This Slide in Fluency in English Speaking These Days

I grew up in an era where it was very fashionable to speak good
queen's english. You were considered polished if you could converse in
english with minimum grammatical errors. Parents back then laboured
day and night in order to be able to send their wards to the best
schools around; private schools were just becoming a fad then unlike
today that they are now common place. I really have my aunt to thank
for the good foundation I have in speaking the english language,
because i was told that as a toddler, I couldn’t speak english at all, so
she took me along with her to a number of kindergarten (jelosimi)
schools she was teaching at back then till i was of the right age to
be enrolled into a private primary school.

Now, scroll down to the year 2000s, you will suddenly discover that it's no

longer fashionable to flaunt your fluency in the use of english language.

You now see adults murdering english like no man's business,and if you 
endeavour to correct any grammatical error made by another english speaker,you will be
quickly reminded that english is not our mother tongue. In my growing
up years, children boasted to one another about the number of novels
they could read in a week,but young ones in this age are rather
preoccupied with the latest movie titles they have watched or the video games 
that they have played. This decline in reading culture is one of the reasons for the
poor english we get to hear these days and consequently, it has had its
effects on student’s grades and poor understanding of concepts since
textbooks are mostly written in english. When i was in the north for
my national youth service, I was shocked to discover that the students
there were being taught english language in their mother tongue,hausa.
How on earth would they be able to speak english language fluently
like their peers down south when they are being taught in their mother
tongue?

The media that should be at the fore front of teaching the
english language are not doing enough in that area. While the print
media is really trying its best, with the help of its editors, who try to help
secondary speakers of the english language to be acquainted with its
written forms, the broadcast media practitioners are more preoccupied
with how they will outdo each other in trying to speak with an
american ascent, forgetting we are using the british english as our
standard. I do remember making an habit of listening to NTA network
news,as well as listening to the  BBC and VOA, to improve on my
pronunciations back in the days.  

Well, I think we should go back to the good old days
where good diction was emphasized, because i believe that what is
worth doing at all, is worth doing well. English is our official
language, and for a country with different ethnic groups,with their
different languages, it remains one language that can be spoken across
board for better communication. This means we should as much as
possible be guided by the rules governing the use of english
language,this doesn’t necessarily mean that we should speak like the
native english speakers, not at all, rather, we shouldn’t make nonsense of
the language like we have been doing. Proficiency in the use of
english shouldn’t affect one's ability to speak one's mother
tongue,it only shows one’s versatility with languages. 

The primary school level is the foundation for teaching a child the rudiments of
grammar, spelling and structure. Beyond this point, it’s a lot harder to
correct any faulty foundations in the use of the english language. You
will easily observe this in many adults today, who in spite of having
acquired western education to the tertiary level, cannot readily express
themselves in english.