The Role of French Language in Developing 21st Century Nigerian Graduates

Abstract

This paper examines the role of French language in developing the 21^st century Nigerian graduates. French is a foreign language in Nigeria and has a stance of copious advantages as regards its pertinence in all spheres of life. The language has gained ascendancy among different international languages especially in Nigeria because of her geographical proximity with French speaking countries. Besides, French is the second most widely learned foreign languages in the world. This paper equally considers the emergence of French language in Nigeria and depicts its relevance which can be traced to the phases of economic, social, political, religious, educational, employment, diplomatic benefits and all the likes to 21^st century Nigerian graduates. French is unusual in that it often exists alongside other languages in multilingual contexts; it shares with English the distinction of being taught as a foreign language in the educational systems of most countries around the world in which is not excepted from Nigeria . As a result of all these, 21^st century Nigerian graduates are now kept abreast of the salient importance of the language, this is the reason they are committed to learning the language. Considering the nature of this paper, we are poised to concentrate systematically on the place and impacts of French to Nigerian graduates and to determine how the language has opened doors of opportunities to them nationally and internationally.

Keywords: language, foreign language, diplomacy, multilingual.