English Literature Department Research Articles

Cognitive Test Anxiety and Academic Performance of Undergraduate Students in Istanbul

Test anxiety has become a grueling burden, especially for students in the competitive world. As a result, contextualization of anxiety in education has been retaining the attention and demands of educators and psychologists so far. A student’s GPA in academic life is one of the crucial and numerical indicators of academic achievement. This present study endeavors to investigate the potential distinctions between the level of cognitive test anxiety of students in English Language Teaching (ELT) and English Language Literature (ELL) departments and their cumulative GPA (out of 4,00). Also, the second goal of this investigation is to delve into the possible significant differences marked between gender and students’ cognitive test anxiety levels. This investigation presents some sources to explicate test anxiety and students’ GPAs before presenting the main data results from a variety of studies. Finally, the Cognitive Test Anxiety Scale was employed by the researchers, so 60 English Language Teaching students and 46 English Language and Literature students showed their participation (N= 106) on Cognitive Test Anxiety Scale items. Following this part, this research is finalized with the conclusion, which includes an analysis of data results and an examination of relevant research findings. In the conclusion part, it can be seen that Cognitive Test Anxiety scores and students’ departments showed salient differences; however, Cognitive Test Anxiety and participants’ genders have similar points to each other. Moreover, there was no correlation detected between their GPAs and their levels of Cognitive Test Anxiety. However, both students’ GPAs scores and their departments and their GPAs’ and genders show some differences.

The Controversy of Teaching World Literature and the Importance of Translation in The Field of English Studies

For literary texts to be taught in World Literature courses in the Departments of English Literature, they must be translated into English as a general rule. Some scholars advocate for translating literary texts, and others believe that translation as a methodology does not do justice to these texts. This study aims to lay out the arguments for each position and evaluate them. The significance of this study is to show that World Literature remains an essential field and to highlight the importance of translation. This study questions the modes and purpose of translating literary texts. The result of this study includes a discussion of the need for translation to promote the wide circulation of literary texts and ideas and a consideration of the positionality of critics, scholars, and readers in assessing translation. The study concludes with conducting more focus and scholarly efforts on translation techniques and methodologies.

The Difficulties of EFL Students in Speaking English at Sar-e-Pul Higher Education Institute

Today, many students face with the English speaking difficulties during conversations, because of these problems most of EFL (English as Foreign Language) students deny to speak in English and have a preference to use their mother language. So, the research tried to do a study based on the “The difficulties of EFL students in speaking English at Sar-e-Pul Higher Education Institute.” This research aims to find out the difficulties, and factors caused problems while students speaking English. This research was conducted at Sar-e-Pul Higher Education Institute. It helps the students to know the factors which caused problems in speaking. The participants were 20 male students from third class of English language and literature department of Sar-e-Higher Education Institute. The data was collected through a questionnaire that is consisted of 12 questions. An instrument consisting of twelve questions was used to gather the data. The SPSS application was used to examine the gathered data. The majority of pupils, the study discovered, struggle with a variety of aspects of speaking English, including vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, and confidence issues.

The Assessment of Self-Directed Learning Readiness Among Generation Z Kurdish EFL Undergraduates

The aim of this study is to determine the level of self-directed learning readiness among undergraduate students belonging to Generation Z in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The study sample was 225 undergraduate students in the English language and literature departments across three universities located in Erbil, Halabja, and Sulaymaniyah. The study used a quantitative approach using a questionnaire. The results showed that there was no significant difference between male and female students in terms of self-control and self-management. However, a slight difference emerged in terms of their desire for learning. A considerable variation was found between first- and fourth-year students in terms of their level of self-control. Furthermore, the results revealed a significant difference between the cities, with students from Erbil demonstrating a higher readiness level for self-directed learning compared to their peers in the other two cities. These findings provide valuable insights into the self-directed learning preparedness of undergraduate students in Kurdistan. They suggest the need for targeted efforts to promote self-directed learning, particularly in areas where readiness level is lower.

