2011

Browse

Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
  • Item
    A study of bilingual efl teacher cognition in grammar and its pedagogy
    (UMT Lahore, 2011) Ahmad Naveed Sharif
    This study is an investigation into the bilingual EFL teachers’ cognition in grammar and its pedagogy. The literature review reveals that there is much research into the teacher cognition in monolingual L2 context but very little has been written about the bilingual EFL setting. The present study seeks to understand what EFL grammar knowledge base and pedagogical beliefs bilingual teachers bring to the classroom. In doing so, the thesis draws on key bodies of literature in the role of bilingualism in foreign language teaching, and teacher cognition about grammar pedagogy; the purpose is an attempt to provide a framework for considering the research questions. The study employed a quantitative research design involving test and questionnaire. The data chapter analyzed the teachers’ performance on the grammar awareness test and their responses to the grammar pedagogy questionnaire. The findings of the study in general revealed that overall our bilingual EFL teachers’ cognition in grammar and its teaching does not measure up to any reasonably adequate academic standard required for professional remit. As to the knowledge base component of teacher cognition, two areas- identification of word function and style differentiation of grammar usage- remained the most problematic. The pedagogical component is not in line with the latest developments in the field. Majority believes that their bilinguality is an assistance, not an obstacle, to their EFL teaching, but they need to hone up their skills to make judicious use of L1 (Urdu). The study questions the value of current ELT programmes by demonstrating that there is no significant difference between the teachers with and without ELT training. Though overall grammar test performance of teachers remained below average, the private college teachers outperformed the teachers from public colleges, public universities and private universities. It is suggested that teacher cognition research insights be incorporated into the language teacher education for better teaching performance.
  • Item
    Punjabi parents’ indifferent attitude towards their mother tongue
    (UMT Lahore, 2011) Amer Shafi
    Native language marks the identity of an individual. It is the main source through which cultural values are transferred from one generation to the next. It has been commonly observed that Punjabis, especially the parents, do not attach much importance to their mother tongue. The researcher has focused on the parents as they are the first people with whom a child interacts after birth and who play a key role in the formative years of a child with regard to the choice of code. If the parents communicate with their young one in a language other than their mother tongue, the child will have little choice but to follow the choice made by the parents. In this study, the researcher has tried to understand the factors which make Punjabi parents to select a language for their children other than their mother tongue. It was noted that the major reason for parents’ indifference with regard to Punjabi was its inability to provide a reasonable job or in other words it is not the language of economics in its own land. Consequently, parents do not attach much educational importance to Punjabi. In other aspects like social acceptability, effect on moral values and structural features, parents, however, have favourable tilt for the Punjabi. There may appear to be status quo as far as the use of Urdu and Punjabi are concerned for various domains; Urdu being favoured in formal domains while Punjabi for informal domains. Actually, the redistribution of languages over domains is a dynamic process. The domains continue to be shifted towards socially strong language, in this case Urdu. For this reason language shift in Punjab cannot be ruled out.
  • Item
    A comparative analysis of the formality differences between literary and colloquial english language
    (UMT Lahore, 2011) Ms. Mehvish Riaz
    This research has been carried out to investigate the differences between literary and colloquial language through a contrastive and comparative analysis of the text of “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen and the script of the movie made on the novel with particular focus on the levels of formality in the two genres. The concept of formality is based on the work done by Heylighen and Dewaele (1999) who proclaim formality as a way to diminish ambiguity through elaboration. It also derives the essence from the research made by Finegan and Biber (1994) who differentiate between literate and oral varieties on the basis of certain elaborate and economy features. To further analyze the text and script explicitly, research carried out by Iqbal (1999), Cook (1989) and Page (1984) has also been drawn on. More than 62 extracts from the novel have been compared with the same number of relevant extracts from the script of the movie. Moreover, a separate analysis of the literary language and colloquial language has also been made to find out the formality differences between them. It is found out that the presence of lexical and syntactic devices, for example, attributive adjectives, prepositional phrases, parallelism, sentence structure and the length maintained through logical connectors and lexical diversity are the markers of elaboration and well-formedness; and, consequently of formality in literary language. On the other hand, the presence of several features, for example, phrases, tag questions, contractions, clipping, topic-comment structures and passive constructions and incomplete utterances are the markers of ease and naturalness in colloquial speech and, therefore, make it appear as casual and flexibly or loosely structured. The study has wider scope in that it not only incorporates the features of literature and language, but also deals with spoken and written discourse. Thus, it can be used in the language class to teach the function of various grammatical devices in the construction of two types of discourse. Likewise, it can be used for the students of literature to sensitize them to the role of language in the construction of literature. Moreover, they can be taught about the role of linguistic devices in creating a particular literary effect by the author.
