The Five-Point Indian: Caste, Masculinity, and English Language in the Paratexts of Chetan Bhagat

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pallavi Rao
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Television News ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Literary Celebrity ◽  
Gender Power ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Authorial Persona

This article examines the literary celebrity of Indian author Chetan Bhagat and his paratextual articulations in India’s English-language media. It seeks to deconstruct the role of these paratexts in occluding how upper-caste masculinity operates as the normative script in mainstream media discourse. Critically examining Bhagat’s utterances in English-language television news, print newspapers, and social media, I argue that the paratexts enable his authorial persona to be continually constructed in ways that consolidate his caste-patriarchal authority. In the process, these paratexts valorize neoliberal entrepreneurship and narratives of ascent, rendering existing caste hegemonies in India invisible. Bhagat’s use of English also reflects the complex politics of the English language in colonial history, where upper-caste men in service of the empire utilized the linguistic hegemony of English to consolidate their patriarchal and caste dominance. However, I suggest that pockets of awareness operate among Bhagat’s readers and audiences, where subaltern groups have strategically negotiated using this upper-caste masculinized English to forge their own social mobility and empowerment. Bhagat’s performance of celebrity has to thus be seen as being enacted within a complex English-speaking milieu, which is rife with caste and gender power struggles.

scholarly journals LEXICAL MEANS OF VERBALIZATION OF THE ENGLISH CONCEPT HAIR

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
N.M. Mikava
Keyword(s):  
Social Group ◽  
English Language ◽  
Body Hair ◽  
Facial Hair ◽  
The Core ◽  
The World ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Somatic Feature ◽  
The Given

The article is devoted to the consideration of the features of the verbalization of the concept HAIR in the English language. The purpose of the work is to examine the structure of the English concept HAIR as a fragment of the English-language picture of the world of the English-speaking society. The main attention is focused on the analysis of the language embodiment of the given concept in the naïve and professional varients of the picture of the world. The English concept HAIR is a fragment of the conceptual picture of the world, which is reflected in the language picture of the world, namely in its three fragments, verbalized by the constituents of the lexical-semantic groups, distinguished according to the somatic feature. They are head hair, facial hair, body hair. The analysis of the language and speech material showed that the structure of the English concept HAIR in the naive picture of the world is a three-component formation, which consists of a core, a nuclear zone and a periphery. The core includes such conceptual features as somatic and gender. The nuclear zone includes objective and various associative conceptual features, namely: age, thinness, protection, beauty, strength / success, value. The periphery of the concept consists of socially-identifying functions - professional, religious and social-group. The core of the concept HAIR in the professional picture of the world includes such conceptual features as somatic, gender, structure and development. The nuclear zone includes objective conceptual features, namely: health, age, protection. The periphery of the concept consists of professional, religious, and social-group social-identifying functions. Thus the periphery of the given concept in the two variants of the picture of the world is identical. The prospects for further research are seen in the consideration of the mentioned aspects of verbalization on the material of English artistic speech as well as professional discourse.

scholarly journals English for Academic Purposes: Theory, Trends and Practices

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Gopal Prasad Pandey
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
English For Specific Purposes ◽  
Academic Context ◽  
Intercultural Awareness ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Professional Needs ◽  
English Speaking

English for academic purpose (EAP) emerged as a branch of English for specific purposes in the early 1980s. EAP grounds English language teaching in the linguistic demands of academic context, tailoring instruction to specific rather than general purposes. There is a growth of interest in EAP in the recent years. The interest in EAP developed in response to the growing need for intercultural awareness and of English as a lingua franca (ELF). EAP has become a major area of research in applied linguistics and focus of the courses studied worldwide by a large number of students preparing for study in colleges and universities. The increase in students’ undertaking tertiary studies in English-speaking countries has led to a steady demand for the courses tailored to meet the immediate, specific vocational and professional needs. Thus, most universities in the present day world prioritize the role of academic skills. The aim of the paper is to examine the key approaches to the teaching of English for academic purposes, current trends in teaching EAP, and to argue the centrality and significance of EAP in the academia. The paper concludes by arguing that a greater emphasis needs to be placed on methodology in EAP.

scholarly journals THE TEACHING OF EFL LISTENING IN THE INDONESIAN CONTEXT: THE STATE OF THE ART

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 194
Author(s):  
Bambang Yudi Cahyono ◽  
Utami Widiati
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
International Language ◽  
Research And Teaching ◽  
The Status ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Teaching Of Listening ◽  
Listening Process

