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A very respectable theory (K.R. Popper) argues that civilization tends to limit the use of violence and opposes a state of chaos, madness, barbarism and war. It is a philosophical theory that in its empirical validity can find a minimum (not exclusive) support from a triad of arguments. In fact, by limiting the concept of civilization to that field that we can call "law and legal justice", we can have, in this case, three arguments, to argue that law actually tends to limit the use of violence, without being based exclusively on the force (and violence) of the sanction: (i) A philosophical-juridical argument, the theory of “international regimes; (ii) A sociological one, the theory of companies such as "Small World Networks" and (iii) A mathematical one, the theory of deterministic chaos applied to the phenomenon of sanction (also definable as coercive force, deterrence or even "just war").

Democracy requires some sort of exchange of knowledge between holders of different knowledge positions. The concept of epistemic justice brings the ability to know and the right to be recognised as a knowledgeable person under a scheme of justice. It problematises social conditions that potentially compromise the ability to share knowledge and thereby effectuate change and the possibility of being recognised as a knowing subject and being granted access to equitable means of producing knowledge. This paper engages with temporal aspects of epistemic justice. What role do temporalities play in people’s possibilities to create knowledge and the way they create knowledge? What role does time play in the valuation and circulation of knowledges? How do hegemonic conceptions of time potentially make some knowledges circulate more freely than others? Since conceptions of time connect to specific forms of knowledge, hierarchies and speakabilities of temporalities form an immediate correlate of hierarchies of knowledge. By extension, such hierarchies feed into schemes of epistemic justice. Thus, democracy’s duty to emancipate suppressed voices requires emancipating the times from which those suppressed voices speak.

What role did migration play in the making of modern Britain? We now have a good sense of the way ethnicity, class, religion and gender structured immigrants’ experience and what impact they had on Britain’s culture, society and economy. But as Nancy Green pointed out almost two decades ago, scholars of migration must focus on exit as well as entry. Such a call to study ‘the politics of exit’ is especially apposite in the case of the UK. For in every decade between 1850 and 1980 (with the exception of the 1930s), the UK experienced net emigration year on year. This article analyses this outflow of migrants to give a new account of the UK as an 'emigration state'. With this concept in mind, this paper offers a new account of the formation of migration policy in the UK and seeks to transform our sense of the chronological and geographical boundaries of modern Britain.

Drawing on the principles underlying conversation analysis (CA), this paper is a single case analysis of interaction in an English as a foreign language (EFL) reading comprehension classroom in Saudi Arabia. It looks at learning from a sociocultural perspective and uses constructs from this theoretical perspective. It focuses on Classroom Interactional Competence (CIC) (Walsh, 2013), showing classroom interaction features that are considered CIC. The paper reflects how an understanding of the concept can lead to more dialogic, engaged learning environments. The paper also connects CIC to teachers’ ability to manipulate simple classroom interactional resources to make the teaching process more effective. The paper demonstrates how teachers can induce CIC by utilizing interactional techniques, such as relaxing the mechanism and speed through which turns are taken or given, use of active listenership devices, extending wait time, and use of open-ended questions to expand topics under development. The paper argues that those techniques will help teachers, as evidenced from the cited examples, further enhance classroom participation so that it is convergent with their pedagogical goals. Finally, the paper has pedagogical implementations as it sheds light on techniques that help promote classroom interaction as an indication of learning among students with limited linguistic resources.

As Saudi Arabia is increasing its international influence and educational collaboration at a global scale, promoting the importance of English language teaching and learning in basic and tertiary education has been more prioritized in the country. Diverse programs are offered in universities, incorporating foundation year programs and curricula, which have become a must for anyone passionate about his/her future, and a strategic necessity for any university that aims at preparing its graduates for their career life. This paper investigates the birth of one of the newest approaches in EFL curriculum design that tries to re-launch the link between labor markets and demands of academic requirements, global society, on the one hand, and the learners’ needs on the other hand, and questions the opinions of foundation year students who completed one academic year of the newly launched curriculum in an English Language Institute at a Saudi public university, data collection employed a large-scale survey (n = 2000) that purposefully explores the students’ opinion on the new curriculum. Results obtained from 371 respondents reveal students’ satisfaction toward a clear improvement in their language skills, specifically presentation, vocabulary, and writing, and joint agreement that the course was autonomy supportive. It was also significant that the course increased the students’ intrinsic motivation and appreciation of the challenges and inspiration this curriculum had given to them. This paper is an extended piece of knowledge for further research. It provides an illustration of students’ deep thoughts on their target language needs for policymakers and curriculum designers to consider.

Historically, classroom observations have been conducted in educational establishments for different purposes such as evaluation of teachers, promotion, curriculum design, or professional development. In this study, the researchers aimed to improve the effectiveness of the classroom observation process in an English Language Center based in a College of Technology in the Sultanate of Oman. The study adopted a qualitative research methodology and semi-structured interviews as the data collection tool. In the first stage, observers and teachers were interviewed to understand the existing classroom observation process. Based on the initial data, a training program was developed with materials from international good practice projects. Finally, the changes were identified through the second set of interviews with the participants. The major results of this study suggest that the training program contributed positively to the perceived effectiveness of the classroom observation process, reduced anxiety related to this process, and led to more balanced participation from both the observers and the teachers. Moreover, the implementation of the pre-observation conferences started taking place and post-observation meetings included more constructive feedback. This study adds to the literature on the importance of classroom observation training with a practical training program. This practical approach can be adopted in similar contexts with some adaptation to meet the specific needs of educational institutions. The researchers suggest a qualitative research approach to accompany any such future training to measure the effects of the training program.

Written Corrective Feedback has been one of the most controversial topics (Waller, 2015), and it has been researched extensively. Still, the lack of research among Kurdish EFL learners made it necessary to conduct the current research. This study focuses on investigating learners’ perceptions of written corrective feedback and its types. It attempts to answer what the Kurdish EFL learners’ perceptions of written corrective feedback are, and what types of written corrective feedback among Kurdish Learners are preferred. Answering these questions is significant as the results can be used by both teachers and learners to improve learners’ writing accuracy. A survey questionnaire was distributed to collect data. After analyzing data, the results reveal that most Kurdish EFL participants were not fully aware of WCF and its effectiveness as a learning tool. However, they still expected their writing teachers to provide them with WCF in writing tasks. Also, the results indicate that Kurdish EFL learners preferred two types of WCF: explicit and implicit WCF. Hence, the results have many pedagogical implications for writing teachers and learners. Firstly, it shows how EFL learners from other countries and contexts perceive WCF, and secondly, results encourage writing teachers to give more attention and value to WCF.

