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  • CROSS CULTURAL CONFLICT IN BHARATI MUKHERJEE’S“THE TIGER’S DAUGHTER”

    Dr. G. RAMAN 1* (ramlaxlit@gmail.com)

    Department of English at Sambhram University, Jizaxx, Uzbekistan

    MR. G. LAKSHMANAN 2 * (laxramlit@gmail.com)

    Department of English at Sri Malolan College of arts and science, Madurantakam, Chennai

    THE TIGER'S DAUGHTER
    THE TIGER’S DAUGHTER

    ABSTRACT

    The main concern of Indian women’s literature is the depiction of women struggling for liberation and facing mental states. Conflict is an inevitable part of human life, and human values ​​make a difference in nature. These variations usually make a violent turn. The composition of violence is complex, elusive and multifaceted. Bharati Mukherjee has endeavored to track conflicts and, as a result, the consequences of mental changes in Indian women, especially migrant women, that occurred during the conflict. Her fiction and short stories explore the conflicts women face while fulfilling their ancient roles as women’s descendants, wives, and mothers. Bharati Mukherjee is a Diaspora writer, she deals with the typical indigenous scene, shows in her fictional book The Tiger’s Daughter the image of a woman struggling to remain unharmed in a foreign land. In this post, we’ll explore how Mukherjee deals with her psychological tensions and realistically portrays the reaction and consequences of tensions in her life with her protagonist Tara. She reveals the problem of expatriate female Tara and offers them a completely new approach in her novel. The purpose of this article is to examine Bharati Mukherjee’s portrayal of the psychology of immigrant women and a deep understanding of their problems in her protagonist Tara.

    keywords: acculturation, cross-culture issues, cultural conflict, homeland, host land, immigrant woman

    Bharati Mukherjee is a proponent in expatriate writing.  She is an Indian settled in America. The Tiger’s Daughter is the narrative of a rich industrialist’s pampered daughter Tara who returns to Calcutta in search of (lie Indian dream after seven years of stay in the U.S. And is unable to fit into the culture of Calcutta, where she grew up and she finds that she is as much of an alien at home as she was abroad. Though the desire to become a part of her new milieu is strong, Tara’s attempts appear very superficial. Tara is not yet accustomed to American culture and finally remembers her fairy-like childhood days in Calcutta. She feels homesick and plans a visit to her native land. On her arrival in India, Tara finds herself in a strange situation. She confronts a world totally different from the one she had left behind [Nithyanandam 67].

    The Tiger's Daughter

    The First stepping on the land of India at Bombay fills her with disappointment. Bombay is the same but her outlook has changed. To her, Bombay railway station “was more like a hospital, there were so many sick and deformed men sitting listlessly on bundles and trucks’”. [TD 19] Her sickness and the situation in India make her think about her husband, David. The thought of her husband symbolically suggests the second self-developed in her.  It seems that an alien land has become more of a home to her.  She repents having come to India without her husband and she is unable to keep him off her mind. The mood of repentance in Tara is evident: “Perhaps I was stupid to come without him, she thought, even with him rewriting his novel during the vacation.    Perhaps I was too impulsive confusing my scare of New York with homesickness. Or perhaps I was going mad”. [TD 21]        

    Tara’s voyage from Bombay to Calcutta brings an equally disgusting experience to her. In Calcutta too, she encountered everything changed and deteriorated. Now, she finds Calcutta is under the grip of violence due to riots, caused by the confrontation between different classes of society. This shatter I dream of Calcutta and make her react in a negative manner.  She fails to bring her old sense of perception back and is appalled by the ugliness of the city of Calcutta with its poverty, squalor, disease, and Vanity.   She discovers strangeness in her friends and relatives and finds it difficult to cope up with a world which relents her.

    Tara finds herself a misfit everywhere she goes. With her dangling personality, she tries to look Indian and adjust with her friends, but there is an invisible gap between them and she feels the breakdown. She is forced to look at her inner world consisting of two cultures and the two different ideologies, which are the two worlds wide apart. Realizing that harmonization is impossible, Tara senses to go back to David.  The novel ends with the heroine caught in a bloody riot of Calcutta wondering, whether ever she would be able to go back. Tara sits locked in a car watching helplessly as an old friend is beaten to death in a riot, she is in the middle of a street full of angry rioters, she sees her husband’s view of Calcutta as apocalyptic: “the collective future in which garbage, disease, and stagnation are man’s estate” (TD 190).

                Though Mukherjee has refused that the novel is “based on any real person” and has declared that “the novel wasn’t autobiographical” [1987 interview]. There are many autobiographical instances in it.  Bharati Mukherjee remained in graduate Tara’s voyage from Bombay to Calcutta, brings an equally disgusting experience to her. In Calcutta too, she encountered everything changed and deteriorated. Now, she finds Calcutta is under the grip of violence due to riots, caused by the confrontation between different classes of society. This shatter I dream of Calcutta and make her react in a negative manner.  She fails to bring her old sense of perception back and is appalled by the ugliness of the city of Calcutta with its poverty, squalor, disease, and Vanity.   She discovers strangeness in her friends and relatives and finds it difficult to cope up with a world which relents her.

