Paper Title

EVALUATING AFFECTIVE AND INFERENTIAL COMPREHENSION: A DIAGNOSTIC STUDY OF GIST AND AGREEMENT RECOGNITION IN CONVERSATIONAL DISCOURSE

Abstract

This paper investigates second-language learners’ capacity to parse short conversations for non-literal data, focusing heavily on identifying attitude, opinion, and conversational consensus. While standardized evaluation tools are widely used for grading, their ability to diagnose deep inferential breakdowns in peer-to-peer dialogues remains overlooked. This study applies a quantitative approach to analyze data from ELT Data on Listening Skills. The Data collected focuses on mapping the test scores of over 60 undergraduate students against four advanced listening objectives: determining speaker attitude, recognizing mutual agreement, understanding conversational gist, and interpreting implicit contextual cues. The empirical results reveal that processing conversational nuance and emotional tone poses a severe roadblock for technical students. Although a majority of the cohort successfully grasped the general gist of simpler interactions—evidenced by a peak accuracy rate of 62.7% on Q13—their performance plummeted on items requiring precise inferential decoding. Notably, detecting shared consensus and subtle speaker attitudes in the presence of overlapping opinions yielded a critical low of 13.4% accuracy on Q9 and 31.3% on Q8. These findings indicate that while students can grasp surface-level macro-information, they lack the socio-pragmatic strategic processing required to handle real-world academic and professional communication. The study underscores the necessity of moving beyond text-based instruction by integrating tone-recognition exercises and pragmatic decoding frameworks into technical education curricula, effectively preparing graduates to operate efficiently in collaborative global environments.
KEYWORDS : Affective Decoding, Conversational Consensus, Gist Comprehension, Inferential Listening, Pragmatic Competence.

Paper Title

CULTURAL IDENTITY AND LINGUISTIC ALIENATION IN POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE

Abstract

This paper examines the enduring psychological and cultural ramifications of colonial linguistic hegemony in postcolonial literature, focusing on language alienation and its impact on cultural identity. While political independence has been widely achieved, the marginalization of indigenous languages in favor of imperial tongues remains a profound systemic wound across Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. Through a comparative textual analysis of works by Arun Joshi, Salman Rushdie, and Jhumpa Lahiri, this study investigates how language alienation functions not merely as an individual psychological crisis, but as a socially imposed condition reflecting deep-seated colonial trauma. Drawing upon the theoretical frameworks of Frantz Fanon, Homi Bhabha, Stuart Hall, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, the paper analyses the structural mechanics of cultural displacement. Furthermore, it explores the subversive strategies employed by these authors, demonstrating how writers from former colonies appropriate, re-engineer, and \"write back\" to the imperial language. The study finds that by transforming the colonizer’s tongue into a tool of resistance, these literary texts cultivate hybridized identity formations and register the profound resilience of the postcolonial consciousness. Ultimately, this research underscores literature\'s capacity to negotiate and reclaim identity amidst ongoing linguistic displacement.
KEYWORDS : : Postcolonial Literature, Language Alienation, Cultural Identity, Hybridity, Linguistic Hegemony, Textual Resistance.