International Journal of English Language Studies

This study investigates the phenomenon of chunk explicitation in Chinese-English diplomatic interpretation during the COVID-19 pandemic. It focuses on high-frequency chunks employed by prominent national leaders, including General Secretary Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang, and State Councilor Wang Yi. The research utilizes monolingual corpus analysis and AntConc software to analyze six actual speech interpretations. It categorizes explicitation into four types: obligatory, optional, pragmatic, and translation-inherent explicitation. The study identifies three main motivations behind chunk explicitation in diplomatic interpretation: linguistic motivations stemming from syntactic and grammatical differences, cultural motivations arising from bridging cultural gaps, and interpreter motivations related to conveying information effectively. Additionally, the research assesses the implications of explicitation, including its impact on clarity, comprehensibility, and its role in conveying emotions and tone in diplomatic speeches. Chunk explicitation is a common phenomenon in Chinese-English diplomatic interpretation during the pandemic. It serves linguistic, cultural, and interpreter motivations, enhancing clarity and conveying emotions in diplomatic communication. The study contributes to diplomatic interpretation and provides practical guidance for interpreting learners and practitioners. Future research may expand the scope and classification of interpretation types, further advancing our understanding of this complex process. Ultimately, this research aids in promoting effective diplomatic communication and global understanding during crises.

This study intended to identify the sources of stress for EFL students in their transition to emergency remote teaching amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing on the genealogy of emotions and Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis method, this qualitative study analyzed interview transcripts and emotion diaries gleaned from students over an academic semester. The findings pointed to 4 categories of stressors including academic-related stressors associated with online exams, students’ English competency, instructional demands, and excessive workload, and teaching quality. The category of stressors including psychological issues concerned students’ low self-concept and efficacy beliefs, students comparing themselves to others, their learning styles, and social interactions and expectations. Life-related stressors encompassed students’ concerns about future life, work-life balance, health and safety at the time of the global pandemic, and distractions and multitasking while students were in class. Finally, technical problems and students’ technological skills were recognized as the last source of stress. The findings were then discussed in the light of unique sources of stress attributed to the digital nature of remote learning and the need for a broader conceptualization of students’ proficiency in e-learning contexts. Finally, the study concluded with empirical implications for teachers, policymakers, health providers, and counselors.

The research aimed to determine teachers' perception toward Project-based Learning and the implementation of Project-based Learning in Writing Activities. Project-Based Learning is an instructional model aiming to focus learners on complex issues that need to be investigated and comprehended the subject matter through investigation. The research method used was the Qualitative Method with descriptive analysis. The data were obtained using two kinds of instruments. An open-ended Questionnaire is used to know teachers' perceptions toward Project-based Learning. In contrast, an observation checklist is used to know the implementation of Project-based Learning applied by the teacher in writing activities. The descriptive analysis found that the teacher's perspective toward Project-based Learning in the teaching and learning process was positive. The teachers most agreed that PjBL assists teachers in maintaining classroom discipline and a pleasant atmosphere, and PjBL can improve students' discipline towards assignment deadlines. Conversely, teachers were skeptical that Project-based Learning could strengthen student-teacher relationships, considering that the teacher's role in Project-based Learning is "only" a facilitator. Other findings revealed that the teachers' implementation of PjBL in writing activities still does not adhere to PjBL syntax, mainly in designing a plan for the project and evaluation stages. Therefore, it suggested that teachers be aware of their role in implementing Project-based Learning to ensure the objectives of the Projcet-based Learning models are adequately met.

These days, digital literacy, digital competence, digital identity and digital intelligence are becoming essential skills for everyone, especially teachers. Understanding their concepts and components is essential for teachers even more than learners in the process of these digital skills development. If teachers have not capabilities in these four skills, they couldn’t transfer any knowledge to learners in online environments undoubtedly. Even proper, on time, enough and complete knowledge transfer from teachers to leaners never happened. The results of this study show that teachers had low awareness about 4D skills and couldn’t understand and define 4D skills very well. The present qualitative study measured teachers’ awareness about these digital skills by semi-structured interviews and based on the retrieved data, proposed a Quality 4D (digital literacy, digital competence, digital intelligence) skills framework for measuring and developing of teachers 4D skills.

