A Sociolinguistics Survey of Language Diversity, Attitude, and Use in Bo District, Southern Sierra Leone.

Abstract

Sierra Leone has English as a heritage of British Colonial rule (1808-1961) that continues to serve as her only official language and language of the elite to-date. The Mende and Krio languages are the dominant languages of the District and have their origin in the slave trade and its abolition. The Mende language is a combination of several African Languages and European Languages. The ultimate purpose of this study is to provide a more recent work on the Sociolinguistic survey of language Diversity, attitude and use in the Bo District, Southern Sierra Leone. The survey suggests that the government, through the Ministry of Education provides learning Institutions with modern indigenous language teaching and Learning facilities to foster a good example of nationalism. The general methodology involved the application of three major kinds of field research methodology-survey to select the sample population, interviews and administering of questionnaire. Two hundred (200) questionnaires were equally administered to the five chiefdoms (40 questionnaires each). It is concluded that although Sierra Leone is a language diversified society with no standardized indigenous language, yet the citizens maintain linguistic tolerance. The recommendation is that Government and line Ministries should improve on literacy, modern language teaching and learning materials with regular seminars on language issues.

Sierra Leone has English as a heritage of British Colonial rule (1808-1961) that continues to serve as her only official language and language of the elite to-date. The Mende and Krio languages are the dominant languages of the District and have their origin in the slave trade and its abolition. The Mende language is a combination of several African Languages and European Languages. The ultimate purpose of this study is to provide a more recent work on the Sociolinguistic survey of language Diversity, attitude and use in the Bo District, Southern Sierra Leone. The survey suggests that the government, through the Ministry of Education provides learning Institutions with modern indigenous language teaching and Learning facilities to foster a good example of nationalism. The general methodology involved the application of three major kinds of field research methodology-survey to select the sample population, interviews and administering of questionnaire. Two hundred (200) questionnaires were equally administered to the five chiefdoms (40 questionnaires each). It is concluded that although Sierra Leone is a language diversified society with no standardized indigenous language, yet the citizens maintain linguistic tolerance. The recommendation is that Government and line Ministries should improve on literacy, modern language teaching and learning materials with regular seminars on language issues.