During our 13th meeting on the 21st of November, we focussed on the following article: ARTICLE: Olagbaju, O.O. and Senghore, A., 2022. Question of Equivalence in Translation: Analysis of the Mandinka-English Translated Transcripts of TRRC Witnesses in the Gambia. Studies in Literature and Language, 25(1), pp.38-44. [you can download it below] Attendees (+15): mixture of…

In this reading group meeting we focussed on the following article: READING: Sherris, A., & Peyton, J.K. (2023). The power of multiliteracy in The Gambia and Ghana. In A.C. Hager-M’Boua & F. Jaumont (Eds.), A bilingual revolution for Africa. New York, NY: TBR Books. [You can download the article below] This meeting was based on…

In this reading group meeting we focussed on the following article: READING: Graham Tucker, J.M., 2014. Building capacity for Gambian researchers (Doctoral dissertation, Auckland University of Technology). [click link below to download] Attendees: 12+ people from various backgrounds. We were interested to explore how Gambian scholars conduct research into language and multilingualism in The Gambia…

This reading group meeting focused on the following article: READING Brock-Utne, B., 2014. Language of instruction in Africa-the most important and least appreciated issue. International Journal of Educational Development in Africa, 1(1), pp.4-18. We discussed at length which language(s) should be used as the language of instruction. Overall, the use of English, particularly during early…

The launch of Language in The Gambia Forum was with Hon. Sidia Sana Jatta on 4th October 2022 with a talk entitled ‘Status and teaching of the national languages during and after the colonial rule in the Gambia’. Dr Seraphin Kamden from the School of Oriental and African Studies was the facilitator of the meeting.…

For our ninth meeting on Tuesday 6 September 5.00-6.30pm Gambian Time, we had asked our attendees to read a few excerpts from—as far as we know—the only academic research article on the topic of Gambian language use in healthcare settings. This article was: ARTICLE: Kayode, O.S., Ibitoye, B. and Olanrewaju, M.K., 2013. Roles of Local…

READING Mitsch, J. 2016. Bordering on National Language Varieties: Political and linguistic borders in the Wolof of Senegal and The Gambia. (Doctoral dissertation, The Ohio State University). [download here] We had to read p. ii-iv (the abstract) and p. 66-72 (section 3.5). You will find out about what linguists have to say about Gambian and Senegalese…

The reading was taken from Melissa Marong’s Ph.D thesis, entitled “Gambian English: Syntactic Features of a West African Variety of the English Language”. In the work, Marong attempts to outline the syntactic features of Gambian English and discuss these features alongside other West African varieties of the English language.  The meeting started at 17:00hrs GMT,…

The reading was: Peter, L., Wolf, H.G. and Bobda, A.S., 2003. An account of distinctive phonetic and lexical features of Gambian English. English world-wide, 24(1), pp.43-61.  We received a few apologies (busy start of term for many of us!) and the staff of the University of The Gambia was also still on strike at the…

The reading was: Lawson, S. and Jaworski, A., 2007. Shopping and chatting: Reports of tourist–host interaction in the Gambia. Multilingua 26. We had around a dozen participants again. Our conversation was delightfully lively and probably best accounted for by the series of questions below which we explored.  Does the article allow us to get insights…