MONMOUTH, Ill. — James Bukari, visiting assistant professor of educational studies, has authored “Language Policy in West Africa: Focus on Ghana and Burkina Faso.”

The 94-page book provides a new perspective by examining the language policies of the two West African nations. It reports the social attitudes of Ghanians toward the French language and investigates whether or not there is the need for that country to adopt a pragmatic national language policy. Such a policy would enforce its vicarious teaching and learning in schools, as a way of linguistically empowering the nation and allowing it to fully reap the economic, political and socio-cultural dividends offered by 21st century trade.

In the book’s acknowledgement, Bukari writes, “The greatest debt I owe is to my major professor, Chamba Alan Garfinkel, for having greatly inspired and guided me in choosing the subject of this study and in providing me with the necessary intellectual insights that made this project happen.”

Bukari joined the MC modern foreign languages faculty in 2006. He earned his bachelor’s degree in French from Ghana’s University of Cape Coast. At Purdue University, Bukari earned a master’s degree in foreign languages and literature and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction.

Along with MC faculty colleague Heather Brady and Dan Bansley, a senior from Evergreen Park, Bukari is also the co-author of an article published in “Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies.” Titled “The Global Perspectives of Her Art: Monmouth College Interviews Writer and Painter Véronique Tadjo,” the article can be accessed at http://repositories.cdlib.org/international/asc/ufahamu/35/1/5