Tanvir's Blog

Pandora

2012-05-09T21:01:00.001+06:00

In Greek mythology, Pandora (Also called Anesidora: the sender of gifts) was the first human woman on earth, apart from the gods, goddesses, and human males. Zeus ordered Hephaestus (also spelt: Hephaistos; Roman equivalent: Vulcan) to create her to punish both Prometheus and humankind for the theft of fire from the chariot of Helios (Roman equivalent: Sol). Hephaestus moulded a perfectly shaped beautiful female figure with earth and water while Aphrodite (also called: Cytherea; Roman equivalent: Venus) posed as a model.

Then Zeus breathed life into the clay statue. Zeus ordered all of the gods each to give her a gift. Accordingly, Aphrodite gave her unparalleled beauty, grace and desire. Hermes (Roman equivalent: Mercury), the messenger god, gave her a cunning, deceitful mind and a crafty tongue. Athena (Roman equivalent: Minerva) dressed her in a silvery gown, covered her face with an embroidered veil and adorned her hair with bright garlands of fresh flowers and an ornate silver crown. Besides, Athena also taught her needlework and weaving. Poseidon (Roman equivalent: Neptune) presented her a pearl necklace that would prevent her from drowning. Apollo taught her to sing sweetly and play the lyre. The Graces and Peitho (Roman equivalent: Suadela) gave her necklaces of gold. Zeus (Roman equivalent: Jupiter, also called: Jove) gave her an imprudent, mischievous, and idle nature. Hera (Roman equivalent: Juno) gave her the wiliest gift, curiosity. Finally, Hermes named her Pandora, which means “the one who bears all gifts", because each god gave her a unique gift. With all such splendid gifts and luxurious attire, Pandora almost looked like a goddess of Olympus. She was indeed the most beautiful mortal woman ever created.

Ahead of sending her to earth, Hermes presented Pandora with an artistically crafted golden box. He told her that the box contained special gifts from Zeus. But he strictly forbade her to open the box under any circumstance. Zeus then ordered Hermes to take Pandora to Prometheus and offer her as his wife. Prometheus, who had the gift of foresight, became suspicious about Hermes’ grand entrance with lovely Pandora. Therefore, Prometheus refused to accept her under the excuse that she lacked prudence. Then Hermes took her to Epimetheus, the brother of Prometheus, to be his wife. Prometheus warned Epimetheus not to accept anything from the Gods. But upon first sight of Pandora, Epimetheus was totally enthralled by her beauty and forgot his brother’s warning. Consequently, he accepted her as his wife and the couple settled down for a happy conjugal life. But Pandora always wondered what was in the box. Pandora tried to repress her curiosity for long but subsequently failed to hold it anymore. She opened the box, and from it flew hate, anger, sickness, poverty, and every bad thing in the world. Pandora was scared, because she saw all the evil spirits coming out and tried to close the box as fast as possible, closing hope inside.

Variations in the Story:

This popular myth appears in numerous versions. For instance, difference is seen with the box’s presenter, presentee as well as its opener. In some accounts it is mentioned that once Prometheus captured all the evil things in a box and gave it to his brother Epimetheus’ custody for its safekeeping. One day his wife Pandora found it and out of curiosity opened it. Thus she accidentally released all the evil things. However, few other tales recount that it was Epimetheus who opened the box not Pandora. Variations are also seen in the nature of the contents of the box. In some variants, Zeus actually sends Pandora with great gifts or blessings for mankind rather than evils. According to these views, all the good things of the world were inside the box, just as they were inside humans. When Pandora released the good things, they left humans as well. They would have been preserved for the human beings if they not been lost through the opening of the box. The only thing that stayed forever is hope, because Pandora managed to capture hope before it flew from the box as well. However, there are still some accounts where hope did escape from the box.

Influence on Art and Literature:

The legend of Pandora has been a valuable inspiration for numerous works of arts. The legend is captured in pottery and carvings from ancient Greece as well as in classical paintings, frescos, mosaics, and sculptures. Many modern paintings and sculptures too are inspired by this myth. This myth also reflected in works of classical Greek literature. In literature, the Pandora myth first envisaged in Theogony (Genealogy of the Gods), an epic poem written by the Attic poet Hesiod written circa 8th–7th centuries BC. Then it appeared more explicitly in Works and Days, a didactic poem by the same poet. Archaic and classical Greek literature seem to make no further mention of Pandora, though Sophocles wrote a satyr play Pandora, or The Hammerers of which virtually nothing is known. Sappho may have made reference to Pandora in a surviving fragment. In the 21^st century this popular legend was adopted in the motion picture of Lara Croft Tomb Raider: the Cradle of Life (2003). In this movie the Pandora’s Box has been portrayed as an ancient relic.

Did You Know?

In earlier accounts Pandora’s Box was actually a jar, called “pithos” in Greek. This jar became a box in the 16th century, when the Renaissance humanist Desiderius Erasmus translated a story of Pandora from Hesiod's work. In his endeavour, Erasmus mistranslated the Greek term pithos into the Latin word pyxis, meaning "box". And the jar remained as a box till these days.

Significance of Pandora’s Box

The Pandora myth chiefly describes the emergence of all sorts of evils on earth which was engendered by the creation of women. In this way, the Pandora myth reverberates the theological story of Adam and Eve. The story metaphorically explores the dangers of curiosity and disobedience. Pandora’s Box is also seen as the symbol of female sex organs. This is because there is a popular belief that women can utilize their sex organs to lead men to all sorts of trouble. These days the term Pandora’s Box symbolizes something that holds or releases evil. Opening Pandora's Box implies creating serious trouble that cannot be undone.

References

Khan, Farhad. An Encyclopedia of Classical Literature. Dhaka: Protik, 1996.

“Pandora's Box.” ThinkQuest. 2012. Oracle ThinkQuest Foundation. 3 April 2012

< http://library.thinkquest.org/C0119204/pandora.html>.

"Pandora." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2012. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia

Britannica Inc. 24 March 2012.

<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/441113/Pandora>.

“Pandora.” Wikipedia. 2012. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 3 April 2012

< http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora>.

“Pandora's Box.” Myths and Legends. 2006. E2BN. 3 April 2012

< http://myths.e2bn.org/mythsandlegends/origins562-pandoras-box.html>.

“The Myth of Pandora's Box.” Greek Myths & Greek Mythology. 2012. Greek Myths & Greek

Mythology. 3 April 2012

< http://www.greekmyths-greekmythology.com/pandoras-box-myth/>.

“The Myth of Pandora's Box: The First Woman Unleashes Evil on the World.” suite101. 2012.

suite101. 3 April 2012

< http://christopher-minster.suite101.com/the-myth-of-pandoras-box-a91577>.

Diphthongs

2012-03-30T22:14:00.004+06:00

DEFINITION

In phonetics, a diphthong is a gliding monosyllabic speech sound that starts at or near the articulatory position for one vowel and moves to or toward the position of another.

PARAMETERS FOR DEFINING DIPHTHONGS

Diphthongs present greater difficulty to people learning English because during the articulation of such vowels the tongue travels between two fixed locations. It is important to know exactly what to do with the speech organs, (•the position of the tongue • lip-shape and tension •size of mouth opening) in each location and the manner and direction of the movement.

Vowel sounds are more difficult to define in articulatory terms than consonants and the number of vowels that can be produced by human speech organs is fairly great. Therefore, to help identify vowels in different languages, phoneticians use a series of reference vowels, called cardinal vowels with which to compare them. The Cardinal Vowel System was designed by the phonetician Daniel Jones as a means of establishing fixed reference points for the phonetic description of vowel quality. It has become customary to locate cardinal vowels in a four-sided figure as illustrated below:

Having established the cardinal vowel diagram as a basic system of reference we can now proceed to a brief description of diphthongs of English and of their distribution in a manner similar to that used in the case of consonants.

THE DESCRIPTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF DIPHTHONGS

There are eight English diphthongs altogether. It is useful to distinguish them between centring and closing diphthongs:

A. The first three diphthongs are centring diphthongs. They have the neutral "shwa" vowel sound /ə/, which occurs in grunting noises and the weak forms of "the" and "a", as the finishing position.

/ɪə / ইয়া : This diphthong starts with a front unrounded vowel situated between cardinal vowels 1 [i] and 2 [e] and then moves towards the central unrounded vowel / ə / between half-close and half-open position. The diphthong is distributed in all three basic positions:

/eə/ এয়া : This diphthong starts with the front unrounded vowel / e / and then moves towards and then moves towards the central unrounded vowel / ə / between half-close and half-open position. The diphthong is distributed in all three basic positions:

/ʊə/ উয়া : This diphthong starts with the back rounded vowel / ʊ / and then moves towards the back rounded vowel / ʊ / between close and then moves towards the central unrounded vowel / ə / between half-close and half-open position. This diphthong is distributed only in medial and final positions:

B. The next three diphthongs are closing diphthongs. They have the vowel sound /ɪ/ in "pit" or "if" as the finishing position.

/eɪ/ এই : It starts with a front unrounded vowel situated between cardinal vowels 2 [e] and 3 [ε]and then glides to a front-close vowel / ɪ / in between cardinal vowels 1 [i] and 2 [e]. The diphthong is distributed in all three basic positions:

/aɪ/ আই : It is the diphthong that actually implies the amplest articulatory movement of the speech organs that starts from the position of an open vowel between front and back (similar to ʌ in cut) and then glides towards / i /. The diphthong is distributed in all three basic positions:

/ɔɪ/ অই : This diphthong starts from a half-open back vowel, situated between cardinal vowels 6 [ɔ] and 7 [o] and ends in a front-close vowel / ɪ /, somewhere in the vicinity of cardinal vowel 1 [i]. Like the preceding diphthong, it also involves an ample articulatory movement from a back vowel to the front part of the imaginary vowel chart. It is distributed in all three basic positions:

C. The last two diphthongs are also closing diphthongs. The have the back rounded vowel / ʊ / as the finishing position.

/əʊ/ ওউ : This diphthong starts with the central unrounded vowel / ə / and then moves towards the back rounded vowel / ʊ/ between close and half-close position. It is distributed in all three basic positions: old, gold, flow:

/aʊ/ আউ : This diphthong starts with an open back rounded vowel (similar to ɑ: ) and then moves towards the rounded vowel /ʊ/ between close and half-close position. It is distributed in all three basic positions: ouch, loud, bough:

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DPHTHONGS AND LONG VOWELS

Diphthongs and long vowels differ from each other in a number of ways. We can differentiate them in the following manner:

The basic difference between diphthongs and long vowels is that whereas the former is a gliding vowel, the later is a pure vowel. During the articulation of long vowels the tongue stays at one fixed location in the mouth. But in the case of diphthongs the tongue is not stationary; rather it moves one position to another.
Diphthongs and long vowels can be distinguished from one another with regard to phonetic representation. Though diphthongs are single speech sounds, they are usually represented, in a phonetic transcription of speech, by means of a pair of characters indicating the initial and final configurations of the vocal tract.
Long vowels are independent. But diphthongs are dependent, because they do not have any individual starting points, they always start either from a short or long vowel or vowels with similar qualities.
Lastly, we can distinguish diphthongs from long vowels in relation to quantity. Whereas diphthongs are eight in number, the long vowels are only five in number.

BANGLA DIPHTHONGS

Bengali language is renowned for its wide varieties of diphthongs or vowel combinations. But the parameters we generally use to produce these diphthongs are quite different than those of English ones. Majority of Bengali diphthongs posses different starting and ending points. As a result, all of these combinations cannot be compared to English diphthongs. Therefore, in Bengali we have only two diphthongs- /ঐ/ and /ঔ/, which are very much similar to the English- /ɔɪ/and /əʊ/.

/ ঔ / : This diphthong starts from a half-open back vowel, situated between cardinal vowels 6 [ɔ] and 7 [o] and moves towards close and half-close position, somewhere in the zone of cardinal vowel 1 [i]. For example: বউ [wife], নৌকা [boat]

/ ঐ / : The starting point for this diphthong is central position between half-close and half-open position. Then there is a glide towards close and half-close position, somewhere in the area of cardinal vowel 8 [u]. For instance: কই [where], নৈতিক [moral]

References

“Diphthongs.” Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. 29 March 2008

<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/164541/diphthong>.

“English Diphthongs.” Pétur Knútsson. 2008. Pétur Knútsson. 29 March 2008

<https://notendur.hi.is/peturk/index.html>.

“English Diphthongs.” Ted Power. 2008. Ted Power. 29 March 2008

<http://www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/esl0105.html>.

Varshney, Dr. R.L. An Introduction of Linguistics & Phonetics. Dhaka: BOC, n.d.

Angry Young Men Movement

2012-01-27T20:26:00.003+06:00

The Second World War left a tumultuous impact on the civilization. The post-World War II era was essentially characterized by depression and anxiety as the postwar reforms failed to meet exalted aspirations for genuine change. This very desolate prospect is also evident in the literature of the 20th century. These adverse impacts of World War II helped to create several new traditions in literature. One such movement made its way in the early 1950s. This radically new age was labelled as the Angry Young Men Movement. The literature of this age chiefly represented a rebellious and critical attitude towards the postwar British society. The “angry young men” comprised a group of English novelists and playwrights, mostly having lower-middle or working-class, and university background. The label “angry young men” is assumed to have borrowed from Leslie Paul’s autobiographical book Angry Young Man (1951). After critical acclamation of Osborn’s play Look Back in Anger, the British Newspapers employed the label to encapsulate the mode and temperament of this group of writes.

Characteristics

The major characteristics of the Angry Young Men Movement are as follows:

Revolt against Social Inequality: A major concern in Angry Young Men Movement writings is the dissatisfaction of the lower-class towards the established socio-political system which inequitably valued the middle and the upper classes.
Criticism of Mannerism: Literature of this age fiercely criticises the hypocrisy of the middle and the upper classes.
Portrayal of Social Status of Youth: Another frequent subject in this age is the depiction of abject position of the youth in society. The writers often portrayed the central hero being disillusioned with the life and dissatisfied with their job and a society where he is unfit and deprived of normal rights.
Revolt against conventionality: Angry Young Men literature strongly revolted against all the accepted norms and ideals.
Unconventional Hero: Typically the hero is a rootless, lower-middle or working-class male psyche with a university degree. He expresses his dissatisfaction towards social ills with excessive anger and sardonic humour. He often indulges into adultery and inebriation to escape from complexities of life. In fine, he is the very epitome of a frustrated post-World War II generation.

Chief Representatives

The chief representatives of the Angry Young Men Movement are as follows:

John Wain (1925–1994)

Wain, John, English poet, novelist, and critic, who portrayed the repressions of society in lively comic situations. He is assumed to have showed Angry Young Men temperament in his first novel Hurry on Down (1953). It is a comic picaresque story about an unsettled university graduate who sought to reject the standards of conventional society.

Kingsley Amis (1922–1995)

Amis, Kingsley, English novelist, whose works undertake a humorous critical survey of the post-World War II British society. Amis's first novel was Lucky Jim (1954), which according to many reflects the Angry Young Men temperament. This particular book influenced a number of British playwrights and novelists, including John Osborne and Alan Sillitoe. Therefore, many critics believe that like Wain Amis was also an early Angry Young Men writer.

John Osborne (1929–1994)

Osborne, John, English playwright and motion picture screenwriter, whose plays enact sharp criticism of post-World War II British life through outbursts of abusive language. It was Osborn’s debut play Look Back in Anger (1957) that made the Angry Young Men Movement authoritatively established. In this sense, John Osborne was the most fortunate literary artist to have an age started on the basis of a single literary work.

John Braine (1922–1986)

Braine, John, English novelist, who attacked outmoded social values left over from the prewar world. His most notable work is Room at the Top (1957), a novel exemplifying the various concerns of the post-World War II generation. The novel tells the story of a young working-class man trapped into a marriage with the daughter of a wealthy businessman.

Bernard Kops (1926– )

Kops, Bernard, English playwright, poet and novelist, who is known for his works of unabashed sentimentality. His first play The Hamlet of Stepney Green (1956) is deemed to be one of the key archetypes of the Angry Young Men Movement.

