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Comparative Survey, Descriptive Research

  Comparative survey research is a type of descriptive survey where it aims to compare the status of two or more variable, institutions, strategies etc. This technique often uses multiple disciplines in one study.This does not only compare different groups but also same group over time.Few points are to be kept in mind before starting the comparative survey. ·        Comparison Points -The research should be very clear regarding the points to be compared. This can also be identified through review of literature and experience of experts. ·        Assumption of Similarities -  One has to be clear about the similarities the two variable hold. If the researcher do not find this there is no point of comparison. Criteria of Comparison - The researcher has to identify the criteria of comparison keeping in mind the fairness and objectivity. Appropriate tools has to be identified for measurement of criterion variables. Comparative survey research is carried on when the researcher cannot

Sociolinguistics and Variation in Language

Schooling vs Education                      Different forms of Academic Discipline Education vs Learning                Concept of Privatization in Indian Education System History of Eng;lish Language Feminism and Feminist Theory Sociolinguistics is a meeting ground for linguists and social scientists. Broadly speaking, it studies the language variation of society. Sociolinguists believe that language is dynamic and not static. Variation is an inherent property of language and language variation can be investigated at any level- phonological, morphological, syntactic etc. It may also vary due to number of factors like geographical boundaries, age, education, sex, caste and social context. Sociolinguists try to examine and explain linguistic variation in terms of personal, geographical or social reasons.       Considering social context, it is found that sociolinguistic reality of a homogenous society (eg: America) is different from heterogeneous society ( eg: India). This is because

Teachers: Building Future Amid Crisis

  This global Covid-19 pandemic brought forth us the vital roles that teachers play in building and shaping the future of the nation. Teachers became even more important as they navigate how to help students adjust to distance learning and adapt to Covid-19 safety guidelines in and out of their classrooms. They became busy, a different kind of busy with no gaps and no breaks; working as hard as they possibly can to make the best out of this tough situation. The pandemic significantly added to the challenges faced by teachers. It will be no exaggeration to say that they not only accepted the challenge but proved themselves in building the future of the students, of the nation, of the world and also of the teaching profession. Therefore, 5 th September Teachers’ Day provide the occasion to celebrate the teaching profession and give due respect to the effort and hardwork of teachers who by unfolding the landscape of online education narrowed the learning gap leaving not a single child

Discuss English as a Global Language

Discipline as a Souce of Knowledge Education vs Indoctrination Today, English has acquired the position of global language. Perhaps, it is the only language that is widespread across the world. It functions in different kinds of societies as a mother tongue, second language, official language, foreign language, lingua-franca, medium of education etc. No other language has undergone innumerable transformations within the country as well as in other countries. This happened due to its vital characteristics of adapting to changing situations. The spread and rise of English is the result of geographic expansion and settlement of America, Australia and South Africa by English speaking people, besides the colonization of Asia and Africa. The intermingling of different languages with English besides giving rise to new Englishes developed new identities, new nations and new literatures. It is the legacy of British colonialism as well as imperialism that has left many countries with the langu

Growth and Status of English Language in India

Overview of history of English Language Critical analysis of A Passage to India Character sketch of Kurtz of Heart of Darkness Eliza Doolittle Doctor Faustus English as a Global Language   The growth and status of English language in India is directly correlated with the growth of imperialism in the country. It is well known to everyone the arrival of East India Company in India and how the trade changed to conquest. The language of trade essentially meant the influx of certain Indian words into the English vocabulary and vice-versa for effective communication between two trading communities. However, the language got engulfed in different work- of spreading missionary work and proselytization. It was only by the Charter Act of 1813 , the Company became responsible for the education of the Indians. The early attempts of teaching English language were overshadowed by political compulsions. Macaulay’s Minutes of 1835 clearly supported the western education in India through the medium

Overview of History of English Language

  New Criticism                 Colonialism in English Literature Growth and Status of English Language in India Alchemist as Comedy English as a Global Language      By history of English Language we mean retelling of those incidents from the past which are connected with the development of this language. By an overview of the incidents it is found that the history of English language is both external and internal. Considering external history, it is the record of political, social and economic events that befall the speakers of a language; whereas, the internal history is the effect of those events on the sounds, the vocabulary and the structure of the English language. Perhaps, the history of language is the history of people; as such in making of English some events that can be figured out are: ·   T he migration of three Germanic tribes- Jutes, Saxons and Angles to the present England in the 5 th and 6 th century. ·     St. Augustine’s arrival to the place in 597 and the con

Discuss New Criticism in Literature

  Colonialism   Deconstruction   Wordsworth Poetic diction Feminist theory History of English Language   New Criticism emerged in literature in the first half of twentieth century, which believed in objectivity, that is, literary criticism should be free from subjectivity and emotionalism. According to New Criticism, the literary work constituted an independent world of its own with its own internal laws that needed to be recognized and understood.  It had its own identity, moral centre and significance, irrespective of the authorial intention.      Prior to this, literary criticism was devoted to the casual explanation of the texts. Critics paid more attention to the author’s life, his immediate social and cultural environment and his statements on the work. However, New Criticism reacts against this extrinsic approach. They shifted the attention from the author to the text. They believed in the supremacy and autonomy of the words on the text. Also, they stressed on the literary wor

Explain Deconstruction as a Literary Theory

  Postcolonialism                           Colonialism Feminist Theory Oedipus Complex in Sons and Lovers The Death of Author Growth and Status of English Language in India Deconstruction emerged on the literary scene almost at the same time when Postmodernism flourished. The term was coined by a French Philosopher Jacques Derrida in one of his essay, Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences .   According to him, ‘ Language bears within itself the necessity of its own critique’ .  By the above line Derrida means that to deconstruct a discourse is to show how it undermines the philosophy it asserts, or the hierarchical opposition on which it relies, by identifying in the text and then dismantling the rhetorical operations that produce the supposed ground of argument, the key concept or premise.   Broadly speaking, deconstruction is a ‘searching out’ or ‘to dismantle the text’ or ‘to attack the subjectivity of the author and pave the way for own reading of the

