Language Context Research Articles

Language learning strategies research in English as foreign language contexts: A systematic literature review

The specific processes, techniques, and actions that learners take to facilitate their language learning have been widely explored under the concept of language learning strategies (LLS); however, more exploration is needed about recent investigations in this area, as calls for new theorization of strategies research have emerged. This systematic literature review aimed at exploring the prevailing research methodologies and educational settings appertaining to LLS in English as foreign language (EFL) contexts. The study analyzed 42 articles published from 2017 to 2023 in journals in the field of social sciences in the Scopus and ERIC databases. The findings show how non-intervention quantitative approaches are predominant in LLS research, occasionally accompanied by qualitative data collection methods. Accordingly, most research has favored descriptive and correlational designs, identifying the relationships between the use of strategies and variables such as language proficiency, demographic aspects, motivation, and self-regulation. Grounded on the revision of existing evidence, this article advises future strategy-based research to focus on primary and secondary levels of education, strategy instruction, cultural aspects, and qualitative research designs.

People’s beliefs about pronouns reflect both the language they speak and their ideologies.

People’s beliefs about pronouns reflect both the language they speak and their ideologies.

Translation of Network Catchwords from the Perspective of Skopos Theory

In today's age of social media, network catchwords play an important role of cultural communication and social symbols, expressing deep semantic concepts in short words and sentences, forming a fashionable and trendy oral communication mode. Its translation involves many aspects such as language, culture and social context. This paper will take the network catchwords in 2023 as an example, and from the perspective of skopos theory, exploring the meaning, usage context and cultural and social connotation of typical catchwords such as “new track”, “Chinese modernization”, “Ceiling” and “Ice-cream assassin”. A comprehensive exploration of how multiple meanings are handled in cross-cultural translation and how these meanings are maintained or transformed in different contexts. It will help us to have a deeper understanding of the importance of network buzzwords in contemporary cultural exchanges, and provide new inspiration and direction for future research in related fields.

Student’s Learning Readiness For Communication Arabic Subject In Higher Education System

Learning readiness is the prerequisite condition for the effective learning process among learners. Understanding the factors influencing students' readiness to learn a language is crucial for educators and institutions aiming to facilitate effective language acquisition. The interplay of interest, motivation, and prior knowledge significantly shapes the receptivity of learners to the language learning process. This study aims to assess student’s learning readiness in in these key dimensions (interest, motivation and prior knowledge) towards the specific context of Arabic Language for Communication at UiTM Cawangan Johor. By examining these factors, educators can gain valuable insights that inform tailored instructional strategies, ultimately enhancing the overall language learning experience for students. This study employs quantitative research whereby the data was collected from 116 part one students using an online questionnaire. The raw data was analyzed by using Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences (SPSS) in order to get the frequency, percentage mean and interpretation of the data. The positive results indicate that students are moderately prepared in terms of interest and motivation to learn the Arabic Communication subject. The result also shows that the students are ready in terms of Arabic language prior knowledge towards the learning. It is hoped that this research can be used as guidance for Arabic educators, especially the UiTM Arabic lecturers, to design the best and appropriate teaching approaches and methods, especially based on the students' existing knowledge, while seeking to optimize their teaching methodologies.

Exploring the Complexity of the Book of Daniel: A Multifaceted Analysis

This research delves into the intricate layers of the Book of Daniel, seeking to unravel its complexities through a comprehensive examination. Emphasizing the historical and literary significance of the text, the study explores the multifaceted nature of the Book of Daniel, which has intrigued scholars for centuries. The primary objective is to illuminate various dimensions of complexity, including symbolic language, prophetic elements, and historical context. Employing a methodological approach that integrates literary analysis, historical investigation, and theological perspectives, the study aims to provide a holistic understanding of the Book of Daniel's intricacies. Positioned within ongoing scholarly discussions on biblical interpretation and prophecy, the research reveals that the Book of Daniel invites diverse approaches, incorporating historical, wisdom, prophetic, and apocalyptic perspectives. Comprehending the Book of Daniel's complexity contributes to bridging the gap between historical, literary, and theological viewpoints, thereby enriching our grasp of biblical texts and fostering scholarly discourse in this field.

