Search results for: language industry

Authors: Amina Babou

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Gender and language is a moot and miscellaneous arena in the sphere of sociolinguistics, which has been proliferated so widely and rapidly in recent years. The dawn of research on gender and foreign language education was against the feminist researchers who allowed space for the bustling concourse of voices and perspectives in the arena of gender and language differences, in the early to the mid-1970. The objective of this scrutiny is to explore to what extent teaching gender and language in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom plays a pivotal role in learning language information and skills. And the gist of this paper is to investigate how EFL students in Algeria conflate their gender identities with the linguistic practices and scholastic expertise. To grapple with the full range of issues about the EFL students’ awareness about the negotiation of meanings in the classroom, we opt for observing, interviewing, and questioning later to check using ‘how-do-you do’ procedure. The analysis of the EFL classroom discourse, from five Algerian universities, reveals that speaking strategies such as the manners students make an abrupt topic shifts, respond spontaneously to the teacher, ask more questions, interrupt others to seize control of conversations and monopolize the speaking floor through denying what others have said, do not sit very lightly on 80.4% of female students’ shoulders. The data indicate that female students display the assertive style as a strategy of learning to subvert the norms of femininity, especially in the speaking module.

Keywords: gender identities, EFL students, classroom discourse, linguistics

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Authors: Mahsa Pishdar

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Food traceability through the supply chain is facing increased demand. IoT and blockchain are among the tools under consideration in the Industry 4.0 era that could be integrated to help implementation of the Circular Economy (CE) principles while enhancing food traceability solutions. However, such tools need intellectual system, and infrastructureto be settled as guidance through the way, helping overcoming obstacles. That is why the critical success factors for implementing Industry 4.0 and circular economy principles in food traceability concept are analyzed in this paper by combination of interval type 2 fuzzy Worst Best Method and Measurement Alternatives and Ranking according to Compromise Solution (Interval Type 2 fuzzy WBM-MARCOS). Results indicate that “Knowledge of Industry 4.0 obligations and CE principle” is the most important factor that is the basis of success following by “Management commitment and support”. This will assist decision makers to seize success in gaining a competitive advantage while reducing costs through the supply chain.

Keywords: food traceability, industry 4.0, internet of things, block chain, best worst method, marcos

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Authors: Lana Whiskeyjack, Kyle Napier

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The Spirit of the language embodies the motivation for indigenous people to connect with the indigenous language of their lineage. While the concept of the spirit of the language is often woven into the discussion by indigenous language revitalizationists, particularly those who are indigenous, there are few tangible terms in academic research conceptually actualizing the term. Through collaborative work with indigenous language speakers, elders, and learners, this research sets out to identify the spirit of the language, the catalysts of disconnection from the spirit of the language, and the sources of reconnection to the spirit of the language. This work fundamentally addresses the terms of engagement around collaboration with indigenous communities, itself inviting a decolonial approach to community outreach and individual relationships. As indigenous researchers, this means beginning, maintain, and closing this work in the ceremony while being transparent with community members in this work and related publishing throughout the project’s duration. Decolonizing this approach also requires maintaining explicit ongoing consent by the elders, knowledge keepers, and community members when handling their ancestral and indigenous knowledge. The handling of this knowledge is regarded in this work as stewardship, both in the handling of digital materials and the handling of ancestral Indigenous knowledge. This work observes recorded conversations in both nêhiyawêwin and English, resulting from 10 semi-structured interviews with fluent nêhiyawêwin speakers as well as three structured dialogue circles with fluent and emerging speakers. The words were transcribed by a speaker fluent in both nêhiyawêwin and English. The results of those interviews were categorized thematically to conceptually actualize the spirit of the language, catalysts of disconnection to thespirit of the language, and community voices methods of reconnection to the spirit of the language. Results of these interviews vastly determine that the spirit of the language is drawn from the land. Although nêhiyawêwin is the focus of this work, Indigenous languages are by nature inherently related to the land. This is further reaffirmed by the Indigenous language learners and speakers who expressed having ancestries and lineages from multiple Indigenous communities. Several other key differences embody this spirit of the language, which include ceremony and spirituality, as well as the semantic worldviews tied to polysynthetic verb-oriented morphophonemics most often found in indigenous languages — and of focus, nêhiyawêwin. The catalysts of disconnection to the spirit of the language are those whose histories have severed connections between Indigenous Peoples and the spirit of their languages or those that have affected relationships with the land, ceremony, and ways of thinking. Results of this research and its literature review have determined the three most ubiquitously damaging interdependent factors, which are catalysts of disconnection from the spirit of the language as colonization, capitalism, and Christianity. As voiced by the Indigenous language learners, this work necessitates addressing means to reconnect to the spirit of the language. Interviewees mentioned that the process of reconnection involves a whole relationship with the land, the practice of reciprocal-relational methodologies for language learning, and indigenous-protected and -governed learning. This work concludes in support of those reconnection methodologies.

