A Critical Analysis Of Ethno-linguistic Diversity Discourses In Ethiopian Government Universities

This dissertation is concerned with the way ethnic and linguistic categories are sustained in therndaily talk of university students. Language contact and its social consequences in the universitiesrnare discussed in an attempt to shed light on ethno linguistic diversity discourses.rnI argue against the notion of ethno-linguistic categories as immanent cognitive structures whosernexistence can be taken for granted. The categories are constructed recurrently in studentsrndiscourses. One of the greatest challenges of Ethiopian government universities is ethnic andrnlinguistic diversity because the notion of diversity falls prey to atomized competitions, hostilityrnor conflicts. The representations of ethnic categories are studied by analyzing recordedrndiscussions on ethnically sensitive issues. To this end, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) designrnwas employed, taking universities as a case. The research was interested in how ethno-linguisticrndiversity constructed among the students, while the experiences of diversity are very closelyrninter-related with students' day-to-day life.rnExamples from five universities on the construction of ethno-linguistic diversity discourses arernused to illustrate the major challenges. In the research framing key findings about ethnic andrnlanguage differences have done. As a result, the study came up with the findings of ethnicrnepithets, ideological differences, the differences of ‘us' and ‘them', prejudice, ethnocentrism arernthe major discourses. They were found to be causes for the on-campus inter-ethnic conflicts thatrnoccurred recurrently. The disagreements also manifested in forming in-group and out-grouprndemarcations based on ethno-linguistic diversity. In such a case, sensitivity to ethnic diversityrnwas also the other factor, which led students to conflict.rnThe ways in which categorical constructions are represented vary in the identified discourses.rnStudent used different criteria for constructing ‘us‐them’ distinctions. For one thing, theyrndevelop strategies for reconstructing the predominant distinction between ‘us' and ‘them'.rnAttention is also focused on exploring the use of language in legitimizing the representations. Inrnsome cases, notions of ethno-linguistic freedom, equality and tolerance used in wrong ways andrnconstruct ethnic diversity conflicts.rnIn general, ethnic and linguistic diversity tolerance, mutual respect, inter-group harmony and therncelebration of differences were lacking in the studied universities. There was a progressivernerosion of ethno linguistic tolerance in spite of the recurrently ethnical based discourses. Therernseem to be simmering ethnic and linguistic diversity conflicts. The research recommended,rnmulticultural education of ethno-linguistic diversity tolerance might be provided as a significantrnmove to reduce the problem.

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