English Department

Cet article étudie la vitesse à laquelle le courant politique semble avoir tourné à Washington après l'émergence du mouvement Tea Party. A son deuxième mandat à la Maison-Blanche, le Président démocrate fait toujours face à un Congrès réparti entre une Chambre haute à majorité démocrate et une Chambre basse commandée par les républicains, mais aussi par des élus partisans du Tea Party qui s'étaient engagés auprès d'Americans for Tax Reform, une Quand on sait qu'en matière de frais de campagne, Cantor a dépensé des sommes vingt fois supérieures à son challenger, on se questionne sur l'ombre du Tea Party sur les prochaines élections tenues le 4 novembre prochain. Peut-on assumer que les républicains sont désormais à l'abri des groupes aux moyens de communication presque illimités et aptes d'exalter la colère des militants tels que le Tea Party?

Cet article etudie la vitesse a laquelle le courant politique semble avoir tourne a Washington apres l'emergence du mouvement Tea Party. A son deuxieme mandat a la Maison-Blanche, le President democrate fait toujours face a un Congres reparti entre une Chambre haute a majorite democrate et une Chambre basse commandee par les republicains, mais aussi par des elus partisans du Tea Party qui s'etaient engages aupres d'Americans for Tax Reform, une organisation conservatrice presidee par Grover Norquist, de ne jamais augmenter les impots. On attribue l'inefficacite du Congres americain au blocage des institutions et a leur polarisation, qui represente les symptomes de la faillite des deux grands pouvoirs du pays. Avec 63 lois passees et entrees en force, la premiere session du 112e Congres a ete jusque la, d'un point de vue legislatif, la plus etroite compare au nombre de lois votees lors de la premiere seance de chaque Congres et ce depuis le 97eme Congres. En effet...

One of the changes that compose history is the migration of peoples. The human development of colossal numbers from one geographical area to another and their first contact with other social and economic backgrounds is a major source of change in the human state. For at least two centuries long before the great brook of the Hungry Forties, Irish immigrants had been making their way to the New World. Yet, the tragedy of the Great Famine is still seen as the greatest turning point of Irish history for the future of Ireland was forever changed. The paper tends to explore the conception of emigration and how it steadily became “a predominant way of life” in Ireland, so pervasive and integral to Irish life that it had affected the broad context of both Irish and American histories simultaneously. From the post-colonial perspective, my study presents emigration as one of the greatest emotional issues in Irish history, as it tends to have a very negative image especially in the post-Famine...

One of the changes that compose history is the migration of peoples. The human development of colossal numbers from one geographical area to another and their first contact with other social and economic backgrounds is a major source of change in the human state. For at least two centuries long before the great brook of the Hungry Forties, Irish immigrants had been making their way to the New World. Yet, the tragedy of the Great Famine is still seen as the greatest turning point of Irish history for the future of Ireland was forever changed. The paper tends to explore the conception of emigration and how it steadily became "a predominant way of life" in Ireland, so pervasive and integral to Irish life that it had affected the broad context of both Irish and American histories simultaneously. From the post-colonial perspective, my study presents emigration as one of the greatest emotional issues in Irish history, as it tends to have a very negative image especially in the p...

Think tanks are essentially interdisciplinary and contradictory. Their interdisciplinary aspect is a good thing as long as their clear ideological commitment remains sincere and purpose-oriented. If we recognize many of them as actors in the political context then we can accept their operations. Think tanks generally target policy makers in central government and in the media. Young Republicans and Libertarian Party organizations, for instance, provided facilitating networks and experienced local leaders who could produce volunteers and local publicity. The present paper examines the role of think tanks and organizations in the recent emergence of the Tea Party movement. Think tanks such as Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation provided speakers for rallies and events, and leadership training for local organizers. Business-originated political and interest groups such as Americans for Prosperity, Citizens for a Sound Economy, and National Federation of Independent Business provided fact sheets with arguments. Sociologist and historian Charles Tilly used the term facilitation to describe assistance given to populist movements like the Tea Party. In fact, we tend to investigate how facilitation provided resources to local groups that led to promote Tea Party mobilizations and the return of populist wave in general. We finally analyze the impact of this protest movement on the Republican Party and “polity members” especially in deliberations.