Many users of social media from different countries and speaking different languages that use non-Latin orthography such as Arabic choose to transliterate their first name and surname in Romanized script, vis English. Due to the differences between the user’s native language and English in vowels and consonants and how they are pronounced, some people make vowel and consonant errors in the English spelling of their names due to the user’s proficiency level in English and their awareness level of the grapheme-phoneme correspondences in their native as well as English language. This study aims to investigate vowel omissions in the English spelling of Arabic personal names, what kind of vowels are omitted, location of the missing vowels, why educated Arabs omit vowels in the English spelling of their names, whether vowel omissions are attributed to transfer from the native language (Arabic) or lack of competence in English spelling. Analysis of a sample of Arabic personal names with missing vowels in their English spelling showed that in the vast majority of misspelled names, one short vowel is missing. In most cases, the missing short vowel is fatha /a/ in the first syllable of the name. It seems that educated Arabs transfer the Arabic vowel system to English. The Arabic orthographic system has 3 long vowels represented by written letters ا و ي /a:, i:, u:/ and 3 short vowels that are represented by diacritics which are pronounced but not shown in the written form of Arabic words. In addition, omission of short vowels in the English spelling of Arabic names may be attributed to how the name is pronounced in the dialect of the Arabic speaker, not how it is pronounced in Standard Arabic, especially when the vowel is in the initial syllable of some surnames. Vowel deletion may also be due to insufficient proficiency in English and lack of contrastive knowledge of the Arabic and English vowel and spelling systems. Examples of transliterated personal names with missing vowels, explanations, causes, and recommendations for more accurate spelling in English are given.

Over the last decades, language anxiety has emerged as a major concern in second and foreign language learning studies, and it is a topic that has sparked much debate. This paper reviews the related studies conducted on the said topic. Specifically, this scoping review focuses on the effect of language anxiety on the academic performance of students. Results show that there is an indirect relationship between language anxiety and the academic performance of students. Hence, it is important to note that strategies that will lessen language anxiety in the learning process will be a great help for students to perform well in class.

This descriptive study determined the pre-service teachers’ extent of engagement in academic cheating in exams, assignments, and bibliography. The study utilized the validated researcher-made instrument for data gathering. Mean, SD, ANOVA, and Mann Whitney U obtained the quantitative results. Findings revealed that academic cheating was prevalent among the pre-service teachers with high engagement in writing or citing correct bibliography. They claimed ideas as one’s design work, cited sources without reading the complete article, and copying someone’s ideas as a foundation for writing. Pre-service teachers cheated on exams by studying from previous tests and sharing with/copying the answers with/from peers. In terms of assignment, they worked with others on an individual project, received help on an individual assignment without the instructor’s permission, and watched the film/video version - rather than reading the assigned book. Pre-service teachers from secondary and elementary levels significantly varied in their extent of academic cheating engagement in writing or citing bibliographies, and they manifested a similar extent of engagement in academic cheating in exams and assignments. Pre-service teachers, who specialize in English, Filipino, Math, and Social Studies, significantly differed in their extent of engagement in academic cheating. Low regard for school rules and policies, lack of self-study, increased use of electronic media, and the concept that everyone does it may have influenced these academic misconducts. Academic cheating as an unethical behavior needs to be explained among the pre-service teachers being the future model educators. Strict rules and policies need to be implemented to keep up academic integrity in the learning institution.

This article presents a study on the synchronic distributions of interpersonal metaphors of modulation based on the British National Corpus (BNC). The synchronic research reveals that interpersonal metaphors of modulation are mode-sensitive to written texts. Regarding genre distribution, metaphorical obligations driven by the explicit orientation dominate fiction texts. In contrast, the objective orientation drives obligations to be more prevalent in academic texts or more technical genres. The objective orientation of metaphorical inclinations is notably prevalent in newspapers and magazines other than academic texts. Besides, the findings highlight that the inherent personal and subjective characteristics of interpersonal modulations remain unchanged in their metaphorical forms, demonstrating less objectivity compared to ideational metaphors in highly technical disciplines.

