|
Bilingual
Second Language Learning Strategies in Eritrea with
Reference to Reading, Writing and Vocabulary
-- Tecle Ghebremuse
In almost all the research studies on language learning
strategies, researchers based their studies on some
combinations of Strategy Inventories for Language Learning
developed by Prokop (1985), Oxford (1990), and Chamot
et al. (1999), and modifications of these strategy
inventories. Moreover, these strategy inventories for
language learning deal with language learning in general
and also simultaneously address several issues such
as memory, cognitive, compensatory, meta-cognitive,
affective and social strategies. They do not specifically
address the strategies that deal with mental operations
and strategies that deal with physical operations. Hence,
this research develops specific language strategies
that deal with mental operations, as much as possible,
and on specific language skills such as listening and
speaking. This exploratory approach investigates the
effects of the students' frequency of use of language
learning strategies in listening and speaking. Moreover,
Bivariate correlations between each strategy and the
students' scores in sophomore English, and correlations
among the strategies on reading, speaking and vocabulary
are computed in order to investigate their relationships.
It is hoped that the findings of this study provide
valuable information on knowledge and use of language
learning strategies to learners, teachers and instructional
materials developers and serve as the basis for further
research on correlation studies between language proficiency
and language learning strategies.
©
2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
The
Theme of Marital Discord in Nayantara Sahgal's Storm
in Chandigarh and Doris Lessing's The Grass is
Singing
-- Neena
Arora
Nayantara Sahgal, one of the prominent Indian English
writers, is deeply concerned with women's status in
Indian society. Her counterpart British writer Doris
Lessing is a strong supporter of women's cause in the
West. Despite belonging to different countries, having
different sociocultural backgrounds, both look at the
women's question from the same perspective. They both
advocated feminism long before the advent of feminist
movement in the 1960s in the West. The paper studies
the theme of marital discord from the feminist perspective
in Nayantara Sahgal's Storm in Chandigarh (1969)
and Doris Lessing's The Grass in Singing (1950).
They both look at feminism afresh and from a different
angle. Their characters after passing through various
vicissitudes in their journey of life realize how militant
approach can be disastrous for their own self as well
as for their family and the society at large. They ultimately
strive for a soothing solution in harmonious and fulfilling
relationship to save the world from splitting. Both
the writers envision a world based on equality, mutual
respect, communication, understanding, sharing and cherish
harmony between the two sexes. The world, they feel
otherwise, is heading towards anarchy and chaos which
must be saved at any cost.
©
2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Women
in Gendered Enclosure: Canadian and Indian Experience
in the Poems of Claire Harris and Eunice de Souza
-- Pradip Kumar Patra
This paper attempts a comparative study of the two woman
poets from different cultural contexts . It shows how
patriarchy dominates the whole social systems and camouflages
the evils from which the women suffer. The significance
of the paper lies in examining the protest of the women.
The voice of the protest takes artistic shape in the
poems of the said poets. Both Claire Harris, a Canadian
poet and Eunice de Souza, an Indian poet writing in
English try to write the difference implicit in their
sex into the literary text. What are these subjective
realities? How and why do they differ? In part, at least,
they are rooted in biological difference. A woman's
sexual experience is at a physical level different from
a man's and her experience as a bearer of children sets
her totally apart from him. How she perceives the difference
between what she knows them to be and the manner in
which society represents them: these are among the factors
that constitute her subjective reality. However, if
Harris shows the intensity of the social malpractices
concerning women in Canadian society, Eunice shows the
gender-based prejudices deeply rooted in Indian psychology.
If Harris takes up narrative mode and chooses two particular
events, Eunice looks at the Indian situation from close
quarters. If Harris has a tone of protest, Eunice is
ironical in her tone. Both the poets, however, are true
voices of the anguish of women.
©
2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Colonial
Administration, Language Politics and Regional Formations:
John Beames and the Making of Modern Orissa
-- Sachidananda Mohanty
The official arrival of the British in the Eastern Orissa
in 1803 brought in its wake negative changes such as
Zamindari system; the printing and circulation
of the New and Old Testaments; the opening of the Missionary
schools; and evangelization. There were also positive
changes such as secular education and the shaping of
new genres and canon in the Oriya Language and literature;
the emergence of the new literati that espoused the
various reformatory movements. Based on archival material
recently acquired from the Bengal Asiatic Society and
other important sources, it is suggested in this essay,
citing the example of the British scholar administrator
John Beames, that the trope `English' operated in a
complex and many-sided manner in British India—especially,
in Orissa. Postcolonial scholars have often held scholarship
by Englishmen in the field of comparative philology
and linguistics, beginning with Sir William Jones and
others, as suspect. Much of the study of the colonial
discourse, in the recent past has, with credible evidence,
unmasked the nexus between knowledge and power. It seems,
however, that the time has come to take a more considered
and balanced view of the matter that eschews politically
correct Good/Evil Manichean binaries. In this sense,
the archives become a crucial corrective to opinionated
judgment. John Beames in this sense becomes a test case
of my contention.
