Intelligibility of the English spoken in Ghana A case study of the Upper West Region

Abstract

The aim of the research was to assess how well English spoken in the Upper West Region of Ghana (UWR) is understood by people from Southern Ghana. In order to do so, a qualitative case study was conducted, which included the analysis of 200 speakers from the Upper West Region, and 200 listeners from Southern Ghana using recordings. Thematic analysis revealed the results, which showed that the Upper West speakers were 93%-100% intelligible to listeners in connected speech, 28%-100% in phoneme contrast, and 49%-100% in nucleus placement of words. This suggests that connected speech is more intelligible than isolated words and sentences. The research also pointed out that, although the English speakers from the Upper West Region exhibit the connected speech processes (CPS), the shifts in nucleus placement in words, and the vowel and consonant alternation, they were still and highly intelligible. However, there were few cases of unintelligibility due to segmental features from the side of the Upper West Region that were detected by Southern listeners. The mostly affected phonetic aspects were vowel length, weak forms, and consonant substitution/alternation in the area of speech intelligibility. Hence, there is an implication of the findings in cross-cultural communication as the speakers will have to be very attentive to each other to achieve intelligibility. In general, the findings imply the need for a reconsideration of the oral assessment of students in Ghana