International journal of linguistics, literature and culture
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The black community portrayal in toni morrison's the bluest eye (1970), sula (1973) and song of solomon (1977)
Get PDFThis paper aims at investigating Toni Morrison’s endeavor to locate the black community’s actions in three of her novels: The Bluest Eye (1970), Sula (1973), and Song of Solomon (1977). Toni Morrison’s novels have particularly depicted the black community from a specific perspective, the one that is largely defined and shared by the dominant white society and its standards. The Bluest Eye sets in Morrison’s hometown, Lorain, Ohio. In this novel, the black community in Lorain is separated from the upper-class white community, also known as Lake Shore Park, a place where blacks are not permitted. As for Sula the setting is a small town in Ohio, located on a hillside known as “Bottom”. Song of Solomon plunges the reader into the absorbing black community, a standalone entity, but yet never far removed from the white world. The first pages of the novel describe “Not Doctor Street” and “No Mercy Hospital”. These names are used within the African-American community but are unofficial and not recognized by the white city rulers who instead identify them as Mains Avenue and Mercy Hospital. In short, the setting for Song of Solomon is an anonymous city in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The study has revealed that there always exists a white community bordering the black community as its standard and a machine to repress and exploit its people. This parallel which is actually a quest for identity is omnipresent in Morrison’s novels surely because she is an African American writer
Questions and answers in EFL classroom: Indonesian context
Get PDFThis study aims at knowing: 1) types of questions and answers used in English as Foreign Language (EFL) classroom dialogue of Junior High School in the city of Kupang, Indonesia; and 2) grammatical errors of questions and answers used by teacher and students in EFL classroom dialogue of the school studied. The research used a qualitative research method. Its subjects were one EFL teacher and His grade VIII students that have been chosen purposively. The instruments used for data collection were interviews and observations. Data were analyzed descriptively. The result shows that there were five types of questions and answers used by teacher and students in EFL classroom dialogues. They were descriptive questions, relational question, causal questions, the grammatical form including polar questions and non-polar questions. The errors found in the teacher and students’ questions and answers were ommission, misformation, and misordering
Speech Acts of Classroom Interaction
Get PDFSpeech acts of classroom interaction have been an interesting topic both in ESL and EFL context. Little research, however, has been held in analyzing speech acts of classroom interaction and its relation to strategies used in EFL context. This paper aims at investigating the types and frequency of speech acts performed in terms of teacher-student interactions. It also focuses on analyzing strategies used by teachers and students in performing the illocutionary act of imperatives. Qualitative method is used by means of mixed pragmatic-discourse approach. The data were collected through observation and recording. Three English teachers and 30 male students grade IX of MTs NW Putra Nurul Haramain are participants for gathering the data. The study reveals that four types of speech acts performed are imperatives, assertive, expressions, and commissives. Of those speech acts performed, the very dominant type of speech acts performed, about 120 acts or 43% is imperatives. Assertions about 117 acts or 42% are dominant acts. Expressions about 34 acts or 12% area less dominant category and Commissives about 7 or 2,5% are not dominant. In relation to strategies used in realization of imperatives, the study recognizes that requests as strategies used in realization of request are (a) formal completeness (propositional completeness and modification), (b) level of directness (mood derivable, performative, hedged performative, locution derivable, and conventionally indirect), (c) point of views, (d) context, and (e) mood. The study reveals that imperatives as the most type of illocutionary act performed in classroom interaction. Furthermore, it also indicates the lack of students’ pragmatic competence in performing such an act. For that reason, teachers need to expose the learners with communication strategies in order to speak accurately and appropriately in different context. It needs a further study about pragmatic competence needed in EFL context and material designs for teaching such competences
Appraising the impacts of cohesion and coherence in Benin SS3 EFL learners’ writing productions: A linguistic perspective
Get PDFThis article aims at exploring and investigating linguistic coherence and cohesion in Benin EFL learners’ writing productions. Delivering this objective leads to putting forth two hypotheses. The first is that academically-oriented Second Language Learners need to develop L2 writing skills. In addition to that, Second Language (L2) teachers also need to know how to teach L2 writing (Grabe and Kaplan, 1996). But more often than not, most of EFL teachers find writing a complicated skill to teach. This mindset, in one way or the other significantly affects students learning outcomes. The ongoing research paper has gone about a field investigation through graded writing composition tests papers. The sampled study population has consisted of sixty (60) English language learners in Senior Secondary Three (SS3). Out of this handful but gender-inclusive (i.e., male and female) respondents, the findings reveal that very few students in the classroom, have succeeded in producing effectively understandable writings. One of the reasons behind such poor capacity is that little time is devoted to teaching writing skill during English language classes. Since writing is perceived by both EFL teachers and learners as a complex skill which requires mental effort in addition to the lack of adequate training in it, this article comes up with the conclusion that EFL learners’ writing productions could be improved with teachers devoting more time and effort to its teaching. This paper eventually suggests some operational solutions to improve learners’ ability to write coherent and cohesive texts
Transitivity construction of verbal clause in Ciacia language
