One way of ensuring fluency in lesson delivery for students to follow its flow in the classroom is through the use of fillers. This study examines the use of fillers in lectures in a public university in Ghana. Specifically, it investigates the types of fillers used in the Ghanaian English-medium classroom and discusses the communicative functions the fillers perform. To achieve these, real-time lessons were recorded from 24 lecturers in the university. The data were subjected to orthographic transcription, categorization, and thematic analysis of fillers for their types and functions in the lessons. Results show that the lecturers used 51 unlexicalized and lexicalized fillers. The unlexicalized ones comprised um, er, and uh while the lexicalized types consisted of lengthened syllables, repetition, and single words. With respect to the communicative functions, the fillers were found to perform cognitive functions (stalling and hesitating), social functions (attention getting and feedback), and discourse-regulatory functions (as editing term and discourse closing). Based on these results, it is proposed that lecturers should understand the importance of fillers so as to use them to their benefit and that of their students. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0795/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

The study sought to investigate ELF awareness among CoE tutors of English in Ashanti Region of Ghana. This study employed the descriptive survey design. A total 48 participants were selected from 8 Colleges of Education for the study using the purposive sampling. Data were collected using a six-point Likert-type scale questionnaire. Data analysis and presentation of results were done using Mean and Standard Deviation. The study revealed that ELF awareness can help improve practice in terms of assessment, and designing test items around attainable non-native speaker norms. The study further indicated that ELF awareness is beneficial and therefore the need for it. It was recommended that Tutors should seek ways of acquiring attitudes that can help them create congenial atmosphere for teaching and learning as/ this is needed by students to understand what their teachers teach them.

Whenever we speak, we use specific strategies to help us achieve our communication goals (Nakatani, 2006). These can be reduction or achievement strategies. Achievement strategies are used by teachers and students to help them overcome their inadequate linguistic knowledge (Trihastuti & Zamzani, 2018) so that lessons can ensue smoothly. This study sought to investigate achievement communicative strategies used by lecturers and students in two public tertiary institutions in Ghana. An observational descriptive case study design was adopted with 12 Communication Skills classrooms purposively sampled from the two institutions. Lesson recording and observation were the instruments used to collect data and analysed using conversation analysis. The analysis revealed that strategies such as code-switching, all-purpose words, literal translation, and appeal for assistance were employed whenever lecturers and students realized they had problems expressing their intended meaning and they needed to solve the problems. It was revealed that the functions of the strategies were for repair to reach communication goals, to convey meaning, to ensure language accuracy, and to request for explanation and clarification. It also showed that the reasons for using the strategies were to avoid a break in the communication process, to develop learner autonomy, and to deepen lecturer-student interaction. Accordingly, it is recommended that such strategies (and others) should be incorporated into the teaching and learning process to create opportunities for meaningful communication to enable lecturers and students develop their communicative competence.

ABSTRACT:Research on Englishes outside the Inner Circle points to the fact that it is not always that speakers select prominence to communicate their intended meaning. This study examined the selection of prominence in marking contrastive focus in Ghanaian English and how this might affect information packaging. Data obtained from 200 university students representing the major languages of Ghana were analyzed both auditorily and acoustically. Results suggest that similar to other Outer Circle varieties of English, Ghanaians do not always assign prominence to the 'target' word and this also affects how they mark contrastive focus.

It has been argued that prosodic features (e.g. stress, rhythm, or intonation) contribute significantly to production and comprehension among speakers of English. While it is easy to come across studies that focus on these features in native Englishes, the same cannot be said of Englishes outside native speaker contexts, especially regarding rhythm in academic discourse, although such results greatly enhance our understanding of this prosodic phenomenon. This study examined rhythm in academic Ghanaian English, using Liberman and Prince’s (1977) Metrical Phonology theory. Lessons were recorded from 24 lecturers in a public university in Ghana and analyzed using the computerized speech laboratory (CSL). Cues measured were duration, pitch, and amplitude to help determine the rhythmic patterns of these lecturers. The results suggest that the rhythmic patterns produced bear similarities as well as differences with those produced by inner circle speakers. The preponderance of rhythmic patterns of strong-strong and weak- strong or strong-weak syllables in certain words presented exceptions to the theory. Based on this, it is argued that Ghanaian English appears to be a more syllable-based than a stressed-based variety, and so teachers might consider using a variety local and familiar to students in order to achieve intelligibility.