scholarly journals Critical Thinking Perspective in ESL New English Textbooks: A Case Study of Pakistan

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
Hind Alfadda ◽  
Maryam Fatima ◽  
Abdul Ghaffar ◽  
Muhammad Afzaal
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
English Language ◽  
Esl Teachers ◽  
Government Schools ◽  
Model Schools ◽  
English Textbooks ◽  
The Government ◽  
Training Need

This study examines ESL textbooks of English language of grade 9th and 10th of Punjab model schools in Pakistan. In order to achieve the goals of research, the qualitative method was used and applied Paul Elder’s Critical Thinking Model (2008) on the text books of grades 9 and 10. The collected data was analyzed qualitatively. Activities mentioned in the textbooks of grades 9 and 10 of Punjab textbook board were extracted and analyzed in the light of Paul and Elder’s CT model. ESL teachers’ interviews regarding the said textbooks serve as an insight into the role of critical thinking among learners. Mention the period of analysis. There relevance exists between the exercises given in English textbooks with the model of critical thinking prosed by Paul and Elder. However, the teachers of Government schools are unaware of the critical thinking perspective and some sessions of critical thinking training need to be offered to the English school teachers of Government schools. The results of the study have significant implications for material developers. The study recommends that the Government of Punjab may provide a training program to the teachers who may get some sort of training and implement on the students the best of teaching practices in Pakistan. In the same context, the analysis of interviews shows that teachers have been playing a passive role in the promotion of CT in the teaching process. Hence, there is a need to organize some training sessions to make them aware of the basic concept and importance of CT in Pakistan.

scholarly journals Indigenous Culture and Academic Discourse: A Critique of English Textbooks in Pakistan

2017 ◽  
Vol II (I) ◽  
pp. 130-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Azhar Habib ◽  
Inayat Ullah
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Method ◽  
English Language ◽  
Secondary Level ◽  
Mixed Method Study ◽  
Specific Method ◽  
Government Schools ◽  
Cultural Elements ◽  
International Language ◽  
English Textbooks ◽  
The Government

The paper aims to explore how far English textbooks in Pakistan embody Pakistan and its culture. In this connection, the reading passages and pictures/images of the textbooks taught at secondary level in the government schools of Punjab were analyzed. It was a mixed method study and the specific method employed was content analysis. For this purpose all the reading passages of both the textbooks were firstly categorized and quantified into three categories; Source Culture/s, Other Culture/s and Neutral and then the cultural elements of Source Culture/s were discussed qualitatively using an adapted checklist. The results of the study reveal that the English textbook of class 9 has 12 passages out of which 75% have Source cultural elements, 8.83% have cultural elements of Other Culture/s and 16.66% are Neutral. As far as the English textbook of class 10 is concerned, there are 13 reading passages out of which 23.07% have Source cultural elements, 15.38% have cultural elements of Other Culture/s and 61.53% are Neutral. The findings of the study show that English, being an international language and as a result of globalization, has become compulsory for people belonging to different countries to learn it. However, in order to retain their identity, they try to appropriate English language to underpin their own culture/s through English language used in the textbooks of Pakistan.

scholarly journals I am what I am: Exploring the identity construal in Pakistani School EFL Textbooks

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 679-691
Author(s):  
Tazanfal Tehseem ◽  
Naima Tassadiq ◽  
Rabia Faiz ◽  
Lala Rukh
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
Genre Theory ◽  
Government Schools ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Linguistic Patterns ◽  
English Textbooks ◽  
The Government ◽  
Sociopolitical Identity ◽  
Sociocultural Identity