This study assessed the effectiveness of the Academic Diary in the teaching of Oral Communication in Context. This study is a mixed-method in which the students’ pre-post test scores are the quantitative figures, while the students’ experiences in their use of Academic Diary form part of the qualitative data. The pre-post test scores of the students were used to identify if the application of the Academic Diary in the teaching of Oral Communication in Context could possibly elevate the students’ learning and comprehension. Moreover, structured questions were used during the guided interview to get the students’ experiences with regard to the usability, suitability, and efficiency of the Academic Diary. Statistically, the results revealed that there is a significant difference between the pre-post test scores of the students. Based on the extracts during the guided-interview, the findings conveyed that Academic Diary is usable because it enhances learning, is suitable because it stores learned information, and is efficient because it provides learners with learning guidance. This implies that Academic Diary in the teaching of Oral Communication in Context is effective in enhancing students’ learning and comprehension of the most essential learning competencies. Therefore, it is highly suggested that educators may use the Academic Diary to keep track of the students’ actual learning status for a tailored-fit intervention.

Reading proficiency and academic performance are both of paramount importance to a learner’s holistic academic success. These aspects of a student’s journey must not be taken for granted regardless of their locale, cultural context, and academic setting. Consequently, this intellectual endeavor examined the correlation of said factors. It first probed into the students’ profile and determined their reading proficiency level (RPL) and academic performance (AP) in English based on the Phil-IRI result and mean percentage scores. Using descriptive-correlational analysis, the study investigated the significant differences in the RPL of the students when grouped according to their profile variates and the significant relationship between their AP and RPL. Findings revealed that the latter differed in terms of sex, parents’ highest educational attainment, parents’ occupation, and a number of days of attendance in school, but similar along with age, nutritional status, and attitude toward reading. Students showed a favorable AP in reading as depicted in the positive coefficient result, suggesting a direct proportional linear relationship indicating that students with higher RPL manifested higher AP than those whose reading performance was on the average only. Hence, the study inferred that students need an intervention program for their reading skills and in becoming independent readers. Also, as female students were proven to manifest higher RPL, it was recommended that teachers provide enhancement activities for male students to be at par with their female counterparts. Thus, this empirical information would be beneficial to both schools and educators in strengthening every learner's reading proficiency and academic performance.

The teaching and learning of a second language is such a complex educational area that practitioners and teachers must continue to find better ways to help learners acquire the language faster and easier. Academic presentation skills and public speaking remains one of the most challenging areas of language acquisition and expression. This classroom study is designed to examine the impact of authentic videos (TEDTALKS) on students’ academic presentation skills. A participatory research approach (PAR) is used, and a group of 34 first-year international business students taking the course EAP is used as the sample for the study. Findings reveal that the introduction of authentic videos to the classroom had a significant influence on students’ presentation skills in several areas; introduction, confidence, speech patterns, non-verbal communication, presentation style, and even choice of words; Suggesting that exposing second language learners to authentic content of the target language could greatly contribute to their second language acquisition. This is so because such content bridges a part of the gap created by the limited exposure to the target language being acquired.

The study detailed in this article investigates the connection between the L2 competency level of Vietnamese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners and Dörnyei's (2005, 2009) Second Language Motivational Self System (L2MSS). Descriptive and inferential analyses of the collected data revealed expected—that the components of the L2MSS were a good predictor of the learners’ intended learning efforts. However, the study also established that in this learner population, these components were not consistently correlated with L2 achievement. The findings can be treated as evidence that self-reported motivation does not always have behavioral consequences.

