Search results for: applied contrastive analysis English language department

Authors: Ana Maghfiroh

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Learning a foreign language needs a big effort from the learner itself to make their language ability grows better day by day. Among those, they also need a support from all around them including teacher, friends, as well as activities which support them to speak the language. When those activities developed well as a habit which are done regularly, it will help improving the students’ language competence. It was a qualitative research which aimed to find out and describe some activities implemented in Pesantren Al Mawaddah, Ponorogo, in order to teach the students a foreign language. In collecting the data, the researcher used interview, questionnaire, and documentation. From the study, it was found that Pesantren Al Mawaddah had successfully built the language habit on the students to speak the target language. More than 15 hours a day students were compelled to speak foreign language, Arabic or English, in turn. It aimed to habituate the students to keep in touch with the target language. The habit was developed through daily language activities, such as dawn vocabs giving, dictionary handling, daily language use, speech training and language intensive course, daily language input, and night vocabs memorizing. That habit then developed the students awareness towards the language learned as well as promoted their language mastery.

Keywords: habit, communicative competence, daily language activities, Pesantren

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Authors: Xun Sun, Le Li, Ce Mo, Lei Mo, Ruiming Wang, Guosheng Ding

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Cognitive control plays a central role in information processing, which is comprised of various components including response suppression and inhibitory control. Response suppression is considered to inhibit the irrelevant response during the cognitive process; while inhibitory control to inhibit the irrelevant stimulus in the process of cognition. Both of them undertake distinct functions for the cognitive control, so as to enhance the performances in behavior. Among numerous factors on cognitive control, bilingual experience is a substantial and indispensible factor. It has been reported that bilingual experience can influence the neural activity of cognitive control as whole. However, it still remains unknown how the neural influences specifically present on the components of cognitive control imposed by bilingualism. In order to explore the further issue, the study applied fMRI, used anti-saccade paradigm and compared the cerebral activations between high and low proficient Chinese-English bilinguals. Meanwhile, the study provided experimental evidence for the brain plasticity of language, and offered necessary bases on the interplay between language and cognitive control. The results showed that response suppression recruited the middle frontal gyrus (MFG) in low proficient Chinese-English bilinguals, but the inferior patrietal lobe in high proficient Chinese-English bilinguals. Inhibitory control engaged the superior temporal gyrus (STG) and middle temporal gyrus (MTG) in low proficient Chinese-English bilinguals, yet the right insula cortex was more active in high proficient Chinese-English bilinguals during the process. These findings illustrate insights that bilingual experience has neural influences on different components of cognitive control. Compared with low proficient bilinguals, high proficient bilinguals turn to activate advanced neural areas for the processing of cognitive control. In addition, with the acquisition and accumulation of language, language experience takes effect on the brain plasticity and changes the neural basis of cognitive control.

Keywords: bilingual experience, cognitive control, inhibition control, response suppression

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Authors: Aye Pa Pa Myo

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Writing in English is accounted as a complex process for English as a foreign language learners. Besides, committing errors in writing can be found as an inevitable part of language learners’ writing. Generally, academic writing is quite difficult for most of the students to manage for getting better scores. Students can commit common errors in their writings when they try to write academic writing. Error analysis deals with identifying and detecting the errors and also explains the reason for the occurrence of these errors. In this paper, the researcher has an attempt to examine the common errors of undergraduate students in their academic writings at Pathein University. The purpose of doing this research is to investigate the errors which students usually commit in academic writing and to find out the better ways for correcting these errors in EFL classrooms. In this research, fifty-third-year non-English specialization students attending Pathein University were selected as participants. This research took one month. It was conducted with a mixed methodology method. Two mini-tests were used as research tools. Data were collected with a quantitative research method. Findings from this research pointed that most of the students noticed their common errors after getting the necessary input, and they became more decreased committing these errors after taking mini-test; hence, all findings will be supportive for further researches related to error analysis in academic writing.

Keywords: academic writing, error analysis, EFL learners, mini-tests, mixed methodology

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Authors: Murtala Musa

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The purpose of this study was to look at the authorship patterns of Master's Degree Dissertations submitted to the Department of English and Literary Studies at Bayero University in Kano between 2007 and 2017, with the goal of determining the pattern and degree of collaboration between authors. The study was conducted utilizing quantitative research methods and an Ex-post factor research design. A total of 176 copies of Masters Dissertations were examined, yielding a total of 12061 citations. The data collection instrument was a citation analysis checklist created by the researcher. Subramanyam's Law of Collaboration of Authors was used to determine the degree of collaboration among authors using descriptive statistics such as tables, frequency distributions, percentages, and charts. Single-authored publications, followed by double-authored articles, accounted for the majority of the contributions.

Keywords: authorship patterns, bibliometrics, English and Literary studies, citation analysis

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Authors: Chen Bingru

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This study is intended to describe and analyze the effects of polysyllabic shortening and word or phrase boundary on the duration patterns of spoken utterances by Mandarin learners of English in comparison with native speakers of English. To investigate the relative contribution of these effects, two production experiments were conducted. The study included 11 native British English speakers and 20 Mandarin learners of English who were asked to produce four sets of tokens consisting of a mono-syllabic base form, disyllabic, and trisyllabic words derived from the base by the addition of suffixes, and a set of short sentences with a particular combination of phrase size, stress pattern, and boundary location. The duration of words and segments was measured, and results from the data analysis suggest that the amount of polysyllabic shortening and the effect of word or phrase position are likely to affect a Chinese accent for Mandarin ESL speakers. This study sheds light on research on the duration patterns of language by demonstrating the effect of duration-related factors on the foreign accent of Mandarin ESL speakers. It can also benefit both L2 learners and language teachers by increasing their sensitivity to the duration differences and difficulties experienced by L2 learners of English. An understanding of the amount of polysyllabic shortening and the effect of position in words and phrase on syllable duration can also facilitate L2 teachers to establish priorities for teaching pronunciation to ESL learners.

Keywords: duration patterns, Chinese accent, Mandarin ESL speakers, polysyllabic shortening

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Authors: Khaled Hamdan, Abid Amorri, Fatima Hamdan

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Involving students in English language learning process and achieving an adequate English language proficiency in the target language can be a great challenge for both teachers and students. This can prove even a far greater challenge to engage students with special needs (Dyslexia) if they have physical impairment and inadequate mastery of basic communicative language competence/proficiency in the target language. From this perspective, technology like robots can probably be used to enhance learning process for the special needs students who have extensive communication needs, who face continuous struggle to interact with their peers and teachers and meet academic requirements. Robots, precisely NAO, can probably provide them with the perfect opportunity to practice social and communication skills, and meet their English academic requirements. This research paper aims to identify to what extent robots can be used to improve students’ social interaction and communication skills and to understand the potential for robotics-based education in motivating and engaging UAEU dyslexic students to meet university requirements. To reach this end, the paper will explore several factors that come into play – Motion Level-involving cognitive activities, Interaction Level-involving language processing, Behavior Level -establishing a close relationship with the robot and Appraisal Level- focusing on dyslexia students’ achievement in the target language.

Keywords: dyslexia, robot technology, motion, interaction, behavior and appraisal levels, social and communication skills

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Authors: Shivani Tiwari, Prathibha Karanth, B. Rajashekhar

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Impairments of syntactic morphology are often considered central in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). In English and related languages, deficits of tense-related grammatical morphology could serve as a clinical marker of SLI. Yet, cross-linguistic studies on SLI in the recent past suggest that the nature and severity of morphosyntactic deficits in children with SLI varies with the language being investigated. Therefore, in the present study we investigated the morphosyntactic deficits in a group of children with SLI who speak Kannada, a morphologically complex Dravidian language spoken in Indian subcontinent. A group of 15 children with SLI participated in this study. Two more groups of typical developing children (15 each) matched for language and age to children with SLI, were included as control participants. All participants were assessed for morphosyntactic comprehension and expression using standardized language test and a spontaneous speech task. Results of the study showed that children with SLI differed significantly from age-matched but not language-matched control group, on tasks of both comprehension and expression of morphosyntax. This finding is, however, in contrast with the reports of English-speaking children with SLI who are reported to be poorer than younger MLU-matched children on tasks of morphosyntax. The observed difference in impairments of morphosyntax in Kannada-speaking children with SLI from English-speaking children with SLI is explained based on the morphological richness theory. The theory predicts that children with SLI perform relatively better in morphologically rich language due to occurrence of their frequent and consistent features that mark the morphological markers. The authors, therefore, conclude that language-specific features do influence manifestation of the disorder in children with SLI.

Keywords: specific language impairment, morphosyntax, Kannada, manifestation

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Authors: Naseer Ahmad

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This research investigates the intricate dynamics of language policy, ideology, and the choice of educational language as a medium of instruction in rural Pakistan. Focused on addressing the complexities of language practices in underexplored educational contexts, the study employed a case study approach, analyzing interviews with education authorities, teachers, and students, alongside classroom observations in English-medium and Urdu-medium rural schools. The research underscores the significance of understanding linguistic diversity within rural communities. The analysis of interviews and classroom observations revealed that language policies in rural schools are influenced by multiple factors, including historical legacies, societal language ideologies, and government directives. The dominance of Urdu and English as the preferred languages of instruction reflected a broader language hierarchy, where regional languages are often marginalized. This language ideology perpetuates a sense of linguistic inferiority among students who primarily speak regional languages. The impact of language choices on students' learning experiences and outcomes is a central focus of the research. It became evident that while policies advocate for specific language practices, the implementation often diverges due to multifarious socio-cultural, economic, and institutional factors. This disparity significantly impacts the effectiveness of educational processes, influencing pedagogical approaches, student engagement, academic outcomes, social mobility, and language choices. Based on the findings, the study concluded that due to policy and practice gap, rural people have complex perceptions and language choices. They perceived Urdu as a national, lingua franca, cultural, easy, or low-status language. They perceived English as an international, lingua franca, modern, difficult, or high-status language. They perceived other languages as mother tongue, local, religious, or irrelevant languages. This research provided insights that are crucial for theory, policy, and practice, addressing educational inequities and inclusive language policies. It set the stage for further research and advocacy efforts in the realm of language policies in diverse educational settings.

Keywords: language-in-education policy, language ideology, educational language choice, pakistan

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Authors: Ayako Hasegawa, Ken Ubukata

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The purpose of this study is to investigate whether corrective feedback has any significant effect on Japanese low-intermediate EFL learners’ performance on a specific set of linguistic features. The subjects are Japanese college students majoring in English. They have studied English for about 7 years, but their inter-language seems to fossilize because non-target like errors is frequently observed in traditional deductive teacher-fronted approach. It has been reported that corrective feedback plays an important role in diminishing or overcoming inter-language fossilization and achieving TL competency. Therefore, it was examined how the corrective feedback (the focus of this study was metalinguistic feedback) and self-correction raised the students’ awareness and helped them notice the gaps between their inter-language and the TL.

Keywords: written corrective feedback, fossilized error, grammar teaching, language teaching

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Authors: Shamim Ali

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Researchers and teachers have begun developing digital games and model environments for educational purpose; therefore this study examines the effect of a videos game on secondary school students’ language learning motivation. Secondly, it tries to find out the opportunities to develop a decision making process and simultaneously it analyzes the solutions for further implementation in educational setting. Participants were 30 male students randomly assigned to one of the following three treatments: 10 students were assigned to read the game’s story; 10 students were players, who played video game; and, and the last 10 students acted as watchers and observers, their duty was to watch their classmates play the digital video game. A language learning motivation scale was developed and it was given to the participants as a pre- and post-test. Results indicated a significant language learning motivation and the participants were quite motivated in the end. It is, thus, concluded that the use of video games can help enhance high school students’ language learning motivation. It was suggested that video games should be used as a complementary activity not as a replacement for textbook since excessive use of video games can divert the original purpose of learning.

Keywords: EFL, English as a Foreign Language, motivation, video games, EFL learners

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Authors: Jawharah Alasmari

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In verb inflection, tense marks past/present/future action, and aspect marks progressive/continues perfect/completed actions. This usage and meaning of tense and aspect differ in Arabic and English. In this research, we applied data mining methods to test the predictive function of candidate features by using our dataset of Arabic verbs in-context, and their 7 translations. Weka machine learning classifiers is used in this experiment in order to examine the key features that can be used to provide guidance to enable a translator’s appropriate English translation of the Arabic verb tense and aspect.

Keywords: Arabic verb, English translations, mining methods, Weka software

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Authors: Fang Tan

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This research focuses on the appropriate use of lexical bundles in spoken discourse, particularly in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms in Northeast China. While previous studies have mainly examined lexical bundles in written discourse, there is a need to investigate their usage in spoken discourse due to the limited availability of spoken discourse corpora. English teachers’ use of lexical bundles is crucial for effective teaching and communication in the EFL classroom. The aim of this study is to investigate the functions of four-word lexical bundles in native English teachers’ EFL oral English classes in Northeast China. Specifically, the research focuses on the usage of stance bundles, which were found to be the most significant type of bundle in the analyzed corpus. By comparing the self-built university spoken English classroom discourse corpus with the other self-built university English for General Purposes (EGP) corpus, the study aims to highlight the difference in bundle usage between native and non-native teachers in EFL classrooms. The research employs a corpus-based study. The observed corpus consists of more than 300,000 tokens, in which the data has been collected in the past five years. The reference corpus is composed of over 800,000 tokens, in which the data has been collected over 12 years. All the primary data collection involved transcribing and annotating spoken English classes taught by native English teachers. The analysis procedures included identifying and categorizing four-word lexical bundles, with specific emphasis on stance bundles. Frequency counts, and comparisons with the Chinese English teachers’ corpus were conducted to identify patterns and differences in bundle usage. The research addresses the following questions: 1) What are the functions of four-word lexical bundles in native English teachers’ EFL oral English classes? 2) How do stance bundles differ in usage between native and non-native English teachers’ classes? 3) What implications can be drawn for English teachers’ professional development based on the findings? In conclusion, this study provides valuable insights into the usage of four-word lexical bundles, particularly stance bundles, in native English teachers’ EFL oral English classes in Northeast China. The research highlights the difference in bundle usage between native and non-native English teachers’ classes and provides implications for English teachers’ professional development. The findings contribute to the understanding of lexical bundle usage in EFL classroom discourse and have theoretical importance for language teaching methodologies. The self-built university English classroom discourse corpus used in this research is a valuable resource for future studies in this field.

Keywords: EFL classroom discourse, four-word lexical bundles, stance, implication

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Authors: Linda Weinberg, Miriam Symon

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While few institutions of higher education in Israel offer international programs taught entirely in English, many Israeli students today can study at least one content course taught in English during their degree program. In particular, with the growth of international partnerships and opportunities for student mobility, English medium instruction is a growing phenomenon. There are however no official guidelines in Israel for how to develop and implement content courses in English and no training to help lecturers prepare for teaching their materials in a foreign language. Furthermore, the implications for the students and the nature of the courses themselves have not been sufficiently considered. In addition, the institution must have lecturers who are able to teach these courses effectively in English. An international project funded by the European Union addresses these issues and a set of guidelines which provide guidance for lecturers in adapting their courses for delivery in English have been developed. A train-the-trainer approach is adopted in order to cascade knowledge and experience in English medium instruction from experts to language teachers and on to content teachers thus maximizing the scope of professional development. To accompany training, a model English medium course has been created which serves the dual purpose of highlighting alternatives to the frontal lecture while integrating language learning objectives with content goals. This course can also be used as a standalone content course. The development of the guidelines and of the course utilized backwards, forwards and central design in an iterative process. The goals for combined language and content outcomes were identified first after which a suitable framework for achieving these goals was constructed. The assessment procedures evolved through collaboration between content and language specialists and subsequently were put into action during a piloting phase. Feedback from the piloting teachers and from the students highlight the need for clear channels of communication to encourage frank and honest discussion of expectations versus reality. While much of what goes on in the English medium classroom requires no better teaching skills than are required in any classroom, the understanding of students' abilities in achieving reasonable learning outcomes in a foreign language must be rationalized and accommodated within the course design. Concomitantly, preparatory language classes for students must be able to adapt to prepare students for specific language and cognitive skills and activities that courses conducted in English require. This paper presents findings from the implementation of a purpose-designed English medium instruction course arrived at through an iterative backwards, forwards and central design process utilizing feedback from students and lecturers alike leading to suggested guidelines for English medium instruction in higher education.

Keywords: English medium instruction, higher education, iterative design process, train-the-trainer

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Authors: Ozlem Kaya

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21st-century learners are energetic and tech-savvy, and the skills and the knowledge required in this century are complex and challenging. Therefore, teachers need to find new ways to appeal to the needs and interests of their students and meet the demands of the 21st century at the same time. One way to do so in English language learning has been to incorporate various technology tools into classroom practices. Although teachers think these practices are effective and their students enjoy them, students may have different perceptions. To find out what students think about the use of technology tools in terms of developing 21st-century skills and knowledge, this study was conducted at Anadolu University School of Foreign Languages. A questionnaire was administered to 40 students at elementary level. Afterward, semi-structured interviews were held with 8 students to provide deeper insight into their perceptions. The details of the findings of the study will be presented and discussed during the presentation.

Keywords: 21st century skills, technology tools, perception, English Language Learning

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Authors: Kuei-Hao Li, Eden Huang

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Motivation suggests the willingness one person has towards taking action. Learners’ motivation has frequently been regarded as the most crucial factor in successful language acquisition. Without sufficient motivation, learners cannot achieve long-term learning goals despite remarkable abilities. Therefore, the study aims to investigate motivation of interaction tasks designed by the researchers for college EFL learners in Travel English class in virtual reality environment, integrating CUE model, Cognition, Usage and Expansion in the course. Thirty college learners were asked to join the virtual language learning website designed by the researchers. Data was collected via feedback questionnaire, interview, and learner interactions. The findings indicated that the course in the CUE model in language learning website of virtual reality environment was effective at motivating EFL learners and improving their oral communication and social interactions in the learning process. Some pedagogical implications are also provided in helping both language instructors and EFL learners in virtual reality environment.

Keywords: motivation, virtual reality, virtual language learning, second language acquisition

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Authors: Jane-Francis A. Abongdia, Thandiswa Mpiti

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There is an international concern to develop children’s literacy skills. In many parts of the world, the need to become fluent in a second language is essential for gaining meaningful access to education, the labour market and broader social functioning. In spite of these efforts, the problem still continues. The level of English language proficiency is far from satisfactory and these goals are unattainable by others. The issue is more complex in South Africa as learners are immersed in a second language (L2) curriculum. South Africa is a prime example of a country facing the dilemma of how to effectively equip a majority of its population with English as a second language or first additional language (FAL). Given the multilingual nature of South Africa with eleven official languages, and the position and power of English, the study investigates teachers’ and learners’ experiences on isiXhosa and Afrikaans background learners’ writing in English First Additional Language (EFAL). Moreover, possible causes of writing difficulties and teacher’s practices for writing are explored. The theoretical and conceptual framework for the study is provided by studies on constructivist theories and sociocultural theories. In exploring these issues, a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis were adopted. This data is analysed by critical discourse analysis (CDA). The study identified a weak correlation between teachers’ beliefs and their actual teaching practices. Although the teachers believe that writing is as important as listening, speaking, reading, grammar and vocabulary, and that it needs regular practice, the data reveal that they fail to put their beliefs into practice. Moreover, the data revealed that learners were disturbed by their home language because when they do not know a word they would write either the isiXhosa or the Afrikaans equivalent. Code-switching seems to have instilled a sense of “dependence on translations” where some learners would not even try to answer English questions but would wait for the teacher to translate the questions into isiXhosa or Afrikaans before they could attempt to give answers. The findings of the study show a marked improvement in the writing performance of learners who used the process approach in writing. These findings demonstrate the need for assisting teachers to shift away from focusing only on learners’ performance (testing and grading) towards a stronger emphasis on the process of writing. The study concludes that the process approach to writing could enable teachers to focus on the various parts of the writing process which can give more freedom to learners to experiment their language proficiency. It would require that teachers develop a deeper understanding of the process/genre approaches to teaching writing advocated by CAPS. All in all, the study shows that both learners and teachers face numerous challenges relating to writing. This means that more work still needs to be done in this area. The present study argues that teachers teaching EFAL learners should approach writing as a critical and core aspect of learners’ education. Learners should be exposed to intensive writing activities throughout their school years.