One of the changes that compose history is the migration of peoples. The human drama of development of colossal numbers from one geographical area to another, and their first acquaintance with other social and economic backgrounds is a major source of change in the human state. For at least two centuries long before the great stream of the Hungry Forties, Irish immigrants had been making their way to the New World. Yet, the tragedy of the Great Famine is still seen as the greatest turning point of Irish history for the future of Ireland was forever changed by it and its people are still living its wake.
This thesis explores the conception of emigration and how it steadily became “a predominant way of life” in Ireland, so pervasive and integral to Irish life that it had affected the broad context of both Irish and American histories simultaneously. From the post-colonial perspective, my study presents emigration as one of the greatest emotional issues in Irish history, as it tends to have a very negative image especially in the post-Famine era. People are generally seen as involuntary “exiles”, compelled to leave Ireland by “British tyranny” and “landlord oppression” - an idealized Ireland where everyone was happy and gay and where roses grew around the door of the little white-washed cottage.
My study further examines the experiences of the Irish people who immigrated to America as a result of the Potato Famine during the years 1845-1851. Once surviving the journey across the Atlantic, many of the Irish immigrants chose to stay in Eastern cities that had been established for hundred of years. Chapter Two adopts New York City as a place where many groups sought refuge and new opportunities. In so doing, they faced not only the challenge of assimilating into American culture but also overcoming racial prejudice. The determination of the Irish to not only survive the Famine in Ireland, but to succeed in America is the eventual underlying theme of my study.

In the beginning of 2009, liberals and progressives had the high hopes that the election of President Barack Obama indicated the beginning of the end of conservative political control in the United States. The early days of the Obama administration saw a large expanded role of government - both in size and scope. In February 2009, after the passage of the bailout of banks and revival consumption (American Recovery Reinvestment Act ARRA), restlessness towards big government continued to be reflected in the media and in popular opinion. While experts and political analysts agreed to diagnose the end of a great political cycle of the reinvention of American conservatism by Ronald Reagan, a popular protest movement began to grow upon the winter of 2009. A New York Times/CBS News poll, among others, indicated that the majority of Americans became uncomfortable with an expanded government. Other headlines said in various forms that capitalism was dead, or, in the words of Milton Friedman, that Americans were “all Keynesians now.” Thus, various groups began to organize to protest against “too many taxes, too much government, and too much debt.” Millions of Americans began to organize under the label of the Tea Party movement in 2009 to protest irresponsible government spending in the stimulus package, the blocked budget bill, the massive mortgage entitlement program, and the debt- exploding government health care invasion (O’Hara 2010).
The tea parties seem to be the expression of a new conservative movement and formerly well established in the country. Their three major themes were resumed for the return of moral values, a strong defense of the country and a government based on discrete lower taxation. Beyond these areas of political preference, Tea Party activists were pointed by their exaltation of the foundations of the American nation, first and foremost the Constitution. These themes have met a wide echo, sometimes giving the impression that the entire country switched in opposition to the Obama administration. The protest movement was in fact inspired by populist hostility to elites and political machines. The method of the tea parties’ organizing, marked by great spontaneity, remained largely uncontrollable for a traditional party. This organic nature therefore also questioned the growing role of the post-disciplinary think tanks and organizations, as well as the role of media and new technologies in American democracy. Through blogs and Twitter, a vocal minority was able to mobilize large crowds.

One of the changes that compose history is the migration of peoples. The human drama of development of colossal numbers from one geographical area to another, and their first acquaintance with other social and economic backgrounds is a major source of change in the human state. For at least two centuries long before the great stream of the HungryForties, Irish immigrants had been making their way to the New World. Yet, the tragedy of the Great Famine is still seen as the greatest turning point of Irish history for the future of Ireland was forever changed by it and its people are still living its wake. The paper examines the experiences of the Irish people who immigrated to America as a result of the Potato Famine during the years 1845-1851. Once surviving the journey across the Atlantic, many of the Irish immigrants chose to stay in Eastern cities that had been established for hundreds of years. I focus on New York City as it was the place where many groups sought refuge and new opportunities. In so doing, they faced not only the challenge of assimilating in to American culture but also overcoming racial prejudice. The determination of the Irish to not only survive the Famine in Ireland, but to succeed in America is the eventual underlying theme of this paper.

The present paper explores the use of connectives in the persuasive discourse of 30 Tunisian third-year English majors and 30 Tunisian third-year Arabic majors. The study aims to look at the potential impact of Arabic rhetoric on Tunisians' EFL writing. A quantitative analysis of the students' Arabic and English essays on the same argumentative task shows the predominance of additive connectives at the clause and sentence levels and their overuse in Arabic productions. Causal connectives are the second most used category in both Arabic and English corpora. The two groups also showed comparable limited repertoires. A qualitative analysis of the data disclosed further similarities and differences in the ways connectives are used, combined and misused.

This article sets out to investigate third-year Tunisian students' beliefs about structural order in English argumentative essays. A questionnaire was presented to 48 Tunisian third-year students. The questionnaire probes the students' conception of the structure of argumentative texts. In the process, it also examines their awareness of the different constituents of the essay and their order within the more general organization of: introduction, body and conclusion. To describe what they write in each of these parts, the respondents chose three out of seven possible options and ranked them in an order of importance. The options were carefully chosen from previous studies on Arabs' argumentative writing. The findings show that the majority of participants do not have a clear conception of the general macro-structure of the argumentative essay.

