Journal VIII.4. .pdf - English Language Teachers' Interaction ...

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========== Journal of English Language Teachers’ Interaction Forum.VIII.4 (Oct. – Dec.2017 =========

Journal of English Language Teachers’ Interaction ForumVol. VIII. 4. (Oct. - Dec. 2017)

(ISSN 2230–7710)(National Conference 2016 Special Issue: Part 4)

ContentsFrom the Editor’s Desk 2Guest’s ColumnHow Are Local Languages Used in Schools?Using Learners’ L1 to Teach English Anand Mahanand 3Notes from an Educator’s DiaryColouredJudgements Geetha Durairajan 7Language Competence in Non-Language Classes –through the Hidden Chasms S. Jayalaksmi 9

Homolinguistic Translation as an aid in TESL Arul Beneto Gerard 15The Role of Motivation in Oral Communication Strategy Use V.K. Karthika 18Positive Disintegration in Neil Klugman of Philip Roth’sGoodbye Columbus Mridula S. Nandy 23

Papers presented at the National Conference on 6 &7 January 2017atAvinashilingam University for Women, Coimbatore (TN): Part 4

Neil Gaiman’sTempest as Postmodern Metafiction Meenakshi Srihari 27Arab-Jewish Conflicts and Racial Politics in Leon Uris’ The Haj. Rasmi.P.K 33Ten- minute Activities as Motivational Triggers Jamuna Devi.P 37Audiobook for Enhancing Listening Skills K. Priyadarsini 40Learner-centred Classrooms – Teacher Attitude K.Primrose 43Culture studies and Gender Issues in Gloria Naylor’s Novels B. Kogilavani& 46

R. LeelavathyReports from the fieldNational Conference at Avinashilingam University for Women S. Jayalakshmi 49National Conference at SRNM College Sattur S. Jayanthi 52ParentingStranger, but Not Danger Dhanya Bhaskaran 53It works in my classroom P.Bhaskaran Nair 54


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From the Editor’s Desk

When Teachers of English Forget the Society

The title, I know, is either misleading orambiguous. Mostly, the readers are likely to thinkthat this brief write up is about the teacher’scommitment to society. True, teachers must becommitted to society—more than any othersubject teachers, teachers of English, consideringthe social relevance of English language.

But, here I am not entering into the ethics ofteaching, but the limited circle or the space inwhich English is situated or located as a secondlanguage. The word ‘society’ here refers to twodirections into which language swings—theworld outside the classroom and the speechcommunity which share English forcommunication. The former decides, defines,describes and above all restricts the use ofEnglish language. The latter, overflowing fromthe classroom to bank counters, editorial desks,business encounters, sports commentaries,newspaper reading etc. provides the immediatebackground on which classroom transaction canbe, and must be placed. The former is ratherabstract, while the latter more concrete andtangible. When the teachers of English areconstantly aware of these two mutuallycomplementary hemispheres, teaching-learningof English can never be degraded into anunrealistic ritual.

What role does the teacher’s awareness ofsociety or, to use the technical term speechcommunity, play while engaged in teaching withinthe highly restricted space of the classroom? Tome, the answer is that an average Indian learner

of English, or for that matter even the teachercan’t ‘live’ in an actual speech communitywherein English is the language of day to daytransaction. The paradox is that, a day has comefinally in which normal existence itself becomesdifficult without an ‘approximate use’ of Englishlanguage. When the teacher is caught in thisparadox, the effective way of saving herself andher learners is to let an osmosis flow betweenthe real world outside and the artificial worldinside the classroom.

Let me demonstrate my point to teachers oflower class, with the help of an example. Youare teaching English in your own way. A smallprocession passes by along the road in front ofthe school. That means, the society outside isvibrant and dynamic when life inside the classhas turned dull. What does a conventionalteacher do? What can a resourceful teacher do?The former tries , of course in vain, to get theclass’s attention focussed on her (teaching),while the latter allows the attention of theindividual learner go grazing for some time, whileshe herself enjoys the freedom from the boredomof the class.

Fully knowing the working habits and theteaching style of the latter, the learners observethe procession, gather the necessary informationand come back to class following the beckoningof the teacher. The ten minute session that followsis an interaction (i) among the students, (ii)between the students and the teacher, (iii) and

(Continued on page:8)

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Guest’s Column

How Are Local Languages Used in Schools? - UsingLearners’ L1 to Teach English

Dr. AnandMahanandProfessor, Dept. of Testing and Evaluation & Materials Development

EFL University , [email protected]

The Context

The target learners come from Western partsof Odisha. They have multilingual background.They have their home language whichisSambalpuri. They use Odia as MOI and learnEnglish as a subject. They use home language(also referred to L1) at home, with their parents,friends, in the village, play round and in theirsurroundings. Odia is used as the medium ofinstruction.It is available to them in text books.Other forms of exposure to Odia are television,news papers, signboards, and so on. Even inthe classroom transactions such as in givinginstructions, greetings, conversation, andexplanation home language(L1) is used. Assaid earlier, learners have exposure to Odia intext books and media. The text books havemany aspects alien to their contexts, but on thewhole, the text books are educative . In this

paper, at attempt has been made to understandthe contexts and purposes for which learnersL1 is used and how it can be used moreextensively to support and maximize learning.

The Concept of L1L1 is Learners' first language. It is known byvarious names such as Home language, MotherTongue and so on. There are differentconnotations associated with it. G. Rajagopallists these terms associated with L1.

First language-Native languageMother tonguePrimary languageStronger Language(Rajagopal , 1992, p.97).

Abstract

Among the local languages used in Western Odisha, Sambalpuri has more number of users. The other locallanguages used in this region include Sundargarhi, Sadri, Chhatisgarhi and so on. These and Sambalpuri areused in schools for certain purposes. They are viewed as substandard languages. Odia is the medium ofinstruction and it is considered as the standard language. Though Odia is the medium of instruction and usedprimarily in classroom transactions, the role of local languages in education cannot be ignored. In this paper,I would like to study what role local languages usually play in primary and secondary education. Can they beused in the classroom as part of instruction? Will they serve any better purpose if they are used? Thesequestions will be addressed in the context of English language education. The paper will also report someresults of experiments done among learners and propose ways of integrating local language particularlySambalpuri in the classroom.(Key Words: Local languages, Sambalpuri, Odia, L1, Multilingual, Classroom)


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Theories of Teaching and LearningIn the 1970s, Direct Method was in place.Under this, exposure to the target language wasgiven utmost importance and the aim was tomaximize it and minimizing learners L1 as it wasconsidered as a hindrance. But under the Bi/Multilingual approach earners' first language isused as a support. It advocates that L1 shouldb used in the classroom. Studies ( Mahanand,2010, 2013, Meher, 2011) have proved thatthe use of L1 has helped learners in developingtheir language skills.

The Case or L1Educationists have opined that learners firstlanguage is important for his/her education. Theyinclude Piaget (1959; Bruner, 1985;Vyogotsky,1978; Cummins, 1986, Skutnabb-Kangas,1981; Pattanayak, 1990). Halliday states thatthe environment in which the child grows upcontributes immensely to the development of thechild and language of the child is the maininstrument of growth. According to him: "Thesticking fact is that it is the most ordinaryeveryday uses of language with parents, brothersand sisters neighbours and children in the home,in the street and the park, in the shops and thetrains and the buses, that serve to transmit, tothe child, the essential qualities of society, andthe nature of social being"(9). RabindranathTagore also suggested that children's learningshould be in harmony with the milieu they arelearning. He states: "The young mind should besaturated with the ideas that human world whichis in harmony with the world around it"(19).When we say social milieu it includeslanguage of the community in which the childgrows up and in most cases it is the child's firstlanguage or L1. The UNESCO (1958) advocates the use ofL1 in education. The UN Declaration ofLinguistic Human Rights too asks for the use ofL1 in education. ToveSkutnabb-Kangas arguesthat teaching children in other than their mothertongue prevents learning. As she states: "educating indigenous/Tribal and Minority (ITM)children (including immigrant minorities) throughthe medium of dominant language in a

submersion or an early-exit transitionalprogramme denies them access to educationbecause of linguistic, pedagogical andpsychological barrier it creates. Thus, it violatesthe human right to education" (9).Kangas statedthe above in the contexts of the tribal and migrantlearners. However, it is applicable to linguisticminority too. The linguistic minority learners arealso victims of the dominant language. There isa need to integrate the learners' L1 into schoollanguages. It is worth looking at how L1 is usedat present.

How is L1 used at present?From the researcher's observation, L1 is usedfor different functions in schools situated inWestern Odisha. For observation andexperiments five high schools in Sohela Blockof Bargarh district in Odisha were visited bythe author and his associates. They have foundthat the local language -Sambalpuri is used inschool for the following functions.

1.Personal interactionsOdia is the school language in these schools butSambalpuri is the home language. Children useSambalpuri at home to interact with their parents,grand parents, siblings and friends. In schoolstoo they interact with their teachers andclassmates in Sambalpuri when it comes topersonal communication or socializing.

2.Giving instructionsInstructions are a common practice in theteaching process. Instructions should be clearand effective. To achieve this, L1 is used mostof the time in the classroom. Instructions aregiven when learners are given to do some tasksand exercises. Instructions are also given in testsand exams.

3.Explaining meaning of wordsL1 is also used in explaining meaning of words.Sometimes grammatical elements and conceptsare explained in L1.Apart from English, L1 is being used inMathematics, Social Sciences and Sciences inexplaining concepts and problems. There have

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been examples of a lot of code switching andcode mixing too.Though L1 has been used in limited domains,there is some hesitation among teachers to useit extensively as this has been seen as a sub-standard language. But L1 can be usedextensively to maximize learning. Here are somemore possible ways of integrating L1 in theclassroom transactions and beyond.

Possible ways of integrating L1There are different possible ways of integratinglearners' L1. They include:

1. Tasks in the classroomGroup activities could be given by the teacherin which learners will be encouraged to use theirL1 and then shift to L2 and L3. For instance,input tasks for writing can be given in L1 fordiscussion, teacher can use L2 (Odia) for moreexplanation and re-enforcement if needed TheL3 (English can be used for the target skills.Apart from these other contexts in which L1could be used include:

2. Explain concepts of ideasConcepts can be explained better in L1 aslearners find it easy to understand. Though Odiais used , teacher can use L1 in-between andswitch over to Odia again. Multilingualdictionaries can be used in this purpose.

3. Explain Grammar pointsIn the same way, grammar points can be betterexplained through L1.

4. Explain meaning of words.Unless learners understand meaning of wordswell , they will not be able to use the word. Theycan understand it better if their L1 is used. Herealso multilingual dictionary can be used.

5. Extensive reading of stories, poems,drama and so on.We have abundant literature available inSambalpuri in the forms of stories, poems, playsand so on. These forms can be used by studentsto develop extensive reading. Reading in L1will help in reading in L2 too.

6. Multilingual Storytelling sessionsMultilingual story telling sessions should beencouraged. This will enhance learners'language awareness. A multilingual approach tolanguage learning will not only help learnersEnglish but also help them make their languagessurvive along with English.

7. Translation and writing sessionsStudents should also be encouraged to translateshort text from Sambalpuri to English and viceversa. They can write critical appreciation andreviews of literary pieces.

8. Using songs, stories, riddles and otherfolk forms in local languageThe region we are talking about is vibrant infolk songs, folktales, riddles and proverbs.Children are exposed to them and are familiarwith them. These can be used in the classroomtoo. Some of these may be used as model formemorizing lessons. For instance, take theproverb:

1. Karma keekadasi,phulphutebaramasi.Translation:The festival of Karma comesOn the Ekadasi dayFlowers of all kinds do blossom all wayBy remembering this song/proverb a child learnsand rememebers the date of the Karma festival.2. Eka- janhamanudekha,

Dui-kathakhandebuhi…Rough Translation:One, look at uncle moonTwo, carry a log of woodHere an example of another song:3. AaJanhamaamusaragasashiMo kanhuhaterepadatukhasi Mo kanhu tote helheanaiTo asibabatakurahichhichahinTranslation:


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Come, you moon uncle of my child.You are the moon of the skyMy baby has been staring at you.Looking for your way to come.Games like "Ghogho rani, antheanthepani"

can also be tried using bi/multilingual approach.Such possibilities are proposed in the NationalCurrriculum Framework (2005).

In this way, we can make social discoursesavailable to the learners. Halliday says, "Information from the social system has thisproperty, that is typically presented in highlycontext-specific doses" (79). This is how alearner can learn and grow in harmony withsociety and Nature. Bikram Das, an eminenteducationist and scholar wrote to me a mailmessage. Part of which I would like to quotebelow as it is relevant to the subject. He states:" I would like children to develop, through stories,an attitude of love and respect towards Natureand the kind of natural like we associate with…cultures of India. … I want children to be re-connected with that world- the world that areour tribal myths represent."

9. Using Local culture Not only language, but local cultures should alsobe used in pedagogical practices. Lessons,festivals, legends, freedom fighters, places, artsand crafts can be used.

10.Extra-curricular ActivitiesExtra-curricular activities such as poetryreading, story writing, debate, essay writing,etc. can be conducted to enable students uselocal language and English. Here also bi/multilingual approach should be followed.

ConclusionAs it has been already said, home languageshould not be viewed as a constraint but aresource. It is through MT that learners connectthemselves to their environment. They use theseresources in the classroom and engage in sharing

and creating thoughts and ideas. From here theyproceed to explore new things. They proceedfrom known to unknown. D.P. Pattanayak(1990)rightly observes: "that mother tongueanchors the child to culture." Due to certainprejudices the value and importance of L1 isnot realized by teachers, parents andadministrators. Though L1 is used in certainlimited domains, its use can be maximizedthrough various creative ways. Here few stepshave been suggested. These are only a fewsuggestions. More opportunities can be createdto facilitate integration. The author hasexperimented1 this among learners. His scholarhas also done research among the Sambalpurispeakers and all these have proved to be veryeffective. It is hoped that the erudite readerswill also try these!

Notes1. The researcher undertook an experiment withhigh school students by using familiar texts intheir classroom in their L1 first and then in Odiaand English.Students took a lot of interest andthe learning outcome was substantial. This hasbeen reported in a paper titled "English amongthe Under the Un-privileged: A Study of theMarginalized Learners in West Odisha." Englishlanguage Teaching: Perspective from thePeriphery. Jaipur: Aaviskar Publishers, 2013.Another experiment was conducted usingindigenous Oral Narratives in Sambalpurilanguage and there has been significantimprovement of language skills of students. Thishas been reported in a paper titled" Using indigenous Oral Narratives as s inscaffolding in L2 learning." Languaging: A Journalof Language Teaching and Language Studies.Vol.2, October 2010.Pp 143-153.SadanandaMeher'sM.Phil dissertationtitled"Using Home Language as a Support forEnglish language Education" supervised by theauthor and submitted to EFL University in 2011is an extensive study of how the use ofSambalpuri can enhance learners' reading skills.

(Continued on page 14)

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Coloured JudgementsDr. Getha Durairajan

Professor, Department of Materials Development, Testing and Evaluation, EFL University Hyderabad

[email protected]

A teachers, we are often told: "Think, reflect,keep an open mind; you will not grow other-wise..' Very recently, I went through an experi-ence which made me understand what this re-ally meant; I realised that as teachers all of ushave to also be learners, and without a 'last date'attached to it. To explain what I mean, I need toshare with you one of my experiences that leftme not liking myself very much, one which isetched deep in my 'racial' memory. I was in SriLanka a couple of months ago, the day I turned55 in fact, to participate in a programme onteaching life skills, and make a presentation onaural/oral language assessment at the schoollevel. Representatives from Cambridge Assess-ment had also been invited to do something simi-lar.I finished my presentation and after lunch, theCambridge representatives were to make theirs.I was particularly interested in listening to themto find out what the stance of professional 'bigtime' evaluation experts on summative oral test-ing would be; at the same time, as an evaluationperson, I was quite aware that the 'what' of thepresentation was not likely to spring any majorsurprises. Knowing that post prandial presen-tations tend to have a soporific effect on the lis-tener (yes, I only meant "we tend to feel sleepyin after-lunch sessions") and aware that I couldnot use the 'hand on head, eyes half-closed' ruse,I was looking for ways to stay awake when Irealized that I could use this as an opportunityto listen to this language evaluation discussion inTamil. A Sri Lankan government ruling dictatesthat simultaneous interpretationof all major En-

glish deliberations must be made available inboth Sinhala and Tamil.My mother tongue is Tamil and I have studied itas a second language up to the college level butmy language of academics in general and ELTin particular is English. Discussing evaluation inTamil would have been impossible, but I hopedI could make sense of it if I heard it.I therefore marched off to the interpreters' tableto find out how it was being done, and whetherI could listen in Tamil etc. There were 5 greyhaired people sitting at that table, 4 men and 1woman. The men were in suits, tied and booted,while the woman was in what seemed to me anuntidily tied sari. The men and the women werenot fair, and had a light brown complexion butthe woman had darker skin, a bit scarred. I au-tomatically assumed that the 4 men were the in-terpreters and that the 'unkempt clothes and hairlady' must be there to handle some clerical work.The talk began and I got myself a pair of earphones and started listening. And whose voicedid I hear first? The lady's, and she was doing aremarkable job: simultaneous interpretation is noteasy. One has to listen to what is being said,and then, while the talk is going on, keep pro-viding the equivalents, as fluent discourse, inthe other language. This is done in 15-minuteintervals; that is, one person speaks for 15 min-utes and then the next person takes over. Onejust needs to look at the person who has justfinished to realize how difficult and onerous thistask is: they just rest their heads on their handson the table in front of them, or lean back ontheir chairs and close their eyes for at least 5


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minutes. After the session was over, I spoke tothem about their choice of words and we had agood discussion on a variety of topics like theproblems of interpretation versus translation. Idon't even remember their names now, but thethree of us, the two Tamil interpreters, the ladyand the man, and I, had a very interesting dis-cussion, in fluent academic English on these prob-lems, and then continued with a discussion inTamil, where I was the one who was at a bigdisadvantage. I did not have the content wordsfor many concepts in evaluation, and had tosearch for them, supplied more often than notby the lady interpreter.I felt terrible at that point, but masked it and goton with the discussion, but later, in the privacyof my room, sat down to think and did not likewhat I 'saw'This was not a simple 'appearances are decep-tive' issue. It was much more than that..Deeper?Ingrained? Biased?An oldish lady in her mid fifties with grey hair,neatly parted down the middle, hair tied in a knot

and in a slightly (in retrospect) crumpled saree(later I discovered that she had travelled nearly50 kms by bus to get to the programme in time)according to my prejudiced mind could only bea clerk! And this conclusion I had come to with-out even thinking about it. I did not like what Isaw of myself and so sat down to think and re-flect. Have I done this earlier? Have I been ruderor harsher to a student with a dark complexion?To a student who spoke with a strong regionalaccent? Let a pretty girl or handsome lad getaway with a lot more than I would have other-wise….I could not recollect actual instances, but in thefringes of my consciousness were traces of suchprejudices…all I could do was squirm mentallyand make promises to be unbiased as far aspossible… to not ask, how dark? Sepia orchocolate…. this article was earlier published in the E news-letter of the ELTAI Hyderabad chapter; it is re-produced here with their permission.

between the students and the ‘text’ on the board.(While interaction is in progress at the first twolevels, the board will have a text on it.) Theapproximate number of people in the procession,their identity (party/group…), their demands,their likely destination etc. will fill the class forabout ten minutes. Society has entered the smallclassroom and now it ‘lives’ in that room.

A resourceful teacher who possesses a goodsense of social awareness can ruminate over thehundreds of ways of the society entering theclassroom any given moment, unexpectedly. Acontrolled or guided interaction can be generatedamong the learners, teacher and the text in every

day. Ten minutes of exposure in each of the 45or 50 minute period by all the teacherscollectively a day will definitely equip the learnerswith adequate communication skills.

At higher levels, i.e. in the UG and PG classes,this awareness of the society, if effectivelymanipulated, students’ rhetoric (both spokenand written) will naturally get developed.Debates, discussions, elocution, essay writing—all can be centred around social issues.

Let teachers of English always beaware of thesociety and its pulse beats.

