Task participants

It can be observed that in the constructed simulated task dialogues (STDs), as they occur in Appendix (A-ii), between page 444 and page 539, there are italicized surnames, at the beginning of each dialogue. These are the surnames of task participants (learners) who are required to express/narrate the respective constructed STDs besides which the surnames appear.

I purposely obtained these surnames (including surnames of those four learners who were chosen to present proposals, see section 1.8.1.2.1, on page 20, on the construction of overarching task theme), from two WhatsApp groups in which I am an active member. One WhatsApp group (hereafter group X) is composed of members that I studied with in primary school in Dar es salaam, Tanzania, as mentioned in section 1.8.1, on page 17, the other group (henceforth group Y) is constituted by members from two neighbouring secondary schools (single boys’ school and single girls’ school) in Uganda. It is in the boy’s school that I attended lower secondary studies, a level to which the communication tasks demonstrated in this study is devoted.

Being a selective member of several WhatsApp groups, the choice of the two groups (i.e. X & Y), as used in this study is based on the following reason(s). From the commencement of my PhD studies, these are groups that I frequently socialize and engage in conversations of some topical discussions. In such conversations, as group members, we engage in correcting each other’s

deviations in grammar and written spelling mistakes either in English or in Kiswahili languages. In fact, it is through these experiences, that I conceived ideas that I later developed into two newspaper articles, one in English language and other in Kiswahili language.

The article in English was titled How to learn to write Kiswahili in seconds (Jjingo 2016), was intended to encourage among other Ugandans, the members within group Y to employ available resources as a way of improving in writing newly acquired or existing Kiswahili words etc. These resources include personal inquiries from mainly L1 Kiswahili speakers such as those in the group. For example, this study employed this resource in ascertaining the usability and contextual aspects of several Kiswahili corresponding STDs that I constructed (cf. section 1.8.3, on page 19).

Similarly, the second article was written in Kiswahili. Its title can loosely be translated to ‘how WhatsApp groups can be the impetus to the development of Standard Kiswahili’ (see Jjingo 2017a,b). Unlike the first article, the second article was intended to mainly members within group X to attempt using conventionally accepted forms of Kiswahili grammar as a way of promoting the use of standard Kiswahili in the group. Partly, this article informed the current study in a way I constructed the overarching task theme (see Appendix (A)) and all the task descriptions (see Appendix (A-i)). In other words, I developed the overarching task theme and all task descriptions using a standard Kiswahili variety only. However, very few sections of the corresponding STDs exhibit the use of some Kiswahili colloquial (see, for example, dialogue segments [c15] and [c16],

occurring in section 4.5.4.3.1, on page 296), as a way of reflecting the natural use of Kiswahili language in the real-world situations.

1.8.1.2.2.1. The selection of (the names and roles of) task participants

The two WhatsApp groups (i.e. X and Y), as discussed in the previous section, provided this study with the names of the task participants. Thus, for the purpose of Ugandan Kiswahili L2 learners to associate with the intended syllabus to be designed (cf. section 2.4.5.3, on page 87, for similar views on this issue), I used some surnames from group Y. Similarly, for the syllabus to reflect the contexts in which Kiswahili is traditionally confined and spoken as mainly an L1, (see section 1.1.1, on page 6, for such contexts), I used some surnames of the members from group X.

In line with research ethics (see Appendix (C)), I requested to use the surnames of the respective persons consulted through the following procedures. First, by using my phone, I sent the information, in form of a short message service (SMS), to the administrator of each of the two groups (i.e. X and Y). In the SMS, I expressed to the administrators and the WhatsApp group, in

general, the need to have some volunteers, from each group to provide me with their surnames for using in my PhD project. In this SMS, I briefly provided highlights on what my PhD project entails and its intended goals (see Appendix (C-i)). Subsequently, the administrators posted the SMS to the groups’ platforms for serving this purpose. Thus, in response to my request, some members of the two groups (i.e. X and Y) willingly and overtly submitted their surnames on the general platform for use by me. Out of the thirty-six surnames I received, it is only one member, Msella, who sent his name privately.

Having compiled the list of the surnames from the two groups (i.e. X and Y), I assigned each name to a given corresponding simulated task dialogue(s). In most cases, the assigning exercise reflected some attributes of the character of the person whose name it is, either, as I observed from a given WhatsApp group or, from my memory, as s/he used to conduct her/himself during the old school days. In this regard, there are some participants with longer turns than others. Similarly, I point out that there are some surnames used as task participants that have been assigned the actual roles that person having these surnames do as careers in real-world situations. For Example, Teacher Peta is an academic while Dr Mutebi is a clinical officer. Furthermore, there are few members that submitted more than one surname. This is because there are situations where I needed more surnames, as a result of additional task participants’ roles and positions that were created in the simulated task as I was modifying the constructed STDs, for the purpose of maintaining cohesion in the flow of narration. Members with two surnames include Teacher Peta whose other name is Mhoma; Chipoli is also Majolo, and Aimbora is Nkya.