International Journal of Language and Literary Studies

“¿Qué sos, Nicaragua, para dolerme tanto?” Gioconda Belli and the Nicaraguan Cause”

Silvia RocaMartinez — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This article traces Gioconda Belli’s trajectory as a writer, feminist, and political activist. Belli, who is known as one of the organic intellectuals of the Nicaraguan Sandinista Revolution, has consistently used her platform as one of the most renowned contemporary Latin American writers to provide a voice that transcends national borders to the Nicaraguan cause since the early 1970s. Through the analysis of some of her most notable works, some of her contributions in the national and international press, as well as social media publications, we examine the way her many roles have informed each other over the years and accomplished a two-fold goal: on the one hand, she has documented and theorized on the recent history of Nicaragua, in addition to keeping those in power in check; on the other hand, she has become one of the foremothers of Nicaraguan feminism. As this article shows, not only has she crafted—both in writing and action— a roadmap for younger generations of women, but she has also documented and influenced the evolution of feminism in Nicaragua.

Exacavating the Memory of Slavery in Léonora Miano’s La Saison de l’ombre (2013) and Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1988)

Abib SENE, Fatoumata Keïta — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Regarded as a state of servitude through which an individual or a group of persons is compelled to work their guts out without any possibility to get compensated or rewarded, slavery, for some centuries, had been implemented under various forms from one country to another. From the antiquity to the twentieth century, thralldom had been a profitable business that gangrened the African continent. Thus being, African and African American thinkers shoulder the mission to dust archives and lift the curtain of history to retell and re-narrate the episode of drudgery; among them Leonoa Miano and Toni Morrison. The purpose of this article is to examine the trauma of slavery from a comparative, matrifocal, and Afrocentric perspective so as to highlight commonalities and differences between Leonora Miano’s La Saison de l’ombre and Toni Morrison’s Beloved. Inspired by the infamous history of slavery, these two award-winning novels not only conjure up the ordeal of slavery, but they also catalyze its haunting memory for the sake of healing, so that both characters and readers could be cleansed off its tantalizing grip and achieve catharsis and redemption. To this end, La Saison de l’ombre and Beloved are woven around feminine counter-narratives that exhibit counter-memories which are often glossed over or overlooked in both African and Euro-American phallocentric official narratives. Whereas La Saison de l’ombre spotlights the Africans’ role in the process of slavery, Beloved highlights the tragedy of a maternal love in a context of bondage. Through a comparative approach, we have spotlighted the whole process of slavery, from the captivity in Africa to enslavement in America.

Cross-Cultural Pragmatics on Lexical Cohesion in President Obama’s and President Buhari’s Inaugural Speeches

Zubairu Malah — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Numerous studies have revealed how Lexical Cohesion supported the fulfilment of political leaders’ persuasion intention in their rhetoric. The purpose of this study was to cross-culturally explore President Obama’s and President Buhari’s Inaugural Speeches to examine the impact of culture on the persuasive functions of Lexical Cohesion in their rhetoric. Therefore, while drawing on Pragmatics, the study adopted a qualitative discourse analysis approach, utilised an eclectic framework of Lexical Cohesion based on Hoey (1991), Martin (1992) and Eggins (2004) to analyse Obama’s and Buhari’s first inaugural speeches. The findings indicate, on one hand, that although Obama deployed more categories and more frequencies of Lexical Cohesion than Buhari did, ‘Repetition’ (50%) was the most dominant source of Lexical Cohesion in each of the two speeches. Moreover, the most reiterated item in the two speeches were personal pronouns, where Obama mostly repeated the pronoun ‘we’, which had inclusive function, and Buhari mostly repeated ‘I’ and the exclusive ‘we’. On the other hand, the findings suggest that Obama utilised Lexical Cohesion mainly for ‘emotional appeals’, ‘audience involvement’, and ‘credibility-building strategies’; while Buhari used Lexical Cohesion for ‘emphasizing his (and his team’s) personal commitment’, ‘building his credibility’, and ‘demonizing past administrations’. Finally, in the light of these findings, the study has drawn two major conclusions: (1) that on the preponderance of repetition of personal pronouns in both the two speeches, the findings suggest that the generic conventions of the use of personalised English in the inaugural address outweigh any culture-specific discourse practices of the two communities; (2) that Obama’s strategies of emotional appeals and audience involvement that enabled him to ‘speak along with his audience’, which contrast with Buhari’s strategies of emphasizing personal commitment and audience-exclusive tone that made him to ‘speak alone’, seem to have rendered Obama’s speech more interactional and more audience-engaging than Buhari’s speech.

