Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Criticizing Local Color: Innovative Conformity In Kate Chopin’S Short Fiction, Thomas Lewis Morgan

English Faculty Publications

One of the difficulties in using regionalism as a descriptive category to discuss late nineteenth-century literature is the series of shifting relationships it has with other terms describing literary production. Not only is there regionalism’s implied connection to realism, there is naturalism, romance, and even local color to consider, if one desires to distinguish between types of regional literary production. Added to this initial framework are the unspoken assumptions concerning intersecting definitions of generic form: the novel is implicitly connected to realism (and later naturalism), while the short story is traditionally associated with regionalism. Further complicating both sets of terms …

Weaving Transnational Identity: Travel And Diaspora In Sandra Cisneros’S 'Caramelo', Tereza M. Szeghi

English Faculty Publications

Sandra Cisneros's Caramelo, or, Puro Cuento: A Novel (2002) dramatizes the functions of travel and tourism for members of the Mexican and Chicana/o diaspora, particularly for second-generation Chicana protagonist and narrator, Lala Reyes. Caramelo showcases travel's critical role in cultural identity formation, maintenance, and contestation for diasporic peoples, while also demonstrating the variability and mutability of diasporic cultural identity as mediated through travel. My explication of the novel's representations of cultural identity formation through travel contributes to critical conversations regarding the relationship between diaspora and tourism, argues for elastic understandings of diaspora itself, and brings needed attention to the particularities …

A Practice-Oriented Definition Of Post-Process Second Language Writing Theory, Amir Kalan

English Faculty Publications

ENGLISH:

This article is a synthesis of the scholarly literature on the post-process approach to teaching second language (L2) writing, particularly college and university composition in English as an additional language. This synthesis aims to offer a definition of post-process L2 writing that can readily lend itself to practice and be more accessible to practitioners. All the publications that had either substantially or marginally discussed post-process theory since 1990 were systematically reviewed in order to answer the following question: What is a definition of post-process L2 writing theory that can readily lend itself to pedagogy and actual practice for helping …

Integrating Speaking And Listening Activities Into Teaching Anglo-American Academic Writing Rhetoric, Amir Kalan

English Faculty Publications

In an attempt to widen the range of practical strategies grounded in theoretical speculations of genre theorists, this paper proposes teaching the rhetoric of Anglo-American argumentation through pre-writing listening and speaking activities in ESL academic writing classes. Research shows students’ struggles with ESL academic writing include more than inadequate knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure. Instead, the main problem is suggested to be a problem of rhetoric. Students’ attachment to their native rhetorics and their unfamiliarity with Anglo-American academic rhetoric can seriously hinder the process of learning academic writing in English. Suggestions have been made that teachers should condition …

Reading Poetry In Standardized Efl Test Preparation To Increase Meaningful Literacy Engagement, Amir Kalan

English Faculty Publications

This article reports the process of an action research project on the impact of reading poetry on student literacy engagement in an EFL standardized test preparation course. This research project was conducted in a class of eight female Iranian adult professionals preparing for the First Certificate of English (FCE) examination, provided by Cambridge English Language Assessment. Standardized tests are believed to narrow the curriculum, to reduce emphasis on complex thinking, and to have “washback” effect on the quality of teaching. In this project, in order to improve the quality of the students’ literacy engagement two particular measures were taken. In …

English Language Teaching In Lebanese Schools: Trends And Challenges, Fatima Esseili

English Faculty Publications

Like many other countries around the world, the foreign language teaching profession in Lebanon has been flourishing, with English being the forerunner. The new curriculum established by the Lebanese government in the 1990s mandates that in addition to their native language, Arabic, Lebanese children must learn two foreign languages at school, the first language in grade one, and the second in grade seven. Some private schools, however, begin teaching the second foreign language as early as grade four or five, and parents of young learners have to choose one of the foreign languages as a medium of instruction for their …