This paper investigated the role of informal diglossia on the learning of languages in Seventh Day Adventist (S. D. A) College of Education in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Mixed research approach was adopted for the study. Population of the study comprised one hundred level 300 students in S. D. A. College of Education in Asokore-Koforidua. Purposive, convenient and simple random techniques were to select the college, level 300 students for the study. The main instruments used for data collection for study were questionnaire and interview. Data were analyzed in line with Speech Accommodation Theory, where convergence and divergence were identified. The findings of the study revealed that the S. D. A. College of Education has a multilingual speech community where languages are in contact; students select their language of communication, depending upon their speech partners based on High or Low variety. Predominantly, students code-switch between languages specifically Twi and English language. In the midst of the multilingual environment, students developed the speaking of some Ghanaian languages they could not speak before coming to the college. The study also concluded that there was adult language acquisition in colleges; besides, in a formal academic setting where students were expected to communicate in the formal language, they rather gave were much higher attention to Ghanaian languages.

1.1. Speech Community

A speech community comprises people who are in habitual contact with each other by means of speech which involves either a shared language variety or shared ways of interpreting the different language varieties commonly used in the area [1]. Another researcher postulates that a speech community as “a group of people who share a set of norms, rules and expectations regarding the use of language [2].” The S. D. A. College of Education is a speech community where the students have different language backgrounds and they speak their home languages with their colleagues who they identify as people who can speak their home language. A speech community in which more than two languages are spoken. Some languages occupy wider communication, and such languages are prestige languages. Akan language in Ghana for instance is a prestige language. Within a speech community where more than one language is spoken, the most prestigious language dominates [3]. In S. D. A. College of Education, a Ghanaian language Akan in the most dominant language; hence, it is a prestigious language. Even though it is an educational community, a tertiary institution where English language is expected to dominate, Akan is rather used by the majority.

1.2. Linguistic Implications of Language Contact: Diglossia

The languages that exist in a multilingual community are said to be in contact. In this case, two of more languages are spoken the languages are said to be in contact with one another. Language contact occurs when people with different languages and cultures encounter one another and engage in communication [4]. The consequences of language contact include; bilingualism, multilingualism, code switching, code mixing, language shift, pidgin, language change, and language death [2, 5, 6]. Diglossia is a functional specialisation of the varieties of language, and goes on to say that the context in which language is used is equally very important [7]. In modern times, diglossia is looked at as the High variety of language is used. That is when people make their language choices in an official domain, they use the High variety, and in such a situation, it is only the High variety that is needed. In some other instances, the Low variety is appropriate. Students would always select the Low variety when interacting with their colleagues. A researcher modified diglossia by referring to un-related languages or two diverse languages [8]. In this case, Fishman lays emphasis on functions that are related to the sorting of both languages, and the concerning varieties. Fasold developed the concept of broad diglossia [8]. The concept, differences are found between two languages or two dialects. Because the community inside is also multilingual, Fasold calls it double diglossia, and this is embedded with the different type of diglossia that are not the focus of this study. The three perspectives of definitions of diglossia, there is the need for language usage in both formal and informal perspectives, depending on the language choices of the speech partners. This can happen within the same language or when different languages choices in different communication situations. The availability of many languages on campus creates room for diglossia in that environment. Because more than one language is available, a careful and appropriate choices need to be made in different contexts. In any case, both formal and informal diglossia would be at work. The main concern of this paper was to examine how the informal diglossia would affect some language behaviors of the S. D. A. College of Education students in that speech community.

