Organising committee: Nicole Hober & Ramona Kreis
Invited Plenary Speakers
Dr. Mirka Honkanen
University of Freiburg
“Nigerian English in Digital Communication”
Cartesium, 9:15 a.m.
In our globalized world, post-colonial Englishes, such as Nigerian English, now function as mobile and digitized resources in diasporic communities and digitally mediated communication. This talk focuses on the use of Nigerian English on the popular Nigerian web forum Nairaland by Nigeria-based as well as expatriate Nigerians. I will report on how the archive of Nairaland was turned into a large corpus and a Net Corpora Administration Tool (NCAT) was developed for easy access, searching through, visualization, and annotation of these data (Honkanen & Alcón López 2023; Mair & Pfänder 2013). I will demonstrate the potential of NCAT for corpus-based discourse-analytic research and describe how various morphosyntactic, lexical, and pragmatic features of Nigerian English can be investigated in the data. I will also show how some phonological features of Nigerian English are reflected in non-standard spelling on the forum. Finally, the role of Nigerian English alongside other linguistic resources — mainly Nigerian Pidgin, ethnic Nigerian languages, and American Englishes — in the linguistic ecology of Nairaland and the construction of Nigerian identities will be explored.
References
Honkanen, Mirka & Daniel Alcón López. 2023. “Exploring diasporic Nigerian digital writing with the Net Corpora Administration Tool.” In Readings in Corpus Linguistics: A Teaching and Research Guide for Scholars in Nigeria and Beyond, ed. by Foluke O. Unuabonah, Rotimi O. Oladipupo & Florence O. Daniel. Ibadan: Kraft Books Limited. 48–77.
Mair, Christian. & Pfänder, Stefan. 2013. “Vernacular and multilingual writing in mediated spaces: Web-forums for post-colonial communities of practice.” In Space in Language and Linguistics: Geographical, Interactional, and Cognitive Perspectives [Linguae & Litterae 24], ed. by Peter Auer, Martin Hilpert, Anja Stukenbrock & Benedikt Szmrecsanyi. Berlin: De Gruyter. 529–556.
Dr. Folajimi Oyebola
University of Bremen
“Investigating Varieties of Spoken English: Attitudes and Identity in a Postcolonial Context”
SFG, 12:30 p.m.
In my talk, I will share my findings from investigating attitudes of Nigerians towards five accents of English (American English, British English, Ghanaian English, Jamaican English, and Nigerian English). In the study, I employed a range of direct (direct questionnaire and interviews) and indirect (the verbal-guise test) approaches of attitude measurement in order to elicit detailed information on the perceptions of Nigerian respondents. I will also discuss the possible influence of factors such as gender, regional provenance, and level of exposure on their evaluation of accents of English. Finally, I will discuss the implications of my findings with regard to the choice of a linguistic model in a postcolonial context.
Schedule of Presentations
Sessions 10.30 – 11.50
SFG 2020
Session chair: Nicole Hober
10.30 – 10.50: Alica Wittschen “The Use of English and Malay in Lat’s Comics”
10.50 – 11.10: Jennifer Elhart “Maltese English going Online”
11.10 – 11.30: Leonie Hildenbrand “Into the Ocean: A Comparative Study of Two Lesser-known Varieties of English”
11.30 – 11.50: Nele Heins “From Columbus to Banana Boom: Post-colonial Language Education Policies in Honduras”
SFG 2030
Session chair: Anke Schulz
10.30 – 10.50: Aliyha Ahmad “Exploring Linguistic Features in Songs”
10.50 – 11.10: Anna Melles “Language in German Weather Reports”
11.10 – 11.30: Nicola Ellmers “Ecologically Beneficial and Destructive Communication Patterns in Weather Reports”
11.30 – 11.50: Philip Nguyen “Shaping Perceptions: The Role of Advertising an Public Relations in Framing Meat Consumption as Ecologically Acceptable and Healthy”
SFG 2040
Session chair: Tamara Drummond
10.30 – 10.50: Mohammed Bakhchouch “Multimodal Persuasion in Political Cartoons”
10.50 – 11.10: Ziba Tavakolifar “Exploring the Creation of Persuasion in Book Bans Infographics by the American Library Association for Intellectual Freedom: Analyzing Semiotic Modes of Infographics”
11.10 – 11.30: Siavash Hajbahramian “Multimodal Persuasion Analysis: Exploring the Dynamics of Debating”
11.30 – 11.50: Mohsen Mirzaei “Analyzing Persuasive Strategies in YouTube Thumbnails and Titles: A Study of PewDiePie and GothamChess YouTube Channels”
Sessions 13.15 – 14.35
SFG 2020
Session chair: Nicole Hober
13.15 – 13.35: Tom Kleinwort “Lesser-known varieties = Lesser-known memes? Analysis and comparison of Bay Island English”
