Teaching English as a Second Language to develop communicative competence of ESL Learners

The article discusses issues concerning the development of future English teachers' communicative competence. It considers the idea that developing communicative competence benefits not only the learner's interactive abilities from an educational standpoint, but also the learner's psycho-emotional characteristics and sociocultural development as a person. As previously stated, communicative competence refers to the ability to interact effectively with others, and competence is defined as a collection of language skills an individual possesses in order to learn a foreign language. This potential contributes to his/her ability to perform at a high level. This paper discusses the theory of communicative competence and several of its models; the significance of developing communicative competence in future English teachers; and the implications of communicative competence in English language teaching and learning. Additionally, the work suggests fundamental methodological principles for developing future English teachers' communicative competence.

Anticipation, Simultaneity/Consecutivity and Distinctive Features in Phonology

The notion of distinctive features has had a firm position in phonology since the time of the Prague Linguistic Circle and especially that of one of its representatives, Roman Jakobson, whose well-known delimitation of a phoneme as “a bundle of distinctive features” (Jakobson, 1962, p. 421), that is, a set of simultaneous distinctive features, has inspired many scholars. Jakobson’s attempt “to analyse the distribution of distinctive features along two axes: that of simultaneity and that of successiveness” (ibid., p. 435) helped cover several phonetic and/or phonological processes and phenomena. Distinctive features, although theoretical constructs (Giegerich, 1992, p. 89), reflect phonetic, that is, articulatory and acoustic, properties of sounds. In the flow of speech, some features tend to influence the neighbouring phonemes. Sometimes speech organs produce something that the brain just ‘plans’ to produce (anticipatory speech errors). There are situations where it seems as if the successive organization of phonemes went hand in hand with the simultaneous nature of certain articulatory characteristics of those phonemes (the transgression of consonants and inherence of vowels in Romportl’s theory), or the given feature seems to be anticipated by the preceding segment. This is the case with nasalization and/or anticipatory coarticulation, as well as regressive (anticipatory) assimilation. In addition, simultaneity/consecutivity is a decisive criterion for the difference between the so-called complex segments, as specified in Feature Geometry, and simple segments (Duanmu, 2009). Moreover, the phonological opposition of simultaneity- successivity (that is, consecutivity) itself functions as a feature making a difference between segmental and suprasegmental elements in the sound system of a language, as was first mentioned by Harris (1944), later indicated by Jakobson (1962) and then fully developed by Sabol (2007, 2012).

Analyse the Issues and Challenges in Teaching Writing Among English Teachers

Teaching one of the productive skills of the English language, writing, involves developing students' linguistic competence, which many E.S.L. teachers find difficult. The study's main goal is to examine the challenges faced by E.S.L. teachers in teaching writing skills to students in university classrooms. This study aims to identify problems faced by teachers of Arts Colleges in Universities. The researcher used questionnaires to survey teachers' concerns about teaching writing skills. The researcher used a descriptive method to report the problems encountered by the sampled teachers in teaching writing skills. The survey had 12 questions. This study's findings not only revealed the problematic factors but also suggested some practical solutions. This study's findings and recommendations may help teachers reflect on their teaching practices and assist authorities in supporting teachers' efforts to improve student writing skills.

Teaching and Testing Grammar in Moroccan Departments of English Studies across Reforms

This article purports to examine how the expectations of the educational reforms in Moroccan higher education have impacted the teaching and testing of tertiary level grammar. In particular, the hypothesis we defend here is that teaching and testing tertiary level grammar remain constant; therefore, the impact of the various reforms on tertiary level testing is of little consequence. In pursuance of this aim, this paper uses a qualitative approach and content analysis method of the course descriptions of the grammar courses that were suggested across the various reforms. The course descriptions we attempt to analyze are adopted in the English Studies tracks of four major departments in Moroccan universities. The main dimensions that we look at and examine here as the measures for our comparative evaluation are; course objectives, time allotted, the syllabi they contain, teaching methodology, and evaluation modes. The findings confirm that the various reforms, have had little impact on the teaching and testing of grammar in higher education. The paper concludes by suggesting a few pedagogical recommendations vis-à-vis the teaching and testing of grammar in Moroccan Departments of English studies.

What is the Nature And Extent of the Influence of Educational Leadership on Staff Morale, Job Satisfaction, and Motivation?

