Shanlax International Journal of English

Exploring Spirituality in the Romantic Vision of John Keats’s Major Odes: A Hermeneutic Analysis

Lok Raj Sharma — Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

John Keats, an influential romantic poet, is best known for his odes tinted with the nature’s vistas and spiritual insights. This article attempts to explore spirituality in the romantic vision of his five major odes “Ode to a Nightingale”, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, “Ode on Melancholy”, “Ode to Psyche”, and “Ode on Indolence” through a comprehensive review of these odes. This study was based on an exploratory research design in which the lines extracted from these nodes were considered primary qualitative data. Such excerpts as data underwent a hermeneutic analysis, which is a qualitative approach that interprets literary texts and social phenomena by considering historical, cultural, and contextual influences. The supporting materials regarding romantic vision, odes, spirituality, hermeneutic analysis, and religion were assumed to be secondary data extracted from books, journal articles, and website documents. The findings reveal the vigorous existence of profound spiritual intuition in the romantic vision of his major odes. This article is significant as it highlights how Keats’s poetic exploration of beauty, mortality, and transcendence can inspire readers to reflect on profound spiritual questions and connect with the universal themes of human existence.

Errors in Anaphora Translation across Languages: From English to Arabic

Bahaa A. Muslim Al-Zobaidy — Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The objective of this research was to identify the systematic errors in the translation of anaphora committed by some Iraqi university students because of their weaknesses in understanding that complicated topic. Students make many different kinds of translation errors, and this is particularly apparent in more complex linguistic structures that can even baffle specialized translators. One of the critical aspects of translation studies, anaphora, is challenging for Arabic learners to understand as its nuances can be initially difficult to comprehend. Anaphora attempting to resolve antecedent references is the key focus of the study, where it serves three main purposes: One: to walk the reader through anaphora in detail, its historical background and examples; Two: to classify various anaphoric forms based on linguistic meanings and functions; Lastly, to identify strategies for achieving better precision in identifying antecedents and anaphora. This contextual evidence examines the requisite linguistic and pragmatic awareness necessary for the nuanced and contextualized translation of commonly encountered anaphoric expressions across various genres of real-life texts, thereby providing an in-depth analysis of the need for meticulous translation procedures concerning anaphoric expressions. The reflexive pronoun ‘herself’ functions as an anaphoric expression. Regardless, some learners incorrectly translate ‘herself’ as hiya mistakenly aligning it with the definite pronoun ‘she.’ The exact translation should be ‘nafsuhā.’

Teachers’ Perspectives on using Literature to Teach English to Engineering Students

Badhan Moni, Iffat Jahan Suchona — Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

English is a universally acknowledged medium for education, employment, and communication. In Bangladesh, the instruction of English as a foreign language (EFL) presents challenges, particularly for non-English majors in technical disciplines, such as engineering. This study examined the application of literature as a pedagogical instrument to improve the English learning experience of engineering students. This study examined English teachers’ perceptions of the use of literary texts to enhance core language skills - listening, speaking, reading, and writing - while simultaneously improving vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar. A mixed-methods approach was employed to collect quantitative data from 65 English teachers at eight Bangladeshi universities and provide qualitative insights through written interviews with five teachers. These findings indicate that literary texts can substantially improve students’ engagement and language proficiency. Over 80% of the participants agreed that literature is a powerful tool for language development. Approximately 85% of respondents concur that literature cultivates critical thinking and advances the objectives of liberal education, including cultural awareness and ethical sensitivity. Teachers favoured short stories and poems because of their accessibility and universal themes, especially literature in English, from various global contexts. Despite these advantages, challenges include the selection of appropriate texts, insufficient teacher training, and a lack of institutional support. The research indicates that the literature possesses significant potential in EFL classrooms for non-majoring students and advocates for systematic implementation alongside appropriate professional development and curriculum alignment.

Othering, Scapegoating, and the Crisis of Modernity in Wuthering Heights

Ghyath Manhel Alkinani, Mohammed Lateef Aziz Twayej — Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A classic example of romantic literature, Wuthering Heights is also an example of the way Victorian literature moves beyond Romanticism to embrace the modern age. The iconic romantic hero (Heathcliff) who must suffer othering, discrimination, and rejection to eventually die a romantic death, also paves how for the modern world and its ethos of embracing difference and otherness. The “other” in Victorian England was this constant threat to the status quo, the latent revolution that the Victorians have feared and anticipated. However, Hegelian (and other) conceptualizations of the meaning of the “other” as a prerequisite signifier of the self challenges this conventional image of the “other” as a mere outside object. In this paper, we read Heathcliff as a metaphoric defense mechanism against the fast pace of modernity. Combining textual analysis with a contextual regard for the spirit of the age in which the novel was written, the paper proves that Heathcliff’s ordeal is the scapegoating of the romantic hero who helps the society to mature and accept otherness and modernity.

Directive Speech Act among Teachers in Teaching Tamil

Selvajothi A/L Ramalingam, Vikneshwary Manoqaran — Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This study investigates the use of directive speech acts by Tamil language teachers in primary schools within a first language (L1) instructional context. Adopting a qualitative case study approach, data were collected through classroom audio recordings and semi-structured interviews with five teachers across five Tamil schools in Klang district, Malaysia. The findings revealed that directive speech acts are widely employed by teachers, primarily in the Imperative and Question Directive forms, with Attention Getters being the most frequently used subcategory. Less frequent were Suggestion, Prohibition, Embedded Imperative, and Hints, with the latter showing the lowest occurrence owing to its indirect and ambiguous nature. The results also demonstrate that teachers prioritise clarity in communication to prevent misunderstandings, often opting for direct and indirect forms. This study highlights the role of pragmatic competence in effective classroom communication and provides a foundation for further research on Tamil language education in L1 settings. It also underscores the need for expanded investigation at other educational levels, such as secondary schools, to broaden the understanding of directive speech act usage in vernacular language instruction.