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The Role of oral practice in improving the learners' acquisition of word stress
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Letters and Languages, 2009) Mekhoukh, Sohila; Khaldi, Kamel (Directeur de thèse)
This experimental study investigates the role of the teaching of English word stress through three modes of pronunciation/speech practice to see if this can improve the learners' performance. We noticed that the production element in the Foreign Languages Department (the English Section) at the University of Setif is not satisfactorily taken into account, and the practice activities done in the language lab are limited to imitation and do not allow for communicative oral practice of the targeted pronunciation feature. Thus, our research question concerns whether the use of controlled, guided and free pronunciation-oriented speaking practice help our students produce word stress more accurately. Questionnaires and tests were the main research tools used in this study. The teacher's questionnaire, the subjects' questionnaire, and pre-test's results helped us identify and diagnose some of the students' problems with word stress and the potential causes. Students participated in either experimental or control group, study English as a foreign language. Material used for instruction is planned to be production-oriented and the lessons were of a practice type. A variety of tasks including listening and spelling awareness activities were also designed, added to that, an integration of three speaking practice modes (controlled, guided, and free) simultaneously, taking into account the learners' difficulties even with any features related to word stress, such as syllable division and vowel reduction. The pre-test/post-test data indicated that our teaching strategy facilitated the improvement of word stress production among these students to some extent. The experimental group exceeded the abilities of the control group.
An Afro-centrist Perspective of cultural affirmation and social progress in p'Bitek's Song of Lawino and Song of ocol and Ngugi's I will marry when I want
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Letters and Languages, 2009) Boucherifi, Boualem; Bensemmane, M’hamed (Directeur de thèse)
This dissertation studies the militant socio-cultural and political positions of Okot p'Bitek, as well as Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Ngugi wa Mirii. The focus is on Okot's long poems Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol, and on the Ngugi play I Will Marry When I Want. S L and S O truly epitomise Okot's philosophy of 'Africa's Cultural Revolution'. In S L, the poet charges his epic character, Lawino with the mission of presenting, interpreting and eventually defending the traditional aspects of her community. Equipped with a remarkable charisma, eloquent words and a lucid vision, Lawino expresses her sympathies and anxieties through describing Acoli food, dances, aesthetics, medicine, beliefs, rituals, religion and many other aspects. S L constitutes a solid argument centred on the idea of a 'search' for an African identity. As this dissertation suggests, Okot's cultural insights impress even non-Acoli readers, because of Lawino's particular use of figurative language, similes, metaphors, irony, mockery and satire. Its publication in 1966 inspired other African writers to evoke the richness and originality of their cultural heritage. In his rejoinder Song of Ocol, Okot sketches Lawino's husband like an adamant figure embracing Western values, ideals and culture. If Lawino stands for traditionalism, Ocol represents the African educated 'élite' attracted by modernity and the European lifestyle. Ocol's stand point is hyperbolically dramatised by his negation of his own culture, his own people, his wife and even himself. The caricature is carried further when Ocol takes the advantage of his Western education to become a ruthless political leader striving for power and money. Instead of promoting justice and progress, Ocol shocks his audience by his indifference to poverty, disease and ignorance. By making him a symbol of Africa's cruellest dictators, Okot criticises the hypocrisy of Africa's national leaders and points at their failure to meet social aspirations. I W M by the two Ngugis deals with the socio-economic reasons for the down fall of the Kiguunda family. In accordance with the 'people's theatre' or the 'theatre of the oppressed', the dramatists portray the life of the Kiguunda family who fail to pay back a bank loan. Their situation is complicated when their land is sold at auction, their daughter falls in prostitution and Kiguunda sinks into alcoholism. In fact, Ngugi is implicitly accusing the western capitalists and their local collaborators of impoverishing peasants and workers. Thus, the two Ngugis attempt to re-define the priorities of the national independence through their political activism in Kamiriithu theatre with peasants and workers. Adopting a socialist ideology, the dramatists describe a kind of class struggle between the Kiois and the Kiguundas, i.e., the bourgeois and the peasants. While Okot lays the stress on Uganda's need for a cultural revaluation, or indeed revolution, Ngugi is more concerned to consider culture as a basis on which to construct a just and democratic society in post independent Kenya.
