How Ghanaian is Ghanaian English: A Preliminary Study from the Perspertive of a Phonetician

Abstract

English varies in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary according to where one lives, the education one has received, one's past linguistic experience and the status one assumes. Because the demand of the Standard English is that people ought to use the Receive Pronunciation. This study talks about how Ghanaian a Ghanaian English is perceived from a preliminary study from the perspective of a phonetician. The main target population is senior high students precisely in Akatsi Senior High Technical School. The researcher chooses twenty students as the total population. The main focus of the study is on the selected four programmes by purposive sampling. The instrument used for the collection of data was the observation guide. The observation guide contained ten items which are the words containing some consonant sounds. It had been discovered that this study came out with the fact that Ghanaians speak English different from the way other counties speak it. This study also investigated the factors that accounted for the variations in the way Ghanaians speak English. The researcher found out that Ghanaians speak English different from the way other counties speak it and that the geographical region one stays will have influence on the way one speaks English. The study also revealed that there should be something like Ghanaian English. Based on the findings, it is suggested that since English language is a second language to the Ghanaian learner, teachers of the English language should be experts. They should have the resources of language at their disposal so that they can teach the language very well. It should not be taken for granted that anybody at all could teach the English language. The Ghana Education Service (GES) should organize in-service training for teachers regularly based on the effective use of the Received Pronunciation. More English teachers should be trained to go and teach the English language at all levels.