Analysis of Feminism and Feminist Theory

  Deconstruction               Gynocriticism Colonialism Character Sketch of Isabel Archer Pygmalion as a Problem Play Feminism is an advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of equality, that is women and men both should have equal rights and opportunities. It is a perception based on two fundamental premises- (a) Sex (b) Gender. Sex refers to determining of identity on the basis of biological category; whereas, gender connotes the cultural meaning attached to sexual identity. According to feminist theory, Gender difference is the foundation of a structural inequality between women and men, by which the former suffer social injustice. And, the inequality between the Sexes is not the result of biological necessity but is produced by the cultural construction of gender differences. Feminist theories range themselves against various structures and inter-relationships of power like politics, patriarchy, law, academics etc. This also included re-reading the canon of English literatur

Postcolonialism and Postcolonial Theories

  Deconstruction              New Criticism               Education vs Learning Colonialism Gynocriticism History of English Languiage Postcolonialism, the period after imperialism is more of a mental state rather than periodisation. The term ‘Postcolonial’ was first used in 1959 in a British newspaper article referring to India which had its independence in 1947. Then it came to refer to the colonised areas of Asia and Africa and others. In the book 20 th Centaury Literary Criticism Bijay Kumar Das says, Postcoloniality is a condition of mind which looks into the past as a historical perspective and links it with the present from the standpoint of political as well as cultural imperialism . Therefore, the postcolonial literature often refers to literature written in a postcolonial period, generally by people of the colonized areas. It is supposed to take cognizance of the socio-cultural phenomena in former colonies and consider issues that confront the world today. It takes no

Colonialism in English Literature

  Modernism                Postcolonialism             Character Sketch of Kurtz Structuralism               Deconstruction   Feminism and Feminist Theory     Colonialism in English Literature is not as widespread as Postcolonialism. But, it is a fact that the latter is rooted in Colonialism. The above heading means a work written during a period of time when one country was actively participating colonizing, exploiting and exhibiting power over people of another geographical area.        The colonization of a country was followed by the colonization of the subject population, and this invariably colonises the culture also. The impact of colonization on culture was thus, institutionalized and was the most visible aspect of the harmony of British. While the replacements like food habits, gestures games etc were taking place, the gradual spread of English education brought forth a group of writers who drank deep at the fountain of European learning. These writers chose the English lang

Poststructuralism in Language and Literature

  Structuralism in Language Deconstruction Pygmalion as a Problem Play Poststructuralism was an outcome of the debates by critics and analysts who found language and literature to be deeper and richer than the Structuralist theory suggested. In many ways, Poststructuralism is an extension to radical extremes of the premises suggested by the structuralists. Both give primacy to language at the centre of their world, but, Poststructuralism presents a retrospective critique of certain Structuralist commitments. In language, Structuralism formed only one of the many circles which interacted with one another and made the decipherment of meaning more complex. This necessitated the study of literary works in more precise terms for reasons of identifying structures of feelings and emotions embedded in them; thus, emerged Poststructuralism. Post Structural critics said, “ read the text against itself ”. As such, in doing so, they uncover various layers of meaning embedded in the text. They

Structuralism in Language

  Define Langue and Parole                             Deconstruction Modernism and its Chief Features Poststructuralism      Structuralism finds its origin in the work of early 20 th century linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913 ). His attempt was to reduce language to a set of propositions based upon formal relationship that define and exist between various elements of language as a system of signs. According to him, a linguist sign has two components- Signifier and the Signified. The former is the word, the alphabets arranged in a particular order; whereas, latter is the concept that the signifier stands for.      The other separation that Saussure insisted in the field of linguistics was between specific speech acts and the general system (or structure) of language. The first he called Parole and the second Langue. To make sense of an utterance i.e. parole, one should be aware of the underlying system of work i.e. langue.        When applied to literature, Structuralism

Explain Postmodernism In Literature

  Modernism and its chief features Chief Features of Metaphysical Poetry Postcolonialism               Feminist Theory               New Criticism      Postmodernism in literature started in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Adding post as a prefix to the word ‘Modern’ shows that the new period is different from the last one yet was influenced by it. Postmodernism’s fascination is with popular art forms and its mood is less elegiac than that of Modernism. However, it does not fully abandon modernism’s mood of alienation. We can say, Postmodernism is satisfied with surfaces whereas Modernism did strive for certain kind of depth.      Jean Francois Lyotard and Jean Baudrillard provided the philosophical framework for Postmodernism. Lyotard’s book The Postmodern Condition proved to be the major text for debate on the topic. His main argument is that the ‘truth claims’ and assumed consensus on which a lot of history and its grand narratives stand are an illusion. Baudrillard’s main conte

Modernism and its Chief Features

Explain Postmodernism in Literature Chief features of Metaphysical Poetry Poststructuralism Discipline as a Source of Knowledge Modernism is a cover term for certain tendencies in early twentieth century art and literature. It was a movement that rejected traditional values and techniques, and emphasized the importance of individual experience. This appeared as a reaction against the Victorian Age. The motivating slogan behind this was ‘make it new’. And, the heyday of Modernism was a period between 1910 and 1930. Modernists did not view ethics as superior to art, seeing the latter instead as the highest form of human achievement. They introduced a new openness. In other words, modern literature is characterised by a process of cross-fertilisation of ideas, images, experience and experimentation. With shifts in technology creating new materials and techniques in art-making, experimentation became easy and gave the resulting work a wider reach. On literature, the effect was profound.