The Language in The Gambia Virtual Reading Group will have its third meeting on Tuesday 27 July at 5.30pm Gambian time / 6.30 UK time. We will discuss: Lawson, S. and Jaworski, A., 2007. Shopping and chatting: Reports of tourist–host interaction in the Gambia. Multilingua 26. [download]. “This paper examines interactions between tourists and hosts in The Gambia, a ‘winter sun’ package holiday destination in West Africa. To investigate the nature of such interactions, 20 ‘communication diaries’ were completed by a group of British tourism students during their week-long field trip to The Gambia and followed up by small group discussions with some of the participants. The students were asked to record as many individual interactions with Gambians as possible noting the following information: Time; Place; Situation; Interlocutor; Languages spoken; Topics; Result of interaction; Perceptions of interactions. 194 interactions were recorded. Many of the interactions were ‘transactional’ in that tourism workers treat them as potential sources of income. However, their tenor is predominantly ‘personal’ as they were full of phatic communion and chatting. . Central to the tourist experience in The Gambia is the role of the ‘bumsters’ due to their mediating function between the tourists and other Gambian people.”

Where: To join the discussion at the scheduled time, use this Zoom link. If you don’t want to sign up to Zoom, click on JOIN MEETING AS AN ATTENDEE or JOIN MEETING, then enter the following details: 891 8865 2789 (personal meeting ID) and 1234 (passcode). You can also participate through our WhatsApp group by sending your phone number to clyde.ancarno@kcl.ac.uk. We encourage all members to join our WhatsApp group so they can follow the contributions of our reading group members who will be able to join us via WhatsApp only. If you have technical issues on Zoom please join through WhatsApp. We’ll monitor the WhatsApp group each meeting.

When: Tuesday 27 July @ 5.30pm (Gambian time) / 6.30pm (UK time)

Who: ALL welcome!

LINE UP

This is a suggested line up containing research articles, chapters and dissertations. Recommendations from our group members are always welcome. We will open this list for discussion at the end of our meeting. 

• Tuesday 21 September @ 5.30pm Gambian time (6.30pm UK time): Gambian English (syntax)
• Tuesday 19 October @ 5.30pm Gambian time (6.30pm UK time): Literacy and Language Teaching in the Gambia
• Tuesday 16 November @ 5.30pm Gambian time (6.30pm UK time): A contribution to Mandinka dialectology – Basse Mandinka versus Standard Gambian Mandinka

We meet the third Tuesday of each month. We will not meet in August and December.

The Language in The Gambia Virtual Reading Group will have its second meeting on Tuesday 22 June at 5.30pm. We will discuss: Juffermans, K. and McGlynn, C., 2009. A sociolinguistic profile of The Gambia. Sociolinguistic Studies 3(3), pp.329-355. Click here to view the article. “Following a portrayal of the indigenous and exogenous languages of The Gambia, with attention to hybrid, overlapping and shifting ethnolinguistic identities, the role of language in several social institutions in a changing society is identified and discussed. The paper culminates in a discussion of linguistic and cultural diversity and appeals for more research in this sociolinguistically unexposed country”. 

Where: To join the discussion at the scheduled time, use this Zoom link. If you don’t want to sign up to Zoom, click on JOIN MEETING AS AN ATTENDEE or JOIN MEETING, then enter the following details: 891 8865 2789 (personal meeting ID) and 1234 (passcode). You can also participate through our WhatsApp group by sending your phone number to clyde.ancarno@kcl.ac.uk. We encourage all members to join our WhatsApp group so they can follow the contributions of our reading group members who will be able to join us via WhatsApp only.

When: Tuesday 22 June @ 5.30pm (Gambian time)/6.30pm (UK time)

Who: ALL welcome!

LINE UP

This is a suggested line up containing research articles, chapters and dissertations. Recommendations from our group members are always welcome. We will open this list for discussion at the end of our meeting. 

• Tuesday 20 July @ 5.30pm Gambian time (6.30pm UK time): Shopping and chatting: Reports of tourist-host interaction in The Gambia
• Tuesday 21 September @ 5.30pm Gambian time (6.30pm UK time): Gambian English (syntax)
• Tuesday 19 October @ 5.30pm Gambian time (6.30pm UK time): Literacy and Language Teaching in the Gambia
• Tuesday 16 November @ 5.30pm Gambian time (6.30pm UK time): A contribution to Mandinka dialectology – Basse Mandinka versus Standard Gambian Mandinka

We meet the third Tuesday of each month. We will not meet in August and December.

Language in The Gambia – VIRTUAL READING GROUP AND CONVERSATION SERIES Full description HERE / Summaries of previous meetings HERE

Open to anyone interested in language and The Gambia 

The Language in The Gambia Virtual Reading Group is a community of students, scholars and members of the general public interested in finding out more about how languages are used to communicate in The Gambia (e.g. the characteristics of diglossia, translanguaging practices and language contact in the country) and the working of these languages (e.g. their grammatical features, sentence prosody, and orthography development). We meet regularly for an hour to discuss advanced research articles related to these topics.  

Organisers 

The Language in The Gambia Virtual Reading Group is an initiative led by Clyde Ancarno of the Multilingual Education in The Gambia project (King’s College London) and Lamin Demba (University of The Gambia). The discussions will be facilitated by the organisers and/or guest facilitators. We are open to discussing articles ready for submission to relevant academic/professional journals. If you would like us to include your article as part of our reading list please email  clyde.ancarno@kcl.ac.uk 

LAUNCH – FIRST MEETING

The Language in The Gambia Virtual Reading Group will have its first meeting on Tuesday 6 April at 5.30pm. We will discuss: Juffermans, K. and McGlynn, C., 2009. A sociolinguistic profile of The Gambia. Sociolinguistic Studies 3(3), pp.329-355. Reviewing the various ways in which language(s) is/are used in The Gambia, Juffermans and McGlynn’s research article seems a rather good fit as an opening reading for our group. A copy of the article can be found HERE. “Following a portrayal of the indigenous and exogenous languages of The Gambia, with attention to hybrid, overlapping and shifting ethnolinguistic identities, the role of language in several social institutions in a changing society is identified and discussed. The paper culminates in a discussion of linguistic and cultural diversity and appeals for more research in this sociolinguistically unexposed country”. 

Where: To join the discussion at the scheduled time, use this Zoom link. If you don’t want to sign up to Zoom, click on JOIN MEETING AS AN ATTENDEE or JOIN MEETING, then enter the following details: 817 2556 6225 (personal meeting ID) and 1234 (passcode). You can also participate through our WhatsApp group by sending your phone number to clyde.ancarno@kcl.ac.uk

When: Tuesday 6 April @ 5.30pm (Gambian time – please note that the clocks will have moved forward for some of us by then, e.g. the UK will be an hour ahead of The Gambia)

Who: ALL welcome!