This research explores structural relations among the component skills of reading comprehension in Kiswahili. Furthermore, the study examines the relationship between socio-economic status, home and school language use, and home literacy environment with Kiswahili reading outcomes. The study utilized secondary data from the baseline Tusome…

From intercultural experience, and following scholarly analysis, this article blows the whistle on the supposed advantages of the development of diverse "World Englishes." While native-speaker English is rooted in biblical faith, global Englishes may not represent either good theology, or good sense. The ongoing popularity of…

This paper seeks to explore the extent of definite article usage variation in several varieties of English based on a classification of its usage types. An annotation scheme based on Hawkins and Prince was developed for this purpose. Using matching corpus data representing Inner Circle varieties and Outer Circle varieties, analysis was made on…

Indigenous scholars have debated the impact that researchers and the act of researching have on Native and Indigenous people and communities. Although literature on this subject has grown, little has been written explicitly laying out "the doing" of research with these communities. The authors seek to articulate their "doing"…

This paper reports on a comprehensive corpus-based study of regional and stylistic variation in the distribution of the English present perfect. The data represents ten English varieties of both the Inner Circle and Outer Circle, covering four major text types: conversation, news reportage, academic and fictional writing. The results are discussed…

This contribution assesses in quantitative terms frequent collocates and major senses of "between" and "through" in the corpus of Cameroonian English (CCE), the corpus of East-African (Kenya and Tanzania) English which is part of the International Corpus of English (ICE) project (ICE-EA), and the London Oslo/Bergen (LOB) corpus…

A study of the pronunciation of an adult male Swahili speaker, a native and long-term resident of Mombasa Old Town, supplemented with notes on other adult speakers, suggests a new account of glides and phonological change in this variation of the language. The asymmetrical distribution of the two glide types (palatal and labiovelar) is analyzed…

The study sought to establish the attitudes of Kenyan speakers (n = 210) towards three varieties of English: (1) ethnically marked Kenyan English, (2) standard Kenyan English and (3) native speaker English (British, American, Australian, etc). Of the three varieties, the most preferred by both rural and urban respondents for use in the media and…

Discusses changes that have occurred with regard to issues of language acquisition in Kenya in the last several decades, and the challenges these changes pose for educators and linguists today. Evaluates discrepancies that exist between theoretical norms and actual language behavior, especially as they affect the English language. Solutions to…

Examines competition between conflicting principles in Kenyan English (animacy hierarchy and discourse pressure to place given information before new), manifested in news discourse. Results suggest some differences between spoken and written Kenyan English pointing to a tendency toward a more standard native-speaker variety in news discourse, and…

The paper revisits the debate on the new forms of English and proposes a curricular reform that would make the teaching of English in Africa effective and profitable. The discussion is based on sample texts from Kenyan users of English and relates the linguistic form to the sociocultural contexts in which the language is used. The paper argues for…