(When Teachers of Continued from page:2)

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Language Competence in Non-Language Classes –through the Hidden Chasms

Dr. S. JayalakshmiAssistant Professor of English

Avinashilingam University for Women [email protected]

AbstractIn a multilingual country like India, teaching other subjects through English is a challenging task. More so isthe case when the class is heterogeneous in terms of the English language competence of the students,wherein the subject teacher has to tackle a multilayered pressure that mainly necessitates the teacher’sexercising her knowledge power among the students through this non-native language. Knowledge power,which refers to the teacher’s ability to show her intellectual prowess or her subject domain competenciesas an expert practitioner, dictates that the teacher is packed with all available information about the subjectand thus be “head and shoulders above all” (Payne & Cangemi, 1998). Establishing the power of herknowledge is in fact an inevitable prerequisite for any subject teacher to ensure active student participationin the teaching-learning process. Surprisingly, the status quo of the subject classes gives room to think thatdespite the strong subject knowledge, it is the language competence that seems to enable the subject teacherto articulate her knowledge power in the class. A distressing fact is that not only one set of students remainsdormant because they do not understand anything taught in English, but on the other hand, the competentlot in the class always poses a hidden threat to the subject teacher, one that involves the teacher’s language,which definitely disturbs the smooth progress of the class. This paper examines the views of subject teachersof diverse disciplines, regarding teaching their respective subjects through English. The main objectives arei) to address the need to check the attitude of both teachers and students towards setting standards forteaching other subjects through English, and ii) to enunciate language competence as a potential factor towield knowledge power in subject classes. Data collection for the analysis is done through a workingquestionnaire. The attempt is only to assess the current practices as found in the Educational institution thatthe researcher is affiliated to and not to generalize them as facts at large. Suggestions for augmentation arebased only on the inferences derived from the data collected.

IntroductionDuring the good old times, it was not uncom-mon to see English teachers teaching other sub-jects and other subject teachers teaching En-glish in India. For an English teacher, if she isdevoid of any sentiments to the aesthetics ofEnglish language and literature, it is no big issueat all to teach any matter, i.e. content, in Englishto teach its grammar. But for other subjectteachers, who are very proficient in their respec-

tive subject/s but not so in English, it is definitelya matter of concern and difficulty to teach theirsubject through English. Especially in a hetero-geneous class where they have students of as-sorted abilities, language proficiency is a big hitchfor the subject teachers, when it comes to hold-ing intact the students' concentration.To make a successful classroom presentation,particularly at the tertiary level, the teachers needsubject knowledge coupled with classroom


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management skills, awareness about the con-texts they are teaching and a perfect understand-ing of the students and their competencies, atti-tudes and motivational levels (Andrew et al,2005). The one common thread that connectsall these requirements is language proficiency.It is a minimum expectation of the students thatthe teacher should talk on their level of compre-hension, that is, the learner should be able tounderstand what the teacher is saying (Richards& Lockhart, 1994). In second language learn-ing, this transference from one speaker's use oflanguage to another speaker's use of languageis viewed as a contamination factor in the use ofthe L2. In this context, Stander (2001) rightlysenses that where teachers' own L2 knowledgeis not on an acceptable standard for the use ofEnglish, their poor usage and knowledge of thelanguage are transferred to the learners.This study creates its premises partly from thisfact and takes it further to discuss how languageis used as a tool by the subject teacher to wieldher knowledge and how the same language ef-fects drastic twists to the extent of spoiling theclassroom cadence. Particularly in a tertiarylevel educational Insiitution that accommodatesstudents hailing from different societal strata, itis equally challenging for both the teachers andthe students alike to meet the language-relatedissues that are more often than not very unpre-dictable. With the view to addressing the needto check the attitude of both teachers and stu-dents towards setting standards for teachingother subjects through English, and to enunciat-ing language competence as a potential factorto wield knowledge power in subject classes,the following were set as objectives:To examine the factors that contribute to

constructing the involvement and participationof the students and the teachers in a subject classTo scrutinize and justify how English lan-

guage proficiency is used as a tool by the teach-ers and the students for prejudiced purposes

Scope and LimitationsThis study was actually prompted by the stu-dents' observations in a periodical student as-sessment of the faculty, wherein the undergradu-

ate students had desired that some of their teach-ers spoke bearable English while explaining sci-entific/technical concepts and theories. Whileone group expressed that their subject teacherhad a poor proficiency in English and her use ofill-formed, ungrammatical language irritated themto go astray, another group inclined to curb themonopoly exercised by the teacher via language.Though there is every possibility that the stu-dents may be prejudiced in this regard, we can-not flatly overrule the chances of having subjectteachers with low language competence too.However, this study avoids reiterating the same;it rather attempts to expose the crevices of class-room setting that have long been left unattendedand therefore uncemented owing to the otherpressing academic demands, thereby pronounc-ing the need to look into this as an issue.This study is qualitative by nature in that the vari-ables used for the survey do not have sharp tech-nical definitions and therefore they are more rep-resentative than absolute. More empirical veri-fication is required for generalization. The ar-gument is built on the observation that at the ter-tiary level of education, i.e. under graduate level,of all the means that the subject teacher takes touphold the concentration of the students, lan-guage proficiency scores high, which is used bythe teacher and by some students alike for moresubjective purposes.The question of demographic details, age andgender of the respondents (learners and teach-ers) did not arise because the study is confinedto the Government-aided Women's Universitythat the researcher is affiliated to, which, thoughlocated in a city, accommodates students fromall strata of the society. Similarly, while analyz-ing the involvement of teachers, extrinsic moti-vational factors like salary benefits, job securityand physical environment were not consideredfor discussion. As far as the language skills areconcerned, only the speaking skill is consideredfor analysis. The questionnaires neverthelessencompass all possible range of issues involvedin the topic. Since this study is essentially quali-tative the variables for the concepts may seemoverlapping. Therefore, the results cannot begeneralized at a larger scale. Moreover, as the

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chosen area of study encapsulates several dis-ciplines like psychology, education and the like,it requires extensive empirical accuracy for au-thentication and for a staunch justification of theclaim made.

MethodologyThe primary aim of this study is to discuss lan-guage competence as a potential factor that helpsthe teachers (and some students, at times) toexercise one's power of knowledge in subjectclasses. Therefore to gauge the same, two setsof questionnaires, one for the subject teachersand the other for the students, were adminis-tered. Assuming that at the tertiary level the stu-dents are matured enough to consider them-selves as the major stake holders of the courseof their choice, the questionnaires were admin-istered to 314 undergraduate students and 65teachers handling different major subjects fordegree students in the institution that the re-searcher belongs to.Since this study is qualitative by nature, ques-tionnaires were semi-structured with both close-ended and open-ended questions. For pur-

poses of validation, the questionnaires werebased on Gardner's 2004 model of Attitude/Motivation Test Battery proposed in the Inter-national AMTB Research Project. Few adap-tations were also made from the Beliefs aboutLanguage Learning Inventory (BALLI) ofHorwitz, since a substantial part of the study isabout English language proficiency.The Teacher Questionnaire was designed on thebasis of the teachers' intrinsic motivation fac-tors, their expectations of students and the like,for which again the ideas were adopted fromthe models mentioned above. In addition to theYes/No options, all the questions carried blankspace for any explanation intended, and therewere also completely open-ended questionsaiming at a more candid expression, howeversubjective it could be. Absolute liberty was givento the respondents, like they did not have tomention their name and the department affilia-tion anywhere, to ensure more transparency,honesty and authenticity in responses.The students' questionnaire contained 34 Yes/No questions and 6 open-ended questions.They were categorized as follows:

S.No. Factors that affect participation No. of Statements1. Beliefs about teacher's knowledge in general 82. Beliefs about teacher's subject knowledge 83. Thoughts about teacher's language proficiency 104. Factors that affect concentration in class 105. Thoughts about the class environment 4

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Table 1. Students' Questionnaire

The questionnaire for the students was designedin such a manner that all the questions reflecttheir thoughts about the knowledge power andlanguage proficiency of the teacher and the gen-eral class environment, the details of which con-tribute to the argument of this study. As men-tioned earlier, the variables used are more rep-resentative than experimental.

Similar to the one meant for the students, thequestionnaire for the teachers was used to con-solidate the factors that affect the interest of theteachers and substantiate the suppositions of thisstudy. The teachers' questionnaire contained 33Yes/No questions and 7 open-ended questions.They were categorized as follows:


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S.No. Intrinsic factors that determine classroom management No. of Statements1. Beliefs about students' knowledge in general 62. Beliefs about student involvement in subject classes 73. Personal involvement towards teaching in English 74. Efforts taken to ensure interaction 65. Anticipations about the teaching outcomes 66. Factors that curtail the inclination of the teacher 8

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Table 2. Subject Teacher Questionnaire

Analysis of dataIt is a common belief that for all the pas-

sion that the teachers have for their respectivesubject, they deliver it at their best possiblemodes. However, in an exam-driven educationsystem, many a time despite the positive moti-vation of the teachers they cannot help but just'transmit' the subject as a set of theories, laws,principles, etc. When they have to perform thejob of information-providers (Brown, 1982) likethis, the result is that teaching becomes unstruc-tured with a general assumption that all studentsare identical and that they can follow the sametype of instruction; the students are thus indi-rectly forced to accept the models that theirteachers were taught themselves, a process thatportrays the teacher's lack of readiness aboutstudents' forms of learning and thought.(Hallbawchs, 1985) This idea has been widelyreflected in the responses of the students. Agood majority of the students (87%) stated thatthe teacher never listened to them nor gave themany scope for interaction in the class. 42% ofthem believe the teacher to be so prejudicedthat she divides the class only into groups ofbrilliant learners and groups of poor learners;what differs among teachers is their choice ofone of these two groups as their exclusive audi-ence and design their mode of teaching accord-ingly, depriving the other group of the attentionthey deserve.

What matters the most here is if the teacherchooses to favour the brilliant crew, she focuseson this group and eventually ignores the other,which actually necessitates her to be bilingual inher lecture in order to ensure absolute under-standing. She goes on delivering the content inEnglish, may be as a means to maintain her highprofile (43%) among these 'brilliants' or to 'sat-isfy' their expectations (32%). 54% of the stu-dents feel that, as a result, they are deprived ofan opportunity to gain knowledge of the sub-ject, since some of them prefer being taught inthe regional language rather than in English.Contrary to this, 52% of students stated thattheir teacher speaks faulty English and this takesaway their respect for the teacher, as they be-lieve that any teacher should have good com-petency in English. This set of students has ob-viously had their schooling through English me-dium of instruction and are proficient in English,who believe language plays a crucial role in en-hancing their career prospects. 32% stated that,in a situation when the teacher uses an erraticlanguage, they tend to discredit her by askingfor explanations in English, while 21% said theywould stay indifferent in the class.On the other hand, the analysis of teachers' re-sponses brings to light their cloaked grievancesand concealed contentions, especially when itcomes to deciding between language and sub-ject. It is indeed appropriate in this context tocite some of the qualities specified by the publi-cation entitled 'Speaking for Excellence: Lan-

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guage Competencies for Effective TeachingPractice' funded by the Council of Ministers ofEducation, Canada, as the essential competen-cies that a teacher should possess.use of oral language to promote the com-parison, sharing, and clarification of conceptsand notions (Cormier et al., 2010; Dulude,1994);ability to provide a clear and economicalexplanation of their own knowledge and ideas(Dulude, 1996);timely and strategic use of oral language forclassroom and student behaviour management(Liva, 1995; Mottet & Gervais, 2007);ability to distinguish between explanation,argumentation, interaction, correction, refutation,and feedback and to use them appropriately(Lebrun, 2008a; Leboulanger, 2004);linguistic skills required for reformulation,repetition, and substitution (Armand, 2009);knowledge of how to consider their audi-ence, how to evaluate the level of knowledge oflisteners, how to provide clarity about new termsand to summarize main ideas, and how to makeexplicit their intended plan for communication(Boyer, 1985; Howe, 1994; Plessis-Bélair,2004).Considering the above as the common qualitiesdesirable for teachers across the globe, there isevery justification for the students to expect theirteacher to be not just knowledgeable but alsosagacious enough to ensure that even the lastbencher has understood the concept beingtaught. The questionnaire meant for the subjectteachers reflected this concern too for which theteachers had given myriad responses. In thefirst place, according to a good majority ofteachers (69%), a low proficiency in English isnot an anomaly at all, as long as they can con-vey the concept on hand. Nevertheless, anequally fair percentage of them (65%) state thatthey do use English, either to inspire the non-conversant group to interact (33%) or to estab-lish their control over the students (31%). Stat-ing that to hold back a handful of brilliant stu-dents and to thwart them from outsmarting theteacher, they have to put their (English) foot

down. Surprisingly, 23% of the teachers con-fessed that they are not competent enough inEnglish and sometimes grope for words andappropriate language structures and forms. Asa defensive measure, these teachers state theyeither shout at or turn absolutely apathetic tothose students that demand more erudite pre-sentation.More than half (53%) admits that they do nottake any special efforts to hone their languageskills, though they are very much aware of theirfaulty language and the students' reaction to thesame. On the other hand, during demandingoccasions where they ought to ensure clarity,they (69%) only prefer simplified English to theregional language. Either way it does not serveany purpose because, the smart ones know thatthe teacher is not proficient in the language andso they tend to be indifferent; and the less smartstay perplexed throughout the class as they re-alize the teacher is uncompassionate.More than three quarters of the teachers (79%)feels that they are comfortable with the lecturingmode in English but not so very much the samein casual communication/conversation, whichexposes their lack of confidence. 70% statedthough it is bad to feel so, their realization of thevery presence of brilliant English speakers orstudents with a higher IQ drives them anxious,which in turn forces them to resort to a prosaiclecture mode. Again, 56% feels that they findthemselves weak and nervous because they arenot able to convey the technical concepts inEnglish (probably because they were educatedthrough regional medium of instruction); 53%states they get irritated when they are assailedwith questions because some of them (34%)believe that students do not always ask ques-tions with good intentions. They also feel (57%)being bilingual inside the subject classroom willdefinitely bring down their reputation as a teacher.

To concludeNow that it has been inferred that language pro-ficiency is used both by the teachers and thestudents to exercise their knowledge power inthe class, efforts can be made for a change ofattitude towards language use in subject class-


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rooms. Viete (1998) states "…in the context ofclass discussions, teachers need to be able toelaborate on the contribution of others, signalopinions, impart information or change focus,and express and defend their opinions." Unlikelanguage classes, subject classes demand moredescription, explanation and elaboration of con-cepts to implant in the students' minds thoughtsof science and technology for advancement. Theteacher definitely requires a better language com-petency to enable the same in the students.Therefore teachers should consider honing theirlanguage skills so that the subject classes be-come more alive and meaningful. On the otherhand, subject teachers with a higher languageproficiency in English can consider the lowercompetence of the students and can resort tobeing bilingual to deliver the subject. Ultimately,a better internalization of the concept is what isdesired. Furthermore, students with better lan-guage competence can be counseled for a bal-anced attitude towards the subject, the teacherand fellow students. To sum up, both the teach-ers and the students need to be oriented andencouraged to be more self-reflective about theirown language use and the language use of oth-ers.

Works citedBruna, K.R.and Gomez. K.eds. The Work ofLanguage in Multicultural Classrooms - talk-ing Science, Writing Science. Newyork:Routledge, 2009. Print.Fathman, Ann K and Crowther, David T. eds."Teaching English through Science and Sci-ence through English." in Science for EnglishLanguage learners K-12 Classroom Strate-gies. Virginia: NSTA Press. 2006. Print.Fiske, Susan T. et al. eds. Handbook of So-cial Psychology. New Jersey: John Wiley &Sons, 2010. Print.McGroarty, M. "Language Attitudes, Moti-vation, and Standards." Sociolinguistics andLanguage Teaching. Ed. McKay andHornberger. Cambridge: CUP, 1996. Print.Marten, Lutz. The Dynamics of Language.New Delhi: Emerald Group Publishing Ltd.2006.Print.Prakash, Satya. Vision for Science Educa-tion. New Delhi: Allied Publishers Pvt. Ltd.2014. Print.CMEC & HRSDC. Speaking for Excellence:Language Competencies for Effective Teach-ing Practice. www.cmec.ca. web.

References:Halliday, M.A. K. (1978).Language As a Social Semiotic:The Social Intepretation of Language andMeaning. London: Edward Arnorld.Mahanand, Anand. (2010). "Using Indigenous Oral narratives as Scaffolding in L2 Learning."Languaging. 2. 142-158.Meher, Sadananda. (2011). Using Home Language As a Support for English Language Education. Diss.Hyderabad: EFL University.Rajagopal, G. 1992. Developing a Bilingual Methodology to Promote Reading Skills in English by UsingLearners' L1 Resources: An Experiment.Diss. Hyderabad: CIEFL, 1992.Skutbabb-Kangas, Tove.(2017). "India, Tribal Education, and Participating in Crimes againstHumanity?"Multilingual Education in India: The Case for English. Eds. Mishra, M.K. and Mahanand, A.Delhi: Viva Books. 9-15.Tagore, Rabindranath. Lectures and Addresses. Calcutta: Macmillan, 1970.

(How Are Local Languages...Continued from page:6)

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Homolinguistic Translation as an aid in TESLArul Benito Gerard

Research Scholar IIT [email protected]

This article proposes that the homolinguistictranslation exercise developed by CharlesBernstein of Language school of poetry in theUnited States might be helpful in engaging non-native speakers of English in their acquisition ofthe language. It employs the exercise as a ve-hicle for exploring competencies in vocabularybuilding. It offers examples by intermediate andadvanced users of English as evidences for thismethodology. It argues that language pedagogyhas much to learn from theories of languageemerging from contemporary poetic practice inNorth America and elsewhere.Language poetry is a movement that gainedprominence in the post-war America. It gets itsname from the magazineL=A=N=G=U=A=G=E. The magazine wasedited by Bruce Andrews and Charles Bernstein.Jeremy Noel Tod writes of the Language po-etry: "Language poetry made explicit the poli-tics of literary form and the textual nature of iden-tity, narrative, and 'voice', often through proce-dural methods of composition" (651). IanDavidson writes of the school: "The languagewriters operate within that tensionbetween wordwithout referent and word with direct referentandwhat they seem to do best is to bring thequestion of the relationship between languageand the world to the fore as the primary ques-tion for poets" (16).Thus language school writers might said to havecomplex ideas of language and literacy whichmay not be suitable for the purpose of linguistic

skill development. However on closer exami-nation of their theories, especially theirpedagogic practices, one finds a great deal ofresources for mobilization of language games thatmight enable the non-native speaker to experi-ment with a foreign or second language. All theirtheories of poetics might seem to be incoherentwith the specific need of teaching English tothose who use it as a second language, how-ever, it is the pedagogic practice of the Lan-guage school that I believe is capable of enrich-ing learner experience of language.In his course Experimental Writing, Bernstein listsout a number of exercises that hold pedagogicpotential for being used in the language class-room. Let us look at homophonic translation,Bernstein instructs:Homolinguistic translation: Take a poem (some-one else's, then your own) and translate it "En-glish to English" by substituting word for word,phrase for phrase, line for line, or "free" transla-tion as response to each phrase or sentence. Ortranslate the poem into another literary style ora different diction, for example into a slang orvernacular. Do several different types ofhomolinguistictransation of a single source poem.Chaining: try this with a group, sending the poemon for "translation" from person to another untilyou get back to the first author.The exercise meets the demand of languagewriting which lays a lot of importance on proce-dure and use of words. Thus the student is ex-pected to learn the multiplicity of meaning, ref-