                Tara finds herself a misfit everywhere she goes. With her dangling personality, she tries to look Indian and adjust with her friends, but there is an invisible gap between them and she feels the breakdown. She is forced to look at her inner world consisting of two cultures and the two different ideologies, which are the two worlds wide apart. Realizing that the harmonization is impossible, Tara senses to go back to David.  The novel ends with the heroine caught in a bloody riot of Calcutta wondering, whether ever she would be able to go back. Tara sits locked in a car watching helplessly as an old friend is beaten to death in a riot, she is in the middle of a street full of angry rioters, she sees her husband’s view of Calcutta as apocalyptic: “the collective future in which garbage, disease, and stagnation are man’s estate” (TD 190).              

    Though Mukherjee has refused that the novel is “based on any real person” and has declared that “the novel wasn’t autobiographical” [1987 interview]. There are many autobiographical instances in it.  Bharati Mukherjee remained in graduate school to complete an M.F.A and she met and married Clark Blaise. Tara Banerjee, the protagonist of The Tiger’s Daughter, is modeled in her homesickness on Ranu’s experience at Vassar, but her might to endure that anguish, go to “Madison” for summertime school, meet and marry the young American David Cartwright, bear two sons, live at 124th street at Broadway, and go back after seven years, is drawn out of the stuff of Bharati Mukherjee herself (Nelson 5.8).

    New York was certainly extra-ordinary and it had driven her to Despair. On days she had thought she could not possibly survive, she had shaken out all her silk scarves, ironed them and hung them to make the apartment more “Indian”.  She had curried hamburger desperately …… She had burned incense sent from home.

    [TD 34]

    However, all these attempts fail to make her feel at home. Yet, soon after her return to India, she finds that she does not fit into the old life of Calcutta which she had left seven years ago and for which she had yearned when she was at Poughkeepsie. Her group of friends now irritates her with their lack of seriousness and “she felt very distant from the passions that quickened and outraged her class in Calcutta” [TD 55]. Though Tara meets her friends regularly at the Catelli-Continental, she “was startled at their bounder tremendous capacity for surfaces” [TD 42]. Though her friends are curious about her life in New York, they only wanted to know the superficial, external details. Ironically, Tara accuses her friends of lacking depth which is clearly absent in her too. Tara thinks of her friends as bringing, “,,..sharing of her personality. She scared their tone, their omissions, and their aristocratic oneness. They had asked her about the things that she had brought back and had admired her velour’s jumpsuit and electric-shaver, but not once had they asked about her husband” [TD 43].

    Seven years in the U.S. Has made it impossible for Tara to sense at ease with her close circle of playmates. The American experience has secluded her from Indian life and culture. Tara wonders: “How does the foreignness of the spirit begin?” (TD 37) for even the familiar David now appears unfamiliar to her. “He seemed like a figure standing in the shadows, or a foreigner with an accent on television…. She felt she was not married to a person, but a foreigner and this foreignness were a burden” [TD 621. On her arrival at Calcutta, she is met with great affection and excitement. The celebrations around her make it difficult for her to even “think of the 120th street, apartment as home”(TD 63). Distance makes everything abroad and unreal to her. Her walk along the ghat and her visit to Tollygunje prove that she is totally out of touch with the real Calcutta. All through her Childhood, Tara has been undetected to the reality of Calcutta, life. For her, Calcutta just meant living in a huge house on Camac Street, going to school at St. Blaise, seeing movies at the Metro and how whiling away her time at the Catelli-Continental, drinking endless cups of tea and listening to the armchair politics, industrial unrest and increasing crimes. Even when she is surrounded by friends and relatives, she feels totally isolated and completely alone. By not being able to fit back into Calcutta society, Tara realizes that she is a misfit at both places. She is always troubled by nostalgia for the life that she left behind and this leaves her in a Catch-22 situation.

    The Tiger's Daughter
    The Tiger’s Daughter

    In Calcutta, people think of her as being too American: Reena’s mother calls her “Americawalli” (TD 151). Aunt Tharna’s quietly violent response to Tara’s innocuous suggestions can be seen as a paradigm of the response many Indian critics have had to this and other Mukherjee books on India and Indians. Aunt Tharna rebukes Tara thus: “you’ve come back to make fun of us, haven’t you? What gives you the right? Your American money? Your Meccha husband?” (TD 36). The Tiger’s Daughter upsets Indian critics greatly. They seem to share the reaction of Tara’s east while schoolmates who feel she has polluted herself beyond redemption by her foreign education and Meccha marriage (Nelson 9).

    While Tara falls in love, at first sight, with a Youngman in an elevator and has a wedding “with no invitations, no priests, no fires, no blessings” (TD 125). Being married to a foreigner does not immediately broaden Tara’s horizon for she finds that she cannot explain or discuss many ideas with him. Even in her letters to David, she does not give her own feelings. David fails to understand many aspects of her life because, he expects everything to have some meaning or point and asks: “why three baths for a day for god’s sake?” (TD 48). In failing to understand her, David shows the distance that has still to be covered between the two cultures.  By reading books on India, he cannot comprehend her country and she is convinced that if “he had not understood her country through her ……… probably he had not understood her either” (TD 50).

