The White Tiger : Thinking Activity

 Hello friends

        Here in this blog I am talking about the most famous novel The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. As we know it's a very useful novel to see the realistic picture of India. The White Tiger is an epistolary novel that begins with the protagonist Balram writing a letter to the Chinese Premier Jiabao because Balram, the protagonist of the novel, hears that Jiabao is coming to Bangalore. Balram Halwai narrates his life in a letter, written in seven consecutive nights, explaining how he, the son of a rickshaw puller, escaped a life of servitude to become a successful businessman, describing himself as an entrepreneur.

Representation of India in The novel The White Tiger :-

       Whenever we see that portrayal of anything in a novel, we think that it is appropriate or not. One of the most important questions pop up in our mind is that How far do we agree with the representation of India in the novel the White Tiger.

        So let's see how the representation of India was done by Arvind Adiga. 

        The White Tiger is a reflection upon contemporary India. It shows a real picture of India . As in the novel we finds dialogue that: 

 There is two type of India one is light and India of darkness.

Darkness suggests the corrupted Indian people. Corruption is also one of the cruel realities of the india.

" I will say it was worthwhile to know, just for a day, just for an hour , just for a minute, what it means not to be a servant ." (321) 

     Here we can see the Master and servants relationship in India. Balram has not a right to punish his corrupted master.  In rural India we find ruthless landlords exploit the poor in one or other cases like Balram they take revenge on their masters. Indian government does little for such poor people. They die unknowingly, their children do not have proper education. Their school does not have basic facilities. Thai is the situation of India in these shining days also. Though this isn't a situation I'm all over India but , there are some of the places where that is happening.

   " the poor dream all their lives of getting enough to eat and looking like the rich. And what do the rich dream of?? Losing weight and looking like the poor."

       From this quote we come to know the mental condition of the people. And almost that's the true picture of the Indian life. 

" in the old days there were one thousand castes and destinies in India. These days, there are just two castes: Men with Big Bellies, and Men with Small Bellies. And only two destinies: eat—or get eaten up.” ( p- 38 )

This is also one of the cruel  realities of the Indian society. There is no space for poor people. There is also a caste system alive. But what is the main thing which divides people most is the richness of the people. That is also well said by Adiga that there are only two destinies to eat or to be eaten up.

        So what I was thinking is that Arvind Adiga portrayal of India is almost a reality of the Indian life and people.

Do we believe that Balram's story is the archetype for all stories of "rags to riches" ?

          Here in this question I don't have a particular answer like ' yes ' or 'No'. But what we can do is that we can predict things. It is possible that Balram was the archetype for all the people from rags to riches. But the question is that...

          Is this the business model of India ?? Does Balram stand for all the successful businessmen of India?

          It's not possible because each and every person is not ready to slot down anybody's throat for personal success. But some of them are like Balram Halwai. To become a successful businessman is a good idea but to kill somebody and live a life like a rich man it's quite showing for me. 

           Each and every person has their own ways to become rich and successful in their life. Is it not only the way that Balram is doing?  If we say that Balram was the archetype for all rags to riches. Then it means we are telling that all the humans who get success in their life they all are murderers. Is it so ? And also it Should not happen.

Is it possible to do deconstructive reading of The White Tiger ? How ?

Language bears within itself the necessity of its own critique, deconstructive criticism aims to show that any text inevitably undermines its own claims to have a determinate meaning, and licences the reader to produce his own meanings out of it by an activity of semantic 'freeplay' (Derrida, 1978, in Lodge, 1988, p. 108).

      As we know Derrida talking about Binary opposition. Here in the novel  the binary oppositions of Darkness versus Light, Master versus Servant and High versus Low castes are posited.  In deconstruction we have to question the text and it's meaning itself. So here we can see Balram telling a story of himself. So to what extent we can believe in his story that is the question. And also..

Balram himself says, "It is an Autobiography of a Half- baked Indian".

 So what was the meaning of the word 'Half-baked' . So the meaning is poorly developed or carried out, lacking adequate planning or forethought, lacking in judgment, intelligence, or common sense.