Alan Sillitoe (1928–2010)

Sillitoe, Alan, English novelist and poet, whose brash and angry accounts of the working-class life showcased the spirit of the Angry Young Men Movement. He is best known for his first novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1958). It tells the story of a rude and amoral young factory worker for whom drink and sex on Saturday night provide the only relief from the oppression of the working life.

This literary Movement brought a fresh concept which was totally complied with the then socio-political context. Though lasted only for a short span of time, it exerted a profound impact in the field of British literature. This dominant literary movement ended by the early 1960s.

References

“ Alan Sillitoe.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. 2012. 21 January 2012

<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/544630/Alan-Sillitoe>.

“Angry Young Men.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. 2012. 21 January 2012

<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/25251/Angry-Young-Men>.

“Angry Young Men.” Wikipedia. 2012. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 21 January 2012

< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angry_young_men >.

“Bernard Kops.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. 2012. 21 January 2012

<<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/322097/Bernard-Kops>.

“John Braine.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. 2012. 21 January 2012

<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/77411/John-Braine>.

“Sir Kingsley Amis.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. 2012. 21 January 2012

<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/20807/Sir-Kingsley-Amis>.

Spiritual Decay in The Waste Land

2012-01-20T11:18:00.003+06:00

Literature is a diverse form of art. Its range is inexhaustible. It is able to penetrate into almost every corner of life. The creator of literature has the liberty to explore all things around him, whether social, political, moral, religious, secular, or even trivial subjects. Literature enables the writer to do those impossible tasks which the general people couldn’t even conceive of. He hovers in the realm of his imagination and creates numerous works of art. Imagination sometimes includes simply idealistic manifestation of a subject. But sometimes it is employed to convey materialistic subjects too.

Imaginative literature chiefly revolves round idealistic matters. It is devoid of practical outlook of life. In most cases it transmits the audience into a world that is completely replete with situations that is not seen in the materialistic world. These include society without corruption, men having no characteristic shortcomings, supernaturalism, etc. Literature based on realism, on the other hand, reflects pragmatical aspects of life, along with its goodness and blemishes. Such a literature saw its heyday in the 20^th century through the firm hands of a band of creative writers, such as Yeats, Eliot, and Auden.

Amongst the heavyweight modernist writers of the 20^th century, T.S. Eliot is widely celebrated for his all-inclusive observation over the spiritual bankruptcy in modern Europe. Eliot’s scrutiny of the degraded modern civilisation not only earned him wide-reaching acclamation but also forged him as the voice of a disillusioned post-World War I generation. Eliot’s study of spiritual deficiency is amplified best through his groundbreaking poem The Waste Land, which, according to many literary scholars, is the apex paradigm of poetic expression in Modern Age. The poem is a symbolic representation of the sterility and degeneration of modern Western civilization as well as the poet’s own inner despair at the desolate prospect of the post-World-War I era, its havoc and frustration.

In The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot expands his theme of sterility and decay in the post-World War I man by focusing on the aspect of religious dearth or superficiality reflected in dispirited love. According to Eliot, man's inability to find real love or to move beyond superficial sexual gratification is congruous to the spiritual decay of his soul. Sex plays an important in human life. It is an expression of love and procreation. But in modern times sex has been moved too far from its real purpose and has become an animal urge without any moral or social commitment. Its severe perversion forced men to forget the true spirit of divine love. Now men and women engage in illegal relationship without any hesitation to fulfill their amorous desires. Sacrificing chastity and gratification of body has become a common phenomenon. Now their one and only concern is to gain filthy sexual pleasure, not spiritual experience. They are unaware of the fact that this type of pleasure is both transient and superficial/mechanical. The idea of superficial sexual gratification is revealed by the dull and loveless scene of seduction of a typist by her "lover". The sexual act is meaningless to the both participants.

Today the entire society is infected with the germ of sex pervasion. The conception of family is being shattered day by day. The lawful sex relationship between husband and wife is hard to find. People no longer want to confine their personal freedom within the obligations of married life. Now they want to be reinless like animals. They are desperate to fulfill their animal urge in anyway. For instance, Sweeney is a rich man who has formed amoral relationship with Mrs. Porter and her two daughters just to gratify his sexual passion. There is also adulteress like Lil who is degrading the divinity of marriage by sleeping with other men during her husband’s absence. However, the filthiest culture of all is the practice of homosexuality, which is preferred by persons like Mr. Eugenides. But all these misdeeds beget/bring nothing but utter frustration or mental tension. They feel guilty for their misdeeds and start to realise that they have lost their innocence. The story of the German princess (Marie), the hyacinth girl and Lil show the barrenness, frustration and pangs of guilty/recreational love.

The post-World War I society is corrupt to such a great extent that rape or sexual harassment is now a common occurrence. The victims don’t even dare to protest or complain because the so-called civilised society is unable to provide any solution. The bestiality of modern society is revealed through the seduction stories of the three Thames daughters.

Perverted sensuality has depraved human mind severely. Now man cannot think acutely. He is now spiritually barren. As a consequence, he has renounced religion and welcomed secularism. Excessive love sickness has made him insensible and narcissistic. He doesn’t feel any urge to revitalize his spiritual life. As a result, the emergence of April (the month of regeneration and rebirth) doesn’t stimulate his conscience or even make him happy. To him April is cruel because it reminds him of his spiritual decay and makes him think of regeneration. He likes Winter, the month of death and decay because during this period he feels free to enjoy all sorts of animal passions.

“April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.”

Interlanguage

2011-12-04T11:16:00.010+06:00

INTRODUCTION

Second language (L2) learning involves a gradual advancement from the learner’s first language (L1) towards the target language (TL). During this process of learning, the learner naturally develops an intermediate language between his L1 and L2. It is neither L1 nor L2, rather a separate language having its own grammar or linguistic system. This learner system is widely referred to as Interlanguage (IL). The emergence of Interlanguage evinced the shift in psychological perspectives of second language learning from a behaviourist approach to a mentalist one. In fact, the concept of Interlanguage, in many ways, borrowed some of its major assumptions directly from the mentalist theories. This psycholinguistic concept was first introduced by the well-known SLA theorist Larry Selinker (1969, 1972). Since then, Interlanguage has become a major subject of scrutiny in the field of second language learning theories. Although Selinker was the chief begetter of the theory, subsequently, a few other theorists came forward to explain the same notion under different terms, such as Approximative System (Nemser 1971), Transitional Competence (Corder 1967), and Idiosyncratic Dialect (Corder 1973).

DEFINITION

In a general sense, Interlanguage is defined as the interim grammars constructed by the learner of a second language on his way to the target language.

In a narrower sense, Interlanguage refers to the intermediate status of the second language learner’s system between his mother tongue and the target language.

In a broader sense, Interlanguage is defined as the second language learner’s present knowledge of the language he is learning.

THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS

The core assumptions underlying Interlanguage are as follows:

• Second language learning is a gradual progression form L1/NL/MT towards the L2/TL/FL.

• At every stage of learning the learner develops a system of rules that is neither the system of L1/NL/MT nor the system of L2/TL/FL, but instead falls between the two.

• The process of learning consists of rule formation or hypothesis-testing.

• The mistakes made by the learner are a natural procedure of language learning.

• There is a psychological structure latent in the brain, which is activated when one attempts to learn a second language.

• Many learners do not achieve the full L2/TL/FL competence.

DISCUSSION

Here follows a detailed discussion on Interlanguage theory based on the assumptions mentioned hereinabove:

INTERLANGUAGE CONTINUUM

During L2 acquisition, the learner formulates the hypotheses about the system/rules of TL. The rules are viewed as mental grammars that construct the Interlanguage system. These grammars are permeable. They are exposed to influences both from outside the learner, and form the learner’s internal processing. This suggests that the learner’s performance is variable. These grammars are transitional. The learner changes his grammar from one time to another by adding rules, deleting rules, and restructuring the whole system. Thus, in every stage of learning there is an Interlanguage. Through the gradual process of checking and rechecking hypotheses, the learner keeps changing his Interlanguage until the target language system is fully acquired/ shaped. This gradual progression naturally implies to an Interlanguage Continuum.

The above figure suggests that Interlanguage is a dynamic phenomenon which can be illustrated with a continuum, of which one end is L1 and the other end is L2. The learner constantly moves along the Interlanguage continuum of which the destination is the complete mastery of the TL.

LANGUAGE DEVICES

Interlanguage can proceed by adopting two types of mechanisms:

1. L1 Mechanisms: L2 learners can utilize the same mechanisms as L1 learners adopt during language acquisition:

(a) Universal Grammar (UG): This device is postulated by Avram Noam Chomsky (1959). Chomsky asserts that there are certain principles that all possible natural human languages have. These principles are biologically determined and specialized for language learning.

(b) Latent Language Structure: This device is a counterpart to UG. It was proposed by Eric Heinz Lenneberg (1967), a contemporary of Chomsky. The proponent assumes that the child’s brain has an innate propensity for language acquisition and that this propensity is lost as maturation takes place.

Originally, both the theories were associated with L1 acquisition. Their principles were adopted by the second language researchers in order to provide explanations for the existence of developmental sequences in Interlanguage and to view L2 acquisition as a natural process.

2. Alternative Mechanisms: L2 learner can use other mechanisms too:

(a) Latent Psychological Structure: This device is postulated by Larry Selinker. He argues that 5% of L2 learners attain mastery in their TL by using the Latent Language Structure. On the other hand, 95% of L2 learners achieve competence in their TL by using the Latent Psychological Structure. The Latent psychological Structure is different from that of the Latent Language Structure with respect to the following facts:

(i) It has no direct genetic time table (i.e. not subject to a critical period)

(ii) It has no direct connection with any grammatical concept (e.g. Universal Grammar)

(iii) It has no guarantee of activation or realization into particular grammar structures of the L2.

(iv) Although this device is considered independent, possible overlapping may occur between this structure and other areas of the brain.

Within the Latent Psychological Structure there exist several important notions:

1. Fossilization

Selinker recognized Fossilization as an important mechanism of the Latent Psychological Structure. He assumes that many learner will not achieve the total mastery of L2, but will stop somewhere in the middle with their language still affected by errors. Fossilization can take place at any stage of the learning process, even at a very early age. According to him, out of all the L2 learners, only 5% of them are thoroughly successful as to be able to reach the end of the Interlanguage Continuum. And when the learners stop progressing any further, their Interlanguage is said to have fossilized. However, the successful learner doesn’t fossilize, rather constantly moves along the Interlanguage continuum.

2. Psycholinguistic Processes

Selinker points out five psycholinguistic processes which determine the fossilized forms:

i) Overgeneralization: fossilization due to the use of an L2 rule in contexts where it is not required.

ii) Transfer of Training: fossilization due to certain features found in the instruction via which the learner is taught the second language.

iii) Strategies of Second Language Learning: fossilization due to some approach to the learning of L2 material adopted by the learner.

iv) Strategies of Second Language Communication: fossilization due to some approach used by the learner when communicating with L2 native speakers.

v) Language Transfer: fossilization due to L1 influence.

The above processes can be visualized through a diagram in the following way:

LEARNING/TEACHING METHOD

From the above discussion it is apparent that the interpretation of Interlanguage is partially undertaken by investigating and interpreting the errors produced by the L2 learner. Hence, Error Analysis (EA) has become a prevailing learning method in Interlanguage development. The notion of EA was proposed by Pit Corder (1967).

STRENGTHS

The theory of Interlanguage is significant for a number of reasons:

1. The study of Interlanguage is systematic and universal by nature. Like the Innate Theory of L1 acquisition, Interlanguage theory considers the learner as an active participator, since he is capable of constructing rules from the data he encounters.

2. The study of Interlanguage can help to determine what the learner already knows at a certain point of time and what he has to be taught when and how in a particular second language teaching programme.

3. The concept of Interlanguage has liberated language teaching methods. It has paved the way for Communicative Teaching Approach. Since errors are considered a natural part of the learning process, teachers now tend to use teaching activities which do not require constant supervision of the learner‘s language. Consequently, group work and pair work has become suitable means for language learning these days.

WEAKNESSES

Despite many positive sides, some of the assumptions of Interlanguage have been criticized for their weaknesses:

1. A major Interlanguage criticism relates to its limited explanatory power. The theory assumes that the linguistic stage that a learner is at can be predicted by analyzing his errors. However, Error Analysis as a mode of inquiry is limited in its scope as it concentrates on what the learner did wrong rather than on what made him successful. It is often impossible to identify the unitary source of an error.

2. Error Analysis gives the learner base for improvements of his Interlanguage rules. But researches confirm that too much correction can lead to a lack of motivation and thereby leading many correct utterances unnoticed. Thus the learner needs to be restricted to important errors only.

3. The theories of Interlanguage cannot determine how the exact position of the learner in between L1 and L2 will be interpreted.

CONCLUSION

Interlanguage is, by far the strongest contender amongst the second language learning theories. The theory of Interlanguage was the first major attempt to explain the process of second language learning in terms of mentalist perspectives. After its introduction by Selinker, it has been gradually developed by the hands of numerous researchers. At this time, it has become much refined and also contributed a lot in developing many other theories. Although vague in many points, it has been able to provide significant suggestions for the theories of second language learning.

References

Crystal, David. A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. 6th ed. Blackwell: Oxford, 2008

“Error Analysis.” Glottopedia. 2011. Glottopedia. 2 September 2011

< http://www.glottopedia.de/index.php/Error_analysis >

Ellis, R. Second language acquisition. Oxford: OUP, 1997.

“Interlanguage.” Urs Dürmüller. 2011. Urs Dürmüller. 2 September 2011

<http://duermueller.tripod.com/interlanguage.html>.

“Interlanguage.” Wikipedia. 2011. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 2 September 2011

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/interlanguage>.

“Interlanguage.” Sciaga.pl. 1998-2011. Sciaga.pl. 2 September 2011

< http://www.sciaga.pl>.

Richards, J. C. , ed. Error Analysis: Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition.

Essex: Longman, 1992. 31-54.

Spolsky, B. Conditions for Second Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Yule, George. The Study of Language. 2nd ed. Cambridge: CUP, 1996. 95

Dangers of Global Language

2011-10-07T00:40:00.006+06:00

Introductory Comment

English has spread across the globe to such a vast extent that it won’t be an overstatement to call it an omnipresent language. It has been adopted as the medium of communication in numerous multilingual countries. Globally it is confirming its place as the language of education, commerce, politics, mass media, and many other fields.

Even though there are many positive aspects of having a global language, there are negative aspects as well. A number of commentators have talked about some possible dangers of global language. One such commentator is David Crystal, who, in his book English as a Global Language expresses his concern about the possibilities that this global language will have a negative effect on itself and also on other languages which do not have all the power that English, being the global language has. He points out that English should not be the language spoken worldwide and therefore being the cause for the disappearance of other languages. The points Crystal talks about are of a big importance, and with them he is encouraging his readers to learn other languages.

1. Linguistic Power

The first danger he talks about is linguistic power. Crystal says that people who don't have English as their mother tongue, but have it instead as their second or foreign language, will have a disadvantage in front of those, who do have it as a mother tongue. Crystal tried to say that a global language might cultivate an elite class with native speakers, who take advantage of the possibility to think and work quickly in their mother tongue. If this was the case they might manipulate it to their advantage at the expense of those who has another language as their mother tongue and in this way create a linguistic gap between people.

2. Linguistic Complacency

There is a possibility that a global language may make people lazy about learning other languages, or reduce their opportunities to do so. This type of attitude has brought some disadvantages to them. Whereas a nonnative person can speak two languages, the natives can speak only one language. But nowadays their rigid attitude is changing. There are clear signs of growing awareness, within English-speaking communities, of the need to break away from the tradition of monolingual bias. They have realized that boosting exports and attracting foreign investment involves learning foreign languages. The UK-based Centre for Information on Language Teaching found that a third of British experts miss opportunities because of poor language skills. To solve this problem some measures have been taken. For example, Australian schools now teach Japanese as the first foreign language, and both the USA and UK are now paying more attention to Spanish.