The present study investigated the time attitudes (TAs) of EFL learners and their willingness and preference to share their TAs with peers and EFL instructors. Limited research has explored willingness and preference to share their TAs —a distinct and meaningful part of their temporal perspective that encompasses their positive and negative feelings about the past, present, and future experiences of English language learning. Participants were 229 students of technical and administrative diploma programmes at a Saudi industrial college in the western region of the country. Data were collected through questionnaires. Findings indicated that (1) students’ responses differed mostly on feelings about the past; (2) participants are more willing to share their feelings with peers than with instructors; (3) students are more willing to share with both peers and instructors their combined past, present, and future experiences; (4) students prefer to share their feelings about their present experiences with peers and instructors compared to their past or future experiences; (5) students prefer to share with peers both negative and positive feelings about their past, present, and future experiences; and (6) students prefer to share only negative feelings with instructors.

This review examined English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) preservice teacher cognition studies spanning a 17-year period (2005 to 2021). The main objective was to explore the nature and development of preservice ESL and EFL teacher cognitions as they relate to their teacher-education coursework and teaching practice. Findings indicate that preservice ESL/EFL teacher cognitions are complex, multifaceted, recursive, and frequently related to their experiences as language learners. Although studies included in this review were conducted in different international contexts, the findings were consistent: there is a need for supportive and comprehensive preservice-teacher preparation that accounts for three factors. (1) Valuing preservice teachers’ beliefs as language learners, (2) facilitating preservice teachers’ negotiation of newer beliefs resulting from teacher education coursework, and (3) preparing them to negotiate tensions in their interactions with their mentors in field placements. This paper concludes by discussing pedagogical implications for teacher education programs.

The professional development of future specialists has to meet global and domestic standards. Cultural competence is essential for future professionals as it makes it easier to collaborate with foreign professionals, improve their competitiveness in the world labor market and increase the specialist’s ability to solve professional challenges. The study attempts to answer the questions about the importance of cultural competence development of non-philological students in the process of studying a foreign language and methodological approaches used in this process. The aim of the paper is to present the model of cultural competence formation of future non-philological specialties experts at the foreign languages classes and determine its main components and formation conditions. The study investigates how cultural competence development changes the value-based attitude towards future professional activity and promotes the interest in learning, personal and professional enrichment. Students of three Ukrainian higher educational institutions (from the first to third course) have taken part in the research. The research used conscious-comparative, audiolingual, and role-play methods. The study of the results, based on four criteria (cognitive, moral-axiological, communicative, cultural), showed that learners started to understand the necessity of cultural enrichment of disciplines. The research proved that the implementation of the given technique resulted in the improvement of students’ learning and cognitive activity and enhancement of the general level of training. The paper gives some recommendations for language teachers to organize the process of learning a language on a cultural basis.

One positive side of the Covid-19 pandemic is the unprecedented opportunity it has offered to the Higher Education Institutions to experience digital learning like never before. During the pandemic, Distant Learning platforms, including Learning Management Systems and Video Conferencing Platforms, have been ubiquitous, and no single institution survived without them during the pandemic. Hence, one of the critical lessons that should be learned is the students’ experiences with these platforms. This study aims to investigate the digital platform preferences of English major students in the College of Language and Translation at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia during the Emergency Remote Education due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Its significance lies in the fact that it underscores and addresses students’ needs and preferences with regard to the digital platforms to be used for language learning, a pragmatic examination of which has been carried out in the following pages. It focuses on reasons for the preferences of the two leading digital platforms used in King Saud University: Blackboard and Zoom. A Survey with open-ended and closed-ended questions was designed to answer the questions of the study: which digital platforms do students prefer to use during Emergency Remote Education, and what were the reasons behind students’ preferences? A total of 300 students from both male and female campuses at different levels of study participated in the study. The results showed that students preferred the Zoom to Blackboard. Reasons of preferences were mainly the ease of use, followed by supporting smartphones, then having an app for smartphones. The thematic analysis of the open-ended question showed that technical problems and connection latency were the main reasons behind students’ preferences of the Zoom. The findings also indicated gender differences in reasons of preferences.

The main aim of this study is to determine the advantages and disadvantages of distance teaching and promoting Intercultural Competence in learning foreign languages in the Azerbaijani higher education system. Nowadays the growing tendency of remote education proves that, education has become more reachable in comparison to the past decades. At the same time, distance education has brought new demands and regulations to the education system. The COVID-19outbreak has necessitated the online teaching process resulting in specific problems, including the maintenance of interaction in online teaching. Thus, this study explores both benefits and drawbacks of teaching foreign languages through distance learning in Azerbaijan. In this research, a quantitative research method in the form of a survey has been utilized to explore the tendency of teaching intercultural competence in foreign language classes at universities. Finally, it may be concluded that distance education provides enormous opportunities to practice intercultural communicative competence by using modern information technologies and does not differ much from face-to-face learning.