1.3. Theory

1.3.1. Speech Accommodation Theory

Speech Accommodation Theory (SAT) was devised in the early 1970s by social psychologist Howard Giles. SAT tried to explain how speech partners are affected during their conversations [10]. Generally, speech partners sometimes adjust their speech to the level of their interlocutors. In addition, “speakers use linguistic strategies to gain approval or to show distinctiveness in their interaction with others” [11]. In many cases, speakers make these adjustments consciously or unconsciously. The social psychologists explain SAT as “a deeply automatic process,” and claim that an automatic alignment process could account for convergence in linguistic behaviour, as a possible alternative.” SAT explains the linguistic behaviour of people involved in the conversation, and how they try to align themselves to the speech of their partners to achieve their communicative roles [12, 13]. The SA Theorists were not satisfied with their initial findings, that people change their linguistic behaviour or speech styles in diverse situations to suit their speech partners [14]. This is because they could not support the claim they made other researchers. This gave birth to Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT).

1.3.2. Communication Accommodation Theory

Accommodation consists of two main strategic forms of communication, convergence and divergence [16]. Accommodation on its own refers to changing one’s communicative behavior as stated earlier, and this may include raising lowering one’s voice, a change from a language variety to another to match the recipient’s style of speech. Convergence and divergence denote two different accommodation phenomena, but CAT focuses on these coordination choices and challenges between communicators, and the communication strategies they choose [17]. The choices the interlocutors select depends on the parties themselves, the context of the interaction, and the setting. These would make them select the appropriate language for use. In a particular situation, one or some of the partners may decide to adjust towards their speech partner(s), and this is an example of convergence. The convergence may be because of a challenge on the part of the person who converges. In some other instances, a speech partner converges due to convenience. Most researchers make use of convergence accommodation in their research more than divergence accommodation as communication strategy. Besides, it is the historical foundation of CAT, according to ([18]. It is noteworthy that accommodation and convergence are often viewed as synonymous in Gile’s definition of accommodation [16].

The study was based on Speech Accommodation Theory due to the nature of the S. D. A. College of Education. Some of the students within that speech community will display the phenomenon of Communication Accommodation Theory, with focus on convergence. S. D. A. College of Education is in Asokore Koforidua, in the Eastern Region. The college is one of the oldest colleges in the country, Ghana. The colleges of education have policies that students are expected to adhered to. One of the policies is language policy. The language policy of Ghana states that English is a medium of instruction from upper primary to the highest level of education. The rational of the English language curriculum of schools in Ghana states that English language is the official language of the country, Ghana. It is therefore expected that in official settings in the country English language is used for communication. In a setting such as S. D. A. College of Education, Asokore, the official language is expected to be used. Apart from English language, Ghanaian languages are taught and learnt in the colleges. A student’s choice of Ghanaian language depends upon their Ghanaian language background; that is their ability to read and write that language.

The indigenous language of Asokore community, where the college is sited is Twi, so Twi is the environmental language of the people. Those who perform some duties in the college use Twi for communication especially; the manual workers, food vendors, the security men the kitchen staff, among others. Within the higher educational environment, Twi, a Ghanaian language and English dominate. There are minor languages too in the research site. This kind of speech community can be described as a language contact community. In Africa, educated people in former English colonies speak English as well as one or more African languages. A great many Africans speak at least one indigenous lingua franca...in addition to a local language, and there are also many Africans who speak more than one local language [19].” If so, it is possible for students to develop any additional language in the midst of the many languages on S. D. A. College of Education campus.

The S. D. A. College of Education is a teacher training institution, which admits students from different language backgrounds in the country; as such, the students come into the college with at least a first in addition to the second language, English. Some of them get along with their mates, who speak the same language with them; others flow with those they are comfortable with irrespective of their first language backgrounds. In the students’ own closets, they make language choices that they are more comfortable with, for conversations. As such, several languages are spoken in the college in both formal and informal settings. It is therefore possible, that in the midst of many languages, the people within a speech community would learn to speak some of the available languages. Upon that basis, this research wants to find out whether students learn additional Ghanaian language within the three-years that they spent in the college. The purpose of the study was to assess the role of informal diglossia in the learning of Ghanaian language in the S. D. A College of Education. The sought to answer these research questions – (1) What is the participants’ language choice in the different communication contexts? (2) What is the speech behaviour of participants between languages during their conversations? (3) What are the implications of the participants’ language behaviour in a multilingual environment?

