English and Digital Linguistics
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Daniel A. Nkemleke

Portrait: Prof. Dr. Daniel A. Nkemleke
Prof. Dr. Daniel A. Nkemleke
Visiting professor from May 2023

Biodata of Professor Daniel A. Nkemleke

Daniel A. Nkemleke is professor in English language & linguistics at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS), University of Yaoundé I. He has been guest scholar of Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in the Department of English, Chemnitz University of Technology (2006-2008, 2011, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2023) and William J. Fulbright African senior scholar in the University of Massachusetts at Boston (2009-2010). He was the Award Winner of the prestigious Humboldt Alumni Prize for Innovative Research Initiative in 2014, and currently runs an academic mentorship network involving scholars and junior scientists in Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania and Germany (Academic Writing Network for Africa). He coordinated the African component of Our Mythical Childhood (OMC) project&smash;a European Union funded research (2016-2022) which investigated the reception of classical antiquity in children’s and young adult’s literature/culture in response to regional challenges ("Our Mythical Childhood"). He and his African team researched and wrote 300 of the 1500 entries now available as open access database of several genres of children’s/young adults’ literature from Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia, and North America ("Our Mythical Childhood Survey"). The Proof-of-Concept phase of this project has been awarded and it is scheduled to begin in autumn of this year, 2023. The project is a consortium of five universities across the world with the Principal Investigator based in the University of Warsaw, Poland. His major research interest is corpus-based linguistics: compiling language databases, analyzing and comparing them with other databases (of native + non-native Englishes) for teaching academic writing at tertiary level. His publications in international peer-reviewed journals cut across linguistics, academic writing, English language teaching, and African culture and literature. Professor Nkemleke is Chair of the Department of English at ENS, University of Yaoundé 1.

Highlights

  • has over 40 publications in refereed journals, book chapters etc.
  • is a Humboldt Alumni Prize Award Winner for Innovative Research Initiative in 2014
  • is a Georg Forster Research Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (first sponsorship 2006-2008, subsequent re-invitation and research stay: 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2019, 2023)
  • is a J. William Fulbright scholar, University of Massachusetts at Boston, USA (2010-2011)
  • coordinates a network of scholars and junior scientists in 5 African countries (Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania) with Germany which aims to mentor junior scientists in the Humanities in project writing and publication
  • is a member of the Faculties of Arts/Humanities Scholars Association of Nigerian Universities (FAHSANU), with Head Quarter at the University of Calabar, Nigeria
  • is director of the corpus linguistic project for Cameroon since 2000
  • is member of Quality Assurance Commission for ENS of the University of Yaoundé I, since 2013
  • is Editor-in-Chief of a peer-reviewed journal: Review Syllabus of ENS Yaoundé since 2009
  • is a member of the Scientific Committee responsible for promotion of university staff
  • has given academic lectures in Cameroonian, Nigerian, European and North American universities
  • has 28 years of experience in ELT and related research, 21 of them at university level

Career history

Education

2003
PhD Degree in English Language & Linguistics, UYI
1993
D.E.A. (Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies) Degree in English Language & Linguistics, UYI
1992
DIPES II (a Diploma in English Language Teaching, ENS, UYI)
1991
Maîtrise Degree in English Language & Linguistics, UYI
1990
B.A. Degree in English Language & Linguistics, UYI
1987
GCE Advanced Level Certificate for general education studies
1985
GCE Ordinary Level Certificate for general education studies
1984
London Royal Society of Arts (RSA) certificate for commercial education studies

Promotion profile in the university

2000
recruited as assistant lecturer
2003
defended a PhD thesis
2004
promoted to rang of senior lecturer
2008
promoted to rang of associate professor
2015
promoted to rang of full professor

International Grants/Awards

2006-2008
Georg Forster postdoctoral research fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany
2011
Return stay, Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany
2013
Return stay, Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany
2014
Humboldt Alumni Network for Innovative Research Initiative
2016
Return stay, Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany
2019
Return stay, Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany
2023
Return stay, Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany
2010-2011
J. William Fulbright Senior African Grant, USA
2016-2022
European Research Council Consolidator Grant with PI in Warsaw, Poland
2023-2025
Proof-of-Concept resulting from the Consolidator Grant Project (above)

Publications (last five years)

