AAUA UPDATES

Linguistics and Languages Admission Requirements

Requirements for students intending to undergo the four-year B.A degree in the Department are the same as those required for entry into the Faculty of Arts, except that the 5 ‘O’ Level credits must include those obtained in English Language and Yoruba (for B.A. Yoruba) and English Language and any other (preferably Nigerian) language (for B. A. Linguistics). Such students must have also demonstrated a satisfactory level of performance at the UTME.

Candidates seeking Direct Entry admission must have GCE Advanced Level (or its equivalent) passes in two subjects, including Yoruba (for B.A. Yoruba) or any language (for B.A. Linguistics).

Candidates with NCE (with a minimum of Merit) or Diploma in Yoruba/Yoruba Communication Arts, Mass Communication, Journalism (with a minimum of Lower Credit) may also be considered for Direct Entry.

THE PROGRAMME OFFERED

• B.A. Linguistics
• B.A. Yoruba
• B.A. Linguistics/Yoruba

Each of the degree programmes lasts three years for Direct Entry applicants and four years for UTME applicants.

• B.A. LINGUISTICS
• Philosophy

For the Department, it is axiomatic that language is a universal phenomenon that manifests itself in superficially differing ways in different human communities. It further believes that Linguistics, the science of languages, quite rightly takes it that each human language displays both universal and language-specific linguistic properties, as well as both regular and irregular features. For the science, all these properties and features are susceptible of discovery and explanation, using techniques and procedures hallowed by the time and practice.

Objectives

The courses offered under the Linguistics programme are designed to train students that:

(i) are thoroughly conversant with the techniques, procedures, and terminology of modern Linguistics;

(ii) can apply their training to produce elementary language teaching materials (orthography, primers, readers, pedagogical grammars, glossaries, and dictionaries) for languages that previously had no such materials;

(iii) can participate in, and contribute to, language development efforts requiring the creation of new indigenized technical terms, etc;

(iv) can, if required, teach from independent knowledge the structure (i.e. the language as opposed to the literature aspect) of at least one language, and read up the structures of other languages for the purpose of teaching, explaining them; and

(v) can undertake low level research on any aspect of any language.

• B.A. YORUBA
• Philosophy

The Department believes with UNESCO and other informed agencies and individuals that Languages, any language including Yoruba, is, apart from being a unique means of communication, a storehouse of the received knowledge, wisdom, and values of the people that speak it. For this reason, it is a precious cultural resource that deserves in its own right to be preserved, promoted, and propagated.

Objectives

Accordingly, the courses offered in Yoruba are designed to turn out in three to four years students who:

(i) have a positive attitude to the Yoruba language and are willing and able to use it competently in all situations, both traditional and contemporary;

(ii) can translate works in other languages into fluent and idiomatic Yoruba, and vice versa;

(iii) can teach the language and/or its literature in Secondary Schools and Colleges of Education; and

(iv) can undertake, at their level, research into different aspects of Yoruba language, literature, and culture.

• B.A. LINGUISTICS/YORUBA (COMBINED HONOURS)
• Philosophy

Following from its combined philosophies for Linguistics and Yoruba, the Department believes that the Literature, Culture and Status of the Yoruba Language are fully amendable to both the theoretical and applied tools of Modern Linguistics.

Objectives

Accordingly, the Linguistics and Yoruba Combined Honours programme seeks to train and produce graduates that:

(1). are as able to appreciate Yoruba culture and literature as they are able to explain the structure of the language;

(2). are as able to use the language appropriately for all communicative purposes as they are able to deploy the tools and techniques of Linguistics for analyzing it;

(3). are as creative in the literature of the language as they are innovative in analyzing and further developing the language;

(4). can, if required to do so, teach any aspect of the language at the Secondary School level; and

(5). with further training, can continue, adapt, and perpetuate the Department’s philosophy and tradition of teaching Yoruba in the manner implied here at University level.