أبو الأحرار محمد محمود الزبيري وخدماته الأدبية

Renowned Yemeni poet and freedom fighter Muhammad Mahmood Al-Zubairi, also known as the father of freemen, born in Sanna in 1910 in a middle class family. He was one of  the Yemeni iconic revolutionaries who opposed the Imamate. He took part in the revolution in 1962, bringing about Yemen’s transition from a monarchy to a republic. He was one of the founders of the movement of liberals and the leader of opposition against the Imam’s rule. This led to his persecution and he suffered destitution and exile outside his country, settling finally in Pakistan where he had opportunity to translate the poetry of Pakistan’s national poet, Muhammad Iqbal into Arabic. Finally, in 1962, when the revolution against the Imam erupted in Yemen, he went back to his country and became the minister of education. He fallen victim to the royalist forces in 1965 and has been regarded since as one of the Yemen’s most acclaimed martyrs. Al- zubairi published several collection of poetry. In 1978, a volume of his collected poems was published entitled Diwan al-zubairi. His work  reflects a real originality of themes, ideas and method of treatment. This article discusses the literary work  of Abu Ahrar Muhammad Mahmood Al-Zubairi.

An Evaluation of English Language Teaching Course Offered by PAF Teacher's Training Institute Islamabad

A large part of the English teachers teaching at various schools across Pakistan have little or no sound knowledge of modern developments in English Language Teaching (ELT). Such teachers are partly to blame for the poor standard of ELT in Pakistan. Training such in service teachers is of utmost and immediate importance for two main reasons. First, it is the untrained fresh graduates who are employed as teachers. Second, Pakistani universities training graduates and post-graduates hardly provide any training in ELT. The research was undertaken to evaluate the English Language Teaching Course (ELTC) offered by PAF Teachers' Training Institute, Islamabad, with four main objectives: to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of ELTC, to assess the impact of ELTC on the teachers' skills, to find out the attitude of English language teachers and principals of PAF Fazaia schools towards in-service teachers' training, and suggest ways to improve language teachers' training courses in future. For this study, five PAF Fazaia schools, thirty English language teachers, five principals, and three master trainers were taken as samples. The director of the Institute was also included as a part of the study. Three questionnaires were designed: to know the views of English language teachers regarding the course, to find the masters trainers' views about the course and the teachers, and to study views of the principals heading PAF Fazaia schools. An interview was conducted to get the views of the director of the Institution. Three questionnaires and an interview brought the data which was statistically analyzed by using the formulae of Mean, Standard Deviation and Range. It is recommended that: the ELTC duration be increased, the courses be preferably conducted during summer vacations, the number of master trainers at Institute be increased, subject specialist in various fields of ELT be appointed, a language laboratory be established, the library be updated by including new books on ELT and providing the internet facility, a greater number of classes in phonetics and phonology be included in the time table, to obtain feedback from the principals of PAF Fazaia schools about the performance of trained teachers, some mechanism for the purpose be developed, for further research, greater number of institutions, students, teachers, master trainers be increased, and it is suggested that instead of questionnaire technique, classroom observation technique be used in future studies.