Positive Effects of Video-based Projects on the Communicative English Grammar Lessons

Van My Nguyen — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The present study investigates positive effects of video-based projects on communicative English grammar lessons in the Vietnamese context. A mixed method was used in which the responses of forty Vietnamese learners from a center of English as a foreign language (EFL) were analyzed. The online questionnaires and individual interviews were applied for investigating the perceptions of the learners in the effectiveness of video-based projects in communicative grammar lessons. To measure the dependent variables of the study, the two grammar tests were given to the learners as a pre-test and post-test. The findings propose that implementing video-based projects in communicative instructions of English grammar enhances the learners’ interests and motivation. Generally, the participants show improvements in their English grammar performances. In addition, applications of video-based projects supported the English assessment following the communicative approach in the EFL context. Hopefully, it might be an effective platform for the development of the learners’ self-directed learning abilities and jointly prepare learners for the uncertain changes in the post-Covid-19 era as well.

Arab Women as Voiceless Entities in Arab Women Literature: A Study of Al-Shaykh’s The Story of Zahra

Mansour Sarhan — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This paper aims to shed light on the miserableness, ill-being, and sufferings of the Arab women in the Arab man-dominated communities as represented in Al-Shaykh’s The Story of Zahra. It aims to expose the Arab men’s view of the Arab women who are perceived not as equal partners but as objects of physical pleasure created to fulfill their sexual desires. The main argument in this paper is meant to unveil the gruesome face of the Arab’s view about their women. It argues that for the Arab women to lead a normal life full of love, peace, respect, and tolerance like their counterparts all over the world, they have to get rid of their inner chains and some social man-made taboos have to be questioned and challenged. This is the basic assumption of this paper. For women be seen as independent and visible entities, their needs must be met and their voices must be heard and both women and men should collaborate to achieve a reformed nationalism free of male dominance. Instead of being viewed as passive victims of male-dominated societies, Arab women must be treated as unique persons with all of their complexities. Besides, the author criticizes the Arab society for the meaning and practice of social discrimination and inequality against women not only in the whole community but also within the same family (male and female).

Male-Female Differences in EFL Learning and Achievement in Morocco: Evidence from Beni Mellal

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The aim of this paper is to unravel some of the controversies which have often shaped the findings drawn from prior studies germane to the area of male-female differences in relation to language learning. Educationalists in Morocco have hardly looked at the sex variable as a potential parameter which may explain some of the differential success of students in schools, and little if not daring to say none is known about it in the Moroccan context where there is still much to be done in terms of research and investigations. This study sets out to fill in this gap in research by analyzing male-female differences in language leaning. Using results of a test battery, regional exam GPA, and a standard EFL achievement test, quantitative data of a large group of senior high school students constituting a non-probability convenience sample (N = 152) drawn from the official records of Zerktouni high school, Beni Mellal directorate, have been explored to gather information about the issue in question. The results from the Chi-Square test and the independent samples t-test prove very convincingly that female learners unequivocally outperform their male peers at almost all basic language skills. The paper ends up with a conclusion and some pedagogical recommendations.

Global Media and Cultural Identity: Opportunities and challenges for Morocco in the Digital Era

Abdesselam FERRATI — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Anthropologists and media analysts have long recognized the Internet and satellite channels as some of the most powerful tools that add tremendous value to the knowledge and experiences of youth. A common interpretation of this idea is that new media technologies have become an important source for information, news updates, cross-cultural communication, socializing, and entertainment. The effects of these tools on young people have predominantly been studied with respect to academic as well as health features. Drawing on data from a survey capturing the digital behaviors of Moroccan students, this article complements previous studies by examining the impact of Internet and satellite channels on the behaviors of Moroccan students. It explores the implicit and denotative consequences of modern media upon the values, behaviors, and lifestyles of young Moroccans. Further, the paper addresses the effects of the massive dissemination of global cultural products on teenagers’ attitudes towards their cultural values. Additionally, the research assumes that inducing behavioral change is overlooked once media outlets start demonizing the uniqueness of local cultures, thus ignite resistance to unconventional values among youth.