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erents and the fluid role of words in the con-struction of ideas.Here is the beginning lines of Charles Bernstein's"Whose Language":Who's on first? The dust descends asthe skylight caves in. The doorcloses on a dream of default anddenunciation (go get those piazzas),hankering after frozen (prose) ambiance(ambivalence) (570)The words 'default' and 'denunciation' are usedto describe language as it is placed on stressunder late capitalism. One on one languageseems to fall short of meaning and on the otherhand it renounces the signified. It doubly failsand loses its emancipatory potential. The dis-cursive nature of language is explored in thehomolinguistic translation exercise. The exercisewas offered to advance and intermediate learnerof the language by offering them four stanza formSeamus Heaney's The Crossing. The instruc-tion quoted above was also circulated and theparticipants were requested to offer a brief re-sponse about the exercise and the process theyfollowed in translating the text.Let us look at the first stanzaof the poem "TheCrossing" by Seamus Heaney:And there in a boat that came heading towardsusWas an old man, his hair snow-white with age,Raging and bawling, Woe to you, wicked spirit!(70)An intermediate learner of the language trans-lated the first stanza thus:Plus at that place a ferry, that ferry reaching to-wards the gatheringInside the ferry aged man, white colored hairThat man shouting with excitementAnd that old man saying to them that troubles

and problems come to themNote how the participant has attempted to do aword-for-word translation. The use of colloquial/Indian expression is evident. There is also a modeof poesis that is vernacular. The word "woe" forexample is literally expanded into a phrase. Fur-ther, the participant fails to replace metaphorswith equivalent expressions. Thus snow-whiteis not translated into something as cloud-whiteor rice-white but instead simply put as whitecoloured. The participant also provides us withsome unlikely images such as ferry aged man. Itis clear that the intended expression was an agedman in a ferry, but instead the translation joinsferry and aged providing us with a picture of aman who is as old as the ferry. These unexpectedimages are useful talking points in explaining tostudents grammatical structures, intention andcorrect usage.One advanced learned described her experienceof the exercise thus:The exercise was quite exciting to do. I wassurprised to see what imagery arose from theapproaching of an old man, or an authority fig-ure, in my direction. As a woman, and a feministat that, it automatically triggered the feeling ofthe urge to challenge his authority. But towardsthe end, the desire for giving up the fight to feellighter in my heart took over me. In other words,while I realised how important it is to counteroppressive structures like patriarchy but some-times you just end up feeling so heavy like you'recarrying a lot of baggage.As an advance learner, her focus was more intothe whole content of the work. An exercise inlanguage becomes an experiment in developinga voice. While the task is tests the learner's abil-ity to understand a text in its completeness andshowcase competency in finding synonyms andsuitable expressions that parallel what is alreadyprovided, this particular participant's feedbackbrings to light that exercise are also fraught withideological concerns. Contrast this with an in-termediate learner's response to this task: "thistask has given a nice experience and initially it

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was a difficult thing to me to understand the con-cept of the poem, but slowly it made to think inpoetically. I feel it was good poem. Thanks forthe poet who penned it. It has different mean-ings in it." If poetry is a form of thinking that iscrucial in the development of competency in alanguage, then the exercise succeeds in inspir-ing the learner to try thinking poetically.Homolingusitic translation is an effective methodof pedagogy for advanced and intermediatelearners of languages. Learner with beginner levelcompetencies might find it difficult to engage withthis task. This is partially due to nascent vocabu-lary levels and interpretative skills. However,with the right selection of material, even studentswho possess only foundational knowledge of alanguage might engage in homolinguistic trans-lation. The process of thinking involved in thetask enables students to (1) understand themeaning of a given phrase/text both in the formof units and as a whole (2) enlarge vocabularyby engaging in the search for synonyms andword-clouds (3) receive exposure to native idi-oms and expressions (4) develop a sense ofaesthetics and creativity. Homolinguistic trans-lation is a humanistic approach for learning lan-guages since the control of difficulty and famil-iarity lies with the learner. He or She might thus

translate a difficult text in a naïve and simple fash-ion, or try to decorate it with appropriate fillingsfrom his/her cultural background.Assessment of homolinguistic translation exer-cises can be undertaken by allocating differentbandwidths for varying outcomes. A superiorperformance would be a translation that has sur-passes word for word and has translated thetext from the standpoint of meaning and cohe-sion to ideas. A good performance can bemarked by the ability to find synonyms whilekeeping the structure of the text intact. Failureto find synonyms or summarize ideas into sen-tences of lesser complexity might be categorizedas average performance and a poor performancein case of inability to comprehend the text.Homolinguistic translation is different from sum-marizing or answering comprehension questions.The teacher gets input over the specific prob-lem that the student has in comprehending thetext. It is built as a philological exercise that paysclose attention to the relationship between dif-ferent word units and their poetic interplay. Itinspires student's to be attentive to more thangrammatical structure and meaning of the words.Since one reproduces a literary text, it can beargued that the confidence of students in ap-proaching such literary texts is also advancedby way of this exercise.

References:Bernstein, Charles. "Experiments."Boundary 2, vol. 23, no. 3, 1996, pp. 67-72.,www.jstor.org/stable/303638.Noel-Tod, Jeremey. "Language School" The Oxford Companion to Modern Poetry.Oxford UP, 2013.Brinton, Ian. Contemporary Poetry: Poets and Contexts since 1990. Cambridge UP,2009Bernstein, Charles. "Whose Language" Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology. Edited byPaul Hoover. W.W. Norton, 1994.

Innovative Classroom TechniquesReports of classroom activities which engaged the learners in your lesson are invited to thecolumn "It worked in My Class". Many teachers do experiment various ways of teaching-some fail, while some others succeed. Report of success, when shared, reach others-thus,they reach many more classes. Please do share your experience. -Editor


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The Role of Motivation in Oral CommunicationStrategy Use: A Case Study

V.K. KarthikaAsst.Professor (English)

VIT University, Amaravathi A [email protected]

AbstractThe paper is based on a small case study that investigated the similarity in the pattern of strategy executionand the role of motivation in executing strategies to make the oral communication better. This investigationassumes that when the second language learners are intrinsically motivated to learn the language, they makeuse of different strategies to perform better in oral communication in the target language. The study foundthat even though the learners do not get explicit strategy instruction, the motivated learners tend to usestrategies even though they do not know the nomenclature of the strategies and can reflect on their performanceand can talk about various reasons for employing certain strategies.Key words: Motivation, strategies, metacognitive awareness, oral communication, intrinsic motivation

Problematizing English Language LearningEvery English language learner definitely has astory to tell the world about the "not so smoothcourse" of one's own experience with learningthis language. Learning English has become un-avoidable as it is the common language thatconnects different parts of the globe. It is alsowidely believed that when someone gets expo-sure to English, one can learn the language faster.Getting immersed in the target language contextis considered as a positive attribute to the de-velopment of language skills. However, gettingadequate exposure to the target language aloneis not sufficient to develop language proficiency.In this paper, I argue that exposure to the lan-guage can be beneficial to the development oflanguage proficiency only when the learners areintrinsically motivated to learn the language.Here, I would like to discuss how similar anddifferent were the language learning experiencesof two learners. It is based on a small case studyconducted in India and in England.

Finding evidence from literatureMotivation is an internal attribute, a drive thaturges one towards a particular action. Keller(1983:289) indicates that "Motivation refers tothe choices people make as to what experiencesor goals they will approach or avoid, and thedegree of effort they will exert in that respect".Oxford and Shearin (1994: 12) maintained that"Motivation determines the extent of active, per-sonal involvement in L2 learning". Gardner(1985,1988) maintained that learners who aremotivated achieve higher levels of proficiencyas they invest more of themselves into learning.Motivated learners learn more because theyseek out input, interaction, and instruction, andwhen they encounter target language input theypay attention to it and actively process it how-ever they can (Crookes & Schmidt, 1991;Schmidt, in press; Tremblay & Gardner, 1995).In a seminal study Schmidt and Watanabe(2001) examined the link between the learners'motivation levels, strategy use and their peda-

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gogical preferences. The study maintained thatlearners with higher levels of motivation use morenumber of strategies.AssumptionsThe study is based on the assumption that eventhough learners get exposure to the target lan-guage, if they do not have motivation to takecharge of their own learning, they do not imple-ment strategies to manage communicative situ-ations. In other words, the frequency of strat-egy use positively correlates with learners' highlevel of motivation. It can also be assumed suchmotivated learners can reflect on their spokenperformance and can modify their strategy ex-ecution.Research DesignThe study followed a case study method whichwas an in depth analysis of all the participants'language learning behaviour. The study intendedto answer the following questions. To what extent the learners' strategicbehaviour in speaking can be attributed to theirmotivation? Do motivated learners metacognitivelyanalyse their oral performance?The data was obtained through interviews andteacher- researcher's notes. A voice diary of theteacher-researcher was also used in the study.The speaking tasks were assessed to understandthe progress of the participants. To justify thefindings, diary entries from the researcher's di-ary was analysed.MethodNaila, and Maria were the participants of thisstudy. Nailawas attending ESOL classes to gether certificate to apply for the visa to get per-mission to remain in the UK. Maria had her BScNursing qualification from one of the nursingcolleges in Kerala. She also took the IELTSexamination and secured the job as a registerednurse in Newzeland. Both these participants wereobserved for a period of three months. Theywere given five parallel interaction tasks with thelevel of difficulty increasing from the lowest tothe highest. After each task, the participant was

asked to talk about her performance. The re-sponses were noted down in the researcher'sdiary. As the first task was designed to under-stand their proficiency level, it was not consid-ered for analysis. The second task and the fifthtask were marked by two assessors to estab-lish reliability.Case 1- NailaNaila was twenty eight years old housewife whohad been living in the UK for three years. Whenshe was initially assessed, she was not able toproduce any statements in English. She couldidentify some of the questions but could not an-swer them in English. She had a limited range ofvocabulary. This mostly included very familiarnouns such as baby, milk, diaper, babysitter,doctor, medicine, bus, train, road, car, pram,seatbelt, shop, vegetables, teacher, paper, penand oil. She was not able to understand themeaning of verbs other than sleep, run, cry, eat,and drink. She had a purpose when she cameto learn English. Firstly, she wanted to get thevisa to remain in the country. Secondly, and forher emotionally most importantly she wanted totalk to her husband in English. She spoke in Urduand she said that she was a victim of domesticviolence. Then, she told me that she suspectsthat her husband is into another relationship andhe chat with the lady every night, in her pres-ence, in English, making it loud and clear to Nailathat her lack of English skills is one of those rea-sons for her husband to neglect her presence.Naila wanted to understand and speak Englishonly to tell her husband in English that"Mujhaypatahaiki tum mere sathkyakarrahe ho.Tum jo mere sathkarraheho, uskeliyeKhudatumheinkabhimuafnahikareyga" ("Iknow what you are doing and God will neverforgive you for what you are doing to me"). Shetold me that she would go back to Pakistan af-ter she achieves this "goal"!Compared to the other female learners of Naila'sage and background, she was more motivatedto learn English and she never turned down anopportunity to speak. She simplified her Urdufor me whenever she had to get clarificationsand English was not bridging the gap in under-


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standing. The emotional baggage of an unhappysojourn abroad and the cruelties forced uponher made her channel all her energy to learnEnglish. In three months' time she achieved thefluency she wanted to. She got her permissionto leave in the UK for another five years. Herlife had new dimensions and she moved onbravely. It becomes clear that the baggage thelearners bring to the classroom may not alwaysbe negative. With proper support from theteacher, at least some of such baggage can havea positive impact on learning English. Similarly,it is important to note here that this learner hadused a number of strategies in order to learnEnglish as well as while she had to practicespeaking in English.Naila's motivation was a strong factor whichhelped her in learning English. One of the tech-niques that I told her to try was to use as manyas English words as she could when she speaksin Urdu. She tried that and spoke in Urdu withan increasing number of English words. Althoughshe had to struggle at first, later I could see thatshe was steadily increasing the number of En-glish words in her Urdu speech. Also, I noticedthat she consciously created small talks or ori-ented the chats in such a way that a new vo-cabulary item she learnt can be incorporated inthe chat.Naila's case is important because it highlightshow a negative emotional baggage can exertpositive influence on language learning. Her casebecomes important as there was a steady de-velopment in her oral communication ability. Shewas using a few strategies in her speech whichshe was aware of. She informed me that,everynight before she went to bed, she used towrite down English words which she learned andspoke in Urdu (transliterated). The teaching inthe academy was focussing on developing theoral proficiency. Therefore, even though thelearner did not focus on writing, he/she couldmanage the test and get the certificate.Naila when asked was able to reflect on thepositive attributes of her speech. She said thatevery morning before coming to class, she used

to rehearse short conversations such as offeringthe customary wish, or asking a question aboutthe food. She informed me that she thought itwas "okay to use "tho" "haaji", "zaroor", "tab" ,"haina" in the English chat", when she tried totalk to me. These were the Urdu fillers for herto manage her communication with me. She alsotold me that she started to listen to her child andstarted learning the rhymes. Whenever shelearned a new rhyme she used to come to meand ask me its meaning. She tried to keep aself-developed dictionary which had all thewords she learned written down either in En-glish or transliterated in Urdu. I noticed that shewas repeating certain chunks to learn it. She wasalso able to replace nouns in the common pat-tern she learned in order to make requests. Forexample, she learned the statement "Can I havesome water please?" and then tried to make dif-ferent statements such as "Can I have some veg-etables/fruits/ medicine/rice please?". She latertried to learn the use of different verbs in thesame chunk and started using "Can I take yourphone please?", "Can I drink some waterplease?", and "Can I send a parcel please?". Thiswas a quick progress.When asked Naila about her progress she in-formed me that her intention was to learn En-glish to let her family know that she could not betaken for granted anymore. This being the drive,she made efforts to monitor her progress. Whenasked in Hindi about the techniques she used tolearn she was able to reflect on her learning pro-cess and was able to identify some of the strat-egies she used. As she was allowed to speak inUrdu, she did not have any difficulty in commu-nicating the metacognitive awareness that shehad about her strategy use. She also told methat everyday while going back home after theclasses she used to give her marks out of ten,which was a variation of evaluation strategy.In short, from the interviews and the observa-tion records it becomes clear that Naila wasusing planning, monitoring, repeating, rehears-ing, using L1 words to code switch, using fillersand trying to take risks while speaking about a

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not familiar topic and evaluating as strategies inher speech. She was aware of all these strate-gies and was able to provide me with the rea-sons for their execution. Therefore, it is under-stood that even though, Naila was not given anystrategy based instruction, she was able to usestrategies and more importantly was consciouslyexecuting them in her oral communication. Shewas able to reflect on her oral communicationon a day to day basis and was able to evaluateher performance. This shows that the intrinsicmotivation that Naila had helped her to keepthe positive attitude towards learning English.This helped her to monitor her progress and tobe metacognitive on her on spoken proficiency.Case 2- MariaMaria is a qualified nurse working in Newzelandaged 34. She has been living there for more thanten years. She had managed to get appropriatescore for IELTS ten years before. However, herEnglish speaking capability is very much limited.She can frame basic sentences in English andbasic questions in English. She can follow thecommands of her superior staff but is unable torespond in perfectly grammatical sentences.Both of her children were getting educated inNewzeland and they spoke English very fluently.Maria, however, still not proficient in English.When interviewed she responded that "I knowenough English to live. For me I am earning, Iam driving, I am happy. So I need this muchEnglish". She also told me while discussing herlearning background, that she does not like tolearn any further and she also mentioned thatshe does not think that English has a major rolein her life anymore. She has got the citizenshipthere and she informed me that forever she willbe living there. She also mentioned that "if some-one makes fun of my English, I don't care. Letthem be happy. At least because of me theysmiled, no?". When I asked her whether shedoes anything to improve her language skills, shesaid that she does not pay attention to it.Herperformance in the final task after three monthswas not very different from the first task. Sheused similar vocabulary and simple structured

with a number of fillers such as "no?" "you know"and "erm". These three fillers were constantlypresent in her conversation. She tended to use"and" to connect all the statements she articu-lated. However, after the task completion whenshe was asked to reflect on her performance,she was not able to talk much about it. Whatshe said after each task was that "through prac-tice I am developing my English, no?". Even af-ter the third round of speech, as she was notimproving in her spoken proficiency, I audio re-corded her speech and played it back to her.Even after listening to the recording she was notable to identify the negative aspects of her En-glish. What she told was that "the speech wasok". When she was asked to point out a fewstrengths of her speech, she was unable to dothat.From the analysis of her speech I found that shewas using repetition, confirmation checks, fill-ers and pauses in her conversations. However,even after playing the recording back to her andasking some questions regarding her strategyuse, she was not able to reflect on her speeches.Moreover, there was no remarkable improve-ment in her second round speech and the finalround speech. It was understood that Maria wasnot interested in developing her language abili-ties anymore. Her attitude was fixed and shenever tried to improve her English. Lack ofmotivation to enhance the English communica-tion skill was the reason for her not to captureher strategy execution even after helping her withthe audio recording. Simple questions to encour-age metacognitive thinking were asked to herbut even after listening to the audio recording,she was not able to improve her ability to reflectand the identification of strategy use.DiscussionNaila, though nearly illiterate had strong moti-vation to learn English. Although this motivationwas a negative emotional baggage, she was ableto channel this towards the attainment of de-sired English proficiency. The ESOL certificateand the visa could have been the sources ofextrinsic motivation to her. With the help of the


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teacher and a willingness to reflect on her ownoral communication, Naila was able to developher English proficiency. Her urge to learn tospeak in English made her constantly monitorher speech, use new vocabulary in context andto identify strategies from the speech. She wasable to reflect on her strategy use and was ableto talk about the various purposes for executingthem. A comparison of the assessment of thesecond task and the final task shows that therewas a development in all areas except gram-mar. However, the researcher's diary entriesdenote that Naila's grammatical errors weredecreasing steadily but slowly.In Maria's case, it can be understood that herlack of urge or motivation to learn English itselfis the reason for her lack of skills in oral com-munication in English. Although, she has beenliving in a country where exposure to English isaccessible, Maria did not show the level of pro-ficiency that she needed to have. Moreover, thelack of motivation and interest to learn English

was one of the reasons for not being able toreflect on her own spoken performance.ConclusionMotivation, if it is intrinsic can effectively con-tributed to language learning. If a language learn-ers is motivated to learn, he/she will use all theopportunities to use the language. Moreover,such a learner always plan, monitor and evalu-ate his or her learning process. Thesemetacognitive strategies usually are practisedwithin each task. Everyday such a motivatedlanguage learner plans, monitors and evaluatesthe overall language performance. This study alsoproves that having ample exposure to the targetlanguage alone cannot enhance the target lan-guage proficiency. On the other hand, a moti-vated learner can take charge of his or her ownlearning and create opportunities to practice lan-guage use. Therefore, there should be morestudies in the field to uncover the connectionbetween the role of motivation and the devel-opment of language proficiency.

ReferencesCrookes, G., & Schmidt, R. (1991). Motivation: Reopening the research agenda. Language Learning, 41,469–512.Gardner, R. C. (1985). Social psychology and language learning: The role of attitudes and motivation.London, Ontario, Canada: Edward Arnold.Gardner, R. C. (1988). The socio-educational model of second-language learning: Assumptions,findings, and issues. Language Learning, 38, 101–126.Keller, J. (1983). Motivational design of instruction. In Reigeluth,M. (Ed.), Instructional design theoriesand models. (pp. 386-433). Hillsdale, NJ: ErlbaumOxford, R.L. and Shearin, J. (1994). Language learning motivation: Expanding the theoreticalframework. The Modern Language Journal, 18 (1), 12-28Oxford, R., &Nyikos, M. (1989).Variables affecting choice of language learning strategies by universitystudents. The Modern Language Journal, 73, 291–300.Schmidt, R., & Watanabe, Y. (2001).Motivation, strategy use, and pedagogical preferences in foreignlanguage learning.In Z. Dörnyei& R. Schmidt (Eds.), Motivation and second language acquisition(Technical Report #23, pp. 313–359). Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i, Second Language Teaching andCurriculum Center.Tremblay, P. F., & Gardner, R. C. (1995). Expanding the motivation construct in language learning. TheModern Language Journal, 79, 505–520.

Seminar-Conference-Workshop NotificationsNotifications of seminars, conference and workshops in English language, Literature and

Cultural studies will be accepted for publishing in the Journal. University and collegedepartments of English and allied subjects may please contact the Editorat

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Positive Disintegration in Neil Klugman of Philip Roth’sGoodbye Columbus

Mridula S. NandyLecturer, S. N. T. College. Ramtek MS

[email protected]

Abstract

The title story of the collection, Roth’s Goodbye, Columbus (1959) was an impertinent look at the life ofmiddle-class Jewish Americans, satirizing, their smugness, parochialism and materialism. This story exploresthe conflict between two generations and two ways of life, The Jewish immigration past and Americanpresent, city and suburb, lower middle class and upper middleclass.The central character of Goodbye ColumbusNeil Klugman set out on the unexplored journey into the rebellious imperatives of self. My paper establisheshis continual recurring pains and mistakes of life do not provoke endless suffering,it is seen and accepted asnecessary steps in his development; to develop a new perspective, a new reality and a new self, the ability totranscend and to constantly overcome his old self. Neil’s strong internal conflicts focus his attentions towardhis response to the external environment and to his inner psychological experience. Ultimately, internalconflicts come to display a vertical (multilevel) component—the hallmark of resolution and of development;through the lens of Dabrowski, lifting him toward higher levels of function. My paper searches, it is not theexperience of pain or suffering or the intensity of emotions that leads to growth; it is Neil’s consequent self-examination and emerging insight into day-to-day life and a deeper, more conscious and multilevel understandingof his reactions.

