Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Nepali language'

This dissertation has two main purposes: (a) to provide an analysis of the past tenses in Nepali and compare them with those of English from a discourse pragmatic perspective; and (b) to investigate how Nepali learners of English use the English past tenses in terms of forms, meanings, and functions.A major claim of the dissertation is that tenses and aspects play various discourse functions in Nepali. Although Nepali has various past tenses as in English, their actual use is different from those of English. A significant difference between the use of the past tenses in English and Nepali is revealed in the use of the past perfect tense. In Nepali, unlike in English, the past perfect does not always require the existence of the past reference point between the event time and the speech time. Although used in similar as well as different contexts, the past perfect in both languages is found to express background information. In the analysis of the Nepali past tenses, one of the major arguments is that the traditionally termed `unknown past' does not have `past' as part of its basic meaning. The main function of this verb form is to express the speaker's unawareness of a situation at the time of its happening, whether in the past or the future.After the discussion of the Nepali past tenses in comparison with the English past tenses and aspects, an error analysis of Nepali EFL learners' use of the English past tenses in written essays is carried out. It was hypothesized that Nepali learners would make a wide variety of errors in the use of the English past tenses. Because of differences in the use of the past perfect and the past tense in the habitual sense between Nepali and English, it was expected that Nepali ESL learners would make errors in those areas. However, overgeneralization due to difference in the use was found only in a very few cases. Most of these errors cannot be traced to Nepali influence. One area, however, where Nepali has a clear effect on the students' use of English is in indirect speech. I argue that Nepali speakers do not change tenses in English indirect speech appropriately because verb tenses in Nepali are not changed from direct speech to indirect speech as in English.It is hoped that this dissertation will enhance the understanding of grammatical categories such as tense and aspect in general and of Nepali tense and aspect systems in particular. In general, this dissertation showed contribute to several areas of study in discourse analysis, second language acquisition, language transfer and contrastive analysis. A major significance of this dissertation is its demonstration of the role of tense and aspect in Nepali in the expression of various discourse functions.
Department of English

The present study seeks to investigate the linguistic behavior of two Newari high castes, called Shresthas and Udas, living in Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal, in their use of Newari, the ethnic language, and Nepali, the national language. Specifically, the study attempts to explain the hypothesis that the Hindu (Shrestha) Newars are becoming monolingual in Nepali while the Buddhist (Udas) Newars are maintaining their bilingualism in Nepali and Newari. To do so, a questionnaire was distributed to a total of 96 subjects, selected through quota sampling procedures. The questionnaire not only elicits information about the situational and societal variation in the subjects' use of Newari and Nepali but also reveals their attitudes and opinions about the differential use of these languages. Also, the participant observation method was employed to supplement and validate the responses derived from the questionnaire survey.The results from this study suggest a diglossic behavior in the Udas' use of Newari and Nepali, which, however, is remarkably different from those found in classic diglossic settings. This, in turn, leads to a reexamination of Ferguson's concept of diglossia. The Shresthas, on the other hand, frequently alternate between Newari and Nepali regardless of situation. Such linguistic differences between these two groups are related to their varied social networks and relationships; the Udas Newars' greater use of Newari is due to their closed social networks while the Shresthas' greater use of Nepali is due to their open social networks.The data on the analysis of the subjects' attitudes and opinions toward Nepali and Newari indicate that the Udas Newars are positive and favorable toward Newari while the Shresthas are ambivalent in their opinions toward these languages. This study, therefore, emphasizes a strong need for bilingual education in the country.The results of the present study show that the Udas' use of Newari exclusively at home and with children is a major factor in its retention. Among the Shresthas, it is rapidly losing ground to Nepali. Newari then is gradually dying away among the Shresthas, and will continually do so in the absence of institutional support.
Department of English

Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2001.
"A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, May 4, 2001." Also available in print.

Aspect splits can affect agreement, Case, and even preposition insertion. This paper discusses the functional ‘why’ and the theoretical ‘how’ of aspect splits. Aspect splits are an economical way to mark aspect by preserving or suppressing some independent element in one aspect. In formal terms, they are produced in the same way as coda conditions in phonology, with positional/contextual faithfulness.This approach captures the additive effects of cross-cutting splits. Aspect splits are analyzed here from Hindi, Nepali, Yucatec Maya, Chontal, and Palauan.