Measuring Pedagogical Transformation: A Quantitative Analysis of Critical Thinking Integration in Literary Criticism for Heightened Student Engagement and Learning Outcomes

In today’s democratic world, one of the most significant objectives of the educational system is to promote independent thinking in students regarding both academic subject matter and daily life (Ennis, 1989; Grinberg, 2004; Nelson, 2004). The necessity and significance of critical thinking in education might primarily lie in the fact that students are not passive participants in the learning process since they are no longer engaged in rote memorization of facts; rather, they need to graduate from educational institutions that engage them in learning that improves their thinking skills. Empirical research suggests that benefits accrue to students who possess the ability to think critically; hence, many institutions need to incorporate instruction oriented toward providing students with critical thinking skills (Tsui, 1999; Stupnisky et al., 2008) through programmed interventions that vary from the traditional instructional approach (Sanz de Acedo Lizarraga et al., 2009). This paper examines the significance of the application of a literature-based critical thinking program and its impact on both students’ critical thinking skills and teachers’ and students’ beliefs about literature instruction. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative research methods, namely, survey research and One-Group Pre-Test/Post-Test Design. It is based on one group pre-test–post-test design, a quasi-experimental design, in which a seven-week literature-based critical thinking program involving 34 students attending an English Language and Literature Department was implemented. Data regarding the present critical thinking situation and change process were collected through questionnaires, interviews, and classroom observations. T-test results show a significant change between the students’ pre-critical thinking and post-critical thinking levels. These findings indicate that a literature-based critical-thinking program leads to more student-centered classrooms and creative literature instruction that fosters the development of students’ critical thinking skills. Another major purpose of this research study is to discover and understand the experiences and perspectives of teachers on the topic of using multicultural literature as responsive pedagogy to engage cultural understanding. Therefore, the study will also be conducted using a qualitative research approach involving a literature review and semi-structured interviews.

O interkulturalnom aspektu razvoja akademskog engleskog s kraćim osvrtom na edukaciju iz ove oblasti na univerzitetskom nivou u Bosni i Hercegovini / On the Intercultural Aspect of the Development of Academic English and a Brief Overview of Education in This Field at the University Level in Bosnia and Herzegovina

This paper provides an overview of the most significant socio-historical and linguistic factors that have influenced the emergence of the term “Academic English”. It begins with a brief review explaining the reasons behind the global expansion of the English language and its internationalization at university level worldwide. It then discusses the influx of international students into English-speaking countries and the linguistic-cultural challenges they face. The paper continues by explaining the meaning of the term ‘Academic English’ and briefly describes current teaching practices at universities with internationalization at a high level nowadays. In the final part, the paper discusses the presence of academic English education in Bosnia and Herzegovina through an analysis of the curricula of eight departments of English language and literature. The paper concludes by stating that education in academic English at universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina does exist, but that there is much room for future improvements, especially in terms of researching the characteristics of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian academic writing tradition and initiating education in academic English for both students and academic staff.

Utilization of neurological dominance science (NDS) to enhance students’ creativity in communication as implementation outcome based education (OBE)

This study aims to investigate the contribution of the Neuro Dominance Science (NDS) program in improving students' creative communication skills and the completion of six tasks as a result of the Indonesian National Qualifications Framework called KKNI, with six (6) tasks of KKNI. This study uses qualitative and quantitative method in analyzing the data. The participants in this study were 50 students of English language and Literature Department, Universitas Negeri Medan that completed NDS workshop as one of the programmed of Creative Innovative Communication (CIC) subject at the fourth Semester. Data was collected through a questionnaire made in the form of a Google form to measure students' creative communication abilities and completion of KKNI assignments. The results of this study indicate that the NDS program has a significant contribution to improving students' creative communication skills. Quantitative data analysis shows an increase in scores on creative communication assessment after students join the NDS program. In addition, the NDS program also assists students in completing the six tasks required by the KKNI, such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and collaboration. This research provides valuable insight into the contribution of the NDS program in improving students' creative communication skills and completing KKNI assignments. The results of this study can be used by policymakers and educators to consider implementing the NDS program in schools as an effort to improve students' skills in creative communication and achievement of KKNI tasks.