An Investigation into Iranian English Language Learners’ Investment in Imagined Communities

Unlike communities of practice, previous studies on imagined communities of practice are scarce, yet enlightening. The present research was conducted in an English as a foreign language (EFL) context in order to provide more insight into how language learners perceive their imagined communities (ICs). It was based on Norton’s (2000; 2001) conceptualization of ICs which connected the notions of imagination and imagined community to second language (L2) learning and classroom practice. To this end, 945 male and female EFL learners from different cities in Iran belonging to different age groups and language proficiency levels were recruited for this study. The instrument for data collection was a validated 57-item questionnaire. The findings of the study showed that the participants possessed a moderate level of investment in their ICs. Moreover, t-test results indicated that there was a significant difference between male and female learners in the extent of investment in their ICs. Furthermore, the significant differences in the extent of investment in ICs were shown between teenagers and adults and between learners in low proficiency (LP) and high proficiency (HP) groups. These findings contribute to more in-depth understanding of language learners' ICs in an EFL context. Pedagogical implications of the study are discussed and some suggestions are made for future research.

Borrowings in linguistics and their causes: a case study of the english language

The advancement of human civilization entails the advancement of each of its distinct cultures and, by extension, every language spoken within them. This study delves into the phenomenon of linguistic borrowing, particularly within the context of the English language, examining its underlying causes and defining the concept itself. Numerous scholars have explored the topic of borrowing, emphasizing its enduring relevance and noting its escalating significance as the dynamics of the borrowing process continue to evolve over time

Unearthing the latent assumptions inscribed into language tools: the cross-cultural benefits of applying a reflexive lens in co-design

ABSTRACT Language technology tools provide a promising way to teach, share, retain, and curate under-resourced language learning materials in community. The inclusion of language teachers working with communities increases the potential for designed tools to be adopted by those groups. However, there is little research concerning the adaptation of tools designed with one community to other languages. To identify the implications for such scalability, we ran workshops with the ‘Record and Write’ tool, developed as a versatile format for collection, curation, and use of under-resourced language learning materials in community. The process enabled teachers of languages with varying availability of teaching materials to reflect on some of the embedded complexities of adapting the tool to their context. This paper critically reflects on the design process of the tool and design lessons learned relating to language governance, the reflection of culture in database tools, conversational learning support, and differentiated needs for grammatical accuracy and annotation. Methodologically, the paper proposes a reflexive lens on co-design in cross-cultural contexts, identifying some of the latent assumptions embedded in technologies that emerge when tools are transposed to different language and learning contexts.

Revolutionizing Radiological Analysis: The Future of French Language Automatic Speech Recognition in Healthcare.

This study introduces a specialized Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) system, leveraging the Whisper Large-v2 model, specifically adapted for radiological applications in the French language. The methodology focused on adapting the model to accurately transcribe medical terminology and diverse accents within the French language context, achieving a notable Word Error Rate (WER) of 17.121%. This research involved extensive data collection and preprocessing, utilizing a wide range of French medical audio content. The results demonstrate the system's effectiveness in transcribing complex radiological data, underscoring its potential to enhance medical documentation efficiency in French-speaking clinical settings. The discussion extends to the broader implications of this technology in healthcare, including its potential integration with electronic health records (EHRs) and its utility in medical education. This study also explores future research directions, such as tailoring ASR systems to specific medical specialties and languages. Overall, this research contributes significantly to the field of medical ASR systems, presenting a robust tool for radiological transcription in the French language and paving the way for advanced technology-enhanced healthcare solutions.

Well-being at School of 10-year-old Students Living in France in a Bilingual Family Language Context with a Minorated Language: Role of Teacher-Student and Peer Relationship Satisfaction

Well-being at School of 10-year-old Students Living in France in a Bilingual Family Language Context with a Minorated Language: Role of Teacher-Student and Peer Relationship Satisfaction

Knowledge extension through memory integration in cross-Chinese-English language context: comparing individuals with varying levels of executive function

Knowledge extension through memory integration in cross-Chinese-English language context: comparing individuals with varying levels of executive function

Analyzing the Role of Culture in TEFL Pedagogy and Its Implications for Language Teaching

