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Effects of Keyword Method on The Vocabulary of EFL Learners at Intermediate Level
CLOZE READING OF LETTERS TO EDITORS: A VERBAL PROTOCOL ANALYSIS
A Study of the Generic Structure of Introduction cum Literature Review Section of the Research Articles The present study investigates the rhetorical structure of introductions that incorporate literature reviews into their layouts. The study has been carried out using Swales (1990) and Kwan (2005) model. 20 published articles have been selected from four international journals present in the JCR list. A mix method approach has been used in the present study to analyze the data. Close reading of the text was done to figure out different moves in the text and the results of move analysis is presented in tabular form. It was observed that writers conform to the set patterns of introduction and literature review writing. However, they follow different patterns of the set schematic pattern. These patterns are termed as move variations. Move variations were observed during the close reading of the text in move analysis. These findings showed that global trends of academic writing are continuously transforming. In the second part of the analysis, lexical choices made by the researchers were examined in each step of the move. The results have been presented both in the tabular and descriptive form. In the next part of the analysis most important move of the schematic pattern was determined with the help of Word Counter Software. The results alluded move 2 to be the most important move of the schematic pattern. This study is an effort to help the novice writers to get a comprehensive view of the emerging trend of compiling introduction and literature review heading. It will help the future researchers to explore the global emerging trends of academic writing in English.
Impact of Peer Feedback on ESL writing Skills of the HSSC Level Students Multan Thesis Title: Impact of Peer Feedback on ESL Writing Skill/s of HSSC Level Students Multan English is an emblem of achieving high status in Pakistan. People finding it a means of accomplishing success in life keep on learning English language. English is compulsory from primary to higher level of education in Pakistan. This great significance of English is the foundation of this study. There is a great scarcity of investigation in especially English Language Teaching in Pakistan. Students manipulate English not as language but as a subject. Language is a learning procedure and another important insufficiency in the education system of Pakistan is that process-centred approach to teaching of writing to the ESL/EFL students at HSSC level is not much well-known. Teaching of writing through commentary especially peer feedback activities are also unknown in the present literature. One key aspect of this study lies in the way that without devising a proper teaching plan, no improvement in the writing skill/s of the students can be harnessed. This research plans to review the spur of feedback by the peers in improving the writing skill/s of the learners at HSSC level. The study achieved this end through employing process-based approach to teaching of writing essays in small group activities by implementing peer feedback through planned lessons and checklists. The study employed traditional experimental research paradigm: experimental and control. The researcher applied pre-tests and post-tests in both the groups. Members of the first group, Experimental Class (EC) received treatment of peer feedback by using new process-centred approach for improving essay writing. The second Control Class (CC) did not get any administration of peer feedback but the teacher instructed that section with traditional product-centred approach in coaching essay writing. The information of the tests score and questionnaire was analysed by using statistical software SPSS. The study revealed that there is a good deal of difference of performance between students of both groups. The results of experimental group EC revealed that students after getting peer feedback treatment gave better results than the learners in the control class CC, who were not treated with peer feedback. Keywords: Peer Feedback; Peer Assessment; Peer Review; Writing Performance; Essays; Lesson Plans; HSSC level.
INVESTIGATING COLLOCATION ERRORS OF EFL LEARNERS AT SECONDARY LEVEL IN MULTAN
A Study of the Development in Design Features of Monolingual Dictionaries of Pakistani English
“Visual Representation of Gender Identity: A Social Semiotic Analysis of Social Documentary Films” ABSTRACT Thesis Title: Visual Representation of Gender Identity: A Social Semiotic Analysis of Social Documentary Films Words carry meanings. When words are used along with a visual medium to express an idea, the meaning is constructed through spoken and visual aspects. The present study is an investigation of two Pakistani and two western social documentary films made during the time frame of 2010- 2015 on Pakistani social issues. The study is an investigation of women in images and images of women to find out how Pakistani gender identity is presented in the visual media. The research uses insight from Mulvey’s female gaze and Foucault’s notions of gender and power theoretically. In order to carry out the analysis, utilizes Van Leeuwen (2008) Social Actor Theory for linguistic representational analysis Kress and Van Leeuwen's (1996, 2006, 2008) social semiotic multimodal framework of visual communication grammar. The study reveals that the processes of Pakistani gender identity representation and subsequent construction are at a crossroads of reshaping discriminatory stereotypes in the genre of social documentary films. On the other hand, western documentary films align the Pakistani ender identity against social, cultural and religious discourses to reveal women as a marginalized group.
