Incorportation of Nigerian Signs in Deaf Education in Nigeria: A Pilot Study

In a country like Nigeria with over 200 spoken languages and hundreds of dialects, many consider the talk of a Nigerian sign language emerging, an impossibility. The research and results documented in The Incorporation of Nigerian Signs in Deaf Education in Nigeria, A pilot Study, and A Dictionary of Nigerian Signs, Volumes I and II respectively, offers this possibility. This dictionary, the first of its kind, constitutes a good reference book in the implementation of the Nigerio/Americo Communication System for the Deaf, recommended for classroom instruction. This method, which promotes the use of Nigerian signs with supplements from the American Sign Language in classroom instruction, lays a foundation for the growth of a Nigerian sign language over time. The provison of this dictionary, which is subject to expansion, would most likely speed up this growth. These books provide the deaf, educators of the deaf, administrators and all those interested in the education of the deaf in Nigeria and indeed in the whole of Africa, with a new insight into deaf education.