This paper aims at exploring how identity is construed in children’s literature and how the powerful legitimize to identify the textbook consumers by exercising their influence. Drawing on Systemic-functional Linguistics (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2014), particularly Genre theory (Martin and Rose, 2008), it examines how English language textbooks used in Pakistan are written to construe, a project, and normalize a particular sociocultural identity. The sociocultural positioning being projected through the textbooks can be norm-conforming, contesting or can suggest otherwise. The majority of the students in Pakistan are mandated to learn state governed textbooks which serve them build up a sociopolitical identity. Therefore, underlying semiotic modalities realizing a perspective are pertinent to be explored in order to unfold discursive strategies for constructing identity. It is widely acknowledged that any educational curriculum is the most effective tool to construct and circulate a reality. Therefore, challenging any literacy pedagogy embedding particular outcomes can help transforming educational practices across the school curriculum (Martin and Rose, 2012). The data comprises Punjab English textbooks for the government schools. The findings suggest that the intriguing intricacies of textbook discourses can be successfully examined through analyzing linguistic patterns and that the textbooks construe sociocultural identity. The findings also provide insightful implications for discourse analysis based on SFL by contributing explorations of identity.

scholarly journals The Foregrounding Function of Praesens Historicum in Russian Translated Adventure Narratives (20th Century)

Slovene ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 226-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasia V. Urzha
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
English Language ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Functional Grammar ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
Translation Strategy ◽  
Common Basis ◽  
Narrative Forms

This research focuses on the functioning of praesens historicum forms which Russian translators use to substitute for English narrative forms referring to past events. The study applies the Theory of Grounding and Russian Communicative Functional Grammar to the comparative discourse analysis of English-language adventure stories and novels created in the 19th and 20th centuries and their Russian translations. The Theory of Grounding is still not widely used in Russian translation studies, nor have its concepts and fruitful ideas been related to the achievements of Russian Narratology and Functional Grammar. This article presents an attempt to find a common basis in these academic traditions as they relate to discourse analysis and to describe the role of praesens historicum forms in Russian translated adventure narratives. The corpus includes 22 original texts and 72 Russian translations, and the case study involves six Russian translations of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, focusing on the translation made by Korney Chukovsky, who employed historic present more often than in other translations of the novel. It is shown that the translation strategy of substituting the original English-language past forms with Russian present forms is realized in foregrounded and focalized segments of the text, giving them additional saliency. This strategy relates the use of historic present to the functions of deictic words and words denoting visual or audial perception, locating the deictic center of the narrative in the spacetime of the events and allowing the reader to join the focalizing WHO (a narrator or a hero). Translations that regularly mark the foreground through the use of the historic present and accompanying lexical-grammatical means are often addressed to young readers.

scholarly journals Case Study on the Efficiency of Recycling Companies’ Waste Paper Collection Stations in Japan

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 11536
Author(s):  
Xiaoyue Liu ◽  
Jeongsoo Yu ◽  
Kazuaki Okubo ◽  
Masahiro Sato ◽  
Toshiaki Aoki
Keyword(s):  
Collection Efficiency ◽  
Waste Paper ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Collection System ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
Operational Characteristics ◽  
The Government ◽  
Families With Children

Each year, a large amount of waste paper (WP) is generated in Japan, and due to the change in lifestyle with the COVID-19 pandemic, the WP collection and recycling system in Japan faces new challenges. Although the government of Japan has installed WP collection systems, the efficiency of these traditional WP collection systems is too low, and this causes inconvenience to the governments, residents, and other stakeholders. On the other hand, some recycling companies in Japan are trying to establish a nontraditional WP collection system by setting their own WP collection stations in cooperative supermarkets. Yet, the efficiency of this new system has not been clarified. This research aims to investigate the current status, operational characteristics, and the role of recycling companies’ WP collection stations in the Japanese WP collection system. By performing trade area analysis and stepwise OLS regression, this research will evaluate WP collection stations’ efficiency. Moreover, this research will also discuss how the new WP collection system improves WP collection efficiency and residents’ convenience. The results show that WP collection stations efficiency is particularly high in large supermarkets with many parking spaces and long business hours, as well as in areas with many families with children. Recycling companies’ WP collection system could create a system, which can satisfy resident, government, and recycling company interests at the same time.

scholarly journals Citizen Participation in Responding to Natural Disasters Through Twitter Messages

