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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").

Commencing in 2016 this project set out to digitize the entire historical census stock of South Africa, covering a century of data from the first census undertaken in the Cape of Good Hope in 1865 and until the 1960s. This note covers background, archive contents and digitisation, and our research agenda and initial outputs. Please cite this note if you use the images in research and publications.

This paper seeks to show that Bernard Williams’ approach to legitimacy falls short of its aspirations in ways that cast doubt on its fitness for guiding the practice of future realist political theory. More precisely, the paper focuses on the shortcomings of Williams’ realism in establishing a connection to (the practices of) politics, and on how to redeem those shortcomings in a way that would render them suitable for guiding future realist political theory. The first substantive section of the paper considers how compatible Williams’ commitments to diagnosis and interpretation are, with how he spells out his realist thought. The second section argues that making good on Williams’ commitments requires realist political theorists to rethink the sources of their insights and the basis of their claims, and sketches pragmatist and ethnographic approaches as promising examples of how realists could match theoretical commitments in practice.

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.

The green open access (OA) model, which offers the most economical approach to comply with open access policies, can increase researchers’ audience and scientific outputs impact by delivering wider and easier access. This study examined researchers’ perceptions from STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) and SSH (social sciences, art and humanities) disciplines in order to reveal the types, patterns, motives, and challenges underlying their articles’ self-archiving in the green route to open-access (repositories and institutional repositories) and ASNs (academic social networks). Interviews were conducted with 20 Israeli academic researchers. Half were from STEM and half from SSH disciplines. Interviews were mapped using a bottom-up thematic analysis and follow-up quantitative comparisons. According to the findings, STEM researchers self-archived pre/post-print versions of their articles to subject-based repositories as a part of their discipline norm resulting from their funding grant requirements and as a way to receive recognition and claim priority. SSH researchers post a link to the printed-published article at the publisher’s website in ASNs, and their goal is greater visibility. In addition, findings indicate a lack of awareness, mostly by SSH researchers, regarding copyright issues and OA repositories. The green OA model provides opportunities for researchers to self-archive their work. However, there are differences between the disciplines regarding where, when, why, and how to self-archive, and what is considered a legitimate mode of green OA. This indicates an urgent need to raise SSH researchers’ awareness of the existence of open subject-based repositories and of the terms of self-archiving from publishers.

The article presents an overview of the visual heritage of V.N. Chernetsov, a recognized specialist in the field of Ob-Ugric ethnography. A special place in the structure of the archive named after the researcher, stored at the MAES TSU, is occupied by sketches of the vogul ornament, characterized by a wide variety - animalistic, geometric, symbolic and others.

Scholars have provided a large number of studies of de-phrases and de-clauses in Mandarin. However, there are still some types of de have not been fully discussed. My aim in the present research is to discover the special types of de morpheme as a complementizer. I will also focus on how to test the complementizer phrases (CPs) by means of the schema proposed by Cheng (1986), namely head-initial and head-final constructions. Although the present research does not include all types of construction with de, I find out that this scheme is suitable to analyze the aforementioned CPs after they are detected. Four types of CPs headed by de have been examined then and the analysis is proved to be on the right track. These types of CP in Mandarin Chinese are embedded relative clauses, noun clauses, adverb clauses and de-clauses in shi…de focus cleft construction.

The spread of the Covid-19 leads academic institutions all over the world to shift to online mode through educational platforms like Moodle, blackboard, and Teams or towards the informal ways of learning through YouTube and Social Networking Sites, mainly Facebook or through the inclusion of some apps like Zoom and Google meet. Algerian Universities also hasten to replace face-to-face with online mode. However, there are many challenges, among which is the absence of interaction between teachers and students since most of the lectures are posted in an asynchronous online mode. The study attempts to answer the main research question: Which learning mode is used in Algeria during the pandemic? The current paper tends to give an in-depth look at the teaching and learning situation of English in the Algerian context during the pandemic. It also sheds light on the nature of the learning mode. The researcher conducted the study with four universities from different regions in Algeria. Data were collected quantitatively and qualitatively using a questionnaire, an interview, and observation. Findings revealed that most universities use asynchronous online mode in learning. The analysis also demonstrated that the asynchronous mode affects EFL students’ motivation towards e-learning and raises their technostress since they have not developed e-learning readiness yet.

