Pidginisation and Student’s Language Performance in the College of Education, Akamkpa, Cross River State, Nigeria

The research was on the Pidginization and student’s language performance in the College of Education, Akamkpa, Cross River State Nigeria in  particular, but recordings of student’s conversations in three other Colleges of Education in the South-South Zone were collected to ascertain the common language used in those Colleges. A hundred students’ in College of Education Akamkpa were randomly chosen from the population of NCE 1, II and III for the study. A questionnaire was drafted and distributed to illicit their responses. The qualitative responses were analyzed using the simple percentages to draw up the values. Fishman’s theory of domain was also tested to determine the validity and the correlation between the frequent use of Pidgin and academic performance. It was found that the use of Pidgin frequently in schools was an obstacle to good academic performance. It also showed that the frequent use of Pidgin affected the student’s proper use of Standard English. It was recommended that parents  should be involved in the development process of their wards by  discouraging  the use of Pidgin at homes and that the Management of Schools should place notices on boards at strategic places to remind  the students of the need to use standard English around the school environment.