Keywords: constructivism, English second language, language of learning and teaching, writing

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Authors: Raluca-Ioana Antonescu

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The field research of the paper stands at the intersection between Linguistics and Sociology, while the problem of the research is the importance of language in the modernization process and in a globalized society. The research objective is to prove that language is a stimulant for modernity, while it defines the tradition and the culture of a specific society. In order to examine the linguistic change of the Korean language due to the modernity and globalization, the paper tries to answer one main question, What are the changes the Korean language underwent from a traditional version of Korean, towards one influenced by modernity?, and two secondary questions, How are explored in specialized literature the relations between globalization (and modernity) and culture (focusing on language)? and What influences the Korean language? For the purpose of answering the research questions, the paper has the main premise that due to modernity and globalization, the Korean language changed its discourse construction, and two secondary hypothesis, first is that in literature there are not much explored the relations between culture and modernity focusing on the language discourse construction, but more about identity issue and commodification problems, and the second hypothesis is that the Korean language is influenced by traditional values (like Confucianism) while receiving influence also of globalization process (especially from English language). In terms of methodology, the paper will analyze the two main influences upon the Korean language, referring to traditionalism (being defined as the influence of Confucianism) and modernism (as the influence of other countries’ language and culture), and how the Korean language it was constructed and modified due to these two elements. The paper will analyze at what level (grammatical, lexical, etc.) the traditionalism help at the construction of the Korean language, and what are the changes at each level that modernism brought along. As for the results of this research, the influence of modernism changed both lexically and grammatically the Korean language. In 60 years the increase of English influence is astonishing, and this paper shows the main changes the Korean language underwent, like the loanwords (Konglish), but also the reduction of the speech levels and the ease of the register variation use. Therefore the grammatical influence of modernity and globalization could be seen at the reduction of the speech level and register variation, while the lexical change comes with the influence of English language especially, where about 10% of the Korean vocabulary is considered to be loanwords. Also the paper presents the interrelation between traditionalism and modernity, with the example of Konglish, but not only (we can consider also the Korean greetings which are translated by Koreans when they speak in other languages, bringing their cultural characteristics in English discourse construction), which makes the Koreans global, since they speak in an international language, but still local since they cannot get rid completely of their culture.

Keywords: Confucianism, globalization, language and linguistic change, modernism, traditionalism

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Authors: Amira Benabdelkader

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Communication presents the channel by which humankind create and maintain their relationship with others, express themselves, exchange information, learn and teach etc. The context of communication plays a distinctive role in deciding about the language to be used. The term context is mainly used to refer to the interlocutors, their cultures, languages, relationship, physical surrounding that is the communication setting, type of the information to be transmitted, the topic etc. Cultures, on one hand, impose on humans certain behaviours, attitudes, gestures and beliefs. On the other hand, the focus on language is inevitable as it is with its verbal and non-verbal components, a key tool in and for communication. Moreover, each language has its particularity in how people voice, address and express their thoughts, feelings and beliefs. Being in the same setting with people from different cultures and languages and having conversations with them would call upon the intercultural communicative competence. This latter would promote the success of their conversations. Additionally, this competence could manifest in several ways during their interactions, to the extent that no one can predict when and how the interlocutors would use it. The only thing probably that could be confirmed is that the setting and culture would in a way or another intervene and often shape the flow of their communication, if not the whole communication. Therefore, this paper will look at the intercultural communicative competence of language learners when introducing their cultures to each other in an online language tandem (henceforth OLT) using their second and/or foreign language with the L1 language speakers. The participants of this study are Algerian (use L2: French, FL: English), British (L1: English, L2/FL: French). In other words, this current paper will provide a qualitative analysis of the OLT experiment by emphasising how language learners can overcome the cultural differences in an intercultural setting while communicating online using Skype (video conversations) with people from different countries, cultures and L1. The non-verbal cues will have the lion share in the analysis by focusing on how they have been used to maintain this intercultural communication or hinder it through the misinterpretation of gestures, head movements, grimaces etc.