The research paper examines current tendencies in implementing e-learning as an integral part of the educational process, particularly in foreign language learning in higher education. The scholar attempts to answer the following question: How can e-learning contribute to effective foreign language learning? We have identified how e-learning is applied, the different existing e-learning strategies students prefer to learn with, and the extent to which learners are satisfied with the support offered by e-learning to assist the process of foreign language learning. The study is significant because understanding the learners’ preferences and support of these up-dated methods would help to find effective teaching practices within e-learning, fostering student-centered approaches. The contribution of this research is to estimate the new experiences of university students due to e-learning implementation. We used a quantitative method to collect research data by online tools (Google forms). It was achieved due to analyzing responses to the survey-based questionnaire of 35 learners of Vinnytsia Institute of Trade and Economics of Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics, Ukraine. Within our research, we have found out that students usually use e-learning as it helps them to develop lots of soft skills besides the four basic language skills. It has also been proved that students are delighted with the e-learning application. We concluded that e-learning is an effective and innovative educational technology that can improve both the teaching and learning process in educational institutions.

The study aims to investigate the intrinsic motivation among L2 in their uses of digital learning platforms during the Covid-19 pandemic. In particular, the central questions in the study are to identify the profiles of intrinsic motivation among L2 learners using digital learning platforms, determine gender differences using digital learning platforms, investigate the difference in motivation according to students’ performances, and describe the perceived enjoyment of using digital learning platforms. The study that used a questionnaire to collect data among 72 engineering students found positive intrinsic motivation utilizing the medium to learn English. However, there was insufficient evidence to show a difference between gender using the digital learning platforms with intrinsic motivation. There was also insufficient evidence to prove that grades are associated with students’ intrinsic motivation when the teacher assigned synchronous or asynchronous classroom tasks. Yet, the present study found that publishing works in Canva and writing posts on LinkedIn were among the students’ most preferred digital learning platforms activities. The study is significant to teachers since it assists them in managing classes and discovering the uses of digital learning platforms for a conducive learning atmosphere during the pandemic. It is recommended that teachers be creative in using digital learning platforms to promote collaborative learning among learners.

The Arabic language is characterized as a diglossic language. Hence, this study dealt with this sociolinguistic phenomenon and examine the impact of the Arabic diglossic situation in terms of social communication and the Arabic language learning process based on the second Arabic language learners’ perspective. The study starts with reviewing and discussing the literature by considering the Arabic diglossia from both linguistic and educational perspectives. To achieve the research objectives the researcher used mixed-method research namely, a close-ended questionnaire for quantitative data and open-ended questions for qualitative data. The sample included 26 students from different nationalities at the Arabic Language Center for Speakers of Other Languages at King Khalid University. The researcher concluded that the Arabic diglossic situation, especially the difference between the functionality of MSA (Modern Standard Arabic) and CA (Colloquial Arabic) is an impactful factor that can create an obstacle for the second Arabic language learners in terms of social communication in real context as well as the Arabic language learning process. The data prove that the second Arabic language learners in the Arabic Language Center for Speakers of Other Languages at King Khalid University are aware of Arabic diglossia and its impact on their social communication in real-life situations. Moreover, it was found that the Arabic diglossic situation slightly impacted their Arabic language learning process in terms of their desire to continue learning the Arabic language and the switching between MSA and CA that take place in the educational setting by some teachers

