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The Relationship between Writing Proficiency in English and Metacognitive Awareness of Writing Strategies among EFL University Students
Full text linkScholarly interest in the interplay between metacognition and language learning has notably surged. The expanding corpus of literature uniformly acknowledges the pivotal role that metacognitive knowledge occupies within the framework of language education. Precisely, the metacognitive awareness concerning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning strategies empowers learners to supervise, regulate, and optimize their educational endeavors. Metacognitive knowledge encompasses an awareness of one’s linguistic proficiency and the strategies pertinent for its enhancement. Equally, a deficiency in such awareness poses significant impediments to the language learning trajectory. Against this backdrop, the present study probes the nexus between metacognitive knowledge and language learning. the specific objective of the current study is to explore the correlation between EFL college students’ English writing proficiency and their writing metacognitive awareness. In order to reach this goal, a language proficiency test in writing and a Metacognitive Awareness Writing Questionnaire (MAWQ) were employed to collect the data. The participants in the study included 94 university students belonging to the department of English studies at the faculty of Letters and Human Sciences of Meknes and the Higher school for Training and Education of Kenitra. To analyze the collected data, the study made use of various statistical tools, including Simple Linear Regression and Pearson product-moment correlation. The results of the explored connection presented that there is a significant positive relationship between students’ writing performance and their metacognitive awareness of writing, with a ρ -value of 0.793. The results also showed that writing metacognitive awareness could predict 62% of the variability in writing ability. This study has also precipitated a range of implications related to pedagogy and methodology, alongside recommendations for teachers of English, syllabus designers, academic English studies departments, and coming scholarly inquiries
Strategies and Challenges in English to Chinese Translation of Selected Song Lyrics
Full text linkThe translation of song lyrics is challenging for translators primarily due to the intricate poetic and musical elements, which often compel them to employ specific strategies for effective translation. This study was an attempt to investigate the translation strategies in selected translated movie song lyrics and explore the challenges in translating the lyrics. In this qualitative study, the songs were purposefully selected from “Mulan” (1998) and “Aladdin” (2019) movies. Low’s (2013) translation strategies were applied during the process of translation. The “Translation” (transfer of material with a reasonably high degree of semantic fidelity), and “Replacement” (a re-creation of text by only preserving the music element) strategies were found as the common strategies in the translation of song lyrics. The use of a replacement strategy could be due to technical difficulties in translating songs, such as the constraint of rhythm, hence a total replacement of meanings to match the rhythm of the song. A significant challenge in translating song lyrics from English to Chinese was in translating the concept of face-saving, which is an eminent process in social interactions in Chinese culture. It was concluded that the use of a translation strategy depended on the lyrics, translators’ creativity, melody, rhyme, and the differences between the languages and cultures, while the “skopos”, i.e., the correspondence of aim/purpose in the source and target cultures should play the key role
How Cognitive Linguistics Affect Indonesian Students’ Understanding on Learning Phrasal Verbs
Full text linkPhrasal verb is one aspect of English that is often avoided by EFL learners, including students in Indonesia. This is usually due to the method of learning phrasal verbs that tends to make it difficult for learners. Hence, this research tries to present how cognitive linguistics affects Indonesian students’ understanding of learning phrasal verbs. This research takes about 50 students of Padang State Polytechnic, Indonesia as the research subject. The students were divided into two groups: those who learned phrasal verbs with the traditional method and those with the cognitive linguistics method. Each group of students was taught by different lecturers who used cognitive linguistics and traditional methods. Then, the students were tested on their understanding of phrasal verbs. This study employed a quasi-experimental causal-comparative research design; this research revealed that learning phrasal verbs with the cognitive linguistics method is able to produce a significant understanding of students’ ability to understand phrasal verbs. The results of the test found that students who learned phrasal verbs with the cognitive linguistics method had a score of 80 in understanding the meaning of phrasal verbs and a score of 76.8 in applying phrasal verbs in English sentences. While the test results of the traditional method group showed less good results. In-depth interviews, and questionnaires from this research show that cognitive linguistics method helps students in understanding the meaning of phrasal verbs although there are weaknesses in applying phrasal verbs into English sentences. The implication of this research finding is that cognitive linguistics method can be an effective approach for teaching phrasal verbs to EFL students
Marginalization of Minority Ethnicities in Ethnic Humor Discourse in Indonesia: A Critical Discourse Analysis
