Language and culture, indispensable tools in national development- Kuupole

Cape Coast, Nov. 12, GNA - Professor Dowini Dabire Kuupole, Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) on Monday said  language and culture were indispensable ingredients in any meaningful national development effort. He said it was therefore imperative that language experts made their contributions  to national development through research activities that focused on language policy and planning, language education, translation and literature. Prof. Kuupole said this when he opened the Ninth Inter-University conference on Co-existence of Languages in West Africa at the UCC under the theme: “Language, Culture and National Development”. The four-day conference, which is being organized by the UCC Faculty of Arts and the fourth it is hosting, is being attended by about 50 participants from the UCC, University of Education, Winneba, as well as the Universities of Ouagadougou, Kara-Togo  and Abidjan. Prof. Kuupole said the theme for the conference was very appropriate since the important role played by language in national development was not much touted and was hopeful that its critical role, particularly in West African nations, would be brought to bear. He stressed the need to regularly bring together scholars in language related disciplines in West Africa educational institutions  to exchange ideas on issues affecting the region in terms of the role language plays in the development of the various regions. He said such conferences helped participants to learn about current works in the fields of research so as to keep them abreast of literature and also build relationships with other researchers which could lead to the establishment of important research and social networks. Prof. Kuupole said despite the fact that the conference had tremendous importance to the language departments of the participating institutions, funding had now become a major problem and added that the conference should come out with a sustainable means of funding future conferences. Some of the topics to be treated at the conference include Language and Development, General and Applied Linguistics, Literature and Development as well as Translation and Development. GNA ... Read Full Story