Journals
Online ISSN: 2519-9722 | Print ISSN: 2522-6789
Archives
Volume 5 Number 4 April 2020
INVESTIGATING AESTHETIC AWARENESS AND CREATIVE WRITING THROUGH INTEGRATING VISUAL ARTS INTO LANGUAGE LEARNING MATERIALS
Pages: 51-64Authors: Fahimeh Habibi, Hossein Rahmanpanah*
Abstract
Housen (2002)) explores how using Visual Thinking Strategies builds creative thinking skills that carry over into other contexts and content areas beyond the initial premise of developing aesthetic awareness. Aesthetic education according to Greene (2001) is a process of empowering diverse persons to engage reflectively and with a degree of passion with particular works of art. Creative writing is one of the most personal subject in EFL context. However, applying the principles of Visual Thinking Strategies to promote the creativity in language learning materials has received little attention in EFL context. Hence, the main purpose of this study is to include components of Visual Thinking Strategies suggested by Housen (2002) along with text-driven task-based approach proposed by Tomlinson (2018) to observe the effects on promoting creative writing among Iranian EFL learners. To this aim, 30 homogeneous EFL learners were chosen and divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group benefitted from the newly developed language learning materials, while the control group was exposed to their conventional methods. The results indicated that including Visual Thinking Strategies in language learning materials fosters creativity in writing and aesthetic awareness among Iranian EFL learners. With respect to aesthetic awareness, the findings indicated that the four subscales of Utopian thinking of art, Insights into awareness, Philosophy of thinking and Aesthetic pleasantness were greater in experimental group after the completion of the instructional intervention. This research has many implications regarding integrating authentic visual arts into language learning materials to foster learners’ creativity, aesthetic awareness, appreciating the value of art, and explores how using visual arts meet the call for differentiated instruction to address the needs of diverse learners.
COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION MECHANISM OF THE DOCUMENTARY HERITAGE MATERIALS IN THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES, KADUNA, KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA
Pages: 34-50Authors: Ejila, Irene Onyaba*, Abdulsalami T. Lucky
Abstract
This research was conducted in order to assess the collection and preservation of documentary heritage materials in the National Archive, Kaduna. Five research questions and five related objectives were constructed to meet the demands of the research questions. A survey research method was used for the study. The total population of the study was 33 members of staff of the National Archives, Kaduna. Semi-structured questionnaire was used in collecting data from the respondents and compiled, presented and subjected to chi-square statistical analysis at 0.05 level of significance. Findings from the study revealed that the documentary heritage materials in the study area were predominantly newspapers, official manuscripts, official pictures that recorded important events and journals. It was also revealed that documentary heritage materials are mostly acquired through purchases, donations and also weeding from government offices. The study showed that the documentary heritage materials are preserved through the use of iron shelves and dusting the materials/cleaning. The study also showed that lack of modern equipment and facilities, insufficient funds are the major challenges to preservation of documentary heritage materials in National Archives, Kaduna. The main factors that affect the deterioration of documentary heritage materials are un-controlled temperature, relative humidity and chemical factors. The study recommends that digitization of the documentary heritage materials in the study area be given serious attention to avoid loss of some vital information that are in prints.