Imperial citizenship or else: liberal ideals and the Indian unmaking of empire, 1890-1919

This article examines three connected campaigns for Indian imperial citizenship which spanned the period 1890 to 1919, and their impact on the emergence of radical South Asian anticolonialism. It shifts our focus from individuals and ideologues who sought the status of British imperial citizens, to address the agitations which commenced to attain such a status within a reconstructed British Empire. Specific attention is paid to the conditions which encouraged South Asian patriots to imagine that the ideal of equal imperial citizenship within an imperial federation was a feasible political objective, to the illiberal official retreat from such an ideal, and to the political ramifications of this retreat. In conclusion, this article argues that the quest for Indian imperial citizenship, which spanned the Empire from South Africa to Canada, has been a much-neglected chapter in the evolution of anti-colonial nationalism in South Asia which deserves to be reinserted in the grand meta-narrative of the region’s 20th century history

Aspiring india: The Politics of Mothering, Education Reforms, and English

This dissertation is an ethnography of aspirational mobilities emergent under contexts of profound material and social change. To explore the unprecedented expansion of educational aspirations in post market reform India, specifically surging parental desires for English-medium schooling, I conducted fieldwork at a low-fee private English-medium school and a neighboring state-funded Malayalam-medium school in the southern Indian state of Kerala. Further, to record state responses to non-elite educational aspirations, my fieldwork was distributed along diverse agencies that supported and regulated English learning in Kerala and across the country. This dissertation makes two key arguments. Firstly, transitions from a previously austere socialist economy to a consumption saturated society has radically altered gendered everyday lives and unsettled entrenched social hierarchies. Negotiating these changes, non-elite mothers are reimagining possible futures for their children. Since social recognition and economic security was and continues to be entangled with higher education and English proficiencies, this has intensified desires for English-medium schooling from the earliest grades. Secondly, intensifying non-elite desires for English learning reveals how educational systems in India are geared towards meeting the aspirations of privileged citizens. Analyzing the provision of English language learning in state-funded and private school systems, I argue that emergent emphases on conversational skills defines “knowing” English as predicated on the ability to socialize in English. While this shift benefits internationally mobile elite Indians, it marginalizes non-elite learning communities whose pedagogic resources are skewed towards literacy rather than orality skills. To conclude, aspirational mobilities in contemporary India are diverse and even oppositional, and dependent on aspirational locations as well as the resources that groups are able to mobilize

Predicting user acceptance of Tamil speech to text by native Tamil Brahmans

This thesis investigates and predicts the user acceptance of a speech to text application in Tamil and takes the view that user acceptance model would need to take into, the cultural constraints that apply in the context and underlines the need for a more explicit recognition. The user acceptance models such as Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) predominantly focus on the technological aspects to determine the acceptance. The cultural variables are considered as external but at the same time they acknowledge the influence of user acceptance due to external variables. The contribution to knowledge is, an empirical link between Tamil usage at a social level that indicates the ability to use and accept Tamil speech to text application. The economic value of Tamil, does not seem to warrant technology use and therefore, speech to text in Tamil was found to be less acceptable in the study samples. In order to achieve the objective of predicting the user acceptance of speech to text in Tamil by the native Tamil speaking Brahmans, the researcher designed and evaluated a paper prototype of an iPhone iOS mobile representation of the paper prototype on the idea of 'what you speak is what you get'. As a result of the researcher’s insider position, the idea was to convert the speech as spoken by the person into Tamil orthography without any technological interference such as auto correct, word prediction and spell check. Due to the syllabic nature of the language and the cultural tendency to code mix and code-switch, the investigation focused on three key areas- code mixing, pronunciation and choice of script . This thesis looks at the complexities involved in accommodating these areas. The user's choice of script was increasingly important as it cannot be assumed that all native Tamil speakers are able to read and write Tamil. In order to bring in rich data, the researcher used the insider and outsider positionality alongside phenomenology. This was also to overcome any potential bias in analysis and interpretation. The multidisciplinary approach to answer the research question was inevitable owing to cultural variables like value and usage of language, social perception of language and its usage specifically code-switching, pronunciation and orthography in the native space. 4 Data gathering was done using quantitative study of transliteration and qualitative interviews of Tamil speaking Brahmans. The findings point to the Vedic philosophical texts and practices that influenced the attitude of the respondents on how words must be pronounced and how they ought to appear in text. The development of the speech to text application could be enriched by using a native approach that embeds cultural and philosophical values. Based on the findings, this thesis has identified areas for further research which is to widely test the user acceptance model proposed in this thesis to aid development of speech to text and to further investigate on native perspective in the wider diaspora and also to investigate cultural and philosophical relevance in speech to text in other languages where technology is in developing stage