The title story of Philip Roth's Goodbye, Co-lumbus(1959) was an impertinent look at thelife of middle-class Jewish Americans, satiriz-ing, their smugness, parochialism and material-ism. This story explores the conflict between twogenerations and two ways of life, The Jewishimmigration past and American present, city andsuburb, lower middle class and uppermiddleclass. Neil has a summer affair withBrenda Patimkin of wealthy Jewish family, ex-pends his holidays from his job at the library inNewark with her and her family, but love issuefritters away. In the interest of providing his familya better life, Ben Patimkin has bought into theAmerican dream, erecting a wall of commoditythat has cut his family off from their ethnicity andtheir lower middle class roots in Newark. ThePatimkin family symbolizes all the vulgar char-acteristic of Jewish nouveau rich. They live inornate homes eat dinner on gourmet food andsend their children to snobbish colleges. Theybelong to the local synagogue and Hadassah for

purely social reasons because they exploit theiremployees and servants and see everything interms of the almighty dollar. Neil Klugman how-ever represents the other side of the coin. Tothe wealthy the vulgarity of Short Hills, wherethe Patimkin live, Neil opposes the honesty andunpretentiousness of Newark, where his auntand uncle relax in an alley, "each cool breezesweet to them as the promise of afterlife"1(9).Neil lives with his aunt in the backstreet of theNew York, suburb of Newark, but has fallen inlove with Brenda from an affluent middle classfamily.Through Neil Roth allocates us to guess the psy-chological conflict that Neil is undergoing. HisNeil meets a girl from short Hills and to enter tothe world of Patimkins but is always uncom-fortable. He is not also at ease with his col-leagues. "Since I was Twenty minutes early Idecided to stroll in the park rather than cross-over to work; I didn't particularly care to join


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my colleagues, who I knew would be sippingearly morning coffee in the binding room, smell-ing still of all the orange crush they'd drunk thatweekend at Asbury Park"(29).The controllingimages of the novella are all openly relatedthrough Neil's discernment, to the Patimkin'ssuccessful struggle to distance themselves fromtheir Past, to begin membership in the national,largely gentile, elite. In the final scene Neil instead of seizing a taxiinstantaneously, walks down the street and outtowards the Harvard Yard which he has neverseen before. He enters one of the gates and thenheads alone a path, under the tired autumn foli-age and the dark sky. He wants to be alone inthe dark not because he wants to think aboutanything, but rather because, for just a while hewants to think about nothing. He strolls acrossthe yard and up a little hill and then he is stand-ing in front of Lamont Library, which hasPatimkins sinks in the rest rooms. From the lightof lamps on the alleyway behind him, he can seehis reflection in the glass facade of the building.Suddenly he desires to set down his suitcase,and picks up rock and drags it right through theglass, to destroy the progress American presentsymbolizes through these Jewish nouveau richbut of course, he does not. I simply looked at myself in the mirror, the lightmade of window. I was only that substance; Ithought those limbs that face that I saw in frontof me. I looked but the outside of me gave uplittle information about the inside of me, I wishedI could scoot around to the other side of thewindow ,…… What was it inside me that hadturned pursuit and clutching into love, and thenturned it inside out again? What was it that hadturned winning into losing, and losing - whoknows - into winning?(235).Neil attains his identity. He returns to his old jobat the Newark public library, taking a train thatgot him into Newark. He started his work likethe rising sun of the first day of the Jewish NewYear. Neil's emotions are the directing forces ofhis development. His emotions drive him to thetransition from lower levels to slightly a higher

level and are stimulated by tension, inner con-flict, struggle, anxiety, and despair. His intensenegative emotions have a disintegrating powerthat is necessary to dismantle the primary inte-gration and assist the move to secondary inte-gration. According to the theory of Dabrowski,Neil's Overexitability tends to exaggerate hisexperience of life. Dabrowski2 called it 'thetragic gift' because it amplifies both the highhappy and joyful manners as well as the lowestand saddest life events.Most of Roth's protagonists are, like NeilKlugman, floating in a midpoint between pastand present. Neil has 'unbound' himself from hisparents and his religion, yet he has a deep thoughdivided feeling about the city life in which he hasgrown up. Neil searches for his own axial linesby turning to the golden ghetto of Short Hills.He cannot transfer himself to any set of values.Such is the agitation of souls, with which Rothhas peopled his fiction. Neil has made the "mi-gration" intellectually, they are all of them refu-gees haunted by echoes from a not-to-be-bur-ied past, unsatisfied by the too-tasty viands of asterile hedonism, and confused by the uncer-tainties of the future. Characteristically, at thewedding of Brenda's brother, Neil and Brendaare further apart than ever, and in the gray con-fusion of early morning Neil sees some of thePatimkins "from the back, round-shouldered,burdened, child-carrying-like people fleeing acaptured city." Although he knows what he likes,or dislikes, he believes in waiting for a "fate goodenough' although he is not sure what that fatewill be. His return to his vocation is goodbye tothe empty values of America. Neil has no back-ground, authority or source to confirm his judg-ments or to establish a social identity. Thus, heis unable to carry out any conversation with anyof the characters, most of whom are, incapableof any communication. Neil's strong internal conflicts focus his atten-tions toward his response to the external envi-ronment and to his inner psychological experi-ence. Ultimately, internal conflicts come to dis-play a vertical (multilevel) component-the hall-

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mark of resolution and of development; throughthe lens of Dabrowski, lifting him toward higherlevels of function. Similarly, it is not the experi-ence of pain or suffering or the intensity of emo-tions that leads to growth; it is Neil's consequentself-examination and emerging insight into day-to-day life and a deeper, more conscious andmultilevel understanding of his reactions.They are also probably both two very differentindividuals who just cannot coexist closely to-gether, this again is a result of their different up-bringings which makes him think that the classdivide is somehow more difficult than or at leastas difficult to bridge as any differences inethnicity or race. In the final scene, Neil is probingBrenda asking, whom she is taking her homefor Thanksgiving Day: "Who are you going tobring home Thanksgiving day- Linda?" Or me"as he utters, "Brenda, the choices aren't mine.You can bring Linda or me. You can go home ornot go home. That's another choice. Then youdon't even have to worry about choosing be-tween me and Linda" (134). Neil is ready toface her parent even after the matter is madeknown to her parents, but it is Brenda who isready to conform to her parents' values insteadof giving any efforts to convince them about theiraffair and pretending as if ready to forget abouttheir affair. When Brenda is asking Neil, "Canyou see us all sitting around the table? Neil isready to confront, if she gives her hand, "I can'tif you can't, and I can if you can" (133). Brendais pronouncing her parents' value by rejectingNeil's allege on her. The loss of spiritual valuesis the price they are paying for their settling inmaterialist America. Having been acculturatedfrom early childhood into the socially influential,the Patimkin children have never learned aboutthe economic struggle by which the privilegedare maintained rather he appears to take pridein having made available the means to separatehis children from the realities of the economicworld.Neil is scrutinizing his essence and subsequentlymake existential choices that emphasize thoseaspects of essence that are higher and "more

himself" and hamper those aspects that are loweror "less himself" based upon his own personal-ity ideal. The critical components of Neil's de-velopment include auto education and auto psy-chotherapy.But how carnal can I get? I am acquisitive.Where do I turn now in my acquisitiveness'?Where do we meet? Which prize is you?It was an ingenuous meditation, and suddenly Ifelt ashamed. I got up and walked outside, andthe noise of Fifth Avenue met me with an an-swer:Which prize do you think schmuck?Gold din-nerware, sporting goods, trees, nectarines, gar-bage disposals, bumpless noses, Patimkin'sSink, Bonwit Teller …..And God only laugh thatclown(100)Neil's evolving 'new self' is not approving to paythe price for Brenda; he cannot expense his moralintrigritiy for Patimkin's wealth, even if it meanshe will lose Brenda. Neil is aware of class dif-ferences and their link to the immigrant journeyto prosperityAs John McDaniel recognizes,Neil, searches for his own 'axial lines' by turn-ing, misguidedly, to the gilded ghetto of ShortHills….he does not commit himself to any par-ticular set of values, although he knows what hedislikes about both the Patimkins (upper class)and his Aunt Gladys (lower class)…he preservesin 'in waiting for a "fate good enough" althoughhe is not at all sure what the fate will be. Hecomes to realize that Patimkin way of life is notthe answer he has been searching for.3McDaniel also concurs, "The return to work isNeil's own Goodbye, Columbus, a goodbye tothe sad values and empty lives that are normalin America…..That his renewal of himself takesplace on the New year is symbolically appro-priate.4 Helge Normann Nilsen5 describesGoodbye Columbus's narrator, Neil Klugman,as a young man involved in a struggle to de-velop and preserve an identity of his own amiddifferent environments and conflicting impulseswithin him. Neil loses Brenda, but he avoids an


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existence on the surface with the wealthyPatimkin family. As McDaniel accurately pointsout, "He does not commit himself to any par-ticular set of values, although he knows what hedislikes about both the Patimkins (upper class)and his aunt Gladys (lower class)." 6Instead of emotional stability, Neil is alwaysplagued by the fear of losing Brenda though heknows he is always criticizes their way of lifenot comfortable with their style of living; thoughhe has pretended everything is going on fine, historment comes to the surface in the pretext ofbuying a Diaphragm, Neil's accusation thatBrenda left it deliberately, is not the first quarrelNeil is having. His inner upheavals only upraisein this way. His inner anguish becomes out ofproportion to the circumstance of his life. Thiscauses Crisis in his personality. It impairs his func-tioning in virtually any areas his life, relationships,or external affairs, but it is not severe enough toincapacitate him.Dabrowski along with others believe that giftedindividuals only experience the world from dif-ferent perspective, with qualitative differencesincluding intensities, sensitivities, idealism, per-ceptiveness, Overexitabilities, asynchrony, com-plexity, introversion, perfectionism and moralconcerns. He observed that most people livetheir lives in a state of "primary or primitive inte-gration largely guided by biological impulses("first factor") and/or by uncritical endorsementand adherence to social convention ("secondfactor"). He called this initial integration Level I.At this level there is no true individual expres-sion of the autonomous human self. Philip Roth'sNeil is at Level I, is integrated at the environ-mental or social level (Dabrowski called themaverage people); Individual expression at LevelI is influenced and constrained by the first twofactors. The first factor channels energy and tal-ents toward accomplishing self-serving goals thatreflect the lower instincts and biological ego -its primary focus is on survival and self-advance-ment.At least now after his reflection in front ofLamont library, Neil can think that it was not

'loving' that bonded them, but casual lust. Neil,a highly intelligent philosophy graduate of RutgersUniversity with intellectual Overexitability, ap-proaches these questions not from perspectiveof one seeking technical information, but as aphilosopher asking about the Good. It is prob-ably just the boredom of a summer and the ex-citement of crossing certain moral boundariesthat get them together and once that is done theyboth lapsed back into their own worlds whichcould not be reconciled for any great amount oftime.Neil cannot commit to life in an environment thathe feels will limit his personal development andplay too great a role in defining his identity. Heretained his Jewishness instead of forgetting thevalues of the past he keeps alive the possibilityof a vital American Jewish historical Conscious-ness.Neil accords to Dabrowski, instead of suc-cumbing to the nothingness and despair of exis-tentialism though previously "without locomo-tion"7, lacking "the energy that Ron the athletehas for competition, and he lacking the gustowith which Mr. Patimkin attempts to beat outthe competition in his quest for the everlastingdollar"8, but now achieved the power to sur-pass his present existence and make a valueladen choice to progress his essence to that of ahigher, he is not carnal or acquisitive to developto the better level, i.e. to transform his essencehe has his Newark library. Neil Chooses andsculpts ("shapes") his newly chosen essence. Neilchooses a better level, a newly chosen essence,enhanced than his previous one. Neil Klugman,who is governed by the first factor and primarilyinfluenced by heredity, impulses and social andenvironment forces, has gone through primaryintegration. As this level is marked by selfish-ness and egocentrism; seeks only self-fulfillmentabove all. Then moved to Unilevel disintegra-tion as he shows a lack of inner direction, sub-mission to the values of the group, relativism ofvalues and beliefs, and in the final scene stand-ing before the Lamont Library above HarvardYard also realizes his transformation, he showshis ambivalence and ambitendencies.


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Neil Gaiman’sTempest asPostmodernMetafictionMeenakshiSrihari

Research ScholarDepartment of English, Hyderabad University

[email protected]

Abstract

Over the years, Shakespeare’s works have evolved into palimpsests. Perhaps no other writer has beenexamined, adapted and rewritten as much as Shakespeare. Neil Gaiman’s acclaimed comic series, Sandman, isriddled with intertextual references to literary works, including those of Shakespeare. The paper seeks toplace Gaiman’sTempest, the final comic in the series, within the framework of postmodern metafiction.Metafiction explores the nuances of the making of fiction, fitting comfortably into the self absorbed movementcalled postmodernism. Postmodern metafiction thus becomes the perfect vehicle to study the writer- reader-text continuum. In using the comic medium to probe, speculate about and re-examine the intricacies of theatre,Gaiman falls in with the postmodern tendency of bridging the gap between high-brow and low-brow literature.The paper also examines how the comic complies with Linda Hutcheon’s theories of historiographicmetafictionand adaptation, making it an interesting take on the Bard’s life, times and work.

Shakespeare, his mind and his craft: Gaiman’sTempest asPostmodern Metafiction

Introduction:"Words and pictures are yin and yang. Mar-ried, they produce a progeny more interestingthan either parent." - Dr. SeussIt was in the 1980s that the term graphic novelbegan gaining attention among people. Comicsso far had been confined to an audience of teen-agers and were considered for the most part asa juvenile form of entertainment. The leap forcomic books came when three books brokethe shackles of existing comic book norms andintroduced serious themes in their books. Mooreand Gibbon's Watchmen, Spiegelman'sMausand Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returnswere all published in 1986-87, and are consid-ered pioneering works of the graphic novelmedium. Neil Gaiman arrived right after the first

wave of talent gave the world a new perspec-tive about graphic novels. In his foreword toPrince of Stories: The Many Worlds of NeilGaiman, Terry Prachett compares the effect thatNeil Gaiman had on the world of graphic novelsto J.R.R. Tolkien's influence- "He'd left the com-ics world shaken, and it'll never be quite thesame. The effect was akin to that of Tolkien onthe fantasy novel" (xii).Tempest is the compan-ion story of A Midsummer Night's Dream andmarks the end of the Sandman series. The sec-ond part of the bargain between Morpheus andShakespeare, where Shakespeare has to writetwo plays for the former is completed with theTempest. The first play he produces is A Mid-summer Night's Dream, a play for Morpheus'world, but now Morpheus requires him to writeTempest, a tale of "graceful ends…about a king


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who drowns his books and breaks his staff andleaves his kingdom. About a magician who be-comes a man. About a man who turns his backon magic." (42) The process of writing the playturns out to be a journey of self discovery forShakespeare and a process of discovery for thereader as well, of Shakespeare's mind, and theways his craft was inspired by the world aroundhim.Tempest also introduces the character of BenJohnson to us as both Shakespeare's critic andhis admirer. While Johnson openly acknowledgesShakespeare's tendency to draw the inspirationfor his plays from ones already written by pre-decessors and contemporaries alike, he doesnot fail to concede that Shakespeare's talent andsays to him- "You are a born playwright Will.It's in your blood, and in your bones. I am sureit will take the cold of death to tug the pen fromyour hand." (20) Just like the Dream introducedWill's son Hamnet, Tempest has Anne Hathawayand Judith in it, and a bit of a flashback sequencewith Susan as well. The dynamics betweenShakespeare and his family are further exploredin the comic. Shakespeare is shown as a man ofthe world, hardly available to his family andlonged for by his children.The story culminates with a final meeting withMorpheus in his own castle where they specu-late on Will's life had he not been a playwright.The hard facts of reality sink in as the possibilityof a happy and prosperous family is laid beforeWill. However, the end point is that Will has noregrets about his time spent away from the fam-ily, for every experience has inspired him in someway or the other, he has truly believed that allthe world is a stage.Metafiction and PostmodernismSimply put, metafiction is fiction about fiction.Abrams in his Glossary calls it "an overall termfor the growing class of novels which depart fromrealism and foreground the role of the authorand reader in inventing and receiving the fiction"(196), attributing its popularity to theorists suchas Robert Scholes. Metafiction serves as thecentral plank in any discussion about

postmodern literature. The term was coined byWilliam Gass in his 1970 essay Philosophy andthe Form of Fiction and refers to the fact thatthe novelist's business is no longer to render theworld, but to make one from language.Metafiction shows that the work of fiction is nolonger only mimetic, but constructive. It is oftenseen as an alternate term forsurfiction, a termproposed by Federmanfor fiction that tries toexplore the limits of fiction, and according toTim Woods in Beginning Postmodernism, ex-plores the fictionality of reality (70). The lowestcommon denominator of metafiction is to simul-taneously create a piece of fiction and to makea statement about the creation of that fiction.Ihab Hassan's Dismemberment of Orpheus(1971), one of the first major studies ofpostmodernist literature argues thatpostmodernism rejects the commitment to real-ism behind modernist experimentation in favourof literature of ludic self reference. Hutcheon,whose theory will be applied to the study ofGaiman'sTempest, writes similarly of "narcissis-tic narrative", a self conscious attitude towardliterary structure and writing that often serve asthe central theme of the work itself. Castle inThe Literary Theory Handbook agrees with whatmany literary theorists have argued that the"postmodern literary text is not interested in theworld at all" (41) and its main concernsappearto represent its own operations.One such casein point is that of Gaiman'sTempest which rep-resents several, though not all, chief character-istics of a metafictional work. These character-istics include the story being about a writer com-posing a piece of fiction, the story containinganother story within itself, addressing the spe-cific conventions of story, such as title, charac-ter conventions, paragraphing or plots etc.Hutcheon's theory and TempestTempest is an examination of both Shakespearethe man, and his craft. A postmodern study of itas a work of metafiction is in order to explorehow efficiently it talks about both these aspectsof Shakespeare. For Linda Hutcheon,postmodern fiction is interrogative and instruc-

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tive rather than a reactionary cultural produc-tion. She concedes to the ideological limitationsthat it has and chooses to call it "Janus two-faced" with regard to the dominant culture. De-scribing it as 'historiographicmetafiction'Hutcheon describes postmodern fiction as amode which consciously problematizes the mak-ing of fiction and history. It reveals the past asalways ideologically and discursively con-structed. Tim Woods explains Hutcheon's viewsfurther in Beginning Postmodernismwhen he saysthat it is directed "both inward and outward,concerned both with its status as fiction, narra-tive or language, and also grounded in someverifiable historical reality" (69-70) Based onHutcheon'stheory ofMetafiction, Tempest can beanalyzed as a work with some historicalvéritéinit, and as a self reflexive piece of fiction.Historical Truths and Fictional RealityTempest explores several historical truths in it,and they include both a reflection upon the Eliza-bethan timesand upon Shakespeare's personallife. As the comic begins, Shakespeare visits aninn for a drink. He is greeted by the sight of twomen gossiping over his entry--Ahh it's the plague crow.-Plague-crow? And for why is it a plague crow?-The cause of plague is sin. The cause of sin isplays. Thus plays cause plagues. Ergo those whocause plays... well, they are the veriest plaguecrows. (8)Despite the rapid growth of theatre in the six-teenth century, there also existed a negative at-titude toward players and playhouses due to theinfluence of the Church. It was an ungodly actto participate with plays and players. This thoughtis reflected in the attitude of the men in the innwhen Shakespeare stops by for a drink.Among other verifiable truths in Tempest is therelationship Shakespeare had with his family,especially with his wife Anne Hathaway. Duringa long walk that he takes with Ben Johnson, thelatter asks him, after some hesitation if every-thing is alright between Shakespeare and his wife.

