Search results for: English identity

Authors: Zahra Karimi

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Money is not the only medium of economic exchanges, but also affects the national identity of citizens and national sovereignty of the government. Hence, money can be used as a tool to strengthen the national and political identity of nations. In other words, the value of the national currency can be affecting citizen’s view to the economic situation of their country and national identity. Government with the maintenance of the value of the national currency must increase the confidence of its citizens into national currency and prevents that "currency substitution phenomenon" occurred and people turn to foreign currencies. Hence, this article intends to explain the zeros elimination from the national currency and study of experience of other countries and discussion history analyzed benefits and harms of zeroes elimination from the national currency, And then to evaluate the effect or lack of effect of removing of zeros from the national currency on inflation answer the question whether it is appropriate and on time to delete three zeros from the Riyal of Iran is or not?

Keywords: zeros elimination from the national currency, value of the national currency, Riyal, inflation, Iran, money, government

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Authors: Aidana Arynbek

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This paper attempts to offer an alternative to the explanation of the politics of great powers in Caspian politics. Since many researchers have analysed the politics of great powers in the region with the focus on materialism, this paper attempts to bring a sociological inquiry into analysing inter-state behaviour. The constructivist concept of Alexander Wendt will be applied to analyse Russia’s relation with The United States, China and Iran; the main argument is emphasis on the power of ideational forces over material ones. Moreover, the innovative contribution of Wendt regarding the understanding of anarchy to the study of International Relations (IR) will be applied; in his words, ‘anarchy is what states make of it’. A neo-realist perspective implies that with the structure of international politics, Russia treats all great powers as rivals through engagement in power politics; however, Wendt’s approach is able to explain the reason behind the state’s behaviour towards power politics, and this is about not only international structure, but also identity. The understanding of identity answers the question of how Russia came about to follow different actions in relation to Iran and China in contrast to The United States. This paper will be divided into five chapters. The first chapter will explain the constructivism of Alexander Wendt; the second chapter will give a brief background to The Caspian Sea Region (CSR); the third chapter will explain the formation of Russia’s identity towards The United States, and this will be applied to analyse Russia’s relation to The U.S in The CSR. Similarly with China, the fourth chapter will explain Russia’s identity and its relations in The CSR, and finally, the fifth chapter will show Russia’s identity towards Iran and its relation to Iran in The CSR. It will be concluded that the analysis of the politics between great powers in seeking to access one of the richest regions, The Caspian Basin, will show that international politics is not fixed, but constructed by human action and cognition. Reality in the politics of great powers in The Caspian Sea Region is socially constructed. This paper is not interested in how things are, but how they became what they are. That is to say, how Russia’s foreign policies towards great powers became what they are.

Keywords: Alexander Wendt, Caspian sea, identity, Russia, socially constructed

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Authors: Chin-Wen Chien

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Protocols are tools that help teachers inquire into the teaching and professional learning during the professional dialogue. This study focused on the integration of protocols into elementary school English teachers’ professional dialogue and discussed the influence of protocols on teachers’ teaching and learning. Based on the analysis of documents, observations, and interviews, this study concluded that with the introduction of protocols to elementary school English teachers, three major protocols were used during their professional dialogue. These protocols led the teachers to gain professional learning in content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. However, the facilitators’ lack of experience in using protocols led to interruptions during the professional dialogue. Suggestions for effective protocol-based professional dialogue are provided.

Keywords: protocols, professional learning, professional dialogue, classroom practice

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Authors: Apichaya Kaewuthai

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To study the meaning of Muslim name in order to analyse the underlining value and identity from first year to forth year Muslim students at Prince of Songkla University, Hatyai Campus. The questionnaires are employed as a main analytical tool to acquire the names from 80 Muslim students in four study years. The meanings of obtained names are subsequently analysed and summarized base upon related documents to uncover the beneath value. The study reveals that name of male is derived from the name of prophet; Nabi Muhammad, merit, dignity, origins, leadership and the faith in Islam. For female, on the other hand, their names are related to virtue and beauty, cleanliness and peace, hope and flowers which comply with their characteristics. One of the reasons contribute to the principle of naming is the regulation of Ministry of Culture which states that the name should represent one’s nature and characters. The given name reflects value and identity of Muslim which can be classified into three categories including 1) Value related to belief in Islam 2) value related to relationship among families and relatives 3) value about relationship with nature and environment. All the above mentioned reflect Muslim value and identity vividly. The name of Muslim students allows the researcher to perceive the perspective, belief and value in giving the name of Thai Muslim. Besides, it reveals social condition and their culture. It can also be the fundamental of studying the meaning of name in other races.

