ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Language Contact in Santrokofi, a Ghana-Togo Mountain Language Community: Impact on Selee

The present study examines the language contact situation in Santrokofi, in Ghana, where Selee, a Ghana-Togo Mountain language, enjoys a good degree of maintenance although it is in triglossic contact with Ewe, Akan, and English. With insight from the triglossic structure model, we collected and analysed quantitative and qualitative data which revealed that Selee is the native’ ingroup language while Ewe (and to a limited extent, Akan) is their intergroup informal language with “others”; English is the dominant language of classroom interactions and other formal settings. There is evidence of lexical borrowing into Selee from the other languages, especially English and Ewe. The youth may be said to be holding on to Selee impressively, but this ongoing language maintenance may be put to the test by the looming encroachment of Santrokofi by Hohoe, the neighbouring major township where most public servants in Santrokofi currently reside.

Source: UG
Language Etiquette and Culture in Teaching of Foreign Languages

People learn foreign languages for communication - to be able to speak and understand. In the early stages of the teaching of any foreign language, teachers introduce language etiquette of the studied language for better understanding and appreciation of aspects of the culture. This is partly due to the fact that in many cases language learning starts from “Hello”, or “My name is…” etc., and also there are major differences between the studied and native languages which describe these languages and their speakers. This indicates that language etiquette should be a part of any language teaching and learning process. The learning of foreign languages at any level is characterized by the interplay of many factors such as mother tongue, culture, educational background, psychological factors, among others. A difficult task that faces an instructor is the development of the socio-cultural competence in teaching a foreign language. In the University of Ghana, students have the opportunity to study Russian language and literature as part of the course content. This paper discusses some challenges in the teaching Russian language in the University of Ghana. Analysis shows that irrespective of the fact, that many Ghanaians speak one other Ghanaian language in addition to their mother tongue, and English which is the official language, and some people also speak French, there is a major challenge in teaching Russian in Ghana as a foreign language. Thus, multilingualism is a useful but not sufficient condition for the effective learning of a language. The paper argues that one reason that makes it difficult to teach Russian as a foreign language is the social and cultural differences and the wide geographical distance between Ghana and Russia.

Source: UG
Language Etiquette and Culture in Teaching of Foreign Languages. In: Journal “Practice and Theory in Systems of Education (P.T.S.E.)” ISSN 1788-2591 (Online), ISSN 1788-2583 (Printed) Vol. 5, Number 3 2010, Budapest, Hungary. pp. 205-218.

Most of the time people learn foreign languages for communication – to be able to speak and understand. In the early stages of the teaching of any foreign language, teachers introduce language etiquette of the studied language for better understanding and appreciation of aspects of the culture. This is partly due to the fact in many cases language learning starts from “Hello”, or “My name is…” etc., and also there are major differences between the studied and native languages which describe these languages and their speakers. This indicates that language etiquette should be a part of any language teaching and learning process. The learning of foreign languages at any level is characterized by the interplay of many factors such as mother tongue, culture, educational background, psychological factors, among others. A difficult task that faces an instructor is the development of the socio-cultural competence in teaching a foreign language. In the University of Ghana, students have the opportunity to study Russian language and literature as part of the course content. This paper discusses some challenges in the teaching Russian language in the University of Ghana. Analysis shows that irrespective of the fact, that many Ghanaians speak one other Ghanaian language in addition to their mother tongue, and English which is the official language, and some people also speak French, there is a major challenge in teaching Russian in Ghana as a foreign language. Thus, multilingualism is a useful but not sufficient condition for the effective learning of a language. The paper argues that one reason that makes it difficult to teach Russian as a foreign language is the social and cultural differences and the wide geographical distance between Ghana and Russia.

Source: UG
Language Ideology and Practice on the Aflao-Lome Borderland: The Case of Two Border Schools

This paper explores language practices in the school domain in Aflao-Lome on the Ghana/Togo border. Here, the boundary line bisects the Ewe thus creating two contrasting communities: French-speaking Ewe and English-speaking Ewe. Our study investigates language practices in two schools located on either side of the border since the school as a sociolinguistic domain is a contested site of language practice where tensions abound between medium of instruction policy, home language practices and cultural routines. The data analyzed comprised reports and observations of adherence to state medium of instruction policy in the classroom by teachers and pupils, and language in activities outside the classroom when formal “language policing” is negligible or in fact non-existent. It was discovered that the English and French languages were viewed differently on either side of the border and that school policies on language had to make room, in some cases, for the local language

Source: UG
Language Ideology and Practice on the Aflao-Lome Borderland: The Case of Two Border Schools

This paper explores language practices in the school domain in Aflao-Lome on the Ghana/Togo border. Here, the boundary line bisects the Ewe, thus creating two contrasting communities: French-speaking Ewe and English-speaking Ewe. Our study investigates language practices in two schools located on either side of the border since the school, as a sociolinguistic domain, is a contested site of language practice where tensions abound between medium of instruction policy and home language practices and cultural routines. The data analyzed comprised reports and observations of adherence to state medium of instruction policy in the classroom by teachers and pupils, and language in activities outside the classroom when formal “language policing” is negligible or, in fact, non-existent. It was discovered that the English and French languages were viewed differently on either side of the border and that school policies on language had to make room, in some cases, for the local language.