Understanding Success and Failure at Tests Via Students’ Causal Attributions
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Humanities and Languages, 2009) Gasmi, Maha; Cherchalli, Safya (Directeur de thèse)
Research on causal attributions (Weiner, 1974, 1992; Covington, 1992; Graham, 1991, 1994) has shown that students’ perceptions of the causes of their successes and failures will affect their expectations, and thereby their futureachievement behaviour. The present study aims to gain insights into how students in the English Department at the University of Algiers interpret their perceived successes and failures at tests. Of special interest were differences in attributions between “successful” and “less successful” students. A total of eighty-one students participated in this study at the beginning of their third year. Data were collected by means of an open questionnaire, a rating scale and a group interview. The results revealed that students attribute their perceived successes mostly to effort and interest (internal factors). On the other hand, failure was explained by teacher’s severity in marking and test difficulty(external factors). This is a classic example of the “ego-serving bias” (Miller and Ross, 1975), according to which individuals are predicted torespond with more internality to success as compared to failure in order to protect their self-esteem.The results also showed that statistically significant differences were found between “successful” and “less successful” students in their causal attributions for failure. “Less successful” students seem to have an external locus of control when accounting for their failures, which suggests an apparent lack of autonomy. Another noteworthy finding is that “successful” students were found to manifest a high degree of achievement motivation, reflected in their high attribution of success to effort. The findings of this study suggest that students should learn to take responsibility for their achievement outcomes. Moreover, “less successful” students should be taught to attach more value to effort as a cause of academic success.
AFRICAN WOMEN’S QUEST FOR SELF-REALIZATION BETWEEN TRADITION AND MODERNITY IN
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Letters and Languages, 2009) Saïl, Amina; Aït Hammou, Louisa (Directeur de thèse)
Whether or not Buchi Emecheta’s novels hold an articulate feminist ideology has been subject to hot debates among critics. Some views seem to find in Emecheta’s representation of the female experience an attack on the traditional patriarchal values of her society, and hence a call for a complete break with traditions. Others find that traditional African women enjoyed some degree of freedom and autonomy that were undermined by their contact with the West after the colonization of their countries. Therefore, according to them, the motif of her novels is to denounce the colonial oppression of traditional women. The purpose of this dissertation is to evaluate of the female experience in Emecheta’s novels, The Slave Girl and The Joys of Motherhood in an attempt to understand the implications of both patriarchy and colonialism in the shaping of the Nigerian feminine self. It is a study of the representation of the Nigerian woman’s identity as female, black, colonized, and African in order to explain how race and gender were woven together as determinant factors that affected the female experience during the colonial period. Our aim is to explore Buchi Emecheta’s construction of womanhood in terms of the Self/Other concept which was developed by existentialist philosophers such as Jean-Paul Sartre and given a feminist dimension by Simone de Beauvoir. This concept will equally inform our study of the colonizer/colonized relation in order the explain the situation of Nigerian women under British rule.
The Tragic Hero in Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones and The Hairy Ape In the Light of Karen Horney’s Theory of Neurotic Pride
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Letters and Languages, 2009) Belounis, Rachida; Deramchia, Yamina (Directeur de thèse)
This dissertation proposes to study the tragic hero in Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones and The Hairy Ape in the light of Karen Horney's theory of neurotic pride. It attempts to verify whether Jones - a black character - and Yank - a stoker - in The Emperor Jones and The Hairy Ape respectively, who were subject to rejection because of their belonging to marginalised groups, could not develop into their real selves and reach self integrity. Instead, both protagonists, to feel worthy and secure, develop neurotic pride which causes them to mould themselves into their illusory idealised selves as an immortal emperor and a divine stoker. In Horney's view, both characters will grow into alienated beings who exist both as their actual selves in the real world (conscious) and their idealised selves in their fantasy world (unconscious). The encounter between conscious and unconscious anticipates the heroes' downfall. Therefore, the choice of a psychoanalytical criticism suits the subject of our research as it addresses the mind, i.e., conscious and unconscious functioning. In fact, it sheds light on the heroes' psychic conflict which is the main cause of their tragedy. Among a number of psychoanalysts' theories we have opted for Horney's theory in particular because it presents a social view of the psyche, placing emphasis on social factors and their contribution to forming the unconscious. In other words, it shows how lack of warmth and love in Jones's and Yank's environment have made of them victims of neurotic pride whose only obsession is finding security. After trying to bring evidence from the text that Jones and Yank are victims of neurotic pride as explained by Horney, this research attempts to redefine the link between O'Neill's personal experience and his fiction. In other words, it tries to investigate whether the playwright's interest in depicting neurotic characters such as Jones and Yank stems from his personal experience of neurosis. Here appears the second reason for choosing a psychoanalytical approach. In fact, in addition to the character's psyche, psychoanalysis also addresses the author's mind. The last concern of our dissertation is exploring the stylistic aspect of both plays, Expressionism in particular. We argue that O'Neill's choice of Expressionism as the dominant style in the two plays is linked with his interest in dramatising his characters' neurotic conflict and perhaps also his own. Indeed, Expressionism seems to suit the topic of our research as it brings into light the hidden neurotic conflict.