On the 21st century scent of educational development, ‘dialogism’ hogs the limelight of leading ‎‎academics, mapping ergo a stiff stronghold for active learning pedagogies. ‎Regarding the field of literature more sensibly considered in English as Foreign Language (EFL) ‎‎context, the plea for embracing interactive talks reverberates discernably in the air, yet, engaging ‎‎practices are still an overlooked real-world praxis. Given this reality, the current paper ‎endeavours ‎to endorse the implementation of a new dialogic model that extrapolates its foundation-‎stone ‎techniques from both of Bakhtin’s (1983) discursive dialogues and Socratic argumentations. The ‎pertinent ‎problematics in this study is to investigate the effect of this model on enhancing ‎learners’ higher-order critical thinking skills (HOTSs). To fulfil this target, the researcher has ‎embarked on an ‎Experimental Study based on a pre/post-testing, carried on painstakingly with ‎second-year EFL students ‎at Oran2 University, Algeria. Substantially, after appraising the ‎treatment results through SPSS, the ‎study reveals that adopting such a dialogic model is a robust ‎sinew for “Bloometizing” EFL ‎literature classroom, namely by stimulating and revitalizing the ‎learners’ cognitive reasoning potentials at ‎a very high complexity. Besides, in-class interactions ‎help the students build empathy with ‎literary texts and strengthen their analytical strategies. ‎From this vantage point, the paper, finally, hopes that teachers adopt this dialogic model as a ‎fitting instructional capstone to bringing literature ‎back to life before the learners’ eyes and to add ‎the ‘wow’ factor inside literature classrooms.‎

No previous studies have employed sociocultural theory and the notion of collaborative dialogue to examine collaborative writing in Saudi Arabia, where students favor writing individually. Exploring this topic is significant because of the importance the Saudi education system places on learning English, especially at the university level. Therefore, this longitudinal classroom-based study tested how collaborative writing affected the development of university students learning English as a foreign language in Saudi Arabia. The 46 participants were evenly divided into a control group, who wrote essays individually, and an experimental group, who worked on essays in small groups. Both groups took a pre-test before the eight-week intervention and a post-test at the end. The experimental group also took an end-of-study questionnaire. Although both groups showed improvement, the experimental group improved significantly more on the post-test than the control group and expressed positive attitudes toward collaborative writing on the questionnaire. The study concludes with theoretical and pedagogical implications and recommendations for future research.

The present study attempts to examine verbal/nonverbal impoliteness in the classroom interaction and outside it in one of the movies, namely, The Marva Collins. Impoliteness, which is significantly studied within pragmatics, is a negative attitude towards particular behaviors. It always presumes to have emotional concerns for at least one participant who has caused it. This study is an attempt to examine verbal/nonverbal impoliteness in The Marva Collins movie. The study aims to investigate the different types of impoliteness strategies used in the four selected scenes and find out whether the speaker’s status has anything to do with the types of impoliteness. Besides, the functions performed are also examined by following a qualitative method of research. To achieve the aim of the study, the researchers adopt Culpeper’s model of impoliteness (1996, 2005). The study has concluded that positive impoliteness is the most dominant type of impoliteness, followed by withholding politeness. Moreover, the characters in The Marva Collins mostly employ affective impoliteness rather than the other functions of impoliteness. It is indicated to let the speaker imply the duty of the hearer to produce a negative emotional state. As a final point, Culpeper is the workable model used in analysing the data of this study.

This study aims to highlight the utilization of literary genre as a well-liked method for instructing both language skills (that is to say, writing, reading, speaking, and listening) and language fields (that are grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary). Why employing literary textbooks in foreign language classrooms and the main motives for choosing appropriate fictional texts in these classrooms are emphasized to make the reader acquainted with the motivating incentives and standards for foreign language teachers’ employing and picking erudite textbooks. Additionally, the teaching of language skills and literary genre gains benefits of diverse fields of literature (like drama, poems, tragedy and tales) to language teaching and to several difficulties met by language teachers in the sphere of instructing English using fiction (i.e. shortage of training in the field of literature teaching English as a Second English and Teaching English as a Foreign Language curriculums, deficiency of precise aims describing the function of fiction in English as a Foreign Language and English as a Second Language, foreign language teachers’ not possessing the experience and preparation in literature, and lack of suitable teaching tools to be utilized by foreign language teachers in a class milieu) are taken into consideration.

One of the most critical problems of the Linguistics of text is the structure study of the literary text, principles of its organization following the rules of the compositions that suggest splitting the linguistic work into the interconnected parts. In this regard, it is necessary to research the individual compositional and significant elements of the text and their role in forming the whole work. The paper focuses on revealing structural and syntactic properties of the author’s digressions, namely, detecting such concepts as integration/non-integration of the author’s digressions in the English literary prose. Integrated and non-integrated types of author’s digressions into the academic space of the text have been distinguished based on interpretative-textual and compositional analysis. The analysis of the text-forming function of the author’s digression contributed to defining the features of the cohesion of the literary text and included in its elements. The analysis results show that the author’s digressions can be both integrated and non-integrated. Non-integration of the author’s digression lies in their composition-semantic independence, and integrated author’s digressions are the ones that the author weaves into the text with different types of cohesion. This research promotes the studies of the cognitive aspect of the author’s digression in the different genres literary texts of English and American prose.

In recent years, an increasing number of non-native EFL teachers have been recruited to teach English in English dominant settings. Grounded in sociocultural views of identity, the research question of this study focused on how contextual factors influence the professional identity construction of three EFL teachers in a Saudi School in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The study employs a qualitative case study method, where in-depth interviews and classroom observation are utilised. Drawing on Wenger’s (1998) communities of practice framework to analyse and interpret the data, the analysis indicates various factors affecting the EFL Saudi teachers’ professional identity. Findings reveal that identity formation is a complex and highly contextual process. The participants in this study construct their identities by engaging in their teaching environment, shared practices with their peers, engaged in student-parents relationship and participated in professional development. Through transitioning into the English as a second language (ESL) setting, the EFL teachers have demonstrated how professional identity is a dynamic and socially situated construct. As a result, these teachers’ identities may be transformed by the global educational settings in which they work. The findings contribute to our understanding of the importance of a conducive professional environment in supporting teachers to develop their professional identities.

