Our Pupils…Our Spelling Bee…Our English

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• Kwadwo 12 years ago

  Years ago my team won the district spelling bee and quiz competition in Sunyani. It was a wonderful experience and I still cherish it. Congrats to all the students who participated in the 2013 Spelling bee championship.

  Years ago my team won the district spelling bee and quiz competition in Sunyani. It was a wonderful experience and I still cherish it. Congrats to all the students who participated in the 2013 Spelling bee championship.

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• Egya Nda 12 years ago

  Years after leaving school, I wonder if English is still taught in our schools; all levels. Just look at the English people write on Ghana web; horrible, messing up words like loose and lose. Grammar for the dogs

  Years after leaving school, I wonder if English is still taught in our schools; all levels. Just look at the English people write on Ghana web; horrible, messing up words like loose and lose. Grammar for the dogs

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• Before & After 12 years ago

  Many Ghanaians are confused. One minute someone sitting on radio or tv saying that the english language is not importaant so people should concentrate on ga,ewe, akan etc. Now we see the importance of speaking and writing goo ...
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  Many Ghanaians are confused. One minute someone sitting on radio or tv saying that the english language is not importaant so people should concentrate on ga,ewe, akan etc. Now we see the importance of speaking and writing good english. What is happening? Go to offices and no one speaks english there anymore.
  The more you speak a language, the better you get at it so you can inform those ethnocentric radio stations and their listeners that there is more meaning to life than ignorant institutions. Unless I forget another thing, Who is a true Ghanaian? (1)It is the one who wears african dresses and still worships the white man? (2)The one who uses only african names yet mentally enslaved and still dresses like the westerner? (3) or the one who speaks only a ghanaian language even at formal gatherings because he can't speak avery good english and encourages other to do so? Being a true ghanaian goes beyond those myopic sentimental arguments. I am ready to educate those who can't understand this simple thing I have said here. "Who the cap fit, let them wear it!" I will always remain "Before & After"

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• Maame Serwah, Guildford 12 years ago

  Can the author or someone explain to me what a septentrional is please? I have never come across this word and it does not appear in the Advanced Learners dictionary.

  Can the author or someone explain to me what a septentrional is please? I have never come across this word and it does not appear in the Advanced Learners dictionary.

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• Before & After 12 years ago

  Look it up! It is of latin origin and refers to "northern areas". From my dictionary, it says it is rarely used now.

  Look it up! It is of latin origin and refers to "northern areas". From my dictionary, it says it is rarely used now.

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• Maame Serwah, Guildford 12 years ago

  What dictionary do you use please?

  What dictionary do you use please?

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• DON. AMSTERDAM 12 years ago

  I SUPPORT YOU VERY GOOD,BUT IF YOU CAN
  SEND THIS TO THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
  TO MAKE IT COMPULSARY FOR ALL THE SCHOOLS IN GHANA TO LET THE CHILDREN
  TO SPEAK ENGLISH MORE THAN THE LOCAL
  DAILET,THEN MAY GOD HELP YOU MORE ...
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  I SUPPORT YOU VERY GOOD,BUT IF YOU CAN
  SEND THIS TO THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
  TO MAKE IT COMPULSARY FOR ALL THE SCHOOLS IN GHANA TO LET THE CHILDREN
  TO SPEAK ENGLISH MORE THAN THE LOCAL
  DAILET,THEN MAY GOD HELP YOU MORE FOR
  HELPING GHANA.

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• William K.A Hanson 12 years ago

  As a Ghanaian leaving in USA,I was very happy when 10 years old son won the 2013 spelling bee at his school. This Saturday, he will go for the district championship. To tell you the truth, it takes a lot of hardwork.I spend a ...
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  As a Ghanaian leaving in USA,I was very happy when 10 years old son won the 2013 spelling bee at his school. This Saturday, he will go for the district championship. To tell you the truth, it takes a lot of hardwork.I spend almost 3 hours everyday with him. We go over words from Latin,Arabic,Asian,French,Eponyms,German,Slavic,Dutch,Old English,New World,Japanese,Greek,Italian,and Spanish. He told me yesterday that he is ready and will win.

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• Masha Bell 12 years ago

  Even learning to spell quite ordinary English words 'correctly' takes a lot of time, because English spelling is often irregular and completely illogical (blue shoe flew through too). For most Ghanaians, just being able to re ...
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  Even learning to spell quite ordinary English words 'correctly' takes a lot of time, because English spelling is often irregular and completely illogical (blue shoe flew through too). For most Ghanaians, just being able to read, speak and understand English is probably far more important than being able to spell it. So I would not worry about learning to spell 'correctly', instead of merely comprehensibly, until higher levels of education. Why waste time on something that is very difficult but of little practical use? Life is short and our ability to learn depressingly limited.

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• Abena 12 years ago

  Masha, if you can't spell 'correctly' correctly, no one will take you seriously on paper. I agree that there are a lot of important things to learn, but one shouldn't dismiss spelling as unnecessary. The task of learning how ...
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  Masha, if you can't spell 'correctly' correctly, no one will take you seriously on paper. I agree that there are a lot of important things to learn, but one shouldn't dismiss spelling as unnecessary. The task of learning how to spell is also coupled with phonics - they learned prefixes and suffixes and what they mean, how to spell them, how they change with different languages/origins, etc. You can come across a word you've never seen before, but, because you know how to 'sound it out' and know what each portion of the word means, you can glean the meaning and know how to say it correctly. Being able to spell correctly and in this manner also lends to thinking critically - you are relying on all sorts of information to deduce a possibility, not simply spelling a word from rote memorization.

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