A Post Structural Inquiry into Female Esl Learners’ Gender Identities at a Public University in Pakistan

The present study investigates how English language learning interacts with the gender identities and roles of female learners at the University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan. Who learns what and how, is influenced by the learners’ gendered and sexualized identities (Pavlenko, 2004). Language learners have to navigate power relations within the classroom and their specific communities and develop understanding of their limitations and opportunities within these communities. Institutional practices and gender ideologies inhibit their access to networks which in turn affect their linguistic output and interactional opportunities. Within Interpretive epistemological framework eight female learners of final year (fourth year) Linguistics studying at IELL were interviewed and observed twice during one year to gather data for the present study. From the data it appeared that Pakistani females’ access to linguistic resources is mediated by cultural norms and societal expectations. Throughout their academic journeys the learners’ agency remained active due to which they were able to invest in their ESL learning and challenge socially imposed identities on them.

Exploring the Efficiency of Educational Games in Improving Grade Vi Students’ Achievement in Selected Science Concepts on Science Achievement Test Sat

Educational games are nowadays gaining popularity among many science practitioners for its potential to improve students' performance in science by enhancing their conceptual understanding, motivation and peer collaboration. However, its efficacy in improving achievement has not yet been explored in the Pakistani context. Therefore, this study aimed at exploring the efficacy of educational games in improving grade VI students' achievement in selected science concepts on Science Achievement Test (SAT). This study employed quasi-experimental pre-and posttest control group design. For the sample, two intact classes of grade VI were recruited from two private community based schools and then assigned as comparison group (CO) and intervention group (10). In total, 60 students participated constituting of equal number of students from both groups. For data collection, SAT which was developed and validated as part of this study was administered to both groups before and after intervention. The intervention comprised of four weeks during which 10 was pre-dominantly taught with educational games whereas, CO was taught with the pre-existing teaching method. The data obtained were analyzed for students' overall performance, performance on SAT content and cognitive domains on both pretest and posttest. Findings of the study illustrated that before intervention, both the groups evenly matched on their overall performance on SAT as well as their performances in the content and cognitive domains with no significant difference (p> 0.05 for all). Conversely, after intervention, both the groups improved; however, the overall performance on SAT favored 10 (p< 0.01) with the large magnitude of difference (r=0.70; r2= 0.49). Likewise, on SAT content domains, 10 outperformed CO with significant difference (p