THE LINGUISTIC ADVANTAGE OF THE PROLIFERATION OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES IN EASTERN NIGERIA IN THE 21sT CENTURY

Abstract

The era of Christian missionaries can be regarded as the golden age of English language education in Nigeria, for the missions' aggressive approach to English language education produced prodigious results in their pupils and students. Ogu (1992: 70-71) recounts that as soon as the "mission schools were established the missionaries did exactly what the churchmen did in England centuries ago, when with one hand they carried the Latin Bible and with the other hand the Latin grammar". Ogu (P.71) concludes thus: "Christian education in Nigeria became therefore an important instrument for spreading a type of standard English.