1st RIOC - Page 6

Death in the Line of Duty: Caregivers in the Plague narratives

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242 views

Seema Sinha

Research Scholar, BITS Pilani, Rajasthan

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s25n4

Abstract

The dystopian tropes in the plague narratives shift our gaze from the presence of professional ethics to the Gothic horror that unfolds subsequently. Yet whether it is the Great Plague of London in the year 1665, or the Novel Coronavirus in Mumbai in the year 2020, the rampant spread of the contagion and the associated dread bring into focus the selflessness of the caregivers, namely, the medical and the para-medic staff. Comparing the occurrences, one historical, the other still unfolding, this study examines the eery similarities that delineate contagion as metaphor, and the role of doctors in the pandemics. The aim is to find out what happens when the doctors stumble – to succumb to fear, to fall prey to diseases that flesh is subject to, or to violate the oath of Hippocrates. We intend to scrutinize if like soldiers on the battle-front, these frontline warriors also keep their tryst with death in the line of duty, or does History record otherwise. Whether the pestilence be classical or modern, the response of the caregivers is the cornerstone on which any society is grounded. The purpose of this study is to evaluate if courage in the face of disaster is still relevant in this age of anxiety, or does self-preservation win against ethics and morality. A close reading of Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year gives us an insight into the timelessness of such issues, especially in a world that is plagued with maladies of its own making.

 Keywords: Dystopian, tropes, plague narratives, gaze, Gothic, contagion as metaphor

Rendezvous with the Pandemic Survivors: An Analysis of the Spanish Flu in Katherine Anne Porter’s “Pale Horse, Pale Rider” and COVID-19

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287 views

Salini Sethi1, Sonali Das2 and Mousumi Dash3

1Assistant Professor, Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (Deemed to be University), Email: salini.spa.1@gmail.com, ORCID: 0000-0002-7318-8070

2PhD Scholar, Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (Deemed to be University), Email: sonalidas151994@gmail.com, ORCID: 0000-0002-2005-5792

3Associate Professor, Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (Deemed to be University), Email: drmousumidash16@gmail.com, ORCID: 0000-0002-7016-4719

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s25n1

Abstract

Laura Spinney, British science journalist and author of Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World observes that, “The Spanish Flu is remembered personally, not collectively. Not as a historical disaster, but as millions of discreet, private tragedies.” The pandemic of 1918 was not memorialized like World War I which supervened at the same time as the Spanish Flu. It was soon relegated in public memory as the world emerged from the throes of the nightmarish war. Almost a century later, the world finds itself in the grip of yet another pandemic, the COVID-19. Similar situations of patients with multiple complex symptoms, heaving hospitals, shortage of doctors and nurses, scenes of patients left unattended, dealing with the guilt of infecting their family and friends and struggling to survive paints an apocalyptic scenario. This paper tries to explore a parallel among the two pandemics as it witnesses the tragic tale of a survivor of the Spanish Influenza in Katherine Anne Porter’s autobiographical short novel “Pale Horse, Pale Rider.” The private tragedies of physical deterioration, psychological delusions and social stigmatization also suffered by the COVID-19 survivors have been documented and blazoned all over news and social media. The design behind broadcasting these factual accounts are recognition of the reality of the virus (suspected and labelled fake on many occasions), awareness of the symptoms and understanding of the disease. These hopeful and optimistic narratives of the COVID survivors are a faint ray of hope in these bleak times.

 Keywords: COVID-19, Katherine Anne Porter, Psychology, Spanish Flu, Survivor

Deconstructing Maternal Semiotic and Paternal Symbolic: A Psycholinguistic Perspective for Social Refinement

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221 views

Dhara Rathod

Department of Business and management, Institute of Advanced Research, Gandhinagar. Email: dhara.rathod87@gmail.com

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s24n5

Abstract:

To examine the possibilities of reciprocal relationship of Semiotic and Symbolic in language processing, the present study attempts to analyze the psycholinguistic perspective as an essential tool for social refinement. When the select semiotic used for female which is maternal gets its signification in symbolic which is paternal was found affective. Genially, there should no such ideas as masculine or feminine in semiotic and symbolic. Consciously or unconsciously, female locates her priming words as an auxiliary and thereafter the psycholinguistic perspective for social change demands influence of semiotic and symbolic congruency for women empowerment in the globalized era. To transmit, receive and deform meanings of the words that have been used, misused and abused for females, the present study attempts to analyse select words through psycholinguistic filament of language learning. The finding suggests that this deconstructing psychic and linguistic change demands representation of right semiotic and symbolic interpretation of words at Mirror Stage of language processing.

Keywords: Psycholinguistic, feminism, semiotic, symbolic, maternal, paternal, signification, social refinement.

