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Research Article
An Investigation into English Language Teachers’ Practices and Challenges of Alternative Assessment: Selected Teacher Education Colleges in Focus
Habtamu Kassa*
,
Zeleke Arficho,
Eskinder Getachew,
Aregay Meressa
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 3, September 2024
Pages:
50-62
Received:
28 April 2024
Accepted:
23 May 2024
Published:
29 July 2024
Abstract: Alternative assessment has got an important place especially in education due to the belief of education should focus on students’ totality cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills in order to produce students that are balanced physically, emotionally and intellectually. This study was aimed at examining education college English language teachers’ practices and challenges of alternative assessment with reference to Hawassa, Hossana, and Arba Minch Colleges of Teacher Education. To this end, a descriptive design with a mixed approach was employed. A questionnaire with five-point scales was used and data were collected from 56 teachers. SPSS version 23 was employed to compute descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation). A semi-structured interview was also conducted with 6 teachers randomly selected from among those teachers who had filled in the questionnaire and the data were thematized and analyzed qualitatively. The results of questionnaire reveal that the practice of alternative assessment was not effective and efficient due to different challenges (students related challenges, teachers related challenges, characteristics of alternative assessment related challenges and resource related challenges. It is also found that data from interview witnessed that alternative assessment was not practiced effectively due to the aforementioned challenges.
Abstract: Alternative assessment has got an important place especially in education due to the belief of education should focus on students’ totality cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills in order to produce students that are balanced physically, emotionally and intellectually. This study was aimed at examining education college English language teache...
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Research Article
Embera Children's Stories: A Strategy for the Preservation of Language and Cultural Identity in Indigenous Education
Sandra Marcela Bedoya Lozano*,
Derly Johanna Bejarano Agudelo,
Luz Karime Ramírez Gómez,
Maria Clemencia Escobar Gutierrez
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 3, September 2024
Pages:
63-71
Received:
23 March 2024
Accepted:
13 May 2024
Published:
31 July 2024
Abstract: This study conducted in the Embera Chamí Navera Drua community, located in Darien, Colombia, investigates the impact of children's literature, particularly stories, on strengthening cultural identity and preserving the native language among the community's children. Utilizing a qualitative approach, an ethnographic and participatory action research design was implemented to deeply explore the community's worldview, its educational context, and the sense of cultural belonging developed by the children. The results highlight the importance of intercultural teacher training and the implementation of pedagogical strategies that promote the indigenous worldview through the narrative of stories, which capture the interest and imagination of children. It is concluded that children's stories facilitate the development of a sense of cultural belonging in children, youth, and adults while engaging with their native language. Therefore, it is necessary to train teachers within the community who can link storytelling as a strategy to facilitate the preservation of their language from childhood, allow community participation in preserving their worldview, and contribute to the development of the community's own cultural education.
Abstract: This study conducted in the Embera Chamí Navera Drua community, located in Darien, Colombia, investigates the impact of children's literature, particularly stories, on strengthening cultural identity and preserving the native language among the community's children. Utilizing a qualitative approach, an ethnographic and participatory action research...
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Research Article
BL Drama: The Thai Entertainment Industry as a Source of Soft Power
Stephen Lyajoon*
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 3, September 2024
Pages:
72-76
Received:
29 April 2024
Accepted:
15 May 2024
Published:
6 August 2024
Abstract: Boys Love, a subcategory originated in Japan in the 1970’s has swept the Thai entertainment industry. BL dramas has put Thailand on the map with an international recognition and appreciation through the portrayal of the country’s gender fluidity narrative and addressing relatable social question of the current generation. Observations can be made on the possibility of Thailand to use this newly found niche market as a source of soft power. Looking at the country’s other Asian neighbors as case study allows for a clear pattern to be observed through the use of the entertainment industry as a mean for cultural export, simultaneously establishing a sphere of influence that can be leverage on the diplomatic stage. This paper leverage the case study of South Korea and Japan as prime example of soft power through their respective entertainment industry. From the origin of the Boys Love and its success in Thailand to analysis of similar case studies in Japan and South Korea, this paper seeks to understand the feasibility of the BL genre becoming an asset positioning Thailand as a key player in the diplomatic arena both within Asia and the international community. The BL industry in Thailand has a significant potential of propelling the country on the international stage as a significant regional power. Yet, there are some major setbacks to be addressed for that concretization of this phenomenon.