    Mukherjee’s protagonists differ in their perception of their roles in society or their expectations of Life. Tara considers her marriage to David as an emancipated gesture but realizes that emancipation presupposes a bondage which she is not willing to accept. From being a dutiful daughter or the Bengal Tiger, she wants to become a dutiful wife in the traditional mould. She wants to be appreciated by David and is most wary of his comments or criticism. Her correspondence with David does not follow “any pattern of confession, reproof or rebuttal” (TD 131), though he often, “accused her of stooped inanities and callousness…” (TD 131). Inspite of her seven -year stay in abroad, Tara has not matured into an individual with a mind or identity of her own. She does not possess the strength required to protect herself from people like Tuntunwala. Her experience with him emboldens her to a great extent and makes her decide to return to David, like a child running back into the protective arms of an adult. Tara is certainly not one of the emergent women of modern fiction. To her, father in childhood and a husband in later life are essential as protectors. She exemplifies Manu’s dictum: “pita rakshati kaumarye/ bharta rakshati yauvane” (Manusmriti qtd in Nithyanandam). She has not been able to develop an individuality of her own, different from the traditional roles of woman as daughter and wife. This immigrant does not adapt herself to suit the conditions of the land of her choice and continues to be rooted firmly in the traditional mould.

    Tara goes home to assess herself to see whether she can rediscover herself in her birth tradition and to understand how much she belongs and in what manner she is different. Though the central character, Tara has married an American and settled in New York, the novel is set entirely in Calcutta and is concerned almost exclusively with Tara’s attempt to come to terms with the fact that she can no longer connect to the city of her birth or find it as her home. Besides the theme of migration in The Tiger’s Daughter, Tara has also realized that by settling in America and marrying there, she had cut herself adrift from Calcutta and the people she had grown up with.

    Tara is an expatriate not only in space but also in mind and spirit. She exhibits the expatriate trait of being uncomfortable in both her own and foreign cultures. She represents the dilemma faced by the expatriates. The critic Sivaramakrishna says about Tara that the “retention of her identity as an Indian is in constant tension with the need for its renunciation, if she has to acquire a new identity as immigrants” (Nelson 60). According to Rustomjikerns, in the novel, Mukherjee presents, ” some of the more violent and grotesque aspects of cultural collisions” (Nelson 63) and according to Jain, “Mukherjee’s novels are representative of the expatriate sensibility” (Jain 42).

    Despite having a decent life with an American husband, Tara does not assimilate in American cultural milieu. Estranged by the ‘half-remembered’ and ‘half-forgotten’ rules of her old world, she struggles hard to feel at home in India but fails miserably in her attempt. Her failure to tie a knot with her ‘patria’ is enough evidence of how far she has traveled from her roots. She has an ‘unstable’ self which does not allow her to settle at one place.

    Expatriation is not only a key issue in this story, but it also serves as a metaphor for deeper kinds of alienation, such as existential alienation and self-estrangement. This is revealed in some significant images used in the novel. In this novel, Hotel Cattelli Continental, described as the “navel of the Universe” (TD 3) becomes the important symbol of a rootless existence, a symbol of Tara’s expatriate sensibility.

    The Tiger’s Daughter is a film that depicts a woman who returns to her birthplace after a period of self-imposed exile. Home will never be home again for such a person, and life in exile, harsh as it may be, will be preferable to what home has become. The discovery that Tara makes at the end of the novel is that the greenery and the forests she had associated with the India of her childhood-her vision of pastoral-were no longer there, something or the other “killed” them (TD 207). In New York she had dreamed of coming back to Calcutta, but “the return had brought only wounds” (TD 25).

    The greatest irony in Tara’s story is that she survives racial hardships while attempting to survive in a new country, but nothing bad occurs to her. She becomes a victim of her tragic end in her native soil in her home, which she had longed to see during her stay in New York, and where she comes to seek peace. Her desire to find a place to live and have security, which she missed in New York, ends ironically in frustration. We’re left with the irony that Tara, an Indian-born young woman, feels more love and comfort in the arms of her American husband.

    Conclusion

    The Tiger’s Daughter by Mukherjee examines the experiences of an Indian expatriate and an American immigrant. It provides a powerful new voice in diasporic literature, one that comes from an Indian lady who immigrates to the United States and redefines her ties to her motherland.

    Having been uprooted from her native soil through an accidental affair with a man of different roots, Tara, like her creator, dangles between her rest while homeland and her newfound homeland. It is like choosing the better of the two eyes. Tara faces this predicament for a time, gets confused and finds herself on a no-man’s land. However, experience on both the soils helps her use the better part of her discretion and finally plumps for the newfound homeland for reasons known-duty, security and practicality.

