Cognitive Semantic Study of the Preposition ‘Min’ in the Quran

The preposition ‘min’ is semantically more complex than what the traditional lexicaAl-syntactic approaches held it to be adverb or adverbial of place and time. This paper attempts to investigate the semantic complexity of the preposition ‘min’ from cognitive linguistic perspective to find out its semantic classification and linguistic symmetric patterns. Data has been taken from the Quran to investigate the claim of conceptual metaphor theory that sensorimotor neural structures generates the preposition ‘min’ on the image schema of source-path-goal. The findings reveal that the source-pathgoal image schema is not only at work in the use of preposition ‘min’ in spatio-geometric sense, but also to map the abstract concepts, emotional states and relationship with supernatural entities in spatial terms in the Quran. However, the data also show idiosyncratic behaviour of preposition, attaining different semantic arguments in different linguistic contexts, which strengthen the argument that language use cannot be abridged to static mapping in the human conceptual system. This paper recommends future research on the same preposition or other prepositions to investigate further the source-path-goal image schema in the Quran and Arabic language.

Development of English Curriculum Model at Higher Secondary Level in Pakistan

In the present study the existing curriculum development process is explored by obtaining the opinion of English language teachers, teaching English at higher secondary level in Punjab, Pakistan, and the members of English curriculum committee at higher secondary level in Pakistan to propose a Learner-Teacher-Socio Oriented English Curriculum Development Model at Higher Secondary Level. Two questionnaires were adapted from Akhtar (2004) for the present study. One questionnaire was developed for English teachers of higher secondary government schools and colleges in the province of Punjab, Pakistan. The other questionnaire was developed for the members of the English curriculum committee. Analysis of existing English curriculum development process was done through the policy documents and questionnaires. Higher secondary government schools and colleges of each sex were selected through stratified cluster sampling, after that 1379 English teachers of higher secondary government schools and colleges were considered as sample of the study. The sample was selected from the 23 out of 36 districts of Punjab. Furthermore, Punjab was divided into three regions upper, central and southern Punjab. Frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation were calculated. t-test was applied to find out the differences of opinion on the basis of gender and residential areas. ANOVA was applied to uncover the differences of opinion among the teachers of various districts of upper, central and southern Punjab. Reliability of the questionnaire for higher secondary English teachers was 0.91. Validity of the questionnaire for higher secondary English teachers was 95%. The other questionnaire was developed for the members of national curriculum committee. Eleven members were considered as sample of the study. Frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation were calculated. Comparison between the opinion of teachers and the members of curriculum committee on the basis of responses of the same as well as contrastive questions of the questionnaires were drawn through graphical representation. Reliability of the questionnaire for higher secondary English teachers was 0.81. Validity of the questionnaire for higher secondary English teachers was 94%. On the basis of findings the proposed model Learner-Teacher-Socio Oriented English Curriculum Development Model at Higher Secondary Level was sent to experts for validation. The model was finalized after the recommendations offered by the experts.