Moroccan Social Media Platforms and COVID-19 Misinformation

COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by a massive ‘infodemic’ and an over-abundance of disinformation that makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it. Young Moroccan internet users resort to social media for their news, and easily fall prey to the misinformation and fake news they encounter online. When it concerns public health, disinformation can turn into a lethal weapon. This is further exacerbated at the time of COVID-19 pandemic. To tackle this, the present research paper answers the research questions using a qualitative method, particularly semi-structured interviews preferable in exploratory research where the purpose is to gain an understanding of spreading online misinformation in the age of COVID-19. Semi-structured Interviews are conducted via “Google Meet” and “Zoom” using video-conferencing among 12 young Moroccan social media activists and professionals. The main research findings have shown that young Moroccan social media users have been consuming fake news about the Coronavirus, which has been especially prevalent on the most popular platforms, Facebook, Whats App and YouTube. Other results have shown that the mainstream media failed to debunk misinformation by subjecting them to rigorous fact checking experiments, lack of Media Information Literacy research in the form of crisis audits and crisis planning, Moroccan social media are ill prepared for crisis manual and conducting crisis training. These ensure that media regulators are not better equipped to handle any misinformation in health crisis situations. Therefore, media literacy is not only about how to use the computer and do an internet search, it also involves helping young Moroccan people to deal with disinformation in crisis situations, and realize that anyone anywhere can put up a very official-looking websites. These websites masquerade as high-credibility sources that have been spreading misinformation about COVID-19. Therefore, the government needs.

Semantic Analysis of Using X-Phemistic Expressions in Saudi Health Minister Speeches during Covid-19 Pandemic

On March 11, 2020, World Health Organization (WHO) declares Covid-19 disease as global pandemic. Accordingly, the style of linguistic or verbal communication between governments and nations has been highly affected. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate resources where X-phemistic expressions come as characteristics of the speeches of Saudi Health Minister during Covid-19 pandemic. Moreover, it examines how Warren's euphemistic strategies (1992) have appeared in the minister’s speeches. The collected data are the eight speeches delivered by Saudi Minister of Health during Covid-19 pandemic. They are analyzed qualitatively using thematic analysis (TA) approach. The results show that Saudi Health Minister manages to deliver the massages about Covid-19 crisis through applying variety of linguistic devices which sound to be euphemistic, dysphemistic, and orthophemistic representations of the pandemic. The employment of each X-phemisms choice is mainly occurred within certain thematic fields. Euphemism is used in presenting unpleasant massages, naming the health crisis, and comforting the public. Dysphemism is applied in one specific theme of describing the virus. Orthophemisms is found in themes of declaring facts about the pandemic, warning the public, and requesting to follow instructions. It is also found that implication, reversal, particularization, metonymy, and metaphors are the most frequently used euphemistic strategies among Warren model (1992). This analysis contributes to the limited examination of pandemic discourse by understanding how X-phemistic expressions and euphemistic strategies are used by Arabic speakers during international crises like Covid-19.

L2 Motivations For Learning English as Foreign Language of Sudanese Students

Motivation is essential in learning a foreign language. Understanding how learners learn and what motivates and demotivate them will help the teachers, policy makers and curriculum planners .The study investigated the various reasons/motivations of the Sudanese Learners of English language based on Dorney soci-educational model& Garder’s of Second Language(L2) Self System. The main question the paper tried to answer was what types of motivations of Sudanese L2 learners have? . A sample of 35 students were asked their opinions on what motives them in studying English by means of a questionnaire. The result of the study showed that the majority of the participants (95%) had an extrinsic motivations i.e external factors for studying language, namely instrumentally-promotion and parental encourage and family influence .Also, Ideal L2 had significant role in Sudanese learners, as 85% of the learners responded to the questionnaire items that assessed this factor. The study also showed that the ought L2 self has the lowest impact on the students learners, only 55% of learners .The other factors /motivations that were tested in the study showed less influence on Sudanese learners but yet they are important to consider by teachers.

Morphological Awareness and Word Complexity in an EFL Context

This study examined the relationship between morphological awareness and word complexity (simple versus complex words) in an EFL context. The participants in this study were 100 fourth-year secondary school Arts students in Tunisia. Students’ morphological awareness was measured by the Morphological Awareness Test. Vocabulary size was tested using an adapted version of Nation’s (2001) Vocabulary Levels Test as a receptive measure of vocabulary size. Half of the vocabulary test items were made complex to check the participants’ performance on simple and complex words. The informants’ scores were high on the overall morphological awareness task, and the best performance was on inflectional morphemes. This could be very useful for teachers to build on, improve, and construct better future teaching practices. Finally, morphological awareness differentiated between students’ performance on simple versus complex words.

Moroccan EFL Teachers’ Participation, Preferences, and Perceived Effectiveness of Online Professional Development

The present study aims at investigating Moroccan EFL teachers’ participation in and attitude towards online professional development. It seeks also to examine teachers’ perceived effectiveness of online professional development by using a cross-sectional survey design. This design was supported with a questionnaire and a scale to collect data from a sample of (103) Moroccan EFL teacher. The data elicited was coded and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The results of the study reveal that teachers in the Moroccan context are not fully engaged in online professional and they still exhibit higher preference to traditional forms of professional development. In addition, the results report that teachers perceive that online professional development provides effective content that is sustainable and access flexible. However, teachers also inform that online professional development is not active and collaborative in nature. Based on the results of this study a number of informed recommendations are directed to Moroccan English language teachers and policymakers.