    References

    1. Alam, Fakrul. Bharati Mukherjee. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1996.
    2. Baldev Vaid, Krishna. Rev. of Wife, by Bharati Mukherjee Fiction International. 1915: 4-5.
    3. Barrett H.Clark. “Time of Need”. Forms of Imagination in the 20th Century.  New York : Harper, 1994.
    4. Brennan, Timothy. Salman Rushdie and the Third World: Myths of the Nation. London: Macmillan,
    5. Carb,Alison B. “An Interview with Bharati Mukherjee.” Massachusetts Review 29, 1988.
    6. Chowdhury, Enakshi. “Images of Woman in Bharati
    7. Mukherjee’a Novels.” Literary Voice* 2 Oct-1995.

  • SOCIAL REALISM IN TONI MORRISON’S TAR BABY

    MR. G. LAKSHMANAN 1 * (laxramlit@gmail.com)

    Department of English at Sri Malolan College of arts and science, Madurantakam, Chennai.

    Dr. G. RAMAN 2* (ramlaxlit@gmail.com)

    Department of English at Sambhram University, Jizaxx, Uzbekistan.

    SOCIAL REALISM IN TONI MORRISON’S TAR BABY
    SOCIAL REALISM IN TONI MORRISON’S TAR BABY

    Abstract

    Toni Morrison is one of the most significant modern American writers, having published nine books. Among her early works, Tar Baby, her fourth, has obtained great notice. It is “the least admired, researched, and taught” of all the sciences (Pereira 72). There could be two reasons for this: To begin with, the narrative does not solely focus on the experiences of African-Americans. Unlike Morrison’s other pieces, Tar Baby includes a lot of background of a white family. Morrison investigates the experience of the retired white man, Valerian, his wife, and his son with the same consideration as the black young man and woman, Son and Jadine, who are considered as the book’s main protagonists. For critics looking for a story with a totally “black style” to illustrate Morrison’s originality, a work with a lot of attention is a good place to start. Morrison’s style of emotional writing has kindled the readers mind to certain facts like cultural conflicts, racism and so on. Lack of self-identity and life in between the white and black culture portrayed through Jadine Childs, the central character has created a kind of confused uncertainty among Morrison’s readers.  Like all her novels Tar Baby is suffused with Morrison’s racial quest enriched with psychological and emotional move.

    Key terms: colonization, cultural conflicts, racism, self-identity, psychological

    Tar Baby is the fourth novel of Toni Morrison and it deals with social realism. The principal characters in the novel are jadine childs, an Afro-American model, William Green (Son) an Afro-American wander from Eloe, Florida, Valerian Street, a rich retired white industrialist from Philadelphia: Margaret Street, a rich retired white industrialist from Philadelphia: Margaret Street a beauty queen from Maine who married the much elder Valerian, Sydney Childs, an Afro-American domestic employee of the Streets: On dine Childs, Sydney’s wife and even she is an employee of the Streets: on dine Childs, Sydney’s Wife and even she is an employee of the streets and few other locals Gideon, Therese and Alma Esteem respectively.

    Toni Morrison
    Toni Morrison

    Jadine Childs, who is orphaned at twelve years is taken by her aunt and uncle on dine and Sydney Childs. Their employer Valerian Street helps Jadine to go to private schools and because of this upbringing she experiences a conflict between the white Society in which she is entrenched, and the black culture represented by her uncle and aunt and son whom Jadine love. She refuses to submit to the traditional image of womanhood which on dine and Son want to impose upon her. At the end of the novel, we see her returning to Paris determined to face her fears alone. Tar Baby traces the quest for Self-identity Jadine Childs the Protagonist. She doesn’t rebel against the White, she is enmeshed. But she has accepted and embraced the white culture without any question. Because from her age of twelve she had severed her Afro-American heritage due to the death of parents. The same way her uncle and Aunt expanded the gap by sending her to exclusive private school and to Sorbonne where only Whites are in majority. The adult Jadine is fully equipped to face the white world successfully. She becomes a part of it too. The only thing that disturbs her is the Afro-American world represented by nightmares, disagreements of son and the feeling of otherness that haunt her in Sons’ hometown Eloe, Florida.

    Morrison in this book Tar Baby depicts the struggle of an Afro-American Woman who tries her best to keep her identity and individuality despite the effects of her lover who wants to make her like the other woman of his childhood. Like her aunt who too wants to cheer her in the past and her white industrialist, who wants to cheer her to the white industrialist, who wants to blind her to his world. The most complex character in the novel is that of the protagonist Jadine. She is caught between two cultures. She has gratitude towards her aunt and uncle for their help as well as the Streets for giving her Education, but she does not equate her gratitude with duty and some readers find fault with her. Jadine refuses to see herself as an Afro-American first or even as a Woman. She tries to establish closeness with her aunt and also to protect. Valerian’s world. Woman of her past and of son’s past haunts her and they try to draw her towards her own self. Society does not support anyone who wants to come up in life. The black society wants Jadine to be like them and the white Society doesn’t accept her whole happily for the only reason that is she is a Black.

