The Relationship between Academic Language Development and Identity Construction: The Case of a Ghanaian Senior High School
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53103/cjess.v6i5.577Keywords:
Academic Language, Language Socialization, Linguistic Capital, Code Switching, Learner Identity, Multilingualism, Ghanaian Senior High SchoolsAbstract
In Ghana, SHS is the educational level at which students encounter a marked tightening of expectations around English use and a rapid increase in demand for subject-specific academic vocabulary. Academic language denotes the vocabulary, sentence patterns, and reasoning conventions that schooling and examinations require. This study examined how age-related progression through the three SHS levels (i.e., SHS 1, SHS 2, and SHS 3) shapes students' use of academic language and how the acquisition of that register becomes intertwined with the construction of students' identities as learners. Using a qualitative, ethnographically informed design, the study collected data through classroom observation, semi-structured interviews, and analysis of written work with SHS students across SHS 1 to SHS 3 and their teachers at a selected SHS in Ghana. The study’s results showed that most SHS 3 students have moved from the practice of using code-switching to using a deliberate formal English language. Thus, students' perceptions of themselves as learners changed. SHS students were compelled to accustom themselves to the official way of speaking at that level, while rejecting the old style of communicating at the JHS level. The study also revealed that students were coerced to have a command of academic English by forces emanating from peers, teachers, and pressure to attract the ‘serious student tag.’ The study’s conclusion shows that academic language is not just about imbibing and acquisition; rather, it is continuously developed over time with maturity within Ghana’s complex linguistic setting, where English, the official and formal language, occupies a controlling role with other Ghanaian languages playing a significant role in commonplace communication outside the formal context.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Justice E A Mensah, Juliana Laweh, Jones J B Owusu, Edward Owusu
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