Practical ways for the learning and the speaking of the Igbo Languagein the Primary Schools

Igbo Language is a language that the Igbo tribe inherited from our fore fathers, and which form the major part of our cultural heritages.The language is divine.

This language, as inherited from our fore fathers is also expected to be generational - it is expected to be transferred by us to our coming generations in order to keep the light shinning. That is our generational mandate.

It is a thing of great regret that this generational fire is gradually quenching day by day in our own time due to our unpatriotic and lackadaisical attitude and gestures towards the language.

We no longer speak, value, promote, uphold nor teach it the way we ought to, as our fore fathers handed it over to us. We fail to understand that it is our own and that they handed it over to us, right from the ancient days and at the early stage. We no longer teach our children the language of our forefathers – the Igbo Language – at the early stage, thereby accounting for the diametric and outright downfall and collapse of our dear language in our own time. That is the main aim of this piece – to devise and suggest the practical ways and measures for teaching and learning of the Igbo Language at early stage – at the primary level.

Teaching of the Igbo Language at the Primary School level could be one of the easiest things to do, in the upliftment of the Igbo Language. But when the appropriate measures and effective practical approaches to doing this are not there nor put in place; he practice could be such a hardest one.

The teacher of the Igbo language himself should be the first equipment and the number on eye-point in ensuring the smooth and successful administration of the service – teaching the Language.

When a teacher who does not know Igbo Language is employed to administer the service of teaching the language; things would always fall apart because a blind does not lead a blind.

In a nutshell, the teacher of the Igbo Language has to be well-grounded in the teaching, study and the practice of the language, lest, it would only be a waste of time and energy

Secondly, in order to fasten the easy absorption, memorization and internalization of some Igbo words, especially the Igbo Alphabets, popularly known as A B CH D; the primary school teacher can resort to composing the letters into a song or acapela which she would always sing to and sing with the pupils in the cause of teaching them the language.

When this efficacious approach which was rightly used for us in our own time is put in place, a first-time pupil in the Igbo Language classroom can easily and swiftly memorize the whole thirty-six Igbo Alphabets and comfortably recite it in such melodic a way of the greatest surprise.

Another vital and indispensable measure to teaching and learning of the Igbo Language is this:

Contrary to what is going on in some public and private schools in the Igbo land now, where a child is always severely flogged or chastised for speaking the Igbo language in the class; stakeholders in education, parents and other members of the public should stand their ground and say a capital NO to that unjustifiable piffle.

They should order for the immediate abolition and annihilation of such rules or law from the school system if our language must be protected from total collapse.

The whole Igbo students and especially the pupils should be well encouraged to admire, uplift and practice the speaking and the writing of the Igbo language – our mother tongue; rather than ignorantly enveloping and upbringing them on imported languages.

Once they master it at that lower stage and make it part of them; never on earth can they ever forget it nor depart from it, not even when they grow old or graduate into a higher level. Even the Bible upholds this as it is stated in the book of Proverb chapter 21 v 8.

So, strongly I recommend that Igbo students, especially the pupil be raisedand educated purely in the Igbo Language at the primary school level being the period when their brain is still fresh, empty and able to accommodate it, unlike when they grow up and other preferential things impeccably occupy their memory.

It is comparably and preciously easier to learn the Igbo language at the earlystage than at the late stage.

Teaching and the practice of the Igbo Language at the Primary School level should be also backed up with the appropriate and easily understood text and picture book, practical demonstration, practical calculation, pragmatic practice of writing the language as well as other practical realities which would go a long way to help in making the teaching and learning fun, attractive, educative and most importantly efficacious.

Timely quiz competitions and questions and answers should also be held in the Igbo Language with mouth-watering prizes in order to test the abilities of the pupils and effectiveness of the teacher and her teaching pattern. This would also go a long way in motivating the pupils the more and serve as a catalyst in them to personally improve themselves more on the language as well as give them more reasons to have a strong passion for it.

Parents on their own should equally be re-oriented and re-informed to understand that the best time to teach their children their home tongue is at the primary school level, contrary to what some of them are thinking which makes them to always strive to up-bring their children in the English language, as if he can no longer learn the easy English Language when they grow up. Charity begins at home.

These are the various practical ways through which the teaching and learning of the Igbo Language at the Primary School level can be properly enhanced and improved with great and magnanimous results being achieved.

These practical measures and approaches when put in place would go a long way in reducing to the minimum level, the difficulty, cost and stress incidental to the teaching and learning of the Igbo Language.

In conclusion therefore, as we celebrate the World International Day for Mother Tongue; I strongly recommend these tested and trusted pragmatic approaches for the teaching and learning of the Igbo Language in the Primary Schools. When these are put into practice, the state of the Igbo language which is currently in den and at stake would soon become a story of the old because the benefit is not just for the generation at hand but also much for the generation to come.

It shall be well with Igbo and the entirety of her heritage and culture.

IGBO LANGUAGE WILL NEVER GO EXTINCT
Igbo mma mma nu
About The Author:
Izunna I. Okafor is award winning creative young Nigerian Writer, blogger, essayist and poet who hails from Anambra State. He is a 300 level student of Nnamdi Azikiwe University who has written and published many books - novels poems, short stories and articles both in hard and soft copies. He writes in both the English and Igbo Languages and has also published in both languages. He has won and been nominated for various writers Awards including The Nigerian Writers Award/Indigenous Writer of The Year 2015/2016; SYNW/Pita Nwana Prize For Igbo Literature 2015; Nigeria Heritage Icon Award/Youth Writer of the Year 2016; N.Y.S.C. Essay Competition 2012; SLAM Youth Hero Award/ Innovative Youth of the Year 2016 among others. He belongs to various writers groups and associations. He is the co-ordinator Society of Young Nigerian Writer and Ambassador of READ ACROSS NIGERIA in Anambra State.