    The Prices she compensates for sticking on to herself is very high. She loses son’s the relationship with Ondine’s weakens and she does not have Valalerien’s help too. She flies off alone and determined. Some might see this as a defeat, but Morrison’s story of the Soldier ants narrated in the novel’s end says that the queen ant is the dominant force, and this reveals Jadine’s power and strength giving possibilities rather than defeat.

    Morrison says that polarized thinking is effective and dichotomous thinking is ineffective for living in the real world. When a person is defined as black or white, male or female, educated or uneducated limit the individuals capacity individual’s must rely on the authority within themselves and then they can organize their world and their understanding of it. Like her other novels, 0 even in Tar BabyMorrison analyses and gives a verdict of the society and the roles Afro-Americans play in that society. Morrison creates strong characters and unveils these characters’ struggle to realize their strength in -spite of external and internal barriers.

    The title of this novel evokes a comparison to the famous story of the same name. The fable of Brer Rabbit has many versions and in one, he is caught by the Tar Baby when he comes to steal cabbages from a garden. He succeeds in freeing himself and escapes to the famed briar patch. The Tar Baby is formed by Brer Fox to capture Brer Rabbit. Jadine and Son are considered tar babies because both of them have an irresistible attraction towards each other and this brings their downfall. Jadine soon recovers and is transformed from “tar baby” to a trickster and in that she lands in the briar patch of New York and later in the briar patch of Paris. Even though both of them have the traits of the Tar Baby still Jadine gets more acclaim due to her power and control over the relationship. Trudier Harris says that a close reading of Tar Baby will show that Son has much power and control than Jadine, because he shares more traits with Valerian than the victims who are caught in the traps with the master farmers. His unkempt state also could be compared to the black Tar Baby.

    Each was pulling the other away from the maw of hell-it’s very ridge top.      

    Each knows the world as it was meant or ought to be. One had a past, the   

    other a future and each one bore the culture to save the race in his hands. –

    Mama spoiled the black man will you mature with me? Culture bearing       

    black women, whose culture are you bearing? (Morrison, Tar 269).

    The judgments are that the characters must be both. Mature and culture bearing or they are lost.

    Tar Baby a mixture of serious, comic and even absurd qualities. The style is polished, elegiac, violent, poetic and even dramatically functional. The language of the uneducated as well as the language of the sophisticated are found with literary allusions. The novel is in bits and pieces as Morrison herself has said, but she succeeds in pulling this complex novel together by her extraordinary use of nature. On the whole, nature acts like an additional character in the story as complicated and important as a human protagonist. For example, animal life can observe, react and comment on the action Rivers are capable of deepest emotions, trees as seductive. as a lover, ants can marshal campaigns and swamps can grasp like rapists In the African vein, nature is fully alive, and it is not materially separated from human existence. A further sense of wholeness is- seen when nature is involved in the prologue and the epilogue. In the epilogue Son moves through water towards the island and in the prologue, he is urged by the water away from the shore.

    The relation between racism, child abuse in a white American upper-class family is depicted in Tar Baby. Toni Morrison’s image of this novel is an apt emblem for capitalist formations. These developments have penetrated every available nook and cranny of social space and have thoroughly, if unevenly conditioned human psychology and social behavior. Like the Tar Baby, or the quicksand into which Jadine wanders on the Isle de Cheralien, the capitalist mode of production absorbs and birds all that it touches, ordering the ways in which we view ourselves and others, the ways in which we move, Speak and express ourselves in the seclusion of our own minds.

    Social realism looks at society as it is and what it depicts if critical of the working of society. It moves towards reality and towards the victory of the international proletariat. The fact must be portrayed in all its actuality, the ugly as well as the wonderful. Realism sometimes sides with social action and this is evinced in Toni Morrison’s The Baby. Tar Baby is the truthful reproduction of typical characters under typical circumstances. This is true in the case of Jadine. Even though she doesn’t respect her heritage, she is not authentic too. The African woman who views Jadine spits at her recognizing her authenticity. Morrison portrays it truthfully and doesn’t side with Jadine even though she is black. So, this typical situation is produced truthfully, and Toni Morrison is not partial.

    Toni Morrison is a complicated writer who masterfully blends together difficult concepts. “It is a simple story getting increasingly complex mythic, beyond Solution, yet teaching me a lesson I needed to know,” Barbara Christian writes about Tar Baby. As a result, Toni Morrison’s work highlights problems, but not solutions, that society should be aware of.

    Toni Morrison
    Toni Morrison

    When reading Morrison’s novels, one is prone to look for a character with African American ancestry. The Son has been identified as such a figure in Tar Baby by the majority of critics. In Morrison’s later works, he illustrates black people’s affiliation with their original culture solution. Tar Baby symbolizes an essential period in which the writer acquires an understanding of the intricacy and ambiguity surrounding African American people’s desire of self-knowledge. Furthermore, Morrison expanded the concept of alienation with Son and Jadine’s story to include not just social and philosophical difficulties, but also race and gender ones. She has made a significant contribution to American literature in this way.