Exploring a Fourth Space for Composition Studies Research

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226 views

John R. Baker1 & Patrick Bizzaro2

1National Quemoy University, Taiwan. Email: drjohnbaker@yahoo.com

2Professor Emeritus, East Carolina University, U.S.A. Email: pbpp@auxmail.iup.edu

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s24n4

Abstract

The research methods landscape has the potential to be quite diverse. However, the paradigmatic battles between the two empirical research camps (quantitative and qualitative) and the more recent embracement of mixed-methods research has narrowly focused many fields’ attention, including that of composition studies, away from other sorts of useful methods, such as theoretical research. To address this, this sequential two-part study compares and contrasts the (a) purpose, (b) instruments, (c) data, and (d) structure of quantitative and qualitative research. Drawing on this four-part structure, this study advances composition studies research methods literature by posing and testing a definition of theoretical research through an examination of full-length core composition studies texts (N = 12). The article concludes by explaining the study’s relevance to the field and offering directions for future research.

Keywords: Theoretical Research, Composition Studies, Rhetoric

Translating Traces with Innovative Thinking and giving an ‘After-Life’ to the Source Text

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231 views

Abhinaba Chatterjee

Independent Research Scholar. ORCID ID: 0000-0003-4951-5753. Email: abhinaba0000@gmail.com

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s24n3

Abstract

In this paper, I attempt to show that deconstruction and its practices should not be read as intimations towards plurality or relativism in translation, but should rather be utilised as a powerful analytical tool, a way of reading and writing with heightened awareness. In order to arrive at this conclusion, I discuss différance and the play of the trace in the context of the cont(r)act between two texts that are in a relationship of translation. I further argue that plurality as contained in Derrida’s différance is not a directive, but that the translator has to be aware of the existence of plurality and to take into account that the reader also participates in and contributes to this plurality.This has caused the binary oppositions such as original/translation, literal/free, alienating/naturalizing, etc., to lose ground and give way to new conceptualizations. The cultural turn in translation studies in the first half of the 1990s is an outcome of this paradigm shift. Moreover, the relations between translation and ideology, power, and identities have begun to hold a significant place in translation theory. I argue that all literature is subject to ‘afterlife,’ a continual process of translation. From this starting point, I seek to answer two questions. Firstly, how texts demonstrate this continual translation; secondly, how texts should be read if they are understood as constantly within translation. To answer these questions, I will develop a model of textuality that holds afterlife as central, and a model of reading based on this concept of textuality.

 Keywords: Translation, Deconstruction, After-life, Textuality

Federalism at the Crossroads: Crisis of the Linguistic Minorities in India

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244 views

Pritin Dutta

Assistant Professor in Political Science, Government General Degree College, Tehatta. Nadia, West Bengal, India. ORCID: 0000-0002-8834-1904. Email id: duttapritin11@gmail.com                                                                                                                                                                                 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s24n2

Abstract

Polyglot federations face a challenge in reconciling between the national identities and regional identities. Demand for a second States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) in India in 2015 by some groups bears testimony to this fact. On the question of political remapping in post-independence period, the constitutional ancestors sought to save India from another religious bigotry and the menace of casteism. The emergence of language as a viable alternative gained momentum in Nagpur session (1920) of the Indian National Congress (INC). But subsequent years encountered with a difficulty in adopting territorial solution for accommodating India’s multilingual identities. Pre-constitutional, extra-constitutional and constitutional arrangements have faced the challenge of linguistic accommodation. Dar Commission warned the risk of federal remapping with existing linguistic pocket corridors in the states. Inter-state migration has proliferated the problem over the years. Even the SRC could not provide adequate safeguards for large number of linguistic minorities living in all states (Kerala becomes exception with 97.03% linguistic majorities). There new minority emerged and accommodated but with limits. Census report of 2011 shows India having 19,569 languages which stood 1369 after linguistic scrutiny. Territorial machinations appear inadequate to satisfy all linguistic groups but only to incur huge expenditure. Indian federalism seems deficient in non-territorial power sharing which has succeeded in countries like Belgium in the form of Consociational representation. With its promise of inclusivity by means of a possible alternative it demands the attention of the policy makers as well as the academia.

 Keywords: Polyglot federations, political remapping, States Reorganisation Commission, linguistic minorities, Consociational Representation

Translation of Intensity in Political Discourse

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262 views

Iroda Siddikova1 & Nadejda Zubareva2

1Professor at the Comparative Linguistics department of the National University of Uzbekistan named after Mirzo Ulugbek; Tashkent, Uzbekistan; Email: i.siddiqova@nuu.uz

2PhD Candidate at the Comparative Linguistics department of the National University of Uzbekistan named after Mirzo Ulugbek; Tashkent, Uzbekistan; Email: zubarevan@yahoo.com; ORCID 0000-0001-7895-3301 (Corresponding Author)

  Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s24n1

Abstract

The political discourse is one of the most dramatic and emotionally expressed types of discourse where intensity could be considered as the means of implementation of pragmatic potential. The preservation of pragmatics of intensifying units as part political discourse while translating them serves to the adequate transformation of the communicative intention of the author and as a result, leads to the achievement of the corresponding communicative effect in the target language. This paper examines ways of translating intensification in the political discourse. Three types of methods for implementing intensification in translation have been discussed: (1) the explicit expression of intensification, (2) the creation of intensity in translation, and (3) the reduction in the intensity of expressions. The results of the study show that not every equivalent translation is recognized as adequate, but only one that meets, in addition to the norm of equivalence, other regulatory requirements.