Puma is an endangered Tibeto-Burman language of the Kiranti subgroup spoken by approximately 4,000 people in eastern Nepal. This dissertation investigates the phonology and morphosyntax of Puma. Data are presented and analysed from a crosslinguistic typological perspective where possible. The analysis is based mainly on annotated texts from a substantial corpus of spoken Puma, and from informally collected data and direct elicitation to supplement the corpus. Puma is a polysynthetic and complex pronominalised language where words can consist of a series of morphemes. Verbal agreement, where verbs agree with subjects and objects, is very complex, and differs strikingly from the case-marking system used with independent noun phrases. Case-marking of nouns and pronouns is split between nominative-accusative and ergative-absolutive-dative. Intransitive subjects also exhibit characteristics of a split-S pattern: some intransitive subjects display grammatical properties similar to those of transitive objects, while others do not. In contrast to Dryer's (1986, 2007) typology of primary object type and direct object type languages, Puma is neither a fully primary object nor a fully direct object language. Transitive verbs can be detransitivised with a kha- prefix or with zero, which is typologically more common (Bickel et al. 2007). For kha-detransitivisation the affected entity must be human; this is typologically unusual, but characteristic of the Kiranti subgroup. The syntactic pivot for both inter-clausal and intra-clausal syntax is 'subject', comprising the single argument of intransitive verbs and the agent-like argument of transitive verbs. Interestingly, the morphology does not treat these in a consistent way but the syntax does. Verbs fall into classes that show distinct syntactic behaviours in different constructions. Compound verbs, which are an areal feature of South Asian languages (Masica 1976), comprise verbal, nominal and lexical types. Different nominalisation and relativisation strategies exist for S human and non-human, A and P arguments. The dissertation aims to provide a comprehensive description of Puma and includes hundreds of examples drawn from the corpus, plus Appendices of sample verb paradigms and texts, and names of contributors.

This thesis investigates grammatical relations in Tamang, a (Tibeto-Burman) Sino-Tibetan language with roughly one million mother-tongue speakers, who live predominantly in the central hills of Nepal. Sino-Tibetan languages are known for their diversity of morphosyntactic profiles for expressing predicate-participant relations, which range from fully syntactic grammatical functions (eg. in Kham, Kiranti languages) to non-syntactic systems which encode semantic and pragmatic information about elements of the clause (eg. in Meithei, Chinese). Tamang represents an intermediate type, displaying a mixture of non-syntactic and syntactic patterns. This mixed profile is evident in intra-clausal relations in main and dependent clauses, where assignment of case morphemes encoding a mixture of semantic, pragmatic and syntactic information interacts with other strategies such as manipulation of word order and omission of clause participants. Inter-clausal relations are also unevenly syntacticized, some being based on syntactic pivots which privilege particular arguments, and some not. The research presented here is based on a corpus of field data from the Tamang dialect spoken in the villages of Lekharka and Bhote Namlang in the valley of the Indrawati River (Sindhupalchok District). Following a discussion on theoretical approaches to the analysis of clause participants and a grammatical overview of this dialect (which includes a detailed description of the verbal system), the thesis presents the morphosyntactic means by which grammatical relations are expressed, and the relations which hold between predicates and their participants in all types of main clause. Lastly, it examines grammatical relations in dependent clauses and structures of clause linkage, and explores links between grammatical relations and other domains of the language such as information structure, pragmatics and the lexicon. Phenomena observed in Tamang are considered in the context of typological literature on grammatical relations and alignment and, where possible, comparisons are drawn with patterns noted in other Sino-Tibetan and Tibeto-Burman languages.

This thesis explores the issue of ethno-linguistic identity through an examination of everyday practices in two mother-tongue schools in Nepal. While language and ethnicity have remained highly politicised subject in Nepal, the everyday cultural politics of language use inside minority language school has received very limited academic attention. In this thesis, I focus on the ways in which different people understand, experience, and interpret mother-tongue education in their everyday life. Drawing on Bourdieu's notion of social field, I argue that mother-tongue instruction not only concerns the introduction of minority languages in education, but also constitutes an 'arena of struggle', where the idea of an 'educated person' is (re)imagined, and the social positions of ethno-linguistic groups are negotiated. To explain this further, I show that minority language education function as a subfield within the larger social field of national education. On the one hand, everyday language practices in the schools display inward-looking characteristics through the everyday use of mother tongue and the construction of unified ethnic identity within the subfield of minority language education. On the other hand, there were outward-looking dynamics of actively engaging with the national education system. The salience of these processes is the simultaneous membership to multiple groups, claims over public spaces and in the spaces of nationalism, hitherto associated with Nepali. Using the idea of 'simultaneity', I show that social actors in minority language education might not necessarily select between subfield and social field, but instead thrive in their tense intersection. In this process, ethno-linguistic groups are able to construct their own subjectivities by negotiating what it means to be educated in a minority language. This emerging narrative of minority language education may help us to understand the issues of language and ethnicity in a more open-ended way and appreciate the multiple scales in which identities are expressed.

