An issue of culture and language in A Grain of Wheat

Topic :- An issue of culture and language in A Grain of Wheat

Name :- Chauhan Sejal Arunbhai

Subject :- The African Literature

Paper :- 14

Roll No :- 26

M.A. PART-II SEM-IV

Year- 2013-15

Submitted to :- Dr.Dilip.Barad

Smt.S.B.Gardi

Department of English

M.K.Bhavnagar University.

Ngugi Wa Thiong’o born in 1938 in colonial Kenya and baptized ‘James’, he was educated at independent Gikuyu and Christian mission primary schools. He studied at a Ugandan university college, where his specialist subject was Joseph Conrad and at Leeds University in England. He read widely during his youth, ‘especially the novels of Charles Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson and Leo Tolstoy in addition to popular thrillers and wrote his early works in English, a language Oliver Lovesey points out, ‘few of his fellow Kenyans would be able to read.’

Ngugi’s uncensored political themes led to his exile from Kenya in 1982, he subsequently lived and taught in Britain and America. This culturally varied education and career, Lovesey argues, places Ngugi in the ‘ambivalent position of the postcolonial intellectual’, in which individuals are associated with ‘Europe and the colonizers and culturally distanced ‘from the majority of the people.’

This view conflicts with that of the bolekaja critics, Chiweizu, Jemie and Madubuike, who argued that the historical and cultural imperatives were radically different from and sometimes quite antithetical to those of Europe in an apparent refusal to concede that the historical fact of colonialism inevitably leads to a hybridization of culture.

Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s A Grain of Wheat is a Kenyan novel written in English, a language traditionally associated with colonialism and oppression in Africa. Despite the fact that the novel is written in English, Ngugi still uses language to speak to the novel’s theme of revolution by incorporating his native Giuyu in the form of proverbs and folk songs. Addoitionally, the novel juxtaposes these Gikuyu proverbs with verses and parables’ from the Christian Bible, a medium through which missionaries spread English early in its history in Kenya. Though Ngugi wrote A Grain of Wheat in English, he manipulates and uses language in order to promote Gikuyu and Kenyan culture and to discredit English as a Kenyan language. In portraying English in a negative light in his novel, Ngugi reveals his opposition to English as a language of Africa literature and his larger national concerns for Kenya after its colonization and for its new status as an independent nation.

In his essay “ The Language of African Literature “, Ngugi expresses the opinion that the English language is unable to relate his African experience. Ngugi claims that every language is “a carrier of culture,” that if African writers use English, in their work they automatically promote European culture over their own.

John Hawley notes that it is “the ‘linguae francae’ that have helped establish a ‘global village’ have historically implied the subjugation of one community by another” in Africa.

Similarly, Ngugi asserts that African writers using English represent “ the final triumph of a system of domination the dominated stert singing its virtues” as a result, his vehement opposition to English takes on a nationalist and revolutionary outlook.

 

For Ngugi, writing in English is a sign of “the conscious elevation of the language of the colonizer” and still bears colonial overtones. This negative attitude towards English as a language of African literature as well as Ngugi’s urges for the promotion native African language and culture, is certainly evident in A Grain of Wheat.

Despite his vehement opposition to writing in English, however A Grain of Wheat and many of Ngugi’s early novels were written in English. John Mcleod claims that Ngugi’s

“use of the English language and the literary form as the means to create a distinctly national representation.”

is questionable in that it is a language with colonial associations. One way to interpret Ngugi’s choice  on of language to keep it consistent with his view English is to note that A Grain of Wheat is a novel about betrayal. Nearly all of the characters embody the theme of betrayal in some fashion, but two characters commit acts of betrayal against the nation. The first of these is Mugo, the main character of the novel, who informs the colonial authorities as to the where abouts of Kihika, the nationalist hero so that they could kill him.

The second character is Karanja, who “quickly became a trusted servant of the white people at Githima,” thereby betraying his own background and people. If one does not consider Ngugi’s opinions towards English, however the fact that the novel is written in English has a different effect. The style in which Ngugi writes A Grain of Wheat, incorporating words and phrases in Gikuyu into the English text, is very representative of most African authors writing in English Ngugi’s narrative style, which moves backward and forward in time through “flashbacks”, is also characteristics of some African novels, in contrast, the literary genre of the novel itself is, according to McLeod, European.

When viewed in this light, Ngugi’s choice of narrative structure seems to adapt European literary conventions like language, form and style to suit his own needs as an African author. According to Ngugi, Africans writing in English fall victim to a kind of “Europeanized writing”, he however, recognizes “his own complicity in this scheme.”

Another way in which Ngugi criticizes antinationalist betrayals is through his descriptions of Karanja’s speech interactions with the European officials for whom he works. Communication between the two races, represented by Karanja and John Thompson, appears blocked and futile.

Ngugi writes:

Many times Karanja had walked Thompson deter mind to ask him a direct question coldwater lumped in his belly, his heart would thunder violently when he came near the whiteman. His determination always ended in the same way, he would salute John Thompson and then walk past as if his business lay further ahead.

