Perception, attitude and use of indigenous stories among yoruba parents in Lagos State, Nigeria

Abstract

In the traditional African societies, indigenous storytelling was a regidar practice where children were told stories by their parents and other members of the family and community. Storytelling played an important role in the family and it was a daily activity in the evening. Recently, many Nigerians do not like to speak their indigenous languages with their children and as a result, these children may not know their indigenous stories even though they know lots of foreign stories. This study therefore, investigated parents’ perception, attitude and use of Yoruba indigenous stories in Lagos State, Nigeria. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. Four research questions were raised and answered. Three hypotheses were formidated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Two hundred and eighty nine (289) Yoruba parents were purposively selected from both public and private schools in Lagos State. Self- designed questionnaire with reliability index of (a -0.84) was used to collect data for the study. Frequency counts, percentage, mean and standard deviation and t-test were used to analyze the data collected. Findings indicated that parents’ perception and attitude to Yoruba indigenous storytelling is positive, however the frequency of use is still below expectation. Parents with children in public schools significantly used indigenous stories better than parents with children in private schools. Based on the findings it was recommended among other things that storytelling in indigenous language should be used at home by parents, also Nigerian authors should be encouraged to write indigenous storybooks for children.