THE INTERFERENCE OF PIDGIN ENGLISH ON THE CONVENTIONAL ENGLISH AMONGST SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN EDO STATE

The study was conducted to investigate the interference of pidgin English on the conventional English language. Specifically, the four skills of English which are- listening, speaking, reading and writing were examined to find out the impact of pidgin English on the conventional English. The sample consisted of 240 students randomly selected from public senior secondary schools out of the fifteen in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The instruments were the Educational Background of Parents and Language used Questionnaire (EBOPALUQ) and the English language proficiency test. The study was guided by one research question and four null hypotheses. Data collected was analysed using the multivariate T-test. The STATA software package was employed to compute the data. The research findings revealed that pidgin English interfered in the conventional English in the four skills of English language. It was discovered that students from illiterate homes where pidgin English is often used perform poorly in the skills of English language. Based on the findings, it was recommended amongst others that teachers should discourage students from speaking pidgin English.