Vol. 5 No. 1 (2023)

Open Access

Editorial

Article ID: 870

Editorial review on Vol. 5 No. 1

by Zhonggen Yu

Forum for Linguistic Studies, Vol.5, No.1, pp. 5(1), 250-252; , 2023; 11 Views, 14 PDF Downloads

N/A

Open Access

Article

Article ID: 858

The implementation of English as a compulsory subject in Mongolia: EFL teachers’ perceptions and experiences

by Daariimaa Marav, Lee Jin Choi

Forum for Linguistic Studies, Vol.5, No.1, pp. 5(1), 13-27; , 2023; 24 Views, 20 PDF Downloads

In responding to neoliberal globalization, the importance of English language education has been strongly emphasized in many Asian countries, including Mongolia, during the past several decades. Despite the nationwide prioritization of English language education in Mongolia, little research has examined the experiences and challenges of English teachers in teaching English as a compulsory subject in Mongolian secondary schools. This study aims to address this gap by exploring teachers’ perceptions of teaching English and the challenges they encounter, by interviewing forty-three private and public-school teachers. The findings indicate that although teachers had positive attitudes about the nationwide emphasis on English education, they also have experienced a variety of challenges, including workload, lack of professional development and support, lack of shared vision and supportive leadership, and other tensions related to low pay and the social status of schoolteachers in that country. Furthermore, the study recommends that the Mongolian government must create initiatives to reduce educational inequality associated with access to quality English language education, for instance, by increasing funding for public schools, raising awareness of teachers about their importance for the future of the country, and improving the quality of pre-service and in-service teacher education. 

Open Access

Article

Article ID: 859

Sociolinguistic dimensions of dialect space of Ukraine and Poland

by Nataliia Medynska, Svitlana Grytsenko, Tetiana Tyshchenko, Lesya Kyslyak, Borys Kovalenko

Forum for Linguistic Studies, Vol.5, No.1, pp. 5(1), 28-54; , 2024; 6 Views, 11 PDF Downloads

The aim of the research is to analyse the use of lexical, grammatical and morphological dialectisms-Polonisms in speech by the inhabitants of Nadsanie in various spheres of life (family, household, business, and education). The research involved the following general scientific and sociolinguistic methods: diagnostic (questionnaire), discursive, and intentional methods; the statistical method—mathematical processing of data obtained during the experiment; and the descriptive method—description and recording of the results. The following results were found through the application of the said methods for the analysis of respondents’ answers. Hence, the use of lexical, grammatical and morphological dialects tends to gradually decrease in older and middle age groups, the actual disappearance among young people. Given the socio-historical situation of modern Ukraine, sociolinguistic study of dialectisms-Polonisms showed how the independence of their own state contributes to the development of their own ethnographic dialectisms, as well as the gradual decline and disappearance of other languages. Further research involves the study of dialectisms-Polonisms in other territories of Western Ukraine and the areas which are close to the Polish border. The studies of other groups of dialectisms-Polonisms (in particular, phonetic and syntactic) and the elements of dialectisms-Ukrainianisms in the Polish language are also promising.

Open Access

Article

Article ID: 860

Discourse analysis on online gender-based humor: Markers of normalization, tolerance, and lens of inequality

by Jason V. Chavez, Rosalina T. Del Prado

Forum for Linguistic Studies, Vol.5, No.1, pp. 5(1), 55-71; , 2024; 61 Views, 22 PDF Downloads

Language is one of the most powerful means through which sexism and gender discrimination are perpetrated and reproduced (Menegatti and Rubini, 2017). The study examined the contrarian features of gender-based online humor in relation to the mainstreaming of gender and development (GAD). Discourse analysis was used as a method in examining discourse markers of online gender-based humor in terms of defaulting jokes as normal, tolerating sexist jokes, and perceiving that inequality in gender is reality. Fourteen (14) participants who are persons in power or authority, persons based on their educational attainment, persons based on their gender roles, and persons from different generational classifications participated in the study which utilized online gender-based-mapper, one-on-one interviews, and FGD-oriented instruments for the extraction and analysis of the research. After the analysis, it was revealed that the normalization of online gender jokes was prevalent in social media. Normalization proceeds as a way of life in making things light in the conversation and making these conversations intending to have enjoyment and entertainment. For tolerating sexist jokes, it appears that the actors in the online set-up manifest the markers for tolerance through “negligence” which seems to be alarming language production and language distribution to as many social media players.

