International Journal Online of Humanities
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Hegemonising Post-Humanism and the Future of Education
No full textThe distinguished feature of the third millennium is augmenting and endorsing the use of digitalised tools until they have controlled our everyday style-of-living and, in some way or another, turned it into a digital one. Literally, smart gadgets have bugged humanity; they have become indispensable. Furthermore, it is commonly believed that life is impossible without them. Smart phones that have facilitated human access into the cyberspace have also paved the way to willing absorption into virtual realms to the extent that they have become the gateway to effective interaction with life and with peer human beings. By all means, technology is similar to an over-sweeping tide; technological advancements are numberless and immensely growing to the extent that it looks as if there would be a special technological innovation for each living soul.
If few years ago educators were discussing the problems of integrating technology into classrooms and the issues of training educators to adapt to the new trends, the current problem would be how to make benefit of the available AI technologies instead of denouncing them as means of ruining the education process. The greatest challenge that educators will shortly encounter is ChatGPT and Google Bard because they would ruin the zeal for proper understanding and any exerted effort for researching. As for the Cyberlife Androids, they are the principal future competitors for educators. Remarkably, if it is alleged that the task of the Cyberlife Androids with students will never be easy, it should be considered that they are designed to win. Yet, the greatest obstacle is Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain microchip and the Chinese Brain Talker implants. Brain microchip technology is expected to be an ipso facto by the few upcoming years; it would be as vital as smart phones.
Education in a post-human era is a challenging mission. Accordingly, the task of educators will never be easy. They should be well-prepared for their mission or they would be replaced by digital versions sooner than expected. Thus, the article sheds light upon the post-human era with its technological advancements that have a profound impact upon humanity. It also attempts to propose a preemptive approach to deal with these inevitable technological leaps that might convert humans into cyborgs lacking proper cognitive knowledge, knowing that technological advancements are turning into an insurmountable dilemma that require special measures. The article also endeavours to envisage a friendly techno-human relationship that would better control the fall into a post-human space
Is it a Curse or a Blessing? Black Elk’s Attitude towards his Vision in Neihardt Black Elk Speaks
No full textThis paper is a detailed analysis of Black Elk’s great vision in Black Elk Speaks written and documented by John G. Neihardt. It detects Black Elk’s possible intentions behind disclosing his full vision to Neihardt for the first time. This paper tracks the sequence of events and developments changing accordingly with the vision’s progression. It discerns Black Elk’s altering perspective on the vision from resisting it to utilizing it to enlighten people. In addition, this paper lists the burdens that come with the vision and shows how they effected Black Elk mentally and physically. Furthermore, it demonstrates how the vision reflects many of the Native American cultural aspects such as associating each one of the four main directions with a specific colour. It also detects the vision’s elements similarity to ones from other foreign cultures which resulted in questioning the vision’s authenticity such as the Mandala and wheeled carts. Finally, the paper examines doubting critiques and interpretations made by critics and thinkers on the truth behind the vision.  
Establishing Relationship between Emotional Prosody and Affective Pragmatics
No full textThis work aims to provide theoretical grounds to establish a relationship between emotional prosody and affective pragmatics. Affective pragmatics is a significant yet least studied area of research. This theoretical framework focuses how emotional expressions are constructive in channelizing the pragmatic meaning under the umbrella of affective pragmatics and also encompasses the speech engineering that conveys unabridged abstract emotions in the phenomenal process of emotion recognition. Since speech act theory focuses meaning at utterance level and not at emotional level, thus, there is a need to reflect on emotional expressions that function as paralinguistic features. There are several studies carried out on identification of emotions using prosodic modeling; however, there is no meticulous study that shows relationship between emotions and their pragmatic meanings. The current study will be an application of Theory of Affective Pragmatics (TAP) proposed by Andrea Scarantino in 2017, a theory analogous to speech act theory.The objectives of the study can be achieved through analysis of quantitative data procured taking advantage of the emotional recordings from Emotional Prosody Speech and Transcripts (EPST), a worldwide database used in emotion recognition processes, along with employment of appropriate prosodic features using a Hidden Markov Model (HMM), a popular emotion recognition statistical model.The outcomes of this study will contribute to benefit new researchers in the field of linguistics to understand affective pragmatics at a profound level as a novel area of research
