Legon Journal of the Humanities

A linguistic landscape of advertising billboards in Ghana and Tanzania: Indigenous language visibility, status, and communicative functions

Jemima Asabea Anderson — 2026-06-24

This study examines the visibility and communicative functions of indigenous languages in the linguistic landscapes (LL) of Accra and Dar es Salaam, two multilingual African capitals shaped by different language ideologies. The study was designed to examine the extent to which indigenous languages appear on advertising billboards and the communicative roles they perform in these urban public spaces. Employing the Ethnolinguistic Vitality Theory, 420 advertising billboards collected from key commercial zones in both cities were analysed. The analysis indicates a sharp contrast between the two contexts. In Accra, English dominates the public space overwhelmingly, while Akan appears sparingly and almost in conjunction with English translations. This finding suggests the marginalisation of indigenous languages in commercial communication in Ghana, highlighting their possible limited institutional support. In contrast, Dar es Salaam exhibits a more balanced linguistic ecology where Swahili and English coexist with relative functional parity, which may be attributed to the strong ethnolinguistic vitality and institutional support of Swahili. The study contributes to LL scholarship by showing how language policy and sociocultural attitudes shape the visibility, prestige, and functional scope of indigenous languages in urban commercial discourse.

Students’ perceptions of teachers’ writing instructional and motivational strategies

Joyce Senya Ama Anku — 2026-06-24

The study investigated students’ perceptions of teachers writing instructional and motivational strategies in a pre-tertiary institution in Ghana. Using a mixed method approach, 60 third-year students drawn from three subject areas: General Arts, Science and Home Economics, were selected from a Senior High School within the Krowor Municipality of the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. Structured questionnaires consisting of four sections and a focus group discussion guide were used as the main data collection instruments. The data were subjected to a simple descriptive analysis for the quantitative part using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 and thematic analysis for the qualitative section. The findings indicated that teachers use eclectic strategies from the three major approaches to writing: product, process, and genre; however, strategies of the product approach dominated. Second, in teaching writing, teachers often casually employ a few motivational strategies that are often devoid of the needed intentionality and consciousness that could cause a change in learner behaviour. Again, the study found that students perceive their teachers’ writing instructional and motivational strategies as boring, less challenging, and less innovative. The participants, however, perceive teachers’ use of model texts and field specific words in teaching writing as a good practice. Finally, it is recommended that writing instructions in senior high schools should consider learners from varied backgrounds with different capabilities and teachers should adapt strategies that suit the local contexts and address the individual learner’s needs.

A variational pragmatic analysis of responses to thanks in Nigerian English

Abolaji Samuel Mustapha — 2026-06-24

Studies on responses to thanks in some varieties of English have reported preferred forms and strategies that are germane in language variation and cross-cultural research. For example, speakers of Cameroon English have been shown to prefer response forms and strategies that diverge from those of British English and Canadian English thereby suggesting differences in the communicative strategies between L1 and L2 speakers. Since generalization is problematic using one L2 variety, more studies are needed. This study examined 300 responses to thanks collected among ESL speakers of Nigerian English. Analysis revealed that speakers of Nigerian English prefer return thanks, pleasure response forms and minimizing favour strategy. These results align more with preferred BrE response forms and strategies than with CamE’s consequently indicating that the reported divergence between L1 and L2 cannot be generalized as it does not apply to NigE. However, more studies in the other L2 varieties are required.

Syntactic complexity and ideologies: A comparative study of the investiture speeches of Professor Kwasi Obiri-Danso and Professor (Mrs) Rita Akosua Dickson

Esther Serwaah Afreh — 2026-06-24

This paper is a comparative study of the linguistic choices made at the sentence level and the nature of the syntactic structures, and the differences in the articulation of leadership ideologies enshrined in the investiture speeches of Professors Kwasi Obiri-Danso (a Former Vice-Chancellor (VC) of KNUST) and Rita Akosua Dickson (Mrs.) (the current VC of KNUST). Quirk et al.’s (1985) theory of the sentence and Fairclough’s (1995) Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) were adopted for the analysis. The analysis revealed that Professor Rita Akosua Dickson leans more towards complexity compared to Prof. Kwasi Obiri Danso. Professor Rita Akosua Dickson’s syntactic choices, such as the high number of embedded clauses, render her speech denser and more complex than that of Professor Kwasi Obiri-Danso. Again, the analysis revealed five (5) distinct ideological differences in areas such as spiritual moralism, neoliberal orientation, gender representation, crisis management, and leadership authority. The differences in the speeches extend beyond syntactic choices and reflect deeper constructions of leader identity within Ghanaian higher education. The study concludes that information density and syntactic elaboration are not neutral, but are strategically deployed to project distinct leadership identities in investiture speeches. The findings have implications for discourse studies, leadership communication and gendered analyses of institutional language.

A feminist reading of motherhood in selected Athenian and Akan plays

Stella Antwiwaa — 2026-06-24

This article employs a feminist perspective to interrogate the concept of motherhood and the expectations of mothers in selected Athenian and Akan plays. The plays of the two distinct communities and eras (Athenian and Ghanaian; classical and contemporary) are assessed to appreciate what is distinct and shared, as well as what is static and changing between the two communities and eras, in the representation and perception of women. Issues of stigmatisation of childless women and the expectation of mothers in Athenian and Akan societies are analysed through the lens of the plays. This enables an appreciation of the two communities regarding their treatment of women as mothers. Two plays by Euripides: Alcestis (438 B.C.) and Medea (431 B.C.); and two Ghanaian ones, Edufa (1979) by Efua Sutherland and Anowa (1970) by Ama Ata Aidoo are subjected to a literary analysis focusing on the representation of motherhood in both societies. The study reveals that mothers’ expectations, societal pressures, the stigmatisation of barrenness, and the roles of women and mothers are largely similar in the plays from both societies. We also argue that while motherhood is essential to every community, it goes beyond the physical bearing of children. Childless women, too, practice motherhood. One of the roles of art is to challenge the narrative and stigmatisation of childless women who yet practice other forms of ‘motherhood’.