Al-Kindi Center for Research and Development (KCRD) (E-Journals)
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The English Language Proficiency of Palawan State University Midwifery Students
No full textThe present study aims to respond to the necessity of research about the need to determine and assess the English Language Proficiency of allied medical courses and health sciences students. This study also paved the way for the discovery of reading comprehension problems in the students. The respondents are the thirty-five graduating students enrolled in Academic Year 2021-2022 under the Diploma in Midwifery program. A combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques was utilized. Questionnaires that tested the respondents’ writing and reading skills were used. Another tool used was the respondents’ journals and specified rubrics were used to gauge the outputs of the said tools. These reflective journals were considered by many language teachers to be one of the efficient ways of determining the language proficiency of a certain set of individuals. Their grades in their Related Learning Experience subjects where these journals constituted the majority of the computation, were correlated. Data showed that there is a significant correlation between the Related Learning Experience subject grades and the respondents’ language proficiency which vastly affected their learning skills. The findings in the correlation showed significant interaction between the variables. The demographic profile of the respondents affects their language proficiency to a noticeable degree. This can also be observed in their Related Learning Experience subject grades. The English language proficiency of the participants greatly affected their grades as was exhibited by this study. From these findings, the present study recommends that the College of Nursing and Health Sciences assess further their language proficiency regularly which in turn will assist in their learning
Informing the Development of an English for IT Program: A Study on Student Perceptions and Language Skill Usage
No full textEnglish proficiency is crucial for Information Technology (IT) students as it plays a vital role in their academic and professional success. This study aims to analyze IT students’ perceptions of their English language skills, focusing on their self-assessed mastery levels, frequency of use, and perceived importance of listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. The findings are intended to inform the development of an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) curriculum tailored to the linguistic demands of the IT field. A quantitative research design was employed, utilizing a survey method to collect data from IT students at Universitas Muhammadiyah Parepare. The data were gathered through a structured questionnaire distributed via Google Forms, encompassing Likert-scale items to measure students’ perceptions of their English proficiency. Descriptive statistical analysis was conducted to examine the frequency of language skill usage, self-assessed mastery levels, and the perceived importance of each skill in academic and professional contexts. The results reveal that IT students frequently use their listening and reading skills for engaging with multimedia content and academic materials, whereas speaking and writing skills are primarily used in informal settings such as daily conversations and social media. However, students report lower confidence in performing formal communication tasks, such as delivering presentations and writing business correspondence. Despite recognizing the importance of all four language skills, students perceive listening and reading as more critical for their academic performance, while speaking and writing are viewed as essential for career advancement. These findings highlight the need for an ESP curriculum that bridges the gap between academic preparation and professional language demands by integrating industry-relevant content and practice-oriented instructional strategies. The study concludes that enhancing IT students\u27 English proficiency requires targeted interventions that emphasize professional communication skills and real-world applications. The findings provide valuable insights for curriculum developers and educators in designing effective ESP programs that align with the evolving needs of IT students. Future research should explore the integration of technology-enhanced learning approaches and industry collaborations to further refine ESP instruction
Writing in English and Writing in Standard Arabic in Higher Education: A Correlational Study
No full textWriting as a mental and cognitive process entails bringing into light students’ written products. Writing in higher education is considered one of the most important skills that students should develop. In this regard, this study investigates the correlation between writing in Standard Arabic and writing in English among university students in Morocco. To verify this link, two tests were used as research instruments. Students were asked to write a paragraph in Standard Arabic and another in English. The participants were 33 male and female university students. To analyse the scores that students obtained in the two tests, a Pearson Product Moment correlation was used as a statistical procedure. The results indicate that there is a significant correlation between writing in Standard Arabic and writing in English. The students who performed well in Standard Arabic also did well in writing in English. It has also been found that there is a 21.20% relationship between the two variables under examination. The findings of this study support the Chomskyan Universal Grammar perspective. It also supports the notion of positive transfer. The results of this study have different implications for language teaching and learning
Reflective Journals and Pre-service EFL Teachers’ Professional Development: A Correlational Study
No full textTeacher professional development is essential for any teacher training program. To achieve this, pre-service teachers should engage in various activities and practices. One important practice is reflection, which can help teachers improve both their professional and personal performance. In Morocco, English Language Teaching (ELT) training programs, such as those at the Regional Center for Education and Training (CRMEF), use reflective portfolios to foster the professional development of pre-service teachers. This article examines the relationship between Moroccan pre-service EFL teachers maintaining reflective portfolios and their professional development. Data were collected from n=49 teacher trainees from different Moroccan CRMEFs. This correlational study was conducted using a five-point Likert scale questionnaire, ranging from "Strongly Disagree" to "Strongly Agree." Reliability was assessed using Cronbach’s Alpha, which indicated that the items had relatively high internal consistency. The Alpha coefficient for the items related to maintaining reflective portfolios was α = .939, and for those concerning teacher professional development was α = .976. The survey, created using Google Forms, was shared with participants via institutional emails and social media platforms. The collected data were processed and analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26. Due to the violation of some assumptions in this study, a Spearman’s Rho correlation coefficient test was employed. The results demonstrated a statistically significant positive correlation between keeping reflective portfolios and teacher professional development, r = .572, N = 49, p = 0.000. This study also offers pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research