13.35 – 13.55: Tomi Rehiger “Consonants in Taiwanese English”
13.55 – 14.15: Sirojiddin Bobokulov “Lexical Creativity in Singapore English”
14.15 – 14.35: Marjona Kahhorova “Lexical Borrowings in Nigerian English”
SFG 2030
Session chair: Stephanie Bergmann
13.35 – 13.55: Siavash Hajbahramian “Lexical Creativity in Dota 2 Gaming Communities”
13.55 – 14.15: Azeez Saeed Haji Zaghla “Lexical Creativity in Cameroonian English”
14.15 – 14.35: Tugba Aktürk “Innovative Particle Verbs in ESL Varieties”
SFG 2040
Session chair: Anke Schulz
13.15 – 13.35: Avija Morell “Language Accommodation Strategies of Intercultural Couples Who Use English as a Lingua Franca”
13.35 – 13.55: Jennifer Elhart “Ecofeminism Through the Lens of Ecolinguistics”
13.55 – 14.15: Surayia Mostafa “Namibian English on YouTube: Investigating Pronunciation Variations, Discourse Markers, and the Presence of Regional Vocabulary”
14.15 – 14.35: Mohsen Mirzaei “The Historical Development and Linguistic Aspects of Cockney Rhyming Slang”
Sessions 14.55 – 16.15
SFG 2020
Session chair: Nick Romberg
14.55 – 15.15: Kelly Mainwaring “Age and Gender Differences in the Humor of Covid Deniers”
15.15 – 15.35: Esra Miray Bas “Collective Trauma and Wholesomeness During Covid-19: How We Evolved into Lovebugs as a Coping Mechanism”
15.35 – 15.55: Alexander Gahre “Digital Humor for All Ages: An Examination of the Psychological Categories of Humor in Memes across Generations”
15.55 – 16.15: Lorette Genot “Memes with Biological Content: Exploring the Humor’s Self-enhancing or Self-defeating Nature”
Digital: Lena Hinners “Digital humour in brand advertising: usage of memes by corporate brands”
SFG 2030
Session chair: Ekin Öz
14.55 – 15.15: Madinabonu Azimboeva “Total Reduplication in Nigerian English”
15.15 – 15.35: Zukhriddin Mukhiddinov “The Role of Technology in Lexical Expansion in World Englishes: A Study of Internet Slang and Acronyms”
15.35 – 15.55: Surayia Mostafa “Similarities and Differences in Indian English and Bangladeshi English Lexica: A Comparative Analysis”
SFG 2040
Session chair: Stephanie Bergmann
14.55 – 15.15: Tom Kleinwort “The Psychology and Politics in Tractor Memes”
15.15 – 15.35: Tomi Rehiger “The Evolution of Internet Memes”
15.35 – 15.55: Weronika Maria Kotowska & Ceren Kurt “Code-Switching in South Africa”
15.55 – 16.15: Adeyosola Oyewo “The Beauty of Nigerian English”
Poster Presentations
| Jessica Janssen | Attitudes of Ghanaian Expats Living in Germany towards Varieties of English |
| Philip Nguyen | Examining Miscommunication in Bremen’s Health System: The Impact of Language Barriers |
| Sidney Tröger | Exploring Students’ Aversion to French in German Schools: Investigating Perceptions, Challenges, and Strategies to Make French Language Education more Attractive |
| Alexander Gahre and Florian Kruska | Factors Influencing the Long-term Language Proficiency of ESL Children at Bilingual English-German Kindergartens in Germany |
| Jennifer Elhart | Generational Differences in German-Russian Code Switching |
| Jessica Breitlow and Milena Ziemann | Intergenerational Transmission of Minority Languages: The Role of Gender in Language Transmission |
| Kelly Mainwaring | The Paradox of Linguistic Hierarchy: Unveiling the Socio-Cultural Dynamics of Multilingualism and the Perception of Language Value |
| Leonie Hildenbrand | The Role of Multilingualism in Identity Construction: SLA and Its Influence on Students’ Identity |
| Nadine Schramm and Nadja Zimmermann | Are We Teaching Racism? A Critical Textbook Analysis |
| Ronja Schulz, Asena Kuzpinari, and Pit Walter | Cultural Representation in Turkish and German EFL Textbooks |
| Kelly Mainwaring | Exploring the Influence of Language Backgrounds on English Language Learning |
| Anna Lina Bornschlegel, Jana Buckermann, and Linda Mellentin | Influence of German ESL Learners’ Language Biographies on Their Attitudes Towards Varieties of English |
| Sophie Kamps, Fiona Häger, and Matthias Seemann | The Effects of the Community Language Learning Method on Emotional Attitudes Towards Language Learning in an EFL classroom |
| Lena Otto and Megan Dwinger | Language Authenticity in the EFL classroom – EFL textbooks through a Critical Lens |
| Nadine Schramm | Differences in the Interpretation of Emojis: A Comparative Study of Arousal and Valence across Various Generations and Cultures |
| Lorette Genot and Fiona Häger | Conceptualization of Climate Change and Weather Phenomena in Song Lyrics |
| Alban Pllana | The Analyzation of Song Lyrics and What They Want to Tell Us |
| Milena Ziemann | The IFC’s Ideology on the Animal Industry |