Department wise Listing | NUML Online Research Repository
List of Content
Back to Listing
Title Abstract Action(s)
REDUCING WRITING ANXIETY AMONG ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS THROUGH SYSTEMATIC DESENSITIZATION: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY A common problem encountered by the learners of a second language is that of anxiety and nervousness regarding its correct usage. This was a predicament thought to be limited to speaking skills but quite recently the anxiety related to writing in second language also brought into focus. This research aims at gaining a deeper understanding of writing anxiety faced by ESL learners and suggests systematic desensitization as a viable solution. This research aims at examining the effectiveness of systematic desensitization in reducing the level of writing anxiety among the students of diploma at NUML. The research follows the self-administered procedure of systematic desensitization. It includes three steps, namely: relaxation training, construction of anxiety hierarchy, systematic desensitization procedure. In this research, the Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory was adopted to determine the level and types of ESL writing anxiety prevalent among the participants along with a correlating analysis between writing anxiety and writing performance to investigate its effects. The researcher explored the specific causes of ESL writing anxiety among students by keeping this reality in focus that the second language anxiety is caused by multiple factors. The views of the participants were collected by asking six open-ended questions prepared by Attay and Kurt (2006). The present research aims at uncovering the feasibility of making use of systematic desensitization for improving students’ performance on English writing tasks. Systematic desensitization is a technique which is effectively recommended to people suffering from phobias or other academic fears. For this purpose, forty students were selected through purposive sampling from the sixty students of Diploma in English from National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad. The selected forty participants were randomly divided into two groups: experimental and control group. Only the experimental group was given therapy. After the comparison of pre-test and post-test results, it was recognized that systematic desensitization was effective in lowering the anxiety and improving the writing skills of English language learners. The results obtained led to two important findings: 1.There is a high level of ESL writing anxiety among English language learners 2. Systematic Desensitization is an effective therapy to curb this anxiety.
CONTESTING NEOCOLONIALISM IN POP CULTURE: A TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF SELECTED RAP-VERSES The phenomenon of neocolonialism has been afflicting the Third World nations since the departure of formal colonialism and imperialism. It rose as an overt mechanism of subjugation over the newly independent states, still reeling from the effects of prolonged cycles of exploitation under the colonial oppression. Resistance against colonialism of the past and the neocolonialism of present has existed in different forms. Literary resistance is a part of cultural resistance that comes before, goes along and follows resisting forces and efforts in all forms. Just like other mediums used by the oppressed circles to raise the voices of discontent, rap has been distinguished by the condition of marginality associated with it. In the recent years, the rap anthems of Arab Spring canon that sparked revolutions across several states, illustrated the potential of “rap” as a cogent apparatus of resistance. The neocolonial theory was used as the theoretical framework for this study. The researcher sought to determine of the features of neocolonialism and Post 9/11 US neoimperialism using the scholarship that have been expounded and contented in the selected rap-verses “Soundtrack to the Struggle 2 (ft. Noam Chomsky)”, Terrorist, “Obama Nation (Part 2)” by Lowkey and “The 3rd World” and “The 4th Branch” by Immortal Technique using the textual analysis methodological approach. In the light of the results it can be safely argued that both artists contest the covert and overt elements of neocolonialism while offering counter narratives.
