Towards Minimizing the Delay/Non-completion Rate of Research Master’s Degree in Ghana: ESL Students’ Perspective of the Challenges of Thesis Work

Extant literature confirms that the delay and non-completion of the thesis component of postgraduate studies remain a bane of postgraduate education. With the current spate of interest and enrolment into postgraduate studies in Ghana, and globally, it has become imperative to investigate the phenomenon and spotlight the contributing factors to the delay and non-completion of thesis so that students, supervisors, postgraduate faculties and departments, and all relevant stakeholders could pull efforts together to mitigate it. Through the purposive sampling method, the study recruited ten postgraduate students who have had varied experiences with thesis writing and are at different stages of completion. The data collection instrument was semi-structured interview. The conceptual framework adopted for the study was the Jiranck Dissertation Research Completion model (2010) and the data were analysed using the thematic analysis. The findings of the study revealed that three factors contribute to the delay and non-completion of thesis. These are; student-related factors, supervisor-related factors and institution-related factors. Based on the findings, it was recommended that postgraduate research institutions should design and develop plans and strategies to help their students complete the thesis within the stipulated period

Turn-taking as a Pedagogical Strategy in Classroom Interaction: A Conversation Analysis of Adjacency Pairs

Most part of teaching and learning in the classroom is done through interaction or ‘talk’. The importance of teacher-student interaction in the teaching and learning process can, therefore, not be overemphasised. This study investigates the adjacency pair patterns of teacher-student classroom interaction and how these patterns impact on pedagogy. It is a qualitative study. All the four Senior High Schools in the Agona West Municipality of the Central Region of Ghana were engaged in the study. One English teacher each from the schools was selected through a random sampling technique. Their classes of an average size of 60 students were observed through participant observation and the teacher-student interactions were recorded through audio recording and note-taking. Analysis of the data was grounded in Schegloff’s (2007) conceptual framework of adjacency pair. The outcome of the study revealed that eight adjacency pairs were used in the language classroom. These are; greeting/greeting, check/clarification, instruction/compliance, question/answer, request/accept, accusation/refusal, complaint/apology and leave-taking/leave-taking. The data also revealed that 82% of the interactions is initiated by the teacher while only 18% is student-initiated. This has impacts on pedagogy and must therefore ignite the scholarly interests of pedagogues and linguists

Ideological Underpinnings in President John Dramani Mahama’s 2013 State of the Nation Address: A Critical Discourse Analysis

oai:ojs2.pustaka.my.id:article/1This study sets out to investigate, examine and understand the hidden ideologies and ideological structures/devices in the 2013 State of the Nation Address of President John Dramani Mahama. The study specifically aimed to (i) ascertain the ideologies embedded in the speech and (ii) investigate linguistic expressions and devices which carry these ideological colourations in the speech under review. It uses Critical Discourse Analysis as the theoretical framework to examine the role of language in creating ideology as well as the ideological structures in the speech. These hidden ideologies are created, enacted and legitimated by the application of certain linguistic devices. The researchers deem a study of this nature important as it will expose hidden motives that Ghanaian presidents cloth in language in order to manipulate their audience through their speeches in order to win and/or sustain political power. Through thematic analysis, it was revealed that Mahama projected these ideologies in his speech: ideology of positive self-representation, ideology of human value, ideology of economic difficulty, ideology of power relations and ideology of urgency. It also revealed that Mahama projects his ideologies through the following ideological discursive structures: pronouns, biblical allusion and metaphor. The study has shown that language plays a crucial role in human existence as a means of socialisation. Language has been revealed as a means of communicating ideologies and events of the world. In the tradition of CDA, this study has confirmed that text and talk have social and cultural character and that discourse functions ideologically

Higher Order Thinking Skills in English Language Teaching: The Case of Colleges of Education in Ghana

The teaching and learning of language has, for many years, been centered on the four language competencies- listening, speaking, reading and writing. However, in modern times, the need to train students with critical, analytical, evaluative, creative, and problem-solving skills in order to meet and deal with the complex nature of modern-day challenges and real-life issues has made the teaching and learning of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) indispensable. This study, therefore, investigates the attitude of language tutors towards the teaching of HOTS. This study has a descriptive qualitative approach. 39 English language tutors from the Colleges of Education who voluntarily availed themselves as participants were recruited for the study. Using semi-structured interviews and classroom observation as data collection instruments, the data were subjected to a thematic analysis. It is revealed that teachers perceive HOTS to be a good concept and hence use strategies such as asking open-ended questions, engaging learners in group works, classroom discussions, lecturing method, asking learners to produce and/or create their own materials and the giving of constructive feedback to implement it. Regardless of all their efforts, teachers face challenges such as incompetency, learner’s low proficiency, learner’s inability to grasp concepts, insufficient and irrelevant teaching materials, time, and financial constraints. The study, therefore, recommends that HOTS be given some more attention in language teaching in Ghana

