75 10 3494 https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/737cdf331ada2d5d7c51455339efc823.pdf 49c8ac31814bddf90aafdb0124db3022 PDF Text Text 1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo Literature and Colonialism: Tracing the Haitian Theme in the Literary Works of Kleist, Seghers and Mueller Mercy Vungthianmuang Centre of German Studies School of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India mercymuang@gmail.com Abstract: The entire history of the "Entdeckungsreisen' in the 15th and the 16th Century is a history of the conquered and the conquerer. With historical evidences of the various European nations ruling over the 'other' nations, comes a corpus of texts which legitimates and hence establishes an outline of colonization in literary texts. This discourse on colonialism in the various disciplines of the social sciences especially in the literary texts helps us to analyze the links between power and authority and apparently which also manifests itself in the language of the text. The Haitian Revolution i.e. the Slave Revolt against the French Rule is a theme which has been discussed in various historical time -periods over the centuries. In German literature, this historical event has also been established in a series of works of Heinrich von Kleist: Die Verlobung in St. Domingo, Anna Seghers: Die karibische Geschichten and Heiner Mueller‘s Play: Der Auftrag. It is interesting to know how the three texts establishes an intertextuality not only in its form and structure, but also how in different dimensions of literary representations it attributes the various trends of colonial discourse. Orientalising the other, representing the ‗other‘ and the emergence of ‗stabilization through Power‘ can be observed in these literary works. Introduction: Colonialism and Literature have had a close relationship since the discovery of the Americas by Vasco Da Gama. Colonialism has its origins in the whole history of expeditions starting from the 15th Century till the recent decades and literature, on the other hand, being a mediator between the ‗real‘ and the ‗imaginary‘ becomes a written and representational tool in which a cluster of complex language and symbols are considered to be exemplifying this ‗Difference‘282 between the ‗discoverer‘ and the ‗discovered‘ or the ‗conqueror‘ and the ‗conquered‘, the ‗oppressor‘ and the ‗oppressed‘. The literature of colonialism constitutes a corpus of texts, in which, the dominance of different European nations over the various ‗other‘ parts of the world is legitimised and perceived as ‗acceptable‘ and hence, creates a problematic debate on the quintessential issue of representation by the colonising power. This outlining of various colonial representations in literature then forms a prerequisite not only for the ‗colonial discourse‘ but also for the postcolonial discourse since it involves imperialising or ‗subordinating‘ of the colonised. 283 European representation of colonial contentions and themes forms the basis of the postcolonial argument. It becomes crucial for a globalised world, to reflect and to observe how various literary texts on colonialism are representational texts and how they metamorphose into an export of European ideas and Europe‘s search for its own identity. Scope and Objective of the research: The research aimed to study German literary texts representing the Haitian- Theme and attempt to trace various colonial connotations by challenging them and problematising them with a postcolonial perspective. The Slave revolt in Haiti in the year 1803 against the French regime has been, to a large extent, discussed and written extensively by many writers. Parallel to this, the aim of the research was to study the literary works of three German authors who have written broadly about the Haitian-theme in different time periods. The tradition of the Haitiantheme in German literature saw its onset with the work of Heinrich von Kleist‘s novella ‗Die Verlobung von St. Domingo‘ published in the year 1811, followed by Theodor Koerner‘s novel titled ―Toni‖ published in the year 1812 and several decades later , in the year 1840, Theodor Muegge‘s novel ‗Toussaint‘. A century later the Haitian – theme is taken up again by Anna Seghers in the ‗Karibische Geschichten‘ published in the year 1962. The third story in her ‗Karibische Geschichten‘ ‗ Das Licht auf dem Galgen‘ finds its affiliation in Heiner Mueller‘s play ‗Der 282 Osterhammel, Juergen: Geschichtswissenschaft jenseits des Nationalstaates. Studien zu Beziehungsgeschichte und Zivilizationsvergleich. Gottingen 2003. 283 Loomba, Ania: Colonialism/Postcolonialism. Routledge 1988. p. 12 902 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo Auftrag‘ which was published a decade later in the year 1979 contemplating not only the colonial contentions of the Haitian-theme but also discussing the idea of revolution. Heiner Mueller wrote: ―I wanted to do ‗Auftrag‘ after I had read Anna Seghers work ‗Das Licht auf dem Galgen‘. Das Licht auf dem Galgen is her contention with Stalinism: Napoleon / Stalin, the liquidators of revolution.‖284 The three German literary texts by Heinrich von Kleist, Anna Seghers and Heiner Mueller will form the basis for this research by displaying various dimensions of literary representations in the colonial and postcolonial context. In this research, the main aim was in studying and analysing the historical backgrounds during the time when the three authors Heinrich von Kleist, Anna Seghers and Heiner Mueller wrote their respective texts and also comparing and contrasting the various factors which influenced each individual author‘s usage of different motifs in their texts. The different genres of the three authors, was also one of the main focus of this research. Heinrich von Kleist and Anna Seghers novels share a similar genre but differ in their focus thematically. Heinrich von Kleist discusses extensively the relationship between the ‗coloniser‘ and the ‗colonised‘ and the contingencies of ―Blackness‘ and ―Whiteness‖ outlining his text into an issue of ‗race‘ and ‗class‘ and Seghers ‗stories‘ establish a different perspective of the Haitian-theme into a theme on revolution while acknowledging the factors of ‗race‘ and ‗class‘. Heiner Mueller‘s play being a ‗didactic play‘ with its subtitle ―Memories of a revolution‖ 285attempts to take the focus of his predecessor‘s texts onto a higher analysis of the various political, social and cultural issues, which were prevalent during the time the play was written and also now, in the postcolonial age, and hence, it becomes important for one to understand the intertextuality within the three literary texts sharing the Haitian-theme and analyse all the interwoven factors of literary and cultural importance. Another major objective of the research was to analyse how such literary texts on the Haitian-Theme, become representational texts of colonialism and to what extent does it mirror Germany‘s stand on colonialism. It becomes substantial for one, as a student of German Studies in India, to be able to examine and deal with the intercultural aspects in the three German literary texts. The different approaches of the individual authors in discussing the concept of ‗Blackness‘ or ‗Otherness‘ becomes crucial for this research and it becomes important also to understand how this discussion leads one to problematise the issue of ‗representation of the colonised‘. ―The social gulf built into the depersonalised official relationship between White ruler and non-White ruled is one which peculiarly facilitates thinking of the Other as incentive ‗sub men‘ by the rulers, and as heartless gods by the ruled. Fanon has remarked that the colon is right in his familiar claim to ‗know‘ the colonised people better than others, precisely because he has created his personality.‖286 In studying such literary texts and the categories of colonialism, it becomes all the more necessary to determine how this question of ‗Blackness‘ gets incorporated in the recent discourse of Postcolonialism and makes it essential to research and know how one deals with this idea of ‗Eurocentrism‘ in the post-colonial world. Fanon argues that Europe deployed an imperialist semiotics that made whiteness the signifier of reason, virtue, and beauty and blackness the signifier of irrational intuition and raw sensuality in order to legitimate its domination of the ‗third world‘. According to Fanon, racial value coding imposes a sense of inferiority on colonial subjects, alienating them from themselves and sometimes making them want to become white. But since the codes of blackness and whiteness are arbitrary fictions imposed by imperialism, it remains possible to claim a subject position outside them. 287 For example: the concept of ‗Morality‘ ‗Good‘ and ‗Civilised‘ as oppose to ‗Immorality‘ ‗Evil‘ and ‗Uncivilised‘. The representation of ‗Verlobung‘ or ‗Betrothal‘ of the main characters Gustav –a Swiss soldier and Toni- a black woman in Kleist‘s novel corresponds into a representation of an interlocking of two different cultures. The ‗love‘ between Gustav and Toni is depicted as an antithesis to a political engagement between the two cultures and love as a symbol which defines allegiances as in the case of revolutions‘.288 In many aspects, we can also observe that the texts by Heinrich von Kleist ‗Die Verlobung von St. Domingo‘ and Anna Seghers‘ ‗Die Hochzeit von Haiti‘, are a reflection on the coming together of two different cultures, as in the case of the ‗first world‘ and the so called ‗third world‘ civilizations. This engagement and marriage of two opposing civilizations, consequently, becomes an important theme for the research, since it involves the objectifications of the ‗colonized‘ ―...objectification is not best understood as denying the freedom of the objectified, but as denying and concealing the joint projects that underlie human relationships. [...] The 284 Cf. Heiner Mueller: Krieg ohne Schlacht-Leben in zwei Diktaturen. Koeln 1992. p. 297 Heiner, Mueller: Der Auftrag: Errinerung an eine Revolution. Frankfurt a. M. 1988 286 Worsley, Peter: Colonialism and Categories In Race and Social Difference (Ed.) Paul Baxter & Basel Sansom 1972. p. 98. 287 Cf. Fanon, Frantz: Black Skin, White Masks. Pluto Press. UK 1986. 285 903 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo objectification of racism, by contrast are more severe-such as a large pseudo-scientific literature claiming to prove the genetic inferiority of blacks to whites.‖289 The unsuccessful outcome of the relationship, projected as one‘s ‗moral‘ decision or that of total commitment to a ‗revolutionary‘ cause and the depiction of Toni‘s betrayal as a betrayal of the ‗Black‘ cause in Kleist‘s text and Heiner Mueller‘s emphasis on the revolution of the ‗whites‘ coming to an end, is thereby, another level of representation of the colonised section of the world. The research on such literary texts in a postcolonial context helps us to ponder upon several issues of representations which are more often or not, consciously and unconsciously, projected by the European writers as trivial. In the three primary literary works, the portrayal of the main characters, the need of ‗European‘ revolutionaries to oversee the revolution in the ‗non-western‘ part of the world and attributing the failure of the main characters and also the unsuccessful human relationships to cultural aberrations is, in many ways, a contention of ‗representation‘ which culminates into a ‗representation/substitution‘ for the oppressed. ―Two senses of representation are being run together: representation as ‗speaking for‘ as in politics and representation as‗re-presentation‘ as in art or philosophy.‖290 The research also looks into various other factors such as; the issue of ‗power‘ and ‗knowledge‘ of the colonial discourse and attempt to problematise it through the literary texts. The stereotyping of the characters and events in the literary texts illustrates an uneasy representation of the non-western world and the research finds such illustrations as an association between ‗power‘ and ‗knowledge‘ as opposed to ‗weakness‘ and ‗ignorance‘. ―Stereotyping involves reduction of images and ideas to simple and manageable forms; rather than simple ignorance or lack of ‗real‘ knowledge, it is a method of processing information. The function of stereotypes is to perpetuate an artificial sense of difference between ‗self‘ and ‗other‘‖.291 The research also makes an attempt to look into the depiction of women in the literary texts and also finds a concrete argument for such portrayals which in turn lead us again to the discussion of the ‗representation‘ of the oppressed society. The representation of ‗Toni‘ as the victim in Kleist‘s ‗Die Verlobung von St. Domingo‘ whose misunderstood allegiances leads to the death of Gustav and herself, ‗Die erste Liebe‘ in Mueller‘s play ‗Der Auftrag‘, who succeeds in seducing Debuisson to give into the moment of betrayal represented as love for his ‗Heimat‘ which is Jamaika –a ‗third world‘ country, are traces of representations of women which construct cultural differences. This objectivising of ‗black‘ or ‗non-European women‘ as ‗evil‘, desirable‘ and ‗passive‘ needs to be carefully analyzed and problematised. Another very important factor to take into account in this research is whether or not, these literary texts are a ‗cultural memory‘ for the three authors and to try to determine the various aspects of cultural differences produced by the ‗cultural memory‘ in their writings, since memory involves recollecting of an event and the process of recollection involves reconstruction of the past and association with the past. With this reconstruction of the past, it then becomes crucial for one to examine the various cultural differences taken as an accepted fact, as in the case of ‗Die Verlobung von St. Domingo‘ in Kleist‘s text when the he produces a European cultural memory at the very beginning of his novella ―[...] when the blacks killed the whites...‖292 which then reduces the characters of literary texts into objects i.e. the ‗non-european‘ subject as an object, an object which is ‗evil‘ for the ‗west‘ which consecutively leads to the conception of ‗Difference‘. This ‗Difference‘ is created, not on the basis of geographical boundaries, but on metaphorical differences into the ‗slave‘ and the ‗non-slave‘ worlds and forms a very essential and crucial point of discussion. Jan Assman in his book- Das kulturelle Gedaechtnis mentions that ‗The cultural memory is aimed at fixed points in the past. [...] Past refers here to many symbolic figures, which the memory is attached to.‘293 The research also looks at the literary texts as productions of ‗enlightened‘ texts according to Kantian theories of ‗Enlightenment‘, which establishes reason being the pre-requisite of differences between two cultures. Hence, it enables one to evaluate the basic ‗European‘ theories of culture which more often than not, postulate the cultural differences between ‗us‘ and ‗them‘, also observed in the three literary texts, and it shall further enable us to examine whether such literary texts on the ‗colonized‘ and the ‗oppressed‘, becomes examples of the European author‘s or Europe‗s own search for identity in the postcolonial world. ―Attempts to interpret the role of race in Kleist‘s novella often founder on the attempt to establish the author‘s views concerning colonialism and Enlightenment thought. This is obvious reaction to the concerns of the text and the important, real-world context of race with our contemporary global culture.‖ 294 289 Schmitt, Richard: Racism and Objectification –Reflections on Themes from Fanon. In Lewis R. Gordon, T. Denean SharpleyWhiting and Renee T. White (Ed.), Fanon: A critical Reader, Oxford 1996. p. 46. 290 Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty: Can the subaltern speak? 1988 p. 70 291 Loomba, Ania: Colonialism/Postcolonialism. Routledge 1988. p. 60 292 Cf.Kleist, Heinrich von : Die Verlobung in St. Domingo. Hamburger Lesehefte 1977 293 Cf. Assman, Jan: Das kulturelle Gedaechtnis. Schrift, Errinerung und politische Identitate in fruehen Hochkulturen, Muenchen 2007. p. 52 294 Martin, James P: Reading Race in Kleist‘s ―Die Verlobung von St. Domingo‖. Monatshefte , Volume 100, number 1, Spring 2008 p. 63. 904 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo Methodology: 1. Orientalism: I would like to propose the critical discourse on ‗Orientalism‘ which was articulated by Edward Said in his 1971 published book titled ‗Orientalism‘and which originated as a point of reference for all postcolonial writers in the 20th century, in order to examine the colonial and the postcolonial criticisms in European literatures. In his introduction, Said proposes to analyse Orientalism with the Foucauldian notion of ‗discourse‘. In writing on Orientalism, Said emphasises that the construction of the East was always possible for the west since the relationship shared between the ‗Occident‘ and the ‗orient‘ corresponded to a relationship of power and knowledge and ―...of varying degrees of a complex hegemony‖. 295 ―My contention is that without examining Orientalism as a discourse one cannot possibly understand the enormously systematic discipline by which European culture was able to manage –and even produce-the orient politically, sociologically, militarily, ideologically, scientifically and imaginatively during the Post-Enlightenment period.‖296 From the above statement one can come to several conclusions that: a) The Orient would have to be created as an opposite of the west and which in turn means that the entire conception of the ‗Orient‘ or the ‗East‘ becomes a repository or projection of those aspects of themselves which Westerners do not choose to acknowledge and b) That the relationship between the ‗west‘ and the ‗Orient‘ has always been that of power structures wherein the superiority of the European identity has consistently been a dominating factor. Hence, it becomes important for this research, in analysing the concept of representation which has been postulated by the discourse on ‗Orientalism‘ in which the main focus remains, problematising the European representations of ‗other‘ cultures. In doing so, the central objective is not only to analyse or ascertain the passive participation of German authors in the ‗representation‘ of other cultures in their literary texts but also to study how these representations in literary texts have been a validation for representing the ‗orient‘ as an object throughout centuries. Representations wherein the east or the ‗orient has been taken as an ‗object‘ and features in the ‗western‘ mind ―...as sort of surrogate and even underground self.‖297 ―Thus all of Orientalism stands forth and away from the Orient: that Orientalism makes sense at all depends on the west than on the Orient, and this sense directly indebted to various Western techniques of representation that make the Orient visible, clear, ‗there‘ in discourse about it‖298 Said‘s theories of colonialism have been strongly contested and it would therefore also be important to look at the critical discourse on these positions. Especially in the German context it has been posited that since Germany was not a colonial power till the end of the 19 th Century, Said‘s theories are untenable in this framework 299. The work examines this aspect of the theoretical framework. 2. Colonialism/Postcolonialism As mentioned earlier, after European expeditions of the early 15 th/16th century, history saw the commencement of the various European colonisations; hence, it becomes inevitable for this research to understand the colonial and postcolonial discourse in literature. In the German context, although colonisation was never felt in the ‗real‘ sense of colonising a territory other than that of Europe, it however, was a silent partner in the colonial representations of the ‗colonised‘ through literary texts. If we take for example, the various travelogues of the German authors, or the reports and the letters written by German missionaries, it becomes evident that literary representations of a culture other than that of one‘s own becomes a crucial concept in the colonial discourse. If we take for instance, Alexander von Humboldt‘s expeditions, where he travels to ‗observe‘ and ‗study‘ the Native Americans, he gives a detailed scientific analysis of slavery and colonialism and writes his observations on the flora and fauna of the other parts of the continent, is nothing but a representation of a culture unknown to the European world. Hence, it becomes interesting for this research to analyse how these representations of people and cultures translate into ‗objectification‘ of the people who were observed and studied and how these reports or travelogues or literary works form Europe‘s way of understanding the ‗other‘ by reading it and constructing it. Such establishments of ‗other‘ parts of the continent as ‗delayed‘ and ‗inferior‘, is what interests us to question and to analyse literary texts in colonial discourse. As also in the case of the three works by Heinrich von Kleist, Anna Seghers and Heiner Mueller, namely, Die Verlobung von St. Domingo, Karibische Geschichten and ‗Der Auftrag‘ respectively, traces of colonial prejudices can be read and observed and therefore, it forms an essential factor for this research to examine the 295 Said, Edward: Orientalism. p.5 Ebid p. 23 297 Said, Edward. 1971. 298 Ebid p. 22 299 Cf. Polaschegg, Andrea: Der andere Orientalismus. Regeln deutsch-morgenlaendischer Imagination im 19. Jahrhundert. Berlin/New York 2005 296 905 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo ‗representational ‗forms in such literary texts because literary and cultural practices also embody cultural interactions and involve cultural prejudices against the colonised. ― The colonial contact is not just ‗reflected‘ in the language or imagery of literary texts, it is not just a backdrop or ‗context‘ against which human dramas are enacted, but a central aspect of what these texts have to say about identity, relationships and culture.‖300 Another major theoretical aspect of the research is the postcolonial discourse. Analysing literary texts on the basis of colonial discourse , undoubtedly, gives us a fair understanding of the concept of ‗representational texts‘. Although the ‗representation‘ of the French colonies in Haiti in the literary texts may make us aware of ‗what had happened‘ and how the ‗colonised‘ were projected and depicted in the texts, consecutively, opening up a certain kind of awareness of how the representations of the non-European characters such as Toni, Margot, Sasportas and Congo Hoango in the three texts as ‗exotic‘ desirable‘ ‗evil‘ or ‗immoral‘, it also becomes critical for the postcolonial literary theory, to construct a future, wherein the differences are understood, apprehended and criticised. The postcolonial discourse helps us to understand and comprehend much more effectively, how such literary texts on historical events are considered to be an accepted form of historicising the past in the eyes of the European writer and it shall try to discuss the how such illustrations or depictions of the past in literature, if written by a ‗third world‘ author would have to undergo various degrees of experimentations and testing. ―That Europe works as a silent referent in historical knowledge becomes obvious in a very ordinary way. There are at least two everyday symptoms of the subalterity of non-western, third –world histories. Third world historians feel a need to refer to works in European history; historians of Europe do not feel any need to reciprocate‖301 4. The Category of the ‗Other‘ Reflecting on the theoretical aspects of Orientalism by Edward Said, it introduces us to another very important theoretical aspect which is the category of the ‗Other‘. Since several decades, theoreticians, culture historians and literary writers have tried to critically analyse and problematise this theoretical construct and epistemological category of the ‗Other‘ in the ongoing racial discourse. Thus, it was important for this research to study, how and when did the term ‗culture‘ begin to connote the differences between two societies or two cultures or better described as the difference between ‗Us‘ and ‗Them‘ and how such categorisations became an accepted norm in the literary works of the European writer. Another very important input on the categorisation of the non-European world as the ‗other‘ is in the book written by Todorov, titled ‗Entkolonisierung‘, in which he writes about the conquest of the Americas. Todorov does not embark on the historical conquests of the Americas in order to establish the European identity but he is rather concerned about the legitimising of the ‗moral‘ intentions by the Europeans, as also in the case of Edward Said, and appropriating this ‗need‘ to colonise. The category of the ‗other‘ exists within a society and also within several societies, hence, the theoretical construction of the ‗Other‘ creates on one hand, boundaries between two poles as eminently different, and on the other hand becomes an establishment of identities. 302 When critically analysed, it is observed that this category of the ‗Other‘ is always parallel to the degradation of the power structure, often evolving at the height of a political Imperialism and thus, becomes only evident in the various expressions of stereotypes or as forms of cultural hegemony. The presupposition of one culture being superior to the other leads to a prejudiced representation as in the case of the literary texts and also in the case of historical writings about the ‗third world‘. This process of articulating and organising the ‗Other‘ by the Europeans in the literary texts forms an essential part of the research. In what way is this research different? The research attempts to take the Haitian –theme in the German literary texts as a unit or a thematic composition between three texts, which has not been established before. Although many articles have been written on the texts dealing with various concepts, the thematic composition of the Haitian Theme has not been attempted. The research establishes an interdisciplinary approach of analysing the literary texts. Through the analysis of the texts, it becomes imperative to critically study the various established discussions about the ‗Representation‘ of the oppressed Class, People, and Group in tandem with the discourse of Postcolonialism. The research also traces the different developments of revolution from the historical aspects of the texts and makes an attempt to establish how the European model of a revolution then becomes a projection of delimiting the ‗black‘ revolution or the ‗third world‘ revolution into a category of the ‗other‘. The research is a distinctive and relevant in analysing the developing tendencies of German Studies in India and institutionalising this theme becomes interesting for a globalised world. 300 Loomba, Ania: Colonialism/Postcolonialism. 1998. p. 72-73. Althusser, Louis: Postcoloniality and the artiface of History In, Dipesh Chakrabarty: Provincialising Europe 2000. p.28. 302 Osterhammel, Juergen: Kulturelle Grenzen in der Expansion Europas, in: Geschichtswissenschaft jenseits des Nationalstaats. Goettingen 2003. p. 36. 301 906 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo The object of my inquiry is the representation of the ‗oppressed‘ in the three primary German literary works. The research is a comparative study of the three German literary texts by Heinrich von Kleist, Anna Seghers and Heiner Mueller and proposes to find traces of colonial and postcolonial discourse in the literary texts which are used as primary texts segregating them under different categories of ‗race‘ , ‗class‘, and ‗gender‘. Another very important aspect of this research was in finding a theoretical approach to the various theories of culture and try to find relevance in the texts taken into account and how it would then lead into the establishing a concrete argument on the European identity in literature in the postcolonial perspective. Conclusion and Recommendations: The research determines and brings in new observations on the relationships between Europe and the nonEuropean worlds through these literary texts. The research accentuates the theoretical aspects by finding relevance of the theories in the textual analysis of the literary texts and makes an attempt to find its application in the concerned texts. Another major attempt of the research was to find and analyse the theories of ‗representation of the ‗other‘‘ in each of the texts ‗Die Verlobung von St. Domingo‘, Karibische Geschichten‘ and ‗Der Auftrag‘ which then lead us to establish a concrete argument in the postcolonial perspective. The Haitian-Theme has been for centuries, extensively discussed in the German literature from the 18th Century till date and forms the primary source for this research. The first German author to bring forth this particular theme was Heinrich von Kleist in his Novella ‗Die Verlobung in St. Domingo‘ published in the year 1811, which is the first primary source for the research. It was the time when Europe was establishing imperial and colonial power within and outside the European boundaries. The Napoleonic wars, the French revolution, colonisation, slavery and ‗Fremdheit‘ were the historical themes prevalent during this period. It was also the period of enlightenment when not only Germany, but the various other European countries were trying to provide a distinctive identity of its own. The Haitian theme was revived again, centuries after Kleist‘s novelle, by another German author Anna Seghers in her ‗Karibische Geschichten‘ in the year 1962 , wherein the previous documentations of slavery and revolution were taken into a more complicated level of discussion. It was the period after the Second World War and a tumultuous time for German socialist authors in trying to come to terms with their reality of ‗geteilte Welt‘. It was also a period of the civil war and the student‘s movement in Germany and hence, the Haitian theme was considered to be a basis for further contemplation of the ongoing autrocities in the karibische Geschichten, constituting the second primary source to be used in the research. A decade after Anna Seghers wrote her last story in her ‗Karibische Geschichten‘- ‗Das Licht auf dem Galgen‘, Heiner Mueller‘s play ‗Der Auftrag‘ was published in the year1979. 