Under the shade of coronavirus pandemic, schools and universities worldwide have moved towards online learning to assure the continuity of academic activities. Great interest was, hence, directed towards the opinions and stands of teachers about distant online education. It is of paramount importance to inspect teachers’ perceptions and attitudes. When they have positive perceptions about online education, teachers also adopt positive attitudes towards educational technology. Thus, they would accept the change and challenge the shift to online virtual classes. This research studies the online learning process and which mechanisms teachers have utilized to prop up virtual learning. The central questions that shape this study are: what are the perspectives and attitudes of EFL teachers about using Google Meet in online classes? Which challenges would make them resist the change? The present research work under inspection aims to give an in-depth look at online teaching and learning in the Algerian context during the Covid-19 Pandemic, by considering the department of English Language at Oran University as a case study. The study’s findings show that participants have overall positive perspectives and attitudes about using Google Meet during the ongoing pandemic with many challenges. Developing digital proficiency of teachers and students, enhancing students’ motivation, and assuring the quality of internet facilities were the leading suggestions for an effective shift to online education.

The current qualitative and quantitative study methods intend to investigate the quality of electronic examinations and the obstacles of changing the examinations’ process from the participants’ experiences and perspectives. The study generates feedback to enhance the adoption and improvement of the e. examination process. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, electronic exams help much during the education interruption. The study employed two tools to answer the study’scentraln question: “To what extent did teachers and students reflect on the quality of electronic examinations’ criteria? They Were distributed among (n=165) undergraduates and (n=24) faculty members during 2020/2021. Findings from the e. questionnaire’s SPSS and interview’s content analyses indicated that most participants were satisfied with the e. exams’ flexibility, ease of use, clarity, fairness in grading, and feasibility in time, efforts, and money. Concerning challenges, few undergraduates complained about the Network problems, e. cheating, and the number of attempts to answer e. exams. Few faculty members have complained that some questions require different preparation methods, e. exams increase students’ scores without much effort. On the other hand, it opened the door for malpractices. To conclude, the results revealed that E. examinations are of high quality; they were responsible for undergraduates’ high performance, saved effort and time more than the in-class exams. The study recommends future research exploring families, especially parents, about their experience with kids regarding the quality of online examinations during the COVID- 19 pandemic. Moreover, research is needed to address how teachers deal with the validity and reliability of the electronic exams

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.

Gallery Run (GR) is a classroom-based dynamic learning technique that promotes higher-order thinking and co-operative learning. This research study examined the influence of GR strategy on Saudi upper-intermediate English as a foreign language(EFL) learners’ oral skills. First off, 62 upper-intermediate EFL learners from a language school in Riyadh were opted and randomly sectioned into an experimental group and a control group. Then, the participants in the two groups were given a speaking pretest. The experiment group applied the GR technique in their classroom, whereas the control group received no treatment and continued with an ordinary classroom program. After two-month classes, a speaking posttest was given to the two groups. To analyze the data collected, Independent and Paired Samples T-tests were conducted. The results showed that the experimental group excelled and outperformed the control group. The results also showed that 25.8% and 48.3% of the participants agreed and strongly agreed respectively that the GR technique enhanced their self-dependence. Furthermore, 45% of the participants reported that the ambiance was delightful, which conduced to the amelioration of their speaking competence. Another significant result was that 61.2% and 19.3% of the learners strongly agreed and agreed respectively that GR reduced the levels of loneliness and social anxiety. Furthermore, 58.1% strongly agreed that the GR technique did not put them under any kind of stress, nor did it encourage social loafing. A final finding reported by the 48.4 % of the learners was that GR reduced their alexithymia, social anxiety, and self-monitoring.

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.