The study adopted mixed method approach in presenting the data on the role of informal diglossia in the language in contact in S. D. A. College of Education, Asokore-Koforidua. The population is a group of individuals that have one or more characteristics in common, and are of an interest to the researcher [20],” The population of a study is also “the group of people whom the study is about [21]” In view of these definitions, the participants being S. D. A. College of Education students made up the population of the study. The population of the study was made up of level three hundred (300) students were the final year students of that academic year. The assumption was that they spent three years in the college and they had contact with their colleagues and the environment over that period, besides it is possible, that the linguistic environment may have some impact on the students’ ability to acquire language. Purposive, convenient and simple random techniques were to select the college, level 300 students for the study. One hundred (100) students were randomly selected out of the four hundred students. The first one hundred students who came up to pick the questionnaire were used for the research. The participation was made open since it needed to be voluntary. The instruments used for collecting data were questionnaire and interview. The questionnaire was used to gather information from the students of S. D. A. College of Education regarding their language background, language use, and whether they have learned any new Ghanaian language during their three-year stay on S. D. A. College of Education campus. In addition to the questionnaire, interview was conducted, the interview was to affirm the responses given to the last question in the questionnaire. Ten students out of those who answered the questionnaire were selected for the interview.

This section present results and discussion on the role of informal diglossia in the language in contact in S. D. A. College of Education, Asokore-Koforidua.

3.1. The Native/First Language of Respondents/Participants

The native/first language of the participants was identified by looking at the participants choice of language used in their family. The extract is on Table 1.

From table 1, eleven (11) language groups were represented in the S. D. A. College of Education, Asokore. They are: English, Twi, Fanti, Ewe, Ga, Hausa, Dagaare, Dangme, Nzema, Dagbani, and Krachi. The record shows that Twi speakers constitute the highest percentage (62%) of students on campus. Speakers of Twi language left a very wide margin for the speakers of the other languages available in the college. The next language group according to the data is speakers of Ewe (9%), Ga (7%), Fanti (7%) and Dangme (7%), Hausa (3%), and the rest are Dagaare (1%), Nzema (1%), Dagbani (1%), Krachi (1%) and English (1%). One interesting information is one of the participants speaks English as a native/first language. I would say the Twi speakers constitute the highest percentage of the participants, probably because the college is in a Twi speaking environment. Many parents may be more comfortable sending their children to such a college for the purposes of proximity. Others also consider the Ghanaian language offered in the college, because it is compulsory to offer one Ghanaian language in the college. Since Koforidua is a Twi speaking area, Twi is taught as the main Ghanaian language. All other languages are minor, for students who offered languages other languages are in minority and sought assistance from teachers outside the college most of the time. Those were the bases for making choices for admission into the college. These accounted for the high number of students who speak Twi.

3.2. Students’ Use of Language in College Outside Classroom

Table 2 also represents the students’ use of language in the college, outside the classroom. Due to the formal nature of a college setting coupled with its multilingual nature, one would expect that English would be used for communication in the college. This table shows the record of participants’ language use on campus in different domains. Abbreviations used for representing the languages are as follows: [English – (Eng. or E.), Twi (T), Languages apart from English and Twi as Others (O)]. The languages classified, as ‘Others’ are the minority languages, since the speakers are not many in the college according to the records on table 1. The total number of the participants is hundred so the figures on each table represents percentages as well. English language refers to a High variety of language and other languages as a Low variety of language in the analyses.