Keywords: indigenous language acquisition, indigenous language reclamation, indigenous language revitalization, nêhiyawêwin, spirit of the language

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Authors: Yuqing Sun

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Chinese has been regarded as one of the most difficult languages in learning due to its complex spelling structure, difficult pronunciation, as well as its varying forms. Since vocabulary acquisition is the basic process to acquire a language, to express yourself, to compose a sentence, and to conduct a communication, so learning the vocabulary is of great importance. However, the vocabulary contains pronunciation, spelling, recognition and application which may seem as a huge work. This may pose a question for the language teachers (language teachers in China who teach Chinese to the foreign students): How to teach them in an effective way? Traditionally, teachers have no choice but teach it all by themselves, then with the development of technology, they can use computer as a tool to help them (Computer Assisted Language Learning or CALL). Now, they move into the Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) method to guide their teaching, upon which the appraisal is convincing. It diversifies the learning material and the way of output, which can activate learners’ curiosity and accelerate their understanding. This paper will focus on actual case studies occurring in the universities in China of teaching the foreign students to learn Chinese, and the analysis of the utilization of WeChat channel as an example of MALL model to explore the active role of MALL to enhance the effectiveness of Chinese vocabulary acquisition.

Keywords: Chinese, vocabulary acquisition, MALL, case

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Authors: Nicola Wakelin-Theron

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This study focuses on higher education institutions in South Africa, with the view to understanding how tourism as a study discipline has evolved over the years, as well as the influence of employability skills on graduates’ ability to secure jobs in the tourism industry. Indeed, the employability landscape is becoming more complex; hence, it is imperative for higher education institutions to equip students with employability skills while going through their academic programmes and during their transition from higher education to the world of work. Employability – which is regarded as an empowerment mechanism and a key to job security – is a set of achievements which increases the probability for graduates to find and maintain employment. A quantitative research method was used to obtain the necessary information. Data were collected through a web-based, online survey questionnaire directed to academics from various public higher education institutions in South Africa that offer tourism as a qualification. The key findings revealed that academics are of the opinion that there are 5 skills that are influential in obtaining a position within the tourism industry.

Keywords: employability, industry skills, tourism industry, tourism qualification

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Authors: Shatha Alkhalaf

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This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the English Speaking Practice App in improving the speaking skills of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. The participants were 44 diploma students at Qassim University in Saudi Arabia. They used the app for 30 minutes per week over a 12-week period. A survey questionnaire was used to measure their perceptions of the app's effectiveness, usability, and impact on motivation. The questionnaire showed high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.89). The findings suggest that the app was perceived positively by the participants in terms of its effectiveness in improving speaking skills, usability, and motivation. This research contributes to the field of language teaching by highlighting the potential of technology-enhanced language learning.

Keywords: second language, English, speaking, technology

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Authors: Pelumi Olowofoyeku

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English as a language has great reach and influence; it is taught all over the world. For instance, in Nigeria, English language is been taught and learned as a second language; therefore second learners of English in Nigeria have certain problems they contend with. Because of the dissimilarities in word formation patterns of English and Yoruba languages, Yoruba learners of English mostly found in the south west of Nigeria, and some parts of Kwara, Kogi, and Edo states of Nigeria have problems with word formation patterns in English. The objectives of this paper therefore, are: to identify the levels of word formation dissimilarities in English and Yoruba languages and to examine the effects of these dissimilarities on the Yoruba learners of English. The data for this paper were graded words purposely selected and presented to selected students of Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, Oto-Ijanikin, Lagos, who are Yoruba learners of English. These respondents were randomly selected to form words which are purposively selected to test the effects of word formation dissimilarities between Yoruba (the respondent’s first language) and English language on the respondents. The dissimilarities are examined using contrastive analysis tools. This paper reveals that there are differences in the word formation patterns of Yoruba and English languages. The writer believes that there is need for language teachers to undertake comparative studies of the two languages involved for methodological reasons. The author then suggests that teachers should identify the problem areas and systematically teach their students. The paper concludes that although English and Yoruba word formation patterns differ very significantly in many respects, there exist language universals in all languages which language educators should take advantage of in teaching.