RHETORICAL STRUCTURE OF ANNIVERSARY SPEECHES IN THE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLS IN GHANA: A CASE OF WESLEY GIRL'S HIGH SCHOOLS AND ST. AUGUSTINE’S COLLEGE IN THE CENTRAL REGION

The study presents a case study on the use of rhetoric in anniversary speeches of Heads of Wesley Girl’s Senior High School and St. Augustine’s College in Cape Coast in the central region of Ghana.  Purposive sampling was used to sample ten (10) speeches out of twelve (12) speeches collected from the selected schools. The study employed qualitative content analysis and content analysis (these concepts are synonymous; hence no need to repeat as if they are entirely different) to analysis the data.  The results show that anniversary speeches of Heads of public Senior High Schools have a six-move structure, with moves two and three used by the schools to persuade the audience and promote the schools. It was also found that the schools used the material processes to show the audience that they are working institutions by indicating what they have achieved, what they are doing and what they will do. The study also revealed that testimonials are commonly used in promotional discourse and consist of a written or spoken statement of a known or unknown endorser who praises the virtues of a product or service

E-Language Pedagogy the Go-to? Attitude of the College language tutor towards Technology Integration

This paper investigates how Ghana, a developing country with her corresponding less technologically oriented education system, in the wake of the coronavirus disease, adapts, adopts and resorts to technology integration through online teaching and learning at the tertiary level, specifically, Colleges of Education. The study is a qualitative research work, which adopts the descriptive case study approach. The major data collection instruments were participant observation and semi-structured interviews. 29 language tutors spread across 4 language backgrounds- English, French, Fante and Twi, were interviewed. The data revealed that though technology is important and inevitable in the 21st century educational system, it cannot replace the traditional face-to-face classroom setting completely. It was clear also that the teacher’s attitude towards technology was very critical in the integration process. The study recommends that teachers be given technical support, training and adequate access to IT resources and infrastructure if integration can be done effectively to achieve the desired results. KEYWORDS: technology integration, education system, classroom, IT resources, infrastructure DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-30-14 Publication date:October 31st 202

English speaking anxiety among English-major tertiary students in Ghana

The study explored the English-speaking anxiety of trainee teachers in the colleges of education in Ghana. It aimed at unravelling the causes of the speaking anxiety in the learners and proffering strategies to mitigate the causes of the speaking anxiety. For that purpose, qualitative data were collected from 30 English-major students who attend a college of education in the Western North region of Ghana using semi-structured interviews as the data collection instrument. The data were analyzed using inductive coding data analysis procedures and techniques, where the dominant patterns and themes emerging from the data were grouped and examined. The results showed that the major causes of speaking anxiety are inferiority complex, fear of committing mistakes, spontaneity and the lack of preparation, fear of negative evaluation from tutors and peers, limited knowledge and vocabulary in the language and self-criticism. The participants also indicated the strategies that can curb the problem, including creating a learner-friendly and less formal classroom environment, peer assessment, encouraging the use of more speaking activities in the classroom, positive evaluative feedback and resignation and avoidance. In line with these findings, the study recommended that future research could employ a quantitative approach to produce a more generalizable outcome

MISCONCEPTIONS AND PERCEIVED IMPORTANCE OF LITERACY ACROSS THE CURRICULUM AMONG STUDENT TEACHERS IN GHANA

The study sought to ascertain misconceptions and perceived importance of Literacy Across the Curriculum (LAC) among student teachers of Basic Education, University of Education, Winneba. Out of a targeted population of 1,386 student teachers of Basic Education, 490 were selected using a stratified random sampling technique. A closed-ended questionnaire was used to gather data and frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviations, independent samples t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson’s correlation were used to examine the data obtained. The results, among others, revealed that the misconceptions held by Basic Education students at the University of Education, Winneba, was the fact LAC shoul be restricted to the Arts, and not the Sciences. They were of the view that students from the arts background should focus on developing their literacy skill in order to excel in their field. However, the students were of the view that LAC is important since through the use of language, symbols, and text, literacy is promoted across the curriculum to give students the ability to share information about themselves and their experiences. Based on these findings, it was suggested that literacy should be integrated in all aspects of the curriculum. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are to be taught to students as fundamental abilities for many facets of daily life, not only in English Language lessons. Lecturers and student teachers should ensure that literacy across the curriculum is promoted regardless of the course(s) they teach and study respectively.  Article visualizations

Squarks Below the Z

We investigate the possibility that the difference between the measurements of $\alpha_3(M_Z)$ from the hadronic branching ratio of the $Z^0$ and the world average of other measurements is due to the decay of the $Z^0$ into quark, anti-squark, and gluino. Consequences for supersymmetry breaking models are discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures not include