THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF FAMILY LANGUAGE PRACTICES AMONG SELECTED EDUCATED FAMILIES IN JOS, NIGERIA

Abstract

Scholars have focused more attention on national language policy, while language practices by individuals and families has not received so much attention. On a macro level, language policy involves a political decision and a deliberate attempt to change/influence/affect the various aspects of language practices and the status of one or more languages in a given society and it can be articulated, for instance, in official state documents, that establish a country’s official language. Language practices are observable language behaviors and language choices occurring in social interaction which provide a context for language use and language learning and are influenced by a group’s or an individual’s (language) ideologies. Since the field of language planning and language policy blossomed, literature in the past sixty (60) years has largely been on macro language planning. This study is a modest attempt to shift the focus and also shed the light on micro planning in this part of the world. Multiple theories abound to explain micro language practices such as Fishman’s Reversing Language Shift Model and Spolsky’s Family Language Policy Model. This study has adopted both which present a guiding tool for exploring the families’ language policies through the exploration of three particular topics: their language beliefs, their language practices, and their planning efforts to maintain and develop languages as used in the environments they reside. The study employs a structured questionnaire. Data obtained is analyzed qualitatively. The major finding reveals that families of educated urban dwellers do not have a planned family language. Other findings show that the knowledge, situation, motivation and critical awareness are responsible for this situation.