Marmaduke Pickthall, a half-forgotten British novelist of the early twentieth century, has come back to the spotlight over the past few years. His Near Eastern novels and short stories have started to receive attention in contemporary scholarship but not his two autobiographies. This essay aims at tackling the more neglected piece of the two, With the Turk in Wartime, that deserves attention because of its intricate amalgamation of several features of the genre of autobiography as manifested across its history within the tradition of English literature. Analysis finds that Pickthall’s autobiography has some Romantic, Victorian, and Modern elements as well as some old characteristics of the genre elaborately interwoven into its structure. The study also traces the use that Pickthall makes of this unique autobiography and how the commingling of diverse elements allows him to turn a usually subjective genre into a public cause and dedicate it to the service of Islam. This essay highlights both the diversity that the literary history of the genre lends to Pickthall’s autobiography and the socio-political service it renders to the faith that the author has long esteemed and will ultimately convert to not long after writing this autobiography.

The digital traces that people leave through their use of various online platforms provide tremendous opportunities for studying human behavior. However, the collection of these data is hampered by legal, ethical, and technical challenges. We present a framework and tool for collecting these data through a data donation platform where consenting participants can securely submit their digital traces. This approach leverages recent developments in data rights that have given people more control over their own data, such as legislation that now mandates companies to make digital trace data available on request in a machine-readable format. By transparently requesting access to specific parts of this data for clearly communicated academic purposes, the data ownership and privacy of participants is respected, and researchers are less dependent on commercial organizations that store this data in proprietary archives. In this paper we outline the general design principles, the current state of the tool, and future development goals.

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.

This study investigates the effects of authentic materials and contextually developed role-playing activities on the oral proficiency of Thai undergraduate students. The study was conducted at Prince of Songkhla University, Thailand during the first semester (June to September) of 2010. The study consisted of four research instruments and the data were analyzed using Independent Samples t-test to determine whether the authentic materials and contextually developed role-playing activities had improved the students’ oral fluency and accuracy in the target language. The findings indicated statistically significant differences between the two groups, wherein the experimental group performed better on both fluency and accuracy than the control group. Therefore, based on the findings of the current study, it can be concluded that authentic materials and contextually developed role-playing activities involving a series of sequential events are effective in enhancing learners’ oral proficiency in programs of English as a foreign language in the context of Thailand English education.

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.

Orientalism as a literary phenomenon has been recently focused on by different writers all over the world. Many of those who write about Orientalism have not the same understanding, and the divergences are reproduced due to different attitudes toward Orientalism. From various studies concerning Orientalism, there are apparent tributaries confronting the understanding of the concept of Orientalism from different perspectives. Edward Said is one of those who, according to what many Western and Eastern writers say, represent the negative attitude towards Orientalism, and tries only to make it appear ugly and offensive. Many writers, Arabs and non-Arabs, take, more or less, the same approach Said used towards the subject of Orientalism. Others have, to some extent, tried to give excuses for the writers, especially the Romantics, for the negative impression their writings reflected on the readers when going through what is supposed to be Oriental works. Nigel Leask, Sari Makdisi, Emily Haddad, Martin Bright, Tripta Wahi and Naji Oueijan are the significant writers of this group. British orientalists did not use the right approach to look or write about the East. What irritates Said is that these orientalists did not pay attention to find any possibility by which they could bridge the gap between the European and Asiatic parts of the world. This paper tries to trace and to define Lord Byron’s type of Orientalism in some of his oriental works and his chief work Don Juan.

Emily Bronte’s novel, Wuthering Heights, is a gothic novel with an innovative stance. Gothic elements permeate the story, but it is not a gothic novel in the traditional sense of the word. The fantastic tales so popular in the eighteenth century alienated the reader by creating phantasmagorical worlds. Emily Bronte, however, grounded her gothic world firmly in reality. Through an analytical approach, the author aims to show, in this article, how Emily Bronte reversed gothic conventions to create a gothic reality whose message is still relevant today. The author will show that her use of the gothic mode was an attempt to capture the real essence of life, anticipating the metaphysical theories of D. H. Lawrence, who wrote at the end of the nineteenth century. By highlighting her innate understanding of human nature , this article will focus on her affinity with Lawrence and the celebration of man’s powerful primal instincts. This article hinges on the premise that she deplored the mechanical restrictions of the society in which she lived. The author aims to show that her Gothicism is, paradoxically, synonymous with a search for life.

