LIFE AND LITERATURE

  PIED BEAUTY                                                                                           - Gerard Manley Hopkins INTRODUCTION           Gerard Manley Hopkins , (1844-1889) English poet and Jesuit priest, one of the most individual of Victorian writers. His work was not published in collected form until 1918, but it influenced many leading 20th-century poets. He broke his seven-year silence to write the long poem  The Wreck of the Deutschland , which is about the death of five Franciscan nuns in a shipw...

  SHAKESPEAREAN FOOLS AND CLOWNS             Appearing in most of Shakespeare's dramas, the clown or fool figure remains one of the most intriguing stage characters in the Shakespearean oeuvre and has frequently captured the interest of contemporary critics and modern audiences. Taking many forms, Shakespearean fools may be generally divided into two categories:               1. The clown, a general term that was originally intended to designate a rustic or otherwise uneducated individual whose dramatic purpose was to evoke laughter with his ignorance; and the courtly fool or jester, in whom wit and pointed satire accompany low comedy.                 2.The dramatic sources of Shakespeare's simple-minded clowns are at least as old as classical antiquity.     ...

                                                               LISTENING AND SPEAKING                                                                                                                                              PRESENTATION   WHAT IS A PRESENTATION? Presentation is a formal communication that uses both verbal and non-verbal language. There are various forms of oral presentation and they have different functions to perform. Usually, short presentations are gi...

                                                               CONVERSION      Some words can be used as nouns, verbs, adverbs or adjectives without any change in the form of the word, without the addition of an affix or prefix. This process of derivation is called a conversion.  EXAMPLES;  Light: Switch on the light (noun)  Light the lamp (verb) Round:  The earth is round like a ball (adjective)  The principal went on a round (noun)  You must round all the sharp corners (verb)  Back: He is carrying a bag on his back (noun)  You must back me up (verb)  The plane flew back in no time (adverb)  He left by the back door (adjective)  Other types of conversion: Please give me two coffees (An uncountable noun used as a countable noun) This instrument is a must f...

  Audio-Lingual Method      The audio-lingual method, Army Method, or New Key is a method used in teaching foreign languages. It is based on behaviorist theory, which postulates that certain traits of living things, and in this case humans, could be trained through a system of reinforcement. The correct use of a trait would receive positive feedback while incorrect use of that trait would receive negative feedback. This approach to language learning was similar to another, earlier method called the direct method. Like the direct method, the audio-lingual method advised that students should be taught a language directly, without using the students' native language to explain new words or grammar in target language. However, unlike the direct method, the audio-lingual method did not focus on teaching vocabulary. Rather, the teacher drilled students in the use of grammar. Applied to language instruction, and often within the context of the language lab, it means that th...

 INTRODUCTION   The Spectator, arguably one of the most important periodicals ever published, had a two-series run from March 1, 1711, through December 6, 1712, for a total of 635 issues. It was edited (written) by two masters of the essay, Richard Steele and Joseph Addison. For the most part, Richard Steele wrote the first series of 555 issues, and Joseph Addison the second series of 79 issues. True to its billing as a periodical, it resembled most eighteenth-century London newspapers in size and layout. Although the editorship was anonymous, many readers believed the writer was Richard Steele, who had just been involved with another periodical, also well known, The Tatler. Steele and Addison comprised the two main writers/editors, but several issues were written by others, all of whom were associated with the coffee-house culture of the eighteenth-century London literati.  THE SPECTATOR CLUB   The Spectator Club is perhaps Richard Steele’s finest achievement. ...