Spelling Errors in Written English Language of Junior Secondary Schools

CHAPTERONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

Language is a system of conventional spoken, manual or written symbols by means of which human beings, as member of a social group and participants in it's culture, express themselves. The functions of language include communication, the expression of identity, play, imaginative expression and emotional release.

Henry sweet (2010) stated "language is the expression of ideas by means of speech-sounds combined into words. Words are combined into taughts". Bernard Bloch and George L. Trager (2010) formulated the following definition: "A language is e system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group cooperates". Any succinct definition of language makes a number of presuppositions and begs a number of questions. The first, for example, puts excessive weight on "taught", and the second uses "arbitrary" in a specialized, though legimate, way.

Nigeria being a multilingual country with over four hundred (400) languages already, received an additional language which is English language in the sixteenth century from the Great Britain, by the colonial masters whom were in Nigeria to propagate Christianity, trade and take over the entire Nigerian administration.

This marks the introduction of the English language in the Nigerian history and thus added to the multilingual existence of the Nigerians.

Medubi (2013) posits that English language came into Nigeria with the British settlers (in the sixteenth century) whose expansionist programmes saw them colonise a good number of countries all over the world. The interaction of the British settlers and the Nigerian natives resulted in birth of pidgin, a broken form of English that ease communication difficulties between the two peoples. However, with the complete appropriation of the Nigerian land as a colonial territory, Britain introduced the English language as the lani of administration. During these times also, the missionaries who needed to communicate with converts introduced the learning of English language for Bible reading, thus, forming the rudiments of the educational system (Medubi, 2013). This laid the foundation of literacy skills of reading and writing in the English language curriculum in Nigeria.