3. Linguistic Demise

An introduction of a global language might lead to discrimination of other languages. Losing a language equals losing identity. The language is much more than just a tool for communication. According to Trudgill there is an intimate relation between language and culture and a large homogenisation of culture might lead to a shift in language where native people adopt another language and eventually the old language may die out. There is a difference between “language death” and “language murder”. Language death is when a language disappears naturally; its speakers are leaving it voluntarily, but “language murder” means that the killer language actively discourages use of other languages. Minority languages may be removed from the media and educational systems. English is referred to as a “killer language”, which means that it is a dominant language learned subtractive, at the cost of the mother tongues, rather than additively.
4. Threat of future dominance: English has a history, sometimes cruel and violent with colonialism and war, and introducing English as the global language might be seen as a threat of future dominance.

5. Linguistic Bankruptcy

One of the risks having only one language is that the chosen language may become very technical and impoverished for nonnative speakers, e.g. the Eskimos, who have several words for “snow”, because they need it. They would probably not be able to express themselves properly if they only had one word for snow. And Swedish people would not be able to use the word “lagom”, a word which says a lot about the Swedish society and people.

6. A Feeling of Loss

Many of the people who answered the question about “English as a Global Language”, expressed a worry that if we only had one language, they would feel “poor” when it comes to expressing feelings and emotions in a language that is not their mother tongue, that they would not know enough words to be able to really express how and what they feel.

7. Threat of Losing Identity

It is important for people to remember their roots, and language is a very integral part of one's identity. English is closely linked to the British and the American cultures and history and is therefore not a “neutral” language. People whose languages are being lost because of the dominance of the English language, may lose their identities.

8. Threat of Social Clash

The use of one single language in a community is no guarantee for social harmony or mutual understanding. This has been proven several times during the history, e.g. American Civil War, Spanish Civil War, and former Yugoslavia.

Concluding Comment

Our discussion has shown that the creation of a global language has numerous advantages and disadvantages. We are in need of an international language for communication, politics, trade and security, but at the same time we are worried about language death, linguistic gap, and cultural decay.

References

Crystal, David. English as a Global Language. Cambridge: CUP, 1997

“English as global language: problems, dangers, opportunities.” AccessMyLibrary. 2008.

Gale. 29 June 2008 < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_(mythology)>.

Zelander, Emilie.“English as a Global Language- Good or Bad?.” Mittuniversitete. 2005.

Mittuniversitete.29 June 2008 < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_(mythology)>.

Nathaniel Hawthorne Quick Facts

2011-05-08T20:09:00.005+06:00

Nathaniel Hawthorne

19th century American novelist and short story writer

Full Name: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Birth: July 4, 1804
Death: May 19, 1864
Place of Birth: 27 Hardy Street in Salem, Massachusetts
Buried at: Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts
Father: Nathaniel Hathorne
Mother: Elizabeth Clarke Manning
Number of sisters: 2 (Elizabeth and Maria Louisa)
Marriage: 1842
Spouse: Sophia Peabody
Number of Children: 3 (Una, Julian and Rose)
Education: Bowdoin College (graduated in 1825)
Known for: symbolic and allegorical exploration of a variety of complex moral and psychological issues, especially those related to transgression, sense of guilt, retribution and redemption usually set against the sombre backdrop of the Puritan New England
Criticised for: his detachment from major political issues of his days
Influenced: Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville, Henry James, and William Dean Howells

Quote:

“What other dungeon is so dark as one's own heart! What jailer so inexorable as one's self!”
“The House of the Seven Gables” (1851) Chapter XI : The Arched Window

Major Themes:

Social discrepancies
Human sorrow
Alienation
Pride
Evil
Sin/crime
Punishment/retribution
Problem of guilt
Regeneration/salvation/ redemption
Puritan New England
Italian background

Notable Works:

Novels

Fanshawe (1828)
The Scarlet Letter (1850)
The House of Seven Gables (1851)
The Blithedale Romance (1852)
The Marble Faun (1860)
The Dolliver Romance (1863) (fragmentary)
Septimius Felton [or, the Elixir of Life] (Published in the Atlantic Monthly, 1872)
Doctor Grimshawe's Secret (1882) (fragmentary)

Short Story Collections

Twice-Told Tales (1837)
Grandfather's Chair (1840)
Mosses from an Old Manse (1846)
The Snow-Image, and Other Twice-Told Tales (1852)
A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys (1852)
Tanglewood Tales (1853)
The Dolliver Romance and Other Pieces (1876)
The Great Stone Face and Other Tales of the White Mountains (1889)
The Celestial Railroad and Other Short Stories

Selected Short Stories

"Roger Malvin's Burial" (1832)
"My Kinsman, Major Molineux" (1832)
"Young Goodman Brown" (1835)
"The Gray Champion" (1835)
"The White Old Maid" (1835)
"Wakefield" (1835)
"The Ambitious Guest" (1835)
"The Minister's Black Veil" (1836)
"The Man of Adamant" (1837)
"The Maypole of Merry Mount" (1837)
"The Great Carbuncle" (1837)
"Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" (1837)
"A Virtuoso's Collection" (May 1842)
"The Birth-Mark" (March 1843)
"Egotism; or, The Bosom-Serpent" (1843)
"The Artist of the Beautiful" (1844)
"Rappaccini's Daughter" (1844)
"P.'s Correspondence" (1845)

Did You Know?

His precursors were Puritans, they included businessmen, judges, and seamen

His earliest ancestor William Hathorne, a magistrate in Salem was involved in religious harassment, likewise his eldest son John Hathorne, also a magistrate, inherited the same persecuting spirit and displayed it by playing a disputed role in the notorious Salem Witch Trials in 1962

His father was a ship captain who died of yellow fever on board in 1808 when Hawthorne was only four years old

In practical life Hawthorne was essentially reclusive

Hawthorne’s shy and bookish childhood engendered his aspiration for becoming a writer

Hawthorne was a fair scholar, during graduation he ranked eighteenth in a class of thirty-eight students

Amongst Hawthorne’s fellow students at Bowdoin College was the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow , Franklin Pierce, the 14th president of the United states of America, and Horatio Bridge who served in the Navy with distinction

After graduation, he changed his last name from “Hathorne” to “Hawthorne”, presumably to isolate himself from his ancestry (but no strong claim cannot be made to support it)

Hawthorne had always been a loyal member of the Democratic Party

Hawthorne always had a fear that involvement in any job other than writing would hamper the normal flow of his authorship

Hawthorne published his first novel Fanshawe anonymously at his own expense in 1828 but the attempt was largely unsuccessful and out of frustration he sought to retrieve and burn all copies of the book

He wrote his famous novel The Scarlet Letter being tormented by his mother’s death

His last fully finished work was Marble Faun

Many of his fragmentary works were published posthumously

The majority of Hawthorne's early stories were first published in various periodicals and subsequently collected in book form

Hawthorne was an Anti-transcendentalist writer although his friends included a number of contemporary Transcendentalists like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Ellery Channing

Hawthorne was the first writer to apply artistic judgment to Puritan society

Hawthorne’s theme of sin, punishment, and redemption was essentially moulded by a sense of guilt, which he traced to his ancestor's actions

He died at the age of 60 (allegedly in his sleep), in Plymouth, New Hampshire, after suffering a long-term illness from severe dementia

After Hawthorne’s demise Emerson described his life as “painful solitude”

Soon after Hawthorne’s death, Longfellow wrote the poem entitled Hawthorne to pay homage to his friend’s creative power

References

“Nathaniel Hawthorne.” Wikipedia. 2011. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 4 May 2011

< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Hawthorne >.

“Nathaniel Hawthorne.” eNotes. 2011. eNotes.com, Inc. 4 May 2011

< http://www.enotes.com/authors/nathaniel-hawthorne >.

“Nathaniel Hawthorne Quick Facts.” Microsoft Encarta. DVD-ROM. Redmond: Microsoft, 2005.

Eos

2011-04-22T13:45:00.003+06:00

In Greek mythology, Eos (Roman equivalent: Aurora) is the goddess of the dawn. She was the daughter of the Titans, Hyperion and Theia (also called: Euryphassa; alternative spellings: Thea, Thia). She was the sister of Helios (Roman equivalent: Sol), the god of the sun, and of Selene (Roman equivalent: Luna), the goddess of the moon.

Eos was believed to rise up into the sky each day from her island on the shores of Okeanos (a fresh-water stream in ancient Greece) dispersing the shadows of night with her rays of light. Her presence announced the arrival of the sun. In art, Eos is represented as a charming deity often driving a golden chariot drawn by two winged horses, Lampos and Phaithon. In some other portrayals she is shown ascending towards the sky by her own pair of wings.

Eos is known best for her inconstant love affairs. She had an uncontrollable desire for good-looking youths. These affairs allegedly resulted from a curse called down to her by Aphrodite (also called: Cytherea; Roman equivalent: Venus). It is assumed that once Aphrodite discovered Eos’ illicit affair with Ares (Roman equivalent: Mars), the god of war and then out of jealousy she punished Eos to be perpetually in illicit love affairs.

The effect of the curse is evident in her tragic love affair with the Trojan prince Tithonus, the son of Laomedon, the king of Troy, and of Strymo, the daughter of the river Scamander. After falling in love with Tithonus, she kidnapped him and took him to Ethiopia. With him Eos had two sons, Memnon, the king of Ethiopia and Emathion. Eos was so deeply in love with the mortal that she decided to adopt him as her official husband. Therefore, she asked Zeus (Roman equivalent: Jupiter, also called: Jove), the ruler of the gods to grant Tithonus eternal life. Zeus granted her request instantly. However, because of the curse, she forgot to obtain eternal youth along with it. As a result, in his old age Tithonus transformed into a feeble and shrunken old man. Eos locked him in her palace, since she could not watch his misery any longer. A later account related his final transformation into a grasshopper. Alfred Tennyson, the famous English poet recounts a partially altered story in his famous dramatic monologue Tthonus. In the poem Eos herself confers Tithonus the gift of immortality. The poem begins in a melancholic vein expressing the grief of an ailing male psyche over his gradual decrepitude being trapped into perpetual old age:

"The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,
The vapours weep their burthen to the ground,
Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath,
And after many a summer dies the swan.
Me only cruel immortality
Consumes: I wither slowly in thine arms,"

Eos could not resist her predilection to illicit love even when she was with the dearest of her lovers, that is, Thithonus. Her affection agitated the peaceful conjugal life of Cephalus and Procris. Eos told him to elope with her, but Cephalus, who truly loved his wife, denied doing so. Finding no other alternatives, Eos then sought to prove Procris’ inconstancy to her husband. To materialize her conspiracy, she changed Cephalus’ appearance and told him to try to seduce Procris. Cephalus then went to his wife and managed to seduce her without disclosing his true identity. After the incident Procris felt humiliated and thus ran away far from Cephalus. Eos then kidnapped Cephalus and took him to Syria, where they had a son named Phaeton. But Cephalus left her very soon and returned to his beloved wife.

Eos’ irrepressible obsession with love engendered the tragic tale of the handsome giant and mighty hunter Orion, the son of Poseidon (Roman equivalent: Neptune), the god of the sea, and Euryale, the Gorgon. When Eos fell in love with Orion she kidnapped him as usual. But when Artemis (Roman equivalent: Diana), the goddess of hunting, wilderness and wild animals, discovered his affection for Eos, she got envious and consequently killed him.

Astraeus (also spelt: Astraeos), the Titan god of the dusk, was also Eos’ husband. She had several offspring with Astraeus, who are also identified as the parts of the earth’s atmosphere as well as of the celestial bodies. They include Zephyrus, the god of west wind, Boreas, the god of north wind, Notos, the god of south wind, Eosphoros (also called: Hesperos; Venus), Stilbon (Mercury), Phosphorus (morning star) and all other Stars.

Apart from her promiscuous standard of living, Eos is also remembered for her association with the Trojan War. Her son Memnon brought his army to the aid of Troy in the 10th year of the Trojan War. He fought bravely but was eventually killed by the Greek hero Achilles. Since then Eos used to shed tears lamenting over her son’s demise during announcing the starting of the day. Her tears are now known to us as dew drops that we see at early in the morning on the grass.

References

Khan, Farhad. An Encyclopedia of Classical Literature. Dhaka: Protik, 1996.

“Eos.” Wikipedia. 2011. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 3 April 2011

< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eos >.

“Aurora (mythology).” Wikipedia. 2011. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 3 April 2011

< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_(mythology)>.

The Models of Teacher Education

2011-01-07T11:11:00.003+06:00

The current educational climate is essentially driven by an overriding interest in preparing students to become effective teachers. Therefore, some teacher education programmes have been developed in order to enhance this process. These programmes explore the possible approaches which could encourage student-teachers or teachers-in-service towards learning-focused teaching activities. Although teacher education programmes have been in existence for a long time, ESL teacher education is a relatively recent development. Numerous educational theorists and practitioners have handed down different opinions on the possible models for teacher education from their personal point of views. However, most of the researchers shared three common views. Subsequently these three concepts attained worldwide critical acclamation as teaching models. The latest models of teacher education have been put forward by, Michael J. Wallace in 1991. Wallace moulded his models after the existing concepts of his precursors, but in a more convenient or transparent way.

1. The Applied Science Model

The Applied Science Model is the traditional and perhaps still the most prevalent model underlying most ESL teacher education programmes. It was put forward by Michael J. Wallace in 1991 based on the Technical Rationality of Donald A. Schön. The model derives its authority from the achievements of emperical science, particularly in the 19^th and the 20^th centuries. The Applied Science Model emerges on the following assumptions:

Teaching is a science and as such can be examined rationally and objectively.
Teachers learn to be teachers by being taught research-based theories.
These theories are being conveyed to the students only by those who are considered to be the experts in the particular field.
Teachers are said to be educated when they become proficient enough to apply these theories in practice.

Merits: The Applied Science Model has the following plus points:

This model takes into account the crucial element of the explosive growth of relevant scientific knowledge in recent times.
Its theory oriented study provides much opportunity for the learner to achieve received knowledge.

Demerits: In spite of its wide-spread usage, it has some shortcomings:

Changes at the practical level applied by practitioners are not taken into account; therefore, their value is underestimated, thereby creating a separation between research and professional practice.
The most serious problem occurs when the students are asked to apply on their own the scientific theories they have learned in classroom.
Another shortcoming is the Applied Science Model’s failure to address adequately many of the important issues in teaching English. There has been relatively little research that directly concerns the teaching and learning of English in the classroom.
Many researchers claim that trainees who take courses based on the Applied Science Model feel that such courses do not help them develop professionally, that is, the theoretical studies are of no help.
Here the learner is passive, he cannot ask any question. He just follows the instructions of the expert.
The Applied Science Model is somewhat limited in scope as it does not take care of student- teachers’ self-development or awareness of their role not only as teachers but as teacher-researchers in their classrooms.
In Applied Science Model teaching is based on external knowledge, because it is essentially depended on rules and principles derived from preexisting knowledge sources.
The Applied Science Model is prescriptive since it advocates teachers to follow some proven teaching method instead of relying upon individual or intuitive theories of teaching and learning.
The Applied Science Model is a product oriented model. It slavishly follows various established methods and theories to improve teaching ability. In this model there is no scope for expressing one’s creativity.
Its major shortcoming is that it has not been able to deliver a relevant “scientific” solution to the various professional dilemmas that the teacher faces in real-life classroom situations.

2. The Craft Model

The Craft Model is the oldest form of professional education and is still used today in ESL teacher education, albeit rather limitedly. Its conceptual basis, however, is widely utilized in practicum courses in which students work with classroom teachers, often called cooperating teachers. Its use in one course in a programme of ESL teacher education cannot be regarded as a model for an entire programme. The basic assumptions underlying this model are as follows:

In its most basic form, Craft Model consists of the trainee or beginner working closely with the expert teacher.
The practitioner is supposed to learn by imitating all the teaching techniques used by the experienced teacher.
Knowledge is acquired as a result of observation, instruction, and practice.

Merits: The positive sides of this model are as follows:

The Craft Model of second language teacher education allows the learner to develop experiential knowledge, since the primary responsibilities of the learner are in the classroom.
It is one of the quickest models of ESL teacher education. Researches proved that students can imitate their teacher very quickly.