Keywords: the naming, Thai Muslim, culture, economic

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Authors: Waleed Mandour

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This study presents multidimensional scrutiny of Benson et al.’s seven-category taxonomy of lexical collocations used by Egyptian medical authors and their peers of native-English speakers. It investigates 212 medical papers, all published during a span of 6 years (from 2013 to 2018). The comparison is held to the medical research articles submitted by native speakers of English (25,238 articles in total with over 103 million words) as derived from the Directory of Open Access Journals (a 2.7 billion-word corpus). The non-native speakers compiled corpus was properly annotated and marked-up manually by the researcher according to the standards of Weisser. In terms of statistical comparisons, though, deployed were the conventional frequency-based analysis besides the relevant criteria, such as association measures (AMs) in which LogDice is deployed as per the recommendation of Kilgariff et al. when comparing large corpora. Despite the terminological convergence in the subject corpora, comparison results confirm the previous literature of which the non-native speakers’ compositions reveal limited ranges of lexical collocations in terms of their distribution. However, there is a ubiquitous tendency of overusing the NS-high-frequency multi-words in all lexical categories investigated. Furthermore, Egyptian authors, conversely to their English-speaking peers, tend to embrace more collocations denoting quantitative rather than qualitative analyses in their produced papers. This empirical work, per se, contributes to the English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English as a Lingua Franca in Academic settings (ELFA). In addition, there are pedagogical implications that would promote a better quality of medical research papers published in Egyptian universities.

Keywords: corpus linguistics, EAP, ELFA, lexical collocations, medical discourse

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Authors: Abonti Mehtaz

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The utmost controversial issue that Bollywood movies deal with is religious conflicts and the representation of Islam and or Muslims. The main objective of this paper is to examine that, how Muslim identity is constructed in Bollywood commercial films through the representation of Muslims and/or Islam. Two hypotheses are developed for this study, i.e., (1) Bollywood commercial films often portray the stereotypical image of Muslims. (2) The portrayal of Muslims and Islam in Bollywood commercial films is often negative. (3) Bollywood commercial films frequently construct a wrong and fake identity of Muslims through an inappropriate representation of Muslims and Islam. This study employs qualitative research techniques. To examine the hypotheses of this paper, 10 Bollywood commercial films produced in between 2000-2018 are selected purposively such as Fiza (2000), Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001), Company (2002), Aamir (2008), Kurbaan (2009), Anwar (2010), My name is Khan (2010), Raanjhanaa (2013), Omerta (2017) and Pari (2018). By conducting textual analyses of the above mentioned Bollywood commercial films, this paper focuses on different approaches of Muslim identity and their construction as well as representation in Bollywood commercial films in the light of scholarly work in film and cultural studies. Though 10 Bollywood commercial films are selected for contextual analysis, other Bollywood films by other directors are also mentioned in order to establish the hypotheses of this study. Framing theory is used to analyze the media contents. Findings of this study show that all hypotheses are accepted. Bollywood commercial films continually represent Islam and Muslims in incorrect ways and by doing so Bollywood commercial films construct a fallacious Muslim identity. Though the sample size of contents can be considered as a limitation of this study, the findings of the study reveal that how Bollywood commercial film is setting agenda to manipulate the image of Muslims and Islam not only in India but all over the world.

Keywords: Bollywood commercial films, Muslim identity, misrepresentation, representation, stereotypical

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Authors: Sandra Valdez-Hernández

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Motivation is one of the most important factors when teaching language. Most institutions at least in Mexico, pay low attention to the types of motivation students have when they are studying English; however, considering the motivation they have, may lead to better understanding about their needs and purposes for learning English and the professors may understand and focus on their interests for making them persist in action through the course. This topic has been widely investigated in different countries, but more research needs to be done in Mexico to shed light on this area of potential impact. The aim of this research is to focus on the types of motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic, instrumental and integrative and the attitudes students have about English language to identify aspects that are alike to other contexts and research areas based on the theory of Dörnyei (2013) and Gardner (2001). It was carried out at a Mexican University in a small village in Quintana Roo. The potential implications, the findings as well as the limitations are presented.

Keywords: attides of motivation, factors of motivation, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, instrumental and integrative motivation

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Authors: Aziz Soubai

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The primary issue is that English as foreign language learners don’t use English outside the classroom. The only little exposure is inside the classroom, and that’s not enough to make them good language learners! Edmodo, like the other Learning Management Systems, can be used to encourage students to collaborate with each other and with global classrooms on projects where English is used- Some examples of collaboration with different schools will be mentioned and how the Substitution Augmentation Modification Redefinition (SAMR) model and its stages can be applied in the activities, especially for teachers who are hesitant to introduce technology or don’t have a lot of technical knowledge. There will also be some focus on Edmodo groups and on how flipped and blended learning can be used as an extension for classroom time and to help the teacher address language problems and improve students’ language skills, especially writing, reading and communication. It is also equally important to use Edmodo badges and certificates for motivating and engaging learners and gamifying the lesson.

Keywords: EFL learners, language classroom-learning management system, edmodo, SAMR, language skills

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Authors: Muhalim Muhalim

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Drawing on Lakoff’s theory of metaphor conceptualization, this article explores the conceptualization of language two writing (L2W) of ten students-teachers in Indonesia via metaphors. The ten postgraduate English language teaching students and at the same time (former) English teachers received seven days of intervention in teaching and learning L2. Using introspective log and focus group discussion, the results illuminate us that all participants are unanimous on perceiving L2W as process-oriented rather than product-oriented activity. Specifically, the metaphor conceptualizations exhibit three categories of process-oriented L2W: deliberate process, learning process, and problem-solving process. However, it has to be clarified from the outset that this categorization is not rigid because some of the properties of metaphors might belong to other categories. Results of the study and implications for English language teaching will be further discussed.

