Huma Akhtar - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Huma Akhtar
The unique ways and manners to process information and explore new notions and ideas are learning... more The unique ways and manners to process information and explore new notions and ideas are learning styles. Cognitive learning style is among the most significant one. This research intends to investigate relationship between field-independent and field-dependent cognitive learning styles and scanning information in text scores. In this research, 382 undergraduate students at public sector engineering university were taken as sample through random probability sampling technique. The investigation was made by using Pearson moment correlation coefficient which revealed that there is a significant correlation between field independent cognitive learning style and scanning information in text scores. The results showed that the more field-independent cognitive style students employ, the better the scores will be in their scanning information in text. The findings of this study will facilitate the type of content and teaching methodologies for teaching reading skill to improve their overall learning of reading comprehension. They will be beneficial for researchers in the field, teachers and policy makers in designing and determining ways to facilitate students with different learning styles.
Language, discourse and communication reveal social and cultural inclinations of human civilizati... more Language, discourse and communication reveal social and cultural inclinations of human civilization (Van Dijk, 1997). Language behavior is exhibited through communication which is extracted from three main categories of language; "ideational, interpersonal and textual" (Halliday, 1978, 1985). Hedges are interpersonal metadiscourse markers (Hs), lexical devices that authors employ to arrange their discourse and communicate their standpoint about the substance for the reader. Cultural and linguistic background of the author may affect the employment of hedges in the discourse. The present study investigated the interpersonal metadiscourse marker-hedges-in the Culture section of European English Newspaper (CEEN) and Pakistani English Newspaper articles (CPEN) based on Hyland's classification (2004). The quantitative corpora-based study contained 32 articles from culture section of Pakistani English newspaper: Dawn News (DN) and 32 articles from culture section of European English Newspaper: BBC. The articles from each newspaper were extracted from online resources. Two corpora have equal representation of words, 40000 each. Data analysis was done using SPSS 22 to see the frequency of hedges used in the data. Moreover, an independent sample t-test was applied. It was found that there is a meaningful difference between the European and Pakistani English newspapers' usage of hedges. This research would help not only ELT practitioners to teach how hedges change the genre of discourse, but would also shed light on cultural discourse. It would depict how the same hedges are used in two different cultural discourses revealing distinct culture and identity.
Language-mixing is a consequent phenomenon of language contact and its occurrence in written disc... more Language-mixing is a consequent phenomenon of language contact and its occurrence in written discourse manifests the deep-rooted role it has acquired in the linguistic scenario of multilingual countries. Language-mixing is considered "a sociolinguistic phenomenon" whose "social and linguistic characteristics" are linked together (Rasul, 2006, p.11). There is a need to see the occurrence of language-mixing in written, non-fictional writings, such as newspapers as they are read not only by educated community of the society but for the less educated and uneducated people; they are an important source of information. The present study investigated attitude of Urdu newspaper readers towards language-mixing in Urdu newspapers. The objective of the study was to investigate Urdu newspaper readers' attitude towards language mixing in Pakistani Urdu newspapers. The study aimed to explore the attitude of the readers towards language-mixing (in the form of code-mixing and borrowing) in Urdu newspapers. This research is limited to the sample of Urdu newspaper readers to some groups, namely teachers, students and general readers of Urdu newspapers readers belonging to different professions. The population for investigating the attitude of the readers towards language-mixing was the readers of Urdu newspapers. The sampling technique was purposive. The sample for this qualitative study included three groups or strata-teachers, students and general reader of newspapers. The general readers of Urdu newspapers belonged to different professions and had different educational background. The researcher designed the questionnaire and a few items were adapted from Bi (2011). It took data from 150 respondents-50 teachers, 50 students and 50 general readers of Urdu newspapers. The pilot study was conducted before conducting the main study. The findings of the data showed that students, teachers and general readers hold mix attitude towards such mixing. Some of the respondents accepted English words as an inevitable trend, while some were of the view that the excessive use of English words destroys the structure and lexicon of Urdu. The study can be beneficial for applied linguists, socio-linguists and policy makers to determine the impact of English on the status of Urdu. It is significant to see how English has become a part of everyday language; its use in published corpus, such as newspapers, and its acceptance by people.
