A SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDY OF JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TO THE STANDARD ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION – A CASE STUDY OF SOME JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN ODEDA LOCAL GOVERNMENT

The study is a sociolinguistic study of junior secondary school students’ attitudes to the standard English pronunciation – a case study of some junior secondary school students in Odeda Local Government. The study adopted a descriptive research survey design. The sample used for the study was obtained by random sampling technique which comprised one hundred (100) secondary school students from five (5) selected junior secondary schools in Odeda Local Government, Ogun State. A self-structured questionnaire was used to gather data for the study. The research question items were analysed using frequency counts and percentages. The results of the findings established that 84% of the students agreed that they like to use Standard English pronunciation everywhere they go. However, the pronunciation pattern test revealed that 54% of the students were unable to pronounce the giving words in their standard forms. Furthermore, results of the findings established that 58% of the respondents agreed that the absence of certain sounds of English in their mother tongue makes it difficult for them to pronounce certain sounds in English language. Therefore, it was recommended among other things in this study that secondary school students should change their attitudes to the Standard English pronunciation to help them become locally acceptable and internationally intelligible users of English language.