This research investigates the role of culture in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) pedagogy and its implications for language teaching. The study employs a mixed-methods approach, integrating qualitative interviews with educators and focus groups with students to explore how cultural integration impacts learner motivation, engagement, and communicative competence. Educators and students from diverse cultural backgrounds participated in the study. Educators, selected for their experience in TEFL and cultural content integration, were interviewed to understand their perspectives on cultural integration strategies and perceived impacts on students. Meanwhile, student focus groups provided insights into their experiences with culturally integrated lessons and their development of intercultural competence. Qualitative data analysis involved thematic coding of interview transcripts and focus group discussions, while quantitative data from surveys assessed attitudes towards cultural integration and its frequency in teaching practices. Results indicate that while educators vary in their integration approaches—ranging from daily to infrequent—literature, music, and traditional customs are commonly integrated elements. Students overwhelmingly perceive cultural integration positively, noting increased motivation and a deeper understanding of language contexts. Findings highlight the critical role of cultural awareness in enhancing language learning outcomes, fostering intercultural competence, and preparing learners for global communication contexts. Recommendations include enhancing teacher training in cultural competence and expanding resources to support diverse cultural content in TEFL curricula.

Design and Implementation of Chinese Language Teaching System Based on Virtual Reality Technology

Traditional Chinese language teaching methods have always had problems, such as a lack of practical opportunities and interest and an inability to provide sufficient language environment and context. Virtual reality technology provides new possibilities to solve these problems. Through in-depth research and analysis, this article designs and develops a Chinese language teaching system based on virtual reality technology. This system utilizes virtual reality technology to create a simulated 3D Chinese language environment, enabling learners to experience interactive experiences firsthand. The system includes speech recognition, natural language processing, and artificial intelligence, enabling real-time language communication and student interaction. This system s design considers students learning needs and interests, allowing them to practice their Chinese application skills in real-world simulated environments. This system has broad prospects in Chinese language education and provides new research and innovation directions for educational institutions and developers.

ENHANCING L2 LEARNERS' WRITING: IMPACT OF PRODUCT AND PROCESS APPROACHES

This study investigated the effects of two approaches to teaching writing (product and process) on the development of writing skills of Moroccan EFL high-school students. Two intact classes of 86 third-year high-school students participated in the present study. A pre-test was administered to all participants to measure their writing competence in expository essay writing. Each group was then subjected to a specific treatment. The experimental group was instructed to use a process-based syllabus, while the control group followed the original product-based syllabus. In the process-oriented syllabus, students were guided through various stages of the writing process via activities like brainstorming, collaborative problem-solving, free writing, multiple drafting, structured peer feedback, and teacher-student conferences. Conversely, the product-oriented syllabus focused on teaching writing through model analysis, writing exercises, and structured feedback sessions with teachers. Following the instructional period, participants underwent a post-test to assess the impact of each approach on their writing proficiency. Statistical analyses, including Paired Samples T-test and Independent Samples T-test, demonstrated that both approaches led to improvements in students' writing performance, with the process-based approach being more effective. Participant feedback on the questionnaire also supported these findings. The study concludes by outlining implications for the teaching of writing in second language (L2) contexts.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/lit/0757/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

University teachers’ underlying assumptions about assessment in English as a foreign language context in Ethiopia

University teachers’ underlying assumptions about assessment in English as a foreign language context in Ethiopia

IMPLICIT AND EXPLICIT INFORMATION IN THE TRANSLATION OF "FLOWERS" LYRICS BY MILEY CYRUS

This article delves into the intricate process of translating song lyrics, with a specific focus on Miley Cyrus's emotive track, "Flowers". The study explores the challenges faced when translating implicit and explicit information, as well as the impact of cultural nuances on the accuracy and emotive resonance of the translated lyrics. By analyzing the translation process and the choices made, we gain insight into the dynamic interplay between language and music, and how translators navigate this intricate terrain. The translation of song lyrics is an art that transcends linguistic and cultural boundaries, demanding not only linguistic fluency but also a deep understanding of cultural and emotional subtleties woven into lyrical compositions. "Flowers" with its universal themes, serves as an intriguing case study to investigate the multifaceted process of translating implicit and explicit information in song lyrics. This article adopts a qualitative research approach, drawing insights from lyric analysis, interviews with experienced song translators, and an exploration of the cultural context of the target languages. The findings shed light on the art and science of song translation and the pivotal role of translators in mediating the emotional and cultural impact of music across diverse linguistic and cultural landscapes.

