RUSSIAN IN GHANA AND STUDENTS’ COMMON ERRORS

The motivation for language learning is influenced by political, social and cultural influence. The Russian language was introduced to the academic curriculum at the University of Ghana several decades ago. To understand advantages and disadvantages of Russian learning, it is necessary to reveal what is behind the language policy in Ghana. In this paper, we consider how language structures are used in the Russian language, and how local languages affect it. By means of the influence of both English language and local languages, we observe common errors that appear in students’ speech and papers.


INTRODUCTION
Language is a social phenomenon. It can go through the processes of development if only a certain society exists. Language cannot exist beyond the society. Being socialized, language follows the time. Language cannot be stigmatized. It functions in a new way under new conditions.
The motivation for language learning is influenced by socio-cultural and political factors of a country the language of which is presented in a particular society. The stronger economy of the country the more motivation learners have. It can be proved on the basis of the French language under Napoleon Bonaparte, Spanish language in the period of powerful Spanish Fleet, English language of the British monarchy [1].
We will look at the language situation in Ghana, particularly on the basis of Russian as a foreign language.
The Russian language was introduced to the academic curriculum in Ghana several decades ago. In order to unravel both advantages and disadvantages of Russian learning, it is necessary to reveal what is behind the foreign-language policy in Ghana. The Soviet leadership did well inviting students to the Soviet schools providing free education for them. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the situation changed drastically on the education level. In recent years, the cooperation between Ghana and modern Russia as a successor of the former Soviet Union, has been brought to a new level and become more fruitful. ARSENAL The use of a certain language envisages specific social behavior and interaction among members of a society. Language is a symbol of behavior in a society. The relation between a language and a society is based on the abundance of both linguistic and extra-linguistic factors. There exist both close language interconnection and mutual influence in multilingual space. This phenomenon is clearly seen in those multilingual societies, in which an official language co-exists with local languages and is influenced by them. Multilingualism became a norm rather than an exception [2]. Primary socialization of a child in Ghana starts from the very first days after a child is born. The family members begin communicating with a baby in the language typical of the family. They use Twi, Ga, Fanti, Hausa or any other local languages. When a child grows, the enclosed area is not narrow any more, and the child has an access to other ethnic groups. While being in touch with friends from other language groups, the child is involved in the process of unstoppable march of "language bombarding" (of course, in positive meaning of the word) [3].
If we consider the variety of languages spoken, we come to an understanding that multilingualism has more advantages than disadvantages. Multilingual users get many benefits [4]. Better job prospects, a cognitive boost, protection against mental disorders are some of them. Research shows that they can view the world in different ways depending on the specific language they are operating in. Brain receives a positive impulse. Mental flexibility occurs more often, and mental activity has a certain protective effect. A speaker has to switch sounds, cultural concepts, grammatical structures (Thomas Bak, a neurologist at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland; Brian Gold, a neuroscientist at the University of Kentucky, Lexington). Ageing processes are also delayed in multilinguals. This category of people tend to make more rational decisions in a second/third language [4][5][6][7][8]. Some activities were organized by the Cambridge Bilingualism Network in order to address the following questions: -How does multilingualism affect relations between individuals and their communities? -What are the cognitive advantages of multilingualism? -How far can current linguistic theories account for code-switching? (Prof. Wendy Ayres-Bennett, Dr. Dora Alexopoulu, Dr. Napoleon Katsos).
In accordance with the curriculum, the University of Ghana offers blocs of courses to first-year students, among which a foreign language appears. Besides, the number of academic hours is not enough, and it makes the learning process difficult. That is why many of students drop the language course at Level 200. Some of the students do not have any desire or motivation to continue learning any foreign languages, since the University "decides" for them in terms of choosing major courses. But motivated students have an opportunity to do a foreign language as a major course beginning with Level 300. Finally, they participate in a year-abroad programme.
The students are offered the Course Outlines where the language policy, objects, learning outcomes are described to make the cooperation between students and lecturers more fruitful. The course will focus on a good command of Russian. It involves a comprehensive review of Russian grammar at an advanced level with emphasis on comprehension, reading, writing and oral skills.

