Teaching English as Foreign Language

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Browsing Teaching English as Foreign Language by Author "Abiye Daniel"

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    Application of Major Narrative Techniques: A Comparative Analysis of Chinua Achebe’s Novels
    (Addis Ababa University, 2008-06) Tesfamaryam G/Meskel ; Abiye Daniel
    This thesis tries to investigate the application of major narrative techniques used in Chinua Achebe’s novels. The main objectives of the paper are identifying the narrative techniques used in Achebe’s novels and pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of the novels in relation to the use of narrative techniques. In accomplishing the aforementioned objectives, the writer of this study tries to review relevant literatures in relation to narrative techniques. Then an attempt is made to go through Achebe’s five novels in accordance with the reviewed literatures by focusing on point of view and narrative time. In the analysis, it is pointed out that Achebe’s first three novels are written in the third person omniscient point of view. This perspective made the reader a passive recipient of information since he/she expects everything from the narrator. Achebe’s fourth novel, ‘A Man of the People’, is written from the point of view of a first person narrator. With all its subjectivity and unreliability, this novel is appealing to readers because of the narrators’ humanly appearances. Achebe’s fifth novel ‘Anthills of the Savannah’ employs the third person omniscient and the first person point of views. The use of the two points of views helps the author to minimize the gap that can be created due to the limitations of both points of views. On the other hand, no relevant difference can be observed among the five novels in terms of narrative time, except the second novel ‘No Longer at Ease’. The story in this novel is presented in the form of a long flashback. Because of this, the reader might find him/her self, connecting pieces of information in the process of reading. There are also deviations from the chronological order in the other four novels. Similar presentations can be observed when we look at the five novels in terms of duration and frequency. 8 From the analysis of the five novels, it is concluded that considerable attention is not given to the way the stories in his first three novels are presented. On the other hand, in ‘A Man of the People’, the author used the limitations of the first person narrator to foreground the overall cynicism that existed in the country. In ‘Anthills of the Savannah’, the author succeeded in overcoming the limitations of the first person and the third person points of views by substituting the two points of views in presenting the story.
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    The Images of Women in the Proverbs and Sayings of the Oromo: The Case of West Arsi Zone
    (Addis Ababa University, 2008-06) Sena Gonfa; Abiye Daniel
    The major goal of this study is to examine the portrayal of women in the proverbs and sayings of the Arsi Oromo and to asses the awareness of the people about the effects of these proverbs and sayings on women. To achieve this goal, an attempt was made to collect proverbs and sayings that refer to women and attitudinal information from two woredas of West Arsi zone- Arsi Negelle and Kofale. The data was collected using three types of instruments (focus-group discussion), interview and questionnaire. The collected data was transcribed, tallied and tabulated (for questionnaires), translated from the original language (‘Afaan Oromoo) to the target language (English) and finally, it was analyzed and interpreted qualitatively.The study shows that women are portrayed both positively and negatively in the proverbs and sayings of the Arsi. The image of women as mothers is a positive one, despite the fact that even the proverbs sayings that are used to praise women also reflect a socio-cultural attitude of the people and the sex-role stereotypes that are hidden in these proverbs and sayings. Even though the majority of the respondents have indicated that among the Arsi, proverbs are used to add flavor to their speech; to settle social problems; to correct misbehavior; to criticize, praise and encourage good behavior; etc., they directly or indirectly show the inferiority of women and the biased social attitudes towards them. In these proverbs and sayings, women are depicted as weak and dependent, illogical, irrational, irresponsible, ignorant, jealous, unfaithful, unreliable and unpredictable, and as inferior members of their community. Positively, women are portrayed as good house makers and obedient servants for their family. And it was found out that, the women have internalized the negative attitude the society shows towards them and they act according to the social code of conduct honestly. The elders attributed the cause of the existing negative attitude towards women to the cultural adoption of the Oromo people after the fall of Gadaa system due to the conquest of Minelik II to the region. Though they are not aware of the socializing effect of the proverbs and sayings that they use for their aforementioned functions, the respondents indicated that the proverbs and sayings they use towards women have both positive and negative effects on them. It is also found out that the transmission of these proverbs and sayings from one generation to the other generation facilitates the continuation of the existing images of women to the future, thereby causing women’s negative self image that results in low women’s participation in different social affairs. Finally, it was indicated by the respondents that this problem will be alleviated by: teaching the society about gender equality; increasing women’s participation; hindering the use of proverbs and sayings that undermine women; and by educating women so as to enable them defend the violation of their rights.
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    Structural Analysis of Theme Through Technique of Yeshitela's Novels
    (Addis Ababa University, 2001-06) Martha Badi ; Abiye Daniel
    The obj ectives of this thesis mainly focuses on a n attempt to implement structural analysis method on texts, that help one to arrive at intended themes. For this purpose, Yeshitla Kokeb's novels Wogegta and Dosegnaw h ave been selected. The themes of these n ovels, eman cipation and commitment respective ly, are hig hli ghted through the utilization of characterization a nd p lot techniques. The a n alysis of the techniques doesn't mainly fo c us on content. As a critique, i t is dealt here as an achieved content, the form, the work of art. Different structur es by which the form got constructed, had h e lped to explicitly show, how the t echniques are utilized for the purpose aforemention ed. Hence, those different structu r ing methods of theoreticians that proved to suit the analysis a re only applied. Moreover, the research er h as endeavored to devise h e r own structu rin g approach. The research has revealed that the economic, social and political life of our society can easily clearly be visuali zed through t h e utilization of different stru cturing methods. It has also proved the existence of a dopting t heoretical frame works ,whic h might h elp one to invent her I hisown theory of structuring method. The first chapter of this thesis comprises the introduc tion, a nd the methodology the researcher e mployed in analyzing the texts and the problems e n countered .The li terature review of differen t theoreticians,who have done analysis on c h a r acter and plot is s h own in the second chapter. In Wogegta among oth e r s, the researcher h as tried to apply the most detailed consid er ation of the organization of lexies, which Roland Barthes distinguished as five "c odes" w hich a r e applied in the reading of a text. Structures of these literary codes, i.e . the proairetic code (code o f action); the cultural code (which refers to all the system of knowle dgeand values); the symbolic code (which refers to the theme); the connotative code (which expresses th emes developed around ch aracter s); and the hermeneutic code (code of puzzle) which help in the characterization technique are attempted to be a pplied on the text in the third ch a pter. Moreover, the theories contribution to the advancement of the emancipation and other themes is also examined. Furthermore, in the fourth chapter, plots of Dosegnaw with its relevance to the development of commitment and other themes are endeavored to be structurally highlighted. Hence, Greimase's 'contractu a l sequence', Todorov's postulation of a set of basic categories, Barthese"s cultural code identification and Shklovsky's type of para llelism and their contribution towards the progression of the themes are examined. The researcher had intermingled Barthese's codes with characterization techniques and has attempted to establish viable slructures. The structures relevance to the development of the themes is a lso examined . Besides from among diffrent types of characterization methods, I have pinpointed those areas III the chronological characterization method tha t should be ra mified. Moreover, the researcher has adopted Greimase's "four term homology" into "three" so that it fits to analyze Doseganw th oroughly. Specifica lly, my investigation deals with : (a) Different ch a racterization technique th eories which are combined with Barthese's codes moreover theories of analysis of plots are also interpreted. (b) The effect of applying a characterization method on Wogegta's theme is explored. (c) The effect of plot construction on Dosegnaw's theme is also examined.