Keywords: metaphor conceptualisation, second language, learning writing, teaching writing

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Authors: Soumi Banerjee

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In this research paper we will go deep into understanding Benedict Anderson’s definition of the nation as an imagined community and we will analyze why and how national identities were created through long and complex processes, and how there can exist strong emotional bonds between people within an imagined community, given the fact that these people have never known each other personally, but will still feel some form of imagined unity. Such identity construction on the part of an individual or within societies are always in some sense in a state of flux as imagined communities are ever changing, which provides us with the ontological foundation for reaching on this paper. This sort of identity crisis among individuals living in the Western world, who are in search for psychological comfort and security, illustrates a possible need for spatially dislocated, ontologically insecure and vulnerable individuals to have a secure identity. To create such an identity there has to be something to build upon, which could be achieved through what may be termed as ‘homesteading’. This could in short, and in my interpretation of Kinnvall and Nesbitt’s concept, be described as a search for security that involves a search for ‘home’, where home acts as a secure place, which one can build an identity around. The next half of the paper will then look into how populism and identity have played an increasingly important role in the political elections in the so-called western democracies of the world, using the U.S. as an example. Notions of ‘us and them’, the people and the elites will be looked into and analyzed through a social constructivist theoretical lens. Here we will analyze how such narratives about identity and the nation state affects people, their personality development and identity in different ways by studying the U.S. President Donald Trump’s speeches and analyze if and how he used different identity creating narratives for gaining political and popular support. The reason to choose narrative analysis as a method in this research paper is to use the narratives as a device to understand how the perceived notions of 'us and them' can initiate huge identity crisis with a community or a nation-state. This is a relevant subject as results and developments such as rising populist rightwing movements are being felt in a number of European states, with the so-called Brexit vote in the U.K. and the election of Donald Trump as president are two of the prime examples. This paper will then attempt to argue that these mechanisms are strengthened and gaining significance in situations when humans in an economic, social or ontologically vulnerable position, imagined or otherwise, in a general and broad meaning perceive themselves to be under pressure, and a sense of insecurity is rising. These insecurities and sense of being under threat have been on the rise in many of the Western states that are otherwise usually perceived to be some of the safest, democratically stable and prosperous states in the world, which makes it of interest to study what has changed, and help provide some part of the explanation as to how creating a ‘them’ in the discourse of national identity can cause massive security crisis.

Keywords: identity crisis, migration, ontological security(in), nation-states

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Authors: Huda Arshadlamphon

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Advancing frontiers of technology and industry is moving rapidly fast influenced by the economic and political phenomena. One vital phenomenon,which has had consolidated the world to a one single village, is Globalization. In response, architecture and the built-environment have faced numerous changes, adjustments, and developments. Tall-buildings, as a product of globalization, represent prestigious icons, symbols, and landmarks for highly economics and advanced countries. Despite the fact, this trend has been encountering several design challenges incorporating architectural identity, traditions, and characteristics that enhance the built-environments' sociocultural values and traditions. The necessity of these values and traditionsform self-solitarily, leading to visual and spatial creativity, independency, and individuality. In other words, they maintain the inherited identity and avoid replications in all means and aspects. This paper, firstly, defines globalization phenomenon, architectural identity, and the concerns of sociocultural values in relation to the traditional characteristics of the built-environment. Secondly, through three case-studies of tall-buildings located in Jeddah city, Saudi Arabia, the Queen's Building, the National Commercial Bank Building (NCB), and the Islamic Development Bank Building; design strategies and methodologies in acclimating architectural identity and characteristics in tall-buildings are discussed. The case-studies highlight buildings' sites and surroundings, concepts and inspirations, design elements, architectural forms and compositions, characteristics, issues, barriers, and trammels facing the designs' decisions, representation of facades, and selection of materials and colors. Furthermore, the research will elucidate briefs of the dominant factors that shape the architectural identity of Jeddah city. In conclusion, the study manifests four tall-buildings' design standards guideline in preserving and developing architectural identity in Jeddah city; the scale of urban and natural environment, the scale of architectural design elements, the integration of visual images, and the creation of spatial scenes and scenarios. The prosed guideline will encourage the development of architectural identity aligned with zeitgeist demands and requirements, supports the contemporary architectural movement toward tall-buildings, and shoresself-solitarily in representing sociocultural values and traditions of the built-environment.

Keywords: architectural identity, built-environment, globalization, sociocultural values and traditions, tall-buildings

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Authors: Abdulsalami Muyideen Deji

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Achievement of one age serves as a starting point for the next generation. History explains the significance of past and present achievement which serves a guide principle for great minds to determine the next line of action in personal life which translate to national development. If history does this in human life, it is not out of place to accept history as a vanguard of national development. History remained the only relevant discipline which shapes the affairs of developed society. It gives adequate knowledge of great people in any society, how they used their ability and leadership prowess to develop their environment. As a result of this people use the idea of those heroes as guiding principle to determine the present issues. The custodian of identity is history, while identity builds confidence in man; it also makes man to master his environment for rapid development. Adequate developments of man’s environment translate to national development.

