International Journal of Language and Literary Studies

In Quest for Identity & Oppressed Identities in Michelle Cliff’s Abeng (1990): An Eco-Feminist Perspective

Ahmad Yahya Alghamdi — Sat, 09 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The feminist movement is ever transforming because it challenges the injustices continually practiced against women. A vital part of the movement is ecofeminism, which addresses issues surrounding the degradation of both women and nature. According to eco-feminist theory, patriarchal societies consist of a culture/nature dualism in which culture and males are both valued: culture is valued for itself, and males are as being associated with culture. Conversely, females are associated with nature, and both of them are devalued. Eco-feminist literary criticism, which is a part of ecocriticism, involves analyzing a work by focusing on gender and/or race oppression, oppressed identities and their correlation with subjugation of the natural world. This paper aims at examining the eco-feminist aspects in Michelle Cliff’s quasi-autobiographical novel, Abeng (1990). The focus is on identifying how the female protagonists interact with their surrounding world. Cliff highlights the struggles that females face when trying to make their voices heard, identities recognized and to perform tasks equal to men. The importance of showcasing women authors who write from an eco-feminist perspective is that it proclaims that societies in which females are treated as equals to males will be in accord with nature.

Archetypal Posturing of Soyinka’s Stylistic Modes in the Trials of Brother Jero

Nii Okain Teiko — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Soyinka’s deep immersion in mythology coupled with his stylistic modes in the portraiture of the archetypal trickster hero, as utilized in some of his comic plays, demonstrate a genius whose creative works anchor both the collective universal literary tradition and a domesticated form that defines his uniqueness. Drawing interpretive insights from Frye’s archetypal criticism and the Jungian psychology, this essay examines how Soyinka appropriates the archetypal figure as a monumental image in the play, The Trials of Brother Jero, and how his stylistic choices in the handling of the hero craft a new psycho-social role of picaresque mythology.

The Effect of LLS Instruction on the Use of Writing Strategies in English by Foreign Postgraduate Students in India

Mona Alshaghel, Dr. Umarani Pappuswamy — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This study intends to examine the impact of Strategy-Based Instruction on the strategy use by foreign post-graduate students, studying at two universities in India while writing in English. A total of one hundred students, who are non-native speakers of English, participated in this study. Fifty students in the experimental group received writing instruction through an online platform. The results were compared to their fifty counterparts in the control group. All the participants received an adapted version of the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SIIL) Questionnaire and a Writing Questionnaire as the pretest and posttest. Descriptive statistics and independent sample t-tests were run to analyze the data using SPSS. The findings showed that students who received language learning strategy instruction recorded higher scores than the students who did not receive any kind of instruction towards the skill of writing academic essays. The results revealed that students’ use of strategies in writing increased noticeably after strategy instruction and implied that students can be trained to use language-learning strategies successfully in their writing through direct strategy instruction.

A Beginning to Existing: Understanding Colin Wilson’s “Outsiderism” in ‘Ritual In The Dark’ - An Eastern Perspective

Sanjay Kumar — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The phenomenon of “Outsiderism” found in the works of Colin Wilson has both individual and social implications which are intrinsically evolutionary. Wilson takes a stock of this ‘evolutionary man’ and concludes that ‘outsider is a god in making. The ‘Outsider’ is a state of consciousness which recognizes both duality and non-duality, but strives to leave the former and hold the later. Like an Eastern Yogi, these ‘outsiders’ have a strong recognition that life in its ‘ordinariness’ generates ennui which is bereft of any meaning and purpose. They indulge in all such actions, though momentarily, with intent of bringing intensity to their consciousness. Wilson contends that human energy can manifest in all possible negative and positive forms, but in the outsider state, these energies begin to integrate which leads to the realization that mankind’s freedom lies in religious attitude wherein a human being reconnects with its inner sources. It is interesting to understand the complex character of the “outsider” that Wilson has created in both his fiction and non-fiction and hold him as an alter ego to the eastern sannyasin, who having some glimpses of the other modes of being and torn by his own inner and outer conflicts is desperate to cast off the slough of his trivial worldly existence and metamorphose into a god. This paper is an attempt to understand the Wilsonian outsider with specific reference to the novel ‘Ritual in the Dark.’ The study will be carried out from the perspective of Eastern mysticism so as to find out, whether such outsiders are Western sannyasins engaged in a similar self-quest, and who having traversed through myriad realms of their physical and psychological beings are beginning to exist.

