A Pragmatic Analysis of Selected Obituaries In Nigerian Newspapers

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Oluwole Akinbode

Since the inception of Pragmatics as an independent approach to meaning has independent linguistic study, the approach to meaning has encountered an enormous change. Meaning has been perceived beyond the sentence level. The aim of this paper was to do a pragmatic analysis of selected obituaries in Nigerian newspapers; Nigerian Tribune, The Nation and The Punch. These papers were purposively selected because obituaries were regularly published and publicized through them in a mournful manner and this called for a critical linguistic study by analyzing the mournful use of language with a view to finding out their effects on the decoders. The study of language has been extended significantly beyond mere description of linguistic properties to the various ways which individual communicators convey meanings in different socio-cultural contexts. The theoretical framework for this study is pragmatics. This is because pragmatics has been able to account for social meanings and give new insights to the understanding of literary texts and thus, helping in formulating strategies for the teaching and learning of language. Three Nigerian newspapers namely Nigerian Tribune, The Nation and the Punch were purposively selected for data collection. Relevant texts on obituaries were extracted from them and were critically analyzed for the purpose of this study. It was found out that relatives and friends of the deceased publicized the death of the deceased as memories and sympathy for the departed souls. It is recommended that obituaries should be used for the teaching and learning of English as a Second Language because funerals and obituaries are a significant aspect of African culture.

1991 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Nunan

In this article, the current state of second language classroom-oriented research is subjected to critical review. The article begins by providing a brief overview of aims and issues in classroom-oriented research, before focusing more specifically on methodological issues in research. The review is based on an analysis of 50 empirical investigations of teaching and learning. These studies are analyzed in terms of their rationale, the environment in which they were carried out, the design and method of data collection, and the type of analysis carried out on the data. In the final part of the article, the implications of the study for future classroom research are presented and discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 265
Author(s):  
Noor Hanim Rahmat ◽  
Mazlen Arepin ◽  
Suraiya Sulaiman

This study investigates students' fear in academic reading as well as the influence of perceived difficulties in their reading comprehension. The paper aims to study the level of anxiety as experienced by undergaduate students in academic reading. Data from 25 respondents were analyzed quantitatively using Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS) developed by Saito, Horwitz, and Garza (1999). Te objectives of the study are to examine the influence of students' fear and perceived difficulties in academic reading. The findings of this study reveal that factors such as background and culture, general reading ability, vocabulary, grammar as well as teaching method can make readers fear reading. The results of this study bear interesting implications towards the teaching and learning of academic reading in English as a Second Language.


2019 ◽  
pp. 263-269
Author(s):  
Nwakwengu S.A. ◽  
Aneke C.U.

The main purpose of this study was to determine the influence of urbanization in teaching and learning of agriculture in Ebonyi State. The study was guided by two research questions and two null hypotheses. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population was 397 which comprised 261 teachers of agricultural science in Ebonyi State and 136 senior secondary three students from 5 public secondary school in Abakiliki, Ebonyi State. No sampling was done due to the manageable size of the population. The instrument used for data collection was a 17 item questionnaire which was validated by three experts. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha which yielded reliability index of 0.85 indicating that the instrument was suitable for data collection. The questionnaire was distributed by the researcher and three trained research assistants. Out of 397 copies distributed 383 were properly filled and returned representing 96.47 percent return rate. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions and t-test statistics was used to test the null hypotheses. Based on the data analysis, it was found that urbanization affects the quality of teachers in rural schools due to rural urban migration, increases the rate of agricultural teacher‟s turnover in teaching and reduces government attention to agricultural science teaching facilities in urban areas. Recommendations were made among, others that Government should be make teaching of skill acquisition in urban settlement to be attractive to the students and teachers should make instruction facilities to meet the needed skills and contemporary issues in urban settlement to the students.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8571
Author(s):  
Siti Fatimah Abd Rahman ◽  
Melor Md Yunus ◽  
Harwati Hashim

Flipped learning empowers learners to take an engaging role in learning while educators assist the learning process. The employment of flipped learning has been confirmed to enhance the teaching and learning of English as a second language in previous studies. This study aimed to explore the application of the unified theory of technology acceptance and use of technology towards ESL lecturers’ intention to use flipped learning. This study used a quantitative research framework where a set of online questionnaires was used in collecting the data. A total of 206 English as a second language lecturers from four different universities participated in this study. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The result of this study indicates that only social influence is significant in predicting English as a second language lecturers’ intention to use the flipped learning approach. Furthermore, this study enriches the literature on 21st century education and the integration of technology in teaching and learning. In addition, this study could help educators and stakeholders in adapting or enhancing the flipped learning approach by distinguishing the distinct predictors of technology acceptance.


