Volume 11, Number 01, 2016

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10361/6771

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Now showing 1 - 11 of 11

Implementing blogs as a learning tool in Asian EFL/ESL learning context
(© 2016 Published by BRAC University, 2016-10) Munira, Mutmainna; Department of English & Humanities
“Weblogs” or “Blogs” is a type of technology that allows writing personal journals online that can be published and viewed over the web. Even though blogs are being used for personal, educational, journalistic and commercial purposes worldwide, it is not a common practice among the non-native English users in Asia. This paper points out that a blog can be an effective tool for EFL/ESL users of Asia for improving their English skills. It also explains how blogging not only helps in improving the basic language skills of the blog users but also develops other skills of EFL/ESL users like communicative and critical thinking abilities. The purpose of this paper is to find out to what extent blogging can help improve English language skills. It suggests that the integration of blogs into EFL/ESL learning process can motivate and influence the learners in learning the language. The paper concludes with recommendations for implementing blogging as a useful tool for EFL/ESL learners and teachers.
Hindu women’s property rights: Bangladesh perspective
(© 2016 Published by BRAC University, 2016-10) Zahur, Mahua; School of Law, BRAC University
In Bangladesh Hindu women are guaranteed meager property rights in comparison to their male relative as well as their other religious counterparts. Although Bangladesh is mandated through its constitution to prohibit all sorts of discrimination on the ground of sex and religion, no single piece of legislation has so far been enacted to reform the traditional laws that guarantee limited property rights to Hindu women. Moreover, as a member of international community and signatory to various international conventions, Bangladesh is bound to eradicate all sorts of discriminations. Therefore, by not addressing the property rights of Hindu women, Bangladesh is not only violating the constitutional mandate of non-discrimination but also its international obligation. This paper will critically analyze the present state of Hindu women’s property rights in Bangladesh and will examine Bangladesh’s national and international obligations towards the same.
Woman as ‘other’ in the short stories of contemporary Bangladeshi writers
(© 2016 Published by BRAC University, 2016-10) Mah-Zareen; Department of English & Humanities
Women, irrespective of all classes, races, religions and societies, have always been confined to particular roles sanctioned by the male-dominated society. The patriarchal ideologies regard women as “sexual objects” or mere “inessential entities” owned by their fathers or husbands. This parasitic treatment of women has robbed them of their individuality and independence, and rendered them powerless and dispensable. To get acceptance in the established order and avoid abnegation, women too have consciously or unconsciously incorporated these servile attitudes and paradigmatic norms endorsed by males and remodeled themselves as lesser beings or the “second sex”. This incarceration and mortification of women has been exposed eloquently by Simone de Beauvoir in her Le Deuxième Sexe or The Second Sex. The despondent condition of the 20th century western women that Beauvoir unveiled still prevails in the lives of many 21st century Bangladeshi women. This paper will attempt to investigate the lives of these marginalized women of contemporary Bangladeshi society as reflected in contemporary Bangla literature to bring forth the discriminatory ideologies and beliefs that reduce women to subservient beings and detain them as universal gendered Others.
Description of verb morphology in colloquial Bangla
(© 2016 Published by BRAC University, 2016-10) Sultana, Asifa; Department of English & Humanities
The paper presents a description of the Colloquial Bangla (Bengali) verb morphology in relation to the Standard Bangla. As researchers begin to conduct studies in various aspects of Bangla, e.g. in computational linguistics or child language acquisition, descriptions of colloquial Bangla are required. An important area of enquiry is the verb inflectional system in the Colloquial Bangla (CB) which is significantly different from the Standard Bangla (SB) with regard to the forms of the grammatical markers. The paper discusses the implications of these differences.
Cultural relativism and human rights in Ama Ata Aidoo’s changes: a love story
(© 2016 Published by BRAC University, 2016-10) Ibne Ismail, Md. Ishrat; Department of English & Humanities
Ama Ata Aidoo’s Changes documents the changing situations of contemporary women in Accra, Ghana. The novel deals with an idea of the Western-styled universalist language of women’s rights, a concept that constructs certain understandings of women’s rights as applicable to all women. The protagonist Esi’s preference for polygamy as a potentially liberating system for a professional woman appears to challenge a universal thought of what women rights should be, especially with the understanding that polygamy is patriarchal. However, Esi’s preference brings up the notion of cultural relativism and challenges the universal claims of human rights. Cultural realities – developed over ages in different societies – complicate any universal vision of human rights. Considering the conflicts between universalism and cultural relativism, this paper investigates how Aidoo uses Esi (after her choice of polygamy over monogamy) to confirm the fact that cultural realities relative to a Ghanaian society complicate any universalist approach to the rights of a woman. Hence, the novel can be interpreted as an effort to question the totalizing claims of women’s rights that are based on Western notions of what women’s and human rights should be.
