The impact of language choice on language endangerment in educated bilingual homes in Nigeria

This study examines how language choice in educated bilingual homes contributes to the endangerment of native languages in Nigeria. It uses 380 respondents from Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa ethnic groups. Language attitude is adopted as the conceptual framework. A quantitative survey research design, stratified random sampling was used to select participants from urban centres. Data were collected via a structured questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi-Square Test of Independence. Findings show that 65.8% of parents consider their children's fluency in native language as “not at all important” or “somewhat important,” while only 20.5% see it as “important” or “extremely important.” Similarly, 63.4% do not prioritise passing native language to the next generation, with only 4.5% consistently speaking it at home. Observed deviations from expected frequencies indicate lower-than-expected emphasis on speaking native languages at home (−12.2), reading in native languages (−24.2), and parental encouragement for reading (8.8), while media exposure to native languages was slightly higher than expected (14.8). Additionally, 56.1% of parents do not consider their native language important, and 48.9% are not proud to speak it. The findings are important as they uncover the role of negative parental attitudes in hampering the preservation of native languages.