LANGUAGE CHOICES AS MULTILINGUAL IDENTITY PERFORMANCE AMONG NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

This paper examines the utilization of different linguistic codes for the performance of multilingual identities among undergraduates at a University in South-south, Nigeria. Data were generated by means of participant observations and semi-structured interviews with the aid of audiotape recorders and field notes during a ten-month fieldwork involving 100 students. Findings show situations where participants’ deploy their knowledge on use of multiple (registers and/or varieties of) language(s) to accomplish certain academic tasks. The use (and intermixing) of languages or registers by students enact (cross-)disciplinary, national linguistic, intragroup, ethnolinguistic and plurilingual identities. The language practices reconstruct Nigerian University students’ multilingual identity performance exemplified in the deployment of appropriate code(s) to attend to communication exigencies in specific contexts of recurring discourses on different tasks in an academic environment. It is recommended that multilingual activities be encouraged in academic institutions to enable plurilingual students achieve desired goals for individual, collective and national development.