Get PDFTypology study of Ciacia language (CL) in various linguistic aspects has not been conducted yet. It is the first study that focuses on syntactic typology. Ciacia language is one of the local languages in Buton Regency, Southeast Sulawesi Province. The study focuses on verbal clause construction of CL. This construction covers several subject and aspect markers, intransitive and transitive verb, and argument as consequence of verb valencies in the clause construction. The study used written and oral data. The oral data of this study is obtained through recording and elicitation techniques. Written data is obtained from the previous studies. The study also used synthetic data which is verified by the informants. It was analyzed by using distributional and match methods with change and loss techniques. Based on the result of this study, it found that verbal clause construction of Ciacia language is always filled by subject and aspect markers (S/AM) that are affixed to PRED verb. The base structure of verbal clause in CL consists of the verbal predicated clause and non-verbal predicated clause. The non-verbal predicated clause can be constructed through base nominal and adjective categories. Verbal clause predicate can be filled by an intransitive base verb, monotransitive base verb, ditransitive base verb, and ambitransitive base verb. Those verbal clause construction of Ciacia language always uses S/AM, either with affix or without affix. The roles of argument semantic in verbal clause construction in CL are (i) the main argument acts as A/ACT, O/UND, benefactive (BEN), and thema and (ii) peripheral argument acts as benefactive (BEN), temporal (TEMP), and locative (LOC). Based on the semantic features, the verb in the intransitive clause is classified based on verbal clause with argument SUBJ as A/ACT and verbal clause with argument SUBJ as O/UND. Semi-transitive verbal clause construction in CL can be formed from (i) semi-transitive base verb with S/AM, (ii) intransitive integral verb which is formed from transitive base verbs and base nominal by using affix {pi-} with S/AM. Construction of ditransitive verbal clause in CL is filled by PRED verb in the form of monotransitive with affix BEN {-aso} and IO with features [+human/soul]
Code-switching by members of bilingual families in Mataram
Get PDFThis thesis intended to find the types of code-switching, the functions of code-switching and the factors that contribute to the use of code-switching among bilingual family members in Mataram. The 3 types were divided using categorization of Poplack (1980). Functions have been categorized using Gumperz’s (1982: 79-82) conversational functions. And factors that contribute to the use of code-switching categorized using Auer’s (1995) list of loci in which switching is frequent. The samples came from Seganteng, Gomong, and Abian Tubuh. Based on data gathered, it can be concluded that the bilingual family members in Mataram use the second language (Indonesian) not only as a means to speak to monolinguals who only speak this language but also as an addition to their vocab and knowledge in their daily conversations and as an extra ‘attribute’ to improve the quality of their speech. Using words, phrases, and sentences from other languages is not a problem at all as long as there is a common knowledge about the meaning
Feminist dystopian consciousness in margaret atwood’s the handmaid's tale
Get PDFMargaret Atwood's famous dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s tale, was written in 1985 during the emergence of the opposition to the feminist movement. The struggle that occurred between both parties of the women's rights issue excited Atwood, as an active advocate of this movement, to write this novel to alert women of what the female gender may mislay if the feminist movement were defeated. She has attempted to warn her readers through the life of Offred; a handmaid who expresses her dystopian feminist consciousness by taking the role of a storyteller and being the narrator and controller of her own story. The core aim of this article would be to focus on how Offred combines her feminist consciousness, memories, and language as liberty instruments to detect her way towards freedom? How can this consciousness be the seed which grows into the sapling of self-expression she cultivates and nourishes through the novel
On the postmodernity in a dictionary of Maqiao
Get PDFA Dictionary of Maqiao, a novel written by Chinese writer Han Shaogong and translated into English by Julia Lovell, is first published in 1996 by The Writers Publishing House and selected by Yazhou Zhoukan as one of the top hundred greatest Chinese novels in the 20th century. Written in the form of a dictionary, or more accurately an encyclopedia, instead of a normal novel form, this novel depicts stories happened in Maqiao, a noteless village in Hunan Province, China. In the theoretic framework of postmodernism, this paper probes into Han Shaogong’s A Dictionary of Maqiao, so as to analyze and illustrate in the representative stories the manifestations of postmodern theories, mainly theories of discourse, narrative, and feminism
Language maintenance of Balinese vocabulary in agriculture: Eco linguistic studies
Get PDFThe problems of the research that were analyzed i.e. 1) Traditional Balinese language vocabulary in agricultural field that is still used in Desa Canggu, North Kuta Subdistrict, Badung Regency, 2) the change of them and 3) the farmer’s attitude in village towards the change. In order to solve the problems, it was applied a language change theory and language maintenance. From the research conducted, it could be known that Balinese language vocabulary in agriculture field that is still used or known in Desa Canggu, North Kuta Subdistrict, Badung Regency i.e. anggapan, arit, caluk, srampang, tenggala, tumbeg, tambah, traktor, kakul, kapu-kapu, pici-pici, lintah, manyi, biukukung, nangluk merana, majukut, matekap. Therefore, the change of Balinese language vocabulary in the agriculture field at Desa Canggu, North Kuta Subdistrict, Badung Regency is in the form of additional vocabulary. 
Using sociodrama in EFL speaking class: Related to student achievement
Get PDFThis paper address the improvement of students’ speaking skill through sociodrama method for higher education students. In Indonesia, English is studied as a foreign language from elementary school up to university degree. But, generally speaking, Indonesians’ English competency is nothing up to intermediate level. This concern led to action research which uses design Kemmis and Mc. Taggart model and is applied in four steps; they are planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. It illustrates the way in which the result of teaching learning in every cycle. The study examines in detail how students develop their speaking skills when engaging in play. The instruments to collect information were students’ test, students’ interviews, observation sheets and field notes. The study examines in detail how students develop their speaking activity when engaging in play in every cycle. In cycle 1, students’ participation is they establish communication with acceptance criteria, while in cycle 2 and 3 they grow their communication well after the researcher gives additional treatment about the sociodrama-base speaking task. The findings revealed that doing speaking task based on sociodrama were the most frequent activities done by students to develop and practice speaking in the classroom with the additional task in the form of homework and it improved every cycle. This research indicated that the implementation of sociodrama task-based helped the students practice speaking skills a lot and improved their speaking skills on aspects of pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, fluency, and comprehension