TRADITIONAL IGBO CHILDREN’S RECREATIONAL GAMES AS TOOL FOR IGBO LANGUAGE LEARNING

Abstract

The issue of the current state of Igbo language has been very topical at several conferences and always dominated discussions by Igbo scholars, identifying apathy towards the use of Igbo language as the bane of the language and its apparent endangerment. Blames have often been apportioned to parents for their neglect of the use of Igbo language at homes, and sometimes government’s failure to encourage local languages by prioritizing English language over the indigenous languages in education. More often than not, such conferences had been concluded with recommendations, emphasizing the need for parents to make Igbo the medium of communication in the family without proposing strategic approaches to achieve positive result in inter-generational transmission of the language. This paper proposes the use of what children themselves love doing- children’s recreational games, folktales and songs as tools that can enhance their Igbo language learning and proficiency. However, the paper submits that to make this learning strategy effective and realistic, the children’s recreational arts have to be repackaged to meet the taste and sensibilities of the digital-age children. The study adopts unstructured interview to collect data on games and Focus Group discussion to get the participants’ subjective views on the viability of using traditional Igbo children’s games as tool for language learning and repackaging them for the interest of the present-day children. The paper concludes by recommending that traditional Igbo children’s games be encouraged as language learning strategy.