Abstract
Being one of the world’s top three most linguistically complex countries, ethnolinguistic diversity, with its attendant consequences is one of the sociolinguistic realities of the Nigerian state in various domains of language use. With English as the sole official language and millions of Nigerians (about 38%) across the different geopolitical zones having little or no formal education and unable to use the language, dissemination public health communication efficiently to the generality of the people becomes a challenge. It is against the aforementioned that the present study, using multimodal data from different conventional print and electronic media, as well as social media platforms of key national agencies, non-governmental organisations, other critical stakeholders, and drawing insights from Language Management Theory (LMT), reports an empirical exploration of the significant role of multilingualism in the management of public health emergencies in a postcolonial developing context. The study explores the interplay between ethnolinguistic diversity, multilingualism, and the promotion of inclusion of underserved and minority groups in the management of the COVID-19 global health crisis. The study finds that managing public health emergencies in multilingual context requires officially acknowledging diversity that exists among the different ethnic and linguistic groups and appropriately designing public health communication in ways that promote inclusion of the greatest number of the people.
Presenters
Omotayo OkesolaSenior Lecturer, Sociolinguistics/English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun, Nigeria
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Communications and Linguistic Studies
KEYWORDS
Multiculturalism, Diversity, Ethnolinguistics, Multilingualism, Inclusion