READING METACOGNITIVELY
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Letters and Languages, 2009) Hamdoud, Amina; Bensemmane, Faiza (Directeur de thèse)
The research concern of this dissertation is to highlight the importance of a vital aspect of the psycholinguistic processes in reading: metacognition. The rationale of this study is to display the link between the readers' knowledge of what reading involves i.e. the reading requirements and the strategies used which are basically metacognitive strategies and the type of reading needed for literary texts. This investigation also aims to shed light on the relationship between the readers' use of metacognitive strategies to monitor and regulate the reading process and their reading performance as regards literary texts in the context of this study. The study's theoretical framework is based on the works of Flavell (1978), one of the first theorists to embark on the investigation of the notions of meta-memory and metacognition and to describe metacognition as knowledge and regulation of cognition. Thirty one third year students from the English Department, University of Algiers at Bouzareah were selected for this investigation as well as five literature teachers who provided information about the demands and the strategies needed for reading a literary text. Two questionnaires and a reading task were used in the study to probe the metacognitive aspects present or absent in students' reading of literary texts. The results were compared and showed that the knowledge students possess about reading is not specific to the task per se and does not match the requirements of the reading task. In addition, deficits at the level of control appear to be dominant in students' processing since they lack knowledge about how best to do it i.e. namely the use of alternative, appropriate strategies. All the above things considered, the study calls for training first year university students to monitor and regulate their own reading process since it is the basic skill through which they learn. This can be achieved if they are able to detect their own failures and attempt to find solutions for them. Prior to use, the students ought to possess the knowledge required to control the process effectively.
ON MOVING THE CENTRE OF NARRATION AND DISCOURSE
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Arts and Letters, 2009) Chaabane Ali, Mohamed; Bensemmane, M’hamed (Directeur de thèse)
This dissertation is intended chiefly to study Ngugi’s literary response to the Western culture of domination, which manifests itself in a set of hegemonic views about the non-Western communities generally, and the African in particular. While forming the ideological basis for the growth of classical European Empires overseas, this culture for him still continues to impose its standards on the global order, and thus on the post-colonial world. In his most proletarian novels, Petals of Blood, Devil on the Cross, and Matigari, Ngugi has a “literarypolitical” project of “revisiting” the cultural and political authority of the imperial powers. This project is mainly intended to restore his people’s freedom of thought and action so as to resist the power of the hegemonic interests of Western-oriented international capitalism. Ngugi’s presently discussed novels, by bringing to the fore a set of heated issues bearing on history, culture, and the nation, reverse colonial binarisms in order to combat the hegemonic interpellations of the neo-colonial regime. In Petals of Blood, the idea of history is brought to prominence as Ngugi argues strongly for a radical reinterpretation of Kenya’s working people’s history. In fact, Karega, evidently the mouthpiece of the writer, stresses that the rewriting of Kenya’s history is an important undertaking, but by no means sufficient, to support what he foresees as the class struggle waged by the “wretched of the earth” against the neocolonial regime run by the new “bloodsuckers”. Similarly, Ngugi, through such characters as Nyakinyua and Abdulla, argues clearly for the significance of Kenya’s “oral history” and the heroic history of Kenyans’ resistance to the imperialist “marauders” for today’s struggle which, at all events, runs the risk of being overwhelmed by a false conception of Kenya’s both precolonial and colonial past that is touted by a corrupt ruling elite. In his next novel Devil on the Cross, however, much emphasis is placed upon the indigenous culture of the population, even though Ngugi is very often thought to prioritise political and economic struggles over cultural retrieval. This novel interestingly shows that we can never diminish the instrumental value of culture as a political weapon against imperialism it its neocolonialist stage. This study makes thus the claim that the indigenous culture of the masses can be used in the very definition of the downtrodden classes, to say nothing about the use of such aspects of folk culture as songs, proverbs, and traditional stories as a means of communication with the audience, of whom the “illiterate” masses form the