Browsing by Author "Almaz Wasse"

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    The Challenges of Language Standardization: The Case of Gamo
    (Addis Ababa University, 2018-01) Almaz Wasse ; Hirut W/Mariam
    Article 3.5.1of The Education and Training Policy (1994) of the Federal Democratic Republic Government of Ethiopia has granted citizens with legal policy grounds to use their native languages as mediums of primary education. This legal initiative has resulted in the introduction of many local languages to education and other official settings. The placement of the languages into the new domains has created opportunities to develop and standardize them. Gamo is one of the languages, which, due to such policy changes, has received orthography and is introduced as a medium of instruction in schools. This research tried to investigate the social challenges faced in the standardization process of the Gamo language. It argues that as a language newly introduced into different domains, Gamo has to be standardized to fulfill the newly assigned social roles. There is a pressing need to establish a standard language that fits the attitudes and demands of the Gamo society. A standard language of Gamo would effectively play various social roles if the users participate in the standardization process by forwarding their views in different settings. So far, we do not have sufficient information about the social attitudes and needs towards the standardization of Gamo. The research, hence, endeavored to fill in this gap by providing valuable data about the real attitudes and needs of speakers of the language at the grassroots level. The research tried to address the following questions; which dialect is used as a base for the standard norm of Gamo and what criteria determined the selection? What are the main challenges that the standardization process encountered? How do the norm selection decisions interplay with the actual social needs and attitudes of the speakers towards Gamo and its standardization? And, how can Gamo be standardized best? In order to find answers to these questions, the research adopted a mixed data collection method and employed questionnaire, interviews, focus group discussions and document analysis. The findings revealed that “the standard form of Gamo” was mainly based on the Dache dialect, which is one of the dialect variants of the language spoken by the majority of the population. Other dialects like Kucha, Ochollo and Dorze, also shared with Dache most of the words collected from the standard language, but the Ganta dialect shared only a quarter of the words analyzed. The majority of the respondents had positive attitude towards Dache to serve as a standard Gamo. They believed that Dache can serve best as a base to the standard norm since it is spoken and understood by the majority of the society identified as ethnically Gamo, and can keep social unity and integration. However, there was a strong interest reflected by many participants of different dialect speakers to see some features of their respective dialects accommodated in the standard Gamo. In fact, some morphological and lexical features of those dialects were rarely used in the texts analyzed so far, but that did not please the users since the inclusion was very random and lacks consistency of application, i.e the dialect features were often replaced by the standard forms. On the other hand, the majority of the participants’ conviction, from the five dialect groups, was that words from Ganta cannot be included in the present standard Gamo. There was a concern that if features from divergent dialects are included in the standard form, the written norm might result in confusion and misunderstanding for others in communication. The degree of dialectal variation, procedures followed to standardize the language, and attitudes held towards using Gamo in wider public settings were considered to be the major challenges of standardization in Gamo. Based on the findings, the research concluded that the norm selection technique followed in the standardization of Gamo was monocentric. The study considers that the adoption of a polycentric multidialectal approach in the establishment of standard Gamo is one of the basic factors to achieve successful language standardization. Particular features of Kucha, Ochollo and Dorze, and other dialects not included in this study as well, should be studied further and should be introduced progressively into the written form to be part of the standard norm of Gamo. On the other hand, trying to entirely mix Ganta with standard Gamo is impossible due to the prevailing linguistic Gap and may pose a new challenge to norm acceptance. Instead, pending the development of an independent standard to divergent dialects of Gamo, selected words of Ganta can be introduced into the current standard. That makes the standard norm impartial to the speakers and may enable the respective Ganta dialect speakers to develop a sense of ownership of the language of education.
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    Youth Civic Engagement in Addis Ababa; the Case of Selected Woredas of Yeka and Bole Sub Cities
    (Addis Ababa University, 2024-06) Almaz Wasse; Yeshtila Wondimeneh (PhD)
    Youth civic engagement has gained considerable attention from government and non-government bodies as a mechanism to mobilize youth talents and capacities in development initiatives and to foster positive youth development by building their self-esteem as informed citizens who are responsible to lead the future. In spite of such initiatives, youth are facing multifaceted challenges that hamper their participation in civic engagement activities (Suchowerska, 2013) (Wray-lake et al., 2012) (Jalata, 2014). With this backdrop, this research tried to assess youth civic engagement and the challenges they encountered in their endeavor by taking participants from selected woredas of Yeka and Bole sub cities in Addis Ababa. A mixed method design was adhered to collect quantitative and qualitative data with a survey questionnaire, which was distributed to 262 youth respondents, and individual interviews conducted with 17 youth and 8 youth experts at the woreda administrations. The data were triangulated during the analysis and interpretation phases where the qualitative data were used to enhance the quantitative data. The results indicated that youth civic engagement was low especially in voting and signing petition, advocacy and reading newspapers and magazines. Though the youth participants were enthusiastic to be engaged, they were discouraged by lack of support and opportunities. The prevailing civic engagement platforms in different settings like schools and government administrations were not designed in terms of the talents, needs and interests of the contemporary youth. Therefore, youth civic engagement opportunities need to be expanded in the community and in the administrative zones. Youth focused engagement programs should be creative and innovative to address and motivate the youth by addressing their interests. Besides, the youth should take part in designing youth programs implemented at the grassroots levels like woreda administrations.