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Frankfurt/ Main 2008 Hӧrnigk, Frank: Erinnerungen an Revolutionen: Zu Entwicklungstendenzen in der Dramatik Heiner Mùllers, Peter Hacks‘ und Volker Brauns am Ende der 70er Jahre. In: Tendenzen und Beispiele. Hrsg. Von Hans Kaufmann. Leipzig 1981 Horn, Peter: Heinrich von Kleists Erzӓhlungen. Eine Einfùhrung. Kӧnigstein/Ts. 1978 Huntington, Samuel P.: The Clash of Civilizations and the remaking of World Order. New York 1996 Inauen , Yasmine: Dramaturgie der Erinnerung – Geschichte, Gedӓchtnis, Kӧrper bei Heiner Mueller. Staufenburg Verlag James, C.L.R.: Schwarze Jakobiner. Kӧln 1984 Kaufmann, Hans: Aufsӓtze ùber Anna Seghers und ihr Werk. Berlin 1960 Kant, Immanuel: Was ist Aufklaerung?Thesen und Definitionen, hrsgv. Erhard Bahr, Stuttgart 1974 Labroisse, Gerd: Heiner Mùller-Problemen und Perspektiven. Rodopi 2000. Lahaye , Birgit: Pirating history- die Darstellung des haitianischen Unabhängigkeitskampfes in der Erzählliteratur. Mùnster 2003 Lazarus, Neil (Ed.): Postcolonial Literary Studies. Cambridge 2004 Lehmann, Hans-Thies: Dramatische Form und Revolution in Georg Bùchners ‗Dantons Tod‘ und Heiner Mllers ‗Der Auftrag‘. In: Georg Bùchner: Dantons Tod: Die Trauerarbeit im Schnen. Hrsg. v. peter von Becker. Frankfurt 1980 Loomba, Ania: Colonialism/ Postcolonialism. Routledge 1998 Maurer, Emil H.: Der schwarze Revolutionӓr: Touissant Louverture. Meisenheim/ Glan 1950 Mùller-Seidel, Walter (Hg.): Versehen und Erkennen. Eine Studie ùber Heinrich von Kleist. 3. Auflage. Kӧln 1961 Onana, Marie Biloa: Der Sklavenaufstand von Haiti: Ethnische Differenz und Humanitätsideale in der Literatur des 19. Jahrhunderts. Kӧln/ Weimar 2010 Osterhammel, Juergen: Kulturelle Grenzen in der Expansion Europas, In: Geschichtswissenschaft jenseits des Nationalstaats. Goettingen 2003 Sareika, Rdriger: Die dritte Welt in der westdeutschen Literatur der 60er Jahre. Frankfurt 1980 Said, Edward W.: Orientalism. 1978 Sauer, Klaus: Anna Seghers. Mùnchen 1978 Schmitt, Richard: Racism and Objectification –Reflections on Themes from Fanon. In Lewis R. Gordon, T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting and Renee T. White (Ed.), Fanon : A critical Reader, Oxford 1996 Schuppenhauer, Nadja: Die veränderte Rezeption der Haitianischen Revolution im Zuge des postcolonial turn: Eine Bestandsaufnahme. GRIN Verlag 2003. Stoddard, T.L.: The French Revolution in San Domingo. New York 1914 Todorov, Tzvetan; Die Eroberung Amerikas. Das Problem des Anderen. Frankfurt/ Main 1985 Wichmann, Thomas: Heinrich von Kleist. Stuttgart 1988 Williams, Patrick: Colonial Discourse and Postcolonial Theory. New York 1994 Witsch & Kiepenheuer: Heiner Mueller: Krieg ohne Schlacht-Leben in zwei Diktaturen. Koeln 1992 Angress, Ruth. K: Kleist‘s Treatment of Imperialism: ‗Die Hermannschlacht‘ and ‗Die Verlobung von St. Domingo‘. In: Monatshefte. Vol 69, No. 1, 1977. S. 17-33 Barnett, David: Literature versus Theatre. Textual Problems and Theatrical Realization in the Later Plays of Heiner Mùller. German Studies Review. Vol. 24, No. 3 (Oct., 2001), pp. 666-668 908 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo Berding, H.: Die Ӓchtung des Sklavenhandels auf dem Wiener Kongreβ 1814/15. In: Historische Zeitschrift (1974) Bernd, Fischer: Zur politischen Dimension der Ethik in Kleists ‗Die Verlobung von St. Domingo‘. In: Dirk Grathoff(Hrsg): Heinrich von Kleist. Studien zu Werk u. Wirkung. Opladen 1988. S.248-262 Bertram, Christian: Im Auftrag ohne Auftrag. In: Theatre heute 3/1980 S. 43 Carl-Hermann, Middelanis: Blending with Motifs and Colors: Haitian History Interpreted by Edouard Duval Carrie. Journal of Germanic Studies. Small Axe - Number 18 (Volume 9, Number 2), September 2005, pp. 109-123 Cultural Critique, No. 6 Spring 1987.‖ The Nature and Context of minority Discourse‖.Ed. by Abdel Jan Mohammed& David Lloyd Enzensberger, Hans Magnus: Europӓische Peripherie. In: Kursbuch 2 August 1965. S. 154-173 Enzensberger, Hans Magnus: Peter Weiss und andere. In: Kursbuch 6 Juli 1966. S.175 Fehervary, Helen (1998): Landscapes of an "Auftrag". In: New German Critique. Winter (1998) S.115-132. Gilman, Sander: The Aesthetics of Blackness in Heinrich v. Kleist‘s ‗Die Verlobung in St. Domingo‘. In: MLN 90, 1975 S. 661-672 Gugelberger, George. M.: ―Cric?‖-―Crac‖! Vier literarische Versuche, mit dem Kolonialismus umzugehen. Monatshefte. Vol. 85. No.2 ( Summer 1993) S. 234-236 Gùnther, K,: Die Konzeption von Kleists‘ Die Verlobung von St. Domingo‘. In: Euphorion 17, 1910. S.313-323 Hahne, O.: Die Entstehung von Kleist‘s ‗Die Verlobung von St. Domingo‘. In: Euphorion 33, 1921. S. 233-254 Irele, Abiola: Negritude-Literature and Ideology. Journal of Modern African Studies. Vol 3. No. 4. 1965. S. 499-526 Martin, James P: Reading Race in Kleist‘s ―Die Verlobung von St. Domingo‖. Monatshefte , Volume 100, number 1, Spring 2008 S. 63. Martini, Fritz:Heinrich von Kleist und die geschichtliche Welt. In: Germanische Studien. Heft 225. 1940 McCloy, S.T.: The Race Question in Late 18th Century France. In: Atlantic Quarterly (1961) Mùller-Salget, Klaus: Das Doppeldeutigkeit in Kleists Erzӓhlungen. In: Mùller-Seidel, Walter(Hrsg.): Kleists Aktualitӓt. Neue Aufsӓtze u. Essays. 1966-1978. Darmstadt 1981. S. 167-199 Musgrave, Marian E.: Anna Seghers‘ ‗Karibische Geschichten‘ and the tradition of Slavery Literature. In: American Association of Teachers of German: Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Meeting. Edited By Reinhold Grimm et.al. Philadelphia1975 Quartey, Seth : Africa in German Literature 1880 and After; Representation of Africa and Politics of German Colonialism in Africa 1810 and After, In: Developement and Colonialism. February 28, 2005 Reinhardt, Thomas: 200 Years of Forgettin g: Hushing up the Haitian Revolution. Journal of Black Studies. 2005. S. 246-261 Said, Edward W.: Orientalism Reconsidered. In: Race and Class. Autmn 1985 No. 2 P. 1-17 Teraoka, Arlene A.: Der Auftrag und Die Massnahme-Models of Revolution in Heiner Mùller and Bertolt Brecht. The German Quarterly, Vol. 59. No. 1 (Winter 1986) S. 65-84 29. Wende, Waltraud (1998): "Überfahrt" von Anna Seghers. Liebesgeschichte, Zeitporträt und Erzählung ùber das Erzählen. In: Euphorion 1 (1998), S.25-46. 30. Witkowski, Wolfgang: Justice and Loyalty-Kleist‘s Die Verlobung von St. Domingo. Journal of Black Studies. Vol 23, No. 2, Special Issue: The image of Africa in German Society 31. Worsley, Peter: Colonialism and Categories. Excerpts from P. Worsley, The third World, Wedenfeld and Nicolson, 1964 S.25-28 909 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Extent The size or duration of the resource. 555 Title A name given to the resource Literature and Colonialism: Tracing the Haitian Theme in the Literary Works of Kleist, Seghers and Mueller Author Author Vungthianmuang, Mercy Abstract A summary of the resource. The entire history of the "Entdeckungsreisen' in the 15th and the 16th Century is a history of the conquered and the conquerer. With historical evidences of the various European nations ruling over the 'other' nations, comes a corpus of texts which legitimates and hence establishes an outline of colonization in literary texts. This discourse on colonialism in the various disciplines of the social sciences especially in the literary texts helps us to analyze the links between power and authority and apparently which also manifests itself in the language of the text. The Haitian Revolution i.e. the Slave Revolt against the French Rule is a theme which has been discussed in various historical time -periods over the centuries. In German literature, this historical event has also been established in a series of works of Heinrich von Kleist: Die Verlobung in St. Domingo, Anna Seghers: Die karibische Geschichten and Heiner Mueller‘s Play: Der Auftrag. It is interesting to know how the three texts establishes an intertextuality not only in its form and structure, but also how in different dimensions of literary representations it attributes the various trends of colonial discourse. Orientalising the other, represent ing the ‗other‘ and the emergence of ‗stabilization through Power‘ can be observed in these literary works. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2011-05 Keywords Keywords. Conference or Workshop Item PeerReviewed P Philology. Linguistics https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/b320c24b8fcd766e01c70fd679567b23.pdf 2b82bde87b65e7ad775829d312ad9c98 PDF Text Text 1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo Assessment – Albanian educational system reality and challenges. Laureta Vavla Department of English and German Languages Aleksander Xhuvani University, Albania loridimashi@hotmail.com Abstract: This paper stresses the importance of assessment in second language class today in the Albanian educational institutions, and in particular the advantages of using assessment in improving teaching and learning. Assessment is generally seen as something done to students by teachers. Many students may feel panicked and confused. Tests descend upon them from time to time and have to be ‗got through‘. This paper discusses the reality of the Albanian teaching and learning institutions in regard to assessment and tests and the challenges encountered. The study goes on and makes a modest attempt to give some practical solutions to these challenges and problems. Key Words: Assessment, testing, teaching, learning Introduction Teaching, learning, assessment and testing – choices in the EFL classrooms Teachers should not only be considered as lifelong learners but they should also be considered as lifelong assessors. These three components: learning, teaching and assessment are and should be considered as interrelated. Without learning there could be no teaching, and vice versa. It is through assessment and testing that we can guide and improve our teaching and learning. And it is teaching and learning that we assess while assessing and testing. Ultimately, without assessment there would be no improved teaching and no improved learning. So as teachers and students could understand what they have fully accomplished and what they still lack they definitely need to make some type of assessment. But what is the position that assessment actually has in our classrooms? Mid term and end term tests are the traditional and typical tools used to assess the students´ knowledge in Albania. These two tools have been inherited from the past generations and teachers and they still hold a key role in today‘s teaching environment. But other types of assessment are also being embraced and applied more and more: discrete point, integrative, formal, informal, formative, summative, etc. This means that the choices have become many in number which leads to much more complicated choices on the part of the teachers. It is the purpose, reason and the goals of testing and assessing that need to become the leading guide for choosing the right tool when assessing. Formative assessment is the typical type of assessment I personally use more frequently. In my opinion the major advantage of this type of assessment lays on the fact that it helps in ―evaluating students in the process of forming their competencies and skills with the goal of helping them to continue that growth process‖ (Brown, 2004, p.6). This means that by applying this type of assessment we follow the same track pursued by our students. Whenever a group presentation is made or whenever a class debate is organized, feedback plays the crucial role – it is not only the teacher that makes the comments and the evaluation but it is also and most importantly the other students who think critically over the presentations or debates made and express their opinions freely. Alternative assessment is a fairly new approach in the Albanian teaching environment and as such more and more stress should be placed on the importance of the usage of various types of testing and assessment. The latest trends are those of the usage of oral presentations, journal writings, portfolios, debates etc. One of the reasons why these tools have not been largely accepted is because teachers have not become sensible of the outmost important role that assessment plays in teaching and learning. It is from here that teacher trainers should start and elaborate this issue further on by informing and training teachers about the various assessment tools at their disposal. On the other hand, even students should withdraw from their old mentality that is the grade that matters and not the knowledge gained. Reflection on assessment processes followed in our institutions Education is undergoing tremendous changes each year and more. Simply by reflecting on the kind of tests and examinations we have taken as students and those we are currently offering to our students, we can easily notice 735 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo that the differences are immense. Some of these differences are positive (or at least that has been the objective) but yet, there is a lot of work waiting to be done and carried on by students and teachers altogether. Unfortunately, in Albanian educational system, the final written exam gets most of the credits for the ultimate evaluation of the student. What teachers and students are mainly interested in is what the students produce at the final examination. Even though this type of assessment of the students´ knowledge has been widely used it can still be improved by carefully defining the scoring criteria. ´We should also inform students of at least the basic outlines of our assessment, so that not only is our assessment reliable, but it is seen to be reliable and fair by our students´(Harris and McCann, 1994). What could be done to achieve this is:  Provide an answer key to the questions included in the test  Provide a table at the end of the test that clarifies the corresponding grade and characteristics of each of the points achieved by the students. What is more, administration reliability is also a concerning issue in Albanian educational institutions. During exam periods, freezing or melting temperatures highly affect the students‘ concentration and final scores. Better physical teaching, learning and testing (assessing) conditions/environments should be created so as to achieve administration reliability. In addition to this, noise is also a problematic topic. While some students take exams, some others continue their normal studies/activities and as such interrupt the students who are taking their exams. One way of solving this problem is by setting fixed hours, days or classrooms for exams that do not match with the teaching and learning timetables of the other students who are not taking an exam. Another important element to be taken into consideration is authenticity – which is intermingled with the fundamental reasons why we learn and take tests. If a student is learning English because he or she needs it in his international organization or business it is logical that the focus of the English he or she learns will be on this sphere of communication. So as to provide authenticity, teachers should always try to match the real life situations to their tests and exams. As an illustration I could bring my experience in teaching lexicology. Throughout the entire course I offer to my students many examples that illustrate the issues we cover such as synonyms, euphemisms, proverbs etc. I always try to take examples from real life situations and it would be illogical not to include these practical examples into the final exam. The same should be applied even in other subjects/courses the students learn. In regard to washback, we have all witnessed, in the role of the student or even of the teacher, that the type of final test or exam the students are going to take usually guides the method the teachers use in the classroom. `If all these exams were forward-thinking and communicative this would be positive. Unfortunately this is not always the case (Harris and McCann, 1994). As such, teachers should organize their lessons not (only) lead by the final exams the students will take, but most importantly by what the students will effectively learn of the language and in the language. The fields of improvements in the Albanian educational institutions are many. Some of them are related to administrative issues, some others with reasons why we assess or with what we really assess. Some of the issues that we can easily improve are mainly related with practicality and accountability. Practicality can be achieved by shifting the goal of teaching English from a theoretical one and test-oriented into a more practical one and real –life oriented. This will lead into the building of practical tests and assessment activities throughout the whole teaching and learning process. Assessment should be considered an on-going process, going alongside with teaching and learning. In relation to accountability what we should try to do is to provide our students, parents and colleagues with continuous feedback on what the students have achieved or have not achieved. As Harris and McCann have put it `we should be able to explain the rationale behind the way assessment takes place and how conclusions are drawn, rather than hiding behind a smoke screen of professional secrecy (Harris and McCann, 1994).` What are some of the strengths and weaknesses of the assessment process used in Albania? The final grade a student receives at the end of a course is the result of putting together the different pieces of the puzzle comprised by various types of assessments and tests. Since that grade determines (although not always) a student‘s academic and professional life, assessments and tests should carefully analyze, test and grade the new knowledge and information the student has received in the classroom. What should be improved in my country‘s education system is the mentality teachers and students have about teaching and assessing. They should understand and apply an assessment process that is parallel to the teaching and learning process. Teachers, students and parents need to understand the important role that continuous assessment plays in education. ―As teachers, when we carry out assessment, we have to measure the performance of our students and the progress they make. We also need to diagnose the problems they have and provide our learners with useful feedback. (Harris and McCann, 1994).‖ This definition given by Harris and McCann clearly defines assessment as a measuring tool not only of the student‘s progress but also of the instructor‘s teaching. By diagnosing our student‘s problems, we can appropriately adapt our teaching methods and techniques to our learners. Many of the summative tests we prepare lack student – related reliability. In a survey done with students of the third and fourth year at the University of Elbasan, I noticed that many students did better in the final test 736 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo compared to their overall preparation. The main reason for this is that many students study hard for the final exams since they have one week time to prepare for that particular exam and as such they fully use this time to study that subject. They do not prepare regularly but since the traditional importance of the final test is strongly rooted in their minds they save all their energies till the end of the course – and study hard during that one week, exam preparation period. This leads to poor student – related reliability summative tests because the knowledge the student has received within one single week cannot be lasting knowledge and if the student is faced with the same test, let‘s say a month later, he will not score the same. Apart from the weak points mentioned above, the same tests I have taken into account have their own strengths. In my university, these final tests and many other similar ones are planned to have their written phase and a couple of days later their oral phase. This leaves enough space to the teacher to check the students´ comprehension not only in a written form but also orally which complicates the situation for the students and leaves room to the teacher to make a more mature decision. In this way, the teacher is able to judge not only the students abilities in grammar, spelling and content but also in speaking which is crucial to our students who are going to become English teachers. Too much importance is usually given to grammar and vocabulary but the final goal of learning English is that of communicating in English and as such the speaking part of the test is and has to be considered as very valuable. What changes could be implemented? The actual situation of the students in the Albanian universities is rather depressing and pessimistic. The students spend less and less time studying or even reading the lectures or books assigned and ultimately this leads to poor exam results as well as to poor performance of the students. One of the components that plays a major role in this reality is assessment. As students throughout all these years have been evaluated mainly based on their final exam for which they had one week to prepare, they still continue to not prepare throughout all the academic semester or year. This leads to a poor performance of the students during seminar hours and to a passive participation during lectures. Only through ongoing assessment could students become aware of the importance of continuously building new knowledge and of positively linking the new information received with their background information. By adapting various types of assessments and tests and by fulfilling all the requirements and principles needed, throughout all the academic year, students will be obliged to study and why not they will also be motivated to learn more and more. Some of the changes to be applied are: a) the wrong mentality that assessment is just the same as testing should not exist anymore b) assessment should focus on all the four language skills altogether and not only on one or two c) students should be well informed about what they will be tested on and on the kind of assessment they will undergo since from the start of the course and before every test or assessment done throughout the entire course. d) assessment should be seen as an on-going process By applying these changes in the teaching and learning environment of the school, students will first of all understand that ―testing or formal assessment, where test or exam conditions are established, is certainly an important way of assessing learners. However, it is not the only one and both informal assessment and selfassessment are vital (Harris and McCann, 1994).‖ This will probably lead to less stressful and painful exams and tests as they will not anymore be seen as the only tool used by the teachers to set a grade to students. They will also get used this way to the fact that they themselves have the ability to assess the knowledge they have received independently from the instructor. In regard to the second change that needs to be brought, it should be noted that its implementation is profitable not only for the students who will no more be taught only grammar or single vocabulary items but also for the teacher who will be able to successfully achieve his or her final goal of preparing the learners for the real life foreign language practice. ―An over-reliance on grammar tests gives students the clear message that they have been wasting their time trying to communicate in class. What matters is grammar (Harris and McCann, 1994).‖ This reality must be changed and these changes will have drastic effects on the methodology used by the teacher while teaching, as well as while testing and assessing. The last change to be applied (yet not the very last one because the changes are a lot more than these), is closely related to both teachers and students. ―Learners feel alienated by assessment because they have no role in it, apart from as passive participants (Harris and McCann, 1994).‖ This is the picture one can get in the Albanian universities (and I guess not only) and this should definitely change. Learners should become active in their learning, teaching and assessing processes because without their participation and their voice in our decision making, no real and effective progress can be made. As the saying goes – Change starts from oneself! 737 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo References Brown, H. D. (2004).Language assessment: Principles and classroom practices. White Plains, NY: Longman Case, R. (1992, winter). On the need to assess authentically. Holistic Education Review, Garden City, NY: Adelphi University. 738 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo EPOSTL (2007), European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages, Council of Europe. Farr, R. (1991). Formal methods of evaluation. In J.Flood, J. Jensen, D. Lapp, & J. Squire (Eds.), Handbook of research on teaching the English language arts. Neë York: Macmillan. Farr, R., & Tone, B. (1994). Portfolio performance assessmentL Helping students evaluate their progress as readers and ëriters. Fort Ëorth, TX: Harcourt Brace College. Gace, P. (1998), Të mësuarit e sotëm dhe psikologjia pedagogjike, Tiranë, SHBLSH Goodman, Y. (1991) Informal methods of evaluation. In J. Flood, J. Jensen, D. Lapp & J. Squire (Eds.), Handbook of research on teaching the Englisht language arts. Neë York : Macmillan. Harp, B. (1996). The handbook of literacy assessment and evaluation. Norëood, MA: Christopher-Gordon. Harris Michael, McCann Paul, (1994). Assessment. Macmillan Publishers Ltd., Oxford Këshilli i bashkëpunimit kulturor (2006), ―Kuadri i përbashkët evropian i referencave për gjuhët‖, Filara. Musai, B. (1994), Ndërtimi i testeve me zgjedhje. Elbasan, Onufri Musai, B. (1995). Probleme psikopedagogjike të mësimit të individualizuar. Musai, B. (1996). Mjeshtëritë themelore të mësimdhënies. Tiranë, Eurorilindja. Tamo, A. (1995). Testimi i diturisë. Tiranë. ShBLU The University of the state of New York (2004). Learning standards for English as a second language. Albany, New York Tierney, R. J. Carter, M.A., & Desai, L. E. (1991). Portfolio assessment in the reading-writing classroom. Norwood, MA: Christopher – Gordon. Wolf, D. P. (1993). Assessment as a mode of learning, In R.E. Bennett & W.C. Ward (Eds), Construction vs. Choice in cognitive measurement. New Yersey: Lawrence Erlbaum. 739 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Extent The size or duration of the resource. 109 Title A name given to the resource Assessment – Albanian educational system reality and challenges. Author Author Vavla, Laureta Abstract A summary of the resource. This paper stresses the importance of assessment in second language class today in the Albanian educational institutions, and in particular the advantages of using assessment in improving teaching and learning. Assessment is generally seen as something done to students by teachers. Many students may feel panicked and confused. Tests descend upon them from time to time and have to be ‗got through‘. This paper discusses the reality of the Albanian teaching and learning institutions in regard to assessment and tests and the challenges encountered. The study goes on and makes a modest attempt to give some practical solutions to these challenges and problems Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2011-05 Keywords Keywords. Conference or Workshop Item PeerReviewed P Philology. Linguistics https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/80cc2d37df1ac754f1f6a6f16de5518a.pdf 357c782510b6e618bacd2cba358b74da PDF Text Text 1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo Integration of Critical Thinking Skills into Grammar Curricula Mustafa Ugur Turkyilmaz International Burch University, Bosnia and Herzegovina Department of English Language and Literature uturkyilmaz@ibu.edu.ba Abstract:High standards are intended in all curriculum guidelines and it is not different in most of the guidelines. In this paper, the language arts curriculum is put under the spotlight and an in-depth analysis is provided on most benchmarks. Many suggestions are made to further improve the curriculum and particular focus is placed on implementation. The problems is in teaching grammar is highlighted and remedies are offered. How to integrate the critical thinking skills in a grammar course is clearly outlined and offered to teachers who look for answers to the problems in almost every classroom. Introduction: The objectives of this paper are to provide insights to develop a powerful linguistic command of the English language grammar on the intermediate level. Successful learners construct meaning through the interactive multi-media presentations, peer and group projects. It is our mission that students not memorize grammar formulas but try to see and comprehend the frameworks of grammar in context. Recognizing the interrelatedness of the language skills, simultaneous development of two selected basic skills (speaking, and writing) would be promoted. If you have ever taught ESL Grammar, appropriate methods of teaching grammar cannot be overemphasized! ESL students are actually the victims of wrong techniques and strategies if they cannot understand, learn and internalize grammar. ―No other aspect of the English language has suffered from incorrect assumptions as the teaching of grammar.