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 123
Author(s):  
Rizky Pamuji ◽  
Ismiarta Aknuranda ◽  
Fatwa Ramdani
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Disaster Relief ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Citizen Involvement ◽  
The Government

Citizen participation in collect and distribute information increase the role of the citizen involvement in local issues and increasing the benefits of society for the government and the environment. The contribution of citizens can be useful in helping to deal with environment problems and assist certain parties in meeting data needs, this is commonly referred to as citizen science. In its development, citizen science involvement in providing information began to involve social media as a platform for sharing information. In this study we try to explore citizen science of Indonesia, we conduct case study exploring how citizen in Indonesia used social media such as Twitter in response to one of the country’s worst disaster in 2018 namely Lombok Earthquake. By analyzing these user generate message we may know what the response of Indonesian citizen during event and understand more about citizen science in Indonesia through social media including its role and contribution. The information also may assist local communities in obtaining up-to-date information, providing assistance according to needs of the populace and use to manage and plan disaster relief both during and after the event.

Facebook as Complementary Teaching Material: Reconceptualizing the Context Boundaries of Formal and Informal Learning in EFL Higher Education

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (9) ◽  
pp. 23-35
Author(s):  
Iman Abbas
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
English Language ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Survey Analysis ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Formal Curriculum ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Skills Learning

This article is a case study that aims to understand and explore a teacher's perspective about integrating Facebook as an informal social platform into the EFL classroom in a higher education context in Oman. The study further aims to identify the attitudes and perspectives of a group of students belonging to the same context. Research data came from semi-structured interviews with a teacher participant and a survey questionnaire with student participants. The study provides a set of findings based on interview data analysis and questionnaire survey analysis. The study's findings revealed the teacher and students' positive attitudes and perspectives towards the role of Facebook in boosting pedagogical practices and increasing English language skills learning. This study contributes to knowledge by providing insights on the integration of Facebook as an informal platform into the formal curriculum-based learning in TESOL. The insights and findings are of value to the teachers and instructors in EFL higher education contexts. Pedagogical implications for ESL (English as a second language) and EFL (English as a foreign language) and researchers are offered in the light of these results.

scholarly journals Social Movement at Indonesia - Malaysia Border (A Case Study of Indonesian Migrant Workers’ Education in Sebatik Island, a Land Border of Indonesia - Malaysia)

2018 ◽  
Vol 73 ◽  
pp. 11013
Author(s):  
Warsono Hardi ◽  
Nurcahyanto Herbasuki ◽  
Rifda Khaerani Thalita
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Basic Education ◽  
The State ◽  
Private Companies ◽  
Mining Company ◽  
Border Area ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government

The condition of the state border area between Indonesia and Malaysia is totally different. Children of Indonesian Workers (TKI) have no (limited) access to learn in formal schools since they do not have citizenship documents. This study aims to analyze the implementation of basic education mission in the border area, particularly in Sebatik island, Nunukan regency, North Kalimantan province. In addition, the research was conducted using qualitative explorative approach. Problems arising at the border area are very diverse and systemic. The Indonesian government conducts the education in border areas still very limitedly. The role of the public, corporate and private companies (Three Net Working) becomes very important in operating the schools in border area. The role of a former lecturer who is famously called Mrs. Midwife Suraidah is very dominant in helping TKI’s children to learn a variety of knowledge in Sekolah Tapal Batas (Tapal Batas School) in Sebatik island, Nunukan Regency, North Kalimantan province. Some help from companies such as Pertamina (national oil mining company), Dompet Dhuafa foundation and volunteers who are willing to be teachers strongly support the continuously of Tapal Batas School. The continuity of basic education in the state border becomes a challenge for the government since the purpose of the country written in the opening of Constitution 1945 is the intellectual life of the nation can be realized by implementing it in Nawacita program.

scholarly journals English in Brazil: Insights from the Analysis of Language Policies, Internationalization Programs and the CLIL Approach

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyria Finardi ◽  
Roberta Leao ◽  
Livia Melina Pinheiro
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
English Teachers ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Teachers Beliefs ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Globalized World

