LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 16:9 September 2016
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIALS

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2016
M. S. Thirumalai

Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
11249 Oregon Circle
Bloomington, MN 55438
USA
Custom Search

Towards Standardisation of Ghanaian English –
The Case of UEW Students

Cynthia Logogye and Amma Abrafi Adjei, Ph.D.

Abstract

This paper takes a look at Ghanaian English with its focus being towards the establishment of our-own variety of the English language. Our experience in the teaching of phonetics and phonology of English, and Spoken English in the University of Education, Winneba, has shown that students after going through such practical courses designed to enhance their pronunciation or help them achieve a near native-like competence in pronunciation, still do not speak with such competence. The aim of the paper is therefore to contribute to the already existing features of Ghanaian English and to draw more attention to these features and intensify the need for a standardized Ghanaian variety of the English language. The paper looks at the pronunciation of Ghanaian students studying English language at the tertiary level of education; students of UEW and brings to fore some of the features of educated Ghanaian English as a march towards standardization of Ghanaian English. The paper makes use of corpus linguistic methodology. An empirical approach to the analysis of language which relies on naturally occurring spoken and written texts. It was found out that consonant and vowel sounds that are not normally pronounced in native English, are heard clearly in the English of these students. In the area of stress, the study confirmed earlier studies where Ghanaian English is found as syllable-timed as against a stress-timed language; English.

Keywords: Ghanaian English, received pronunciation, standard pronunciation, educated Ghanaian pronunciation.

Definition of Terms:

RP
received pronunciation

UEW
University of Education, Winneba

1.0 Introduction

It has been observed that English in Ghana is markedly different from English RP which is supposed to be the model especially in the area of pronunciation. These deviant pronunciations from RP are observed even among university teachers, media practitioners, the clergy, and among university students, yet, some scholars stress the need for Ghanaian speakers of English to speak like the native speakers. This paper, therefore, uses the University of Education, Winneba students as a case study to find out whether this task is achievable.

This paper looks at the pronunciation of Ghanaian students studying English language at the tertiary level of education; students of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) and brings to fore some of the features of educated Ghanaian English as a march towards standardization of Ghanaian English.

One of the most important things the British left us after more than a hundred years of colonization is, perhaps, their language which has, today, become a world language. English language is, arguably, the most unifying cultural element of our nation, given the fact Ghana is a multilingual country. Dako (1990) asserts that the neutrality of English language ensures its ready acceptance by all ethnic groups in the country.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Cynthia Logogye & Dr. Amma Abrafi Adjei
University of Education, Winneba
Department of English Language Education

Email Addresses:
Cynthia Logogye
clogogye@yahoo.com

Dr. Amma Abrafi Adjei
abrafigh@gmail.com
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.