‖ (Last, 2001) particularly in today‘s highly technological world of learning, you are doomed to fail if you are not using the right tools that would attract the students‘ attention to your subject matter. Bored students never appreciate your hard work and never go home with something they are eager to review. Literature Review: In this model classroom, the Language Arts teacher is actively using multi-media to present the grammar units. The objectives of the course are to get the students to think the grammar subjects a part of their daily lives, to visualize the abstract concepts in context and to make the complicated grammar points easier by means of visual aids. According to the Wisconsin Language Arts standards, thinking skills targeted in this course are: ―gathering information, organizing information, analyzing information, generating information, integrating information, and evaluating information.‖ (Last, 2001) Different teaching strategies and techniques would be developed to incorporate those skills into the learning process such as: ―Effective interpersonal communication skills, including active listening and sensitive feedback…"(Farquharson, 1995) I think most of the grammar teachers fail to teach grammar effectively because of wrong methodology. ―No other aspect of the English language has suffered from incorrect assumptions as the teaching of grammar.‖ (Last, 2001) They fall into the pitfall of explaining theory with another theory. Abstract terms cannot be explained with abstract methods. Like all other abstract sciences, the ultimate result of teaching abstract subjects is having a bored audience. They do not think what is taught but why they need to learn this. Moreover, all of us speak; read, listen and we never think or care about the grammar. But if you are a foreigner, you need a framework to build other language skills on. ―Unlike native speakers, ESL students do not have intuitions about how English works, thus affecting their ability to construct and reconstruct the language.‖ (Last, 2001) In that case we certainly need to know grammar. Students in a typical ESL classroom would be ten to twelve. Pair and group work are most encouraged, for students are learning more from each other in efficient ways. All students have a minimum of pre- 1219 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo intermediate Grammar level. Their spoken proficiency is ranging from pre-intermediate to upperintermediate. An intermediate level of Grammar instruction is intended to instruct. There are two native languages spoken: Spanish and Chinese. Most of the students have been in the States for more than four or five years. Two third of them are graduated from an elementary school. Almost all of the students‘ families are helpful at home with the assignments. Homework assignment topics are particularly selected from daily life to increase the cooperation at home. ―Successful teaching must be embedded in community contexts and connected to students‘ lives.‖ (Hammond, 1997) The problem, as I mentioned above, is how to make it worthy to spend time on it in the eyes of learners. How do you have them visualize the topic? How do you get them to ponder about the unit later on in their daily lives? ―The brain friendly classroom helps all the students to make connections between what they already know and what they yet to learn‖ (Moffet, J, 1968) How do you get them to be self-productive? What are the possible ways to have them to internalize the terms, concepts and intricate grammar points inductively and effectively? How do you have them care about it, like it and use it? In the meantime, Grammar is somehow isolated with the values of society. The contexts that the problems addressed are far from being experienced out there. So here comes the critical question: How do you connect what you teach with what is going on in the society? Obviously, you cannot cut it if you cannot show the ways to the students how your teachings are valued by society. ―Education is a value based activity, engaging individuals in experiencing or accepting what is valued by society‖ (Ornstein, Hunkins, 1998) The dilemma could be resolved with a well-prepared curriculum that gives the teacher to make the class attractive and useful. ―For a century, with few exceptions, the all but exclusive focus of this (language) has been the structure of the English, most usually traditional usage and grammar.‖ (Andrews, 1997) It is not possible to be creative at all times. Therefore a detailed curriculum offering solutions to overcome the nature of teaching grammar would be the ideal solution to meet the high standards. Method of Evaluation for Student Learning: Holistic approach would be used to assess the student progress. Assuming that each student would have different weak and strong points, no rubric or a certain percentage would be predetermined as the evaluation criteria. Some of significant methods of evaluating students in Grammar course are to observe the following performances:  Evaluating what thinking skills they are able to use.  How effectively are they used to understand the grammar points in writing and when they speak?  In class participation of classroom discussions, peer and group work  Written essays  Self assessment Extension and Enrichment Suggestions: Students should read at home on a regular basis and try to talk about the topic with the family members. While they are speaking, the student should see what grammar points are used in the daily life situations. Procedures to Use to Implement the Curriculum Here are some ideas that could be easily implemented as the curriculum implementation procedure: Need and the relevance of the new program would be fully explained to the faculty in inservice seminars and at the department workshops. Clarity of the plan would be demonstrated by presentations and head teachers who will do model classes for the faculty. Realistic goals set by the new curriculum would help to overcome the complexity of the program. The quality of the program would be assured with the computer programs and multimedia presentations. Parents should be informed in advance about their roles that their participation is vital to work the program. Video cameras used in the classes would be used to evaluate the in-class performances of the teachers. This will also be used to give feedback to the department about what works and what does not. 1220 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo The Curriculum Development Process: Nontechnical-nonscientific approach would be appropriate to use as the model for curriculum development. As each student‘s evaluation based on individual criteria, subjective, personal, aesthetic aspects of curriculum development should come forward. As all language skills should be regarded as ―one‖, holistic, ever evolving, method of nontechnical-nonscientific approach should fit best to develop a child-centered grammar curriculum. Some of the more concrete steps of the development process might be as follows: Having implemented the curriculum for one quarter, the branch teachers start immediate modifications on the curriculum. The feedback from the students is regarded as critical. Surveys and teachers observations might be the tools to diagnose the problem areas. The drawbacks of the curriculum should be discussed in depth in the department meetings and remedies should be suggested based on first hand observation. Instructional stuff and methods are scrutinized to make sure they are all backing up the accepted aims and goals. The learning activities should be readjusted and reorganized if their contents are not deep enough to saturate the frameworks of the topics. Students who fall behind should be marked and more after school activities should be conducted with those to make up the first quarter units. Program Evaluation and Conclusion: Program evaluation will be based on the yearly student gain. Initial level of the students will be recorded at the beginning of the year and compared with the year-end performances. A pre-test and a Post-test would be useful to have statistical data. The intended skills, listening and writing, will be monitored and assessed with the teachers and the program will be revised based on their evaluations. External and internal assessment tools, such as teacher observations, student participations during the classes, and surveys, would set the criteria for the success of the program. If the intended goals specified in the concept and the standards are met, the program would be regarded successful. REFERENCES: Andrews, L. (1997). Language exploration and awareness (2nd Ed) Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum Associates. Farquharson, A. (1995). Teaching in Practice (1st Ed) California: Jossey- Bass Moffett, J. (1968). Teaching the universe of discourse (1st Ed) Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Last, E. (2001). Planning curriculum in language arts. Madison: Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Ornstein,C. A., Hunkins P. F. (1998) Curriculum Foundations, Principles, And Issues (3rd Ed). Needahm Heights MA: Allyn and Bacon Hammond, D. L. (1998). The Right to Learn (1st Ed). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass 1221 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Extent The size or duration of the resource. 670 Title A name given to the resource Integration of Critical Thinking Skills into Grammar Curricula Author Author Turkyilmaz, Mustafa Ugur Abstract A summary of the resource. High standards are intended in all curriculum guidelines and it is not different in most of the guidelines. In this paper, the language arts curriculum is put under the spotlight and an in-depth analysis is provided on most benchmarks. Many suggestions are made to further improve the curriculum and particular focus is placed on implementation. The problems is in teaching grammar is highlighted and remedies are offered. How to integrate the critical thinking skills in a grammar course is clearly outlined and offered to teachers who look for answers to the problems in almost every classroom. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2011-05 Keywords Keywords. Conference or Workshop Item PeerReviewed P Philology. Linguistics https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/90f34e941eab23b1fc9b15373d5d39c8.pdf e97364ed5a3bcbf1c8bc78d5f31d60be PDF Text Text 1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo The tragedy and the human being in Arthur Miller‘s play Death of a Salesman Marsela Turku Faculty of Education Aleksandër Moisiu University, Albania marselaturku@yahoo.com Abstract: So far a number of articles have dealt with the American dream and how it is developed in Arthur Miller‘s plays, especially in The Death of a Salesman. However, not enough attention has been paid to the tragedy and the human tragedy in these plays. In the essay ‗The Tragedy of the Common Man‘ Miller expressed his attitudes and beliefs about the nature of literary tragedy, its principles, the social status of the protagonist, what he understands as a human tragedy etc. This paper examines how this play could be interpreted and reread with a primary focus that of ―tragedy and the human being‖, it tries to answer to the question whether the protagonist‘s fall is a consequence of hamartia (a flaw in the character of the protagonist of a literary tragedy that brings about his or her downfall and a key element in tragedy) or whether he is a victim of the values of his community (the main theme of the social drama); which is the role of the American society‘s values and the conflict between the American dream and the idealization of this dream within the main protagonist; it will also answer the question if his plays are merely ‗social dramas‘ or ‗they challenge the tradition of tragedy from its first description in Aristotle‘s Poetics and the conventions of Shakespearian tragedy. Key words: tragedy, tragic hero, American Dream, archetype etc. Introduction American Drama was slower in reaching maturity than either fiction or poetry. A number of critics and literary historians criticized drama for its lacked quality, national originality and integrity when compared with other types of American literature. The gulf between drama and serious literature was not bridged until the beginning of the modern American Drama in 1920, the year of O‘Neill‘s Beyond the Horizon. (Heiney 1958, 324) Along with Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller represents the culmination of the process of evolution in American Theatre and his play Death of a Salesman (1949) is often considered as one of the crucial American plays. The press wrote positive reviews about the drama premiere in 1949: Arthur Miller has written a superb drama. From every point of view ―Death of a Salesman,‖ which was acted at the Morosco last evening, is rich and memorable drama. It is so simple in style and so inevitable in theme that it scarcely seems like a thing that has been written and acted. For Miller has looked for compassion into the hearts of some ordinary Americans and quietly transferred their hope and anguish to the theatre. (Atkinson 1979, 21) ―But the theatre is an impure craft, and Death of Salesman organizes its impurities with an emotional effect unrivalled in postwar drama.‖ (Kenneth Tynan, 1933) Other critics praised Miller for the use of intermixed time-frames, the important themes; the subject focused controversial attitudes, for ‗the flow and spontaneity of a suburban epic that may not be intended as poetry but becomes poetry in spite of itself‘ (1976, 21), some went further by suggesting that this play would even open new direction for the evolution of American drama. Almost after sixty years, Kenneth Tynan observations still seem true ―[. . .] the theatre is an impure craft…‖ and it has been for this ‗impurities‘ that this drama has also been criticized a lot. The most persistent criticism concerns the issue of genre and its constituents: to what extends is it a tragedy? Miller himself considered the play to be the tragedy of the common man, but for a group of critics ―It is not a tragedy; nor is it rightly speaking, about any man, common or uncommon. It is, however pure Broadway . . .‖ (Morgan 1976, 32). This paper briefly examines the evolution of the tragedy concept from Aristotle to modern theories and stands on what are tragedy and a tragic hero. It examines and explores the continuing disagreements among academics and by what criteria this play is a tragedy. 821 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo Classical tragedy ―The spirit of inquiry meets the spirit of poetry and tragedy is born‖ (Dixon, 51) Tragedy is an achievement peculiarly Greek. They were the first to perceive and gave it the splendor and the highness that we all know, throw the tragedies of Æschylus, Sophocles, Euripides. The philosophy of the human nature is implicit in the human speech, consequently these tragedies, the result of inquiries done to the human nature which is bound up with evil and dark ―gods,‘ try to present the human being as it really is. The Greek tragedies were characterized by a sincere need to perceive the beauty the reality offered through clarity, calmness and serenity. Their positive attitude towards the gloomy aspects of life somehow creates a magic atmosphere and illumining visions where beauty is transmitted only through truth and vice versa truth implies beauty. ‗A tragedy shows us pain and gives us pleasure thereby. The greater the suffering depicted, the more terrible the events, the more intense our pleasure. The most monstrous and appealing deeds life can show are those the tragedian chooses, and by the spectacle he thus offers us, we are moved to a very passion of enjoyment.‘ (Hamilton 1930, 229) The reader is unable to explain this tragic pleasure. A number of scholars through the centuries have considered this conflicting feeling as the substructure of tragedy and fundamental element in the continuing of the genre. Just to mention, Aristotle called it ―Pity and awe,‖ ―and a sense of emotions purified thereby.‖ For Hegel it is the reconciliation between life‘s temporary dissonances resolved into eternal harmony. For Schopenhauer it is the acceptance in the fulfillment of the will, ―Thy will be done.‖ For Nietzsche it is the ―the reaffirmation of the will to live in the face of death,‖ ―and the joy of its inexhaustibility when so reaffirmed.‖(Hamilton 1930, 230) It is obvious that ―the idea on tragedy‘ has escaped its Classical generic determination in Aristotle‘s Poetics and had expanded into the role of an intellectual concept of astonishing amplitude and the culmination came in Nietzsche‘s Birth of tragedy (1872). He claimed that ―tragedy arose as artistic energies which burst forth from nature herself, without the meditation of the human artists‖ (1872, 38). For Nietzsche the incarnation of the tragic is the mythic figure of Dionysus who personifies the eternal and original artistic power that first calls the whole world of phenomena into existence . . .‖ (1872, 143). Nietzsche‘s work presents the tragedy as a battle of creative energy against the world of reason and the human beings that inhibit these tragedies are left alone with a feeling of alienation and despair in facing death. In contrary to Nietzsche‘s attitude, Miguel de Unamuno, in his Tragic Sense of Life (1913) did not refer to tragedy as a literary genre, but rather he sees it as a complexity of things which springs from the conflict between human nature and social reality. He believes that changes in science and technology are reflected into human reasoning, and in addition these developments manifest themselves in consciousness. He claims that consciousness depends on memory and memory is the bridging gap between the past and the present, between the present and the future, between what we have lost and what we actually have; and these memories do not necessarily have to be happy or joyful ones: ―noone has ever proved that man must necessarily be joyful by nature‖ (1913, 22). He strongly believes that tragedy and tragic are inseparable comrades to the human being and to his identity: ―man, because he is man, because he possesses consciousness, is already, in comparison to the jackass or the crab, a sick animal. Consciousness is a disease.‖ (1913, 22) Arthur Miller‘s ―The tragedy and the common man‖ In this age a few tragedies are written. It has often been held that the lack is due to a paucity of heroes among us . . . for one reason or another, we are often held to be below tragedy or tragedy above us. (Miller 1949, 3) Arthur Miller propounded his ideas on tragedy on the essay ―Tragedy and the Common man‖ immediately after the success of his play ―Death of a Salesman‖ in 1949. In his essay he explains his reasons for writing Death of a Salesman and what he considers a ―traditional tragedy.‖ Miller claims that he has imbued his character with a mixture of experiences and emotions like grief, sufferings, struggles and ‗small acts of heroism‘ and a sole aim, to represent the typical American man and his struggles to accomplish his American Dream which somehow becomes the source of the tragedy. Miller believes that: ―the common man is as apt a subject for tragedies in its highest sense of kings were. On the face of it this ought to be obvious in the light of modern psychiatry, which bases its analysis on classical formulations, such as the Oedipus and Orestes complexes, for instance, which were enacted by royal beings, but which apply to everyone in similar emotional situations‖ (1949, 3). Therefore, Miller tries to adapt the concept of the tragedy and its protagonist in a contemporary 822 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo setting. Probably the sentence taken from Miller‘s drama that best points the universal poignancy is Linda‘s comment: ―A small man can be just as exhausted as a great man.‖ Thomas E. Porter claims that: ―Willy‘s status in society, his family background is typical; even more of a type is Willy‘s identity as a Salesman. He is a product of a producer-consumer society in which the go-between is a pivotal figure. Society has labeled him, and Willy has accepted the label; society has offered Willy a set of values and an objective, and Willy has committed themselves to those values and that objective [. . . ] He has been shaped by a society that believed steadily and optimistically in the myth of success, and he has become the agent and the representative of that society.‖ (Martine 1976, 29) Nevertheless, Miller‘s hero fails to grasp a communal sense of success; it seems that instabilities and the flaws of his character bring about his premeditated doom. The first and the main line of this play focuses precisely on the protagonist‘s failure, but an underground line focuses on the failure of all the ordinary Americans as they respond to this new urban world and their adopting difficulties. It is often thought that its success lays precisely on the personification of the audience with the play‘s main theme ‗the pain of a life passing without recognition or acknowledgement.‘ Miller‘s concept on the tragedy of the common man is almost similar with Unamuno‘s. Therefore, loneliness, sufferings, anonymity, failure, consciousness and the struggle for success are embodied in the tragic sense of life in any urban society. Modern Theories on Tragedy Modern Tragedy and Steinberg‘s Theory The transformation of the society and the human being influenced even the theatre, consequently in the 20th century the stage was no longer a realm of the melodrama or Classical theatre, neither presented it a glorious time and period. Instead it intends to exhibit or reflect the realism of the world, the individual and the society. In his study ―Arthur Miller and the Idea of Tragedy,‖ M. W. Steinberg presents this modern role for the tragedy and Miller‘s play within the perspective of F. L Lucas: ―Serious drama is a serious representation by speech and action of some phrase of human life. [. . . ] If there is an unhappy ending, we may call it tragedy; but if the play is a serious attempt to represent life it makes no great differences whether or not good fortune intervenes in the last scene‖ (Steinberg 1969, 81). A decisive factor in Miller‘s modern work is the realism of his character, as real as they ‗could easily walk off the stage and onto the streets.‘ Steinberg claims that Miller writes in ‗post-Ibsen‘ fashion and so their ‗tragic modern hero‘ is the embodiment of his society and world. This tragic hero is ‗crushed by forces outside himself and by illusions, false ideas spawned by those forces …‘ (Steinberg 1969, 82) for instance Nora and Torvald from A Doll‘s House, Lowman from Death of a Salesman, etc. Steinberg considers these forces imposed by the society to the human as the only way to evaluate the hero‘s action, but he does not consider the society as the only cause for the hero‘s downfall. Steinberg believes that the modern drama of the 20th century should expose the common man and compare it to the tragic figures of the past. He also supports Miller‘s idea that the classical tragic archetypes should be brought in a modern context: ―As the twentieth century approached, various sources were making for realism in drama with its emphasis on people and situations drawn from ordinary life‖ (Steinberg 1969, 81) because realism breeds proximity and the closer to the real world the more will the public sympathize with the characters and affect them, as it is described in the Aristotelian sense, by invoking both ‗panic‘ and ‗empathy‘ (in original ―phobos‘ and ―eleos‖) when characters are brought into utter despair. Furthermore the setting is really familiar to the audience, the Lowman family lives in any East coast suburban neighborhood, the neighborhood once bloomed with lilac, wisteria, peonies and daffodils, but now it is ―bricks and windows, windows and bricks‖ and over population and the reminiscence sequences are marked by this scenic change: ―The apartment houses are fading out and the entire house and surroundings become covered with leaves.‖(Salesman, 27) The audience reaction is: ―I know a man like that,‖ ―He is my neighbor.‖ Consequently, Willy presents the failures, disillusionments, and disappointments of all those Americans caught up in the trap of the myth and the moral pressure it generates. Miller‘s achievement in this play consists on the elaboration of the character that imbues the passion and pain of a classical tragic hero situated in a contemporary setting and is so real that it can be hard to separate him from the real world. Frye‘s Theory on the tragic hero Academic approach to drama and tragedy has changed over the years and the contemporary philosopher, Stanly Cavell, perfectly describes this evolution: 823 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo What else have we had, in major art of the past hundred years, but indirectness: irony, theatricality, yearning, broken form, denial of art, anti-heroes, withdrawals from nature, from man, from the future, and from the past. . . We are not Tragic heroes: our sacrifices will not save the state. Yet we are sacrificed, and we sacrifice. (2002, 178-179) This evolution in literature and drama has influenced even the formulation and idea of what a tragic hero is. In his study ―The Anatomy of Criticism‖ Northrop Frye provides a definition of what can be a tragic hero: ….the typical tragic hero is somewhere between the divine and the ‗all too human.‘ This must be true even of dying gods: Prometheus, being a god, cannot die, but he suffers for his sympathy for the ‗dying ones‘ (brotoi) or mortal men, and even suffering has something subdivine about it. The tragic hero is very great as compared with us, but there is something else, something on the side of him opposite the audience, compared to which he is small. This something else may be called God, gods, fate, accident, fortune necessity, circumstance, or any combination of these, but whatever it is the tragic hero is the mediator with it. (Frye 1957, 207) Frye states that the hero may be ‗the divine or all to human‘ implying that even a normal human being, a common man without ‗superpower‘ or godlike behavior can as well be a tragic hero as a divine one. Another important point in Frye‘s definition is the ―suffering‖ which he considers as ‗subdivine‘ and sees them as the only way for the human emotions to arise. Miller‘s hero Willy Lowman seem to imbue both the elements, he is mortal, is a common man and the audience follow him in his odyssey of sufferings. Prometheus, the suffering god, seems to have a lot in common with Willy. Although Willy is not fettered to a rock enduring endless physical tortures, he still suffers greatly as he is entrapped in his own dreams, in his fantasy world unable to separate the real from the fabricated; he is utterly unable to bear the plight in the real world. Miller is very careful in the description of Willy as a ―brotoi‖ or ―dying man.‖ He prepares the audience in an escalation of situation describing Willy‘s attempt and unconscious desire to kill himself, for instance the hose found by Biff, Willy‘s ‗strange thoughts‘ and his continuous attempts to crash his car, till the final crash at the end of the play. Through Willy‘s death Miller not only demonstrates the inescapable fate of all the human beings which is ‗death,‘ but also the tragedy of a life build upon the commitment to the success ideology, based on Alger myth, the rages to the rags-to-riches romances of the American Dream. Porter claims that ―Miller‘s hero is not simply an individual who has determined an objective and who strives desperately to attain it; he is also representative of an American type, the Salesman, who has accepted an ideal shaped for him and pressed on him by forces in his culture‖ (Martine 1976, 24), and his tragic ending prods the audience to examine their own existence. At this point seems almost compulsory the question what caused Willy‘s downfall? Is caused by ‗hamartia‘ or it is the society‘s pressure and his alienation from the real world? Aristotle in Poetics 13 uses the word ―hamartia‖ to designate the cause of a good‘s man falling, but it has been often translated as a ―tragic flaw‖ and it has been the subject of much debate over the centuries. E. R. Dodds in his ―On Misunderstanding the Oedipus Rex‖ (1966), one of the most influential articles on Aristotle Poetics, demonstrates that Aristotle did not consider the ―flaw‖ as the source of tragedy but by citing everyone of Aristotle‘s other uses of the term, came to the conclusion that he used the term ―to mean an offense committed in ignorance of some material fact and therefore free from . . . wickedness‖ (Dodds 1966, 19-20). Consequently, for Aristotle, tragedy surfaced from lack of omniscience, from ―our common fate of ignorance in face of crucial facts.‖ But which is Willy‘s ‗hamartia‘? At the beginning of Act I we notice that Willy is tired of his job routine, and then we notice his difficulty separating the past from the present, his continuous lies to his wife and to himself and his continuous search in the past for the turning point when everything went irremediably wrong, although he could not find it. Harold Bloom claims that: ―Yet Willy is not destroyed by his sense of failure. [. . .] Willy is destroyed by love, by his sudden awareness that his son Biff truly loves him. Miller beautifully comments that Willy resolves to die when he is given his existence . . . his fatherhood, for which he has always striven and which until now he could not achieve‖ (Bloom 2007, 5). Although Willy still remains misunderstood and left apart from the society and at a dramatic level he could not achieve the epiphany that leads to insights, to the moment of revelation when the hero sees himself and his situation clearly, understands what he has lost and finds the path to regenerate. His sufferings are in vain. At the very end Miller provides Biff with the insight of which Willy was incapable of: ―He had the wrong dreams. All, all wrong. [. . .] He never knew who he was.