Speech is My Hammer, It\u27s Time to Build: Hip Hop, Cultural Semiosis and the Africana Intellectual Heritage

The article examines Hip Hop music\u27s relationship with African cultural symbolism and the discipline of Africana Studies. The author maintains that Africana Studies must reclaim the study of cultural semiosis, which may be used to contextualize Hip Hop praxis. Examining semeiotic traces within African and Afrodiasporic primary sources, including Hip Hop lyrics, the article posits that Hip Hop is the latest development in a long tradition of Afro-Kemetic oral artistry, semeiotic systems and the uses of these dual literacies as modes of resistance and affirmations of Black historical and cultural agency. The article adapts Harryette Mullen\u27s literary model of African Spirit Writing and Elaine Richardson\u27s Hip Hop Literacy studies to discuss specific constructs that affirm an African Diasporic worldview and foster resistance to the dominant political-economy that frames Black agency

Foreign Languages for Specific Purposes and Sustainable Human Development in Africa

It would not be preposterous to opine that language and communication play a paramount role in the quest for development, be it human, social, political, technological and any other form of development. A paramount role because knowledge, which is the life wire of any development effort, is acquired through information. Information comes through communication powered by language. Looking at Africa as a continent, the plurality of official languages or languages of instruction, through which information flows, undoubtedly constitutes a barrier to effective human development processes. It is based on this background that this paper aims at exploring the concept of Foreign Languages for Specific Purposes (FLSP), a paradigm of human development, which has not been optimally activated in African educational settings, as against what obtains in the developed world. The paper begins by defining the concept of Language for Specific Purposes (LSP), goes further to critically analyse the dividends of international bilingualism and the possible impact of the learning of FLSP on sustainable human development in Africa. To conclude, the paper recommends various practical and pragmatic approaches, which include the establishment of FLSP centers in African universities and other equivalent institutions of higher learning, as steps towards the optimal activation of the concept in the continent

Cognition,Private Speech and Oral Expression:Implications for Nigerian Learners of French

The acquisition of oral proficiency has always been critical to the teaching and learning of foreign/second language all over the world. Meanwhile, recent researches have suggested that cognitive strategies could be helpful in the learners’ efforts at acquiring both oral and writing proficiencies in foreign/second languages. After a brief survey of the major theoretical considerations as well as empirical dispositions in the domain of Cognition and private speech as they relate to foreign/second language teaching and learning, we discuss in this article the possible interface between the two concepts as it concerns the learning of oral expression. Essentially, the article views private speech, when employed within the scope of cognitive foreign/second language learning theory, as a veritable and result-oriented strategy to the learning of the oral paradigm of foreign/second languages in general and consequently could impact affectively on the Nigerian learners of Frenc

Optimal Activation of French for Specific Purposes for Human Development in Nigeria

It would not be far from the truth to say that communication through the use of the natural language plays a paramount role in the quest for development, be it human, social, political, technological and any other form of development. A paramount role because knowledge, which is the life wire of any development effort, is acquired through information. Information comes through communication powered by language. Looking at Nigeria as a country, English which is the official language and language of instruction in schools seems to have become inadequate for a sustainable human development which must take into account new trends in the globalized world. It is based on this background that this paper aims at exploring the concept of French for Specific Purposes (FSP), a paradigm of French studies, which has not been optimally activated in Nigeria as against what obtains in countries such as USA, Britain, Japan etc. The paper begins by defining the concept of French for Specific Purposes and goes further to examine the importance of French in Nigeria. The paper also makes a critical analysis of developmental benefits that are derivable from the optimal activation of this concept in Nigeria. To conclude, the paper recommends various practical and pragmatic approaches, which include the introduction of FSP certificate and diploma programmes in Nigerian universities, as steps towards the optimal activation of the concept in the countr

South Asian Americans in Higher Education: Background and Future Directions

South Asian Americans are one of the fastest-growing ethnic groups in the United States. Though research has broadly attended to Asian Americans as an aggregate racial or ethnic group, calls to specify the complex experiences and identities within this group have increased. This is particularly true for South Asian Americans, or Desi, groups as their ethnic and cultural identities have been increasingly scrutinized and racialized since September 11th. This backgrounder discusses South Asian Americans within higher educational institutions. More specifically, I provide an overview of identity development models, contextualize their unique challenges, and relate these models to South Asian Americans. The backgrounder concludes by outlining opportunities for supporting South Asian American students in higher education.Educatio

Organic farming and agri-environmental stewardship schemes in Devon

A postal survey was undertaken in North Devon looking at entry into England Rural Development Programme (ERDP) environmental schemes in relation to farming system and markets. The main survey was based in and around the North Devon Biosphere reserve. Significantly more farms replied who had Countryside Stewardship (CSS) agreements than from those who were not in the scheme. There was a greater likelihood of small farms joining CSS as were beef, sheep and cereal farms compared with dairy farms. A greater percent of organic farms had CSS agreements compared with the conventional farms. A smaller telephone survey in a CSS target area in South Devon was also undertaken which confirmed these results. Those farms with CSS agreements were more likely to have joined or be joining the new agri-environmental schemes

Analytic Properties and Covariance Functions of a New Class of Generalized Gibbs Random Fields

Spartan Spatial Random Fields (SSRFs) are generalized Gibbs random fields, equipped with a coarse-graining kernel that acts as a low-pass filter for the fluctuations. SSRFs are defined by means of physically motivated spatial interactions and a small set of free parameters (interaction couplings). This paper focuses on the FGC-SSRF model, which is defined on the Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^{d}$ by means of interactions proportional to the squares of the field realizations, as well as their gradient and curvature. The permissibility criteria of FGC-SSRFs are extended by considering the impact of a finite-bandwidth kernel. It is proved that the FGC-SSRFs are almost surely differentiable in the case of finite bandwidth. Asymptotic explicit expressions for the Spartan covariance function are derived for $d=1$ and $d=3$; both known and new covariance functions are obtained depending on the value of the FGC-SSRF shape parameter. Nonlinear dependence of the covariance integral scale on the FGC-SSRF characteristic length is established, and it is shown that the relation becomes linear asymptotically. The results presented in this paper are useful in random field parameter inference, as well as in spatial interpolation of irregularly-spaced samples.Comment: 24 pages; 4 figures Submitted for publication to IEEE Transactions on Information Theor