majority. In addition, DOC displays a concern for certain forms of cultural hegemony exercised by such institutions as the school, the media, and the Church. In this novel, indeed, my contention is that the neocolonial ideology is supported in part by the imposition of the Western cultural 7 models on the African people. Consequently, Ngugi’s disapproval of the white culture is an explicit attack on the whole system of the neocolonial power. But, at the same time, nowhere in his novel is there any explicit call for the return to some pristine pre-colonial culture. In Ngugi’s opinion, this atavistic view is not founded at all. Ngugi’s first novel in exile, Matigari, solidifies Ngugi’s immense project of “de-centring” the Western hegemonic political discourse by expressing the felt need for the regeneration of the post-colonial African nation. Ngugi decries violently the currently established Kenyan nation because of its degenerate state that manifests itself clearly in the falsity of foundations upon which it is based. Matigari, the hero of the narrative, represents the daunting challenge of the establishment of an egalitarian society, and the fact that he ultimately falls back on a military action indicates strongly that the nation cannot be “regenerated” unless an armed rebellion of the masses, similar to the epic Mau Mau insurrection, breaks out once again. In general, Ngugi’s literary -and political- project of redefining the narrative discourse about Africa in the post-independence era has to be envisaged within the theoretical framework of postcolonialism and the political framework of his Marxist-based ideology. Ngugi revisits in his works a number of crucial concepts, which include history, culture, nation, with a very clear objective in mind: the political, economic, and cultural autonomy of the Africans and the non-western people at large. This objective has to be achieved, as indicated, whether explicitly or implicitly in all his “popular” novels, as they have come to be called, by the downtrodden people’s resort to armed resistance.
WOMENS' POSITIONS AND ROLES IN CONTEMPORARY GHANA IN AMA ATA AIDOO'S NOVELS
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Arts and Languages, 2009) Messaoudi, Lila; Bensemmane, M’hamed (Directeur de thèse)
An examination of the existing scholarship on African women writers shows that the question of negotiating the past and the present in the contemporary period is one of the crucial discussions in African women's literature. However, this negotiation is hardly dealt with as an issue that can potentially lead to the re-evaluation of women's roles and status in contemporary Africa, so as to break away from the nostalgia for pre-colonial women's images and roles and to cast a critical eye on Western imported lifestyles. As social change occurs, women's position in Africa is undergoing an ever changing redefinition especially when it is considered within the larger scope of nationalism. This is what this dissertation proposes, a re-reading of Ama Ata Aidoo's novels, through the new prism of women's roles as part of the cultural negotiation in contemporary Ghana. In doing so, the dissertation goes beyond the paradigm of binary opposition that undergirds the critical field concerning writings by African women in favour of the innovative concept of negotiation. In addressing women's issues such as marriage, polygamy and love within the broader context of nationhood and nationalism, this study puts forward the argument that Ama Ata Aidoo has devised a space of creativity for herself through an innovative aesthetic vacuum, hitherto the preserve of men, and from which she poses, discusses and addresses through negotiation, those cultural issues affecting her and her female characters. Chapter One presents a theoretical basis for this study by providing a frame of discussion regarding the concepts of Feminism, Womanism, Gender, Socialization as well as Aidoo's commitment to these concepts, her commitment to the nation in order to explain how she is able to negotiate her commitment to both African women's issues and nationalism. Chapter Two deals with the dilemma posed in Our Sister Killjoy; Nationalism is discussed specifically in relation to women's issues, as well as to Gender and Identity. Through this association, we discuss the contentions as well as the negotiation of these two crucial issues in African literature, particularly in African women's literature. Chapter Three engages both the personal and the political in Changes, as it questions the notion of education and redefines the practice of polygamy to suit women's needs and identities in contemporary Ghana. Chapter Four explores Aidoo's style in handling the issues discussed in the above chapters, and her successful attempt in negotiating traditional storytelling and modernist techniques, as a vivid example of how to negotiate past and present. Aidoo thus makes a literary compact with her bold views concerning the role of an intellectual woman in Ghana, by engaging in a mode of writing combining post modernism with traditional orature.