Open Access

Article

Article ID: 861

Emotion concept disgust and its German counterparts: Equivalence determination based on language corpora data

by Kostiantyn Mizin, Liudmyla Slavova, Liubov Letiucha, Oleksandr Petrov

Forum for Linguistic Studies, Vol.5, No.1, pp. 5(1), 72-90; , 2023; 13 Views, 10 PDF Downloads

Our two-stage methodology was tested in order to determine the most accurate equivalent for Anglo-Saxon emotion concept (EC) disgust among German ekel, abneigung, abneigung and abscheu. At the first stage, the authors identified the closest in terms of content equivalents to disgust on the basis of the comparison of the German ECs names definitions in explanatory and bilingual dictionaries. It was established that equivalence with disgust, albeit incomplete, is shown only by the nouns Ekel and Abscheu, which are so semantically close to each other that they can be used interchangeably in some contexts. At the second stage, on the basis of a comparative analysis of the most frequent collocates of the concept names disgust, ekel and abscheu in representative corpora of the English and German languages, (a) the relevant content of these concepts was established and (b) a comparison of their semantic structures was made according to the criteria of arousal and valence. A comparison of the semantic structures of disgust, ekel and abscheu revealed that both German concepts show numerous overlaps with disgust. At the same time, abscheu is semantically more similar to disgust than ekel. This indicates that the transfer of disgust to the German language community by means of ekel and abscheu can be quite adequate, since both of these concepts evoke associations in representatives of German-speaking culture similar to those that arise in Anglo-Saxons in connection with disgust.

Open Access

Article

Article ID: 863

Difficulties and strategies of teaching Spanish language to collegiate Chavacano learners

by Melanie F. Lear, Aubrey F Reyes

Forum for Linguistic Studies, Vol.5, No.1, pp. 5(1), 103-116; , 2023; 35 Views, 23 PDF Downloads

Spanish-based creole, Chavacano, is widely known for its close resemblance to the actual Spanish language especially in lexicons. Its Spanish-like quality seems to capture most of the vocabulary of the language. The purpose of this study was to determine the difficulties of Chavacano speakers in learning Spanish. Narrative data from eight Spanish language teachers teaching in southern Philippines were used to analyze the challenges of their students, as well as to determine the emerging strategies used by these teachers. The findings indicated that collegiate Chavacano learners had trouble in learning the verb conjugation, the structure, and its grammar in general. Additionally, the teachers observed that their students are “not very motivated” in learning the language. Notably, students do not consider Spanish as an important language in their future career. In regards to strategies, inductive methods were the most dominant strategies that Spanish language teachers harness and implement in their classrooms. The narrative data in this study set a new theoretical context for language learning which is essential in the fields of education, communication, linguistics, and learning. Nevertheless, this study encompassed how teachers were able to harness the Spanish language teaching within their challenging classrooms.

Open Access

Article

Article ID: 864

Discourse analysis of texts on Iraq-Iran War: A case study of Persian to English narrations

by Mohammad Amin Mozaheb, Amir Ghajarieh, Salman Abazari

Forum for Linguistic Studies, Vol.5, No.1, pp. 5(1), 117-129; , 2023; 18 Views, 9 PDF Downloads

While critical discourse analysis has gained solid ground in war literature and narratives, few studies have used this analytical tool to scrutinize the translation of ideology in the literature relating to war. This study aimed to analyze how ideology was (re)produced and translated in the Iraq-Iran War narrations. To this end, a sample from a corpus of such narrations was selected and analyzed based on Farahzad’s (2012) CDA model. The results showed that ideologies produced in the proto-texts were rendered in the meta-texts with a few alterations at the textual level and with no change at the semiotic level. The findings indicated the role of ideology in shaping the translated text and revealed how language can be manipulated as a social practice to support ideologies, maintain power, and serve the interests of powerful groups in society. Such materials could also shape the reader’s mind about war. Parallel studies would shed more light on the function of ideology in war literature, narratives and translation processes. This research has implications for professional translators, translation educators, translation teachers and students as well as policymakers for publications of translated texts loaded with ideologies, raising their awareness regarding the importance of critical discourse analysis in translation studies to trace hidden ideologies in texts and meta-texts.