Keywords: word formation patterns, graded words, ESL, Yoruba learners

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Authors: Jeonghwan Jeon

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Recently, the industry and academia have been planning development through industry/university cooperation (IUC), and the government has been promoting alternative methods to achieve successful IUC. Representatively, business cultivation involves the lead university (regarding IUC), research and development (R&D), company support, professional manpower cultivation, and marketing, etc., and the scale of support expands every year. Research is performed by many academic researchers to achieve IUC and although satisfaction of their results is high, expectations are not being met and study of the main factor is insufficient. Therefore, this research improves on theirs by analysing the main factors influencing their satisfaction. Each factor is analysed by AHP, and portfolio analysis is performed on the importance and current satisfaction level. This will help improve satisfaction of business participants and ensure effective IUC in the future.

Keywords: industry/university cooperation, satisfaction, portfolio analysis, research and development

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Authors: Elizabeth Mahenge

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Unemployment is a problem that face many graduates all over the world. Every year universities in many parts of the world produce graduates who are looking for an employment. Swahili, a Bantu language originated in East African coast, can be used as an avenue for youth’s employment in South Africa. This paper helps youth to know about job opportunities available through teaching Swahili language. The objective of this paper is capacity building to youths to be teachers of Swahili and be ready to compete in the marketplace. The methodology was through two weeks online training on how to teach Swahili as a foreign language. The communicative approach and task-based approach were used.  Participants to this training were collected through a WhatsApp group advertisement about “short training for Swahili teachers for foreigners”. A total number of 30 participants registered but only 11 attended the training. Training was online via zoom. The contribution of this paper is that by being fluent in Swahili one would benefit with teaching job opportunities anywhere in the world. Hence the problem of unemployment among the youths would be reduced as they can employ themselves or being employed in academic institutions anywhere in the world. The paper calls for youths in South Africa to opt for Swahili language courses to be trained and become experts in the teaching Swahili as a foreign language.

Keywords: foreign language, linguistic market, Swahili, employment

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Authors: Clifford Irikefe Gbeyonron

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The Nigerian educational system, which has English language as a major medium of instruction, has been designed in such a way that the cognitive, psychomotor and affective endowments of the Nigerian learner could be explored. However, the human resources that would impart the desired knowledge, skills and values in the learners seem to be in short supply. This paucity is more manifest in the area of teachers of English. As a result, this research was conducted on the demand and supply of teachers of English at the junior secondary schools in Gashua, Yobe State. The results indicate that there was dearth of teachers of English the domain under review. This thus presents a challenge that should propel English language teacher education industries to produce more teachers of English. As a result, this paper recommends that the teacher production process should make use of qualified and enthusiastic teacher trainers that would be able to inculcate in-depth linguistic and communicative competence of English language and English language teaching skills in the potential teachers of English. In addition, English language education service providers should attract and retain the trained teachers of English in the business of English language teaching in such a way that all the states of Nigeria could experience educational development.

Keywords: demand, supply, teachers of English, Yobe State

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Authors: Fatma Al-Maadheed

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Following an ethnographic approach this study explored bilingual programmes offered by two types of primary schools in Qatar: international and Independent schools. Qatar with its unique linguistic and socio-economic situation launched a new initiative for educatiobnal development in 2001 but with hardly any research linked to theses changes. The study reveals that the Qatari bilingual schools context was one of heteroglossia, with three codes in operation: Modern Standard Arabic, Colloquial Arabic dialects and English. The two schools adopted different models of bilingualism. The international school adopted a strict separation policy between the two languages following a monoglossic belief. The independent school was found to apply a flexible language policy. The study also highlighted the daily challnges produced from the diglossia situation in Qatar, the difference between students and teacher dialect as well as acquiring literacy in the formal language. In addition to an abscence of a clear language policy in Schools, the study brought attention to the instructional methods utilised in language teaching which are mostly associated with successful bilingual education.