The usefulness of the debate between focus on form and focus on forms
(© 2016 Published by BRAC University, 2016-10) Haque, Mohammad Mahmudul; Department of English & Humanities
The literature review includes 13 articles and 2 chapters from 2 books titled Handbook of Research in Second Language Teaching, and Learning, and Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching published in the last ten years focusing on the efficacy of Focus on form (FonF) or the communicative use of grammar in comparison with Focus on forms (FonFS) or the explicit use of grammar in language classrooms. The first section discusses researchers’ views on the employment of FonF vs. FonFS addressing issues like when FonF arises, points in favor of and against FonF in relation to FonFS, and different variables affecting the success of FonF. The second section discusses different views of learners regarding classroom use of FonF and FonFS with a separate subsection on the views held by the US and Colombian FL learners as they represent two contrasting preferences in terms of the adoption of FonF and FonFS. The third and final section deals with teachers’ views regarding the efficacy of FonF and FonFS followed by the difference in view among the US and Colombian FL teachers and how FonFS can be synthesized into FonF. The findings reveal that there is no universal efficacy of either FonF or FonFS; it is rather the context which decides on the efficacy of these two. Moreover, it is to be noted that a choice between FonF or FonFS is not mutually exclusive and one can be incorporated into the other.
Mother and transgendered son: a study of gender role conflict in Sherwood Anderson’s “mother”
(© 2016 Published by BRAC University, 2016-10) Hossain, Sanjeeda; Department of English & Humanities
In a conventional society men are expected to be masculine. Unlike women, they must be resolute, authoritarian and truculent. In comparison to men, women are presumed to exhibit feminine gender traits like submissiveness, compassion and obedience. However, if a discrepancy is found between a man/woman’s gender expression and his/her biologically assigned sex, then it is called GRC or Gender Role Conflict. GRC often leads to an inability to perform according to one’s assigned gender role. In addition to that Gender Role Conflict can also create transgender identities. Transgender individuals are physically of one gender, mentally of the other. When a man starts behaving like a woman, he is called a male-to-female or MtF transgender man. Since it is considered a violation of social standards, GRC creates difficulties in his social and family life. Nevertheless, proper guidance and assistance from friends and family members can aid him adequately. This issue is poignantly dealt by American author Sherwood Anderson in his story “Mother”. Here Elizabeth Willard is a “grotesque” suffering from a life-long gender role conflict. Her son George Willard is an MtF transgender man who endures similar conflicts throughout his life. When society wants George to fulfill his masculine duties, his mother recognizes the inherent woman in him. This paper will explore Elizabeth’s motherly empathy for her transgender son as it helps him to resolve his gender role conflict and inspires him to live a normal life.
Ambiguities and tensions in the role and use of English in Bangladesh
(© 2016 Published by BRAC University, 2016-10) Basu, Bijoy Lal; Department of English & Humanities
Over the past few years, there has been a revival of interest in the English language in Bangladesh with the government putting a lot of emphasis on the teaching and learning of English. There have been a plethora of initiatives at the macro-level to strengthen English language education in urban as well as rural areas in the country which are to a certain extent complemented by micro-level initiatives at the family level. Parents aspire for their children to master the English language and spend on private tuition according to their abilities to ensure that learners achieve good results in English and other subjects. Young people, on their part, are keen to learn and use English alongside Bangla, sometimes mixing them together in the same breath in ways that appear outrageous and ridiculous to a lot of people holding tenaciously onto rather conservative views about roles and use of language in national identity formation. Although there is a general consensus that Bangladeshis need English to move ahead in the context of globalization, how English should be used, where and to what extent are issues that are far from being resolved. English is viewed both as an essential lingua franca and a threat to the vitality of Bangla. English is also often blamed for the perceived corruption of Bangla in the media. This paper focuses on the ambiguities and tensions surrounding the roles and use of English vis-à-vis Bangla in Bangladesh.