Teaching English in Indonesia should get attention to face the era of globalization. The initial survey shows that students still face problems or difficulties in learning English, especially productive skills. So, the study aimed to investigate the kinds of instructional design models (IDM) conducted by lecturers, to expose the stages of IDM, and to describe the learning achievement of the students’ English productive skills. The subjects of this study were lecturers who taught English productive skills, namely speaking and writing skills, and the fourth semester students who had programed these courses. The procedures were (1) a preliminary survey of learning problems, (2) designing research instruments, (3) validating instruments, (4) collecting data through instruments, and (5) analyzing and interpreting the results of data analysis. The instrument was a questionnaire that aimed to obtain information from lecturers, while the test aimed to measure the achievement of students’ English productive skills. The results showed that the lecturers used several kinds of IDM with various stages, and the students’ English achievement was in good classification for speaking skills and fair for writing skills. Therefore, the lecturers were considerably required to choose the kinds and various stages of IDM in their teaching and learning processes.

This scoping review studies the proper ethics in conducting research in second language acquisition. This scoping review mainly directs to synthesizing relevant studies and literature on proper ethics when conducting research. Ethics, in most common ways, define norms for conduct that distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Hence, this scoping review gathered and scrutinized recent and relevant papers from various databases. The collected papers consist of qualitative and quantitative studies. Many researchers agree that ethics in research is crucial in every study. Hence, this paper analyzes recent and relevant papers about ethics in conducting research. A byproduct of these studies can lead to a better understanding of promoting proper ethics in conducting research.

The recent reform of education in the Republic of North Macedonia has brought innovation in the use of technology in the teaching process as well as in the use of computers as a tool, and also as a method and a way to learn. Also, projects and curricula for computer learning have been developed in both primary and secondary schools. In this context, this theoretically-empirical research combines the reality of the use of ICT tools in English language classes in elementary and secondary schools with segments defined in the English language curriculum. With the empirical, descriptive, and conclusive results gained in this research, where 108 English language teachers in the primary and secondary schools of Skopje, Gostivar, and Tetovo were surveyed, a statistical difference (sig = 0.028) was observed in teacher attitudes per city in terms of level and the impact of ICT tools on the productivity of students in English language classes as well as the statistical difference (sig = 0.043) in teachers' attitudes by their age. In the end, the hierarchy of ICT tools was determined according to their level of use and the hierarchy of skills developed by the use of ICT tools in English language classes in elementary and secondary schools.

This scoping review research attempts to examine vocabulary acquisition and vocabulary learning strategies of second language learners. It found that different students used a variety of vocabulary learning strategies. Effective learning strategies would best be learned through the help of the teachers. Moreover, the study indicates a beneficial effect of integrating technology in acquiring vocabulary in a second language.

The current study attempts to investigate the influence of communicative speaking activities on motivation of the UNRWA 9th graders to learn English as a foreign language (EFL) from teachers ‘points of view. Conducting qualitative analysis, the researcher uses semi-structured interviews in order to get data of the study. The 'Behaviorism Theory' by the behaviorist P.F. Skinner is the theoretical framework of the study. Twenty EFL instructors, 10 males and 10 females, participated in the present study from five UNRWA schools in Gaza. The study finds that communicative speaking activities increase learners` motivation to learn EFL especially when the learners engaged effectively in such activities that also, according to the most majority of the interviewees, increase their level of achievement, a solid correlation between communicative speaking activities and the increase of EFL learners` motivation to learn EFL. The researcher recommends adopting various communicative activities, by EFL instructors, to motivate learners to learn EFL through the main four skills, setting up training programs, by MOE, for EFL instructors to train them how to foster learners` motivation through communicative activities and conducting further researches to investigate the impact of communicative listening, reading and/or writing activities on learners` motivation to learn EFL.