Keywords: history, national development, leadership prowess, identity

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Authors: Fariha Asif

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The Saudi EFL learners face a number of problems in EFL learning, anxiety is the most potent one among those. It means that its resolution can lead to better language skills in Saudi students. That’s why, the study is carried out and is considered to be of interest to the Saudi language learners, educators and the policy makers because of the potentially negative impact that anxiety has on English language learning. The purpose of the study is to explore the factors that cause language anxiety in the Saudi EFL learners while learning speaking skills and the influence it casts on communication in the target language. The investigation of the anxiety-producing factors that arise while learning to communicate in the target language will hopefully broaden the insight into the issue of language anxiety and will help language teachers in making the classroom environment less stressful. The study seeks to answer the questions such as what are the psycholinguistic factors that cause language anxiety among ESL/EFL learners in learning and speaking English Language, especially in the context of the Saudi students. What are the socio-cultural factors that cause language anxiety among Saudi EFL learners in learning and speaking English Language? How is anxiety manifested in the language learning of the Saudi EFL learners? And which strategies can be used to successfully cope with language anxiety? The scope of the study is limited to the college and university English Teachers and subject specialists (males and females) in public sectors colleges and universities in Saudi Arabia. Some of the key findings of the study are:, Anxiety plays an important role in English as foreign language learning for the Saudi EFL learners. Some teachers believe that anxiety bears negatives effects for the learners, while some others think that anxiety serves a positive outcome for the learners by giving them an extra bit of motivation to do their best in English language learning. Language teachers seem to have consensus that L1 interference is one of the major factors that cause anxiety among the Saudi EFL learners. Most of the Saudi EFL learners are found to have fear of making mistakes. They don’t take initiative and opt to keep quiet and don’t respond fearing that they would make mistakes and this would ruin their image in front of their peers. Discouraging classroom environment is also counted as one of the major anxiety causing factors. The teachers, who don’t encourage learners positively, make them anxious and they start avoiding class participation. It is also found that English language teachers have their important role to minimize the negative effects of anxiety in the classes. The teachers’ positive encouragement can do wonders in this regard. A positive, motivating and encouraging class environment is essential to produce desired results in English language learning for the Saudi EFL learners.

Keywords: factors, psychology, speaking, EFL

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Authors: Miriam Sebastian

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This research focused on the effects of bilingual education as medium of instruction to the academic performance of selected intermediate students of Miriam’s Academy of Valenzuela Inc. . An experimental design was used, with language of instruction as the independent variable and the different literacy skills as dependent variables. The sample consisted of experimental students comprises of 30 students were exposed to bilingual education (Filipino and English) . They were given pretests and were divided into three groups: Monolingual Filipino, Monolingual English, and Bilingual. They were taught different literacy skills for eight weeks and were then administered the posttests. Data was analyzed and evaluated in the light of the central processing and script-dependent hypotheses. Based on the data, it can be inferred that monolingual instruction in either Filipino or English had a stronger effect on the students’ literacy skills compared to bilingual instruction. Moreover, mother tongue-based instruction, as compared to second-language instruction, had stronger effect on the preschoolers’ literacy skills. Such results have implications not only for mother tongue-based (MTB) but also for English as a second language (ESL) instruction in the country

Keywords: bilingualism, effects, monolingual, function, multilingual, mother tongue

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Authors: Alba Barbara-i-Molinero, Rosalia Cascon Pereira, Ana Beatriz Hernandez Lara

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Our general motivation in undertaking this study is to propose alternative measures to lighten students experienced tensions during the transitions from high school to higher education based on the concept of professional identity strength. In order to do so, we measured the influence that three different factors external motivational conditionals, educational experience conditionals and personal motivation conditionals exerted over students’ professional identity strength and proposed the measures considering the obtained results. By using hierarchical regression analysis we addressed this issue, across disciplines and bachelor degrees, allowing us to gain also deeper insight into first-year university students PID. Our findings suggest that students’ from the different disciplines are influenced by personal motivational conditionals; while students from sciences are also influenced by external motivational conditionals. Based on the obtained results we propose three different alternative educational and recruitment strategies which aim to increase students’ professional identity strength and reduce the tensions generated during high school-university transitions. From this study theoretical contributions regarding the differences in the influence of these factors on students from different bachelor degrees arise; and practical implications for universities, derived from the proposed strategies.