Open Access

Article

Article ID: 865

The development of Ukrainian university students’ discourse-oriented translation competence in Chinese and English as foreign languages

by Oleksandra Popova, Oleksandra Morhun

Forum for Linguistic Studies, Vol.5, No.1, pp. 5(1), 130-159; , 2023; 11 Views, 13 PDF Downloads

The manuscript covers some methodological issues related to the development of Ukrainian university students’ discourse-oriented translation competence in Chinese and English as foreign languages at the State Institution “South Ukrainian National Pedagogical University named after K. D. Ushynsky”, Odesa, Ukraine (Ushynsky University). Against the backdrop of the competence-based curriculum design for training translators, this research is aimed at investigating the structure of the discourse-oriented translation competence and possible means that contribute to its development within specialized translator training in Chinese and English majors. The importance of the study is actualized through the analysis of translation competence models which can be applied to different professional spheres alongside teaching methods and technologies that can provide for students’ academic success. In this perspective, the discourse-oriented translation competence indices as well as evaluation criteria of students’ proficiency level (excellent, sufficient, satisfactory, and low) were determined. The authors used the research tools as follows: the methods of systemic and content-based analyses to examine and generalize the theoretical foundation for the topic under focus, to systemize the outcomes of the study; focused observation using two similar multiple-choice questionnaires and the register as tools for data collecting in three groups of bachelor students majoring in Translation Studies (Chinese/English major and Chinese/English minor) and one group of Chinese/English teachers at the platform of Ushynsky University.

Open Access

Article

Article ID: 866

Emotional connection and ease of learning the Spanish language among young adult Chavacano speakers

by Carlo T. Nabo, Rodney I. Ebrole

Forum for Linguistic Studies, Vol.5, No.1, pp. 5(1), 160-172; , 2023; 47 Views, 32 PDF Downloads

Chavacano was the product of early Spanish colonization. It was able to adapt to the dynamic of the Philippine culture for centuries. Then, it later became a separate language spoken mostly in Cavite and Zamboanga Peninsula. This study was exploratory research that contextualize the ease of learning Spanish language based on linguistic, cultural, and emotional domains. Eight students who are native Chavacano speakers in Zamboanga City were interviewed for the study. The findings indicated that the close resemblance of lexical and phonological components of Chavacano to Spanish influenced the learning of the native speakers. Cognates played an essential role in cognition and interpreting basic words from Spanish to simpler ideas in Chavacano. Cognition guessing was determined to be a major contributor to language learning for orthographies. For native Chavacano speakers, cognition guessing was a mechanism for language learning in Spanish where learners happened to deduce the meaning of a word by comparing it to a language they know. Additionally, social-cultural relatedness between Chavacano and Spanish mediated the learning in certain manner. Learners were able to emotionally relate themselves to the culture of their target language which in turn influenced language transfer. Such mechanism was firstly observed in learning the second language but later also applied in bilingualism and foreign languages. This study established theoretical connection of ease of learning the Spanish language through phonology, lexical similarities, and its sociocultural resemblance to Chavacano.

