Indian Journal of Language and Linguistics

The Minority Languages of Tripura with Special Reference to Kokborok Language: A Study on the Language Demography of Tripura, India

Sudeshna Debbarma — 2024-06-27

Linguistically, Tripura is a case of one dominant language and several minority languages. This study aims to identify the minority languages endemic to Tripura, with the objective of preserving and protecting the identified languages. The present study is based on the secondary data collected from the Census of India, 2011 and Ethnologue, 2024. The descriptive research method has been used to analyse the data. The study reveals that eight minority languages are enlisted by the Directorate of Kokborok and Other Minority Languages in Tripura. The eight languages are Kokborok, Manipuri, Bishnupriya Manipuri, Kuki-Mizo, Garo, Halam, Chakma and Mogh. Out of the eight minority languages enlisted by the said directorate of Tripura, Kokborok is the only language endemic to Tripura, and other minority languages have their language core areas outside the state. The core area of Kokborok is situated in Tripura, and the periphery areas are spread in the adjacent Indian states of Mizoram and Assam and Chittagong hill tracts of Bangladesh. However, the Kokborok language is a vulnerable minority language in its core area. The language speakers account for only 25.9 per cent of the total speakers in Tripura. Even after gaining official status on January 19, 1979, the Kokborok language is not widely used in educational institutions, official circulars, press, television, courts, and financial or social institutions, weakening language vitality. Therefore, considering the endemic character of the Kokborok language, meaning that the Kokborok language holds unique traits and adaptations to environmental conditions in the region, its minority status and low language vitality, the Kokborok language needs to be preserved and protected.

Navigating Identity: A Study of the Khasis in Meghalaya's Multilingual Borderlands

Gordon D. Dkhar — 2024-05-09

This paper attempts to study the factors that influence identity perception of the Khasis in a language contact environment in four borders of Meghalaya. The study finds that the ecology of contact, intermarriage, and migration play a significant role in shaping the linguistic and cultural identity perception of the Khasis. The study also demonstrates that the language that people use in a particular community is not just a matter of communication, but is also influenced by the social and cultural context of the contact environment. Apart from utility and value, the kind of motivation associated with language can perceptively affect one’s language and cultural identity. The study provides valuable insights into the complex factors that influence cross-border multilingualism and its impact on identity formation. The findings of the study have implications for the understanding of multilingualism in a contact situation on one hand, and the underpinnings of language and cultural in identity formation.

Language Errors among Iranian EFL Students with High and Low Levels of Writing Anxiety

Hajar Shahhoseini — 2024-05-09

Writing is known as one of the major important language skills and it is the most difficult language skills for most EFL and ESL learners. In addition, anxiety is one of the factors that many language learners face with it in the writing process. This paper examines language errors among Iranian students of English with high and low levels of writing anxiety. For this purpose, 250 English language learners from universities of the south of Iran were participated in this research. This research used two tools to collect data: the Second Language Writing Anxiety Questionnaire (SLWAI), which was a pre-test containing 22 items and three subscales of physical anxiety, avoidance behavior, and cognition based on a Likert point scale. In addition, a language test in the form of essay writing was used to recognize their different categories and main errors in the writing performance. The results of this research showed that there is a negative relationship between students' anxiety and the number of errors in their writing performance. This study discusses the implications of this finding for English language learners and teachers.

Correlative and Free Relative constructions in Odia and English

Kalyanamalini Sahoo — 2024-05-20

The present paper investigates multiple Correlative Constructions (CC) in Odia and sketches a combined semantic and syntactic analysis. The paper describes Correlative Constructions and related constructions in Odia, with a view especially to its quantificational systems, one residing in lexical quantifiers, and one in the clause combinations which constitute CCs. Over the last decades, a growing literature has addressed similarities between CCs as instantiated in languages on the Indian subcontinent and types of Free Relatives, e.g., in English, as they occur in positions adjoined to clauses, here to be called Adjoined Free Relatives (AFRs). AFR constructions supplement lexical quantification in English in a parallel way to CCs in Odia, and we explore possibilities of representing CCs and AFR constructions within a common semantico-syntactic frame of analysis. We show how the quantificational effects of CCs can be derived from their character as relative constructions, residing in what we call co-targeted predicates, as opposed to lexical encoding of quantificational meaning through items such as ‘each’, ‘every’ and the like. We thereby describe two distinct strategies for obtaining partially similar quantificational effects, a finding which applies to CC/AFR constructions cross-linguistically.

The Classroom Management in English Language Teaching

Ali Akbar Khansir — 2024-06-24

This paper examined a review study of the classroom management in English language teaching. Classroom Management is one of the important aspects of English language teaching is directly related to the job of English teachers in their classrooms. The successful of the English teacher is related to the ability of the teacher in managing his / her class. Today, the classroom management is an art as well as a science for the English teacher in order to become effective teacher in EFL or ESL classrooms. The teacher can use the art and science of his / her teaching English along with various classroom activities to motivate his/ her students to gain confidence in the learning of English. The classroom management in English classrooms is an important factor that contributes to success in English language teaching and learning. When we condider about the classroom management, the classroom management cannot be studied properly without touching upon the study of psychological problems, learner problems, and linguistic problems. This study reviews classroom management is known as one of the big challenges of the teacher in controlling ELT classroom.