LANGUAGE AND NEGOTIATION : AN EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE OF THE MOTIVATIONS FOR CODE SWITCHING AMONG BILINGUAL BANKERS AND THEIR 8CUSTOMERS IN S9ELECTED BANKS IN O10YO STA11TE

In a multilingual setting like Nigeria, for inter-ethnic trade and commerce to be
successful, trade and commerce has to be conducted in a language that is not only
understood across ethnic boundaries, but also in a language that spans across both the
intelligibility and identity of the interlocutors in order to win over, maintain customers
and ensure better service delivery. This paper provides statistical data of such motivation
for language choice in the banking sector. Although English is the transactional language
in Nigeria since it is the language used with the purpose of getting things done in a formal
setting. The research goes a step further by attempting a repositioning of indigenous
languages in the country’s trade and commerce for efficient and effective interactional and
transactional purposes.
Using the Markedness model by Myers-Scotton, and the Communication
Accommodation Theory by Giles as theoretical framework, this study attempts an
assessment of the functionality of CS in a market situation with emphasis on the banking
sector. It seeks to interpret the conversational motivations of CS, the immediate functions
that it carries out and at the same time its organizational role in the progress of bargaining
interaction as a whole.
Using a questionnaire administered at four banks to 100 bankers and theircustomers, the research findings revealed both parties accommodate the other’s language
which results in a switch to make unmarked, marked, explanatory choice as well as CS
itself serving as a marked choice.Native language use is also found to be powerful
negotiation tool functioning as a ‘transactional code’ or ‘we code’ during a bargaining
procedure with both the bankers and the customers making choices within conversations to
achieve desired conversational and functional aims.