Source: UG
The Language of Akan Ideophones

This paper looks at ideophones, the study of which has been neglected in Akan linguistics. The paper will first look at some definitions given in the literature, then at the structure of ideophones by looking at its phonological and morphological components. It will also consider its syntactic, semantic and pragmatic functions and their impact on both the speaker and the addressee. Functionally, ideophones are a category of lexical items that are used to express some sensual perception. The paper will also look at the ethnographic contexts of Akan ideophones. We will see that ideophones kick against the arbitrariness of language because they are words whose sounds tally with their meanings. Ideophones in the Akan language have cognitive, phonological, morphological, semantic and pragmatic relations. Ideophones are used to express sensual perception, like sound, and feeling (both physical and emotional) and movement, intensity, duration and quantity. Each of these is exemplified from the data and the appendix.

Source: UG
The Language of Nsawa : Akan Funeral Donations

The paper discusses the language of Akan funeral donations within language ideology and the expressives speech act. The Akans attach much importance to funerals and one of the areas worth noting is the type of language used when people donate to the bereaved family. The paper considers the participants involved in the speech encounter, the structure of the language, and its stylistics and pragmatics features. The excerpts of nsawa language are analyzed within the framework of speech acts.

Source: UG
Language Pedagogy and Language use in Africa. In: Moshi, L., Akinloye, O. (eds.), Swahili verses English in Tanzania: The Win-Win Situation

Notwithstanding, the fact that the Swahili language has attained a very reputable status and a strong global presence over several decades, there are glaring pieces of evidence that indicate that it is facing challenges that may have serious implications for its position in Tanzania in the near and distant future. This paper discusses the current state of the Swahili language in Tanzania. It points out the evidences that indicate there has been a long standing competition between Swahili and English in Tanzania especially where language policy in Education is concerned. The paper undertakes these discussions against the background of the policy of Ujamaa, the retreat from Ujamaa and move towards a more liberal Tanzania in a globalized world. The paper then recommends viable steps that could be taken to ensure a win-win situation, in which the two languages exist side by side fulfilling their unique roles for the benefit of all Tanzanians.

Source: UG
Language practices of francophone students in the University of Ghana

Several middle class francophones have migrated to Ghana for economic, political and social educational reasons. This research project aims at exploring how these category of francophone migrants in Accra, the capital city, manage their language repertoire and the reasons underlying their choices. Most studies in migration have focused on migration outside the African continent (Billiez, 1985; Dustmann, 1999; Haque, 2011). These have mainly been carried out within the domains of sociology, geography and economics with little attention given to the linguistic and sociolinguistic aspects of migration. However, research shows that language plays an important role in the migration process as it contributes to identity, adapting to a new linguistic space, and modifying ones verbal repertoire and even the economic success of the immigrants. This presentation, which is part of a wider study will focus on the language practices of students from francophone countries who are here for their tertiary education. We explore their language choices in relation to school, work, family, and friends and their perceptions and rating of the French and English languages in relation to the local languages that they speak.

Source: UG
Language reform: A critical look at its chances of success in the Spanish context

In order to establish the impact of antisexist language proposals on the Spanish language, questionnaires were administered to discover factors that can obstruct or facilitate the elimination of linguistic sexism. Issues that were investigated included speakers' perceptions about sexism in Spanish, speakers' opinions about the relevance of language reform and speakers' reaction to antisexist language proposals. Despite the challenges faced by feminist linguistic campaigns, some positive changes in reactions to nonsexist language suggestions were found. This paper reveals that these changes are encouraging indicators of the potential success of language reform attempts. © 2015, equinox publishing.

