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Item Effects of age of acquisition on the locus of language selection in bilingual speech production(UMT Lahore, 2009) RASHID MUBARIKThis study explores the locus of language selection during bilingual speech production. More specifically, it investigates whether age of acquisition has any effect on language selectivity and how competition is resolved between languages existing in the mind of a bilingual. For example, when an Urdu-English bilingual is asked to name a picture of a dog in English, at what point does his mind select English and not Urdu as the production language? Two different theories regarding language selection phenomenon are presented: Green’s Inhibitory Control (IC) Model (1986; 1998) and The Concept Selection Hypothesis (La Heij, 2004). Costa and Santesteban (2004) have proposed that both the theories may be correct but may be dependent on proficiency level of the bilingual. They proposed that the IC Model and the Concept Selection Hypothesis can only depict lexical processing of bilinguals with low and high proficiency levels, respectively. This study reaffirms Costa’s and Santesteban’s claim and investigates whether factors like age of acquisition affect the loci of language selection and competition, in addition to proficiency? In this study, early and late language acquirers participated in two language processing tasks. The first experiment was a word translation task in which participants translated words in their second language (L2) to their mother language (L1). Along with each target word was a distracter item in the form of a picture or word that was semantically related or unrelated to the target. Experiment 2 was a picture naming task in which participants were asked to switch back and forth between their two languages. The results suggest that age of acquisition does not affect the loci of language selection and competition during lexical processing. However, clear evidences were observed in the data that strengthened the belief in which L2 proficiency is a deciding factor in selecting the locus of language selection.Item Perceptions of the people towards use of codeswitching in advertisements and daily life(UMT Lahore, 2009) TAYYABA MALIKThis paper presents an analysis of the perception of people towards use of code-switching in advertisements and daily life. This research aims at showing that people have appeal and attraction towards code-switching in advertisements and daily life. It also challenges monolinguals and some bilinguals who view practice of code-switching in negative manner. They regard CS as the result of non-proficiency of two languages and considered it incorrect language or a low prestige form. Despite this negative impression, code-switching in English and Urdu is found to be a useful and successful tool for better communication during studies, profession and social life of the people. This particular area of CS has not yet investigated in Pakistani context. Practically speaking, this research also shows that trend of using CS is increasing in advertisements and daily life from the last six years. Youth and children code-switch more as compared to that of old people. The data has been analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively and was collected through questionnaire and interviews. Pilot study helps in making necessary changes before the final research is done on the ninety respondents. All the present data shows that CS between English and Urdu act as an impressive, appealing, attractive and stylish tool in advertisements and daily life. It is playing leading role for effective communication in most of the advertisements to attract the customers and in daily life to impress others. Finally directions for future research on code-switching are discussed giving particular emphasis to courses in languages. In the curriculum, more emphasis should be placed on teaching of art of convincing and persuading others and communicative strategies to the students who would have to advocate their point of views in all professional fields. One successful strategy is code-switching. This research would encourage certainly the other researchers to explore this phenomenon in detail.Item Global perspective of teaching english literature in higher education in pakistan(UMT Lahore, 2009) Rabiah RustamThis study investigates the need to reform and restructure English literature syllabus at graduate level in higher education in Pakistan. Due to the changing global context, the requirements of the students have changed. Teaching English literature from global perspective requires that the language used in literature should be easy to comprehend. If the material used is easy, it can be exploited for language use. Literature component needs to be integrated to the language activity in order to develop the reading, writing, listening and speaking skills of the students. Moreover, the students need to be made aware of the local as well as the global culture. The study was conducted in various colleges of the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan where English literature is taught for teaching language at the graduate level. Quantitative as well as qualitative data was collected and analyzed. The results of the study indicate that the basic English of the students require attention. They need to be made conscious of the Pakistani literature as well as the world literatures in English. The study has suggested a syllabus for the graduate level students that can be used in place of the already existing syllabus. The study recommends that further research is required on the already existing syllabi for the sake of improvement in their quality, raising consciousness about the local literature and promoting the cross cultural understanding through the incorporation of the global English literature in the syllabus.