Demerits: This model of ESL teacher education programme suffers from several shortcomings:

The most relevant strategies of training are provided by experts, thus the student-teachers play a passive role.
The Craft Model is essentially conservative. It does not account for any kind of change. It depends merely on imitation.
It does not handle the relevant scientific knowledge.
In this model there is no scope for developing one’s creativity since it does not allow suggesting new theories.

3. The Reflective Model

The reflective practice has become a dominant paradigm in language teacher education research and programmes worldwide. But it is not an innovation in teaching. It has its roots in the work of a number of educational theorists and practitioners. Most definitions on reflective thinking found in the literature of teacher educatin are based on Dewey’s inquiry oriented concepts. In the 1980s, Dewey’s foundational aspects on reflection were further extended by the American sociologist Donald A. Schön. Later on, in 1991 Michael J. Wallace described Schön’s critique in a more explicit way.

The Reflective Model is based on the assumption that teachers develop professional competence through reflecting on their own practice. In other words, a teaching experience is recalled and considered to reach an evaluation and to provide input into future planning and action.

For Wallace a teacher education course should include two kinds of knowledge for it to be professionally structured:

Received knowledge: It is related to all the theories, concepts and skills that are studied during the student-teacher’s ELT methodology lessons.
Experiential knowledge: It is that knowledge which is developed by the trainees throughout their teaching practice.

Wallace’s Reflective Model is applicable to both pre-service and in-service education. The model is separated it into three stages:

The pre-training: It is believed that the person who has decided to embark on professional education does not enter the progamme with blank mind. He has, at least, some pre-training knowledge about teaching.
The professional development: It is the stage of professional education or development through theory and practice.
The professional competence: The ultimate goal of this model is to increase professional competence.

Wallace presents the Reflective Model as a cyclical process in which the trainees are involved throughout their teaching experience. Such a cycle aims for continuous improvement and the development of personal theories of action. There is an assumption that the student-teachers already have some knowledge that they acquired as students and during the development of their English programme. Once the student-teachers have the opportunity to enter the classroom environment, they discover the actual framework of teaching and become aware of the different classroom situations. Thus, they start recalling about their performance during the teaching practice, how some experienced teachers deal with those situations, and also, how they themselves could manage them. So, they make some decisions and think about possible actions they could apply to their context. Or sometimes they simply reflect upon their classroom activities to evaluate their professional performance. Such a study helps them to figure out both the positive as well as the negative side of their teaching strategy. That means reflection helps them to avoid various future professional dilemmas by recalling and evaluating past experiences. The following illustration is a graphical representation of Wallace’s Reflective Model of professional education or development:

This is a very common way in which professional competence is developed, and in it the process of reflective practice is clearly taking place, even though the practice element occurs outside the formal framework of the course. The use of reflective practice is obviously valid, but it should be noted that this sort of practice for professional education carries certain disadvantages:

The main disadvantage is that the experience is private, not shared.
The second disadvantage is the potential lack of focus in the discussion.
The third problem could well be the lack of structure in the mode of articulating reflection.
Ultimately, its flexibility and stress on participant initiative and input may cause lack of organisation and a pooling of ignorance, at the expense of genuine professional or personal progress.

Merits: Reflective teaching is very much beneficial for teacher development. It offers more advantages than disadvantages:

Reflective practice helps the novice teachers become more aware of decision-making processes to help them determine the effect their decisions have in the context in which they are implemented.
Reflective Model is broad in scope since it enables teachers to investigate, and clarify their own classroom processes, and their individual theories of teaching and learning, instead of relying on some specific method of teaching.
The Reflective Model is a process oriented teaching approach since it provides an opportunity for the teacher to reveal his creative sides.
Reflective practice provides an opportunity for the teacher to find a self-defined solution for a particular classroom problem.
With a sharp contrast to the other models of teacher education, the Reflective Model does not treat the student-teacher as a passive participant. Here he works with his educator as a co-participant.
This is the only model that fulfills almost all the requirements for teacher development.

References

Day, Richard. “Models and the Knowledge Base of Second Language Teacher Education.”

University of Hawaii System. 2008. University of Hawai‘i. 20 September 2008

< http://www.hawaii.edu/sls/uhwpesl/112/day112.pdf>.

“Tasting Teaching Flavors: A Group of Student-Teachers’ Experiences in their Practicum.”

Scielo. 2008. Universidad Nacional de Colombia. 20 September 2008

< http://www.scielo.org.co >.

Wallace, M.J. Training Foreign Language Teachers: A Reflective Approach. Cambridge: CUP,

1991.

The Organs of Speech

2010-12-11T16:13:00.005+06:00

The various organs which are involved in the production of speech sounds are called speech organs (also known as vocal organs). The study of speech organs helps to determine the role of each organ in the production of speech sounds. They include the lungs, the vocal folds, and most importantly the articulators.

1. The Lungs

The airflow is by far the most vital requirement for producing speech sound, since all speech sounds are made with some movement of air. The lungs provide the energy source for the airflow. The lungs are the spongy respiratory organs situated inside the rib cage. They expand and contract as we breathe in and out air. The amount of air accumulated inside our lungs controls the pressure of the airflow.

2. The Larynx & the Vocal Folds

The larynx is colloquially known as the voice box. It is a box-like small structure situated in the front of the throat where there is a protuberance. For this reason the larynx is popularly called the Adam’s apple. This casing is formed of cartilages and muscles. It protects as well as houses the trachea (also known as windpipe, oesophagus, esophagus) and the vocal folds (formerly they were called vocal cords). The vocal folds are like a pair of lips placed horizontally from front to back. They are joined in the front but can be separated at the back. The opening between them is called glottis. The glottis is considered to be in open state when the folds are apart, and when the folds are pressed together the glottis is considered to be in close state.

The opening of the vocal folds takes different positions:

Wide Apart: When the folds are wide apart they do not vibrate. The sounds produced in such position are called breathed or voiceless sounds. For example: /p/f/θ/s/.
Narrow Glottis: If the air is passed through the glottis when it is narrowed then there is an audible friction. Such sounds are also voiceless since the vocal folds do not vibrate. For example, in English /h/ is a voiceless glottal fricative sound.
Tightly Closed: The vocal folds can be firmly pressed together so that the air cannot pass between them. Such a position produces a glottal stop / ʔ / (also known as glottal catch, glottal plosive).
Touched or Nearly Touched: The major role of the vocal folds is that of a vibrator in the production of speech. The folds vibrate when these two are touching each other or nearly touching. The pressure of the air coming from the lungs makes them vibrate. This vibration of the folds produces a musical note called voice. And sounds produced in such manner are called voiced sounds. In English all the vowel sounds and the consonants /v/z/m/n/are voiced.

Thus it is clear that the main function of the vocal folds is to convert the air delivered by the lungs into audible sound. The opening and closing process of the vocal folds manipulates the airflow to control the pitch and the tone of speech sounds. As a result, we have different qualities of sounds.

3. The Articulators

Articulators transform the sound into intelligible speech. They can be either active or passive. They include the pharynx, the teeth, the alveolar ridge behind them, the hard palate, the softer velum behind it, the lips, the tongue, and the nose and its cavity. Traditionally the articulators are studied with the help of a sliced human head figure like the following:

(i) The Pharynx: The pharynx lies between the mouth and the food passage, that is, just above the larynx. It is just about 7cm long in the case of women and 8cm long in the case of men.

(ii) The Roof of the Mouth: The roof of the mouth is considered as a major speech organ. It is divided into three parts:

a. The Alveolar Ridge/Teeth Ridge: The alveolar ridge is situated immediately after the upper front teeth. The sounds which are produced touching this convex part are called alveolarsounds. Some alveolar sounds in English include: /t/d/.

b. The Hard Palate: The hard palate is the concave part of the roof of the mouth. It is situated on the middle part of the roof.

c. The Velum or Soft Palate: The lower part of the roof of the mouth is called soft palate. It could be lowered or raised. When it is lowered, the air stream from the lungs has access to the nasal cavity. When it is raised the passage to the nasal cavity is blocked. The sounds which are produced touching this area with the back of the tongue are called velarsounds. For example: /k/g/.

(iii) The Lips: The lips also play an important role in the matter of articulation. They can be pressed together or brought into contact with the teeth. The consonant sounds which are articulated by touching two lips each other are called bilabial sounds. For example, /p/ and /b/ are bilabial sounds in English. Whereas, the sounds which are produced with lip to teeth contact are called labiodental sounds. In English there are two labiodental sounds: /f/ and /v/.

Another important thing about the lips is that they can take different shapes and positions. Therefore, lip-rounding is considered as a major criterion for describing vowel sounds. The lips may have the following positions:

a. Rounded: When we pronounce a vowel, our lips can be rounded, a position where the corners of the lips are brought towards each other and the lips are pushed forwards. And the resulting vowel from this position is a rounded one. For example, /ə ʊ/.

b. Spread: The lips can be spread. In this position the lips are moved away from each other (i.e. when we smile). The vowel that we articulate from this position is an unrounded one. For example, in English /i: /is a long vowel with slightly spread lips.

c. Neutral: Again, the lips can be neutral, a position where the lips are not noticeably rounded or spread. And the articulated vowel from this position is referred to as unrounded vowel. For example, in English /ɑ: / is a long vowel with neutral lips.

(iv) The Teeth: The teeth are also very much helpful in producing various speech sounds. The sounds which are made with the tongue touching the teeth are called dental sounds. Some examples of dental sounds in English include: /θ/ð/.

(v) The Tongue: The tongue is divided into four parts:

a. The tip: It is the extreme end of the tongue.

b. The blade: It lies opposite to the alveolar ridge.

c. The front: It lies opposite to the hard palate.

d. The back: It lies opposite to the soft palate or velum.

The tongue is responsible for the production of many speech sounds, since it can move very fast to different places and is also capable of assuming different shapes. The shape and the position of the tongue are especially crucial for the production of vowel sounds. Thus when we describe the vowel sounds in the context of the function of the tongue, we generally consider the following criteria:

• Tongue Height: It is concerned with the vertical distance between the upper surface of the tongue and the hard palate. From this perspective the vowels can be described as close and open. For instance, because of the different distance between the surface of the tongue and the roof of the mouth, the vowel /i: /has to be described as a relatively close vowel, whereas /æ / has to be described as a relatively open vowel.

• Tongue Frontness / Backness: It is concerned with the part of tongue between the front and the back, which is raised high. From this point of view the vowel sounds can be classified as front vowels and back vowels. By changing the shape of the tongue we can produce vowels in which a different part of the tongue is the highest point. That means, a vowel having the back of the tongue as the highest point is a back vowel, whereas the one having the front of the tongue as the highest point is called a front vowel. For example: during the articulation of the vowel / u: / the back of the tongue is raised high, so it’s a back vowel. On the other hand, during the articulation of the vowel / æ / the front of the tongue is raise high, therefore, it’s a front vowel.

(vi) The Jaws: Some phoneticians consider the jaws as articulators, since we move the lower jaw a lot at the time of speaking. But it should be noted that the jaws are not articulators in the same way as the others. The main reason is that they are incapable of making contact with other articulators by themselves.

(vii) The Nose and the Nasal Cavity: The nose and its cavity may also be considered as speech organs. The sounds which are produced with the nose are called nasal sounds. Some nasal sounds in English include: /m/n/ŋ/.

References

Harmer, Jeremy. The Practice of English Language Teaching. 3^rd ed. England: Longman-

Pearson, 2001. 28-35.

Yule, George. The Study of Language. 2^nd ed. Cambridge: CUP, 1996. 40-50.

Varshney, Dr. R.L. An Introduction of Linguistics & Phonetics. Dhaka: BOC, n.d. 38-42.

NB This Article is Essentially in the Tentative Stage. Further Revision is Required.

Antiromanticism

2010-09-04T16:42:00.003+06:00

Antiromanticism is a movement in English literature that emerged in the 20th century as a reaction to Romanticism that dominated the field of literature during the late 18th and the early 19th centuries. Antiromanticism shares some tenets of Classicism, which was subsequently opposed by Romanticism. From this point of view, Antiromanticism could be considered as the resurgence of Classicism in a new name and guise. Antiromanticism questioned the stability and rationality of Romanticism and necessitated a reassessment of the nature of literature and the role of the writer in society. When first arrived, this new type of literary tendency not only baffled but also shocked the audience, writers, and critics around the globe with its novel, unconventional, and highly disputable ideas. The basic difference between Romanticism and Antiromanticism is that whereas the former has a strong predilection to idealisation of life, the latter tends to explore life from practical point of view. Though hard to assign precisely, literary works based on antiromantic attitude roughly hinge round the following concepts:

Ironic, indirect, and impersonal (objective) representation of ideas.
Uncompromising criticism of romantic illusions.
Opposition of unreal ideas and artificiality of treatment.
Satirisation of irrational and whimsical attitudes of the so-called aristocracy.
Criticism of established conventions of sentimental love, marriage, sex, religion, and rituals.
Criticism of social, political, cultural, and moral customs and manners of the contemporary society.
Advocacy of pragmatism and disapproval of idealism.
Valuing reason over emotion and imagination.

Chief Representatives

The major literary artists who helped to establish Antiromanticism through explicit rejection of Romanticism include:

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

Shaw is antiromantic in person and by nature. He opposed Romanticism for he assumed that it shamelessly and irrationally deals with imaginary and vague artificiality of emotions. Shaw wrote a number of plays on antiromantic tone. The greatest expression of this outlook found its way in his first successfully staged drama Arms and the Man (1894), where he wittily, humorously, and critically exposes the futility of romantic and emotional concept of war, love, heroism, and marriage. Another critically acclaimed play is Man and Superman (1903), dealing with the antiromantic attitude towards marriage.

W.H. Auden (1907-1973)

Auden is strongly antiromantic. His poetry reveals a strong rejection of the ideas of the poetry of earlier generation and an admiration of earlier and less fashionable poetic movements. Auden’s poetic theory and practice are largely engendered by impersonality, that is, he is able to write poetry by keeping his own feelings aloof. He sought to exercise objectively the anarchy, dismay, desolation and spiritual decay of the contemporary society to portray the obscurity of modern life. Due to his scepticism about the idealistic claims about the nature of poetry, imagination, love, society, politics, etc., he was able to forge himself as one of the strongest representatives of Antiromanticism.

Philip Larkin (1922-1985)

Apart from Auden, Philip Larkin happens to be the most representative of the poets who gave expression to the antiromantic sensibility. He treats the modern English setting in a withdrawn and non-sentimental manner, but often with considerable feeling. The works which established Larkin as a fine antiromantic poet of great wit, sophistication, and compassion include The North Ship (1945), and The Less Deceived (1955).

Kingsley Amis (1922-1995)

The tone of Amis’ work is antiromantic and rational. His works take a humorous yet highly critical look at British society, especially of the period following the end of World War II in 1945. In a number of novels he explored his disillusionment: Lucky Jim (1954), That Uncertain Feeling (1955), and Take a Girl Like You (1960).

Other antiromantic poets of the same generation include Donald Alfred Davie (1922-1995), D (ennis) J (oseph) Enright (1920-), John Barrington Wain (192-1994), Elizabeth Jennings (1926-2001) and Robert Conquest (1917-).

In America a similar type of literary tendency was prevalent during the mid-nineteenth century. It was known as Antitranscendentalism (also known as Dark Romanticism). It stemmed from Transcendentalism, which was developed in the first half of the 19th century. But the antitranscendentalists did not accept all ideas of Transcendentalism; rather they rejected or modified most of the utopian ideas. Transcendentalism was regarded by many scholars as the American version of English Romanticism. Transcendentalism was based on the belief that there was inherent goodness in man, and that nature always cares for the wellbeing of the humankind, since it is created by god. In contrast, Antitranscendentalism held a less optimistic view about the Transcendentalist assertions. To the antitranscendentalist, man was capable of evil and nature was destructive and unsympathetic. Thus the chief difference between the two schools of thought is that whereas the former is predominantly utopian in nature, the latter is essentially down-to-earth in its thoughts. Generally, the antitranscendental outlook centers round the following principles:

Less optimistic assertion about the inherent goodness in mankind, nature, and the universe.
Disclosure of the dark sides of the human heart.
Acceptance of nature as a spiritual force.
Revelation of the destructive and indifferent side of nature.
Exposure of social corruption.

