Short stories by Alice Munro merge autobiographical themes with remarkable language and stirring ... more Short stories by Alice Munro merge autobiographical themes with remarkable language and stirring imagery. This paper analyzes the impact of ‘wilderness’ and mirrors the complexities of the obsession with the human psyche in the lives of the characters of Alice Munro’s short story “Vandals”. She portrays the evil and the threat that prevails in the wild and its hazardous impact on the psychology of its characters where they face cognitive clinical manias. The objective of the present paper is to read “Vandals” with reference to Bertrand Westphal’s theory of ‘geocriticism’ as proposed in his book Real and Fictional Spaces (2007) to identify the psychic disorders that Ladner, Bea, and Liza possess in the story. The wilderness that is constantly set against civilization or the urban space, distorts perception and selfperception, which metaphorically is an intrusion into the mental space of an individual. The characters are driven by intrusive thoughts and dysfunctional beliefs which lea...
Multidisciplinary Approach to Sustainable Development Goals Some Issues and Reflections , 2021
In India, one of the targets under Sustainable Development Goal 4 to promote Quality Education i... more In India, one of the targets under Sustainable Development Goal 4 to promote Quality Education is to make the youth more employable. Students enrolled in professional degree courses such as engineering require English language and communicative proficiency to be employed in today’s globalized world. Although English is a part of the core curriculum in most engineering colleges, the teaching-learning process is faced with multiple challenges. Besides the syllabus and pedagogy being outdated, little attention is paid towards learners’ language needs, which comes in their way of achieving the optimum level of communicative ability in English and consequently, securing jobs. Analysing the language needs of the learners introduces instructors to their attitudes, motivations and challenges, and helps identify knowledge gaps and set targets for their progress. The objective of this study was to analyse the English language and communication needs specific to the employability of engineering students in an EFL (English as a foreign language) classroom of a government college of Rajasthan. A questionnaire was developed and administered to a sample of 100 students pursuing engineering from College of Technology and Engineering, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India to collect data about their learning preferences and use of English, and identify the gap between the perceived importance of the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing (LSRW) in employment, along with their current proficiency in these skills. A descriptive analysis of the responses revealed that most of the students preferred participatory mode and use of digital tools in teaching. While all the four skills were considered important by the students for employability, the gap between current competence and perceived importance was observed the most in speaking skills. The results of the analysis can be utilized to make appropriate changes in content and pedagogy to make the students more employable.
Language teaching and learning can be facilitated through collaborative online platforms that all... more Language teaching and learning can be facilitated through collaborative online platforms that allow users to simultaneously work on a given text in real-time or work independently on it later. These also provide access to the saved version of the work as also the history of its evolution. Various applications developed by Google allow learners multiple communication tools that can be utilized for English language learning. These include Google Forms, Docs, Slides, Jamboard and Blogger, among several others. Google apps are flexible and versatile and can be used
The concept of gender is a cultural construct evolved in human society down the centuries to pres... more The concept of gender is a cultural construct evolved in human society down the centuries to prescribe acceptable codes of behavior for men and women. The terms "masculinity" and "femininity" associated with gender have come to be accepted as binaries, which highlight the differences and subdue the similarities between the two sexes. Femininity in the contemporary society is increasingly associated with the traits of docility, frailty, and beauty-traits that emphasize the powerlessness of women as compared to the characteristics of aggressiveness, physical prowess, and vigor generally attributed to masculinity. This stereotyping of women into constricting categories places them at a disadvantage by coercing them to follow the norms imposed by the male- dominated society. It overlooks women's individuality and inner strength, and relegates them to an inferior position, portraying them as dependent on men for their identity and existence.Foucault (1977) discuss...
Muriel Spark's Symposium (1990) focuses on the problems of perception of truth about persons ... more Muriel Spark's Symposium (1990) focuses on the problems of perception of truth about persons by creating multiple layers of meaning. Narrative voices, time and incidents are juxtaposed by Spark to create simultaneity of perception of different fragmentary episodes in the novel. In teaching this novel the unconventional plot-structure and characterization should be examined to study the change in the idea and function of character and plot in postmodernist novels. ********** The complex relationship between fiction and reality has been a persistent concern of Muriel Spark (1918-), the contemporary Scottish writer. The opacity of human nature, the human tendency to deform reality through imagination and fantasy, are the issues Spark explores by means of innovative narrative techniques in her novels. Reality is seen to be extremely deceptive and this idea is brought out through the plot structure and characters in her fiction. The concern with ontological issues is the chief charac...