Shakespeare answers, "We remain civil. And Isleep on my bed, in my room, and she sleeps inher room, in hers." (15). The conversation con-tinues to dwell on Shakespeare and his womenas seen in his sonnets. Shakespeare refuses toacknowledge that the dark lady of his sonnetswas a shrew, and much later, accepts toMorpheus, "Whatever happened to me in life,happened as a writer of plays. I'd fall in love, orfall in lust. And at the height of my passion, Iwould think, "so this is how it feels" and tie it upin pretty words… My heart was broken by mydark lady and I wept in m room, alone; but whileI wept, somewhere inside I smiled" (34).The reader speculates over the truth in theselines, for there is not much evidence to showwhat Shakespeare really thought about his ownadultery. Thought the sonnets addressed to thedark lady give us proof enough that Shakespearedid have an affair, whether he treated the expe-rience as mere impetus for his writing is ques-tionable and leads into a discussion about theprocess of writing itself. If anything, it reinforcesour belief in Woods' conception of metafictionas revealing the "fictionality of reality" (70).Judith's conversations with Shakespeare are veryreminiscent of Hamnet from Dream. One recallsHamnet talking about Shakespeare's long ab-sence from home and how he had no time toinvest in the father-son relationship. Judith con-tinues in a similar vein when she says "I wouldhave given the world to have you here, when Itruly was a little girl." These reminiscences byboth his children on part of their mother as well(who "wept the most" (18)) become a motif ofShakepeare as an alienated hero with much tosacrifice for his dream to come true.The Postmodern HeroIhab Hassan in his book "Paracriticisms: SevenSpeculations of the Times" lists five features ofwhat he calls the 'new hero' of the Americannovel of the late 20th century. The features carryforward some conditions of the modern age,including the existentialist outlook of man. NiallLucy, in her book Postmodern Literary Theory


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suggests that they are universal and can be ap-plied to most literary protagonists in postmodernfiction. These features of the hero, as para-phrased by Lucy are the following: the hero'sacceptance that1. Human actions are ruled by chance and ab

surdity.2. There are no norms of moral conduct.3. Alienation is the condition of human life.4. Human motives are characterized by 'irony

and contradiction'.5.Human knowledge is limited and relative. (83)Gaiman's Shakespeare fits all these features tothe hilt. His actions, at least the most recent, thoseof writing the two plays are commissioned byMorpheus, a character from another realmwhom he only meets by chance. Similarly, hisknowledge is only relative to the happeningsaround him. He concedes to pinching hisstorylines from what he hears and what he hasread, and as far as the comic goes, does noth-ing to verify the truth of these hearsay snips ofconversation. Thus human knowledge becomeslimited, and governed by what happens in one'spersonal universe.There is no evidence to show that Shakespearewas alone or isolated in real life. However sincethe sonnets have been taken as proof enoughfor his friendship with the "Young Man" and hisaffair with "The Dark lady", the rest of his writ-ing may be considered to be a reflection of hisown feelings as well. The many tragic charac-ters that have sprung alive from Shakespeare'squill give us an inkling of his empathy and com-plete understanding of the tragic sense. One onlyhas to look at plays like Hamlet and Lear toknow that Shakespeare had a deep insight intothe workings of the mind of a lonely and alien-ated man who at his best, still felt Kafkaesque.These characters often delved into an inner dis-course that became their dialogue with them-selves or, because of the technique of the the-atre, with an unknown audience that seemed toshare their tragic state.

This unknown audience is ironically known inTempest, and is none other than Morpheus.Morpheus is a very isolated being as reflectedin his dialogues towards the end of the comic-"I am the prince of stories, Will, but I have nostories of my own, nor shall I ever" (36) Gaimanindulges in some serious doubling of charactershere, drawing parallels between Morpheus andShakespeare, but also between Morpheus andhimself.The Creation of FictionApart from the insight one gets into whatShakespeare's life must have been like, Tem-pest is important because it gives the reader aninsight into the mechanism of creating fiction andthe role of the author and his muse in the cre-ation process. The second part ofHutcheon'sfavourite phrase, historiographicmetafiction, where the making of fiction isproblematized is given the lion's share of atten-tion in Tempest.In the short story collection Lost in the Funhouse(1960), considered to be an exemplary pieceof metafictional work by James Barth, the au-thor brings forth the question of whether the selfcan or cannot be separated from the piece ofwriting, as well as with notions of authorial con-trol over the text. This question of the presenceof the self has been widely debated by theoristsof postmodern literature. Roland Barthes, forexample, strongly comments on the completeabsence of the author from the story in his essayDeath of an Author. In her book PracticingPostmodernism Reading Modernism, PatriciaWaugh takes forward this discussion and callsmetafiction "a basic tension in all novels betweenthe illusion of selfsufficiency and the unveilingof that illusion."(71)Tempest explores the relationship between theauthor and his craft, the author and the muse,and the muse and the work and debates aboutwhose role is dominant and who should be givendue for the final output of the art. Waugh's "illu-sion" is clearly seen as Shakespeare is at oddswith himself in giving credit to himself, his tools

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or his words, and his sources. However, thereis no final unveiling and the question is left hang-ing for the readers to come to their own conclu-sion.The early part of the book concentrates on howmuch inspiration one needs to start working andimpart an element of reality to the work. This isseen in the talk Ben Johnson has withShakespeare, where he extols the merits of go-ing through different walks of life to be able totruly understand life. It has already been men-tioned the Ben Johnson did not shy away fromcriticizing Shakespeare; he takes a dig at thelatter's tendency to borrow plots and howJohnson's experience helped him stay "original"-In my time, I've been a soldier, a scholar, a pau-per, a duelist, an actor, a translator and a spy.I've killed a man in a duel. I've thrice been im-prisoned. Risking my life for my religion, Iproudly take communion from the Church ofRome, God look you. I've lived life to the full.What've you done Will? A little tanning, heldhorses, a little acting, a little writing. (..) But Ihave met all sorts of people... from the lowestto the most high. Thus I understand them. (13)Shakespeare however appears undeterred byJohnson's monologue. His opinion is that theunderstanding of people comes from an under-standing of oneself. He compares a writer to acarpenter, during a conversation with a clergyman, who relies not on inspiration but his owntools to work to support this opinion of his.However, Shakespeare is not fully convincedabout his statement and Gaiman makes use ofthe comic medium to reflect upon the battle inShakespeare's mind about who gets due creditfor his work- his muse (Morpheus) or his craft.Shakespeare concedes during his conversationwith Morpheus that the people he has been withhave indeed inspired him. He gives credit to hisheartbreaks as well, for only then could he takehis tears to "the stage of the Globe, and makethe pit cry tears of its own. (34)The momentserves as a partial unveiling of the illusion of selfsufficiency for Shakespeare, when he realizesthat it isn't just the tools that help the carpenter,

it is also the inspiration to work.The question of the existence of the self in writ-ing is dwelt upon in the last few pages of thecomic. Tempest has been analysed by scores ofShakespearean scholars to have been found atleast partially autobiographical, and Gaiman en-dorses that view. Gaiman's Shakespeare says,I would be a fool if I denied it. I am Prosper,certainly, and I trust I shall. But I am also Ariel -A flaming, firing spirit, crackling like lightning inthe sky. And I am dull Caliban. I am dark Anto-nio, brooding and planning, and old Gonzalo,counselling silly wisdom. And I am Trinculo, thejester, and Stephano the butler, for they areclowns and fools, and I am also a clown and afool, and on occasion, drunkards (...) There issome of me in it, some of Judith. Things I saw,things I thought. I stole a speech from one ofMontaigne's Essays. And closed with an un-equivocally cheap and happy ending. (29-30,34)The entry of Morpheus here is also an interest-ing narrative device which adds to the appeal ofthe comic as a piece of metafiction. Accordingto Abbott's The Cambridge Introduction toNarrative, this device is called Metalepsis, whichis-A violation of narrative levels, usually in whichthe diregesis or storyworld is invaded by an en-tity or entities from another narrative level or evenfrom outside the narrative altogether eg.whenan extradiegetic narrator enters the action, or a"spectator" leaps on stage and becomes part ofthe action, or the "author" appears and startsquarreling with one of the characters. (237)The technique was already used in the Dreamand is used here again with the sudden appear-ance of Morpheus. It is here that things becomemore interesting. In the original Tempest, thoughProspero is the magician, well learned in booksof his art and all powerful, all his assignmentsare carried out by Ariel, the spirit. Ariel also in-spires him to be forgiving. It is from Ariel's ac-tions that Prospero's actions stem. Gaiman clev-erly mirrors the characters of Ariel and Prospero


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with those of Morpheus and Shakespeare.Though Shakespeare does not wield as muchpower over Morpheus as Prospero does overthe spirit, Morpheus depends on Shakespeareto write him the two plays so he can feel wholeand finally claim a story for himself. Inversely,Morpheus may also be seen as Prospero andShakespeare, Ariel. It is on the former's biddingthat Shakespeare writes the two plays. Prosperogives up magic after he frees Ariel. SimilarlyShakespeare puts down his pen once Morpheus'bidding is done. This reflects on the real timerelationship between the muse and the writer.The relationship is symbiotic. The muse requiresa voice to be heard; the author- a muse whosestory he can carry.In keeping with the ruminations about whetherMorpheus represents the author himself, a spec-tator observing Shakespeare, Ariel from theoriginal Tempest or simply the character fromthe main plotline of Sandman which is isolatedfrom the Shakespeare comics, Morpheus be-comes the extradiegetic character who throwslight on the self reflexivity seen in the play.The view on Shakespeare's 'inspiration' for hisplays also gives an interesting view on the epi-logue to The Tempest, which Gaiman also hasShakespeare write after Dream has ended hisbargain with him: "Now my charms are allo'erthrown, and what strength I have's mine own,which is most faint" (Epilogue 1-3). This instanceof intertextuality lends the essence of metafictionas well to the narrative. The lines used are noco-incidence, for Tempest is both Shakespeare'slast solo venture and Gaiman's last comic in theSandman series. The reader is left musing ifGaiman is Shakespeare, Prosepero orMorpheus- or a culmination of the three. Tem-pest succeeds in raising two important questionsabout the making of fiction- Who may claim

credit for acts performed-is it the one who in-spires or the one who acts upon this inspira-tion? How much inspiration does the actor needto start working? Both of these are partially an-swered; the postmodern debate on the ques-tion of authorship still continues.

The play with doubling and mirroring ofthe characters with the aid of techniques likeintertextuality and metafiction only reinforce theviews of the postmodern critic Jean Lyotard, whobelieved postmodernism to be less a period oftime and more " a set of strategies" undertakenby artists to infuse a new sense of the sublime.Gaiman cannot solve the question ofShakespeare's authorship, and when one can-not bust the myth, there is no harm in playingwith it.Works CitedAbbott, H. Porter. The Cambridge Introduction toNarrative. New York: Cambridge University Press,2008. Print.Abrams, Meyer Howard, and Geoffrey Harpham. Aglossary of literary terms. UK: CengageLearning, 2011. Print.Castle, Gregory. The Literary Theory Handbook.UK: Wiley Blackwell, 2013. Print.Gaiman, Neil, and Charles Vess. “TheTempest.”Sandman: The Wake. New York: DCComics, 1996.Lucy, Niall. Postmodern Literary Theory AnIntroduction. USA: Blackwell Publishers, 2002.Print.Prachett, Terry. Foreword. Prince of Stories: TheMany Worlds of Neil Gaiman. Eds. HankWagner, Christopher Golden, and Stephen R.Bissette. New York: Macmillan, 2008.xi- xiii.Web.Waugh, Patricia. Metafiction.Routledge, 2013.Google Book. Web.Woods, Tim. BeginningPostmodernism.Manchester: ManchesterUniversity Press, 1999.

ELTIF Teaching-Learning MaterialsELTIF is planning to develop a ‘Material Bank for Rural and Backward Learners’. Teachers andresearchers, who are willing to share their teaching-learning materials (print and electronic) arerequested to mail them to [email protected]. They will be first published in the Journal,and later compiled as a handbook for teachers with the name and details of the contributors. –Editor

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Arab-Jewish Conflicts and Racial Politicsin Leon Uris’ The Haj

Rasmi.P.KResearch Scholar, Dept. of English and Research Centre

Sree Kerala Varma College, [email protected]

Although the Jews were considered to be theworst race of the world by all other races, theyremain as the selected lot of Lord, the peopleof God's Promised Land. The age long forbear-ance and tolerance endured by the Jews couldbe highlighted as evidence for the accomplish-ment of the Logos of Holy Bible. About twothousand years ago, the Jews had been scat-tered in almost all the parts of the world andtheir consequent journey as Diaspora signifiestheir vigor in accomplishing the goal of creatingtheir own land- Israel and also constructing aHoly shrine at Jerusalem, of which they haveattained the first. This long journey proves tobe a success only because of their enduranceand blind submission to their culture and tradi-tion. In spite of all the hardships they sufferedunder many rulers like Hitler, they followed their

culture and belief which made them the rivals ofothers.On the other hand the Arabs are following theirreligion and customs that has been written inQuran and their submission to it is not only blindbut rather violent. They follow their teachingsvigorously without thinking of the aftermath.Theyare called as 'Islam' which in Arabic means 'sub-mission' to the Allah's will and to His law. Islamis a strictly monotheistic religion that keeps Al-lah in the centre, which is unquestionable, om-nipotent and immortal. Islam is that God's finalword.Muhammad is God's Prophet, not to beworshiped but to be respected. Muhammad'sthrough his life and actions showed the believ-ers how an Islam should be.The Arab conceptof revenge has a strong religious backup throughthe passages ofQuran that advocate "an eye for

Abstract

Even though the Arabs and the Jews are considered to be two hostile communities, one could find themliving in friendship and compassion in the novel The Haj by Leon Uris. But this comradeship lasts only for afew decades as the need for a separate Jewish state worsens the world Arab sentiment against the Jews. LeonUris narrates the creation of the state of Israel and its separation from the Arab Palestine from the point ofview of an Arab Muktar, Haj Ibrahim who befriends the Jew Gideon Asch. Their friendship and the co-operation in the midst of the increasing turmoil of Arab-Israeli conflicts and the disruption of the smoothrelationship due to internal as well as external politics become the main scope of the novel. This paperanalyses the hospitality as well as hostility of the two communities in the name of their races from a neutralangle. It finds out that even if people are unconcerned about the external racial politics, they are force toindulge. Hence race and communalism becomes an unavoidable facet of life. The study proposes to arrive ata conclusion that includes the current politics and the intolerance by analyzing issues of assimilation, alienationand the idea of a home and homelessness.BibliographyUris, Leon M. The Haj. New York: Dubleday, 1984. Print.


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an eye, a tooth for a tooth".Leon Uris, the Jewish American novelist, ex-periments with these two entirely different cul-tures in his most controversial novel The Haj.The Haj (1984) tells the tale of a Palestinian Arabfamily that lives in the midst of the historic eventsof the 1920s-1950s. It revolves around the do-mestic and local affairs of the Arab village ofTabah in the Ayalon Valley, a former Britishmandate on the way to Jerusalem from Jaffa,very crucial and vital in that case. The lives ofthe Arabs there is affected and influenced bythe proximity of the Jewish settlement, Shemeshand the leaders of both the clans, Haj Ibrahimand Gideon Asch share a comradeship. Whenthe novel begins, Uris portrays the warm rela-tionship between the two communities and theway they share land, water and even knowl-edge. But as the story progresses the innocenceis lost and the two communities stand in oppo-sition due to the crucial historical mishaps. Theextensive pressure of their Arab leaders and feel-ing of the humiliation of being refugees makethem the enemies of the Jews. The shrewd lead-ers convince them that the Jews are the reasonfor their hardships.The Haj refers to the pilgrimage to Mecca bythe able-bodied Muslim. As the title reminds thestory represents the both the physical and psy-chological journey undertaken by Haj Ibrahimand his family from their home to the refugeecamps near Jericho. The trauma they experi-ence inside and outside ends up by them wit-nessing the erosion of their values and tradition.Uris begins the novel by emphasizing the cultureand tradition of the Arabs. He portrays theirnotion of giving respect to people who go forthe Haj, humiliation to a man without a son andalso the practice of assigning duties to childrenon the basis of their age. Traditional life is al-tered permanently with the establishment of aJewish settlement nearby on land sold to Jewishfarmers by Effendi FawziKabir, a rich Palestin-ian landlord. Uris mocks the Arabs on their af-fectation of proudly proclaiming the victory oftheir brave warrior ancestors. Ibrahim's toler-

ance of and even friendship with Jews does notfit in with the general mood during the 1930sand 1940s. The Grand Mufti of JerusalemMohammad Amin al-Husseini calls for hatredtowards the Jews through his fiery speeches.Their school classrooms are infused with dis-gust against the Jews.As a response to the criticisms he faced afterthe publication of his Jewish novel Exodus asanti-Arab, here Uris narrates the story from thepoint of view of an Arab youngster, Ishmael, sonof Ibrahim. Yet the fact-Uris' Jewish favour- re-mains unaltered where one could find underly-ing sarcasm and mockery towards the Arabs.As the novel progresses the scene becomesworst where in the Arab leadership allied withHitler calls for vengeance on the Jews for theyconsidered the Jews the reason for all the mis-haps they suffered. All the treaties between themremain withdrawn against the background of theUnited Nations General Assembly passage ofthe United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine(United Nations General Assembly Resolution181) on 29 November 1947. The historic stanceleads to the evacuation of the village by HajIbrahim and his people, being chased by hisenemy Al-Qawuqji's Arab troops and the rivalJewish forces, Haganah and Irgun, later savedby Gideon Asch, his Jewish ally who helps themescape to Tulkarm in Samaria on the West Bank,yet the women were being raped by Qawuqji'smen. Later they live in cave, desert, and refugeecamps. The proposal for negotiation with thenew State of Israel for the return of Palestiniansto their homes byIbrahim and the like-mindedpeople fails and consequently his elder son Jamilis murdered. Later he himself murders his daugh-ter Nada and dies of heart attack when he comesto know of the gang rape of his family's womennarrated byIshmael. The novel ends with the in-sane Ishmael who contemplates his diseased sis-ter.The novel talks about the Arab-Israel conflict,which is purely racial and geographical. Whenthe Jewish dream of an independent state is ac-complished, the Arab's territory is being ques-

35


tioned and many of the Palestinians remain asrefugees. When the Jewish dream for a shrineat Jerusalem is on the move, the Arab Templeof Omar is under menace. Even if they couldarrive at an agreement of neighborhood despitethe differences,, the fact is that people aroundthe world would never let that happen. Thatbecomes evident through this novel.Uris reveals the differences between two cul-tures by placing them in the same situations andshowing the ways they behave. The mindset ofthe Arabs towards the Jews is clear when in thevillagers headed by Ibrahim undertaking an at-tack on the Jewish kibbutz only to receive hu-miliation. This set back creates no difference inthe pompous nature of the Arab as they pro-claim their victory proudly contrary to the truth.Also they look at the neighbouring Jews withsuspect even when receiving aids and favoursfrom them. Uris intentionally or not, portrays theJews as much civilized, cosmopolitan, disci-plined and cultured in contrast to the Arabswhom he pictures as savage, uncouth, and offollowing a raw, desert culture of hatred, ven-geance and sexual violence. This difference isevident throughout the characters in the novelwhere in one could find only bad Arab charac-ters, and good heroic Jewish characters. Eventhe Protagonist Ibrahim remains partially good,but proves to be savage by murdering his owndaughter to keep the respect of his family.The water treaty that remains as a major clausebetween the two villages could be taken as agood example to show their attitudes. Evenwhen the outside world is fuelled with Arab-Is-raeli riots, the valley seems to be unaffected andwhen Gideon mentions this Ibrahim respondsby condemning that they do not have a choiceas their water is controlled by the Jews. WhenGideon asks if the situation is reverse where in ifthe Arabs are controlling water what might behappening, Ibrahim's reply opens to a fact ofthe Arab mindset which is purely based on ha-tred towards the Jews:You see Gideonthat is why you are fooling your-selves. You don't know how to deal with us.