The article focuses on the authors’ pedagogical experience of exploiting digital narratives in a foreign language education at a modern university (on the basis of National Technical University of Ukraine “KPI” named after Igor Sikorsky). The study aims to consider multimodality in terms of foreign language didactics. It was designed by the constructivism theory and narratology in terms of teaching a foreign language. The research exploited the set of theoretical methods: analyzing, summarizing, and interpreting scholarly sources on the issue under scrutiny; generalization and conceptualization of the authors’ pedagogical experience. Applying those methods in coherence logic enabled the effective study and interpretation of the concepts of “narrative” and “digital narrative” in their interrelations. In the study, the narrative is viewed as a sociocultural tool that provides students with deeper self-understanding, and complements the communicative system of foreign language acquisition with metacognition and values of life meaning. The digital narrative as a form of expression, empowered and determined by digital technologies incorporates multimodal communication and narrative as a cognitive unity. The authors have stated that multimodality, grounded on information technologies, is introducing entirely new semiotic resources into the communicative environment of foreign language learning. It is also generating innovative ways and forms of oral and written interaction. Multimodal learning activities illustrating the specifics of creating digital narratives by learners of English as a foreign language, are highlighted. The significance of the study lies in the fact that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is unquestionably a rather fertile condition for active implementing digital technologies into foreign language education, and developing different multimodal learning activities in this area

The study aims to shed some light on pedagogical and learning issues that have cropped up during the pandemic for transitioning from traditional classrooms to entirely virtual learning. The study reflects how the paradigm shift can directly or indirectly affect the soft skills of all parties involved in the success or the failure of an educational system. An in-depth focus group discussion methodology was used to collect information in this qualitative study. Thirty faculty who taught online courses at the tertiary level were selected for the discussions. They provide significant insights about how the fully online learnings continued longer than the anticipated timelines impact the pedagogical value and the futurity of an individual’s educational goals. The study shows that embracing the virtual approach in teaching can promote teachers’ innovativeness by using various new applications and digital tools but bring new challenges for dealing with diverse learning styles.

Because of the widespread use of digital technology, many EFL students access various types of technologies that help them acquire English vocabulary beyond formal classroom learning. This paper aims to explore Saudi EFL learners’ attitudes towards informal digital learning of English vocabulary (IDLEV) outside the academic requirements as well as their practices of IDLEV beyond the classroom. To answer the research questions of the study, the researchers recruited 80 Saudi EFL students from the University of Bisha, Saudi Arabia, to respond to a self-reported questionnaire. The study found that Saudi EFL students have positive attitudes towards informal digital learning of English in improving their vocabulary. Results also reveal that the participants tend to use different technologies to learn English vocabulary in informal settings. The study found that receptive activities are more commonly used than the productive activities. The study found a significant correlation between learners’ attitudes and practices. The implications of the study and recommendations were presented accordingly.

The integration of soft skills in training pre-service teachers ensures higher academic performance and provides them with better career opportunities. However, many university teachers pay insufficient attention to developing soft skills in higher education. The article aims to investigate the correlation between the soft skills included in professional teacher training and undergraduates’ viewpoint on soft skills development at university. The authors formulated three research questions: (a) How do English trainee teachers assess their soft skills? (b) How much attention, in students’ opinion, do teachers pay to developing soft skills? (c) Is there a gap between teachers’ work on developing students’ soft skills and trainee teachers’ expectations? To answer these questions, the researchers analized the empirical data received through a questionnaire. The questionnaire was completed by 153 English trainee teachers studying at H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University, Ukraine. The respondents answered two close-ended questions regarding the level of soft skills they believe to possess and the amount of time devoted to soft skills development. The findings suggest that most students consider the level of their soft skills intermediate or high. Nevertheless, a significant number of the respondents still feel that teachers pay insufficient or hardly any attention to improving these skills. It is necessary to conduct further research to analyze university teachers’ viewpoint on improving students’ soft skills and organize the development of soft skills which would meet trainee teachers’ expectations.

Automated text complexity assessment tools are of enormous practical value in solving the time-consuming task of analyzing English informational texts for their complexity at the pre-reading stage. The present study depicts the application of the automated text analysis system the TextEvaluator as an effective tool that helps analyze texts on eight dimensions of text complexity as follows: syntactic complexity; academic vocabulary; word unfamiliarity; word concreteness; lexical cohesion; interactive style; level of argumentation; degree of narrativity, with further summarizing them with an overall genre-dependent complexity score. This research examines the complexity dimensions of English informational texts of four genres – legal, linguistic, news, and medical – that are used for teaching reading comprehension to EFL (English as a foreign language) pre-service teachers and translators at universities in Ukraine. The data obtained with the help of the TextEvaluator has shown that English legal texts are the most difficult for reading comprehension in comparison to linguistic, news, and medical texts. In contrast, medical texts are the least challenging out of the four genres compared. The TextEvaluator has provided insight into the complexity of English informational texts across their different genres that would be useful for assembling the corpora of reading passages scaled on specific dimensions of text complexity that predict text difficulty to EFL pre-service teachers and translators.

This paper aims to develop a methodology for forming communication skills (specifically phonetic skills) through a virtual learning environment involving online learning platforms, online tools, and mobile applications, which determines the relevance and timeliness of the study. The authors present their experience of effective use of modern online resources and mobile applications to develop phonetic and communication skills in first-year students studying German as the first and second foreign language at the Department of German Philology at Odesa I.I. Mechnikov National University, Ukraine. According to the survey, modern digital tools and applications help students reveal interest and, more importantly, increase motivation in learning a foreign language. They enable students to keep in touch with their teachers, who provide them with feedback and support, creating the effect of social presence which is so vital in a distance learning environment. The significance of the research is to establish the background for the formation of students’ self-development and self-education skills, encourage the students to take responsibility for their learning process, and motivate their learning activities with the most effective tools and technologies that do not only complement traditional teaching methods, but also contribute to the learning process improvement and enhancement. Consequently, the research findings can apply to the development of communicative competence, which is the main goal in teaching any foreign language.

The global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused one of the most extensive school closures worldwide, sending over one billion students home away from their schools, teachers, and classmates. Governments opted for online education to ensure the continuity of learning. Teachers in Morocco have opted for different tech tools and platforms to design and deliver online classes. This study aims to assess the impact and effectiveness of online teaching during the COVID 19 outbreak among teachers in Morocco. Based on the theoretical framework Online Collaborative Learning (OCL), an online survey questionnaire is employed as a data collection instrument. A total of 421 Moroccan teachers from different regions all over Morocco took part in the study. This paper used the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software to analyze the collected data and determine the impact and quality of online teaching during the Covid-19 national school closure in Morocco. The results showed that most of the teachers faced numerous technology, training, and socio-economic challenges that acted as barriers to the processes of online education. The findings obtained can be of use in making future decisions concerning the implementation of teaching and learning online programs in Morocco considering the teachers’ perspective.