 

             So the person who doesn't have enough common sense and who is telling the story of his life, then We can’t rely on his narrative that whatever spoken by him is true. This single line can falsify the entire narratives.

• Write a review of the film adaption of The White Tiger :----

       

            The White Tiger is a 2021 India based American drama film directed by Ramin Bahrani. The film stars Adarsh Gourav in his first leading role, along with Priyanka Chopra and Rajkummar Rao. The film was produced by Mukul Deora and Ramin Bahrani, and executive produced by Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Prem Akkaraju, Ava DuVernay. A rich Indian family's ambitious driver uses his wit and cunning to escape from poverty and rise to the top as an entrepreneur.

Initial release: 13 January 2021

Director: Ramin Bahrani

Screenplay: Ramin Bahrani

Producers: Priyanka Chopra, Ramin Bahrani, Mukul Deora, Ava DuVernay

Languages: Hindi, English

          When we talk about movie adaption from the book.  Then we have to look at various aspects. Is this movie faithful to the novel or not ? What extent is the movie faithful ? 

• Have you identified any difference between the movie adaption and the novel ? Does it make any significant difference in the overall texture and the tone of the novel ?

      Yes  I have identified many differences between the movie adaption and the novel. First of all we can see the beginning of the movie and the beginning of the book. First of all let's see the beginning of the movie.

             

The movie begins with the scene of the statue of Gandhi and his followers at the night in Delhi when Balram is in Maharaja’s costumes. He sets back in the car and drunken Pinky madam drives the car, which leads to her striking and killing a small child.

But the novel we can see that how it was begins. You can also read the first page of the novel, which I have uploaded here. But  what I am thinking is that this change does not affect the texture and the tone of the novel.

      What are the most important things in the novel or that are not in the movie. That is about religion. Arvind Adiga brutally criticise the mythical characters like Hanuman, Krishna.

 " you will find an image of a saffron-colored creature, half man half monkey: this is Hanuman, everyone's favorite god in the Darkness. Do you know about Hanuman, sir? He was the faithful servant of the god Rama, and we worship him in our temples because he is a shining example of how to serve your masters with absolute fidelity, love, and devotion."

"One  evening I went to the market and bought two dozen of the cheapest idols of Hanuman and 

Ram "

" It  was a scene to put you in mind 

of that passage in the Bhagavad Gita, when our Lord Krishna—another of history's famous 

chauffeurs—stops the chariot he is driving and gives his passenger some excellent advice on life 

and death. Like Krishna I philosophized—I joked—I even sang a song—all to make Mr. Ashok 

feel better. "

So this is the dialogue from the novel the white Tiger where we find the references of Indian mythical heroes in a derogatory way. But in the movie that is not there. We don't find any single references of Lord Hanuman and Krishna. 

         So That's the question why Ramin Behrani's hasn't portrayed these things in the movies.

So That's the question why Ramin Behrani's hasn't portrayed these things in the movies. So If we talk about the current scenario of the Cancel Culture or Call out culture. Then we can say that this is not a time to talk about any god publically. So to talk about negative aspects or critical points definitely should not be done. I think  because of the climate of fear film makers don't talk about the god in that sense which Adiga was telling in the novel. But what I was thinking about is that there should be a healthy debut around religion.

There is a single difference that the poetry line " You were looking for a key for years but the door was always open "  by Iqbal, which is in novel speak by Muslim shopkeeper.  In the movie pinky madam speaks this dialogue. Is there any reason behind that ? If the shopkeeper spoke this sentence then what was the effect ? Is there any politics ?🤔

        Yes , there is politics because these lines make notable changes in Balram's life. So this credit goes to Muslim poet which Adiga gives in his novel. But in the movie producer  Priyanka chopara Jonas (Pinky madam ) speaks these lines. And it seems like that because of her words Balram awakened. But it's not true.

      If In the movie Muslim shopkeeper spoke this lines then their is a new scope of thinking and new discourse happened. Then the beauty of Islamic language and tradition of aesthetics may be known to everybody in a different discourse.

• David Ehrlich in his review wrote this " Ramin Behrani's Netflix thriller brutal corrective to Slumdog millionaire Why is it a corrective ? What was the error in Slumdog Millionaire that it was corrected ?