This passage details Karanja’s inability to communicate with the whites. Though he is “determined”, he never succeeds in verbally communicating with Thompson. Ironically, the colonial official Karanja the character most likely to use English is unable to do so. Rather the only communication that he achieves is nonverbal and is a sign of deference. Karanja’s deference and subservience directly contrasts Kihika’s “cult of personality” and presence against colonialist oppression.

By stressing the importance of personality in the revolutionary movements, Ngugi seems to be paralleling Kihika with figures like Jomo Kenyotta, who charismatically led resistance movements against the British

“ It is less the institution than the person of the president who is able to organize the people”

Of Kenya Ngugi seems to criticize Karanja’s reticence and failure to use language at all, never mind in defense of his country, as further evidence of his anti-nationalist betrayal and negative role in the novel.

Ngugi also manipulates language in A Grain of Wheat through his inclusion of several words in Gikuyu. Though Ngugi could have translated these words, he leaves them in his African language. Two of the Gikuyu words that he frequently the employs are “Uhuru” and “Mau Mau”. “Uhuru” is a word meaning “independence” and specifically refers to Kenyan independence in 1963. The fact that the novel is set in 1963 puts the concept of Uhuru at the farefront of its concerns. In choosing to keep “Uhuru” in Gikuyu instead of translating it into English Ngugi suggests that Kenyan independence frees the country from the ties of colonialism.

In addition to these individual Gikuyu terms, Ngugi incorporates cultural artifacts like songs and proverbs into his English text one of these is “Uhuru bado! Or let us carve Kenya into small pieces,” a revolutionary song of the movement.

The inclusion of this song supports Ngugi anti-colonial outlook not only because it is in Gikuyu but also because its message is for tribal pride and independence. Though the dividing up of the nation may not seem to fit with Ngugi’s sense of Kenyan nationalism, it makes sense in the context of his larger argument against colonial domination because the colony of Kenya, made up of seven different ethnic and linguistic groups, was first united by the British colonizers, rebelling against that very unity is another way to resist colonialism. In addition to this song about independence Ngugi also includes a “new song” in Gikuyu written by Kihika that also addresses revolutionary concerns:

Gikuyu na Mumbi,

Gikuyu na Mumbi ,

Gikuyu na Mumbi,

Nikihui ngwatiro.

While the text of the song is in Gikuyu, the song lyrics reference Gikuyu, the language itself the song lyrics also make extensive reference to Mumbi, the female character in the novel symbolically regards as “ an allegorical mother figure of the Kenyan nation”. This song then, written by Kihika in Gikiyu and making explicit reference to the language and heritage of Kenya, comes to embody all aspects of the Kenyan nationalist and independent movement. The song also suggest the link between heritage and language, embodied by Ngugi in his essay on language and also by Hawley when he asserts that “ the post-colonial drive towards identity centers around language.” However in addition to his songs in Gikuyu about independence,  Ngugi also incorporates revolutionary songs in English. One such song is:

We shall never rest

Without land

Without Freedom true

Kenya is a country of black people.

Though this song represents Kenya’s zeal for independence, it places all of its emphasis on the revolutionary struggle. The notion that the people will “ never rest “ and that they are ‘without land ‘ and ‘ without freedom ‘ highlights Kenya’s status as a colony, though the song expresses a desire for independence, Uhuru has not yet come. The song’s English lyrics perhaps speak to the continued oppression experienced by the people in the song the English lyrics associated with the subjugation of Kenya may represent the English colonial government.

Similarly, the final line calls attention to the people’s “blackness” just as Karanja does when he notes that the only thing holding Kenyans back from being “ true Europeans “ and controlling their own nation is their “ black skin “.

Ngugi’s use of English in this folk song calls attention to the oppression of the people at the hands of the English colonizers.

The idea that Kihika paralles a Christian maxim with a Swahili one is motif that recurs throughout the novel. At several points, Kihika uses language from the Bible in English, but subverts the messages to have revolutionary significance Ngugi makes it clear that the Christian. Bible was certainly a means to elevate English over African languages and culture, especially in elementary schools.

Another way in which Ngugi promotes Kenyan culture and language through Christianity is through a direct comparison of European and Kenyan Cultures. General R, a member of the revolutionary movement, states,

“ Let me first of all tell you that I never prayed to God.

I never believed in him.

I believe in Gikuyu and Mumbi and in the black people of this our country.”

In this speech the General suggests that his own heritage and language eclipse the importance of God and by extension, British culture. His specific reference to both Gikuyu and the people of his nation supports Ngugi’s claim that language informs heritage and vice versa and that

“ colonial language a carrier of culture .”

Additionally , the notion that “ Mumbi “ is again juxtaposed with “ Gikuyu “ , just as in the earlier song written by Kihika, further solidifies their relationship and the symbolic relationship between language and heritage.

In his novel A Grain of Wheat, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o uses both English and African languages to promote the revolutionary movement that fought for independence in Kenya. Though English is a language with colonial overtones in Africa, Ngugi uses the negativity associated with English to parallel the theme of betrayal that runs through the novel.

In addition to using English, Ngugi also employs African languages, in his native Gikuyu and Swahili, through folk songs and proverbs. By incorporating these traditional aspects of African culture in their original languages, Ngugi reinforces his observation that language is a “ carrier of culture.” By discrediting European language and culture in A Grain of Wheat , Ngugi promotes the language and culture of the Kenyan people and as a result furthers Kihika’s cause in the novel for Kenyan sovereignty.