Source: UG
Language Shift: A Case Study of Ghana

This paper discusses language shift in Ghana from two perspectives: (i) language shift from a Ghanaian language to English which is the official language and (ii) shift from one or two Ghanaian languages to a third Ghanaian language that has become a lingua franca of an area. I will also look at language shift that is societal and based on governmental and institutional policies and others that are individual and based on people’s negative or positive attitudes to certain languages and also for practical reasons on communication. The paper further discusses the major features of languages that are being shifted and the factors that bring about language shift in general and Ghana in particular. It will look at major areas where language shift is predominant and focuses on politics, parliament, the judiciary, the electronic media, education, migratory and settlement patterns. The paper will look at the problems with language shift and the need for language maintenance; and provide suggestions that can be employed to reduce or curb language shift.

Source: UG
Language use in education in minority language areas - The case of Logba

The use of mother tongue as the medium of instruction for the first three years in schools in Ghana was the language policy long before independence. However, the challenge faced in minority language areas where a second language rather than a first language is employed as the medium of instruction has not been adequately addressed. This study investigates language use in the classroom in a minority language area, Logba to ascertain the levels of comprehension of and performance in the lingua franca, Ewe among the pupils in the first three years of Primary School. This will be compared to the situation of pupils in a monolingual Ewe community in Sokode. The wordless picture book, Frog, where are you? is used as stimulus (Slobin 2004). The findings will confirm our initial suspicion that the Logba pupils will have a slightly lower level of competence and consequently a lower degree of comprehension in Ewe than the Sokode pupils

Source: UG
Language, Literature, Prayer, and Music Repertoires as Sources of African Christian Spirituality and Values

Every interreligious encounter produces a cross-fertilization of ideas and values. To what extent is the Christian-African indigenous religious encounter mutually impacting? And what aspects of the African worldview make it receptive to Christianity? This article addresses these questions by engaging the underexplored phenomena of African literature, music, and prayer as sources of African values and spirituality, as well as of Christian theology. Through in-depth interviews, focused group discussions, participant-observation, along with archival data and African literary works, it argues that the wealth of African metaphors and values therein richly express African spirituality, values, and Christian theology.

Source: UG
Language-learner strategy instruction and english achievement: Voices from Ghana

This paper presents the results of a one-year longitudinal study which sought to investigate the effect that strategy instruction may have on English language achievement. Two classes of junior high school students at Madina in Ghana were involved in an experiment. The experimental class was taught various language-learner strategies both implicitly and explicitly as part of their English lessons. The control class was taught the same contents excluding language-learner strategies. Pre-test and post-test proceedings were video-taped and analysed. During post-test activities, the experimental class displayed 17 different language-learner strategies with facility while the control class deployed 7. At the end of the academic year, the English language results of the two groups were compared: 96.5% of the experimental class obtained Grade “One” while 24% of the control group obtained that Grade. The results suggest that one sure way to attain the desired levels of achievement in English at the basic school level in Ghana is to popularise language-learner strategy instruction.

Source: UG
Large deviation principle for the empirical degree measure of preferential attachment random graphs.

We consider preferential attachment random graphs which may be obtained as follows: It starts with a single node. If a new node appears, it is linked by an edge to one or more existing node(s) with a probability proportional to function of their degree. For a class of linear preferential attachment random graphs we find a large deviation principle (LDP) for the empirical degree measure. In the course of the prove this LDP we establish an LDP for the empirical degree and pair distribution see Theorem 2.3, of the fitness preferential attachment model of random graphs.

Source: UG
Large deviation principles for empirical measures of colored random graphs

For any finite colored graph we define the empirical neighborhood measures, which counts the number of vertices of a given color connected to a given number of vertices of each color, and the empirical pair measure, which counts the number of edges connecting each pair of colors. For a class of models of sparse colored random graphs, we prove large deviation principles for these empirical measures In the weak topology. The rate functions governing our large deviation principles can be expressed explicitly in terms of relative entropies. We derive a large deviation principle for the degrees distribution of ErÖÖs-Réenyl graphs near criticality.

Source: UG
Large deviations, basic information theorem for fitness preferential attachment random networks

For fitness preferential attachment random networks, we define the empirical degree and pair measure, which counts the number of vertices of a given degree and the number of edges with given fits, and the sample path empirical degree distribution. For the empirical degree and pair distribution for the fitness preferential attachment random networks, we find a large deviation upper bound. From this result we obtain a weak law of large numbers for the empirical degree and pair distribution, and the basic information theorem or an asymptotic equipartition property for fitness preferential attachment random networks.

