Ms. Roberta L. Gardiner

I started part-time lecturing in Voice and Speech in 1990, while a full-time member of staff at Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, following in the footsteps of Ms Helen Odamtten.  At GBC I was attached first at the Radio Training School, and later became Head of TV Training.  In 1990 there was no formal training for broadcasters – GBC still held a monopoly and was only able to train its full-time staff.  The then GBC Director-General together with the then Director of Radio suggested that I look to the School of Performing Arts for recruits who are at least partially trained for voice work on Radio and Television.  This in turn led to the then Head of Theatre Arts, Mr. Sandy Arkhurst, suggesting that I apply for a post as Part-time Lecturer. 

After the liberalisation of the airwaves and through links GBC has, I expanded my contacts with Metro TV and Joy fm and several graduates from the Theatre Arts Department of the School of Performing Arts gained employment at these broadcast houses.  This lead to expanding Voice & Speech and Effective Communication beyond live staged plays to include Microphone and Camera techniques for Radio and Television presentations, such as Radio Theatre, TV Theatre and Storytelling. 
Now that Ghana has Radio and Televisions broadcasting only in local languages it has become necessary to call on SPA alumni who continued careers in local languages to explore, adopt and adapt basic universal communication skills for local languages.  This is in an effort to prepare the younger generations to carve careers in the real world and to communicate to any and all Ghanaians in a skilled and professional manner and merely as ‘gifted amateurs’.

RESEARCH
My so-called research has always been two-fold:
1) To explore the practical influence of 1st Language (which is not always Mother-tongue) on fluency in a 2nd Language.    In other words, the differences in pronunciation and speech habits of various groups of users of English as a 2nd Language. 
2) To explore the influence of 1st Languages on the development of a sense of logic about how the world works. This based on the notion that the language a person is most fluent in and comfortable using has a direct influence on his or her sense of logic. 
I call this my ‘so-called’ research since I am highly gratified to have been able to leave the practical academic side of this ongoing research to past SPA students who have made it their career to explore these two areas both academically and in practice.