MORAL RESPONSIBILITY AND TRAGEDY IN JOSEPH CONRAD’S LORD JIM AND CHINUA ACHEBE’S NO LONGER AT EASE
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Arts and Languages, 2009) Adjout, Asma; Bensemmane, M’hamed (Directeur de thèse)
This dissertation approaches the problem of morality and social responsibility as two related elements which have been a theme treated by many writers, notably in the Western world and Africa. I set out to discuss here two novels, namely Conrad's Lord Jim (1900) and Achebe's No Longer at Ease (1961), which provide a platform for discussion of morality and its relevance in the modern context. This research work attempts to bridge cultural, social, and historical differences separating the two works, and brings to light the universality of morality, and the importance attributed to it by writers anxious to reassert traditional moral values in a degenerate present. The changes which have ushered in the modern world have had an important impact on traditional morality. The basic precept of morality, crystallized in 'The Golden Rule': 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you', is increasingly challenged by the modern conception of the individual's right to pursue his own happiness; moral behaviour does not always involve self-sacrifice for others, but when it does so, we are more able to recognize its worth and admire its beauty. Glorification of money and materialism, chaotic transformation under the impact of speed, hugeness and standardization, intellectual and scientific revolutions shaking prior conceptions of human nature, are characteristics of the modern word, in the face of which traditional morality is losing its hold on the individual. Moral failure is the main theme addressed in the two novels. The two authors investigate the reasons for this failure, without, however, bringing clear-cut conclusions. The two approaches used in this work, namely, the socio-ethical and the tragic, is an attempt to cover the possible reasons of the protagonists' moral failure as advanced by the two authors. While Conrad and Achebe present a universal view of morality, i.e., the need to assert such notions as social responsibility and self-sacrifice, the socio-cultural factors play a crucial role in shaping the protagonists' destinies within their respective communities. While the two authors 'agree' on the basic tenet of morality, they are aware of the changes in the societies they live in. Western society as portrayed by Conrad is characterized by moral anarchy and skepticism. Conrad is aware of the difficulty of keeping to traditional moral values in view of the new modern realities, and deplores the Western society's loss of fortitude and spirituality. On the other hand, African society as portrayed by Achebe is losing its traditional cohesion due to its encounter with Europe, and is in search of a more tenable modernity. Achebe is aware that the path towards change is inevitable, but warns against a blind adoption of modern Western cultural precepts, and points out the importance of maintaining in some degree traditional identity and moral values. In view of the similarities highlighted, and despite the differences noted, Conrad and Achebe transcend the disillusionment imposed by a chaotic present, and attain the stature of moral teachers.
Exploring English Language Teachers’ Teaching Style
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Arts and Languages, 2009) Sail-Terki, Hind; Bensemmane, Faiza (Directeur de thèse)
The present study is an attempt to investigate the teaching style of ten university language teachers teaching in the English department of Saad Dahleb University at Blida. It tries to identify the most dominant teaching style of these teachers and to see how aspects of learner-centredness operate within this dominant teaching style. This study is exploratory. It makes use of three research instruments: two questionnaires to teachers and a questionnaire to students. The aim of using questionnaires is to assess the teachers' dominant teaching style from both teachers' and students' perspectives and to examine how learner-centred teaching principles are reflected in their teaching style. The questionnaire designed for teachers and for students include 26 items and it was adapted from an instrument initially used by Rong et al. (2005), called the Adapted Principles of Adult Learning Scale (APALS). After analysing the responses of teachers' and students' questionnaires and comparing them, we noticed that teachers and students have matching views regarding the teachers' dominant teaching style. According to the teachers questioned, 7/10 teach in a traditional way while 9/10 also teach in a traditional way from the students' point of view. But the analysis of teachers' 'traditional' style of teaching revealed some learner-centredness that was evident from the teachers' responses to the 26 items of the APALS questionnaire and from their responses to the 6 questions of the second questionnaire. The findings revealed that there are some learner-centred elements in the teachers' instruction in the sense that they tried to relate learning to students' experiences and establish a climate of trust between them and the learners. In addition, the students were encouraged to ask questions and get involved into discussions and debates especially in the Literature modules. One implication of these findings is that teachers should be encouraged to adopt a more learner-centred teaching style. According to recent research, self-reflection plays an important role in identifying and modifying teachers' personal teaching style (Grasha 1996, Conti 2004). So, we provided three self-reflection activities suitable for university teachers of English. These self-reflection activities may help to identify the attitudes, values and beliefs that teachers associate with their teaching practices and to find alternatives and better their teaching style.

رسائل الماجستير اللغات الأجنبية

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