Source: UG
Large lithium isotopic variations in minerals from peridotite xenoliths from the eastern north China craton

To investigate the effects of melt-rock interaction on Li isotope fractionation, we report in situ Li concentrations and d7Li of olivine (Ol), orthopyroxene (Opx), and clinopyroxene (Cpx) for six peridotite xenoliths from the eastern North China Craton. These xenoliths contain two lherzolites, two Cpx-rich lherzolites, and two wehrlites and are variably metasomatized. Lithium isotope zonation is observed in most peridotite minerals. The majority of Cpx grains display isotopically light cores with lower Li concentrations than the heavy rims. However, the Opx grains show a different style of zonation fromCpx, where higher Li concentrations in the cores are associated with much lighter δ7Li. Olivines in most peridotites have a restricted range of Li concentration and δ7Li within individual grains, whereas the olivines in a lherzolite show isotopically light cores (210.3) with high Li concentrations (2.3 ppm) and heavy rims (5.5) with low Li concentrations (1.7 ppm). These Li isotopic variations in mineral phases may reflect the combined effects of diffusiondriven kinetic fractionation of Li isotopes during melt/fluid-peridotite interactions and slow cooling. Intersample heterogeneity of Li isotopes is also apparent. Olivine with forsterite (Fo) content of 91.3 in one lherzolite sample has “normal” mantle-like Li concentrations (1.1∼2.4 ppm) and light δ7Li (210.3∼5.5), while Ol with Fo content of 89.7 in another lherzolite has slightly high Li concentrations (2.0∼3.0 ppm) but similar δ7Li (1.6∼6.4) relative to normalmantle. Olivines in Cpx-rich lherzolites have lower Fo contents (83.8–87.5), higher Li concentrations (1.4∼4.5 ppm), and heavier d7Li (5.0∼22.0) than those in lherzolites and normalmantle. The δ7LiOl value correlates positively with Li concentration and negativelywith Fo fromlherzolites toCpx-rich lherzolites, indicating a reaction between lherzolites andmeltswith isotopically heavy Li- and Fe-rich signatures. By contrast, olivines in wehrlites have extremely lower Fo contents (82.2∼83.2) and higher Li concentrations (2.4∼4.2 ppm) than those in normal mantle, while their δ7Li values are within the range of normal mantle, reflecting metasomatism of the peridotites by asthenospheric melt. Overall, the large intragrain and intersample variations in Li concentrations and isotopic compositions reflect kinetic isotope fractionation during multiple metasomatisms. © 2015 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.

Source: UG
Large-area urban growth observations - A hierarchical kernel approach based on image texture

A multi-scale classification algorithm based entirely on computation of image texture in moving windows is presented and discussed. The rationale for using kernel-based methods as opposed to segment-based methods for texture-based land cover classification is discussed, as well as, the need for identifying strategies that may limit the effects of the inherent weaknesses of the kernel-based methods. Part of the proposed solution to this problem is to omit the search for an optimum kernel size and rather use different sizes concurrently followed by a weighted summary overlay process based on associated scores. The spatial growth pattern of the city of Accra, Ghana, is assessed over a 17 years period using the algorithm. Land-cover maps showing the extension of the new residential areas on the fringe of Accra are produced from Landsat ETM satellite imagery. These areas constitute the rapidly expanding frontier of urban Accra into its rural surroundings. The classification discriminates between new residential areas that have a distinct urban appearance and areas that are in a transition phase between rural and urban use. Finally, comparisons are made to a previous satellite-based study of land cover changes for the period 1985-1991.

Source: UG
Large-scale programs and medical literacy: Beliefs about AIDS in Ghana

In this article we study knowledge about HIV/AIDS in Ghana. We investigate inhabitants’ medical literacy, focusing on potential misconceptions of transmission mechanisms of the epidemic. Our basic premise is that well-organized health programmes over a longer time span will better prepare and fine-tune the local mentality for scientifically founded messages. We argue that the large-scale Navrongo Project and similar activities in the upper regions of Ghana are likely to have laid the groundwork for a receptive population, when it comes to understanding and believing in science-based information. Especially, we hypothesize that people living in the Upper East Region where the Navrongo Project has been located, to be more scientifically literate and have beliefs consistent with the medical paradigm for virus transmission. The main data source for statistical analyses is the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey from 2003, with a sample size of over 10,000 respondents of both sexes, aged 15—49 years. To evaluate individual and regional differences in such AIDS beliefs, we apply step-wise multiple regression analysis. This approach allows for investigating individual influences and structural effects together, tracing regional variations, as specific control variables are added to the exploratory framework. The findings suggest that large-scale intervention programmes for improving health standards in an African context can have important long-term effects on inhabitants’ beliefs, beyond original aims. Notably, the massive Navrongo projects and related activities especially in the Upper East Region of Ghana, seemingly have increased inhabitants’ trust in the medical model as compared to alternative paradigms. The empirical pattern is at least consistent with our main theoretical arguments, although further research is needed for a stronger test. © 2010, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved.

Source: UG