Developing Creativity Through Creative Engagement in Art Appreciation: Outcomes in Teaching Humanities

Sun, 05 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This descriptive-correlational study determined the level of creative engagement as part of humanities teaching in the outcome-based education. This focuses on the dimension of student engagement and creativity in the context of a new approach to teaching and learning primarily through the arts. This study captures student creative engagement supported by their personal reflection after the course term. There were eight (8) classes utilized with 134 students. Results showed that the level of students’ creativity in art appreciation was “high” and it was also “high” when they were grouped as to sex. Creative engagement in art appreciation was considered “highly influential” and it was “highly influential” when they were grouped as to sex. No significant difference was noted in the level of the students’ creative engagement and development of creativity. There was a moderate and positive correlation between the level of the students’ creative engagement and influence of creative engagement in art appreciation classes to their development of creativity. The most highly valued creative engagement practices of students in art appreciation are: “I have developed an appreciation for the local arts;” “I have deepened my sensitivity of myself, my community and the society,” and “Inclusion of art activities demonstrated my understanding of art appreciation.

The Mediating Effect of Classroom Learning Environment on the Relationship Between Filipino Language Anxiety and Coping Strategies

ARNEL II BERNAL — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This study aims to identify the effect of the classroom-learning environment as a mediator on the relationship between Filipino language anxiety and the coping strategies of college students. This research was undergone by quantitative research design using descriptive and correlation method via mediation analysis. This study uses stratified random sampling; the data was gathered using survey questionnaires involving 300 respondents from first-year colleges to fourth-year college) students. In response to the hypothesis of this study, correlation analysis was used together with the Pearson r and Mediation Analysis using Sobel z Test. The result has shown that Filipino language anxiety and coping strategies have a strong and positive relationship. A strong and positive relationship was also found between Filipino language anxiety and classroom learning environment and the relationship between classroom learning environment and coping strategies. Furthermore, using the Sobel z test, the research found that the effect of the classroom-learning environment partially mediated the relationship between Filipino language anxiety and coping strategies.

East and West in Zakia Khairhoum's the End of My Dangerous Secret

Youssef EL KAIDI — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Literature is an arena for cross-cultural representation par excellence. It is in the literature that images produce an awareness of the Self and Other, and of the Here and the Elsewhere, however small that awareness maybe. The accounts of many canonical literary figures in the history of literature featured portrayals and descriptions of radically different people and customs, exotic lands, and far-off places where everything is outlandish and anomalous. Literary representation, therefore, plays a pivotal role in shaping perception, creating historical and textual monoliths, stereotypes, and essentialization about ethnic minorities, race, sexuality, and gender. This article investigates the politics of representation of the Self and the Other in Zakia Khairhoum’s novel The End of My Dangerous Secret (Nihayat Sirri L’khatir, 2008) from a postcolonial feminist’s point of view. I argue that Khairhoum does not only shatter the foundations of patriarchy in the Arab world but also undermines and subverts Western colonial discourse and its claim of supremacy. The novel foregrounds a different pattern of representation that has not yet been sufficiently investigated, which is the denigration of both the Self and the Other and the quest for a third cultural reality that is defined in terms of gender equality, justice, human rights and democracy.

Caricature in Palestinian very Short Stories Written by Diasporic Writers

samah khoury — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This article studies the caricature techniques used in Palestinian very short stories written by writers living in the diaspora. This study includes three examples of very short stories in which caricature is manifested in events, characters and language. This technique is used in order to try to find the link between the harsh reality of post-1948 war and the changes it created, and the effects it had on society, politics and economics. I monitored the subjects that Palestinian authors write about in very short stories, and intend to expose the varied use of caricature in its different techniques. This study reveals how caricature is used in very short stories to expose the inhumane conditions, worsening relationships between human beings, and the way people turn to violence in an attempt to solve their problems. This violence surrounds people from all sides and defines their relationships, whether with other people, their leaders or their enemies.

The Impact of Media/Technology on Rural and Urban Children to be Bilingual/ Multilingual

Md. Sozib Hosen, Ms Tanna — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This article will focus on the comparative study of the influence of media and technology on rural and urban children to be bilingual and multilingual. The study will also shed light on the importance of bilingualism and multilingualism. TV and YouTube are taken into account as tools of media and technology for implicit language learning. Children of 8-12 years are considered as samples of language learners. Data have been collected from a primary source through a questionnaire and interviews. The result of the research shows that there is a significant impact of watching different kinds of TV/YouTube programs (cartoons, movies, serials, reality shows) which are presented in foreign languages on children to be bilingual and multilingual though the results of the rural and urban area are significantly different. In the study, the researchers have found that children living in municipal area are more bilingual and multilingual compared to children living in rustic area.

