The State Language of East Pakistan (Part 2)

Syed Mujtaba Ali Now let’s turn to the objects by the Urduwallahs to accepting Bangla as the language of the state, government, and culture in East Pakistan. Their main object is that Bangla is a Hindu language. It contains a Hindu heritage and a Hindu culture. If East Pakistan accepts this language it will take …

The State Language of East Pakistan (Part 1)

Syed Mujtaba Ali Note: Had to translate this as a part of a larger project and thought I'd post it here for future use. There was never any doubt in our minds that the state language of East Pakistan would eventually be Bangla, and we know without any doubt that although the demand of Bangla …

The Medium is the Message: Reading Literature on the Page

Reading on the screen relies more on the visual cortex and reading on the page relies more on the language centers. When we read a page, our eyes move in a series of short, rapid movements called saccades, followed by a brief pause during which the brain processes the information. This process is called the "fixation-regression" cycle, and it allows us to comprehend and retain information efficiently and it takes place in our language centers. It also means that during this process we translate the information into symbols and mediate it through what I would term imagination, or the ground of what John Keats calls our “negative capability.”

Framing 101: How to Take Back Public Discourse

That is what framing is about. Framing is about getting language that fits your worldview. It is not just language. The ideas are primary and the language carries those ideas, evokes those ideas.

The Heart of the Learner

Today’s blog outlines five steps educators can implement to ensure that we are approaching our work from a learner first perspective. Thank you to …The Heart of the Learner

Great blog post on engaging students based on Doug Lemon’s Ratio technique

https://achemicalorthodoxy.wordpress.com/2020/02/09/ratio/Great blog post on engaging students based on Doug Lemon’s Ratio technique

Some nice ideas on marking and feedback

https://researchschool.org.uk/durrington/news/responsive-teaching-in-turbulent-timesSome nice ideas on marking and feedback

Classroom Engagement

https://teacherhead.com/2021/12/07/five-ways-to-sustain-student-attention/Classroom Engagement

Piece on the Uptake Processes of Feedback in the Journal of Response to Writing

This is my new article in the Journal of Response to Writing titled "Uptake Processes in Academic Genres: The Socialization of an Advanced Academic Writer Through Feedback Activities." In this study I examine and interpret the case of a graduate student negotiating in-person and textually mediated feedback in research group meetings and reviewers' letters. I …

Co-written piece on Cosmopolitanism and Plurilingual Education with Dr. Suresh Canagarajah

The Routledge Handbook of Plurilingual Language Education is out now. It includes a co-written chapter by me and Dr. Suresh Canagarajah "Cosmopolitanism and Plurilingual Traditions: Learning from South Asian and Southern African Practices of Intercultural Communication". It seems to be available to read on Google books for now, which is cool. In the chapter we …