Arabic Langauge Influences in Southeast Asia: The Case Study of The Maranaos In The Philippines

The Maranaos predominantly inhabit Lanao del Sur in Mindanao in the Southern part of the Philippines. It is observed from the related literature that the Maranao language has numerous Arabic words. However, these Arabic words were not identified in the Maranao language, for this reason, this research focuses on identifying the Arabic words that are used by the Maranaos in their communication. The main objective of this study is to investigate the Arabic vocabulary utilized in Maranao language. The methods used in this research is that the native Maranao and native Arab examined the Arabic words in a Maranao dictionary. The findings revealed that there are over 600 Arabic words used by the Maranaos which is explained as a socio-political influence of the coming of Arabs in the Philippines in the 7th century and onward centuries. Keywords: Arabs; Maranaos; the Philippines; Arabic language; Maranao language

Exocentric Compounds in English and Punjabi: A Morpho-Semantic Analysis of NN Formations

The paper provides new insight into the analysis of exocentric compounds in English and Punjabi by introducing a new step-by-step mechanism devised with the help of cognitive and cultural linguistics. The main purpose of the study is to show that exocentric compounds are very productive in the Indo -European languages. The current study claims that every exocentric compound is metaphoric in nature. Every constituent in an exocentric compound carries several interpretations based on specific metonymic relations and cultural knowledge. The meaning of one constituent aids and activates the interpretation of another constituent. In this paper*, only four examples of NN compounds are discussed in detail. Although the study is not a comparative analysis in actual sense, however, the formations of such compounds in English are also analyzed to show the applicability of the mechanism in other languages as well. The results revealed that the above mechanism is equally applicable in both the languages and supports the metaphoric interpretation in exocentric compounds. The study also nullifies the claims about the non-productivity and unpredictability of the exocentric compounds.

Evaluation of Learning Outcomes: A Case Study of Secondary Level Compulsory English Textbooks of the Punjab Board, Pakistan

This study examines the learning outcomes of selected English textbooks at the cognitive level. The aim of the present study is to explore the levels of criticality in the learning outcomes of compulsory English textbooks (Grade 6-10) published by the Punjab Board, based on which their activities and exercises are designed. Learning outcomes of compulsory English textbooks (Grade 6-10) were analyzed following the Critical Thinking Evaluation Model (CTEM). Post-use evaluation of the learning outcome of compulsory English textbooks (Grade 6-10) has not been carried out yet. To fill this gap, selected English textbooks were evaluated in terms of their critical thinking skills based learning outcomes. The evaluated textbooks were selected through stratified sampling. A mixed-method approach including both qualitative and quantitative data analysis was used to make findings more reliable and valid. Exploratory research design was adopted to explore the levels of criticality in compulsory English textbooks (Grade 6-10). The totality of results showed that the ‘implementation’ level of CTEM was the most frequent among the learning outcomes. The second most frequent level of criticality was ‘background knowledge’ and the third most frequent was ‘apprehension’. ‘Anatomization’ and ‘creativity’ levels of criticality appeared less frequently among the learning outcomes of compulsory English textbooks, while the ‘conceptualization’ level of CTEM was the least frequent. It was found that the learning outcomes of compulsory English textbooks (Grade 6-10) were not designed to enhance critical evaluation and self-directed learning. The results are beneficial for textbook designers, textbook evaluators, examiners, paper setters, teachers, students, and teacher trainers. This study contributes to the development of the English language teaching system in public schools.

Impact of Netspeak on the Writing Skills of Generation X and Generation Y

This research focuses on the impact of netspeak on the formal writing skills of the users. It is labelled as the hub of slang and informal language content by many experts. The current analysis accounts for five objectives including the identification of the prime causative factors responsible for deviation in the use of the standard variety, the appliance of the impact of Netspeak on formal writing, the nature of its impact (positive or negative), the assessment of its impact with reference to age and on the basis of the kind of response netspeak receives from the living generations, determining its sustainability. The objectives are attained through a questionnaire, collecting responses from the individuals belonging to Generation X and Generation Y. This study proposes that the influence of mother tongue and code switching are the prime causative factors of netspeak. The research further showcases the impact of the electronic variety on the users’ formal writing skills which can disturb their formal linguistic framework; however, the variety on its own has been indicated previously as a handy tool for the users. Focusing on the factor of age neutrality, the current study suggests that although Generation X is more inclined towards the use of the standard variety, yet it remains quite open-minded towards the existence and usage of the new variety on social media, stating it to be a “feature of the progressive world”. The research reflects the enthralling nature of netspeak which has massively contributed to its popularity. It was inferred that neither the platform (the digital world) is losing its power nor the users are in the mood of giving up on it in the near future. It can be said that it’s a budding variety for the people by the people, born to live, thus strengthening the sustainability argument.