Chief Representatives

The major representatives of the antitranscendental sensibility include:

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

Hawthorne is widely deemed to be one of the distinguished members of the antitranscendentalist movement. His writings features psychological probing into human nature, especially its darker side. Hawthorne’s psychological exploration found its greatest expression in his allegorical magnum opus The Scarlet Letter (1850), a tale of sin, punishment, and redemption.

Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849)

Allen Poe is the unchallengeable leader of the antitranscendentalist movement in American literature. He is, perhaps the best of the antitranscendentalists. In his masterful works, Poe tries to explore human psychology with a keen interest in the perverse and self-destructive nature of the conscious and subconscious mind. Amongst Poe’s literary output, the short stories: The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (1838), The Fall of the House of Usher (1839), The Pit and the Pendulum (1842), The Tell-Tale Heart (1843), The Cask of Amontillado (1846) and the poems: The Raven (1845), The Sleeper (1831), Lenore (1831), and Annabel Lee (1849) are distinguished for their uniqueness.

Herman Melville (1819-1891)

Psychological exploration provides the force and vitality to the works of the Antitranscendental writer Herman Melville. It is this psychological exploration, for which his works remained in obscurity until the 1920s, when his genius was finally recognised. Among many of his creations, Moby Dick; or The Whale (1851) is the most-appreciated one, and it is definitely the apex of his creation. The novel, in its entirety, is a meticulous illustration of man's evil toward fellow man and nature.

References

“Dark Romanticism.” Wikipedia. 2010. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 26 August 2010

< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_romanticism >.

“Kingsley Amis.” Microsoft Encarta. DVD-ROM. Redmond: Microsoft, 2005.

“Philip Larkin.” Microsoft Encarta. DVD-ROM. Redmond: Microsoft, 2005.

“Philip Larkin.” Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 25 August 2010

<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/330650/Philip-Larkin>.

Dylan Thomas Quick Facts

2010-08-01T10:06:00.001+06:00

Dylan Thomas

20th century Welsh poet, short-story writer, playwright, journalist, broadcaster, and scriptwriter

Full name: Dylan Marlais Thomas
Birth: October 27, 1914
Death: November 9, 1953
Place of Birth: Swansea, South Wales
Buried: Laugharne, Wales
Father: D(avid) J(ohn) Thomas
Mother: Florence Williams Thomas
Sister: Nancy Marles Thomas
Spouse: Caitlin Macnamara
Number of Children: Three (2 sons: Llewelyn Edouard Thomas and Colm Garan Hart Thomas; 1 daughter: Aeronwy Bryn Thomas)
Education: Swansea Grammar School (attended from 1925 to 1931)
Known for: the force and vitality of his verbal imagery and for his celebration of scenic aspects of nature
Notorious for: leading a bohemian lifestyle that included heavy-drinking and philandering

Quote:

“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night (1951)

Notable Works:

1934: Eighteen Poems
1936: Twenty-five Poems
1939: The Map of Love
1940: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog
1946: Deaths and Entrances
1951: In Country Sleep
1952: Collected Poems
1953: The Doctor and the Devils
1954: Under Milk Wood (published posthumously)
1955: Adventures in the Skin Trade (published posthumously)
1957: Letters to Vernon Watkins

Did You Know?

Alongside his reputation as a poet, Thomas is also remembered today for his alcoholism and womanizing

Dylan Thomas was not an Englishman. He was a Welshman, but chose to write in English poetic tradition

During his tenure as a student at the Swansea Grammar School he showed much interest in the extra-curricular activities than regular studies

Later Thomas could realise the value of formal education and regretted over his lack of linguistic command and professional training and lived in fear of his ignorance being found out

It is assumed that Thomas’ marriage was a happy one, but a book published by Caitlin after his demise included the fact that almost each day of their conjugal life featured fighting and quarreling

Thomas’ reaction to the outbreak of World War II was both cowardly and patriotic. He was afraid of being conscripted and so being killed. He even couldn’t flee to America like W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood, hence chose to become a conscientious objector. However, he was saved from being filed for conscientious objector status as he was declared medically unfit for the armed forces

During the post-World War II phase, financial need provoked him to give more energy to his profitable short stories and screenplays rather than to his poetry

His American tour in 1950, and those that followed in 1952 and 1953, were marked by inebriation, outrageous behaviour, and in some cases, brilliant readings

Thomas’ attempt to secure regular employment with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and various film companies was hindered by his notoriety as a heavy-drinker

Even though Thomas planned to use the profits from his readings in America to pay back his growing debts at home, he squandered most of his earnings before he made his way back to Wales.

Thomas died at the age of 39 in New York City of pneumonia caused by excess of drinking

When Thomas’ life ended prematurely of alcoholism, the world regarded his demise as a symbol of the tragic life of the modern artist

Conceit/Metaphysical Conceit

2010-07-01T14:54:00.001+06:00

Generally conceit is a figure of speech and the term generally denotes “idea”, “concept”, “opinion”, or a “theme”, especially one that is fantastic or eccentric to certain extent. In terminological sense, it is an elaborate, often extravagant metaphor or simile making an analogy between two totally dissimilar things or images. The point of relation between them is difficult to determine. This comparison jolts the mind. During the Renaissance period, the term indicated any particularly fanciful expression of wit, and was later used pejoratively of outlandish poetic metaphors. The term is generally associated in the contemporary usage with the 17th century English metaphysical poets. It is generally considered that John Donne is the originator of conceits. But this claim is not fully plausible, since the use of such device can also be found in the works of Petrarch and the Elizabethan poets.

The modern literary critics have used the term to mean simply the style of extended and heightened metaphor common in the Renaissance and particularly in the 17th century, without any particular indication of value. Within this critical sense, conceits are generally placed into two categories:

Petrarchan conceit: Petrarchan conceits are conventional comparisons imitated from the love sonnets of the Italian poet Petrarch. It is also known as Elizabethan conceit. In this type of conceit human experiences are described in terms of an extravagant metaphor or hyperbolic comparison, like the stock comparison of eyes to the sun, which Shakespeare employs in his sonnet 130:

"My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun."

Metaphysical conceit: John Donne is the chief begetter of the metaphysical conceit. It is a more intricate and intellectual device. It startles and at the same time amuses the readers. In the metaphysical conceit, metaphors have a much more purely conceptual and thus tenuous relationship to the thing being compared. The most outstanding paradigm of conceit appears in Donne’s A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, where the poet compares the two lovers’ souls to a draftsman’s compass:

“If they be two, they are two so
As stiffe twin copmpasses are two,
Thy soule the fixt foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if the ’other doe.”

The central difference between a metaphysical conceit and an Elizabethan conceit is that the former is an organic (structural) part of the poem, while the latter is a mere decorative device. The Elizabethan conceit does not convey any sorts of philosophies, while the metaphysical conceit conveys a wide range of philosophy.

References

“Conceit.” Wikipedia. 2008. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.20 September 2008

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceit>.

John Donne’s Treatment of Love and Women

2010-06-03T01:46:00.004+06:00

The literature of the 17^th century is rife with conflicting as well as novel poetic ideas. Being the major metaphysical poet of that era, John Donne contributed much in the escalation of the flow of that literary transformation. In his poetry he sought to establish a view of love and women that was diametrically opposite to the conventional philosophy of courtly love of the great poetic personalities like Sidney and Petrarch. From this point of view, his approach to love was much brave and original than the poets of the preceding generations.

The most original contribution of John Donne in love poetry is perhaps the blending of thought with imagination, passion with intellect. This intellectuality is expressed in the conceits he frequently employs in his poems. His conceits are based on the similes and metaphors drawn from all branches of knowledge such as theology, cosmology, philosophy, medicine, chemistry, law, etc. The Elizabethan poets based their conceits on the conventional physical comparisons, but Donne, on the other hand, moulded his ones by scholastic and fanciful comparisons. He is exceptionally good at creating unusual unions between different elements in order to illustrate his point and form a convincing argument in his poems. His most outstanding and striking example of conceit appears in A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, where the poet compares the two lovers’ souls to a draftsman’s compass:

“If they be two, they are two so
As stiffe twin copmpasses are two,
Thy soule the fixt foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if the ’other doe.”

Donne looked upon the relationship of love between man and woman from both sensuous and realistic standpoints. In scrutinising the pragmatic sides of love Donne supports the necessity of both the body and the soul. This attitude is another aspect that distinguishes Donne from both the Petrarchan and the Platonic school of thoughts. In his poems Donne seeks to establish the relationship between the body and the soul. He assumed that physical intercourse without spiritual union cannot be considered as love; such passion is nothing but momentary attraction. Again, true spiritual union cannot be accomplished without the union of the bodies. Thus true love is engendered by the mating of both the bodies and the souls, and such a love lasts long. For example, in the poem The Canonization physical love is regarded as a holy emotion like the worship of devotee of God. After physical intercourse the lovers feel a strong emotional passion for each other, and it is this fire of passion that unites their souls together. Thus physical love helps to form a spiritual bond between the lovers. However, in A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, Donne’s treatment of love is sensuous. In this poem his statement reverberates the Platonic assertion that physical contact is unnecessary for the formation of spiritual love. A truer and more refined love, Donne explains comes from a connection at the mind, the union of two souls as one. The Physical presence is irrelevant if a true bond of the minds has occurred, joining a pair of lovers’ souls eternally.

Another novel aspect in Donne’s poetry was the difference in angle in which he looked at womankind. The followers of Petrarchan tradition depicted women as deities. They only portrayed their beauty and positive sides. But with a sharp contrast to the Petrarchan followers, Donne was bold enough to expose the negative sides of women. He sceptically believes that women are neither deities nor fully honest; they possess all the human shortcomings. Thus Donne’s attitude towards women is materialistic, pessimistic, and occasionally misogynistic. For example, in the poem Goe, and Catche a Falling Starre Donne comments on the faithlessness of women. He ironically remarks that it is totally impossible to find a constant woman in this world. However, he is not always cynical towards women, because when he finds a woman really honest and faithful he deeply admires her virtues. For instance, in the poem Twicknam Garden he cynically says that all women are false; they cannot remain faithful to a single lover. But he shows a ray of optimism when he says that only his beloved is true, since she is faithful to a single lover. He greatly admires her for this particular quality, which is, undoubtedly, a rare virtue in womanhood.

The Petrarchan poets sang about the pains and sorrows of love, the sorrows of detachment, and the pains of rejection by the cruel mistress. But Donne, in sharp contrast to the Petrarchan poets, considered love to be mutual and self-sufficient. In the poems The Canonization and The Sunne Rising, he expresses the delight of mutual love-making, without reference to outside interference, and with no hint of inadequacy in the beloved. Donne often tells about separation but in an unconventional way. For example, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning Donne tells us about the mystical union between him and his beloved despite their discreet position.

Symbol

2010-05-22T01:36:00.001+06:00

A symbol is anything which stands for or denotes something else, not by exact resemblance, but by vague suggestion or statement. Symbols are of two types:

Universal/conventional/traditional/public symbol.
Private/personal symbol.

The functions of symbols are as follows:

Symbols are oblique or indirect means of communication.
Symbolic words are not merely connotative, but also evocative and emotive.
Symbolic words convey a deeper/inner meaning along with their surface meaning, generally an abstract idea, principle, or quality.
A single word can be used to express several associated ideas and images, and evoke certain emotional responses. For instance, the word “rose” merely connotes a flower but it may be employed by a writer to evoke associated thoughts of beauty, delicacy or even pride or violence, and at the same time the emotional overtones of admiration, love, compassion or even anger and jealousy.
Through symbols a writer can express much more than by the use of ordinary words.
Symbols make the language rich and expressive.
Symbols help the writer to convey concepts which are inexpressible by their very nature. Thus a symbol can be used to convey abstract and metaphysical truths.

Proserpina

2010-05-01T08:34:00.007+06:00

In Roman mythology, Proserpina (Greek equivalent: Persephone, also Kore: “the maiden”) is the goddess of the dead (queen of the underworld) and the fertility of the earth. She was the daughter of Jupiter (also Jove; Greek equivalent: Zeus), the king of the gods, and Ceres (Greek equivalent: Demeter; she is also Jupiter’s sister), the goddess of grain and harvest. Proserpina was a very innocent and charming young maiden. She was the jewel of her mother’s heart. Ceres’ intense love for her daughter led her to keep Proserpina away from the company of the malignant forces of nature. So Proserpina was able to live a very peaceful and carefree life on the very lap of nature, far from evils as well as the Olympian gods. But this peace was instantly destroyed after Pluto (also Dis; Greek equivalent: Hades; he is also Jupiter’s brother), the god of the dead (king of the underworld), abducted Proserpina (she is also his niece) and carried her off to the underworld (the underworld itself was often called the Hades). The incident took place in Sicily, at the fountain of Arethusa near Enna (formerly known as Castrogiovanni), where she was picking flowers with the nymphs (also Oceanids, the daughters of Oceanus and his wife Tethys). Greatly frustrated by the incident, Ceres searched for her daughter in every corner of the earth but could not find her anywhere. Ultimately Ceres was able to learn about Proserpina’s fate from Sol (Greek equivalent: Helios), the god of the sun.

Even though it was Pluto who was responsible for her daughter’s abduction, Ceres blamed Jupiter alone for the offense. Out of anguish she stopped the growth of all sorts of vegetation. She decided not to go back to the Olympus until she finds her daughter back. She kept wandering on the earth, making it a sterile land at every step. All the vegetation died and famine devastated the earth. The hungry mortals as well the gods found no other alternative than pleading before Jupiter to tackle that grievous situation.

Being concerned of the existence of the earthlings, Jupiter sent Mercury (Greek equivalent: Hermes), the messenger of the gods, to bring Proserpina back to her mother. But Pluto conspired to make Proserpina the queen of the underworld, so before letting her go, he asked her to eat a pomegranate seed, the food of the dead. Due to this reason Proserpina was unable to return from the underworld. Eventually, Jupiter made a rule that she would have to live eight months of each year with her mother and the rest four months with her husband as the queen of the underworld. Her return to the earth symbolised the arrival of the spring, a period when nature revives its lost colour and splendour. Contrariwise, her going back to the underworld symbolised the advent of the winter, a phase when nature loses its colour and splendour. From this point of view she is often called a life-death-rebirth deity.

In ancient Greece Proserpina was primarily worshiped on two grounds. During her eight months’ staying with her mother on earth she was worshiped as “the maiden”, and for the remaining four months with her husband in the underworld as the goddess of the dead.

Proserpina’s abduction inspired many woks of art. She has been the model for numerous sculptures, paintings, and literary works.

Emily Dickinson Quick Facts

2010-04-14T20:28:00.006+06:00

Emily Dickinson

19^th century American poet

Birth: December 10, 1830
Death: May 15, 1886
Place of Birth: Amherst, Massachusetts
Full Name: Emily Elizabeth Dickinson
Also Called: New England mystic
Known for: Her atypical, compressed, and meticulous poetic style, which disregarded the traditional rules of poetics
Allegation: According to popular traditions she was sensitive and reclusive in nature, and had an unrequited or secret love

Editions of Dickinson’s Poems:

The Poems of Emily Dickinson (3 volumes,1955)
The Letters of Emily Dickinson (3 volumes,1958)
The Manuscript Books of Emily Dickinson (2 volumes,1981)

Quote:

“I died for Beauty – but was scarce
Adjusted in the Tomb
When One who died for Truth was lain
In an adjoining Room –“
I died for Beauty – but was scarce (449)

Did You Know?