Huma Akhtar, 2019
English is an international language which is widely used around the globe. The use of English wo... more English is an international language which is widely used around the globe. The use of English words is also evident in Urdu in the form of code-switching or code-mixing. There has been an ample amount of research on spoken language-mixing or code-mixing using informal and institutional conversations and very limited research has been carried out using written data. The use of English in Urdu in written text shows emergence of multilingual text. This paper briefly reviewed the research on written language-mixing in order to explore the use of English in Urdu print advertisements and the contexts in which English is used. Bhatia's (2001) model was used to analyze the structure of multilingual texts such as advertisements with the main emphasis on four parts out of eight. They included "product name, slogan, headline, body copy" (Bhatia, 2001). The frequency of non-English words present in advertisements is another clear indication of multilingualism which exists in written texts. The findings show that English words are frequently used in Urdu magazine advertisements and they appear in various contexts, from cosmetics to appliances and food items. The findings will help in highlighting the need to devise analytical framework for analyzing multilingual written discourse than adopting frameworks from spoken discourse. The analysis will also throw light on the emerging trends and literacy practices so as to ascertain whether language mixing is a consequence of language contact or linguistic innovation on the part of the copy writers.
Pakistan Business Review , 2018
Multilingualism has become a significant feature of today's linguistic scenario. When languages a... more Multilingualism has become a significant feature of today's linguistic scenario. When languages are in contact, one of them tends to dominate the others on account of the role given or due to the attitude of the language users. Language contact results in language-mixing. Language-mixing in formal, written, corpora in Pakistan manifests the spread of English. The present study aimed to investigate frequency of the occurrence of language-mixing in Urdu newspapers. Thus it investigated the extent to which language-mixing is prevalent and the processes it takes when it occurs in Pakistani Urdu newspapers. Two Urdu newspapers (published in morning) were taken (from February 1 to 15, 2014) as sample. The data from Urdu newspapers for linguistic analysis were analyzed through content analysis. The findings of the study showed that language-mixing is frequently done in Urdu newspapers and it takes various processes-insertion, hybridization and synthesis.
Balochistan Journal of Linguistics , 2016
Language and society are closely connected and cannot be separated as each has considerable impac... more Language and society are closely connected and cannot be separated as each has considerable impact on the other. Languages impact each other when they are in contact therefore variation or change in a language is a natural consequence. Code-mixing and code-switching are the consequent phenomenon of language contact and a marked feature of a multilingual society. The research related to the significant linguistic phenomenon, code-switching and code-mixing (hereafter CM and CS), has focused dominantly on two main aspects as its focus. The first is functional orientation towards CM and CS which aims to focus on the sociolinguistic perspective with its prime focus on the contexts of CM and CS. The other is theoretical orientation which focuses on the structural aspect of CM and CS and their types etc. Among multitude of these, the questions related to the reasons, motivations, functions of CM and CS as well as the attitude towards particular code have been of particular interest for sociolinguists. Providing a brief overview of the historical foundation of code-mixing and code-switching research, the present study thematically reviews the studies related to one of
Code-Switching is generally defined as a shift from one language to another by the speaker during... more Code-Switching is generally defined as a shift from one language to another by the speaker during the speech. It is a common linguistic phenomenon in Pakistani classrooms. It is considered to have both positive and negative impact. This exploratory study investigated the perceptions of Pakistani students towards teachers' code-switching during English lectures at tertiary level. Students have different attitudes towards code-switching of teachers in classroom. There is a need to investigate whether it is beneficial or malevolent to switch between two codes in an English classroom and how the students view this alternation between codes. The researchers employed 5-point Likert scale questionnaire along with 12 open ended questions to investigate the perceptions of the students towards code-switching of English language teachers during lecture. The findings of the study revealed positive attitude of the students towards teachers' code-switching, however some of the students were of the view that code-switching by teachers restricts their exposure to English.
Code-switching is a natural and inevitable linguistic phenomenon of bilingual or multilingual cla... more Code-switching is a natural and inevitable linguistic phenomenon of bilingual or multilingual classrooms in Pakistan. Teachers switch code in language classroom for various reasons. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the reasons of code-switching by teachers in English language classroom in Pakistan. Two semi-structured group interviews were conducted with English language teachers, teaching at school level and tertiary level, to explore the reasons of the teachers' code-switching in English language classroom in Pakistan. The findings revealed 14 reasons of code switching in English language classroom in Pakistan. The study also found that management of private educational institutions does not encourage code-switching. On the other hand in public sector educational institutions code-switching is considered need of the students. The researchers recommend employing code-switching to meet the needs of the learner and take heed of the level of the language learners as well.