A Study of Endurance and Aspiration in Maya Angelou’s Poems The Caged Bird (1968) and Still I Rise (1978)

The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (1994) manifests that Maya Angelou’s personal consciousness and public awareness sharpened her poetic capabilities. She used art to communicate the pathos and joys of her evolving spirit. This research paper explores the elements of survival, that is, endurance and aspiration in her poetry. The only freedom she enjoyed was the freedom to write which was rooted in her mind and not curbed by societal forces. The rationale of this paper is to trace how personal struggle and the quest for self-sustaining dignity in Maya Angelou’s poetry serves as an aspiration for America’s black community. Her cerebral autobiographies manifest her struggle for survival in a hostile and racist social environment and her poetry reflects the same. The objective of this research is to locate the motifs of endurance and aspiration in two of her poems namely The Caged Bird (1994) and Still I Rise (1994) from her anthology of Complete Collected Poems (1994). Caged Bird has become legendary due to the use of strong images, dichotomy and masked metaphors. Through these devices the poetess depicts her span of fragile development. As she grows physically and emotionally she discards her old mask and in Still I Rise, she presents her self-image with courage. The lyrical qualities of both poems provide soothing and healing power to the black community. In the light of the current analysis, this research paper concludes that the ultra fine resonance with repetition in Angelou’s poetry generates strong emotions. At the same time, it becomes a mode of free expression and endurance for the poetess. Furthermore, the outcome of this research is that it traces the dynamic elements of aspiration in her poetry through which she gains a voice, a voice to address her pathos with a modulated tone and to introduce the tools for productive survival.

A Postmodern Reading of Don DeLillo’s Short Stories

The focus of this paper is to study how different techniques are incorporated in the postmodern fiction to present the multiplicity of meaning and subjectivity of the reality. For this purpose, the researcher has selected American novelist and short story writer Donald Richard DeLillo’s short stories “The Itch” and “Coming. Sun. Mon. Tues”. The researcher has analyzed the selected works using the theoretical frameworks provided by Fredric Jameson, Linda Hutcheon and Henri Bergson. The theoretical insights of the selected theorists help understand the subjective reality of the postmodernism. Textual analysis has been used as a method to study the selected fictional work. Postmodernism is critical of certain foundational conventions of philosophy, specifically, the Enlightenment thinking, as it symbolizes the pursuit of reason and logic. On the other hand, it focuses on the personalization and subjectivity in the construction of truth and worldviews. The rejection of objective reality gives way to multiple realities and subjectivity. American fiction, in the second half of the twentieth century, has been influenced by postmodernism to a great extent. The analyzed short stories provide a good postmodern reading since they cover a range of features that are relatable in the postmodern world.

Roasting Videos: A YouTube-based Vernacular Discourse

This research endeavors to investigate the impact of a novel genre, that is, roasting. It also aims to know how this YouTube discourse finds its way into the vernacular discourse in the Pakistani context. The researchers selected two highly subscribed Pakistani YouTube channels, that is, KhujLee Family and CBA-Arslan Naseer. Using the purposive sampling technique two videos from each channel were selected, which made a total of four videos selected as sample. The researchers meticulously observed the trending section of YouTube with the purpose to select far reaching roasting videos of the aforementioned channels. This phenomenological research employed the Interactive Alignment Model as its theoretical framework. The conclusions suggested that conversation designs are the outcomes of addressee feedback and penetrate the vernacular discourse (Chiarello & Clark, 2012), casting a deep impact on its viewers particularly in terms of desensitization. The findings further explicated that desensitization has amplified because of the consumption and reciprocation of such content by the receivers, courtesy of the participatory culture of YouTube. This allows the viewers to not only enjoy roasting videos but also to imitate the abusive vocabulary used as punch line, mostly in Punjabi. The participation of viewers was observed through the comment section of the selected videos, advocating the consequent desensitization of the vernacular discourse. Subsequently, the study implies that the creation and dissemination of the roasting content can be achieved in a responsible manner by decreasing the use of curse words.