Nowadays, especially after the COVID-19 crisis lockdown, the heavy reliance on technology and online platforms led to a greater expectation of more learning autonomy among English learners in EFL contexts such as Saudi Arabia. The sudden shift to online learning requires an investigation into students’ readiness and willingness for such a mode of learning. This can provide educators with many prospects about learning outcomes achievement and assessment, test performance, and interaction during classes. Therefore, the current study seeks to contribute to the well-known area of learner autonomy research, which is still lacking in the context of the study, by exploring the readiness of Saudi first-year undergraduate English learners towards online education. Participants’ level of readiness is identified according to their autonomous behaviors and activities. The study will also assess the investigated concept considering the influence of gender and field of study of the participants on their autonomy levels. A total of 802 students participated in this study. It was found that Saudi first-year university students are moderately autonomous, that both males and females have similar levels of aptitude and readiness for taking responsibility for their learning, and that English-major and non-English-major groups showed comparatively similar levels across different learning autonomy dimensions. Yet interestingly, English-major participants displayed a relatively lower autonomy level than students of other majors.

The current paper attempts to afford an evidence-based background on the prevalence, benefits, cons, challenges, and importance of online student assessment at higher educational level. This study is significant as it would assist teachers when applying online assessment. The COVID-19 pandemic compelled almost most universities and higher institutions to suddenly adopt online learning and assessment. In this spectrum, this research paper tries to answer the following question: to what extent the application of the appropriate online assessment is challenging in higher educational institutions? The central set hypothesis states that adopting the practical online assessment meets several challenges that hinder its application in higher educational institutions; however, they do not make its use impossible. To gain empirical data, an emailed questionnaire was sent to the sample. The sample of this research comprises 183 higher education teachers from Algeria. They belong to different faculties and departments. Their selection was based on cluster sampling techniques. The obtained results were treated using the statistical package for social sciences SPSS. The findings prove the existence of some hindrances that harden the application of the online assessment. Also, teachers reveal that they adopted several online assessing techniques and both formative and summative assessments. Ultimately, teachers recommend the organization of courses to improve their use of the online assessment in general. Besides, teachers highly approve of using anti-plagiarism detectors to ensure academic integrity and limit learners’ potential misconduct in online assessment.

The sudden shift of English language teaching from face-to-face classroom interaction to online learning has resulted in many challenges for EFL students in Ukraine. The aim of the study is to analyze the challenges EFL students at Ukrainian higher educational institutions face under the Covid-19 pandemic and quarantine measures. Mastering a foreign language requires the development of foreign language skills, motivation, self-esteem, emotional stability, and psychological involvement of students in the learning process. There was the survey for English language learners at Ukrainian Universities: Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, Kyiv National Linguistic University, Taras Shevchenko Chernihiv National University “Chernihiv Collegium.” The study analyzes the responses of 357 students. The researchers surveyed in 2020. The results of the study show that students have psychological challenges in the process of learning foreign languages. They are caused by low self-esteem, demotivation, frustration, fear of failure, the impact of quarantine measures and conditions: lack of face-to-face interaction, pandemic-related stress, anxiety, depression, etc. The author uses the methods of theoretical analysis, synthesis, comparison, classification, and systematization of theoretical and experimental data. The results of this study provide recommendations for EFL teachers to enhance the efficiency of online teaching and learning activities. The study presents some recommendations for EFL teachers to guide their students through online learning.

English language learners use social media platforms for improving their language skills through exchanging ideas, sharing their thoughts, and getting exposed to authentic language. The use of social media by learners might yield positive or adverse effects. This study, therefore, explores the pedagogical consequences of some social media platforms on Iraqi Kurd EFL learners. It Highlights the significant impacts of social media on learning English, vocabulary, and spelling. It explicitly attempts to discover how social media affects English language learning, word choices, and spelling for Kurd EFL learners. A questionnaire is used to randomly collect the study data from 96 Kurdish students studying English at various academic institutions. The data was organized and analyzed by SPSS. It was found that Kurd EFL learners use social media platforms extensively for numerous purposes, improving their English language skills being one of them. The results suggest that social media assists learners in learning and practising new vocabulary; However, it has a negative impact on the students spelling and academic writing skills. Kurd EFL learners use abbreviated forms and unnecessarily shortened forms under the influence of social media.

information technologies grammatical competence The current study aims at demonstrating the effectiveness of the virtual learning environment Moodle in the formation of English language grammatical competence of students during their independent work. The study had a quasi-experimental research design with a pre-test and delayed post-test. It was carried out at the Faculty of Law of Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Ukraine. The participants were fifty 3rd-year students of specialty “International Law,” who took part in the survey voluntarily during the fall semester of 2020-2021. The core question of the research is whether this learning tool is effective in forming students’ foreign language grammatical competence. Based on the results of the study, the researchers demonstrate the benefits of studying through the electronic system Moodle. Students increased their ability to understand grammatical constructions in professionally oriented texts. To conclude, the findings obtained in this study can be implemented both in online and blended learning for university students during their independent work while working over English for Specific Purposes.

The shift from in-person to remote learning has have led to crisis management. Teachers find it more challenging as content designing and presentation have to undergo drastic change. Though many face-to-face methodologies could be adapted in the online context, Yet, “one size fits all approach” cannot be standardized in remote learning setups. The critical challenge in this ‘new era’ is to make the learners motivated, productive, and responsible. The study aims to find the impact of four digital tools: Discussion Forums, Kahoot, Padlet, and FlipGrid in fostering 21st-century skills and identify the existing gaps between Remote Learning and instructional activities in the EFL context. The study adopts a quantitative approach. First, it tries to examine the utilization of the digital learning tools under Blackboard by the faculty at the Department of English at Prince Sattam University and find out the impact of digital tools in fostering 21st-century skills on the undergraduate students pursuing level six. From the results of the study, it is evident that digital learning tools empower learners. The study recommends significant changes in the pedagogies. Finally, the study suggests rubrics be taken into consideration while choosing digital tools to foster 21 st century skills.