This article, which is entitled ‘Forms and Acts of Resistance in Amin Maalouf’s Leo the African’, is about the problematic power and resistance in a novel which is set in Islamic Spain. The idea behind this paper is that power relations, albeit lopsided, are not absolute in this novel but fluid. Not to mention that it is not unilateral as commonly thought of but--multilateral. Indeed, the setting of this Moorish novel is informed by religious and cultural tensions and the Spanish Inquisition in the Crescent and Christendom relation of power. It talks about an era prior to the epistemic and physical aggression on Moorish culture in 1492 and the failure of the Moor-Spaniard capitulación and convivencia. But since power and resistance figure immensely in this text, the analysis problematizes that relationship following the approach of the Foucauldian post-modern, positive conception of power. The object of analysis is treated as fiction, and the underlying methods are content analysis. The thesis concludes that power is fractured from within by other discourses. Besides, the problem of power and resistance is part of what is called centripetal and centrifugal dynamics: Power oscillates between two contending blocs and is, therefore, never static; these are a potion, a cocktail mix.

This study set out to explore the illocutionary forces of communicative acts and their functions in group interactions of some selected women associations from the Anglophone Regions of Cameroon. It also explored the extent to which the illocutionary acts used during groups events mirror women's communication practices. Through collective case design, with random and purposeful sampling techniques, non-participant observation, unstructured, open-ended interviews, audio recorded events of two categories of women associations (faith-based, consisting of Catholic Women’s Association and Christian Women Fellowship, and development-based, consisting of One Hand Cannot Tie a Bundle, Cameroon Gatsby Foundation and Biwon Self-Reliance Farmers’ and Traders’ Union) were explored through content analysis. The findings of this study reveal that interactions in Anglophone Cameroon women’s gatherings are not only geared towards the content of the talk but members’ feelings and welfare are also taken into consideration. Illocutionary acts such as invitations, requests and advice (directives), and greetings, offers, rejoicing and appreciations (expressives) were frequently used. However, threats and refusal (commissives), as well as complaints and criticisms (expressives), were equally used, especially in Development-Based events. These illocutionary acts were used to carry out mostly positive reactions and attempted answers to the interaction process, with minimal negative reactions and questions communicative acts, which indicate cooperation, connection, support, closeness and understanding.

This study aimed to explore how the teachers address the reading comprehension difficulties of students in Printed Modular Distance Learning (PMDL) amid the prohibition of the traditional face-to-face session during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study used the semi-structured interview to gather in-depth data from the four Junior High School English teachers who are handling the students in the PMDL. Consequent to the pandemic, the researcher gave interview guide sheets and used audio recorders to document the responses accurately. This study utilized thematic analysis. The study showed that teachers managed to ascertain or find out students' reading comprehension difficulties through assessment scores or task outputs then verified through the background of the students from their previous English teachers. Moreover, teachers guide the students who adopt PMDL in improving their reading comprehension skills by keeping open communication and close collaboration with the parents or guardians and providing reinforcement activities.

This study tries to investigate one type of synchronous online communication, which is Internet Relay Chat, in terms of conversational analysis, particularly turn-taking and adjacency pairs. Synchronous online communication can be viewed as a novel medium that combines spoken, written and electronic properties. There may be a direct causal link between the lack of coherence in synchronous online communication and its propensity for language play that leads to the conversational analysis of synchronous online communication, which is associated with a reduction of coherence, disruption of turn adjacency and phantom turn adjacency. In synchronous online communication, there is a difficulty in interpreting messages in their sequential context that arises from the fact that turn sequencing is partly user-controlled and partly system-controlled. This leads to disrupted turn-taking and adjacency pairs as other stands of conversation get inserted between their parts.

The study investigated the Afghan EFL instructors’ use of English teaching methods. It also studied whether the instructors’ gender had any significant impact on their responses. A survey questionnaire with 35 closed-ended items was utilized to collect the data from 50 EFL instructors who were teaching English in various English language centers in Takhar. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The results of the study revealed that the Afghan EFL instructors frequently used the Grammar Translation Method and communicative language method in their English classes. Moreover, the EFL instructors sometimes used the Audiolingual Method, the Direct Method, the Total Physical Response and the Silent Way. The Silent Way was the least frequently used method in Afghan EFL classrooms. The results also showed that there were not any statistically significant differences between female and male instructors’ response. The study suggests an eclectic use of methods in English classes in order to make English learning more meaningful to students.