Ideational Metaphor in Saudi EFL Students’ Academic Writing: A Systemic-Functional Linguistic Analysis

Over the past decade, there has been an upsurge in studies on the quality of EFL students' English academic writing. However, research on grammatical metaphors in academic writing by EFL students is limited. As such, the purpose of this research is to identify the occurrences of ideational metaphors in students' academic writing essays. In this research, the qualitative descriptive approach was applied. This study included 20 undergraduate students from the English Language and Literature Department at the College of Science and Humanities in Shaqra University, Saudi Arabia, Essay Writing course in the fourth level. Students were to write 350-word essay on the subject of "Learning Difficulties During the Coronavirus Pandemic". The data corpus for the study totals 8,482 words. According to the findings, the students' essays include 408 sentences that comprise the ideational metaphor. It is considered insignificant in contrast to the corpus's full data set of 8,482 words. The occurrence of ideational metaphors is dominated by material processes, followed by mental processes, relational processes, behavioral processes, and existential processes. This conclusion shows that EFL students' essay structures are unlikely to have a high number of good grammatical metaphor clauses. For EFL students, lecturers, teachers, and other educational professionals involved in instructing English academic writing, this study has pedagogical implications; it sheds light on how grammatical metaphors in writing texts can serve as a stand-in for the caliber of writing used in academic and scientific literature.

영문학 수업 확장을 위한 스토리텔링 『세일즈맨의 죽음』을 중심으로

This paper aims to study “storytelling through English literature works” as a way for students in the English literature department to build their major knowledge and understand the community, society, and culture. This study focuses on Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman to find the points not only with an understanding of the background of the times but also with aspects of social phenomena at the time, such as social systems, personal conflicts, a conflict of values, and the collapse of community.
 Through this course, English literature learners can be interested in the storytelling of Death of a Salesman to understand American society and expand their gaze to other people's lives and their community to develop insights to look at and understand the world. Storytelling through the text can experience the growth of the self that can be obtained by establishing social relationships. This is the power of literature.

Speaking Anxiety Experienced by The Fifth Semester Students of English Literature Department: A Case Study in Public Speaking Lesson


 
 
 
 
 This study is aimed to investigate the factors that contribute in speaking anxiety that experienced by the fifth semester students and the type of speaking anxiety in order to get the broader understanding about this phenomenon. This research is categorized as descriptive qualitative research. It involved the fifth semester students of English Literature Department 2022-2023 academic year as the participants. The data was collected through the interview. The findings of the research describe four factors that contribute in speaking anxiety and three types of anxiety. There were four factors based on Horwitz and Cope (1986) theory, the first factor is fear of negative evaluation (unconfident and overthinking) which made the student avoid do public speaking in English. Students were afraid because their mentality. The second is test anxiety (fear of performance in front of audience) which made the student avoid and afraid do the public speaking English. The third is communication apprehension (low speaking skill) which commonly happened on lack of vocabulary and unable to arrange the sentence and also stag in their mind. The fourth is new material which commonly happened on lack of understanding of new material. There were three types based on Horwitz (1986) theory, the first type of anxiety was trait anxiety it happened related when students fell unconfident and overthinking. The second type of anxiety was state anxiety. It happened relate on external factor and when someone feels being threatened. The third type was situation-specific anxiety. Due to low speaking skill seems like the students were afraid of being evaluated.
 
 
 

Translanguaging in English-medium instruction (EMI): Examining English literature content classrooms

Recently, translanguaging has begun challenging and replacing English-only policies in English-medium instruction (EMI) contexts, advocating that bi/multilingual learners may better internalise information in two or more languages. Within this perspective and using linguistic ethnography as the framework, this case study examines the translanguaging practices used by the instructor and the students in English literature classrooms and how/whether these practices mediate learning when multilingual resources are used for pedagogical purposes. The data for this study comes from the researcher, as the instructor, observing and recording their two content classrooms in an English Literature department, namely Contemporary British Novel and Discourse Analysis courses. These observations and recordings were analysed from a pedagogical translanguaging lens to identify the instructor’s input and the students’ output in terms of their display of linguistic repertoires in English (the language of instruction) and Turkish (the shared language in the classroom). The results provide implications for research and practice, offerings suggestions for how/whether a pedagogical translanguaging lens might be adopted in content classrooms.

