Linguistics Initiative
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What Do Students' Need in Learning English for Constitutional Law?
This research aims to determine the need for English in the Constitutional Law class and the students’ problems in learning English. The writers applied a narrative qualitative research method. The participants of this research were the Constitutional Law Study Program students at the State Islamic Institute of Palopo in the 2022/2023 academic year. Ninety-five students (35 males and 60 females) were involved in this research. The data collection method was the survey by distributing a questionnaire through Google Forms. The questionnaires consisted of 26 statements with choices the participants had to select. The writers used a Likert Scale. The results of data analysis were presented using quantitative and qualitative methods. The research findings identified speaking and listening as the two most crucial English skills; 35 students were at an intermediate level, and 43.5% of students struggled to construct sentences in English correctly. 71.6% of students struggled to understand the text because of the lack of vocabulary. The students answered about learning materials they need to learn. 48% of students chose the topic of introduction to Constitutional Law. They (34.7%) find it difficult to use punctuation, capitalization, and spelling. In the setting aspect, the students answered their favourite places for learning English. Most students (44.2%) like studying in the classroom
Podcast and Translation Learning as a Means of Developing Students' Reading, Speaking, and Listening Skills
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of employing podcast content and translation to improve reading, listening, and speaking abilities. An analysis using a mix of methods was developed to address such a query. To address such an issue, a treatment has to be administered. In the tenth grade of high school, there were ten students. For the lesson, the students used books with podcasts and translation-method content. To improve students' reading and listening abilities, the teacher began using podcasts. The teacher used translation to make understanding easier. The teacher instructed the students in grammar by taking the text's message to heart. In order to improve students' speaking abilities, the teacher also taught retelling, explaining pictures, and discussion. Pre and post tests were administered as part of the treatment. An assessment rubric was utilized to evaluate the pre-test and post-test. Analysis was done on the pre-test and post-test results. It is possible to conclude from the analysis of this type of result that the use of podcasts and translation to improve reading and listening comprehension and speak more fluently is successful. This outcome can be used by the teachers to teach the pertinent subjects. It can also be developed for comparable applications by other researchers
An Analysis of Taboo on Netizen’s Comments on the Cambodia SEA Games 2023’s Instagram Account
The Indonesian people are currently overjoyed by the upcoming 2023 SEA Games, which held in Cambodia. Instead of being proud and moved, netizens shouted insults in the comments section of the official SEA Games Cambodia Instagram account. The committee made a mistake during the opening ceremony of the SEA Games, causing widespread outrage and disappointment among Indonesian citizens. This study is a descriptive qualitative method with a sociolinguistics approach. The technique of collecting the data by using the documentation technique. The goal of this study is to discover the types and functions of taboo words in netizens’ comments about the Cambodia_2023 Instagram account. The theories of Timothy Jay (1992) and Raymond D Liedlich (1973) are applied to analyze the types and functions of taboo words. The results of the types of taboos are: (1) Epithets 41,8%, (2) Vulgarity 13,6%, (3) Cursing 7,6%, (4) Scatology 28,3%, and slang 8,7%. The functions are: (1) Discredit, (2) Creating, (3) Endearment, (4) Creating strong personal
A Genre Analysis of Minutes of Academic Meetings: A Case Study of a Technical University in Ghana
Genre analysis has received much attention in the recent few decades, in which different genres have been analyzed for their rhetorical features for academic and pedagogical purposes. One genre that has received very little attention in Ghanaian scholarship is meeting minutes. Meeting minutes are a cross-disciplinary genre and play crucial roles in organizations such as academic institutions, including serving as official records of all formal meeting proceedings and resolutions. From the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) tradition, this study explores the communicative events described in minutes of meetings. Using Swales' (1990) moves and steps genre analysis framework, a corpus of twenty-four minutes of meetings was collected from Sunyani Technical University and analyzed for their rhetorical structures as well as grammatical features that characterize these rhetorical events. The results show that the communicative events of the minutes are composed of a six-move structure: heading (Move 1), auxiliary information (Move 2), opening (Move 3), reference to previous minutes (Move 4), the content of the meeting (Move 5), and closing (Move 6). The prominent grammatical features that characterize these moves are tense (89.3% past and 10.7% present), voice (67.9% active and 32.1% passive), and sentence structure (48.8% simple, 29.8% complex, and 21.4% compound). These results have implications for the existing scholarship on meeting minutes, professional development (i.e. developing courses for secretarial students), and further research. It is expected that the knowledge of moves and grammatical features can help the students and novice secretaries practice writing minutes of meetings effectively
On-Air, Off-Balance: Detecting and Examining Media Biases in Filipino Sportscasting