The status of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Indonesia necessitates the use of English native speakers' utterances as models of pronunciation and as standard of understanding messages in various contexts, be they academic or social. As recently English has developed as an international language that can be used as a means of communication between people from non-English speaking countries, the role of listening activities in the teaching of English cannot be neglected. This article highlights the importance of listening and reviews some of the issues in the research and teaching of EFL listening. It firstly presents a paradigm of the listening process, followed by a theoretical framework for teaching listening, especially in the broader context of English language teaching. It then discusses the teaching of and research on EFL listening in Indonesia. Finally, this article outlines some recommendations for more effective teaching of listening in EFL classrooms.

“The reading wars in situ”

Pragmatics ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Collins
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
English Language ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Urban Middle School ◽  
Race Effects ◽  
Literate Identities ◽  
Pedagogical Reform ◽  
Raymond Williams ◽  
And Gender

Engaging Raymond Williams’ argument (1977: 112) that “[a] lived hegemony is always a process ... [that] can never be singular,” this paper examines contrary tendencies toward domination and autonomy in national debates about education, classroom-based reading practices, and students’ formation of literate identities. In particular, I explore the dynamics of inequality and reflexivity through an ethnographic-and-discursive analysis of a US urban middle school undergoing pedagogical reform. The school presents a balance, roughly 50/50, of students living in poverty and not living in poverty and from majority and non-majority ethnoracial backgrounds. Because of statewide pressures to “improve test scores,” the school has agreed to an ambitious English Language Arts curriculum initiative which encourages reflexive self-guidance among teachers and students. The paper presents analyses of public debates about literacy and of classroom interactional dynamics as well as case studies of ‘struggling readers,’ that is, young adolescent deemed unsuccessful at school literacy. The analysis of literacy debates focuses on the displacement of class and race “effects” in discussions of pedagogical reform. The classroom analyses focus on conditions of pedagogical inclusion and exclusion and the apparent role of class, race, and gender in such conditions. The case studies focus on the articulation of school and non-school literate identities and the role of class, race, and gender in those identities and their articulation.

Historiography

2020 ◽  
pp. 15-41
Author(s):  
Linda J. Lumsden
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Woman Suffrage ◽  
Journalism History ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
White Middle Class ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Gender

This essay traces the evolution of scholarship on the role of a broad range of media in the American suffrage movement, including the suffrage press, plays, films, and consumer goods as well as mainstream news representations of the movement. The essay retrieves individual suffrage editors and publications to historical memory and considers the social construction of gender in mainstream media and suffragists’ “self-mediation”; the intersection of race, class, and gender in media accounts of woman suffrage; the marketing of woman suffrage; and insights into related fields, including political science, social movements, journalism history, popular culture, literary studies, and communications studies. The essay traces how scholarship has evolved from casting woman suffrage as a white, middle-class, Northeastern movement dominated by a few leaders to a diverse mix of activists across the United States.

scholarly journals Dominant and Gender-Specific Tendencies in the Use of Discourse Markers: Insights from EFL Learners

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahboobeh Tavakoli ◽  
Amin Karimnia
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
The Other ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Chi Square Test ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Gender Specific

This study followed two objectives: it primarily investigated the types of discourse markers (DMs) used in thespoken language of Iranian advanced EFL learners, and then explored the possible impact of gender on theparticipants’ use of DMs. To this end, 40 male and female EFL learners selected from an English language instituteparticipated in this study. The data were gathered through class observations. The researchers used Fraser’staxonomy of DMs and Fung’s category of interpersonal DMs as the theoretical framework of the study. To analyzethe data descriptive and inferential statistics were used. Results of the frequency test revealed that “and” was themost commonly used elaborative DM, whereas “but” was the most frequent contrastive DM. “Because” and “by theway” were respectively the only reason and topic-related DMs used by the participants, while “sure” was the mostfrequent interpersonal DM. In addition, results of the chi-square test revealed that learners significantly employedinterpersonal DMs more than the other sub-classes of DMs. Concerning the role of gender in the use of DMs, resultsdemonstrated that females significantly used more DMs compared with the males.