 Keywords: Intensification, Political Discourse, Translation, Communication

Problems and Challenges Faced by EFL Students of Saudi Arabia during COVID-19 Pandemic

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618 views

Tawhida Akhter

Assistant Professor, Department of English, College of Sciences and Languages Sajjir, Shaqra University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Email: tawhida@su.edu.sa, ORCID ID: 0000-0003-4149-4855

  Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s23n5

Abstract

The teaching of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) is very interesting but at the same time is considered difficult particularly for those students who have read most of the subjects of their courses in their mother tongue.  The four skills viz, Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing are necessary for learning a foreign language and an imbalance in any skill can hamper the whole process. All the skills are important but during present pandemic situation listening skill is considered as a problematic skill particularly in a foreign language context where practice opportunities are limited because of the world pandemic COVID-19 that hampered all our teaching and learning process. This study aimed to explore the problems and challenges faced by EFL students because of the limited resources. An online survey method was followed to collect data from a group of Saudi EFL students (n = 100) using the Listening Comprehension Processing Problems Questionnaire. The results indicated that these students experienced moderate to high levels of difficulty in all the skills particularly in ‘Listening’ because of limited resources. The findings are expected to have useful implications for teachers who intend to address these problems of EFL learners. Analysis of the findings revealed that most of the students encountered problems in listening most of the times during online classes sometimes because of physical and sometimes other barriers. Discussion and implications of these findings are presented.

 Keywords:  EFL language learning, listening, speaking, reading, writing, COVID-19, online teaching problems.

Understanding the robustness of incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading: Qualitative insights from biolinguistics

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309 views

D. R. Rahul1 & R. Joseph Ponniah2

1 Research Scholar, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli. ORCID: 0000-0002-4215-1769. Email: rahuldrnitt@gmail.com

2Professor, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli. ORCID: 0000-0002-0618-6788. Email: joseph@nitt.edu

  Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s23n2

Abstract

Studies have shown the potentials of reading on the development of language. Especially, the literature on second language reading is replete with evidence that unearths the incidental acquisition of vocabulary through reading. Free and pleasurable reading, which has a marked effect on the frequency of reading, contributes significantly to the incidental acquisition of vocabulary. However, only a few studies have explored the interconnection among vocabulary acquisition, free and/or pleasure reading, and the reading frequency. To this end, this study manifests the incidental acquisition of vocabulary through reading and foregrounds the importance of free reading, reading pleasure, and reading frequency for vocabulary development. By confirming the strong correlation between reading frequency and the vocabulary test scores of the participants we attest that the reading frequency is significantly associated with free and/or pleasure reading (in our case, liking towards self-selected reading). We also theoretically contextualize and support the argument of incidental vocabulary learning through reading from a biological perspective. Given that the acquisition of any language subskill is enabled by the amalgamation of nature and environment, insights into the biological system of reading implicates a better understanding of the incidental acquisition of vocabulary through reading.

Keywords: vocabulary, reading, incidental learning, pleasure reading, biolinguistics

Integrating ICT in English Language Teaching in Bangladesh: Teachers’ Perceptions and Challenges

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561 views

Nafis Mahmud Khan1,2 & Khushboo Kuddus2

1Division of Research, Daffodil International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Email: nafismahmud53@gmail.com

2School of Humanities (English), KIIT Deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. ORCID id: 0000-0001-8934-8924. Email: khushboo3133@gmail.com

  Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s23n1

Abstract

The integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Education especially, in English Language Teaching (ELT) in secondary schools of Bangladesh has been existing for a decade now. However, the status of actual implementation is quite different from the adoption and initiatives taken to integrate ICT in ELT. Therefore, the study aims to investigate the secondary level English language teachers’ attitude towards integration of ICT in Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and the factors inhibiting the use of it. Further, the paper attempts to examine the challenges faced by the secondary level English teachers of Bangladesh in using ICT in language teaching effectively. In an attempt to examine the attitude of teachers in using ICT in ELT, a quantitative research is designed with a close ended questionnaire to collect the data from a sample of 100 secondary English language teachers of various schools of Bangladesh. The data of the responses is quantified and is analyzed by SPSS 20 program. The obtained data from the questionnaire is examined in order to investigate the perceptions of the secondary level English language teachers towards ICT integrated language teaching and the challenges of the implementation of ICT in ELT. In conclusion, the outcome of the research would provide significant information about the attitude of the teachers towards ICT integration in ELT and the challenges faced by them and hence, the study would help the policy makers and the teachers to enhance the effectiveness of using ICT in ELT.

Keywords: Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Communicative Language Teaching, Challenges, Perceptions, English Language Teaching (ELT).

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