ABSTRACT
This study explores the persuasive strategies used by the Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi to appeal to the citizens of India, to observe ‘Janta Curfew’ or People’s Curfew, as a preventive measure to contain the spread of Covid-19 infections in India. The study maps the speech to established strategies and theories of persuasion such as Aristotle’s Rhetorical Triangle, Elaboration Likelihood Model, Monroe's Motivated Sequence, and Cognitive Dissonance Theory;and ascertains the indispensability of the aforementioned theoretical frameworks. The study also identifies Modi’s unique persuasive strategies such as wheedling, building-up (before delivering), complimenting before criticizing, Eutrepismus, and subtly titling the task;and analyzes their effectiveness in persuading the citizens of India to comply with Janta Curfew. Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s)
ABSTRACT
During and after the Covid-19-induced lockdown, online teaching has attained an unprecedented status like never before all over the world. Teachers and students have been compelled to fall in line with the new normal of virtual classrooms. Even though many teachers and students have expressed their inconvenience of virtual classrooms, it has become mandatory to adapt their teaching and learning styles to cope with the exasperating times triggered by the coronavirus. The survey presented in this paper was conducted among second and third-year engineering students of a private university in India just before the Covid-19 outbreak. The objective of the survey was to understand which method is more suitable for learning English skills for the engineering students. The students' attitude and perception toward online and teacher-led sessions have been unveiled through qualitative and quantitative data. The participants have weighed the pros and cons of both the methods according to their specific needs, and the results suggest that in order to have a balanced teaching-learning process, the students require both the methods. It has been identified that students' needs play a major role while choosing between online or teacher-led sessions. Though the modern generation relies more on technology, teacher-led sessions have not lost the sheen and are considered an effective way of learning due to various factors such as human interaction, direct guidance, and knowledge-sharing possibilities.