GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

This research work was carried out in Cross River State of Nigeria. The aim was to make comparism of the use of local language and English language as instructional languages for children’s acquisition of literacy skills in English as a second language by children aged 3 – 5 yeas. One objective was set with one research question and one hypothesis. The survey research design was used for this study. The population of the study was 50,031 pupils from where a sample of 2500 pupils was drawn using the multi-stage sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was researcher made called Children Literacy Skills Acquisition Test (CLSAT). The reliability index of the instrument was obtained using test re-test method and a reliability co-efficient of 0.78 was obtained. The method of data analysis was the Pearson Product Moment Correlation statistics. The result of the analysis showed that there was a significant difference in the acquisition of literacy skills by children in the urban and rural schools. The study concluded that both English language and local languages are good media of instruction, especially in the nursery and primary schools. But this is not similarly suitable in every part of Cross River State because of the intensity of multi-lingualism affecting the urban schools despite the correlational statistical difference between them. One of the recommendations made was that a balanced bilingual education system should be introduced where both the English and local languages are used in tandem for teaching literacy skills.

Keywords: Local Language, English Language, Instructional Languages, Children’s Literacy   Skills and Cross River State