Pedagogical implication of Audio-Articulation Method to defossilize /e/এ/ sound in English pronunciation of Bangladeshi EFL learners

The purpose of this article is to show how to defossilize the English /e/ sound which is pronounced by the Bengali learners of English instead of /ei/ sound in such words like ape, make and day etc. This mispronunciation creates confusion among the native speakers of English and the Bengali learners’ pronunciation loses comprehensibility to the listeners. The author, in his experience, observes that Phonological fossilization of /e/ sound in the Bengali speakers of English is the main cause of this mispronunciation and incomprehensibility level in them. The present study is a detail lesson plan to defossilize the problem causing /e/ sound by using Audio Articulation Method propounded by Mehmet Demirezen in the classroom practice. As a fossilized pronunciation error correction method, the audio articulation method can play a vital role in creating awareness of a fossilized sound among the EFL learners in Bangladesh. By applying different kinds of drills, such as, conversation drills, substitution drills, question-answer drills, repetition drills, language games etc in the class hour, the teachers can endeavor to defossilize the problem causing sounds among the students and both the teachers and learners in Bangladesh can be benefited through this practice.

The Impact of Teaching Reasoning Fallacies on the Critical Thinking Ability of MoroccanEngineering Students

This research paper reports an experimental study geared to examine the effect of teaching reasoning fallacies on the critical thinking ability of a group of Moroccan university students. In a random assignment post-test design, 40 subjects took part in study-treatment. While the subjects in both experimental groups (n 20) received a treatment on how to avoid and spot fallacies in arguments, the control group was involved straightway in taking the pre-test and the post test (with no prior assistance) for comparison purposes. After the treatment -which consisted in having the experimental group (n 20 subjects) receive a training on the meaning of 15 reasoning fallacies and reinforcements tasks on how to identify them in statements and how to avoid them when they speak or write - all the subjects answered a twenty item multiple-choicetest and 5 of them responded to structured interview to identify their attitudes. The final scores were then subjected to descriptive as well as referential statistics (independent and paired samples T-test) for between group comparison purposes. The results reveal a significant facilitative and positive effect of reasoning fallacies training understudy and particularly so when compared to the control condition. A follow-up investigation through an independent samplest-test) attested to the fact that the training resulted in an increased critical thinking ability as measured by the receptive and productive and this is particularly so when compared to the control condition. The study concludes with the main finding together with their interpretation. Some practical implications related to critical thinking instruction, lesson planning and material development, in general, brings the paper full circled.

Cognition in Teaching Grammar and Actual Practices of Experienced and Less-Experienced Filipino ESL Teachers

Though studies in the Western and Asian settings have already provided ample evidence in the symbolic relationship between teacher cognition and classroom teaching, such relationship has remained unexplored in the Philippine setting. Hence, this study aims to describe the beliefs in the teaching of English grammar of experienced and less experienced Filipino ESL teachers in a senior high school. It also compared their beliefs and actual classroom teaching to establish if there is match between what they think and practice. Reasons for divergence from their beliefs were also explored. Results revealed that teachers’ personal theories become the basis for their personal knowledge, thus have strong influence on their planning, instructional decisions and classroom practices. While both teachers share similarities on their cognition and practice on grammar teaching, minimal differences were documented. Experienced teacher has a greater tendency to translate stated beliefs to actual practice. Contextual factors such as time, curriculum, efforts to improve one’s practice and the learners themselves were the cited reasons for teachers’ divergence.

Translating Collocations from English into Arabic and vice versa: An Empirical Study

Collocations are defined as ''the frequent co-occurrence of lexical items that naturally share the characteristics of semantic and grammatical dependencies"(Ibrahim, 2003: iii). In translation, collocations are considered a factor that makes translation more effective and powerful. However, translating collocations is an everlasting struggle for most students of translation. The present study aims at investigating the challenges that Sudanese EFL university students encounter when rendering English collocations into their Arabic equivalences and vice versa as well as the reasons behind these challenges. To this end, 26 Sudanese EFL students, between 20-30 years old, studying at Nahda College in Sudan, were selected. A diagnostic test composed of two questions is used as a tool for data collection. Frequencies, percentages, mean, and standard deviation are used to analyse the collected data. The results of this study manifests that Sudanese EFL university students encounter difficulties in translating collocations from English into Arabic and vice versa; the causes of these difficulties are due to students’ unawareness of the linguistic and cultural differences between the two languages as well as their heavy reliance on literal translation strategy.

The Importance of Higher Education in the Success of the Translator: The Case of Iranian Educated and Uneducated Translators

The present study investigated the important role higher education plays in the success of the translator in his/her profession. To end this, the researcher prepared a translation test consisting of 12 short literary texts for data collection from both educated and uneducated translators who were equally divided into two groups. The 20 judges were invited to judge the level of communicative function of the translations made by both groups of translators on the basis of a five-point scale on a continuum from "Uncommunicative" to "Communicative" that was designed according to Nord’s (2018) functionalist approach. As the results indicated, the educated translators produced the highest communicative translations that put into Nord’s instrumental translation category. By contrast, the uneducated translators made the translations with the average level of communication that led their translation to be placed into documentary translation category. In conclusion, the educated translators, who held a master’s degree in Translation Studies, were more successful in producing communicative translations because of their profound knowledge of translation theories and mastery over translation strategies. This gives the indication of the utmost importance of higher education in the achievement of the translators in their career.