Abstract: Boys Love, a subcategory originated in Japan in the 1970’s has swept the Thai entertainment industry. BL dramas has put Thailand on the map with an international recognition and appreciation through the portrayal of the country’s gender fluidity narrative and addressing relatable social question of the current generation. Observations can be made o...
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Research Article
A Timeline of Journalistic Influence of Writing on the Gilded Age in American Literature
Cristina Guarneri*
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 3, September 2024
Pages:
77-80
Received:
29 April 2024
Accepted:
17 May 2024
Published:
20 August 2024
Abstract: The themes found in the writings by authors during the Gilded Age are still prevalent in writings of the twenty-first century. The Gilded Age, a term used to describe a period of economic boom after the American Civil War at the turn of the century, influenced communication to readers by using the ethos unearthed by writers who were opposed to a particular politician and their policies. The Gilded Age was a time of rapid economic growth through the invention of the railroad and business. What looked like a golden time was an era of great growing pains in America between the industrial worker and the wealthy business owner. What the Gilded Age symbolized in both life and writing has become a model of writing that extended to current literature. American writers contributed to a great body of literature that flourished during the Gilded Age. The Gilded Age was a time of rapid economic growth through the invention of the railroad and business. Literature was used as a social revolt that violated the growing power of business and growing government corruption that outlined the utopias of the inefficiency of a capitalistic system. Within genres of writing such as Poetry, the later nineteenth century, and early years of the twentieth century were a poor period for American poetry providing themes of distress, doubts, and fears about American life. Within the genres of writing, newspaper writing played a crucial role in exposing scandals, the pathos of the American Dream, and the logos or persuasion by using the trials of society. Writing was a powerful communication tool during the Gilded Age that allowed writers to target events during this era. Newspaper writing was important to communicating prominent issues to the public, as it upheld ideals to question government and keep it accountable. However, the Gilded Age writings helped to permanently etch in the minds of readers the importance of themes that were prevalent post-Civil War that impacted the writing and writers of American Literature.
Abstract: The themes found in the writings by authors during the Gilded Age are still prevalent in writings of the twenty-first century. The Gilded Age, a term used to describe a period of economic boom after the American Civil War at the turn of the century, influenced communication to readers by using the ethos unearthed by writers who were opposed to a pa...
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Research Article
Exploring Setting as a Driver of Drama in Fitzgerald’s “Babylon Revisited”
Jamal Assadi*
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 3, September 2024
Pages:
81-90
Received:
6 July 2024
Accepted:
30 July 2024
Published:
20 August 2024
Abstract: This study provides an in-depth examination of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Babylon Revisited," focusing on the influential role of setting in shaping the narrative's dramatic elements. Through a nuanced analysis, the research investigates how the depiction of 1920s Paris serves as a catalyst for character motivations and actions, thereby driving the plot forward. Utilizing a combination of textual analysis and literary theory, the study seeks to elucidate the intricate interplay between setting, structure, and dialogue in Fitzgerald's narrative, aiming to uncover the underlying thematic and stylistic elements at play. The primary objective of this research is to explore the profound impact of setting on character development and narrative progression in "Babylon Revisited." By examining the portrayal of Paris as a milieu of extravagance and hedonism, the study aims to explicate how the city functions as both a backdrop and a character in its own right, influencing the behaviors and decisions of the protagonist, Charlie Wales, and other key figures within the narrative. Methodologically, this study employs a combination of qualitative textual analysis and theoretical inquiry to interrogate the relationship between setting and drama in Fitzgerald's work. Drawing upon established literary frameworks and critical perspectives, the research situates "Babylon Revisited" within its broader cultural and historical context, allowing for a nuanced examination of the novel's thematic concerns and stylistic innovations. By engaging with interdisciplinary approaches to literary analysis, the study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the ways in which setting functions as a driver of drama in Fitzgerald's narrative. In conclusion, this research contributes to our understanding of "Babylon Revisited" by offering a rigorous analysis of the role of setting in shaping the novel's dramatic elements. Through a meticulous examination of the text and its contextual underpinnings, the study demonstrates how Fitzgerald's adept manipulation of setting, structure, and dialogue enriches the narrative, elevating it to a timeless work of literature. Ultimately, the research underscores the enduring relevance of Fitzgerald's exploration of human behavior and emotion within the framework of a vividly rendered setting, solidifying his status as a preeminent writer of the 20th century.
