Journal of Linguistics, Literary and Communication Studies https://www.ajol.info/index.php/jllcs <p>The <strong>Journal of Linguistics, Literary and Communication Studies</strong> is a high-quality open-access, peer-reviewed, and refereed multidisciplinary research journal, dedicated to serving society in the global dissemination of information through an unparalleled commitment to quality, reliability, innovation, and research work. The journal welcomes and acknowledges high-quality theoretical and empirical original research papers, case studies, review papers, literature reviews, and conceptual frameworks in the fields of Linguistics, Literature, and Communication Studies. Journal of Linguistics, Literary and Communication Studies engages its noble efforts for the development and endeavours to give you the best.<br /><br />You can view the journal's own website <a href="https://utafitionline.com/index.php/jltcs/index" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.</p> en-US davidbarasa@mmust.ac.ke (Dr David Barasa) wanyamam@yahoo.com (Prof. Mellitus Wanyama) Fri, 19 Apr 2024 14:57:27 +0000 OJS 3.3.0.11 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 Groping an indulgent on English Homographs among Lecturers of Semantics in Tanzania’s Universities https://www.ajol.info/index.php/jllcs/article/view/268931 <p>This paper sets out to examine the understanding of English&nbsp; homographs by Lecturers of Semantics in Tanzania’s&nbsp; Universities.&nbsp; Homographs are words with the same spelling but&nbsp; different pronunciations and semantics scope. The paper&nbsp; demonstrates that most of&nbsp; the semantics lecturers of Tanzania&nbsp; confuse English homographs with non-English homographs.&nbsp; For instance, 75% of lecturers of&nbsp; semantics acknowledge that the&nbsp; lexeme bank and present are English homographs. Such&nbsp; perception is incomplete which has motivated&nbsp; the present study&nbsp; to examine groping an indulgence on homographs to&nbsp; instructors. The study qualitatively applied the interpretive paradigm to five Tanzania Universities. Documentary reviews and questionnaires were the instruments of data collection. The&nbsp; analysis&nbsp; was done by using Referential Theory which articulates&nbsp; the context of the situation in which the lexeme is articulated&nbsp; and in which the&nbsp; meaning reflects that which is being&nbsp; articulated. It was found that most of the Lecturers of semantics&nbsp; in Tanzania’s Universities confuse&nbsp; English homographs with non-homographic words and that what they instruct in their&nbsp; lectures is incomplete; thus, words that are not&nbsp; English&nbsp; homographs are acknowledged as English homographs.&nbsp; Moreover, some lecturers of semantics confuse stress on the&nbsp; syllable&nbsp; with homographic words; others do not know the&nbsp; qualification of a certain word to be homograph. It was&nbsp; concluded that Lecturers of&nbsp; semantics in Tanzania’s&nbsp; Universities should admit continuous reading and training on&nbsp; any matter of facts pertinent to their area of&nbsp; specialization. This&nbsp; would make them competent in the content they lecture in&nbsp; classes.&nbsp;</p> Chipanda Simon Copyright (c) 2024 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 https://www.ajol.info/index.php/jllcs/article/view/268931 Fri, 19 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Assessing Comprehension of English Idioms: A Case of University Students in Unguja https://www.ajol.info/index.php/jllcs/article/view/268934 <p>Understanding English idioms is essential to mastering the language. Despite idioms being extensively studied in the&nbsp; African context,&nbsp; showing the importance of idiomatic&nbsp; competence, studies on how Zanzibari students comprehend&nbsp; idioms are still limited. Therefore,&nbsp; this study was conducted to&nbsp; assess the extent of comprehension of English idioms among&nbsp; university students in Unguja to establish if&nbsp; this would enhance&nbsp; their proficiency in English. The study adopted a mixed-method&nbsp; approach and a descriptive research design. The&nbsp; researcher&nbsp; used questionnaires and cloze tests to collect data from 180&nbsp; respondents from three universities in Zanzibar; the State&nbsp; University of Zanzibar, Sumait University, and Zanzibar&nbsp; University. The findings revealed that the respondents’&nbsp; performance in idiom&nbsp; comprehension was below average. The&nbsp; findings add to linguistic theory and practice, specifically to the&nbsp; studies on idioms.&nbsp;</p> Amos Tabley Ngoge Copyright (c) 2024 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 https://www.ajol.info/index.php/jllcs/article/view/268934 Fri, 19 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Communicating in multilingual learning ecologies: Teacher trainees' perceptions of translanguaging in lecture rooms in Kenya https://www.ajol.info/index.php/jllcs/article/view/268936 <p>This research delves into the nuanced perceptions of teacher&nbsp; trainees (TTs) regarding translanguaging (TL) whilst&nbsp; communicating within&nbsp; the lecture room learning ecology. It&nbsp; focuses on four fundamental learning processes, namely,&nbsp; attention retention, success in&nbsp; learning, interaction with the&nbsp; instructor, and knowledge transmission. Anchored in classic&nbsp; theoretical approaches to communicative&nbsp; competence and&nbsp; the more recent theory of translingualism, the research&nbsp; addresses