THE AVAILABILITY, AWARENESS AND UTILIZATION OF GHANAIAN LANGUAGE MATERIALS IN LIBRARIES: THE CASE OF COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN THE NORTHERN REGION OF GHANA

Abstract

Ghanaian Language and Culture is one of the courses offered in the College of Education (CoE) in Ghana. As a result, several Ghanaian Languages are approved to be studied in these CoE. With this approval, every College is designated to study a particular language depending on the location of the college and/or the dominant language spoken at the college location coupled with the choice of the student. Notably, students find it difficult to read accurately with the right speed and prosody in the various Ghanaian Languages of study, through observation. Essentially, language acquisition occurs in continual interaction with peers, teachers, and the content. Consequently, contents could mainly be found in written materials or documents made available to students for interactions. Each college is thus supposed to have a library equipped with at least these content materials on the programs they offer. However, the availability of these materials at the colleges had been a bone of contention between students, tutors, and librarians. This study, therefore, seeks to quantitatively investigate the availability, awareness and utilization of Ghanaian Language materials in the libraries of CoE in the Northern Region of Ghana. Through random sampling with questionnaires, data collected from 84 students, 7 tutors, and 4 librarians were coded and analyzed using SPSS as a tool and following Blumler and Katz’s ‘Uses and Gratification Theory’. The study reveals that materials on these Ghanaian languages of the study found in the libraries of these colleges are woefully inadequate to be utilized. Even, the little materials available in these libraries are under-utilized by these students. The study further establishes that the lack of materials coupled with under-utilization affects bilingual education and the performance of these students in their various Ghanaian languages of study in the CoE in the Northern Region of Ghana. The study also reveals that 57% against 43% and 51% against 49% of students and tutors respectively are aware of the availability of these Ghanaian Language materials in the CoE libraries but under-utilize them or use them only when they need information or when they are preparing for exams or other reasons.