Sometimes, the official language(s) is/are selected indigenous languages (for example, Igbo, Yoruba, and Hausa, in the case of Nigeria). These languages are mostly the official languages(s), the second or third language(s), the international language, and the indigenous languages spoken by both the learners and the teachers. Thus, in a typical L2 classroom in Africa, the learner is likely to come into contact with several languages. Extremely, the seventeen (17) West African states display this feature. Linguistically, most Africans are multilingual entities. Stakeholders of Ghanaian primary schools, to reexamine the policy of instructionįor teaching English in Ghanaian primary schools, by placing prominence on theįirst language of the various speech communities in Ghana.

Consequently, this paper would enable the key This argument is in conformism with Anyidoho Should be English language, and the mother tongue of the community within Medium of instruction for teaching and learning of English as a second languageĪt the primary level (primary 1 - 6) of a diverse Ghanaian multilingual society On the basis of the BLMs, we argue that the most suitable Again, we have briefly described the tenants of the BLMs, andĭemonstrated how these modes can be applied on the Ghanaian bilingual Highlighted the policy of medium of instruction for teaching English in primary Language modes (BLMs) by Grosjean (2001). One framework that clearly projects theĮxperience of the bilingual, in terms of swapping languages is the bilingual’s All these four aspects of language development are equally vital in the language learning process, but the current paper focuses on the development of writing skills by second language learners of English in Ghana.īialystok (2015) argues that the bilingual’s cognitive benefit is related to theĬontinuous supervision and the need for conflict resolution that happens whenĭual languages are co-activated. Language proficiency involves the development of skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. These have pedagogical and theoretical implications for the teaching and learning of English as a second language in Ghana. The study also revealed a positive correlation between attitudes of parents about English and learners’ academic writing skills. The findings of the study reveal that the performance of the bilingual English and Ghanaian language learners outweighed those of their contemporaries. The participants were then made to write a sit-in assessment on a topic and were graded by an independent assessor. Each group was further divided along gender lines and 5 students from each of the 6 sub-groups were picked randomly. Initially, the class of 121 was sorted out into three groups-those who said they used only English at home, those who said they used only Ghanaian language(s) at home, and those who said they used both English and Ghanaian language(s) at home. A cursory study of some examination scripts of first-year students reveals some poor writing skills of students in areas such as concord, spelling, capitalization, and fragmentation errors.30 participants were selected from a class of 121 students from the Ghana Baptist University College, a private institution in Kumasi, Ghana. P> This work assesses the effects of family background of second language learners on their academic writing competence in English.

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