English Language and Literature

A Gynocritical Study of Selected Women-Authored Amharic Novels

2026-06-01T00:00:00Z

A Gynocritical Study of Selected Women-Authored Amharic Novels Habtam, Fikru Mekoya This study explores the distinct female subjectivities represented in four selected Amharic novels written by women: Lidia Tesfaye‘s Wӓdӓ Hwala (Reclaiming the Self, 2020), Yordanos Guesh‘s Lïbusӓ-Ťїla (The Unconscious Mind, 2020), Tsehay Melaku‘s Yӓnïsïha Šӓngo (Penitence Council, 2011), and Eneye Shibeshi‘s Yӓgӓbo Fïre (The Unprotected Fruit, 2010). Addressing a gap in Ethiopian literary scholarship regarding elements of gynocriticism, this study examines female subjectivities across four dimensions: biological experiences, psychological identity formation, gendered linguistic patterns, and socio-political perceptions. Ultimately, it offers a nuanced understanding of how women articulate their subjective experiences within the Ethiopian literary context. To achieve this, the study employs a qualitative research approach, a descriptive research design, and a purposive sampling technique to select the primary texts. Data collection involved a close reading of the novels, analyzed through the theoretical framework of gynocriticism. Through close textual analysis, the study dissects female subjective lived experiences. The study also demonstrates how key elements of gynocriticism manifest linguistically. The language reflects a socio-cultural struggle over who may speak, how, and with what authority. Through dialogue, introspection, symbolism, and narrative voice, the language in these novels dismantle patriarchal prejudice, interrogate gender dynamics, and reconstruct female identity. Culturally, these novels reflect women‘s struggles and triumphs through self-awareness, solidarity, intellectual aspiration, and cultural resistance—offering alternative female identities designed to confront patriarchal domination and reclaim agency. Examined through a biological lens, gynocritical elements highlight profoundly embodied female experiences, including menstruation, puberty, pregnancy, childbirth, and menopause. Here, menstruation is depicted as a social taboo, and puberty reflects the tension between empowerment and vulnerability. Pregnancy exposes struggles over reproductive autonomy, while childbirth underscores both the heavy cultural expectations placed on women and their resilience in transforming personal sacrifice into social productivity, continuity, and nation-building. Conversely, menopause is portrayed as a phase where a woman's social status—historically tied to her reproductive value—declines in the eyes of society and herself, exposing her to isolation, stress, and regret. Through a psychological lens, the novels expose the inner lives of female characters in relation to their identity, emotional depth, interpersonal relationships, and the impact of patriarchal structures. The characters undergo psychological maturation, transforming from a state of suffering and silence to active inquiry and emotional authenticity. By unraveling these female subjectivities, this study highlights how Ethiopian women in literature have transitioned from being passive subjects of depiction to active producers of textual meaning and self expression. To expand on these findings, future research should explore a broader diversity of Ethiopian women‘s literature—encompassing various genres, regions, and languages—using integrated, interdisciplinary approaches to shed further light on women‘s narrative strategies and thematic concerns. The findings reveal how female authors produce textual meaning regarding their lived realities. In these novels, socio-political representation is not merely a reflection of lived experience but a site of critique and transformation. The female voices challenge patriarchal norms by fostering consciousness and resistance against imposed gender roles. Furthermore, the representation of identity and sexuality serves as a direct challenge to patriarchy, allowing female characters to assert autonomy, while sexuality is depicted as a site of both empowerment and struggle.

Effects of Self-Regulated Learning Strategies Instruction on Students’ Academic Writing Skills, Self-Efficacy, and Critical Thinking Skills: The Case of English Language Majors at Bahir Dar University

2026-02-01T00:00:00Z

Effects of Self-Regulated Learning Strategies Instruction on Students’ Academic Writing Skills, Self-Efficacy, and Critical Thinking Skills: The Case of English Language Majors at Bahir Dar University Zelalem, Ayalew Abate The purpose of this study was to investigate whether self-regulated learning strategies predicted students‟ writing skills/performance, self-efficacy, and critical thinking. The study participants consisted of eleven English majors who were taking the course, Advanced Writing Skills I, in the 2024/2025 academic year. An interrupted time-series within-group design was employed. Repeated measures MANOVA, repeated measures ANOVA, narration, and textual analysis were used to analyze the data obtained from writing tests, self-efficacy questionnaire, diary entries, and essay excerpts, respectively. Accordingly, a multivariate MANOVA results (F(9, 2) = 24.960, p = .039, Wilks’ λ= .009, ηp2= .991) revealed a significant effect of self-regulated learning strategies on writing performance and critical thinking. Likewise, the univariate MANOVA indicated a significant effect of these strategies on writing performance and critical thinking. The tests of within-subjects effects in repeated measures ANOVA (F(1.831, 18.310) = 392.511, p = .000, ηp2 = .975) also showed that the mean scores of the participants for writing self-efficacy changed over the six time points. Moreover, the results of the analysis of the diary entries evidenced that the application of self-regulatory strategies in EFL writing class was effective in enhancing the intended dependent variables. In terms of writing skills, organization, mechanics, grammatical accuracy, and coherence and cohesion were relatively significantly improved. With respect to self-efficacy, most of the students reported improved capability belief in writing. Regarding critical thinking, the participants were able to identify and analyze claims and arguments, interpret and explain controversial issues, evaluate the weakness and strength of their essays, and give judicious conclusions. Regarding their progress across time, slightly improved writing and critical thinking skills were reported during the first diary entry than before while significant progress was reported during the second diary entry better than ever before. Besides, textual analysis of essay excerpts moderately supported the results of diary entries. Overall, the findings were largely positive, with the exception of few qualitative findings, and the participants, indeed, perceived that the instruction in self-regulated learning strategies in EFL writing classes was motivating, encouraging, commendable, and enjoyable. Thus, the combined results indicate the need to incorporate these strategies in the instructional process.