Examining learners’ and instructors’ perspectives on the use of blended wiki sessions to improve professionals’ writing skills
(© 2016 Published by BRAC University, 2016-10) Dutta, Debashismoy; BRAC Institutes of Languages
This paper focuses on the learners’ and instructors’ perspectives on wiki based virtual writing sessions while investigating the effectiveness and challenges of such blending in a demand-driven English language course for mid-level BRAC managers who are in need of improving their English writing skills. It shows how a psychological barrier-free ideal writing environment was created for the managers through DevNet, a wiki spaces based platform, during a eight-week-long course. In particular, this paper assesses the strategies followed to fill the vacuity of instructor’s physical absence and also to involve the participants in collaborative learning. Qualitative data collected from the learners and the instructors through interviews was analyzed to understand learners’ and instructors’ perspectives on virtual writing sessions, to measure the effectiveness of those sessions, and also to identify the challenges in blending information and communication technology (ICT) tools in the English course for the professionals. Findings show that blending of wiki sessions with regular face-to-face (F2F) classroom sessions significantly improves learners’ writing skills and helps them to reflect on their classroom sessions by using own language, commenting on peer posts, arguing against peer-views as well as appreciating good writing and new ideas. This paper emphasizes the need of synchronous instruction, thought-igniting deferential feedback and parallel arrangement of the wiki-session contents with F2F classroom sessions to help learners develop their writing. Opportunity for asynchronous activities, however, always remains valid because of the comparative permanence of the written posts in the DevNet. The paper also highlights how similar strategies can be adopted, especially for professionals, through ICT-based media in a fast-changing web-based era.
Developing a motivation-conscious second language teaching approach: a literature survey
(© 2016 Published by BRAC University, 2016-10) Hossain, Mohammad Elius; Department of English & Humanities
Motivation is probably used as the most important factor when describing success and failure in second language (L2) learning. During the lengthy and often tedious process of mastering an L2, learners with sufficient motivation are expected to achieve success. One of the most important determinant factors of L2 learners’ motivation is teachers. Therefore, teachers’ use of motivational strategies is reasonably considered central in effective English language teaching. But, because of the large number of such strategies available in the existing literature, it is quite challenging for teachers to decide which one to implement in their own classrooms while giving due attention to all the other important aspects of their teaching and classroom management. Keeping this in mind, this literature review presents a detailed framework of practical motivational techniques for language teachers from which they can carefully choose the appropriate strategies that suit both learners and their contexts. And, to begin with, a smaller set of ten motivational core-strategies has also been offered for Bangladeshi English language teachers that can readily be used in Bangladeshi context when trying to implement a motivation-conscious teaching approach.
The place of Pierre Bourdieu's theories in (popular) cultural studies
(© 2016 Published by BRAC University, 2016-10) Mahbub, Rifat; Shoily, Kazi Farzana; Department of English & Humanities
This article examines the relevance of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s theories to cultural studies. His key concepts such as cultural capital, habitus, field and symbolic violence are introduced and explained in relation to their prospects and limitations in the study of culture. We will argue that Bourdieu, though from a different vantage point than the key theoretical figures of cultural studies such as Raymond Williams, questions the hierarchy of cultural productions and consumptions. Importantly, his persistent argument that cultural productions (paintings, music and theatres) accrue their symbolic and social value mainly through the social status of the users is fundamental to how he challenges the hierarchy of the traditional notion of “high”, “low”, “elite” and “mass” cultures. Thus, “culture” for him is inherently a site of constant social struggle for change which perhaps is the key theoretical argument of cultural studies as an academic discipline. While this “bridge” between culture and society makes Bourdieu theoretically important in the field of cultural studies, we will further argue the methodological significance of Bourdieu’s own work of studying people’s “taste” empirically in his key tract La Distinction (1984). Since cultural studies as a discipline has an enduring interest in the everyday life of people belonging to different social groups in the forms of studies about their food habits, spatial positions, and medium of leisure in particular in the urban contexts, Bourdieu’s theories, when used adaptively, can be particularly insightful. We will conclude this paper by examining why Bourdieu will be useful in cultural studies in the 21st century’s urban Bangladesh defined by both the expansion of city lives and the “new middle class”.

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