EFFECTIVE COLLEGE TEACHING AND STUDENTS’ RATINGS OF TEACHERS: WHAT STUDENTS THINK, WHAT FACULTY BELIEVE, AND HAT ACTUAL RATINGS SHOW IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY AND PRACTICE IN TEACHING QUALITY ASSURANCE AND CONTROL IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN OMAN

This study examines the extent to which teachers’ (N=248) and students’ (N=968) perceptions of effective teaching and students’ evaluations of teachers in six colleges of technology in Oman match or mismatch. It also investigates Omani students’ (N=922) ability to identify the teaching dimensions underlying a widely used American instrument used for collecting students’ evaluations of teachers and the extent to which the teaching dimensions found in Oman are similar to or different from those found in America and elsewhere in the West. In addition, the present research assesses the reliability of students’ ratings in Oman and the effect of a number of course, teacher, and student background characteristics on these ratings. Results showed that while teachers and students matched in their perceptions of various characteristics of effective teaching, they significantly differed in their valuation of many criteria of effective teaching. Differences were also observed between the two groups’ perceptions of the validity and utility of students’ ratings and the role of the student as an evaluator of teaching. The results also showed that Omani students are capable of identifying most of the teaching dimensions underlying the standardised American rating instrument. A few factors, however, appear to be inseparable in the Omani context. The inter-rater reliability of students’ ratings collected from Oman was analysed and found to be of good standard and only slightly lower than what was found in North America and Australia for the same instrument. Consistent with previous research, it appears, however, that students’ ratings are affected by various student, teacher, and course background characteristics. The evidence on the differences between teachers and students in their perceptions of quality college teaching and their criteria for judging teaching effectiveness calls for more investigation and verification. It is argued here that many of the mismatches in perceptions can be traced to students’ educational upbringing in pre-college education. Therefore, the assumption that quality can be improved in higher education irrespective of what learning styles and habits students bring with them from schools may be unrealistic. Contrary to the prevailing stance in Oman’s higher education, which generally views students’ ratings with distrust and suspicion, the present study results appear to provide preliminary support for the use of students’ ratings in Oman’s universities and colleges as a source of information in teaching evaluation and improvement. It is argued that involving students in the evaluation of teaching is an essential tool in implementing, institutionalising, and enhancing the newly introduced standards in teaching and learning

Language variation in Gulf Pidgin Arabic

PhD Thesisworks such as Smart 1990, Hobrom 1996, Wiswal 2002, Gomaa 2007, Almoaily 2008, Naess 2008, Bakir 2010, and Alshammari 2010. Importantly, since GPA is spoken by a non-indigenous workforce over a wide geographical area in a multi-ethnic speech community, language variation seems inevitable. However, to date, there is no account of variation in GPA conditioned by substrate language or length of stay. Therefore, in this thesis I analyse the impact of the first language of the speakers and the number of years of residency in their location in the Gulf as potential factors conditioning language variation in GPA. The data-base for the study consists of interviews with sixteen informants from three linguistic backgrounds: Malayalam, Bengali, and Punjabi. Interviews were conducted in two cities in Saudi Arabia: Riyadh and Alkharj. Half of the data is produced by informants who have spent five or less years in the Gulf while the other half has spent ten or more years in the Gulf by the time they were interviewed. The analysis is based on ten morpho-syntactic phenomena: free or bound object or possessive pronoun, presence or absence of the Arabic definiteness marker, presence or absence of Arabic conjunction markers, presence or absence of the GPA copula, and presence or absence of agreement in the verb phrase and the noun phrase. Given the fact that most of the current theories on contact languages have been made on the basis of Indo-European language based pidgins and creoles, analysing the above features in an Arabic-based pidgin promises to be a great addition to the literature of pidgins and creoles. Results of this thesis show that both first language and number of years of stay in the Gulf seem to have little effect on my informants’ choices as regards the studied morpho-syntactic features. There is a significant adaptation to the system of Gulf Arabic (the lexifier language) only with respect to one feature: conjunction markers. This finding could be taken to support Universalist theories of the emergence of contact languages. However, some substratal effect can still be noticed in the data

The Potential Use of Slow-down Technology to Improve Pronounciation of English for International Communication

The focus of this research is on oral communication between L1 (first language) and L2 (second language) English users - to determine whether an algorithm which slows down speech can increase the intelligibility of speech between interlocutors for EIC (English for International Communication). The slow-down facility is a CALL tool which slows down speech without tonal distortion. It allows English language learners more processing time to hear individual phonemes as produced in the stream of connected speech, to help them hear and produce phonemes more accurately and thus more intelligibly. The study involved five tests, all concerned with the intelligibility of English speech. The first test looked at L2:L2 English communication and levels of receptive intelligibility, while Tests 2 and 3 focused on testing the slow-down for receptive communication – to help L2 users to process speech by slowing it down and thus making the speech signal more accessible. Tests 4 and 5 changed focus, testing the slow-down speech tool as a means of enhancing the intelligibility of L2 speech production, namely individual phoneme production, as little research has been carried out in this area and phoneme discrimination can greatly increase the intelligibility of an L2 speaker’s pronunciation. Test 5, the main test, used a qualitative analysis of a pre- and post test and a number of questionnaires to assess subjects’ progress in developing intelligible English phoneme production across three groups: the Test Group, who used the slow-down speech tool, the Control Group, who undertook similar pronunciation training but without the application of the slow-down tool and the Non-Interference Group, who received no formal pronunciation training whatsoever. The study also ascertained and evaluated the effects of other variables on the learning process, such as length of time learning English, daily use of English, attitudes to accents, and so forth