  

What is Journalism? Types and Role of journalism

Topic :- What is journalism? Types and Role of journalism

Name :- Chauhan Sejal Arunbhai

Subject :- Mass Communication and Media Studies

Paper :- 15

Roll No :- 26

M.A. PART-II SEM-IV

Year- 2013-15

Submitted to :- Dr.Dilip.Barad

Smt.S.B.Gardi

Department of English

M.K.Bhavnagar University.

What is Journalism?

Journalism is gathering processing and dissemination of news and information related to the news to an audience. The word applied to the both the method of inquiring for news and the literary style which is used to disseminate.

The media that journalism uses vary diversely and include

          i.            Content published via newspapers

        ii.            Magazines (print)

      iii.            Television

      iv.            Radio (broadcast)

        v.            Their digital media versions- news websites and applications.

In modern society, the news media is the chief purveyor of information and opinion about public affairs. Journalism however is not always confined to the news media or to news itself, as journalistic communication may find its way into broader forms of expression including literature and cinema. In some nations we see that the news media is controlled by government intervention and is not a fully independent body.

In a democratic society, however access to free information plays a central role in creating a system of checks and balance and in distributing power equally amongst governments, businesses, individuals and other social entities. Access to verifiable information gather by independent media sources which adhere to journalistic standars can also be of service to ordinary citizens by empowering them with the tools they need in order to participate in the political process.

On the Basis of Beats

1.       Agricultural Journalism :-

This branch is growing at a fast pace in the past few years. With a handful colleges offering this course and many industries demanding it, this could be a hot option in the near future! Most people are not fully aware of the prospects in this field and thus get deterred from taking it up. However it has a wide array of options in multiple fields. Careers in the food and environment welfare and conservation bodies and resource organizations are some commonly pursued options.

2.       Arts Journalism :-

This beat is far all the art lovers. The focus is on various forms of art that includes literature, film, dance, music, drama and many more. Here the journalist analyzes the developments and trends of the art world and reports it to the audience. People who have passion for art always need regular inputs which makes arts journalism a fast growing stream of the industry.

3.       Business Journalism :-

Here the journalist has to cover business news from around the globe. This will include launch of new products in the market, mergers and acquisitions of companies, economic ups and downs performance of companies and so on. Well researched analytical reports have to be made when it comes to business. These reports gather dates of all the important events on an international level, moreover, these reports have also exposed many business related scandals.

4.       Celebrity Journalism :-

As the name goes, this genre is related to the life of celebrities from all fields. This includes news regarding their personal as well as professional life. Reporting gossip is one of the angles, which the readers love to read. Interviewing celebrities from various fields like music, sports, politics, arts and films is also a part of this profession.

5.       Crime Journalism :-

This beat has always been popular from a long time. People are always eager to know about crimes taking place, with all the possible and accurate details. Even though this is the most amusing beat for journalists, it needs extensive investigation and networking  to get all the facts true. It consists of violence, revenge, greed and major issues like corruption, drugs and so on. A crime reporter should always have good contacts so that no incident is missed.

6.       Cyber journalism :-

This field is also known as online journalism. In simple words, this is a collaboration of most other forms of journalism the only difference being the medium cyber and multimedia are two closely related fields, they aim at extending the reach of the information to a global level, while making the data appealing and engrossing.

7.       Education Journalism :-

This branch includes articles and reports on the developments taking place in the educational sector. The audience mostly consists of researchers, teachers and students. These reports stands a lot more important for the policy makers. It focuses on spreading the importance of education among people so that more number of children will take the step towards higher education rather than those leading towards the factory doors.

8.       Fashion Journalism :-

This field is for the people who have a stack of Cosmopolitan and Vogue under their pillow. Their main job is to keep a track of the latest trends in the fashion world. Interviewing models, designers and covering fashion shows are also a part of this work. Fashion is one of the hot subjects of the journalism industry, as one can work for magazines, websites and fashion channels.

9.       Financial Journalism :-

Financial journalism taps the list as the whole world resolves around numbers. It is related to all the facts and figures of the financial changes taking place. It will include up to date news of the stock markets, financial information of companies, changes in any financial rules and regulations of any country and so on.

1.   Lifestyle Journalism :-

The world is evolving and people are interested in reading more about lifestyle. This beat has been on a fast track growth focusing on entertainment, music, leisure, shoping, home gardening and so on.

Lifestyle journalists study the stages of development of lifestyle, economic influences on society, fashion and trends. They provide readers with tips that can help in changing their lifestyle with time.

11.   Multimedia Journalism :-

This branch has evolved recently and is intended to make the information more interesting, interactive and appealing. Being relatively new, this style has no specific guidelines. Mostly on the web, it primarily uses different images, videos and other forms of media to enhance the content.

The idea is to make the information easily understandable, while increasing the overall appeal of the page. An added advantage here is, a large amount of content can be conveyed easily with the help of tables, links, or a simple slideshow.