This study examines the washback effect of a final examination. Despite the general criticisms of a final examination for its negative influence on education, no empirical evidence was noted in the existing literature; rather some evidence for positive washback was found. The study was based on the assumption that the detrimental effect of a final exam is not inherent; whether the washback is negative or positive is dependent on the design of the exam. Furthermore, the power that the exam has to influence teaching and learning, if exploited properly, can make it work as an instrument for educational change. The context of the study was English language teaching and testing at school in Nepal. The washback effect of the School Leaving Certificate English exam, an exit exam based on prescribed textbooks in terms of its content and discrete-point approach in terms of its format, was examined. A new exam of reading, grammar, note-taking and writing based on the course objectives of the SLC English course in terms of its content, and integrative-communicative approach in terms of its format was designed to use as the criterion measure of the English proficiency of the students. The new exam was administered to school leavers and students of the previous year. The performance of the school leavers on the new exam was compared with their performance on the SLC English exam, and with the performance of the students of the previous year on the new exam. The results indicate that SLC English exam had a negative washback on the teaching and learning of the SLC English course because it failed to allow the students and the teacher to work for the course objectives of the SLC English. It was concluded that washback is an inherent quality of a final exam; people whose future is affected by the exam-results work for the exam regardless of the quality of the exam. Whether the washback is negative or positive is dependent on what the exam measures; if it is congruent with the sentiment and the purposes of the course objectives, it can achieve beneficial washback; if not it is bound to produce harmful washback. Innovations through the former type of exam would lead the teaching for the exam to be in accordance with it. The implications for language testing in general, and the Nepalese ELT situation in particular are presented. It is suggested that the SLC English exam should be replaced by an exam similar to the one used, in order to bring about change in the teaching of the SLC English course. Recommendations for further research are made.

"Literacies in Motion: Transnational Lives and Lifelong Learning in the US and Nepal," is a multi-sited, ethnographic case study of adult Bhutanese refugees' English language and literacy learning in the transnational contexts of the Bhutanese Diaspora and subsequent refugee resettlement. Specifically, I look at two refugee education programs that provide intensive English language training, the Pima Community College Adult Education Refugee Education Project (REP) in Tucson, Arizona and Caritas-Nepal's Spoken English Center at the site of the Bhutanese refugee camps in Jhapa, Nepal. As a teacher engaged in classroom inquiry in the REP program in Tucson, I was interested in how multilingual adults who strategically and complexly identified as refugees also understood themselves as English language learners and what effect these orientations might have on learning processes and classroom dynamics, especially related to literacy instruction. This initial classroom research gradually expanded to include research in the homes and community spaces of the Nepali-speaking Bhutanese students who invited me to participate as a teacher-researcher in their cultural events and neighborhood meetings and, eventually, to global sites of inquiry in the Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal. Altogether, I conducted ethnographic research over a period of 5 years, including classroom observations, teacher and learner interviews, and literacy artifact collection in homes, schools, and community spaces. My findings show that while linguistic inequalities within the communicative contexts of refugee resettlement worked to constrain adult language learners' second language literacies in the classroom, refugees' own mobile knowledge networks and global language investments allowed for more flexible multilingual and multimodal literacy resources and practices. Furthermore, while there is a profound, collective investment in English language learning in refugee camps in Nepal prior to resettlement, this investment is complex and learners often demonstrate deeply ambivalent attitudes toward the benefit of learning English especially later in life. While much local effort is invested in "empowering" teachers and adult learners through English education, true fluency among older adults in the refugee camp remains extremely limited to a truncated classroom repertoire (i.e. copying from the board, repetition, and simple greetings). Instead, adult learners, especially women, flourished in other ways through language center leadership, recruitment, and coordination involving translingual, transcultural, and multimodal skills. By considering the ways in which women refugees' expanding communicative repertoires outside of class operate in the refugee camp, and then travel through the migratory space of refugee resettlement, this study supports the work of emerging voices in the field of rhetoric and composition (i.e. Rebecca Lorimer Leonard's "traveling literacies") as well as those more established in literacy studies and applied linguistics (i.e. Jan Blommaert's "grassroots literacies" and "mobilization of language resources") to forward a mobile literacies construct that helps to explain the affordances and constraints of traveling language resources in a globalized world. Discrepancies found in both US and Bhutanese refugee camp contexts between the truncated English language repertoires of adult learners in class and their expanding translingual and multimodal repertoires outside of class, suggest important implications for translocal language policy and planning for multilingual learners.

