Baah Johnson

Johnson Baah is a doctoral researcher at the Centre for Applied Language Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Finland, and a lecturer in Academic Writing at the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR), Ghana. He has over eighteen years of experience teaching English language and literacy-related courses across different educational settings. His academic journey began in linguistics, where he investigated Bono, a variety of the Akan language spoken in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. His research focused on verb meaning, event structure, and serial verb constructions, contributing to the description and analysis of under-researched African languages. His current doctoral research explores undergraduate students’ academic writing development and practices within higher education. Drawing on the Academic Literacies framework, he examines how students negotiate the linguistic, social, affective, and identity-related dimensions of academic writing. His broader research interests include academic writing, academic literacies, student engagement, writer identity, language and learning in higher education, and first-year student experiences. Alongside his research, Johnson teaches academic writing and has designed and delivered courses that support students’ disciplinary literacy development. Since 2018, he has also contributed to the professional development of pre-tertiary English teachers in Ghana and served as a reviewer for the Bono Bible Translation Project of the Bible Society of Ghana. Johnson holds a BA in Linguistics with Philosophy from the University of Ghana, an MA in Linguistics from the University of Bergen, Norway, and an MPhil in Linguistics from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway.