International Journal of Language and Literary Studies

Chinese Neologisms in the Field of Fandom: From a Rhetorical Perspective

Aiqing Wang — Tue, 15 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In this paper, I investigate Chinese neologisms in the field of fandom from a rhetorical perspective. Chinese fans either borrow existing expressions, sometimes Internet neologisms, and employ them in a novel approach, or create new expressions. Fandom neologisms may involve conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy. Metaphor can be categorised into playful metaphors and visual metaphors, the former of which may be concerning war, food or sex. Sex-related metaphors in fan neologisms are expressed via euphemismby means of alphabetic words, homophones and altered characters, owing to social taboo and Internet language usage regulation. In terms of fandom neologisms involving metonymy, they may be accompanied by nominalisation, verbification and hyperbole. Moreover, my observation indicates that Chinese fandom neologisms normally demonstrate semantic opaqueness, which I presume might be correlated with recognition memory. As a subcategory of Internet neologisms generated from networked grassroots communication,fandom neologisms demonstrate an upward transmission direction, as well as a potential to enter the mainstream lexicon by means of being cited by the traditional media.

UNDERSTANDING CHINESE K?I AND GU?N WHEN REMINDING PEOPLE TO SWITCH MOBILE MODE

Chunying Wang — Tue, 15 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This study investigates why people identically understand both Mandarin expressions ???????/q?ng ji?ng sh?u j? k?i zhèn dòng and???????/q?ng ji?ng sh?u j? gu?n zhèn dòng, which both mean please set your phone to vibrate. Four perspectives can be employed to explain. Firstly, the embodiments or imageries of ?/k?i/open and?/gu?n/close function in the expressions. However, only examining both expressions via imageries is insufficient to explain all the aspects. Relevance theory and the figure and ground relationship influence people’s selection of the expressions because the focus is different. Finally, people may directly connect the two actions k?i and gu?n to a single action, ?/àn/press, because of the development of touchscreen technology. Therefore, k?i and gu?n become similar under the context of reminding people to change their mobile into silent or vibration mode because no matter which expression is heard, the only action people have to do is to press or touch a specific icon on their smartphones.

An Exploration of the Factors Hindering Students’ Lesson Comprehension in EMI Classes

Ngoc Tien Tran, Thi Bao Trinh Tran, Thi Thanh Mai Bien — Tue, 15 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The implementation of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) has been found to bring numerous benefits to its learners. There has been a rising trend in introducing EMI at higher education institutions worldwide. However, challenges are ubiquitous and there is still prevalent hesitation in integrating content and language in many institutions. This study aimed to explore factors hindering students’ level of lesson comprehension in EMI classes through a mixed-method study carried out on 233 participants at Hoa Sen University, Vietnam. The findings showed that variables hampering students from lesson understanding were mainly associated with instructors’ teaching methods and students’ and instructors’ language competences. Results from standard multiple regression indicated that vocabulary range, writing skills and teaching methods were found to have significant contribution to the prediction of the level of lesson comprehension of the students. The findings of the study could be a considerable reference source for universities aiming at implementing EMI programmes.

Developing Students’ Intercultural Competence among Moroccan EFL students: Focus on raising their Cross-cultural Awareness

Driss Benattabou — Tue, 15 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The goal of this paper is to consider alternative ways to incorporate an intercultural communication course as an integral part of the curriculum designed for Moroccan learners of EFL. Some aspects of what comes to be dubbed as ‘deep culture’ should find room in the contents of the EFL course so as to alert Moroccan learners about the potential intercultural barriers they are far more likely to face. It is proposed that for an effective intercultural communication to take place, the English course should help foreign language learners explicitly understand what target linguistic forms might be and how their meanings may differ across cultures. The analysis of some instances of intercultural misunderstandings may surely give more credence to the vital importance of implementing a multicultural approach to education. This paper offers some teaching strategies to assist Moroccan learners of EFL overcome these intercultural barriers.