Open Access

Article

Article ID: 856

A comparative study of solitary and teacher-led pre-task planning effect on EFL university learners’ writing performance: A case of an online platform amidst COVID-19

by Zahra Zohoorian

Forum for Linguistic Studies, Vol.5, No.1, pp. 5(1), 173-196; , 2023; 11 Views, 12 PDF Downloads

Many educational institutions turned to the employment of online platforms during the Corona crisis. However, there were concerns for the students’ solitary plans of learning as in many parts of the world students did not have the experience of such online courses. This study compared the effect of a solitary pre-task intervention with a teacher-led pre-task planning on the Iranian EFL learners’ writing performance during COVID-19. Besides, it investigated the patterns of improve-ment in writing through an 8-session treatment conducted through Skype. Having employed a qua-si-experimental design through repeated measures, the researcher sought voluntary participation of 40 Iranian EFL university students who were randomly assigned to the control and experimental groups. The intervention included the instruction of seven types of paragraphs, which led to a writ-ten task as their writing performance. The repeated measures ANOVA and t-test results confirmed that both teacher-led pre-task planning and solitary pre-task planning elicited a statistically signifi-cant improvement within groups in students’ writing scores from the first session to the last session with an exception of the very last session for the solitary group which could be due to lack of inter-nal motivation. There was no significant difference between the two groups in their writing perfor-mance leading to the conclusion that solitary pre-task planning has been as effective as teacher-led. Thus, both types of pre-task planning can be operative in enhancing learners’ writing performance in a virtual environment. 

Open Access

Article

Article ID: 868

A comparative analysis of Indian sign language recognition using deep learning models

by Bunny Saini, Divya Venkatesh, Nikita Chaudhari, Tanaya Shelake, Shilpa Gite, Biswajeet Pradhan

Forum for Linguistic Studies, Vol.5, No.1, pp. 5(1), 197-222; , 2023; 25 Views, 14 PDF Downloads

Sign language is a form of communication where people use bodily gestures, particularly those of hands and arms. This method of communication is put into motion when spoken communication is unattainable or disfavored. There are very few people who can translate sign language and readily understand them. It would be convenient for the hearing-impaired to have a platform where their sign language could be translated easily. Hence, through this study, with the help of artificial neural networks, we wish to compare how various widely implemented deep learning architectures respond to faultless translation of Indian sign language for the native audience. This research would streamline the development of software tools that can accurately predict or translate ISL. For the purpose of understanding the method of training the machine and exploring our model’s performance without any optimizations, a Convolutional Neural Network architecture was implemented. Over the course of our research, there have been several Pre-trained Transfer Learning Models implemented that have yielded promising results. The research aims to contrast how various convolutional neural networks perform while translating Indian Sign Actions on a custom dataset that factors in illumination, angles, and different backgrounds to provide a balanced and distinctive set of images. The goal of this study is to make clear comparisons between the various deep learning frameworks. Hence, a fresh Indian sign language dataset is introduced. Since every dataset in the field of deep learning has special properties that may be utilized for the betterment of the existing models, the development of a fresh dataset could be viewed as a development in the field. The optimum model for our task: classification of these gestures is found to be ResNet-50 (Accuracy = 98.25% and F1-score = 99.34%), and the least favorable was InceptionNet V3 (Accuracy = 66.75%, and F1-score = 70.89%).

Open Access

Article

Article ID: 869

Alphabet primer as mother tongue-based multilingual education supplementary instructional material

by Melanie F. Lear

Forum for Linguistic Studies, Vol.5, No.1, pp. 5(1), 223-233; , 2023; 10 Views, 11 PDF Downloads

This study aims to develop MTB-MLE instructional material such as alphabet primer for the use of Grade 1 pupils in Iyakan language and to test its effectiveness. 100 pupils (Grade 1) participated in the study from a selected public elementary school in a particular city and province in Mindanao, Philippines. The study used a one-group pre-test-post-test design where the worksheets were taken from the Iyakan Alphabet Primer as instruments. Experts in mother-tongue education and members of the community validated and critiqued the alphabet primer. The results of the study demonstrated that the alphabet primer may be tailored to meet the needs of students at the Grade 1 level. Word identification, alphabet knowledge, spelling knowledge, and handwriting are all areas where the learners have shown substantial improvement. The findings suggest that the mother-tongue alphabet primer has potential as a means of raising students’ achievement. Based on the findings, it is suggested that the developed alphabet primer book be used as a supplementary resource for teachers of MTB-MLE with the Iyakan language as L1, that additional teaching guides be created to support teachers in the classroom, that more instructional materials in the first or local languages be created and used in the classrooms, and that the alphabet primer be translated into other dialects or languages in the city or province to maximize their use.