Keywords: intercultural communicative competence, non-verbal cues, online language tandem, Skype

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Authors: Fakieh Alrabai

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The present study examines the predictive power of foreign language anxiety and motivation, as two significant affective variables, in English as a foreign language (EFL) achievement. It also explores the causal relationship between these two factors (i.e. which variable causes the other); and which one of them best predicts other affective factors including learner attitude, self-esteem, and autonomy. The study utilized experimental treatments among 210 Saudi EFL learners divided into four groups. Group 1 was exposed to anxiety-controlling moments, group 2 was exposed to motivational moments, group 3 was exposed to anxiety-controlling and motivational moments together, and group 4 was exposed to no specific anxiety or motivation strategies. The influence of the treatment on the study variables was evaluated using a triangulation of measurements including questionnaires, classroom observations, and achievement tests. Descriptive analysis, ANOVA, ANCOVA, and regression analyses have been deployed to figure out the study findings. While both motivation and anxiety significantly predicted learners EFL achievement, motivation has been found to be the best predictor of learners’ achievement; and therefore, operates as the mediator of EFL achievement.

Keywords: motivation, anxiety, achievement, autonomy

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Authors: Meral Melek Unver

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This paper aims to explore ways to help English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners notice and revise voice in English and raise their awareness of when and how to use active and passive voice to convey meaning in their written and spoken work. Because passive voice is commonly preferred in certain genres such as academic essays and news reports, despite the current trends promoting active voice, it is essential for learners to be fully aware of the meaning, use and form of passive voice to better communicate. The participants in the study are 22 EFL learners taking a one-year intensive English course at a university, who will receive English medium education (EMI) in their departmental studies in the following academic year. Data from students’ written and oral work was collected over a four-week period and the misuse or inaccurate use of passive voice was identified. The analysis of the data proved that they failed to make sensible decisions about when and how to use passive voice partly because the differences between their mother tongue and English and because they were not aware of the fact that active and passive voice would not alternate all the time. To overcome this, a Test-Teach-Test shape lesson, as opposed to a Present-Practice-Produce shape lesson, was designed and implemented to raise their awareness of the decisions they needed to make in choosing the voice and help them notice the meaning and use of passive voice through concept checking questions. The results first suggested that awareness raising activities on the meaning and use of voice in English would be beneficial in having accurate and meaningful outcomes from students. Also, helping students notice and renotice passive voice through carefully designed activities would help them internalize the use and form of it. As a result of the study, a number of activities are suggested to revise and notice passive voice as well as a short questionnaire to help EFL teachers to self-reflect on their teaching.

Keywords: voice in English, test-teach-test, passive voice, English language teaching

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Authors: Nisreen Naji Al-Khawaldeh, Lara Ahmad Mansour El-Awar

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The present study investigated the strategies MA translation students used for translating technical terms, the most common obstacles they encountered in translating such terms, and the motives behind using such terms as they are in their original form despite their translatability into Arabic. To achieve these objectives, a translation test was administered to 100 MA students specialising in translation at both Hashemite University and The University of Jordan. It consisted of two parts: (a) 50 English technical terms to be translated (b) two questions to be answered concerning the challenges or problems encountered while translating the previous technical terms and the motives that drive them to use most of the English technical terms as they are despite their translatability into Arabic. The analysis of the results revealed that MA translation students faced problems in translating technical terms, namely the inability to find the equivalent form for the given technical terms, the use of literal translation, and the wider use of loan-words type. Besides, the students used different strategies to translate the technical terms, namely borrowing (i.e., loan- words), paraphrasing, synonymy, naturalization, equivalence, and literal translation. Moreover, it was also revealed that most technical terms were used as they are in the source language despite their translatability into Arabic because these technical terms are easier to use in English rather than in Arabic. Also, when these terms were introduced to the Arab world, they were introduced in English, not in Arabic. So, the brain links these objects to their English terms.

Keywords: arabic, english, technical terms, translation strategies, translation problems

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Authors: Aji Budi Rinekso, Revika Niza Artiyana, Lisa Widayanti

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English is one of the international languages in the world. People use this language to communicate with each other in the international forums, international events or international organizations. As same as other languages, English has a rule which is called grammar. Grammar is the part of english which has a role as the language systems. In grammar, there are tenses which provide a time period system for past, present and future. Sometimes it is difficult for some English learner to remember all of the tenses completely. Especially for those with special needs or exceptional children with vision restrictiveness. The aims of this research are 1) To know the design of Special Grammar Circle (Spegraci) as the media for blind people to learn english grammar. 2) To know the work of Special Gramar Circle (Spegraci) as the media for blind people to learn english grammar. 3) To know the function of this device in increasing tenses ability for blind people. The method of this research is Research and Development which consists of several testing and revision of this device. The implementation of Special Grammar Circle (Spegraci) is to make blind people easily to learn the tenses. This device is easy to use. Users only roll this device and find out the tense formula and match to the name of the formula in braille. In addition, this device also enables to be used by normal people because normal written texts are also provided.