‖ (Salesman, 103) Concluding remarks The play Death of Salesman has raised a lot of debates and criticism through the years for its themes, the place it occupies in the American Drama, its ‗pathos‘ and impurities etc., but what has been one of the most 824 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo discussed issues of the play is its genre, some critics claim that it is a tragedy, others classify it as a ‗social drama,‘ others consider it neither as a tragedy, nor as a social drama, but a pure Broadway production. Death of a Salesman is not highly original in technique; it nevertheless contains free-verse passages, a narrator who speaks directly to the audience, fantastic and unrealistic shifts in time and an underlying web of psychological pathology. Miller devices are conventional enough to be easily grasped by the average audience, the common American man. This drama embodies the tragic archetypes and elements of a tragedy and Miller‘s main achievement is carving a realist character, a tragic hero, setting him in a contemporary urban society and building his play around the American Dream, he strikes deeply the consciences of the audience. Miller claims that loneliness, sufferings, anonymity, failure, consciousness and the struggle for success are embodied in the tragic sense of life in any urban society. References Adler, Thomas P. American Dream, 1940-1960: A Critical History. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1994. 825 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo Atkinson, Brooks. ―Death of a Salesman, A New Drama by Arthur Miller, Has Premiere at the Morosoco.‖ Ed. James J. Martine. Critical Essays on Arthur Miller. Boston. G. K. Hall & Co. 1979. 21-22. Bloom, Harold. ―Introduction.‖ Ed. Harold Bloom. Arthur Miller‘s Death of a Salesman. New York. Chelsea House. 2007. 1- 5. Cavell, Stanley. Must We Mean What We Say? 1969. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Dodds, E. R. ―On Misunderstanding the Oedipus Rex.‖ Twentieth Century Interpretations of Oedipus Rex. Ed. Michael J. O‘Brien. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1968. 17- 29. Hamilton, Edith. The Greek Way. New York. W. W. Norton & Company. Inc. 1942. Henley, Donald. Recent American Literature. New York. Barron‘s Educational Series, Inc. 1958. Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. New York: Viking Press Inc., 1949. ---, ―The Tragedy of the Common Man.‖ New York Times. 27 February, 1949: 3. Morgan, Frederick. ―Review of Death of a Salesman.‖ Ed. James J. Martine. Critical Essays on Arthur Miller. Boston. G. K. Hall & Co. 1979. 23. Nietzsche, Friedrich. Basic Writings of Nietzsche. Trans and ed. Walter Kaufman. New York: Random House Inc., 1992. Porter, E. Thomas. ―Acres of Diamonds: Death of a Salesman.‖ Ed. James J. Martine. Critical Essays on Arthur Miller. Boston. G. K. Hall & Co. 1979. 24- 43. Shattuck, Roger. Forbidden Knowledge: From Prometheus to Pornography. New York: St. Martin‘s Press, 1996. Steinberg, M. W. ―Arthur Miller and the Idea of tragedy.‖ Ed. Robert W. Corrigan. Arthur Miller: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1969. 81-94. Unamuno, Miguel de. The tragic sense of life in Men and Nations. Trans. Anthony Kerrigan. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972. Whitehead, Alfred North. Adventures and Ideas. London: Cambridge University Press, 1935. Williams, Raymond. ―From Hero to Victim: The making of Liberal Tragedy, to Ibsen and Miller.‖ Modern Tragedy. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996. 87-105. ---.‖The Realism of Arthur Miller.‖ Critical Quarterly. 55 (1959): 40-49. 826 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Extent The size or duration of the resource. 120 Title A name given to the resource The tragedy and the human being in Arthur Miller‘s play Death of a Salesman Author Author Turku, Marsela Abstract A summary of the resource. So far a number of articles have dealt with the American dream and how it is developed in Arthur Miller‘s plays, especially in The Death of a Salesman. However, not enough attention has been paid to the tragedy and the human tragedy in these plays. In the essay ‗The Tragedy of the Common Man‘ Miller expressed his attitudes and beliefs about the nature of literary tragedy, its principles, the social status of the protagonist, what he understands as a human tragedy etc. This paper examines how this play could be interpreted and reread with a primary focus that of ―tragedy and the human being‖, it tries to answer to the question whether the protagonist‘s fall is a consequence of hamartia (a flaw in the character of the protagonist of a literary tragedy that brings about his or her downfall and a key element in tragedy) or whether he is a victim of the values of his community (the main theme of the social drama); which is the role of the American society‘s values and the conflict between the American dream and the idealization of this dream within the main protagonist; it will also answer the question if his plays are merely ‗social dramas‘ or ‗they challenge the tradition of tragedy from its first description in Aristotle‘s Poetics and the conventions of Shakespearian tragedy. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2011-05 Keywords Keywords. Conference or Workshop Item PeerReviewed P Philology. Linguistics https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/5987e097b4748017fe5300373ff450f0.pdf 1e212db9287e064d6ae1abdcf77d7427 PDF Text Text 1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo Grammatical orientation: fundamental language differences on learnability Junichi Toyota SOL Centrum, linguistics/Department of Linguistics Lund University, Sweden/University of Belgrade, Serbia Junichi.Toyota@englund.lu.se Abstract: The world languages can be roughly divided into three types based on grammatical orientation, e.g. reality-oriented type (e.g. Russian, Chinese); speaker-oriented (e.g. Japanese, Serbian); hearer-oriented (e.g. English, Swedish). Differences borne out of grammatical orientations are hardly ever taken into consideration in making teaching materials. Each type has its peculiarities in grammatical system (e.g. reality-oriented languages have a description of situation as a basic unit, while speakeroriented languages consider speaker‘s experience as a base). Such differences can create fundamental differences in the language use in learners‘ L2, and this influence cannot be underestimated. In this paper, it is aimed to raise awareness of such differences and point out that crosslinguistic comparison can offer numerous points for improving L2 learning. Key Words: Grammatical orientation, cognition, semiotic difference, learnability Introduction In this paper, an attempt is made to integrate a typological comparison of world languages with a foreign language teaching method. The world languages are divided into three groups, based on grammatical orientation as described in Section 2. According to different orientation types, each language can be considered to possess its own unique semiotic resource, and problems encountered in learning a new language is related to how one can decode tis semiotic resource. It is argued here that language teaching can be organised according to orientation types, and based on a learner‘s first language and a target language, we need to create different teaching materials in order for a learner to achieve the result more efficiently. This paper is organised as follows: the basic distinction concerning grammatical orientation is shown first, immediately followed by some possible problems in this distinction. After establishing these backgrounds, some possible problems in cross-cultural communication are presented. Such problems can be, as proposed in this paper, dealt with in teaching using the basic concept of grammatical orientation. However, there still remain some possible challenges, which are listed at the end. Grammatical orientation It is common that different packaging of expression units exists, but they can be classified into three groups, termed here as orientation (Durst-Andersen 1992. 102-105; 2005; 2008: 9-10). The first type is mainly concerned with a model of situations in reality. This type makes a firm distinction between a state caused by an activity and an activity intending to cause a state. This is normally marked by aspect. In Slavic languages, for instance, this distinction has to be made on each verb. In Serbian imperfective has a suffix -ja (e.g. (1b)), while in Russian perfective is overtly expressed with a prefix po- (e.g. (2a)). It also distinguishes a real world from an imaginative one. This type is termed as realityoriented grammar. In this type, a speaker acts as a reporter, speaks with an objective voice. Serbian (1) a. ubiti ‗kill (PRFV)‘ b. ubi-ja-ti ‗kill (IMPRFV)‘ (2) Russian a. po-spati ‗take a nap (PRFV)‘ b. spati ‗sleep (IMPRFV)‘ 1196 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo The second type functions as a symptom of the speaker‘s experience of situations. This type involves aspect, but also a complex modal system in order to express explicitly which part of situation is experienced by a speaker. For instance, some languages have a modal construction known as evidential (see Aikhenvald 2004), which explicitly indicates what and how a speaker experienced a situation. Cherokee examples in (3) and (4) illustrate how evidential actually works. The suffix -ıši in (3) indicates that a speaker has a first-hand (or direct) experience over the event, while -eši in (4) shows that a speaker has to rely on information inferable from outside. This type is called speaker-oriented grammar. A speaker talks about his/her experience as a basic unit with a subjective voice and acts as a commentator. (3) Cherokee (Iroquoian) a. wesa u-tlis-ıši cat it-run-FIRST.PST ‗A cat ran‘ (I saw it running) b. un-atiyohl-ıši they-argue-FIRST.PST ‗They argued.‘ (I heard them arguing) (4) Cherokee (Iroquoian) a. u-wonis-eši he-speak-NON.FIRST.PST ‗He spoke.‘ (someone told me) b. u-gahnan-eši it-rain-NON.FIRST.PST ‗It rained.‘ (I woke up, looked out and saw puddles of water) The third type has an elaborate system of identifying different types of information, such as new and old, referable and non-referable, etc. This is encoded in the simple past tense (as opposed to the perfective aspect) or articles (e.g. definite vs. indefinite). These aid the hearer to decode details of information and identify whether a referent is familiar to him or not. This type is known as heareroriented language. In this type, interlocutors consider information as its basic unit. The speaker is a second-person-oriented speaker, acts as an informer and speaks with an intersubjective voice. These three different grammatical orientation types are summarised in Table 1. Note that these three types are prototypical cases and there are a number of f intermediate stages. This is largely due to historical changes, and we will turn to this point later (cf. Figure 3). Table 1. Grammatical orientation types Reality-oriented Speaker-oriented Hearer-oriented Representatives Russian, Chinese Japanese, Serbian English, Swedish Basic unit Situation Experience Information Speaker orientation Third person First person Second person Speaker function Reporter Communicator Informer Identification mark Aspect prominence Mood prominence Tense prominence Various differences among these types may be more significant than one may expect them to be. For instance, the presence or absence of articles often corresponds to the difference in orientation type. The definite article is an important discourse marker for reference, and it functions as a clear indicator for the hearer that he/she has to be able to trace a referent‘s identity. Such a subtle difference in discourse is not so significant in describing a situation. Reality-oriented languages might have demonstratives which functions quite similarly to the definite articles in hearer-oriented languages, but there is no discourse function in them. With speaker-orientation, it may be useful to have articles, but not necessary, since there is no absolute need for the overt expression of discourse reference as long as the speakers are clear about referents. And the use and importance of the definite article is also shown in its historical development. The common source for the definite article is demonstrative pronouns (Heine and Kuteva 2002: 109-111), e.g. English the is derived from Old English demonstrative se (s.v. OED the dem. a. (def. article) and pron.). However, note that there are some cases where a numeral ‗one‘ turning into a definite article. Irish has a definite article an, as in (5b), but not an indefinite 1197 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo pronoun (e.g. (5a)). Etymologically, an ‗the‘ is derived from a numeral aon ‗one‘ in Old Irish. The numeral ‗one‘ is often turning into an indefinite article (Heine and Kuteva 2002: 220-221), but the definite sense can be derived from a numeral via a restrictive sense of ‗only‘. In such languages, it is often the case that so-called double definiteness is found, e.g. an ‗the‘ and sin ‗that‘ in (5c). This is so, since the numeral origin allows a demonstrative to coexist with the definite article. Nevertheless, the discourse referential system in Irish works in favour of the hearer even without an indefinite article. (5) Irish a. Tá leabhar agam is book at.me ‗I have a book.‘ b. Tá an leabhar agam is the book at.me ‗I have the book.‘ c. Tá an leabhar is the book ‗I have that book. sin that agam at.me Another interesting point concerning the article is that the definite article is often created in contact-intense areas. Consider the map in Figure 1. The darker shades represent the presence of definite articles, and the high concentration can be found in West Africa, Europe, Papua New Guinea and the western coast of North America. In such areas, contacts are often made among mutuallyintelligible languages for trading and speakers may be forced to help hearers identify referents in discourse. This type of communication may raise necessity for grammatical devices such as the definite article. This is also common in Europe and as argued in Toyota (forthcoming), the dialect mixing in the Middle English/Early Modern English periods helped the definite article to grammaticalise fully in English. Such contacts also suggest that the use of definite articles is meant for hearers, not speakers. Figure 1. Presence of definite articles (Dryer 2008) For another case to illustrate how orientation works, we can take a look at possession. English most commonly uses a verb have to express possession, although other verbs, such as belong, hold, own, etc. can also refer to possession. The lexical verb works very well in English since the main expression unit in English is information (i.e. hearer-orientation), and the lexical verb of possession is a simple way of referring to who owns what. This is not the same in languages with reality-orientation. In Russian, for instance, there is a lexical verb imati ‗have‘. It may appear to be identical to the English counterpart, but imati ‗have‘ is not normally used to denote possession. Instead, Russian uses another verb jest‘ ‗exist‘ in a phrase ‗something exists with possessor‘. Those languages with reality orientation are not primarily concerned with experience or information, but an objective description of a situation. With imati ‗have‘, it is obligatory to insert a subject, which can possibly turn a sentence into a structure used for the purpose of showing experience or information. In order to keep an objective viewpoint over situation in reality-oriented languages, the use of locative sense and verbs denoting state is better suited for the expression of possession. 1198 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo (6) Russian a. ?Ya imeju zenu I.NOM.SG have.PRS wife.ACC ?‗I have a wife.‘ (it has a sexual connotation) b. U menje jest‘ zena with I.ACC.SG exist.PRS wife.NOM ‗I have a wife.‘ (lit. ‗wife exists with me‘) (7) Russian a. ?Ya imeju I have.PRS ‗I have a book.‘ b. U menja with I.ACC.SG ‗I have a book.‘ knigu book.ACC.SG jest‘ kniga exist.PRS book.NOM (lit. ‗book exists with me‘) The instances exemplified in (6) and (7) illustrate how common phrases or expressions can be a vital clue in identifying the grammatical orientation. Possession has been extensively studied in the past (cf. Lyons 1977: 722; Heine 1997) and several patterns have been identified cross-linguistically. For instance, Heine (1997: 47) identifies eight possible structures expressing possession and ones based on locational sense are shown in (8). These divisions, however, have not been considered from the perspectives of grammatical orientation types. It has been claimed that the most common strategy to express possession is the use of location schema (i.e. (8i)) (see, among others, Benveniste 1966: 200; Lyons 1977: 722). Structures involving the locational sense are very common in possession, including the Russian examples (6) and (7). Locational sense is very useful in describing a situation, and if there is a strong connection between the orientation type and the expression of possession, there is a strong indication found here that the majority of the world languages have the reality orientation. More research has to be done in this area, but one should not overlook such possibilities of connection. (8) i. ii. iii. iv. Y is located at X (the Location Schema) X is with Y (the Companion Schema) Y exists for/to X (the Goal Schema) Y exists from X (the Source Schema) Problems in cross-orientation communication The classification shown in Table 1 is a very rigid, rather optimistic one. In analysing typological data, one soon realises that it is hard to draw a line between different types and making a specific text for a specific orientation type and level can be a highly demanding task to achieve. As already shown in the previous section, the grammatical orientation can show some differences that can be beyond the mere grammatical features. For instance, metaphors and sense of humours can differ according to orientation type, e.g. metaphors and humours used in speaker or hearer orientation are often literary understood in reality orientation. Thus, literary effects do not function as they are meant in speaker and hearer-oriented languages. Likewise, greetings can have various consequences across different types of orientations. Greetings ritual can vary from culture to culture (cf. Lundmark 2009), but phrases such as ‗How are you?‘ can be an indicator of orientation. In hearerorientation, it can be a part of a general greeting, since what matters in the act of greeting is to show that one is greeting and the content is not so significant. In reality-orientation, however, contents of greetings do matter and ‗How are you?‘ is interpreted as a proper question regarding health. These cases clearly show that the use of languages is not purely dependent on grammatical differences. Students may learn basic grammatical rules, but this does not mean that they are fully aware of subtle differences hidden behind surface structures. Thus, some students may consider it polite to ask how his interlocutors are, although this may result in the opposite effect. This type of differences can be also found in narratives. Situation-oriented languages tend to develop background information, such as place and time, in earlier part of discourse, and it may take a while before a speaker/narrator reaches a main point. Type A and B in Figure 2 may schematically represent how narrative works in reality-oriented languages. Speaker-oriented languages may also use these types, but they can reach a main point direct, as shown in Type C in Figure 2. Hear-oriented 1199 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo languages are more likely to use Type C for the ease of hearers‘ retrieving information, and they may add additional information after reaching the main point. Different types of narrative have been known, but they can be also closely connected to grammatical orientation. Type A Type B Type C Figure 2. Different narrative types In this sense, understanding different orientation types can be studied in a semiotic sense of understanding signs, e.g. de Saussure‘s (1916) signifier. Each language is packed with various semiotic resources, arranged slightly differently from language to language and grammar is a self-contained system of communication. However, as in a case of comprehension of signs, sometimes it may not be easy to perceive a right message (i.e. de Saussure‘s signified), and difficulty increases once the border of orientation types is crossed. This is comparable to the historical study of pictograms, since we currently find it difficult to comprehend what these pictorial signs were intended initially. Perhaps this is a part of our cognitive facility, which is somehow adopted to a particular style of cognition and it requires some training to adjust to a new one. It is easy to identify differences in typical grammatical orientation, but they can have additional implications according to each type and some cases may be better considered intermediate, as in the case of narrative in speaker-oriented languages. Our languages are known to have gradient nature of various features (cf. Croft 2001; Givñn 1979; Harris and Campbell 1995), and this can make it practically impossible to classify rigidly every language in the world into three types of orientation that have been presented so far. This is mainly because of the fact that languages are constantly changing and what we see synchronically is just a transition from one phase to another. This is applicable to grammatical orientation. Durst-Andersen (2008) assumes that the direction of change is from situation to speaker orientation at a first stage, and in a second stage, from speaker to hearer orientation, as schematised in Figure 3. He further argues that hearer orientation can return to situation orientation, forming a circular changing pattern. However, as argued in Toyota (2009), the link from hearer to situation orientation has not been identified in recorded historical changes. Thus, this final stage may be hypothetical, but the rest of changes have been documented. Reality (aspect) Hearer (syntactic transitivity) Speaker (semantic transitivity) Notes: straight line = evidence traceable in historical data; dotted line = hypothetical link Figure 3. Diachronic shift in grammatical orientation types (based on Toyota 2009: 55) These intermediate stages may make it rather difficult to identify orientation types clearly, but this is a natural part of human languages. Thus, we need to assume a prototypical case of orientation, but also some intermediate stages. This also entails that some languages have a different mixture of features, depending on varying degrees of historical changes. 1200 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo Orientation: application to learning In teaching and learning languages, it is obvious that students have to deal with various features of languages. What is normally covered in conventional teaching methods is grammar and pronunciation, but cultural differences are often not integrated into teaching programme. It is possible to argue that each language has its own speaking culture (cf. linguistic relativity), and this point can be extended to dialects. Facing this wide diversity, a task of creating materials accommodating both linguistic features and cultural diversity, it may seem impossible to teach language appropriately. However, this task can be sorted relatively easily once grammatical orientation is taken into consideration. Our working hypothesis is that languages that belong to the same orientation types are easier to acquire, since problems that students have to face are mainly grammatical, not socio-cultural or different world views. We have seen in Section 3 that different orientation types can use certain phrases in a totally different manner. This type of differences is certainly beyond the grammatical level, but manageable as a variation among different languages within the same orientation. It is possible to make a brief guideline for cross-orientation learning to raise awareness of different world view encoded in basic functional aspects of languages. In order to achieve this, learning materials should reflect differences in orientation. Thus, there is no single course book for one language at one level (beginner, intermediate, etc.). This means that at least three different teaching materials are required at each level according to different orientations for a single language, aiming at different background of learners. Let us take an example of student learning English. Swedish learners can simply learn grammatical features without much attention to general world view of English speakers, since they share it through the same orientation. As for Russian speakers, there must be a thorough instruction on differences in the world view and the use of languages, since their world view is supposed to be totally different from that of English speakers. Speakers of Serbian or Japanese are located somewhere in between Russian and Swedish speakers. They certainly require some explanation concerning differences, but not as thorough as the one for Russian speakers. The differences can be summarised in Table 2. This is a simplified version to illustrate a general pattern proposed in this working hypothesis. There are three levels (beginner, intermediate and advanced) in conjunction with three orientation types. They make nice possible text types, marked as Text 1 to Text 9 in Table 2. The number of text indicates that the lesser the number is, the more explanation learners need. Thus, a beginner of Russian speaker needs the most intensive explanation, and an advanced learner of Swedish speaker need the least explanation, a learner of Serbian speaker forming an intermediate stage. Table 2. Different teaching materials for learning English according to grammatical orientation types Beginner Intermediate Advanced Reality orientation Text 1 Text 2 Text 3 (Russian) Speaker orientation Text 4 Text 5 Text 6 (Serbian) Hearer orientation Text 7 Text 8 Text 9 (Swedish) Challenges Classifications such as the one shown in Table 2 are perhaps easier said than done. This is perhaps because it is difficult to identify clearly what language belongs to what orientation type. As indicated earlier in Section 2, there are numerous intermediate stages and there are numerous cases of combinations of various features. For instance, Japanese in principle belongs to a speaker-oriented type, but its greetings are much closer to the one commonly found in situation-oriented languages. Thus, it is hard to draw a line between different types and making a specific text for a specific orientation type and level can be a highly demanding task to achieve. In addition, considerable revision of teaching materials may require according to this method, and teachers may also be required to be familiar with some basic linguistic differences. Language teachers are not necessarily linguists and they may have to learn some basic linguistic differences in order to manage with teaching materials properly. This may involve a considerable amount of training Summary Learning a new language across the border of orientation requires much more effort, i.e. students are required to learn more than grammatical matters, but different world view in a semiotic sense and socio-cultural matters concerning a target language. This point has not been noticed, but this 1201 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo method may solve various problems concerning cross-cultural aspects of language learning. Thus, learners can achieve proficiency of languages at a much wider perspective. Thus, the basic differences based on orientation can be useful in teaching, especially when a learner‘s first language and a target language belong to different orientation types. There are various challenges concerning this approach, but it is hoped that this line of research will bear fruitful results in the near future. References Aikhenvald, A. Y. (2004). Evidentiality. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Benveniste, C. (1966). Problèmes de Linguistique Générale [Problems of general linguistics]. Paris: Ballimard. Dryer, M. (2008). Definite articles. In: Haspelmath, M., M. S. Dryer, D. Gil and B. Comrie (eds.). The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Munich: Max Planck Digital Library, chapter 81. Available online at http://wals.info/feature/37. Accessed on <8April 2011> Durst-Andersen, P. (1992). Mental grammar. Russian aspect and related issues. Colombus (OH): Slavica. Durst-Andersen, P. (2005). ObńĦie I specifiĦeskie svojstva grammatiĦeskix sistem. K postroeniju novoj teorii jazyka [The general and the specific features of grammatical systems. Towards a new theory of language]. Moskva: RGGU. Durst-Andersen, P. (2008). Linguistics as Semiotics. Saussure and Bùhler Revisited. Manuscript, University of Copenhagen. Givñn T. (1979). On Understanding Grammar. New York: Academic Press. Harris A. C. and L. Campbell (1995). Historical Syntax in Cross-linguistic Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Heine, B. (1997). Possession. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Heine, B. & Kuteva, T. (2002). World Lexicon of Grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lundmark, Torbjôrn (2009). Tales of Hi and Bye. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lyons, J. (1977) Semantics (two volumes). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Saussure, F., de (1916). Cours de linguistique générale [Course in General Linguistics]. Paris: Payot. Toyota, J. (2009). Orientation reflected on register: from historical perspectives. Discourse and Interaction, 6, 45-61. Toyota, J. (forthcoming). English Grammar though Time: A typological perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1202 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Extent The size or duration of the resource. 