Category: Culture and Language
A Linguistic Study of the Street Signs of Algiers, Algeria
Linguistic landscape, LL for short, refers to the visible and tangible representation of language in the public space of a given geographic area or community. This study aims to investigate the linguistic attributes of shop signs in Algiers, the capital of Algeria, examining the language choice and the way languages are arranged on the signs. …
Intercultural Communication as One of the Key Issues of Second Language Acquisition in the 21st Century
Universities aim to prepare students to become global citizens that are successful members of competitive labor markets. Intercultural awareness is one of the key skills of the 21st century. Communication between cultures is a great challenge in language teaching. The culture of the target language is an inevitable part of successful foreign language competency. The …
From Linguistic Expressions to Intercultural Communication: The Significance of Pragmatics in EFL Teaching and Learning
The variety of norms across languages and cultures poses a challenge to second language (L2) speakers in engaging in meaningful intercultural communication. This study discusses the incorporation of pragmatics in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Freshman course at the tertiary level, and in particular, through teacher reflections and teaching assistants’ observations. When immersion …
The Use of Words in Thai Language in “Viral” Communication of Thai People in the Present Era
This academic article has a purpose to study the use of words in Thai language in “viral” communication of Thai people in the present era as the collection of information on the use of words that appears on viral social media and compares the use of viral words with the use of correct words in …
Exploring Students’ Responses and Reasons for Liking Reading Text With Culturally Familiar or Foreign Cultural Context
This study explores the students’ responses and reasons for liking culturally familiar and unfamiliar texts in their reading comprehension practices. The participants in this research comprised 61 students studying in the second year at a state University in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. In order to collect the data for the study, the researchers used two instruments: …
Critical Incidents as Small Interactional Stories and Their Functions in the Context of Cultural Belonging
The poster presentation highlights a sub-area of my ongoing doctoral project, which is dedicated to the negotiation of cultural identities in conversations between German native speakers and Russian native speakers learning German as a foreign language. 30 hours of oral, face-to-face communication with different focal points (first contacts, conversations among friends, random conversations among flatmates, …
The Role of SESC RJ Regarding the Change of Perspective of English Language Teaching
The English language is a mandatory subject at Compulsory Education all around Brazil. Still, not only didactic material and additional resources, but also teaching methodologies face need for updating and improvement due to its lack of correlation among its content, students’ interest and the environment they belong to. The lack of contextualization between the lessons …
The Differences in Bilingual Signs Found in EMI and Non-EMI Universities in China
The linguistic landscape (LL) is a multifaceted phenomenon worldwide. LL is important in multilingual contexts, referring to the public display of the visible written language. Despite recent interest in LL, studies of code-mixing in English and Chinese in the linguistic landscape are few. This study extends Radtke and Yuan’s 2011 research into code-mixing in Chinese …
A Corpus-based Study of Evaluative Language in Leading Articles in British Broadsheet and Tabloid Newspapers
In the UK, newspapers do more than just spread the news; they influence readers by entertaining and exasperating them. To do this, journalists use language that conveys emotions and creates rapport. This type of interpersonal language has been analysed in terms of evaluation, appraisal and stance. The body of linguistic and non-linguistic literature on this …
The Importance of Visual Art and Music in Learning Maltese as a Second Language
Malta has currently attracted numerous non-natives who consider the island conducive for business, investment and work. To enhance their working and living experience in Malta, several foreigners are learning Maltese as a second language (ML2), which could be challenging to learn, especially its grammar, if second language (L2) learners do not know Arabic. Furthermore, ML2 …
A Study of Good Chinese Learners at the University of Hong Kong
This is my third consecutive year of doing the research. As the economy of China is booming, there is a rapid increase in the number of foreign students coming to The University of Hong Kong to learn Chinese. As Chinese is one of the popular subjects for them to choose. Despite COVID-19, from 2020 to …
Culture and Identity in the Learning of Pragmatics during Study Abroad: A Longitudinal Case Study
This presentation will introduce an on-going PhD research: a longitudinal case study investigating how five Chinese students sojourning in the UK develop their pragmatic knowledge and skills in English, and how this relates to their changing cultural values and the various identities they negotiate within different communities. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews and …
Structuralism Approach to English Teaching as a Means of Solving Cross-cultural Problems of Russian Students
The article deals with language as cultural heritage of nation. Russian students of English when facing lingual phenomena that do not occur in their mother tongue, avoid certain typically English lexical units and structures, which violates inter- cultural communication. To help students get insights into the inner structure of the units and expose the mechanism …
How Teachers’ Reflective Inquiries Help them Facilitate Transfer Skills Achievement in Students’ Academic and Non-academic Pathways?