ECO-PERFORMATIVITY IN MULTIVALENT TEXTUAL ECOLOGIES ABSTRACT Thesis Title: Eco-performativity in Multivalent Textual Ecologies Intervening within contemporary ecosophy, this thought experiment reframes the idea of the human while taking into account nonhuman semiotic potential. It postulates literary theory and texts as agents that participate in the material world’s meaningmaking tableau while subverting the nature/culture and human/nonhuman divides. Through a transdisciplinary itinerary, my work provides a much needed intervention within the field of literature as it foregrounds the narrative potential of nonhuman actants and its impact on the assumptions regarding the human body. Since stories have historically prescribed the centrality of the human as a logocentric agent, I argue that stories can also be used to dismantle this anthropocentric tilt. In so doing, they can establish the idea of a reparative humanness that takes into account the materialsemiotic agency of the world within which the human is enmeshed. Via the idea of textual ecology, I read the world as a kinetic compendium of human and nonhuman stories that defy absolutes and break down onto-epistemological enclosures. Therefore, my theorization takes on board Gerald Vizenor’s The Heirs of Columbus and Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl, along with two hypertexts, i.e., Mark Amerika’s Grammatron and Stephanie Strickland & Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo’s V:Vniverse to propose a re-reading of the human in terms of a compound subjectivity. This compound subjectivity inaugurates a re-reading of human embodiment as an editable assemblage that is in a state of continual becoming due to its enmeshment with various nonhuman phenomena. Since the human body is no longer a fixed entity, human performativity is also equally malleable. Therefore, I propose the idea of Ecoperformativity, which invites a search for new stories regarding our understanding of the world we live in through their mediation with nonhuman narrative agency. In so doing, I have blended the pertinent tenets of Jacques Derrida, Karen Barad, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Bruno Latour, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, Timothy Morton, Rosi Braidotti and Donna Haraway, etc. My research advocates the stance that in narrating more egalitarian performative accounts of human and nonhuman agency, literary texts and theories function as open-ended semiotic systems which permit a weaving of new stories regarding the co-constitutive participation of the human and nonhuman in the meaning-making processes of the world. This provides the space for the renewal of humanities that could raise further possibilities for thinking Posthuman subjectivities and the new structures of dominance that might emerge as a consequence.
REINVENTION OF CREATIVE SELF AND SELF-TRANSLATION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PAT JHARR KI AWAAZ AND THE SOUND OF FALLING LEAVES Self-translation is generally considered as something marginal, a cultural or literary oddity, as a borderline case of both translation and literary studies. Recent research in the history of this particular area has shown that self-translation has a long tradition, continues to be a widespread phenomenon in several cultures, and is closely linked to the representation of self. In this context, this study seeks to explore the links between self-translation, creativity, and reinvention of self through comparative analysis of Qurat-ul-ain Hyder’s Pat Jharr ki Awaaz and its self-translated version. The study examines the translation strategies adopted by Qurat-ul-ain Hyder that led to the deformations in the text and highlights the reinvention of writer’s creative self as depicted through her choice of strategies. For its methodological framework the study draws on Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS), adapting Kruger and Wallmach’s model (1997) for translation description. The analysis has been carried out on two levels i.e. macro-textual and micro-textual levels. The macro-textual analysis takes into account the comparison of structure of the two books, particular aspects of author’s style prevalent throughout the text, paratextual features such as preface and footnotes, and translation of titles. To conduct the micro analysis, the study takes seven equal-length passages from ST and compares them with their TT counterparts. In order to explore the translation strategies adopted on micro-textual level, the study relies upon Antoine Berman’s model of deforming strategies in translation (2000). Text extracts from ST and TT have been presented in pairs to highlight the translation strategies employed. Out of twelve deforming strategies presented by Berman, the instances for eleven have been found during the comparative analysis. The study reveals that the text has been altered and morphed in many ways on both macro and micro textual levels during translation. The Destruction of Vernacular Expressions and Idioms comes forth as the most widely used translation strategy by the author-translator. With a detailed textual analysis of self-translated text, the study reveals the process of reinvention of self by placing the findings into broader socio-cultural context.