Grotesque in The Vey Short stories of Palestinian Female Writers

samah khoury — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This research aims to study the application of the Grotesque technique on the characters of the very short story written by Palestinian female writers. The study includes three examples of very short stories by Palestinian female writers from different sectors: Israel, West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the diaspora. It attempts to find the connection between the grotesque reality that emerged after the war in 1948 and its effects and changes in society, politics and economics. Therefore, we will monitor the topics written by Palestinian female writers in the very short story because of the preferences that this genre achieves that do not exist in other literary genres such as reduction, brevity, intensification. We reveal the extent to which the Grotesque technique is used to express marginalized feminist issues, and to find similarities and differences between stories in the application of the Grotesque technique on the characters. We found That the Grotesque technique used in the stories to distort the contours of the characters. The characters do not behave as normal but are somewhat willful, and act as a mechanism. The character of the woman is absent and invisible and her voice is inaudible. Women's personality in various situations is a negative recipient.

A Cognitive Linguistics Diagnosing Of Iraqi EFL Students’ Difficulties in Using Synonyms

Sura Muttlak Nasser — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Learning and teaching synonyms for Iraqi EFL students is a difficult task. Learning synonyms means learning how words can be related to each other. Understanding synonyms helps students to understand the meaning of the word easily and avoid mistakes committed in synonyms as a result of their knowledge concerning this area. Iraqi EFL students face difficulties in using appropriate synonyms. This study was conducted in the Department of English, College of Education for Women, University of Baghdad, to indicate first-year students’ incompetence in using synonyms. The participants of this study, fifty female students during the first semester, were chosen randomly for the academic year 2019-2020. In order to achieve the aim of this study, the researcher used pre and posttest as tools for collecting data. The data was analyzed by the SPSS program. Figures and tables were used to present the data. The present study reveals the difficulties that occurred when Iraqi EFL students used synonyms. This is due to the need for information about English equivalent words, then suggests suitable solutions for them. Also this study reveals that the domains theory has indeed been demonstrated to be effective in precisely understanding the semantic domains of English lexical concepts.

A Quasi-experimental Study on the Impact of BlendedLearning on EFL Students’ Language Proficiency

Yassine BENHADJ — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The study aimed at examining the effect of adopting blended learning on Moroccan high school students’ English language proficiency. This has been essentially achieved through relying both on face-to-face classroom interactions and using “Google classroom”, which is a free online learning platform. The researcher opted for a quasi-experimental design to gauge the impact of implementing a blended learning model on the research sample. This study enlisted the participation of 79 Moroccan first-year Baccalaureate students who were divided into two separate but homogenous groups. The experimental group was taught using the blended learning model, and the control group was tutored in a traditional learning environment. The mean scores’ differences of the pre-test and the post-test asserted that, in comparison to the face-to-face learning, the blended learning model adopted was significantly impactful in improving the language proficiency level of the treatment group. However, no significant gender differences were observed in this regard. In essence, this piece of research has placed much emphasis on the idea that the efficient incorporation of ICT, particularly blended learning, into the learning/teaching process can help satisfy students’ needs, increase their motivation, and eventually enhance their language mastery.

Writing Difficulties Encountered by Humanities and Social Sciences Students in Philippine Politics and Governance

Ena Josel Portillo-San Miguel — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Writing is a very intricate skill to acquire among the four language skills. This qualitative study was conducted to determine the writing difficulties committed by Humanities and Social Sciences (HumSS) students and analyze how they develop a topic in Philippine Politics and Governance (PPG). Participants of the study were the Grade 11 students of Morong National High School, Morong, Rizal, who took up the said subject for S.Y. 2019-2020 in its First Semester. Twelve (12) students from the six (6) HumSS classes were selected using the Systematic Sampling Technique. This study employed the Grounded Theory approach to examine written output using codes from the three (3) phases of coding – Open, Axial, and Selective Coding. After the coding process, significant themes emerged and were subjected to analysis. Findings revealed that the most common difficulties encountered by the participants when developing a topic are grammatical errors, inappropriate use of political concepts, and inappropriate choice of vocabulary. It is also found out that unnecessary shift in tense, ambiguous pronoun reference, loose sentence, sentence fragment, dangling modifier, and wordy sentence are next in line. Also, participants chose to develop their topics in Exposition, Narration, Analogy, and Examples. More so, participants also found it hard to create an issue when given a Philippine Politics and Governance writing task due to language constraints evident in their writing outputs.

