Students’ Attitude to the Language of Wider Communication in a Multilingual Speech Community

Attitude, as part of sociological variables that influence performance of man in every field of activities, really plays a major role when it comes to learning a second language for literacy proficiency. On a typical note, non-native language is perceived to be ridiculous, inferior and gibberish. On the other consideration, a language of utility though not aboriginal remains lofty, cherished, and feverishly admired. This paper investigates the attitude of Nigerians to English language taking into consideration the status of the language and the roles it plays in Nigeria linguistic territory. Two hundred and forty students were selected from the population of 480306 senior secondary school students in Ekiti State. Multi-stage and purposive random sampling techniques were used in the process of the data collection. Achievement test and questionnaire were used to collect data. The descriptive statistics of frequency counts, percentage, mean and inferential statistics of analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were used to analyze the data collected for the study. Consequently upon the data analyzed, it was discovered that students exposed to different strategies (different methods of teaching) differed significantly in their attitude to learning the second language that serves as the language of the wider communication. Against the normal expectation, students in the control group had a better positive attitude than the students under the activities based methods. This suggests that external motivations in favour of English language are already in place which will supply the needed interest to learn the language. Literacy in the use of English language opens the door of unlimited opportunities in the land.