Keywords: diglossia, instructional methods, language policy, qatari primary schools

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Authors: Haikal Achmad Thaha, Pujo Laksono, Dhamma Nibbana Putra

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Customer service is one of the core interest in a service sector of a company, whether as the core business or as service part of the operation. Most of the time, the people and the previous research in service industry is focused on finding the best business model solution for the service sector, usually to decide between total in house customer service, outsourcing, or something in between. Conventionally, to take this decision is some important part of the management job, and this is a process that usually takes some time and staff effort, meanwhile market condition and overall company needs may change and cause loss of income and temporary disturbance in the companies operation . However, in this paper we have offer a new concept model to assist decision making process in service industry. This model will featured information platform as central tool to integrate service industry operation. The result is service information model which would ideally increase response time and effectivity of the decision making. it will also help service industry in switching the service solution system quickly through machine learning when the companies growth and the service solution needed are changing.

Keywords: service industry, customer service, machine learning, decision making, information platform

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Authors: A. Robbin

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Language selection can be an efficient negotiation strategy employed by both service or product providers and their customers to achieve transactional success. The transactional scenario in Gbagi Market, Ibadan, Nigeria provides an appropriate setting for the exploration of the Nigerian multilingual situation with its own interesting linguistic peculiarities which questions the functionality of the ‘Lingua Franca’ in trade situations. This study examined English Language proficiency among Yoruba Traders in Gbagi Market, Ibadan and its use as determinants of transactional success during service encounters. Randomly selected Yoruba-English bilingual traders and customers were administered questionnaires and the data subjected to statistical and descriptive analysis using Giles Communication Accommodation Theory. Findings reveal that only fifty percent of the traders used for the study were proficient in speaking English language. Traders with minimal proficiency in Standard English, however, resulted in the use of the Nigerian Pidgin English. Both traders and customers select the Mother Tongue, which is the Yoruba Language during service encounters but are quick to converge to the other’s preferred language as the transactional exchange demands. The English language selection is not so much for the prestige or lingua franca status of the language as it is for its functions, which include ease of communication, negotiation, and increased sales. The use of English during service encounters is mostly determined by customer’s linguistic preference which the trader accommodates to for better negotiation and never as a first choice. This convergence is found to be beneficial as it ensures sales and return patronage. Although the English language is not a preferred code choice in Gbagi Market, it serves a functional trade strategy for transactional success during service encounters in the market.

Keywords: communication accommodation theory, language selection, proficiency, service encounter, transaction

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Authors: Ezekiel Ejiofor Nnadi

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Nigeria construction industry is known for its active construction activities. This has earmarked the industry to be the key to economic growth of the nation. It has largest employer of labour and gives sustenance to other industries like manufacturing industry. While this is a sign of growth and prosperity; the waste generated by the industry has always been a problem and a serious concern. It results in wastage of economic gain and has resultant health effect on the populace apart from injury being sustained on sites. This work provides a platform to learn more about construction waste, its management strategy and how to reduce waste production in Nigeria construction industry. Construction sites, waste management authority and public health institutions in Lagos as the centre of most construction activities in Nigeria were selected, and a set of questionnaire was administered to using the systematic sampling technique. Descriptive statistics and relative importance index (RII) technique were employed for the analysis of the data gathered. The findings of the analysis show that excessive wastes reduce contractors’ profit margin and also that some construction wastes contain hazardous and toxic elements such as lead, asbestos or radioactive materials which required proper handling and effective disposal. The conclusion was drawn that the check on waste on construction sites starts with the designers to the contractors who execute on site.