Although Dickinson is highly deemed as one of the most prominent poets in the field of American literature, during her lifetime she was chiefly known as a gardener rather than as a poet

She never married

She wore only white dresses for almost her entire adult life

Although she was alleged to be a recluse, in reality, she was very much sociable. She frequently entertained guests at her home during her 20s and 30s

She wrote nearly 2000 poems, most of which were published posthumously. During her lifetime she published only 7 poems

Dickinson never named her poems; the titles were given by the early editors of her poems. Popularly her poems are named by the first line

Venus

2010-04-13T12:45:00.000+06:00

In Roman mythology, Venus (Greek equivalent: Aphrodite, also called: Cytherea) was originally considered as a deity of gardens and fields but later identified with Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty. Homer described her as the daughter of Jupiter (also called: Jove; Greek equivalent: Zeus) and Dione, the daughter of Epimethius. But in Theogony, Hesiod, the other Greek poet, however, opined that she was born of sea-foam. Requested by his mother Gaea (also called: Ge), the earth goddess, Saturn (Greek equivalent: Cronus) dethroned and castrated his father Uranus, the god of the heavens. The detached testicles of Uranus fell into the sea, and from them emerged the goddess Venus. Since her birth she was a full-fledged sensual woman. According to Homeric tradition she was the wife of Vulcan (Greek equivalent: Hephaestus), the god of fire and fire-based arts. But Venus was alleged to be often unfaithful to her husband. Among her many lovers were Mars (Greek equivalent: Ares), the god of war by whom she became the mother of the famous son Cupid (Greek equivalent: Eros), the god of love, and the daughter Harmonia, the wife of Cadmus, the founder of Thebes. Venus also formed love affairs with numerous mortals. Anchises was one of them, by whom Venus had Aeneas, the Trojan prince. The most notable mortal lover was perhaps Adonis, the handsome shepherd. Venus was the rival of Proserpina, (Greek equivalent: Persephone), the goddess of the underworld, for the love of Adonis.

During the imperial periods she was worshiped under several aspects. As Venus Genetrix, she was worshiped as the mother of the hero Aeneas, the founder of the Roman people; as Venus Felix, the bringer of good fortune; as Venus Victrix, the bringer of victory; and as Venus Verticordia, the protector of feminine chastity. But ultimately she was worshiped exclusively as the goddess of love and beauty.

Although she was associated with love and beauty, many times she proved her cruel sides by destroying those who dared to deny her excellence or surpass her beauty. Venus’ vindictiveness is particularly seen in her indifferent treatment towards her daughter-in-law Psyche (Greek equivalent: Yuch).

Venus played a significant role in the instigation of the Trojan War. The war started when the Trojan prince Paris (also called Alexander, in Greek mythology, son of Priam and Hecuba, king and queen of Troy) gave the golden apple (on which there was inscribed: “for the fairest”) depriving Juno (Greek equivalent: Hera) and Minerva (Greek equivalent: Athena, also called: Athene). Juno promised to Paris that she would make him an influential ruler of Europe and Asia. Minerva told him that she would help him to achieve great military success by ensuring his victory against the Greeks. But Venus’ bribe was more appealing to Paris, since she pledged to give him the fairest woman (Helen, the wife of Menelaus) in the world. Paris’ subsequent abduction of Helen kindled the primary cause of the Trojan War. In the war Venus favoured the Trojans. In the Warfield she got wounded by the Greek hero Diomedes (king of Árgos), when she tried to rescue Paris.

References

Khan, Farhad. An Encyclopedia of Classical Literature. Dhaka: Protik, 1996.

“Aphrodite.” Microsoft Encarta. DVD-ROM. Redmond: Microsoft, 2005.

“Venus.” Microsoft Encarta. DVD-ROM. Redmond: Microsoft, 2005.

Psyche

2010-04-05T01:03:00.000+06:00

In Roman mythology Psyche (Greek equivalent: Yuch) is the goddess of the soul, the wife of Cupid (Greek equivalent: Eros), the god of love. Psyche started out as a mortal princess. She was the daughter of an anonymous king and his queen. Psyche had two elder sisters. All three sisters were beautiful, but Psyche was the fairest. For her matchless beauty, she was considered as a new Goddess of Love, and as her fame increased, many men came from distant land to witness her for once.

Psyche earned the ire of Venus (Greek equivalent: Aphrodite), the goddess of love and beauty when people diverted their worship from the goddess to the mortal. Venus commanded Cupid, his son, to shoot her with one of his magical arrows to make her fall badly in love with the first man she saw. But the Parcae (Greek equivalent: Moirai ; Fates) decreed otherwise, just as Cupid was about to shoot the arrow at her, he stumbled by her beauty and accidentally pricked himself with the arrow. As a consequence, he fell madly in love with Psyche and carried her away to his secluded palace. However Cupid hid his true identity, and commanded her never to look upon his face. Fearing the fact that his disloyalty might be disclosed to his mother, Cupid visited Psyche only by night unseen and unrecognised. He made her promise that she would never look at him. Although Cupid had forbidden her never to look upon his face, one night, out of curiosity, Psyche lit a lamp and looked upon him while he was sleeping. Psyche got so excited to discover Cupid as her husband that her body started to shiver. When she bent her body to kiss him, a drop of oil spilt from the lamp on the naked body of Cupid and awakened him. Cupid became very angry at the disobedience of Psyche and abandoned her. Psyche found herself alone in the midst of darkness, the whole palace got vanished in the thin air just after Cupid left the scene.

Psyche was devastated when Cupid left her. Subsequently, the brokenhearted young woman decided to go to Venus and beg before her for her blessing on the marriage. Venus, however, saw this as her opportunity to take her revenge. Venus told Psyche that she would consider her worthy of her son if she was able to complete three tasks. Then Venus beat her fiercely. Cupid saw and heard everything standing from distance.

Psyche’s first task was to spend the night in a room filled with mixed grains and to have them all sorted and bagged by daybreak. Realising the impossibility of the task, Psyche started weeping. Watching her misery an army of ants took pity on her and came forward to help her with the task. Because of their helping hands Psyche was able to finish the task in advance of the deadline. As a reward of her success, Venus beat Psyche again like the previous day.

The following day she was given a far more impossible task. Her mission was to bring back the Golden Fleece belonging to a magical ram. The ram was extremely ferocious and already killed several heroes who tried to acquire his fleece. She was Terrified that she also would be crushed by the vicious creature. When she was about to give up her faith on her task’s materialisation, a mermaid took pity on her. Psyche worked according to her advice and managed to collect the fleece. She presented the fleece to Venus. That day Venus mocked at psyche very rudely.

The third task was utterly impossible. Venus gave Psyche a crystal jar to fetch water from the river Styx. That river was guarded by a band of dragons. When Psyche reached there she realised that this task cannot be undertaken by her. When Psyche was about to give up her faith on the task, Jupiter’s (also Jove; Greek equivalent: Zeus) eagle showed up in the sky. The eagle was aware of Cupid and Psyche’s story. So, he took the jar from Psyche’s hand and filled it with Stygian water.

When Psyche returned with the water in the jar, Aphrodite thought she must be a clever and wicked witch, and gave her yet another task. It was Psyche's last and most frightening challenge. The test was to descend into the underworld, the kingdom of the dead, and to return with the beauty box from Proserpina (Greek equivalent: Persephone), the goddess of the dead (goddess of the underworld) and the fertility of the earth. This task was her longest and hardest. Even Venus could realise that this time Psyche would surely die. When Psyche set out for her journey into the underworld, Cupid secretly followed her. He knew very well that this time she was walking towards death. When she was about to enter the underworld, Cupid, staying out of sight, instructed her how to collect the beauty box from Proserpina. Psyche could not recognise Cupid’s voice. However, she worked according to his advice and was able to get the box. At the time of returning, she thought that if Venus keeps her promise, she would be able to meet Cupid just after completion of this task. Thus, she thought that she should prepare herself to face that moment of truth. Then, with a view to increase her beauty a bit more, she decided to use a tiny touch of the beauty contained in the box. But as she opened the box, a black cloud covered her. What she released from that box was not beauty but Stygian sleep. She fell to the ground and lay like a corpse without sense or motion. She was supposed to sleep forever, but Cupid came forward and rescued her. He shut the cloud of sleep up again in the box and awakened Psyche with the light prick of one of his arrows.

Accepting the reality that he truly loved Psyche, he flew to the heaven and begged to the supreme god Jupiter to consider his case. So Jupiter, who had been defiled by Eros so many times, found on this occasion the opportunity to teach Cupid a lesson. But instead, he assured Cupid that his prayer would be granted. Zeus then called a council of the gods. There, in front of everybody, Jupiter requested Venus to forgive psyche. Venus could not refuse that request. She blessed Psyche wholeheartedly. Then upon Minerva’s (Greek equivalent: Athena, also: Athene) advice Jupiter decided to make psyche the last goddess of Olympia. A marriage ceremony was arranged to legitimise their relationship.

Thus after many trials Psyche and Cupid were united. And in due time they had a daughter born to them whose name was Pleasure/Volupta/ Hedone.

The fable of Cupid and Psyche is usually considered allegorical. The Greek name for a butterfly is Psyche, and the same word means the soul. There is no illustration of the immortality of the soul so striking and beautiful as the butterfly, bursting on brilliant wings from the tomb in which it has lain, after a dull, grovelling, caterpillar existence, to flutter in the blaze of day and feed on the most fragrant and delicate productions of the spring. Psyche, then, is the human soul, which is purified by sufferings and misfortunes, and is thus prepared for the enjoyment of true and pure happiness.

In works of ancient mosaics Psyche is represented as a maiden with the wings of a butterfly, along with Cupid. Sometimes a pair of Psyches is portrayed; the second is probably their daughter Pleasure.

The story of Psyche and Cupid has been the interesting subject of scrutiny for numerous literary artists. The 17^th century English poet John Milton, for example, alludes to the story of Cupid and Psyche in the conclusion of his Comus:

"Celestial Cupid, her famed son, advanced,
Holds his dear Psyche sweet entranced,
After her wandering labours long,
Till free consent the gods among
Make her his eternal bride;
And from her fair unspotted side
Two blissful twins are to be born,
Youth and Joy; so Jove hath sworn."

The English Romantic poet John Keats alludes to the story of Cupid and Psyche in his Ode to Psyche:

"O latest born and loveliest vision far
Of all Olympus' faded hierarchy!
Fairer than Phœbe's sapphire-regioned star
Or Vesper, amorous glow-worm of the sky;
Fairer than these, though temple thou hast none,
Nor altar heaped with flowers;
Nor virgin choir to make delicious moan
Upon the midnight hours;
No voice, no lute, no pipe, no incense sweet,
From chain-swung censer teeming;
No shrine, no grove, no oracle, no heat
Of pale-mouthed prophet dreaming."

References

Khan, Farhad. An Encyclopedia of Classical Literature. Dhaka: Protik, 1996.

Bulfinch, Thomas. Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable, The Age of Chivalry, Legends of

Charlemagne. New York: Random House, 1934.

“Psyche.” Greek Mythology Link. 1997. Carlos Parada and Maicar Förlag. 30 March 2010

< http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Psyche.html >.

William Shakespeare

2010-03-17T17:30:00.001+06:00

Introduction

No writer in the history of world literature holds such a unique position as the Elizabethan playwright William Shakespeare does. Shakespeare's works are highly remarkable for their graceful style and universally celebrated for their comprehensive understanding of human condition. Shakespearean works exhibit the power of literature to transport the audience into a magnificent word of mystery and fantasy. Shakespeare is definitely the unchallengeable master of romantic literature. His writings have proven that it is still possible to explore human life without presenting it realistically. He was quite aware of the classical formulas of writing, but opted to write in his individual style. His novel dramatic technique thought to have paved the way for the 20th century romantic movement. Following his style a number of great romantic writers such as Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, Coleridge shaped their poetic career. His works of art have been entertaining for the last few centuries and still continue to amaze us with their artistic and universal appeal. His friend and fellow dramatist Ben Jonson could recognise his brilliance and wrote in praise of him:

"He was not of an age, but for all time!"

William Shakespeare is the first significant writer in English literature whose dramatic skill transformed ordinary human character and action into unforgettable piece of art. Such a writer cannot definitely stay out of criticism. As a result, we have a number of rumours about him that sometimes baffle us. One such tradition strangely declares that the Shakespearean dramas were not written by Shakespeare himself. According to this claim these plays were originally written by Francis Bacon, or the Earl of Oxford, or a syndicate of playwrights using the name of Shakespeare as pen name. Even sometimes it is doubted whether there exited a real person named Shakespeare. But such theories lack sound historical evidence.

Shakespeare’s writing style has been a subject of scrutiny for a number of critics. Many critics believe that some of his writings lack originality. The dramatist borrowed his raw materials largely from classical legend, history, and biography;Italian tales; English and Scottish chronicles; even older plays and folk tales. But all these old works were brilliantly transformed by a freshness of presentation. Mixing of different plots never made his plays incoherent. These dramatic reconstructions have become the most original creations of Shakespeare. The patterns of his plots are sometimes complex but always clearly woven. His characters are true to life and well developed. In his plays he mixed tragedy and comedy since they are mixed in human life.

Life

Surprisingly, Shakespeare is the single most writer of his age to have such a rich amount of information about his life. But there are truly no authentic source to write an accurate biography for Shakespeare. Most of his biographies are written on the basis of assumptions.

Early Life

William Shakespeare (also spelled Shakspere, Shaksper, Shaxper, and Shake-speare, due to the fact that spelling in the Elizabethan times was not fixed and absolute) was born on or about April 23, 1564 in the village of Stratford-on-Avon in the country of Warwickshire. His birth is assumed to have occurred at the family house on Henley Street.The third of eight children, William Shakespeare was the eldest. His father John Shakespeare was a farmer’s son from the neighbouring village of Stratford. He came to Stratford about 1531 and began to prosper as a trader in corn, meat, leather, and other agricultural products. His mother Mary Arden was from a family much above her husband’s social status. She was the daughter of a prosperous farmer, descended from an old family of mixed Anglo-Saxon and Norman blood. It is generally believed neither of the parents could read nor write.

Little is known about Shakespeare’s formal education. The young Shakespeare probably attended the King Edward VI Grammar School in central Stratford, which educated the sons of Stratford citizens. The curriculum of that school was largely based on the study of Latin grammar and literature. Shakespeare’s writings evince that he was greatly influenced by the classical Latin writers like Ovid as well as other Latin works. But his real his real talent were greatly influenced by the men and natural surroundings of his village. He grew up in the beautiful village of Stratford with sights and scenery that could stir up anyone’s creative side. Many of his literary works reflect the beauty and splendour of his birthplace.

When Shakespeare turned 14 years old, his father lost his property and fell into debt. Shakespeare probably left school to help to support his family. But it is not exactly clear what occupation did he follow for the next eight years. However, a potentially reliable claim is that during his father’s financial decline Shakespeare had been a schoolmaster in the country.

At the age of 18 he married 26 year old Anne Hathaway (on November 27?, 1582), the daughter of a Warwickshire farmer. Now it is believed that young Shakespeare might have been involved in a love affair with Anne.There appears to have been some haste in arranging the ceremony, presumably because Anne was 3 months pregnant. The birth of a daughter six months after the marriage also provides some explanation for that quick arrangement.

After his marriage, Shakespeare left few traces in the historical record until he appeared on the London theatrical scene. Indeed, the late 1580s (years between 1585 and 1592) are known as Shakespeare’s “lost years” because no evidence has survived to show exactly where he was or why he left Stratford for London. On May 26, 1583, Shakespeare’s first child, Susanna, was baptised at Stratford. Twin children, a son, Hamnet, and a daughter, Judith, were baptised on February 2, 1585. Hamnet died in 1596. Sometime after the birth of the twins, Shakespeare apparently left Stratford, but no records have discoverd to reveal his activity between their birth and his presence in London in 1592, when he was already at work in the theatre. An unsubstantiated report claims Shakespeare left Stratford after he was caught while stealing deer in the park of Sir Thomas Lucy, a local justice of the peace. Another theory has him leaving for London with a theatre troupe that had performed in Stratford in 1587.

Life in London

Shakespeare’s initial life in London began as a humble one. Tradition claims that he used to hold the horses at the door of a theatre-house, where the gentlemen of rank and fashion came to enjoy performance on horseback. He got interested in the theatre from the very beginning and from outside he found his way to the inside of the theatre. He became an actor in minor parts until he gradually worked his way to a better position. Subsequently he was entrusted with the task of repairing the old plays, and in this task he received his apprenticeship in the dramatist’s craft. From 1592 his individual dramatic career began and gifted the world thirty seven plays, which are without question the richest treasure in English literature.

