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The present study explored a small-scale English medium instruction (EMI) initiative in Moroccan secondary schools, which is part of a top-down multilingual policy based on teaching science subjects through foreign languages, namely French, English, and Spanish. 18 secondary EMI teachers of math, physics and life and earth sciences were interviewed in order to understand the new policy. Following grounded theory (GT) methodology, the findings show positive attitudes towards the implementation of EMI in Moroccan education, but the teachers seemed unsatisfied with the way it has been implemented. They thought science teachers were not prepared for such a new tendency. The study also revealed that teachers' low English proficiency was considered the major challenge to the successful implementation of EMI in Moroccan secondary schools and the essential reason behind using the first language in the EMI classroom. To prepare future generations for extending EMI in the Moroccan education, the teachers called for a switch to English as the first foreign language, instead of French, in all levels of schooling, and suggested gradual introduction of EMI in primary and middle schools. The study ends with some implications for overcoming the challenges of the new policy.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to contribute to the ongoing debate about the instructional languages in Moroccan education through exploring graduate students' attitudes towards the potential use of English-medium instruction (EMI) in Moroccan science universities. Design/methodology/approach: In this study, 17 master and doctoral students have been interviewed to explore attitudes towards EMI implementation in Moroccan higher education. The data were collected and analysed based on constant comparative method, which belongs to the grounded theory methodology. The method is based on organizing the raw data into categories according to shared attributes while constantly comparing the parts of the data as they occur. The objective is to formulate new hypotheses and theories about the phenomenon of interest. Findings: The findings of this study reveal that although graduate students hold positive attitudes towards the future implementation of EMI in higher education, they think students are not prepared for such a switch in the language of instruction given that they have been taught through either Arabic or French in lower levels. Hence, they suggest gradual implementation of EMI in lower levels and introduction of English as a foreign language instead of French at primary level. Originality/value: Most of the previous studies on bilingual education and EMI have investigated non-Anglo-Saxon contexts, where English is the major foreign or second language. The researchers could not have located any study which investigates the possibility to implement EMI in post-colonial contexts, where other foreign languages, bearing colonial conations, are more dominant than English. This study presents the case of Morocco, where French, rather than English, is the dominant foreign language not only in education but also in different other domains of life.

The present study explores Moroccan science teachers' perceptions of teaching science subjects through foreign languages, mainly French, in Moroccan secondary schools. Seventeen science and technology teachers have been interviewed and data were analysed following the grounded theory methodology. The researcher constructs hypotheses based on data collection and analysis following axial coding. The findings of the study reveal that although science teachers hold positive attitudes towards the change in the language of instruction, they do not agree with the way this new initiative is being implemented. According to them, neither teachers nor students have been prepared to cope with a foreign language as a medium of instruction. They think students' low French proficiency is the major challenge in this new initiative. Hence, they admit to resorting to the mother tongue to facilitate students' content learning. Also, they have expressed their dissatisfaction with the prioritization of French as a foreign language and as a language of instruction. Instead, they suggest preparing young generations to switch to English as a medium of instruction through introducing English as a first foreign language at the primary and middle schools instead of French. The study ends up with some implications to overcome the challenges of the new policy.

The Moroccan Ministry of Education has recently implemented a multilingual programme, called 'language alternation' (LA). The programme aims at improving students' foreign language (FL) proficiency level and promoting plurilingualism by using French, English, and Spanish, for the teaching of math, physics and life and earth sciences at the secondary level, instead of the official language, Arabic. The study sought to understand this new tendency in Moroccan education by examining official educational documents and exploring teachers' perceptions using Grounded Theory (GT), which is a hypothesis-generating methodology. The findings showed a gap between the conceptualised language recommendations in the official documents and the implementation of these recommendations in Moroccan schools. In addition, it seems that the new enacted educational policy has brought about challenges for both students and teachers. The interviewed teachers were concerned about their students' initial FL proficiency, the negative effect of the new policy on students' content learning, the lack of trainings in the methodology of the new medium of instruction (MOI) policy and limited agency of teachers in the conceptualisation and implementation of the new policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the varieties of civilian praetorianism or the different ways in which civilians enable and support military coups. It specifically argues that by shaping their access to different sets of resources, civilians' proximity to the political establishment and their level of social capital influence their method of support. Civilians linked to the political establishment wield resources better suited for enabling praetorianism through tactics like initiating or plotting coup conspiracies with military officers. Conversely, civilians with high levels of social capital hold resources valuable for consolidating praetorianism through tactics like providing post-coup support and neutralizing anti-coup opposition. Qualitative evidence from three coup episodes in Sudan demonstrates the argument's plausibility. By explaining the important variation in civilian capabilities and resources, this study advances research on civilian coup involvement, which—although understudied—is critical to understanding coup politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last two decades have seen an increased focus on reporting bias in large- N datasets. Research on coups d'etat has similarly increased given the availability of coup datasets. This essay argues that while the availability of such data has pushed scholarship forward, the data collection process behind these efforts remains plagued with limitations common to event datasets. Rather than building on what previous projects have accomplished, researchers have invariably developed "new" datasets that suffer from the same problems as earlier efforts. Specifically, we point to reliance on international news sources such as The New York Time and Keesing's Record of World Events - without the adequate consultation of regional sources and expertise - as a source of concern. We explore this issue by assessing the coverage of coup events from three country cases from the post-colonial Middle East: Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. Our findings show that while existing data on successful and failed coups are largely adequate, scholars interested in coup plots and rumors will require a wider breadth of source material to identify such cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the use of spoken and written discourse features in audio-visual translation. To investigate the characteristics of spoken and written language features in audiovisual translation, I have conducted a quantitative comparison between a dubbed and a subtitled version of an American TV Show. I adopted Bibber's (2004) Dimension 1: involved vs. informational production. According to this dimension, we distinguish between positive and negative features. The high frequency of the first group characterizes involved registers. Whereas, the high frequency of the second group typifies informational registers,. In this case study, it can be concluded that positive features, namely first- and second person pronouns, private verbs and present-tense are more frequent than the negative features in the three samples. Thus, the register used in the three samples of our data is highly involved. But when comparing between the three versions, we see that the dubbed language is more involved than the subtitled language. Similarly, when comparing the degree of "informationality" in the three samples, we can see that the subtitled language is more informational than the original and dubbed languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]