International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation
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Basotho Naming Systems and Practices: A Sociolinguistic-Onomastics Approach
Full text linkNaming is an important act because a name is a marker of identity. Therefore, naming systems and practices in African societies are driven by different sociocultural factors. For this reason, language and culture influence the choice of names given to children. Naming system among Basotho follows certain processes which reflect their belief systems and cultural heritage among other things. Thus, through names, Basotho portray certain meanings and experiences. This study explores Basotho naming systems, practices and the meanings attached to the names they give. Sociolinguistic onomastics approach is used to explore the meanings of Basotho names. This is a qualitative study, premised on sociolinguistic-onomastics approach aiming to examine Basotho naming systems and practices. Data was collected purposely from national examination results and telephone directories from Lesotho. The findings of the study suggest that Basotho names have the following features: names that describe physical features of the child, politically connected names, names reflecting birth circumstances, and Sothoised Western names
The Use of Reading Strategies in Predicting Reading Comprehension: A Case Study of EFL University Saudi Students
Full text linkThe study probed the correlation between reading strategies (i.e., Cognitive and Metacognitive) and reading comprehension of Saudi intermediate EFL university students. For this goal, 41 intermediate EFL learners in the Preparatory Year Deanship at Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University were selected to complete reliable and valid Reading Strategies Questionnaire and Standardized Reading Comprehension Test. The results of Pearson Correlations and Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis revealed that metacognitive strategies had a higher relationship with reading comprehension scores (r = 0.126, p < .01). In addition, metacognitive strategies proved to be a more powerful predictor of reading comprehension scores (R2 = 0.04). Full use of reading strategies was not guaranteed for getting a high score in academic reading comprehension tests
Gender Differences in Writing among Islamic University of Gaza Students
Full text linkThis study explores gender differences in the writing of Islamic University of Gaza (IUG) students who were requested to write on similar themes and under controlled settings. Few previous studies have been designed to examine gender differences in writing through analyzing texts produced in uncontrolled conditions. The current research settings were almost controlled to lower the possibility that other factors rather than gender may affect the results. The researcher applied a two-part questionnaire on 33 students (42% male, 58% female) whose ages range from 19 to 26. The questionnaire was intentionally designed to measure which gender has the higher tendency to write in response to different occasions and what are the major gender differences in writing. A mixed method was implemented to conduct this study. Thus, the study can be considered descriptive considering the process of text analysis and evaluation, but quantitative with reference to highlighting and collecting the characteristics of participants writing. The findings showed some grammatical, syntactical, and lexical differences in students’ writing that can be traced back to gender. It also revealed that male students have higher tendency to write more frequently than female in response to different occasions and feeling
The Investigation of the Grammatical Metaphors of Iranian Legal Texts
Full text linkNowadays, scientific analysis of language has a special place in the sciences, since the scientific methods give a better understanding of the texts. The emergence of forensic linguistics in recent years in Iran and the presentation of various approaches in this field has greatly accepted. This article analyzes a number of advisory theories of Iranian Justice Department based on the systemic functional grammar. One of the concepts in the systemic functional grammar is grammatical metaphor. Grammatical metaphor is one of the hallmarks of the language of science, and according to Holliday (2004) grammatical metaphor is of great importance in the development of scientific discourse and the advancement of reasoning in texts. Holliday has introduced and distinguished three types of grammatical metaphor, i.e. ideational, interpersonal and textual. The purpose of this research is to study the application of these types of metaphors in legal texts, to gain a better understanding of them. For this purpose, we examine the use of ideational, interpersonal and textual metaphors by examining about 20 advisory theories of Iranian Legal Department of Justice randomly. The results of this study suggest that legal texts have their own unique style and that the reason for applying such metaphors is to make these texts distinctive. Therefore, a better and more accurate understanding of these texts can be achieved with a closer look at the analytical tools presented
Benguet Folktales: Bases for Tracing Family Bloodline?