          In a way the movie Slumdog millionaire is a good movie. The effect of the movie is very strong. So people don't think about the negative aspects or what is left in this movie. So what David Ehrlich is talking about is  how this movie the white Tiger is corrective to the movie " Slumdog millionaire". 

        So the movie The White Tiger  is more realistic then the movie Slumdog Millionaire.  There is sudden change behaviour of the character. The character is protagonist Jamal's brother. At last who has changed completely and gave cellphone and car keys to Latika. And sacrifice his own life for the two lovers. It's not a believable thing. But Ramin Behrani's Netflix thriller is not needed to be correct because it is realistic.

Citation :-

 Adiga, Aravind. The White Tiger. HarperCollins, 2008.

“Half-baked.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/half-baked. Accessed 2 Mar. 2021.

Thank you......

Multimedia

Hello friends, 

  

       Welcome to my blog. 

Click here to reach my presentation on the Multimedia package

Teaching Through Technology by Ravina Parmar on Scribd

Testing and evaluation

 

Hello friends, 

This blog is part of my academic blog activity. In which I am going to Write about the Testing and evaluation.

👉 Write on practicality of the test :-

It refers to the economy of time, effort and money in testing. In other words, a test should be easy 

✍️ to design, easy

✍️ to administer,

✍️ easy to mark, and easy to interpret the results.

        Brown (2004) said that the test that is practical needs to be within the means of financial limitations, appropriate time constraints, easy to administrator, score, and interpret.

👉 Write on Validity and reliability of the test :--

            Validity is the most important issue in selecting a test. Validity refers to what characteristic the test measures and how well the test measures that characteristic. Validity tells you if the characteristic being measured by a test is related to job qualifications and requirements.

            Validity gives meaning to the test scores. Validity evidence indicates that there is linkage between test performance and job performance. It can tell you what you may conclude or predict about someone from his or her score on the test. If a test has been demonstrated to be a valid predictor of performance on a specific job, you can conclude that persons scoring high on the test are more likely to perform well on the job than persons who score low on the test, all else being equal.

             Validity also describes the degree to which you can make specific conclusions or predictions about people based on their test scores. In other words, it indicates the usefulness of the test.

What makes a good test?

By using the test, more effective employment decisions can be made about individuals. The test is job-relevant. In other words, the test measures one or more characteristics that are important to the job.

        Reliability refers to how dependably or consistently a test measures a characteristic.

           If a person takes the test again, will he or she get a similar test score, or a much different score? A test that yields similar scores for a person who repeats the test is said to measure a characteristic reliably.

           How do we account for an individual who does not get exactly the same test score every time he or she takes the test?

Test taker's temporary psychological or physical state:- Test performance can be influenced by a person's psychological or physical state at the time of testing. For example, differing levels of anxiety, fatigue, or motivation may affect the applicant's test results.

Environmental factors:- Differences in the testing environment, such as room temperature, lighting, noise, or even the test administrator, can influence an individual's test performance.

Test form:- Many tests have more than one version or form. Items differ on each form, but each form is supposed to measure the same thing. Different forms of a test are known as parallel forms or alternate forms. These forms are designed to have similar measurement characteristics, but they contain different items. Because the forms are not exactly the same, a test taker might do better on one form than on another.

Multiple raters :- In certain tests, scoring is determined by a rater's judgments of the test taker's performance or responses. Differences in training, experience, and frame of reference among raters can produce different test scores for the test taker.

👉 What do we understand by backwash ?

              So let's see what is the backwash in the test. The washback effect is the outcome of a test or an examination which results either in positive or in a negative way. There are two basic terms of the Washback effect, which are the 

Positive and the Negative washback effect. 

Positive washback occurs when there is harmony between the teaching and the students' examination or a class test performance. The backwash effect also known as the washback effect. The backwash is the influence that a test has on the way students are taught.

👉 What is the difference between assessment and evaluation :-

           The English language is full of words whose meanings are so close to each other that people get confused with their usage. Similarly, there is a pair of words assessment and evaluation, whose meaning is quite close yet different from each other.