Keywords: blind people, media innovation, spegraci, tenses

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Authors: Miranda Enesi, Helena Grillo Mukli

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The English word-stock is extremely rich in synonyms which can be largely accounted for by the abundant borrowing. Translation problems encountered by translators in general are usually ‘transfer problems’. They face more difficulties in the interpretation of meaning from the source language text than lexical differences between languages. The aim of the study is to inspect the various strategies used in translating from English into Albanian specific words in the ‘A Farwell to arms’ novel. For this purpose, examples translated from English into Albanian were examined. The Albanian equivalents have shown that various strategies were used in order to overcome the problem of rendering words and expressions into the target language. Employed strategies were synonymy, modulation, transposition, calque and word for word translation. In addition, this paper shows that the strategy of translating using synonymy is mostly used. In this paper, an attempt is made to examine the nature of contextual synonymy in order to investigate its problematic nature regarding translation. Types of synonymy are analyzed and then examples from English and Albanian versions are provided to examine the overlap between them.

Keywords: equivalence, literal translation, paraphrasing, transfer problems, synonymy

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Authors: Nune Ayvazyan

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Since the proclamation of monolingual foreign-language learning methods (the Berlitz Method in the early 20ᵗʰ century and the like), the dilemma has been to allow or not to allow learners’ mother tongue in the foreign-language learning process. The reason for not allowing learners’ mother tongue is reported to create a situation of immersion where students will only use the target language. It could be argued that this artificial monolingual situation is defective, mainly because there are very few real monolingual situations in the society. This is mainly due to the fact that societies are nowadays increasingly multilingual as plurilingual speakers are the norm rather than an exception. More recently, the use of learners’ mother tongue and translation has been put under the spotlight as valid foreign-language teaching tools. The logic dictates that if learners were permitted to use their mother tongue in the foreign-language learning process, that would not only be natural, but also would give them additional means of participation in class, which could eventually lead to learning. For example, when learners’ metalinguistic skills are poor in the target language, a question they might have could be asked in their mother tongue. Otherwise, that question might be left unasked. Attempts at empirically testing the role of translation as a didactic tool in foreign-language teaching are still very scant. In order to fill this void, this study looks into the interaction patterns between students in two kinds of English-learning classes: one with translation and the other in English only (immersion). The experiment was carried out with 61 students enrolled in a second-year university subject in English grammar in Spain. All the students underwent the two treatments, classes with translation and in English only, in order to see how they interacted under the different conditions. The analysis centered on four categories of interaction: teacher talk, teacher-initiated student interaction, student-initiated student-to-teacher interaction, and student-to-student interaction. Also, pre-experiment and post-experiment questionnaires and individual interviews gathered information about the students’ attitudes to translation. The findings show that translation elicited more student-initiated interaction than did the English-only classes, while the difference in teacher-initiated interactional turns was not statistically significant. Also, student-initiated participation was higher in comprehension-based activities (into L1) as opposed to production-based activities (into L2). As evidenced by the questionnaires, the students’ attitudes to translation were initially positive and mainly did not vary as a result of the experiment.

Keywords: foreign language, learning, mother tongue, translation

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Authors: Ali Akbar Jabbari

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This study investigates the role of the prior acquired languages, Persian and English, concerning the acquisition of the third language (L3) French and German at the initial stages. The data were collected from two groups of L3 learners: 28 learners of L3 French and 21 learners of L3 German, in order to test the placement of the attributive adjectives and the noun adjuncts through a grammaticality judgment task and an element rearrangement task. The aim of the study was to investigate whether any of the models proposed in the L3 acquisition could account for the case of the present study. The results of the analysis revealed that the learners of L3 German and French were both affected by the typological similarity of the previous languages. The outperformance of the German learners is an indication of the facilitative effect of L2 English (which is typologically more similar to the German than that of French). English had also a non-facilitative role in the acquisition of French and this is proved in the lower performance of the French learners. This study provided evidence for the TPM as the most accepted model of L3 acquisition.

Keywords: cross-linguistic influence, multilingualism, third language acquisition, transfer

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Authors: Jane O`Halloran

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Japanese university students have traditionally shown antipathy towards English due to a generally unsatisfactory language-learning experience at the secondary level with a focus on grammar and translation rather than communication. The situation has become urgent, however, due to the rapid decline in the Japanese population, which will present both difficulties and opportunities as employees will increasingly be forced to use English in the workplace. For university lecturers, the challenge is to overcome the students` apathy and convince them of the need for English in the increasingly diverse workplaces they will be entering. This article will illustrate how English teachers and content teachers at a private science university came together to address this quandary.