With the global advancements in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the national and international demand for well-developed ICT skills and competencies, academic programs at higher education institutions need to make necessary adjustments to content and processes. This study reports on the current ICT integration practices in a TESOL postgraduate program at a Saudi Arabian university, addressing viewpoints at administrative, faculty, and postgraduate student levels. Three different questionnaires were used to answer the following questions: What are the TESOL postgraduate students’ practices of ICT integration, and how do they perceive their professors’ practices? What ICT integration practices do faculty members use, and how do they perceive the merit and desirability of their practices? And ‘How is ICT integration tackled at the administrative level with respect to policy and procedures, infrastructure, training, and technical support? The findings indicate that ICT integration practices in this program are lagging expectations. This is not a matter of attitude, potential, and challenges in the current situation, but is related to understanding the national ICT policy and developing sustainable strategies at an institutional level to guide and support faculty members’ practices. Since the impact of such changes will go beyond higher education to the broader national education system, much more attention needs to be dedicated to teacher education and professional development programs, including TESOL postgraduate programs.

Since English is extensively used among linguacultural users to access life opportunities, it has become a requisite foreign language in the Thai educational system. To prepare Thai learners for this new changing role of English and reduce English Language Teaching dependency on the native English variety, this study aimed to explore English lecturers’ voices in Thai universities on existing English as a Foreign Language (EFL) pedagogies at the Thai tertiary level with the research question: how do English lecturers in Thai universities perceive EFL in Thai universities? Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 25 Thai EFL university lecturers selected from ten different universities in Thailand and analyzed using content analysis. The finding reveals that EFL-oriented pedagogy plays a dominant role in English language teaching (ELT) education in Thai classrooms, illustrating three main salient themes from the study: (1) EFL pedagogies; (2) EFL materials; and (3) EFL curriculums. The result shows that the pedagogy is less responsive in the changing roles of English use and its widespread worldwide, especially among diverse linguacultural interlocutors. Hence, English university lecturers should reconsider, adjust, and made more practical glocal changes in English language teaching for the purpose of language teaching, language planning and predicting language change.

In this day and age, it is absolutely indispensable for acquiring competence in English to grapple with the real impediments and huge challenges of the modern epoch. The emergence of English as a global language is among the factors that could explicate its vitality and its expansion. The basic burden of making language courses more relevant to learners’ needs resulted in the advent of languages for specific purposes movement, known in English Language Teaching circles as English for Specific Purposes. ESP then, has since its inception in the early 1960s become one of the most dynamic branches of applied linguistics in general, and of Teaching English as a Foreign Language in particular. To amass relevant data, a case study was conducted through a combination of a questionnaire, classroom observation, and informal interviews with language teachers and subject specialists. The main aim of this present paper is to precisely delineate the teaching/learning process of ESP in the department of Computer Sciences at the University of ORAN1 in Algeria, and the learners’ attitudes towards this teaching. For this purpose, it is necessary to explore the utility of ESP as perceived by learners, and to address problems faced by instructors. The results indicate that the students have a positive attitude towards ESP and that their poor achievement was due to multiple reasons. This digest concludes by offering some suggestions and implications as remedial actions to the major confronted concerns.

This study examines the frequency and the functions of code switching in informal conversations among Jordanian pilots, who have created their own jargon. It also explores the most frequent English expressions that the pilots switch to in their informal Arabic discourse. The conversations of eight Jordanian pilots aged between thirty and fifty-five were tape-recorded in three separate informal natural settings. The data were used for the purpose of finding out what the pragmatic and communicative functions are that the pilots’ code switching serves, and to investigate the most frequent expressions used in their conversations. The results showed that eight main conversational functions can be identified in their code-switching routines, namely: to compensate for the lack of exact equivalents in Arabic, to avoid interruption to the communication when not knowing the Arabic equivalent, to replace long and technical terminology in Arabic with acronyms in English (acronyms are not common in Arabic), to use aviation titles and ranks, to quote/ directly report phrases of speakers, to say the numbers, to refer to names of companies, places, documents, and organizations, and to insert some English formulaic expressions. The findings also showed that the most frequent terms and expressions used in code switching amongst Jordanian pilots are more related to the aviation register than to common-core vocabulary.

The article is devoted to studying the principles of the language economy of modern English word-forming. The most productive ways of word-formation are highlighted, illustrating the tendency of the language to compress nominative units. In the system of English word-formation, the most effective ways to save speech are affixal word formation, word composition, and conversion. Due to the considerable potential of these methods of word formation, the vocabulary of the English language has such qualities as the richness of vocabulary, functionality, and economy. The main aim of the study is to consider the principles of word-formation in the modern English language through word-forming models represented by the concepts of length and depth of the generating word. The authors of the article explore the mechanism of the principle of the economy through the consideration of the ideas of “mental energy”, “word-forming energy”, and “pronouncing energy”. There are issues that attempt to answer; how does the principle of economy work in the English language – its word formation? What are the significant models of word formation in modern English? The findings indicate that there are active processes in the word-formation of the English language, which can cause the formation of new words without changing the length and depth of the generating term expanding the possibilities of word composition and conversion.

Teaching writing in English is a particularly daunting task for EFL teachers. Much of it concerns teaching accuracy in text production, development and thought expression which is usually not the teachers’ stated aim. Thus, teachers’ perceptions to the teaching of writing and the actual classroom practices need examination, which is the aim of this study, a prerequisite to recommending pedagogical changes to bridge the gap that exists between educational aims and outcomes so far as the teaching of writing to EFL learners in Saudi tertiary level educational institutions is concerned. The study applies a quantitative approach via a survey conducted with one hundred EFL teachers at Imam Mohammed Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMBSIU, henceforth), Qassim University and King Khaled University, Saudi Arabia. Results suggest that inadequate English resources and inefficient teaching methods are, in general, the main causes of poor writing skills. Further, the teachers perceive limited lexis, irregular sentences, and orthographical differences with the mother tongue as impediments in the learners’ ability to write well in English. The study concludes with some pertinent recommendations to remedy the situation.