For years, decades, we may seem to be at peacewith you, but always in the back of our mindswe keep up the hope of vengeance. No disputeis ever really settled in our world. The Jews giveus special reason to continue warring…There isa clause in our water agreement we did not askfor. It says the agreement can be terminated onlyif it were proved that someone from Tabah com-mitted a crime against you. That proves you areweak and that will be your downfall. You arecrazy to extend us a mercy that you will neverreceive in return. (The Haj, 55)This expression is relevant in our own day. Is-rael provided food and electricity to Gaza, whileHamas-led Gaza used the land vacated by Is-rael in 2005, to fire rockets to southern Israel.Also Hamas kidnapped an Israeli soldier,GiladShalit, and has, for several years, held himand denied the Red Cross from visiting him. Ifthe situation was reversed, the Arabs of Gazawould murder outright any and all the Jews theywould have encountered. Furthermore, theywould not have provided food or electricity tobe supplied to the Jews.This statement shows the difference betweentheir attitudes. Ibrahim's words show that if thesituation were reversed, the Arabs would shutoff the water to the kibbutz, to let the Jews dieof thirst. When the Arab hospitality is shown,soon one could expect hostility towards the Jewswhich is inborn in them.Differences are thereamong Arab states in relation to what their rela-tionship to Israel should be but it should be notedthat the majority of the people of these stateshave hard feelings against IsraelHome seems to be a problem for both the com-munities. Their struggle is towards building upan independent and peaceful home, withoutsharing any hateful boundaries. When that dreamis attained by one community, the other will endup in homeless state. Hence these ideas of homeand homelessness remain problematic for boththe Arabs and the Jews. Problems of assimila-tion and alienation is also causing a dilemma forthem as Diaspora, Jews were struggling withsituations of alienation and isolation. Their iden-


36

tity was questioned and they were forced toassimilate the cultures of their surrogate coun-tries. The Arabs were also gone through suchstages and discrimination and subjugation in thename of race might be a reason for their culturalsavagery. In the midst of these entire physicaland psychological traumas, both Arabs and Jewsare moving towards their dream; and when oneattains definitely the other will lose. After a clearunderstanding of the two histories and also thestory line of Uris' novel, anybody couldsympathise with both the people.

One could always speculate the newsrelated to the Arab-Jewish issues as it becomesa part of the current politics. Whenever a prob-lem arises, related to these two communitiescountries take sides and the issues become in-ternational and more sensational. Most recently,the United Nation's anti-Israel resolution is re-fused to have vetoed by Barack Obama in theSecurity Council. The 15-member SecurityCouncil voted 14-0 on the proposed measureon Friday, December 23, 2016, showing a with-drawal of the US policy in the past supportingIsrael. The new resolution demands Israel tocease all the settlement activities immediately inthe occupied Palestinian territory, including EastJerusalem. This incident shows the age long sup-port of the US for Israel is withdrawn and onecould look forward to Donald Trump, the newlyelected US President, for further favoring to-wards Israel.Recent politics along with the long history car-

ries forward the future of the two countries- Is-rael and Palestine. Their never ending rivalry andconflict finds its root in race and religion. Thisstruggle for land in the name of community seemsto be the most crucial one in comparison withother similar issues. Leon Uris attempts provedto be only partially successful as he shows hisJewish favour at times. Also the historical backupis not much strong as he wanders and finds him-self lost in character building and long narrativepassages. Even though the novel The Haj re-mains prejudiced, any reader could find outtraces of culture, manners and behavior of boththe communities. The fact that their conflicts re-lated to race and religion is too old and is still onthe move. As a reader and an onlooker onecould only watch out and speculate things thatare going on. This paper concludes on a hope-ful note where it anticipates a peaceful endingfor this age old crisis and an ultimate solution forboth the sides without compromising the other.Bibliography

McKernan, Benthan. "Israel withdraws envoys, haltsgrants after UN vote."Times of India 25Dec. 2016: 10.Print.

United States. Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff forIntelligence

US Army Training and Doctrine Command Ft.Leavenworth. Arab Cultural Awareness:

58Factsheets. Kansas: 2006. Print.

Uris, Leon M. The Haj. New York: Dubleday, 1984.Print.

References1. Roth, Philip. Goodbye, Columbus and five short stories. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1959. (Allsubsequent quotations are taken from this edition of the book are indicated by page number / pagenumbers in the parenthesis.)2. Mendaglio, Sal. D¹browski’s theory of Positive Disintegration. Tucson: Great Potential Press,2008, p.37.3. McDaniel, N. John. The Fiction of Philip Roth. Haddonfield, N.J.: Haddonfield House, 1974, p.4.4. Ibid., p.76.5. Helge Normann Nilsen. “Love and Identity: Neil Klugman’s Quest in “Goodbye Columbus”. EnglishStudies, vol. 68, no.1, 1987, pp. 79-88.6. Op. cit., p. 75.7. Cooper, Alan. Philip Roth and the Jews. Albany: State University of New York, 1996, p. 42.8. Jones, Judith, Paterson and Guinevera A. Nancy. Philip Roth. New York: Unger, 1981, p. 20.

(Positive Disintegration in... Continued from page:26)

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Ten- minute Activities as Motivational Triggersfor Primary School Students

JamunaDevi.PResearch Scholar

Department of EnglishBharathiar University Coimbatore

IntroductionWe are at the threshold of changes in our ap-proach to education as the idea of constructivismis served as the basis. A distinguishing feature ofthis approach is that it constructs knowledge ina natural manner through learning activities basedon acquired knowledge and conceptual back-ground of the learner. Many researchers pointout the poor level of language acquisition andcommunicative skill among the students of pri-mary classes. It is found that the teachers givemore importance to complete the portion instipulated time to satisfy the department andmoreover the parents. In this situation, the learn-ers are not motivated properly and they showinhibition to communicate in English. So it isvery essential that teachers should create thesituation and ensure the participation of all stu-dents in class room activities. In addition, learn-ers are to be motivated properly and their spe-cial skills and talents are to be identified by theteacher. This paper is limited to the relevance ofthe ten-minute activity , Reporting , for primaryschool students in native context.Memory and knowledgeThe Dictionary says: If you know a language,you have learned it and can speak it. And de-fines Memory is the ability to retain and recallinformation, ideas, images and thoughts. Butmemorising is not done by anyone while learn-ing a language. It may have done in later child-

hood while developing earlier knowledge of lan-guage. A language was learned in practical useof whatever is accessible in concrete situations.Fuster's statement that memory is made up ofmany pieces of knowledge named mental cognitsand their biological correspondence consistingof neural networks. These memory networksoperate dynamically and generate at appropri-ate moments. Each cognit activity supported byother cognit's cognitive networks. Fuster's prin-ciple is justified by stating that knowledge is thepower of dynamic memory and structured dy-namic network power is knowledge.Influence of motivationThere are a number of language learner motiva-tion models with relation to second languageacquisition in a classroom setting. The differentperspectives on second language motivation canbe divided into three distinct phases asthe so-cial psychological period, the cognitive situatedperiod and the process oriented period. Thesocial psychological perspectives on second lan-guage learning motivation emphasize the role ofthe individuals social context and social interac-tions.The Cognitive perspectives focus on how thelearner's mental process influence their motiva-tion. During the late 1980s and 1990s, the cog-nitive revolution takes place in psychology andit leads the language learning motivation fieldtowards cognitive models. Cognitive psycholo-


38

gists argued that how one thinks about one'sabilities , possibilities, potentials, limitations andpast performances has major influences on mo-tivation.Noels and colleagues explored self-determina-tion theory in the language learning context anddeveloped the language learning orientation scalewhich categorises a person's motivational ori-entation as either intrinsic, extrinsic or amotivatedbased on the continuum of self determination. Itwas found that in the language learning class-room, which the learners feel non-controlling ,promoted intrinsic and self-determined orienta-tion of motivation in students.Attribution theory contends that the casual rea-sons which are attributed to the past success orfailure plays a critical role in motivation and infuture endeavours in that area. Process modelof second language learning is marked by threedistinct chronological steps ; pre -actional stage,Actional stage and post actional stage.Pre actional stage is associated with settinggoals, forming intentions and launching actionsand attitude towards second language speakingcommunity. The actional stage includes sustain-ing one's level of motivation throughout the lan-guage-learning process. Post actionalstage , themajor motivational influences are the learner'sstyles of attribution and biases, self concept be-liefs and received feedback during the secondlanguage learning process.Need of TriggersTriggers are the actions or events that play arole in prompting particular behaviour. Triggerscan be used deliberately by teachers to elicit theexpected student behaviour. For example, if ateacher wants students to listen, he/she will gen-erally call for their attention (sometimes using asignal) and wait for them to be quiet therebytriggering the derived attentive behaviour.Sometimes actions or events in the classroommay be a trigger for the students with learningdifficulties to exhibit challenging behaviour ,which could reveal that they are struggling. Thechallenging behaviour will depend on the indi-

vidual student , the environment or setting inwhich the action takes place. The crucial ele-ment in second language classroom is identify-ing the suitable triggers for the students. Whenany triggers are identified as challenging, teach-ers should avoid these and start to develop anduse other triggers to elicit positive behaviour.Positive student behaviours are effectively de-veloped and supported through relationship-based whole-school and classroom practices.Schools have the ability to define their own setof behavioural expectations as there is no com-mon set of behaviours that can be universallyregarded as challenging.Nature Related Hobbies of KidsAccording to Family Activities ExpertDr.BravadaGarett-Akinsanya ,kids love theidea that they are positively impacting the natu-ral world. They have the hobbies of making bird-feeders and bird houses. They are not averseto getting muddy and seeing sprouts from seedsis a pure magic. Kids show interest in insectsand they love to recognise patterns in nature.Our solar system will always be fashionablebedroom accessories. With the digital revolu-tion, videography andphotography are easierthan ever to master. Traditional stamp and coincollection are still favourite with young kids.They have fun and enthusiasm in sharing thesecollections.These interests may change over time, but eventemporary,ones have a significant impact on achild's development. Teachers can identify howthe child prefers to learn and think andwhat spe-cial skills or talents he/she might have by usingthetheory of Multiple Intelligence of the Psycholo-gist Howard Gardner.Present ScenarioThe curriculum provides activity oriented lan-guage learning on the basis of constructivism. Itis found that the activities are designed by thecurriculum committee. But it provides freedomto teachers for the modification of the activitiesto the level of their learners. Unfortunately it isnot happened. The learners will not get enoughchances to express their feelings and experiences

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in their classroom.Most of the Primary School students possesshuge treasure of matchbox labels, cartoon stick-ers , tattoos and marbles. They never get achance to show off these treasures. Neither theyget a chance to share their personal feelings suchas the injury of their pet bird/animal or any jo-vial incident at their own home. So it will be agreat motivational trigger if they are allotted tenminutes everyday either at the beginning ,middleor at the end of the class for reporting their ex-periences, preferably an immediate past : thatmeans what happened to them between lastevening and that morning.ConclusionThere is a greater need at present to developcommunicative skill among primary school stu-dents and it is the duty of teachers to give themenough exposure and confidence to speak. Sothe classroom activities should be related to theirlives and the learners should have the provisionwhat they speak in the class.It is clear that the ten-minute activity, REPORT-ING personal experiences and feelings, helpsthe students to develop listening and speaking

skills. The students will be highly motivated ifany external factors are set by the teacher.Howard Gardener theory of Multiple Intelli-gence helps the teachers to identify how the childprefers to learn and what special skills /talentshe might have. Then the teacher can do the ad-aptation and design the activities suitable for thechildren with special needs .The students will get chances to hear other'sexperiences and feelings and to develop empa-thy .it is the chance to know others and manymoral values are sprouted in their heart withoutany external factors.Positive behaviours will be developed amongthe students when they are provided enoughchances to exposure their feelings and experi-ences to a group of students. It is an opportu-nity that they feel they are listened by others. Sothis activity is a motivational trigger which pro-motes positive behaviour and preventsbehavioural issues.It is important that REPORTING makes theclassroom active and enthusiastic and it will bea strong stepping stone to the world of commu-nication.

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source persons (both inland and abroad) competent in each branch of Language and Literaturewill be suggested. Help will be provided in publishing the selected papers, as well. Please

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Audiobook for Enhancing Listening SkillsK. Priyadarsini

Asst. Prof. of English, Department of Science and Humanities,National Engineering College, Kovilpatti TN

[email protected]

Abstract

Audiobook is one of the technological tools that can be utilised for the teaching-learning of English languageskills. Of the four macro-skills of the language, listening is seldom taught since it is the most taken-for-grantedskill. Since the 21st century youths are tech-savvy and tech-maniacs, gadgets can sustain learners' motiva-tion. Motivation and concentration are socio-psychological issues that teachers of English confront in everyother English class. Audiobooks can be exploited for the purpose of enhancing listening skills. Instead oftraditional lecture method, audiobooks can be used as a means to enhance a few micro-skills of listening.Keywords: Listening Skill, Audiobook, Second Language learning, Concentration

Background of the studyListening skill is the most common activity thatneed not be taught in the classroom. The im-portance of listening extends far beyond aca-demics and career and it helps to communicateeffectively with others in day to day life. Ac-quiring listening skill takes time because as suchit is a tough and complex skill, which includesthe other three skills viz. speaking, reading andwriting. Being an active process listening re-quires the ability to absorb information, under-stand, remember, evaluate and respond. There-fore it takes a lot of time to master this skill.Listening is sometimes boring because effectivelistening requires cognitive skills. In today'scurriculum, teachers sometimes ask the studentsto take notes which eventually results in the stu-dents' inability to listen to what is being taughtto understand and analyze it. Learners maypartially listen and switch off their minds fromthe task. Classroom listening needs to be in-tensive as it involves the students' attention onthe sounds, stress and intonation of the teacher.Teachers should train the pupils to focus on whatis being spoken in the class. Nevertheless, it is

a difficult task to monitor this in over-crowdedclassrooms. A child always learns to speakthrough listening. The child listens to the wordswhich mother utters. When the child cannot fol-low, the mother repeats the word many timesso the child picks up. Thus listening can be eas-ily acquired with extra efforts. One should onlyunderstand that listening takes place not onlyinside the classroom but also beyond the fourwalls. To enhance the listening skill, audiobookscan be a good strategy for L2 Learners. A greatmajority of people will listen to the audiobooksfor entertainment but it can also be a pedagogi-cal tool for improving listening skills.IntroductionAudiobook is a recording of a text being read.It is used to improve one's pronunciation andvocabulary. Audiobooks are considered as valu-able learning tools because of their format. Ifone has the access to audiobook, they not onlydevelop their pronunciation and vocabulary butthey can also familiarize themselves to the dif-ferent modes of reading, stress and intonationpatterns and the native accent. Today's students

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are tech-savvy and they have unlimited accessto the internet. There are plenty of apps foraudiobooks and the learners can download anduse them, thus becoming independent in theirlearning. Using audiobooks will also improveone's multi-tasking skills; one can listen to it evenwhile doing household works, exercising, driv-ing, etc. Listening being a natural means to ac-quire a language can be effectively developedthrough audiobooks.Literary ReviewFrank Serafini (2004) has explained that muchresearch validates the importance of readingaloud to students, positing that the act of read-ing aloud introduces new vocabulary and con-cepts, provides a fluent model and allows stu-dents' access to literature that they are unableto read independently. He adds that audiobooksare an important component of a comprehen-sive reading program. Kylene Beers (1998) hasendorsed that audiobooks, when used with re-luctant, struggling, or Second Language learn-ers, serve as a scaffold that allows students toread beyond their reading level. The use ofaudiobooks is a natural extension of the assisted-reading strategy used with struggling students.Audiobooks expose these readers to somethingthey have never experienced before, by allow-ing them to experience what fluent readers feelevery time they read a book (Stone-Harris2008). According to Wolfson (2008), since thereading process develops through oral languageexperiences, audiobooks benefit struggling read-ers by increasing comprehension and apprecia-tion of written textHypothesisThe study began its investigation with the fol-lowing assumptions:1. Listening to audiobooks help learners

to improve their vocabulary, pronunciation,and accent.

2. The learners' listening skill is enhanced throughaudiobooks, a new pedagogical tool.

Research Questions1. How is an audiobook different from a printed

book?2. What are the advantages and disadvantages

of listening to audiobooks?3. What are the constraints of listening to

audiobooks and how to overcome them?DiscussionListening to an audiobook is different from read-ing a print book in many ways. Pamela Varley(2002) has posited that reading is more intimatethan listening, and that because listening is morerigid, engagement to an audiobook deters nega-tive reading habits and allows a reader to hear abook exactly as it is written. Yet, the findings ofthis review demonstrate varied outcomes ofaudiobook use among different adolescentgroups. For individuals learning a second lan-guage, comprehension tends to improve as aresult of using an audiobook. Audiobooks areeasily accessible than print books, and they canbe used anywhere. In fact, both audiobooks andprint books are equally great ways for one's brainto absorb and comprehend information. Butsince audiobooks have to be intentionallypaused, unlike the eyes wandering involuntarilyoff the page, and one has the option of speedingup the narration, audiobooks lend themselvesto more focused and efficient consumption ofbooks.Audiobooks are read by the author or they in-clude the commentary by the author. Joey PigzaSwallowed the Key is read by author JackGantos and also includes his commentary aboutwhy he wrote the book. This information canprovide the students with a connection to theauthor as well as insight into the author's thoughtsand the writing process. The teacher or facilita-tor can thus introduce the students to the bookseven above their reading level through which theycan be taught interpretive reading and criticallistening. The teacher can also highlight thehumour in books, new genres used, new vo-cabularies, unfamiliar dialects or accents and lit-erary styles. A peer group can be formed andthey can listen together and try to interpret thetopic. Learners are introduced to new vocabu-laries and dialects, come across different pro-


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nunciation patterns and unfamiliar accents, whichdiffer from the learner's real life. The learnersare eager to listen to audiobooks - it acts as anentertaining activity. On the other hand, learnersacquire listening skills.Using audiobooks as a teaching tool has its ownadvantages and disadvantages. As a coin hasanother side, this too has its limitations. Whileusing audiobooks the individual learner's pacemay vary - it may be too fast or too slow. Thenarrator's voice can be irritating or the use ofthe cassette or CD players can be awkwardwhen compared to the flexibility of the book.One more reason that may hamper the use ofaudiobooks in classrooms is they are quite ex-pensive.Listening to an audiobook has its own con-straints; when the learners are not able to followthe narrator, listening gets disturbed and diverted.The speed of reading may attract or irritate, bothare equally precarious while listening. Sometimesthe learners may not be able to follow the dia-

logue or words spoken in the audiobooks whichare too faster. Some stories are funnier and morecomical that make them more attractive to thelisteners. In such cases, learners start to laugh atthe fun and forget to listen to the terms or phrases.To overcome these constraints learners need tolisten to the audiobooks repeatedly, so theymaster the listening skill. Some audiobooks arelikely to be more professional and some maynot be understood. Therefore, learners may nothave the interest to listen to it. The facilitatorneeds to guide and to train the learners to listento the audiobooks. Repeated listening toaudiobooks improves the learner's skills and flu-ency.Summing upThis study theoretically analyzed enhancing thelistening skills of the second language learnersthrough audiobooks. It gives a positive attitudeto using audiobooks as a new pedagogical tool.Further research may prove that this tool canbe practically successful in larger classes andmay be includes in the curriculum.

ReferencesSerafini, Frank. 2004. “Audiobooks and Literacy: An Educator’s Guide to Utilizing Audiobooks in theClassroom.” New York: Listening Library.Beers, Kylene 1998. “Listen While You Read: Struggling Readers and Audiobooks.” School LibraryJournal 44 (4): 34–35.Stone-Harris, Sayra. 2008. “The Benefit of Utilizing Audiobooks with Students Who Are StrugglingReaders.” EdD diss., Walden University, College of Education. UMI Number: 3297458.Wolfson, Gene. 2008. “Using Audiobooks to Meet the Needs of Adolescent Readers.” AmericanSecondary Education 36 (2): 105–14.Varley, Pamela. 2002. “As Good as Reading? Kids and the Audiobook Revolution.” Horn BookMagazine 78 (3): 251–62.