ABOUT THE COURSE
The course occupies 1 credit hour of the total number of credit hours and it will be purely language based. Dr. G.N. Adam will hold another two-credit part of the course.
Course Objective/Goals: The attainment of a high level of language proficiency in comprehension, translations practice and oral skills.
Students should understand complicated Russian texts, be ready to discuss problems raised. They have to use complex grammatical structures.
Learning Outcomes: The course will start with the revision of aspects of Russian grammar and vocabulary. The study of new materials will be done through using "Знакомимся с русскими традициями и жизнью россиян" and "Yeralash" textbooks since they enable students to practice out-of-class language skills. Monthly movie shows will help students to get acquainted with the culture behind the language and will help the students to cope with difficulties of Russian environment alive. At the end of every month students will have to present projects on selected topics.

Course Delivery (optional):
This is the language part of the course.

Plagiarism policy
Students are to present authentic papers. If plagiarism (materials copied from another student) is detected, both the original and the copied work will be cancelled. No mark will be awarded. Internet and materials from other resources should be only used if they are necessary. In those cases the source of information should be given.

Assessment and Grading
Mid-Semester Test/Interim Assessment 5% Presentation and Class Participation 5% Final Exam 20%

Grading Scale:
One credit is for the linguistic aspect of the course. There will be a written examination. Ten percent of the given course will be determined by continuous assessment and class attendance, as well as mid-semester test. Apart from weekly assessment of take-home ARSENAL assignment, vocabulary and grammar short tests will be held. Students should be active in class. They must attend classes and come on time.
Twenty percent is reserved for the end-of-semester oral examinations.

