School of Languages
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Browsing School of Languages by Author "Amuzu, E.K."
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Item Codeswitching in Academic Discussions: A Discourse Strategy by Students in the University of Education, Winneba(University of Ghana, 2013-07) Quarcoo, M.; Dako, K.; Amuzu, E.K.; Shoba, J.A.The purpose of this work is to investigate the use of codeswitching (CS) as a linguistic resource by students of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW). The study seeks to answer why students in the university conduct their academic discussions in CS contrary to what is expected of them; how the use of CS contributes to the overall meaning of the topics they discuss and how students use CS as a linguistic resource to negotiate their activities in the university community. The study focused on study groups at the South Campus of the University of Education, Winneba. The social network (Milroy 1980) and ethnographic research methods (Barton & Hamilton 1998) were employed for data collection and the Community of Practice concept of Wenger (1998) was used to describe the study groups. The Markedness model of Myers-Scotton (1993) and the Conversational Analysis of Auer (1984) were used to analyze the speech data. The study found that two types of CS operate on UEW campus. These are in-group CS and out- group CS. It found that Akan/English CS is the main language for many out-group interactions on campus and serves as a lingua franca in addition to English. It serves as a bridge language between Winneba town and the university. It is also used in many study groups to discuss academic work. Finally, it found that students do not have a positive attitude towards all the indigenous languages and non-Akan students protest the prevalence of Akan on campus. The study is significant because it will enable policy makers recognize that CS occurs at all levels of education and must be given the appropriate attention. It will also serve as a reference point for future research into language changes or shifts in Ghana. Finally, it will add to existing literature in the study of language use in education.Item Learning to Express Motion Events in Ewe(University of Ghana, 2013-07) Adjei, F.A.; Saah, K.K.; Anyidoho, A.; Amuzu, E.K.The focus of this thesis is to examine Ewe speakers’ linguistic organization of motion events and how such language patterns develop in Ewe- speaking children. The work is situated within Talmy’s Theory of Lexicalization Patterns (which examines the conceptual structure of motion events as well as the typological patterns in which this conceptual structure is parceled out in languages), Slobin’s Thinking-for-Speaking Hypothesis (which explores how particular typological properties will lead Ewe children to learn a particular way of thinking-for-speaking) and the Cognitive and Language-Specific Hypotheses. The cognitive hypothesis claims that children come to the task of language learning with a pre-existent cognitive representation of the world. In contrast, the Language-specific hypothesis claims that the language learning process is often under the semantic structure of the input language and that such influence begins from the very beginnings of language acquisition. Elicited production tasks with fifty 3-, 4-, 5-, 7- and 9 year olds (10 participants in each age group) as well as a group of 10 adults were carried out using three elicitation tools developed for research into motion expression. Findings of the study support the claim that typological properties constrain how speakers of Ewe talk about motion from early acquisition phases to adulthood. At age three, Ewe-speaking children used more path verbs than manner verbs in the expression of motion events. From four years onwards, they used the typical SVC constructions, a combination of Manner and Path verbs, to express motion events. They also mentioned only one piece of information about ground of movement in individual clauses. The children neither showed any ability at describing the physical setting in which movement takes place (until 9 years of age) nor fully develop the narrative habit of describing complex motion events. Ewe-speaking children’s performance in motion event description has been found to grow gradually with increasing age and adult performance is always more extensive than that of children at any age. These results also suggest that while Ewe children follow equipollently-framed structural pattern when talking about motion events at a tender age of three, equipollently-framed discourse characteristics in Ewe-speaking children do not achieve maturity until adulthood. The thesis provides evidence for some possible early cognitive tendencies and the place of language specific hypothesis in language development. It also lends support to the typological categorization of Ewe within the Talmian and Slobin’s frameworks which can be used in other comparative studies in future research.