Abstract: This study provides an in-depth examination of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Babylon Revisited," focusing on the influential role of setting in shaping the narrative's dramatic elements. Through a nuanced analysis, the research investigates how the depiction of 1920s Paris serves as a catalyst for character motivations and actions, thereby driving the plo...
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Research Article
The Evangelization of Indigenous People in Spanish America: Motolinía and Las Casas
Maria Izabel Barboza de Morais Oliveira*
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 3, September 2024
Pages:
91-96
Received:
28 January 2024
Accepted:
19 February 2024
Published:
20 August 2024
Abstract: The aims is to highlight two divergent conceptions regarding the evangelization of the original peoples of Spanish America. In this sense, a comparison is established between the thoughts of the spanish franciscan friar Motolinía with the thoughts of the spanish dominican friar Bartolomé de Las Casas on the topic. The source is the Historia de los indios de la Nueva España (conceived from 1536 to 1541) and the Carta ao Imperador Carlos V (1555) by Motolinía as also the Único mode de atraer a todos los pueblos a la verdadera religion by Las Casas (written between 1523 and 1437). As a theoretical-methodological reference, we use the notions of the russian philosopher of language Mikhail Bakhtin. According to this author, there is only an object of thought and research where there is text. Every text has an author and this author has an intention. There is an interrelationship between the text and the author's context. For the russian philosopher, the work is a statement, as its author is always responding to the works of his predecessors, basing himself on and agreeing with the works of the same current, criticizing and combating the works of opposing currents.
Abstract: The aims is to highlight two divergent conceptions regarding the evangelization of the original peoples of Spanish America. In this sense, a comparison is established between the thoughts of the spanish franciscan friar Motolinía with the thoughts of the spanish dominican friar Bartolomé de Las Casas on the topic. The source is the Historia de los ...
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Research Article
Cultural Memory in Contemporary Fiction: F. R. Leavis’s and Matthew Arnold’s Intellectual Presence in A. S. Byatt’s Work
Alexandra Cheira*
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 3, September 2024
Pages:
97-107
Received:
12 March 2024
Accepted:
22 April 2024
Published:
23 September 2024
DOI:
10.11648/j.ellc.20240903.17
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Abstract: The concept of “cultural memory” serves as the foundation for this article, which explains the complex relationships between two prominent figures in the history of English letters, Matthew Arnold and F. R. Leavis, as well as how A. S. Byatt’s own work was influenced by their combined, though occasionally diametrically opposed, approaches to literature, culture, and criticism. As a result, this article begins with a discussion of the conflictual continuity and/or sustained ambivalence in Byatt’s critique of Leavisite criticism. It does this by first looking into Leavis’s position within the larger literary criticism context and then focusing on how Leavisite criticism fits into Byatt’s critical thought. Thus, Byatt’s assertion that Leavis made English literature the focal point of university education is examined by first looking into Leavis’s Cambridge. Lastly, Byatt’s criticism of Leavis’s idea of English studies is looked into in the context of critical evaluations of English literature’s place in higher education, at the same time that Byatt’s work is used as a prism to analyse the Arnoldian matrix of the Leavisite concept of “moral seriousness”. Afterward, Byatt’s critical work is critically examined in the framework of culture, society, and literature, continuing Arnold’s legacy.