Full text linkThis study aims to explain the role of ethnic humor as a practice of marginalization against minority ethnic groups in Indonesia. The research data consists of 270 instances of ethnic humor sourced from books, websites, and social media. The data were analyzed using Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis approach, which includes three stages: description, interpretation, and explanation. Textual characteristics of ethnic humor were analyzed using SketchEngine, a corpus management and text analysis software developed by Lexical Computing. The findings indicate that ethnic humor can marginalize minority ethnic groups in Indonesia through three mechanisms: (1) negatively representing the targeted ethnic group, (2) constructing unequal social relations, and (3) justifying the behavior of the targeted ethnic group as inferior, strange, or even negative. The ideology embedded in ethnic humor discourse can be traced through patterns of language use, including word choice, sentence structure, and discourse organization. Words, sentence strcuture, and discourse organization are ideological because they contain experiential, relational, and expressive values. The results of this study reveal that ethnic humor, often appreciated for its entertainment value, can marginalize minority ethnic groups in two ways: by restricting their identity and roles. These findings reinforce previous research, such as that conducted by Pérez (2022), which argues that the ideological nature of ethnic humor can be harmful as it reinforces the dominance of majority groups. This finding also reinforce the findings of Mendiburo-Seguel & Ford (2023) which show that ethnic humor can strengthen ethnic prejudice. This situation suggests that ethnic humor should be approached cautiously to avoid negative impacts on Indonesia’s multiethnic society
Corpus-assisted CDA of George Floyd’s Murder Reports on CNN and Aljazeera
Full text linkIn 2020, one news that shook the world was the murder of an Afro-American named George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers. This study focuses on the media coverage of George Floyd’s murder case by two news outlets, CNN and Aljazeera. We used a Corpus-assisted Critical Discourse Analysis (CACDA) technique to compare how each news outlet portrayed the social actors involved in the incident and to identify if any social actors were excluded from the reporting, eventually revealing which side each media was inclined to. The analysis was based on Theo Van Leeuwen’s theory and utilized the Antconc application. The data used in this study consists of ten news articles, five from CNN and Aljazeera, published between May and July 2020. A literature study was conducted to collect the data. The Antconc corpus-processing application was then used to process the large amount of data collected, enabling quick, extensive, and comprehensive analysis. We uploaded all ten articles to the Antconc application and used the frequency feature to identify the five most used words in the ten news articles. The top five words were further analyzed using van Leeuwen’s critical discourse analysis, excluding irrelevant particles. The result shows that CNN aligned with the police and Aljazeera aligned with Floyd. By the ideological stances of CNN and Aljazeera, readers can become more aware of potential biases in news articles concerning George Floyd’s murder
Nature Speaks: Agency and Environment in Ben Okri’s The Famished Road
No full textThis study explores the linguistic strategies in Ben Okri’s “The Famished Road” to construct ecological interdependencies and agency in the novel. Employing systemic functional linguistics and ecolinguistic analysis, the study examines how Okri’s linguistic strategies elevate the agency of non-human elements, representing them as vibrant and willful participants within their ecosystem. The purpose of this analysis is to understand how language in “The Famished Road” conveys agency and a symbiotic relationship between humans and non-human elements, thereby addressing broader ecological and environmental concerns. Employing an ecolinguistic analysis, the research examines linguistic portrayals that challenge anthropocentric views and emphasize respect for nature. Results show that the novel frames nature and non-human entities as vibrant, active participants, influencing ecological consciousness and fostering ethical considerations towards the environment. This study concludes that Ben Okri’s ‘The Famished Road’, through its unique linguistic strategies, reflects and advocates for a symbiotic relationship between all life forms, highlighting the potential of literary works to contribute to environmental advocacy and consciousness. This analysis adds depth to our understanding of language’s role in ecological literature and encourages further exploration into how textual practices can influence ecological and ethical perceptions
Vitality of Lembak Language Bengkulu City in the Dynamics of Contemporary Society