English Fricative Rendition of Educated Speakers of English from a North-Central City of Nigeria

Theodore Shey Nsairun, Eunice Fajobi — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This paper examines the influence of ethnicity on the realization of the English fricatives articulated by selected educated speakers of English from four ethnic groups of Ebira, Igala, Hausa and Okun-Yoruba residing in Lokoja, a North-Central city of Nigeria. Data for the study consist of 1080 tokens elicited from 120 informants. The study was guided by a synthesis of the theoretical frameworks of Honey’s (1997) Sociophonology and Azevedo’s (1981) Contrastive Phonology. Perceptual and acoustic analyses of the data reveal that, although speakers tendto not articulate sounds that are absent in their phonemic inventory with the dexterity expected of their level of education, co-habitation seems a factor that has robbed off on the respondents’ level of performance in this study. Results reveal further that 80% overcame their linguistic challenges to correctly articulate the test items while 30% generally had difficulty articulating the interdental fricatives /P/ and /D/ and the voiced palato-alveolar fricative /Z/; perhaps, because these sounds are absent in their respective phonemic inventories. The paper submits additionally that, phonology is still resistant to input (cf. Fajobi, 2013), level of education notwithstanding. However, positive social relations could impact positively on language use and competence in any pluralinguistic English as a second language (ESL) environment.

THE PRAGMATIC USE OF VERISIMILITUDE IN SELECTED INTERACTIONS BETWEEN TERMINALLY-ILL PATIENTS AND THEIR CAREGIVERS

Oluwafemi Bolanle Jolaoso, Ezekiel Opeyemi Olajimbiti — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Concealment, an act of intentionally withholding information for some purposes, is considered to be often employed by caregivers to veil the terminal status of the patients. This paper therefore investigates the pragmatics of concealment in interactions between terminally-ill patients and their caregivers as it relates to psychotherapeutic process; thereby complementing existing studies which have largely captured attitudes, strategies and structures of such discourses. Seven interactions, capturing cancer, heart disease and kidney failure, were collected through tape-recording and participants’ observation at University College Hospital, Ibadan, between February and August, 2016. These were transcribed and analysed using convergence aspect of Gile’s Communication Accommodation Theory. Findings show that concealment in this discourse pragmatically configures psychotherapeutic context which bifurcates into palliative psychotherapy and cognitive-behavioural therapy. Palliative psychotherapy, through shared situational knowledge and mutual contextual belief, raises hope of recovery and dislodges fear of death. Cognitive-behavioural therapy, through shared cultural knowledge, facilitates compliance and support in the healing process. The aforementioned findings resonate that the use of concealment in therapeutic discourse psychologically changes the underlying thoughts that contribute to mental depression and modifies the problematic behaviours that result from these thoughts

Metaphorical Conceptualization of Food in Jordanian Arabic

Rose Aljanada, Aseel Alfaisal — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This article studies the different food conceptual metaphors in Jordanian Arabic through the study of different food-related idioms and proverbs. A corpus was built by collecting the largest possible number of food-related idioms and proverbs used in Jordanian Arabic, regardless of the dialect, using a survey containing open-ended questions. The collected food-related idioms and proverbs were categorized according to the target domain into which the metaphors are mapped. Food in Jordanian Arabic food as a source domain can be mapped into the following target domains: IDEAS, EXPERIENCE, TEMPERAMENT, GAINING MONEY UNLAWFULLY, WINNING , DECEIVING, COOPERATION, SCHEMING and TALKING NONESENSE. These target domains form the following Conceptual Metaphors: IDEAS ARE FOOD, GOING THROUGH AN EXPEREINCE IS EATING IT, TEMPERAMENT IS FOOD, GAINING MONEY UNLAWFULLY IS EATING IT, WINNING IS EATING , DECEIVING IS MIXING INGREDIENTS, COOPERATION IS SHARING FOOD, SCHEMING IS COOKING TOGETHER and TALKING NONESENSE IS KNEADING.