Abstract: The concept of “cultural memory” serves as the foundation for this article, which explains the complex relationships between two prominent figures in the history of English letters, Matthew Arnold and F. R. Leavis, as well as how A. S. Byatt’s own work was influenced by their combined, though occasionally diametrically opposed, approaches to litera...
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Research Article
“The Shifting Light of History”: Addressing Philosophy of Memory in Julian Barnes’s Elizabeth Finch
Elena Bollinger*
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 3, September 2024
Pages:
108-117
Received:
12 March 2024
Accepted:
15 April 2024
Published:
23 September 2024
DOI:
10.11648/j.ellc.20240903.18
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Abstract: This article discusses the narrative construction of various philosophical reflections on cultural memory in Julian Barnes’s novel Elisabeth Finch. It addresses the dichotomy between recollection and oblivion, presenting a memory process as a the “problem of forgotten evidence”, thoroughly discussed in today’s Cultural and Memory Studies. While contemporary scholars and philosophers aim at reflecting on the role of memory in metaphysics and epistemology, mainly relating the process of recollection either to personal identity, or the experience of time, space and epistemic rationale, the dimension of collective memory, and its foregrounding role in everyone’s self-perceptiveness, receives a considerably reduced critical attention. The literary analysis of Elizabeth Finch seeks to problematize this divisive understanding of functions of memory, proposing instead to consider the semantic complementarity of various processes of recollection/forgetting, connecting the narrative representation of events that one has personally experienced and the officially stated collective renderings of factual memory. It resists considering personal remembering and collective forgetting as ostensibly competing rationales, proposing to delve deeper into a tightly crafted relationship between the perception of one’s identity in time and epistemological framework of collective experience mostly focused on the officially stated dimension of memory. Revisiting discourses on religion associated with the narrative construction of borderlands in Julian Barnes’s Elizabeth Finch, this article contributes to reconsider collective memory and counter-memory not as mutually exclusive, but as synthetized and put into productive motion narrative dimensions. The intertextual articulation of discourses on religion fosters new theoretical perspectives for rethinking counter-memory not only as a mode of recovering silenced and contested versions of the European history, but also as a means of providing multidimensional and transcultural interpretation of the collective past. Perceived as a form of discursive resistance to any kind of political and social dominance, the narrative construction of “forgotten evidence” elucidates the complex post-dialectical relationship between official collective memory and marginalized counter-memory.
Abstract: This article discusses the narrative construction of various philosophical reflections on cultural memory in Julian Barnes’s novel Elisabeth Finch. It addresses the dichotomy between recollection and oblivion, presenting a memory process as a the “problem of forgotten evidence”, thoroughly discussed in today’s Cultural and Memory Studies. While con...
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Research Article
‘Lift me up!’: The New Major Discourses of Care and Ageing in Doris Lessing’s The Diaries of Jane Somers
Zuzanna Zarebska*
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 3, September 2024
Pages:
118-124
Received:
12 March 2024
Accepted:
13 May 2024
Published:
23 September 2024
DOI:
10.11648/j.ellc.20240903.19
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Abstract: The genre of Reifungsroman considers different temporal aspects of individuation. It aids and assesses the capacity of an older person to re-story their life, enter meaningful relationships, make amends with the past and productively evolve as an individual. Instead of focusing solely on the present, time is seen as a continuum in Reifungsroman with a special emphasis on the past events and narratives. This article will trace the late life transformation that Jane and Maudie undergo as all life is mutable and finite, awareness of which can make us more compassionate. In The Diaries of Jane Sommers, written by Doris Lessing and published in 1984 the narrator tells the story of the relationship she constructs with an elderly friend, Maudie, whom she meets in the streets of London and who triggers her identarian metamorphoses. Maudie embodies all the stereotypes of an old woman, she has crone-like features and an unforgiving temper. From the physical maladies to emotional suffering, Jane Sommers is herself a source of discomfort and displeasure to those around her. As the narrative unravels and cleanses Jane from rampant egoism, as she bathes after each visit to Maudie’s home, she deconstructs her old narratives and transitions into an empathetic self. As Maudie shades her trauma in words and being bathed by Jane, both undergo a process of healing. Maudie dies with dignity and out of this sacrificial moment of catharses, the meeting of the now and then, new Jane is born. She erases the old wry Jane, an ambitious and vain journalist in a women’s magazine, only concerned with success and everlasting youth, who spends time and her financial gains on material goods. This article will look into the discourses on ageing and the genre of Reifungsroman in The Diaries of Jane Sommers, Lessing’s fifth novel, published under a pseudonym and separately as two separate books: The Diaries of a Good Neighbour and If the Old Could against criticism from various editorial boards. I will analyse the processes of resignification of the minor discourses and their relationship towards the major discourses on growing older. I will consider Jana and Maudie as a two-faced Janus and a dyad of the old and the new, the ich and the poor, the successful and the unsuccessful: a crone, a witch and young woman whose polyphony of voices can re-story the narratives of women and ageing.