Gender variation in Gulf Pidgin Arabic

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.In the history of pidgins and creoles, many documented contact languages are European-based ones because they arose as a direct result of European colonial expansion between the sixteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. However, contact languages are developing entirely outside the European context as a result of ongoing international migration and economic integration created by globalisation. One such newly emerging pidgin is known as Gulf Pidgin Arabic (GPA). This unique linguistic phenomenon is a simplified contact variety of the Arabic language used in the Gulf States for communication between native Arabic speakers and foreign workers, as well as among the workers themselves. Pidgin languages have not been studied until relatively recently, since the middle of the last century. Similarly, GPA has received relatively little attention in the literature, apart from a few descriptive works such as Abed (2017), Almoaily (2012), Avram (2014), Næss (2008), Smart (1990), and Wiswal (2002). Importantly, there is an increasing labour market demand for women migrants in the Gulf, and this demand is often more stable than that for men; however, no studies to date have investigated the gender and language variation in Gulf countries conditioned by length of stay or substrate language. To carry out this research, an integrated research design, combining quantitative and qualitative phases of analysis, is employed to examine data drawn from one-to-one semi-structured interviews. Extensive background research on the Saudi social setting, the Pidgin languages, Gulf Arabic (GA) and GPA, and the major substrate languages of GPA is undertaken to investigate the sociolinguistic and linguistic situations that have resulted in the emergence of GPA. I analyse the influence of the first language of female GPA speakers and the number of years spent in the Gulf as potential factors conditioning language and gender variation in GPA. The dataset for the study consists of interviews with 72 informants from six linguistic backgrounds: Malayalam, Punjabi, Bengali, Tagalog, Sinhala, and Sunda. Interviews were conducted in Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia. Half of the informants had spent five years or less in the Gulf, while the other half had spent 10 years or more in the area at the time of interview. The analysis is based on 10 morphosyntactic phenomena: free or bound object or possessive pronoun, presence or absence of the Arabic definiteness marker, presence or absence of Arabic conjunction markers, presence or absence of the GPA copula, and presence or absence of agreement in the verb phrase and the noun phrase. Regarding the informants’ choice of the studied morphosyntactic features, the results of this thesis demonstrate that the length of stay in the Gulf produces more accommodation to standard GA in women than men. However, this shift was significant for only one feature: conjunction markers. For the influence of the first language, a significant adaptation to the system of GA (the lexifier language) was found for two features: conjunction markers and nominal agreement. Furthermore, with years of stay in the Gulf, there was a significant shift for only two features: conjunction markers and definiteness. This finding could be taken to support both universalist theories and substrate theory of the emergence of contact languages. The two theories seem to have effects on the emergence of pidgins and creoles; it is worth noting that neither are separate from each other, and they can be complementary. Thus, my data supports Mufwene’s (1993) complementary theory of genesis, which claims that universal as well as substratal factors can contribute to the emergence of contact languages.Saudi Arabia Cultural Bureau in London and University of Hafr Al Batin

From Field to Virtual: Developing Hybrid-Learning Media of Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster Resilience Strategy of Fishing Village Community in Bandar Lampung

Indonesia is an earthquake and tsunami prone area, therefor, disaster resilience strategy is important for surviving and living. The topic of disaster resilience strategy of earthquake and tsunami and case study at Kangkung village in Bandar Lampung then become a topic of hybrid-learning for students with videos as media. It brings a case study of earthquake and tsunami disaster resilience strategy from field to the class by virtual learning media. The research conducted by mix method of (1) Fieldwork approach; (2) Hybrid-learning media production; and (3) Qualitative approach. Fieldwork conducted by observation and documentation (pictures and movies) of Kangkung fishing village community in Bandar Lampung while qualitative approach conducted by questionnaires and in-depth interview to students of Department of Infrastructure and Environmental Engineering, Soegijapranata Catholic University. The results have been analyzed by scoring method. Several conclusions can be described as: (1) five aspects of attractiveness, delivery, learning atmosphere, understanding, and motivation inflicted, can be applied in scoring method; and (2) hybrid-learning media is very good to implemented to learn disaster resilience strategy of earthquake and tsunami at Kangkung fishing village in Bandar Lampung