Are Mandarin Chinese Speakers Prepared for Philippine English? Insights from PhD Students in Manila
No full textThe study explores how Mandarin Chinese PhD students in Manila perceive Philippine English and how they adapt to it through the World Englishes and Communication Accommodation Theory frameworks. Data were gathered for the project using a mixed-methods approach, completed through questionnaires (n=30) and interviews (n=9). Findings reveal a positive perception of legitimacy of Philippine English, highlighting its functional role in communication. Pronunciation challenges were found to be a major obstacle to intelligibility which mirrored an enduring conflict between English variants and Inner Circle standards. Participants employed adaptive strategies, such as simplifying grammar and selectively using localized vocabulary. These strategies fit well with the main focus of Communication Accommodation Theory, that is, to achieve linguistic convergence to mutual understanding. The results highlight the dual role of Philippine English as both a challenge and an enabler, and the relevance of adaptation to multilingual environments. Implications derive from integrating Philippine English into curriculum, as well as developing cross cultural communication skills
Active Participles in Bisha Colloquial Arabic
No full textActive participles have been extensively studied across various languages and some Arabic dialects; however, their specific characteristics in Bisha Colloquial Arabic (BCA) remain unexplored. This study seeks to address this gap by providing a comprehensive description of active participles in BCA, focusing on their morphological and syntactic features. Data were collected from two primary sources: classroom interactions involving undergraduate students and content from social media platforms. These sources provided rich examples of active participle usage in diverse contexts. The analysis identified and categorized active participles into three main types: nominal, deverbal, and adjectival. The analysis revealed distinct characteristics for each type of participle. Nominal participles exhibit fully nominal properties, such as forming construct states, accepting adjectival modification, and functioning as noun phrases. Deverbal participles retain verbal traits, including aspectual marking, argument structure, and adverbial modification, closely mirroring their corresponding verbs. Adjectival participles, by contrast, function as standard adjectives, agreeing in gender, number, and definiteness with the nouns they modify. Additionally, BCA participles follow the faʕil morphological template, aligning with Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) in their derivation. However, BCA diverges from MSA by simplifying agreement rules for gender, number, and definiteness, prioritizing ease of communication. Despite these differences, BCA participles retain several features common to MSA and other Arabic dialects, particularly those of southern Saudi Arabia. This study demonstrates that active participles in BCA display a dynamic interplay of nominal and verbal characteristics, offering a unique linguistic balance. The findings contribute valuable insights into the structure and flexibility of active participles across Arabic varieties
Vendler’s Situation Types in Different Languages: A Cross-Linguistic Study
No full textAiming at offering increasingly more evidence for Vendler’s renowned situation types and proving the similarity among world languages, the essay begins by delivering an overview of situation types put forward by Vendler in Verbs and Times. Next, cross-linguistic language facts, including English, Chinese, French, Korean, Icelandic, and Turkish, to name a few, are collected to provide proofs and analyses for the theory. To conclude, the selected evidences are likely to account for the similarity among those languages to some degree and the effectiveness of Vendler’s situations types
Subtitling Islamic Cultural Items: A Cross-Genre Analysis of Arabic Films Subtitled into English
No full textThis study investigates the applicability of Al-Shlool\u27s (2023) taxonomy of subtitling strategies for Islamic cultural items (ICIs) across various film genres beyond documentaries. The taxonomy, which includes nine strategies—loan, literal translation, substitution, transposition, addition, compensation, dummy compensation, omission, and condensation—has been applied exclusively to Arabic documentary films subtitled into English. To expand the scope of this taxonomy, the study examines ICIs in drama, comedy, and action films. A corpus of 15 films (five from each genre), subtitled into English and available on major video-on-demand platforms, was analysed. The study specifically addresses the density of ICIs in the source text (DST), genre-specific patterns in DST, and the subtitling strategies used and evaluates the effectiveness of Al-Shlool\u27s taxonomy in reflecting cultural nuances across these genres. The findings highlight how genre influences the selection of subtitling strategies, offering valuable insights into the broader applicability of the taxonomy. This research contributes to the field of audiovisual translation by exploring the genre-specific challenges of preserving cultural meaning and ensuring linguistic accuracy in subtitling
Automatic Discovery of Nativelike Selections through Topic Modeling: an Experiment Based on Online Reviews
No full textNativelike selections are linguistic expressions favored by native speakers over other grammatically correct alternatives to express a certain concept. They are important items for language teaching and lexicography. This study proposes an automatic method for discovering them through the application of the topic modeling technique of BERTopic which discovers the frequent linguistic expressions that express the same topic. The method’s effectiveness and efficiency are demonstrated through an experiment based on online reviews of a dish soap product in English, Chinese, and Japanese
An Exploration of the Japanese-Chinese Textbook Manzhou Tuyu Annei
No full textThe original version of the Manzhou Tuyu Annei was a manuscript, a purely military Chinese textbook in the northeastern dialect compiled by the Japanese First Army Command for soldiers going to war during the Russo-Japanese War to facilitate the army\u27s marching and combat operations. The textbook is characterized by its distinctive military and northeastern dialect features. This article focuses on the nature and linguistic characteristics of the textbook by analysing the context in which it was published, which in turn reveals the military attributes of the textbook. The study found that the military features of the textbook are reflected in a large number of military words and military conversations, and the general linguistic features are reflected in the shortness of the utterances, the colloquialisms, the high use of suffixation words, the distinctive features of the northeastern dialect, the emphasis on the repetition of word-sentence patterns, the large number of overlapping words, and the emphasis on the principle of word categorisation