       The word “assess” is derived from the Medieval Latin word “assessee” whose meaning is “fix a tax upon.” Therefore, assessment can be defined as the process of collecting information about something or somebody from different sources to get the idea of the knowledge or skills or quality possessed by it.

There are three types of assessment : 

1 Summative assessment:

2 Formative assessment:

3 Alternative Assessment:

          Now let's talk about what is an evaluation.

          The meaning of the word “evaluate” is to make a judgment about something or someone to learn about their abilities or skills or qualities.

The evaluation process is conducted to compare the skills and qualities of two or more individuals. The person being evaluated must fulfill the criteria set by the evaluator. Unlike assessment, the result does not provide constructive feedback, but it passes the judgment.

However, evaluation and assessment are both used to review the performance of an individual. But these two terms are used in a completely different context.

The assessment is done to provide constructive feedback and the motive behind assessment to improve, whereas, evaluation is done to judge

the ability of an individual or system to pass judgment.

Thank you….

Teaching Language Through Literature

Hello friends, 

     Here I would like to start my writing with a question. The Question is Can short stories be helpful to learning language ? If yes then How ? And also what sort of activities and tasks can be designed to teach language through short stories?

           So let's start thinking about interesting activities and tasks which lead students to learning a particular language. 

       Teaching language through literature is an interesting one because as we know that as a second language teacher we can provide a natural flow of English language in the classroom. But other then their  not such an atomosphere. So learning language skills from literature that is more helpful to students.

 Short Stories and Language Skills Development :-

            The idea  that short stories are the most suitable literary genre to use in English  teaching due to its shortness is The idea that short stories are the most suitable literary genre to use in English  teaching due to its shortness. Short stories are helpful for teaching language. Short stories allow teachers to teach  the four skills to all levels of language proficiency.  

Murdoch  (2002) indicates  that “short stories  can, if selected and exploited appropriately, provide quality  text content which will greatly enhance ELT courses for learners at intermediate levels of proficiency” (p. 9).

         According to him, short stories could be very beneficial materials in ELT reinforcement by using them in learning activities such as discussion, writing and acting out dialogue.

       The use of storytelling in the L2 classroom creates a good learning environment and provides meaningful and comprehensible input. Through stories, the language acquisition device is activated And it is easy for children to induce the language elements from the data provided by the stories (Krashen, 1981).

     So let's see which type of task or activities can be done in teaching language through Short stories. 

Writing activities :

a. Write new words which you find interesting for your vocabulary.

           Short  stories  can be used  to improve students'  vocabulary and reading.  Lao  and Krashen  (2000)  present the  results of a comparison  between a group of students that  read literary texts and a second group  that read non-literary texts at a university in  Hong Kong. The group who read literary texts showed  improvement in vocabulary and reading.

 b. What you learn from the story.

 c. Summarize the story in a few sentences, including the main character, setting, conflict, climax, and resolution. 

d. Write three and four sentences on the theme of the story.

 e. Write a paragraph on what should not happen in the story.

d. Choose  the word/phrase  that best fits each  sentence, drawing upon  the list under column A in the previous activity.  You may need to add -s to a plural word or to a third person singular of a verb in the present tense, -ed to the past tense of regular verbs, etc.  In activity c, students practice using the words that they already understand the meanings of.

Speaking and listening activities :

followings are some activities teachers can assign to develop students speaking skills by using short stories.  

1. The students read the story aloud as a chain activity. The first student reads the first sentence. The second student takes the second sentence, the third student,  third sentence, and so forth. Such activity will enhance students‟ pronunciation and fluency in an interesting way. It is suitable for elementary class. 

2. In  an upper  intermediate  class, the students  retell the story as a  chain activity in small groups.  Each student will have a lot of opportunities  to practice the relevant connectors or other discourse markers in a meaningful context. (They certainly should have been given a list of the connectors and discourse markers beforehand.) 

 

 Using Short Stories to Teach Language Skills   

 3. In an advanced class, the  students are grouped into two groups. Using A Long Walk Home, the first group is assigned to prepare arguments that the father‟s  decision to punish himself is appropriate. Another group should prepare arguments that the decision is not appropriate. 