Table 2 shows students’ language use in different domains, where they are not restricted in terms of their language choices within the confines of the college. The language use in these domains is not too formal; however, the college premises is a formal setting that is set out for academic activities at the tertiary level. The languages that the students use most in their dormitories, cafeteria, on the field during sports, church/mosque, during group discussion are English and Twi. They used two languages at the same time within the same conversation. In other words, the students alternate between the two main languages (English and Twi). Some of the students also used English only in their interactions with their colleagues, and such students may be students who could probably not speak Twi, a majority Ghanaian language on campus or do not have encounter those who speak their first language. It is also possible, that they would like to remain formal. It is also possible that they wanted to distinct themselves from others, so they decide to remain in their comfort zone. Similarly, the group of students who stick to the Twi language only; hence, do diverge from others. A few students used the minority languages as combinations such as Twi and Others (T/O), English and Others (E/O), English Twi and Others (E/T/O). This serves as evidence of switching between and among languages. There is only one situation where one participant uses a minor Ghanaian language in church/Mosque. This may be a special language used in a particular situation.

3.3. Language Use in the Formal Domain

The formal domain refers to the various college gatherings and settings where these seniors were to perform some duties that involve their interactions with their juniors. It is also involving communication situations that made the participants interact with the superiors of the college. In such situations, what are the language choices of the participants?

The records however show otherwise regarding the participants’ use of language. Forty-eight (48%) of the respondents used English language in class. This is less than 50% percent of the total number of the participants who claim they used English language, a High variety in class. Meanwhile, the medium of instruction at that level is English language, and the courses they read Ghanaian language as a core subject in level 100, and only a few people read Ghanaian language as an elective subject. It also implies that some of their teachers used the Twi with them in class, probably this can serve as an area of further research area. Forty-three (43%) of the participants said they used English and Twi (E/T) both High and Low variety in class. This means they used both languages, at the same time in the same class. They used code switching in class. There is the use of combination of English, Twi and some other languages in class. The students seem to have language choices to make in the college. There is the use of combination of English, Twi and some other languages in class. The students had choices they made in each communication situation. Seventy-one (71%) participants used English only, a High variety when they met their tutors, according to the data. The students seem to have some kind of choices they made in each communication situation.

The official language of Ghana is English; therefore, S. D. A. College of Education is expected to use English language, a High variety as the medium of instruction as well, per the language policy of the country. Due to that, it was expected that English language would be used at least in all the official domains within the confines of the college. The students’ language choice with their Principal shows their knowledge of the formality because they selected a High variety of language. As many as eighty-five (85%) participants communicated with their principal and office staff in English language. Fourteen (14%) students used English and Twi (E/T), and only one participant used English and one Other (E/O) language in that domain. Probably, those people have personal relationships with the Principal and office staff. I can say their language choice is neither High nor Low variety. The mixture of High and Low variety of language runs through all the other official domains, the highest percentage of students selected English and Twi (E/T) regarding their language use. They selected English and Twi as usual during vespers, when on duty, and when assigning duties to their juniors; these percentages were 53% 54% and 51% respectively. According to the records the use of other languages is minimal.

3.4. Media Language Use

This table 4 contains information on the students’ language use on social media and the language in which they listen to radio.

The media is another domain of language use. What was captured in this part of the data was put in three categories. They are social media and radio. The students used their mobile phones to listen to news, for WhatApp/Facebook, to send and receive information. The highest number of participants fifty-six (56%) listened to radio mostly in English and Twi (both High and Low variety). Thirteen (13%) participants who listened to radio in English language, High variety only. Eleven participants also listened to radio in English, Twi and other languages. Those who listened to news and programmes on radio in English only may be people who could not speak Twi, or may be the people who are more comfortable with the language English. The High variety of language (English) was select by majority of students 74% and 84% for communicating on social media.

3.5. Language Use Outside Campus

Table 5 presents information on the students’ language use outside the college premises, especially when they interacted with people at where they bought their items. Two domains were identified; the marketplaces and the shops.

In both domains, the participants used different languages, and only five (5%) used English only for interaction in the marketplaces, and ten (10%) in shops. It is likely that those who used English only in the marketplaces and shops could not speak any Twi at all, even at the end of the three-year period of their stay in Koforidua. Thirty-eight (38%) of students used Twi only in the marketplaces while in shops, twenty-eight (28%) of participants used Twi. Those who used Twi only in marketplaces or shops may form part of the native speakers of Twi language. Those who used English and Twi in the markets were twenty-two (22%), while those who used English and Twi in shops were thirty-two (32%) of the participants. They tend to mix / switch code in those two domains, whether in the marketplaces or shops. The other languages were combined with English, Twi or both. The use of language in the marketplaces and shops followed a trend with a kind of even distribution in the categories. Almost all the language groupings were covered, in terms of usage.