The main aim of this paper is to illuminate the positive reception and influence of Hemingway’s translated work in the Albanian-speaking world. On the whole, Hemingway’s reception in Albanian literature and culture has largely been overlooked and it thus requires more profound attention and consideration. Hence, this paper will attempt to fill up a large vacuum that existed so far in Ernest Hemingway’s reception in Albanian literature and culture.“Jeta e re,” one of the most reputable literary journals in Kosova, published several journalistic and literary critiques on Hemingway written by various Albanian and international authors throughout the 20th century. Using a critical and comparative literary approach and by referencing these published prefaces, introductions, articles, reviews, etc. mainly by Albanian authors, this paper details and analyzes the research, journalism, and literary criticism published in “Jeta e re” regarding Hemingway’s works. The paper concludes that Hemingway’s literary works and masterpieces were translated and published frequently and were received with warmth and enthusiasm, leading to Hemingway becoming one of the most admired authors among Albanian readers.

This paper investigates the Qur’ānic conditionally pharyngealized sounds which are /rʕ/, /l/, and /a:/. The Qur’ānic /rʕ/ sound undergoes a depharyngealization process. The Qur’ānic /l/ sound in the word Allah, on the other hand, exhibits pharyngealization, as does the Qur’ānic /a:/ sound. Hence, the study aims to provide a thorough examination of these phonological processes within the Optimality Theory framework. The study also attempts to answer the following questions: (1) What constraints are considered to account for the pharyngealization of the Qur’ānic sounds /l/ and /a:/ and the depharyngealization of the Qur’ānic sound /rʕ/ in the Holy Qur’ān? and (2) How does the grammar rank these constraints to achieve the pharyngealization of the Qur’ānic sounds /l/ and /a:/ and the depharyngealization of the Qur’ānic sound /rʕ/ in the Holy Qur’ān? Both questions have been fully addressed. In addition, this study has proven that the pharyngealized /rʕ/ is the underlying representation of the Qur’ānic alveolar trill sound. This was achieved by demonstrating [rʕ] and [r] allophones environments. Also, the study has shown that the pharyngealized [lʕ] and the non-pharyngealized [l] in the word Allah are comparable to the dark /l/ in English. The Qur’anic /a:/ acquires the [RTR] feature from the preceding pharyngealized sound where it spreads its [RTR] feature rightward to the /a:/. The study concludes that the constraint-based analysis could provide a plausible accounted for examining these phonological processes in the Holy Qur’ān.

Saudi EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners have difficulty in chosen appropriate strategies for learning vocabulary and memorization during their undergraduate studies. Saudi undergraduate learners have the problem in remembering words at a point of need such as writing and speaking. In search of solution to this problem in Saudi Arabia, this study aims to examine the memory strategies for vocabulary learning employed by Saudi undergraduate EFL learners in Saudi Arabia. Overall, 110 Saudi undergraduate learners participated in this study. The study employs quantitative approach using descriptive statistical analysis. This study used Oxford (2003) language learning strategies of memory strategies for vocabulary learning. The results revealed that the creating mental linkage (CML) is the common and the highly most used vocabulary learning strategy by Saudi undergraduate EFL learners in Saudi Arabia. Subsequently, reviewing well (RW) and applying images & sounds (AIS) learning strategies are the second and the third most highly used strategies among the students. The EA learning strategy is the least used among the undergraduate EFL learners. Further, the findings also indicated that the Saudi undergraduate EFL learners prefer CML strategy more than they use employing actions (EA) in their vocabulary learning and memorization. According to these results, CML and RW strategies were observed to be both at a high level of utilization, whereas AIS and EA categories were at the medium utilization level. Based on the results, high usage ranges from a mean of 4.0 or above, medium usage ranges from a mean of 2.5 to 3.9, and low usage ranges from a mean of 2.4 or lower. Therefore, CML and RW strategies appeared to be most appropriate choice for Saudi students in memorizing vocabularies. It is recommended that future study should focus on in-depth analysis of these two most used strategies to encompass the depth and breadth of the usage and memorization.