Keywords: professional identity, transitions, higher education, strategies

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Authors: Rui Zhang

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Translation has been elevated to one of the key notions in contemporary cultural discourse for a wide range of fields. It focuses not only on communication or transmission of meaning between different languages, but also on ways in which the very act of translation can be understood as a metaphor for cultural process. In recent years, the notion of translation is employed by some contemporary Chinese artists in a conceptual way, whose works contribute to constructing/deconstructing global/local cultural discourse and their own cultural identities. This study examines two artworks by contemporary Chinese artist Gu Wenda from a translational perspective, namely Forest of Stone Steles - Retranslation & Rewriting of Tang Poetry and United Nations - China Monument: Temple of Heaven, aiming to broaden the scope of Translation Studies to investigate visual culture and enrich methodological approach to contemporary Chinese art. Focusing on the relationship between translation, visuality and materiality in these two works, this study explores the nature of translation as part of the production of cultural discourse in the age of globalization as well as a way of establishing cultural identity. Gu Wenda, one of the most prestigious artists in contemporary China, is considered a pioneer in ‘85 Art Movement of China, and thereafter he went abroad for his artistic pursuits. His transnational experience enriches his cultural identity and the underlying discourse constructed/deconstructed in many of his works. In the two works already mentioned, the concept of translation is deployed by Gu Wenda on both linguistic level and metaphorical level for artistic expression. These two works produce discourses in which the artist’s perception of cultural identity in a transnational context is articulated by the tension between source text and target text. Based on the conceptual framework of cultural identity proposed by Stuart Hall, analyses of Gu Wenda’s cultural identity revealed through translation in these two works are centred on two axes, i.e., the axis of similarity and continuity with Chinese intellectual culture and the axis of difference and rupture with it, and the dialogic relationship between these two vectors. It argues that besides serving as a means of constructing visuality in the two works, translation metaphorizes Gu Wenda’s journey from overcoming his cultural identity anxiety to re-establishing a transcultural identity embedded in the underlying discourse.

Keywords: contemporary Chinese art, cultural identity, transculturality, translation

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Authors: Agnes Siwi Purwaning Tyas, Dewi Cahya Ambarwati

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This paper concerns the language learning that develops as a habit formation and a constructive process while exercising an oppressive power to construct the learners. As a locus of discussion, the investigation problematizes the transfer of English language to Indonesian students of junior high school through the use of English textbooks ‘Real Time: An Interactive English Course for Junior High School Students Year VII-IX’. English language has long performed as a global language and it is a demand upon the non-English native speakers to master the language if they desire to become internationally recognized individuals. Generally, English teachers teach the language in accordance with the nature of language learning in which they are trained and expected to teach the language within the culture of the target language. This provides a potential soft cultural penetration of a foreign ideology through language transmission. In the context of Indonesia, learning English as international language is considered dilemmatic. Most English textbooks in Indonesia incorporate cultural elements of the target language which in some extent may challenge the sensitivity towards local cultural values. On the other hand, local teachers demand more English textbooks for junior high school students which can facilitate cultural dissemination of both local and global values and promote learners’ cultural traits of both cultures to avoid misunderstanding and confusion. It also aims to support language learning as bidirectional process instead of instrument of oppression. However, sensitizing and localizing this foreign language is not sufficient to restrain its soft infiltration. In due course, domination persists making the English language as an authoritative language and positioning the locality as ‘the other’. Such critical premise has led to a discursive analysis referring to how the cultural elements of the target language are presented in the textbooks and whether the local characteristics of Indonesia are able to gradually reduce the degree of the foreign oppressive ideology. The three textbooks researched were written by non-Indonesian author edited by two Indonesia editors published by a local commercial publishing company, PT Erlangga. The analytical elaboration examines the cultural characteristics in the forms of names, terminologies, places, objects and imageries –not the linguistic aspect– of both cultural domains; English and Indonesia. Comparisons as well as categorizations were made to identify the cultural traits of each language and scrutinize the contextual analysis. In the analysis, 128 foreign elements and 27 local elements were found in textbook for grade VII, 132 foreign elements and 23 local elements were found in textbook for grade VIII, while 144 foreign elements and 35 local elements were found in grade IX textbook, demonstrating the unequal distribution of both cultures. Even though the ideal pedagogical approach of English learning moves to a different direction by the means of inserting local elements, the learners are continuously imposed to the culture of the target language and forced to internalize the concept of values under the influence of the target language which tend to marginalize their native culture.

Keywords: bidirectional process, English, local culture, oppression

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Authors: Yixuan Peng

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Music tourism is the phenomenon of people visiting a place because of their association with music, as well as the process of creating an emotional attachment to a place through the connection between people and music. Music offers people the opportunity to immerse themselves in the local culture. Music tourism is increasingly recognized as an industry with economic and social impacts. People often come together for a common purpose of music at a certain time and place, such as concert, opera, or music workshop. This is very similar to the act of pilgrimage: the process of participation evokes strong emotions; it takes time and money to get to the destination; the gathering, and the emotional co-frequency. This study conducted further qualitative research using MAXQDA by applying the musical topophilia model with East Asians as interview subjects. There are three steps to traveling: before, during and after the trip. To date, 53 individuals living in East Asia have been interviewed one-on-one (online/offline) about their travel experiences. This part of the interview is limited to the two stages that are before and after travel. Based on the results of the interviews above, and as Europe has the most representative music industry and the richest variety of music genres. The " during the trip" phase of the observations and interviews were conducted in Europe and involved on-site music in Salzburg and London, including musical theater, street music, and musical pilgrimages. Interviews with 24 people were conducted in English, Chinese and Japanese. This study will use data to demonstrate the followings: the irreplaceability of music in faraway places; the identity and sense of belonging that music brings; the ethnic barriers that music crosses; and the cultural communication that music enables.