The Loss of the ‘Real’ in Nikesh Shukla’s Meatspace: A Study of Constructed Hallucinations This research has attempted to highlight the issue of reality and its representation in postmodern literature as well as culture. The contemporary advancement in technology and hyperreal culture of postmodern age has made ‘reality’ an intricate phenomenon, that is not fixed; rather, it has become fluid and arbitrary. Literature, as it has been defined since ages as mirror to life, gives expression to human experiences through the delineation of life. Literature in the postmodernist sense has become a credible source of the delineation of the construction and subversion of socio-cultural erections that has demolished the Metanarratives by bringing mininarratives into centre. Reality in postmodern age is represented through its simulated representations by media and cyberspace. Baudrillard and Gibson are of the view that postmodernism has dismantled the fact/fiction distinction by deconstruction and reconstruction of ‘reality’ through its multiple simulated layers. Jean Baudrillard’s theory of Hyperreality and William Gibson’s theoretical concept of Cyberspace has made postmodernism an object which can be witnessed in the form of Information Technology, technological commodities, images from pop culture, media, and advertisement. Both theoretical perspectives have defined ‘reality’ as techno-oriented phenomenon that is perceived through its simulated representations by media and cyberspace. The human/cyber interface involved in the phenomenon of cyberspace blends physical world and virtual world and subsequently blurs distinction between the two which is the same aspect of postmodern culture that Baudrillard terms as ‘hyperreality’. In our postmodern era, this simulated ‘reality’ has become a recurring feature of human life. The postmodern genre Cyberpunk represents the present-day technology-oriented societies and spotlights the issues of reality and its representation in virtual realms of cyberspace. In the light of these theoretical concepts, this research stands on textual analysis of the selected postmodern novel of Nikesh Shukla, Meatspace (2014). The textual analysis has projected that the world of technological innovations has produced novelty as well as complexity in everyday life of postmodern individuals. It has also sped up the subversion of metanarratives into mininarratives. In postmodernist context, there are no more absolute, static, and unique concepts of ‘reality’ . ‘Reality’ is simulated through abstract representations in postmodern hyperreal culture which has mashed-up human/machine, physical/cyber, natural/artificial, real/virtual and made them the blur dichotomies. This research highlights that in our digital age, these opposite factors are intertwined else in a way that the individuals find it difficult to differentiate between fact and fiction, real and virtual, reality and hallucination. So, the primary lens that has been used in this study is hyperreality. Encompassing postmodern pop culture present in the novel, the research makes a study of hallucinations constructed by postmodern characters of the novel in digital realms of cyberspace.
Academic and Ideological Discourse at Interface: A Study of Textual and Pedagogical Practices in Pakistan ABSTRACT Thesis Title: Academic and Ideological Discourse at Interface: A Study of Textual and Pedagogical Practices in Pakistan Objectivity and empiricism are one of the tenents of academic discourse especially in science subjects but the researcher has observed ideological discourse interfacing in the writings and pedagogical practices of many teachers in Pakistani colleges and universities. The current study presents a systematic investigation of this interface between academic and ideological discourse in the educational institutions of Pakistan especially with regard to religious, political and gender ideologies. The study attempts to explore and examine the intermixing both in oral and written academic discourse. Academic writings, observation sheet and questionnaire are used as research tools for data collection, whereas researchers, teachers and students serve as the target population. First of all postgraduate institutions across Pakistan were separately selected through purposive sampling both for social and natural sciences. Textual data was drawn from the academic writings of teachers and students; followed by pedagogical data in the form of class lectures. Employing the methodological assumptions of Critical Discourse Analysis, the analysis has been carried out. The study argues that the academic discourse in Pakistani institutions is informed and shaped by social and cognitive structures. It also explores how overlapping between ideological and academic discourses happen and for what purposes. The findings of the study are useful signposts to the national educational policies and pedagogical practices. The futuristic aspects of current research are discussed for other researchers as well.
Kashmiri Rhetorics of Survivance: A Comparative Analysis of Basharat Peer’s Curfewed Night and Rahul Pandita’s Our Moon has Blood Clots This research focuses on the Vizenorian trope of survivance after situating it in indigenous critical theory as presented by Professor Jodi Byrd and Morten-Robinson, using it a priori for analyzing indigenous Kashmiri narrativized rhetorics. The research, then, defines and postulates the term as a cultural practice used in indigenous narratives for implicit as well as explicit social, political, and legal objectives. Appropriating this trope for Kashmiri narrativized rhetorics, focusing on autobiographical narratives of Basharat Peer’s Curfewed Night and Rahul Pandita’s Our Moon has Blood Clots, the research further explores Malea Powell and Earnest Stormberg’s postulations regarding rhetorication of narratives and presence of survivance practices in American Indian rhetorics to assist in validating the argument of Kashmiri cultural survivance practice. The act of comparative and contrastive analysis of these Kashmiri narrativized rhetorics in the research substantiates this argument, demonstrating political and legal ramifications of Kashmiri cultural survivance practices in the individual cultural community as well as in common Kashmiri composite culture, or Kashmiriyat, in the presence of incumbent protracted paracolonialism, concluding on the perspective of further inquiry into Kashmiri trickster[ization].
