V14N4 - Page 2

Autonomous Learning as a Pedagogical Tool: Exploring the Perceptions of Teaching and Learning Practices at Writing Hub

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Hebah Asaad Hamza Sheerah1 & Meenakshi Sharma Yadav2
1English Department, Applied College for Girls, King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia. ORCID: 0000-0002-7775-4615
2English Department, Applied College for Girls, King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia. ORCID: 0000-0001-7962-3267. Corresponding author Email: m-@kku.edu.sa

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 4, December, 2022. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n4.21
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Abstract  

Even though there are incredible number of schemes to create EFL curricula, textbooks, and a range of professional development courses, Saudi Arabian EFL students’ level of English language proficiency still has to be raised (Khadawardi, 2022). It has been determined that learner autonomy (AL) is an effective method for promoting learning. This study explores how EFL instructors and students view the value and efficiency of independent learning strategies for improving writing. What do EFL teachers and students think about the writing hub’s learning strategies for enhancing autonomous learning as a teaching tool to assist EFL writing? And to what extent is the significance of autonomous learning noticeable in EFL writing classrooms? These questions were addressed by this study, which evaluated the optimal data of 77 female students and their eight instructors at Applied College for Girls at King Khalid University to get actionable implications and desirable outcomes. The results indicated that learners’ autonomy could be achieved practically. The writing exercises practiced at writing classes; ‘Writing hub’ proved successful in enhancing autonomy among the learners. The t-test scores reject the null hypotheses, and the data was strongly normal and optimal to support the study. However, the findings also showed that the concept and notion of autonomy and students’ role in it must be introduced before executing it to the students. In addition, most teachers indicated that learners’ autonomy is helpful and achievable in EFL settings. They identified four main factors vocabulary, mind- map, the process approach, and peer feedback; and technology-based strategies worked best for composing writing and inculcating autonomy among the learners. In the future, more approaches can be applied to enhance and boost autonomy among learners.

Keywords: autonomy, EFL, writing hub, process approach, autonomous learner

Preparing Students for Post Covid-19 Transnational Study with Unassisted Repeated Reading and Extensive Reading Materials

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Ngô, T. T. Vân1 & John R. Baker2
1Binh Duong University, Thu Dau Mot City, Vietnam. Email: nttvan@bdu.edu.vn
2Faculty of Foreign Languages, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. ORCID: 0000-0003-3379-4751. Email: drjohnrbaker@tdtu.edu.vn

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 4, December, 2022. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n4.20
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Abstract

As Covid-19 restrictions promise to loosen and international borders begin to open, transnational students are again preparing for language education abroad. However, due to students’ low reading rates (RRs), target institutions’ courses’ large reading demands pose potential challenges to students’ success. To address this, this study explored the potential of employing an unassisted repeated reading procedure (rate build-up, RBU) to increase prospective transnational students’ RRs. The study investigated the RBU procedure’s potential with this population by comparing the procedure’s effects on traditional degree-seeking learners’ RRs in a Taiwanese university setting and those of potential transnationals targeted for studies in a similar setting. Assessing each group’s pre and post-reading gains using inferential statistics, significant reading gains and large Cohen d effect sizes were found for both groups, indicating the generalizability of this procedure. It was further found that students with higher starting RRs demonstrated greater gains. Limitations and suggestions for further research are also addressed.

Keywords: repeated reading, rate build-up reading, transnational students, EFL, replication, audio-assisted, unassisted

The English Language Limits Me! Connecting Third Space to Curriculum Transformation in a South African University, Expanding Epistemological Landscapes?

