The
Process, Purposes, Levels and Contents of Syllabus Drafting
-- A Noel Joseph Irudayaraj and C Isaac Jebastine
This paper attempts to present the process of designing
a syllabus that involves two stages: the drafting of
the syllabus inventory and the revision and refinement
of the syllabus inventory into a syllabus. The need
for componentialization with respect to syllabus, gives
rise to the accommodation of techno-scientific component,
humanistic component and social English component in
order to inculcate and foster an interdisciplinary mindset,
and a unitive and unified sensibility so that there
is no rift between analytical faculties and synthetic
faculties. In the teleological hierarchy, the primary
purpose of syllabus drafting is to give more impetus
to holistic development of the learner, and the secondary
concerns are that they would take care of the social
needs as well as corporate demands. Trim discusses the
aims of Council of Europe in the designing of syllabus
of which he recognizes five levels of language proficiency:
Threshold (a minimum level of language competence),
Basic, General Competence, Advanced, and Full Potential
Standard. Van Ek produces another level, a lower level
known as Waystage. The five different kinds of syllabi
namely, the semantic, functional, procedural, structural,
and syncretic or `multidimensional', as Keith Johnson
calls it, can be adopted, and the various criteria of
unit selection have to be fixed according to the syllabus
type.
©
2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Impact
of Examinations on the Teaching and Learning of English
-- Evangeline Sabina Rajasekar
The influence of assessment on teaching and learning
is commonly described as `Washback' in language testing
and `Backwash' in the literature on education. Since
the time Alderson and Wall (1993) published their article,
"Does Washback Exist?", numerous studies have
proved the existence of washback and its influence/impact
on teaching and learning. This study sets out to verify
whether the Public Higher Secondary English Examinations
(an assessment conducted by the Directorate of Examinations,
State Board of Tamil Nadu) have an impact on the teaching
and learning of English in the schools in Chennai. The
study also aims at determining the nature of this impact.
Data was collected through a detailed questionnaire
survey. The findings indicate that tests do influence
the teaching and learning of English, and it is imperative
for this impact to be desired, intended or positive,
failing which the goals of the curriculum would remain
just in theory, while in practice the demands of the
examination would continue to be met. The effects are
detrimental in that it leads to an enormous waste of
various teaching-learning resources, besides making
school leavers incompetent in English.
©
2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Hinglish
on a Platter: A Toast to New Global Bhasha
-- Gajendra S Chauhan
In the context of the spread of English language across
the globe, it cannot remain `pure', permanent and safe
in its structure. Changes are inevitable. Like most
languages, English too has changed and incorporated
new patterns of contact with other languages and the
changing communication needs of the people. Code switching
and code mixing are well-known traits in the speech
pattern of an average bilingual in any human society
the world over. As a multilingual and multicultural
society, India is not an exception. Hinglish, a combination
of Hindi and English, has become a new medium of communication
among masses in India. It is an interesting medley of
arbitrary words from Hindi and English, employed effortlessly
and spontaneously in different domains. It is widely
practiced in houses, offices, markets, playgroundsalmost
everywhere. The resurgence of Hindi in the recent years
is one of the prime movers of Hinglish in India and
it has given a tremendous boost to its functional relevance
in the present linguistic environment. Hindi no longer
considers English as its arch rival. The equation has
changed globally. English and Hindi have come closer
and they get on perfectly, when they work in tandem.
Now it is a winning mix. This blend becomes a new mantra
in social acceptance, prestige, and success. It has
a great cementing force that connects people and places
equally with ease. The paper draws together the different
threads of Hinglish, its origin, growth and traces various
reasons that lead to its pervasiveness in India and
abroad.
©
2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Towards
Integration: Childhood in Ashok Banker's Byculla
Boy -- Lakshmi
Sistla
Child has been a part of literature the world over,
but the way the colonial and postcolonial writers have
used the symbol of the child as a metaphor and site
for the presentation of cultural conflicts is interesting.
"In his traditional innocence, the non-judgmental
child seems best equipped to mirror the complexity of
the postcolonial in its totality without censorship".
It is also important to remember that these writers
of colonial and postcolonial times are more bicultural
in their outlook and their choice of writing in English
itself reflects this bicultural heritage. Though they
have a universal appeal in their situation, their writing
is culture-specific. For example, the father-son relationship
is important in western culture, whereas the mother-son
relationship is crucial in the Indian setup.
The child is an important image of the post-modern decentered
consciousness. The clear and untainted child's vision
helps in making sense of a disjointed world. The child
in Byculla Boy, named Neilkant Jhaveri, is the
child of an Anglo-Indian mother and a Hindu father.
Ashok Banker highlights the confusion in the nine year
old's life when neither his father nor his mother shoulders
the responsibility of taking care of him. His maternal
grandparents do give him a roof to live under, but it
is never a home for him till he is able to resolve and
integrate his bicultural heritage.
©
2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Eco-Consciousness
in H S Shivaprakash's The Bride --
S Kumaran
This paper is an attempt to identify how H S Shivaprakash,
a well-known Kannada poet and playwright, expresses
the essential connection between Nature and the human
beings. Many of his plays have been translated into
many languages and were performed at several major places.
He is the winner of four Karnataka Sahitya Akademi awards
and the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi award. Through
his plays, he enlightens people about the intrinsic
value of Nature and her contribution to human life.
