MITIGATING THE EFFECT OF BROKEN ENGLISH IN ACADEMIC WRITING: THEATRE FOR DEVELOPMENT AS INTERVENTION AT PEKI SENIOR HIGH TECHNICAL SCHOOL, GHANA

Evans Asante, Loretta Mensah

Abstract


English is the official medium of instruction in Ghana and is central to students' access to academic resources, classroom participation, and assessment. However, the widespread use of Broken English marked by systematic deviations from standard grammar, vocabulary, and usage influenced by local languages poses serious challenges to effective communication and academic achievement in many secondary schools. This qualitative case study investigated the prevalence and influence of Broken English in academic writing at Peki Senior High Technical School in the Volta Region of Ghana and explored the potential of a Theatre for Development (TfD) intervention to raise awareness and support improvement. Thirty students were purposively selected from different programmes through stratified sampling, and data were generated through document analysis of examination scripts and assignments, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and observations during a TfD workshop series. The findings indicated a high incidence of grammatical, syntactic, and vocabulary errors in students' scripts, undermining clarity, coherence, and overall academic performance. Students and teachers associated these patterns with limited exposure to standard English, strong influence of local languages, and low confidence in academic writing. The TfD activities of problem identification, script development from students' own errors, rehearsal, performance, and guided post-performance discussions helped students to recognize common error patterns, reflect critically on their language use, and begin to adopt more accurate forms in their subsequent writing. The study concludes that TfD offers a culturally grounded, participatory, and dialogic approach for conscientising students about Broken English and supporting more effective academic writing, and recommends its integration into language support programmes in Ghanaian secondary schools.

 

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Broken English, Theatre for Development, academic writing, language proficiency, intervention, qualitative research

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v13i2.6522

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