    Reference

    1. Beaulieu, Elizabeth Ann. The Toni Morrison Encyclopedia. Westport: Greenwood P, 2003.
    2. Duvall, John N. The Identifying Fictions of Toni Morrison: Modernist Authenticity and Postmodern Blackness. New York: Palgrave, 2000.
    3. Frisch, Mark. “Nature, Postmodernity, and Real Marvelous: Faulkner, Quiroga, Mal- lea, Rulfo, Carpentier.” The Faulkner Journal (1995–96): 67–81.
    4. Hallett, Cynthia Whitney. “Trickster.” Beaulieu 354–58.
    5. Harris, Trudier. Fiction and Folklore: The Novels of Toni Morrison. Knoxville: U of Tennessee P, 1991.
    6. Hawthorn, Evelyn. “On Gaining the Double-Vision: Tar Baby as Diasporean Novel.”
    7. Black American Literature Forum 22.1 (1988): 97–107.
    8. Hemenway, Robert, ed. “Introduction: Author, Teller, and Hero.” Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings. New York: Penguin, 1982.

  • Teaching English management skills in the classroom

    For ESL/EFL teachers, managing their classrooms can be difficult because of a variety of factors. However, one important aspect of class management remains constant: the desire to communicate in English. This article discusses the class management issues that arise in most ESL/EFL settings in some form or another. A number of recommendations are also made to address these concerns. Teachers can also learn from one another by sharing their own experiences with Bring in class management as well as tips for effective class management.
    Most ESL/EFL classrooms face management challenges.Classroom Management Difficulties: Students are reluctant to participate because they do not want to make a mistake.
    Class management advice: Provide examples in (at least one) of the students’ native languages. You will undoubtedly make some mistakes, so use this as an example of your willingness to make mistakes. This class management technique should be used with caution, as some students may be concerned about your own language learning abilities.

    Teaching English

    Instead of having large group discussions, divide students into smaller groups. When classes are large, this approach can cause more problems in managing the classroom – use with caution!Students insist on translating every word in the classroom.
    Take a text that contains a few nonsensical words as an example. Use this text to demonstrate how to recognise general meaning without knowing every single word.
    Increase awareness of the significance of context in language learning. You can also talk about how babies learn to speak over time.

    Classroom Management Difficulty: Students insist on being corrected for every error.
    Class management advice: Create a policy that only corrects errors that are relevant to the current lesson. In other words, if you study the present perfect in this lesson, you will only correct mistakes in present perfect usage.
    Establish a policy for specific activities that are exempt from corrections. This should be a class rule to prevent students from correcting each other. In this case, you have a different issue with class management.

    Class management challenge: Students have varying levels of commitment.
    Class management advice: Discuss the course objectives, expectations, and homework guidelines at the start of each new class. Adult learners who find this too demanding may express their concerns during this discussion.
    Individuals should not be asked to repeat information from previous lessons. If you must perform a check, ensure that it is done as a class activity to benefit the entire class.
    Adult English classes – students who speak the same language

    Classroom Management Difficulty: During class, students speak in their native language.
    Class management advice: Use a donation jar as a class management tool. Every time a student speaks a sentence in their native language, they make a contribution to the fund. Later, the class can go out on a date with the money.
    Give students some of their own medicine and begin teaching in another language as soon as possible. Make a point of how this distracts students in class.

    Teaching English

    Difficulty with classroom management: Students insist on translating each phrase into their native language.
    Class management advice: Remind students that a third “person” gets in the way of translation. Instead of communicating directly, you must go to a third party in your head every time you translate into your own language. You will never be able to have a longer conversation using this technique.
    Consider a text that contains a few nonsensical words. Use this text to demonstrate how to recognise general meaning without knowing every single word.
    Increase awareness of the significance of context in language learning. You can also talk about how babies learn to speak over time.

    You may be interested to read:

    1. What is the best way to teach English using newspapers?

  • What is the best way to teach English using newspapers?

    English using Newspapers: Newspapers and magazines are required in all classrooms, including those for beginners. Newspapers can be used in the classroom in a variety of ways, from simple reading exercises to more complex writing and answering tasks. Here you will find suggestions for using newspapers in the classroom, organised by linguistic goals.

    Read

    • Simple to understand: Students should read and discuss an article.
    • Request that students locate articles from various countries on a global topic. Students should compare and contrast how news is reported in different countries.

    Vocabulary

    • Concentrate on word forms with coloured pens. Instruct students to encircle different forms of a word in an article, such as worth, worthlessness, and so on.
    • Instruct students to look for words of various types, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
    • Make a mind map of an article that uses vocabulary to connect ideas.
    • Pay attention to words that are related to specific ideas. For instance, instruct students to circle finance-related verbs. Allow students to compare and contrast the differences between these words in groups.