Keywords: belongingness, gathering, modern pilgrimage, anthropology of music, sociology of music

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Authors: Richard Nelson

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The knowledge, skills, and identity of the Higher Education professional are constantly challenged with a demanding environment of teaching, research, administration, and pastoral care. It is more important than ever for professors and lecturers to maintain their professional development in a constantly changing environment. The importance of professional development has become more focused as new skills are needed to meet the demands of remote teaching and learning during a pandemic. Uncertainty and performance pressures influence teachers to try to return to physical spaces or recreate lecture and seminar rooms despite more effective online spaces being available. This case study uses the Boys’ spatial triad as a framework for qualitative interviews to capture the Lecturers’ experiences in Universities in the UK and the USA of moving to online learning spaces. The study finds that without effective professional development and time to reflect critically on remote learning innovation in their teaching practices, lecturers attempt to defer to lecture theatres and seminar rooms, or similes of, as their preferred space for teaching and learning. Professional Development is needed to encourage teachers to reflect on their professional identity and relationship to the teaching space.

Keywords: professional identity, learning, online, remote

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Authors: Madhura Bandyopadhyay

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Teaching writing within multicultural and multiethnic communities poses many unique challenges not the least of which is that of intercultural communication. When the writing is in English, pedagogical imperatives often encounter the universalizing tendencies of standardization of both language use and structural parameters which are often at odds with maintaining local practices which preserve cultural pluralism. English often becomes the contact zone within which individual identities of students play out against the standardization imperatives of the larger world. Writing classes can serve as places which become instruments of assimilation of ethnic minorities to a larger globalizing or nationalistic agenda. Hence, for those outside of the standard practices of writing English, adaptability towards a mastery of those practices valued as standard become the focus of teaching taking away from diversity of local English use and other modes of critical thinking. In a very multicultural and multiethnic context such as the US or Singapore, these dynamics become very important. This paper will argue that multiethnic writing classrooms can greatly benefit from taking up a cultural studies approach whereby the students’ lived environments and experiences are analyzed as cultural texts to produce writing. Such an approach eliminates limitations of using both literary texts as foci of discussion as in traditional approaches to teaching writing and the current trend in teaching composition without using texts at all. By bringing in students’ lived experiences into the classroom and analyzing them as cultural compositions stressing the ability to communicate across cultures, cultural competency is valued rather than adaptability while privileging pluralistic experiences as valuable even as universal shared experience are found. Specifically, while teaching writing in English in a multicultural classroom, a cultural studies approach makes both teacher and student aware of the diversity of the English language as it exists in our global context in the students’ experience while making space for diversity in critical thinking, structure and organization of writing effective in an intercultural context.

Keywords: English, multicultural, teaching, writing

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Authors: Raúl Jiménez Vilches

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Native (L1) speakers can mark prosodically one part of an utterance and make it more relevant as opposed to the rest of the constituents. Conversely, non-native (L2) speakers encounter problems when it comes to marking prosodically information structure in English. In fact, the L2 speaker’s choice for the prosodic realization of focus is not so clear and often obscures the intended pragmatic meaning and the communicative value in general. This paper reports some of the findings obtained in an L2 prosodic training course for Spanish learners of English within the context of public speaking. More specifically, it analyses the effects of the course experiment in relation to the non-native production of the tonic syllable to mark focus and compares it with the public speeches delivered by native English speakers. The whole experimental training was executed throughout eighteen input sessions (1,440 minutes total time) and all the sessions took place in the classroom. In particular, the first part of the course provided explicit instruction on the recognition and production of the tonic syllable and how the tonic syllable is used to express focus. The non-native and native oral presentations were acoustically analyzed using Praat software for speech analysis (7,356 words in total). The investigation adopted mixed and embedded methodologies. Quantitative information is needed when measuring acoustically the phonetic realization of focus. Qualitative data such as questionnaires, interviews, and observations were also used to interpret the quantitative data. The embedded experiment design was implemented through the analysis of the public speeches before and after the intervention. Results indicate that, even after the L2 prosodic training course, Spanish learners of English still show some major inconsistencies in marking focus effectively. Although there was occasional improvement regarding the choice for location and word classes, Spanish learners were, in general, far from achieving similar results to the ones obtained by the English native speakers in the two types of focus. The prosodic realization of focus seems to be one of the hardest areas of the English prosodic system to be mastered by Spanish learners. A funded research project is in the process of moving the present classroom-based experiment to an online environment (mobile app) and determining whether there is a more effective focus usage through CAPT (Computer-Assisted Pronunciation) tools.

Keywords: focus, prosody, public speaking, Spanish learners of English

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Authors: Noah Brandon

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Grammatical gender can create a restrictive roadblock for the usage of gender-inclusive language. This research describes grammatical gender structures used in English, Dutch, and German and considers how these structures restrict the implementation of gender inclusivity in spoken and written discourse. This restriction is measured by the frequency with which gender-inclusive & generic masculine forms are used and by the morphosyntactic complexity of the gender-inclusive forms available in these languages. These languages form a continuum of grammatical gender structures, with English having the least articulated structures and German having the most. This leads to a comparative analysis intended to establish a correlation between the complexity of gender structure and the difficulty of using gender-inclusive forms. English, on one side of the continuum, maintains only remnants of a formal grammatical gender system and imposes the fewest restrictions on the creation of neo-pronouns and the use of gender-inclusive alternatives to gendered agentive nouns. Next, the Dutch have a functionally two-gender system with less freedom using gender-neutral forms. Lastly, German, on the other end, has a three-gender system requiring a plethora of morphosyntactic and orthographic alternatives to avoid using generic masculine. The paper argues that the complexity of grammatical gender structures correlates with hindered use of gender-inclusive forms. Going forward, efforts will focus on gathering further data on the usage of gender-inclusive and generic masculine forms within these languages. The end goal of this research is to establish a definitive objective correlation between grammatical gender complexity and impediments in expressing socially constructed gender.