A Study of the Significance of Translation Studies in the Educational Institutions of Pakistan

The aim of this research is to highlight the importance of Translation Studies as a proper discipline in educational institutions of Pakistan. The analysis has been done by conducting a questionnaire survey, gathering responses from the students of acknowledged educational institutions, both public and private. The findings suggest rather mixed views of the students about Translation and Translation Studies in general. While most of the participants have a clear idea that translation is something beyond mere paragraph translation and reading translated literature, they view translation as not necessarily a part of Humanities students’ curriculum. Most of the participants have never found an opportunity to take a translation related course; whereas, they are interested in taking one. However, there were only one to two students who could name an institution that offers a translation studies degree. The majority of the students are also aware of the translational processes around them while using social media or reading print media and are able to identify them. On the whole, this research tries to identify the current situation of translation studies in Pakistan, and at the end some recommendations have been given to improve the situation of Translation Studies in Pakistan because Translation Studies is the ultimate requirement for the progress and development in the field of academics. The world has understood this; Pakistan needs to do the same.

Language Shapes Socially Constructed Gender Roles: Ibsen’s ‘A Doll’s House’ in Focus

Language plays an important role in human life that can be seen from various perspectives such as the cultural perspective, linguistic perspective, social perspective, psychological perspective, perspective of gender and moral and ethical perspectives. This is undoubtedly a proven fact that we use language and at the same time, language uses us to define, designate, tag and shape our places in the society (Cameron, 2005). This role of language is generally suitable for all human race either male or female but the basic purpose of this study is to explain how language shapes a woman’s place and identity in society. Often we find that women face linguistic discrimination in two different ways: one is the way; they are taught to speak and use language and the other way is about how language treats them (Lakoff, 2004). These linguistic disparities tend to specify a woman’s role and function in the society as a sex object, a servant, a wife, a daughter, a mother and specifically a woman (Kerber, 1988). The researcher collected the data for this study from Ibsen’s (1999) ‘A Doll’s House’ in which different lexical items, phrases and sentences were uttered intentionally to explain the role of the main character Nora as a wife, as a daughter and as a woman. The researcher examined the speeches of different characters only to show the language –made and man- made places of women in the society. For this purpose, the researcher used a theoretical framework based on the qualitative approach while consulting the related ideas of Lakoff (2004) who, in her ‘Dominance Theory,’ explains how language shapes a woman’s place in the society by analyzing her own speeches and the speeches of different people in the society. The findings of the study go a long way in telling people and the upcoming researchers that language not only specifies gender roles individually, but also internally and externally as well. Basically different social characters surrounding a woman use language in such a way that it starts shaping a woman’s character in different sub- characters as explained in the work of Ibsen (1999). Furthermore, language use tells us that a man remains a man in every situation either as a father, as a husband, as a son, and above all as a man but a woman’s place in society is changeable according to language use and those tagged names that men have used for women ever. For example, if a little girl talks roughly like a boy, she is scolded by her parents and friends (Lakoff, 2004). This process of socialization is harmful in the sense that it is making women weak, incapable and less –confident but if we analyze the last lines spoken by Nora in the selected text of Ibsen (1999), we come to know that constant battering and hammering of socialization and generalization are now making women aware of their individual place and identity in the society and they are now looking at life from a different perspective that is still unacceptable in the man-made society (Kramer, 1974). This study will open new avenues for sociolinguists to study language and gender keenly and critically.

‘Observable Signals’ of Motivation in Teaching-Learning Process

The current study focuses on the identification of the ‘observable signals’ of motivation perceived by the language teachers in the teaching-learning process. This phenomenon is worth studying as it can open new dimensions for conducting research on motivation and engagement in the field of applied linguistics. It can be very helpful for teachers in assessing their students’ motivation. Data were collected for this phenomenological study through questionnaire, interviews and focus group discussion. The sample consisted of twenty-six English language teachers. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The ‘observable signals’ of motivation were categorized in the behavioral, emotional, and cognitive domains. The results identified that asking probing questions, eye contact, asking for extra resources, loving and respecting teachers, coming on time, completing classroom tasks quickly, enjoying group activities, and suggesting topics to teachers were comprised the ‘observable signals’ of motivation. The majority of the teachers agreed on observing most of these signals. Teachers can use these signals to assess the motivation of their learners and future researchers can use the findings of this research for conducting further research.