Abstract: | This essay briefly reviews what in Nigeria has been done in the subfield of sociolinguistics so far. It attempts to highlight some issues in linguistic ecology arising from these studies, the investigation of which promises to be very rewarding in the Nigerian context. The first three sections discuss the phenomenon of bilingualism in Nigeria, the role of folk attitude in language study, arid the determinants of language choice in a bilingual or multilingual setting. A previous work based on the Nigerian experience provides the basis for discussion in each section. The fourth and concluding section discusses the contribution which sociolinguistics can make to language planning in Nigeria, touching on the place and prospects of the English language in Nigeria, and the difficult problem of an indigenous national language for the country. Ref., notes. |