Hayatian Journal of Linguistics and Literature

Communal Trauma and Erosion of National Consciousness: A study of Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Malik Hassan Raza — 2025-06-29

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (2017) is a political novel written with a realist impulse to present a more holistic view of Indian history. It is trapped in the enervating temporal structure, which repeats itself compulsively. It articulates the personal traumatic experiences of different characters involved as witnesses or victims of the recurring communal riots. The study focuses on the representation of communal trauma in the novel as a compulsive repetition of a traumatic past. It analyzes modern communalism in the novel as an aftermath of a larger historical force shaping the experiences of different characters reflecting the postcolonial interests of the native bourgeoisie. It explores these multifarious traumatic experiences of multiple characters with different
backgrounds leading to the erosion of national consciousness causing disintegration and fragmentation. Caruth’s (1996) idea of enervating the structure of trauma as a compulsive repetition has been coupled with Fanon’s (1963) “pitfalls of national consciousness” to study India’s post-partition journey from a secular national ideology to a Hindu nationalist state. Fanon (1963) describes that the native bourgeoisie in post-independence states continues their dominance and surveillance over the lumpenproletariat by re-joining the colonial bourgeoisie and re-establishing the leader and the led relationship as the colonizer and colonized. Caruth (1996) provides a psychoanalytic framework for the study of the native bourgeoisie’s reliance on the colonial bourgeoisie through the concept of the traumatic past that pervades into present history through its compulsive performance.

Implementing Read Ahead in Pakistani ESL Classrooms: A Qualitative Study

Maria Fatima Dogar — 2025-07-10

The aim of this research paper is to explore the efficacy of a new technique for language learning named Read Ahead through qualitative research. Read Ahead is derived from extensive reading and repeated readings, both of which are effective reading techniques but somehow difficult to implement in Pakistani school contexts due to constraints of teacher qualification and resources. Read Ahead is a technique that advocates a reading class of 15 minutes, four days a week, where the students echo read lessons from English text book after their teacher. It’s a quick echo reading without any explanations but following the phrase boundaries. The technique was used in a private primary school from Kindergarten-KG to grade 6 in Sheikhupura, Punjab. A special reading class was added in the school timetable for the term Oct-March 2022-2023. The English language teachers involved in the reading class were interviewed at the end of intervention to explore their views on the effect of Read Ahead on language learning. The thematic analysis of data reveals a positive effect of Read Ahead on English language learning of learners across all grades. The students improved remarkably in fluency, pronunciation, reading comprehension, and vocabulary. The teachers gave affirmative response towards improvement in writing, speaking, and grammar too. Read Ahead is recommended for learning of other languages such as Urdu, Arabic or regional languages in junior grades at Pakistani schools.

Ideological paradox in an ideological state: Analysis of ELT books in Pakistani perspectives

Nazak Hussain Mughal — 2025-07-12

Pakistan is an ideological state whose foundation was laid in the ideology of Islam. Its constitution as well as the education policies call for provision of environment conducive to acting upon the ideology of Islam. But unluckily, a situation of ideological paradox has arisen in this ideological state on academic level due to the inception of foreign ideology in the syllabus of ELT. The present paper tries to dig out some of the ideologies from the selected ELT books recommended for IGCSE/O’ Level in Pakistan that contravene the basic ideology of the country. Multi model approach was adopted to analyze these books by using CDA, Semiotic and Content Analysis. The research found that adventurism, environmentalism, hedonism, imperialism, materialism, and racism were the ideologies that ran counter to the ideology of Pakistan. Among these the ideology of racism dominated the pages of the selected books. It is suggested that some neutral syllabus may be selected for ELT purpose in Pakistan. The teachers and the taught may also be trained to raise their critical antenna while coming across any ideological content.

Intertextuality in Political Cartoons An Analysis of Political Cartoons in the Selected Newspaper

Isra Irshad — 2025-07-12

Intertextuality enhances the message of political cartoons by relying on the audience’s existing knowledge of the intertextual reference, allowing for multilayered humor. The present study analyzes the presence of intertextual references in the political cartoons in the daily Jang Newspaper. Political cartoons serve as a barometer for the political atmosphere of a country, but understanding a political cartoon requires more than just the visual information available in a cartoon; it also requires the references that it makes to other texts from the contemporary political situation. Six political cartoons of two famous cartoonists i.e. Khaliq Khan and Jawed Iqbal are selected for the study. The researchers have used intertextual and semiotic analysis as a theoretical and methodological framework to analyze the data. The analysis shows that intertextual references do indeed serve as an important means of constructing and interpreting a particular text. A text contains several ideologies, and a cartoonist takes these ideologies as intertextual references in the construction of a particular political discourse.

Challenges of Syntactic Ambiguity in ESL Learners: A Case Study of QUEST Nawabshah

Ali Asgher Chandio — 2025-07-12

A syntactic ambiguity is confusion between the various meanings of the same linguistic unit on the basis of its structure. This research aimed at analyzing the problems that the syntactic ambiguity introduces to the ESL students as well as plotting out the significant causes of those problems. A qualitative research design was applied to an intermediate group of ESL learners who attended a language school and selected and reformulated 15 syntactically ambiguous sentences. The findings indicated that there were major issues, related to attachment of prepositional phrases, referencing of pronouns, comparative structures, infinitive/gerund ambiguity, coordinated noun groups, and ambiguity of time. The main problems were hyper-dependence on the first language syntax, lack of adequate pedagogic exposure to complicated structures of English, and lack of metalinguistic awareness. Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) explained how ambiguous sentences tax working memory, rendering comprehension arduous. By addressing these problems, teachers can improve students' reading, writing, and communication skills, ultimately allowing them to succeed academically and professionally in English-medium environments.