review of the creation of students

8/11/2019 Review of the Creation of Students

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NAME: Ishmael Duah

INDEX NUMBER: AR/DEN/11/0002

COURSE: Research Methodolo!

COURSE "EC#URER: Dr$ A$ B$ A%%ul

COURSE CODE: E&$'0(

RE)IE* O+ A SC,O"AR"- AR#IC"E

#he Creat.o& o% Stude&ts Academ.c Sla& Eress.o&s .& the U&.ers.t! o% Bots3a&aArua E. Arua/Modupe M. Alimi (Gaborone, Botswana)

This is a critical review of an article, The creation of students academic slang expressions in the

University of Botswana. The review is made up of a summar, a criti!ue of the writer"s topic and

literature review, the ob#ectives, methods, findin$s and discussions, and conclusion. The review

ends with the reviewer"s concludin$ remar%s.

Summar!

The stud is a se!uel to an earlier one b same writers (Arua & Alimi, ') which revealed the

use of slan$ vocabular b students of Botswana *niversit to label various aspects of their

academic life. *sin$ the !uestionnaire, this stud see%s and identifies the semantic and

morpholo$ical processes involved in the creation of such slan$ vocabular. +f the si processes

identified, the semantic etension is the most fre!uentl occurrin$ process. -ud$in$ from the

hi$h fre!uenc of semantic etension and compoundin$ (0), the stud concludes that the

sub#ects emploed eistin$ En$lish vocabular to create their slan$ epressions and that some

areas of their academic life are discussed more than others.

#o.c 4 Re.e3 o% ".terature

The definition of slangis ade!uatel traced from earlier literature to the researchers" wor% to

which this wor% is a se!uel. This provides the reader with clarit on the specific phenomenon

under investi$ation. The bac%$round literature discusses not onl the structure of slan$ but also

its social si$nificance as variet of lan$ua$e. 1owever, in terms of or$ani2ation and structure of

the write3up, The Definition of Slang,could have been captured underReview of Literature.

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O56ect.es

The stud sou$ht to isolate 4the semantic and morpholo$ical processes at wor% in the students5

creative endeavour,6 and to show which of these processes is the most productive. These

ob#ectives are certainl clear, and #ud$in$ from the outcome of the stud, one can sa that these

ob#ectives have been achieved.

Method

The samples appear representative, especiall upon the #ustification of the choice of third3ear

and forth3ear students across faculties althou$h the selection of onl 7 respondents from the

8acult of 9ocial 9cience is not ade!uatel eplained. 1owever, the absence of En$lish corpus

for Botswana cannot be sufficient #ustification for the choice of onl the !uestionnaire instrument

for the collection of data on campus slan$ in *B.

The !uestionnaire instrument used ma have enabled the researchers to obtain data from a lar$e

number of respondents within a short time, but considerin$ the fact that campus slan$ tends to be

informal and therefore seldom written, a more efficient instrument, such as focused $roup

discussion and the interview could have been emploed either as substitutes or as complements.

The recordin$ of live interactions in which the labels will feature would have provided a better

insi$ht into the creation, meanin$ and nuances in a wa that even the most elaborate

!uestionnaire cannot achieve.

D.scuss.o& o% +.&d.&s

The findin$s of the stud are clear: students of *B ma%e use of slan$ labels to describe various

aspects of their academic life on campus; si processes < semantic etension, compoundin$

conversion derivation, acronm and reduplication 33 have been identified at wor% in the students"

creation of these labels. The dominant processes involved are semantic etension, and

compoundin$. The stud clearl cate$ori2es the labels under the appropriate word formation

processes, describes the data in simple percentile scores and discusses them accordin$l. =t is

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however stran$e that althou$h the researchers concede in an earlier wor% that the students draw

on lin$uistic resources in En$lish and 9etswana in their creative endeavours, not a sin$le

instance of direct borrowin$ nor cal!uin$ from 9etswana has been cited in the stud under

review.

Co&clus.o&s o% the Stud!

The stud concludes that the students of *niversit of Botswana used mainl eistin$ En$lish

leical items to form their slan$ epressions, but surprisin$l, derivation is not ver prominent in

their slan$ creation process.

The stud also claims that 4ta%en to$ether, thou$h, all the word formation processes show that

certain areas of the students5 academic life are more tal%ed about or more important than others.

These important areas include the relationships that students contract with their lecturers,

difficult courses and those who teach them, their performances and their $rades.6 Much as one

ma a$ree with the earlier conclusions, there is apparentl no evidence in this paper to support

the claim that some aspects of the students" academic life were more tal%ed about or more

important than others. =tems >


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The focus of this paper has been on the processes involved in the creation of academic slan$

epressions in the *niversit of Botswana. The researchers have demonstrated their familiarit

with the bac%$round literature and have #ustified the stud. +ther stren$ths of this paper are the

simplicit and clarit of its ob#ectives, method and analsis. Althou$h a more naturall

interactive instrument could have enhanced the !ualit of data and part of the conclusion appears

to lac% sufficient support, this paper remains a ver useful addition to the literature on campus

slan$ and a si$nificant contribution to the corpus of En$lish in Botswana and Africa.

Re%ere&ce

Alimi, Modupe M./Arua, Arua E. ('): 9lan$ and Aspects of 9tudents5 Academic Culture

at the *niversit of Botswana. =n: Arua, Alimi E./Ba$wasi, Mompolo%i M./9ebina,Tiro/9eboni, Barolon$ (eds.): The Study and Use of English in Africa.@ew

Castle/Cambrid$e:

>D>>?.

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review of the creation of students

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