  • Item
    Emergence of Triglossia in Urban Pakistani Punjab
    (UMT Lahore, 2011) Nadia Mubashir Khan
    This sociolinguistic study synchronically describes the linguistic picture existing in an urban city of Pakistani Punjab by exploring the relationship of three different varieties used for communication. The three varieties namely English, Urdu and Punjabi perform different functions and are used in different domains. The varying and overlapping interaction of these three varieties reflects the emergence of a triglossia situation: first the indigenous language Punjabi, the variety used at home; then Urdu the National language of Pakistan, which acts as the Lingua Franca; and thirdly English, the official language of the country and the global language that is used for professional, academic and commercial purposes. The research studies the triglossia situation by describing the relationship between English and Urdu; and between Urdu and Punjabi while taking into account the historical, social and economic factors affecting the choice of code. Moreover, it describes the status, prestige and utilitarian value of each of the three languages under study.
  • Item
    The Influence of Age in Indirectness of Women Speech
    (UMT Lahore, 2011) Syed Sikander Ali Shah
    Indirectness is indispensable in human language because speakers not always to say exactly what they mean. It is the vital part of human language irrespective of gender either they are males or females they use indirectness in their conversation. It is now widely accepted mostly women prefer to hint at their meanings rather than stating them directly. Deborah Tannen has suggested American women use more indirectness, and are therefore sensitive to its use by others. It may be further said that whether women living in west or east more or less their nature is same. Indirectness plays a vital role in indirectness of speech of Pakistani women as well. In their indirectness different factors are involved e.g. age, qualification profession and social status as well. This focus of this research is the indirectness of women speech and how much role is played by age in indirectness of their speech. Further to discover the relationship between age and power with reference to indirectness in women’s speech. The results of the data collection show that indirectness plays definitely a vital role in indirectness of women and when they get social power their indirectness decreases.
  • Item
    Second language motivational orientations of undergraduate students at university of engineering and technology, Lahore
    (UMT Lahore, 2011) Muhammad Ajmal Khurshid
    This study investigates the second language motivational orientations of undergraduate students at University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan. English has been considered the most important second language and the language of all educational institutions and professional fields in Pakistan. Moreover, in all the universities of Pakistan, this language is not only taught but also it is the medium of instruction throughout the academic career. One of the objectives of the current investigation is primarily to find out students’ orientations to learn English language. Secondly, it aims to know the most influencing orientation which motivates the students to learn English as a second language at the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore. Motivational orientation drives not only the interest of second language learners but also guides them in learning a second language, so that the effective method may be adopted to teach them English. Thirdly, the researcher wants to find out if there are any significant gender differences which exist with respect to second language motivational orientations of the selected students. The findings of this study may help academics in designing suitable syllabus and selecting appropriate methodology, in line with the motivational orientations of the students, for English language teaching in the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore. The quantitative method of research was followed to investigate the factors of second language motivational orientations among undergraduate students in English as Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms at UET, Lahore. The structured questionnaire was the tool applied to collect the quantitative data on the topic. For this purpose, the data was collected randomly from 197 students (20 students from each department of selected University). Using descriptive statistics, the mean values of the major motivational orientations were calculated. Further, T test was applied on the gathered data to analyze the difference between males and females in relation to their second language orientations. The findings of this investigation show that the instrumental and extrinsic orientations significantly influence the motivation of second language learners in the context of UET, Lahore, Pakistan. In addition, instrumental orientation has emerged as the most influential one which seems understandable in a Pakistani context because of the fact that English is the most important second language in the country. It is not only the official language of the country but also holds a high status in Pakistani community. Above all, it plays an important role in Pakistani students’ lives because of its vital place in the education system and academic circles of the country. Therefore, the participants of this study believe that their progress in future academic and professional life is impossible without its acquisition. Moreover, the gender can also be distinguished with respect to the motivational orientations of the second language learners. The instrumental orientation of second language learning is more in male than the female participants of this study.