Becoming an English Teacher: Voices from Nepal

Gopal Prasad Pandey — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Motivations for choosing English teacher as a career have attracted considerable attention in recent years, and a number of research studies have been conducted to gain insights into pre-service and in-service teachers’ reasons for entering teacher education programmes. This study aimed at investigating motivating factors to choose English language teaching as a career. It also aimed at exploring the job satisfaction level of the participants, and the professional development activities they adopt to develop their professional competence. Five teachers of English who have been teaching English at different levels of education in Nepal for ten years now participated in this study. The narrative inquiry approach was adopted as a research design for this study. Interview was used as a tool for data collection. The study contains qualitative data only. The data were described and analyzed descriptively. The study revealed that the participants chose English teacher as career due to the influence of their role model English teachers; the love for the subject, the social prestige the English teachers deserved and the passion for teaching. The participants are satisfied with positions they hold as they have been able to help the adults to learn. Their motives for selecting job are guided by intrinsic motives such as interest, personal experience, intellectual fulfillment, and altruistic ones. The findings also indicated that they adopt different activities to develop their professional competence such as taking part in workshops, seminars, becoming members of professional community, attending ELT and applied linguistics conferences

Writing Strategies across four disciplines in a Tunisian Context

Maha Dallagi — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

English is now widely established as the world language for information exchange, communication, and conducting research (Cenoz & Jessner, 2000; Wood, 2001); and developing satisfactory writing strategies is crucial. Writing is a challenging skill, the complexity of which is mainly felt at University Level. This paper investigated writing strategies among 147 Tunisian university students, majoring in Hard Science and Soft Science courses (English, French, Medicine and Engineering). Its objective was to verify to what extent factors such as academic field, gender, and proficiency interact with each other and with writing strategies. A Survey of Writing strategies was adopted as the main investigating instrument. Findings reveal that Language majors are higher users of strategies than other majors, yet this does not seem to impact their proficiency level. The results suggest raising students’ awareness of Writing strategies by teaching them explicitly and drawing their attention to them.

Effectiveness of Tutorials in Improving the Academic Performance of English Language Learners

Danebeth Glomo-Narzoles, Donna Glomo-Palermo — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This study aimed to identify the effectiveness of an academic intervention, tutorial classes in particular, as perceived by the students specifically in improving their performance in their English subjects. This study made use of the Tutorial Survey questionnaire adapted from Xixi Lu, et.al. (2003). The questionnaire was distributed to the students who attended English language tutorial classes in a private university. In order to substantiate the information gathered through the questionnaire, interviews were also conducted to selected participants. Results revealed that majority of students who availed the English language tutorials were males. On the other hand, there were more working students who attended the tutorials than the non-working students. The students noted that the tutorial classes for their English subjects were very effective. They perceived the tutorial classes and the faculty tutors positively. Moreover, they were also very satisfied with the tutorial venue and time. The students do not have further recommendations to improve the university’s tutorial classes. The students also added that these tutorials have improved their listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. For the other academic interventions, the students suggested to have peer tutoring, additional activities or enrichment materials through e-learning sites, and video tutorials for those English subjects with lab components.

A Transitivity Analysis of the Arab Revolutions Representation in Western Newspapers: the Washington Post, the Guardian and le Figaro as Case Study.

aymane Edouihri, Yahya yachouti — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The earthshaking event of the Arab revolutions profoundly impacted international relations and sparked heated discussions and analysis of East and West encounters´ legacy. Such sizable opportunity is creates an interesting momentum in revisiting western representation of the orient. Such representation traditionally feeds on colonial discourse´s binarisms, polarization and othering. Thus, this paper aims at examining western press discourse on the Arab Spring through transitivity analysis. The analysis examines the Washington Post, the Guradian and le Figaro´s articles written about the Arab revolutions. Enlightened by Systemic Functional Linguistics, transitivity analysis unveils the embedded constructs in the process types, goals and actors deployed by the newspapers´ articles writers.