Keywords: construction cost, construction industry, economic growth, materials wastes

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Authors: Ho Wen Hui, Azwina Wati Abdull Manaf, Asfarina Kartika Mohd Shakri

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The global trend of Fintech had taken the Malaysian shore by storm in recent years, thus making the studies and observations of its impacts more critical than ever. Additionally, Fintech has grown to become an unavoidable subject in the Islamic Banking and Finance (IBF) industry. In relation to that, this paper seeks to analyze the development of Fintech parallel with the IBF industry and its connection to Islamic economics. While the scarcity of studies on this area is apparent, it is found that there is a need to regulate the development of the Fintech Industry and its effects while analyzing the ramifications and positive effects of Fintech towards parties involved in IBF industry. This paper objectively studies the phenomenon of Islamic Fintech around the world as a whole as well as more specifically in Malaysia. The paper will then explore on the existing regulatory instruments in Malaysia, study their boundaries as well as limitations and contribute on possible reform to regulate Islamic Fintech in this jurisdiction. It is aimed that this paper will prompt and encourage more thorough studies to be conducted on the topic of Fintech which would subsequently contribute to a positive growth of the IBF industry worldwide.

Keywords: financial technology, FinTech, Islamic banking & finance, regulation

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Authors: Khalil Aryanfar, Pariya Gholipor, Elmira Hafez

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This study examines the proportionality between the needs of industry and technical and vocational training of male and female vocational schools. The research method was descriptive that was conducted in two parts: documentary analysis and needs assessment and Delphi method was used in the need assessment. The statistical population of the study included 312 individuals from the industry sector employers and 52 of them were selected through stratified random sampling. Methods of data collection in this study, upstream documents include: document of the development of technical and vocational training, Statistical Yearbook 1393 in Tehran, the available documents in Isfahan Planning Department, the findings indicate that there is an almost proportionality between the needs of industry and Vocational training of male and female vocational schools in fields of welding, industrial electronics, electro technique, industrial drawing, auto mechanics, design, packaging, machine tool, metalworking, construction, accounting, computer graphics and the Administrative Affairs. The findings indicate that there is no proportionality between the needs of industry and Vocational training of male and female vocational schools in fields of Thermal - cooling systems, building electricity, building drawing, interior architecture, car electricity and motor repair.

Keywords: needs assessment, technical and vocational training, industry

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Authors: Randa Alahmadi

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Because the world has become a global village, English is not only used by native speakers, but also by non-native speakers from culturally diverse backgrounds. Even though learning a second/foreign language requires development of the four skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking, there is also an intertwined relationship between language and culture, making it difficult to teach language without knowing the cultural context in which it is to be used. In the past decade, the number of international students enrolled in universities around the world has increased significantly. Having the urge to communicate effectively would serve as a motivation for both international and domestic students. The teaching of culture is important because linguistic competence is not enough for successful communication with speakers of other languages. Therefore, whether teaching natives or non-natives, students need to improve their cross-cultural communication skills and become culturally prepared to communicate successfully with people from other cultures. Teachers can equip their students for this environment by giving them appropriate knowledge and skills for effective intercultural communication. This paper will focus on the importance of intercultural communicative competence and its role in developing students’ understanding of diverse cultures as part of learning foreign/second languages. It will also explain how teachers can decide which culture should be taught: the target culture, the learners’ culture, or both. Moreover, practical and effective techniques that can be used in cultural-based language teaching will be shared.

Keywords: cultural-based language teaching, English as a lingua franca, English language learners, intercultural communicative competence

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Authors: Sadeq Alyaari, Muhammad Alkhunayn, Montaha Al Yaari, Ayman Al Yaari, Ayah Al Yaari, Adham Al Yaari, Sajedah Al Yaari, Fatehi Eissa

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Introduction. The purpose of this Systematic Literature Review and Meta-analysis ((SLR & Meta-analysis) was to examine the differences between Asperger syndrome (AS) individuals and typically developing and achieving individuals (TD) regarding language competence and how these differences related to AS individuals’ age and the significance such differences add to our knowledge of understanding their language performance as issues that are still underdiagnosed and ill-treated entities. Methods. The study followed SLR & Meta-analysis protocol and was armed with data of 456 AS subjects and controls (231 and 225, respectively) abstracted from 14 studies that have been collected from different electronic bibliographic databases including web of science, Scopus, EMBASE, Cochrane library, PubMed, PsycInfo and google scholar along with unpublished literature. Results. Outlined results show deterioration in language competence of AS subjects in comparison to TD controls. Such deterioration impairs conversational implicature more than it does conventional maxims of AS individuals’ pragmatic language and has no relationship with their age. Results also show that the difference in intelligence features of the mental reality in the language competence becomes smaller with increasing age and that the difference in representational content features becomes larger. Conclusions. These findings help experts in the field not only predict pragmatic language impairments in AS individuals but also enable AS individuals themselves to decode and/or interpret speech inputs; therefore, perceive the world around them and interact with their community members. Outcomes should be considered to lay out a path for further exploration of genetics, etiology, and response to treatment of all these premises that are currently unsearched in AS individuals.