667 Title A name given to the resource Grammatical orientation: fundamental language differences on learnability Author Author Toyota, Junichi Abstract A summary of the resource. The world languages can be roughly divided into three types based on grammatical orientation, e.g. reality-oriented type (e.g. Russian, Chinese); speaker-oriented (e.g. Japanese, Serbian); hearer-oriented (e.g. English, Swedish). Differences borne out of grammatical orientations are hardly ever taken into consideration in making teaching materials. Each type has its peculiarities in grammatical system (e.g. reality-oriented languages have a description of situation as a basic unit, while speakeroriented languages consider speaker‘s experience as a base). Such differences can create fundamental differences in the language use in learners‘ L2, and this influence cannot be underestimated. In this paper, it is aimed to raise awareness of such differences and point out that crosslinguistic comparison can offer numerous points for improving L2 learning. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2011-05 Keywords Keywords. Conference or Workshop Item PeerReviewed P Philology. Linguistics https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/f63ab00622fc37eba0d55a42c31a63f3.pdf cfa72d179e302ddc8842a034ca9f8b35 PDF Text Text 1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo Shakespeare‘s Othello: A Representation of the Clash between the Orient and the Occident Alpaslan Toker International Burch University, Bosnia and Herzegovina English Language and Literature atoker@ibu.edu.ba Melih Karakuzu Atatùrk University, Turkey The Department of English Language mkarakuzu@hotmail.com Abstract: This paper attempts to trace how Shakespeare‘s Othello reflects the deeprooted Eurocentric ideology of the Elizabethan people and show how such views created distinctions like self vs. other, master vs. slave, civilized vs. savage, white vs. black, good vs. evil, strong vs. weak, occident vs. orient. These views had such a deep impact that many writers have portrayed the Europeans as superior and the ‗self‘ as belonging to the ‗centre‘ or ‗Occident,‘ whereas people in far-away lands are shown as inferior and the ‗other‘ belonging to the ‗margin‘ or ‗Orient‘. In Elizabethan England, African men were regarded as illiterate, barbaric, lustful womanizers who were the white man‘s property and apt to be used as servants. These views have been handed down century after century. However, in the play Othello Shakespeare breaks away from these beliefs and introduces an African man who disregards such stereotypical views and thus shocking his audience with this deviation from the norm. He presents a reality that African men are indeed polite, educated, loyal and faithful husbands. Shakespeare even makes Othello more prejudiced against his own culture than against another race. In Othello, Shakespeare sets a mood that questions the way a person sees his or herself and the world around. Shakespeare‘s depiction of Othello departs from the stereotype established by his cultural predecessors. To understand the matter well, we will have to try to define the word ‗Moor‘, explore how these oriental people were regarded in Elizabethan England and finally conclude by pointing out how Shakespeare differed from his own society and culture. The whereabouts of unknown ‗dark‘ worlds have always appealed to travelers from European. This fascination gave rise to the discovery of the oriental East via land routes and across the Mediterranean towards the Atlantic Ocean. These explorations made in pursuit of slaves, gold, ivory, slaves and resources laid the foundation for imperial intercourse through trade and travel with those mysterious lands. These European colonizers divided the world into two different sections - the West or the Occident and the East or the Orient. The relationship between the Occident and the Orient exhibited a ―relationship of power, of domination, of varying degrees of a complex hegemony.‖8 Western imperialism had despised the colonized lands and their inhabitants as backward, savage as well as exotic. Therefore, the imaginary friction and geographical breach between the imperial center and its peripheries constituted the concepts of imperial superiority, attitudes and experiences. The Elizabethans considered the far-away lands, its people and culture as exotic and mysterious with all the negative attributes of darkness. Said also points out the generalized notions of the Orient, ―its strangeness, its difference, its exotic sensuousness and so forth‖9 that form the history and perceptions of the world. Othello‘s tales are very much exciting and are laden with the mystery and mysterious pleasures of the Orient. Not only do we come to learn that he was ‗sold to slavery‘, but also he faced: …cannibals that each other eat, The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads 8 9 Edward W. Said. Orientalism. London: Penguin Books,2001. p.5. Ibid.p.72 109 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo Do grow beneath their shoulders. (I, ii.143-145) It is at this very point that Desdemona does ‗seriously incline‘, and at this point, too, Othello shifts his focus from himself to Desdemona. The fascination can be placed, as Kim F. Hall has stressed in her discussion of travelers‘ tales in early modern England, in ‗not only…the mysteries and ―strangeness‖ they depict but in the yet-untold marvels that they present to the potential future travelers‘ 10 wonders which expose restrained attitudes to the body. Othello himself, since, he is a part of the exotic cultures which he describes, can be regarded as Desdemona‘s ‗new-found-land‘ at this point. Said states that there is a line drawn between the East and the West11. Said and his followers voiced that the East and the West stay in a dual vicious circle: civilization versus backwardness, humanity versus barbarism, religion versus atheism and so on. In history and culture, we get to see ―European superiority over Oriental backwardness‖12 as the so-called advanced Europeans believed that the exotic oriental lands cannot have independent history or culture. Therefore, theses barbarian territories should be ruled and be under the hegemony of the Occidentals who took up the challenge of bringing civilization to those backward lands of the Orient. Othello‘s oriental characteristics and physical aura have kindled manifold divisions among the doyennes of English Literature. These Shakespearean critics have notably diverged in their views with regard to Othello‘s depiction in the play. A.C. Bradley, for example, asserts that ―in regard to the essentials of his character‖ Othello‘s race is of no importance, and that Shakespeare would have laughed if anyone had praised him on ―the accuracy of his racial psychology.‖13 G.K. Hunter and Eldred Jones have argued that Shakespeare criticizes the ongoing negative Elizabethan stereotypes of Africans by invoking them on the stage. William Hazlitt, one of the most prominent Shakespeare researchers of the early nineteenth century, seems to suggest a reason as to why Othello‘s character changes throughout the course of the play. He states that ―the nature of the Moor is noble, confiding, tender, and generous but his blood is of the most inflammable kind.‖ 14 The question of Othello‘s exact race is debatable. Historians have trouble determining who exactly the Moors were. What is known is that the Moors were people, possibly of Berber and Arab origin, settled in Northern Africa. It is learnt that in the eight century, people called Moors conquered the Iberian Peninsula, which contains both today‘s Spain and Portugal. They were eventually forced out of their last bastion in Southern Spain in the year 1492, which corresponds to Columbus's sailing to the New World. The word ‗Moor‘ is an obscure term mainly used in Medieval and Renaissance England to refer to the ‗Moors‘, ‗blackmoors‘, ‗Negroes‘, ‗Indians‘, or ‗Muslims‘. As critics have established, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, these terms were more often used interchangeably one instead of another despite the fact that the English came to recognize the distinctions between different types of blacks. 15 European people have historically pinpointed a number of related ethnic groups as "Moors". Sometimes "Moor" is communicatively used for any person with North African origin. Some people, to whom it is applied, think of the term as irreverent and racist. Jack D‘Amico, in his introduction to The Moor in English Renaissance Drama, states that ―as an opposite in race, religion, and disposition, the Moor can be used to confirm the superiority of Western values‖16 Both the Elizabethan dramatists and audiences found the exotic stories about the Orient and its people appealing.17 The logic behind using Africa as a setting by dramatists in the Occident is that such an act, conceivably, would bring more excitement to the theatre. Shakespeare, in Titus Andronicus, introduces an evil Moor called Aaron whom we see changed towards the end and showing goodness when he pleads for his child's life. .A Moor also appears in The Merchant of Venice. He comes from the Oriental country Morocco. He is the Prince and he is a potential suitor for Portia‘s hand in marriage. Even before he arrives to make his bid for her, he becomes a subject of Portia‘s racist remarks. The dichotomy between East or the Orient and West or the Occident is emphasized once again. 10 Kim H. Hall. Things of Darkness: Economies of Race and Gender in Early Modern England. Cornell University Press, 1995. 11 Edward W. Said. Orientalism. p.57 12 Ibid.p.7 13 A.C. Bradley, Shakespearean Tragedy (1904; rpt. London: Macmillan, 1941), p. 187. 14 William Hazlitt, Characters of Shakespeare's Plays. London: C.H. Reynell, 1817. 15 Antony G. Barthelemy, Black Face Maligned Race: The Representation of Blacks in English Drama from Shakespeare to Southerne, London: Louisiana State University Press,1987, pp. 5-17. 16 Jack D‘Amico, The Moor in English Renaissance Drama, Florida: University of South Florida Press, 1991, p. 2. 17 Eldred Jones, Othello‘s Countrymen: The African in English Renaissance Drama. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965, p. 37. 110 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo Othello is often addressed as ‗the Moor‘, not with his actual name. This, on the one hand, debilitates Shakespeare‘s effort to emphasize Othello‘s race and Oriental descent, and, on the other hand, places Othello into the scheme of the stereotype, despite his honorable and special nature. Elizabethans thought of Moors as being dark strangers. They did not have a clear picture in mind, they came to know about them when Shakespeare and his contemporaries described people with darker skins as black and Moors. Virginia M. Vaughan, in her book entitled Othello. A contextual history, points out that ―blackness became so generally associated with Africa that every African seemed a black man,...the terms Moor and Negro used almost interchangeably.‖18 Therefore it is very confusing and unclear how dark the color of the Moor‘s skin in Othello actually was in Shakespeare‘s time. However, Moors were, without any doubt, regarded as being exotic and different from the Europeans themselves. It is important to mention that the Elizabethan audience had a stereotype in mind when they saw Othello being performed on the stage. Elizabethan playwrights obtained their stories about the Orient from four main sources: returning fighters who fought against the Muslims in the Medieval period; history books and published travel narratives that were available at that time; the living merchants and traders who travelled to the Orient; and, most importantly, the stories of those captives who were captured by Moorish and Turkish pirates through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Shakespeare attempted to create a realistic portrait of a Moor for this protagonist. The protagonist in Cinthio‘s novella called ―Un Capitano Moro‖(―A Moorish Captain‖), is an absolute stereotype, notorious in Venice only for being black, jealous, and vengeful. Shakespeare‘s protagonist is not only liberally complex but also individualized and differentiated from Venetian society in his posture, and, most importantly, his language, with its unusual poetical rhythms, splendor, and eccentricity. Moreover, Lois Whitney claims that many of Othello‘s specific attributes probably were derived from Shakespeare‘s reading of Leo Africanus‘s, Geographical Historie of Africa.19 Othello‘s Oriental aura and his otherness delighted the exclusively white European people. In the same way the Barbary ambassador to the Queen, Abdel Ouahed bin Messaoud with his sixteen delegates, used to draw attention from Londoners with their native dresses, customs and behavior. This Moorish ambassador sometimes was claimed as an inspiration for Othello. Although Othello is set in Venice and Cyprus, the sentiments and values shared in the text by the members of Venetian society are probably reflective of the attitudes and values of Shakespeare's own society. During the time Othello was written, the English were becoming more and more conscious of the presence of other races in the world. People started travelling a lot and in Europe, blacks were beginning to be used for the slave trade. Othello contains one of the most powerful, disputable representations of the black other in Elizabethan drama. The portrayal of the Moor in Othello, oftentimes contradictory, surfaces the wide-spread racial attitudes of the time period, and has continued to generate insight into removing social disagreements throughout the centuries since its performance. Despite Othello‘s unclear true race, his status as a foreigner or outsider truly influences the racial effects of the play. Being from a different race meant, for the most part, being an Other, non-English, as well as non-Christian. This utter otherness can also be seen in the subtitle of the play itself (The Moor of Venice), which describes the main character not in terms of his social role but only in terms of race. Interestingly enough, in spite of his Oriental background Othello is initially considered honorable; but when race is associated with multiracial sexual and marital unions that it turns into a passionate sentimental issue for the Venetians, and for the members of the audience in the seventeenth century. It may be assumed that, because Othello kills his wife Desdemona after the shrewd plots of Iago, then perhaps Othello is as much as a victim of Iago's evil designs and Desdemona is as much as Othello's extreme anger. Some may protest that Iago‘s plot to prepare the downfall of the Moor is much more worse because it stems out of a diabolical, calculating mind, as opposed to Othello‘s sin, which is committed because he has become a mere pawn in Iago's hands, blinded by injury, destroyed by his own candor. However, it can be 18 Virginia M. Vaughan, Othello: A Contextual History, Cambridge: CUP, p.64. Leo Africanus‘s book Geographical Historie of Africa was originally written in Arabic. It was collected and translated into English by John Pory in 1600. It has been suggested that William Shakespeare may have been inspired by Leo Africanus' book to create the character of Othello. 19 111 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo claimed that Othello allows himself to be manipulated. Iago's suggestions of Desdemona‘s infidelity only supplies the alibi Othello needs to justify the murder of the wife, who he believes, cannot sincerely love him. It can be argued that Desdemona's murder is a result of Othello's pride and rush to judgment and, as a result, he must be held responsible for his action. Unlike Iago, Othello, has the potential to form strong, loving and affectionate relationships; his sincere friendship with Iago substantiates this fact. Othello allows Iago to influence him, and allows Iago to bring out his most evil characteristics from. Although Iago may be the one with the more innately evil nature, Othello does not do much to prevent his base instincts taking control over him. In order to find out why Othello commits his crime and why he should be hold responsible for it, we have to analyze the hidden intention behind it. It may not be wrong to claim that what actually prompts Othello to commit murder is not his being mentally impaired and manipulated by Iago, but rather his pride and lack of confidence which he allows him to gain control. Othello is a strong leader, very assertive in his ability to cope with military matters, but when it comes to personal qualities he is uncertain and hesitant. He has arrived in a new city with different customs, but he is not well-aware of it. He has a new young and beautiful bride, whom he loves. He is quite puzzled as to why Desdemona would choose him for a husband, and can only bring one possible explanation, "She lov'd me for the dangers I had pass'd." (1.3.167) Shakespeare is emphasizing the well-known fact that Othello greatly differs from the society he lives in. Desdemona‘s murder, as critics say, is significant in the sense that it helps Othello‘s innate barbaric nature resurface. It is a well-established fact that Othello is an honorary white. He certainly is pretty conscious of the prevailing prejudice in Venice and certainly must question why Desdemona would disregard her culture and fellow white Venetians by marrying a black man. Othello is in doubts about Desdemona before Iago starts his act of conspiracy. Despite the fact that his wife shows nothing but genuine love for him, Othello cannot wholeheartedly believe in her love. Othello is going to speculate that Desdemona's tenderness and virtue alone make her to fall in love with the unlovable and the unlikable. When Iago does rupture Othello‘s whimsical image of Desdemona, he is just fueling what Othello, deep down, believes to be totally probable: that Desdemona could very well love another man. Iago dexterously argues that Desdemona is pretty much capable of betrayal because she has already shown it by betraying her own race. At the outset of the play we are informed that Brabantio willingly lets him enter his house before he elopes with Desdemona. It is only after their inconceivable marriage that he employs this discriminatory attitude. Therefore, it is Desdemona who becomes the reason for his isolation. The matrimonial union of a black man and a white woman is not welcome in Venetian society. Desdemona shattered Othello‘s precarious entrance into the world of white people. This also accommodates Iago‘s attacks against Desdemona and the workings of racism. In Othello‘s last speech, he contrasts himself with a Turk. The way Othello‘s character is depicted stands in strong contrast with the previously categorized Europeans‘ view of the Moor. Shakespeare does not only reject presenting Othello as the devilish Moor, but arguably introduces him as the protector of Christendom against invasion. Othello is a Christian. Othello is to going to defend Cyprus against the ―General enemy Ottoman‖ (I, iii, 49). He is an essential part of Venetian civic society. He is highly sought after by the duke and senate, as proven by Cassio‘s remark that the senate ―sent about three several quests‖ to look for Othello (I.ii.46). The Venetian government entrusts Othello with martial and political command in Cyprus. However, Othello shows his nobility by abandoning his sweet newlywedded bride‘s chamber to join the conflict without hesitation. The play's action shows how deep is the affection shared by Othello and Desdemona. Through the exotic and mesmerizing power of Othello's poetry and Iago‘s treachery, Shakespeare invites his audiences to locate the true color of villainy. Marjorie Garber, in her book Shakespeare After All, comments on how Shakespeare depicted his Moor, first giving him noble qualities then making him boil with jealousy and rage afterwards. She goes on to say that ―here then is the key dramatic point, one typically Shakespearean at the same time establishing and critiquing a stereotype: Othello looks black, but it is Iago who become the pole of moral negativity (conventionally, blackness) in the play.‖20 20 Marjorie Garber, Shakespeare After All, Random House, 2004, p.592. 112 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo Othello murders Desdemona under the pretence of righteous outrage and will not reveal his true motive. When Othello discovers that Desdemona is absolutely pure and innocent, as the enforcer of justice he is left no choice but to commit suicide. Justice must be served and rendered, this time upon himself. Due to Othello's genuine repentance and subsequent suicide, we should not place him on the same level of villainy as Iago. But, in the meantime, his feelings of remorse after the act of cruel murder cannot be enough to exonerate him. Othello has a responsibility to give a chance to Desdemona to confront the charge of adultery. He chooses to ignore that obligation in order to satisfy his own fixations. Shakespeare‘s play Othello is, after all, about a great man whose tragedy lies in his insistent romantic belief that the world is wholly good, that his "perfect soul" will protect him from prejudice, and that lago could not possibly be dishonest. Yet even he sees, too late, that a devil like lago can never be killed, only acknowledged. Othello is allowed to join the so-called Venetian society and enjoyed the words of compliment and bravery like ‗valiant Moor‘, ‗brave Moor‘, ‗warlike Moor‘, ‗the Moor my lord‘ and ‗Moor…a full soldier‘, uttered by the leading personalities of the society. Emily Bartels holds that Othello is ‗so integrated into Venetian society that he can set the terms of both military and social action.‘ 21 However, it is when he dares to marry a white woman that he becomes subject to discriminatory behavior from the very people who praised him with their words of flattery. He thought he could blend into this white Occidental society, but, it is when he becomes a pawn in Iago‘s hands, boils with rage and jealousy that his barbaric nature surfaces and he becomes the stereotyped Oriental character that Shakespeare tries very hard to keep him away from. Othello surrenders himself to the prison of race he thought he had escaped. Othello is a professional soldier and he is well aware of his responsibilities as the Commander of the Venetian military. As Shakespeare shows, Othello himself is quite the reverse of the stereotypical ―lusty Moor‖. To respond to the call of arms, he delays his wedding-night happiness without hesitation, almost welcoming it in a curious way. Shakespeare is demonstrating his firm belief in merit and in the equivalence of great minds but the play is also a testimony that a happy outcome should not to be expected in an unromantic world. G.K. Hunter and Eldred Jones, in particular, have argued that Shakespeare invokes the negative Elizabethan stereotypes of Africans only to discredit them. Critics have not arrived at any sort of consensus about the role of race in Othello, despite the fact that the topic of racism continues to be one of the most prevailing issues about the play. The Shakespearean scholars greatly deviate in their treatment of Othello. Coleridge honored Othello as ―noble, generous, open-hearted, unsuspicious and unsuspecting.‖22 Indebted to Coleridge, A.C. Bradley‘s character analysis, even though it is a very much contested assessment of Othello, has been central. Bradley excessively idealizes the Moor as a romantic figure: Othello is, in one sense of the word, by far the most romantic figure among Shakespeare‘s heroes; and he is so partly from the strange life of war and adventure which he has lived from childhood. He does not belong to our world, and he seems to enter it we know not whence – almost as if from wonderland. There is something mysterious in his descent from men of royal siege; in his wanderings in vast deserts and among marvelous peoples… 23 However, through his tender and caring portrayal of Othello, Martin Orkin and Emily C. Bartels state that Shakespeare was criticizing racism, and putting the blame on his society for its racist behavior . It is safe to say as we are drawing our conclusion that Shakespeare made daring and intrepid attempts to bridge the gap between the Orient and the Occident by bestowing on his hero qualities like nobility, eloquent diction, sobriety, and trustworthy that were only thought possible in white men. He also places him in an important position of as a commander of the Venetian military. He enters the play as ‗noble‘ and ‗valiant‘ Moor and exits as a ‗blacker devil‘ and ‗erring Barbarian.‘ 21 Emily C. Bartels, in her article entitled Othello and Africa: Postcolonialism Reconsidered published in The William and Mary Quarterly magazine in 1997, comments on Othello‘s elevated status in the Venetian society. 22 Coleridge‘s Shakespearean Criticism; edited by Thomas Middleton Raysor, Harvard University Press, 1930. p.227. 23 A.C.Bradley, Shakespearean Tragedy. Penguin (Non Classics), 1991.p.153 113 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo References Bartels, E.C. (1997). Othello and Africa: Postcolonialism Reconsidered. The William and Mary Quarterly. Barthelemy, A.G. (1987). Black Face Maligned Race: The Representation of Blacks in English Drama from Shakespeare to Southerne, London: Louisiana State University Press. D‘Amico, J. (1991). The Moor in English Renaissance Drama, Florida: University of South Florida Press. Garber, M. (2004). Shakespeare After All, Random House. Hall, K. H. (1995). Things of Darkness: Economies of Race and Gender in Early Modern England. Cornell University Press, Bradley, A.C. (1941). Shakespearean Tragedy. London: Macmillan. Hazlitt, W. (1817). Characters of Shakespeare's Plays. London: C.H. Reynell. Johannes, L.Africanus, Pory, J. (1993). A Geographical Historie of Africa. Jones Research & Pub Co. Jones, E. (1965). Othello‘s Countrymen: The African in English Renaissance Drama. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Raysor, T.M.(1930). Coleridge‘s Shakespearean Criticism. Harvard University Press. Said, E.W. (2001). Orientalism. London: Penguin Books. Vaughan, M.V.(1994). Othello: A Contextual History, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 114 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Extent The size or duration of the resource. 20 Title A name given to the resource Shakespeare‘s Othello: A Representation of the Clash between the Orient and the Occiden Author Author Toker, Alpaslan Karakuzu, Melih Abstract A summary of the resource. This paper attempts to trace how Shakespeare‘s Othello reflects the deeprooted Eurocentric ideology of the Elizabethan people and show how such views created distinctions like self vs. other, master vs. slave, civilized vs. savage, white vs. black, good vs. evil, strong vs. weak, occident vs. orient. These views had such a deep impact that many writers have portrayed the Europeans as superior and the ‗self‘ as belonging to the ‗centre‘ or ‗Occident,‘ whereas people in far-away lands are shown as inferior and the ‗other‘ belonging to the ‗margin‘ or ‗Orient‘. In Elizabethan England, African men were regarded as illiterate, barbaric, lustful womanizers who were the white man‘s property and apt to be used as servants. These views have been handed down century after century. However, in the play Othello Shakespeare breaks away from these beliefs and introduces an African man who disregards such stereotypical views and thus shocking his audience with this deviation from the norm. He presents a reality that African men are indeed polite, educated, loyal and faithful husbands. Shakespeare even makes Othello more prejudiced against his own culture than against another race Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2011-05 Keywords Keywords. Conference or Workshop Item PeerReviewed P Philology. Linguistics https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/3ee3745e4d353fc0df418f5699e97024.pdf d98db1c66fb64188bd44888332544948 PDF Text Text 1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo Have them move, see and speak! Jerry Istvan Thekes Director of studies IFF Language Academy, Hungary www.jerrythekes.com jerry@jerrythekes.com Abstract: The aim of this study is to show that the 21st century modern TEFL classroom has to provide entertaining, visual and kinesthetic elements for the language learners. Four different TEFL games are presented in order to prove that total physical involvement of the students aided by visuals help teaching and language acquisition. The description and the presentation of the ‘Sandwich‘,‘ the Kali goddess‘, the ‘Traffic lights‘ and the ‘Luggage‘, the ‗Scales‘ and the ‗Swatch‘ game all serve the aim to justify the necessity of students‘ moving and being given plenty of visuals during the lessons. The need to physically involve the students is supported by such respected professionals as Scott Thornbury, Michael Swan and Mario Rinvolucri. The academic support is also aided by the two greatest TEFL experts on motivation, Dôrnyei and Csizér Key Words: visualization, grammar games, kinesthetics Introduction In this article, I will present the description of six grammar games which will be described. By grammar game, I mean an entertaining activity involving learners in order for them to comfortably acquire the grammar point. I will try to argue for the importance of teaching grammar through fun. Constant explanation of grammar rules and decontextualizing grammar are a quick way for the teacher to demotivate their students and unfortunately a lot of non-native EFL teachers still fall into the comfortable trap of presenting grammar through rules as they saw it done to them when they studied a foreign language. This fact is supported by Xiao-Yun (2010) who asserts that ―traditional grammar teaching is often associated with the dry memorization of rules and the equally dry prospect of applying these rules in fill-in-the-blank, pattern practice, substitution transformation, and translation, which cause negative feelings.‖ A further support on this opinion comes from Krashen (1987), according to whom ―language acquisition does not require extensive use of conscious grammatical rules, and does not require tedious drill.‖ Throughout this article, I will use the terminology ‗grammar McNugget‘, which will stand for the particular grammar points. This denomination comes from Thornbury (2010), who says that ―an enthusiasm for compartmentalization, inherited from grammars of classical languages, has given rise to the elaborate architecture of the so-called tense system – including such grammar McNuggets as the future-in-the-past, and the past perfect continuous, not to mention the conditionals, first, second and third – features of the language that have little or no linguistic, let alone psychological, reality.