Deforming Tendencies in Mustansir Dalvi’s English Translation of Faiz’s Poetry: A Textual Analysis The following study intends to analyze the frequent use of deforming tendencies in the English translation of Faiz’s selected poems. Moreover, this research investigates the effect of the deforming tendencies on the target text. To achieve the aims of the study, the researcher takes into consideration the theoretical framework of Antoine Berman presented in 1985. Working in qualitative paradigm of research, the researcher has used textual analysis to examine the data that includes a sample of ten purposely selected poems of Faiz Ahmed Faiz which have been translated by Mustansir Dalvi into English. The researcher has found the instances of deformation in terms of syntax, phonology and semantics. These deformations are the result of domesticating techniques such as exclusion, inclusion, rationalization, etc. A number of instances of deformation have been scrutinized and analyzed by the researcher while employing the textual analysis in inter-lingual way. After taking into account the Model of Deforming Tendencies, the researcher has found out that the translator has adopted many deforming tendencies for making his work worthy and refined. The translator has failed to render appropriately the rhythmic expressions which have resulted in the loss of poetic expressions and meanings. Hence, some suggestions have been presented to deal with the problem of deforming tendencies.
DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTION OF MASCULINE IDENTITY IN POST-9/11 BLOCKBUSTER FILM DISCOURSE: AN ANALYTICAL STUDY ABSTRACT Title: Discursive Construction of Masculine Identity in Post-9/11 Blockbuster Film discourse: An Analytical Study Films are visual stories and construct different identities. According to some visual semioticians the filmic text enlarges language categories by fusing scenes, sounds and said words in a steady manner. Hollywood films, particularly post 9/11 blockbuster films echo geo-political and social realities. A seemingly entertaining yet escapist fictional superhero film carries serious underpinnings and suggestions for the public to take away. However, this thesis explores ways of seeing successful blockbusters as cultural and political barometer that can be applied to measure the extent of identity construction approved at a wider cultural and social level. This dissertation discovers how select superhero blockbuster films, post-9/11, are orbiting away from hyper-masculinity and circling more around more human male protagonist, flawed, and requiring assistance from stronger females, hence leading the humanity out of crisis. 5 Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU henceforth) films are explored for this purpose. In doing so certain parallels are drawn from 2 iconic Disney Comics productions (henceforth DC/Pixar) blockbuster animated films to find out how masculinity is being redefined and displayed differently in content meant for children consumption. This discursive construction of newer angles of gender identities are explored following Johan Galtung (2004) model. Also, the evolution of the New Man model, supported by Gilam and Wooden (2008) is also used. Both explicit and implicit construction of identities are investigated, while tracing and pinpoint the dialogical instances in selected films. The analysed data has helped in understanding how blockbuster film serve as a prism of emerging movements, aspirations, solutions, and life lessons that the audience hopes to resonate on screen. This dissertation focuses on how language gets these messages across to crowd.
ASSIMILATION AND SURVIVAL: COUNTER HEGEMONIC PERSPECTIVE IN SELECTED NATIVE AMERICAN DRAMA ABSTRACT Thesis Title: Assimilation and Survival: Counter Hegemonic Perspective in Selected Native American Drama Throughout the history of the United States of America, the social relations between Euro-Americans and Native Americans remained unpleasant and uninviting. The investigation has brought forth the striking grievances of the Native Americans against the mainstream White American society in response to the underestimation of power of the Native American culture, identity and history. The factual data consulted and analyzed during this qualitative research has invariably confirmed the execution of the U.S. government’s policies of the Native Americans’ removal such as forced assimilation and Congressional Acts during the 19th and 20th centuries. Meanwhile, the blend of historical references and the chosen text of the selected Native American playwrights proved that the Native Americans went through the unappealing phase of forced assimilation through Indian boarding school education that started in 1879. It made the survival of Native identity and culture difficult, influencing the Native American drama to seek respectful way of acculturating the Native Americans. In the light of 1990s theory of Survivance that establishes intimate relationship between literary and non-literary texts, the researcher found it convincing that the selected plays of the last quarter of 20th century are based on the Natives’ historical struggle of survival amidst White Americans’ desperation for assimilation. Going through the plays like “Body Indian” and “The Indolent Boys,” the sufferings of the Native Americans demand the White American’ political, social and financial generosity in order to win the Natives who are found to be engaged in preserving effectively their native culture and identity. In the meantime, the findings of the present research summon the dejected Native Americans to honor their ever-present instinct of survival and steadfastness during perplexing scenarios.