A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF METAPHORS IN POST-KARGIL SPEECHES BY PAKISTANI AND INDIAN DELEGATIONS IN UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY The present study analyzes the metaphors employed by Pakistani and Indian delegations in their speeches delivered in UN General Assembly meetings in Post-Kargil war era. The study is based upon the theoretical framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory provided by Lakoff and Johnson. The researcher aimed to study the metaphors used by politicians from both countries as a rhetorical tool in their statements about their policies and standpoints regarding international issues like terrorism, economy, peace etc. in front of the international audience. An extensive study of the historical context was made prior to the sample selection. The criteria for the selection of the speech for analysis was the changing dynamics of relations between the two countries. Since the purpose was to analyze the change in number and density of metaphors in the speeches according to the change in the relations, as many as six speeches from each country were selected in both improving as well as worsening ties. This analysis is followed by an in-depth study of what characterizes the metaphors Pakistani and Indian delegations employed. For such analysis only those metaphors were selected of which target domains were terrorism, self and opposition. It was found that Indian delegations used more metaphors than Pakistani delegations did. It was also found that both number and density of metaphors in the speeches of both delegations changed as the relations between the two countries went through ups and downs. During the changes in the relations, a significant fluctuation in the number as well as density of metaphors was revealed in some topics. However, top ten source domains that the speakers from both countries selected for their different metaphors were same with marginal differences in ranking of frequency. Despite that, significant differences were observed in the way they both delineated different images in realizing terrorism, self and opposition. The dissimilarity existed both in conceptual as well as linguistic metaphors. These differences owed to anchoring the metaphors to build different discourses of terrorism, self-legitimization and delegitimization of the opposition.
EFFECTS OF SOCIOECONOMIC AND CULTURAL FACTORS ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING MOTIVATION OF THE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS OF ISLAMABAD This study was conducted to gauge the impact and relationship of socio-economic and cultural factors on English language learning motivation among Pakistani students. Carried out among students of Islamabad universities, the data for this M.Phil. dissertation was provided by 130 participants who were studying English in various universities of Islamabad and belonged to a multi-layered socio-economic and cultural background. A questionnaire, based on a study conducted for second language motivation (L2 Motivation) in Chile, gathered extensive information about the demographic profile and marks in latest educational exams along with a plethora of socio-economic and cultural factors. SPSS analysis was conducted to establish statistical associations between and among variables of the study. It was evident that socio-economic and cultural factors do affect English language learning among students in Pakistan, however, their level of impact and relationship with each other yielded stimulating results. For example, as was expected, parents’ education, income and profession does have association with the motivation to learn English. However, against our normal perception, it was observed that parents’ help and mothers’ profession did not impact the students’ motivation. In the same way, cultural factors also had an impact on L2 motivation, but their degree of impact is not as much as it was in the case of socio-economic factors. The students perceiving English as a threat to their culture, religious beliefs and to Urdu were less motivated to learn English. Again, against the customary perception, people’s responses to speaking English and to making mistakes in public did not impact students’ motivations.
