AN ASSESSMENT OF PROVERBS AS PARAPHERNALIA FOR LEARNING LANGUAGE: AFRICAN PROVERBS IN FOCUS.

This paper explores African proverbs as a reflection of the Cultural values of African societies. So, the use of African proverb is without social stratification and its use ranges from those with virtually no formal education to the educated individuals. The study will adopt Halliday's interactional communicative function that is premised on the analysis of proverbs from a semantic-grammatical point of view. The methodology for the study involves an examination of the King James Version of the bible and most African proverbs as reflected in different context, Chinua Achebe's "Things fall apart", "The books of African proverbs" and other collection of books of timeless wisdom such as "all Nigerian Proverbs", "African proverbs for all ages". The proverbs were randomly selected and analyzed. The aim is to assess African proverbs as used by different ethnic groups as a paraphernalia for learning a language by the native speakers and learners of the language. The study will aid speakers and learners of African languages in embellishing discourses that are both African and non African based. It will also educate African children on the need for the promotion of African cultural heritages since African proverbs are products of African milieu. The growing influence of African proverbs will enable language and educational policy makers to highlight the importance of African proverbs in educational institutions.KEYWORDS: Proverbs, paraphernalia, learning, tools.