    Grammar

    English using newspaper
    English Using Newspaper
    • Discuss the use of the present, which is ideal for recent events affecting the present moment, with a focus on shortened headlines that use the past participle, such as. The company ABC and XYZ Merger has been completed, and the Senate Bill has been approved.
    • To emphasise grammar points, use coloured pens. For instance, if you are studying verbs that use the gerund or infinitive, have students highlight these combinations with one colour for gerund and another colour for infinitives. Another option is for students to use different colours to highlight different tenses.
    • Make a photocopy of a newspaper article. Highlight important grammar elements that you want students to fill in the blanks with. Make all auxiliary bonds white, for example, and ask students to fill them out.

    Speak

    • Divide students into groups and read a short article. Students should then write questions based on that article and then share articles with another group asking questions. Once the groups have answered the questions, take the students to couples, one from each group, and have them discuss their answers.
    • Ads in focus. How do the ads throw up their products? What messages are they trying to send?

    Pronunciation / Listening

    English Using Newspepr
    English Using Newspaper
    • Assign students the task of preparing two paragraphs from a newspaper article. First, students should read all of the passage’s substantive words. Then, have students practise reading the sentences while focusing on the correct intonation of the sentence and content words. Finally, students read aloud to themselves and ask simple comprehension questions.
    • Concentrate on one or two IPA symbols by using the fewest possible pairs. Request that students emphasise the example of each phonemes that they practise. For example, by searching for representative words with each phoneme, students can compare and contrast the phonemes for the short/I/tone and the longer ‘ee’ of/i/.
    • Use a message that includes a transcript. Begin by having students listen to a message. Then, ask questions about the story’s main points. Finally, instruct students to listen while reading the transcript. Then there will be a discussion.

    To write

    • Students should write brief summaries of the messages they read.
    • Request that students write their own newspaper article for a school or class newspaper. Some students can conduct interviews, while others can take photographs. Alternatively, you could use the same concept to create a class blog.
    • Students at lower levels can write descriptive sentences using photos, charts, images, and so on. To practise related vocabulary, these can be simple sentences that describe what someone is wearing. Advanced students can write about the “backstory” of photos, such as why a person was in the situation depicted in a photograph.

  • Can Google Translate assist you in teaching English?

    Consider this: You are teaching English to a group of other language speakers despite the fact that you do not speak other language. Present tense is a difficult concept to grasp for members of the group. What are your options?

    So far, most of us have done our best to explain things in plain English and to provide numerous examples. There’s nothing wrong with this strategy. As many Other language-speaking English teachers are probably aware, it can be advantageous to quickly explain the concept in other language. The lesson can then be converted back to English. Rather than wasting fifteen minutes trying to explain the present in English perfectly, a one-minute explanation was sufficient. However, what can a teacher do if he or she does not speak other language — or any other language that their students speak? Google Translate comes into play. Google Translate is one of the most powerful free online translation tools available. Google Translate assists in difficult situations and provides lesson plans on how to use Google Translate in the classroom.

    What services does Google Translate provide?

    Google Translate has four main tool categories:

    • Translation
    • Translated search
    • Translator Toolkit
    • Tools and Resources

    Translate and Google Translate – translates search in class are the two first uses of Google Translate that I’ll discuss in this article.

    Translation via Google Translate

    This is the most common tool. Enter text or a URL, and Google Translate will translate it from English to your target language. Google Translate provides translations in 52 languages, so you should be able to find what you’re looking for. Google Translate translations aren’t perfect, but they’re improving (more on that later).

    Google Translate
    • Students should write short texts in English and then translate them into their native language. Students can benefit from using Google Translate for translations. Recognize grammatical errors in translations to detect them.
    • Use authentic resources, but give students the URL and ask them to translate the original into their target language. This will be beneficial when it comes to difficult Vocabulary. Make certain that students do not use Google Translate until they have read the article in English for the first time.
    • Students should begin by writing a few paragraphs in their native language as a form of introduction. If you can, have them translated into English, and then ask them to improve the translation, as well.
    • Enter your own short text and Google will translate it into the class’s target language(s). Request that students read the translation and then attempt to write the original English text.
    • If all else fails, Google Translate can be used as a bilingual dictionary.

    Search engine translation

    Google Translate also has a search function that can be translated. This tool is extremely useful for locating accompanying content that allows students to use authentic English materials. Google Translate offers this translated search to find pages written in another language while focusing on the English search term you specified. To put it another way, if we’re working on business presentation styles and using Google Translate’s translated search, I can provide some background materials in   or another language.

    In-class translation search

    • If you’re stuck on a grammar point, look for the grammar term to get explanations in the learner’s native language (s).
    • This option should be used to provide context in the learner’s native language (s). This is especially helpful if the students are unfamiliar with the subject. To improve their learning experience, they can become acquainted with some concepts in both their native language and English.
    • To find pages on a specific topic, use translated search. Several paragraphs should be cut and pasted. The students should then translate the text into English.
    • The translated search feature of Google Translate is ideal for group projects. Students frequently have no ideas or are unsure of where to begin. This is sometimes due to a lack of familiarity with the subject in English. Allow them to begin by using the translated search.

  • Is it necessary for students to only speak English in class?

    Here’s an apparently simple question: Should an English policy be implemented only in the English class room? Your gut reaction could be, yes, only English is the only way for students to learn English! There may, however, be some exceptions to this rule.