This paper is based on a study conducted to analyse the English language and communication needs ... more This paper is based on a study conducted to analyse the English language and communication needs of engineering students in India, from the perspectives of teachers of English, in order to develop or revise content and pedagogy catering to the specific employability needs of students. A survey questionnaire was administered online to 50 teachers from engineering institutes in India. The results from this study provide significant insights into the challenges faced by the teachers, the instructional and assessment methods adopted by them, and specific language areas requiring attention. In addition, it provides recommendations on overcoming the challenges faced by the teachers. These results can be helpful in improving the language curriculum in engineering institutes to make the students job-ready in a globalised world where English is an important employability skill.
Short stories by Alice Munro merge autobiographical themes with remarkable language and stirring ... more Short stories by Alice Munro merge autobiographical themes with remarkable language and stirring imagery. This paper analyzes the impact of ‘wilderness’ and mirrors the complexities of the obsession with the human psyche in the lives of the characters of Alice Munro’s short story “Vandals”. She portrays the evil and the threat that prevails in the wild and its hazardous impact on the psychology of its characters where they face cognitive clinical manias. The objective of the present paper is to read “Vandals” with reference to Bertrand Westphal’s theory of ‘geocriticism’ as proposed in his book Real and Fictional Spaces (2007) to identify the psychic disorders that Ladner, Bea, and Liza possess in the story. The wilderness that is constantly set against civilization or the urban space, distorts perception and selfperception, which metaphorically is an intrusion into the mental space of an individual. The characters are driven by intrusive thoughts and dysfunctional beliefs which lea...
Multidisciplinary Approach to Sustainable Development Goals Some Issues and Reflections , 2021
In India, one of the targets under Sustainable Development Goal 4 to promote Quality Education i... more In India, one of the targets under Sustainable Development Goal 4 to promote Quality Education is to make the youth more employable. Students enrolled in professional degree courses such as engineering require English language and communicative proficiency to be employed in today’s globalized world. Although English is a part of the core curriculum in most engineering colleges, the teaching-learning process is faced with multiple challenges. Besides the syllabus and pedagogy being outdated, little attention is paid towards learners’ language needs, which comes in their way of achieving the optimum level of communicative ability in English and consequently, securing jobs. Analysing the language needs of the learners introduces instructors to their attitudes, motivations and challenges, and helps identify knowledge gaps and set targets for their progress. The objective of this study was to analyse the English language and communication needs specific to the employability of engineering students in an EFL (English as a foreign language) classroom of a government college of Rajasthan. A questionnaire was developed and administered to a sample of 100 students pursuing engineering from College of Technology and Engineering, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India to collect data about their learning preferences and use of English, and identify the gap between the perceived importance of the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing (LSRW) in employment, along with their current proficiency in these skills. A descriptive analysis of the responses revealed that most of the students preferred participatory mode and use of digital tools in teaching. While all the four skills were considered important by the students for employability, the gap between current competence and perceived importance was observed the most in speaking skills. The results of the analysis can be utilized to make appropriate changes in content and pedagogy to make the students more employable.
Language teaching and learning can be facilitated through collaborative online platforms that all... more Language teaching and learning can be facilitated through collaborative online platforms that allow users to simultaneously work on a given text in real-time or work independently on it later. These also provide access to the saved version of the work as also the history of its evolution. Various applications developed by Google allow learners multiple communication tools that can be utilized for English language learning. These include Google Forms, Docs, Slides, Jamboard and Blogger, among several others. Google apps are flexible and versatile and can be used
The concept of gender is a cultural construct evolved in human society down the centuries to pres... more The concept of gender is a cultural construct evolved in human society down the centuries to prescribe acceptable codes of behavior for men and women. The terms "masculinity" and "femininity" associated with gender have come to be accepted as binaries, which highlight the differences and subdue the similarities between the two sexes. Femininity in the contemporary society is increasingly associated with the traits of docility, frailty, and beauty-traits that emphasize the powerlessness of women as compared to the characteristics of aggressiveness, physical prowess, and vigor generally attributed to masculinity. This stereotyping of women into constricting categories places them at a disadvantage by coercing them to follow the norms imposed by the male- dominated society. It overlooks women's individuality and inner strength, and relegates them to an inferior position, portraying them as dependent on men for their identity and existence.Foucault (1977) discuss...