Book Reviews InvitedReviews of books are invited to be published in the journal. Preference will be given to ELTpractice books, which will be useful to teachers for enhancing their professional competence.Books, which are useful to students, and which follow current thinking in learning-teaching, espe-cially those which promote self study approach, are also welcome. Reviews must be original,highlighting the pedagogic features of the book chosen. Length limit around 1000 words. The fulldetails of book, including current price must be provided.Mail : [email protected]

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Learner-centred Classrooms: Teacher AttitudeK.Primrose

M.Phil Scholar, Research Department of EnglishThe American CollegeMadurai

[email protected]

AbstractPresent day learners have an easy access to knowledge and so they are more updated. Every single day,they grow as technical as possible with upcoming innovations. Sometimes, they even outsmart theirteachers. While teachers become facilitators, learners are imposed with too much responsibility. The dutiesof facilitators are not compact still. The requirements of being a facilitator are comparatively equal to that ofa teacher. With this background, the paper makes a study on the attitude of facilitators and their newdimensions in learner-centred classrooms.Keywords: facilitator, teacher, new dimensions.

IntroductionWhen there is an advent of a new approach,there is always scope for misconceptions andoverconfident remarks. Learner-centred class-rooms came into existence and it worked onthe basis of the interests and needs of a learner.Learner independency was instilled and instruc-tion was forbidden. Teachers were upgradedas facilitators. With these major characteristics,it also kindled an idea that teachers' burden isreduced. Or rather teachers need not involvefully in the activities of a learner. This assump-tion that the role of teachers is lessened in alearner-centred classroom is the centre of mystudy. Verifying this, the various dimensions of afacilitator are explored.Review of LiteratureMcCombs (1997) identifies the positive rela-tionship of a facilitator and a learner andemphasises on learner experience. This, in turnsuggests that in a learner-centred classroom afacilitator should give importance to what learn-ers experience. She has contributed more tolearner-centred teaching and learning. Ahmed

(2013) concludes his study that learner-centredclassroom is effective and highly influential. Heaffirms learner-centred style of teaching to besuperior to teacher-centred style of teaching.Research QuestionsFollowing are the research questions framed toinvestigate and explore.In a learner-centred classroom,

1. How far is the role of a facilitator different from that of a teacher?2. Does a facilitator feel less burdened? Ifyes, in what way?3. How does the role change lead to newdimensions?

These research questions have led into the for-mulation of these hypotheses.

1. Facilitators are overburdened in learner-centred classrooms.2. The role of facilitators extends widely tothe role of teachers.3.The responsibility of a facilitator is equal

to that of a learner.


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A discussion was made with the young profes-sors who have an updated knowledge aboutlearner-centred classroom. Some of the barri-ers of a learner-centred classroom were noted.A learner-centred classroom does not mean thatthe facilitator can sit and relax as the learnerswork out tasks and learn by themselves. Thefacilitator has the biggest problem of managinga classroom. Learners make noise and the fa-cilitator should make sure that it is a meaningfulnoise. Even though the facilitator makes up hismind, that the learners already know something,he has to provide them with information that isnew and useful to learners. At this instant, a fa-cilitator has to know something more than thelearners and be equally competent enough, sincethe learners are already tech-savvy.The next important duty of the facilitator is toassess the performance of learners individuallyand give necessary feedback. This would needa lot of time since it is serious work that attributesto the growth of the learners. The feedbacksare given on regular basis.In the context of an Indian classroom, it is noteasy to be a facilitator for the following reasonsas per the current professors.1. Learners in classroom are heterogeneous in

terms of culture, background and also knowledge level.

2. The number of students in a classroom is approximately sixty.

3. It takes a lot of time for the facilitator to concentrate on each learner.

4. The Indian education system gives more importance to the product than the process. Thelearners are expected to score marks thanacquire language.

5. The gap between the facilitator and a learneris large in the Indian context.

The role of a facilitator reaches new dimensionsat this juncture. A facilitator's input should fetchhim a position where learners get motivated.Since, interest is the underlying principle of alearner centred classroom, a facilitators' method

should be suitable to the heterogeneous class.Here, the facilitator has to think aloud, be inno-vative and kindle the spirit in the learners.When the number of learner is quite big, the fa-cilitator should organise pair works and groupactivities with the assurance of making them doit with minimum noise. This is quite a difficulttask though. The activities should be in such away that less noise is required. Giving individualconcentration for the learners is again time con-suming business wherein the facilitators can gofor self-correction. Self-correction can go handin hand with facilitator's feedback and weeklyassessment. In addition to this, feedback canbe offered by fellow learners which actually canreduce fear. Learners feel comfortable when theyare in a peer circle.There is this constant ideology that teacher issuperior in terms of Weimer "sage on the stage".The existence of this idea interrupts the friendlyatmosphere between the learner and the teacher.Sharing is dominated by instructing. Even in alearner centred classroom, the facilitator uncon-sciously starts lecturing thinking that it is his duty.Under the shelter of Indian education system,professors feel that learner-centred classroomsare in dilemma. The classrooms become mark-centred factories where learners ought to scorewell. When this becomes an objective, learner-centred classrooms are not appreciable.DiscussionAnalysing the data collected, three aspects of afacilitator in a learner-centred classroom areidentified which can be described in three terms.1. A Role-playing facilitatorTransforming into a facilitator from a teacher isnot simply narrowing down the position insteadit is expanding the circle. A facilitator should bea good role player who is expected to take updifferent roles in order to construct a good learn-ing atmosphere inside the classroom. In this as-pect, a learner's place is stable whereas a facili-tator has to change roles accordingly. Leaver,Ehrman and Shekhtman (2005) discuss fourroles of a teacher in a classroom which aims at

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learner autonomy. They are guide, cheerleader,role model, and motivator. In addition to theseroles, few more can be included. A facilitatorassuming a role of a learner is possible. Thisprovides space where the facilitator sits next tothe learners, views things from their perspec-tives and guides them in their growth. A role-playing facilitator thus becomes a part of alearner-centred classroom.2.An Altruistic facilitatorWhen a facilitator is compared to a teacher, thelatter loves himself and his voice that he wantsto listen to it always. As a result, he feels supe-rior, develops pride and hardly recogniseslearner's individuality. On the other hand, a fa-cilitator is altruistic. He does not care for hisvoice instead he speaks less and observes more.He sacrifices boasting and showing off his ownknowledge. This nature enables the facilitatorto get used to learner-centred classroom. Thelearners in turn profit more by doing every as-signment on their own using their own creativitywithout the pressure of the facilitator's opinion.Also, an altruistic facilitator is not obsessed withfault finding, but encourages learners to identifythe faults on their own and self-correct. Thereby,a positive environment is assured and the gapbetween a facilitator and a learner is reduced tonil.

3.Facilitator homeworkHomework is a duty not only to learners, butalso to the facilitator. The facilitator has to pre-pare every single day and study the progress ofthe learners. The preparation is not meant forgiving a lecture, but to be efficient enough tomonitor the interaction of learners who are richwith information. The facilitator should have anoverview of the topic for discussion. Prepara-tion other than reading involves arranging feed-backs of learners, collecting available materialsand setting question formats for testing learners.ConclusionA facilitator's role remains as significant as ateacher's role in a learner-centred classroom.Everyday preparation is forced and classroommanagement becomes another issue. So, afacilitator's efforts contribute to the success oflearner-centred classroom. In addition to forefronting the interests of the learners, it is also inthe hands of facilitators to scaffold them andguide them. Without the co-operation of facili-tators, learner-centred classrooms cannot yieldgood results. Hence, a facilitator's job is notover-burdened but still difficult and it rangeswidely from being a teacher. Facilitators andlearners share the responsibility in learner-centredclassrooms.

ReferencesAhmed,K.A.(2013).Teacher-Centered Versus Learner -Centered Teaching Style.

The Journal of Global Business Management, 9, 22-34.Cooper, J. L., & Robinson, P. (2000). Getting Started: Informal Small-Group Strategies in

Large Classes.New Directions in Teaching and Learning, 81, 17-24.Leaver,B.L., Ehrman,M and Shekhtman,B.(2005). Achieving success in second language

Acquisition.Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.McCombs, B. L. (1997).Self-assessment and reflection: Tools for promoting teacher changes

toward learner-centered practices. NASSP Bulletin, 81, 587, 1-14.Weimer, Maryellen. 2000. Learner-Centered Teaching. Wiley Co: San Francisco.


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Cultural studies and Gender Issues inGloria Naylor's Novels

B. KogilavaniSreeSakthi Engineering College, Karamadai, TN

R. LeelavathyLRG Government Arts College, Tiruppur, [email protected]

AbstractIn Naylor's novel it explains about the individualsituation of women in the society is slowly andsteadily changing. To achieve their goal womenhave to travel for a long path. A romanticizeimage of woman is presented in literaturescreens the bitter reality of her position in patri-archal society. Gloria Naylor is an afro Ameri-can writer depicts the women's peculiarity. InNaylor's novels it describes about the gender,race and sex about the overcome of blackwomen to white. Its particularly tells about thecolored people domination, discrimination,sexuality, exploitation and suffrage ofbalkanizations. "Woman is not born but made"in rightly go along with the condition of womenis only born for the feelings of white they madeas a woman. Naylor as a novelist gifted withthe extraordinary ability to focus very sensitiveaspects of human relationship in general andman-woman relation in particular. In Naylor'snovels it explains the suffrage of gender racismand sexisms, through their culture language howblack shows their growth to the colored peoplefor the society. The conference paper focusedon Gloria Naylor's novels very sensitive aspectsof humans, human relationship like gender, raceand sexism in general and man-woman relationin particular."Slow and steady wins the race"by this famous quotation let's distinguish thepast, present and future of black peopleachievement in their life.

Women's writing which present the reality, notto interpreted, introduces a unique women worldin literature. Through the protocaded in rede-fining the women's image, has slowly changedto represent the innermost chambers of women'ssociological and psychological needs. Womenwriters' scenariofocuses on the subterraneanproblem which women face through their soci-ety, family and attitude by their own men. A fa-mous black women writer Gloria Naylor is acontemporary African American writer who fo-cuses not only on the peculiar problems thewomen come across because of racism andgender issues but also the struggles they comeacross because of their own community, menand women and sometimes by their own self.Gloria Naylor well knew her own identity as afemale, with extreme state of prominence inAfro-American literature. She represent throughher set of writings her vision of the world in whichhuman being confront evil and a life of illusionand despair. She is rightly recognized for speak-ing out the rights of women and also other so-cial issues. Brad Leithauser said, "GloriaNaylor's is a strong voice, and a compassion-ate one…" Emily Dickson who is a lecturer inhumanities says about Naylor: "… she writes-and speaks- with the solid, decided vigor ofsomeone who has given her subject its thought-ful due". Naylor is recognized that she wouldteach the language, culture for all the blackwomen.

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Naylor realistically portrays the varied lives ofAfrican Americans, particularly her minority anda woman in a Caucasian, male-oriented soci-ety. African American literature tends to focuson themes of interest to Black people, such asthe role of African Americans within the largerAmerican society and issues such as AfricanAmerican culture, racism, religion, slavery, free-dom, and equality. This equality shows the varia-tion in nature and human in her novels. Being anAfrican woman by birth and tradition Naylorherself faced a lot many challenging with whiteand perplexing circumstances but she resistedall tough that came her way. She grew up in atime and region in which black women used tolive traditionally. There was no career for themNaylor used to teach the language through songs,movies and differentiate through culture. ButNaylor rejected to play a traditional feminine roleand also rejected chauvinism.Naylor explores the female mystique through aseries of sturdy female characters that are actu-ally the central character in her novels. She doesnot treat women in the acknowledged role allo-cated to her by the society like that of a motheror a wife but as an individual. Naylor wanted tobe free from the strict standards of the tradi-tional society. She depicts the female experienceof oppression and exploitation in a male domi-nated Black society. She provides women withnew directions to overcome the constraints ofthe personal and the political and evolve theirown modes of resistance.Women are not able to exercise autonomy ei-ther over their lives or their bodies since theyare controlled and determined for them by men.The feminists support the idea of a universalwomanhood cutting across all barriers of age,income, class, race and other divisive factors.The feminist commitment to combat all forms ofpatriarchy and sexism has given a semblance ofunified ideology to feminist criticism. Naylor whofocuses not only on a typical problems ,the prob-lems focus on the women come across for thereason of racism and gender issues and also thestruggles from men and women come across oftheir own community. Particularly the difficultiesare shown in a two cadre inner and outer suf-

frage of women. The Afro American womensuffrage in both the ways comparing with theinner coverage the external was very much hurt-ful by the white. The white people used the blackin many ways and they ill-treated as an externalrealism like gender issues. Even though the manywoman's are facing the same problem nowa-days. Through the comparison of olden days andearlier view, women problems are not solvedthrough their gender issues.In representing their positive and negative traitsof women's innermost hidden problems, as wellas known by the contemporary writers share anumber of similarities. Alice Walker, Toni CadeBambara and Gloria Naylor are alike in depict-ing Black Nationalism, black society and blackwomen. Naylor shares common attributes withher contemporaries and other African Ameri-can women writers but stands unique in her set-ting, characterization and narration. Naylor's narrative style is different from otherwomen writers in presenting multiple protago-nists in all her novels. Many of the writers chosetheir role protagonist to either a female or two.In the case of Naylor, it is different and unique;in all her novels the role of protagonist is as-signed to many and all of them to their best.Comparing with the other Afro American writerNaylor represents the problems of womenthrough multiple protagonists in each of her nov-els. Though, many women rule and rights areequally shared among all women no one eitherdominates or overrules. In a conversation withToni Morrison, Naylor says, "My emotionalenergy was spent creating a woman's world,telling her side of it because I knew it hadn'tbeen done enough in literature" (579). Naylorrepresents the painful, pathetic lives of herwomen in a picturesque way and all her novelsdemonstrate it with the help of multiple protago-nists.Generally women writers are enforced to takeup a unique strategy to represent the undisclosedworld of women around them. Naylor's periodis the late twentieth century, and racism and itsdevastation have already been widely discussed,but the other issues related to the familial, social


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and psychological terrains need to be probed.Representing the inner struggles of womenproved to be the need of the hour. Therefore,Naylor takes up the inner struggles that womenexperience when they vie to fix their life in arace-biased, gender-based society. "Far frombeing a replica of domestic novels by whitewomen writers, Naylor's texts mirror the uniquerealities of black women" (Montgomery 56).Her women are from all grounds; lower class,upper class and upper middle class. Naylor'sunique strategy, using multiple protagonists torepresent the world of women, helps her to rep-resent the mixed class.Naylor's first novel The Women of BrewsterPlace (1982) is a novel of heartrending storiesof seven women. The novel is set in BrewsterPlace, a rundown street, alienated from the otherparts of the city by a wall; the main picture isstand by on wall as a symbol of separation.Brewster Place is a place of isolated and de-pressed women who are unable to find theirspace in the society. In Brewster place charac-ter named Mattie Michael is main in the novelshe loves the butcher without the parents knowl-edge she became pregnant. After that she facesmany problems in her life being a rich girl due tosex she faced more difficulties and life changesin a bad situation. It has seven stories each storyhas its own pains and sufferings. None of thecharacters narrate her story in first person but itdoes not spoil the purpose of sharing their hopesand losses and experiences.She wants to find solutions for the day-to-dayproblems of her people and therefore, she stayswith them in their place. She tries to unite thepeople of Brewster Place to bring in a Tenants'Association which can help them to solve theirresidential problems. All the women of BrewsterPlace have some agonizing past, yet they find aray of hope in them and the same gives themenergy to survive in a racist society. Their pastexperiences lead them to help other women whostruggle. The bond Naylor creates among thewomen of Brewster Place is powerful. They allfind real solace in their relationship with eachother.

Bailey's Café, Naylor's fourth novel deals withfemale sexuality. The novel which takes place inthe first half of the twentieth century, like TheWomen of Brewster Place, shares the story ofseven women. The women of Bailey's Café facetribulations in the society, in their family and forsome of them their psyche brings in problems.The victimized women of Bailey's Café comeout of oppression and restore their life with thehelp of a matriarchal figure Eve. Naylor, whohad already tried her hand at weaving many num-bers of stories into one, not only weaves it won-derfully but also decorates it with her magicallanguage and mysticism. Naylor's revision ofbiblical stories also deepens the study.In the third novel Mama Day explains familybonding relationship.Coaca plays a vital role hergrandmother implies the supernatural power ofthe women. Based on the inner and outer realityshe shows suffrage of women. Coaco loves aprofessor and she used to get married with theknowledge of their family. After few days theyused to separate because of unhealthy condi-tion of her husband. Based on this her grand-mother used to create a superstitious believe onthem finally it won't work out and they looses aheartfelt person. In these three novels of Naylor's The Womenof Brewster Place, Mama Day and Baileys Caféit explains a multiple protagonist space requiredto probe deep into lives of women. No life ispartially presented or represented; each ofNaylor's women is the central theme which ap-pears in character of her story represents dayto day life history. Thus, in the three books GloriaNaylor's concern in presenting the uniquenessof each woman's character and presenting thebond between the women, and how the womenovercome to the world and faces their stain hap-pens in their life. With the remarkable stain theblack women face a different role in all her Naylornovels. The main impact which represents thewomen's development and overcome of theirgender issues and implementation of the womenmake each other to shine with a unique superi-ority.


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Report from the field

Two-day National Conference in English Language, Literature & Cultural Studies, 6 & 7 January 2017 at

Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women, CoimbatoreDr. S.Jayalaksmhi

For empowering rural India through English lan-guage education and to bring researchers to-gether, who can enhance English language teach-ing in the years to come were the two majorobjectives of the Two-day National Conferenceorganised by the Department of English,Avinashiligam Institute for Home Science andHigher Education for Women, Coimbatore, inassociation with English Language Teachers'Interaction Forum (ELTIF).The mission of ELTIF was conveyed in con-crete terms, at the inaugural session, by itsFounder President Dr. P. Bhaskaran Nair bycongratulating two PG students-cum-paper pre-senters--Ms. Sri Bhagyalakshmi, of the Ameri-can College, Madurai, on her enthusiasm tolearn, and take part in academic gatherings; andMs.Meenakshi Srihari of Avinashilingam Uni-versity, on her exemplary presentation of re-search papers at the ELTIF conferences of pre-vious years.The dais was gallant with the honoured pres-ence of Dr. Kowsalya, the Registrar,Dr. Ambiga Devi, Dean (Humanities ), Mrs.Prema Rengachari, Educationist and Directorof Vidyavanam Anakatti, Coimbatore; Dr.Srividya Sivakumar, a renowned Coimbatore-based poet and columnist, Dr. JayanthasriBalakrishnan, formerly Professor of PSG Col-lege of Arts and Science, Coimbatore and Dr.Richa Tripathi, Hindustan University. "Withcourage, you can achieve anything in life," ech-oed Mrs. Vasantha Kalbagal, a Bangalore-based corporate consultant, when she deliveredthe inaugural address. The Compilation of Ab-

stracts was released by Pon. Chandran, Psy-chologist, Life Skills Trainer and Theatre Activ-ist, President, Konangal Film Society,Coimbatore, and it was received by Dr. K.Elango, Formerly Professor and Head of theDepartment of English, Anna University,Chennai.Dr.Kowsalya, the Registrar of AvinashilingamUniversity for Women, in her felicitations men-tioned that this conference would mark a mile-stone in the academic history of the Departmentof English. She also expressed her wish that thiscollaboration between ELTIF andAvinashilingam University should continue. TheDean of Humanities, Dr. Ambiga Devi expressedher pride in being a part of this great event of aremarkable magnitude. Earlier, Dr. S.ChritinaRebecca, the Head, Department of English wel-comed the gathering and introduced the guests.The inaugural session was followed by variouspaper presentation and workshop sessions si-multaneously.The sessions were chaired by some of the fac-ulty members including Mrs. A.Jayasree,Dr.Raichel M.Sylus, Dr.Chitra SivasubramaniamDr.Sreeja Balakrishnan, and Dr.KalaChandrasekaran.Dr.Jayanthasri Balakrishnan in her plenary talk,spoke on using translation in the second languageclassroom. A multilingual by herself, a renownedscholar of Tamil and English, a creative writerand critic, she revealed the heights and glory ofone's being bilingual or multilingual, for to be abilingual means to be a mediator between twoor more cultures. She enthralled the audience