This article seeks to restore the notion of the classroom in light of emerging pedagogies. It attempts to provide a sketchy introduction of the theory of multiple intelligences and its potential gains in ELT. Despite the variance of teaching methods and approaches implemented in classrooms, students’ results in some topics have remained below the par of teachers’ expectations. This article attempts to provide a solution to teaching students to their differences and learning preferences. It investigates the impacts of accommodating students’ intelligences profiles in writing classes. To fulfill this objective, 114 male and female participants majoring in English at the University of Kairouan were asked to write a five-paragraph essay and respond to a writing strategies questionnaire, a multiple intelligences inventory. The collected data were statistically analyzed using Pearson Correlation and ANOVA techniques to probe possible correlations and predictability levels between MI profi...

L2 teaching and learning has undergone a drastic, unprecedented progress in terms of techniques and materials, with the purpose of increasing teaching and learning efficiency conjoined with a shift in teaching practices through ages from teacher centered (spoon feeding teaching/learning) to learner centered pedagogy (interactive teaching/ learning) since late 1960s. The integration of humanistic approaches in education since the 1970s and the radical move from the binary division of the human brain (Piaget, 1920) to the Multiple Intelligences Theory (Gardner, 1983) along with the development of CALL have paved the way for researchers to speculate about the best learning/teaching pedagogy in the “tech-era” (Stapleton & Radia, 2010,p. 175). The student’s role has been converted from “being taught” to “learning” and the teacher’s role from “expert” to “collaborator” or “guide” (Negroponte, Resmick & Cassel, 1997, p. 1). Yet, despite the availability of teaching paradigms and the tolerance for eclectic teaching methods, in many cases, learners have often been impeded from learning according to their potential intelligences or preferences.
This presentation seeks to explore the reasons of hybridizing teaching and learning styles within a university context, where learners’ natural intelligences have been altered and their learning styles have been shaped. It also seeks to restore the incongruity between the teaching input and the learning output and foster the balance between students’ differences and teachers’ teaching practices. 
It is suggested that knowing learners’ individual differences and preferences would allow teachers to establish “broad range of teaching strategies with their students” (Armstrong, 2009) and enable them to integrate new pedagogical dimensions in an unfair and aging educational system which treats everybody the same way. Therefore, accommodating innovative methods in teaching should not ignore the plurality of learners’ styles and intelligences and should not also fall in a pursuit of monopolizing the learning process.

Langr.rage as a cognitive process trased on societal fàctor-s, a1r)olrg other tàctor-s, is a retlection of speectr conrrnuniry identity and a synrbol oiorganization. As such, nerv trom infànts ale natur-aily exposed to produce , nse and cornrnunicate through the langr-rage oitheir speech conxnunity. Tunisians, tbr instance, are prone to be identrtieci u,ith the tir:st language prevailing in their-speech conunlrniry which is Tunisian Arabic lansuase and culture, not standar-d/ Classical Ar:abic. The str-earn oi redefining identiq, l'ras been ssreeping alnong Tunisians conjoined u,ith the maturiry oithe spring revohition and the socio-political otliet in Tunisia. Âs a point in case, Alabic language has enrerged as a conscious schooling plocess children are exposed to rvhen they tirst go to primary schools. Conventionally, as open North Aflican and Souttr Mecliterraneân conununity througirout history, Tunisians have developed their or.vn systen] ol comnunication known currently as Turrisian Ar-abic or-"darija", a version or local dialect of a wider language called Standar-d/Classical Alabic or "elfosha". This local dialect has also entailed nlany regional clialects which are not distinctively diflèrent cornpared to the so-called standard Arabic and its diilèr:ent clialects. The diglossic flow and the ell]ergent cail fè'r-identiry restoration lead us to auclit the ties between Tunisian Arabic and other schooling languages. Tunisian Arabic, lor instance, currently coexists rvith stanclald Ârabic, though less lbmral. it precedes srandald Arabic in acquisition anil use ârnong a1i Tunisian born children. It aiso coexists r,vith all schooling ianguages in the Tunisian context. This diglossic situation depicts the Tunisian motherese as a separate and independent language rvhicl-r is natnr:ally acquired just like any othel native language, or probablyât least-it should be ranked above the dialect and below the language since it has not been standardized. l.Introduction The arising lestor-ation waves of iclettity in the atterrrnth of'the spring revolution harre zoonred ttre debate of national itlentity and national tongue, the interest and clairn about