Interconnection of Cultural Literacy in Learning English and its Understanding as a Foreign Language in Higher Education (Published)
This research analyzed the model of cultural literacy in learning and understanding English as a foreign language in higher education. Cultural literacy is closely related to applying English as the main foreign language in higher education. The lecturer became a role model and a central point in introducing and guiding students to understand cultural literacy and English as a foreign language. Moroever, this study portrayed a qualitative descriptive method. Five lecturers from private higher education in Malang city were recruited as informants in gathering information. Furthermore, the study unraveled that cultural literacy and learning English as a foreign language had interconnections to explore each other’s culture from any aspect, thus, creating adjacent dialogic and informative spaces as intercultural communications.
Citation: Abd. Syakur, Sugirin, Margana (2023) Interconnection of Cultural Literacy in Learning English and its Understanding as a Foreign Language in Higher Education, International Journal of English Language and Linguistics Research, Vol.11, No 2, pp.1-8
Keywords: English, Foreign Language, Higher Education, cultural literacy
Adaptations and Linguistic Manipulation of English Words in Alaroye Newspaper (Published)
Language is an important vehicle of thought and culture and people’s cultural identity is embedded in their language. Nigeria is a multilingual nation and English which has become a global language serves various functions in the country. It enjoys dominance in different levels and it is employed in the media as a source of disseminating information to the people. The data for this research were derived from one edition of Alaroye newspaper and analysed using Labov’s variability concept which stresses how language systems affect one another within a speech community. A total number of 66 words were identified from the newspaper for analysis. The Alaroye is a weekly indigenous newspaper written in Yoruba language and it has been chosen for this study because of its use of the deviant form and style of writing. The study revealed that many English words have been incorporated into the Yoruba language and such expressions dominate the Alaroye newspaper as journalists modify English words to fit into Yoruba expressions. This paper investigates the usage of these words in preference to their natural equivalents in the Yoruba language to reveal the great influence of the English language; its dominance over the Yoruba language and the attendant effects on the Yoruba language and concludes that English influence on the Yoruba language has greatly affected its orthography as the incursion of these English words will likely, in the nearest future change the normal or natural way in which the Yoruba language is written and used.
Keywords: Alaroye newspaper, Culture, English, Yoruba, language change
Pronunciation Encumbrances for Omani EFL Students at the English Language Centre of the Salalah College of Technology: A Pre Observational Study (Published)
The study investigated the pronunciation encumbrances encountered by different linguistic groups of Omani students in the English Language Center at Salalah College of Technology. The study employed teachers’ observations and inferences as a research method to delve deeper in the nature and causes of the students’ pronunciation difficulties. Teachers’ inferences and narratives constitute the sum total of the students’ pronunciation problems in English as well as their recalled experiences over the span of teaching in the center.
Keywords: English, Learning, Pronunciation, encumbrances
English Expressions in Ghana’s Parliament (Published)
This paper takes a look at the English language spoken on the floor of parliament by Ghanaian parliamentarians. It attempts to ascertain the English features of Ghanaian parliamentarians and whether the identified features can be described as Ghanaian English. The study was guided by the syntactic features given as typical of WAVE (Bokamba, 1991) and the grammatical description of African Englishes (Schmied, 1991) and a careful reading of the Hansard which is the daily official report of parliamentary proceeding. It is revealed that the English spoken by Ghanaian parliamentarians has identifiable Ghanaian features that can support the claim that their English is typically Ghanaian.
Keywords: Education, English, Ghana, Language, Parliament
Iconicity vs. Arbitrariness of Sound Symbolism Phenomenon through a Contrastive Analysis Framework (Published)
This paper reports on the comparison and contrast drawn between sound symbols of Persian, English, and Spanish In order to embody the form-meaning relationship from a universal point of view. 140 sound symbols chosen from Persian onomatopoeic dictionary (1996) and their English and Spanish counterparts were first categorized according to Hinton et al.’s (1994) typology. Using Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis the phonemes were described and contrasted in three languages afterwards. Prediction was made consequently. Together the findings suggest that no absolute arbitrariness or iconicity could be considered for sound symbols. As a matter of fact there are different sound symbols categories and each is of a special degree of iconicity/arbitrariness. It is inferred that a continuum can best demonstrate the order and degree of iconicity for sound symbols.
Keywords: Contrastive Analysis, English, Persian, Sound Symbols, Spanish
Theatrical Translation: Problems in Translating ‘The Sandbox’ From Standard English into Central Kurdish. (Published)
Translating is a problematic process, and the problems rooted in different aspects, different types of translation might acquire various obstacles, including literary translation and theatrical translation. Amongst other types of translation, the translation of theater has specific problems, as it deals with text and spoken message. Besides, translating from a developed language like English into a minor language of Kurdish may face some other problems. This article, sheds light on the relationship between translation and theater and the problems faced in translating the theater of ‘the sandbox’ from English into Kurdish, and the how the problems of translation solved through different translational strategies.
Keywords: English, Kurdish, Sandbox, Theatrical Translation, translation
TOWARDS RAISING CONCEPTUAL AWARENESS: ENGLISH-ARABIC IDIOMS OF EQUIVALENT LINGUISTIC FORM AND DIFFERENT CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS (Published)
According to many studies on idioms, the most difficult ones are those that are linguistically equivalent but conceptually different. The researcher has collected a number of idioms from English and Arabic that belong to this type with a view to detecting the sources of this conceptual difference based on the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff, 1980, 2003) and the subsequent cognitive literature. The source of difficulty is proven to emanate from cultural encoding, including cultural experience, perspective, range, and gesture. The differences in the connotative load of the idiomatic words can also be a reason for the conceptual variance. The study stresses the need for raising conceptual awareness to support language learning
Keywords: Arabic, Conceptual Metaphor, English, Idioms