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by her erudite lecture on how effectively one'smother tongue can be used in learning the othertongue.A workshop session on "Research and Writing"was held by Dr. Elango. He elaborated on theterm 'research' and its various functions. Hequoted Albert Einstein's words, "If we knew whatwe were doing, it wouldn't be called research".Then he spoke about action research and aca-demic research along with the explanations aboutsifting and shifting. He concluded his lecture bystressing on the value of a true research.Thiru. Pon Chandran, in a plenary session, dis-cussed on "Trends in Tamil Theatre". He re-flected that "Responsibilities are essential inCommunication." He elaborated on the topic bydenoting that a person becomes responsiblewhen he / she has no prejudice. He related theaspect of responsibility to that of communica-tion by saying that "A language is a process offreedom" which should be handled with respon-sibility. Further, language, literature and cultureare always interlinked and inhibition is a barrierto acquire a language, especially, the one that isalien to the native speaker. He stressed that onecan acquire language only if the person is humble.Mrs. A. Vijayarani, Associate Professor, De-partment of English, shared her views during aplenary session on 6th of January. She spokeon "Multiculturalism and Pluralism in the 21stCentury". She began the session by defining plu-ralism, "Pluralism is a society in which minoritiesenjoy their independent culture and don't im-pose their religion on others". She brought inthe core tendency of multiculturalism, i. e., tol-erance. She also stated the themes of post-mod-ernism. She motivated the students and schol-ars to read more books on the history and de-velopment of English literature.Another workshop on Teachers Education wasconducted by Ms. Dhanya Bhaskaran, a trainer-researcher. She oriented the central idea of hertalk by introducing Randy Pausch's famousspeech "The Last Lecture" to her audience. Sheexemplified the qualities of a good teacher. "Ifyour students willingly come to listen to your last

lecture, you are a good teacher," she said. Shebelieves democracy in classrooms, the qualitythat made her to enlighten her audience on thefact that, "receiving knowledge is to create andmake others experiencing it". Like democracy,knowledge is for everyone. She concluded theworkshop with the proposal that teachers shouldmake students self-reflective.In another workshop session, Dr. Richa Tripathi,a specialist in library science, highlighted thevarious aspects of plagiarism in her workshopsession. She explained about copyright infringe-ment and fair use of sources. In addition to this,she acquainted the audience with the availabletools for detecting plagiarism. She also men-tioned the sources which are to be quoted andwhich are to be cited. She concluded the work-shop with valuable suggestions to avoid plagia-rism.In one of the plenary sessions, Mrs.VasanthaKalbagal began the session in a unique mannerby saying "Unlearn things that you have learned."This was an example to make the audience un-derstand on how Indian usage of English in ev-eryday life is wrong. She gave an example ofhow the question 'What's your good name?' isnot accepted by the Australians or Americansand how a simple construction of 'What is yourname?' is perfect to bridge the differences be-tween people.She pointed out English to be a semi-perme-able language, where it always moulds itself tothe surrounding where it is used. English, like achameleon adapts itself to the user and to thelanguage with which it is mixed with. The speakerspoke on how English is the link language withina country and among countries. She added asto how English helps in International Banking,Economic Affairs, Technology Transfer, Inter-national Law, Trade, Politics and Administra-tion. Mrs. Vasantha Kalbagal ended the sessionby saying how Indian people are prejudiced byholding English speaking people and fair skinnedpeople on high standards. She said that shewishes such false assumptions by people changein order to have effective communication be-

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tween cultures and countries.Dr. John Sekar, Head, Department of the En-glish American College Madurai, spoke on pla-giarism in one of the workshop sessions. Hestarted his session with the meaning of plagia-rism. He spoke about the key elements of a re-search paper such as: abstract, key words,method, finding, and objectives. He concludedwith some suggestions that would assist the re-search scholars to write on their own. Dr. JohnSekar also chaired a paper presentation ses-sion by interacting effectively with exemplaryinput of his knowledge with the presenters andthe audienceAnother workshop session was conducted byDr. Bhaskaran Nair on "How (Not) to Write anAbstract." Writing as a cognitive and thinkingprocess was the first concept, Dr. Nair intro-duced. He said "You can think with your pen orpencil". Secondly, he asserted that mistakes arepart of life and therefore they are also a part oflearning. He also said that "There is absolutelynothing to learn in this world. What is there inthis world is to experience". One experiencesthrough the five senses. The experience is con-solidated and processed by the sixth sense, the

brain. This processing is called"conceptualisation". The session came to an endwith Dr. Bhaskaran Nair promising the audienceto meet them again and give more tips on writ-ing an abstract.The papers presented included varied conceptsfrom the importance of cooperative classroomsto the value of human relationships; importanceof picture books, feminism and women empow-erment; corruption, sufferings of Subalterns andrefugees, linguistic diaspora and psychologicalaspects like illumination, identity crisis.During the valedictory session on the second dayof the conference, Dr. K. Ramasamy, ViceChancellor, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University,Coimbatore was the chief guest. He spoke aboutthe research aspects in the current scenario. Dr.Bhaskaran Nair stressed on the role of a teacherand Dr. John Sekar gave his evaluative com-ments on the conference. Dr. Jayalakshmi, theJoint Convenor of the Organizing Committeeproposed vote of thanks.A total of 168 participants attended the confer-ence and the various sessions of the two-dayconference-cum-workshops.

Reference:Kelley, Margot Anne. Gloria Naylor’s Early Novels. Florida: University Press. 1999. Print.Montgomery, Maxine L. “Good Housekeeping - Domestic Ritual in Gloria Naylor’s Fiction”.Kelley. 55-69.Naylor, Gloria. The Women of Brewster Place. New York: Viking, 1982. Print.- - - . Bailey’s Café. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992. Print.Naylor, Gloria and Toni Morrison.”A Conversation”.Southern Review. 21.3 (1985): 567-593. Print.Puhr, Kathleen M. “Healers in Gloria Naylor’s Fiction”. Twentieth Century Literature. 40 .4(1994): 518-527. Print.

(Cultural studies and...Continued from page:48)


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Report from the field

Department of English, SRNM College Sattur (TN)Two-day National Conference on

Teaching of English Language and Literature &Workshop on Soft Skills and Communication Development

Dr.S. JayanthiDept. of English, SRNM College Sattur

The Department of English, Sri S. RamasamyNaidu Memorial College, Sattur, convened atwo-day National Conference in the Teachingof English Language and Literature on the themeSearch for Alternatives in the Teaching of En-glish Language and Literature in association withEnglish Language Teachers' Interaction Forum(ELTIF) under the auspices of the UGC Au-tonomous Grant on the 22nd and the 23rd ofSeptember, 2017. Ms. S. Jayanthi, Convenerof the Conference, welcomed the august gath-ering. The Principal Dr. S. Ganeshram presidedover the function and delivered the PresidentialAddress and felicitated the two day event. Thefocal theme of the conference was presentedby the Chief Advisor of the event, Prof. P.Bhaskaran Nair, Hindustan University, Chennai.Dr. R. Sumathi, Head, Department of English,honored the conference with her graceful pres-ence. The Keynote Address was presented bythe doyen of English Language and EducationProfessor Krishnasamy, formerly Professor ofEnglish, Central Institute of English and For-eign Languages, (EFL) Hyderabad. He ad-dressed on the subject "Finding Alternative waysof Teaching English in India". Prof. LalithaKrishnasamy, formerly Principal and Professorof Education, focused on Teaching of Englishthrough Gender issues. Prof. K. Vijaykumar,formerly of Periyar Maniammai University,Thanjavur, centered his session on "The Needfor Incorporating Interpersonal Communicationin the Present Day UG Curriculum". Prof. J.

John Sekar, Associate Professor and Head,Department of English, The American College,Madurai, concentrated his lecture on the Alter-native Viable Pedagogical Practices. The con-ference became a convention for the sharing ofideas and views among the educators and aca-demics from the different parts of India.

The uniqueness of the conference wasthe inclusion of the workshop sessions on SoftSkills and Communication Development on boththe days. The participants, the student partici-pants from various colleges and of the variousdepartments of the convening college benefit-ted from these workshop sessions. Prof.Krishnasamy, Prof. Lalitha Krishnasamy, Prof.K. Vijayakumar, Prof. J. John Sekar, Mr.Gururaj, Faculty, Regional Institute of English,Bangalore conducted workshop sessions for theparticipants. Prof. Ganesh and Prof. Thaneshfrom RKM Vivekananda College, Chennai, Prof.Y. Vidhya, Prof. Meena and Prof. Meena Devifrom VHNSN College, Virudhunagar, Prof.Sobhana Devi from SFR College, Sivakasi,Prof. Esther Blesslyn Roopavathy from TheAmerican College, Madurai, Prof.Muruganantham from Rajapalayam Raju's Col-lege, Rajapalayam were part of the Workshopteam. The two day conference cum workshopprogram culminated with the feedback from theparticipants. The Vote of Thanks was deliveredby Ms. Fathima Farzana, Assistant Professorof English.

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Parenting

Stranger, but Not DangerDhanyaBhaskaran

Senior Marketing EditorRatnaSagar Publishers, Kochi

[email protected]

"Mama told me don't be talking to the stranger,don't' be talking to the stranger, stranger isdanger…lalala….lala…lala..lala..lala…"The 9 year old is singing aloud a popularBollywood number. His friend suddenly inter-rupted and said… "yeah! That's true, my momalways tells me not to talk to strangers… youknow they may harm us… or even shhh…. Killus"What are these kids talking about! It's not true. Italk to strangers… always I do! For the past 36years most the people with whom I interactedwere strangers; some of them later on becameacquaintances and some others close friends. Itwas much before the regular television broad-casts on child abduction and brutal rapes, that Igrew up in a village with my granny, uncle andmom. My dad used to be away at work. I walkedthrough the village paths sometimes with myfriends, granny or uncle and sometimes all alone.There were many strangers around me. Theyused to smile at me, exchange a hello or a nod orask one or two random questions such as 'Hei,kid who are you?' or 'where are you going?' Iused to respond in nods or one or two words.Most of those people whom I met in the villagewere strangers to me; yet they were never adanger! They used to ensure that I am not walk-ing back home alone from the playground, late inthe evening, they used to wait till I started climb-ing the steps to my house; they used to ask if Ineed some water when I sit exhausted after hoursof long play in the paddy fields… they were neverdangerous. Most of them were kind, caring andthe rest just simple passers-by.My granny and uncle taught me to smile to strang-ers, nod to them back and even exchange pleas-antries with trust and confidence. They subtlyconveyed that the world is a nice place to live.And I was never taught to be afraid of the world.

I had been cautioned about possible threats! Butthose were more like guidance than alarms. I aman avid traveller. I travel for work and I travelfor pleasure. And in each of those travels, I meetand greet many strangers, talk to them, listen tothem and many a times, establish good friendshipwith them.Imagine a situation where we are only allowedto talk to people whom we know!Why is that recently we are becoming more andmore cautious about 'the stranger is a danger'equation? My opinion is that it is the media thatcreates this mass phobia. If we take a closer lookat the news on children or adults attacked or ha-rassed by strangers, we could see that those in-cidents are not happening in the multitude as it isbeing projected. Hundreds and thousands of in-cidents where strangers help each other and sup-port each other happen every day, every minute,every second; but what attracts the attention isthe worst incident or a mishap. As a woman liv-ing in this highly populated country, I have hadbad experiences during my travel. However,when one stranger tried to harm me or harassme, there were tens and hundreds of strangers,who were ready to support me and console methere. When I highlight my bad experience, I haveto highlight how I was being helped as well. Oth-erwise, I am trying to project a twisted view.The impact of media on the modern nuclear familyis so high that most of the parents regularly warnchildren to keep themselves away from strang-ers, stop trusting the fellow beings and stop smil-ing at unknown people. And the adverse effectisthat many of the young children grow up lack-ing social skills, trust in society and developingphobias and traumas. If we look around, we cansee such children around. Children who won't lookinto our eyes, who won't smile at us even if we



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It works in my classroom

Saying the Same Thing in Different WaysP.Bhaskaran Nair

Just think of the four or five or more routes toreach the bus stop, bus stand, post office, market,your nearby farm and so on through which youreach your destination every time. Also justimagine there is only one route to reach each ofthe destinations mentioned above. How boringwill travel be in the latter case! Even if you havebeen walking or driving or riding to the samedestination for years, how many times have youtried different routes! How many times have youthought of exploring new routes-either a shortcut to save time, or a longer route to avoid trafficblock or pollution, or still a longer route just forfun. Life is like that. Language too is like those long and short routes.We have many ways to convey the same idea inour language-in all languages, and therefore inEnglish, too. Teach children these various waysin clusters. Traditional grammar called themsentence patterns or structures. But, here we arebeginning with functions and moving towardsforms, as opposed to the 'form to function'approach in the traditional mode of teachinggrammar.Activities for lower classes(Linking words:Addition: and, also, too, as well, else…)Ask children to go out and collect two or threeflowers, twigs, leaves, pebbles etc. Let four orfive of them stand facing class and holding theirpossessions.Teacher: Rashmi has got three leaves. Look,Roshantoo has three leave. Rashmi has threeleaves and Roshantoo has three leaves.What has Nisham with him?Class: Two flowers.Tr: Fine. Who else has two flowers?Class: Jyothi.Tr: Good. Jyothi has two flowers. Nisham alsohas two flowers. Has anybody elsegot pebbles?

Fine.Arun has got five. Who else? Manoj, do youhave pebbles? Yes. Manoj andArun havepebbles-five plus six, how much?Class: Eleven.Look, Rony has many twigs. Who else? Mini andJoe, too. Mini, Joe andRony have twigs.Please remember, in the early stages of formalsecond language learning, exposure to the targetlanguage is the most crucial factor to successfullearning. At some point.in the progression oflearning, speaking automatically gets triggeredwhile children are in the company of adults-saysLev Vygotsky, the psychologist, whose learningtheories suit best to the Indian English classrooms.Activities for middle school classes(Linkingwordsand phrases: Contradiction/Opposition: but,though, even though, even if, on the other hand,however, still, yet…)Make use of day to day situations in the class/school/outside.Tomorrow is a holiday-Gandhi Jayanthi. But weall are going to work. What are we going to dotomorrow?Class: (Lists the activities)Teacher: We are working tomorrow. But will thegovernment offices be open?Usually, no.Even iftomorrow is a holiday, some people will beattending the office.Tr: What about police? Do they have holidayslike us? No. Though Sundays are holidays for allgovernment employees, policemen work on thosedays. What about doctors and nurses?Even if it is their birthday, they work. We workat school only during day time. On the other hand,drivers, doctors, nurses, electricity workers-theyall work day and night. In spite of rain or lightning,electricity workers, milkmen, postmen -all do theirduty.Even then, most of us, sitting at home,


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Obituary

P.Avaneendra Nath Secretary, Payyanur Unit of ELTIF

(Former Principal, Chattamchal Higher Secondary School Kasaragod Dt. Kerala)

"A philosopher is an ordinary person who thinks more deeply and obstinately than otherpeople", says Gibran. The American philosopher William James defines philosophy as "

an unusually stubborn attempt to think clearly".

Mr. P. Avaneendranath , to me, was deceptivelystubborn in his demeanour, but ardently caringand loving. His sudden death on 3rdNovemberlast was painfully unbelievable to allwho loved him. Cladded in an unassuming mundu(dothi) and shirt, looking at us through the spar-kling and smiling small eyes behind the glasses,with a reserved mild smile on his lips, movingwith soft quick steps bare foot, acting with strongand determined fervour, … the epithets can ex-tent to a few more lines.Born and brought up in a highlyeducated familyof an enlightened Kerala village called Kankolnear Payyannur inKannur district ,Avaneendranath was something much more thanan excellent teacher of maths in High school andlater, English in Higher secondary classes. As asocial worker, an organizer, a union activist , anactor-script writer-director of both street playsand stage shows, an environmentalist, an activ-ist of organic farming, an athlete(long distancerunning and walking), and above all, the back-bone of all the ELTIF activities in and aroundKannur, he was a friend of thousands.I first met Avani (that is what we affectionatelycall him) at an ELTIF workshop for the villageteachers in Kankol, which is the home village ofboth Dr.Bhaskaran Nair and Avani, the youngerbrother of Dr, Nair. Way back in 2003, ELTIForganized aseries of workshopsin that place andit was like a monthly festival for the villagers, atleast Avanimade it so. When the teachers (mostlywomen) attended the workshop, their husbandsand the local public cooked and served foodand other refreshing drinks and snacks. Their

children played in the playground, sometimesjoining us for a demonstration class, or whenwe sang English songs and said rhymes in cho-rus. In and out,Avani's involvement was so vis-ible.His house harboured me whenever there was aprogramme of ELTIF or any other program ofpublic library, women empowerment, English formothers and housewives, and the like. Smt.Pramila teacher, Avani'swife , and their twochildren Ambily and Anupriya deserve moreappreciation because I was not the only guestwho stayed with them.It was in 2015, his contribution to ELTIF madea landmark in its 15 year old history. A three-day national conference-cum-one week work-shop was arranged in the small town of Payyanurwhich was attended by participants from all overIndia and a few from Sri Lanka and the MiddleEast. All the participant where provided withcomfortable and cordial home stay with edu-cated families in his village, Kankol. Those whostayed as guests for a few days became a partof the families who hosted them. An 'army' ofyoung men and women was helping him in pro-viding food and accommodation to their guestsin that humble village.Avani's designation as a principal of ChattamchalHigher Secondary school in Kasragod Dt. wasonly a label amongst many such ones. Becauseof the innumerable activities he organized andpositions he held at Chattanchal made his des-ignation look too small . A philosopher in gen-eral to all the stakeholders of the school and the


56

locality, a mentor to every student and colleague, a collaborator with all activities-scholastic andco-scholastic-and above all, a humanist in hisunassuming appearance.Being an excellent teacher, teaching forunimaginably long hours, doing the work of apeon and clerk, meeting local and other officialsto raise funds for the infrastructure, interactingwith parents at school and also at home, being acounsellor for students and teachers, he spenton an average 15 hours or more at school till heretired from service three years ago.After formal retirement as a principal, he foundmore time in teaching English in nearby schools,voluntarily (without accepting any remuneration).His main mode of teaching was theatre.ELTIFplatforms or official positions never at-tracted him. Silently but dynamically, he devotedhimself to his duties as an organizer of ELTIF

events in villages, to all causes he undertook, tothe positions he held, as a backbone to the so-ciety he lived in. One sometimes wonders howa single individual can take care of, daringlyimplement and successfully complete so manyactivities in a life time. It might be his stubbornattempt to "think clearly and more clearlyandact accordingly" that made Avani known sowidely.Yes, he was a philosopher and that might be thereason for people like me (who are the slavesof life, dragging our heavy shackles ), couldnever say "no"when he politely requested a handin a few of the many activities he was involved.Throughout his life, he refused to be a mere spec-tator in the gallery; instead, he jumped into thestadium, dashed through the track, with nothingbut the finishing point in his mind, till his last breath- without waiting for anyone of us to give him ahand, may be a last hand.

Dr.Beena PhilipFormer Principal, GHSS for Girls, Nadakkavu (Kozhikode) Kerala

(Jt.Secretary, ELTIF)

greet them, who won't go out and mingle withthe rest of the humanity with confidence and self-esteem. We have many young children who can-not openly share a laugh, crack a joke in public,walk with a confident gait in the common places,speak in a confident tone to others. We have chil-dren who would not talk to us when we go totheir homes to meet their parents, children whowould look at our face without any emotions whenwe try to begin a conversation and children whoplay alone indoor or in the corners of the parksand play ground.What is it that we need to inculcate in the young

minds? - fear or trust?Of course, as adults we need to train them torecognise the potential danger and teach themhow to avoid them or survive them. At the sametime, we also need to train them to live in thisworld with more confidence and trust. After all,the world is not as bad as it is being projected.The people around us are not as bad as we arebeing told. The next-door neighbours are not asdangerous as we convince our children. Alongwith teaching children to stay safe, let us alsoteach them to stay positive, open and above alloptimistic and happy!

(Stranger, but Not... Continued from page:53)

complain about them. Though the newspaperboy is late by half an hour on a rainy day, yourfather may be getting angry with him. Even ifthe milkman is late only by a few minutes, yourmother may be grumbling in the kitchen.Life-daily life-is the best textbook to teach asecond language. That book has all the grammar,

vocabulary, exercises and everything in it. First,teachers have to study life properly, and thenpresent it. Learners, at some point, will be joiningus. This natural joining, this subconsciousassimilation of the learner's self into the learningmaterial, into the teaching process is the bestkind of learning.

(Saying the Same...Continued from page:54)

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