International Journal Online of Humanities (IJOHMN)
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Technical English Problems in Workplace: A Case Study of ESP - Sudanese Graduate Students
Get PDFThis paper aims at investigating technical English taught in Sudan higher education to find out whether the ESP meets the students\u27 needs when they join vocations and workplace. Twenty five students majored in different specializations participated in the study. They are graduates of different Sudanese Universities and Colleges.
To yield more insights and more description, the following are the questions of the study:
How does English for Specific Purpose (ESP) courses meet students\u27 needs in their studies at colleges?
2. Do ESP courses prepare students to the workplace?
The results indicate that the majority of the participants were not satisfied with their courses they learned at colleges when they were students because those courses did not meet their needs in workplaces
Factors Militating Against the Effective Teaching and Learning of Krio at the Junior Secondary School Level:: A Case Study of Three Schools in the Western Area of Freetown, Sierra Leone
Get PDFThis study was aimed at investigating factors militating against the effective teaching and learning of Krio at the Junior Secondary School (JSS) Level in a sample of JSS pupils in selected schools in the Western Area of Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Questionnaires were administered to both teachers of Krio and pupils offering the subject at the targeted level. These, alongside observation and focus group discussions, were used to determine the level of training and experience of the teachers; facilities which support the teaching and learning of Krio; attitudes of teachers, pupils and other stakeholders towards the teaching and learning of Krio; mode and frequency of assessment; provision of institutional support; and, the success rate of pupils at the Basic Educational Certificate Exams (BECE) in the selected schools.
Three schools were targeted. In each of these schools, questionnaires were administered to 50 pupils, giving a total of 150 respondents.
A total of eleven teachers were sampled. The study revealed that:
The teachers of Krio in the selected schools were and trained and qualified. However, none of them studied krio as a major and only about one third read it as a minor.
Teaching and learning materials are inadequate, and time allocated to the teaching of krio is insufficient.
Attitude is a major factor which militates against the teaching and learning of krio in the selected schools.
Written assignments, tests and exams are the main assessment tools.
Institutional support (in-service trainings/workshops/seminars) plays a great role in building teachers’ capacity to teach the subject as all the teachers sampled did not study krio as a major subject.
BECE results (krio -2010 and 2011) indicate that only a small percentage of the pupils at JSSIII opted for krio
 
Fusion of Multiple Intelligences for Developing Natural Interaction in the ESL Classroom
Get PDFESL teachers are caught between two diverging socio-psychological modes of existence. On the one side, the inherent artificiality of teaching-learning a second or foreign language in a formal classroom forces them to helplessly look for meaningful activities in the class, so that learners can be motivated and get engaged in the processes of socializing the target language. On the other side, the administrative compulsions and the parental pressure force them to forget ‘the learner’ and focus on ‘teaching’. In unguarded moments, any average ESL teacher may reflect on the past classroom performances of years and may feel dissatisfied. This paper tries to make use of the pedagogic construct of teacher intervention following the guidelines offered by Howard Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences and Abraham Maslow’s psychological theory of the need of self- actualization. As part of an informal longitudinal study, the researcher has tried to explore the rich resources of the first language in enhancing second language communication skills
Folk Knowledge in Maintaining Group Integration and Socio-economic Intimacy among the Arsi-Robe Peasants
Get PDFThe purpose of this article is to analyze the folk knowledge in maintaining folk group integration and socio-economic intimacy among the Arsi-Robe peasants. The significance of folk knowledge in folklore of the society in connection with group integration and socio-economic welfare is the case in point. This study employed a field survey research and data gathering method through the participant observation as well as direct interview. In order to obtain the substantial folkloristic data from local sources (people, occasions, or other settings), the researchers had familiarized with the social behavior and local environment of each locality. As far as the findings of this study are concerned, two points may be underscored here. People are customarily designated to take part in group-driven occupational habits like däbo and wänfä. Amongst the Arsi-Robe traditional society, if people isolate themselves from communal works, they are criticized, if not ostracized and excluded from the mainstream social and cultural roles. They also play their potential roles in kinship and kinship-like social relations. Put another way, they make interventions between their own world and a social unit in their vicinities according the collective paradigm set customarily.
 
Oroonoko: Royal or Slave; Bakhtinian Reading of Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko
Get PDFHaving had its protagonist in a carnivalistic world, Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko provides a polyphonic atmosphere in which different attitudes toward colonization can be heard. Oroonoko, who used to be the prince of Coramantien, is doomed to live as a slave in Surinam; a British colony. This degradation, beside other elements of Bakhtinian carnivalesque, makes his language a unique one, belonging neither to aristocrats anymore nor to the slaves, but simultaneously representing both. The subtitle of the story, The Royal Slave, can be implied as referring to this paradox. Additionally, his relationship with the slave society lets their different beliefs and ideas be revealed to the reader despite the author’s will. Aphra Behn, the author, intends to impose her monolithic view on the readers. As a Tory proponent of her time, she defends the colonization and tries her best not to stand against. She attempts to portray her protagonist as the one who believes in social hierarchy; what defines a gentleman from the narrator’s viewpoint. On the surface, Aphra Behn and her hero seem to be of the same opinion toward monarchy and accordingly its policies. They both respect it and believe in its need for the society. A Bakhtinian reading, however, can disclose other massages.
Adding to all that, having employed first point of view as the narrator, Behn provides an opportunity for herself to enforce her political attitude to the story. All miscellaneous details of the story are under the control of this monolithic voice. Therefore other characters including the hero can speak only after her permission. Nevertheless, the scope of the novel does not let her be meticulous enough and sporadically, other voices can be heard from different lines of the story. The Bakhtinian reading of this story can bring these hidden voices to the surface
Investigating Factors Affecting the Use of Spoken and Written English in School
Get PDFThis paper is from a research work and it investigated factors affecting the effective use of oral and written English in senior secondary schools. The study revealed that some teachers who teach oral English are not committed teachers even though they have the requisite qualifications in English Language. The study further revealed that a large percentage of teachers of English Language teach the subject only few weeks before WASSCE using the wrong methodology. Also, the appropriate materials such as textbooks are not easily available or accessible: workshops and tutorials are not usually conducted for teachers; teachers are not motivated and thus pupils lack interest in the subject
Shahid Nadeem’s Play Dara and the Distortion of the History
Get PDFThe present research paper explores the text of the play Dara written by Shahid Nadeem from the power-knowledge nexus perspective. The researcher finds that the play depicts that history represented by the ruling class is fabricated, which presents historical heroes as villains and villains as heroes. The researcher analyzes Shahid Nadeem’s play Dara to see how the historical character of Aurangzeb Alamgir is represented in the play. It is a commonplace to look at the emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir as a devoted Muslim who indulges his time to serve Islam. However, the researcher finds that the play questions this representation of Aurangzeb Alamgir in the history books and redefines him as a fanatic and extremist who use religion to take revenge on his brother and who shook the very spirit of Islam. The researcher uses Michael Foucault\u27s concept of history, power, and knowledge. History is not linear, history is not what is told through textbooks and media; history is buried and there is a need to dig the buried truth. The findings of this research show that Shahid Nadeem presents two ideologies by his play, the Sufi image of Islam and the fundamentalist image of Islam. He brings the forgotten hero on the stage of the theatre. Nadeem questions and exposed the nexus of power and knowledg
The Cruciality of Using Literature to Enhance Reading Comprehension Skills
Get PDFThis paper attempted to shade the light upon “The cruciality of teaching Literature to enhance reading comprehension skills”, is conducted to find out the role and importance of teaching literature in developing comprehension skills in tertiary level. The researcher adopted descriptive analysis method, the population of this study of (30) English language teachers from different Sudanese universities. Date was gathered by questionnaire. The researcher used a statistical package for social studies (SPSS package). The study comes up with followings: Teaching literature in language courses helps students to develop Reading Comprehension skills, teaching literature in reading lessons helps students to develop skimming and scanning techniques, literature presents valuable material to teach reading comprehension lesson, literature is a good way to practice acquiring quick information from the texts, and teaching literature develops students’ interpretative abilities. 
Critical Readings of Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim
Get PDFThere are much scholarly readings of Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim. This paper randomly picks some of the papers according to the various ways the scholars have studied the text for a review. Such critical readings have been examined here, considering the topical, thematic as well as theoretical and conceptual frameworks that have guided the studies. By so doing the paper answers the question on ways through which Lord Jim is read. The paper therefore shows that source study, reader response investigation, aesthetics analysis, modernist view, postcolonial readings, religious and moral approaches, stylistics, queer reading and other heterologous readings have dominated the scholarly works on Lord Jim. The conclusion is that these readings have assumed Lord Jim offers codes for interpreting society or life. Thus, most of the critics read the text as philosophy, while others read the texts as allegory or a testimony of the author or his society. But such interpretations have often offered a less clear view about the texts and as a result, many accuse the author of being obscured. However, few studies have approached the text as an art. The study remains important as it draws together many of these readings that have differently treated Lord Jim (literature) both as ideology, discourse, and art
A Study of Elizabethan Period (1558-1603)
Get PDFIn this study, the researcher has mentioned the writers and their major works in Elizabethan age (1558-1603). The researcher has mentioned almost nineteen writers and their famous works. By reading this research paper, any general reader can easily understand that who are the major writers of the age and what are their famous works. The language and method of presenting the data are very easy. The researcher also has mentioned the major contributions of this era’s writers. As we know that University Wits also fall in this era, thus the researcher has mentioned them and their works too. S. Dutta (2014) declared that The University Wits is a phrase used to title a group of late 16th-century English pamphleteers and playwrights who were studied at the universities Cambridge and Oxford. They appeared famous worldly writers. This era has reminisced for its richness of drama and poetry. This era ended in 1603. Elizabeth turns out to be one of the greatest prominent royals in English history, mainly after 1588, when the English beat the Spanish Armada which had been sent by Spain to reestablish Catholicism and defeat England. All the way through the Elizabethan age, English literature has changed from a shell into a delightful being with imagination, creativeness, and boundless stories. It was not about mystery or miracle plays and the poetry was not nearby religion and the principles addressed in the Church