Keywords: sociolinguistics, language and gender, gender, Germanic linguistics, grammatical gender, German, Dutch, English

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Authors: Jun Xu, Haiyan Xiao

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The Analects (Lunyu) is one of the most recognized Confucian classics and one of the earliest Chinese classics that have been translated into English and known to the West. Research on the translation of The Analects has witnessed a transfer from the comparison of the text and language to a wider description of social and cultural contexts. Mainly on the basis of Legge and Waley’s translations of The Analects, this paper integrates Lefevere’s theory of rewriting and Verschueren’s theory of adaptation and explores the influence of ideology and poetics on the translation. It analyses how translators make adaptive decisions in the manipulation of ideology and poetics. It is proved that the English translation of The Analects is the translators’ initiative rewriting of the original work, which is a selective and adaptive process in the multi-layered contexts of the target language. The research on the translation of classics should include both the manipulative factors and translator’s initiative as well.

Keywords: The Analects, ideology, poetics, rewriting, adaptation

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Authors: Shirin Alabdulqader

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This research aims to investigate the concept of code-switching (CS) between English, Arabic, and the CS practices of Saudi online users via a Translanguaging (TL) lens for more inclusive view towards the nature of the data from the study. It employs Digitally Mediated Communication (DMC), specifically the WhatsApp and Twitter platforms, in order to understand how the users employ online resources to communicate with others on a daily basis. This project looks beyond language and considers the multimodal affordances (visual and audio means) that interlocutors utilise in their online communicative practices to shape their online social existence. This exploratory study is based on a data-driven interpretivist epistemology as it aims to understand how meaning (reality) is created by individuals within different contexts. This project used a mixed-method approach, combining a qualitative and a quantitative approach. In the former, data were collected from online chats and interview responses, while in the latter a questionnaire was employed to understand the frequency and relations between the participants’ linguistic and non-linguistic practices and their social behaviours. The participants were eight bilingual Saudi nationals (both men and women, aged between 20 and 50 years old) who interacted with others online. These participants provided their online interactions, participated in an interview and responded to a questionnaire. The study data were gathered from 194 WhatsApp chats and 122 Tweets. These data were analysed and interpreted according to three levels: conversational turn taking and CS; the linguistic description of the data; and CS and persona. This project contributes to the emerging field of analysing online Arabic data systematically, and the field of multimodality and bilingual sociolinguistics. The findings are reported for each of the three levels. For conversational turn taking, the CS analysis revealed that it was used to accomplish negotiation and develop meaning in the conversation. With regard to the linguistic practices of the CS data, the majority of the code-switched words were content morphemes. The third level of data interpretation is CS and its relationship with identity; two types of identity were indexed; absolute identity and contextual identity. This study contributes to the DMC literature and bridges some of the existing gaps. The findings of this study are that CS by its nature, and most of the findings, if not all, support the notion of TL that multiliteracy is one’s ability to decode multimodal communication, and that this multimodality contributes to the meaning. Either this is applicable to the online affordances used by monolinguals or multilinguals and perceived not only by specific generations but also by any online multiliterates, the study provides the linguistic features of CS utilised by Saudi bilinguals and it determines the relationship between these features and the contexts in which they appear.

Keywords: social media, code-switching, translanguaging, online interaction, saudi bilinguals

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Authors: Kaine Gulozer

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Listening comprehension in a foreign language context has been a constant challenge for Turkish speakers of English. Syntactic priming (SP) of relative clauses might affect the perception of subsequent sentences of identical structure and this could have an impact on the listening comprehension of second or foreign language learners. There has been little attempt to investigate the syntactic priming of English subject relative clauses and object relative clauses in relation to perception for the learners of English in Turkish context. This study investigates SP effects on low-proficiency EFL learners’ production of English relative clauses. Both qualitative and quantitative method along with a pre-test and post-test tasks were adopted, recruiting 62 EFL learners to receive a six-week listening instruction on relative clauses. Testing instruments for language production included the two tasks: (1) the visual- cued presentation and recall and (2) the auditory-cued presentation and recall. Students’ listening comprehension in task 1 and 2 were recorded and transcribed. Fifteen of the participants were also interviewed. The results of the dependent samples t-test analyses revealed that SP had a significant effect on the overall perception of relative clauses.