Although many studies have examined the ability of admission tests and High School General Point Averages to predict academic performance, they are not in agreement whether or not, these two measures are an entirely sufficient criterion to foretell college learning success. In addition, there seems to be a gap in the literature concerning using the type of high school (private or public) a student attends as a supportive measure to the two criteria mentioned above. This study tried to answer the research question, which is: to what extent can student’s high school point average, admission test, and the type of school he attended predict his academic performance? The research carries a considerable significance as it cast light on some factors that may foretell the academic success of a college student. The study investigated the predictive capability of students’ high school general averages, admission test, which is Standardized Test for English Proficiency, and student’s type of high school to predict freshmen’s academic success as defined by their college General Point Averages at the end of their first year. The present study utilized regression analysis to analyze the data of 100 students who finished their first year at the college of languages and translation, Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University, Saudi Arabia. The study findings indicated that the admission test was the best predictor for students’ performance. In contrast, surprisingly, students’ HSGPAs and the type of school they attended had little significance in determining the attainment of college students. Thus, it is suggested that the entry test be considered an essential measure for admission to the Saudi college.

This article aims to propose a practical model for intra-lingual translation or paraphrase in another term. Paraphrase is a restatement of a text, rewording something written or spoken, especially to achieve greater clarity. This approach could help a troubled translator who is having issues translating a complex text into a receptor language by assessing the source text and reconstructing the contents in a simpler semantic structure. (Larson, 2012) Noam Chomsky’s generative–transformational model (1957, 1965) and Larson’s (2012) methodology have been followed to analyze sentences into a series of related levels governed by the help of several other techniques. To achieve this, firstly, the concepts; Intralingual translation, rewording, paraphrasing, and restatement are identified and explained. Secondly, methods of rewording are unpacked, then other elements that play an essential role in paraphrasing are presented. Thirdly, steps of paraphrasing are applied to the text Taj Mahal where skewings between semantic structure and grammatical features are studied and unskewed. Lastly, a conclusion is drawn from the findings to verify the hypothesis of the paraphrase. The findings and results of rewording are also briefly discussed.

To this date, there has been an increasing number of children across the globe diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. There has been much literature that discussed the issues and obstacles common learners face in their English language learning journey. Yet, not much spotlight and acknowledgment were given to the learners with Autism in their voyage of English language learning. In conjunction to that, this paper intends to investigate the obstacles that the learners with Autism face in their English as secondary language learning. In addition to that, teachers are not to be forgotten as teachers are also believed to be playing a role in learners with Autism’s English as a second language(ESL) learning process which is why this research also intends to investigate the challenges faced by the teachers who are in charge of teaching learners with Autism. A qualitative research with the observation and interview as the instruments represents this research. This research involved two Autism Centres located in an urban area in Malaysia. The observation and interviews were conducted with forty-five learners with Autism and fourteen teachers. The findings have gathered that the world of Autism Spectrum Disorder is indeed full of obstacles and challenges but none that could not be overcome. It is believed that this research will provide a better insight of the real world of ESL teaching and learning among learners with Autism. Discussions and recommendations are further explained in this research.

This research aims to give a clear image of coursebook evaluation in the English department of Komar University of Science and Technology (KUST) in Iraqi Kurdistan. The focus of this paper is to show the advantages and disadvantages of six coursebooks that are used in the English department of KUST. For this purpose, the researchers conducted interviews with the instructors and a survey with the students of these courses. These interviews and the survey show the good sides and the shortcomings of the studied coursebooks by asking different types of questions related to the contents of the books. The research took place in Fall-Winter 2019. The study results show that two-thirds of the teachers were satisfied with the coursebooks chosen to teach in the department of English to a large degree, and most of the students were satisfied with their coursebooks.

The purpose of the article is to put forward English monologue production assessment criteria to verify the efficiency of the devised methodology of teaching English for future mechanical engineers. In the course of the research, theoretical, empirical, and statistical methods have been used. Various approaches to identifying the assessment criteria have been thoroughly analyzed. Seven criteria to assess the monologue production skills, five primary and two secondary ones, have been suggested. The allocation of the points by every criterion according to the devised scales have been elucidated. The proposed assessment criteria were used in the methodological experiment that was held at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv National Technical University. The experiment in question aimed to verify the efficiency of the devised methodology of teaching English monologue production to students majoring in mechanical engineering. Three experimental groups, 34 students in total, studying in their final year of Bachelor studies within the Subject Areas of Applied Mechanics and Industrial Engineering, participated in the methodological experiment. The conducted experiment confirmed the efficiency of the methodology proposed.

This paper aims to validate the English Language Entrance Test for King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Science (hereafter KSAU-ET). It supports the argument regarding using specially designed in-house entrance tests at health universities by showcasing the test’s development, administration, and validation process. It presents a new framework for test validation that is informed by various existing frameworks such as Messick (1996), Sireci (1998) and, Weir (2005), with a specific focus on the notions of unitary and practicality. The proposed framework treats validity as a pre-, during, and post-test process that collects evidence from each phase to support the test’s overall validity. The data were collected using different tools and through the three stages of the validation process. The test was taken by 474 candidates who applied to join KSAU-HS Stream II medical program. The data confirmed that the test was reliable (alpha > 7) and reasonably meet the university’s needs to select the program’s top prospective candidates. Nevertheless, the study highlighted the importance of collecting further evidence in future studies and including more selection criteria in the regression model of analysis. Using this framework, the study contributes to the existing body of research that investigate English entrance test validation. It shows that exam validity is a context-sensitive process strongly associated with the purpose for which the exam is used. Finally, the paper discusses pedagogical implications that may help educators at health science universities develop in-house entrance tests in place of standardized tests, which often do not address context, curriculum, or program objectives.

This study aims to explore how English as a Second Language ESL Pre-Service Teachers (PSTs) employ adaptation strategies in response to the surrounding constraining context to develop their professional identities. The research question is “How do pre-service teachers (PSTs) employ adaptation strategies to develop their professional identity (PI) during their simulated teaching class and practicum?”. Qualitative data were collected using semi-structured interviews and classroom observation from PSTs in a Malaysian university and public secondary schools in Kuala Lumpur. Findings showed that the positive notions of belonging to a Community of Practice (CoP) proved to be applicable in the simulated teaching class context, so PSTs used their adaptation process of observation-experimentation and evaluation to attempt different teaching practices. Nonetheless, the positive notions of the CoP were inapplicable in the teaching practicum context. Hence, PSTs struggled to construct their Professional Identity (PI) and had to alter their adaptation strategies to negotiate PI construction. The study concludes with some recommendations for further use. Program designers need to consider social interaction and integration within the professional context. That could enable adaptation processes to enhance PSTs’ PI development.

