluent in English and, eventhough they had a receptive knowledgeof one or more Nigerian languages(their L1(s) in theory), in practice, Eng-lish was their L1. Essien (269-83) provides interestingexamples of code-mixing involvingIbibio and English. He observes that«[I]t appears that the bilingual mindkeeps track of items which are alike inthe two languages and selects only one ofthem at a time, thereby avoiding embar-rassing repetition» (277). However, thisinterpretation does not account for whysuch code duplication is common in cas-es of Hindi-English code-mixing andswitching. Essien makes an interestingpoint —that Ibibio speakers tend to useEnglish when they quarrel and lie. Infact, there is even an Ibibio proverbwhich ‘condones’ lying in English. Thissays something about the Ibibio speak-er's associations with English.One of the strengths of this volumelies in its presentation of multiple themesand perspectives. Brumfit makes a veryvalid point, namely, that «debates aboutthe future of English, in any part of theworld, are arguments, in part, about thepotential for power of the use of English»(105). The articles that focus on the roleof English in Ghana and Cameroon areparticularly insightful. Dolphyn observesthat, in Ghana, «These days, among sec-ondary school and university students,pidgin has become very fashionable»(32). This is true of Nigeria, too, but thispoint is not mentioned in any of the ar-ticles on Nigerian Pidgin. That the Gha-naian youth refer to Ghanaian Pidgin as‘Harvard’, «thus giving it prestige» (Dol-phyn: 32) is truly admirable and creative.A suitable nickname for Nigerian Pidginmight help with de-stigmatization. Aninteresting difference between the twosettings is that, in Ghana, «it is mostlythe boys who speak it» (Dolphyn: 32).Bobda's article (248-68) is eye-opening,as it draws attention to the false featuresof Cameroonian English reported in acouple of studies, and to the tendency to-ward overgeneralization. In his words,«There is …the temptation to make Ni-geria a reflection of the whole of WestAfrica as far as English is concerned…National varieties like Cameroon Eng-lish, Ghanaian English, Sierra LeoneanEnglish and Gambian English are con-spicuously ignored» (268). In the vol-ume under review, none of the articlesfocuses on Sierra Leonean English andGambian English. This being the first edition, it is notsurprising that there are quite a few ty-pos. The publishers acknowledge thethree that appear in the foreword. Thefollowing are some of the others spotted:«if» instead of «of», on page 53 (lines 21and 23); «into» instead of «on» on page73 (line 22); «less» instead of «fewer» onpage 94 (line 16, although this could bean error); «the» has been omitted on page144 (line 4; i.e., «through  the  contentof…); the auxiliary verb has been omit-ted on page 146 (line 2); the word «rela-tionship» should be pluralized in line 20,and line 27 erroneously contains thenoun phrase «nouveaux rich es ». Theseand other typos will need to be correctedin the next print. Cross-referencing be-tween related articles in this collectionwould also be in order. For instance,some points made by Adekunle are ech-oed in Jowitt's article. Such connectionsshould be acknowledged. On the whole, however, this volumeis very informative. The article byAdekunle is one of the first to mentionthe names of several minority Nigerianlanguages, such as Amo, Angas, Birom,Chip, Chella, Mada, Nabor, Tera, andYergam. The contributors bring severalburning issues to the forefront, and most 266    Links & Letters 5, 1998 Book reviews attempt a bold break away from the Brit-ish English tradition. Even Bowers ad-mits that «it is part of the role of the Brit-ish Council to be British» (88) and thatthe Council has «a vested interest inmaintaining the roles of English as a lan-guage, and British ELT as a trade and aprofession» (88). He envisions an «agen-da for the future» in which the Councilwill continue to work as «a partner withthe Ministry, WAEC, the English lan-guage teaching profession, the media andemployers» (90). The Council's «English2000 project» is a five-point plan that in-cludes acculturation, via «broadcasting»and «British cultural studies, includingliterature» (95). So, in many ways, thisvolume signals the need for a  West Afri-can  Council.Anita PandeyDepartment of EnglishLinguistics DivisionUniversity of MemphisR EFERENCES B AMIRO , Edmund (1991). «Nigerian Englishes in Nigerian literature».  World Englishes,  10 (1):7-17.K ACHRU , Braj (1997). «Caliban's creative chaos». Talk presented at the 75th LAS AnniversarySeries, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, May 1.S RIDHAR , S.N.; S RIDHAR , S.R. (1982). «Bridging the paradigm gap». Braj Kachru (ed.).  Theother tongue: English across cultures.  Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Richard A LLSOPP .  Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. vii + 697 pages. Because of the provincialism of suchdictionaries as  Dictionary of JamaicanEnglish  and  Dictionary of BahamianEnglish  on the one hand, and the paro-chialism of standard British and Ameri-can desk dictionaries on the other, the Dictionary of Caribbean English  (hereaf-ter,  DCEU ) sets out to provide as com-plete an inventory as practicable of theCaribbean environment and lifestyle, asknown and spoken in each territory butnot recorded in many Western diction-aries such as  Webster's  or  The OxfordEnglish   Dictionary .The lexical inventory of  DCEU  isdrawn from the following anglophoneCaribbean and rimland territories: An-guilla; Antigua and Barbuda; Bahamas;Barbados; Belize; Dominica; Grenadaand Carriacou; Guyana; Jamaica;Montserrat; St. Kitts and Nevis; St. Lu-cia; St. Vincent and Grenadines; Trini-dad and Tobago; Turks and Caicos; Vir-gin Islands (British); and Virgin Islands(US). The sources of material include da-ta-collection workshops, transcription oftape-recorded spontaneous speech, field-notes, individual responses, excerptsfrom written sources such as newspapers,novels, and short stories, and speciallycommissioned vocabulary collections.According to  DCEU , the vocabularyof Caribbean English comprises «thewhole active  core vocabulary of WorldEnglish  as may be found in any piece ofmodern English literature, together withall  Caribbean regionalisms  produced bythe ecology, history, and culture of thearea» (1996: l, original emphasis). Thesources of the regionalisms, with exam-ples, are as follows: Amerindian survivals(e.g.,  cashew , p. 139); African survivals(e.g.,  Anancy  ‘tricky spiderman in Anan-cy tales, originating in West Africa, espe-cially Ashanti folklore’, p. 29); archaicEnglish (e.g.,  stupidness  ‘nonsense’,

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