  • Item
    Aetiology of Stuttering and its Manifestation in Bilingual Children
    (UMT Lahore, 2011) Saima Akhtar
    Stuttering in bilinguals is an area that has not received much attention. Stuttering and its manifestations in Bilingual Children who stutter with L1 (Urdu) and L2 (English) are dimensions, the present study draw on. This research investigates the most common stuttering sounds among bilingual children between 5 to 12 years old. This study is an attempt to analyze stuttering in relation with mother tongue and with stutter’s second language. The study also explores whether or not speech aphasia is neurogenic or psychogenic cause. Findings indicate that vowels, bilabials, alveolar, velar and palato-alveolar are problematic sounds for bilingual stutterers. Moreover; stuttering is psychogenic speech disorder as compared to its neurogenic causes. The results regarding frequency of stuttering (L1 or L2) concur with the findings of Nwokah (1988) who ascertained that bilingual stutterers were more likely to stutter in one language than in another. The clinical implications and treatments in the light of findings are also presented to gain insight into the phenomena of stuttering.
  • Item
    Does saying he mean thinking he?
    (UMT Lahore, 2011) Syed Shafqat Hussain Zaidi
    This study investigated the leading question, Does saying he mean thinking he? The objectives of the study were to understand how language influences our perception, to examine the comprehension of generic pronouns and their relationship to language use, and to explore the relation between gender in language and thought within the context of English language. The research was conducted only in Lahore and the sample was selected from Department of English Language Teaching & Linguistics, IER Punjab University, UMT, NUML Lahore campus, English Department, Punjab University Lahore and Allama Iqbal Open University regional campus Lahore. In this study, 50 male and 50 female participants were randomly selected. Two research instruments were used to collect the data,(1).closed ended questionnaire based on the paragraph. The questionnaire consisted of 20 statements and developed on Likert scale (2).Discourse Completion Test (DCT): The test contained 30 sentences and every sentence had a generic noun like musician, dancer, student, and teacher ect. The respondents were asked to fill in the blanks by using generic pronoun according to the noun given in the sentence. The purpose was to check whether the respondents had more male or female (he or she) image in their minds. After collection of data, Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data on SPSS. The main research question Does saying he mean thinking he? was proved with majority of agreed responses of both the genders. It was proved that generic pronoun he affects their perception, generic he makes male referent in the mind of readers and only he should be used as generic pronoun not she. Both the genders stated that He is frequently used than She in generic context and he receives much attention from female. The word man includes women in generic context but both the genders disagreed that He includes both the genders Male & Female. The result supported the research questions like generic he excludes women in generic context, the pronoun He marginalizes Women, generic He only represents third person singular masculine Pronoun, Women are left out of the passage; there is masculine bias in the paragraph, and Language influences culture. Regarding Discourse Completion Test (DCT) there was no significant difference between the responses of both the genders .Generic he is interpreted as masculine regardless of context received support from female participants.
  • Item
    A comparative study of English and Urdu phonemes
    (UMT Lahore, 2011) WASIM HASAN