Other Information:
Students have to be active in class, take part in class discussions. They are also advised to study on their own. They have to practice materials learnt in class with their groupmates. They also need to work systematically to bring their knowledge to a higher level. The students can listen to radio programmes, watch the Russian TV programmes as well as movies, read Russian fiction and poetry at least 50 minutes daily. They have to be aware of events going on both in Russia and the Russian language environment, study Russian culture and traditions through various resources available.
Course Delivery Plan/Schedule includes the following topics (Level 400): Week In the process of teaching, we notice mistakes on phonetic, lexical and grammatical levels. Russian is a Slavic language of Eastern Europe. The typical mistakes help to set АРСЕНАЛ the peculiarities, to select the methods of teaching, to direct the teaching/learning process in the right way.
Difficulties appear from the first class since the Cyrillic alphabet is used in the Russian language. The letters can be divided into four main groups: Combinations of -sk which is replaced by -ks and -fl which is replaced by -fr create another problem in middle and initial positions: The incorrect use of stress leads to confusion when we deal with homographs. The meaning depends on the correct stress: Уже-ужЕ The lexeme "please' is borrowed from local language through English into Russian, even though it is out of use: Do you have a book? -No, please. У тебя есть книга? -Нет, пожалуйста. [U tebya yest kniga? -Net, pazhalusta.] The following English nouns have similar equivalents in the Russian language: a planetпланета, a problem-проблема, a minute-минута, a second-секунда. When comparing with the English version, students are deceived because they use the same form as it appears in the English language. Even though, the forms are similar but they are not identical. Russian nouns of this group have ending [a] which shows that the gender of the nouns is feminine. Using English form states the masculine gender which is incorrect.
Approximate lexemes lead to typical mistakes, too.  (3): What will you have for breakfast tomorrow? Seeing two approximate forms within the sentence boundaries, students might be alert that it is impossible to use the same lexemes: obviously, these should be if not different parts of speech, then different nouns.
The Russian language possesses two forms of the pronoun you: official and unofficial. It is easy to understand the phenomenon for those students who did French course before, since forms tu/vous exist in the French language. Russian form ты [ty] is used to address friends or family members that are in close relations, while вы [vy] is used when addressing older people, teachers, officers and also two or more people. For English-speaking students it is difficult to differentiate between these forms at the beginning. They often make mistakes. It should be taken into account that it is not polite, or rather rude, if a person uses wrong forms in wrong situations in Russia, e.g. when addressing a lecturer, a student uses ты We found out that time clusters are used in incorrect way. If the minute has not reached figure 6, the time is indicated by means of 1) a cardinal numeral in the nominative case; 2) the word '1 минута, 2-4 минуты, 5-20 минут'; 3) the genitive case of the ordinal numeral denoting the next full hour: 8:10 -десять минут девятого [desyat" minut devyatava], 1:15 -четверть второго [chetvert' vtarova], 4:02 -начало пятого [nachala pyatava] (several minutes past …).
If the minute hand points to figure 6, the time is indicated by the word 'половина' [palavina] followed by the genitive case of the ordinal numeral denoting the next full hour: 11:30 -половина двенадцатого [palavina dvenatsatava].
While learning the foreign language, local way of thinking prevails. Polysemantic units cause confusion for learners. Difficulties occur in translating realia, and often word-forword interpretation creates the comic effect: закончить школу/университет с золотой медалью/красным дипломом [zakonchit' shkolu s zalatoy medalyu/krasnym diplomam] (to finish secondary school/graduate from the university with honours). Literal translation creates difficulties since it does not make any sense: word combinations are translated "golden medal and red diploma".
On grammatical level, prepositions of location and direction, three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and six cases, as well as declension of nouns, cause difficulties.
Unlike English, the Russian verbs denoting location or direction use the same preposition in post position: It affects the noun since direction requires the accusative case while location requires the prepositional case: Он пошел в школу. Он в школе. Compare: He went to school (direction). He is at school (location). By means of prepositions, the forms are identified.
Soft sign makes palatalization occur in words, while hard sign -ъ helps to separate syllables where it is necessary to avoid joint parts between the consonant and vowel sounds: подъехать [pad-ye-hat'] (approach). Without hard sign, the word will sound [pa-de-hat'] which is not typical of the Russian language; sometimes hard sign separates prefixes from the root of the word. Prefixes  A typical mistake occurs in a pair 'ферма/фирма' [ferma/firma] (a farm/a firm). In a lexeme 'ферма', [e] is pronounced [3:]. It makes students use a wrong version if they translate it as 'a firm/a company'. The Russian verb system has a complex structure based on tenses, two conjugations and aspects. For native speakers it is easy to identify the declension by using verbs, third person plural. The correct ending depends on the conjugation: -и-or -е-. If a verb has ending -ут/-ют [ut, yut] in third person plural, the verb belongs to Conjugation I and verb endings in all other persons possess -e (-ешь, -ет, -ем, ете); if ending is -ат/-ят [at yat], it shows Conjugation II and verb endings in all other persons contain -и element (-ишь, -ит, -им, -ите). It influences verb endings in all other persons and number. The wrong ending in third person plural will sound clumsy. But for foreign students this technique does not work because foreigners do not have intuitive perception of the language at the primary stage of learning. Sometimes, any form seems correct. The form 'сидю' [sidyu] (to sit) like some other verb forms is wrongly used even by native speakers, especially from rural areas. The correct version is 'сижу' [sizhu].
Double negation is used in Russian unlike in the English language: Я никого не видел [Ya nikavo ni videl. Compare: I saw no one].
Adverbial modifiers of time in the Russian language borrowed English punctuation: In spring 1992, we moved to Tomsk. Весной 1992 (года), мы переехали в Томск. Vesnoy 1992 goda, my pereyehali v Tomsk. The adverbial modifier of time cannot be separated by means of comma in the Russian sentence: Мы переехали в Томск весной 1992 года.
Here we offer the samples of tests that are used in the University of Ghana in Lexicology (Test 1), Russian Language Skills (Test 2.1, Test 2.2). If the tests are passed, students change the language level to a higher one and they are ready to participate in a yearabroad programme: Test 1 1. Which of the following words are used in the plural only? Братья, будни, трактора, берега, прятки, овощи, города, каникулы, листья, макароны, сутки, магазины, шашки, друзья, дрожжи, чернила, ворота, ученики, брюки, апельсины.
Vocabulary: Талантливая молодежь -talented youth Приток -flow Развитие науки и обучения / высшей школы -development of science and higher education Ценить и гордиться -appreciate and be proud Сотрудничать, жить в мире и дружбе -cooperate, live in peace and friendship Выпускник -graduate student Посланник -messenger Деловые круги -business elite Связь, отношения -relations Общественность -society Менталитет -mentality After reading the text, the students are asked to answer some questions and discuss the topics related to the main ideas in the texts that students read.