The Gravitational Fields of J.M Coetzee’s Fiction

Nabit ELGARHI — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The novels of J.M. Coetzee, South African novelist, have always been a source of inspiration for both readers and critics. A distinctive feature of his writing is the ability to converse with a wide range of disciplines amongst which is the scientific field stands distinguishingly appealing. This paper will explore the use of cosmology terminology to see its underpinnings in J.M Coetzee’s fiction as well as in Derek Attridge’s insightful criticisms. The gravitational velocity of J.M Coetzee’s fiction stems from his text’s singularity. Singularity remains Coetzee’s hallmark to engage with ethics and politics of otherness. The deconstruction of the simplistic and the normative comprehensions of post-apartheid establishes Coetzee’s singularity as his ethical defense of the singularity of literature on a large scale.

Challenges in Learning Legal English from Students’ Perspective at Hanoi Law University

Huong Nhac — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Legal English, also known as Language of the Law (Mellinkoff, 2004), is an dispensible factor contributing to the development of legal field. At Hanoi Law University, Legal English is a compulsory subject in the syllabus of legal English majors and International Trade Law majors. The question that what obstacles students face when dealing with legal English, however, has not been fully answered at this institution. This present research,which makes use of survey questionnaires as the main method, aims to study the challenges of learning legal English from the students’ perspective. The results indicate notable difficulties arising from the distinctive characteristics of legal English, differences in legal systems between jurisdictions and insufficient background knowledge of the laws. It is expected that these findings propose a number of practical recommendations in order to improve the effectiveness of the process of learning and teaching legal English.

Pragmatic functions of discourse marker ‘well’ in selected spoken discourse of Philippine English

Jimmylen Tonio — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The present paper investigates the use of the discourse marker “well,” one of the expressions that evoke emotive rather than referential functions. Taking a discourse-pragmatic approach, this study examines the functions of well as a discourse marker in selected spoken discourse of Philippine English. This paper investigates the functions and frequency of the discourse marker well in various speech event categories set in a dialogue and monologue environments. The data for the analysis have been selected from the International Corpus of English – Philippines (ICE-PHI). Also, the study focuses on the spoken component of the ICE-PH, which is one of the least studied dimensions of Philippine English. Further, it employs both quantitative and qualitative analyses while applying the suggested classification proposed by Ran (2003) and Jucker (1993). This study claims that the discourse marker well has several discourse-pragmatic functions in various speaking contexts, including 1) initiating utterance; 2) indicating the speaker's hesitancy; 3) mitigating various Face Threatening Acts; 4) correcting one's utterance; and 5) changing or shifting the current topic, based on 346 cases of well in four different spoken types.

Allal Al-Fassi’s Utopia: Liberalism and Democracy within the Revivalist System of Thought

Hamza Salih — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This paper examines the political writings of the Moroccan nationalist Allal Al-Fassi (1910-1974). It argues that there exists a considerable political tendency in these writings with excessive utilisation of jargon related to liberalism and political theory. In his intellectual and political project, Al-Fassi theorises about the possibility of creating a modern state on solid democratic and liberal foundations. Yet, however legitimate and seemingly liberal his theorisation might seem, the paper argues that the formation of a liberal state and a democratic society appears to be a mere dream given the fact that Al-Fassi grounds his conceptions within the Salafist and revivalist intellectual systems. Reading between the lines of his political works, nevertheless, reveals the dominance of Salafist intellections which deem the past and Islam as restorative in attaining a modern renaissance, at the political, economic, and cultural levels. This work, thus, problematizes three central points: the political tendency of Al-Fassi’s project, his religious and Salafist remnants and conceptions, and finally the possible ideological implications and interests that Al-Fassi seems to defend.

