Selecting the Right Literary Texts for Middle Eastern Students: Challenges and Reactions

The benefits of using literature in teaching and learning a foreign language are numerous. It not only embodies contextualized language, but also portrays human experience in breadth and depth and hence, through it, learners can be exposed to different cultures, with shared or unique beliefs, traditions and life styles. Given these advantages, and if used appropriately, literature can be a rich source of communicative language as it depicts actual language use in real situations. It can also be an ideal forum in which to develop cross-cultural understanding and critical thinking (Al-Mahrooqi, 2011a, Al-Mahrooqi, 2012). This paper, however, asks if all literature is fit to be used in EFL contexts. In particular, it addresses the questions “What criteria can be used to select appropriate literature for Omani EFL students?” and “What literary texts are considered best by these students?” Further, the paper reports on an exercise in which Omani students reacted to some texts they had studied. The paper concludes by recommending fiction and non-fiction texts that have worked with students who are majoring in English at Dhofar University, Oman

Synthesis and optical characterisation of platinum(II) poly-yne polymers incorporating substituted 1,4-diethynylbenzene derivatives and an investigation of the intermolecular interactions in the diethynylbenzene molecular precursors

A series of 1,4-diethynylbenzene (1) derivatives, H-C≡C-R-C≡C-H with R = C6H3NH2 (2), C6H3F (3), C6H2F2-2,5 (4), C6F4 (5), C6H2(OCH3)2-2,5 (6) and C6H2(OnC8H17) 2-2,5 (7) has been synthesised and their crystal structures determined by single crystal (2-5) or powder (6, 7) X-ray diffraction. The C≡CH⋯πC≡=C hydrogen bonds dominating structure 1 are gradually replaced by C≡C-H⋯F ones with the increase of fluorination (3 → 5), or completely replaced by C≡CH⋯N and NH⋯πC≡C bonds in 2, and C≡CH⋯O in 6 and 7. The related platinum-based polymers, trans-[-Pt(PnBu3)2-C≡C-R-C≡C-]) n (R = as above and C6H4,) have been prepared and characterised by spectroscopic methods and thermogravimetry, which show that the amino- and methoxy-derivatives have lowest thermal stability while the fluorinated ones exhibit increasing thermal stability with increasing fluorination. Optical spectroscopic measurements reveal that substituents on the aromatic spacer group do not create strong donor-acceptor interactions along the rigid backbone of the organometallic polymers