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Mzukisi Howard Kepe
University of Fort Hare, South Africa. Email: mkepe@ufh.ac.za

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 4, December, 2022. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n4.19
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Abstract

Many studies were conducted on conventional colonial heritage; however, less attention examines the developing concept of curriculum decolonisation in South African universities. This paper advocates for a hybrid literacy between traditional conceptions of academic literacy and instruction for students’ sociohistorical lives, affluent and less affluent. I discuss and illustrate the hegemony of English in high-learning institutions and the post-apartheid mainstream education system. Alongside my previous work in the language field, I interrogate the impasse of language policy in high education and South African schools. This paper is an ethnographic study congruent with the interpretivism paradigm, employing the semi-structured interview for data collection. The third space supports it as a theoretical framework. It affords the provision and guidance for classroom instruction and autonomous learning modes balance, where developing new knowledge is heightened, allowing students’ voices. It is a response to the 2015-2016 student protests on South African university campuses, where several were perplexed on how to respond to the demands of the students to end violent protests against western disciplinary norms that devalue non-centre practices and themes. Biliteracy and translingualism are empathised as the concepts against ownership of language and culture, and its territorialisation, challenging the traditional contrast of ‘native’ and ‘non-native’ speakers and its connection to a particular nation-state.

Keywords: Biliteracy, Curriculum, Decolonisation, Essentialist view, Hybrid Literacies, Language Policy in Higher Education- South Africa, Third Space, Translingualism

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Assimilation of the Anglo-Saxon System of Education in the Conflicted Ambazonia: Delinking from Colonial Language Ideologies

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John Wankah Foncha1 & Jane-Francis Afungmeyu Abongdia2
1,2 The Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Email: fonchaj@cput.ac.za/ Jane-francisa@cput.ac.za

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 4, December, 2022. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n4.18 
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Abstract

Education is a mind builder and should be taken as a matter of importance in any nation. Following this, the curriculum designer is responsible for building learners’ minds. Seen through this lens, this theoretical article intends to project the importance of community schools in conflict-stricken Ambazonia against the backdrop of the French curriculum. Education guidelines are addressed with reference to language planning, policy, and implementation. Additionally, the paper seeks to explain the current situation in Ambazonia and make arguments regarding the community schools’ guidelines that aspire for multilingualism, where indigenous languages are taken seriously in teaching and learning. Another point discussed is the transitional authority (Ambazonia Transitional Authority), which was put in place to deal with implementing education guidelines and administrative issues. The paper concludes with the argument that what we think must be transformed into what we do and be shown by what we have done.

Keywords: Colonial Language Ideologies, multilingual, Ambazonia Transitional Authority, education

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What is Performance Studies?

Richard Schechner Tisch School of the Arts, New York University  Download PDF Version Because performance studies is so broad-ranging and

An Investigation into Teacher Preparedness for Emergency Remote Teaching in the Context of Vietnam

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Dao Nguyen Anh Duc
Ho Chi Minh City University of Banking, Vietnam. ORCID ID: 0000-0001-6349-8190. Email id: ducdna@hub.edu.vn

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 4, December, 2022. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n4.17 
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Abstract

This study examined the preparation English teachers in Vietnam had for Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, it investigated the levels of confidence teachers had about their pedagogical and technological knowledge. It also looked at their attitudinal readiness and the institutional support offered to them. Ninety-seven teachers of English in the southern areas of the country, which were severely hit by the fourth wave of the pandemic from May to September 2021, were invited to complete an online survey. The responses were analyzed descriptively, and item-level means were calculated to identify teachers’ greatest challenges and the instructional aspects they found most confident about during ERT. Cross tabulations were also employed to compare different groups of teachers’ readiness to teach online. The results showed that English teachers in the affected areas perceived themselves to be relatively prepared for the swift transition to online teaching and substantially positive about their pedagogical approach to lesson delivery in the virtual environment. Regarding technological know-how, they exploited various ready-made resources but were unknowledgeable about authoring software and uncertain of how to use technological tools effectively. They also reported receiving little support from their superiors and authorities.

