By Ganiu Bamgbose, PhD
Maybe a good way to start this piece is to inform my readership that vocabulary does not necessarily mean high-sounding words or grandiloquence. Vocabulary is simply the complete set of words that a language user knows or that is available in a language. Every individual has their active and passive sets of vocabulary. Can you think of those words you can hardly speak for ten minutes without using them? They constitute your active vocabulary. Those other words you seldom use but know what they mean make up your passive vocabulary. Since words are the building blocks of any language, anyone who cares to speak fluently and competently must strive to enrich their vocabulary.
In a country like Nigeria where English is a second language and has greatly been influenced by factors such as the features of mother tongues and improper mastery, vocabulary development is not only about the acquisition of words but also the informed knowledge of the proper usage of such words in contexts. With linguistic features such as semantic extension and shift, coinages and neologisms, the boundary of words has become flexible. Also, terms such as correct, incorrect, right and wrong are less preferred in modern language studies. More preferable are dichotomies such as formal and informal, standard and nonstandard, and appropriate and inappropriate.
Notwithstanding these sociolinguistic variables, some English words are still both incorrectly and inappropriately deployed by students and staff alike in Nigerian higher institutions of learning. This piece will discuss some of these words with a view to helping users master their appropriate uses in different contexts.
One such word that makes my eyes roll when it comes from my students is “holiday”. You are almost pushed to anger when your weeks have exhaustively gone into marking, recording and presentation of results on different boards, then your students resume on campus to ask about your holiday. “My dear, I was serving you even while you were at home.” This is usually my response.
Among other meanings, a holiday is a time when someone does not go to work or school and is free to do what they want, such as travel or relax. Students do not know that such time is not the same for them and their lecturers. Except when a holiday means a festive period or an official day when you do not have to go to work or school, lecturers are usually not on holiday when students are. It is funny how going to class, which many people consider the core of lecturing, is about the least demanding engagement of the profession. The authorised time off for workers, including lecturers, is called leave, which may be a good time to take and enjoy a holiday. Such leave could even be to go and get on with another work when it is a sabbatical. A sabbatical is a period of time during which someone such as a university teacher can leave their ordinary work and travel or study. It is often spent in another institution as a faculty member.
Moving on, it will be safe to guess that every Nigerian lecturer who has made students present academic works in class has heard them say “Good day, my colleagues”. It is instructive to know that students are not colleagues to one another. Your colleagues are the people you work with, especially in a professional job. Those in the same class as you at school or college are your classmates, not your colleagues.
Again, while students are, of course, affected by lecturers’ strike, it is not appropriate for students to say they are on strike. A strike is a period of time when workers refuse to work because of an argument with an employer about working conditions, pay levels, or job losses. This means that a strike is an industrial action that can only be embarked upon by workers such as lecturers. Although other stakeholders like students may be affected by such industrial action, it is not to say students are the ones on strike. A similar engagement that students may be involved in is a protest. A protest is a public or formal expression of objection, disapproval, or dissent against an idea, policy, or action, and can feature either or both students and lecturers.
Furthermore, an expression in the vocabulary of students, which is sometimes frowned on by lecturers, is “I want to sign my document”. Academics who are particular about clarity often tell such students to go on to sign the document. While this is not exactly a grammatical issue, it borders on communicative appropriateness and clarity. A student who wishes to get their form signed is not the one to do so for him or herself, and that makes it inappropriate to declare that she or he wants to sign a document. Even though this has become a common expression in Nigeria and is understood by almost all users of English, it would be more appropriate to put such a request clearly by saying “I want to have my document signed”. Of course, this can be said in any other way that takes away the miscommunication.
In conclusion, the English language has been properly domesticated in Nigeria, but such effort does not take away the need to deploy words cautiously and consciously. Grow your vocabulary and do so with proper contextual knowledge of words and their usages.
(c) 2026 Ganiu Bamgbose writes from Lagos.
Ganiu Abisoye Bamgbose, PhD
Department of English,
Lagos State University, Ojo
[email protected]
08093695359, 07084956118