A Critical Analysis on the Representation of Muslims in Britain in the Daily Mail Newspaper: Applying Discourse Analysis

MOUNA BENHADDOU — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The pervasiveness of mass media has become an inevitable side of our daily life; the ubiquity of the latter has allowed an unprecedented influx of information that is not necessarily value free and objective. The news that is present on our devices is full of ideological insinuations and is undoubtedly value laden. News corporations have spread enormously and reached different homes, especially with the advent of technology which permitted an outreach to distant various communities with a simple click. There are daily articles released claiming to have the most breaking and exclusive scoops of news that was not covered. Nevertheless, people find themselves overwhelmed and unable to differentiate between what is authentic and what is not. Not only that, but they ostensibly newspaper claim to have an innocent editorial line that matches worldwide media ethics, the truth is certainly a far cry from what is publicized. Every day, covert ideologies and doctrines are passed through news articles that target specific communities that either tend to vilify it exclude to perpetuate certain clichés and stereotypes about it. So this paper aims to critically analyze an article in the Daily Mail British newspaper which was written on British Muslim minorities, it address the issue of religion in a generalized way using extreme categorization, so as to infiltrate and increase division and animosity in British community. The paper uses a set of critical methods of discourses analysis to uncover hidden and even explicit messages ideologies in the article that. The analysis shows how implicit strategies are utilized to display a binary line between US and THEM. The THEM group is synonymous with extremism, irrationality and oppression against women whereas US is portrayed as a group serving justice and eradicate fanaticism and radicalism.

Language Performativity and Horror Fiction: A Cognitive Stylistic Approach

Wesam El-Sayed — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This paper argues that horror fiction creates its effect through exploiting the workings of language in the minds of readers. As a genre that crosses many art forms, it might be tempting to analyze the multimodal vehicles of horror; the visual effects, the jump scares and the ominous music. However, studying the ability of language, on its own and without any audio-visual effects, to instill horror in its readers becomes even more enticing. The idea that words have the power to disrupt the reality of its readers is deeply rooted in the view of language as performative. The paper further argues that horror writers have manipulate linguistic structures in a peculiar way to serve the purpose of frightening their readers. To this end, an eclectic text-based cognitive stylistic approach is employed to analyze an excerpt from William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist (1971), demonstrating how the process of horror creation is both a textual and a cognitive one, whereby the mental image of reality in the minds of readers is manipulated and distorted by means of linguistic structures, hence horrifying them. Results reveal that for horror to be achieved, layers of blending take place in readers minds in order to arrive to horrific meanings textually described. Additionally, manipulation of syntactic complexity and the morphology of verbs intensifies the horrific effect.

Teaching Visually Impaired Indian ESL Learners In Inclusive Classrooms: A Review of Pedagogical Approaches

Syed Abid Zaki, Usman Khan — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The article analyses the criticality of inclusive education in ESL classrooms and sheds light on the learning mechanism of visually impaired ESL learners with special reference to status of inclusive education in India. It acquaints the educators with visual impairment and its related terms in order to sensitise them for implementing better teaching methods and strategies. The study highlights certain significant factors affecting the teaching of English to students with visual impairment and explores some specific teaching techniques and approaches that teachers adopt while teaching V.I students in an inclusive classroom. The paper will carry out a comparative analysis of the learning mechanisms of VI students and their peers without disability. In the end, it proposes some suggestive measures pertaining to the curriculum development, teaching methods and training programmes which are hoped to be productive in inclusive classrooms comprising of visually impaired ESL learners.

TED Talks as a Listening Resource in the EFL College Classroom

Reima Al-Jarf — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The article proposes a model for integrating TED Talks (TTs) in EFL college listening practice. It shows instructors where TTs can be located, gives reasons for using TTs, criteria for selecting TTs, the listening skills that can be developed, and an instructional strategy. TTs provide a variety of real-life themes, speakers, motivation, and inspiration. They save instructors’ time and effort as they are available on You Tube, mobile apps or in the TED website. In selecting TTs, the instructor should take into consideration the students' interests, difficulty level of the TT language and content, its length in minutes, and speed and accent of the speaker. Before watching a TT, she posts the title of the TT on an LMS or social media platform. She sets goals for listening and gives pre-questions to help the students comprehend the TT content. The students view the TTs on their smart phones in the classroom or at home; individually, in pair, or small groups; synchronously or asynchronously. While listening, the students take notes, and answer the questions. After listening, they discuss their answers. The instructor serves as a facilitator. She gives feedback, encouragement, and help with difficulties. Further recommendations for enhancing EFL college students’ listening skills and for extending the use of TTs to interpreting courses are given.