Keywords: teacher preparedness, teacher readiness, ERT, pedagogical knowledge, technological knowledge

Crises and Community Construction in the Post-Epidemic Era: Posthumanist Survival in Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy

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Lingfei Li
Ph.D. candidate of English and Comparative Literature, English Department, Beihang University, Beijing, China. ORCID: 0000-0002-0684-949X. Email: lingfeili@buaa.edu.cn

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 4, December, 2022. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n4.16 
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Abstract

Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy centers around a global pandemic that almost wipes out all human beings. In such a post-catastrophic world, the survivors have to defeat fierce criminals who escaped from the Painball arena and construct a new community with nonhuman beings. This article puts forward a posthumanist interpretation of survival in three novels and redefines the position of humans in the world through the decline of anthropocentrism and the rise of nonhuman agents. The pandemic’s danger, as well as the severity of the environment, bring about insecurity and anxiety for human beings. Therefore, to confront the severe social crises and anxiety caused by the current global pandemic, Margaret Atwood provides us with a paradigm that human beings ought to abandon the conquest of nature, insert themselves into a larger framework of cross-species identification, and construct a new community that characterizes a harmonious, tranquil and respectful coexistence of multitudinous species. Our comprehension of Atwood’s opposition to anthropocentrism will be strengthened by an examination of survival from the perspective of posthumanism, which will also arouse widespread worries about ecological consciousness in this post-epidemic era.

Keywords: Posthumanism, Margaret Atwood, MaddAddam Trilogy, Crisis, Community Construction

 

From Tattered Past to Triumphant Present: Weaving Partitioned Lives by a Dalit Girl-child in Kalyani Thakur Charal’s Novella Andhar Bil O Kicchu Manush

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Atreyee Sinha1 & Shuchi2
1Research Scholar, National Institute of Technology Mizoram. ORCID: 0000-0001-6755-2019. Email: atreyee.lterature@gmail.com.
2Assistant Professor, National Institute of Technology Mizoram. ORCID: 0000-0001-9462-8664. Email: shuchi.hss@nitmz.ac.in.

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 4, December, 2022. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n4.15 
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Abstract

Inherited memory reflects the intensity of the impact of incidents, experienced by the ancestors on the descendants, and in the case of the partition of Bengal, these memories of memories are about both the violence-induced partition and its distressful reverberations as well as about the amiable and delightful past habitation in East Bengal. However, the awful commotion that the survivors confront steals all the researchers’ attention, pushing the amicable exhibition in the past land to the background. Again, the transportation of memory to the second generation of these refugees assists them to reconstruct as well as to dismantle the eulogized notion of the lost land and look to analyze the past incident in a more pragmatic way that consequently leads to a dichotomous intellection of the two generations, as can be found in the novella Andhar Bil O Kicchu Manush (Waterbody Named Andhar and Some People) by Bengali Dalit writer Kalyani Thakur Charal. The juvenescence dealing with the postmemory of past times by the progeny of the refugees, more specifically by a Dalit girl in this novella, paves the way for further study on the class, caste, and gendered space of Dalit women in partitioned Bengal from the perspective of a child. A deductive, analytical, and objective method has been used in this research to comprehend the factual local historiography of a particular community in a specific locality of the border region of West Bengal through a fiction based on the collective memory of the populace.

Keywords: postmemory, Bengal, Namasudra, refugee, childhood, second-generation

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Memory, Trauma and Affect: The Implicated Subject in Anuk Arudpragasam’s A Passage North

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Atri Majumder1 & Gyanabati Khuraijam2
1Research Scholar, Dept. of Management, Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology Agartala, India, E-mail: atri.cal@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2624-5703
2Assistant Professor, Dept. of Management, Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology Agartala, India, E-mail: khgyan79@yahoo.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2312-6787

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 4, December, 2022. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n4.14 
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Abstract

In A Passage North, Anuk Arudpragasam invades the consciousness of the protagonist to reveal the subliminal enmeshed spaces of the personal and the political. The distance between the traumatic events of the Sri Lankan civil war and the alienated individual who has apparently remained aloof, is obliterated through the refracted memories that have embedded the subject in the matrix of his country’s political history. The individual memory thus coalesces into the fabric of collective memory as the narrative unfolds. The concatenation of the traumatic realities and the sequestered psyche, untethers the individual from its ensconced private sphere and situates it within the macrocosmic and pervasive sociopolitical structure. The transmutation of subjectivity is attuned to the affective sites of collective trauma. The dichotomy of proximity and distance elucidated by the apprehensive reflections of the survivor is symptomatic of the subterranean intensities that elude corporeal presence and agency. The memories of the individual become resonant with the affective (un)lived experiences of traumatic violence, that deconstruct the tension of presence/absence, and consequently reconfigure the preconceived notions of subjectivity. The theoretical framework of this paper would foreground Michael Rothberg’s conceptualization of the implicated subject, to limn the trajectory of identities who are indirectly implicated in traumatic legacies. This paper argues that the trauma of the genocidal war and its aftermath is transcribed into affective memories, that bear the potential to reconstitute identity by recognizing and transcending the state of implication.

