Improving English Language Skills and Methods through Short Term Trainings: Bridging High School and University Teachers

The purpose of this article was to show how universities can make interventions in improving the classroom practices of high schools and preparatory schools English language teachers. The data gathering instrument was questionnaire and interview from secondary and preparatory school teachers of Tabor cluster that include Tabor Secondary and Preparatory school, Alamura High School Gemeto-Gale Secondary School, and Tula Secondary and Preparatory school and two school principals. The teachers received short term English language trainings from university teachers. It was, therefore, reflections of the teachers on improvements the training brought on their teaching skills on one hand and their attitudes on “the-to-be” links between the university instructors and high school teachers on the other hand. The link and the interventions envisaged to bring continuous improvements in the English language skills of secondary school English language teachers and thereby the skills of their students who ultimately and continuously join universities. As the study was based on the teachers and the principals who took part in the training, the sample size considered was the whole population, 40. Since the data was obtained qualitatively through interview and quantitatively through questionnaire, the analysis method also followed mixed methods. The quantitative data was analyzed descriptively with SPSS version 20, and the data obtained through interview was grouped into themes with open-code 3.6 and then described textually. The study showed that the short term trainings, which were based on the trainees’ pre-identified areas of English language skill gaps, helped to alleviate the gaps of the teachers to a greater extent. It also showed that there are other areas of English language skill gaps that need further trainings. Regarding the teachers’ attitude on the high schools and University teachers’ professional link, it was found out that high school teachers need supports from universities to improve their own and their students’ English language skills. It was also discovered that the link among school and university teachers so far is very weak. The trainees suggested areas of their special concerns to improve their English language skills, and areas university teachers may benefit from high schools

Ethiopia : social and political issues

The complete book of eleven chapters is presented in four sections, respectively covering issues related to governance, health, gender and land. This document encompasses Chapters 1 and 2, which contextualize issues through provision of background history and politics of Ethiopia (Chapter1); and ethnicity, language and education (Chapter2)

Spatial expressions in Gumer Gurage

AbstractThe aim of this article was to investigate spatial expressions in the Gurage variety of Gumer. The methodology used was qualitative following the structuralism approach to linguistic description. The linguistic data were obtained from six key informants selected using purposive sampling in the Gumer district. As the researcher speaks Gumer Gurage, data verification and validation were made through the introspective method. The data were transcribed phonemically and glossed following the Leipzig morpheme-by-morpheme approach, and then translated into English. It was found that Gumer expresses spatial concepts with demonstratives, lexical items, particles, and verbs. Demonstratives make a three-way distinction: proximal zɨ(h) “this”, medial hɨ(h) “that”, and distal ha(h) “that”. A different demonstrative za(h) is often used as a discourse spatial deictic. Pronominal suffixes added to the demonstratives make distinctions, which otherwise are impossible, in number and gender. The morpheme {-m-} and subject-agreement pronouns suffixed to the proximal zɨ “this” and the medial hɨ “that” express presentative. Morpheme {-k} suffixed to the demonstrative pronouns shows manner and specifies a particular place. Some spatial concepts including directions: left and right; locations: north, south, east, and west; and climatic zones, such as əgrəma “lowland” and gɨbtədɨr “semi-arid” are expressed by lexical items and particles. There are a few words expressing direction and location with semantic extensions of body parts. Spatial concepts are also expressed by dynamic motion and presentative verbs. Syntactically, it was found that vertical motion verbs tend to co-occur with other vertical motion verbs rather than combining vertical with horizontal motion verbs or vice versa

Quantity expressions in the Gumer variety of Gurage

AbstractThe aim of this study was to investigate how entities are conceptualized and quantified in the Gumer Variety of Gurage, a South Ethiosemitic language. It specifically uncovered the linguistic means used to express quantity and how the quantity expressions interact with a noun head in an NP, the predicate verb, and grammatical categories, such as gender, number, and definiteness. The topic is one of the marginalized areas as we do not find investigation on Gurage languages and most Ethiopian languages. We used a cross-sectional qualitative methodology and a semi-structured key informants interview method. We found that nouns in the Gumer Gurage are not inflected for a number morphologically; thus, bet “house” can be singular or plural. There are, however, lexically distinct plurals (әrʧ “boy” and dengja “boys”; әram “a cow” and әraj “cows”). Numerical quantifiers and definite articles are also used to show plurality. The language distinguishes count and mass nouns semantically but not structurally. The count nouns require measure words in addition to the numeral quantifier as in (sost sin k’awa [three cup coffee “three cups of coffee”]), but not *sost k’awa. Syntactically, a numeral quantifier precedes classifiers, and a head noun follows. A quantifier agrees in number and gender, when the noun is human, with nouns and verbs in a clause