the overarching question: How do teacher trainees&nbsp; perceive and experience the utilisation of translanguaging&nbsp; practices in a multilingual university learning ecology in&nbsp; Kenya? Quantitative&nbsp; data were collected through a&nbsp; structured questionnaire from 80 TTs at a Kenyan university&nbsp; to address this inquiry. The results reveal&nbsp; predominantly&nbsp; positive responses for TL in the lecture room ecology&nbsp; regarding solidarity and status relationships. For instance,&nbsp; participants expressed a heightened ability to retain&nbsp; attention when instructors judiciously employed a mix of&nbsp; languages, resulting in&nbsp; increased engagement and a more&nbsp; favourable learning experience. Additionally, while TTs express confidence in using TL for certain&nbsp; tasks, there is a&nbsp; notable hesitation in written assignments and examinations.&nbsp; These and other outcomes contribute valuable insights&nbsp; into&nbsp; the dynamic interplay between TTs’ reflexivity and their&nbsp; responses to TL. This study underscores the significance of&nbsp; incorporating&nbsp; TTs’ perspectives into the ongoing language&nbsp; political debate surrounding Kenya’s language-in-education&nbsp; policy, particularly in exploring&nbsp; new possibilities and&nbsp; approaches to translingual pedagogy. Translingual&nbsp; pedagogy foregrounds the collaborative use of&nbsp; languages&nbsp; and linguistic abilities that individuals draw on to make&nbsp; meaning and communicate effectually – their complete&nbsp; linguistic&nbsp; repertoire.</p> Billian K. Otundo Copyright (c) 2024 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 https://www.ajol.info/index.php/jllcs/article/view/268936 Fri, 19 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Environment as a Determinant Factor for Speech Style and Recognition: A Case of Swahili Language in Tanzania https://www.ajol.info/index.php/jllcs/article/view/268938 <p>This study offers a fresh look at the impact of the&nbsp; environment in influencing speech styles, focusing on&nbsp; Swahili as a case study&nbsp; language. This study navigates&nbsp; beyond the usual concerns of speakers, topics, ages, and&nbsp; genders to explore how the environment we&nbsp; surround&nbsp; ourselves can impact our language habit in terms of how and&nbsp; what linguistic expressions we produce. The study is carried&nbsp; out&nbsp; using observation as a method of data collection in the&nbsp; city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and includes a variety of&nbsp; settings such as&nbsp; restaurants, daladalas (public minivans), and&nbsp; mitumba marketplaces (second-hand clothing shops). The&nbsp; collected data was analyzed&nbsp; using the speech acts theory as&nbsp; a guiding framework to determine the various ways in which&nbsp; the environment influences speech. This&nbsp; paper serves high&nbsp; significance in the field by casting on the influence a social&nbsp; environment can have in our speech habits. By suggesting&nbsp; that environment can be a determinant of different speech&nbsp; styles and habits, the study opens up new dimensions to our&nbsp; knowledge of&nbsp; different dynamics that chiefly influence&nbsp; language use.&nbsp;</p> Hilda Pembe Copyright (c) 2024 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 https://www.ajol.info/index.php/jllcs/article/view/268938 Fri, 19 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Linguistic and Cultural Re-Orientation in the Face of Pandemics: Lessons from the COVID-19 Discourses among the Bukusu of Kenya https://www.ajol.info/index.php/jllcs/article/view/268940 <p>The linguistic and cultural diversity in the seemingly&nbsp; interconnected world underscores the contextualisation of&nbsp; information for effective&nbsp; communication. This paper&nbsp; examines the host language and culture in the COVID-19&nbsp; discourses on the one hand and, on the other,&nbsp; their re￾orientation based on the Bukusu environment, with the hope&nbsp; of drawing lessons from the findings for future better&nbsp; handling&nbsp; of pandemics. An exploratory survey design was&nbsp; adopted, where primary data were collected using in-depth&nbsp; face-to-face interviews with&nbsp; 12 participants, observation,&nbsp; video recording and note-taking in a funeral, wedding and a&nbsp; traditional brew drinking context in&nbsp; Kanduyi and Webuye,&nbsp; Bungoma County. Secondary data were drawn from&nbsp; government documents, Community-based Organization&nbsp; (CBO) champions’ documentation, and the Mulembe FM&nbsp; Radio station. Analysis was based on two theories: the re-definition of&nbsp; situations, which explains how values are&nbsp; redefined about situations for adaptation to occur, and the&nbsp; diffusion of innovations,&nbsp; articulating how an idea spreads&nbsp; through a population while disregarding compatibility with the local culture and language. Findings&nbsp; show that linguistic&nbsp; and cultural re-orientation could have triggered better&nbsp; results in the fight against the pandemic. The study findings&nbsp; are relevant to policy makers and implementers, specifically,&nbsp; the Ministry of Health (MOH), Kenya, charged with&nbsp; disseminating relevant&nbsp; information concerning health&nbsp; pandemics.&nbsp;</p> Mary K. Lonyangapuo Copyright (c) 2024 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 https://www.ajol.info/index.php/jllcs/article/view/268940 Fri, 19 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000