Adeola Abdulateef Elega

1.3 Aims of the Study 
This present study was conducted in Fall 2014 among Nigerians students in Eastern 
Mediterranean University, North Cyprus. The study aims to inquire into what 
communication strategies Nigerian students devise to reasonably deal with language 
barrier in the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus during their higher education. The 
study basically sets to see how relevant verbal and nonverbal communication is in a 
non-English environment which Nigerian students find themselves. In doing this the 
study aims to see how helpful English language is in this environment as the official 
language of Nigerians. The study will also set how to see how Nigerian students cope 
with learning Turkish language. In another vein the study will also help us to see the 
significance of signs and symbols, proxemics (personal space), kinesics (body 
movement), chronemics (time), paralanguage (mouthed nonverbal cue), silence, 
haptics (touch), clothing and physical appearance, olfactics (smell) and oculesics 
(eye contact) to helping the situation in the non-English society. Apart from the main 
aims of this study, It will also examine if Nigerian students here devise 
communication strategies individually or there is a general way about how to cope 
with language barrier through nonverbal communication.
As mentioned earlier, Nigeria is a multicultural and multilingual nation, aside the 
three major languages and tribes which are Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba whose cultures 
are popular, there are a lot of others. Nigerian students in the Eastern Mediterranean 
University are representatives of different regions and ethnic groups in Nigeria. 
Some of whose dialects are entirely different from each other while some of are 
similar. This study will also set out to see the closest language to Turkish language 
among the Nigerian languages which are represented in EMU. Medio 

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communication is now a very important part of interpersonal communication. With 
the intervention of the new media, a lot of things have changed. This study will set 
out to see if Nigerian students here use translation mobile application, make phone 
calls or reach out to friends on social media when language becomes a major 
impediment to their communication.