Utilization of Chatbot Telegram AI to Promote Students' Creative and Innovative Entrepreneurship in Learning Context

The development of technology in the current era is advancing very rapidly. Along with digital learning materials, they can increase verbal communication and various visual, audio and motion texts. This study aims to develop students' 4C competencies (Creativity and Innovation, Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving, Communication and Collaboration) in 21st-century learning through creative entrepreneurship learning materials of the Telegram Chatbot Artificial Intelligence with Natural Language Processing (NLP) Method. The scope learning materials are focused on Personal Business Plans, Customer Interviews, Customer Observation, Selling Products, and being a Creative Entrepreneur, which will be uploaded to the Telegram Chatbot as e-learning students' material. This research will use the Research and Development approach of Borg and Gall (1983). The series of research and development steps are carried out in stages, and each action will be taken to the results of the previous step until a new development product of learning materials is finally obtained. Product development design of the preliminary stage needs analysis is carried out by collecting related data and developing Creative Entrepreneurship learning materials for the Telegram chatbot model. The Creative Entrepreneurship learning program will involve 50 students of the English Literature Department, Universitas Negeri Medan, to analyze the feedback from the questionnaire Google form.

MODULATION PROCEDURE ON TABOO IN ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL

This study discusses the translation procedure of taboo words and the acceptability aspects of translation in the Indonesian translation novel Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. This study applied a descriptive-qualitative approach using Vinay Darbelnet’s modulation theory and Nababan’s acceptability concept. As a result, 92 translation procedures of unfindable words, 30 fixed modulations, and 62 free modulations were found. Those 92 taboo words were classified into Jay’s classification of taboo terms, which consisted of 22 data on sexual reference, 11 data on profane, 7 data on scatological referents, 7 data on animal names, 10 data on ethnic-racial-gender slurs, 4 data on insulting references, 5 data on ancestral allusions, 2 data on substandard vulgar items, and 24 data on offensive slang. For the acceptability analysis, this study took eighteen samples from Jay's nine types of taboo terms to be rated by the respondents. The respondents were final-year English Literature Department students of UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta. The results showed that the translation results tended to be acceptable.

The Role of Universal Grammar in Second Language: English Adjective Phrase by Saudi Learners

English is the primary second language learned in Saudi Arabia. Many Saudi students are learning English as a second language for several reasons. Still, almost all English second language learners in Saudi Arabia are willing to learn English proficiently as English natives. Chomsky’s Universal Grammar is one of the primary theories that has discussed the idea of learning a second language. The primary purpose of this study is to develop an understanding of the role of Universal Grammar in second language acquisition by investigating how Saudi Learners of English use the English Adjective Phrase Structure. This research adopts the Full Transfer/Full Access Model as its model. This study used an online questionnaire method design and both quantitative and qualitative approaches to analyze data. This study assigned 118 participants from undergraduate students in Level Two and Level Five at English Language and Literature Department at Prince Sattam bin Abdul-Aziz University. The primary findings of this study indicate that native-like proficiency can be reached due to the fact there is full access to Universal Grammar when learning a second language. This study also found that Arabic as a first language plays a significant role in the beginning stages of learning English as a second language. Furthermore, the findings reveal that the effect of the first language on the second language can be overcome with more input the learner gets.

An Analysis of Grammatical Errors Made by the Students of English Literature Department

This research aims to identify grammatical errors made by the students of the English Literature department of Universitas Ahmad Dahlan and to describe the process of the occurrence of grammatical errors. This research is a descriptive study that uses a qualitative method. The data are the writing assignments of second-semester students of the English Literature department of Universitas Ahmad Dahlan of the 2018 - 2019 academic year. The researcher read the writings of the students, then wrote and classified the errors made by the students into types of errors due to interlingual and intralingual transfers. This research uses the descriptive analysis method to describe the types of errors. The results show that the types of errors due to the interlingual and intralingual transfer are omission errors, addition errors, misordering errors, and misformation errors. The results of this study are expected to be the basis for minimizing grammatical errors in the English teaching and learning process, especially for writing in English. The results can also be used as a basis for compiling course materials, writing textbooks or modules, especially for making exercises that focus on errors that often occur, to prevent similar errors that will occur in the future.

