Papers by IVY JONES-MENSAH
Lexical Bundles in Academic Writing Among the Esl Law Students in Ghana
Assessing the statistical differences in academic writing skills across disciplines in higher education
Cogent education, Apr 24, 2024
Using Ubuntu as a Research Paradigm to Unpack How Ghanaian Novice Teachers and Their Collaborators Engaged Virtually in Collaborative International Qualitative Research
International journal of qualitative methods, 2024
The article details how Ubuntu was incorporated into each step of the research project, shares th... more The article details how Ubuntu was incorporated into each step of the research project, shares the authors' experiences and key learnings, and provides recommendations for researchers utilizing Ubuntu as a research paradigm. Ubuntu is an ancient African philosophy emphasizing a way of life grounded in interdependence, collaboration, harmony, and community. In recent years, researchers have incorporated Ubuntu as a research paradigm to decolonize research in a sub-Saharan African context. The present article used international collaborative qualitative research conducted virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic to demonstrate the application of Ubuntu as a research paradigm for conducting research in the African context. Some of the key takeaways include technological factors to consider, establishing connections during the planning stage, and ultimately nurturing productive collaboration within virtual groups.
International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education (IJERE)
The study explored the English-speaking anxiety of trainee teachers in the colleges of education ... more 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 prob...
Newly Trained Ghanaian Teachers' Opportunities for Learning Literacy Content
International Perspectives on Literacies, Diversities, and Opportunities for Learning
Linguistics Initiative
The teaching and learning of language has, for many years, been centered on the four language com... more 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 op...
Challenges of online learning of English/French language in higher education in Ghana
Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, Dec 2, 2021
Language Shift and Maintenance of Ga in Accra
Journal of Education and Practice, 2019
The situation whereby a speech community uses its language in fewer domains relating to other lan... more The situation whereby a speech community uses its language in fewer domains relating to other languages or even loses proficiency entirely in its language in favor of other languages as a consequence of urbanization is a widespread social phenomenon that affects several millions of speech communities all over the world. Some studies have been made, especially, from Western perspectives, in order to get a good understanding of this social phenomenon so that predictions can be made as regards the future status of languages, especially, subordinate languages in communities with dominants languages. The paper investigates into whether or not the Accra speech community, a highly multilingual city, is shifting from the use of Ga to other languages or is maintaining the use of Ga. The major findings of the study are that language shift situations exist more in non-typical Ga areas while language maintenance is observed in mainstream Ga communities. Some factors responsible for these lingu...
JEE (Journal of English Education)
Listening skill is one of the four important language competencies. However, it has not received ... more Listening skill is one of the four important language competencies. However, it has not received the needed scholarly attention, not only in classroom pedagogy and curriculum planning but also in studies and researches in Applied Linguistics and Teaching English as Second Language. This study therefore attempts an investigation into the teaching and learning of listening skills in the language classroom in Ghana. It focuses on three issues in English as Second Language (ESL) listening comprehension; i) the strategies/methods for teaching listening skills, ii) the challenges for learning listening skills and iii) the ways to overcome the challenges. This descriptive qualitative study, having used two major instruments for data collection; observation and open-ended questionnaire, engaged 200 students and 7 teachers as the sample from selected Senior High Schools in the Agona West Municipality. The analysis of data revealed that indeed clarity of speaker, speed of delivery, learning e...
Using Hallidayan systemic functional linguistic approach to analyse the linguistic gyration of royal speeches in Ghana
Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies
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Papers by IVY JONES-MENSAH