Abstract: The genre of Reifungsroman considers different temporal aspects of individuation. It aids and assesses the capacity of an older person to re-story their life, enter meaningful relationships, make amends with the past and productively evolve as an individual. Instead of focusing solely on the present, time is seen as a continuum in Reifungsroman wit...
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Research Article
The Archaeology of Absence in Kamila Shamsie’s A God in Every Stone
Margarida Pereira Martins*
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 3, September 2024
Pages:
125-131
Received:
12 March 2024
Accepted:
7 April 2024
Published:
23 September 2024
DOI:
10.11648/j.ellc.20240903.20
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Abstract: Approximately 1.4 million Indians were recruited to the First World War. Despite their role in the war and the high number of deaths, most of the literature in English on the Great War has been narrowed down to British experience. However, in recent years their stories have been emerging through fiction, in academic research and educational projects resulting in a more complete picture of the war and who was involved. A British arts education group engaged students in a project designed to teach and share the stories of forgotten soldiers from World War I. Writing about the project in The Guardian in 2018 Kamila Shamsie claimed the aim was to teach school children about the war and the involvement of non-British recruits whose narratives had up till then been unknown. In academia, respected scholars such as Santanu Das or Claire Buck have undergone thorough research on the representation of Indian recruits through an analysis of literary texts and artefacts states that war memories of the Indian sepoy whose stories were left behind and forgotten on the battle ground. According to Das, the lack of stories by Indian recruits does not mean that history cannot be rectified since it is possible to recover the experience and memory of the recruits. Recently emerging literary representation of the Indian recruit provided historical insight into their experience shedding light on new perspectives of the War. The aim of this article is to analyse the representation of Indian recruits and their experience of World War I in Kamila Shamsie’s 2014 novel A God in Every Stone. I argue that through fiction, it is possible to construct a broader and more inclusive understanding of this historical event as well as to uncover deeper complexities and anxieties on the Indian colonial experience.
Abstract: Approximately 1.4 million Indians were recruited to the First World War. Despite their role in the war and the high number of deaths, most of the literature in English on the Great War has been narrowed down to British experience. However, in recent years their stories have been emerging through fiction, in academic research and educational project...
