Connecting the Dots: Limited English Proficiency, Second Language Learning Theories, and Information Literacy Instruction

Librarians who teach students with limited English proficiency have discussed various barriers limiting effective learning. This article shows how applying second language acquisition theories and teaching practices derived from them can significantly impact outcomes of information literacy instruction

African Researcher 2.0: Using New Technologies to Join Global Academic Conversations

Researchers in Africa have typically been regarded as consumers, not producers, of academic information. More recently, open access publishing has been advanced as a way of getting research from Africa more easily and widely available, but there needs to be more than just changes to the dissemination outlet. This article discusses how researchers in Africa can join global academic conversations through a rethinking of their research work flows, and how they can strategically position themselves and their research in knowledge streams for rippling impact

Empowering ESL students: A new model for information literacy instruction

This paper proposes a new type of collaboration between librarians and English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) instructors. Librarians will work with instructors to match similar information literacy and ESL objectives and concepts, and together build these into the ESL syllabus. However, unlike other instruction programs, the course is to be taught almost exclusively by the ESL instructor. It is believed that students will gain more from this model because it offers more learning opportunities, and stresses the cross-applicability of language and information literacy concepts and skills. Sample lesson plans are also provided. A version of this paper was presented at the OhioTESOL (an association of ESL professionals) Spring Conference, Columbus, OH

Performance indigène et esthétique du théâtre « alternatif » en Afrique francophone : Les cas de Werewere Liking et de Tchicaya U’Tamsi

Un trait important du théâtre africain contemporain de langue française est la tentative de différents dramaturges de rompre avec la pratique théâtrale inspirée du modèle français, et de créer une tradition qui prend son inspiration des performances indigènes. Cet article a pour objectif d’examiner deux pièces — Le bal de Ndinga de Tchicaya U’Tamsi et Les mains veulent dire de Werewere Liking — afin de mettre en lumière, et du point de vue de l’esthétique théâtrale et de celui de leur problématique, la figuration de cette pratique « alternative », comme je l’ai dénommée, du théâtre.A striking feature of contemporary French language theatre from Africa is the attempt by various dramatists to break with the tradition of play writing inherited from the French, and create a theatre which, in form and structure, is rooted in indigenous African performances. In this article I examine two plays — Tchicaya U'Tamsi's Le bal de Ndinga and Werewere Liking's Les mains veulent dire to show both in terms of discourse and aesthetic how this "alternative" tradition, as I have called it, is concretely realized

Conflict, Intervention and the Decline of the Developing State

The contemporary international system is characterized by change and continuity in fundamental socio-political processes and economic relationships that constitute the foundation on which state and non-state interactions unfold. In particular, post-Cold War fin de siècle international politics, rather than producing a new era of global peace, economic prosperity, and symmetrical interdependence, is instead characterized by a widening scope and intensity of geopolitical fluidity and socio-economic effervescence which tend either to (1) undermine state sovereignty, (2) assail human rights practices, or (3) impel the key actors (great powers and major international organizations) of the international system to adopt a foreign policy posture of Aintervention@ with the goal of managing the global political economy. The ever-increasing negative effects of transnational social forces tend to generate the pervasive force of a liberal cosmopolitan moral view of international relations that increasingly sanctions both military and non-military interventions to maintain the existing structure of states and international society. The consequence is that states, in particular weak developing states, are progressively losing their individual identities, rights, and obligations vis-à-vis civil society, in the wake of the external impositions. In other words, the high incidence of violent ethnopolitical conflicts as well as the dislocative effects of weak developing economies are increasingly undermining the twin pillars of non-intervention and state sovereignty. Conflict/peacekeeping interventions and economic dislocation/external policy impositions now constitute the most formidable sources of assault on the decision-making autonomy, territorial integrity, and overall sovereignty of the developing state

Strategies of Sino-American Rivalry in Africa: From 2000 to COVID-19

In this article it is argued that Sino-American rivalry in Africa is based on competing strategies utilized by each power to enhance their interests and bilateral ties on the continent, as well to try and outdo each other in image projection and overall influence expansion. These strategies of rivalry and power enhancement revolve around promoting close military ties and transactions on the continent; the framing of the continent in the language of securitization and strategic importance; and the perennial utilization of discourse or narrative that frames the other as detrimental to the interests of African states. These strategies of containing the others power preponderance or influence have expanded to include what is now referred to as vaccine diplomacy on the part of China, and during the Trump Administration the raising of loud alarm bells of China trying to dispossess Africa through what could be referred to as the debt trap. The consequences of these competing strategies enhance the following: authoritarianism in some key African states; increased jihadism in some regions of Africa as a reaction to the presence of the two major powers on the continent; weapons implicated in state violence and war crimes; and less money available for development as a result of resources being diverted to militarization. The ongoing pandemic will add another dimension to the US - China rivalry as both powers try to project an image of being the most concerned about Africa on as it relates to combating the virus