The Pragmatics of Political Claims and Social Responses amidst Covid-19 and EndSARS Saga in Nigeria

Chioma Onwubiko — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

There have been few stand-alone linguistic studies on the Covid-19 virus and the 2020 EndSARS protests in Nigeria. The present study intersects these two critical events with particular focus on the political claims made by the ruling class and the corresponding social responses in line with the contextual affordances shared by the participants. Searle’s speech act theoretic approach is adopted to analyse the pragmatic intentions of the illocutionary acts which political claims perform while Juvenalian satire is used to discuss the satirical elements embedded in the social responses in a bid to ridicule leadership follies and abuses. Three popular Nigerian online Newspapers and few comments from Facebook are selected for this study. Their selection is based on their coverage of these events, coverage of these political claims and popular readership evidenced in the social responses. In all, a total of 6 political claims and 25 social responses relevant to this study are analysed. The study revealed that the pragmatic relevance of these claims is embedded in its political functions of wielding undue influence over the populace, making promises driven by rhetoric and short of initiative and calculated reticence in response to social issues. Consequently, the social responses highlight and criticise leadership vices and the weak efforts of the government in dispensing its leadership interventions. It also fulfils communicative purposes of the contextual space, promote solidarity among the people while prompting change in the political class and the society at large.

An Analysis of Major Difficulties Moroccan Engineering Students Encounter in Argumentative Essay Writing

Mounir Beniche — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The aim of this study is to analyse argumentative essay errors made by Moroccan students in Preparatory Classes of Higher Engineering Schools (Classes Préparatoires aux Grandes Ecoles) ( CPGE).The participants of this study were 1^st year Physics, Chemistry and Engineering Sciences (PCSI ) students in CPGE Omar Ibn Al Khattab, Meknes . 68 students participated in the study which means that all PCSI students were involved. The study uses a mixed method design. In the quantitative method, the data was gathered from students’ argumentative essay tests. Students’ errors were quantified numerically and the contents of teachers’ interviews were analyzed qualitatively. The results of the study demonstrate clearly that CPGE students’ difficulties in essay writing are aligned to many factors . Firstly, CPGE Students’ lack language proficiency. They have serious language problems accumulated from previous years of study. Secondly , students lack motivation as they do not find pleasure in writing and perceive it as a tiring and boring task. Thirdly, they do not read a lot which makes the task of writing very hard. Fourthly , students do not master the techniques of writing a structured essay. In fact, it is a process that requires many steps to be followed from introduction to conclusion . The study ended up by suggesting possible solution to overcome such difficulties.

Teaching in IP Schools: An Analysis of Teachers' Experiences as Input to Pre-Service Teacher Education

Riza Reyteran — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The demand to make education inclusive requires assurance that the future teachers of indigenous students are fully equipped to handle multicultural classes. Hence, with an end goal of identifying inputs that could enhance pre-service teacher education, this study was conducted to determine the profile, experiences, knowledge, attitudes, and skills of the randomly selected teachers of indigenous students in the province of Occidental Mindoro. The data were gathered online through a questionnaire that underwent validity and reliability tests. Findings reveal that the teachers are graduates of bachelor of Elementary Education and have been teaching in the IP schools for not more than three years. The teachers frequently experience implementing the curriculum, monitoring student’s progress, and living with the IP community, and occasionally experience travelling to and from the IP community as they embark on the day-to-day activities of teaching their IP students. The knowledge, attitudes, and skills they have acquired from their pre-service teacher education curriculum have prepared them in teaching IP students. Five themes emanate from the teachers’ suggestions on how to enhance the pre-service teacher education curriculum such as inclusion of IP education, awareness program on the culture of Indigenous People, inclusion of IP language, training on how to handle combined or multigrade class, and conducting immersion activities in IP or minority schools. The College of Teacher Education may consider the suggestions of the teachers in reviewing and revising the existing curriculum of pre-service teacher education.

Introducing the Visual Art through Concrete Poetry in the EFL Classroom: A Case Study

chahra beloufa — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Teaching poetry offers the teacher of literature some basic and active ways to engage students in learning English because of poetry’s rich language which represents an opportunity for learners to explore meanings and be able to formulate creative responses. One must be aware of the fact that poetry includes various types which differ in forms, and each one of these may have a particular influence on students? learning literature; that is why one centralized the research area on concrete poetry or what is called visual poetry too. This study aims to teach students not only to read and listen to a poem but to develop the skill of creativity through rewriting and this ability would be provoked by the visual shape of the concrete poem. One is trying to bring fun in the EFL classroom and particularly during the literature lecture where students are probably bored by analyzing every line and stanza. So, all these aims were to be concrete via a test, observation and questionnaire. These scientific tools confirmed one’s hypotheses about how positive is concrete poetry for the group of the third-year English L.M.D. students at the University of Djilali Liabes, Sidi Bel Abbes