The medium of language is important to environmental philosophy, and more specifically, to the establishment and understanding of environmental relationships. The differences between animal and human language point to our unique semantic range, which results from our neuro-linguistic process of signification. An examination of the linguistic implications of the problem of nature and the tenets of semiotics challenges the idea of a clean word to world fit. Because signs are the medium in which meaning is constructed, questions about nature must in part be questions of language. Environmental discourse itself is bound up in sociolinguistic productions and we must attend not only to what language says, but to what it does. NEPA functions as a speech act that systematically invokes an ethical framework by which it colonizes the domain of valuation and fails to provide a genuine opportunity for non-commodity values to be expressed.

This thesis describes a collaborative Action Research project that works to improve the quality of English language teaching (ELT) and learning in a public sector university in Pakistan. It demonstrates how teachers and students can take responsibility for engaging in active learning and teaching by developing their roles beyond traditional models of teaching and learning. The findings of the study are validated through critical thinking, the active critique of colleagues and students who participated in the study, reflection on critical aspects of data collection and by contextualising findings within existing literature. The thesis comprises eight chapters. Chapter one provides an introduction. It presents the overall organization of the thesis. This includes the aims of the study, rationale of the research, brief overview of methodology and the structure of the thesis. In chapter two, the literature review focuses on the defining factors of large class teaching and learning. Much of the research on large classes is written in the context of the West and has limited application to the problems of developing countries. Existing literature suggests a need for further work on large class teaching and learning in the developing world. In chapter three I present the Context of the Study. I provide an historical overview of language policies in Pakistan which have influenced the educational structure and the development of the country. The status and importance of the English language in Pakistan is highlighted. I outline the classification of various English language teaching institutes in Pakistan. The chapter concludes with an account of teaching and learning and the sociopolitical conditions that affect the educational process at University of Sindh, Jamshoro Pakistan (UoSJP), the site of the project. Chapter four discusses the methodology of the study. It is divided into two sections. In section one I outline the rationale behind the choice of Action Research as a methodological framework for an intervention strategy. In the second section, I discuss the research design, and various data collection tools used for the study. In chapter five, I discuss the first reconnaissance phase of data collection. This has several foci: the teaching methods currently used in large classes at UoSJP; the students and teachers perceptions of ELT and the socio-political conditions that affect teaching and learning. Overall this chapter exposes the complexities involved in teaching at UoSJP and provides the basis for developing an intervention strategy. Chapter six presents the intervention phase of the action research strategy aimed at introducing cooperative practices. It contains the narrative of how a new teaching strategy was planned and collaboratively conducted in two different classes. Chapter seven focuses on the findings of the research and the analysis of data. I also reflect on the key emerging themes of both phases of the project. Evaluation criteria in action research are also discussed along with the monitoring strategy. The final chapter looks at the future implications of the study and offers practical guidelines on the management of large classes. There is a concluding reflection on critical issues that might affect future research. The thesis promotes ‘learner-focused' teaching through critical reflection on professional practice. The study also suggests how students can be empowered to take control of their own learning, by giving them autonomy and, by creating a socially just and democratic atmosphere in class. It also shows how large classes, exceeding a hundred students, can be managed by changing teaching methods and by increasing students' participation through group learning and the deployment of group leaders.