Keywords: pragmatic language characteristics, language competence, mental faculty, mental reality, features, language performance, pragmatics, conventional maxims

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Authors: Mohsen Davarzani, Ehsan Lame, Mohammad Taghi Hassan Zadeh

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Language is considered as a powerful and outstanding feature of ethnicity. However, humiliating and prohibiting using human language is one the most heinous and brutal acts in the form of racism. In other words, racism can be a product of physiological humiliations and discrimination, such as skin color, and can also be resulted from ethnic humiliation and discrimination such as language, customs and so on. Ethnic and racial discrimination is one of the main problems of the world that minorities and occasionally the majority have suffered from. Nowadays, few states can be found in which all individuals and its citizens are of the same race and ethnicity, culture and language. In these countries, referred to as the multinational states, (eg, Iran, Switzerland, India, etc.), there are the communities and groups which have their own linguistic, cultural and historical characteristics. Characteristics of human rights issues, diversity of issues and plurality of meanings indicate that they appear in various aspects. The states are obliged to respect, as per national and international obligations, the rights of all citizens from different angles, especially different groups that require special attention in order of the particular aspects such as ethnicity, religious and political minorities, children, women, workers, unions and in case the states are in breach of any of these items, they are faced with challenges in local, regional or international fields.

Keywords: law, language, minorities, ethnicity

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Authors: Abrar Hussain Qureshi

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Vocabulary has been highlighted as a key indicator in any foreign language learning program, especially English as a foreign language (EFL). It is often considered a potential tool in foreign language curriculum, and its deficiency impedes successful communication in the target language. The knowledge of the lexicon is very significant in getting communicative competence and performance. Nouns constitute a considerable bulk of English vocabulary. Rather, they are the bones of the English language and are the main semantic carrier in spoken and written discourse. As nouns dominate the bulk of the English lexicon, their role becomes all the more potential. The undertaken research is a systematic effort in this regard to work out a list of highly frequent list of Pakistani English nouns for the EFL learners at the secondary level. It will encourage autonomy for the EFL learners as well as will save their time. The corpus used for the research has been developed locally from leading English newspapers of Pakistan. Wordsmith Tools has been used to process the research data and to retrieve word list of frequent Pakistani English nouns. The retrieved list of core Pakistani English nouns is supposed to be useful for English language learners at the secondary level as it covers a wide range of speech events.

Keywords: corpus, EFL, frequency list, nouns

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Authors: Afsaneh Jasmine Majidi

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Language testing is an important part of language teaching experience and language learning process as it presents assessment strategies for teachers to evaluate the efficiency of teaching and for learners to examine their outcomes. However, language testing is demanding and challenging because it should provide the opportunity for proper and objective decision. In addition to all the efforts test designers put to design valid and reliable tests, there are some other determining factors which are even more complex and complicated. These factors affect the educational system, individuals, and society, and the impact of the tests vary according to the scope of the test. Seemingly, the impact of a simple classroom assessment is not the same as that of high stake tests such as International English Language Testing System (IELTS). As the importance of the test increases, it affects wider domain. Accordingly, the impacts of high stake tests are reflected not only in teaching, learning strategies but also in society. Testing experts use the term ‘washback’ or ‘impact’ to define the different effects of a test on teaching, learning, and community. This paper first looks at the theoretical background of ‘washback’ and ‘impact’ in language testing by reviewing of relevant literature in the field and then investigates washback effects of IELTS test of on Iranian IELTS teachers and students. The study found significant relationship between the washback effect of IELTS test and teaching strategies of Iranian IELTS teachers as well as performance of Iranian IELTS candidates and their community.