Phonetics and Phonology: A Grey Area of Research in Pakistan
No full textThe present study aims to underscore those issues that render phonetics and phonology a less explored area of research in Pakistan. Traditionally, articulatory and auditory phonetics are focused for general understanding of English speech sounds in Pakistan, but acoustic phonetics that deals with understanding of pronunciation required for effective communication, is almost abandoned. This study is qualitative in nature and is based on empirical evidences from primary and secondary source research articles as well as personal observations. It has been found that experimental phonetics and phonology is generally not focused due to the paucity of subject specialists, unavailability of the trained staff, inadequacy of teaching techniques and methodologies, insufficiency of in-service courses, dearth of technical facilities, lack of interest of English teachers, and the traditional examination system in Pakistan that does not demand testing of pronunciation and speaking proficiency of English students. In this way, the advance study on phonetics and phonology is neglected almost on all levels in educational institutions. All these factors indicate that the importance of experimental phonetics and phonology is not yet well understood, hence, it is still demarcated a grey area of research in Pakistan. Moreover, a few researches are available on experimental phonetics and phonology for acoustic analysis of speech sounds. The study will be beneficial for English teachers and students as well as the educationists to critically understand the importance of phonetics and phonology in Pakistan. To get desirable results, the education stakeholders are supposed to equip English teachers and students with all required resources. Extensive training of the teachers and adoption of modern teaching techniques and methodologies along with well-defined syllabus can play a significant role. This study is different from the existing ones as it focuses the general pronunciation and communication issues of Pakistani English learners due to the lack of knowledge and interest in English phonetics and phonology
Diction Analysis in Adiga\u27s Between the Assassinations: A Socio-linguistic Inspection of Selected Stories
No full textThe effectiveness of any statement hinges on the adept utilization of language by the speaker. When an author selects the appropriate vocabulary, it not only conveys the precise meaning but also encapsulates the speaker\u27s intended mood. The choice of words is a powerful tool that goes beyond mere communication; it serves as a reflection of the speaker\u27s social standing, educational background, ethnic values, and the broader societal context to which they belong, i.e., their speech community. Aravind Adiga adeptly employs socio-linguistic principles in his stories to establish a profound connection with the reader. Adiga deliberately tailors the manner of speaking characters use in their daily lives; from diverse societal backgrounds, professions, educational levels, and ethnic values. This research article delves into the nuances of Adiga\u27s narrative techniques, particularly in the selected stories from his short story collection novel \u27Between the Assassinations,\u27 aiming to discern the conscious choices he makes in portraying the characters\u27 linguistic expressions. The novel unfolds with characters embodying the struggles and emotions of those facing challenging circumstances or predominantly stemming from the lower echelons of society. Consequently, their communication styles are imbued with colloquialisms and vernacular, serving as a poignant mirror reflecting the harsh realities of life
Bilingual Shadowing and Code Switching between First Language and Second Language: A Case Study on Arabic and English Bilinguals
Get PDFThis paper aims at studying phenomena related to bilingualism which are also implicated in education such as code switching and shadowing. Shadowing techniques have an impact on the learners’ listening skills and code switching is a useful strategy for language transfer and meaning explanation. The experimental research was conducted on collecting data from the experiment and control groups, which consist of university students in each group. The data were gathered by means of online one-on-one meetings with the students ; (1) to conduct simon test with wordlists in first language, Arabic, and second language, English, (2) and to present both experiment and control groups with correct and flawed texts in L1 and L2. The code switching findings reveal that it is faster to switch from the mother tongue/first language (L1) to the second language (L2) than vice-versa. The shadowing findings show that bilinguals present higher grammatical and lexical sensitivity in L1 than in L2.This article suggests that teachers should employ shadowing for listening and encourage learners to use their L1 in second language L2 learning
Immortal Mahakali and Her Mortal Critics
No full textMother Kali, the Adishakti or Mahashakti, is being worshipped from ancient time. She has her presence in large number of countries worldwide. The principal deity of the Tantric cult, she has many outstanding devotees in modern time like Sadhak Ramprasad, Sri Rmakrishna and Sri Aurobindo. She was adored by Swami Vivekananda, Sister Nivedita (Margaret Elizabeth Noble), William Blake, Robert Burns and Walt Whitman. A fierce deity who destroys all the redundant and waste beings and matters for cleansing the society paving the way for newcreation, is adored by the strong and the great.