Author(s):  
Marga Stander ◽  
Annemarie Le Roux

Abstract South African Sign Language (SASL) has become an increasingly popular language that hearing university students want to learn as a second language. This requires more qualified SASL instructors and new curricula at South African universities. This paper considers ways in which challenges associated with the teaching and learning of SASL can be overcome. Krashen’s Comprehension Input Hypothesis and Swain’s Output Hypothesis form the theoretical framework as reference to our own independent experience, praxis, and reflection. This study considered different teaching methods and pedagogies and found the post-method approach suggested by Kumaravadivelu (2003) a viable method for teaching SASL as a second language. This method aligns with the method we had independently identified as the most empowering for teachers to create their own strategies focused on their intuition, experiences and pedagogy. Therefore, we do not favour one specific method above another, but rather adopt an integrated approach. We make a few suggestions regarding sign language curriculum content and further research in sign language as an L2, which need urgent attention.


2021 ◽  
pp. 136216882199414
Author(s):  
Maite Santiago-Garabieta ◽  
Rocío García-Carrión ◽  
Harkaitz Zubiri-Esnaola ◽  
Garazi López de Aguileta

The increasing linguistic diversity of the students in schools poses a major challenge for inclusive educational systems in which everyone can learn the language of instruction effectively and, likewise, can have access to contents, being language the necessary tool to the latter end. Research suggests that there is a robust connection between interaction and language acquisition. Therefore, there is a need to identify the forms of interaction that are most effective for that purpose. In this sense, a greater emphasis on dialogic teaching and learning that increases quality interactions among students may facilitate the learning process. The present study analyses the implementation of a dialogue-based educational action called Dialogic Literary Gatherings (DLG) to promote teaching and learning Basque, a minority language, in a linguistically diverse context. Our research is an exploratory case study: 9 lessons were video-recorded and 2 interviews were conducted with a group of students and their teacher respectively. Results suggest that the DLG creates affordances for encouraging participation in collaborative interactions in the second language, promoting the inclusion of L2 learners, and fostering literature competence as well as a taste for the universal literature. We discuss the implications of these findings for second language learning.


2021 ◽  
pp. 147332502110293
Author(s):  
Laura A. Chubb ◽  
Christa B. Fouché ◽  
Karen Sadeh Kengah

The call to decolonise research processes and knowledge produced through them has spawned a powerful shift in working relationships between community researchers and members of local communities. Adaptation of a traditional conversational space in a community-based participatory research study offers a context-specific example of a decolonising method for data collection and as pathways for change. This article reports on learnings encountered while adapting the space and highlights the relevance for other cultural contexts. We present principles to adapt traditional conversational spaces both for collecting data and as a means of working in partnership with indigenous communities to enable different ways of knowing and action.


2011 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 120-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha Bigelow ◽  
Patsy Vinogradov

Some second language (L2) learners are unique in that they bring low print literacy and limited formal schooling to the language learning enterprise. A range of personal, economic, historical, and political circumstances bring them to highly literate, industrialized societies where print literacy becomes not only desirable but necessary to earn a living and participate in a range of everyday activities. This article is a review of current research related to this population of learners for the purpose of informing educators about their particular teaching and learning needs. While the emphasis is on scholarship focused on adult L2 emergent readers, attention is also given to related research with bi- and multilingual children and monolingual adults who are not print literate. Finally, sociopolitical and historical issues are touched upon with regard to broader policy matters that may have contributed to or perpetuate low print literacy.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 144-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikola Maurova Paillereau

Researchers in the field of the teaching and learning of phonetics agree that learners of a foreign/second language (L2) acquire identical vowels by positive transfer from their first language (L1). This statement prompted us to examine whether the French and Czech languages, differing in the size of their vowel inventories, possess any identical vowels that could thus be omitted from French as a Foreign Language (FFL) phonetic curricula intended for Czech learners. The quantification of the vowels’ phonetic similarity is based on the comparison of their (1) phonetic symbols, (2) formant values (F-patterns), and (3) perceptual characteristics. The combined results show that strictly identical vowels between the two languages do not exist, but some French vowels can be defined as highly similar to some Czech vowels. Different coarticulatory effects of vowels produced in isolation and in labial, dental and palato-velar symmetrical environments point to a very strong influence of phonetic contexts on vowel similarity. Indeed, no French vowel is highly similar to any Czech vowel in all of the contexts studied. The findings suggest that phonetic exercises designed for Czech learners should focus on allophonic variations of all French vowels.


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