Quest for Pakistaniness: A New Historicist Study of Selected Textual Narratives of Pakistani English Fiction in 1960s. This study investigates the narratives of Pakistan through the fictional works of Pakistani authors in the 1960s especially two selected novels; The Murder of Aziz Khan (1967) by Zulfikar Ghose and Sunlight on a Broken Column (1961) by Attia Hosain, The former deals with Pakistan in 1960s, while the second novel covers the time period when Pakistan was being demanded initially during 1930-40s. To investigate the focal idea, New Historicist critical approach has been opted. The New Historicist views of Louis Montrose and Stephen Greenblatt have been adopted as the mode of interpretation. Contextual Analysis approach has been used as Research Methodology. The approach incorporates the contemporary non-literary texts dealing with the subject-matter similar to that of literary texts. The findings of the study state that the phenomenon of Pakistaniness is pluralistic and relative, not absolute. Different narratives about Pakistan in literary and non-literary texts represent different perspectives of Pakistaniness making the term multifaceted and intangible.
Tracing Cultural Confluence: A Structuralist Study of Folkloric South Asian Literature This research focuses on the structuralist analysis of South Asian folkloric literature. The selected folkloric literature from India, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Nepal foregrounds that all distinct communities of South Asia are deeply connected culturally in regards to its folklores therefore four stories: Soonimaya, Raja Rasalu, Sinhabahu and Don Hiyala and Alifulu, have been selected for this study. The study aims to reveal the cultural confluence in the folkloric literature of South Asia. The folklores have been analyzed in particular cultural and spatial/geographical contexts of South Asia. The study is done on two levels: the first level analyzes structure of stories using a structural narrative approach centering on Proppian taxonomic analysis and second level connects it to Barthesian cultural narratology, offering the opportunity to unravel the cultural commonalities in the folkloric texts of distinct South Asian countries. The idea is further substantiated with Claude Levi Strauss’s notion that all myths possess similar sociocultural function within society. Moreover, the cultural confluence has been decrypted through the investigation of the cultural markers of South Asian region, reflected by the conventions, customs, doctrines, lifestyle, cuisine and linguistic components of the indigenous people of South Asia which is functional in highlighting the folkloric culture of the region. These cultural markers have been studied under Vladimir Propp’s morphological model and Roland Barthes’ cultural/referential code. It posits that attending to narrative structures of folkloric literature of South Asian region facilitates a deeper understanding of South Asian culture. Further, it explicates that how different regions stand at junction by placing within the larger context of the system of culture.
DOXASTIC FAULTLINES IN A LINGUISTICALLY FRACTURED SOCIETY? A GROUNDED THEORY STUDY ABSTRACT Title: Doxastic Faultlines in a Linguistically Fractured Society: A Grounded Theory Study This dissertation theorizes the doxastic relationship between English and Urdu in Pakistan within the parameters of sociolinguistics. The study draws data from 300 opinion articles as published in Pakistan’s four English and four Urdu leading newspapers. The time period is 51 months and 09 days. An effort is made to generate a theory adapting Charmaz’s (2006) constructivist grounded theory approach to reconfigure the relationship between the two languages as conceptualized in the selected data instead of relying on extant theories. Adaptation is done in two ways to fit the sociolinguistic status of the study- innovative use of in vivo codes to construct intertextual doxai based on five main discourses (America, Pakistan Army, corruption, education and women) identified in the selected data, and by adding a new stage of conceptualization. A doxa is conceived as the opinion of the majority and/or the public intellectual who are fashioned after the tradition of Edward Said (1994). Consistent with the grounded theory logic the study does not start with any preconceived categories. The study is divided into main parts on the basis of two types of inferencing: inductive and abductive. Three stages of conceptualization mark the stage of induction and end on an intertextual category/doxa which stands for the doxastic value of the entire data: “An army without any political ambitions would be more acceptable than its present and past role”. In the abductive stage, the same is conceptualized into a conceptual model labeled as “D/doxa”. The small “d” doxa refers to the sumtotal of all opinions present whose meaning-making potential is dependent on an over-arching Doxa, the discourse on Pakistan Army in my case. Using D/doxa as a discursive entity, data are further conceptualized to generate an understanding of the relationship between Urdu and English. The theoretical rendering is named as the ENGURD theory (a portmanteau of English and Urdu). The theory proposes that in the realm of 300 opinion articles English and Urdu make one discourse. The doxastic differences present do not represent any linguistic/discursive fracturing between Urdu and English.
