Nigerian Pragmatics Association holds conference, advocates communicative competence

AS a group of scholars, the Pragmatics Association of Nigeria (PrAN), has begun to expand the scope of its operations within the limits of incorporation by offering professional assistance to organisations that need skills in pragmatic communication.

 The president of the association, Professor Akin Odebunmi, made the disclosure on Tuesday last week, at the opening ceremony of the third PrAN 2020 conference/workshop organised by the association in conjunction with the Department of Language and Linguistics, Anchor University, Lagos, held at the university’s multipurpose hall.

He disclosed that some members of the association were recently  were enlisted in the training of some staff of a Nigerian teaching hospital to scale up medical communicative competence, in order to improve consultative deliveries in medical encounters.

This, according to him, was a concrete realisation of the goal of the association to impact the society with knowledge of pragmatics.

Speaking about the conference, he said: “we owe this generation of learners the duty to be guided in the best professional direction for the best transformation of all aspects of the Nigerian society, which is eminently possible with the skills of pragmatics.

“Our catch-them-young policy is still in operation. This year, we have invited many graduate students for training and we have selected trainers for this group from almost all the six geo-political zones of Nigeria, showing the wide distribution of PrAN membership and the extensive practice and acceptability of pragmatics in Nigeria.”

He hinted that the best five undergraduates selected from a rigorous assessment following the training during the second national conference at Bowen University were sponsored by PrAN conference for their awards.

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The vice chancellor of Anchor University,  Lagos (AUL), Professor Joseph Afolayan, in his welcome address before declaring the conference open observed that in this 21st century, people in English and literary studies are already touching abstract principles in Mathematics indirectly as they conduct research in digital humanities.

 The keynote speaker and secretary-general of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA), Professor Jef Verschueren from University of Antwerp, Belgium, while speaking on the theme of the conference, ‘Pragmatics and Mediated Communication’ emphasised the role of implicit and explicit meaning in communication to participants, arguing that language serves as a filter between a reality and an augmented reality.

On mediated communication, he avowed the need for reflexivity in the use of language on the social media, saying however, that this must be handled carefully because it can lead to derailment

“Language is essential in every domain of social action. Hence a lot of work has to be done on its actors especially the younger generation on the use of language in the social media,” he noted.

 Professor Nan Aba Appiah Amfo, pro-vice chancellor, University of Ghana and acting president, African Pragmatics Association(APrA), while updating participants about the newly formed APrA in Ghana said, “it is  devoted to the study of language use in the African context and its members are drawn from scholars, students and professionals in all disciplines of language studies and allied specialisations such as sociology, philosophy, psychology, media studies, and political science.”

Speaking at the event, head, Department of Language and Linguistics, AUL, who doubled as the chairperson, Local Organising Committee for conference/workshop, Dr Stella Kpolugbo, said the theme of the conference was necessary because there was need for better understanding of  language use in various contexts.

    She said, Language is the bedrock of the society and communication is paramount to a peaceful life in same and if not properly constructed and thus misunderstood could lead to fatal consequences.

There were 31 students drawn from several Nigerian universities in attendance at the four-day conference, who were taught some key principles of pragmatics by participant pragmaticians and were subjected to a test in line with PrAN’s ‘catch them young’ policy.

At the end of the competition, the best five were selected for PrAN’s distinguished undergraduate award, whereby Aderibigbe Deborah from the University of Ibadan (79%) came first, Olubunmi Winner -Bowen University (78%) second, Nyah Jane Bassey-Bowen University (72%), third, Okoye Chisom – University of Ibadan (70%)fourth; while Adeyemo Mary- University of Ibadan (70%) took the fifth position. All were from departments of English of the two universities.

According to the president of the association, the five awardees will be sponsored to the next conference at the University of Benin (UNIBEN) by PrAN, where they will receive their awards and be pronounced automatic non-paying members of the association until they start a career in the future.

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE