THE PARAMETRIC VARIATIONS OF ENGLISH AND KANURI NOUN PHRASES: A MINIMALIST APPROACH

This paper examines the parametric variations of English and Kanuri noun phrases (NPs) within the theoretical framework of Principles and Parameters (P&P), and the study adopts Chomsky’s (1995) Minimalist Approach (MA). In conducting the research, the researcher uses his native intuition to collect the data for this study. The secondary sources of data involve the use of three competent native speakers to validate the data. The outcome of the study reveals that there are differences and similarities between the two languages which are genetically different –Kanuri Nilo is a Saharan language while English is an Endo European language. The differences are: Kanuri is a head final language while English is head initial language. On the complement phrases, the two languages share dissimilarities –quantifiers and adjectives occur post head in Kanuri while the quantifiers and adjectives occur pre-head in English. Finally, the two languages share similarities in terms of noun plural formation morphologically suffixed to post head nouns and definiteness and agreement features [-Def] [+PL Num].

DISCOVERING AND APPLYING MINDFULNESS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING: A BOOK-REVIEW

At the time when students and teachers are experiencing all the negative thoughts and emotions caused by transitions and changes which have come to their lives spontaneously, the power of mindful thinking plays an imperative role. One of the steps in promoting and maintaining social, and emotional well-being of people is to be connected. But a number of people do not know when and how to spark mindfulness and well-being to others. They think there are so many thoughts that linger on their minds and overload of those issues make them feel weary. As teachers handle several issues in the classroom and virtual world, their personal well-being which includes social, emotional, and mental being is pressed also. It is the intention of the reviewer to examine this widely circulated material that aims to inform or orient readers particularly professionals like teachers among others on how they can practice mindfulness to sustain and protect emotional and social well-being.

A STUDY ON THE CONCEPT OF THIRD PLACE IN DONALD TRUMP'S SPEECH AT RIYADH SUMMIT ON MAY 2017

The current study investigates the concept of third place in the 47 American President Donald Trump’s speech at the Islamic summit held in Riyadh in May 2017. The researcher intends to examine if his speech includes some features of third-place or not. To achieve the study's aims, the researcher investigates the following topics related to Trump's speech in Riyadh if Donald Trump succeeded in using and applying the third place and its approaches to persuade them for pure and seamless reconciliation. The result shows some third-place features, such as the full awareness of the historical roots of tensions between the West and Muslim countries. The use of the first-person pronouns (Agency) refers to Trump’s declaration on several occasions that Islam is the religion of terrorism, and extremism needed to be faced. Moreover, Trump used techniques to approach the Muslim world throughout the third pace, such as logic and avoidance techniques and intertextuality.

HIGHLIGHTING THE SOUND SHIFT IN PUNJABI LANGUAGE: A CORPUS-BASED DESCRIPTIVE STUDY

Punjabi language is most widely spoken language of Pakistan (Abbas, Chohan, Ahmed, & Kaleem, 2016). Punjabi is under developed language because of which, upcoming generations are shifting to other technically and digitally developed languages such as Urdu and English. In result of which, the sound shift is being observed in Punjabi language. Sounds which used to be present in the past in Punjabi language are found missing now. This leads to a problematic situation that this sound shift may result in language extinction and sound loss. This study is about the sound change and it has been studied in Punjabi language. On the basis of observation of speech in surrounding, researcher made a hypothesis that those speakers of Punjabi language who acquired Punjabi as L1 are able to produce few distinctive sounds that are not produced by the speakers who acquired Urdu as a mother tongue. For this purpose, a corpus of 2 million words was collected and the words including the sounds |n|ن and |l| ل were particularly shortlisted from the corpus. The speakers from both origins were asked to pronounce these words, the hypothesis was proved and, in result, variations in the pronunciation of sounds were observed. Sociolinguists and Phonologists need to heed on this issue to save Punjabi language from extinction.

ILLITERACY EFFECTS ON LOCAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE MOROCCAN RURAL WORLD: CHALLENGES AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This paper fundamentally aspires to make context-based recommendations to the increasingly rising number of Moroccan female cooperatives in rural areas, particularly in the region of Fes-Meknes. Similarly, it endeavors to problematize illiteracy and its effects on local and regional development among rural women in the aforementioned region. It must be noted that solidarity cooperatives unquestionably help mitigate both feminine poverty and unemployment, and simultaneously incrementally establish an ongoing entrepreneurial platform for rural women. Such a platform can directly grant the potentiality of helping these women make quantum leaps in development, as well as become socio-culturally emancipated from the stereotypes and clichés that have kept them invisible for decades in the so-called domestic sphere. The data gathered by means of focus groups’ sessions in different Fes-Meknes areas and villages, Ifrane, Azrou, Imouzzer, Sefrou and Ain Louh, was of paramount importance in making recommendations that are realistically inspired and meticulously drawn from research informants whose participation in local and regional development, albeit challenges, has drawn a significant amount of attention from state actors, such as the Office of Development and Cooperation (ODCO) and associations of civil society, such as the Moroccan Center for Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship (MCISE). One can confidently state that human development can solely be born out of solidarity, collaboration and encouragement in order to ultimately defy social ills and create seamless cohesion and prosperity.

PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING: ITS EFFECTS ON STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN WRITING EXPOSITORY ESSAYS

Having the ability to think critically is prominent to aid students in dealing with academic life, filtering any information, and solving problems. This study investigates the effects of Problem-Based Learning on students’ ability in writing expository essays. It employed a quantitative approach with a quasi-experimental design by utilizing intact classes of advanced writing. The study utilized a writing test and a scoring rubric as the instruments to collect the data. The experimental group was taught by using PBL with group works whereas the control group was taught by using individual guided problem-solving. The findings on the t-test conveyed that the null hypothesis is rejected. Hence, there is a significant difference in the mean score of the students in the experimental group and those in the control group. Moreover, the analysis of each component of writing revealed that the implementation of PBL gives a significant effect on the components of content and organization. Hence, small group discussion for problem-solving tasks is recommended to develop students’ critical thinking skills, social skills, and writing skills particularly in writing expository essays of problem-solution.

Figurative Language in Layla Al-Atrash’s Nesa’a Ala Al-Mafareq: A Stylistic Analysis

This study aims to analyze Layla Al-Atrash’s Nesa’a Ala Al-Mafareq stylistically to address the issue of an identity crisis and self-alienation by shedding light on the Arabic narrative discourse that is used by Al-Atrash in the selected novel. The stylistic analysis focuses on casting lights on how the five protagonists of the selected novel employed their feminist narrative discourse to represent their suffering and how the old cultural and social values affect their lives. To achieve the aim of the study, the researcher relies on Geffrey Leech's (2006) theory of figurative language to analyze the novel. Accordingly, this study is considered as the first study focusing on analyzing the language used by Al-Atrash linguistically in light of the stylistic analysis of figurative speech such as a simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, and metonymy. The researcher used both qualitative and quantitative approaches with (SPSS) program for statistics. The results showed that Al Atrash succeeded in utilizing her feminist narrative discourse linguistically to introduce the catastrophic situation the woman has in the masculine society. Taking into consideration metonyms with the highest rates (189) indicating the problems that the Arab woman encounters without finding a solution. Although hyperbole (126= 23%) refers to the writer's trial to support the readers with the perfect image of a woman’s life and why she surrenders to reality and accepts the outdated conventions and traditions.

Emergency Remote Learning in Higher Education during COVID-19 Era: Students and Professors’ Experiences

Due to the current massive pandemic situation, global educational systems have, by necessity, shifted from in-person to virtual learning. As a result, this newfangled educational paradigm has changed the conception of teaching and learning from a rigid process to a novel environment where new rules and objectives are set. In the present context, this research paper is intended to discuss the contemporary educational prototype as an alternative to traditional face-to-face instruction in order to accomplish quality learning and rescue the academic year from a doomed failure. In this regard, this study relies on a quantitative and qualitative research analysis, based on questionnaires designated to teachers and students of the National School of Applied Sciences of Tétouan (ENSATE) at Abdelmalek Essaâdi University to reflect upon their experiences, insights, and perceptions of distance education with respect to teaching materials, content, and syllabus delivery. The aim, therefore, is to disclose the variant challenges that are being encountered by the aforementioned students and teachers, including their attitudes toward e-learning course content and pedagogy. It is equally important to pinpoint the different possible strategies and policies that ought to be adopted by education policy makers to perfectly meet the novice learning/teaching needs and aspirations.

ICT-Based Instruction amid COVID-19: The Case Study of Faculty of Sciences and Technologies, Tangier (FSTT)

This paper contextually endeavors to grant insights and perceptions on the teaching of English for Specific purposes (ESP) through ICT-based instruction amid COVID-19 at the Faculty of Sciences and Technologies in Tangier (FSTT). To avoid total curriculum disruption, the FSTT urgently declares online learning, which has palpably manifested a plethora of pitfalls primarily pertinent to logistics according to the study results. Drawing on previously published materials, the use of quantitative research analysis allows the researcher to empirically unravel different challenges and educational gaps among the research population. The findings of the survey indicate that more investment should be made at the level of research in order to enable ICT- based instruction to be more regulated, yet most importantly properly managed. By so doing, students’ motivation and interaction tremendously augment as they become more genuinely and actively engaged in the teaching/learning process.

The Word gid in Najdi Arabic: An Evidentiality Head

This research paper investigates the word gid which is used in Najdi Arabic, a dialect spoken in Najd region in Arabic peninsula. This particle is analyzed syntactically using the recent assumptions of the minimalist program (Chomsky 1993, 1995, and subsequent work). As for the findings, it turns out that gid functions as a head that instantiates its maximal projection above TP and under CP. So, this word is not a property of TP domain nor a CP domain. Due to the fact that this word is only used when a speaker is certain of the propositional content of his/her utterance, we argue that gid is an evidential head that scopes over the tense layer. Furthermore, we argue that gid has an EPP feature, hence the specifier position of the functional phases headed by it must be filled by some element which is the subject. This accounts for the fact that subject must precede gid in declarative sentences. Additionally, gid has [PAST] feature which is uninterpretable and hence must be deleted before the derivation is handed over to the LF following the general lines of feature deletion of Chomsky (1995 and 2005). We argue that the deletion of [PAST] feature is conducted through an Agree operation that is established between gid and the verb. This is why gid comes exclusively with past tense. Otherwise [PAST] feature on gid remains active, leading to the ungrammaticality of the given sentence.