Muriel Spark's Symposium (1990) focuses on the problems of perception of truth about persons ... more Muriel Spark's Symposium (1990) focuses on the problems of perception of truth about persons by creating multiple layers of meaning. Narrative voices, time and incidents are juxtaposed by Spark to create simultaneity of perception of different fragmentary episodes in the novel. In teaching this novel the unconventional plot-structure and characterization should be examined to study the change in the idea and function of character and plot in postmodernist novels. ********** The complex relationship between fiction and reality has been a persistent concern of Muriel Spark (1918-), the contemporary Scottish writer. The opacity of human nature, the human tendency to deform reality through imagination and fantasy, are the issues Spark explores by means of innovative narrative techniques in her novels. Reality is seen to be extremely deceptive and this idea is brought out through the plot structure and characters in her fiction. The concern with ontological issues is the chief charac...
This paper is based on a study conducted to analyse the English language and communication needs ... more This paper is based on a study conducted to analyse the English language and communication needs of engineering students in India, from the perspectives of teachers of English, in order to develop or revise content and pedagogy catering to the specific employability needs of students. A survey questionnaire was administered online to 50 teachers from engineering institutes in India. The results from this study provide significant insights into the challenges faced by the teachers, the instructional and assessment methods adopted by them, and specific language areas requiring attention. In addition, it provides recommendations on overcoming the challenges faced by the teachers. These results can be helpful in improving the language curriculum in engineering institutes to make the students job-ready in a globalised world where English is an important employability skill.
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employed in today’s globalized world. Although English is a part of the core curriculum in most engineering colleges, the teaching-learning process is faced with multiple challenges. Besides the syllabus and pedagogy being outdated, little attention is paid towards learners’
language needs, which comes in their way of achieving the optimum level of communicative ability in English and consequently, securing jobs. Analysing the language needs of the learners introduces instructors to their attitudes, motivations and challenges, and helps identify knowledge gaps and set targets for their progress. The objective of this study was to analyse the English language and communication needs specific to the employability of engineering students in an EFL (English as a foreign language) classroom of a government college of Rajasthan. A questionnaire was developed and administered to a sample of 100 students pursuing engineering from College of Technology
and Engineering, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India to collect data about their learning preferences and use of English, and identify the gap between the perceived importance of the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing (LSRW) in employment, along with their current proficiency in
these skills. A descriptive analysis of the responses revealed that most of the students preferred participatory mode and use of digital tools in teaching. While all the four skills were considered important by the students for employability, the gap between current competence and perceived importance was observed the most in speaking skills. The results of the analysis can be utilized to make appropriate changes in content and pedagogy to make the students more employable.
employed in today’s globalized world. Although English is a part of the core curriculum in most engineering colleges, the teaching-learning process is faced with multiple challenges. Besides the syllabus and pedagogy being outdated, little attention is paid towards learners’
language needs, which comes in their way of achieving the optimum level of communicative ability in English and consequently, securing jobs. Analysing the language needs of the learners introduces instructors to their attitudes, motivations and challenges, and helps identify knowledge gaps and set targets for their progress. The objective of this study was to analyse the English language and communication needs specific to the employability of engineering students in an EFL (English as a foreign language) classroom of a government college of Rajasthan. A questionnaire was developed and administered to a sample of 100 students pursuing engineering from College of Technology
and Engineering, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India to collect data about their learning preferences and use of English, and identify the gap between the perceived importance of the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing (LSRW) in employment, along with their current proficiency in
these skills. A descriptive analysis of the responses revealed that most of the students preferred participatory mode and use of digital tools in teaching. While all the four skills were considered important by the students for employability, the gap between current competence and perceived importance was observed the most in speaking skills. The results of the analysis can be utilized to make appropriate changes in content and pedagogy to make the students more employable.