De/Stabilizing Heterosexuality in the Pardoner’s Tale

Mohamed Karim Dhouib — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The paper sets out to argue that the Pardoner’s atypical sexuality is subversive of the medieval gender matrix and that his challenge to heteronormativity is ultimately encompassed and disarmed. Chaucer presents the Pardoner as a genderly ambiguous Other who does not fit the compulsory pattern of the two biological sexes. In its pronounced otherness and difference, his queer body disrupts the medieval normative order. Paradoxically, however, his difference re-inscribes that very order and reinforces the institutional status quo. His transgressive potential is met by containment and heterosexual hegemony is eventually re-established and re-affirmed.

Giving Mirrors to Female Prisoners in Alice Birch’s [BLANK]

Madhawy Almeshaal — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The paper at hand attempts to interpret a contemporary British playwright’s theatrical artistic attempt to present a disturbing social issue and to suggest possible modes of help. In [BLANK], Alice Birch confronts the audience with the ugly cycle of women’s criminal conducts, female criminals’ offending and reoffending. The playwright employs the theater of the absurd as a theatrical medium through which she portrays the absurd reality of these female criminals and their families. To confront and shock the audience with the ugliness of these charterers’ reality, Birch uses In-Yer-Face theater. Birch suggests that the female criminal characters are victims who need proper psychological and medical rehabilitation services to break the ugly cycle of reoffending. The playwright implies a very challenging question for the audience: is it possible to break some patterns of some biological genetic behaviors? That is, can female criminals, in [BLANK], break away from their criminal behaviors that are biologically innate through the help of medicine and psychology not just through some practices of traditional stigmatizing forms of discipline and punishment in the justice system that are often proven to be unreliable means of constraint? By shocking and confronting society with the ugly reality of many female prisoners, in [BLANK], Birch is trying to give these pathetic female characters’ voices, mirrors, selves, forcing society to acknowledge them as human beings who have an essential role in society.

Rapport Management in President Buhari and Governor Sanwo-Olu’s Speeches on #EndSARS Protest in Nigeria

Samuel Alaba Akinwotu — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Speech making in politics is an essential tool used to manage relationships between politicians and the electorate. The success of a speech depends on the content and the discourse and linguistic strategies employed to achieve speakers’ communicative goals. Political speeches have been widely studied, but extant studies have given tangential attention to the management of rapport in speeches of political office holders delivered in crisis situation in Nigeria. Two speeches delivered by President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu (GBS) on the #EndSARS protests in Nigeria, downloaded from www.guardian.ng and www.premiumtimesng.com respectively, were purposively selected and analysed using Rapport Management theory. This is with the view to accounting for the linguistic elements and discourse strategies and their functions in maintaining harmonious relationship in selected texts. Linguistic elements such as the inclusive “we”, the institutional “I”, collective/possessive “us” “our” “your” and descriptive adjectives and strategies such as claiming common ground, expressing solidarity, showing empathy were employed to manage rapport and achieve communicative goals by PMB and GBS. While GBS tactically avoids utterances that are rapport threatening, some utterances of PMB have the tendency to impair rapport. He however mitigates them through hedging, personalisation, institutionalisation and testimonial argument.

Self-Directed Professional Development: EFL Teachers' Understanding

Surendra Prasad Bhatt — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Self-directed professional development is the process to develop professionally with the help of self-motivation, self-initiation, and strong willpower. Teacher development through self-direction is the concern these days in Nepal. The study explores the experiences of secondary-level English language teachers in the practice of self-directed professional development strategies within the theoretical framework of adult learning theory, more specifically, a key component of self-directed learning. Based on the telephone interviews with five English teachers teaching English at the secondary level of Dadeldhura district, the practice of the experience of practicing self-directed learning strategies was explored. The study reveals that the teacher teaching in secondary level challenges like large class, less or no effective teacher training, improper use of CAS, and lack of teaching material in the teaching profession. To tackle these challenges, they adopt different strategies themselves. Mainly this study showed that strategies like reading printed materials, use of internet and ICT tools, action research, reflection, and collaboration among teachers are some common among them. These strategies are very often and easy for their professional development. These strategies are adopted for solving mainly everyday problems. Despite being in remote areas of Nepal secondary level English teachers are self-motivated to adopt different strategies for their professional development.