Full text linkMany authors have classified folktales as fiction because these are just products of literary creativity. Also, authors say that they are not considered dogma or historical facts and they are generally the type of tales that fall in the category of fables and fairy tales. However, interviews, stories and local manuscripts show that folktales in the province of Benguet, Philippines might have actually happened; the characters in the stories may have existed. This study, therefore, is aimed at proving whether or not the characters in some Benguet folktales are real. Moreover, a deductive reasoning approach was used in this study to see if there are accounts, such as record books of families, which might prove the existence of the folktales’ characters. Through purposive sampling, three Benguet folktales were selected in the study. Regardless of what magical or unreal events happened in the selected folktale, it was proven that the characters were real since their descendants are still living in most parts of Benguet. Compelling evidence also revealed that the aforementioned characters of the two selected folktales were directly related. Hence, it was concluded that folktales are nonfiction, however, it would still depend on where the story came fro
Students’ Proficiency and Challenges in Filipino-to-English Translation: The Case of Filipino Senior High School Students in a Private Institutio
Full text linkTranslation has been considered an important linguistic skill for ESL students and is used as a remedy to repair linguistic barriers. This study is interested in exploring the proficiency and challenges encountered by Filipino students in Filipino-to-English translation. A class of twenty-seven (27) senior high school students in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) strand participated in this study. Employing sequential explanatory design, the researchers first administered a Filipino-to-English translation proficiency test, followed by a content analysis of their translations. Quantitative data showed that participants’ quality of translations was evaluated as poor, which is attributable to their lack mastery of both Filipino and English. This encapsulates their difficulty in achieving equivalency. Qualitative analyses revealed that the students encountered lexical-semantic, cultural, pragmatic, and grammatical challenges in translating. In particular, translation errors were mostly in grammar, specifically in pluralization, capitalization, inflections, tenses, subject-verb agreement, demonstrative pronoun use, and fragments. This study emphasizes the importance of effective language teaching practices especially in the Philippines where students are expected to possess proficiency in Filipino (the national language) and English, both official languages of the countr
Students’ Perception of Alternative Assessment: A Systematic Literature Review
Full text linkMany studies have been conducted on the implementation of alternative assessments on students. However, this study is carried out to explore definitions, characteristics, and students’ perceptions of alternative assessment at university and school level. One hundred and seventeen (n=117) journal articles were searched through different search engines, and only twenty-six (n=24) recent and relevant publications published between years 2002 to 2018 were included in this study, and remaining are excluded. Among inclusions, there were ten (n=10) quantitative researches, six (n=6) qualitative, seven (n=7) mix-mode, and one (1) review paper. The overall respondents of the studies were two thousand eight hundred and seven (n=2807). Most of the studies were carried in Asian countries such as Indonesia, Iran, Turkey, Malaysia, Bosnia, Thailand, and Egypt, and some of the studies were conducted in the USA, UK, Scotland, and Netherlands. The findings reveal that the learners have a positive perception of implementing the alternative assessment. Furthermore, the findings of some studies revealed that alternative assessment is preferable, while other researches indicated the alternative assessment favorably. Besides, some studies have suggested some recommendations for the implementation of alternative assessment
Diachronic Analysis of Italian Opera Librettos
Full text linkThe purpose of this article is to find out which are the most typical words used in Italian opera librettos in each of historical periods of opera and to see the evolution of their use. A word which statistically occurs in a corpus of texts more often than expected is called a keyword. The article shows a new approach in diachronic linguistics, proposing a different examination of keywords found with the Log-Likelihood method in a corpus of Italian opera’s librettos. To get the keywords, the libretto’s corpus was compared with a reference corpus which includes the most representative works of Italian literature. Later the librettos’ corpus was divided diachronically in 5 sub-corpora according to some historical periods. A new analysis of these sub-corpora was performed using a software tool written by the author called CorpStat. It allows to analyze the evolution in the use of lexicon of opera’s librettos. Often the Log-Likelihood statistical method was criticized mainly because some words qualifies as keywords, even if they appear only in one or very few texts. With the software CorpStat it was possible to validate words as real keywords taking into consideration the percentage of number of texts in which they appear. The analysis brings to the conclusion that only 41 keywords out of a list of first 200 keywords could be validated as real keywords. However, the diachronic analysis shows that a word is a real keyword only in a certain historical period, but not necessarily in another. This can be due to the changes of libretto’s plots and language along the history
The Effect of Virtual classes on Saudi EFL Students’ Speaking Skills
Full text linkDespite the widespread use of virtual classes in EFL teaching and learning and its success in many L1 and L2 countries, research on the impact of virtual classes on the development of speaking skills has not been touched upon satisfactorily in EFL settings, particularly in Saudi Arabia. To address this gap, the current study aims at exploring the effects of using the virtual classes on English majors’ speaking skills, and examining their attitudes towards the use of virtual classes. The study was conducted with 70 English students at Qassim University who were assigned into two groups, control (35) and experimental (35), after ensuring of their homogeneity by administering the Quick Placement Test. The virtual classes were used in teaching the experimental group, while the traditional method was used with the control one in the first term of the academic year (2019-2020). Data were collected from the study participants using an oral speaking test, an attitudinal questionnaire, and Semi-structured interviews. The results indicated that there were statistically significant differences between both groups in favor of the experimental group, in pronunciation, fluency, comprehension, grammar, and vocabulary due to the virtual classes. However, using virtual method appeared to be a more fruitful tool since the mean score of the experimental group (30.36) was much higher than the mean score of the control group (20.37). The questionnaire and interview findings also revealed that students generally had positive attitudes towards using virtual classes particularly because they found it helpful in improving their speaking skills. In light of those findings, the researcher suggested some recommendations that are hoped to help syllabus designers, supervisors, and English language teachers in developing teaching speaking skills
To What Extent Does Language Encourage Cross Cultural Problems in Intercultural Communication?
Full text linkIntercultural communication plays pivotal role in cross-cultural social context. Some scholars argue that the lack of language proficiency and competency may contribute to negative phenomena in the communication setting. However, this research paper argues that the failure to embrace cultural and psychological factors also pose serious cross-cultural problems. The study employed library research to gain evidences for this research. The result shows that insufficient cultural knowledge leads to injured feelings and judgment of impoliteness in cross-cultural setting. In addition, negative ethnocentrism and stereotype are the psychological factors that also triggered the problems. As the solution towards the barriers, this paper also suggests several strategies to establish successful intercultural communication when conducting verbal and non-verbal communication