This thesis portrays my multifaceted and emergent inquiry into the protracted problem of culturally decontextualised mathematics education faced by students of Nepal, a culturally diverse country of south Asia with more than 90 language groups. I generated initial research questions on the basis of my history as a student of primary, secondary and university levels of education in Nepal, my Master’s research project, and my professional experiences as a teacher educator working in a university of Nepal between 2004 and 2006. Through an autobiographical excavation of my experiences of culturally decontextualised mathematics education, I came up with several emergent research questions, leading to six key themes of this inquiry: (i) hegemony of the unidimensional nature of mathematics as a body of pure knowledge, (ii) unhelpful dualisms in mathematics education, (iii) disempowering reductionisms in curricular and pedagogical aspects, (iv) narrowly conceived ‘logics’ that do not account for meaningful lifeworld-oriented thinking in mathematics teaching and learning, (v) uncritical attitudes towards the image of curriculum as a thing or object, and (vi) narrowly conceived notions of globalisation, foundationalism and mathematical language that give rise to a decontextualised mathematics teacher education program.With these research themes at my disposal my aim in this research was twofold. Primarily, I intended to explore, explain and interpret problems, issues and dilemmas arising from and embedded in the research questions. Such an epistemic activity of articulation was followed by envisioning, an act of imagining futures together with reflexivity, perspectival language and inclusive vision logics.In order to carry out both epistemic activities – articulating and envisioning – I employed a multi-paradigmatic research design space, taking on board mainly the paradigms of criticalism, postmodernism, interpretivism and integralism. The critical paradigm offered a critical outlook needed to identify the research problem, to reflect upon my experiences as a mathematics teacher and teacher educator, and to make my lifetime’s subjectivities transparent to readers, whereas the paradigm of postmodernism enabled me to construct multiple genres for cultivating different aspects of my experiences of culturally decontextualised mathematics education. The paradigm of interpretivism enabled me to employ emergence as the hallmark of my inquiry, and the paradigm of integralism acted as an inclusive meta-theory of the multi-paradigmatic design space for portraying my vision of an inclusive mathematics education in Nepal.Within this multi-paradigmatic design space, I chose autoethnography and small p philosophical inquiry as my methodological referents. Autoethnography helped generate the research text of my cultural-professional contexts, whereas small p philosophical inquiry enabled me to generate new knowledge via a host of innovative epistemologies that have the goal of deepening understanding of normal educational practices by examining them critically, identifying underpinning assumptions, and reconstructing them through scholarly interpretations and envisioning. Visions cultivated through this research include: (i) an inclusive and multidimensional image of the nature of mathematics as an im/pure knowledge system, (ii) the metaphors of thirdspace and dissolution for conceiving an inclusive mathematics education, (iii) a multilogical perspective for morphing the hegemony of reductionism-inspired mathematics education, (iv) an inclusive image of mathematics curriculum as montage that provides a basis for incorporating different knowledge systems in mathematics education, and (v) perspectives of glocalisation, healthy scepticism and multilevel contextualisation for constructing an inclusive mathematics teacher education program.

La population autochtone de la vallée de Kathmandu, les Néwar, a vu sa langue, le néwari ou népalbhasa, et l’une de ses religions, le bouddhisme, se trouver minorées par l’annexion militaire de leur territoire au Népal de la dynastie Shah, hindoue et népaliphone, en 1769. Un siècle plus tard, la politique de discrimination de la langue et de la religion bouddhiste lancée par l’Etat à l’encontre des Néwar a provoqué l’émergence d’une conscience identitaire et d’actes de résistance culturelle. Or, depuis ses débuts, la revendication de l’appartenance au groupe linguistique néwar et, souvent, de sa défense, se double chez ses acteurs d’un rattachement personnel à la religion bouddhiste, sans que cette double appartenance soit pour autant mise en avant dans les discours.La mise en regard de la situation actuelle de la vitalité de la langue et de celle du bouddhisme dans cette population vise d’une part à documenter l’étude des relations entre langue et religion, et d’autre part à proposer l’application d’outils d’évaluation de la vitalité linguistique à celle de la vitalité religieuse. C’est également une confirmation de la nécessité qu’il y a à mettre au jour et à conceptualiser les relations entre la langue et les autres dynamismes sociaux dont elle semble être, si souvent, à la fois le vecteur et l’enjeu
In 1769, the Shah dynasty from Western Nepal, promoting Hinduism and speaking Nepali, had conquered the Kathmandu Valley and integrated it into a much wider Nepal. As a consequence, the language, as well as the Buddhist tradition of the local indigenous ethnic group, the Newars, became minority ones. A century later, the State launched a repressive policy towards both Newari language and Buddhism, and the result has been the development of identity awareness, both in the linguistic and in the religious fields, among the Newar intelligentsia, who entered cultural resistance. Therefore, since the beginning, both language and religion have been associated, although activists hardly acknowledge this double-sided feature of their commitments.This study of the current situation of both language and religion vitalities among the Newars of the Kathmandu Valley aims primarily at documenting the research on relations between language and religion, and at testing the application of evaluation tools of language vitality to the evaluation of religious vitality. Furthermore, it confirms the necessity we are facing to explore and conceptualize more the links between language and the social dynamics it often sustains but also depends on