The theatre served Shakespeare’s financial needs very well. In 1597 he bought New Place, a substantial three-story house in Stratford. With the opening of the splendid Globe Theatre in 1599, Shakespeare’s fortunes increased and in 1602 he bought additional property: 43 hectares (107 acres) of arable land and 8 hectares (20 acres) of pasture north of the town of Stratford and, later that year, a cottage facing the garden at New Place. In 1605 he bought more property in a neighboring village. His financial activities can be traced, and his final investment is the purchase of a house in the Blackfriars district of London in 1613.

Last Years

After about 1608 Shakespeare began to write fewer plays. For most of his working life he wrote at least two plays a year; by 1608 he had slowed usually to one a year, even though the acting company continued to enjoy great success. In 1611 Shakespeare retired from London theatre and returned to his village, where he had established his family and became a prominent citizen. He lived there still his demise. He died on April 23, 1616 at the age of 52. He also died on his birthday, if the tradition that he was born on April 23 is correct. He was married to Hathaway until his death and was survived by his two daughters, Susanna and Judith. Susanna married Dr. John Hall, a doctor with a thriving practice in Stratford, in 1607. His younger daughter, Judith, married a Stratford winemaker, Thomas Quiney, in 1616. Shakespeare’s wife, Anne, died on August 6, 1623. Soon after her death, Susanna and John Hall moved into New Place, where they lived until their deaths, his in 1635 and hers in 1649. Their daughter, Elizabeth Hall, died childless in 1670. Judith Quiney had three sons, but none lived long enough to produce heirs, and she died in 1662. Thus, by 1670, the line of Shakespeare’s descendants had reached its end. There are no direct descendants of the playwright alive today.

Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. He was granted the honour of burial in the chancel not on account of his fame as a playwright but for purchasing a share of the tithe of the church for £440. A monument placed by his family on the wall nearest his grave features a bust of him posed in the act of writing. Each year on his claimed birthday, a new quill pen is placed in the writing hand of the bust. It is assumed Shakespeare himself wrote the epitaph on his tombstone:

Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear

To dig the dust enclosèd here;

Bleste be the man that spares these stones,

And cursed be he that moves my bones.

Shakespeare’s Plays

So far as is known Shakespeare had no hand in the publication of any of his works. Only 16 plays were published before his death. Almost all the plays of Shakespeare were printed posthumously by his fellow actors, John Heminges and Henry Condell in a volume called First Folio in 1623. They were published from Shakespeare’s original manuscripts, though several of them had been obtained from earlier published Quartos. The traditional division of his plays into tragedies, comedies, and histories follows the logic of the First Folio. It is at this point that stage directions, punctuation and act divisions enter his plays, setting the trend for further future editorial decisions. Modern criticism has also labelled some of his plays “problem plays” or tragi-comedies, as they elude easy categorisation, or perhaps purposefully break generic conventions. The term “romances” has also been preferred for the later comedies.

The exact date of composition of Shakespearean plays is a highly disputable issue. By using evidences of style, versification, and general tone it has been possible to arrange the plays in their chronological order. On the whole, there is a unanimity among the critics about this order. The dramatic career of Shakespeare has been divided into four sharply-defined periods and the plays of each period bear certain family resemblances.

(i) The First Period: This period covers the years 1588-1596. This was a period of apprenticeship and was largely experimental. The works of this period are immature and the style is often crude and artificial. The plays written in period are:

Titus Andronicus; Henry VI (three parts); Love’s Labour’s Lost; Comedy of Errors; Two Gentlemen of Verona; Richard III; Romeo and Juliet.

(ii) The Second Period: This period covers the years 1596-1600. It is the period of great comedies and chronicle plays. The plays written in this period shows rapid growth of his genius. These plays reflect a deeper understanding of human life and human nature. This is the period when he abandoned rime and used blank verse. The plays of this period are:

King John; The Merchant of Venice; Henry IV (Part I & Part II); Henry V; The Taming of the Shrew; The Merry Wives of Windsor; Much Ado About Nothing; As You Like It; and Twelfth Night.

(iii) The Third Period: This period includes the years 1601-1607. It is the period of the great tragedies, and of the sombre or bitter comedies. It is considered the supreme phase of Shakespeare’s literary career. This is the time when Shakespeare wrote his greatest masterpieces. At this stage his attention was largely confined within the darker sides of human nature. The plays of this period are:

Julius Caesar; Hamlet; All’s Well That Ends Well; Measure for Measure; Troilus and Cressida; Othello; King Lear; Macbeth; Antony and Cleopatra; Coriolanus; and Timon of Athens.

(iv) The Fourth Period: This period covers the years 1608-1612. It is the period of the later comedies or dramatic romances. The plays of this period reveals the decline of Shakespeare’s dramatic powers since they lack careful characterisation, plot construction, and versification. During this period Shakespeare changed his temper from bitter and gloomy to serene and peaceful. Beauty and calmness, forgiveness and reconciliation are the main noted of the plays of this period, which have been called “romances”. he plays written in period are:

Pericles (1608); Cymbeline (1609); The Winter’s Tale (1610-11); The Tempest (1611); Henry VIII (unfinished).

References

Long, William J. English Literature: Its History and its Significance for the Life of the English

Speaking World. Delhi:AITBS, 2002

Watt, Homer A. and William W. Watt. A Handbook of English Literature. New York: Barnes &

Noble, 1946

Evans, Ifor. A Short History of English Literature. London: Penguin Books, 1976

Imagery

2010-03-11T18:41:00.000+06:00

The intensity of any literary work largely depends on powerful imagination. It also depends on the effective execution of that very imagination in the pages of a literary work. Therefore, to visualise his/her imagination the poet/writer often employs various literary devices. The most effective and compelling of those is the use of imagery (a figure of speech). Imagery is used in literary works to refer to the ways the writers compose mental images in words. It signifies all the sensory perceptions used in a literary work, whether by literal description, allusion, simile, or metaphor. Imagery is not limited to visual imagery; it also includes auditory (sound), tactile (touch), thermal (heat and cold), olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste), and kinesthetic sensation (movement). Imagery engages the reader’s imagination through wonderful descriptions or illustrations that vividly portray the reality of a particular moment. A literary work with effective imagery gives the reader a clear mental picture of what is happening and enhance what the writer is trying to convey to the reader. The main functions of imagery can be summarised in the following manner:

Imagery is used to concretise an abstract or inner state of mind.
Generally a poet’s/ writer’s imagery takes the form of similes and metaphors which are used either for effective communication of thought or decorative purposes.
Sometimes the poet/writer bases his imagery on literary descriptions.
It is not merely used to signify descriptions of visible objects and scenes.
Imagery is used to signify all the objects and qualities of sense perception.
It enables the poet/writer to draw/ create pictures in words.

The Behaviourist Theory

2010-03-04T12:45:00.004+06:00

Introduction

The Behaviourist Theory (also known Empiricism, Behaviourism, Behavioural Theory, Stimulus-response Theory) stands among the major theoretical perspectives within the field of first language acquisition. It began as a reaction against the introspective psychology of the late 19^th and early 20^th century and dominated the study of learning throughout the first half of the twentieth century. Although its ascendancy was blurred by the emergence of the Innate Theory in the mid 20^th century, still today much language learning programmes firmly stands on the foundation laid by the Behaviourist Theory.

Theoretical Assumptions

The theoretical assumptions underlying the Behaviourist Theory are as follows:

Language learning is a habit formation resembling the formation of other habits. In other words, Language is learned in the way in which other habits are learned.
Language learning is nothing more than the acquisition of new behaviour or knowledge. It takes place when experience or practice causes a change in a person's knowledge or behaviour.
Language learning is an external event, because it involves an observable change in behaviour brought about by the stimuli coming from the environment. It does not involve any unobservable change in mental knowledge. All behaviours can be explained without the need to consider internal mental states or consciousness.
Only human beings have the capacity for language learning. They acquire a language as discrete units of habits, independently trained, not as an integrated system.

Background of the Theory

The behaviourist school of thought ran concurrent with the psychoanalysis movement in psychology in the 20^th century. The Behaviourist Theory was first introduced in 1913 by the American psychologist John B. Watson. Watson is credited by some with coining the term "behaviourism". Watson’s view was largely influenced by the research of the Russian physiologist Ivan P. Pavlov during the early 1900s. The most influential version of this theory is put forward by B. F. Skinner in 1959. His version of Behaviourism is best known as Radical Behaviourism. Skinner, sought to give ethical grounding to behaviourism, relating it to pragmatism.

Types of Behavioural Learning

Experiments by the behaviourists identify conditioning as a universal learning process. Conditionings are primarily of two types, each yielding a different behavioural pattern:

1. Classical conditioning: This conditioning was first described by the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, in 1903 through his experiment on dogs. The general idea of Pavlov’s experiment is this: Pavlov presented dogs with food to examine their salivary response. He rang a bell just before serving the food. At first the dogs did not salivate until the food is served. However, when the bell was rung at repeated feedings, the sound of bell alone caused the dogs to salivate.

Thus in classical conditioning an unconditioned stimulus (food) is paired with a conditioned stimulus (bell). When they repeatedly occur in pair, the conditioned stimulus acquires the capacity to produce a conditioned response (salivation). Subsequently, the conditioned stimulus alone can produce a conditioned response.

Subsequently, it was studied in infants by John B. Watson. Like Pavlov, he was originally involved in animal research, but later became involved in the study of human behaviour. Watson believed that humans are born with a few reflexes and the emotional reactions of love and rage. All other behaviour is established through stimulus-response associations through conditioning.

Watson demonstrated classical conditioning in an experiment involving a young child (Albert) and a white rat. Originally, Albert was unafraid of the rat; but Watson created a sudden loud noise whenever Albert touched the rat. Because Albert was frightened by the loud noise, he soon became conditioned to fear and avoid the rat. The fear was generalised to other small animals. Watson then extinguished the fear by presenting the rat without the loud noise. Some accounts of the study suggest that the conditioned fear was more powerful and permanent than it really was.

2. Instrumental or Operant Conditioning: Expanding on Watson’s basic stimulus-response model, Skinner developed a more comprehensive view of conditioning, known as operant conditioning.Skinner’s model was based on the premise that effective language behaviour consists of producing responses (behaviours) to the correct stimuli (situation). When a response is followed by a reinforcer (reward) then it is conditioned to occur again. Thus operant conditioning was used by Skinner to describe the effects of the consequences of a particular behaviour on the future occurrence of the behaviour. Reinforcement and punishment are the core ideas of operant conditioning:

Reinforcement: A reinforcer is a stimulus (encouraging activity) that increases the frequency/occurrence of a response it follows. The act of following a response with a reinforcer is called reinforcement. Reinforcement (prize) can be classified into the following types:

(i) Positive Reinforcement: Positive reinforcement is the encouragement of a desired response (behaviour) by a pleasant stimulus. It increases the probability of the reoccurrence of the same response to the same situation. For example: If the child produces an alternative which is appropriate to the situation, the mother will reward him/her with some sign of approval (such as smiles, hugs, or food). This approval or reward will encourage him to repeat the same response to the same situation.

(ii) Negative Reinforcement: Negative reinforcement is the discouragement of an undesired response (behaviour) by an unpleasant stimulus. It decreases the probability of the reoccurrence of the same response to the same situation. For example: If the child produces an utterance which is inappropriate to the situation, he/she will not be rewarded. Consequently, the child will not repeat the same response to the same situation.

Punishment: Punishment is used to erase undesirable behaviours by presenting a distressing stimulus when the behaviour occurs. Punishment can be classified into the following types:

(i) Positive Punishment: An undesirable stimulus is received after a behaviour occurs. For example, if the learner fails to follow the class then he will be given detention.

(ii) Negative Punishment: A desirable stimulus is lost or removed after a behaviour occurs. For example, if the learner fails to follow the class rules then he will not be given any recess hour.

Thus, it is quite visible that the Behaviourist Theory (as propounded by Skinner) is represented as a “stimulus – response – reinforcement” chain. For better understanding, this chain can be demonstrated in the following illustration:

The Behaviourist Theory explains two major aspects. It firstly explains how the child produces speech. It secondly explains how he/she understands speech. Positive and negative reinforcement contain various adult utterances which function as discriminating stimuli for the production of the child’s responses (behaviours). When the child hears these adult utterances he/she tries to imitate them to produce his/her speech. The child earns the ability to understand a speech when he/she becomes able to produce an utterance which is appropriate to the situation. Reinforcement can come from different sources. The mother is the primary source of reinforcement because she has to take care of the child almost all the time. The people around him/her can also provide reinforcement.

Drawbacks

Although sound in many ways, the theory is not free from limitations. The shortcomings of this theory are as follows:

Firstly, the Behaviourist Theory completely ignores the inborn aspect of human knowledge.

Secondly, the theory puts over emphasis on the role of imitation and ignores completely the creativity of the child, making him/her somewhat passive viewer than actor in the process of language acquisition.

Thirdly, the Behaviorist Theory seems to be somewhat mechanical in nature, since the child is considered a passive object.

Fourthly, it cannot develop the child’s problem solving skills. The child may find himself/herself in a situation where the stimulus to the correct response does not occur. In such cases the child won’t be able to respond.

Fifthly, it fails to explain how the child understands utterances he/she has never heard before, or produces new and unique utterances.

Finally, the Behaviourist Theory cannot explain how the child proceeds in his/her journey of language acquisition at such a young age.

Conclusion

The Behaviourist Theory came under fierce attack when Chomsky proposed his Innate Theory in 1959. Chomsky’s theory strongly proved that the child is not a tabula rasa; rather he is born with an innate capability to learn language. Nevertheless, along with all of its limitations, the Behaviourist Theory was able to govern the direction of the psychological explanation of language acquisition quite productively. After its emergence, this theory was passively accepted by the influential Bloomfieldian structuralist school of linguistics and produced some well-known models of foreign language teaching, most notably, the Audio Lingual Method. For many years, the concepts from the Behaviourist Theory formed the basis of most of the learning theory applied in child rearing and in classrooms. Parents and teachers still find that, in many instances, individuals do learn when provided with the appropriate blend of stimulus, reinforcement, and punishments. Especially with small children and simpler tasks, behaviourist principles are often effective. Thus, the contribution of the Behaviourist Theory as an explanation of child language development cannot be overlooked altogether.

References

“Behaviorism.” Funderstanding. 1998-2001. Funderstanding. 20 Sep 2008 < http://www.funder-

standing.com/behaviorism.cfm >.

“Behaviorist Learning Theory.” Innovative Learning. 2008. InnovativeLearning.com. 20 September 2008

< http://www.innovativelearning.com/educational_psychology/behaviorism/index.html>.

“Behaviorist Theories of Learning.” SIL International. 1999.SIL International. 22 August 2008

< http://www.silinternational.org/>.

“Classical Conditioning (Pavlov) .” Learning –Theories.com. 2008. Learning Theories.

< http://www.learning-theories.com/classical-conditioning-pavlov.html >.

“Instructional Design & Learning Theory.” University of Saskatchewan. 1994-2008.

University of Saskatchewan.22 August 2008< http://www.usask.ca/education/coursework/

802papers/mergel/brenda.htm>.

“Learning Theories/Behavioralist Theories.” Wikipedia. 2008. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.

20 September 2008 <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Learning_Theories/Behavioralist_Theories>.

The Situational Syllabus

2010-02-14T14:51:00.007+06:00

INTRODUCTION

The formulation of a new type of syllabus became inevitable when dissatisfaction was targeted to the Grammatical Syllabus. Even though the Grammatical Syllabus has been used with considerable success over a long period of time, many modern linguists have come to see grammar as the wrong organising principle for a syllabus, since effective language use cannot be ensured unless it is contextualised, involving ample social interaction. Therefore, the most commonly proposed alternative is to take situational needs as the starting point and thereby to construct a Situational Syllabus to replace the Grammatical Syllabus. The Situational Syllabus did a lot to fill the vacuum that was caused by the drawbacks of the Grammatical Syllabus. The Situational Syllabus, however, is not as firmly based as the Grammatical Syllabus on any well formulated view of language. Nevertheless, like its precursor the Grammatical Syllabus, it has also proven its importance as being the most extensively used component for the Multi Syllabuses.