‖ As I give a description of games, I will indicate the grammar McNugget that the teacher is supposed to teach with that particular game. Thornbury‘s notion of grammar McNugget is also supported by Michael Swan (1985, 76) who posits that „the role of 'grammar' in language courses is often discussed as if 'grammar' were one homogeneous kind of thing. In fact, 'grammar' is an umbrella term for a large number of separate or loosely related language systems, which are so varied in nature that it is pointless to talk as if they should all be approached in the same way. How we integrate the teaching of structure and meaning will depend to a great extent on the particular language items involved.‖ The teaching of six grammar points, these loosely related language systems, will be presented in this article. I firmly believe the conveyance of grammar usage needs to be carried out in a demonstrative and entertaining way for the students to be receptive to the learning content of the lesson. Using the phrase ‗learning content‘ I refer to Medgyes‘ terminology, who has differentiated between the two main targets of an EFL lesson: ―…foreign-language teachers have no direct body of knowledge available in the sense that physics or history teachers have. Or rather they have two different sets of content to teach: the grammar of the foreign language and the topics which serve to present and to carry to specific items of grammar. Littlejohn (1992) calls these two sets the 685 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo learning content and the carrier content (paraphrased in Medgyes, 1995).‖ The main target will be the teaching of grammar in this article. I will not use Medgyes‘ terminology-learning content- but I will use the one of Thornbury‘s quoted earlier: Grammar McNuggets.‘ In order to motivate students to learn grammar, teachers need to fend off the tension the learners usually are under. If it is proved to them that the acquisition of grammar structures is an enjoyable pastime, they will be more willing to proceed in their EFL studies. When I use the term ‗motivate‘, I always have Dôrnyei‘s and Csizér‘s (1999) research in mind. They have asserted that it is important to create a pleasant and relaxed atmosphere and to make the language classes interesting. I believe grammar games such as the ones described here assure that the learners are entertained. Richard-Amato (1988) also supports the view of a relaxed classroom atmosphere by stating that ―it appears that a lowered anxiety level is related to proficiency in the target language.‖ The ‗Sandwich‘, the ‗Kali goddess‘, and the Traffic Lights‘ games- the ones described below - are a key to achieving a lowered anxiety level. Making language teaching and the teaching of grammar game-like is of crucial importance so as to keep students interested and to create a relaxed atmosphere. Hadfield (1992) says that ―affective activities aim to create a positive and supportive group atmosphere in a non-explicit way‖ As it will be seen, the below-described grammar games are aimed at creating a positive and supportive atmosphere. The notion of making the lesson game-like is also asserted by Rinvolucri (1995): ―Grammar is perhaps so serious and central in learning another language that all ways should be searched for which will focus student energy on the task of mastering and internalizing it. One way of focusing this energy is through the release offered by games.‖ Games not only engage students‘ interest in the TEFL classroom but they also keep them involved. As Rosenberg (2009, 10) asserts we should „focus on the students in the classroom, on keeping them involved, on having them doing and producing rather than passively receiving information.‖ By involving the students in grammar games, the teacher can achieve his/her goal of having the learners acquire the grammar McNugget taught in the particular lesson. Teaching grammar McNuggets through games necessarily has an implication of avoiding students‘ consciousness raising. A no consciousness raising strategy stands for implicit grammar teaching. The idea of teaching grammar implicitly through comprehensible inputs comes from Krashen and is well known in the TEFL profession. Krashen and Terrell(1983) further elaborated on this idea by saying that ―we should not expect our students to be concerned with fine points of grammar while they are speaking in free conversation.‖ I will present six grammar games. I will precisely name the level of students, the grammar McNugget of the lesson, the materials and the procedure. Presentation of grammar games 1. Sandwich game Grammar McNugget: adjectives+prepositions Level: intermediate Material: pictures, loaf of sliced toast bread, duct-tape Procedure: The whole concept for this grammar game is that adjectives and governed prepositions are always used with a noun or a gerund. The adjective, the preposition and the noun form a sandwich with the preposition being the inner part. Prior to the lesson, the teacher sticks cards with adjectives (afraid, surprised, interested, etc.) on them onto one set of slices of toast bread and cards with nouns (spiders, gift, baseball game, etc.) onto another set. In the lesson, the cards with prepositions written on them are placed on the table. Pairs of students are given slices with adjectives on them and they have to find the correct prepositions. An ‗afraid‘ slice is matched with the ‗of‘ preposition card, for instance. The pairs present their unfinished sandwiches and as a result of peer-correction, they will end up having the right adjective-preposition chunk. As the following stage of this game, they are instructed by the teacher to find the noun slice in order for them to have a complete sandwich. Such sentences as ‗I am afraid of spiders‘; ‗My sister is interested in the baseball game‘ are formed as a result of the learners having made their sandwiches. The sandwiches consists of a slice of bread with adjectives, a preposition card in the middle and a noun on another slice of bread. 686 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo 2. Kali goddess game Grammar McNugget: Conjunctions (in spite of the fact, if, despite) Level: upper-intermediate Material: slips of paper, pictures, duct-tape Procedure: Prior to the lesson the teacher has put six different piles of prompt cards on two different chairs in the classroom. On one chair there is a pile of images designating different notions, e.g.: ‗have a stomach ache‘, ‗rainy day‘, ‗ have a bad car‘, etc. On another chair, there is another pile of cards with sentences written on them, e.g.: she is working the whole day‘,‗we are playing tennis outside‘, I am driving all the way to Turkey‘, etc. In the lesson the teacher has the learners choose two pictures. Once they have chosen them, they are told to go to the chair with the pile of sentences. They are then instructed to find a contrasting match to their pictures. For instance, the ‗rainy day‘ pictures will be matched up with the ‗we are playing tennis outside‘ sentence. After all the students are done with their matching, one has to go behind the teacher, who is standing in front of the classroom with a card ‗in spite of the fact‘ stuck on his/her chest with a blue-tack. The student behind the teacher holds up the sentence in his right hand and the picture in his left hand. The rest of the class now sees a fragmented visual sentence which one student has to read out: ‗We are playing tennis outside in spite of the fact it is a rainy day.‘ The other students then take turns in standing behind the teacher and holding up the sentences and picture in the same system as the first has done. As all students stand behind the teacher, By the end of the game the whole class will have looked like the Hindu goddess Kali, who has multiple hands. 3. Traffic lights game Grammar McNugget: affirmative, interrogative, negative in any tense Level: any Material: pictures, duct-tape, cartons of red, yellow, green color Procedure: In this grammar game the teacher is using the simple associative intelligence of the students. The green color will naturally stand for the affirmative; the red will mean the negative form and what we have left is the yellow, which will denote the interrogative form. Students get easily involved in this game since it is quite simple to associate the red color with negation and the green with affirmative statements. Prior to the lesson the traffic lights colors are drawn on the board in the usual order: red, yellow, green. In order to make sure, the teacher might as well draw cross by the red, a question mark by the yellow and a tick by the green. Teacher presents the way present simple in the affirmative is formed. It is done with pictures of daily routine and slips of cards with ‗always‘, ‗sometimes‘, ‗rarely‘, ‗never‘ written on them. Such sentences are presented as: ‗I always get up early‘. ‗I never mow the lawn in the garden‘, etc. In the midst of doing it, the teacher has a green circle stuck on his/her chest so as to indicate that it is the affirmative. This is done in the same way with the negative and interrogative with the difference that negative is presented with a red circle stuck on the teacher‘s chest and the interrogative with a yellow circle. Once the presentation is done, teacher elicits sentences from students by handing out pictures of daily routine and holding up either a green or a yellow or a red circle. For instance if a students has the picture ‗have breakfast‘ in his hand and is prompted with a green circle, then this student is supposed to say ‗I have breakfast every day‘; if however, another student has ‗dust the room‘ and is prompted with a red circle, this students is supposed to say ‗I don‘t dust the room.‘ The students pass around the pictures and wait for the teacher to elicit either an affirmative or interrogative or negative sentence with the associated color. Elicitation is achieved through association with colors. 687 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo x ? 4. Luggage game Grammar McNugget: going to Level: elementary Material: pictures, duct-tape, realia Procedure: The teacher sticks pictures of different types of travelers (lonely tourist, family going on a package tour, beach girls, etc.) on the white board. Sentences are elicited from students with questions with regard to where they think these tourists are travelling. After students are engaged in the activity, they are given realia such as Agatha Christie books, tube of sunscreen, lipstick, map, etc.) The students are instructed to go to the whiteboard with the objects and symbolically put them into the bags. They are supposed to match the items with one type of tourist. The teacher expects them to say sentences with ‗going to‘ and give a reason for their choice; for example: ‗The beach girls are going to take a tube of sunscreen because they are going to spend a lot of time under the sun.‘; The business tourist is going to take a car rental brochure because he is going to rent a car.‘ 5. Scales Grammar McNugget: comparative adjectives Level: elementary Material: pictures, slips of cards, a balance scale, bluetack Procedure: Prior to the lesson, the teacher puts two sets of scales onto one of the tables. These scales need to be a balance scale and not the digital one. Previously they have had to prepare for the lesson with pairs of pictures of objects and people to be easily compared, for example a rocket and a snail; a giant and a dwarf; Mont Blanc and a hill, etc. They have also had to choose adjectives for the students to use as the teacher will have them compare the two things or persons. These adjectives are ‘fast‘, ‘big‘, ‘high‘, etc and are printed on slips of paper. 688 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo Before the activity starts, the teacher engages the learners with an easy but necessary game. Two envelopes are stuck on the wall with bluetack. On one envelope there is a picture of a snake, on the other, there is that of a baby shoe. The snake illustrates long, multi-syllabic adjectives whereas the baby shoe denotes short, monosyllabic adjectives. The teacher divides the class into two groups and randomly gives them adjectives on slips of papers such as ‗fat‘, ‗interesting‘, heavy‘, etc. The groups have to decide whether the adjective is long or short and correspondingly place the slips of paper into either of the envelopes. Once it is done, the teacher presents how these adjectives have to be used in the comparative form by saying sample sentences. Following this presentation, everybody in the class is given pictures of objects and people. They are then instructed to find a matching pair from the pile of pictures that are put on a one of the tables in the classroom. The student that has the picture of a Ferrari needs to find the picture of an old Lada. When every student has a set of two pictures to be compared, the teacher presents the activity. They stick a slip of paper with an adjective written on it in the middle of the scales and they put one picture into one pan of the scales and another into the other pan. What the students see now is for example the adjective ‗fast‘ stuck on the scales and an image of a rocket in the left pan and that of a snail in the right pan. The teacher deliberately pushes down the left pan so as to indicate the difference and says: ‗A rocket is faster than a snail.‘ Having done this presentation, the teacher has the students take turns in sticking one adjective on the scales and putting two images into the two pans. An example could be ‗giant‘, ‗dwarf‘, ‗tall‘. The student has to stick ‗tall‘ on the scales and put the two images into either of the pans, then push down the one with the giant in it and produce the sentence: ‗The giant is taller than the dwarf‘. Tall 6. Swatch Grammar McNugget: telling the time in correct English Level: beginner Material: 1-12 numbers on pieces of paper, pictures of a short and a long pan of the watch Procedure: As an engaging activity the teacher presents the way of telling the time in English with the help of a toy clock. The below-described ‗Swatch‘ game follows this presentation in order for the students to be activated in telling the time. 689 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo The teacher puts the numbers from 1 to 12 printed on A4 papers in a round shape in a formation equivalent to that on a watch or clock. Two students are given the roles of being hands of the watch. The teacher sticks the picture of a short hand on one of the students and sticks that of a long hand on another. The learners stand in the middle initially. Then they are instructed to move inside the circle as they wish. They have three seconds to do that. After this period of time, the teacher tells them to stop. Wherever they stand they always shoe a particular time, which one student has to tell. If the ‗short hand‘ student stands with the pointer pointing at three and the ‗long hand‘ student points at 10 minutes then it is 10 minutes past 3. It is a physically involving activity and students enjoy it very much. Conclusion In the first section of this paper I have tried to find assertions, views and notions supporting the concept of the importance of teaching grammar through games. I have cited Krashen, who contemns the conscious teaching of grammar rules. I have also used Swan‘s view, according to whom grammar is only an umbrella term and every point has to be approached in a different way when teaching them is at issue. I have found Thronbury‘s notion of grammar inevitable in this article. Through the description of six games aimed at teaching grammar McNuggets I have intended to prove that teaching grammar with fun and games is crucial in the facilitating process of teaching the TEFL learners. The ‗Sandwich‘ game has been aimed at showing that any type of realia can be used for the sake of transferring a message to make it comprehensible. The‘Kali goddess‘ game has been targeted at showing that students acquire grammar easier once they are in motion. The purpose of ‗Traffic Lights‘ game has been to substantiate that the associative intelligence of the learners can be exploited. References: Alexander, L. (1994). Grammar in the Classroom in Bower, R.ed. (1994). Applied Linguistics and Language Teaching. London: British Council Dôrnyei, Z., Csizér, K. (1999). Ten commandments for motivating language learners. Language Teaching Research Hadfield, J. (1992). Classroom Dynamics. Oxford: Oxford University Press Krashen, S. (1987). Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Littlejohn, A.P. (1991). Why are English Language Teaching Materials the way they are? Ph.D. Thesis: Lancaster University cited in Medgyes Medgyes, P. (1995). The non-native teacher. London: MacMillan Publishers. Richard-Amato, P. (1988). Making it happen. New York: Longman Rinvolucri, M. (1995). Grammar games. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Rosenberg, R. (2009). Tools for activating materials and tasks in the English language classroom. English Teaching Forum No. 4 2009 pp. 2-11 Swan, M. (1985). ‗A critical look at the communicative approach.‘ ELT Journal Volume 39/2 April 1985 pp. 76-87 Thornbury, S. (2010). G is for Grammar MacNugget. cited from http://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/2010/09/18/gis-for-grammar-mcnuggets/ Xiao-Yun, Y. (2010). ‗Interactive grammar teaching‘ Modern English Teacher.Volume 17No. 3 p 34-37 690 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Extent The size or duration of the resource. 103 Title A name given to the resource Have them move, see and speak! Author Author Thekes, Jerry Istvan Abstract A summary of the resource. The aim of this study is to show that the 21st century modern TEFL classroom has to provide entertaining, visual and kinesthetic elements for the language learners. Four different TEFL games are presented in order to prove that total physical involvement of the students aided by visuals help teaching and language acquisition. The description and the presentation of the ‘Sandwich‘,‘ the Kali goddess‘, the ‘Traffic lights‘ and the ‘Luggage‘, the ‗Scales‘ and the ‗Swatch‘ game all serve the aim to justify the necessity of students‘ moving and being given plenty of visuals during the lessons. The need to physically involve the students is supported by such respected professionals as Scott Thornbury, Michael Swan and Mario Rinvolucri. The academic support is also aided by the two greatest TEFL experts on motivation, Dôrnyei and Csizér Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2011-05 Keywords Keywords. Conference or Workshop Item PeerReviewed P Philology. Linguistics https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/65081b58a3279c254cef40f4b841f6a0.pdf eabc2601cedb80a35286c884400f341b PDF Text Text 1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo THE EFFECTS OF THE SYLLABUS, METHODS AND TEACHING STYLES OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE COURSES ON THE ACHIEVEMENTS AND ATTITUDES OF STUDENTS Mehmet TAKKAÇ Atatùrk University, Department of English Language takkac@atauni.edu.tr Aysel ÇATAL Atatùrk University, Lecturer ayselcatal@atauni.edu.tr Ahmet Selçuk AKDEMĠR Erzincan University, Lecturer ancient---mariner@hotmail.com Abstract: English is taught as a foreign language nearly in all higher education institutions in Turkey. Though the aim of teaching English is mainly based on communicational skills, it is rarely performed with innovative and technologically up to date methods. Many instructors find it easier to construct courses with a traditional style without using technological devices and materials. English lessons become rather boring and dull, and as a result of this, the achievement and attitudes of students decline. The aim of this study is to assess the effect of the syllabus, methods and teaching styles of foreign language courses on the achievements and attitudes of students. This research is an experimental study with a mixed group and an attitude test, open – ended questions survey model. The study was conducted on university students in the 2nd grade of the School of Health, Erzincan University. 21 male and 24 female students took part in this research. As the first step of the research the syllabus design, method and teaching style of the class was defined by an interview with the instructors of English courses. Then the opinions of students on English courses were obtained with a questionnaire using the Likert scale model. Based on statistical analyses of the questionnaires and evaluation of observations on the syllabus, methods and teaching style of the instructor, it was concluded that the achievements and attitudes of the students vary according to the syllabus design, method and teaching style of the class. Key Words: language teaching, attitude, syllabus design, style, teaching materials 1. Basic Concepts 1. 1. Syllabus in Foreign Language Teaching In recent years there occurred an expanding interest to define the process of Foreign Language Teaching (FLT). This tendency of understanding and defining the process has led to the emergence of many concepts one of which is syllabus. The simplest explanation of this concept is ‗a statement of what is to be learnt‘. A syllabus is a more detailed and operational statement of teaching and learning elements which translates the philosophy of the curriculum into a series of planned steps leading towards more narrowly defined objectives at each level (Dubin and Olsthain, 1997). There are many other definitions of the term itself;  A syllabus is an endorsement of specific set of sociolinguistic and philosophical beliefs regarding power, education and cognition that guide a teacher to structure his or her class in a particular way (Hadley, 1998)  A syllabus is a social construction produced interdependently by teachers and learners. It is concerned with the specification and planning of what is to be learnt (Candlin, 1984). Basic syllabus types are as follow:  Type A (interventionist) syllabi are concerned with what should be learned. They divide the language into small, discrete units and evaluate the outcomes in terms of mastery of the language.  Type B (non-interventionist) syllabi are concerned with how the language is learned and how this language is integrated with learners‘ experiences. Evaluation criteria are set by the learners themselves (White, 1988). 56 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo 1. 2. Methods in Foreign Language Teaching There are several FLT methods and those methods have an extension from behavioral methods to communicative – psychological ones. Each method has some challenges over the preceding one. For example Silent Way was born with the notion that though they learn language with ALM (Audio –Lingual Method) the students would not be able to communicate out of the class furthermore language learning can not be a habit formation as human being do learn the expressions that s/he has never heard. Basic methods are:  Grammar – Translation Method (GTM)  Direct Method (DM)  Audio – Lingual Method (ALM)  Silent Way  Suggestopedia (Desuggestopedia)  Community Language Learning  Total Physical Response (TPR)  Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)  Content – based, Task – based and Participatory Approaches  Cooperative Learning and Multiple Intelligences ( Larsen – Freeman, 2000) 1. 3. Style in FLT ―Every man is in certain respects (a) like all other men, (b) like some other men, (c) like no other man" (Kluckhohn and Murray, 1953). This quotation is perhaps the best way of mentioning the difference of each human being both as learners and teachers. Style is the difference of each person from the others. If the subject is an educational setting, then style turns to have two aspects; teacher‘s teaching style and learner‘s learning style. A good teaching/learning environment is created only when learner‘s and teacher‘s styles cover one another. Style has a crucial role on achievement and attitude towards any topic or course. 1. 4. Attitude Attitude is the mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual‘s response to all objects with which it is related (Triandis, 1971). Attitude is a complex term having relationships with many other internal and external factors when the subject is ‗attitude towards learning a language or the language itself‘. Language teaching includes all the factors such as teacher, learner, and the interaction of the two, internal and external variables as well as attitude of the learner. 2. Methods and Procedures The aim of this study is to assess the effect of the syllabus, methods and teaching styles of foreign language courses on the achievements and attitudes of students. This research is an experimental study with a mixed group and an attitude test, open – ended questions survey model. The study was conducted on university students in the 2nd grade of the School of Health, Erzincan University. 21 male and 24 female students took part in this research. As the first step of the research the syllabus design, method and teaching style of the class was defined by an interview with the instructors of English courses. Then the opinions of students on English courses were obtained with a questionnaire using the Likert scale model. 3. Analyses and Findings 3. 1. Views of the Instructor The instructor of the English courses of the school is a 54 years – old male having B.A. from ELT department. He has been teaching for 30 years. He was interviewed by the authors of the paper and the interview included open – ended questions such as: - What do you think about the efficiency of English lectures you give in this class? - What are the aims/goals/purposes of your course? - How do you plan your courses? - What are the basic elements of your teaching style/approach/method? - How do you assess your students? - What are the materials of your English course? - How do you evaluate yourself by means of being a teaching professional? - What do you expect from your students? - What is the manner of interactions of your class? The instructor‘s answers are as follow: 57 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo I think my English course is far from being efficient enough because of students‘ attitude towards English. - My aim is to teach English through rules and habit formation in order to make students understand English for their profession and career. - I follow the plans that I have shaped through years of experiences without depending on any external planning. - Basic elements of my teaching style are presentation of the subjects, explanation of the rules and exceptions of each rule, then giving examples of the grammatical structure. - I use written exams to assess my students. - I use only printed materials for the courses and I generally present the subject in the board. Very rarely do I use powerpoint presentations because it is difficult to prepare or adapt a prepared one. - I have spent nearly 30 years as an instructor so I feel confident enough to lecture but I should admit that I am reluctant to learn about and use new technologies. - I expect them to learn a good English especially grammar and vocabulary. - Generally I do present the matter and students learn it by listening and note – taking, though I tried to integrate them to the courses actively, they seemed unwilling. 3. 2. Questionnaire Attitudes of the students were determined by a questionnaire which was developed by Gùven (2007) and proved to be reliable and valid after some pre – experimental applications to minor groups. The questionnaire includes 24 items 12 of which are negative such as: Item 2: I feel distressed during English courses (strongly agree/agree/moderately agree/disagree/strongly disagree) Item 16: English is terrifying course for me (strongly agree/agree/moderately agree/disagree/strongly disagree) 12 items are positive such as: Item 11: I find it interesting to discuss the topics in English courses (strongly agree/agree/moderately agree/disagree/strongly disagree) Item 17: I find English as an enjoyable course (strongly agree/agree/moderately agree/disagree/strongly disagree) 12 positive questions were designed to determine positive attitudes of the students while remaining 12 questions existed to provide internal coherence of the questionnaire. In order to ensure the validity of the study, only positive questions were taken into account while analyzing the data. Cronbach Alpha validity of the scale was calculated as 0.91 showing that the study has the validity. - SPSS analysis of the questionnaire: Descriptive Statistics N Minimum ORTALAMA 46 Valid N (listwise) 46 1,00 Maximum 4,83 Mean Std. Deviation 2,3696 ,94684 Mean: 2.37 Standard Deviation: 0,95 Mean value of the answers given to 12 questions which are asking about positive attitude towards English courses is 2,37 which means ‗disagree‘ in our questionnaire. The results of statistical data showed that students do not agree positive attitude statements of the questionnaire. 4. Conclusion As English becomes an international language for nearly all areas (science, communication, interaction etc.) it is not reasonable to go on using old – fashioned methods, strategies and approaches to teach English as a foreign language. Like all other sciences and educational activities, FLT also needs to be revised according to the needs of modern world. As it can be seen easily from these study, it is crucial to think FLT as a whole process along with all components e.g. teacher, teaching style, students and even external ones such as school and materials. Students learn best when they feel confident and find the topic worth to be learnt by means of their needs. So the courses should be constructed to include technological settings and media so that students will find it interesting and they will be able to learn the language itself rather than set of grammar rules and patterns. 