The Morpho-Phonology-Semantics Interface in Modern Standard Arabic

Cherif Teimi — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The issue of the interface between linguistic components has got much interest in contemporary linguistics especially after the advancements that took place in the discipline of Conceptual Semantics. In essence, linguistics components have all been considered to be equal in terms of deriving meaning. In this article, the researcher scrutinized how the component of morpho-phonology interfaces with semantics. This aim was achieved through the analysis of intransitive verbs in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA, henceforth). It was found that intransitive verbs serve well in terms of demonstrating the interface between morpho-phonology and semantics. The morphological and phonological alternations of intransitive verbs result in changes in meaning. Cognition has a central role in generating causative verbs from intransitive ones.

Employment Profile and Program Relevance: Bases for Quality Measures Towards Language Curriculum

Jhordan Cuilan, Cynthia Lubiton — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This research involved a comprehensive review of a graduate program’s competence for enhancements responsive and relevant to the standards of the new educational landscape and of the employment agencies’ growing needs and demands. Descriptive survey method embedding interview was used to address the objectives. Employing total enumeration, 70% retrieval rate of the instrument administered was recorded. Statistical and thematic analyses revealed that the MA- ESL degree, as similarly concluded, is contributory to the professional advancement of the graduates as supported by the high employment rating obtained consistent with the graduates’ regular status in professional occupational classifications and business lines. Significantly, the school- related factors were generally found very relevant- giving premium to curriculum, goals and objectives, and faculty and instruction. The work- related values on the other hand were rated highly useful- assessing perseverance and hard work of utmost importance. Of the general competencies, communication, knowledge and technical, and research were primarily found useful. Meanwhile, the feedback derived from the graduates, crosschecked with the above results, provided quality and timely enhancement measures. It is then forwarded that the proposed plan highlighting specific measures in the areas of curriculum and faculty and instruction may be adopted and accorded periodic evaluation.

The Singing Poets – The Influence of Folksongs on Modern Arab Poets in the First Half of the Twentieth Century

jeries khoury — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Twentieth-century Arab poets undertook a search for alternative means of poetic expression that went beyond experimentation at the stylistic and formal level. The result was a violent rebellion against the traditional qa??da form in the mid-1940s, an urgent striving for freedom and breaking free from accepted forms. One of the rebellion’s manifestations consisted of a renewed interest in folklore, especially folksongs, as a source of inspiration. Early on, folksongs became a fundamental pillar of Arab Modernism; most of the poets of the first half of the twentieth century were, in fact, affected to differing degrees by the folksong style. Ultimately the present study shows that folk literature in general, and folksongs in particular, are a critical source of inspiration for Arab poets, one which has enabled them to forge a link between their art and their public.

The Gothic Representations of the City through the Fl?neur in Victorian Literature

Sana Chebil — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The Victorian Gothic moved away from old and conventional themes and spaces of early Gothic novels such as ruined castles and evil villains into more realistic spaces and characters that went hand in hand with the issues of the era. While the conventional Gothic space centered on the castle or other forms of old buildings, the city was an important component in Victorian Gothic imagery. In an era of growing mediation between the city and the urban dwellers, the gothic representations of the urban space in Victorian literature highly depended on the 'eye' of the its fl?neurs, or walkers who see, interpret, and produce the city. The fascination with modes of perceiving and seeing the mystery of the puzzling visual experience are evident in a wide variety of the nineteenth and twentieth-century theories and researches on the urban space. The focus of this paper is to graft some insights into debate on urban visuality and other related tropes that provide a range of perspectives on the field of the visual and perception of the city. Then, drawing from Victorian novels, this paper examines Dickens’s portrayals of urban subjects such as Gothic fl?neurs who produce the city as a Gothic place.

The Gothic Femme Fatale in Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations and Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Sana Chebil — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Since its emergence in the eighteenth century, the Gothic genre has functioned as a literary means for many writers for expressing fears and anxieties including those related to gender ideology in Victorian era. The genre operates as a means for many writers to demonize powerful or seductive women. The femme fatale is seen as a moral threat or a disease to the Victorian society because she was represented as being outside of the parameters of the feminine ideal of a respectable Victorian society. The first theoretical part focuses on the Gothic genre as a literary means used by Victorian writers to represent the social anxieties of the era, mainly women who go beyond gender norms. The next part is about the modern femme fatale that bears many similarities with the older biblical figures. This article depends on the analysis of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations and Bram Stoker’s Dracula’s female characters who are the personification of some cultural fear. It deals with the femme fatale as a female villain and their Gothic representations in these novels. This paper focuses on the Gothic genre that is used as the literary tool through which Stoker and Dickens attempt to represent the femme fatale.