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Research Article
The (Re)imagined Shades of Alice Gray: The Counter-Memory of a Woman-as-Witch in Stacey Halls’ The Familiars (2019)
Inês Tadeu Freitas Gonçalves*
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 3, September 2024
Pages:
132-137
Received:
11 April 2024
Accepted:
27 April 2024
Published:
23 September 2024
DOI:
10.11648/j.ellc.20240903.21
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Abstract: Historical fiction is a way of dealing with painful pasts and traumatic events as counter-memories. Long-forgotten events are (re)created in a safe space in historical fiction. Set in seventeenth-century Lancashire, in her modern historical fiction The Familiars (2019), Stacey Halls narrates Alice Gray’s painful past as a woman-as-witch into existence. Halls achieves it by (re)imagining Alice Gray’s plight within the historical context of the Pendle Hill witch-hunt in 1612 Lancashire. Not only does Halls give Alice her historical voice back, but she sets the historical record straight by counter-memorialising Alice Gray as a woman-as-witch, i.e., a seventeenth-century woman othered and presumed to practise witchcraft, in this instance, merely for being an impoverished unmarried woman and a midwife. In this way, Halls’s narrative invites us to empathise with Alice’s plight, to understand the injustices she faced, and to appreciate her resilience. Besides, (re)creating Alice’s witchcraft story, Halls fleshes out her heart-wrenching emotional turmoil. Moving away from the cold historical recorded facts, Halls interweaves Alice’s troubled personal past as an abused young woman and a grieving and loving stepmother with the unfortunate contemporary events of the Pendle Hill witch hunt. As a result, we are offered a more than plausible (re)imagined rationale for Alice’s witch hunt predicament and acquittal, which cannot be found or is even hinted at in the historical records. Thus, Halls culturally endows Alice’s seventeenth-century marginalised historical counterpart with a contemporary gender-empowered mnemonic (re)imagined counter-memory. Moreover, Hall’s active remembering of Alice Gray politically (re)contextualises and (re)frames this woman-as-witch of the Pendle Hill witch hunt of 1612 previously wanting. Also, the (re)imagined counter-memory of Alice Gray challenges the dominant historical narrative and underscores historical fiction’s power in reshaping our understanding of the past. Ultimately, Halls endears and humanises this woman-as-witch of Pendle Hill and provides us with the many shades of Alice Gray.
Abstract: Historical fiction is a way of dealing with painful pasts and traumatic events as counter-memories. Long-forgotten events are (re)created in a safe space in historical fiction. Set in seventeenth-century Lancashire, in her modern historical fiction The Familiars (2019), Stacey Halls narrates Alice Gray’s painful past as a woman-as-witch into existe...
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Research Article
Julian Barnes’ England, England: Beyond Postmodernism and Dystopia
Majid Sadeghzadegan*
Issue:
Volume 9, Issue 3, September 2024
Pages:
138-149
Received:
17 April 2024
Accepted:
12 June 2024
Published:
23 September 2024
DOI:
10.11648/j.ellc.20240903.22
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Abstract: Julian Barnes’ England, England lends itself to many types of critical readings as it garners many concepts and themes as diverse as identity, memory, history, nationality, rise and fall of a nation, and individual crises. All these are incorporated satirically, if not farcically, into the life a Martha Cochrane whose life milestones run in tandem with the three parts of the novel, which nostalgically cite how a nation’s glory ebbs away gradually. The present paper sets out to explore England, England in particular dimensions in order to come to better terms with its embedded themes, especially Englishness and English identity. With an esoteric literary aura and a resolute voice in portraying Englishness, its memory and the aesthetics thereof, the novel seeks to illuminate many hidden codes and messages in the guise of humor and satire. To unravel such encryptions, one needs to decipher them initially through an investigation of postmodernist elements and staples, such as paradoxes, simulacrum and parody, which constitute the most compelling plank of the thematic contents of the novel. Along this path, prominent names such as Linda Hutcheon and Baudrillard will emerge whose theoretical implications will be high on the critical agenda of the paper. On a different note, England, England, as a distinctly dystopian work, happens to equally send strongly nostalgic messages regarding the concepts of Englishness, past, present, and their memory through the portrayal of a dystopian wasteland. The ending portion of the paper will endeavour to shed light on how Barnes deploys such dystopian air and poetics to embellish his work further concerning Englishness. Ultimately, the papers will infer that the fall of grand narratives such as Englishness, identity, and memory is what it takes for a nation to rebuild and re-invent its identity.
Abstract: Julian Barnes’ England, England lends itself to many types of critical readings as it garners many concepts and themes as diverse as identity, memory, history, nationality, rise and fall of a nation, and individual crises. All these are incorporated satirically, if not farcically, into the life a Martha Cochrane whose life milestones run in tandem ...
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