RECIPROCITY OF ANGST AND FANATICISM: EXISTENTIAL-TERRORISTIC FEEDBACK LOOP IN NADEEM ASLAM’S SELECTED FICTION Nadeem Aslam’s selected novels, The Wasted Vigil and The Blind Man’s Garden, represent war in Afghanistan. The latter text also depicts its effects on security situation in Pakistan. Set in post 9/11 world, the selected fiction highlights both objective and subjective violence. Barbarism is enacted by American involvement in Afghanistan as well as savage activities executed by terrorist organizations. The tumultuous circumstances exhibit exacerbated existential crisis in the selected texts. This renders the characters’ lives uncertain. In order to feel uncontested in such a scenario, the characters affiliate themselves with core defining principles of life. Cultural, religious, and political worldviews help set the codes. The predefined set of rules is largely offered by terrorist ideologies. In his novels, Aslam shows that ideological constructs are ferociously defended in the wake of trepidations. Thus, when imperiled, violence increases. This research invokes Megan McBride’s existential-terroristic feedback loop to investigate the role of fear of death in people’s desire to observe certain beliefs. Also, I have adapted McBride’s model to evaluate the reciprocity of angst and fundamentalism. I explore angst in the novels from Kierkegaard’s perspective. My project, thus, identifies that this relation remains uncharted, and attempts to fill this gap. This study is interpretive and exploratory in nature and is, therefore, qualitative. I have read my primary texts through Textual Analysis.
ANALYSIS OF TRANSLATIONS OF SELECTED SHORT STORIES BY GHULAM ABBAS IN THE LIGHT OF VINAY AND DARBELNET MODEL Field of translation studies is making gradual progress in modern era and new developments are taking place now a day. Current research study deals with changes which take place when source text is translated into target text. These changes include both lexical changes and semantic changes. Selected short stories of a renowned Urdu short story writer Ghulam Abbas with their translation in English have been taken for this research study. The basic purpose of the study is to find out why changes in a target text take place. For this reason, three research questions are formulated. These research questions focus on (i) what linguistic factors contribute to the transformation of message of the source text? (ii) How do translation strategies contribute to greater meaningfulness of a target text for the target audience? (iii) What are the elements that lend coherence to a target text? To find out answers of these research questions, the researcher has made an attempt to carry out textual analysis. Textual analysis makes it clear that structural, social, and cultural differences between source text and target text are major reasons for changes in target text. The study reveals that modulation and adaption are the main factors which bring coherence in a target text. Mainly these factors make a target text understandable for target text readers. Future researchers have been encouraged to take an opportunity and contribute to this emerging field of translation studies by conducting researches on the topics suggested in last part of the conclusion section of this research study.
AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE MISPRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH MADE BY SHINA SPEAKING TEACHERS AT SECONDARY LEVEL IN GILGIT BALTISTAN The present study focused on the mispronunciation made by the Shina speaking secondary school teachers in Gilgit-Baltistan. It aimed first to highlight the most common errors in pronunciation made by the SSTs. Secondly, it identified the reasons for the errors that occur in the pronunciation during teaching process. Finally, it has given remedial measures to overcome the errors and to help them become better speakers of the English language. For the current research quantitative as well as qualitative approach was adopted. Descriptive method was applied. The sample population consisted of 25 Shina speaking secondary school teachers. Random sampling technique was applied to select the sample. An oral pronunciation test as a research tool was constructed to collect the data through video recordings. The data was analyzed statistically and descriptively. The results revealed that the SSTs have made huge amount of errors in pronunciation of the target sounds e.g. “/g/, /ch/, /th/, /ʒ/ and, /r/” in particular, the silent letters and inconsistent sounds and spellings in general. The results revealed that the complexity of the sound system, unawareness regarding the fundamental rules, complex orthography, lack of opportunity, small amount of exposure, negligence towards practice, unavailability of proper resources and lack of training regarding pronunciation are the root causes of mispronunciation. Finally, it is suggested that teacher training relevant to the pronunciation should be made essential part of the curriculum. Native models, large variety of pronunciation soft wares, movie clips, phonetic videos and digital dictionaries must be stalked inside the classrooms as well as in language laboratories. So that, the teachers may be well equipped in pronunciation skills. Moreover, focusing on the observed errors and keeping on practice can help the SSTs to improve their pronunciation performance.