With sports gaining global acclaim and recognition, media outlets have extensively covered a myriad of sporting events with a particular emphasis on international tournaments. In the digital age, media is crucial for disseminating news and shaping audience perspectives especially in sportscasting where local sportscasters tend to show affection and allegiance to their home nation by providing more airtime and positive commentaries to athletes representing their country. Such an approach shortchanges the viewers’ right to unbiased and diverse perspectives. Hence, it is imperative for media outlets, particularly during live sports broadcasts, to adeptly navigate and manage biases, given the significant impact of nationalistic positioning on sports media. In this study, the researchers analyzed the language employed by sportscasters in the local media coverage of the games of the Philippines Men’s Basketball Team, also known as Gilas Pilipinas, during the FIBA World Cup 2023. Following a mixed-method approach, the study sought to understand how sportscasters detect and manage media biases through corpus analysis. The investigation involved identifying prevalent forms of media biases within the study corpus, focusing on lexico-semantic, discourse, and pragmatic constructions that serve as indicators of these biases. The study findings indicated that all the analyzed sports broadcasts contained evident manifestations of media biases. Moreover, it was revealed that Filipino sportscasters exhibited a range of media biases favoring Gilas Pilipinas, and that the media biases in their utterances were affected by the phenomenon of nationalistic positioning that raises concerns about fairness and impartiality. Consequently, the frequency of these biased expressions in sportscasters' utterances was found to be contingent upon the specific context, varying with the situation. Furthermore, these biases can be identified through specific linguistic cues and features. This paper underscores the importance of fostering a more equitable sportscasting environment while simultaneously fortifying language and media education initiatives
Pharmacological Onomastics: The Case of Herbal Drugs in Ghana
The study is an exploration of the naming system in herbal medicines within the linguistic landscape in Ghana. Brand names are more than just labels. A lot of considerations go into choosing a name for a product brand. This study takes a walk into the world of pharmaceutical onomastics with 105 herbal medicines taken from the Ghanaian market. We examine the names from the perspectives of pharmacology, branding, and the interplay of marketing, socio-cultural as well as linguistic factors. The analysis revealed, first, that most of the brands deployed bilingual names, with just a few utilising monolingual names. Closely allied to this finding is the trend of encompassing the drug indications and compositions in the name. The practice of naming the drug after people, especially manufacturers, is also observed. These key findings have implications for the scholarship in onomastics, pharmacology, sociolinguistics, and further research
The Analysis of Lyrics in Indonesian Folksong as Local Traditional Music
Indonesia is a country with thousands of cultures. The cultural enrichment in Indonesia was caused by this country's diversity, including various ethnic groups, languages, dialects, traditions, religions, local dances, and local music. Folksong is one of the cultural varieties in Indonesia, especially from a music perspective. In Indonesia, almost every region has its folksong, and every folksong has its different language, which can be distinguished from one another because its nature that every folksong is unique. Therefore, this research aims to analyze the lyrics in Indonesian folksong and the recognition of Indonesian traditional music, specifically folksong. The effort in this research is shown as the writer's dedication to searching the material resources through journals, books, and other reading media as this research adopts the narrative review approach. The result shows the philosophical and cultural comprehension or understanding regarding the lyrics of Indonesian folksong
Teachers’ Strategies in Teaching Speaking at High Schools: Obstacles and Challenges
This research analyzed the teachers’ strategy in teaching speaking skills and the teachers’ difficulties in teaching speaking skills at senior high schools in Palopo. This research used a narrative qualitative method. The participants consisted of three teachers. The researchers used two instruments to collect data: observations and interviews. The researchers analyzed the research results using Miles and Huberman data analysis model. The results show that Teacher 1 uses the method of grouping, discussion, games, and describing pictures. Teacher 2 uses video, audio, roleplay, minidictionary, and word chain methods. Teacher 3 uses the multimedia method of describing home, reporting, and storytelling. In addition, specific challenges faced include students with limited vocabulary, lack of student engagement, students experiencing physical and mental fatigue towards the end of the day, and constraints regarding resources and practice facilities. Since the examined strategies and procedures are relevant to the Indonesian national curriculum, they were helpful for communication in Indonesian high school classrooms
Language Learning Strategies and Students' Thinking Styles Correlation in Learning English in EFL Classroom
The study aimed to ascertain whether students' thought patterns and language learning practices were correlated. This study uses a quantitative research design called a correlation study. Only English education students in their fifth semester—45 of whom were still enrolled—were included in the study's population. The research sample only randomly took 30 out of 45 students actively registering using the sample collection technique. The data-gathering process involved the use of two questionnaires as the primary instruments. The Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) assesses students’ language learning techniques, and the Thinking Style Inventory (TSI) analyzes students' thinking patterns. Meanwhile, the researcher employed the Person Product Moment analysis technique to find the association between the two variables. The results showed no link or minimal correlation between language acquisition and students’ thinking styles
Making a Case for New Directions in English Language Research at University of Cape Coast (UCC): A Meta-Analysis
Drawing insights from existing studies on research synthesize (e.g. Farsani & Babaii, 2018/2020; Plonsky & Oswald, 2015), this study engages in a meta-analysis of MPhil theses from the Department of English, University of Cape Coast (UCC), in order to make a case for new directions for language research in the department. A critical content analytical approach was adopted to analyse eighteen (18) theses purposively sampled from the University of Cape Coast Institutional Theses Repository. The analysis focused on the research topics/domains, theoretical frameworks adopted, and research methods used. The study revealed following: (a) most of the studies were conducted in the domain of the media; (b) while most of the studies employed the qualitative research paradigm, very few adopted the mixed method approach and no study employed the quantitative approach; and (c) most of the studies were underpinned by the Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) theory while few employed the Theory of Nativization and Genre Theory. The study contends that there should be a shift in the focus of MPhil thesis to make it possible for the adoption of the mixed method and quantitative approaches as well as theories such as pragmatics, language variation, generative linguistics and corpus stylistics