Current Practices and Pitfalls of ELT Syllabi for Developing Engineering Students' Communicative English in Bangladesh*

The current practices and shortcomings of engineering students' English language teaching (ELT) syllabi were examined from the perspectives of learners and teachers in English as a foreign language (EFL) context. The syllabi included content that had little impact on students' communicative competence in English (CC-E). Students were generally concerned about their professional communication abilities. In this study, the researchers collected data from ten engineering-focused universities in Bangladesh. These universities' existing ELT syllabi (ELT-S) were examined, seeking the current practices and pitfalls. The study sampled 152 participants from the selected universities. The study followed a mixed-method approach. In the qualitative technique, content analysis, focus group discussion (FGD), and interviews were employed for data collection, while survey questions were used in the quantitative approach. The study's findings revealed that the existing English syllabi of those selected universities required updating and modification to meet the identified professional requirements regarding the type, credit allotment, content, classroom practices, class size, policies, etc. The improvements included redesigning English syllabi, material, and teaching methods to improve engineering students' communicative abilities. A uniform curriculum with at least one English language sessional course per semester in all engineering majors was strongly recommended.

Cultural Challenges of the Portuguese Adaptation of an IPIP English-Based Personality Inventory

Abstract: An instrument to measure job-related traits was developed and adapted to a Portuguese sample. This inventory, an adaptation of items from the International Personality Item Pool ( Goldberg et al., 2006 ), measures a set of work-related facets over two studies ( N = 437). Given the challenges in translating and adapting words and idioms from English to Portuguese, the focus was to ensure the scale remained gender-neutral and that its psychometric quality was enhanced. The findings validated 16 work-related personality scales under a three-factor structure, suggesting a new theoretical model for work-related personality traits in the Portuguese language and professional context. This research underscores the importance of exploring personality in the workplace, particularly within the Portuguese context with its distinct cultural nuances.

Dissociable Neural Mechanisms for Human Inference Processing Predicted by Static and Contextual Language Models.

Language models (LMs) continue to reveal non-trivial relations to human language performance and the underlying neurophysiology. Recent research has characterized how word embeddings from an LM can be used to generate integrated discourse representations in order to perform inference on events. The current research investigates how such event knowledge may be coded in distinct manners in different classes of LMs and how this maps onto different forms of human inference processing. To do so, we investigate inference on events using two well-documented human experimental protocols from Metusalem et al. (2012) and McKoon and Ratcliff (1986), compared with two protocols for simpler semantic processing. Interestingly, this reveals a dissociation in the relation between local semantics versus event-inference depending on the LM. In a series of experiments, we observed that for the static LMs (word2vec/GloVe), there was a clear dissociation in the relation between semantics and inference for the two inference tasks. In contrast, for the contextual LMs (BERT/RoBERTa), we observed a correlation between semantic and inference processing for both inference tasks. The experimental results suggest that inference as measured by Metusalem and McKoon rely on dissociable processes. While the static models are able to perform Metusalem inference, only the contextual models succeed in McKoon inference. Interestingly, these dissociable processes may be linked to well-characterized automatic versus strategic inference processes in the psychological literature. This allows us to make predictions about dissociable neurophysiological markers that should be found during human inference processing with these tasks.

Crosslingual Transfer Learning for Arabic Story Ending Generation

In the field of natural language processing, the task of generating story endings (SEG) requires not only a deep understanding of the narrative context but also the ability to formulate coherent conclusions. This study delves into the use of crosslingual transfer learning to address the challenges posed by the scarcity of Arabic data in SEG, proposing the utilization of extensive English story corpora as a solution. We evaluated the efficacy of multilingual models, such as mBART, mT5, and mT0, in generating Arabic story endings, assessing their performance in both zero-shot and few-shot scenarios. Despite the linguistic complexities of Arabic and the inherent challenges of crosslingual transfer, our findings demonstrate the potential of these multilingual models to transcend linguistic barriers, significantly contributing to the domain of natural language processing across different languages. This research has significant implications for generating creative text and improving multilingual natural language processing in resource-limited language contexts