Tales Told by God: Stylistic Peculiarities of Qrua’nic Narratives.

Abstract The religious seminaries (Madaris) 1 of Pakistan have been a hot topic of discussion in the national and international media. These Madaris are reminiscent of the ancient education system of Islam. They attracted people’s attention during the last two decades and especially after the 11th September 2001 incident of New York. Another aspect of interest was their role in the Islamic insurgence (Jihad) waged in various parts of the world particularly in Afghanistan and Kashmir. These institutions impart orthodox education based on centuries old syllabus called Dars-i Nizami. The administrators are disinclined to any slight change in the contents of the syllabus thus bringing them to an open conflict with the modem education system and western culture. The Madaris have been divided on the basis of religious sects i. e. Shia, Sunni and Ahl-i-Hadith. Of them Sunnis are further splintered into many sub-sects such as Deobandis, Brelvis, etc. But their adherence to the primitive education, Jihad and abhorrence for the western civilization is almost the same. Despite repeated reference to these Madaris, there are many misconceptions or disinformation about them In the present paper, an attempt has been made to remove these misconceptions and present a true picture. Besides, historical perspective, vital statistics, curricula and problems and prospects have discussed in the paper in hand

Relationship of Classroom Learning Environment and Teacher Interaction With Students Attitutde Towards the Learning of English Language at Secondary Level

learning environment and Teacher Interaction with secondary school students’ attitude towards the learning of English Language in context of Pakistan. Classroom environment is considered as one of the influential factor in enhancing learners’ achievement, attitude and learning process. The objectives of the study were to investigate secondary level students’ English language classroom learning environment, teachers’ interaction in English language classes and attitude towards learning of English language. Moreover, the relationship of classroom learning environment and teacher interaction with secondary level students’ attitude towards the learning of English on gender and locale was also established in the study. The study at hand was co relational and descriptive. For data collection survey method was used. Multistage stratified random sampling technique was used for sample selection of the study. Stratification was based on three geographic zones of Punjab: Northern, Central and Southern Punjab. One district from each zone was selected randomly. The sample of the study was 930 students from 03 districts of the Punjab. Three instruments were used, first for Classroom learning environment, second for discovering Teacher Interaction in English language classes and third for finding out students’ attitude towards learning of English language. Data for this study were analyzed by using statistical operations through SPSS. T-test was used to calculate the significant difference between means of different categories of respondents like rural & urban, male and female. To investigate the possible relationship among the variables, Pearson correlation was used. Results of the study showed that male and female respondents reflected significant differences on English language classroom learning environment, teacher interaction and attitude towards English. It further revealed that female respondents were more favorable on their classroom learning environment, get more teachers’ support and interaction than male in their English language classes and had more positive attitude towards the learning of English. Significant positive correlation was found among classroom learning environment, Teacher Interaction and attitude towards the learning of English. Findings suggest that positive attitude in a foreign language class can be developed by making learning environment more favorable in shape of better pupil-teacher relationships and teacher support, involvement, cooperation and equity. It may help in developing attitude towards Adoption of English language learning attitude and enjoyment of English lessons in the classroom.