User:Lotaala

I am working at Uganda Martyrs University as Associate Professor and Dean, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. I have a Bachelor of Arts in English Language Studies, A Diploma in Education, A Masters degree in Linguistics and a doctoral degree in Language Education.

I am Ugandan coming from the Eastern part of the country. My mother tongue is Ateso, a language belonging to the Nilo-Saharan family of Languages. There is not much written on the language. A basic grammar, written by missionaries in the 1950s, is now out of print. Although I am interested in writing about my language, I missed the opportunity when I went to work outside the country some years ago. My work situation did not create the motivation for a study of my language. Now that I am back in the country I am motivated to find out more about my language. One of the difficulties in this endeavour is choosing an appropriate theory to use. A lot has happened since I last did my studies and I need to learn current theories to move me forward in this endeavour. I am right now attending Summer School at Makerere University in which I am being exposed to different theories. I believe at the end of this training I will be better prepared.

Besides descriptions of the language, I am also interested in Language change. There is also a lot that has happened to the Ateso language because of the new political set-up. This has created a new area of study that I would like to get into.

Another area of study that has excited me in the recent past is the sociolinguistic uses of English, particularly in Uganda. It is one of the areas on which I want to work.