SOCIOLINGUISTIC FEATURES IN THE USE OF ENGLISH BY SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN UYO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

Abstract

This work focused attention on the sociolinguistic features in the use of English of Senior Secondary School Students of Uyo Local Government Area. The aim was to identify, describe and analyze these features appropriately. In order to achieve this purpose, 160 students were selected by simple random sampling technique from 4 Secondary Schools 2 of which were from Urban and the other 2 from rural areas. The instruments used were both written and oral essay questions. It was revealed that first language (MT) greatly influenced the use of English of the subjects used for the research. Other factors were discovered to have contributed to the poor performance in the subjects, Use of English. Conclusions were drawn that the school environment being the major domain for the acquisition of the record language affected the competence and performance of the affected students and parent’s educational background also affected their output