Keywords: student motivation, CLIL, globalization, demographics

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Authors: Agnieszka Kałdonek-Crnjaković

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Research on Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is abundant but not in the field of applied linguistics and foreign or second language education. To fill this research gap, the present study aimed to investigate the effect of ADHD on skills and systems development in a second and foreign language from the teacher's perspective. The participants were 51 English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in Poland working in state pre-, primary, and high schools. Research questions were as follows: Do ADHD-type behaviors affect EFL learning of the individual with the condition and their classmates to the same extent considering different educational settings and specific skills and systems? And To what extent do ADHD-type behaviors affect ESL/EFL skills and systems considering different ADHD presentations? Data were collected by means of a questionnaire distributed via a Google form. It contained 14 statements on a six-point Likert scale related to the effect of ADHD on specific language skills and systems in the context of an individual with the condition and their classmates and situations related to inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity presentations of the condition, where the participants needed to identify skills and systems affected by the given ADHD manifestation. The results show that ADHD affects all language skills and systems development in both the individual with the condition and their classmates, but this effect is more significant in the latter. However, ADHD affected skills and systems to a different degree; writing skills were reported as the most affected by this disorder. Also, the effect of ADHD differed depending on the educational setting, being the highest in high school and lowest in the first three grades of primary school. These findings will be discussed in the context of foreign/second language teaching in the school context, considering different phases of education as well as future research on ADHD and language learning and teaching.

Keywords: ADHD, EFL teachers, foreign/second language learning, language skills and systems development

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Authors: Yan Huang

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Event-related potentials (ERPs) technique helps researchers to make continuous measures on the whole process of language comprehension, with an excellent temporal resolution at the level of milliseconds. The research on sentence processing has developed from the behavioral level to the neuropsychological level, which brings about a variety of sentence processing theories and models. However, the applicability of these models to L2 learners is still under debate. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying English subjunctive mood processing by Chinese ESL learners. To this end, English subject clauses with subjunctive moods are used as the stimuli, all of which follow the same syntactic structure, “It is + adjective + that … + (should) do + …” Besides, in order to examine the role that language proficiency plays on L2 processing, this research deals with two groups of Chinese ESL learners (18 males and 22 females, mean age=21.68), namely, high proficiency group (Group H) and low proficiency group (Group L). Finally, the behavioral and neurophysiological data analysis reveals the following findings: 1) Syntax and semantics interact with each other on the SECOND phase (300-500ms) of sentence processing, which is partially in line with the Three-phase Sentence Model; 2) Language proficiency does affect L2 processing. Specifically, for Group H, it is the syntactic processing that plays the dominant role in sentence processing while for Group L, semantic processing also affects the syntactic parsing during the THIRD phase of sentence processing (500-700ms). Besides, Group H, compared to Group L, demonstrates a richer native-like ERPs pattern, which further demonstrates the role of language proficiency in L2 processing. Based on the research findings, this paper also provides some enlightenment for the L2 pedagogy as well as the L2 proficiency assessment.

Keywords: Chinese ESL learners, English subjunctive mood, ERPs, L2 processing

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Authors: Chrysanthi S. Tiliakou, Katerina T. Frantzi

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Writing has always been considered a most demanding skill for English as a Foreign Language learners as well as for native speakers. Novice foreign language writers are asked to handle a limited range of vocabulary to produce writing tasks at lower levels. Adverbs are the parts of speech that are not used extensively in the early stages of English as a Foreign Language writing. An additional problem with learning new adverbs is that, next to learning their meanings, learners are expected to acquire the proper placement of adverbs in a sentence. The use of adverbs is important as they enhance “expressive richness to one’s message”. By exploring the patterns of use of adverbs, researchers and educators can identify types of adverbs, which appear more taxing for young learners or that puzzle novice English as a Foreign Language writers with their placement, and focus on their teaching. To this end, the study examines the use of adverbs on two written Corpora of young learners of English of A1 – A2 levels and determines the types of adverbs used, their frequencies, problems in their use, and whether there is any differentiation between levels. The Antconc concordancing tool was used for the Greek Learner Corpus, and the Corpuscle concordancing tool for the Norwegian Corpus. The research found a similarity in the normalized frequencies of the adverbs used in the A1-A2 level Greek Learner Corpus with the frequencies of the same adverbs in the Norwegian Learner Corpus.

Keywords: learner corpora, young learners, writing, use of adverbs

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Authors: Shiza Nisar

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This study examines how editorials in Pakistan’s English-language newspapers represented the Aurat March in Pakistan, which is held on International Women’s Day, 8 March, to reclaim public spaces for women. There was a public outcry against the controversial movement, sparked by the key messages and slogans used to communicate with the masses. This research aims to study non-western news frames used by Pakistan’s leading English-language newspapers—Dawn, The Express Tribune, The News, and The Nation—for the portrayal of Aurat March since 2018. The findings show how these editorials construct and reinforce the concept of feminism being threatened by the dangerous other. This research aims to contribute to the understanding of Pakistan’s elite discourse, which insists that this event is a movement led by females in a male-dominated society to voice their rights and reclaim public spaces; however, this movement is more than just that.

Keywords: discourse, Aurat March, media framing, feminist movement, editorials

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