2023
Nkemleke, Daniel. Design and teaching of academic writing in tertiary education in Cameroon. In: Esimaje, A.; Jolayemi, D.; Nkemleke, D.; Van Rooy, B. & Klu, E. (Eds.). Teaching English in Higher Education in Africa. London & New York: Routledge, 47-65.
2023
Esimaje, A., Van Rooy, B., Jolayemi, D; Nkemleke, D & Klu, E. Challenges of teaching and learning English in higher education in Africa. In: Esimaje, A., Van Rooy, B., Jolayemi, D; Nkemleke, D. & Klu, E. (Eds.) Teaching English in Higher Education in Africa. London & New York: Routledge, 3-24
2022
Nkemleke, Daniel. Threat, empathy or (polite) request? The pragmatics of administrative letters in Cameroon English. CLAREP Journal of English & Linguistics (C-JEL), vol. 4, 19-49.
2021
Nkemleke Daniel. Going virtual, staying F2F: Trajectory of ELT classes in Ecole Normale Supérieure Yaoundé during Covid-19 Pandemic. In N. Radić; A. Atabekova ; M. Freddie; J. Schmied (Eds.). The World universities’ response to COVID-19: remote online language teaching (46-61). Research-publishing.net. DOI
2021
Neba Che, D.& Nkemleke, D. Revisioning Classical Mythology in African Dramaturgy: A Study of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and Ola Rotimi's The Gods Are Not to Blame. In Lisa Maurce (Ed.) Our Mythical Education : The Reception of Classical Myth World-Wide in Formal Education, Warsaw University Press, 391-410.
2021
Nkemleke Daniel. Bilingualism and Multiculturalism in Cameroon: The Interface between Culture, Identity, Language and Living Together. In Kamtcueng, L.M., Baimada, F. & Hounda, A. (Eds.). Linguistico-cultural Diversity and Peaceful Co-existence in Africa. Muenchen: LINCOM Academic Publisher, 8-33.
2020
Nkemleke Daniel. Computer corpora in English language research and pedagogy with reference to the corpus of Camerooon English. In Mba, G., Tabe, F. & Neba, A. (Eds.). Aspects of the Phonology, Morphology and Syntax of Cameroonian Languages and Applied Linguistics. Muenchen: LINCOM Academic Publisher, 154-169.
2020
Nkemleke, Daniel & Tume Lynda L. WhatsAPP-based Learning in Ecole Normale Supérieure de Yaounde-Cameroon at the Time of Coronavirus. International Journal of TESOL Studies, vol. 2(3), 13-31.
2020
Nkemleke, Daniel & D. Che Neba. Human Categories in Oral Tradition in Cameroon. In Katarzyna Marciniak (Ed.) Chasing Mythical Beasts: The Reception of Ancient Monsters in Children’s and Young Adults’ Culture. Heidelberg : Universitätsverlag WINTER, 387-400.
2019
Nkemleke, Daniel & Belibi Enana,P. Strategies for Enhancing Learners’ Language Competence with special reference to Cameroon. Special Review Syllabus, vol 8(1), 112-137.
2019
Daniel Nkemleke. Frequency, meaning and contextual features of modals in the corpus of Cameroon English. In Kamtcueng, L.M., Tabe, A. C. Nkemleke, D. (Eds.) Language, Media and Technologies: Usages, Forms and Functions. Muenchen: LINCOM Academic Publisher, 66-85.
2018
Nkemleke, Daniel. Practical Corpus Linguistics: designing and exploiting a written corpus for research with reference to Cameroon English. In Esimaje, A., Ulrike, Gut & Bassey, A. (Eds.) Corpus Linguistics and African Englishes, John Benjamins Publishing, 165-182.
2018
Nkemleke, Daniel. Modality, Hedging and Nominalization in Cameroon, East Africa and British English from a Corpus Linguistic Perspective. In Afutedem, L., Nkwetisama, & Fai Tarka, G. (Eds.), Language and Literature Sciences in Contemporary Cameroon and Commonwealth, 148-170.

 

Click here for a comprehensive list of Prof. Nkemleke's publications.

Network/Projects

  • Co-ordinates the activities of AfriG-CAWE (African/German Network for Academic Writing Excellence: advising junior scientists in the Humanities on project writing and publication, in view of preparing them for Humboldt scholarship. Network members are in six countries: Germany, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Tanzania.
  • Coordinates the African research component of the ERC (European Research Council) Grant Consolidator Project, with the PI (Principal Investigator) in the University of Warsaw, Poland. This project aims to build an on-line database of the reception of Classical Antiquity in the literature for Children and Young Adults, as part of a world-Wide bank of Antiquities including African Mythology and Folk-Tales.
  • Has compiled the Corpus of Cameroon Written English (800,000 words): a first generation corpus for Cameroon. The database is being used for research, language teaching and textbook writing in Cameroon
  • Has compiled ICE (International Corpus of English)-CAM (Cameroon): a second generation corpus for Cameroon English (400,000 words)
  • Has compiled other specialised academic corpora on which my book is based on (1,000,000 words). This database is the material for the book: Exploring Academic Writing in Cameroon English (Nkemleke, 2011). The Humboldt Foundation funded the project.
  • Has compiled a corpus of spoken academic texts (40,000 words) with funding from Fulbright Foundation in the US. The work was done in the University of Massachusetts at Boston (2010)