Multilingualism for University Education and Sustainable National Development

Abstract

Multilingualism is an age long issue in sociolinguistics. It plays a pivotal role in social interactions among human beings. In today’s global world, learning to improve man and society is facilitated by man’s ability to communicate his mastery of knowledge in various fields of study without ambiguity. Although priority has been given to a monolingual approach to teaching and learning in some developing countries such as Nigeria, effectively communicating and transmitting the knowledge outcome of research findings in community development has not been very successful. This study sets to explore the role of multilingualism in university education and sustainable national development. Although the convenience sampling procedure was adopted by the researchers in choosing fifty (50) participants, a survey approach was adopted in setting the predetermined questions, which form the primary source of data collection. The published literature and internet materials comprised the secondary sources of information for this study. Anchoring on the sociocultural theoretical framework, responses to questionnaire have been analysed. Findings reveal that the use of pragmatic multilingualism in teaching motivates students to develop a high level of self-confidence and psychological preparedness to compete among their global contemporaries. Thus, pragmatic multilingualism is one of the remarkable determinants and facilitators of high level performance among university graduates. This paper therefore recommends implementing pragmatic multilingualism as a proactive institutional language policy in Universities curricula.