Interference Features Assessment in Junior Secondary School Students E?ki?ti?-speaking Standard Spoken Yorùbá in Èkìtì State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the interference features in the standard spoken 
Yorùbá of Èkìtì-speaking junior secondary school (jss) students in Èkìtì, 
Èkìtì State. Due to the multilingual nature of the Nigerian society, 
language usage problems that tend to occur include interference from the 
mother tongue and inadequate mastery of the rules of the standard 
Yorùbá language. Hence, the identification of features that interfere in the 
standard spoken Yorùbá of Èkìtì-speaking Junior Secondary School 
Students necessitated this study. This study adopted a descriptive 
research design. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 100 
jss E?ki?ti?-speaking students from five schools in I?ko??le? Local Government 
Area in Èkìtì State. The instrument adopted for this study was a 
researcher-designed Test of Interference Features (TIF) which was 
administered to the participants to obtain data. The data were analysed 
using percentage and the t-test statistic. Findings of the study revealed 
that there were interference features in the standard spoken Yorùbá of 
Èkìtì-speaking jss students. In other words, the Èkìtì dialect interferes with the standard spoken Yorùbá of the students. It was also revealed that 
there was no significant difference in the Yorùbá consonant sounds and 
Yorùbá vowel sounds which reflect interference features in the spoken 
standard Yorùbá of Èkìtì-speaking male and female jss students. Among 
others, it was recommended that teachers of Yorùbá language should pay 
more attention to the various Yorùbá consonant sounds which tend to 
reflect interference features in the spoken Yorùbá of male and female 
Èkìtì-speaking jss students.