In education, the transfer of skills refers to learning in one context and being able to apply the acquired knowledge and skills to other new situations. Many studies show that college/university students do not easily transfer skills from English courses to other courses or writing situations (Wardle, 2016; Lindemann, 2016; Beaufort, 2007). To name a …
Beyond Traditional Approaches and Methodologies: The New Roles of Texts
With the recent focus on bringing technology into learning environments and creating concept-based curricula, the role of a text in English as a Second Language education remained unchanged. At the same time, Language Acquisition has begun taking place outside of classrooms with no consideration of emerging and developing trends. Through a thorough study of academic …
A Pragmatic Study of Euphemisms in A Dream of Red Mansions with a Rapport Management Approach: Cultural Independence and Interdependence
As a social and cultural phenomenon, euphemism helps lubricate interpersonal relations and maintain the face of interactants. So euphemism relates closely to face and politeness. Built upon notions of face and politeness, Helen Spencer-Oatey’s rapport management (2000) is a theoretical framework for interpersonal relations with face and rights as core components. As facework is typically …
Increasing Student Independence and Interdependence in Multidisciplinary Language Courses
In this presentation we will focus on independence and interdependence among students and teachers in two multi-disciplinary courses, Business French and Translation for Professional Needs. We will argue that the success of our interdisciplinary practices is consistent with major tendencies in university education – increasing learner autonomy and growing interdependence between language studies and other …
Culturally Appropriate Pedagogy on L2/FL Learning for Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC) Influenced Students
English is learnt as a second (L2) or foreign language (FL) among Asian students such as Japanese, Chinese and Vietnamese. They grow up under the implicit influence of Confucius, who postulated, among other things, that societal stability is based on unequal relationships (Scollon, Scollon & Jones, 2011). In educational setting, it manifests itself in adherence …
Development of Interviewing and Presentation Skills: Using Action Research Methodology
The goal of the study was to develop interviewing and presentation skills of the course participants, who were being prepared to get into the main stream program as entrants of Secondary Teacher Education Program (STEP). The training program was sponsored by a reputable Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), Institute of Ismaili Studies, London . Besides attending the …
Development of Interviewing and Presentation Skills: Using Action Research Methodology
The goal of the study was to develop interviewing and presentation skills of the course participants, who were being prepared to get into the main stream program as entrants of Secondary Teacher Education Program (STEP). The training program was sponsored by a reputable Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), Institute of Ismaili Studies, London . Besides attending the …
Achieving Creativity Through Research Led Learning and Teaching
In the past few years’ creativity seemed to have been the buzzword driving contemporary programmes of education and having a substantial impact on curriculum design worldwide. However, many of those programmes simply include the word ‘creative’ and leave students to their own devices, without effective guidance or examples of what creativity actually means or can …
The Teaching of Japanese Language and Culture to Filipino Students Through Blended Learning
The study was intended to determine the effectiveness of blended learning as a mode of delivering Japanese language lessons to learners from selected Universities in the Philippines. It was found out that after taking up the one-semester Japanese Language Course, many learners from both the undergraduate and graduate degree programs possessed a good language proficiency …