<p class="Normal1">The paper proposes a reflection on the role of English in the globalized world and its teaching/learning in Brazil. With that aim, the study reviews language policies and internationalization programs in Brazil regarding the role of foreign languages in general and of English in particular. The theoretical framework includes a review of an English language teaching (ELT) approach used mainly in Europe, as a result of globalization and internationalization, the Content and Language Integrated Approach (CLIL). In order to support this reflection, a case study was carried out to examine pre-service English teachers’ beliefs on the use of CLIL in Brazil. The results of study show that pre-service English teachers understand the importance of the CLIL approach though they are aware of the various obstacles to its implementation in that context. The study suggests a review of language policies in Brazil so as to ensure a convergence between them and internationalization policies and approaches, at all levels of education. Regarding the ELT approach analyzed, the study concludes that despite the difficulties associated with the implementation of CLIL in Brazil, it represents a relevant alternative in that context.</p>

scholarly journals The Role of Non-State Actors in Strengthening the Developmental Capacity of the State: A Case Study of Cross Rivers State, Nigeria

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 153
Author(s):  
Felix Chukwudi Oparah ◽  
Enya Ndem Bassey ◽  
Ohatu Ekoh Ohatu
Keyword(s):  
Skill Acquisition ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
The State ◽  
Cross River ◽  
Cross River State ◽  
Developmental Capacity ◽  
State Actors ◽  
The Government

This study examined the role of Non State Actors (NSAs) in strengthening the developmental capacity of the state, using a case study of Cross River State, Nigeria. Primary and secondary data on selected constituents of NSAs including Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Privately Owned Companies, Banks, Private Hospitals and Private Schools were analyzed using tables and charts. The results revealed that activities of NSAs significantly enhance the developmental capacity of Cross River State especially in the areas of provision of public services, knowledge and skill acquisition, infrastructural development and employment generation. Besides other recommendations, it was recommended that NSAs and the government should perform complementary roles in enhancing developmental capacity and that the establishment of more NSAs in the rural areas should be encouraged through the provision of special funding and other incentives for NSAs that have their offices in the rural areas.

English in Pakistani public education

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liaquat Ali Channa
Keyword(s):  
Public Education ◽  
Education Policy ◽  
English Language ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Government Schools ◽  
Public Language ◽  
National Education ◽  
The Government ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
Grade One

Abstract The article reviews the past, present, and future position of English in the Pakistani language-in-education policy for the Pakistani government schools. The article first traces how the English language came to Pakistan, and underlines the social domains in which English is commonly used at the present time. The article highlights the fact that English has enjoyed the highest social position in Pakistan since the country’s establishment in 1947. Taking this fact into account, the article traces historically the status of the English language in the language-in-education policy for the government schools since 1947 to the present time. I argue that students from the elite and non-elite English medium schools end up being more literate in English and having better access to social mobility than the students from the Pakistani government schools because of the low quality education and the poor instruction of English as a subject taught through traditional teaching methods of imitation and memorization. In order to reduce the gap, although the recent National Education Policy (NEP 2009) of Pakistan has recommended not only teaching English as a compulsory subject in grade one onward but also using it as a medium of instruction in grade four onward for the content subjects such as science and mathematics in the Pakistani government schools, the current predicament of Pakistani public education raises questions and controversies about the successful implementation of the policy. The main suggestion of the paper is the fact that since teachers are the major agents of change in realizing such curriculum reforms at their classroom level (Fullan & Stiegelbauer, 1991), their perspectives, perceptions and attitudes must be sought as well as included in such policy making processes. Because the voices of Pakistani government teachers are overlooked in such top-down language policies, this paper implies that the their experiences, attitudes, and perspectives about the present and future role of English in public language-in-education policies need to be explored to better understand the potential future implications for Pakistani teachers and their education. Such steps not only make policies inclusive but also gauge how far such English initiatives are facilitative in raising the quality of education and developing English language literacy in Pakistan.

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