©
2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Dwelling
in Place:An Eco-Critical Reading of Sangam Poetry
-- K Srilata
In this paper, an attempt has been made to read classical
Sangam poetry (translated into English by A K Ramanujan)
as an ecological text with a distinct sense of place.
Using the fundamental insights of deep ecology—"dwelling
in place", "reinhabitation" and "bioregionalism",
it is argued that Sangam poetry is first and foremost
a literature of place and that "place" here
is defined as something that goes beyond the politico-cartographic
concepts of `territory', `nation' and `map'. Place in
Sangam poetry revolves around the notion of tinai
or eco-zones and this paper focuses on the poetics of
tinai and what this implies for ecology as a
whole. Literatures of place add an entirely new dimension
to English Studies, expanding its scope of intellectual
inquiry. Regional literary texts such as Sangam poetry,
available to us now in English translation, broaden
the possible ways in which this inquiry can be conducted.
©
2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Grounding
of Transcultural Imagination in Rushdie's The Ground
Beneath Her Feet
-- G
A Ghanashyam and Devashree Chakravarthy
Multiculturalism and Transculturalism, a by-product
of post-colonialism and globalization, is a concept
that finds prominence in the new literatures of the
world today. In contemporary life when distances have
been reduced and barriers have come down between the
different corners of the world, it is quite natural
that cultures of the world will come into contact with
one another. These cultural encounters form a society
that acquires a multicultural or transcultural character.
Writers of this new world order reflect this new trend
in their works. Multiculturalism and its effects such
as hybridization, fragmentation, alienation, loss of
roots, and consequent problems of adjustment and assimilation
are dealt with extensively by them. Salman Rushdie,
one of the foremost writers belonging to this genre,
has highlighted this complex issue in all his works.
His novel The Ground Beneath her Feet is an excellent
work based completely on transcultural experience and
imagination. Regarded by many as being too western in
its approach, the novel has an undercurrent of eastern
influence as well hidden beneath an outer cosmopolitan
appearance. This paper deals with this cultural variation
present throughout the novel that gives new shades to
the characters, their lives, and the decisions they
take in life. Ormus, Vina and Rai are all Indians who
choose to cross over to the West to fulfill their destinies
and embrace the other culture in totality. Both the
worlds (East and West) are actually juxtaposed in the
psyche of the characters, both exerting their influences
at various points of their lives. Based on the variedness
of cultures, the novel presents a classical story, which
is entirely modern and relevant to our times in its
approach and presentation.
©
2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Globalizing
and Localizing the Language of Ads: A Study of Advertising
in Tamil Media
-- K
Kanthimathi
Every individual is a consumer at some point in his
life. It is not a surprise that in a competitive market,
advertising techniques are often fundamental to the
success of a product. Advertising makes the most effective
use of language to persuade the consumer. This paper
explores the language of commercial consumer advertising
in the written and visual media. The main focus is on
the language of advertisements and representation within
the discourse of advertising. It also assesses the effectiveness
of using different language styles in a given advertisement
or commercial, and looks at the deployment of rhetorical
devices to reinforce the advertising message—particularly,
in the Tamil media.
©
2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Poignant
Vignettes of Cultural Matrix: Short Stories of Viswanatha
Satyanarayana
-- S
S Prabhakar Rao
Though mostly known as a celebrated novelist of highly
scholarly novels, Viswanatha Satyanarayana, the colossus
in Telugu literature, also penned some memorable short
stories, collected in the anthology, Chinna Kathalu
(1996). After using grandhika style in his
early stories, he moved on to sarala vyavaharika,
but what mark his stories are the keenness of observation
and abundant skill in narration. The human touch he
endows his characters with as in the characterization
of Chandrasekhara Rao, and the attachment of a couple
to the only son of their neighbors, the satire in a
story like Parisodhakalu, the supra-sensual attachment
to a dancing girl, etc. make the stories poignant vignettes
of the cultural matrix of Andhra of the early 20th
century and entitle the Jnan Peeth awardee to an exalted
niche in the pantheon of short story writers of the
world.
©
2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
BOOK
REVIEW
The
Golden Bouquet
-- Author:
S S Prabhakar Rao
Reviewed
by P G Nirmala
Five
decades of consistent and dedicated engagement with
literature (teaching, critical studies, transcreations
and problems of ELT) has resulted in a complex compendium
that has something to offer to the specialist in literature
and ELT professional as well as general enthusiasts.
The work mirrors the manifold aspects of literature
and brings into focus, issues of perennial significance
to the academic community from a predominantly literary
perspective. A casual glance at the index suffices to
convince the reader of the range and profundity of the
author's scholarship.
©
2007 S S Prabhakar Rao. All Rights Reserved. IUP holds the copyright for the review. | 