His play, The Bride, originally written in Kannada
and translated into English by the author himself, narrates
a Toda tribal tale of self-destructive passion amid
Nature. The bridegroom, overpowered by his overwhelming
passion for his bride, forsakes the warning sounded
by Nature and unwittingly kills his own bride. Traditionally,
the stage is considered to be the exclusive domain of
humans, but in this play (right from the beginning)
Nature, in the form of Trees, establishes her invigorating
presence and dictates the direction of events. In the
play, Shivaprakash has not used Nature as a mere background;
in this play, trees are characters and they act even
as commentators. They point out how humans violate the
bounty of Nature and pollute her rich natural resources.
Moreover, the Trees have their own history and they
proclaim the view of Barry Commoner: "Everything
is connected to everything else". The history of
humans is implicated in the history of Nature and in
the play the author elucidates the connection between
Nature and Culture. Culture teaches humans that they
are dependent on Nature, whereas Nature is independent.
Humans must watch Nature closely to predict future and
to avoid disasters. The bridegroom, in the play, fails
to refine his ways in spite of the warning articulated
through the songs of Nature and puts himself in a sad,
lonely state. He goes not only against the counsel of
Nature, but also against the teachings of his Culture.
He belongs to a Culture that treats Nature as its constituent
part and advises its people to conform to the laws of
Nature. But he acts to the contrary and precipitates
his own doom. Shivaprakash's perception of Nature is
relevant to the present century that witnesses alarming
disasters such as the depletion of ozone and the destruction
of world's last remaining resources. Realization of
Nature's immense potential and human dependence on Nature,
which Shivaprakash asserts, alone can redeem the world
and avert future disasters.
©
2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
The
Clash of Cultures and Races in Manohar Malgonkar's Combat
of Shadows -- Seema
Miglani
This paper discusses the influence of cultural and racial
conflicts, as portrayed in the novels of Manohar Malgonkar,
with special reference to Combat of Shadows.
The spread of western style industrial societies across
the globe has suppressed many unique cultural features
of the people of different countries. This inevitably
means that cultural differences are responsible for
a great deal of conflict, confusion and hostility, when
people of different countries come into contact with
one another. The unique racial and cultural groups of
one country face difficulties in tracing their roots
and identity, when they try to settle in not so friendly
environment of another country. Hence, this paper explores
the theme of East-West conflict in Combat of Shadows.
It is through charactersboth Indian and Westernthat
he portrays different aspects of the conflict. He had
also taken care to show that, when it comes to the real
values of life, East and West not only reconcile and
resolve themselves, but something like a new culture
incorporating laudable qualities of both the cultures
seems to emerge.
©
2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Anita
Desai's Cry, the Peacock: A Psychoanalytical
Study -- Rashmi
Gupta
Anita Desai is one of the most powerful and distinguished
Indian English novelists. She has an extraordinary sharpness
and penetration of vision. Her writings have drawn world-wide
critical attention. Anita Desai has added a new dimension
to the Indian English fiction: the exploration of human
psyche. She is endowed with searching psychological
insight and often peeps into the inner recesses of the
psyche, rather than merely presenting the outer spectacle
of the world; the creative field of imagination is her
unfailing reserve. Cry, the Peacock, Anita Desai's
first novel, has been described as a trendsetter in
the field of psychoanalytical realism. It explores the
inner world of the main protagonist, Maya, and demonstrates
her fear, insecurity and strange behavior. Through her,
she depicts a world of alienation, loneliness and suffering.
Maya is described as a hysterical character whose impending
tragedy is suggestively foreshadowed, time and again.
This paper is an effort to portray the psyche of a woman
on the verge of insanity and the factors responsible
for that.
©
2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Bertha,
the Traditional Mad Woman in the Attic versus Bertha,
the Victim: An Intertextual Reading of Jane Eyre
and Wide Sargasso Sea --
Megha Trivedi
Writing is the medium through which the suppressed voice
of the female finds release. This article is an attempt
at studying the intertextual relationship between Jane
Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea. An introductory
analysis of the term `Intertextuality' has been given
in the article. According to the theory of intertextuality,
each text is the outcome of a previous utterance and
a previous text already written. The much neglected
Bertha in Jane Eyre has been given a new identity,
new shape and a new context in Wide Sargasso Sea.
Rhys has recreated, represented and retold the story
of Bertha in her novel, which looks into the inner consciousness
of the female psyche and explores the position of a
female in the power structure created by the male world.
The novel looks at the patriarchal structure in which
a female is oppressed and treated as a commodity, which
leads her towards madness.
©
2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Mrs.
Dalloway: Isolation and Connectivity Paradigm --
Jyoti George
This paper examines the principle of relativity in human
relationships, suggested by Walter Pater, as it emerges
in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. Woolf identifies
herself with the principle that is unconcerned about
scale of values and is instrumental in revising fundamental
moral values. The novel highlights the relativistic
fictional technique, displaying the themes of conflicts
between conventionality and unconventionality, progression
and regression of time, and loneliness and love, as
well as the irreconcilable opposition between individuality
and universality. The major characters in the novel
are both connected and isolated in their social milieu.
Most of them adopt what Bakhtin calls `heteroglossia'a
multi-voiced and multi-styled attempt at communication.
©
2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved. |