The recent emphasis on the importance of English language teaching and learning in public universities in Pakistan has resulted in the introduction of a new English as Second Language (ESL) programme including revised teaching approaches, content and assessment. However, to date, no rigorous and independent evaluation of this new programme has been undertaken particularly with respect to students' learning and experiences. This thesis seeks to address this gap by examining the effects of the new ESL programme on students' learning experiences, as well as teachers' perspectives and the broader institutional context. The study uses a qualitative case study approach basing its findings on the responses of purposively sampled students (n=17) and teachers (n=7) from the Institution of English Literature and Linguistics (IELL), University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan (UoSJP). Semistructured interviews, observations and document review were used as the main tools to collect a wide variety of data. The analysis of the data was informed by different theories including Symbolic Interactionism, Community of Practice, and Bourdieusian notions of habitus, field and capital. These theories offered an approach which bridges the structure and agency divide in understanding students' learning experiences. The study employed the concepts of institutional influences to examine the impact of UoSJP's policies and practices on the teaching and learning of the ESL programme. The concept of community, which is understood as the community of the ESL classroom, is used to examine the interactions of students-students and students-teachers. The notion of identity was used to examine the interaction of students' gender, rurality, ethnicity and previous learning experiences with different aspects of the ESL programme. In relation to institutional influences, the study found that UoSJP's institutional policies and practices are shaped by its position in the field of higher education, and in turn, these influences shape teaching and learning in the ESL programme. Specifically, UoSJP defines its capital as higher education for all, which in practice translates as admitting students who have been rejected by other universities and/or cannot afford private universities' high fees. In order to meet the language needs of disadvantaged students from non-elite English and vernacular medium schools, UoSJP offers the ESL programme. This initiative aims to improve students' English language skills in their first two years, and to fulfil requirements set by the Higher Education Commission (HEC). However, the university's treatment of the ESL programme significantly impacts on teaching and learning in terms of its policies and practices, in relation to faculty hiring, teacher training, relationship between the administration and ESL teachers, number of students in ESL classrooms, assessment criteria, ESL quality assurance, and learning support resources like up-to-date libraries. In relation to the community of ESL classroom, the study found that participation plays an important part in defining students' roles and their relationship with teachers and peers in the classroom. Teachers' pedagogic strategies and large classes were found to be influential factors affecting students' participation in the classroom. It was found that teachers use different pedagogic strategies, which define them as facilitators or knowledge transmitters accordingly. The facilitators allow students' full participation in the classroom by listening to their opinions, respecting their arguments, appreciating their feedback, acknowledging their contributions to the class, and demonstrating empathy to their problems. When in class with these teachers, students feel encouraged, confident and motivated to participate in the classroom. By contrast, the knowledge transmitters prefer monologue lectures when teaching ESL, and strongly discourage students' participation. Students are usually not allowed to ask questions or express their concerns to these teachers. In their presence, students revealed that they lacked confidence, and felt discouraged and demotivated from participating in the classroom. Moreover, in the context of large classes only students sitting on the front-benches are given opportunities of participation, while those at the back of the classroom are considered to be educationally weak, inactive, therefore ignored in interactive activities. The treatment of these students by teachers and students at the front of the class alike limits their participation in the classroom. In relation to identities, the study found that students frequently foreground their gender identities, rural-ethnic identities and identities as medical or engineering students in interaction with different aspects of the ESL programme. Some aspects of ESL textbooks including units which depict stereotypical gender roles conflict with female students' gender identities; units which are based on exclusively Western, urban contexts conflict with students' rural-ethnic identities, and units that are based on graph-comprehension conflict with students' identities as medical students. While others aspects of ESL textbooks particularly those units that are constructed on experiences and activities which are exclusively associated with men in Pakistan such as driving complement female students' gender identities; and those units which are set in a village, and focus on the culture and life of villages complement students rural-ethnic identities. Moreover, it was found that female students struggled in maintaining their role as ESL learners in comparison with their gender roles as sister and daughter. This thesis provides new insights into students' learning experiences and ESL in higher education. It also contributes to and enhances the literature on higher education in Pakistan. Furthermore, it enables policy-makers to reflect upon their policies, as well as provides suggestions to the UoSJP and its teachers.

Master of Science
Department of Architecture
David R. Seamon
Kamaiya is a system of Nepalese agriculture bonded labor. In typical wage labor, one can enter or withdraw from the labor market as an independent agent; in the case of bonded labor, however, a worker cannot control his or her labor power. The Kamaiyas were liberated by the Nepalese government in 2000, and promised land to build houses. Without enough money for construction, however, many of these “ex-Kamaiyas,” as they are now called, are without housing or live in sub-standard units. This thesis examines the housing possibilities for the ex-Kamaiyas and aims at creating basic guidelines for planning and designing low-cost, self-help housing. The thesis is an attempt to design affordable and environmentally responsive housing that draws on Nepalese vernacular traditions but incorporates some modern materials and construction methods. The research and designs are based on interviews with ex-Kamaiyas living in the Nepalese villages of Tesanpur, Janatanagar, and Bhuri Gaun. The thesis serves as a guide for non-profit organizations working to provide housing for the ex-Kamaiyas and consists of guidelines, termed “design patterns,” for laying out ex-Kamaiya neighborhoods and for designing and constructing individual houses. The thesis also provides step-by-step construction guidelines for building the houses. The thesis’s last chapter evaluates the proposed housing system and identifies strengths and weaknesses.

