The Linguistics Association of Ghana (LAG) is exploring ways to make Ghanaian dialects more relevant to society. 

The president, Dr. Elvis ResCue, observes a low impact of language and literature studies on societal development.

He believes indigenous languages are less appreciated as compared to other courses of study. 

“In recent times there have been issues about the interest and studies of language and literature but it is mundane in the sense that it is not focusing on issues that are pertinent in our society.

“So for students who go out to study indigenous languages like Akan, Ewe, Ga, Dagomba, and the likes, their relevance is not there to see because people think they are just languages.

“Effective communication is the basis of everything we do as a society. We want to make sure that people appreciate language within Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics,” he explained. 

The Linguistics Association of Ghana (LAG) held the 14th annual conference in collaboration with the Departments of English and Language and Communication Sciences at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. 

The 3-day conference slated to end on September 30, was on the theme “Linguistics, Language, and Literature: Future Horizons”. 

The LAG conference seeks to bring together a multidisciplinary lens for people working in science and technology to explore the best practices of language infusion beneficial to society.  

It also brought together scholars who are interested in language and literary studies.  

“So in this year's conference, we are forced and challenged to think beyond what language and literature are to make it relevant to societal needs. So how are people being communicated to? For instance regarding COVID-19 and how is that influencing participation in terms of vaccination? So language permeates every aspect of society,” said Dr. Elvis ResCue.

Lecturer at the University of Education, Winneba, Prof. Yaw Sekyi-Baidoo, also added: “The crucial nature of language in the humanities endeavor is based on the fact that almost all the other endeavors rely on language to operate.

“There should be an advocacy for the centrality of human life in the pursuit of language, linguistics, and literature,” he noted.