Glocalization of English: Evidence from Ghana

Abstract

African ideologies have always shaped the usage of English in the African setting. As much as many researchers have tried to examine how African English differs from other varieties especially what is considered ‘standard’, the issue of glocalising English to make it relevant to the socially realistic context is rarely discussed. This paper focuses on how educated Ghanaians, especially, the Ghanaian creative writer has employed English in a socially realistic context in order to make English reflect the socio-cultural ideologies into which they are born and raised. The methodology employed is qualitative and the data wrtr obtained from creative works of Ghanaians. The discussion was down based on areas that are behaviourially norm oriented. One of the major findings was that no matter the level of education of the Ghanaian, he/she will trim the English language to fit into the socially realistic context of Ghana; else, in an attempt to use English without glocalising it is likely to bring about communication that is culturally inappropriate, linguistically disoriented, and socially unacceptable due to ideological mismatch.