DIALECT CONTACT AND IDENTITY:

A CASE STUDY OF EXOGAMOUS SUI CLANS
A Dissertation
in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements
for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Speech Rate, Pause, and Linguistic Variation:

Speech Rate, Pause, and Linguistic Variation:
An Examination Through the Sociolinguistic Archive and Analysis Project
Dissertation submitted in partialfulfillment of
the requirementsfor the degree of Doctor
of Philosophy in the Department of
English in the Graduate School

COLONIAL LANGUAGE AND POSTCOLONIAL LINGUISTIC HYBRIDITY

A dissertation submitted to the faculty of
The University of Utah
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
Department of English

English Lingua Franca as Language of Learning and Teaching in Northern Namibia: A report on Oshiwambo teachers’ experiences. Thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree MA in Second Language Studies (SLS).

Abstract
At independence, Namibia chose English as its official language and therefore its language of learning and teaching (LOLT). Since then, government documents and other literature have revealed the poor performance of learners and falling of standards of teaching (Benjamin 2004:25). It seems that teachers are facing several challenges when using English as a LOLT in the classroom. This study therefore investigates the challenges faced by teachers in northern Namibia when using ELF as a LOLT, as well as how teachers overcome these challenges. In this regard, structured, one-on-one interviews were conducted with six
Oshiwambo-speaking teachers at a specific homogenous secondary school in the Omusati region of northern Namibia. The findings of this study suggest that teachers believe that the learners’ sole advantage of using ELF as the LOLT is that it may benefit them if they further their studies abroad, as possessing knowledge of English would enable them to communicate with people from different countries. Another main finding, in terms of how teachers overcome the challenges posed by using ELF as the LOLT, is that teachers often resort to code-switching to ensure that their students understand the concepts they are being taught.

FINDING SPACE FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN VERNACULAR ENGLISH IN A SIXTH GRADE CLASSROOM A Capstone submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English as a Second Language

CHAPTER ONE:  INTRODUCTION


Said vat you got to said, and don’t kick aftervard!
-Gust Runquist, at a church meeting, c. 1930


Growing up in northern Wisconsin, I loved hearing my mother tell stories of the immigrant characters who populated those rural woods years before my time.  How we’d all laugh when the punch line, which everyone had heard a hundred times, finally came.

There’s the guy who’s charged with setting up extra seating in church, so he’s carrying a plank which he’ll lay atop two chairs to form a bench.  Someone walks behind him, gets hit with the plank, and makes a fuss.  When repeated in a thick, Swede Finn1accent, his indignant response, “I don’t got eyes in my rear!” brings howls of laughter.  Then there’s
the guy who was chastised for not signaling as he prepared to turn from the highway into the little store owned by my grandparents.  He made clear his justification:  “Don’t you know I alvays turn here?”  By this time, we’re usually laughing so hard we’re crying.

We tell the story of my grandmother, whose father brought his hard-nosed, “old country” ways with him to Wisconsin.  Chasing the cows one cold winter night, she complained, “Nobody loves me, and my hands are cold.”  Her father’s unsympathetic reply, “God loves you, and you can sit on your hands,” still serves my family as a “stop complaining”
message in many situations.    This didn’t end her complaining, however.  Years later, as she became old and sick, she would often lament, “You don’t know what it’s like to be like this here.”

These stories themselves, of course, are not really that funny.  If I took them to an open mike night at the local comedy club, I’d draw more puzzled looks than laughs.  But to our family, they are priceless.  These stories tell our history.  They bind generation to generation, the “old country” to the new, giving us a feeling of solidarity and strength.
The thick accent and verbatim immigrant grammar with which they are always repeated remind us that not so long ago, our family – our whole community – was just recently arrived off the boats, through Canada or Ellis Island, from Finland.  They started a small church, built a school, opened a country store, worked the land, and two short generations later, sent their grandchildren, now full-fledged, English-speaking Americans, off to college.

The pride I have for my heritage is obvious.  Any editor of this paper who would dare to suggest the correction “Say what you have to say and don’t kick afterward” would be met with solid refusal.  The way these lines are delivered is as important, if not more so, than their content.  They remind us where we came from, and how very far we have come.  The accent and grammar don’t just help to tell the story, they are the story...

ASSESSING PATTERNS OF LANGUAGE USE AND IDENTITY AMONG CAMEROONIAN MIGRANTS IN CAPE TOWN A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a Masters Degree in the Department of Linguistics.

ABSTRACT


ASSESSING PATTERNS OF LANGAUGE USE AND IDENTITY AMONG CAMEROONIAN MIGRANTS IN CAPE TOWN


Full Masters Thesis, Department of Linguistics, University of the Western Cape

In this study, I explore Cameroonian migrants’ language use and the various language forms they use to manifest their identity. I deem this subject very interesting as it deals with a multicultural/multilingual people in an equally multicultural/multilingual society – Cape Town.

The study was carried out in the wider and interdisciplinary field of applied linguistics with focus on the specific domain of sociolinguistics. I have collected data through interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation and used qualitative methods for interpretation of data guided by the concepts of space and territoriality as has been propounded by Vigouroux (2005). Finally, I consider the influence of space and territory on the language choice and above all, I show that the decision to use one language instead of the other in any given territory or space is never a neutral one.

I argue that the Cameroonian immigrants still use language in the same way, as they would do if they were in Cameroon. That is, the Cameroonian migrants would speak Cameroon Pidgin English (CPE) amongst themselves at home, in school, church, at
their jobsites, social gatherings and so on and continue to code switch between English, French, CPE and their vernaculars, although I show that they tend to use more English, and less French in Cape Town. I maintain that the immigrants still treat
CPE with as much disdain, as they would do in Cameroon. Again I argue that the indifferent attitude of Cameroonians towards their vernaculars (African languages) remains the same since they continue to attach importance to the official languages
(French and English) and finally, that Frankanglais is not being used in Cape Town.

I establish that the sluggish Cameroon language policy and the snobbish attitude of the Cameroonian elites towards the promotion of vernaculars have caused the local languages to be less decisive at the national platform. As such, it is around the official languages that two major identities can be noticed in Cape Town – the Anglophone and the Francophone identities. This situation, I further argue, stirs a kind of linguistic conflict in Cape Town just like in Cameroon, although some participants cross this boundaries and continue to live together. Ironically the conflict is based on former
colonial languages and not on the many African languages.

In sum, this study emphasises the standardisation of CPE and the need for a language policy in Cameroon that encourages the former official languages (English and French) plus CPE to be taught in schools alongside the Cameroonian vernaculars.

ATTITUDINAL REACTIONS OF STANDARD AMERICAN ENGLISH SPEAKERS TO FOREIGN-ACCENTED SPEECH A capstone submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English as a Second Language. Will, E. Attitudinal Reactions of Standard American English Speakers to Foreign-accented Speech (2010)

This study pursues four guiding questions: 1) to what extent can Standard American English speakers identify the national origins of foreign-accented speech; 2) what are listeners' attitudinal responses to foreign-accented speech;
3) do listeners' attitudinal reactions vary depending on the national origins of the speaker; and 4) do listeners react differently to foreign-accented speech from groups that are part of their community's linguistic landscape? Using a verbal
guise technique, participants identified speakers’ national origins on a map, responded to open-ended questions and evaluated traits on a Likert scale.

Results indicate that listeners are moderately successful in identifying foreign accented speech, show a positive preference for speakers from the target community and equate some accents with lower levels of income, education and social class. Therefore, NS students might be positively impacted through curricula designed to increase understanding of language diversity and ESOL students through a focus on confidence-building strategies.