Social and Pragmatic Rules of Cursing and Other Routine Formulas in Gurage and Norwegian Culture

The Gurage are South Ethiosemitic speakers living in the Gurage Zone in Ethiopia. In the Gurage culture, cursing expressions have differing sociological significance. They are used both literally and pragmatically. Although the cursing expressions are endangered due to modern religions, they are not well studied and documented. The objective of this article is to describe the sociolinguistic and pragmatic meanings and the structural patterns of cursing expressions in the Gurage culture, and then to compare the expressions with Nordic countries’ cursing to uncover if there are universal tendencies in the rules and routines of cursing. The study follows qualitative research methodology. The cursing expressions were partly collected from literature and largely elicited from key informants. For the cursing in Gurage, the Gumer variety, from among other 12 dialect clusters of Guragina, was chosen to maintain uniformity in description. The findings showed that self-cursing in Gurage is used to express regret, encouragement, admiration, congratulation, condolence and politeness. Alter cursing is used to cause fear, to express emotions and negative attitude towards others. Age and gender determine cursing practice. Only elder men can take part in formal group alter cursing. Women generally curse themselves and individuals in informal situations. Formal alter cursing in Gurage is graded by elders for its severity. Cursing in the Nordic countries of today is more restricted to psychological functions and a kind of identity construction. In the past, however, several of its functions were similar to the ones in Gurage

The worldwide use and meaning of the f-word

This article documents the increasing use of the English curse word fuck worldwide, as well as its degree of adaption into the host language, its syntactic function, and its meaning and its strength as taboo. Comparing the use of fuck with a special focus on the Nordic countries (Norway, Denmark, and Iceland) with its use in Eurasia and Africa (with different alphabets, namely Cyrillic in Russia, Devanāgarī in India and Ge’ez script in Ethiopia), we found some similar developmental patterns, but also differences, for example to what degree the English loan word has replaced local curses and in what ways among social groups within a country. Comparing the terms used for the same concept was challenging because some countries have better text corpora and more research on written languages and especially on taboos, and those without such resources required additional minor investigations for a baseline. Findings revealed that fuck has spread worldwide from English, and it is commonly used in Nordic languages today. In Russian fuck is also adopted into the heritage language to a relatively high degree, and it has further gained importance in the vocabulary of India, where English has become the most used language by the higher and middle classes, but less so by lower classes. In contrast, the study of Amharic language in Ethiopia shows that the f-word is rarely used at all, and only by youngsters. We found a pattern starting from the outer North with Icelandic having adapted and adopted the word fuck the most, a slight decline in use in Norwegian and Danish, with less adaption and use in Russian, even less in Indian-English or Hindi, and being more or less absent in the African language Amharic. Formally though it is used conceptually both in Hindi and Amharic

第75期日本語研修コース成果発表会スピーチ作文集

PANDEY ABHISHEK KUMAR…1 ELPITIYA BADALGE RACHITHA SANKALPA…7 SARNE PAUL JAZON ILAGAN…10 KORAWALI SARAH UWALI…14 MENUTA BETHEL FEKEDE…16 MURADZIKWA BLESSING…19 BADJIE ADAMA…2

第75期日本語研修コース成果発表会スピーチ作文集

PANDEY ABHISHEK KUMAR…1 ELPITIYA BADALGE RACHITHA SANKALPA…7 SARNE PAUL JAZON ILAGAN…10 KORAWALI SARAH UWALI…14 MENUTA BETHEL FEKEDE…16 MURADZIKWA BLESSING…19 BADJIE ADAMA…2

Grammatical and Sociolinguistic Aspects of Ethiopian Languages

The focus of this unique publication is on Ethiopian languages and linguistics. Not only major languages such as Amharic and Oromo receive attention, but also lesser studied ones like Sezo and Nuer are dealt with. The Gurage languages, that often present a descriptive and sociolinguistic puzzle to researchers, have received ample coverage. And for the first time in the history of Ethiopian linguistics, two chapters are dedicated to descriptive studies of Ethiopian Sign Language, as well as two studies on acoustic phonetics. Topics range over a wide spectrum of issues covering the lexicon, sociolinguistics, socio-cultural aspects and micro-linguistic studies on the phonology, morphology and syntax of Ethiopian languages