This current research forms part of a broader investigation into the problems Saudi postgraduate students face in English academic writing. The study used the interpretive paradigm to investigate and interpret the perceptions of Saudi postgraduate students and their supervisors in relation to the difficulties they encountered regarding academic writing in English. Therefore, the study adopted a sequential mixed-methods design. The quantitative phase of the research employed a questionnaire whereas the qualitative phase employed semi-structured interviews and document analysis. In total, 275 students completed the prepared questionnaire whilst 15 students, both male and female, and 9 supervisors participated in the semi-structured interviews. The research also used ten samples of written feedback students had received from their supervisors. SPSS descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data quantitatively, and MAXQDA software was used to analyse the data qualitatively. The study identified that Saudi postgraduates encounter a range of difficulties in their academic writing, which were due to several underlying causes. Therefore, to address this issue and to contribute to knowledge in the field, the author of this study devised a theoretical model to assist Saudi postgraduate students overcome their difficulties with English academic writing. The main focus of the current study is to explain this model in detail.

This paper aims at demonstrating the effectiveness of modern methods of formation of English language communicative competence of those students who study at non-language specialties. The experimental work was carried out at the Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology, the Faculty of Physical Education and the Faculty of History of Ternopil National Pedagogical University named after Volodymyr Hnatyuk, Ukraine. The authors present their experience of conducting a three-year-long training using game technology, project-based technology, interactive technologies, tasks in the electronic system Moodle, etc. and discuss the benefits of using those means at university. The core question of the given study is whether these means are effective in the formation of students’ foreign language communicative competence. The authors demonstrate the benefits of studying with the help of modern lingua-didactic and technical means. The results of the survey indicate that these tools are effective in their integrated application for the formation of English language skills. To conclude, the findings of the study can be applied while teaching English to the students of non-language specialties.

In March 2020, schools in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were suspended. Online learning became a substitute for traditional face-to-face learning. This study addresses the implications of this shift for the attitudes of university-level English majored Saudi students taking a listening and speaking course. The study investigated the students’ attitudes towards: a) the importance of speaking in English; b) teachers use of emails to communicate their feedback on students’ English-speaking tasks; c) online teaching of English speaking; and d) online learning and teaching of the English language. The data collection tool was a 21-item questionnaire. The participants were 18 second-year male Saudi students who were studying English at a Saudi university. The findings showed that the participants: a) had positive attitudes towards the importance of speaking English; b) appreciated the benefits that online learning offers, but felt it could not replace face-to-face learning.

This study examines how a group of students enrolled in preparatory year program at a Saudi university describe their experiences while engaging with a specific literacy event, i.e. oral presentations in an English as a Foreign Language classroom. It adopts a case study methodology that relies on qualitative data-collection techniques, including reflections written by female undergraduates, informal conversations with these undergraduates, observational fieldnotes of classroom activities and a research journal. Relying on a social understanding of literacy, collected data are thematically analysed to examine how students view their experiences in this academic literacy event. Three major themes are highlighted in this study in relation to students’ experiences with this event: topic choice, fear and anxiety and the gains and losses associated with learning to prepare and make short presentations in English. Discussion sheds light on the impact of these experiences on the identity positions that learners develop and negotiate to participate in this event. It also highlights some of the challenges that mediate students’ experiences in this event and how they recognize and address these challenges. The study draws attention to the need for more in-depth, qualitative research to examine academic literacy events in tertiary education in which learners’ voices are brought to light to explore the situated nature of learning and its impact on learners.

This paper aims to give an account of the multiple determination (determiner spreading) phenomenon in Arabic. Determiner spreading is the syntactic representation and phonological realization of multiple determiners within the same determiner phrase. As a cross-linguistic phenomenon, determiner spreading has been investigated in other languages (e.g., Scandinavian and Greek); different accounts have been proposed. For Scandinavian languages, determiner spreading has been analyzed as a representation of different semantic interpretations. As far as Greek is concerned, some analyses have been proposed; however, two prominent ones have received considerable attention in the literature: (i) a residue of a reduced relative clause and (ii) an instantiation of close appositions. Contrary to those analyses, this paper claims that none of the two analyses is suitable for Arabic; thus, a language-specific analysis is required. To analyze determiner spreading in Arabic, the current paper posits the following research question: What is the linguistic purpose of the multiple determiners found in Arabic determiner phrases? Answering the research question, the paper claims that, in addition to its indispensable role in establishing agreement between nouns and adjectives within the Arabic determiner phrase, determiner spreading demarcates syntactic and semantic phrase boundaries. The paper takes Minimalist Program and Distributed Morphology as a theoretical framework to argue that attributive adjectives are projection of an agreement phrase headed by the definite article ʔal or by the indefinite phonological marker `nunation: -n’. This proposal requires no syntactic movements in the syntax proper. The ultimate linear order is achieved in the phonological components.

Although there are several studies conducted by linguistics researchers on the differences between the linguistic styles of female and male writers, there are not many studies conducted on the use of boosters in academic writing. Boosters are used to convince and emphasize statements made. This study analyzes the regularity of boosters used in the Introduction section of Ten Research Articles (RAs). The influence of gender differences in the use of specific boosters will also be looked at. A document analysis method was chosen as the 10 RAs were analyzed as the corpus in this study. The findings showed that male writers used more boosters than female writers. Even though the number of words for the female writers was more than the male writers, it did not affect the number of boosters used in the Introduction section of those articles. In conclusion, it can be deduced from the analysis that both the female and male writers used boosters to highlight their claims or their beliefs regardless of their gender, while the use of boosters was more evident among the male RAs as the male writers seemed to be more direct in illustrating and mentioning their claims.