This paper explores the communication strategies employed by service providers in Nigeria banks to gain new and retain their old customers. This is done by looking at the discourse features inherent in banking interactions. The researcher was given the impetus to undertake this study because of the uniqueness exhibited in banking and business discourse. One could easily have drawn a conclusion that, as expected of every business interaction, the banking interaction would be without fuss because of the training employees receive on human relations, but these findings reveal that this is not always the case. However, the fact that employees have more successful interactions is one that cannot be denied, and this success can be attributed to the application of politeness strategies by bank staff. Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness theory serves as theoretical framework. Eleven texts from bank employee-customers interactions were purposively selected and subjected to content analysis in order to reveal linguistic strategies employed in them. It is realised that bank employees adopt features like inclusion, directness, informality, face saving features like avoidance of questions, politeness markers, hesitation and taciturnity when interacting with customers. It is also observed that bank employees use hesitation mostly to avoid making absolute statements which could affect customers’ negative face. Also, face saving strategies are the most used as employees do everything to save customer from embarrassment and make them feel good. Inclusion strategies by bank employees serve as vital retention device. This affects the choice of code and kinship terms used by bank employees when relating with customers. In the face of the heat with customers, bank employees resort to taciturnity as an avoidance strategy so that they are not held by their words. Politeness markers like ‘please’ are used even where they do not seem necessary and sorry is not commonly used. In all, bank employees’ attempt to treat their customers as kings in line with their training.

English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers in Malaysia, as in many other countries, are anxious to exploit the potential of Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) –aligned curriculum to enhance the teaching and learning process. Given the increasing pressure exerted by various stakeholders on language education, it is important to understand the underlying factors behind primary school teachers’ readiness regarding CEFR-aligned curriculum. Even though there are studies conducted in local contexts, it is still very limited. This study seeks to find out the level of ESL primary teachers’ readiness to implement CEFR-aligned curriculum. This study also investigates the factors that can influence teachers’ readiness towards the implementation of CEFR-aligned curriculum. Data was collected via questionnaire survey from ESL primary school teachers in Pasir Gudang, Johor. The questionnaire data was analysed using descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that most of the teachers have high level of readiness in implementing CEFR-aligned curriculum. Several factors are also highlighted in this study. Teachers’ training, competency, materials as well as school-based assessment are some of the main challenges identified in this study. In conclusion, the implementation of CEFR-aligned curriculum is seen as inevitable but more preparation and support should be provided by the ministry to ensure that teachers are fully prepared and familiar with the implementation of CEFR-aligned curriculum.

With the lapse of time the two nations- Americans and British always blamed each other for “ruining” English. In this article we aim to trace historical “real culprit” and try to break stereotypes about American English status in teaching English as a second language. In comparison with Great Britain the USA has very short and contemporary history; nevertheless, in today’s world American English exceeds British and other variants of English in so many ways, as well as in the choices of language learners. American English differs from other variants of the English language by 4 specific features: Inclusiveness, Flexibility, Innovativeness and Conservativeness. Notwithstanding, British disapprove of Americans taking so many liberties with their common tongue, linguistic researcher Daniela Popescu in her research mentions the fields of activities in which American words penetrated into British English. She classifies those words under 2 categories: everyday vocabulary (480 terms) and functional varieties (313 terms). In the case of functional varieties, the American influence is present in the areas of computing (10 %), journalism (15 %), broadcasting (24%), advertising and sales (5 %), politics and economics (24%), and travelling and transport (22%). Further on, the words and phrases in the broadcasting area have been grouped as belonging to two areas: film, TV, radio and theatre (83%), and music (17%). The purpose of the research paper is to create safe and reliable image of American English in the field of teaching English as a second language. Americans are accused in “ruining” English and for that reason learners are not apt to learn American English. The combination of qualitative and quantitative methods is used while collecting the data. The study concluded that the real culprits are British who started out to ruin English mainly in in the age of Shakespeare and consequently, Americans inherited this ruin from the British as a result of colonization. Luckily, in the Victorian Age British saved their language from the ruins. The paper discusses how prejudices about American English effect the choices of English learners.