Open Access

Article

Article ID: 867

The impact of neoliberal discourse and the socio-economic status of parents on TEFL young learners’ achievement: Parental beliefs and behaviors in the spotlight

by Amir Ghajarieh, Fereshteh Sadat Mirkazemi

Forum for Linguistic Studies, Vol.5, No.1, pp. 5(1), 234-249; , 2023; 9 Views, 12 PDF Downloads

Considering the scarcity of research on different aspects of young learners’ teaching and learning English, and given the fact that parents provide financial support for the young learners’ education, this study was an attempt to investigate how socio-economic factors interact with parents’ behaviors and beliefs regarding young learners’ success in achieving English oral proficiency. The participants were 28 young learners of English with their parents. They were selected through purposive sampling and these learners were taught with the same method, and tuition were waived for children with low SES. To explore parents’ perceptions, beliefs and 7 behaviors, 17 parents of adequate and inadequate means were interviewed. Qualitative findings indicated that parents based on their SES viewed their young learners’ success in English differently. This study has implications for various agencies in English language teaching, including teachers, teacher educators, and policymakers in Iran, highlighting the interaction of Neoliberalism discourse and parenteral factors and behaviors in education. Given the limited research on young learners’ English language teaching and learning, coupled with the provision of financial support by parents towards their educational pursuits, this study sought to investigate the interplay between socio-economic factors, parental behavior, and beliefs in achieving English oral proficiency. Participants involved in the study comprised 28 young learners of English and their parents, who were selected through purposive sampling. These learners were instructed using the same syllabus, teachers and textbooks with tuition fees waived for children from low socio-economic backgrounds. In order to explore parents’ perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors, 17 parents of the student participants representing varying financial means were interviewed. Qualitative analysis of the findings revealed that parents’ socio-economic status influenced their views on their children’s success in learning English. The implications of these findings are far-reaching, not only for teachers and teacher educators but also for policymakers in Iran, stressing the interplay between neoliberalism discourse and parental factors and behaviors in education.

Open Access

Review

Article ID: 842

Handling translations of data for qualitative research

by Uswatun Qoyyimah

Forum for Linguistic Studies, Vol.5, No.1, pp. 5(1), 1-12; , 2023; 21 Views, 12 PDF Downloads

Qualitative research conducted in a non-English speaking setting requires the researchers to prepare and present translations of data, and then to report on the project in English to reach a global audience. This paper considers the process and ethical considerations involved in such an invisible methodological phase. This includes activities undertaken before data analysis and at the point of data presentation in order to convey participants’ original meanings and fulfil translation ethics. It focuses on educational research using the constructivist-interpretive paradigm on the grounds that its knowledge construction process involves different parties and demands both researchers and the researched to co-construct knowledge. Therefore, researchers in this paradigm might encounter dilemmas around translating data generated from interviews with non-English speaking participants. This paper offers strategies to address translation dilemmas for bilingual researchers based on the existing literature and own experience.

Open Access

Review

Article ID: 862

Flipped classroom pedagogy in higher education in EFL contexts: Findings and implications for further research

by Mohammed Shamsul Hoque, Monjurul Islam, Saraswathy Thurairaj, MK Puteri Zarina, Tamanna Farahdina

Forum for Linguistic Studies, Vol.5, No.1, pp. 5(1), 91-102; , 2023; 17 Views, 20 PDF Downloads

The primary aim of this article is to examine the existing findings of flipped classroom (FC) pedagogy in higher education institutions (HEIs) for teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) context. Relevant studies have been scrutinised based on keywords, such as higher education, online learning, blended or hybrid teaching, flipped classrooms, and English language instruction in EFL environment. A total of 54 out of the selected 162 articles were analysed using the critical review process as the research methodology, and data were analysed using the content analysis technique. The findings revealed that flipped classroom (FC) had been applied in different parts of the world over many years. But, most of the studies are in science and engineering. Flipped classroom (FC) in the English as foreign language context has remained untapped. Most of the studies conclude that flipped classroom (FC) has more benefits compared to its drawbacks. This review makes several recommendations for further study.