Full text linkThis study explored the current situation and challenges facing the preservation of the Lembak language among the Lembak ethnic group in Bengkulu City. With globalization and modernization, there were concerns about keeping indigenous languages like Lembak alive, especially with the influence of dominant languages. The study aimed to evaluate the vitality of the Lembak language, identify factors contributing to its preservation or decline, and provide recommendations for its sustained maintenance amid the continuously changing societal dynamics. Employing a mixed-method approach, the methodology encompassed cluster sampling for a survey comprising 210 respondents drawn from seven neighborhoods across three districts in Bengkulu City, alongside purposive sampling for interviews involving 36 respondents from diverse demographic strata encompassing varying age groups and occupational backgrounds, including parents, teachers, and students, all of whom were native Lembak speakers. Findings revealed an average vitality index of 0.38 for the Lembak language, signifying its endangered status. While the language remained prevalent among older age groups limited in their community, its usage notably declined among younger generations, partially due to language contact and a preference for dominant languages. This situation is exacerbated by the lack of formal support and promotion from the government, absence of official backing, insufficient formal teaching materials, minimal language documentation, and the necessity for the Lembak language to adapt to the new challenges of the digital era to remain relevant and develop.To ensure the Lembak language survives, it was suggested to raise awareness, improve education, and gain support from the government and other groups
Cultural Perspectives in English Translation: The Story of Crow and Snake From Panchatantra
Full text linkThe problem is that although the culture and language are blended, the linguistic elements sometimes roughly demonstrate cultural dimensions in translated products. In other words, a cultural translation usually demands an understanding of linguistic i.e. culturally bound terms and expressions as well as extra-linguistic elements including cultural ones. Since literature is a nation’s cultural resource, the issue becomes even more complicated when literary translation is being involved. To our knowledge, there is no original Panchatantra left in India and all we have today are translations in different languages. To this end, the Persian version has always been considered the source text since the book was first translated into Persian in 550 CE. Therefore, the English translation of the story Crow and Snake is selected from Panchatantra as the target text and investigated employing Bassnett and Lefevere’s (1992) Cultural Theory with a focus on interpretive Discourse Analysis (DA) as analytical frameworks. The Persian text is the translation of Monshi, reprinted in 2010 and the English translation was done by Ryder in 1925. The findings reveal that the relationship between language and culture still remains complicated, and yet the lack of cultural understanding among the translators leads to violation and distortion of the intended messages and meanings embedded in source texts. It is quite safe then to say that the lack of cultural knowledge highly influences the translatio
Paradigm Shift of Language Revitalization in Indonesia
Full text linkLanguage revitalization as a linguistic social movement that aims to preserve and promote local languages, is experiencing a paradigm shift in Indonesia. These shifts can be seen from the aspect of language status objects. That is meant here is that the object of language status in language revitalization is not only languages with minority and endangered status. All local languages in Indonesia can be revitalized. Based on these conditions, this study explores the shift in the language revitalization paradigm in Indonesia. This aims to explain the structure of paradigm shift and provide an explanation for understanding language revitalization in its historical development in Indonesia. The study method uses qualitative methods with data collection techniques from the results of literature studies. Data analysis refers to Thomas Samuel Kuhn’s structure of the scientific revolution in terms of paradigm shift. As a result, the shift in the language revitalization paradigm in terms of the language status object is based on the heterogeneity of languages in Indonesia. Meanwhile, all languages in Indonesia must and have the right to be preserved in accordance with statutory regulations. This condition makes the government regulate language revitalization regulations that apply to all languages so that all languages in Indonesia receive the same treatment in the context of language preservation efforts
Exploring the Perspectives of Middle School Teachers’ Towards Gamification in the EFL Context
Full text linkThe current paper looks at investigating middle school teachers’ perspectives towards gamification in the EFL context in Algeria. To this end, the study explores the potential of incorporating digital gamification in EFL teaching with a focus on teachers’ implementation of Gamification in the classroom context. In order to gain a clearer understanding of the phenomenon, the researcher adopted qualitative research using a semi-structured interview. The participants were a total of 11 EFL teachers from various middle schools in Mostaganem – Algeria. The interviewees were selected based on their use of digital technology and game-based teaching methods. The collected data was thematically analyzed using MAXQDA software, employing a descriptive analysis approach. After the analysis, the findings show that teachers frequently incorporate ICT-based and game-based lessons into their teaching practices. Additionally, in accord with their responses, teachers have a clear notion of gamified teaching and learning. However, they lack the necessary expertise to effectively implement gamification. Being a novelty in the arena of language teaching, teachers call for training programs to enable them to effectively incorporate gamification in the EFL classroom. As the study concludes, it provides a clear understanding of the teachers’ standpoint regarding gamification, their openness, and readiness to adopt modern teaching methods. It also offers valuable insights into state-of-the-art teaching methods and paves the way for further considerations in gamified lesson design