Keywords: listening comprehension, relative clauses, structural priming, syntactic persistance, syntactic priming

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Authors: S. Bader, N. Essoukri Ben Amara

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With the technological development and rise of virtual worlds, these spaces are becoming more and more attractive for cybercriminals, hidden behind avatars and fictitious identities. Since access to these spaces is not restricted or controlled, some impostors take advantage of gaining unauthorized access and practicing cyber criminality. This paper proposes an identity management approach for securing access to virtual worlds. The major purpose of the suggested solution is to install a strong security mechanism to protect virtual identities represented by avatars. Thus, only legitimate users, through their corresponding avatars, are allowed to access the platform resources. Access is controlled by integrating an authentication process based on biometrics. In the request process for registration, a user fingerprint is enrolled and then encrypted into a watermark utilizing a cancelable and non-invertible algorithm for its protection. After a user personalizes their representative character, the biometric mark is embedded into the avatar through a watermarking procedure. The authenticity of the avatar identity is verified when it requests authorization for access. We have evaluated the proposed approach on a dataset of avatars from various virtual worlds, and we have registered promising performance results in terms of authentication accuracy, acceptation and rejection rates.

Keywords: identity management, security, biometrics authentication and authorization, avatar, virtual world

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Authors: Eyal Boers

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This paper shall demonstrate how films can offer a valuable and innovative approach to the study of images, stereotypes, and national identity. "Black Book" ("Zwartboek", 2006), a World War Two film directed by Paul Verhoeven, tells the story of Rachel Stein, a young Jewish woman who becomes a member of a resistance group in the Netherlands. The main hypothesis in this paper maintains that Rachel's character possesses both features of the Dutch prototype (a white, secular, sexual, freedom-loving individualist who seems "Dutch" enough to be accepted into a Dutch resistance group and even infiltrate the local Nazi headquarters) and features which can be defined as specifically Jewish (a black-haired victim persecuted by the Nazis, transforming herself into a gentile, while remaining loyal to her fellow Jews and ultimately immigrating to Israel and becoming a Hebrew teacher in a Kibbutz). Finally, this paper claims that Rachel's "Dutchness" is symptomatic of Dutch nostalgia in the 21st century for the Jews as "others" who blend into dominant Dutch culture, while Rachel's "Jewish Otherness" reflects a transnational identity – one that is always shifting and traverses cultural and national boundaries. In this sense, a film about Dutch Jews in the Second World War reflects on issues of identity in the 21st Century.

Keywords: Dutch, film, stereotypes, identity

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Authors: Nadezhda Obvintceva

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The article gives the analysis of the concept ‘relation’ from the point of view of its realization in Russian and English languages on the basis of dictionaries articles. The analysis reveals the main difference of representation of this concept in both languages. It is the number of lexemes that express its general meanings. At the end of the article the author gives an explanation of possible causes of the difference and touches upon the issue about analytical phenomena in the vocabulary.

Keywords: concept, comparison, lexeme, meaning, relation, semantics

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Authors: Belyihun Muchie

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This study investigates the low English oral communication skills of 5 second-year English major students at Debark University. It aims to identify the key factors contributing to their weaknesses and propose effective interventions to improve their spoken English proficiency. Mixed-methods research will be employed, utilizing observations, questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews to gather data from the participants. To clearly identify these factors, structured and informal observations will be employed; the former will be used to identify their fluency, pronunciation, vocabulary use, and grammar accuracy, and the later will be suited to observe the natural interactions and communication patterns of learners in the classroom setting. The questionnaires will assess their self-perceptions of their skills, perceived barriers to fluency, and preferred learning styles. Interviews will also delve deeper into their experiences and explore specific obstacles faced in oral communication. Data analysis will involve both quantitative and qualitative responses. The structured observation and questionnaire will be analyzed quantitatively, whereas the informal observation and interview transcripts will be analyzed thematically. Findings will be used to identify the major causes of low oral communication skills, such as limited vocabulary, grammatical errors, pronunciation difficulties, or lack of confidence. They are also helpful to develop targeted solutions addressing these causes, such as intensive pronunciation practice, conversation simulations, personalized feedback, or anxiety-reduction techniques. Finally, the findings will guide designing an intervention plan for implementation during the action research phase. The study's outcomes are expected to provide valuable insights into the challenges faced by English major students in developing oral communication skills, contribute to the development of evidence-based interventions for improving spoken English proficiency in similar contexts, and offer practical recommendations for English language instructors and curriculum developers to enhance student learning outcomes. By addressing the specific needs of these students and implementing tailored interventions, this research aims to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical speaking ability, equipping them with the confidence and skills to flourish in English communication settings.

Keywords: oral communication skills, mixed-methods, evidence-based interventions, spoken English proficiency

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Authors: Barzan Hadi Hama Karim

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The purpose of this research study is to determine how educators, students at the university level are using storytelling to support the educational process. This study provides a general framework about educational uses of storytelling as a pedagogical too to learn English language in the higher education and describes the different perceptions of people (teachers and students) at different levels. A survey is used to collect responses from a group of educators and students in educational settings to determine how they are using storytelling for educational purposes. The results show the current situation of educational uses of storytelling and explore some of the benefits and challenges educators face in implementing storytelling in their institutions. The purpose of our research is to investigate the impact of storytelling as a pedagogical tool to learn English language in higher education and its academic achievements on ESL students. It highlights findings that address the following questions: (1) How has storytelling been approached historically? (2) Is storytelling beneficial for students in early grades at university? (3) To what extent do teacher and student prefer storytelling as a pedagogical tool to teach and learn English language in higher education?

Keywords: storytelling, teacher's beliefs, student’s beliefs, student’s academic achievement, narrative, pedagogy, ESL

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