3.6. Reasons for Their Choice of Language

The participants gave similar reasons for their language choices. Some of them said they were the language(s) they were more comfortable with and they could communicate better in those languages. Some others claim they spoke those languages better. The language choices of the participants depicted the diglossia in that speech community, so the participants selected the language that they found more suitable in each communication situation. When they met people in higher authority, majority of them chose the official/formal language. That means they are aware of the official / formal language and the medium of communication in that environment.

Table 6 represents the number of people who learned to speak another Ghanaian language in addition to theirs, because of the multilingual environment. They constitute quite a high number of the population.

Out of the hundred (100) participants who were used for the research, thirty-five (35%) of them were able to acquire a Ghanaian language each; Twi, Fanti, Ewe and Ga. Those who developed Twi were nineteen (19%) participants, out of the thirty-five (35%), five (5%) developed Ewe, seven (7%) developed Fanti, and four (4%) of them developed the speaking of Ga. It is not too strange to find the participants develop Twi in that kind of environment, where Twi is spoken almost everywhere in that formal setting. Twi dominates as a language of communication in the S. D. A. College of Education, Asokore. That is where the implication of Speech Accommodation Theory operates. The participants who could not speak a particular language before they enrolled for their programme, drew closer to speakers of that language to enable them speak. Such participants converged towards the speakers of the language of their interest. The phenomenon of convergence made those participants acquire those Ghanaian languages. This seemed easier in the case of Twi due to its dominance over all the other Ghanaian languages that on the campus. In the case of Fanti, though it is a minority language, it is a variant of Akan. It would be easier for people who already speak Twi, and are interested in the Fanti, a variant of Akan to converge towards the speakers Fanti, in order to develop the speaking of Fanti and vice versa. That is; Fanti speakers can easily develop the speaking of Twi if they are interested and so are the Twi speakers.

The question is about the two other languages (Ewe and Ga), that some of the participants acquired in three years of their stay in the college, even though very few people spoke them. It is possible because they converged towards their colleagues who are speakers of those languages. Speech partners who try to identify themselves with a group to show acceptance of a language group do converge, and that made it easier for students to speak the minority languages they had acquired. Some others remained in their comfort zone, without making any effort to identify themselves with any other language group available; hence, they diverged.

Table 7 contains information on responses to the interview conducted for ten (10) participants, selected from those who answered the questionnaire. Only four questions were used for the interview and three questions out of the four were close-ended, while the last one was open-ended. The first question was to find out whether some colleagues of their cold not speak Twi before coming to the college, all the ten people responded ‘yes’. The second question was to find out whether some of their colleagues spoke Ghanaian languages other than Twi, 80% responded ‘yes’ but 20% responded ‘no’. The same responses were given to the third question that sought to find out if it was possible for someone to develop the speaking of a Ghanaian language that they did not have any idea about, before completing college. The fourth question was to find out how possible it was for one to be able to develop the speaking of a Ghanaian language in college. They gave varied but related responses. They said “they used Twi for communication almost everywhere on campus, so it was possible for people to be able to learn it naturally”. This implies that those who could not speak it before found themselves in the natural language environment, so it was easy to speak it.

One other respondent said “she learned Ga from her roommates, for she was the only neutral person among them, so she was highly uncomfortable among them and decided to adjust to the situation”. She ended up speaking Ga in Koforidua without living in Accra. One other person said “three of his friends Ewe from him and his brother”. The three other friends of theirs spoke the Ewe language because of them, but one other friend was a friend, but could not say even a word in Ewe. In each situation, the respondents converged towards their speech partners in order to develop the speaking of languages they did not know. Within that same environment, some them diverged and remained like that without learning any additional language.