12.   News Journalism :-

This type is undoubtedly the widest and most well known where news journalists are required to compile and report information with necessary facts and details. The key aspects here is to ensure that the information is concise and direct while keeping the content intact.

This is one of the influential means of reaching out to people. Thus it is important that the story is reported in an unbiased and objective manner.

On the Basis of News Gathering

1.       Ambush Journalism :-

This is one of the techniques followed by journalists to collect news. It is actually a military tactic used to make a surprise attack in the same way as it is used to confront people so as to get answers. We come across this method more often on television, in a news show, or interviews where answers on sensitive topics are pulled out from people, who generally avoid speaking to journalists.

2.       Analytical Journalism :-

This class primarily aims at collaborating bits of information on the basis of evidence to draw substantial conclusions. Investigative journalism also plays a key role here. Analytical journalists are tasked with probing into simple chunks of news with mere theories. These journalists invest a lot of effort to bring many commonly missed points by shedding light on them.

3.       Citizen Journalism :-

This is a type of journalism where the people make their contribution to the news. They can share facts, give suggestions and also say what they feel about that particular event. Even after the news has been published, it is open for people to add their comments and suggestions.

This method is mostly used by journalists for sensitive issues so that the citizen gets a chance to speak and another news can made with that information, people can also bring to notice issues that may have been missed by media houses.

4.       Drone Journalism :-

Gathering news with the use of a small, unnamed aerial device known as drones for collection of photos, videos and news is called drone journalism. This method has emerged with a lot of buzz in the industry.

Various drone labs have been set up which allow the use of these devices. This method is used to get a better coverage of wars, droughts, earthquakes, tsunamis and so on. The use of drones is made legal in the U.S and one is allowed to fly the some till 400 feet as of today.

5.       Gotcha Journalism :-

This is an interview technique used by journalists to get comments on the topics, which are not answered. This tactic can be used when some wrongdoing has to be exposed. It can be used in many ways depending on what outcome is expected. Gotcha technique has created a lot of buzz in the industry as it is a challenging way to gather information.

On the Basis of Writing Style

1.       Activist Journalism :-

In this branch, one expresses his personal opinion on the particular subject instead of reporting from a third person’s point of view. This form has shaped out of the ideology that unless you are passionate about the topic and express your thoughts freely, you can never convey the some well! Though journalism as a profession usually demands one to be objective, this method is being highly adopted today.

2.       Advocacy Journalism :-

Under this branch, journalists are openly biased towards a particular entity while reporting events or happenings. The information they convey is mostly one sided and tends to defend the specific entity. Most advocacy journalists believe that in their profession, one is very likely to became partial. As a constant follower of any story, it is difficult to stay detached. You eventually will develop an opinion! So instead of trying to be indifferent, one might as well report from his point of view.

3.       Database Journalism :-

Here the information is usually in the form of collected data, such as statics, comparative figures etc. The journalist is free to use different forms of data, representation to make the information easily understandable. This includes use of tables, flowcharts, links, maps, and other similar means.

4.       Feature Story Journalism :-

The primary difference between a story and news is the time frame. Any fresh information is said to be news, whereas known facts and information are said to be featured articles or stories.

Mostly these include detailed information about a widely known topic, such as the character sketch of a particular person usually a public figure or informative articles, reviews etc.

The Role of Journalism

 The role and status of journalism, along with that of the mass media, has undergone profound changes over the last two decades with the advent of digital technology and publication of news on the Internet.

This has created a shift in the consumption of print media channels, as people increasingly consume news through e-readers, smart phones and other electronic devices, challenging news organizations to fully monetize their digital wing as well as improvise on the context in which they publish news in print.

Notably in the American media landscape, newsrooms have reduced their staff and coverage as traditional media channels. Such as television grapple with declining audiences. For instance between 2007 and 2012, CNN edited its story packages into nearly half of this original time length.

This compactness in coverage has been linked to broad audience attrition, as a large majority of respondents in recent studies show changing preferences in news consumption. The digital era has also ushered in a new kind of journalism in which ordinary citizens play a greater role in the process of newsmaking with the rise of citizen journalism being possible through the Internet.

Using videos camera equipped smartphones, active citizens are now enabled to record footage of news events and upload them onto channels like Youtube, which is often discovered and used by mainstream news media outlets. Meanwhile easy access to news from a variety of online sources, like blogs and other social media, has resulted in readers being able to pick from a wider choice of official and unofficial sources, instead of only from traditional media organizations.

Thus , here we see that what is the role of journalism and it’s types.

              

            

                                            

The White Tiger: A Tale of Two Indias

Topic :- The White Tiger: A Tale of Two Indias

Name :- Chauhan Sejal Arunbhai

Subject :- The New Literatures.

Paper :- 13

Roll No :- 26

M.A. PART-II SEM-IV

Year- 2013-15

Submitted to :- Dr.Dilip.Barad

Smt.S.B.Gardi

Department of English

M.K.Bhavnagar University.

