This paper investigates three English textbooks for primary classes 4, 5 and 6 in Ghana from the 'Gateway to English for Primary Schools' series, and their complementary teachers' guides, in order to determine the assumptions about teaching and learning which the books embody. The paper pays particular attention to the approach to language and literacy learning which underpins these materials. Littlejohn's three-level framework was used to analyse the course materials. The first stage involved the description of the textbooks, the accompanying teachers' guide and the English syllabus as well as the textbook selection and evaluation criteria, as spelt out in the 'Textbook Development and Distribution for Basic Schools in Ghana Policy'. The second level involved the analysis of tasks and activities from a sociocritical perspective. The third stage draws on the analyses of the first and second stages to determine the language and literacy principles underpinning the textbooks and related materials. Findings indicate the Gateway to English for Primary Schools series endorses the 'technical skills' approach to language and literacy development. Implications of the findings for language and literacy development in multilingual Ghanaian classrooms and for textbooks and materials development in book famine communities such as Ghana are discussed.

This paper discusses the relevance of irony as a conduit for social commentary in selected traditional personal names in Sissalaland in Ghana. The research is motivated by the fact that names, apart from their communicative functions, are also intricate layers of verbal aesthetics all over the world. This article investigates, using the theory of ethnopoetics, the concepts of irony and culture, the ability of selected traditional personal names to comment effectively on attitudes, utterances or certain postures among the Sissalas in Ghana due to the irony embedded in them. By collecting a number of names purposively from Sissala land, and by using methods such as structured interviews, observation, and participating in five naming ceremonies, the researchers are able to subject selected ironic names to a critical analysis. The findings reveal that due to the verbal art embedded in these names, they constitute a unique platform for contributing sound advice, warnings, observations, and social commentary which are all conduits of communication that keep the community functioning as a unit. The names are able to function in this way due to the role and aesthetic quality of irony.

This paper investigates the motif of moral corruption that has taken root in the modern family. The focus is on Helon Habila's novel, Measuring time, and analysis is provided on Habila's use of language, characterisation, symbolism, collocation and the saturation technique to expose the motif of corruption that recurs in several aspects of human life and existence. It is the position of this paper that literature is a representation of life, and as a matter of fact, the key issues presented in the novel through different techniques reflect the reality and universality of moral corruption as seen in human behavior and experience. In this light, the meaning of corruption is applied to one key theme raised by the author: the concept of the broken family together with other related issues of corruption observed in the wars and politics of Nigeria and her sister African countries. Again, this paper investigates Habila's use of language as an intriguing medium to communicate his views on corruption as captured in Measuring time.

The objective of this paper is to investigate how Chinua Achebe uses myth making as an attempt to address the leadership problem of his country, Nigeria. Many writers have identified leadership as the greatest problem of many countries in Africa. Consequently, Achebe uses symbolism and a language full of violence to portray the levels of corruption and abuse of power in the novel.  In this paper, we present a myth criticism of Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah by looking at how the novelist deconstructs Biblical and traditional stories to show that women should be given a greater political role alongside men to chart a new course of development. Achebe’s novel is dominated by the myth of the Pillar of Fire which he takes from the Bible and the Idemili myth which he takes from the traditions of his people. At the end of the deconstruction of these two myths, the only viable alternative left is the all-inclusive group led by the priestess of Idemili and hope is finally enshrined in the baby girl Amaechina.