The unique ways and manners to process information and explore new notions and ideas are learning... more The unique ways and manners to process information and explore new notions and ideas are learning styles. Cognitive learning style is among the most significant one. This research intends to investigate relationship between field-independent and field-dependent cognitive learning styles and scanning information in text scores. In this research, 382 undergraduate students at public sector engineering university were taken as sample through random probability sampling technique. The investigation was made by using Pearson moment correlation coefficient which revealed that there is a significant correlation between field independent cognitive learning style and scanning information in text scores. The results showed that the more field-independent cognitive style students employ, the better the scores will be in their scanning information in text. The findings of this study will facilitate the type of content and teaching methodologies for teaching reading skill to improve their overall learning of reading comprehension. They will be beneficial for researchers in the field, teachers and policy makers in designing and determining ways to facilitate students with different learning styles.
Language, discourse and communication reveal social and cultural inclinations of human civilizati... more Language, discourse and communication reveal social and cultural inclinations of human civilization (Van Dijk, 1997). Language behavior is exhibited through communication which is extracted from three main categories of language; "ideational, interpersonal and textual" (Halliday, 1978, 1985). Hedges are interpersonal metadiscourse markers (Hs), lexical devices that authors employ to arrange their discourse and communicate their standpoint about the substance for the reader. Cultural and linguistic background of the author may affect the employment of hedges in the discourse. The present study investigated the interpersonal metadiscourse marker-hedges-in the Culture section of European English Newspaper (CEEN) and Pakistani English Newspaper articles (CPEN) based on Hyland's classification (2004). The quantitative corpora-based study contained 32 articles from culture section of Pakistani English newspaper: Dawn News (DN) and 32 articles from culture section of European English Newspaper: BBC. The articles from each newspaper were extracted from online resources. Two corpora have equal representation of words, 40000 each. Data analysis was done using SPSS 22 to see the frequency of hedges used in the data. Moreover, an independent sample t-test was applied. It was found that there is a meaningful difference between the European and Pakistani English newspapers' usage of hedges. This research would help not only ELT practitioners to teach how hedges change the genre of discourse, but would also shed light on cultural discourse. It would depict how the same hedges are used in two different cultural discourses revealing distinct culture and identity.
Language-mixing is a consequent phenomenon of language contact and its occurrence in written disc... more Language-mixing is a consequent phenomenon of language contact and its occurrence in written discourse manifests the deep-rooted role it has acquired in the linguistic scenario of multilingual countries. Language-mixing is considered "a sociolinguistic phenomenon" whose "social and linguistic characteristics" are linked together (Rasul, 2006, p.11). There is a need to see the occurrence of language-mixing in written, non-fictional writings, such as newspapers as they are read not only by educated community of the society but for the less educated and uneducated people; they are an important source of information. The present study investigated attitude of Urdu newspaper readers towards language-mixing in Urdu newspapers. The objective of the study was to investigate Urdu newspaper readers' attitude towards language mixing in Pakistani Urdu newspapers. The study aimed to explore the attitude of the readers towards language-mixing (in the form of code-mixing and borrowing) in Urdu newspapers. This research is limited to the sample of Urdu newspaper readers to some groups, namely teachers, students and general readers of Urdu newspapers readers belonging to different professions. The population for investigating the attitude of the readers towards language-mixing was the readers of Urdu newspapers. The sampling technique was purposive. The sample for this qualitative study included three groups or strata-teachers, students and general reader of newspapers. The general readers of Urdu newspapers belonged to different professions and had different educational background. The researcher designed the questionnaire and a few items were adapted from Bi (2011). It took data from 150 respondents-50 teachers, 50 students and 50 general readers of Urdu newspapers. The pilot study was conducted before conducting the main study. The findings of the data showed that students, teachers and general readers hold mix attitude towards such mixing. Some of the respondents accepted English words as an inevitable trend, while some were of the view that the excessive use of English words destroys the structure and lexicon of Urdu. The study can be beneficial for applied linguists, socio-linguists and policy makers to determine the impact of English on the status of Urdu. It is significant to see how English has become a part of everyday language; its use in published corpus, such as newspapers, and its acceptance by people.
