Category: Language
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Tarzan and My Language Acquisition
ٹارزن کے جنگ اخبار میں روز شائع ہونے والے تصویری سلسلہ سے میں نے تقریباً 5-6 سال کی عمر میں اخبار پڑھنا شروع کیا– یہ 1967-68 کا زمانہ تھا– روز صبح امی، ابا یا بڑی بہنوں سے اصرار ہوتا تھا کہ وہ پڑھ کر سنائیں، اور شروع میں دو چار دفعہ ہر ایک نے سنایا–…
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A Drive on a Rickety Cycle and Sufistic Thought by Shah M Ismail Rauf
This is a story/article written by my dear mamoo Shah M Ismail written around 1953-55. Today September 8, 2021 is his 22nd death anniversary. He retired as Major in 1980s. He was great man who taught me how to love and play with children. Father of Faizan Shah, Faryal Osman Khan, Faraz Shah, Fariha Ahmreen,…
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Ferozesons Children Urdu Novels Translated from English Novels
I would like to know if you can identify which of these books are translations of which authors of English books. What a wonderful time that I spent with these books. I read them in Urdu before I read them in English later on. Once upon a time I used to have a collection of…
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Can a Child Learn a Foreign Language without obtaining full competency in First language
بچے کی زہنی نشو نما و خود اعتمادی کا گلا گھوٹنا ہو تو اس کو “پہلی زبان” پر دسترس ہونے سے قبل انگریزی زبان کے جبر میں قید کر دیں I got this comment on the above FB post: Actually kids can learn multiple languages early in life a lot easier than later. But the…
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A Tribute to Cricket for Spearheading my English Language Acquisition – Sports and Language Learning
I often see parents worrying about language skills of their children. A closer look at the hobbies of such children will indicate that they are not passionate about any hobbies especially sports. Here I would detail the role of cricket in spearheading my English language acquisition. As my interest grew, with cricket and started following…
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An Indecent Obsession: Of War and its Futility
Reflections on “An Indecent Obsession” a movie and book by Colleen McCullough (author of “Thorn Birds” which I read in Pakistan around 1985-86). This is a page from my diary written on September 25, 1987. I was 25 and this was my first semester at UT Austin, and was residing at Riverside Apartments. ——————- For…
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How Readers are Created. Ecosystem that Produces Readers
How can we create readers and an ecosystem where readers can thrive. How do we make reading a contagious disease when our educational institutions from schools to universities have become mass producers of functional illiterates [1]. Universities complain that they are getting intake that has studied English for 12 years but have no reading comprehension and…
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How Schools Teach Students to Hate Reading: Mass Creation of Non-Readers
Schools are producing graduates who know how to read but are not readers. They have become non-readers (functional illiterates) because the schools have taught them to hate reading! Functional Illiteracy Schools typically use a curriculum and methodology that consists of senseless and meaningless worksheets and exercises which the students are forced to do repeatedly, continuously…
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Why People Hate Poetry? Because Schools have Taught them to Hate Poetry!
Why people hate poetry? Because schools did not teach them “to love poetry” but they actually taught them “to hate poets and their poetry”. If you want students “to hate poetry” ask them to (1) write explanations (tashreeh) of poems, and (2) memorize life history and style (tarz-e-kalam) of poets, (3) associate grades with their…
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How Education System is Promoting Non-Readers and “Functional Illiteracy”: Top Ten Reasons
Our educational system is producing graduates who can read but are not readers, who can write but are not writers i.e. functional illiterates [1]. They do not read fiction, have often never read books except those that they were forced to read for their exams, but which mostly they cunningly avoided by cramming the notes, and…
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Managing English Teaching Outcomes in Universities: An Experiential Learning Case Study of ESL/EFL
My recollections as Vice President and Dean about ensuring the learning outcomes of English courses at PAF KIET from 2002-2012. Around ten to twelve years ago in our academic discussions with the President of the institute where I was working at that time, we would often worry about raising the English skills of our students.…
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Anti-National Language Policy leads to Rule by Rich and Corrupt Elites
One of the major reasons that has led to the continuous deterioration of economy and culture in Pakistan can be attributed to the anti-national language policies by the status-quo troika. This status-quo troika consisted of rich ruling elites in the bureaucracy that quickly joined hand with the establishment and the landed aristocracy during the rule…
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A Formula is Worth a Thousand Pictures: Dijkstra vs Buzan’s Mind-Maps
A Formula is Worth a Thousand Pictures: Dijkstra vs Buzan’s Mind-Maps Problems with Pictures with too many details and Complexity I had the opportunity to attend Tony Buzan’s presentation of his famous Mind-Maps at the convention of Management Association of Pakistan held at Karachi in September 2014. Mind-maps became popular in Pakistan some years ago thanks to their use for…
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Capitalist Transactions Replacing Traditions and Values from Istanbul to Makkah
Free Water Fountain on National Mall Last month during transit for a few hours at the Istanbul airport on my way to Tblisi, Georgia, I was struck by the “transactional” nature of every interaction at the airport. I was surprised that there were no drinking water fountains available at one of the busiest airports of the world.…
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Georgia – Lesson in Preserving Language, Religion and Culture
Skyline with Churches The first thing that strikes one in Tbilisi, Georgia is the love Georgians have for their language and their history and their resilience in maintaining their religious and cultural identity despite centuries of rule by foreign powers: Sign boards and billboards are all in Georgian, schooling is predominantly in Georgian, daily interaction…
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How Language Acquisition is Made Difficult for Children: Eight Lessons from an Urdu Acquisition Case Study
How Language Acquisition is Made Difficult for Children: Eight Lessons from an Urdu Acquisition Case Study [The later part of this post would derive the lessons that I learned from my experience of how I learned Urdu which is described first. These lessons address the problems that our faulty methodologies are creating today in language…
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Most Effective Way of Cutting a Nation from its History and Ideals – Imposing a Foreign Language
Most Effective Way of Cutting a Nation from its History – Imposing a Foreign Language The project for cutting a nation from its history and roots always starts with the introduction of a foreign “language”. We know how Ataturk’s drive for secularism led him to change the Turkish script from Arabic to Latin script to…
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Structural Paradigm of Schools: Foundations and Assumptions
Current Education Paradigm [1] Schools anywhere in the world share a common paradigm that was determined by the demands of the Industrial Revolution. In this post we identify the structural elements underlying the current paradigm. Many of the underlying assumptions of these structural elements are being questioned in the light of the transition to knowledge…