Texte remanié de: Dissertation--Descriptive linguistics--Leiden university, 2002. Titre de soutenance : The Wāmbule language.
Comprend un lexique wambule-anglais et un lexique anglais-wambule. Bibliogr. p. [895]-900.

Notre thèse traite de la rétroflexion et de la corrélation double de voisement et d’aspiration tant du point de vue phonétique que phonologique. En utilisant la palatographie et la linguographie directes, nous avons montré que les coronales simples sont produites majoritairement comme des lamino-dento-alvéolaires, les affriquées comme des lamino-alvéolaires, et enfin que les rétroflexes varient entre le type cacuminal et le type rétroflexe. Les différentes modélisations phonologiques des segments coronaux ont été examinées et confrontées à nos résultats dans une perspective de phonologie de laboratoire. Renvoyant principalement au mouvement vertical de la pointe de langue, nous avons proposé un trait [rétroflexe], en tant que trait de manière rattaché au noeud coronal. L’étude de la corrélation de voisement et d’aspiration a d’abord été menée au niveau acoustique. Le modèle ACT (Mikuteit & Reetz 2007) que nous avons utilisé, nous a permis de décrire acoustiquement les quatre types d’occlusives du népali tant du point qualitatif que quantitatif. Cependant, l’ACT (After Closure Time) n’a pu être utilisé comme paramètre unique pour les distinguer alors qu’il était suffisant en bengali. Nous avons ensuite mené une étude des contraintes cooccurrencielles entre occlusives aspirées, en nous fondant sur l’analyse du dictionnaire népali en ligne de R.L. Turner (1931). Nous avons pu dégager la généralisation suivante : hormis certaines racines contenant les séquences de type /Tʰ…h/ (où Tʰ = n’importe quelle occlusive aspirée et sourde), les occlusives aspirées sont absentes des affixes et les combinaisons de racines et d’affixes contiennent au maximum une aspirée
Our thesis deals with the retroflexion and the voicing and aspiration contrasts in Nepali from a phonological and phonetic point of view. Using palatography and linguography, we showed that dentals are mainly produced as lamino-denti-alveolar, affricates as lamino-denti-alveolar and, at last, that retroflexes vary, being either cacuminal or retroflex.Various phonological models of coronal features were examined and compared in the light of our articulatory results in a Laboratory Phonology perspective. Referring mainly to the vertical movement of the tip of the tongue, we proposed the feature [retroflex], as a manner feature attached to the coronal node. The study of the voicing and aspiration contrast was first done at the acoustical level. The ACT model (Mikuteit & Reetz 2007) provides us for a useful tool to describe acoustically the four types of stops in Nepali, from a qualitative as well as a quantitative point of view. However, ACT (After Closure time) could not be used as a single parameter to distinguish them, while it was sufficient in Bengali. Finally, we performed a study of co-occurrence constraints between aspirated stops, based on the analysis of the online Nepali dictionary of R. L. Turner. We could extract the following generalisation: except in some roots including sequences such as /Tʰ…h/ (where Tʰ= any aspirated unvoiced stops), the aspirated stops are not found in affixes and combinations of roots and affixes contain maximally one aspirated stop

In the past 20 years identifying the effective second language learning strategies of language learners is a topic that has received considerable attention in the field of second language acquisition. More recently, research has focused on the factors that affect strategy use. Attention has been focused in these areas largely because effective strategy use and the factors affecting strategy use are said to contribute to the language learner's success in language learning. This thesis investigates the use of second language learning strategies in a naturalistic learning context, that of missionaries in Nepal. It attempts to understand how 'success' or communicative competence is achieved for these missionaries of the United Mission to Nepal (UMN). In order to do this it explores the language learning experiences of both 'successful'and 'less successful' language learners of UMN, particularly concentrating on strategies related to oral communication. More importantly though, it is concerned with examining the influence of various factors on the strategies used by these language learners in the informal learning environment (i.e. 'real-life'situations).