This is a thematic study of Harry Potter (1997-2007) concerning the theme of alienation. Joanne Rowling is a British novelist famous for writing her best-known fantasy book series, Harry Potter (1997-2007). This study argues that Rowling employs fantastical elements in Harry Potter to present symbolic and real-life themes that summon the postcolonial discourse of alienation. In addition, the study aims to raise the role of fantasy in serving Humanity and the dignity of people and understanding the conflicts among the members of society. Moreover, this study investigates how racial discrimination and postcolonialism work against the Humanity of heroes and their companions in their community. Therefore, that relationship causes a realistic commentary on real-life situations. The theoretical platform deployed in this study is a postcolonial perspective that purports to grasp the striking overlaps between the theme of alienation and the insights of the racial and social postcolonial discourse. The findings achieved in this paper prove the juxtaposition between alienation on the one hand and racial and social discrimination on the other hand. The researcher seeks to demonstrate that Harry Potter reflects the suffering and alienation of characters.

Moroccan Berbers/Imazighen have undergone centuries of cultural and economic exchange with different foreign powers that crossed to the Maghreb throughout history. Following a significant process of interaction and interchange, the mode of life of the indigenous people has been significantly shaped. This might explain a great deal of present-day socio-cultural diversity enjoyed and exercised in Morocco. The present study aims at investigating aspects of Berber’s interaction with the various populations that landed on North Africa throughout history. The research study builds on the following question: How does the Berber heritage enhance an outlook of transnational exchange and cooperation? The study reaches out the conclusion that Moroccan Imazighen had cohabited and coexisted with different races since immemorial times. Moreover, the study infers that such a longstanding tradition of borderless socio-cultural and economic exchange may serve as a background legacy for present-day Moroccan transnationalism and universal coexistence.

Ever since the discovery of Indus valley civilization, scholars have debated the linguistic identities of its people. This study analyzes numerous archaeological, linguistic, archaeogenetic and historical evidences to claim that the words used for elephant (like, ‘pīri’, ‘pīru’) in Bronze Age Mesopotamia, the elephant-word used in the Hurrian part of an Amarna letter of ca. 1400 BC, and the ivory-word (‘pîruš’) recorded in certain sixth century BC Old Persian documents, were all originally borrowed from ‘pīlu’, a Proto-Dravidian elephant-word, which was prevalent in the Indus valley civilization, and was etymologically related to the Proto-Dravidian tooth-word ‘*pal’ and its alternate forms (‘*pīl’/‘*piḷ’/‘*pel’). This paper argues that there is sufficient morphophonemic evidence of an ancient Dravidian ‘*piḷ’/‘*pīl’-based root, which meant ‘splitting/crushing’, and was semantically related to the meanings ‘tooth/tusk’. This paper further observes that ‘pīlu’ is among the most ancient and common phytonyms of the toothbrush tree Salvadora persica, which is a characteristic flora of Indus valley, and whose roots and twigs have been widely used as toothbrush in IVC regions since antiquity. This study claims that this phytonym ‘pīlu’ had also originated from the same Proto-Dravidian tooth-word, and argues that since IVC people had named their toothbrush trees and tuskers (elephants) using a Proto-Dravidian tooth-word, and since these names were widely used across IVC regions, a significant population of Indus valley civilization must have used that Proto-Dravidian tooth-word in their daily communication. Since ‘tooth’ belongs to the core non-borrowable ultraconserved vocabulary of a speech community, its corollary is that a significant population of IVC spoke certain ancestral Dravidian languages. Important insights from recent archaeogenetic studies regarding possible migration of Proto-Dravidian speakers from Indus valley to South India also corroborate the findings of this paper.

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.