The Difficulties of Reading Cultural-based Texts among Yemeni EFL Learners

Fazee Almuslimi — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The present study aimed at discovering the difficulties that level two students in the English Department, Faculty of Education, Sana'a University-Sana'a in reading comprehension when reading cultural-based texts. To achieve the study objectives, a test was administered in which participants were required to read two texts; one was cultural-based and the other was ordinary. The study method was descriptive. 51 participants were randomly selected from the whole population (180 students). The obtained data from the instrument was analyzed by calculating frequencies and paired sample t-test using SPSS program. The results revealed that even though students face difficulties when reading cultural texts, there is no significant statistical difference in their performance in the cultural based test and the ordinary one in the three subskills under investigation in this study (the main idea, guessing meaning from the text, and making inferences). Some recommendations were suggested. It was ended with some important recommendations related to its results in which teachers and learners should take into account enhancing and activating both of cultural and structural schemata.

The The Effect of Strategy Training on Vocabulary Learning of EFL University Students

Salma Seffar — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This study investigated the effect of training in five vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) on the vocabulary learning of EFL university students. The five vocabulary learning strategies were ‘Dictionary Work’, ‘Word Cards’, ‘Semantic Mapping’, ‘Word Parts’, and ‘Guessing from Context’. Forty-eight first-year university students, in both the control group (24 students receiving English language courses) and the experimental group (24 students receiving English language courses besides VLS training) belonging to similar proficiency and vocabulary size levels, participated in the study. Data were collected utilizing two research instruments namely a vocabulary learning strategy questionnaire, pre-and post-tests of vocabulary learning ability. The vocabulary learning strategy questionnaire was used to elicit what types of vocabulary learning strategies the subjects employed while they learned and memorized the vocabulary taught independently outside and inside the class. The pre-test was employed to determine pre-existing knowledge of the participants. The posttest was administered to identify the impact of vocabulary learning strategy instruction on the students’ vocabulary knowledge. Descriptive statistics and t-test showed that after introducing vocabulary learning strategies training (VLST) in class, subjects from the experimental group used more VLS and significantly outperformed subjects of the control group in their ability to learn new words.

The Beats’ Identification with the Marginalized Groups as a Means of Decentralization

Ehsan Emami Neyshaburi — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Because the cold war had already started and atomic annihilation was impending, America was panicked into bringing about homogeneity and centralization. The government thought that diminution of heterogeneity and propagation of the privileged discourses could guarantee the country against the threat. Opposing this, the Beats strived to bring about difference and heterogeneity to guarantee their society against tastelessness and lack of individuality, as the inevitable corollaries of this policy. They identified themselves with the marginalized groups because they knew that being on the periphery of American society, these groups had not been corrupted by capitalism. Their purity, difference from the rest, and natural condition helped the Beats fulfil their purpose. Some critics believe they were insensitive to the plight of those groups and only misused them and some others say that the Beats had an ambivalent attitude towards them and the positive and negative aspects of their relation should be considered. This paper is going to support the second view.

Developing Reading Competencies of College Students Using Blended Instruction

Katherine Akut, Hazel Jean M. Abejuela — Sat, 19 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Developing 21st-century reading competencies is one of the primary concerns of higher education institutions (HEIs). Initiatives have been undertaken to prepare the learners to function effectively in this technology-driven society. Hence, academic institutions integrate technology and the Internet in the teaching-learning processes. This study intends to determine the effectiveness of instructional material on developing reading competencies using blended instruction. Dziuban, Hartman and Moskal, (2004) define blended instruction as a pedagogical approach that integrates the effectiveness and socialization opportunities of the classroom with the technologically enhanced active learning possibilities of the online environment. Six lessons were implemented in the English 107 – College Reading Skills classes. The learners were provided with hypertext reading activities, individual and collaborative tasks, online discussions, online surveys and other extension activities which provided them with the opportunity to communicate their ideas on the topics discussed in class. To determine the effectiveness of the lessons, a one-group pretest and post-test design was used. The pre-test and post-test scores were compared using the paired t-test. Findings reveal that the students performed better after the implementation of the lessons in developing reading competencies using blended instruction. Moreover, the majority of the students said that the lessons are interesting, meaningful, useful and enjoyable. It can be concluded that blended instruction effectively develops the students’ reading competencies.