What is the participants’ language choice in the different communication contexts?

The participants made choices that they found more suitable in different communication situations. In their own setting, where tutors did not form part of their conversations, they selected English and Twi; that is the choice of the majority of the students in all cases. A few students used English, and other languages, while an exceptionally few students used Twi and other languages. In their official domain of language use, the combination of language(s) still featured even in class, according to the data. However, when communicating with their Principal, as high as eighty-five students said they used English language. When it came to interaction with their tutors, seventy-one students said they used English language. In all other domains, the students used Twi only, Twi and English or other languages that are in the minority. The students lived in the midst of many Ghanaian languages on campus, and that would make a linguist describe the campus under study as a language contact site, where students select High variety of language in a highly official domain of interaction and a Low variety for its purpose.

Do participants switch between languages during their conversations?

The data shows that the students used combination of languages in their interactions with one another. Since they used more than one language in their conversations, one would say they switch between and among languages. What then is code switching? “Code switching is when a speaker alternates between two or more languages / dialects [].” People who are bilinguals usually do code switching. The fact that I would like to establish in this study is code switching existed in class in the S. D. A. College of Education, Asokore. One other discovery is code switching existed in their classrooms. The data shows that more than one language was used during classroom interactions. This one of the implications of language contact in the college.

What is/are the linguistic implication(s) of the participants’ language behaviour?

There are some linguistic implications in the contact situations within the speech community of S. D. A. College of Education, Asokore. First, there is code switching as stated earlier. Code switching /mixing existed in all the domains of communication. The participants acquired new languages in such a language contact situation, that is why some of the participants were able to acquire some of the languages that existed in that speech community. The participants made language choices based on their partners. In the official language use domain, 85% of the students used English to communicate with their Principal, and the office staff and 71% of their tutors. The students chose a High variety (English) language with their superiors but chose a Low variety of language with their colleagues. In Ghana, people place much weight on English than the Ghanaian languages. English is seen as a prestige language, and it is the official language of Ghana.

The study revealed that the speech communities of Colleges of Education are bilingual/multilingual, what the latest linguists refer to as diglossia, so is S. D. A. College of Education, Asokore. A total number of ten Ghanaian languages existed in the college at the time of the research. The study also indicated that, students selected their language for communication based on the High or Low variety, depending upon their speech partners, in that formal setting. English language is a High variety and is expected to be the medium of communication at that level, but it turned to be the combination of both varieties. All other languages belong to the Low variety. Predominantly, students switch between Ghanaian languages especially Twi and English language. The study also concluded that within the language contact situation, English and Twi were used in class in most cases, and this is a violation of the practice of the language policy of the country, Ghana. English language High variety as a medium of instruction. The study also revealed that the diglossia in Colleges of Education provides opportunity for some students to acquire the ability to speak some of the Ghanaian languages available, that they could not speak before coming to the college; therefore, there is adult language acquisition at that level. This kind of acquisition is slightly different from child language acquisition.

Author Contributions: Conceptualization, SAK, JKT, VSO, and FEG; methodology, SAK, JKT, VSO, and FEG; validation, SAK, JKT, VSO, and FEG; formal analysis, SAK, JKT, VSO, and FEG; investigation, SAK, JKT, VSO, and FEG.; resources, SAK, JKT, VSO, and FEG.; data curation, SAK, JKT, VSO, and FEG; writing—original draft preparation, SAK, JKT, VSO, and CKK; writing—review and editing, SAK, JKT, VSO, and FEG; visualization, SAK, JKT, VSO, and FEG; supervision, SAK, JKT, VSO, and FEG.; project administration, SAK, JKT, VSO, and FEG; All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding: “This research received no external funding”

Data Availability Statement: Data is available on request from the corresponding author.

Acknowledgments: we acknowledge the participants in this study.

Conflicts of Interest: “The authors declare no conflict of interest.” “No funders had any role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results”.