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Preserving Our Identity By Using Igbo Language for Training Igbo Children in Formative Years.

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Most Igbo parents choose to raise their children primarily in English language without weighing the adverse implications in their formative years. Any perceived positive implications cannot stand the test of time in the final analysis.

Let's dlve into these implications beginning with the negative ones.

1. There is this ongoing erosion of Igbo language and cultural identity, compared with other competitive Nigerian languages and cultures. This also affects the culture, history, oral tradition, thought life and values of the families concerned. Children brought up in English will have a disconnect from their roots. They will not learn the all-important proverbs, folklores, oral traditions, stories and games rooted in Igbo language and culture. Such children will struggle with bonding with their grand parents and other rural relatives who do not speak or understand English. They will thus struggle to engage with their heritage. With time passage this will weaken the transmission of Igbo culture and language, especially if fewer children grow up fluent enough to pass the language on to themselves.

2. Socially there is usually a sort of divide between those raised in English and their counterparts raised in the native language. The native groomed will see the rest as others and there might be some tension arising from prejudice against the English speaking group as not authentic. 

3. On the positive side, those involved believe that it is better to start off children in English since it is the official language and most used all over the world in most official settings - schools, business, social, international, communication, politics and so on.

4. However, considering the formative years especially 0 to 3 years for most basic and critical formation in child development, this option does not hold water since children are said to have been wired to adapt to up to at least 5 different languages within the formative years in pari pasu. Those of us that canvass the sole use of Igbo language within these three years know that our children still had a wonderful grasp of English language better than their peers who relied on English in the home. After all, nursery and kindergarten schools recommend age 3 for first enrollment for proper academic and social development of a child. 

5. All together, Igbo language is having a serious challenge with respect to other Nigerian Languages. For example, YORUBA people insist on the use of YORUBA language at all levels of communication and yet they are quite fluent in English language. 

Hausa, on the other hand went to the extreme of totally rejecting the use of English language and other languages in preference to Hausa language. The consequences are obvious to all today!

6. The YORUBA example should pose a serious challenge to Igbo parents. Moreover, there is no evidence that such children who skip Igbo language in their formative years learn better English than their counterparts who are rooted in Igbo language. This is obvious since most of the parents that use English for their forming children at home don't have good grasp of English grammar, prose, lexicon and structure hence constitute bad influences to those children with regard to proper English language knowledge. 

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