58 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo Teacher has also has responsibilities of being well prepared for the course and equipped enough to be able to use technology and multi – dimensional teaching techniques. Having only one type of teaching style in mind makes the teacher a flat one. As a result s/he will not be able to control the class and teaching/learning process. References Candlin, C.N. (1984). Syllabus design as a critical process. In C.J.Brumfit (Ed.). General English Syllabus Design. ELT Documents No. 118. London: Pergamon Press & TheBritish Council. 29-46 Dubin, F. & Olstahin, E. (1997) Course design: Developing programs and materials for language learning, Cambridge: CUP Gùven, Z. Z. (2007) Öğrenme stillerine dayalı etkinliklerin ôğrencilerin dinleme becerisi eriĢileri, Ġngilizce dersine yônelik tutumları ve ôğrenilenlerin kalıcılığına etkisi. (Unpublished PhD Dissertation) Selçuk University: Turkey Hadley, G. (1998) Looking back and looking ahead: A Forecast for the early 21 st century publications.org/tlt/articles/2001/07/hadley last access) (http://www.jalt- Kluckhohn, C., & Murray, H. A. (1953) Personality formation: The determinants. In C. Kluckhohn & H. A. Murray, Personality in nature, society & culture (pp. 35-48). New York: Knopf. Larsen – Freeman, D. (2000) Techniques and principles in language teaching, Oxford: OUP Triandis, H. (1971) Attitude and attitude change. USA: Wiley Publications. White, R. (1988). The ELT curriculum, design, innovation and management. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Publications 59 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Extent The size or duration of the resource. 12 Title A name given to the resource THE EFFECTS OF THE SYLLABUS, METHODS AND TEACHING STYLES OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE COURSES ON THE ACHIEVEMENTS AND ATTITUDES OF STUDENTS Author Author TAKKAÇ, Mehmet ÇATAL, Aysel AKDEMİR, Ahmet Selçuk Abstract A summary of the resource. English is taught as a foreign language nearly in all higher education institutions in Turkey. Though the aim of teaching English is mainly based on communicational skills, it is rarely performed with innovative and technologically up to date methods. Many instructors find it easier to construct courses with a traditional style without using technological devices and materials. English lessons become rather boring and dull, and as a result of this, the achievement and attitudes of students decline. The aim of this study is to assess the effect of the syllabus, methods and teaching styles of foreign language courses on the achievements and attitudes of students. This research is an experimental study with a mixed group and an attitude test, open – ended questions survey model. The study was conducted on university students in the 2nd grade of the School of Health, Erzincan University. 21 male and 24 female students took part in this research. As the first step of the research the syllabus design, method and teaching style of the class was defined by an interview with the instructors of English courses. Then the opinions of students on English courses were obtained with a questionnaire using the Likert scale model. Based on statistical analyses of the questionnaires and evaluation of observations on the syllabus, methods and teaching style of the instructor, it was concluded that the achievements and attitudes of the students vary according to the syllabus design, method and teaching style of the class. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2011-05 Keywords Keywords. Conference or Workshop Item PeerReviewed P Philology. Linguistics https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/c865dd488148ef6a0be5879423896dfe.pdf db64e3ff7082960d930c5cd1ba701b89 PDF Text Text 1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo Reasons for Using or Avoiding Games in an EFL Classroom Miljana K. StojkoviĤ, High Business School, Leskovac, Serbia, nele_trajce@yahoo.com Danica M. JerotijeviĤ The Faculty of Philology and Arts, Kragujevac, Serbia danicajerotijevic@gmail.com Abstract: The aim of this research was to determine the reasons pro and against using games in an EFL classroom, as well as to discover possible obstacles teachers encounter when applying these activities. The study was performed on both teachers and students of English in Leskovac and Niń, towns in Southern Serbia. The total of 197 participants, 178 students and 19 teachers, took part in the survey. The main instrument employed in the research was questionnaire. The research proved that both the teachers and students prefer using to avoiding games in the classroom. During this research we were able to define some obstacles for introducing game in the classroom which must be overcome. The results suggest that games should be introduced in the classroom since both the teachers and students have found sufficient reasons for their usage. Keywords: educational games, EFL classroom, teachers, students Introduction Some authors suggest that language games should be treated as a central, not a peripheral part of the foreign language teaching program, since, besides being fun, they likewise comprise a goal and a re governed by rules (Haldfield 1999). S. M. Silvers, the author of the book Games for the Classroom and English Speaking Club, says that many teachers often perceive games as the time – fillers and a break from monotonous drilling (Silvers 1992). He claims that many teachers often overlook the fact that in a relaxed atmosphere, real learning can occur, and students are able to use the language they have been exposed to and have practised earlier. Following the definition of Greenall, we may say that games increase positive competition among students participating in a language activity (Greenall 1990). Lee Su Kim, the author of the work Creative Games for the Language Class, states that there is a common perception that all learning should be serious and solemn in nature, and that if one is having fun and there are hilarity and laughter, then it is not really learning (Lee 1995). However, she adds that it is possible to learn a language as well as to enjoy oneself at the same time, and one of the best way to do so is by using educational games. The justification for using games in a foreign language classroom can be found in the fact that students can benefit a lot by learning through games. Many experienced writers ensure us that games have educational value. The afore mentioned author gives us reasons for using games (Lee 1995): games may represent a break from the usual routine, but they can also be highly motivating and challenging. Furthermore, games are a successful encouragement for students to interact, communicate and sustain the effort of learning and they provide a meaningful context for language use, generate fluency, lower anxiety and introduce fun and relaxation. In terms of characteristics defining a game, we may further add a list provided by Caillois, i.e. games can be fun, separate when it comes to time and place, yet uncertain since the results cannot be predicted; moreover, they are rule-governed as well as fictitious, because they are related to a different reality, but they are also non-productive concerning students‘ active participation (Caillois 1957). Games are often used as short warm-up activities or when there is some time left at the end of a lesson. Yet, as Lee observes, a game "should not be regarded as a marginal activity filling in odd moments when the teacher and class have nothing better to do" (Lee 1979: 3). Even if the games result only in producing noise and in entertaining students, they are worth playing since they motivate learners and promote competence and fluency. Moreover, they let students see beauty in a foreign language, not just problems they face with while learning a language. Unfortunately, some of the teachers think that language games are nothing more than a waste of teaching time and that they do not have educational value. Others use them but they do not give them a central part in the foreign language teaching program, but use them as the time-fillers. On the other hand, teachers who realise all the advantages of using games in teaching English as a foreign language and who are aware of their educational values, are quite rare.There is an assumption that the similar situation the one as stated above, can be found in our primary schools. Because of previously stated facts we have decaded to carry out a research to determine the teachers` and students` attitudes towards using games in a foreign language classroom, as well as to determine how often our 940 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo primary teachers use games in teaching the English language. The research was carried out in Niń and Leskovac during the 2010/2011 school year. Reasons for Using or Avoiding Games – Theoretical Considerations Games Classification Games can be applied in numerous ways and at different points in a lesson. Consequently, there are diverse game types designed to stimulate and enhance various aspects of language learning. Some authors (Pham 2007) suggest the following classification of games in EFL: 1) Structure games which provide experience of the use of particular patterns of syntax in communication 2) Vocabulary games in which the learners‘ attention is focused mainly on words 3) Spelling games 4) Pronunciation games 5) Number games 6) Listen-and-do games 7) Games and writing 8) Miming and role play 9) Discussion games Depending on the application of games and numerous factors influencing successful language learning, the use of games in an EFL classroom may have advantages as well as disadvantages, or less favourable results. Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Games in EFL Teaching Considering language learning in general, we may list several advantages of the employment of games in an EFL classroom: 1) Through fun and apparently less demanding practice, ames increase learners‘ motivation and promote learning (Hansen 1994) 2) Group and peer work may induce teamwork and enable successful interaction (Rinvolucri & Davis 1995) 3) By lowering the affective filter (Krashen 1985), games provide favourable conditions for effective language acquisition (Wierus 1994) 4) Through a meaningful context, students are provided with a comprehensible input (Krashen 1985) 5) Each of the four basic skills may be practised by the use of games (Lee 1995) However, some of the disadvantages may be: 1) discipline issues, learners may get excessively noisy 2) straying away from the basic purpose of the game-play activity, perhaps, due to inadequate rules instruction, resulting in playing too much and the lack of learning 3) if games are already familiar or boring, students might not get equally involved 4) some learners, especially teenagers, may find games unnecessary and childish. Methodology The Research Subject In order to reveal the teachers` and students` reasons for using games, we have decided to conduct an empirical research, so the subject of our research is to determine teachers` and students` reasons either for using or avoiding games in the classroom, as well as to discover potential obstacles for their usage. Participants The research was performed on a group of primary teachers of the English language as well as on a group of primary pupils from the 5th to the 8th grade from schools in Niń and Leskovac during the 2010/2011 school year. The population consisted of 178 pupils and 19 teachers. In this research the availability sampling method was used. The afore mentioned schools were visited and both the teachers and pupils who were available and willing to participate in the research underwent the examination. 941 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo Measure To examine the reasons for using or avoiding games in an English language classroom we employed a questioning technique, i.e. the main instrument was questionnaire. More precisely, there were two questionnaires, one for teachers and another for students. Each of them consisted of fourteen questions, realted to the values of educational games. Procedure The research was finished during the first half of February 2011. It was conducted between November 2010 and February 2011. The above stated schools were visited and the participants were given the questionnaire to fill in. Finally, the data and the obtained information were processed and interpreted resulting in the present paper. Statistical Data Processing All the data gathered were processed in the following way: the data were processed according to coding lists and prepared for analysis by forming a database. Subsequently, the results were submitted to a descriptive analysis in order to calculate the basic statistic parameters (absolute and relative frequency). A chi-square statistics (²) was used to investigate whether distributions of categorical variables differ from one another. The chi-square statistics compares the counts of categorical responses between two independent groups and the test in question can only be used on actual numbers. We have applied the formula ² = Σ   Where: ² - chi square, Σ – sum, ƒo – empirical/observed frequency, ƒt – theoretical/expected frequency, For contigency coefficient we have applied the formula: C= Where: C – contegency, ² - chi square, N – total number of examinees. Degrees of freedom dƒ for which we have applied the formula dƒ= (r-1) ∙ (c – 1), which means (number of columns minus one) x (number of rows minus one). Level of significance p = (0.01) or (0.05). The results and discussion Reasons for Using Games The table 1 presents the reasons for using games according to the opinion of the students, which were obtained by answering the Q8 in the questionnaire. The students were allowed to choose more answers. Table 1. Reasons for using games – students Reasons lesson will be more interesting helpful in learning reason for attending the class because of groupwork increases competition the teacher will explain less some other reasons Σ ƒ 133 62 47 69 33 27 3 343 % 35.56 16.58 12.57 18.45 8.82 7.22 0.80 100.00 In the table 1, we detect the most important reasons for using games according to students` opinions. The most important reason for using game during language classes is that lessons are more interesting with language games applied, (133 or 35.56%), the second reason is that the students can work in groups (69 or 18.45%), then games can help learning (62 or 16.58%) and finally, the games in language learning process can be a reason for attending the classes (47 or 12.57%). These are the students` opinions yet it is almost certain that teachers would not use games merely because they make a lesson more interesting. The teachers need more convincing reasons for using games. Hence we also examined teachers‘ opinion about the reasons for using games in teaching. The results were gained by answering Q10 in the questionnaire. The teachers were allowed to choose more answers. The results are shown in the table below: 942 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo Table 2. Reasons for using games - teachers Reasons they are motivating present language in meaningful context students by themselves practise the use of language easy groupation of students learning grammar is easier new vocabulary learning is easier for presentation of a new lesson warm up as a reward better communication other reasons Σ ƒ 14 10 13 5 11 13 9 14 5 12 1 107 % 13.08 9.34 12.15 4.67 10.28 12.15 8.41 13.08 4.68 11.22 0.94 100.00 From this table we can formulatea list of top five reasons for using games according to the examined teachers. The first place according to teachers` opinion belongs to the fact that games are motivating and that they are good as warm – up activities (14 or 13.08%), then students by themselves practise to use language and it is easier to learn new vocabulary through games (13 or 12.15%). The third reason the teachers stressed is the fact that games enhance more successful communication (12 or 11.22%). The following fact underscores that learning of grammar is easier through games (11 or 10.28%), and finally, the last most important reason mentioned by the teachers is that it represents language in meaningful context (10 or 9.34%). As we can infer from the previous tables, teachers‘ and students` opinion about the reasons for using games differs, and this can be explained by the fact that teachers are more experienced and they are able to realise the value that a game has and use it properly, while students only see those values that are pereferred by themselves or their peers. On the basis of the obtained results, we may conclude that the facts mentioned in the theoretical part about reasons for using games have been confirmed. Reasons for not Using Games In the table 3, the results we got after the students answerd Q9 in the questionnaire are presented. Having processed the results, we presented them in the following table: Table 3. Reasons for not using games – students ƒ % unitnerested 8 11.78 prefer learning to playing 8 11.78 distract in learning 5 11.11 prefer some other activities 5 11.11 don`t know 16 35.56 other reasons 2 4.44 44 100.00 Reasons Σ Considering this table, we may conclude that the majority of students who would not use games do not know the reason for this (16 or 35.56), but still there are the students` who are not interested in this method and who prefer learning to playing (8 or 11.78%). The second reason for not using games according to the students` opinion is that the game distracts learning or that the students prefer some other activity (5 or 11.11%). The explanation for such results can be found in the fact that these students who are not willing to use games have not been exposed to them or are used to the old traditional way of learning and to other activities, so now they fear that the class may transform into playing only and that in such circumstances learning can not take place. Although we have got results that all the teachers are either willing or positive about using games in the classroom, however, those who are uncertain stated the following reasons for not using them. The results were 943 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo gained by answering Q11 in the teachers` questionnaire. Having processed the results, they have been shown in the table presented below: Table 4. Reasons for not using games - teachers ƒ 1 5 2 8 Reasons a game doesn`t have educational value there are better methods than this makes a mess in the classroom teachers can`t follow the work of the students other reasons Σ % 12.5 62.5 25.00 100.00 From the previous table, we can deduce that the teachers are mainly preoccupied with the fact that where playing takes place, we can also find mess. That is mainly the reason why such a large number of teachers avoid using games. Another important reason is that they are not able to follow the work of their students, and this can be related to the previous reason: if there is a mess in the classroom teachers would not be able to follow students‘ work because of losing control over the class. That is why many teachers refuse to use games in a foreign language classroom. Obstacles for Using Games Up to this point, we have been discussing the reasons for using or avoiding games according to students` and teachers` opinion, nevertheless, there are certain obstacles which do not depend on teachers or students but of something or somebody else. Thus, in this research, we discovered what these obstacles can be. This subject was not planned in the research tasks but since we got that information we have decided to present it and discuss it, hoping that this discussion may open some important questions for further discussion. The results were obtained by answering Q12 in the teachers` questionnaire and the results are presented in the table below. As we can see from the table 5 the main obstacle is the lack of time (14 or 40%), moreover, there are the curriculum and unfamiliarity with this method (5 or 14.28%). Unfortunately, we can still find those teachers who are worried about parents` opininon and their colleagues` remarks (3 or 8.57%). And finally there is a small number of teachers who think that the school would not permit the usage of game in the classroom (1 or 2.86%). Table 5. Obstacles for using games Obstacles ƒ % the school doesn`t permit this method because of the curriculum lack of time unfamiliarity with the method students` negative attitude parents` opinion the remarks of the colleagues no obstacles Σ 1 5 14 5 _ 3 3 4 2.86 14.28 40.00 14.28 _ 8.57 8.57 11.44 35 100.00 Considering the previously stated facts we can conclude that teachers should organize their classes more effectively, and find a few minutes for introducing games in ELT. Yet, there is a problem with the curriculum and it can be solved only if the teachers and the school principal make a compromise for using games and try to find a solution how to place games in the school curriculum. The problem of unfamiliarity with this method, can be explained by the fact that either teachers are not interested in these new methods of teaching, or the school has not organized teacher training yet. Concerning parents` and their colleagues` opinion, the teachers can solve that problem by introducing parents and their colleagues to the benefits and advantages of this method. Teachers` Opinion about the Educational Value of Games According to their Usage For this task it was compulsory to make a contigency table. We used it to connect two variables: Q7 and Q13 from the database for teachers` questionnaire. The results that we got are shown in the following table. 944 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo Table 6. Teachers` opinion about educational value of games according to their usage ²=3.865 The usage of games Always Rarely Σ Very big 1 16.66 2 15.38 3 15.79 C=0.663 dƒ=2 Educational value Big 4 1 66.68 3 8 23.08 7 9 36.84 p=0.01 Σ Small 6 16.66 100.00 13 61.54 100.00 19 47.37 100.00 We have obtained chi square statistics (²= 3.865) and predetermined level of significance (0.01), and degrees of freedom (df =2). Entering the chi-square distribution table with degree of freedom and reading along the row, we find our value of ² (3.865) lies between 5.991 and 9.210. Since our probability level (2.42) is lower than significant levels (5.991 and 9.210), we can conclude that there is no statistically significant differences in the opinion about the educational value of games among theachers who use game constatntly and those who use them rarely. From the prevously presented table, we can conclude that those teachers who use game constantly in teaching English as a foreign language, are more aware of the educational value of games than those teachers who use them rarely. This can be explained by the fact that those teachers who use game in education, have probably noticed that the students make some progress in learning when they are learning through games, while the other teachers have not realised this. They might be afraid that teaching may transform into palying and that students will not be able to learn anything. Finally, we can conclude that our hypothesis, that teachers who use games constantly realize the educational value of games and their advantages unlike those teachers who use it rarely, has been confirmed. Conclusion In our research, we sought to disclose teachers` and students` reasons either for using or avoiding games in an English language classroom. The initial assumption was that some of the English language teachers have negative attitudes towards using games as a teaching method. Some of them think that the language game is nothing more than losing time and that it does not have any educational value. The others believe that a language game has its eductional value, but use it rarely in their classes. Finally, there are only few teachers who recognize all the values and advantages of language games. This research has likewise been based on the supposition that although game means fun, it also has its educational value. And for this reason it should be introduced in language classes. Through games students are able to realise their own as well as their classmates‘ progress in learning language. This type of activity can also be a perfect way for practising and learning a language since it usually includes a variety of language structures that students will later use in every day situations. Consequently, a language game can be used for presentation, as a warm-up activity, for practising and learning vocabulary and grammar, for improving language skills or simply as a break from drilling and finally, as a reward. The previously presented study has the following features: it was performed according to the research problem and tasks and ince we could not find numerous types of research on this problem, our research proved that research of this kind can be successfully carried out. It also proved: that there are significantly more reasons for using games than for avoiding them, that both teachers and students are awarer of the advantage of this method of teaching or learning, that there are certain obstacles that must be overcome if we want to introduce this method in teaching, and finally that the teachers who use games constantly are more aware of the educational value of games and their advantages in comparison to the teachers who use it rarely. We may assume that some of the examined teachers will use language games but according to their opinion there are certain boundaries to overcome. Possible ways to overcome the difficulties in question are: - to introduce teachers with this method of teaching (the best way is through teachers` training); - to find a compromise with the school about this method, which means that both the school and language teachers should try to introduce and provide games with a part it deserves in the curriculum; - to attempt to disregard their colleagues` negative reamrks about this way of teaching. The conducted research may be a minute contribution to the improvement of teaching in a foreign language classroom, yet it may raise some important issues and stimulate further research on the subject. We hope to entice 945 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo teachers to consider the possibility of using games more frequently than they do. Finally, taking the eductional value of language games into consideration, it may be interesting to perform a research in due course which will examine students‘ progress in learning English as a foreign language with games representing an integral part of the lesson. References Amato, R.. (1988). Interaction in the second language classroom. New York: Longman. Apt, Krzysztof & Van Rooij, Robert.. (2008). New Perspectives on Games and Interaction. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Bonanno, Giacomo & Van Der Hoek, Wiebe & Wooldridge, Michael. (2008). Logic and the Foundations of Game and Decision Theory. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Byrne, D.. (1995). Games. Teaching Oral English. Harlow: Longman Group UK Limited. Caillois, R.. (1957). Les jeux et les hommes. Paris: Gallimard. Claparède, Édouard. (1919). Les nouvelles conceptions éducatives et leur vérification par l‘expérience. Scientia, no. 35, p. 3–5. Dubreucq, Francine. (1993). ―Jean-Ovide Decroly‖, in Prospects: the quarterly review of comparative education, vol. 23, no. ½. UNESCO: International Bureau of Education, p. 249–75. Froebel, Friedrich. (1912). The Education of Human Nature, in Froebel‘s Chief Writings on Education, rendered into English by Fletcher, S.S.F. and Welton, J. London: Arnold. Gardner, H.. (1999). Intelligence reframed: Multiple intelligences for the 21st century. New York: Basic Books. Greenall. S.. (1990). Language games and activities. Hulton educational publications Ltd, Britain. Hadfield, J.. (1999). Beginners‘ communication games. Longman. Hameline, Daniel. (1993). ―Édouard Claparède‖, in Prospects: the quarterly review of comparative education, vol. 23, no. 1/2, UNESCO: International Bureau of Education, p. 159-71. Hansen, M.. (1994). The use of games for vocabulary presentation and revision. Vol 36 No 1, January, March 1998. Available at http://www. Esldepot.com/section.php/4/0. Consulted in December 2010. Jacobs, G. M. & Kline Liu, K.. (1996). Integrating language functions and collaborative skills in the second language classroom. TESL Reporter, 29: p. 21-33. Krashen, S.D.. (1985). The input hypothesis: Issues and implications. New York: Longman. Kumar, Rita & Lightner, Robin.. (2007). Games as an Interactive Classroom Technique: Perceptions of Corporate Trainers, College Instructors and Students. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. Volume 19, Number 1, p. 53-63. Laurie, Simon. (2009). The Training of Teachers and Methods of Instruction (1901), The United States: Kessinger Publishing Company. Lee, S. K.. (1995). Creative games for the language class. Malaysia: Forum, 33 (1). Available at 946 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo http://eca.state.gov/forum/vols/vol33/no1/p35.htm. Consulted in February 2011. Lengeling, M. & Malacher, C.. (1997). A natural resource for teachers. Mexico: English teaching forum, vol.35 no.4. Miller, Christopher Thomas. (2008). Games: Purpose and Potential in Education. New York: Springer. Pham, T. H.. (2007). The effects of games on optional English classes in Ben Tre primary school. HCM city: M.A thesis at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University- HCM City. Rinvolucri, M. & Davis, P.. (1995). More grammar games: Cognitive, affective and movement activities for EFL students. New York: Cambridge University Press. Sandford, Richard, Ulicsak, Mary, Facer, Keri & Rudd, Tim. Teaching with Games, Guidance for Educators. http://www2.