Prior to starting the PhD, my personal experience and observations as an English language teacher in Nepal suggested that several issues and challenges impeded English language teaching (ELT) in Nepal. A preliminary exploration (PE) with my lecturers and colleagues in Nepal also raised similar issues and challenges. This research project explores Nepalese ELT. The research project was guided by the following research questions. a. What are the issues and challenges that have an impact on English language teaching in Nepal? b. How can English language teaching in Nepal be improved? Essentially, with a mixed-methods approach in its methodology, this research solicited the perceptions of Nepalese secondary English language teachers in order to investigate issues and challenges in ELT in Nepal. The qualitative data were drawn from sixteen semistructured interviews that were conducted in four different districts of Nepal: Kathmandu, Chitwan, Surkhet, and Dailekh. The participants shared their experiences of teaching English language and highlighted the issues and challenges. The interview data were thematically analysed to generate emergent themes. Counting frequency of the prevalence of thematic responses across participants was used to gain initial themes which assisted in developing the theme hierarchy. For quantitative data, 200 teachers from the same districts completed a questionnaire survey to determine their self-efficacy, motivation and self-reported English language proficiency. The Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) validated by Tschannen-Moran & Hoy (2001) to determine efficacy for classroom management, student engagement, and instructional strategies was used in this research. The questionnaire to rest teachers' self-reported English language proficiency was derived from Chacon (2005) to assess four language skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. Finally, sixteen item scales were formulated based on Guajardo (2011) framework of analysis for teacher motivation. The quantitative data were descriptively analysed to gain mean and standard deviation. Bivariate two-tailed correlations were also computed on the survey data. Analysis of the qualitative data indicated that several issues and challenges for ELT in Nepal operate at different levels of the education system. These issues can be observed in top-down hierarchy from macro to micro level; the system level issues on the top and the actual classroom teaching issues remaining on the bottom. The qualitative data analysis developed a pyramid structured issues hierarchy, presented below, which was fundamental in discussing diverse ELT issues in the Nepalese education system. Nepalese education still follows a top-down approach and accordingly it was also found that the role of the government and the community is very crucial in enhancing ELT quality with definite policies and direction. Moreover, extensive political interference, teachers' professional identity and status, and ineffective and limited opportunities for professional development were discussed as dominant ELT issues. In the same way, these ELT issues operating at different levels of the education system were found to be interrelated. The issues that affect classroom pedagogy are difficult to separate from other issues in the top hierarchy levels.

Thulung Rai is an endangered Tibeto-Burman language of eastern Nepal, currently
spoken by approximately one thousand people. It is a member of the Kiranti group in the
Himalayish branch of Tibeto-Burman, along with languages characterized principally by their
complex pronominalizing verbal inflectional systems.
This dissertation provides an overview of the grammar of the Thulung language, along
with selected texts and a glossary. The aspects of the grammar which are discussed are those
which are particularly relevant as far as Thulung’s heritage as a Tibeto-Burman language is
concerned. The chapters discuss the phonological system of the language; the case marking
system; the use of discourse particles; nominalization and its etymological and semantic
relationship with relativization and genitivization; the finite verbs, with their complex agreement
system and stem alternations; the augmentation of verbs with aspect-bearing derivational
suffixes; clause-combining by means of converbs and sequencers.
Each of these topics bears a significance to Tibeto-Burman studies as a whole, and these
are characteristic features of languages from this area. The areal context for Thulung is another
important aspect of this dissertation. The endangered status of Thulung is a result of the inroads
of the Indo-Aryan national language of Nepal, Nepali. Each chapter, in addition to describing
and analyzing particular grammatical topics, also discusses the equivalent constructions in Nepali
in light of whether they constitute the source for the construction in Thulung as it stands today.
The contributions of this dissertation are in providing reliable and up-to-date information
on a little-known minority Tibeto-Burman language of Nepal. This is an important addition to
the field of Himalayan languages and will be useful for efforts towards reconstructing the
development of Tibeto-Burman languages in the Himalayas. An important dimension of this
dissertation is that it looks at grammatical features in one language in the context of their
distribution over the linguistic area, even across language family boundaries. In this way, the
materials presented are useful as another case-study of an intense language contact situation.

The school education system in Nepal is chronically under-resourced, severely lacking in infrastructure and school teachers are often untrained and demoralised. The isolation of remote areas in the mountainous terrain, the effects of a ten-year civil war, and a culture impregnated with respect for traditional hierarchical, rule- and memory-based modes of instruction exacerbate this situation. This research is a study of the current SLC English test and how it may be adapted to better suit the testing and educational needs of secondary school education in Nepal. Further, it makes a contribution to knowledge about how ESL/EFL language tests may be adapted and applied in order to meet the system-wide needs for EFL testing in developing countries more generally.

This thesis sets out to examine the planning and practice of the goals for the development of initial education in Nepal between 1950 and 1995. Firstly the thesis sets out to explore the historical, religious and cultural background of the development of initial education in Nepal against which the modernization of Nepali education was attempted. The thesis elaborates on the profusion and confusion of educational aims of Nepali government planners and foreign aid workers, and the ways in which these plans impact on Nepali classroom practice and conditions, teacher training programs and the teaching of English as a foreign language.