Effect of in-Class Activities Based on Vocabulary Learning Strategies on Saudi EFL Learners’ Achievement and Perspectives (Published)
Current pretest-posttest Classroom Action Research (CAR) attempted to examine the effect of in-class activities based on VLSs on vocabulary achievement and their perspectives on using them. The research sample consisted of 43 female Saudi EFL students in Community College at Taibah University. Participants were assigned to an experimental group (N=23) and a control group (N=20). Data were collected via five research instruments: a vocabulary achievement test, three vocabulary subskills quizzes, a final course exam, a questionnaire, and reflection cards. Results showed that the EFL students in the experimental group enhanced vocabulary learning in VAT, the final course exam, and the scores of the vocabulary sub-skills quizzes. Results also revealed positive perspectives toward implementing vocabulary activities. These results suggested that using the in-class activities based on the different VLSs significantly affected Saudi EFL female students’ vocabulary achievement.
Keywords: Perspectives, Reflection, in-class activities, vocabulary achievement, vocabulary learning, vocabulary learning strategies (VLSS)
Textual Orientation to Cculture-Sansitive Proverbs Meanings in Selected Ahmed Yerima’s Yoruba Culture-Based Plays (Published)
Proverbs have attracted a lot of attention in linguistic scholarship. Specifically, scholars have addressed the thematic and figurative features of proverbs in the espousal of ethnic experiences of different communities from sociolinguistic, stylistic, semantic and pragmatic perspectives. Observation has shown that Pragmatic efforts have however ignored emphasis on the impact of textual parts, especially, common grounds in character’s interactions through shared situational knowledge (SSK) and shared cultural knowledge (SCK) of interlocutors in proverbial interpretations. With the application of Kecskes (2014) socio-cognitive principle of common grounds, this study examines purposively selected Yoruba proverbs in Ahmed Yerima’s Yoruba-culture based plays Mojagbe and Ajagunmale with a view to determining their meanings relative to Yerima’s pragmatic intentions. The study reveals that proverbs which mainly have linguistic roots in metaphor are interpretively aided by common ground items of shared situational knowledge (SSK) and shared cultural knowledge (SCK) in characters’ utterances to pragmatically serve to warn/caution, emphasize, lament, accuse, and explain in the plays. This linguistic contribution to existing literature on Ahmed Yerima’s plays is significant for aiding the understanding of form-function nexus in context-sensitive proverbial interpretation in fictional discourse in linguistic scholarship in Nigeria.
Citation: Ade A. and Ige N. (2023) Textual Orientation to Cculture-Sansitive Proverbs Meanings in Selected Ahmed Yerima’s Yoruba Culture-Based Plays, International Journal of English Language and Linguistics Research, Vol.11, No 1, pp.26-41
Keywords: Meaning, Perspectives, Proverbial interpretations, literary pragmatic principle