Gender Issues and Space in Esan Festivals and Ceremonies

Esther Jamgbadi — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The paper examines the areas of discrimination against women in Esan cultural activities. It focuses on the spaces in which women are marginalized especially in festivals and cultural ceremonies. To actively demonstrate this sidelined participation of women, the New Yam festival and the Efae ceremony are highlighted. In evaluating the marginal spaces of women, the study adopts the tenets of patriarchy and the feminist theory to see the specific attitudes and instruments of marginalization. It identifies patriarchy, as the major cause of discrimination and also shows that the situation persists till date because women offer no resistance to their plight. The paper intends to incite women to open their eyes to their unpalatable position.

Woes of the African Society: A Stylistic Analysis of Parallelism and Semantic Deviation in Philip Obioma Chinedu Umeh's Ambassadors of Poverty

Sat, 02 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Corruption has been one of the main challenges bedeviling the African society. Most artistic works in the form of writing and craft have dealt extensively with this canker of corruption. The poem ‘Ambassadors of Poverty’ is one of such works that touches on corruption in Africa. The present study seeks to examine the communicative implications underpinning the use of parallelism and semantic deviation in the poem. The study is situated within the linguistic and stylistic categories framework by Leech and Short (2007). The findings of the study identify forms of parallelism (noun phrases, prepositional phrases, simple and complex sentences) as well as forms of semantic deviation (metaphor, personification, irony, sarcasm, paradox, oxymoron and symbolism). The findings further unveil a preponderant use of varied shades of parallel structures to juxtapose the impoverished state of the ordinary African with the corrupt and luxurious lifestyle of African leaders while forms of semantic deviation are used to encode the unpatriotic attitudes of African leaders in figurative terms. The study concludes that literary works such as poems are potent instruments that are subtly used to expose and condemn the ills of society. The study has implications for research, theory and practice.

Dialect Levelling: A Case Study of Ìkàr??-Àkókó Dialect

Esther Olayinka Bamigbola, Fadekemi Rukayat Umar — Tue, 13 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This study investigates the factors that are responsible for the levelling of Ìkàr??-Àkókó dialect. Specifically, the paper examines the impacts of Nigerian indigenous languages, especially Yorùbá, on the dialect. The study aims at identifying the patterns of changes in the dialect and their impacts on the ethnic identities of the people. The work is based on the variationist approach pioneered by William Labov in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The tools used for data collection include questionnaire, oral interview and observation. The findings of the study reveal that the dialect manifests different stages of changes, vital domains like home, school and work place, which are supposed to be the strongholds of this dialect are being encroached upon by languages other than the mother tongue in the study area. It was found that the changes in the dialect are not due to the influence of English language only, but to indigenous Nigerian languages, mostly Yorùbá. It was concluded that the gradual levelling of Ìkàr??-Àkókó dialect is caused in part by restricted domains of use, increase in population; lack of commitment to indigenous language use by the native speakers; and suppressive language policy in the nation. The study recommends sensitization campaigns as a way of maintaining and sustaining the status of indigenous languages.

Vocabulary Learning Strategies: The Case of English for Business and Financial Reporting

Hélder Fanha Martins, Maria João Ferro — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Among the essential challenges faced by students in foreign language learning processes is vocabulary learning. Lexical competence has been acknowledged as critical to the use of language in which the students’ inadequate knowledge of the vocabulary causes problems in learning a second language. Therefore, learners require being educated with vocabulary in learning strategies when learning a second language. Contemporary research has not scrutinised to the fullest the categories of strategies of vocabulary learning used by learners who are majoring in Accounting. The main objective of this research was to understand how students use vocabulary learning strategies. For that, we adopted a qualitative approach, based on open-ended individual interviews with fifteen learners. The strategies that were concluded include the monolingual and bilingual dictionary use, usage of several media of English language, learning a word by specific texts, and application of new words in everyday conversation, interrelated to memory, strategies of metacognitive, and determination. These are common strategies and have keenly been used by students.