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/project_reports/teaching_with_games/Guidance_for_Educators.p df. (consulted on December 2010). Silvers, S. M.. (1992). Games for the classroom and english speaking club. Washington: English teaching forum. Wierus, W.. (1994). Zagraj razem a name. Czesc I. Jezyki obce w szkole. May-June: pp.218-222. (extracted from Urberman. A.. (1998). The use of games for vocabulary presentation and revision Vol 36 No 1, January- March 1998. Available at http://www.esldepot.com/section.php/4/0. Consulted in January 2011. Wright, A., Betteridge, D., & Buckby, M.. (2005). Games for language learning (3rd ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press. 947 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Extent The size or duration of the resource. 559 Title A name given to the resource Reasons for Using or Avoiding Games in an EFL Classroom Author Author Stojković, Miljana K. Jerotijević, Danica M. Abstract A summary of the resource. The aim of this research was to determine the reasons pro and against using games in an EFL classroom, as well as to discover possible obstacles teachers encounter when applying these activities. The study was performed on both teachers and students of English in Leskovac and Niń, towns in Southern Serbia. The total of 197 participants, 178 students and 19 teachers, took part in the survey. The main instrument employed in the research was questionnaire. The research proved that both the teachers and students prefer using to avoiding games in the classroom. During this research we were able to define some obstacles for introducing game in the classroom which must be overcome. The results suggest that games should be introduced in the classroom since both the teachers and students have found sufficient reasons for their usage. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2011-05 Keywords Keywords. Conference or Workshop Item PeerReviewed P Philology. Linguistics https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/016ec3890fd1cfefa0e48b93c298353c.pdf 26e91ee76441e6369c7278b559a29d19 PDF Text Text 1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo The use of first language in the EFL classroom: A facilitating or debilitating device? Mehdi Solhi Department of English Language and Literature Istanbul University, Turkey solhi.mehdi@gmail.com Münevver Büyükyazı Department of English Language and Literature Celal Bayar University, Turkey munevverbuyukyazi@gmail.com Abstract: Despite widespread use of only English in teaching EFL classes, the use of first language in EFL class has been a perennial topic of discussion in the field of language education. Most established L2 teaching methods discourage the use of L1 in class. However, some scholars oppose ―English Only‖ trend in language classes (Auerbach, 1993; and Kumaravadivelu, 2003). In a setting where the students share a common L1, first language can create a less threatening atmosphere. In this article, the non native speaker teachers‘ attitudes toward the use of the first language of the learners in the classroom were asked through a questionnaire. Further, an attempt was made to investigate whether non native speaker English teachers notice the use of the first language as a facilitating or a debilitating factor. This article argues that first language is one of the useful resources that students bring to the L2 classroom and can be used in a judicious fashion. Key words: First language, English only trend, facilitating device and judicious fashion Introduction It has always been a controversial issue to use the first language (L1) of the students in the foreign language (FL) classroom. The L1 is perhaps the most useful and the least-used resource students bring to the FL classroom. This is partly due to some factors. The theory and practice of established methods discourage the use of L1 in the FL classroom. The monolingual approach suggests that the target language ought to be the sole medium of communication, implying the prohibition of the native language would maximize the effectiveness of learning the target language. In situations where students have little opportunity to meet the FL outside the classroom, maximizing the use of the FL in the classroom is very important. One way to do is to carry out classroom management in the FL. If it is done in a planned, consistent way, it can supply a very effective meaningful focused input. However, in classrooms where all the learners share the same L1, there is a tendency for tasks which should be done in the L1, and there are sound arguments that support the use of L1 in the FL classroom. Activities such as conversation, discussion of intensive reading, preparation for writing etc. are done in the L1 because using the L1 is more natural with others who have the same L1; it is easier and more communicatively effective, and using the FL can be embarrassing for those who feel themselves not proficient enough in it. Some researchers have investigated the use of the L1 in the FL classrooms thoroughly. According to one view, the use of L1 may provide learners with additional cognitive support that allows them to analyze language and work at a higher level than the situations where they are restricted to sole use of their FL (Anton and DiCamilla, 1998; Brooks and Donato, 1994; Swain and Lapkin, 2000). Wood et al. suggest that the L1 assists learners in the process and completion of the tasks. In their study, Brooks and Donato (1994) showed that the L1 was used for three functions: to comment on their FL use; to establish a joint understanding of the task and to formulate the learners‘ goals. Swain and Lapkin (2000) argue that the L1 may facilitate L2 classroom activities, particularly for lowproficiency students and on complex tasks. In addition, some researchers think that prohibition of mother tongue use with monolingual students at lower levels of English proficiency is practically impossible (Nunan and Lamb, 1996). According to Dôrnyei and Kormos (1998) the L1 is used by L2 learners as a communication strategy to compensate for deficiencies in the target language. Auerbuch (1993) confirms the positive role of the mother tongue in the classroom; she also identifies the following uses for it: classroom management, language analysis, presenting rules that govern grammar, discussing cross-cultural issues, giving instructions or prompts, explaining errors, and checking for comprehension. The results of the study conducted by Schweers (1999) on the attitudes toward using 860 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo L1 in the L2 classroom indicate that the majority of students and teachers agreed that Spanish should be used in the EFL classroom. Using the L1 was found to have profound effects on some language skills. In a study, Knight (1996) reported that the learners who did the preparatory L1 discussion in groups did much better on the L2 written task than other learners who did preparatory L2 discussion even though that discussion was in the same language as the subsequent written task. Similarly Storch and Wigglesworth (2003) determined the positive attitudes towards the use of the L1 in completing tasks in L2 settings. Thus, it is possible to say that L1 has a useful role in helping learners gain the knowledge needed to reach a higher level of L2 performance. Another important effect of the L1 use has been reported on vocabulary learning. There are numerous ways of conveying the meaning of an unknown word. Studies comparing the effectiveness of various methods for learning always come up with the result that an L1 translation is the most effective (Laufer and Shmueli 1997). This is probably because L1 translations are usually clear, short and familiar –qualities which are very important in effective definitions (McKeown, 1993). When the L1 translation is combined with the word cards, learners have a very effective strategy to speed up their vocabulary growth (Nation, 2001). This finding also receives some support from studies of dictionary use. To effectively use a monolingual dictionary, learners need to have a large enough vocabulary storage (at least 2000 words) and need to be able to interpret definitions, which are much more difficult than L1 synonyms. That is why surveys of dictionary preference (Laufer and Kimmel, 1997; Atkins and Varantola, 1997) and learner use (Baxter, 1980) show that learners strongly prefer bilingual or bilingualized dictionaries. Despite the amount of studies carried out all over the world on the L1 use in the second language and FL classrooms, to our best knowledge, the number of studies investigating this issue in Turkey is very limited. Çelik (2006) indicates that especially the English teachers who work for the state high schools of the Ministry of National Education are not expected to use the foreign language efficiently enough; therefore, their use of the L1 in their courses is inevitable. The teachers‘ inefficiency in the FL results from the ineffective use of the FL during their education processes in the Teacher Training Institutions. Candidate teachers may prefer not to speak or to speak in Turkish during their education (Bekleyen, 2004). ġad (2009) reported that there are four reasons for the candidate teachers not to use FL in their lessons. These are: (1) course content or the practice of teaching; (2) not having a collaborative or an encouraging classroom atmosphere (anxiety level of the teachers increased in such atmospheres); (3) not being proficient enough in vocabulary and pronunciation, and (4) not having some standard norms on the use of the FL in the lessons. According to a recent research by ġevik (2007), most of the teachers and students are not against mother tongue, and mother tongue contributes to language learning towards various aims and at different levels. Inspired by the studies on the use of L1 use in FL classrooms, we decided to carry out a study on the use of the native language in the Turkish context, where English is taught as a foreign language and where the learners and most of the teachers share one common L1. We aimed to analyze the L1 use of the Turkish teachers in their FL classrooms and their rationales for this. Method of the Study A questionnaire was devised to gain insight into how teachers evaluated their perception of the use of the first language of the EFL learners in the classroom, from the vantage point of their daily practice. In the first four questions, we tried to get some demographic information about the teachers. The questions inquired their age, year of experience in teaching, their educational background, and their affiliation. The fifth question aimed at getting some information about whether the teachers allow the learners to use their L1 in the classroom. It was an openended question so that they could explain their reasons. The purpose of the sixth question was to get some information on the teachers‘ L1 use in the classroom. It was also an open-ended question which enabled them to explain their rationale for that. This questionnaire was sent out to nearly 110 teachers throughout Turkey, and exactly 72 were returned. However, only 57 of them were taken to final evaluation since some of them lacked the information required. Data was analyzed using SPSS package program (Version 15.0). Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the demographic information of the participants. The responses given for the last two questions were classified under various subheadings and were given as frequencies and percentages. Findings and Discussion Demographic information about the participants 861 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo Demographic information gathered via a questionnaire revealed that 17 of the teachers were males; 44 of them were females. They have been teaching for a mean of 10.80±6.5 years. The information about their age, education levels and affiliation is given in Table 1. Age Education Affiliation Table 1: Demographic information of the participants n= 57 f % 21-25 years 5 8.8 26-30 years 19 33.3 31-35 years 12 21.1 over the age of 36 21 36.8 Bachelor‘s degree Master‘s degree PhD Primary school (State) Primary School (Private) University (State) University (Private) 22 20 15 2 2 35 18 38.6 35.1 26.3 3.5 3.5 61.4 31.6 Attitudes of teachers towards L1 use of the learners in the class Among the six questions asked there were two which are of particular relevance here. One elicited whether respondents allowed the learners to use the first language in the classroom or they preferred to prevent the learners from using it. Nearly half (f= 48; 84.2%) went for the first option, i.e. that the main emphasis had been on allowing the L1 use in the classroom, while 15.2% said they do not allow L1 use during the lessons. The other question elicited whether respondents, as teachers, use the first language in the classroom or they prefer to follow the English only in the class. According to the results, 79% (f= 45) believed that using the first language of the learners would be beneficial, while 21.1% (f= 12) said that the reverse was true. Why do teachers allow their learners to use L1 in the class? The first research question inquired the reasons of the teachers for allowing or forbidding the use of the L1 in English classrooms. The answers given to this question were analyzed descriptively and given as frequencies and percentages. The reasons of the teachers who allowed the learners‘ L1 use were categorized under 16 headings (Table 2). 1. 2. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. Table 2: Reasons of the teachers to allow learners to use the L1 Items f % Level and interest of the learners 30 23.07 To explain something difficult and unclear and to ask questions 25 19.23 about some parts/points they haven‘t understood To ease the burden of the learners and to lower anxiety 10 7.70 It depends on the type of the lesson 9 6.92 For vocabulary learning 9 6.92 It saves time 8 6.15 To avoid misunderstanding 6 4.61 To prevent misunderstandings 5 3.84 To ensure comprehensible input 5 3.84 Only at the beginning of the school 4 3.07 Forcing to use FL all the time can lead to negative attitude 4 3.07 To have them provide connections between L1 and FL 3 2.30 They are not confident enough to use FL 3 2.30 To give feedback on the activities 3 2.30 They lack motivation to use FL in and outside the classroom 3 2.30 While preparing for the tasks 3 2.30 TOTAL 130 100 The vast majority of teachers of English in Turkey are non-native speakers. It might be eminently useful to have a closer look at those who allow the first language of the learners to be used in the classroom. Here are some 862 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo comments from teachers who believe that sharing their students‘ L1 makes the learners feel relaxed and more confident. ―Using L1 in the classroom lowers the anxiety level of the learners and the learners feel more relaxed‖ (7.70%; f= 10); ―They can explain something unclear and difficult, and they can also easily ask questions about some parts/points they haven‘t understood‖ (19.23%; f= 25); ― Some respondents describe the shared L1 as strength: ―Using L1 helps the learners avoid misunderstandings‖ (3.84%; f= 5); ―It is very useful especially for vocabulary learning‖ (6.92%; f= 9); ―It just saves time; the learners easily express themselves‖ (6.15%; f= 8). And several make reference to the level and interest of the learners: ―It depends on the learners‘ level; I usually allow the low level or beginners to use their L1, but as their level improves I restrict its use‖ (23.07%; f= 30); others state that they allow the learners to use L1 because they lack motivation and confidence to use FL in and outside the classroom: ―Most learners believe that they can‘t speak English, and they also believe that they will never have an opportunity or a necessity to use the FL outside the classroom. They either use L1 or keep quiet‖ (2.30%; f= 3). Quite many teachers believe that allowing the use of L1 is dependent on the type of the lesson: ―I don‘t allow them to use their L1 during skill based activities, especially during speaking activities; however, they can use L1 during grammar and vocabulary teaching sessions‖ (6.92%; f= 9). Some also find it useful while the learners prepare for some tasks (2.30%; f= 3). Why do not the teachers allow the learners to use L1 in the classroom? Analysis of our data revealed that the majority of the teachers believed that using the first language of the learners would be beneficial; however, 15.2% said that they would not allow L1 usage in their classes. The teachers who indicated that they did not allow their learners to use the L1 in the classes justified themselves under six main points. They are given in Table 3. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Table 3: Reasons of the teachers not to allow learners to use the L1 Items f To have them practice FL 7 To increase FL development 5 To prevent L1 use from being a bad habit. 4 They are learning English so they have to use it. 4 To master all skills 4 To prevent misbehavior in the classroom 5 TOTAL 29 % 24.13 17.25 13.79 13.79 13.79 17.25 100 Of the 12 teachers, 7 believed that the learners do not have any other opportunities for practicing the FL than the classroom; therefore those teachers wanted to provide their learners with opportunities so that they can use the FL as much as possible (24.13). 17.25% of the teachers believed that using FL in the classroom can increase FL development; if they let the learners use their L1, they would never improve themselves in the target language. Some teachers also stated that allowing L1 use in the classroom leads to misbehavior (17.25%; f= 5). They also justified themselves stating that encouraging the FL use may prevent the learners from having a bad habit of using the L1 use whenever they find themselves in a difficult situation; in order to master all skills FL use is required; they are there to learn English; therefore they have to use it (13.79%; f= 4 for each) Why do teachers use L1 in the classroom? In Turkey, most teachers of English are non-native speakers. Teachers and learners share the same language, so there are homogenous classrooms in terms of languages shared. Some teachers make use of this situation and state clearly that they find using the L1 in the classroom beneficial. The analysis of our data enabled us to classify the reasons of the teachers to use the L1 in the classroom under 13 items (Table 4). 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.. 6. 7. 8. Table 4: Reasons of the teachers to use the L1 Items f To explain new or difficult grammar structures 26 Depending on the learners‘ language levels 16 To teach complicated or abstract vocabulary 12 To make them relaxed and confident 10 To explain how to write something (in writing courses) 7 Depending on the needs of the learners 7 To save time 6 To establish a good learning atmosphere 6 % 23.21 14.28 10.71 8.92 6.25 6.25 5.35 5.35 863 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. To check comprehension To explain long and complicated instructions To give feedback To teach some sub-skills or strategies To express some culture-based terms TOTAL 6 5 4 4 3 112 5.35 4.46 3.57 3.57 2.67 100 Many teachers indicated that they use the L1 to explain new or difficult grammatical patterns (23.21%; f= 26). The other important thing they stated was the level of the students (14.28%; f= 16). They said that especially with the low level students they needed to make explanations in the L1. However, as the level of the learners gets better, they prefer to use L2 in most of the contexts. Vocabulary teaching, especially teaching abstract words also necessitated the use of the L1 (10.71%; f= 12). Some teachers believed that using students‘ mother tongue makes them relaxed and confident as they understand much better (8.92%; f= 10). In addition, using the L1 creates a good learning atmosphere. Some teachers used L1 to tell some jokes or just to have an informal chat with the learners (5.35%; f= 6). The other reasons were found related to the skills to be taught (e.g. writing), needs of the learners, comprehension check to avoid ambiguity and confusion, and saving time. Why do not teachers use L1 in the classroom? Despite being in the minority, some teachers stated that they never use the L1 in their classes (21.1%; Table 5) 1. 2. 3. 4. Table 5: Reasons of the teachers not to use the L1 Items f To make learners hear correct pronunciation 10 To provide massive amount of meaningful input 8 To enhance learners‘ thinking skills and communicative competence 4 In speaking classes 4 TOTAL 26 % 38.46 30.76 15.39 15.39 100 Majority of those teachers believed that they are the main sources of correct pronunciation (38.46; f= 8) and comprehensible input (30.76%; f= 8) in the classroom. They also stated that using FL in the classroom would enhance the learners‘ thinking skills and communicative competence (15.39; f= 4). For them, especially in skill classrooms, the medium of instruction should be English (15.39%; f= 4). Conclusions and Recommendations The results of the present study on the use of the mother tongue in Turkish EFL contexts revealed many similarities to the previous research. Similar to the previous research findings (Anton and DiCamilla, 1998; Brooks and Donato, 1994; Schweers, 1999; Storch and Wigglesworth, 2003; Swain and Lapkin, 2000; Tang, 2002), majority of the Turkish teachers of English participated in this study stated that they found the use of the L1 beneficial. Some discrepancies exist and they can be explained with the level of the learners those teachers deal with and the goals of the institutions they work in. In Turkey, there are two types of universities: state and private. In most of the private universities the medium of instruction is English. Therefore, the learners should reach at a certain level before their sophomore years. Teachers working in these institutions should keep the L2 use at a maximum level. Similarly, in private primary and high schools, one of the most important objectives is to get the learner at a desired level in the L2. However, in most of the state universities and nearly all the state primary and high schools this is not the case. As Çelik (2006) indicated, the FL level of the English teachers working for the Ministry of National Education is not efficient enough to enable them to use the FL as the medium of instruction. As they cannot use the FL effectively, they have to allow the learners to use their L1 during the courses. According to Bekleyen (2004), even the candidate teachers prefer to use their L1 during their education and in his study, ġad (2009) tried to clarify the reasons for L1 preferences of these teachers-to-be. Considering the previous research findings, we may conclude that our study revealed similar results with the previous research either conducted in different countries or in Turkey. Our results also draw some parallels with the previous research in terms of the reasons why teachers find the L1 use in the classroom beneficial. According to the studies conducted before, one of the most effective ways of teaching vocabulary is the translation of the words since they provide clear, direct and more concrete information about the meaning (Laufer and Shmueli 1997; McKeown 1993). A great number of teachers in our study indicated that they use and allow the use of L1 especially during vocabulary teaching and learning. 864 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo This study also revealed that the L1 in the Turkish schools plays a supportive role rather than be the medium of instruction because a large number of teachers stated that they allowed its use and they used it only with the low level students (i.e. with beginners or elementary level learners). As the learners improve in the process, teachers stated that they reduced the amount used or they restricted it to a minimum. They also stated that they use the L1 depending on the type of the lesson and the activity. Even if the medium of instruction of the majority of the learners will not be in English in the future, the efforts of the English teachers should be appreciated. Our results also confirm the findings of Auerbuch (1993). Although her study was conducted in an ESL setting, it is quite pleasing to see quite similar reasons of the Turkish teachers in their L1 using and allowing their learners‘ L1 use. Like her identification of the L1 use, the teachers participated in this study stated that they use the L1 to explain complicated grammar rules, difficult and abstract words; long and complicated instructions of the activities and games, to give feedback, and to check comprehension. Unlike the participants in Tang‘s study (2002), majority of the Turkish students are not motivated enough to learn and to become proficient in English. According to the comments given by the teachers participating in this study, a vast amount of learners believe that they will not use English in their future careers; they will not find opportunities to use English outside the classroom; and most of them lack motivation and confidence to communicate with a foreigner in English. Therefore, most of the learners consider English as a curricular requisite and their main purpose is to get an average grade that will enable them to pass the course. A close look at the research in the field of the L1 use in EFL and ESL classrooms show that limited and judicious use of the mother tongue in the English classrooms can facilitate the teaching and learning processes. Thus, the role of the L1 should not be over emphasized. We agree that English should be the main instrument in the classroom communication. However, we suggest that second language learning can be facilitated by raising awareness to the similarities and differences between the L1 and FL. Another suggestion can be extended to the teachers who would like to overcome the obstacles of the learners while using the FL. If they choose manageable tasks within the learners‘ proficiency level, use staged and graded tasks, inform learners of the learning goals of each task, discuss the value of using the FL in class, and use non-threatening tasks, L1 use may be kept to a minimum; FL use might be increased. 865 �1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo References Anton, M., & DeCamilla, F. (1998). Socio-cognitive functions of LI collaborative interaction in the L2 classroom. Canadian Modern Language Review, 54, 314-342. Atkins, B. T. S., & Varantola, K. (1997). Monitoring dictionary use. International Journal of Lexicography, 10, 145. Auerbach, E. (1993). Reexaming English only in the ESL classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 27, 9–32. Baxter, J. (1980). The dictionary and vocabulary behaviour: a single word or a handful? TESOL Quarterly, 14, 325336. Bekleyen, N. (2004). Öğretmen ve sınıf arkadaĢlarının yabancı dil sınıf kaygısı ùzerindeki etkileri. Dil Dergisi, 123, 49-66. Brooks, F. B., & Donato, R. (1994). Vygotskyan approaches to understanding foreign language learner discourse during communicative tasks. Hispania, 77, 262-274. Çelik, S. (2006). Tùrkiyedeki Ġngilizce konuĢan yerli ve yabancı Ġngilizce ôğretmenleri arasındaki suni mùcadeleye yônelik kısa bir araĢtırma. Kastamonu Eğitim Dergisi, 14, 371-376. Dôrnyei, Z. & Kormos, J. (1998). Problem-solving mechanisms in L2 communication: A psycholinguistic perspective. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 20, 349–385. Knight, T. (1996). Learning vocabulary through shared speaking tasks. The Language Teacher, 20, 24-29. Kumaravadivelu, B. (2003). Beyond methods: Macrostrategies for language teaching, London: Yale University Press. Laufer, B., & Shmueli, K. (1997). Memorizing new words: Does teaching have anything to do with it? RELC Journal, 28, 89-108. McKeown, M.G. (1993). Creating effective definitions for young word learners. Reading Research Quarterly, 28, 17-31. Nation, I. S. P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Storch, N., & Wigglesworth, G. (2003). Is there a role for the use of the L1 in an L2 setting? TESOL Quarterly, 37, 760-770. Nunan, D., & Lamb, C. (1996). The self-directed teacher. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Schweers, W. Jr. (1999). Using L1 in the L2 classroom. English Teaching Forum, 37, 6–9. Swain, M., & Lapkin, S. (2000). Task-based second language learning: The uses of the first language. Language Teaching Research, 4, 251-274. ġad, S. N. (2009). Aday Ġngilizce Öğretmenlerinin Alan Derslerinde Ġngilizce KonuĢmama Nedenleri: Nitel Bir ÇalıĢma, XVIII. Ulusal Eğitim Bilimleri Kurultayı, 1-3 Ekim 2009, Ege Üniversitesi, Ġzmir. ġevik, M. (2007). The place of mother tongue in foreign language classes. Ankara University, Journal of Faculty of Educational Sciences, 40, 99-119. Tang, J. (2002). Using L1 in the EFL classroom. English Teaching Forum, 40, 36-43. Wood, D., Bruner, J., & Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring in problem solving. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 17, 89-100. 866 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Extent The size or duration of the resource. 125 Title A name given to the resource The use of first language in the EFL classroom: A facilitating or debilitating device? Author Author Solhi, Mehdi Büyükyazı, Münevver Abstract A summary of the resource. Despite widespread use of only English in teaching EFL classes, the use of first language in EFL class has been a perennial topic of discussion in the field of language education. Most established L2 teaching methods discourage the use of L1 in class. However, some scholars oppose ―English Only‖ trend in language classes (Auerbach, 1993; and Kumaravadivelu, 2003). In a setting where the students share a common L1, first language can create a less threatening atmosphere. In this article, the non native speaker teachers‘ attitudes toward the use of the first language of the learners in the classroom were asked through a questionnaire. Further, an attempt was made to investigate whether non native speaker English teachers notice the use of the first language as a facilitating or a debilitating factor. This article argues that first language is one of the useful resources that students bring to the L2 classroom and can be used in a judicious fashion. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2011-05 Keywords Keywords. Conference or Workshop Item PeerReviewed P Philology. Linguistics