MAJOR CHARACTERISTICS

The major characteristics of the Situational Syllabus are as follows:

Theoretical Bases: The central argument for the Situational Syllabus is that language is always used in a social context and cannot be fully understood without reference to the contextual settings. According to Wilkins, the Situational Syllabus is constructed on the analyses of situations and behaviours. The Situational analysis can enable the syllabus designers to predict in what situations the learners are likely to use the language and teach accordingly. The Behavioural analysis aims to consider the likely behaviours or activities that the learners may conduct in different situations.

Contents/Selecting & Sequencing the Contents: In the Situational Syllabus the content is specified and ordered in non-linguistic terms (i.e. excluding grammatical items, vocabulary topics, or functions). The content of language teaching is a collection of real or imaginary situations in which language occurs or is used. It (the content) often takes the form of dialogues and conversations. The learners are expected to practice the dialogues and memorise useful expressions and patterns. The grammar and the vocabulary derived from the situations are not themselves the driving force behind selection. However, the grammar and the vocabulary are also taken into account when the language forms in situations are selected, since these two components receive primary attention in almost all types of syllabus design and development. Thus the main components of the Situational Syllabus can be analysed in the following order:

a list of language situations, and
description of the grammatical and lexical items of each of these situations.

Objectives: Situations are the organizing principle of the situational syllabus. A situation usually involves some kinds of transactions in a specific setting. The language occurring in the situation involves a number of a probable segment of discourse/dialogue. The primary purpose of a situational language teaching syllabus is, thus to teach the language that occurs in the situations. Examples of such probable situations include:

At the hotel,
At the travel agent,
At the post office,
At the restaurant,
At the garage,
At the airport,
At the shopping mall,
At school, and so on.

Procedure: In the initial stage of teaching, the teacher has to analyse the probable linguistic situations in which the learners may use the language. Next he has to analyse the probable behaviours/ activities that the learners may carry out in different situations. In order to conduct the behavioural analysis, the teacher must rely upon a set of parameters for describing the significant features of situations. These include:

the physical context in which the language event occurs,
the channel of communication (i.e. spoken or written),
whether the language activity is productive or receptive,
the number and the character of the participants,
the relationship between the participants, and
the field of activity within which the language event takes place.

ADVANTAGES

The Situational Syllabus offers guidelines for organising language teaching materials on a relatively limited scope, yet it has proven to be beneficial in several ways:

Wilkins considers this type of syllabus more efficient and more motivating than the Grammatical Syllabus because it hinges round practical needs rather than abstract analysis.
It is a learner-centred syllabus, since it takes account of the learner and his needs.
It enables the learners to behave appropriately in various social contexts.
It pays more attention to learners’ speaking ability in contrast to the Grammatical Syllabus.

WEAKNESSES

Even though the Situational Syllabus is widely used as a replacement for the Grammatical Syllabus to organise language teaching materials, there is still strong criticism against this model:

The main disadvantage of the Situational Syllabus is that it is less appropriate for the students of general English, since it tries to teach language in the context of some specific linguistic situations, which cannot be considered as an all-encompassing yardstick for fulfilling the learners’ general language needs. That is, because it is difficult to guarantee that one specific situation will be useful in another.
Although some situations have a predictable script, unanticipated things can happen in any situation, requiring a change of script or topic. Wilkins points out, that a physical situational setting such as “At the Post Office” or “In a Restaurant” does not necessarily predict the language forms that will be used. One may go into a restaurant not to order a meal but to ask directions to a nearby museum or to change money for a telephone call. While certain language functions will most likely occur in certain situational settings, physical setting cannot really predict language use. It depends on who the students are and where they are learning. Thus determining the appropriate list of situations for a general class is difficult.
Grammar is dealt with incidentally, so the Situational Syllabus may result in gaps in learners’ grammatical knowledge.
The Situational Syllabus does not provide us with clearly defined criteria for the sequencing of teaching items. Little is known about the language used in different situations, so selection of teaching items is typically based on intuition.
The Situational Syllabus is probably most appropriate for short-term special-purpose courses: giving prospective tourists survival skills or preparing service personnel, such as waiters or waitresses, to deal with routine requests or fire fighters to handle emergency situations. It has limited potential for the language learner interested in acquiring global language proficiency. For this reason it is generally used as the component of a Multi Syllabus rather than as the central organising principle for a general language syllabus design.

Conclusion

In verdict, it can be remarked that The Situational Syllabus is useful only in certain circumstances. It does not have the potentials to offer a comprehensive solution to the problems of language learning for the students of general English. Yet, its contribution to syllabus design cannot be denied altogether, since it is the first syllabus type to consider the situational needs as important criteria for language learning, which are no less important than the knowledge of grammar.

References

Barman, Dr. Binoy, Zakia Sultana, and Bijoy Lal Basu. ELT: Theory and Practice. Dhaka:

FBC, 2006. 24-38.

“EFL Syllabus Design.” Finchpark. 2008. Dr. Andrew Finch. 22 August 2008

<http://www.finchpark.com/afe/tbsyll.htm>.

“Grammatical, Situational and Notional Syllabuses.” Eric Education Resources Information Center.

2008. ERIC. 22 August 2008<http://eric.ed.gov/>.

Harmer, Jeremy. The Practice of English Language Teaching. 3^rd ed.

England: Longman-Pearson,2001. 295.

“How to Develop a Situational-topical Syllabus.” SIL International. 1999.SIL International.

22 August 2008 < http://www.silinternational.org/>.

“Language Acquisition and Syllabus Design: The Need for a Broad Perspective.”ADFL Bulletin.

1984. Association of Departments of Foreign Languages.22 August 2008

<http://web2.adfl.org/adfl/bulletin/V15N3/15300I.htm>.

“Travel English Dialogs Based on a Situational Syllabus.” Takamatsu. 2008.

The Regents of Takamatsu University. 22 August 2008

< http://www.takamatsu-u.ac.jp/nlibrary/kiyo/no34/no34ikeuchi.pdf>.

The Innate Theory

2010-02-03T19:55:00.007+06:00

Introduction

The Innate Theory (also known as Innatist Theory, Nativist Theory, Rationalist Theory, Mentalist Theory) of language acquisition was developed in the mid-20^th century (1959) by the renowned American linguist Noam Chomsky. It emerged as a reaction against the Behaviourist language learning theory, and contradicted its model at almost every point of basic structure. Although Chomsky is credited to be its originator, in reality, the theory has been around for hundreds of years. Chomsky’s proposal just breathed a new life into the old concept and confirmed its formalisation. Though radical in many ways, it was able to lay out some major connotations for understanding language acquisition. In the last few decades, the amount of discussion about first language acquisition in the context of the Innate Theory has grown considerably.

Theoretical Bases

The theoretical assumptions underlying the Innate Theory are as follows:

Language acquisition is innately determined; that is, children are biologically programmed for language learning. They develop language in the same way as other biological functions. They start to speak at roughly the same age and proceed through roughly the same stages.
Children are born with a special ability to systematically discover for themselves the underlying rules of a language system. This special ability enables them to learn the complexities of language in a relatively short period of time.
Environmental differences may be associated with some variation in the rate of language acquisition.

Evidence Used to Support Chomsky’s Innate Theory

Eric Lenneberg's concept of a critical period is the best evidence for Chomskian proposal. Lenneberg suggested that there is a biologically pre-determined period of life during which language can be acquired most easily. Beyond this time language becomes increasingly difficult to acquire. Through this statement Lenneberg provided a strong support for the Chomskian claim that language is innately determined and in the existence of an innate universal set of grammar. This is still a controversial view, and many linguists and psychologists do not believe language is as innate as Chomsky argues. Yet, he presents abundant evidence to support the view that the form of language is innate:

The Poverty of the Stimulus Argument: The first argument in favour of this statement is concerned with the logical problem of language acquisition, which the behaviourists failed to recognise. This argument is known as The Poverty of the Stimulus Argument. The argument states that:

Virtually all children successfully learn their native language at a time in life when they would not be expected to learn anything else so complicated.
The language the child is exposed to in the environment is full of confusing information and does not provide all the information which the child needs.
Children are by no means systematically corrected or instructed on language by parents.
When parents correct, they tend to focus on meaning rather than form, and children often ignore the correction and continue to use their own ways of saying things.
Children learn to use very complex language structures without instruction or large numbers of examples of all the linguistic rules and patterns that they eventually know.
Children produce words they never heard before (e.g. puted), this cannot be the result of imitation, but must be the result of a creative process.

Language Universals: To justify this argument Chomsky opines that, language is not a set of habits, but it is rule-governed; subsequently, the mind is responsible for the perception and processing of linguistic data because it is genetically equipped with a device that make language acquisition possible. This mechanism is referred to as LAD (Language Acquisition Device). LAD consists of Universal Grammar (UG) and all the languages are basically formed with that universal ground. UG does not claim that all human languages have the same grammar, or that all humans are programmed with a structure that underlies all surface expressions of human language. Rather UG provides a set of basic grammatical elements or fixed elements or fixed abstract principles that are common in all natural languages, which explains how children acquire their language(s) or how they construct valid sentences of their language in a relatively short period of time. Chomsky defined these abstract representations of grammatical rules as language universals. Chomsky says that there are two types of language universals:

Substantive Universal: The substantive universals consist of fixed features of language like phonemes or syntactic categories like nouns (N) and verbs (V). Let us consider, for example, some distinctive phonological features. One of them is “voicing” that differentiates /p/ from /b/ in the pronunciation of such words as pin and bin, or “nasality” that makes the difference between /b/ and /m/ in bad and mad.
Formal Universal: The formal universals are the general principles which determine the form and the manner of operation of grammatical rules of particular language.

Chomsky further argues that the universal principles that children discover form their core grammar. On the other hand, the rules or features that are not determined by universal grammar form their peripheral grammar. Rules of core grammar might be easier to acquire than the rules of the peripheral grammar, since the latter are thought to be outside of the child’s programmed instruction.

Counterarguments on the InnateTheory

To some extent, the Innate Theory seems complementary to the Behaviourist Theory, whose major principles are further clarified and then developed by the innate theorists. The following arguments represent the fact that some of the precepts of the Innate Theory should be refined:

Language acquisition is not totally of inborn nature nor is it just a matter of biological make-up. There is also an undeniable effect in language learning coming from the social environment since infants grow up biologically in a social environment from which they cannot be divorced. The presence of a mother and father in front of a child establishes a natural social environment.
The psychologist Jerome Bruner opined that language acquisition not only depend on LAD but also LASS or Language Acquisition Support System. It is possible that children have inborn capability to follow certain grammatical principles, but their acquisition of words depends crucially on their environment. For example, English children learn English because; their Language Acquisition support System is English.
The use and influence of imitations and reinforcements cannot totally be denied or disregarded by saying that they destroy or relegate the possible creativity in language learning. For example, the role of imitations and repetitions cannot be wholly denied in such areas like learning vocabulary items and structural patterns.

Criticism

Although this theory provides what some claim is a reasonable explanation about acquiring language, this theory lacks sufficient evidence. Some of the cases against this theory include:

Firstly, the LAD is an abstract concept and lacks adequate scientific support.

Secondly the theory is heavily based on the learner’s linguistic competence which is again abstract phenomenon.

Thirdly, the theory placed more emphasis on the linguistic competence of adult native speakers, but not enough on the developmental aspects of language acquisition.

Conclusion

Chomsky's work has been highly controversial, rekindling the age-old debate over whether language exists in the mind before experience. Despite its few limitations, the Innate Theory is rich enough to provide a substantial idea of how a child acquires his/her first language.

References

Clark, Herbert H. and Eve V. Clark. Psychology and Language: An Introduction to Psychology.

n.p.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977.

Cook, V[ivian] J[ames]. Chomsky’s Universal Grammar: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell,

1988. 1-2.

Foley, Mary Ann. “Cognitive Psychology.” Microsoft Encarta. DVD-ROM. Redmond: Microsoft,2005.

“Innatism.” Wikipedia. 2008. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 20 September 2008

< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innatism >.

Konieczna, Ewa. “First Language Acquisition”. Uniwersytet Rzeszowski. 2008. univ.rzeszow.pl.

20 September 2008 <http:// www.univ.rzeszow.pl>.

“Language Acquisition.” Wikipedia. 2008. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 20 September 2008

< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_acquisition>.

“Language Acquisition Device.” Wikipedia. 2008. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 20 September

2008< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_acquisition_device>.

Scovel, Thomas. Psycholinguistics. Oxford: OUP, 1998. 17-18.

“Second Language Teaching and Learning.” Macquarie University: Australia’s Innovative

University.2008. Macquarie University. 20 September 2008

< http://www.ling.mq.edu.au>.

Wordsworth's Mysticism

2010-01-23T00:46:00.003+06:00

William Wordsworth is an eminent mystic poet of the Romantic Age with an amazingly subtle mind and a deviant capacity for expressing personal beliefs and thoughts. Wordsworth was a true mystic. His mystical experiences are principally revealed in the context of his treatment of nature. Wordsworth never confined his verse within the vivid portrayal of the sights, sounds, odors, and movements of various elements of nature. He aimed at attaining something higher and divine and leaving behind a record of his mystical experiences in nature and human life in his poetry. So his poetry is not simply an artistic encapsulation of lovely and tranquil aspects of nature but also a comprehensive account of his mystical experiences.

Wordsworth’s mysticism is remarkable for its meditative mood and pantheistic conception of nature. It is moulded by the belief that nature is a living being and the dwelling place of god. Nature is the means through which a man can come into contact with god. Wordsworth maintains that a divine spirit pervades through all the objects of nature. As a true pantheist he also says that all is God and God is all. Many of his poems can be studied with this contextual consideration. This perception is particularly reverberated in Tintern Abbey, where he says with great devotion:

“...And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something for more deeply infused,
Whose dwelling is the light of the setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:”

He finds the existence of god even in the mind of man. Wordsworth upholds that there is a pre-arranged harmony between the mind of man and the spirit in nature, which enables man to form a relationship or communication with nature. The relationship is materialised when the mind of man forms a kinship with the thoughts of nature. And it is this cordial and intellectual junction between man and nature that helped to shape his belief that nature has the power to teach and educate human beings. Man accomplishes perfection and practical knowledge through the education he receives from nature. He believes that the person who doesn’t receive education from nature is worthless and his life is unsuccessful. The poet considers nature as a bountiful source of knowledge. He also believes that nature is the nurse and the protector of the mankind. Nature’s benignity considers only the welfare of human beings. In his words, nature is:

“The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul.
Of all my moral being.”

In Wordsworthian belief, nature is capable of alleviating the tormented mind of man. The beautiful and frolicsome aspects of nature are an infinite source for healing power. The material life sometimes become so stark and painful that human beings loose the aspiration for living. When life becomes such unbearable then the sweet and affectionate contact with nature can easily drive away the cloud of cynicism from the mind of the viewer of nature. The noise and disturbance of the town or city life may make human life intolerable but even the recollections of nature in some lonely room can eliminate the burden of desolation, anxiety and suffocation:

“But oft, in lonely rooms, and ‘mid the din
Of towns and cities, I have owed to them
In hours of weariness, sensation sweet.
Felt in the blood and felt along the heart;
And passing even into the purer mind
With tranquil restoration...”

Wordsworth, like a true mystic, sees life in all objects of nature. According to him, every flower and cloud, every stream and hill, the stars and the birds that live in the midst of nature, has each their own life.

Wordsworth honours even the simplest and the most ordinary objects of nature and human life. For him nothing is mean or low, since everything that is present in the universe is touched by divine life.

To conclude we ought to say that Wordsworth never looked at nature like the way we do. With great devotion and enthusiasm, he sought to read the profoundest meaning of human life in nature. In the way of doing so he forged himself as a great poet of nature with a true mystical vision.