In a time where retaining qualified teachers is crucial, one cannot ignore the importance of teacher job satisfaction, morale, and motivation in shaping teachers’ intentions to remain in the profession. This is where educational leadership comes into play. This paper looks at the nature and extent of the impact of educational leadership on three important aspects of the job, namely staff morale, job satisfaction, and motivation. The latter constructs are each redefined and reconceptualized as the lack of consensus and the ambiguity in their respective meanings can greatly affect how they are applied as well as their results. When applied to the teaching context, Herzberg’s motivation hygiene theory was found to be unapplicable in relation to theory transferability and the separate categorization of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The latter are greatly affected by not only leadership style per se, but more precisely by the teacher’s perception of a certain leadership style. This individuality dimension also affects the ideological compatibility between teachers and work contexts, having a direct impact on job satisfaction. Nonetheless, although educational leadership has proven not to be the sole factor in teacher job satisfaction, morale and motivation, leaders must possess the right knowledge and understanding about the needs, expectations, attitudinal responses, and characteristics of their staff as individual members of a group in order to be able to positively affect their perceptions.

The Role of Facebook in the Development of Civic Engagement in Morocco

The study investigates the factors that inspire Moroccans to engage in both online and offline civic efforts. The inquiry targeted demographics, frequency of Facebook use, the influence of online engagement on participation in real life and the main motivations behind Moroccan civic engagement online. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were adopted to collect and analyze both primary and secondary data. An online survey was administered to (n=277) participants through Facebook targeting the general public of Moroccan Facebook users to collect primary data. Secondary data was collected via semi-structured interviews with (n=3) social activists to provide a comprehensive view of both normal citizens and people who can be considered specialists in the field. The findings revealed the extent to which Moroccans’ usage of Facebook influences their engagement both online and offline, indicating that social media use for civic purposes is significantly related to offline participation. Despite that, higher levels of the so-called “slacktivism” behaviors dominate Moroccans’ civic activities performed on Facebook. Findings in general support the fact that Facebook plays a significant role in the development of civic engagement in Morocco.

The Impact of Modernity on Youth Culture: Their Linguistic Choices, Thoughts and Attitudes

The present study aims at investigating the impact of modernity on the youth culture. Generally, regarding the discernible changes in youth lifestyle, thought, attitudes, and language, it turned out to be paramount to query the driving forces responsible for such changes. Accordingly, this study is intended to inspect three significant issues connected with the topic at stake. First, it reveals how the status of females has changed as reflected in different feminine discursive practices, as well as some differences in the linguistic choices of young males and females and some of their implications. Second, it highlights the role of education in the empowerment of youth and the improvement of their attitudes towards their society. Lastly, it scrutinizes the impact of different social media on youth in the Moroccan context. In order for the study to have a sense of authenticity, a bundle of data was collated and studied in the light of the topic in question.

The Status of Mother Tongues and Language Policy in Morocco

The linguistic market in Morocco has been characterized by its richness and complexity, in that a number of local as well as foreign languages co-exist. Given this multiplicity and diversity in its linguistic landscape, Morocco has opted for Arabization as a language policy in education, its ultimate goal being, as it were, to safeguard and maintain its national identity (Ennaji, 2003). Achieving this goal, however, is far from being without glaring shortcomings. Arabization has, inter alia, marginalized mother tongues, the latter being relegated to daily communication only with a devalued and denigrated status. On this view, the present paper brings to the fore the status of languages in use in Morocco and, more precisely, brings into focus the impact of Arabization on the status of mother tongues. What is more, the study attempts to shed light on Moroccans’ attitudes towards their mother tongues. In pursuance of this aim, the study addresses the following research questions, principally (i) What is the status of Arabic in Morocco? (ii) What is the nature of Moroccans’ attitudes towards their mother tongues, namely Moroccan Arabic and Moroccan Amazigh? (iii) What is the impact of Arabization on the status of mother tongues in Morocco?

INFERENCING FAKE WORDS’ MEANING BY MOROCCAN EFL LEARNERS

Do Moroccan EFL learners depend on the context to infer the meaning of unknown words occurring in sentences? This study investigates the way intermediate and advanced learners infer the meaning of fake words. To this end, the subjects took a test consisting of 60 items with three multiple choices. Subjects were asked to provide appropriate, inappropriate meanings of the unknown word or none of the choices without using dictionaries. The Chi-2 tests were adopted to determine whether there is a) a statistically significant difference between the three categories and b) a statistically significant difference between intermediate and advanced learners’ inferencing results. The findings demonstrate that the context along with the lexical knowledge of the L2 learners play the most important role in understanding vocabulary.

DEDICATED TO LANGUAGE VARIATIONS

We use languages for different purposes in everyday life. Most people use more than one language, and they may be considered as bilingual (speaking two languages) or multilingual (speaking more than two languages). In simple terms, as Wardhaugh elaborates, language may be defined as a code or system that is used by societies to communicate with other people. This system might be the same for two people or totally different, and therefore they are somehow forced to cooperate by working out their common code. Any changes in languages or speech are conditioned by communities and their culture. Sociolinguistics examines relationship between language and societies, and also deals with phenomena such as pidgins and creoles which are strictly bound with this science itself.