Gendered Language

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 187-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca S. Bigler ◽  
Campbell Leaper
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
The Other ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Gendered Language ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Gender Biases ◽  
Gender Neutral ◽  
And Gender ◽  
And Behavior

The language used to describe concepts influences individuals’ cognition, affect, and behavior. A striking example comes from research on gendered language, or words that denote individuals’ gender (e.g., she, woman, daughter). Gendered language contributes to gender biases by making gender salient, treating gender as a binary category, and causing stereotypic views of gender. In our review, we first summarize some of the major ways that language marks individuals’ gender, focusing on the English language but noting patterns in other languages as well. Second, we describe research on the relation between gendered language, on one hand, and gender-related cognition, affect, and behavior (e.g., gender salience, categorization, stereotyping, and prejudice), on the other hand. Third, we review past and contemporary efforts at changing gendered language, including calls for the use of gender-neutral nouns (e.g., “Good evening, folks” instead of “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen”) and pronouns (e.g., ze instead of he or she). Finally, we highlight the role of values in shaping views of language policies that may mitigate the pervasiveness and consequences of gendered language.

China Confidential: Methodological and Ethical Challenges in Global Nursing Historiography

2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 162-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonya Grypma ◽  
Na Wu
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Data Generation ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
International History ◽  
Global Consciousness ◽  
Mission Hospital ◽  
Language Data ◽  
History Of ◽  
English Speaking

As the history of nursing as a field of scholarship expands its global consciousness, it seems timely to join other scholars of international history in rethinking conventional approaches to historiography. The lament by mission scholars at the invisibility of nurses and indigenous workers in historical mission records coincides with calls by China scholars to reconsider traditional reliance on English-language data generation and interpretation for an English-speaking audience. In a similar way, nursing scholars are challenging historians of nursing to find ways to build a body of scholarship and a cadre of scholars that can open up new linguistic and cultural space for vibrant discussion and dialogue. Drawing on Sonya Grypma’s research on the role of missionary nurses in the development of modern nursing in China and based on a series of interviews by the authors in China of participants with ties to a former Canadian mission hospital, we explore methodological and ethical challenges in global nursing historiography. By offering insights gleaned from our early attempts to capture voices not included in conventional mission records, we hope to stimulate more dialogue about conceptual and structural issues central to a “new” global nursing historiography.

scholarly journals FUNCTIONS OF THE PRAGMATIC MARKER LIKE IN ENGLISH AND HOW MACEDONIAN LEARNERS VIEW IT

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 1627-1632
Author(s):  
Marija Kusevska ◽  
Biljana Ivanovska
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Interlanguage Pragmatics ◽  
Pragmatic Markers ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Communication Needs ◽  
New Research

The study presented in this paper is a part of the research project “Developing cross-cultural and interlanguage pragmatics research and its practical implications” currently being implemented at Goce Delchev University in Shtip, Republic of North Macedonia. This project was partly motivated by the small number of studies in Macedonia on interlanguage pragmatics as well as by the growing need for development of new research methods. In compliance with the above, the objectives of thе project are as follows: 1. increase of the pool of cross-cultural, intercultural, and interlanguage pragmatics studies; 2. development of modern methods for data collection and analysis; and 3. linking empirical research with educational and communication needs in the society. This paper in particular investigates the use of the pragmatic marker like by Macedonian learners of English. Two research questions have been posed: 1. What functions do MLE of English associate with like? and 2. How do they view speakers who use it? The standard for comparison for the first question is the native speakers’ usage of like as described in other studies. The second question was answered on the basis of an attitudinal questionnaire. The attitudinal questionnaire asked the participants to express their perception of like with respect to the age and gender of the speakers, formality of the situation, grammaticality, acceptability, distractiveness, and politeness of the utterances. They also rated users for fluency and their level of English. The participants were also asked to explain if they use like in a similar way and for what purposes as well as how they learned it. The attitudinal survey was adapted from Dailey-O'Cain (2000). The examples, however, are from my data. The participants of this study were 40 students of English enrolled at the Department of English language at Goce Delchev University, Shtip, age 19 to 25. Most of them were at B2, C1 or C2 level of English. All participants learned English for at least five years in primary school and four years at high school, which means they had English as a subject up to their graduation from high school. Very few of the students had been to an English speaking country. The findings of this investigation show that the pragmatic marker like is salient for the learners and that they use it in a similar way as native speakers. However, it is stigmatized and most learners view it negatively. Additionally, other factors that influence its usage were identified. Further research may investigate whether the use of like is influenced by the proficiency levels of English and whether a longer stay in an English speaking country influences the use of like. It would be also useful to investigate other pragmatic markers and see how they are used in learner English.

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