Keywords: high stake tests, IELTS, Iranian Candidates, language testing, test impact, washback

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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: Nasreddin Ahmed

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Despite the ostensible extant differences amongst world languages’ structures that have culminated in the divergence in orthographic, phonological, morphological, and syntactic systems that each language has, research in cognitive linguistic strives to establish the claim that such differences are merely prima facie of a totalized universal system of signification.Linguists , since Chomsky, have never given up on the attempt to establish linguistic descriptive model that espouses a perspective in which every human language has a slot . Concurring with claim that the so-called rhetorical devices are pervasive phenomena and not literary-specific , the present paper aspires to voice the claim that rhetorical devices not only ubiquitous in all levels of a particular language but also a universal linguistic phenomena. Using illustrations from Arabic and Englishthe paper intend to provide data-supported evidence that human beings are universally using similar rhetorical, albeit given different appellations.

Keywords: language, rhetoric, syntax, stylistics

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Authors: Abigaba Sophia

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Artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed the education sector by revolutionizing educational frameworks by providing new opportunities and innovative advanced platforms for language translation during the teaching and learning process. In today's education sector, the primary key to scholarly communication is language; therefore, translation between different languages becomes vital in the process of communication. KIU-T being an International University, admits students from different nations speaking different languages, and English is the official language; some students find it hard to grasp a word during teaching and learning. This paper explores the practical aspect of using artificial intelligence technologies in an advanced language translation manner during teaching and learning. The impact of this technology is reflected in the education strategies to equip students with the necessary knowledge and skills for professional activity in the best way they understand. The researcher evaluated the demand for this practice since students have to apply the knowledge they acquire in their native language to their countries in the best way they understand. The main objective is to improve student's language competence and lay a solid foundation for their future professional development. A descriptive-analytic approach was deemed best for the study to investigate the phenomena of language translation intelligence alongside Microsoft Office during the teaching and learning process. The study analysed the responses of 345 students from different academic programs. Based on the findings, the researcher recommends using the artificial intelligence language translation technique during teaching, and this requires the wisdom of human content designers and educational experts. Lecturers and students will be trained in the basic knowledge of this technique to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning to meet the student’s needs.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, language translation technique, teaching and learning process, Microsoft Office

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Authors: Samhita Bharadwaj

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This is an empirical study of classifiers in Assamese and Bodo, two genetically unrelated languages of India. The objective of the paper is to address the language contact between Assamese and Bodo as reflected in classifiers. The data has been collected through fieldwork in Bodo recording narratives and folk tales and eliciting specific data from the speakers. The data for Assamese is self-produced as native speaker of the language. Assamese is the easternmost New-Indo-Aryan (henceforth NIA) language mainly spoken in the Brahmaputra valley of Assam and some other north-eastern states of India. It is the lingua franca of Assam and is creolised in the neighbouring state of Nagaland. Bodo, on the other hand, is a Tibeto-Burman (henceforth TB) language of the Bodo-Garo group. It has the highest number of speakers among the TB languages of Assam. However, compared to Assamese, it is still a lesser documented language and due to the prestige of Assamese, all the Bodo speakers are fluent bi-lingual in Assamese, though the opposite isn’t the case. With this context, classifiers, a characteristic phenomenon of TB languages, but not so much of NIA languages, presents an interesting case study on language contact caused by bilingualism. Assamese, as a result of its language contact with the TB languages which are rich in classifiers; has developed the richest classifier system among the IA languages in India. Yet, as a part of rampant borrowing of Assamese words and patterns into Bodo; Bodo is seen to borrow even Assamese classifiers into its system. This paper analyses the borrowed classifiers of Bodo and finds the route of this borrowing phenomenon in the number system of the languages. As the Bodo speakers start replacing the higher numbers from five with Assamese ones, they also choose the Assamese classifiers to attach to these numbers. Thus, the partial loss of number in Bodo as a result of language contact and bilingualism in Assamese is found to be the reason behind the borrowing of classifiers in Bodo. The significance of the study lies in exploring an interesting aspect of language contact in Assam. It is hoped that this will attract further research on bilingualism and classifiers in Assam.