Not only that she is worshipped in India and some other countries worldwide, she has been much abused and criticised too. The words like Kali and Tantra have been misunderstood and misused like the word Yoga. She has been on the focal point in a modern poem and a film. The poem and the film have been critically assessed and their places fixed. A justification of her inevitable existence and acts has been made in view of the fact that she is the power aspect of the divinity; a Mother who intensely loves her children who are the real devotees and clears their way to progress
Quest for Identity and Cultural Reclamation and Realignment in Earl Lovelace’s Oeuvre
Get PDFThis paper is an attempt to conduct a cursory but critical investigation into Earl Lovelace’s oeuvre. Earl Lovelace’s impact in the Caribbean literary tradition cannot be overemphasized. His creative pieces reflects the motif of search for identity and self-reclamation. The cultural and traditional lives of the Caribbean people before the interaction with imperialistic power is emphasized in the creative outputs of Earl Lovelace. This paper analyses the literary deftness and creative imagination of the critically acclaimed writer from the Caribbean literary tradition. The Caribbean literary tradition is renowned for its reflection of the sociocultural history and reality of the Caribbean people. The core of literary documentations from this region hinges on the perennial search for identity and grappling with the reality that the Caribbean history is all about. Earl Lovelace presents different facets of these thematic preoccupations through his oeuvre. The paper concludes that Earl Lovelace’s works amplifies his grasp of the quest for identity on which the Caribbean existence is premised. His works reflect the history, politics, culture, and tradition of the post-independence Caribbean milieu
Ecologized Humanity Versus Humanized Ecology: Critical Approach to Camera Narratives in Cinematic Arts
Get PDFIn postmodern cinematic arts, specifically commercially successful ones, the presence of the director on screen through the camera\u27s position could be perceived as a limitation against the notion of heteroglossia, even if the script requires an objective narrative technique. When the script suggests only characters’ Point of View shots (PoV) or multi-vocal narratives, camera position from the director’s or audience’s eye level is a common filming practice. Therefore, a grand narrative or subjective point of view predominates the representation of voices, whether intending to centralize or decentralize camera storytelling. This paper is not arguing about treating all voices—whether human or nonhuman—equally in a particular scene; instead, this paper critically points out filmmakers’ eco-conscious contribution to cinematic arts. Through an inductive qualitative approach, this paper criticizes this humanized ecological portrayal where ironically, ecocide is celebrated in mainstream cinema. So, this study prescribes the incorporation of ecologized humanity by reconsidering camera positions. As social justice pedagogy highlights inclusivity, like literary studies, in filmmaking techniques, ecology should not be a victim or margin the way it was with class, gender, and race. Undeniably, the environment has been filmed mainly as a background or collateral damage. This paper also shares insights into such paradoxes where human protagonists are seen on a ‘heroic’ voyage to save the world performing ecological catastrophic actions. 
Reading and Gender Effect on Writing Style: Case of Hungarian Learners of English
Get PDFThe present study tests language production of 15 Hungarian students, 16 of age, enrolled in the EFOP-3.2.14-17-2017-00003 project, aimed at promoting English in the Trans-Danubian regions, during 12 weeks following the B1+ framework beforehand prepared by the pedgogical office at the University of Pannonia. 58 essays, from various themes, have been analyzed following a similar approach to Van Heuven et al. 2017, in their study on Gender effects and writing styles. Using AntConc concordance software (Anthony, 2012, 2013) and tagging with CLAWS5, a word list was generated with over 6229 lines equally distributed between males and females. Reading-factor and gender-based grouping were systematically used as predictor models to visualize production complexity on the morpho-syntactic and semantic levels. Parameters such as sentence length, mean word length, content and finite verbs, punctuations, complexity and TT were essential for this comparison. Better writers use longer words, use more different words (so show a higher type/token ratio and/or higher Lexical Diversity (D), and most important of all, use more complex sentences (more finite verbs relative to their total number of words). According to the ANOVA, the Gender effect (p= .750) is larger than the Reading effect (p= .485) based on the partial Eta squared pη2. Extracurricular reading yields better writing but only for the girls – it does not work for the boys.