ÜNİVERSİTE ÖĞRENCİLERİNİN İNGİLİZCE ÖĞRENİMİ: BAĞIMLI VE BAĞIMSIZ ÖĞRENENLER

The purpose of this study is to apply the Perceptual Learning Style Preference Questionnaire (PLSQ) developed by Reid (1984), which measures 6 learning types, to students in the university's foreign language department. In the questionnaire, there are 6 sub-dimensions related to visual, auditory, tactile, kinesthetic, individual and group learning styles. In accordance with the literature, those who can read and understand the topic of instruction in a book on their own are called independent learners, and those who can understand a topic with the help of another person (e.g., teacher) are called dependent learners. Individual learning items in the questionnaire were interpreted in terms of independent learners and group learning items in terms of dependent learners The study examined questionnaire items related to individual or group study, dependent and independent learning, gender, and hand use. The study also examined the relationship between responses to the individual and group learning items, which are sub-dimensions of the questionnaire, and the independent and dependent learning variable from the control questions. A total of 206 students from different classes in the English Language and Literature Department (ELL) voluntarily participated in the study in 2019. Internal reliability was calculated using Cronbach's alpha (Table 2). For other calculations, mean, standard deviation, confirmatory factor analysis, Mann-Whitney U, and Shapiro Wilk tests were used. A relationship was found between some subfactors of PLPQ and the variables gender, hand use, study style and dependent and independent learners. It has been suggested that different and original studies can be conducted by adding new control questions to the current questionnaires and scales.

English Departments Students’ Attitudes toward Learning English Language at Paktia University

The aim of this study was to discover the attitudes of English language and literature departments’ EFL students toward learning English language at Paktia University. The study aimed to study the behavioral, cognitive, and emotional aspects of students’ attitudes and also to find out if there are any differences in students’ attitudes based on some of their demographic factors such as Kankoor (university entrance examination) selection, type of faculty, level of study, and level of pre-university preparatory education. A 24 item questionnaire survey was administered to 60 students selected conveniently from English language and literature departments of both education and language and literature faculties. The mean score and median were analyzed in order to determine the central tendency of the respondents’ attitudes. Moreover, the standard deviation was analyzed to count the dispersion of the responses. The results showed that students had generally positive attitudes toward learning English, but their attitudes in terms of behavioral, cognitive, and emotional aspects were slightly different. No significant differences were found in students’ attitudes based on their demographic information, but very slight differences were discovered based on their Kankoor selection, type of faculty, level of study, and pre-university preparatory knowledge.

"One foot on the other side": Towards a Periodization of West African Spiritual Surrealism

Abstract: For both writers and scholars of African and diaspora literature, genre is a fraught concept. Western institutions, especially departments of English literature, have used the tool of genre to discipline Africana literatures and the people who create them, at once reducing conventional realism to a source of anthropological information and mischaracterizing realism with an indigenous or Nonwestern worldview as fantasy or "Magical Realism." "West African spiritual surrealism," as defined in this essay, offers a generic rubric that both attends to the literalization of Igbo and Yoruba cosmology in fiction as well as the ways these cosmologies can give rise to literary devices that resist hegemonic, Anglo-American centric literary interpretation. Through close readings of Helen Oyeyemi's The Icarus Girl (2005) and Akwaeke Emezi's Freshwater (2018), this article historicizes West African spiritual surrealism as a geographically and ideologically diasporic genre that cannot be properly understood through frameworks of globalization alone. This genre and its writers require critics to read both deeply and widely in order to understand how West African spiritual surrealism places African cosmologies and people always already at the center of literary production.

Form, Affect and Debt in Post-Celtic Tiger Irish Fiction: Ireland in Crisis by Eóin Flannery