PERCEPTIONS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS REGARDING SOCIOLINGUISTIC COMPETENCE: AN ANALYTICAL STUDY Sociolinguistic Competence has been an important part of communicative competence. Sociolinguistic Competence helps learners to use the language linguistically and socially in an appropriate way. A lot of work has been done on the lack this competence among the learners. These studies show that more focus is given on grammatical knowledge rather than sociolinguistic competence. This study explores the perceptions of English Language Teachers about this competence and the problems that may hinder teachers from implementing strategies to enhance sociolinguistic competence among the students. To explore the knowledge and perceptions about sociolinguistic competence of English Language Teachers, the researcher used questionnaires and interviews. The questionnaires were based on the speech acts of complaints and apologies and close-ended questions. 20 schools were selected from Rawalpindi and Islamabad, both rural and urban, to collect the data. The research questions were based on the perceptions of English language teachers about sociolinguistic competence and the difficulties which the teachers face while enhancing the skills of the students about communicative competence. The results show that the development of sociolinguistic competence can help the learners to use the language linguistically and socially. This competence should be the part of language teaching and curriculum.
SEMIOTICS OF SUFI DISCOURSE IN COKE STUDIO VIDEO SONGS” ABSTRACT Title: Semiotics of Sufi Discourse in Coke Studio Video Songs This qualitative research seeks to inquire into the nature of the spiritual signified in Coke Studio (CS) Sufi singing (Pakistan). It explores how sign in CS singing is more important than what it stands for and it is the form, not meaning, which is forefronted in the singing. The selection of Sufi songs is made out of a total of 32, rendered by CS singers on various Pakistani TV channels within a span of 9 years and 9 seasons. Assimilating insights of three theoretical views, a method is devised to analyze and interpret signs and the discourse that they represent. The study demonstrates that CS Sufi singing is mainly directed towards materiality or the gaining of starship, fun and glamor and thereby it makes a ludic play of Sufi verses being sung. CS sign is largely simulated in that it distances itself from the sacred ambience of Sufi music and demonstrates from mild to intense degrees of concealment and masquerading in its performance and thereby confuses real with unreal or sacred with secular. CS singing, via its use of New Age discourses such as spirituality, genre fusion, adaptation and plurality of style and text, portrays Sufi music as a discourse that may be adapted and used for any material end or commodification. The study highlights the parameters CS singers use to assimilate Sufi music within modern and novel definitions of art, music and digital context. The study has identified four main aspects of the problem of spiritual signified in CS Sufi singing: Sign in this singing is largely (1) exoteric with its focus on form, causing split between signifier and signified; (2) it is simulated, fake and theatrical; (3) it is entertaining and appeals greatly to senses and (4) it is commercial and uses Sufi singing for commodification. The problem the study has attempted to address is crucial keeping in view the New Age logic of capitalism, free marketing, media hoopla and corporate monopolies over semiotic, digital and cultural resources of communities across the globe which are maintained under the cover of charity and public good as, for instance, we read through Coca Cola discourse in the present study.
CRITIQUING THE ECOLOGICAL CONCERNS: A STUDY OF PAKISTANI MEDIA DISCOURSE FROM AXIOLOGICAL-COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS PERSPECTIVE Advertisements announcing various ecological concerns or green advertisements are prevalent which draw attention towards the investigation of their verbal and visual modes of communication. The study focuses on the value study, analyzes the language of Pakistani print advertisements from ecological point of view and critically evaluates the reflected ecological concerns of the advertising companies in general sense. It adopts axiological-cognitive linguistics perspective since it accommodates the doctrine of values from cognitive linguistic perspective. The main aims are: to study values; highlight metaphors, metonymies, image schemas and colors for their role in encoding of ecological values; and to investigate how advertisers utilize or exploit the cognitive tools for reflecting ecological concern. The categories extracted via inductive approach of the content analysis; conservation, reduction, renovation, saving, environmental protection, eco-friendly, natural, preservation, ecological, recycling and nature are the dominant ecological values found in the selected discourse of advertisements. The advertisements by NGOs and government campaigns are spreading environmental consciousness; therefore marked as greening while the other companies selling products are promoting consumption in disguise of ecological concern; therefore regarded as greenwashing with exception to the advertisements of National Bank of Pakistan and Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited. The striking resemblance in linguistic encoding of the ecological values for both greening and greenwashing advertisements is quite thought-provoking which highlights manipulation and exploitation of cognitive tools by advertising companies. The most commonly exploited ecological value in selected sample is eco-friendly which suggests contesting and revising Pakistani media discourse of advertisements at linguistic levels. The study was delimited to the ecological perspective for advertisements but the axiological parameter could have been extended or replaced by Critical Discourse Analysis to gain more insight into the manipulation and power play by these NGOs and government campaigns.