The White Tiger: A Tale of  Two Indians

Aravind Adiga was born to Dr.K.Madhava Adiga and Usha Adiga on 23 October 1974, in  Chennai. He spents his childhood in Manglore by the Malabar coast, he studied at Canara High School and then at St. Aloysius High School where he completed his SSlc in 1990. After immigrating to Sydney, Australia with his family. He studied at James Ruse Agricultural High School. For further education he went to the States and studied English literature at Columbia University in New York where he studied with Simon Schama and graduated as Salutatorian in 1997. He also studied at Magdalen college, Oxford having secured a scholarship and had Hermione Lee as one of his tutors.

 Aravind Adiga won the Man Booker prize 2008 for his novel The White Tiger which is a darkly humorous novel about a man’s journey from Indian village life to entrepreneurial success. Adiga is the fourth Indian born author to win this prize. Others are

Salman Rushdie

Arundhati Roy

Kiran Desai

Who won this prize. A fifth winner V.S.Naipaul is of Indian ancestry. It is Adiga’s first novel at such an early age,which deals with the present day India. Aravind Adiga depicting the life of a poor boy, attacks on the rotten political system that is a hurdle in the way of the country to achieve its goal. The Author has tried to tell a very real story. He is very humble and camera shy man.

He says:

“ I’m shy this is a bit of shock. I am very excited.

I feel fantastic and I never anticipated this. I am taken by surprise.”

The writer chooses an innocent boy who is away from the hustle and bustle life of the cities but at last gets lesson from the life and becomes manipulating. The protagonist of the novel Balram Halwai is the son of a rickshaw puller who comes to Delhi in search of better life becomes a taxi driver murders his master reaches Bangalore and becomes a rich man. Once he listens to news on All India Radio that Prime Minister of China is coming toIndia because

“ he wants to know the truth about Bangalore.Mr. Jiabao wants to meet some Indian entrepreneurs and hear the story of their successs from their own lips.”

As Mr.Jiabao wanted to know the truth about Bangalore and Balram finds himself the right person to tell the truth, so he writes him seven letters telling him his story and these seven letters complete the plot of the novel. Literature mirrors society and Adiga has shown the real picture of poor India, which is really shocking.

This novel depicts that guilt is a terrible thing. It makes us suspicious and makes us see conspiracy everywhere. Here Balram Halwai, earlier an innocent man, becomes a murderer because of circumstances. Basically he was not a criminal, he wants to realease his tension and heavy load of his guilt of murdering his master. So he confesses his crime to Mr.Jiabao and tells him his story of rise from ‘ Swamp to Silicon Valley. In the journey towards this valley, he reveals to  Mr.Jiabao India’s political and economic system about the wide gap between rich and poor, India of Darness and India of  Light.

As we know that this novel is a tale of two Indians; Balram’s Journey from the darkness of village to the light of city life but what does he lose? And how he completes his journey is unforgettable. The man who is not criminal, whose blood is innocent, ultimately makes his heavy heart light by confessing his crime to Mr.Jiabao through letters. Like V.S.Naipaul who writes clearly in his book An Area of Darkness about India and receives harsh criticism Adiga also describes the harsh realities of India, but it becomes a matter of criticism for some readers. But is it not true? Why naked truth is not welcomed. Everyday we read in newspapers about the sufferings of the poor. Here in india we find extreme poverty and extreme richness. The protagonist Balra m Halwai says:

“ Please understand your Excellency, that India is two countries in one: an India of Light and an India of Darkness.”

Here Adiga attacks politicians and says that Ganga is called the mother daughter of Vedas, river of illumination, protector of us all, breaker of chain of birth and rebirth but in reality it is polluted.

Politicians who are only holding meetings and doing nothing are responsible for this pollution Adiga writes:

“ No! Mr.Jiabao, I urge you not to dip in the Ganga, unless you want your mouth full of faeces, straw, soggy part of human bodies, buffalo carrion and seven different kinds of industrial acids.”

Here we clearly see that Adiga also attacks social systems, how a poor gets proper clothes only after death. He writes about the situation on the funeral procession of Balram’s mother on the bank of Ganga the holy city of Benaras:

“ My mother, body had been wrapped from head to toe in saffron silk cloth, which was covered in rose petals and jasmine garland I don’t think she had ever had such a fine thing to wear in her life.”

Balram Halwai comes from a village Laxmangarh where in a local school the visiting inspector gives Balram the name ‘ The White Tiger’, ‘the rarest of the rare’, the only boy in the class who is intelligent in the crowd of huge idiots. His father a rickshaw puller takes him out of the school to do some job and arranges the money to pay the loan which was arranged for the lavish dowry of his cousin sister.So the good news becomes the bad news. Balram Halwai starts working in tea shop, smashing coals and wiping tables. With drown from school, he does hard labour to earn the money and while working in tea shop he gets practical education of life. Adiga writes:

“ I gave myself a better education at the tea shop than I could have got at any school.”

Here we see that Balram had a dream to become a driver and he could fulfill his dream only by getting employment. He earned money, learned driving and got the job as a second driver in the family of landlord. The protagonist had only one dream to drive Honda City but senior driver Ram Prasad was the driver of Honda City, so he got Maruti Zen Ashok, the elder son of the landlord, returns back to India after completing his education from America with a Christian girl Pinky Mam. Ashok and Pinky decided to live in Delhi. In the meantime the landLord came to know that actually their senior driver Ram Prasad who was living there as a Hindu actually was a Muslim. Ram Prasad was exposed he ran away to Dhanbad and in this way Balram got the opportunity  to drive Honda City of his master Ashok.

