Thesis (Bachelor of Arts in English)
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Item Exploring classroom and outside-classroom factors affecting oral fluency in english of Bengali-medium students(BRAC University, 2019-04) Tasnim, Nishat; Ahmed, SabreenaIn a few recent studies it has been found that teachers in national curriculum schools of Bangladesh mostly prefer to teach grammar-centered lessons. Furthermore, it is often seen that students who graduate from Bengali medium schools tend to show low oral fluency in English. Hence, this study was carried out from the perspective of six participants of former Bengali-medium students to explore the kinds of classroom and outside-classroom activities and experiences they had that affected their oral fluency in English. The results showed that, outside-classroom factors as well as learners’ own efforts had a more prominent effect on their oral fluency, although the classroom helped build their grammatical accuracy in speech. The significance of this study is to encourage teachers to include interactive oral activities in the classroom in order to facilitate learners’ oral fluency in English.Item Humans trapped in bureaucracy: a study of Franz Kafka’s depiction of the modern man(BRAC University, 2017-12) Tasnim, Nishat; Saba, AnikaFranz Kafka is one of the greatest writers of twentieth century who explores the complexity of bureaucracy in his literary works. His novels and short stories show the crisis of modern man through anguished characters have become important figure in the twentieth century Europe literary tradition. Kafka belonged to a Jewish family in Prague. During his lifetime he worked in insurance companies which made him experimentally and intellectually aware of the fact that humans are slaves of the modern bureaucratic system. The reason why humans are under the enslavement of this system is due to rapid growth of industrialization, urbanization and commercial institutions. These are only a means to serve the purpose of capitalistic and bureaucratic purposes. Kafka’s characters such as Gregor Samsa in The Metamorphosis and Joseph K in The Trial are vivid illustrations of humans trapped within the hierarchy and the web of bureaucracy which existed within the capillary of Kafka’s society. Modern man of twentieth century Europe reflects the hollowness of existence. Their nightmarish situations slowly progress towards death or slavery, a neurotic journey of the individuals in a bureaucratic trial filled with unnamed anxiety and condemned to a torturous abyss. The disjuncture out of which the aguish originates in Kafka’s characters has a direct relation with bureaucratic culture present in Kafka’s time. The fundamental aim of this thesis is to illustrate how Kafka’s characters suffer from unnamable torments and their suffering makes the readers aware of how modern man is trapped in the web of bureaucracy, and my discussion in this thesis will be an attempt to show this through textual analysis of his works.Item From adolescence to awakening: portrayal of the ‘urban child’ in Charles Dickens’ novels(BRAC University, 2016-08) Tasnim, Nishat; Ahmed, NawshabaThe aim of this paper is to show the representation of the themes of urban childhood in Victorian Literature and the intricate dynamics that lies between family, children and the society. ‘Coming of Age’ genres were immensely popular among the Victorian readers just as much they are with us moderns. Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, David Copperfield, and Pendennis- all archetypal Victorian social novels are also intensely buildungsroman in nature. Victorian literature shows remarkable interest and compassion for such issues. Almost each novel has an orphan or a child protagonist who has been abandoned by its parents and society and is forced to take of care of itself. Harsh living conditions for children such as child labour were also often illustrated in these novels. Most of these and specially the urban novels which were written during the first half of this era show family as a very complicated and yet a powerful unit of the society. It is intriguing to think that a period which valued family most above all and savored the ‘ideal family’ image, would have so many novels written which demonize the families and the relations. So what I hope to do with this paper is to explore the contexts to which these writers responded through the fictional representations. Questions such as the role of the family in one’s life, Victorian family values, and changes of those values, if any, will be researched through this dissertation. For this purpose I have chosen Charles Dickens’s three widely read novels Oliver Twist, Great Expectations and David Copperfield as my primary resources. Dickens’ novels show tremendous empathy, understanding and insight into the Victorian families and the impoverished children. He had an interesting childhood too. Important social changes such as the Poor Act, work houses and child custody law were also addressed in his works. Other than an intense reading of these novels, I have also used various scholarly articles and books to shed further light on the issue.