Keywords: memory, affect, trauma, implicated subject, identity, Sri Lankan civil war

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Spectres of Caste/Contagion: Death Anxiety and Caste Anxiety in U.R. Ananthamurthy’s Samskara

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G. Thiyagaraj1 and Binod Mishra2
1 Research Scholar at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Roorkee. ORCID: 0000-0002-4396-6062. Email: g._t@hs.iitr.ac.in
2 Professor at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Roorkee. ORCID: 0000-0003-2364-6405. Email: binod.mishra@hs.iitr.ac.in

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 4, December, 2022. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n4.13 
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Abstract

The article critiques the traversal politics of caste and contagion through a critical dissection of what comes as a primarily biomedical excess of the outbreak—the dead body. It elucidates upon the becoming of the dead body into an untouchable where its “right to die with dignity” is deferred. The article reasons this stigmatisation of the deceased as a result of anxiety ensued in the living population facing the outbreak crisis. Through a close textual reading of U.R. Ananthamurthy’s novel Samskara (1965), the article elaborates on the othering discourse of outbreaks and discusses the type of socio-immune response exhibited by a casteist body politic. The novel centres its narrative around a plague-stricken Brahmin community where the contested dead body of pestilence triggers an endless debate of humanistic morals and ethics. By equipping the Derridean lens of hauntology, the article reads Samskara as an outbreak narrative which informs about the social unpreparedness and indecisiveness expressed by caste groups. The article discusses two types of anxieties expressed in such a caste-based society, namely death anxiety and caste anxiety. It mediates how these anxieties are produced in inversion, creating a unique pattern of social instability and inertia with relevance to the socio-political discourse of India. The epiphenomenon of inverted anxieties in India is presented as a subverted narrative from the global patterns of anxiety charged by microbial invasions. Finally, the article examines how the dead regains spectral agency in order to reveal the social pathology of a community doubly infected with caste and contagion.

Keywords: Dead body, Contagion, Caste, Anxiety, Spectres and Outbreaks.

‘Healing the World with Comedy’: Anxiety and Sublimation in Bo Burnham’s Inside

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Ann Christina Pereira1 & Dr Sarika Tyagi2
1Research scholar, Department of English, Vellore Institute of Technology-Vellore. ORCID: 0000-0002-2555-4910. Email: ann.pereira9213@gmail.com;
2Professor, Department of English, Vellore Institute of Technology-Vellore. ORCID: 0000-0001-5144-9981. Email: tyagisarika27@gmail.com

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 4, December, 2022. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n4.12 
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Abstract

Bo Burnham is a critically acclaimed American stand-up comedian and filmmaker. The usual themes in his works are the hypocrisy of artists, the commercialisation of art, and the role of social media in erasing the boundary between the public and the private. However, during the pandemic, he chose to focus on the theme of anxiety, a minor theme in his earlier works. Anxiety has been considered an integral part of modernity as discussed by Anthony Giddens and Zygmunt Bauman. In psychoanalysis, anxiety has been explained in a number of different ways. In current psychological discourse, anxiety is described as an unpleasant state of mind that can cause significant bodily and mental stress. The anxiety that Burnham experienced prior to the pandemic appears to have amplified during the pandemic. Two main types of anxiety are observable in the shows of Burnham—performance anxiety and existential anxiety. This paper seeks to understand Burnham’s show Inside (2021) using Anna Segal’s contribution to the concept of ‘sublimation’. We argue that in doing the show Inside, Burnham discovers a new way to acknowledge and channel his ‘depressive’ symptoms towards contemporary times, and he achieves sublimation in the process.

Keywords: Comedy, sublimation, anxiety, existential anxiety, modernity

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