Decolonizing Narratives: Identity Reconstruction in Selected Postcolonial Anglophone African Novels

2026-06-01T00:00:00Z

Decolonizing Narratives: Identity Reconstruction in Selected Postcolonial Anglophone African Novels Daniel, Belay The colonial experience profoundly disrupted African identities through the imposition of Eurocentric representations that relegated indigenous histories, cultures, and epistemologies. Although political independence has been attained across much of Africa, the bequests of colonialism continue to shape the ways Africans perceive and negotiate their identities. Existing scholarships on postcolonial African literature have extensively examined themes of colonial oppression, hybridity, migration, and resistance. However, limited attention has been paid to how postcolonial African novels employ decolonizing narratives as mechanisms for reconstructing African identities. This study, therefore, aimed to explore how postcolonial African novels reconstruct identity through decolonizing distorted narratives as reflected in selected Anglophone postcolonial African novels. To this end, three novels, namely Americanah (2013), We Need New Names (2013), and Season of Migration to the North (2009), were purposively selected and analyzed from the vantage point of postcolonial, Afrocentric, and deconstruction theories. The study adopted a qualitative research design grounded in interpretative textual analysis and employed thematic analysis to analyze and interpret patterns of meaning across the novels. As the study is entirely text-oriented, the main sources of data were the selected novels, and therefore relevant extracts for analysis were collected through a close reading of the texts. The results of the analysis reveal that the selected novels not only challenge colonial narratives and representations of Africa (ns) but also actively re-center African subjectivity by foregrounding African values, voices, experiences, and perspectives. In doing so, they celebrate pride, communal resilience, and indigenous knowledge systems. The novels are found presenting postcolonial concepts such as hybridity, othering, and mimicry as strategic narrative techniques for disrupting colonial binaries and destabilizing fixed meanings imposed by colonial discourse. The findings also disclose that, in all the three novels, memory, history, and ancestral consciousness play pivotal roles in decolonizing colonial narratives and reconstructing authentic African identity. The findings further unveil that, although each novel addresses narrative decolonization and identity reconstruction in its own way, they all share common themes such as critiquing colonial representation, resisting racism, portraying migration as both a source of disenchantment and an impetus for Afrocentric awareness, exploring Western education as both a source of alienation and enlightenment, questing for home/belonging, and reclaiming cultural continuity. The study, then, draws a conclusion that postcolonial African novels have the power xi to reconstruct fragmented African identity, enabling characters to decolonize dominant colonial/neo-colonial narratives by reclaiming African voices, histories, and epistemologies.

Effects of Teacher-student Negotiated Interaction on EFL Students’ Grammar Competence and Classroom Participation

2025-12-01T00:00:00Z

Effects of Teacher-student Negotiated Interaction on EFL Students’ Grammar Competence and Classroom Participation Teshome, Abel The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of teacher–student negotiated interaction (TSNI) on grade 10 EFL students‟ grammar competence, the retention of the grammar competence, the students‟ classroom participation, and their perceptions about the approach to learning grammar. The study used a quasi-experimental design and a mixed-methods research approach. The investigation focused on past tenses and passive voice. TSNI was implemented in the experimental group to teach grammar. The comparison group received conventional (teacher-led) grammar instruction without collaborative dialogue with the teacher. The intervention lasted for eight weeks. Data were collected through tests, questionnaires, semi- structured interviews, and classroom observation. Independent samples t-tests, one-way repeated measures ANOVA, one-sample t-tests, and descriptive statistics were employed to analyze the quantitative data. Thematic analysis and classroom discourse analysis were used to analyze and interpret the qualitative data. In the past tenses, the experimental group showed a mean score of 64.83 in the posttest, while the comparison group scored 50.07. The independent samples t-test (t = 14.875, p < 0.05) confirmed a statistically significant difference between the two groups. Likewise, in the posttest results of passive voice, the experimental group scored 66.31, while the comparison group scored 53.32. This study suggested that TSNI is more effective than conventional (teacher-led) grammar instruction in improving students‟ past tense and passive voice competence. In addition, the findings revealed that the overall frequency of students‟ participation in grammar classes showed a significant increase over time. The results also indicated that TSNI interaction could lead to sustained grammar competence across time. Furthermore, data from questionnaires and semi-structured interviews showed that experimental group participants had positive perceptions about teacher–students negotiated interaction in grammar classes. Based on the findings, it is recommended that TSNI be adopted in EFL classrooms to teach grammar and boost students‟ classroom participation.