The ‘Rural-Urban’ Mix In the Use of Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases by Students of Literature in Kenyan Universities
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Date
2022
Authors
Mbithi, Esther K
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Multilingual Margins: A journal of multilingualism from the periphery
Abstract
The language of instruction at university level in the Kenyan education system is
English, so all written work for assignments and examinations is generated in English.
And yet, each student probably uses two or three languages in their everyday life in
situations away from the classroom. Indeed, the language policy allows the use of
mother tongue as language of instruction in Primary School classes One to Three.
African languages are structured differently from the English language, particularly
where prepositions are concerned. Furthermore, each language grows in a specific
cultural context; and the range of vocabulary of the African languages in Kenya is
different from that of English. This may present a challenge for university students
using English as the language of instruction in understanding academic concepts
for which there is no equivalent in their mother tongue. In some instances, only a
single word is available in the first language, where several different English words are
possible or even necessary for clarity depending on the context. This paper explores
this cultural peculiarity of linguistic marginalisation, which is both lexical and syntactic,
as manifest in the written research papers of university literature students who would
otherwise work simultaneously in different languages.
Description
Article
Keywords
communication, English, Kenya, literature, multilingualism, translation
Citation
Mbithi, E. K. (2022). The ‘rural-urban’mix in the use of prepositions and prepositional phrases by students of literature in Kenyan universities. Multilingual Margins: A journal of multilingualism from the periphery, 9(1), 74-82.