4. An extending activity useful to develop students‟ speaking skill and to make students more involved in the story is role-play. This can be carried out by asking  students to play the role of several characters, i.e. by instructing them the followings:

 a. Imagine you are Jackson. Tell your partner (acting as  his father) why you were late coming from the garage. Make sure you are convincing. 

b. Suppose you are the receptionist of the garage in which Jackson took the car. Tell Jackson‟ father about the car.   To develop listening skill using a short story, teachers can do the followings: 

1. Read the story out loud so students have the opportunity to listen to a native speaker of English (if at all possible); or 

2. Play the story if a recording is available.  The activity can be carried out for

The activity can be carried out for fun or for students to find answers to questions given and explained to them before the listening activity starts. For students to understand the story when they  listen to it for the first time, the questions can be based on literary structures, such as:  

1. Who is the main character of the Short Stories ?

 2. Where/when does the story take place?

 3. What is the problem (conflict) in the story? 

4. How is the conflict resolved

Short Stories and Language Skills Development :-

          Can you  believe that films are helpful to learning language ? In our traditional classroom don't allow watching of films in the classroom. But this is the modern era. So let's see what we can do.  Film can bring variety and flexibility to the language classroom by extending the range of teaching techniques and resources, helping students to develop all four communicative skills. For example, a whole film or sequence can be used to practise listening and reading, and as a model for speaking and writing. 

            Film can also act as a springboard for follow-up tasks such as discussions, debates on social issues, role plays, reconstructing a dialogue or summarising. It is also possible to bring further variety to the language learning classroom by screening different types of film: feature-length films, short sequences of films, short films, and adverts.

Motivation is one of the most important factors in determining successful second-language acquisition. Films and TV shows are an integral part of students’ lives so it makes perfect sense to bring them into the language classroom.

Basic ‘Tell Me’ question examples:

• Was there anything you liked?

 • What caught your attention?

 • Was there anything you disliked? • Was there anything that puzzled you?

 That you’d never seen in a film before? 

That surprised you?

 • Were there any patterns?

1. Guess the dialogue :

Play a short clip with the sound off. Choose a clip which includes a range of facial expressions. Ask students to imagine what the characters are saying and create a script. Students can then act out their dialogue in sync with the visuals. Finally, play the video again for students to compare their ideas to the real thing.

2. Translate and order (for a monolingual class)

Choose an interesting dialogue or conversation with some useful colloquial expressions in it. Translate a few of the sentences into L1 and put them in the wrong order. Ask students to work in groups to translate the sentences and guess the correct order. Students then watch the clip and check their translations and the order of their sentences.

3. Say what you see

Choose a scene in which there is a clear succession of events. Write the events onto pieces of card and ask students to read them and ask you about any difficult vocabulary. Put students into pairs. One person from each pair should face the screen. The other should have their back to the screen. This student should hold the cards.

Play a short clip from a video with no sound. The students facing the screen should explain what’s happening to their partner who then puts the event cards in order. Finally, let all students watch the clip, with sound, to check the order of their cards.

4.  Soundtracks

Choose five songs from different films. They should all be different genres of music and should not be well-known songs.

Tell the students you’re going to play them some songs from films and while listening to each one they should imagine the type of film it’s from and write down exactly what they imagine to be happening in the scene. Stop after each extract and give them two minutes to explain their ideas to their partner. Allow them to watch the original scenes afterwards.

5.  Shadow-reading

Once your students are familiar with the content of a particular clip – perhaps any of the above activities – you might like to do some pronunciation work. Shadow reading is where students attempt to speak in time with the characters on screen. They’ll need the script to be able to do this. Put students into small groups (you’ll need the same number of students in a group as characters in the scene) and have them choose roles, or do this as a whole-class activity with all of the boys playing the male role and all of the girls playing the female role. You’ll need to repeat this several times – students will get better each time. By trying to speak in sync with the characters on screen, they’ll be replicating key features of connected speech. ( Cambridge.org )

Resources :

Lao,  C. Y.  and S. Krashen.  (2000). The impact  of popular literature  study on literacy development in EFL: More evidence for the power of reading. System, 28, 261-270.

Krashen, S. D. (1981). Second language acquisition and second language learning. Oxford: Pergamon Press.