Table of Contents
- Research Article
Analysis of Change in Population Structure: The Case Northeastern Montenegro PDF Goran Rajovic, Jelisavka Bulatovic This paper analyzes changes in the demographic structure of population in northeastern Montenegro, in the example of the municipality Berane, Andrijevica and Plav. Population age structure is changing, and takes unfavorable characteristics, reduces the proportion of younger and increases the proportion of elderly population. Disturbed age structure has a reverse effect on the movement of the population (the size of reproductive contingent), but also to all other population structure (size of contingent employment, population, mandatory school contingent, relationship maintenance). Despite significant changes in the demographic structures of all northeastern Montenegro, retains the characteristics of ethnically very heterogeneous environment. - Research Article
Globalization and Inter-Religious Dialogue in African Cultural Context PDF Olugbenga Olagunju Globalization is a complex concept that cannot be defined within a set time frame, nor is it a process that can be defined clearly without any biases or ambiguity. Globalization cannot be expounded upon with certainty and be applicable to all people and in all situations. Globalization involves economic integration, the transfer of policies across borders, the transmission of knowledge, cultural stability, the reproduction, relations, and discourses of power. It is a global process, a concept, a revolution, and an establishment of the global market free from socio-political control. Globalization encompasses everything. It is a concept that has been defined variously over the years, with some connotations referring to progress, development and stability, integration and cooperation, and others referring to regression, colonialism, and destabilization. Despite these challenges, this term brings with it a multitude of hidden agendas. An individual's political ideology, geographic location, social status, cultural background, and ethnic and religious affiliation provide the background that determines how globalization is interpreted. The African continent is large with diverse culture and traditions. Their social and cultural values tend toward relationships, hospitality and tolerance of all religious ideas and worldviews. This attitude of the African people accounts for the reasons why religions such as Christianity and Islam had thrived on the continent as they encounter the culture and religions of the traditional people of Africa. The traditional people are either inclusive or pluralistic in their orientations and worldviews. They recognize the fact that the God which Islam and Christianity proclaimed is the same God which the traditional people are worshipping and so when they encountered Islam and Christianity, to dialogue with and tolerate these new religions is not difficult.
This paper is purely a literary work. The thesis of this essay is that accommodation, solidarity and sharing peculiar to the African culture makes the environment conducive for inter-religious encounters and that inter-religious dialogue is a tool for religious peace and harmony in Africa. The task of this paper therefore, is threefold: One, to discuss the characteristics of the African cultural environment and advance some of the factors that are responsible for the possibility of inter-religious dialogue in African cultural environment. Two, to highlight the necessity of and hindrances to inter-religious dialogue in a pluralistic environment such as African cultural environment and finally discuss the forms of inter-religious dialogue in a globalized African community. The writer uses material from the library and internet sources. He consulted articles in Journal, Dictionaries and textbooks.
- Research Article
Democracy, Justice and the Quest for Socio-Political Order in Nigeria PDF Edogiawerie, Morris K.O. Many countries of the world, especially in the post-modern era, crave to enthrone democracy because it is popularly believed that it is the best system of government. So, to ensure socio-political, economic and religious advancement of the state, democracy is preferred. African nations are not left out in this crave especially as they wouldn't want to be left behind in the march towards globalization. Nigeria recently became a democratic nation and she is fighting very hard to consolidate it. With the attainment of democracy, some analysts have come to the conclusion that the much advocated justice and equality of all men will be phenomena that has come to stay. Hence, it is the aim of this paper to attempt an examination of the nexus between democracy and justice and the benefits accruable to the Nigerian society or any society at that. The paper will also try to find out how democracy and justice can bring about socio-political stability and advancement to the country- Nigeria. - Research Article
An Evaluation of the Third-Grade High School English Textbook: An Iranian Case Study PDF Mohammad Bagher Shabani, Ali Mansoori Nejad M.A. Textbooks are packages with different but interrelated parts. Thus, the selection of textbooks necessitates the meticulous consideration of their weakness and strength; otherwise, the process of learning will bear some inefficiency. The present study intends to depict the educational value of the third-grade English Book in Iranian high schools and its significance in the language program. To this end, the study was equipped with questionnaire adopted from Litz (2001) which entailed four parts. This study included only two parts of this questionnaire, student textbook evaluation form and teacher textbook evaluation form. 233 students (91 male and 142 female) majoring math and science on the third grade in different high schools in Ilam and 5 teachers teaching the English book took part in the study. These questionnaires were handed to the students across 5 schools in Ilam and teacher textbook evaluation forms were given to teachers of these schools. The textbook's defects and effectiveness in Iranian pedagogical system were probed in terms of textbook package (practical consideration), layout and design, activities, skills, language type, subject and content and overall consensus. Relatively shocking overall conclusion revealed that only a low number of teachers and students (2.5 and 4.56 percentage respectively) were eager to choose the textbook to study again. - Research Article
Textual Analysis of an English Dentistry Textbook and Its Persian Translation: A Schema-Based Approach PDF Ebrahim Khodadady, Maryam Lagzian The present study attempts to scrutinize the constituting single words or schemata comprising an English dentistry textbook and its Persian translation on the basis of microstructural approach to schema theory. To this end seventy pages constituting ten percent of both English and Persian texts were chosen randomly, parsed, codified and assigned to the three schema domains, i.e., semantic, syntactic and parasyntactic. The genera as well as species of the domains were also specified and codified. To limit the scope of the study, however, only the semantic domain schemata constituting the two texts were analyzed in terms of their types and tokens. It was hypothesized the Persian translation will be schema-based if the types and tokens of its semantic schema genera and species would not differ significantly from those of the English text. The results, however, showed that the two texts differed significantly from each other at the domain, genus and species level. The findings thus confirm schema theory as an objective criterion to evaluate the empirical validity of translated texts. The pedagogical implications of the findings within the fields of translation, foreign language teaching and testing are discussed.