Ashok hired a big Bungalow in the posh area of Gurgaon. He did his job by manipulating things, bribing leaders, policemen and politicians. Balram also starts manipulation while doing job as car driver to Mr.Ashok and Pinky. He was as faithful to his master and mistress as servant god Hanuman for Ram and Sita. He watches the working of Ashok and learns a lot of practical things to survive in today’s world. He comes to know every loop-hole of the corruption. When Balram narrates his sorrowful story to Mr.Jiabao, readers come to know about his tale:

The rest of today’s narrative will deal mainly with the sorrowful tale of how I was corrupted from a sweet, innocent village fool  into a citified fellow full of debauchery depravity, and wickedners. All these changes happened in me because they happened first in Mr.Ashok. He returned from America an innocent man, but life in Delhi corrupted him and once the master of the Honda city becomes corrupted how can the driver stay innocent?

Delhi corrupted Ashok because he learnt the tricks how to take work from political leaders, ministers, brokers,police and judges. Once Pinky Madam smashes a child while she is heavily drunk,but Balram is compelled to take the blame of this accident on himself. But there is a nexus with police and judges and the case is solved. So nothing happens to anyone. Thus the novel exposes the corruption in this country which is deeply rooted in the politics. Pinky Mam becomes tired of this system and returns back to New York without informing Ashok.

Now Balram becomes puzzle, wanders here and there,goes to Paharganj, not far from the Imperial Hotel. He sees the life of the people lying on the floor of the station, dogs were sniffing at the garbage and then he thinks about his destination without the job of the driver. He describes to Mr.Premier about Delhi:

Delhi is the  capital of not one but two countries two Indians. The Light and the Darkness both flow in to Delhi. Gurgaon, where Mr.Ashok lived, in the end of the city, and their place, Old Delhi, in the other end. Full of things that the modern world forgot all about rickshaws, old stone buildings, and Muslims.

Slums becomes the topic of discussion during election months and rest of the months are only for the rich and the politicians. All these are facts and the young writer Arvind Adiga dares to depict the real situation of dark India. This dark side needs light.

His novel is fact not fiction. Attacking on the false commitment of politicians during election and daily problem of poor the author writes:

“ The election shows that the poor will not be ignored. The Darkness will not be silent. There is no water in our taps and what do you people in Delhi give us? You give us mobile phones. Can a man drink phone when he is thirsty? Women walk for miles every morning to find a bucket of clean water.”

Aravind Adiga says that he has written the real story of the poor. He is a writer of Aam Aadmi:

“ At a time when India is going through great changes and with China, is likely to inherit the world from the west , it important that writers like me try to highlight the brutal injustice of society the great divide.”

India is developing but Bharat needs better education and facilities regarding the roles and rights. There is problem of population which needs revolution. Poor India doesn’t care for the better education of their children. Adiga writes:

“ I don’t think so, sir. You know how those people in the Darkness are: they have eight,nine,ten children. Sometimes they don’t know the names of their own children”

Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger highlights the ever widening gap between rich and poor, rural and urban and the brutal reality of an economic system that allows a small minority to prosper at the expense of the silent majority.

There are two sides of anything the dark side and the bright side. Adiga has tried to tell the story of the dark side of India. Fact is stronger than fiction. Every now and then, we read stories in newspapers which we find difficult to believe but most of then are true. The fact is that our world is full of wonders and mysteries. Fiction is the result of facts. Literature mirrors society and this real picture of India is shown to us by Aravind Adiga. He writes:

India is dealing with great duality today. There are men with big bellies and men with small bellies. It’s a metaphor to capture the duality of human existence in India today. The world needed to see the other side of India.

Adiga is very humorous in his depictions. Describing the difference between the rich and the poor, he writes:

“A rich man’s body is like cotton pillow, white and soft and blank. Ours is different. My father’s spine was a knotted rope,the kind that women use to pull water the story of a poor man’s life is written on his body, in a sharp pen.”

Thus the writer narrates openly about the rich the poor. Middle class is somehow away from the bad habits. Men drink because they are sick of life. Once the saying “ Honesty is the Best policy” was applicable but in todays world only honest man suffers. The witer says about police:

There is no end to things in India, as Mr.Ashok used to say. You can give the police all the brown envelope and red bags you want, and they might still screw you. A man in a uniform may one day point a finger at me and say, Time’s up, Munna.

The writer is young and daring, he raised voice against the system and wrote openly about the corruption which is in the politics. There is no original political thinking during last fifty years. They try to fool public. They promote the bribe system and train  the poor innocent people like Balram to get involved in this corruption. Balram in hope of better life learns this new morality. The writer describes about the honesty of the poor people, poor driver and their loyalty towards their masters. He says that the trustworthiness of servants is the basis of Indian economy:

“ Masters trust their servants with diamonds in this country! It’s true. Every evening on the train out of Surat, where they eun the world’s biggest diamond cutting and polishing business, the servants of diamond merchants are carrying suitcase full of cut diamonds the they have to give to someone in Mumbai why doesn’t that servant take the suitcase full of diamonds? He’s no Gandhi, he’s human, he’s you and me.”