Huma Akhtar, 2019
English is an international language which is widely used around the globe. The use of English wo... more English is an international language which is widely used around the globe. The use of English words is also evident in Urdu in the form of code-switching or code-mixing. There has been an ample amount of research on spoken language-mixing or code-mixing using informal and institutional conversations and very limited research has been carried out using written data. The use of English in Urdu in written text shows emergence of multilingual text. This paper briefly reviewed the research on written language-mixing in order to explore the use of English in Urdu print advertisements and the contexts in which English is used. Bhatia's (2001) model was used to analyze the structure of multilingual texts such as advertisements with the main emphasis on four parts out of eight. They included "product name, slogan, headline, body copy" (Bhatia, 2001). The frequency of non-English words present in advertisements is another clear indication of multilingualism which exists in written texts. The findings show that English words are frequently used in Urdu magazine advertisements and they appear in various contexts, from cosmetics to appliances and food items. The findings will help in highlighting the need to devise analytical framework for analyzing multilingual written discourse than adopting frameworks from spoken discourse. The analysis will also throw light on the emerging trends and literacy practices so as to ascertain whether language mixing is a consequence of language contact or linguistic innovation on the part of the copy writers.
Pakistan Business Review , 2018
Multilingualism has become a significant feature of today's linguistic scenario. When languages a... more Multilingualism has become a significant feature of today's linguistic scenario. When languages are in contact, one of them tends to dominate the others on account of the role given or due to the attitude of the language users. Language contact results in language-mixing. Language-mixing in formal, written, corpora in Pakistan manifests the spread of English. The present study aimed to investigate frequency of the occurrence of language-mixing in Urdu newspapers. Thus it investigated the extent to which language-mixing is prevalent and the processes it takes when it occurs in Pakistani Urdu newspapers. Two Urdu newspapers (published in morning) were taken (from February 1 to 15, 2014) as sample. The data from Urdu newspapers for linguistic analysis were analyzed through content analysis. The findings of the study showed that language-mixing is frequently done in Urdu newspapers and it takes various processes-insertion, hybridization and synthesis.
Balochistan Journal of Linguistics , 2016
Language and society are closely connected and cannot be separated as each has considerable impac... more Language and society are closely connected and cannot be separated as each has considerable impact on the other. Languages impact each other when they are in contact therefore variation or change in a language is a natural consequence. Code-mixing and code-switching are the consequent phenomenon of language contact and a marked feature of a multilingual society. The research related to the significant linguistic phenomenon, code-switching and code-mixing (hereafter CM and CS), has focused dominantly on two main aspects as its focus. The first is functional orientation towards CM and CS which aims to focus on the sociolinguistic perspective with its prime focus on the contexts of CM and CS. The other is theoretical orientation which focuses on the structural aspect of CM and CS and their types etc. Among multitude of these, the questions related to the reasons, motivations, functions of CM and CS as well as the attitude towards particular code have been of particular interest for sociolinguists. Providing a brief overview of the historical foundation of code-mixing and code-switching research, the present study thematically reviews the studies related to one of
Code-Switching is generally defined as a shift from one language to another by the speaker during... more Code-Switching is generally defined as a shift from one language to another by the speaker during the speech. It is a common linguistic phenomenon in Pakistani classrooms. It is considered to have both positive and negative impact. This exploratory study investigated the perceptions of Pakistani students towards teachers' code-switching during English lectures at tertiary level. Students have different attitudes towards code-switching of teachers in classroom. There is a need to investigate whether it is beneficial or malevolent to switch between two codes in an English classroom and how the students view this alternation between codes. The researchers employed 5-point Likert scale questionnaire along with 12 open ended questions to investigate the perceptions of the students towards code-switching of English language teachers during lecture. The findings of the study revealed positive attitude of the students towards teachers' code-switching, however some of the students were of the view that code-switching by teachers restricts their exposure to English.
Code-switching is a natural and inevitable linguistic phenomenon of bilingual or multilingual cla... more Code-switching is a natural and inevitable linguistic phenomenon of bilingual or multilingual classrooms in Pakistan. Teachers switch code in language classroom for various reasons. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the reasons of code-switching by teachers in English language classroom in Pakistan. Two semi-structured group interviews were conducted with English language teachers, teaching at school level and tertiary level, to explore the reasons of the teachers' code-switching in English language classroom in Pakistan. The findings revealed 14 reasons of code switching in English language classroom in Pakistan. The study also found that management of private educational institutions does not encourage code-switching. On the other hand in public sector educational institutions code-switching is considered need of the students. The researchers recommend employing code-switching to meet the needs of the learner and take heed of the level of the language learners as well.