The Need of Distance Learning in the Wake of COVID-19 in Morocco:

Housseine Bachiri, Rabha Sahli — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Owing to the rapidly ubiquitous infection of Coronavirus in Morocco and other parts of the globe, a plethora of governments have urgently resorted to implement distance learning to save the current academic year from an evitable failure. Given the non-prevalence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in Morocco, distance learning has been a quite bold attempt to officially continue education, even after the closure of schools and campuses, without interruption with a slightly adjusted grading scale in order to lead the boat of the current academic year to a safe harbor. In this regard, many underprivileged students have benefitted from free modems and laptops, the case of Euromed University of Fes (UEMF). This great initiative has enabled the aforementioned students to enjoy the full experience of distance learning. As for secondary schools and most public institutions, the supply of electronic devices has almost been lacking. One should know that the government has taken some modest initiatives, such as offering free access to a few platforms, national channels, and official pages of the aforesaid ministry, namely TelmidTICE. It must be noted that distance learning, in Morocco, has continuously undergone various challenges during COVID-19 ranging from content and pedagogy to assessment and evaluation. Having used both quantitative and qualitative research for the purpose of gathering relevant data by means of questionnaire and participant observation, we have been able to ferret out the real challenges that are structurally embedded and ramified in the application of distance learning whose infrastructure must be constantly buttressed via empirical research and quality teacher training to better respond to different learning needs and styles, and simultaneously combat digital illiteracy.

Flipped Classroom: Its Effects on ESL Learners’ Critical Thinking and Reading Comprehension Levels

MICHAEL JORDAN VICENCIO FULGUERAS, JUDY CAÑERO BAUTISTA — Fri, 02 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This experimental study investigated the effects of flipped classroom in enhancing critical thinking and reading comprehension levels of 212 senior high school ESL learners in the Philippines; half of which received the conventional lecture-discussion approach to instruction and the other half received flipped learning approach. Both the control and the experimental groups were subjected to equal number of 15 instructional sessions. In order to establish the baseline data for each group in the critical thinking variable and the reading comprehension variable, pretests were conducted and were subsequently compared to posttest results. The t-test of two independent samples assuming equal variances was used to determine if there was a significant difference between the flipped classroom approach and the lecture-discussion approach with regard to enhancing critical thinking and reading comprehension levels. Results reveal that in both approaches, there were improvements in the critical thinking levels and the reading comprehension levels of the respondents. However, the results reveal that the respondents who received instruction using the flipped learning approach significantly outperform the respondents who received conventional instruction.

LEARNERS’ STRATEGIES TO DEVELOP THEIR COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

Durga Bhusal — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Language Learning Strategies (LLSs) are specific actions, behaviors, steps, or techniques that the learners use them to improve their performance which is important for L2/FL learning and teaching. These strategies are as affecting factors on success or failure of the language learning process. Hence, this paper explores the English language learners’ learning strategies to develop their communicative competence within the theoretical stance of Oxford’s 1990 Language Learning Strategies (LLSs). The study is qualitative in nature where four participants were interviewed to understand their ontological perspectives and practices of different LLSs to enhance their communicative ability in English. The findings show the learners seemed to be usual strategy users. However, social, affective, and metacognitive strategies frequent strategies for developing their communicative competence. It further depicts learners are not always aware of the influence of consciously using language learning strategies for making their learning quicker and more effective. Thus, the teachers need to be the one who helps their students develop the awareness of language learning strategies and enable them to use a wider range of appropriate strategies for further success in their communicative competence.