Reviewed by: Form, Affect and Debt in Post-Celtic Tiger Irish Fiction: Ireland in Crisis by Eóin Flannery Kevin Hargaden (bio) Eóin Flannery, Form, Affect and Debt in Post-Celtic Tiger Irish Fiction: Ireland in Crisis (London: Bloomsbury, 2022), ix + 239 pages Ireland almost went bankrupt in 2008. The aftermath was marked by devastating unemployment, a return to mass emigration, and the establishment of policy commitments directly responsible for the present housing crisis, along with innumerable cuts in funding and limitations on social initiatives as part of the crushing austerity regime. It is surprising how quickly the death of the Celtic Tiger has been assumed into Irish discourse as an event we all acknowledge but do not particularly need to reference. The economists who boosted the bubble are back on our screens and in our broadsheets as commentators. The ten-year anniversary passed without much more than a few newspaper features1 and we have slipped happily back into economic buoyancy, marked by inflated property prices and semi-regular chastisements about the importance of keeping wages low to maintain the market’s confidence in our productivity. It is hard not to think that this period in our recent history warrants more attention. And in Form, Affect and Debt in Post-Celtic Tiger Irish Fiction, Eóin Flannery, from Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, offers a crucial intervention. It might seem that an assessment of this period from an English literature department would be marginal. Surely it is the economists and sociologists who must take the lead on understanding the significance of these events? But Irish novelists were examining the economic and social changes wrought by the Celtic Tiger through the boom days and into the period of barren bust. Flannery considers Chris Binchy’s Open-Handed (2008), Peter Cunningham’s Capital Sins (2010), Dermot Bolger’s Tanglewood (2015), Donal Ryan’s The Thing About December (2015) and The Spinning Heart (2012), his debut novel that preceded The Thing About December in terms of publication but exists in a subsequent text within the novels’ narrative chronology. He also considers Claire Kilroy’s The Devil I Know (2012), Justin Quinn’s Mount Merrion (2013), Deirdre Madden’s Time Present and Time Past (2013), and Paul Murray’s The Mark and the Void (2015), as well as discussing the poem The Celtic Tiger (1999) by the late Denis O’Driscoll. Throughout these discussions, Flannery is concerned with ‘how authors of Irish literary fiction grapple with the registration of debt and indebtedness in the Celtic Tiger period and its aftermath’ (p. 9). This is a fascinating way into [End Page 127] an essential conversation – the abstract concepts of neoliberal capitalism can be illuminated in a fresh light when set inside the plot of a novel. There is a logical progression through the different books discussed. We start with Binchy and Cunningham’s novels which present ‘not a clinical analysis of a crudely divisive economic system but a second-hand description of well-known commoditized types’ (p. 38, emphasis original). These may be entertaining novels, but they are structured so as to engage with the Celtic Tiger in a way that re-inscribes the consensus narratives which are grouped under the ‘we all partied’ and ‘a few bad apples’ clichés. We end with The Mark and the Void, a complex novel which confronts the reader directly with what we think a novel is and what it can do. The relationship established between the main characters – a novelist named Paul suffering writer’s block and a depressed financier named Claude – allows Murray to draw attention ‘to the fictive nature of the macrostructure of high finance’ (p. 181). This is a work of literary criticism before it is a work of social analysis and Flannery’s insights offer readers a renewed appreciation of the works under discussion. Dermot Bolger’s Tanglewood is the focus for the second chapter and Flannery unveils the role shame plays in the narrative, proposing that while not perfect, the novel offers ‘a prompt with which to commence renewed discussions regarding the possibilities of shame in the Irish context’ (p. 73). Flannery shows us how Donal Ryan’s novels formally...

Schizophrenia of Main Character in The Novel Words on Bathroom Walls by Julia Walton


 
 
 
 
 This study discusses Schizophrenia of the Main Character In The Novel Words On Bathroom Walls by Julia Walton. The researcher chose this title to provide further information to readers and especially in the English literature department about Schizophrenia. The purpose of this study is to find and explain the first, the types of schizophrenia that exist in the main character Adam Petrazelli, the second the symptoms of schizophrenia, and the third way of treating schizophrenia. Researchers used three theories. The first theory is about the types of schizophrenia presented by the American Psychiatric Association, the second theory is conveyed by Keliat which explains the symptoms of schizophrenia, and the third theory by Ross Willson explains the treatment of Schizophrenia. This type of research uses descriptive qualitative research. sources of data in this study were all conversations spoken by all characters in the novel "Words On Bathroom Walls By Julia Walton" containing sentences related to schizophrenia. The data collection technique used was documentation. The results of this research indicate that: from the types of schizophrenia there is one that has been found, namely Paranoid Type which has been analyzed, the researcher only managed to find one symptoms namely positive symptoms and in these positive symptoms there are two characteristics found by the researcher (Hallucination and Behavior Change), there are two ways to cure schizophrenia Medical Intervention and Psychosocial Intervention.