    First, consider some of the arguments advanced in support of a classroom-only English-only policy: By speaking English, students learn to speak English.

    • English in Classroom
      Should students only speak English in class?

      Allowing students to speak in other languages diverts their attention away from the task of learning English.

    • Students who do not only speak English do not think in English. Students can converse in English if you only speak English.
    • Immersion in a language is the only way to learn to speak it fluently.
    • A classroom with an English-only policy forces them to negotiate the learning process in English.
    • Students who speak a language other than English distract other English learners.
    • Only English is used in effective classroom management, which encourages learning and respect.
    • All of these are valid arguments in favour of an English-only policy in the ESL/EFL classroom. However, there are compelling reasons for students, particularly beginners, to be able to communicate in other languages. Here are some of the more compelling arguments made in favour of the constructive use of other languages in the classroom:
    • Allowing or allowing learners to explain grammar concepts in their L1 (native language) speeds up the learning process.
    • Students can fill in the gaps in class by communicating in another language, especially if the class is large.
    • Allowing some communication in the learners’ L1 creates a more relaxed environment conducive to learning.
    • When other languages are permitted, translating difficult vocabulary becomes much easier and less time-consuming.
    • The requirement to have an English-only policy in the classroom appears to have turned the English teacher into a traffic cop at times.
    • Students can only learn complex concepts to a limited extent due to a lack of English vocabulary in relation to English grammar.

    All of these are valid arguments in favour of an English-only policy in the ESL/EFL classroom. However, there are compelling reasons for students, particularly beginners, to be able to communicate in other languages. Here are some of the more compelling arguments made in favour of the constructive use of other languages in the classroom:

    • Allowing or allowing learners to explain grammar concepts in their L1 (native language) speeds up the learning process.
    • Allowing some communication in the learners’ L1 creates a more relaxed environment conducive to learning.
    • When other languages are permitted, translating difficult vocabulary becomes much easier and less time-consuming.
    • The requirement to have an English-only policy in the classroom appears to have turned the English teacher into a traffic cop at times.
    • Students can only learn complex concepts to a limited extent due to a lack of English vocabulary in relation to English grammar.
    • Students can fill in the gaps in class by communicating in another language, especially if the class is large.

    These are equally valid reasons for possibly allowing some communication in the learners’ L1. The truth is, it’s a touchy subject! Even those who adhere to an English-only policy allow for some exceptions. Pragmatically, there are some situations in which a few words of explanation in another language can do the world of good.

    Exception 1: If, despite multiple attempts…

    If students still do not understand a concept after numerous attempts to explain it in English, it is helpful to provide a brief explanation in the students’ L1. Here are some ideas for how to explain these brief interruptions.

    • If you are fluent in the students’ first language, explain the concept. Mistakes in students’ L1 can actually aid in the development of a relationship.
    • If you are unable to communicate in the students’ first language, ask a student who clearly understands the concept. To avoid repetition, make sure to rotate the students who explain. To make a teacher’s pet.
    • If you understand students’ L1, have them explain the concept to you in their native language. This allows you to check their comprehension and demonstrate to students that you are also learning a language.

    Exception 2: test instructions.

    If you are teaching in a situation where students must take comprehensive English tests, make sure they understand the instructions completely. Unfortunately, students frequently perform poorly on tests because they do not understand the assessment’s instructions, rather than their language skills. In this case, it is a good idea to go over the students’ instructions in their native language. Here are some activities that you can use to ensure that students understand.

    • Students should translate the instructions into their first language. Students should be divided into groups to discuss differences in translation and comprehension.
    • Distribute the instructions to the class on separate strips of paper. Each student is in charge of translating a comic strip. Students should read the English passage first, followed by the translation. Discuss whether the translation is correct or incorrect as a class or in groups.
    • Give examples of questions for directions. Read the instructions in English first, then in the student’s first language. To assess students’ comprehension, have them answer practise questions.

    Clear explanations in the L1 aids of the learners

    When more advanced students can assist other students in their native language, the class progresses significantly. It is a purely pragmatic question in this case. It is sometimes more beneficial for the class to take a five-minute break from English rather than spend fifteen minutes repeating concepts that students do not understand. Some students’ English language skills may prevent them from comprehending complex structural, grammatical, or vocabulary issues. In an ideal world, the teacher would be able to explain each grammar concept in such a way that every student would understand it. However, especially for beginners, students require immediate assistance from their native language.

    Conclusion

    It’s unlikely that a teacher enjoys disciplining his or her students. It is nearly impossible to ensure that others do not speak in a language other than English when a teacher is paying attention to another student. Students who speak in other languages can, admittedly, annoy others. It is critical for a teacher to turn on and prevent conversations in other languages. However, if you are having a Disturbingly good conversation in English, telling others to only speak English can disrupt a good process during class.

    Perhaps the best policy is simply to speak English – with a few caveats. It is a difficult task to insist that no student speak any other language. Creating an environment in the classroom that is solely for English should be a priority, but it should not be the end goal of a welcoming English learning environment.