ON THE RELEVANCE OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE

It is a truism that language is one of the features that distinguishes human beings from animals. Language incontrovertibly relates to human activities and existence. It plays a significant function in aiding people to consummate their goals and aspirations. It therefore means that language is not just a mere pieces of words logically ordered to make comprehensible sound, it is a vehicle or an instrument that directs, informs, instructs, expresses, demonstrates and describes human thoughts, feelings, ideas, desires, and beliefs. Human beings cannot dispense with language.
Even though all languages are the same from linguistic perspectives, some languages like English are of greater importance and significance because of the rich and varied utility it has to people of different race and culture across the globe.
Wikipedia has it that “English language is one of the several West Germanic languages, a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European languages such as French, Portuguese and German. It originated from numerous dialects now collectively termed old English during the Angle Saxon era in the 5th century. ” This global language grew from a humble beginning to its present status of prestige in the universe. Columbia Encyclopedia says, “English is widely dispersed all over the world as a result of British exploration, colonialism and the growth of its empires from 17th through to the 19th century. It is also bolstered by the political, economic and military might of Britain and America. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia states that “English is the most widely spoken language in the world with an approximate population of 1.5 billion speakers and the mother tongue of above 350 million people”. Not even the Manderin Chinese can be at par with the global prevalence of the English language. This is because Chinese is less spoken outside the Chinese territory where as English is ubiquitous around the world as it transcends regional barriers, racial distinction, ethnic and social boundaries.
English studies as an academic discipline navigates through the territory of literature (whose eyes focuses on the society as its primary object of scrutiny) and linguistics, the scientific study of language which combines within its corpus of study, syntax, phonology, morphology, Semantics, pragmatics, stylistic, to mention but a few. It does not stop there it traverses honourably and responsibly into other fields and takes what it finds relevant to its domain and agglutinate them to its property. This basic fact stems from the verity that no field of study can successfully operate in isolation; the effectiveness of every discourse is in relation to other discourses. There is some sort of interdependence or mutual correspondence between them. It is this verisimilitude of the symbiotic relation existing among these various fields that bring about their dependence on language especially English language. This is because English language helps them communicate their essence and relevance. It is the instrument that ensures their sustainability and makes it possible for them to achieve maximum effect in their effort to be of significance within the scheme of things. The moment science makes new discovery it quickly runs to English language for comprehensive description, explanation and naming-without which it will be a useless object of valueless manifestation. Indeed that’s the language the historian, the philosopher, the psychologist, the mathematician, the biologists, the politician, the doctor utilises the more. This is factual because the preponderance of English language in the universe makes it the most utilized language of all academic activities without racial and geographic barrier.
In this contraption called Nigeria, the foundation of the educational system has been built around English language, so much so that today English is tantamount to literacy. Virtually all academic activities are conducted in English language from the pedagogy to the pedagogical paraphernalia. Be it in the sciences or the Arts. English language is the channel, the medium and the means of instruction and students are expected to write their assignments, tests and examinations in it except where they are dealing with another language as subject. Failure to do so will result to serious penalty. The required pass mark comes from using English to say the answer and whether the answer is right or wrong depends on how English is used to say the answer. Success in Education means success in English language as far as Nigeria is concern.
There is no institution public or private such as government ministries and parastatals, banks, companies, military and paramilitary organizations, N.G.O’s that do not require the services of a linguist. This is because of the serious implications of using language in formal documents, correspondences and transactions. Others may be able to speak the language fluently, but they cannot analyze it. It is the linguist who detects such fundamental errors and fashions out a carefully written and detailed language with clarity. At any given time, a true English student can confidently and properly speak or write to audience home or abroad with the accuracy and intelligibility of academic excellence. He/she is an abode or repository of creativity, hard work, discipline and good work.
Students of English hence have a lot of opportunities to explore after their studies apart from the noble and enriching occupation of teaching and journalism. They can even choose to be translators, authors, public speakers, speech writers to presidents, governors, ministers and members of house of assembly both Federal and State. And of course, they could become presidents, governors, ministers, Legislators and chief executive officers, CEO’s of companies or enterprises. For example, the Commonwealth and Caine Prize award winner Helon Habila read English. One time, Plateau State House of Assembly, Hon. Isa Chungwom Song read English. Also Mr. Manok James read English and is now the Director of Press Affairs Government House Jos. Mrs. Ramnap Joyce Lohya read English and is a member Plateau House of Assembly and a Deputy Chief Whip.
At the end of the four years rigorous study, the English student comes out as a full baked graduate of international delivery having gone through the intense study of the language, to the mathematical operations of syntax and morphology, to the philosophical discourses of literary criticism/theories and semantics, to the psychology of psycholinguistics, to the sociology of socio-linguistics and to the history of literature. The graduates’ purview is not for the indolent, uncreative, unimaginative and indiscipline student. He/she is an embodiment of true academic excellence.
Conclusively, English language as an academic field or discipline engages its students to wide range of intellectual probing inquiries that shapes, develops and transmits them as ambassadors of not only the field, but of the institution and society they emanate from. Contrary to wide held believe among other students especially those in the sciences that students of English do nothing serious and at the end of the day have no substantial contribution to the general development of the society is a grandiose fallacy that is expose from the reservoir of ignorance of such students. As had been shown above, students of English are everything that the modern society needs from the university graduates.