Keywords: Assamese, bi-lingual, Bodo, borrowing, classifier, language contact

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Authors: David S. Rosenstein

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The author believes that modern spoken languages should be equally difficult (or easy) to learn, since all normal children learning their native languages do so at approximately the same rate and with the same competence, progressing from easy to more complex grammar and syntax in the same way. Why then, do some languages seem more difficult than others? Perhaps people are referring to the written language, where it may be true that mastering Chinese requires more time than French, which in turn requires more time than Spanish. But this may be marginal, since Chinese and French children quickly catch up to their Spanish peers in reading comprehension. Rather, the real differences in difficulty derive from two sources: hardened L1 language habits trying to cope with contrasting L2 habits; and unfamiliarity with unique L2 characteristics causing faulty expectations. It would seem that effective L2 teaching and learning must take these two sources of difficulty into consideration. The author feels that the latter (faulty expectations) causes the greatest difficulty, making effective teaching and learning somewhat different for each given foreign language. Examples from Chinese and other languages are presented.

Keywords: learning different languages, language learning difficulties, faulty language expectations

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Authors: Thepnarintra Praphanphat

Abstract:

The purposes of this study were to: 1) investigate operation conditions of SME automotive part industry in Bangkok and vicinity and 2) to compare operation problem levels of SME automotive part industry in Bangkok and vicinity according to the sizes of the enterprises. Samples in this study included 196 entrepreneurs of SME automotive part industry in Bangkok and vicinity derived from simple random sampling and calculation from R. V. Krejcie and D. W. Morgan’s tables. Research statistics included frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and T-test. The results revealed that in general the problem levels of SME automotive part industry in Bangkok and vicinity were high. When considering in details, it was found that the problem levels were high at every aspect, i.e. personal, production, export, finance, and marketing respectively. The comparison of the problem levels according to the sizes of the enterprises revealed statistically significant differences at .05. When considering on each aspect, it was found that the aspect with the statistical difference at .05 included 5 aspects, i.e. production, marketing, finance, personal, and export. The findings also showed that small enterprises faced more severe problems than those of medium enterprises.

Keywords: automotive part industry, operation problems, SME, Perimeter

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Authors: Imoh Philip

Abstract:

Basà language is classified as belonging to Kainji family, under the sub-phylum Western-Kainji known as Rubasa (Basa Benue) (Croizier & Blench, 1992:32). Basà is an under-described language spoken in the North-Central Nigeria. The language is characterized by subject-verb-object (henceforth SVO) as its canonical word order. Data for this work is sourced from the researcher’s native intuition of the language corroborated with a careful observation of native speakers. This paper investigates the syntactic derivational strategy of information-structure encoding in Basà language. It emphasizes on a negative operator, as a strategy for focusing a constituent or clause that follows it and negativizes a whole proposition. For items that are not nouns, they have to undergo an obligatory nominalization process, either by affixation, modification or conversion before they are moved to the pre verbal position for these operations. The study discovers and provides evidence of the fact showing that deferent constituents in the sentence such as the subject, direct, indirect object, genitive, verb phrase, prepositional phrase, clause and idiophone, etc. can be focused with the same negativizing operator. The process is characterized by focusing the pre verbal NP constituent alone, whereas the whole proposition is negated. The study can stimulate similar study or be replicated in other languages.

Keywords: negation, focus, Basà, nominalization

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Authors: Alexander Wachtel, Michael T. Franzen, Walter F. Tichy

Abstract:

Programming requires years of training. With natural language and end user development methods, programming could become available to everyone. It enables end users to program their own devices and extend the functionality of the existing system without any knowledge of programming languages. In this paper, we describe an Interactive Spreadsheet Processing Module (ISPM), a natural language interface to spreadsheets that allows users to address ranges within the spreadsheet based on inferred table schema. Using the ISPM, end users are able to search for values in the schema of the table and to address the data in spreadsheets implicitly. Furthermore, it enables them to select and sort the spreadsheet data by using natural language. ISPM uses a machine learning technique to automatically infer areas within a spreadsheet, including different kinds of headers and data ranges. Since ranges can be identified from natural language queries, the end users can query the data using natural language. During the evaluation 12 undergraduate students were asked to perform operations (sum, sort, group and select) using the system and also Excel without ISPM interface, and the time taken for task completion was compared across the two systems. Only for the selection task did users take less time in Excel (since they directly selected the cells using the mouse) than in ISPM, by using natural language for end user software engineering, to overcome the present bottleneck of professional developers.

Keywords: natural language processing, natural language interfaces, human computer interaction, end user development, dialog systems, data recognition, spreadsheet

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Authors: Amira Benabdelkader

Abstract:

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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