Thus in this way Aravind Adiga has tried to tell a very real story, a tale of two Indias.

Second Language Acquisition

Topic :- Second Language Acquisition

Name :- Chauhan Sejal Arunbhai

Subject :- English Language Teaching-1

Paper :- 12

Roll No :-

M.A. PART-II SEM-III

Year- 2013-15

  Submitted to :-

Smt.S.B.Gardi

Department of English

M.K.Bhavnagar University.

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

           As we know that the term Second language acquisition refers to the processes through which someone acquires one or more second or foreign language. SLA researchers look at acquisition in naturalistic contexts and in classroom setting. Researchers are interested in both Product and Process. Here we give trace the development of SLA from its origins in contrastive analysis. This is followed by a selective review of research, focusing on product-oriented studies of stages that learners pass through as they acquire another language, as well as investigations into the processes underlying acquisition. The practical implications of research are then discussed, followed by a review of current and future trends and directions.

               Let’s have look on background. The discipline now known as SLA emerged from comparative studies of similarities and differences between languages. These studies were conducted in the belief that a learner’s first language(L1) has an important influence on the acquisition of a second(L2), resulting in the ‘contrastive analysis’(CA) hypothesis. Proponents of contrastive analysis argued that where L1 and L2 rules are in conflict, errors are likely to occur which are the result of ‘interference’ between L1 and L2. For example, the hypothesis predicted that Spanish L1 learners would tend, when learning English, to place the adjective after the noun as is done in Spanish, rather than before it. Such an error can be explained as ‘negative transfer’ of the L1 rule to the L2. When the rules are similar for both languages; ‘positive transfer’ would occur and language learning would be facilitated. Where a target language feature does not exist in the L1, learning would also be impeded.

               Thus, English L1 learners will encounter difficulty trying to master the use of nominal classifiers in certain Asian languages such as Cantonese, because these do not exist in English. In terms of pedagogy, contrastivists held that learners difficulties in learning an L2 could be predicted on the basis of a systematic comparison of the two languages and that learners from different first language backgrounds would experience different difficulties when attempting to learn a common L2.

               The CA hypothesis was in harmony with the prevailing psychological theory of the time: behaviourism. Behaviourists believed that learning was a process of habit formation Linguistic habits acquired by individuals as their L1 emerged would have a marked influence on their L2 acquisition. It is no coincidence that research questioning the contrastivists position emerged at about the same time as cognitive psychologists began to challenge behaviourism.   

              A major shift in perspective occurred in the 1960s, when linguists and language educators turned their attention from the CA of languages and began studying the specific language learners  used as they attempted to communicate in the target language. In an important publication, Corder made a strong case for the investigation of learners errors as a way of obtaining insights into the processes and strategies underlying SLA. Errors were seen not as evidence of pathology on the part of learners but as a normal and healthy part of the learning process.

              The systematic study of learners errors revealed interesting insights into SLA process. First, learners made errors that were not predicted by the CA hypothesis. Second, the errors that learners made were systematic, rather than random. Third, learners appeared to move through a series of stages as they developed competence in the target language. These successive stages were characterized by particular type of error, and each stage could be seen as a kind of interlanguage or ‘interim language’ in its own right.

              Not surprisingly, the field of SLA has been strongly influence by L1 acquisition SLA researchers have looked to L1 acquisition for insights into ways of investigating the acquisition process as well as the outcomes of the research. Particularly influential was a pioneering study by Brown, who conducted a longitudinal case study of three children acquiring English as an L1. Brown traced the development of 14 grammatical structures discovering that contrary to expectations, there was no relationship between that order in which items were acquired and the frequency with which they were used by the parents.

Product Oriented Research:-

During the early 1970s a series of empirical investigations into learner language were carried out which became known as the ‘morpheme order’ studies. Their principal aim was to determine whether there is a ‘natural’ sequence in the order in which L2 learners acquire the grammar of the target language. Dulay and Burt the principal architects of the morpheme order studies found that, like their L1 counterparts, children acquiring an L2 appeared to follow a predetermined order which could not be accounted for in terms of the frequency with which learners heard the language items. Moreover, children from very different L1 backgrounds acquired a number of morphemes in virtually the same order. However, the order differed from that of the L1 learners investigated by Brown. A replication of the studies with adult learners produced strikingly similar results to those with children.

                   As a result of these and other investigations, it was concluded that in neither child nor adult L2 performance could the majority of errors be attributed to the learners L1s and that learners in fact made many errors in areas of grammar that are comparable in both the L1 and L2, errors which the CA hypothesis predicted would not occur, Dulay and Burt therefore rejected the hypothesis, proposing instead a hypothesis entitled L2 acquisition equals L1 acquisition and indicating that the two hypotheses predict the appearance of different types of errors in L2 learners speech.

                  Briefly the CA hypothesis states that while the child is learning an L2. He or she will tend to use his native language structures in his L2 speech, and where structures in his L1 and his L2 differ he will goof. For example, in Spanish children learning English should tend to say wants Miss Jones for He wants Miss Jones.

               The ‘L2’ acquisition equals L1 acquisition hypothesis holds that children actively organize the L2 speech that they hear and make generalizations about its structure as children learning their L1 do. Therefore the goofs expected in any particular L2 production would be similar to those made by children learning the same language as their L1. For example Jose want Miss Jones would be expected since L1 acquisition studies have shown that children generally omit functors, in this case the –s inflection for third person singular present indicative.

               In the 1980s Stephen Krashen was the best known figure in the SLA field. He formulated a controversial hypothesis to explain the disparity between the order in which grammatical items were taught and the order in which they were acquired, arguing that there are two mental processes operating in SLA: conscious learning and subconscious acquisition conscious learning focuses on grammatical and to identify instances is a very different process, facilitating the acquisition of rules at a subconscious level. According to Krashen, when using the language to communicate meaning the learner must draw on subconscious knowledge. The suggestion of conscious and subconscious processes functioning in language development was not new or radical: however, Krashen’s assertion that these processes were totally separate, i.e that learning could not become acquisition was Krashen went on to argue that the basic mechanism underlying language acquisition was comprehension. According to his comprehensible input hypothesis, when the student understands a message in the language containing a structure his or her current level of competence advances by one step, and that structure is acquired. These hypotheses had a marked influence on practice as outlined below.

Process Oriented Research:-

              Research reviewed above focused on the products or outcomes of acquisition. A growing body of research considers learning processes, exploring the kinds of classroom tasks that appear to facilitate SLA. The bulk of this research focuses on activities or procedures which learners perform in relation to the input data. Given the content of research in the field, this review is necessarily selective.

              In the first of a series of investigations into learner-learner interaction . Long (1981) found that two way tasks stimulated significantly more modified interactions than one way tasks. Similarly, Doughty and Pica found that required information exchange tasks generated significantly more modified interaction than tasks where exchange of information was optional.

             The term ‘modified interaction’ refers to instances during an interaction when the speaker alters the form in which his or her language is encoded to make it more comprehensible. Such modification may be prompted by lack of comprehension on the listeners part. This research into modified interaction was strongly influenced by Krashen’s hypothesis that comprehensible input was a necessary and sufficient condition for SLA, i.e that acquisition would occur when learners understood messages in the target language.

Current and future trends and directions:-

               Current SLA research orientations can be captured by a single word: complexity. Researchers have begun to realize that there are social and interpersonal as well as psychological dimensions to acquisition, that input and output are both important, that form and meaning are ultimately inseparable and that acquisition is an organic rather than linear process.

           In a recent study, Martyn investigated the influence of certain task characteristics on the negotiation of meaning is small group work, looking at the following variable:

1.     Interaction relationship: whether one person holds all of the information required to complete the task whether each participant holds a portion of the information, or whether the information is shared.

2.     Interaction requirement: whether or not the information must be shared.

3.     Goal orientation: whether the task goal is convergent or divergent.

4.     Outcome options: whether there is only a single correct outcome, or whether more than one.

The results seem to indicate that while task variables appear to have an effect on the amount of negotiation for meaning, there appears to be an interaction between task variables, personality factors and interactional dynamic. This ongoing research underlines the complexity of the learning environment and the difficulty of isolating psychological and linguistic factors from social and interpersonal ones.

   A major challenge for curriculum designers, materials writers and classroom practitioners who subscribe to task based teaching is how to develop programmes that integrate tasks with form focused instruction. This is particularly challenging when teaching beginners in foreign language contexts. A number of applied linguists are currently exploring the extent to which one can implement task based teaching with beginner learners, and experiments are under way to establish the appropriate balance and ‘mix’ between tasks which have non-linguistic outcomes and exercises which have linguistic outcomes.

    In searching for metaphors to reflect the complexity of the acquisition process some researchers have argued that the adoption of an ‘organic’ perspective can greatly enrich our understanding of language acquisition and use. Without such a perspective, our understanding of other dimensions of language will be piecemeal and incomplete as will any attempt at understanding and interpreting utterances in isolation from the contexts in which they occur. The organic metaphor sees SLA more like growing a garden than building a wall. From such a perspective, learners do not learn one thing perfectly one item at a time, but learn numerous things simultaneously. The linguistic flowers do not all appear at the same time, nor do they all grow at the same rate. Some even appear to wilt for a time before renewing their growth. Rate and speed of development are determined by a complex interplay of factors related to pedagogical interventions; speech processing constraints: acquisitional processes and the influence of the discoursal environment in which the items occur.

                         In this topic David Nunan describe the emergence of SLA as a discipline from early work in CA, error analysis and interlanguage development. He examine research into SLA in both naturalistic and instructional settings, considering both process and product oriented studies. This topic also looks at the practical implications of current research for syllabus design and methodology, focusing in particular on the implications of SLA research for syllabus design, the input hypothesis and task based language teaching. The final part of the topic suggest that future work will attempt to capture the complexity of the acquisition process by incorporating a wide range of linguistic, social, interpersonal and research process.  



Reference:-
          

The Cambridge Guide to Teaching English to Speaker Of Other Languages/chapter 12/Second Language acquisition/David Nunan