Exploring Pragmatic Transfers in Ayoade Okedokun’s Mopelola: The Tale of a Beauty Goddess: A Sociolinguistic Perspective

This research work investigates pragmatic transfers in Okedokun’s Mopelola: The Tale of a Beauty Goddess. It aims at identifying, analyzing and interpreting pragmatic features through which specific meanings are conveyed in the selected play. In the attempt to reach this goal, the data are randomly collected from the whole play on the basis of a quantitative method. Then, the statistical results are qualitatively discussed and interpreted in terms of their frequency distribution. The findings show a predominance of pragmatic transfer of loan words representing 33.33% followed by proverbs 32.14% and loan-blends 16.16%. Transfers of greetings, insults and apology are low as they represent respectively 3.57%, 3.57%, and 2.38% whereas other transfers such as request, gratitude, offer, blaming/reproaching and advice are almost nonexistent. The high proportions of loan words as well as proverbs suggest the author’s determination to value Yoruba culture and tradition. The almost important proportion of loan-blends constitutes a strategy for the author to attract readers’ attention on the various authentic Yoruba expressions. The presence of transfer in greetings stresses the peculiarity of Yoruba culture characterized by the expression of profound respect to elderly people. On the other hand, the presence of insults indicates that though Yoruba culture is characterized by the expression of profound respect, some Yoruba people, as the black sheep, do develop arrogance in contradiction to their culture.

The Roles of Intensive and Extensive Reading Activities in Chinese EFL University Students’ Reading Comprehension Skills

This paper focuses on the appropriate methods for Chinese EFL university students to improve reading comprehension skills. The combination of intensive reading and extensive reading in the teaching environment is suggested in this study. Specifically, in-class reading should be composed of two parts: 1) intensive reading activities involving the explicit instruction of reading comprehension skills; 2) extensive reading activities to increase Chinese EFL university students’ background and vocabulary knowledge, which paves way for the comprehension of the text. After-class extensive reading should be composed of the reading of materials containing the repetition of new vocabulary appear in class, which could consolidate EFL learners’ reading comprehension skills they have already learnt in class.

The Practicability of Language in Business Context: A Reviewed Study

The world witnesses a noticeable rapid growth in information technology development of society pertaining to the language of business. One of the remarkable linguistic tools in business communication lies in the form blogs of effective companies. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to show how effective business context are conducted by the assistance of discourse linguistics related to business. It is obvious that there is a need to concentrate on the cultural meaning relating to the websites’ form and content in the e-commerce context. Research also showed that there is lack of research pertaining to language role and its impact on limitation of websites and blogs. In reviewing literature, according to Forrester Research, most Chinese on-line consumers are convenient with websites involving content in language own use. Further studies and recommendations are presented accordingly.

A Sociolinguistic Perspective of WhatsApp Statuses Used by Jordanians

The study aimed to examine the use level of the WhatsApp among Jordanians, and also to identify differences among Jordanians in WhatsApp status uses in light of their gender, age, marital status, and socioeconomic level. The population of the study included all students who are enrolled at the English department of Jadara and Irbid national Universities in Irbid, Jordan. The sample of the study consisted of (262) students whose ages are between 18-40 and were selected randomly. To achieve the aims of the study, a (23) item questionnaire was developed based on previous literature and used for data collection. The results showed that the level of using WhatsApp application among university students was high. The result showed that there are statistically significant differences at (a= 0.05) due to gender in favor of females, due to age in favor of the age group 18-21, and in Socioeconomic level in favor of more than 500. In light of results, the study recommend to work on motivating students for more use of this important application for academic purposes.

EFL Writing Skills Development Through Literature

Learning another language as English requires a combination of knowledge of the target language with skills and strategies that enable an individual to use them effectively. That is a learner has to develop knowledge about receptive skills; i.e., listening and reading, as well as productive ones; i.e., speaking and writing. Though all the skills are important for language learning, the writing skill is probably the most needed in academic and professional communities. It constitutes an important means of communication through which the writer expresses feeling, ideas and arguments. In the case of English language learning, writing in a language that one is not familiar with constitutes a hard task. In fact, though writing represents a crucial skill for learning any language, its complex nature makes it a challenging affair for both the learners and the teachers. It requires the learners to be guided and assisted in their efforts to reach success. Besides, the teachers are expected to furnish the appropriate measures to achieve the teaching goals. Therefore, it is with the perspective to highlight the importance of writing and the role of reading literature in developing EFL learners’ writing skill that this piece of work is undertaken. This is achieved via disclosing the nature of the writing skill and how the implementation of literature in the writing classes can provide positive effect on EFL learners’ performance.

A Comparative Study of the Simple Clause in Akan, Dagaare and English

The paper compares how the simple clause is expressed in Akan (Kwa, Niger-Congo), Dagaare (Gur, Niger-Congo) and English. It examines the simple clause in relation to noun phrase, verbal phrases, adpositional phrases, basic word order in declarative and focus constructions, and the basic locative construction. Basically, the study reveals that despite the differences, Akan and Dagaare have a lot in common as compared to English. This of course shows how distant English is from the two African languages. Certain linguistic features such as serial verb construction and focus constructions were unique to Akan and Dagaare and this, is not surprising since languages within the same language family (Niger Congo) tend to share certain lexical, phonological, morphological and syntactic features. The significant variation between these languages shows where Akan and Dagaare languages diverge into other sub-family groups: Kwa and Gur, respectively.

Conversion in English

This subject review is an attempt to explore the notion of conversion in the English language. Conversion is commonly viewed as the use of the same root for different grammatical classes. Then, the study seeks to find out whether conversion is applicable to morphology only, to syntax only, or to both morphology and syntax. It carries out a theoretical account of the notion arriving at certain conclusions.

Current Teaching Methods Used for English Language Teaching in Upper Elementary School and the Preferred Ones for the Lower Grades

There is no doubt that the teaching method has a significant effect on the student`s outcome and the responsibility for choosing the right method falls on the teacher. With experience, the teacher will be able to decide which method will fit the student’s needs. This research examines the most popular teaching methods and materials for teaching the English language in Saudi public schools, particularly in the upper elementary grades. It also aims to explore the perceptions of English language teachers of the methods and materials they consider to be the most effective in the teaching of lower elementary grades in Saudi public schools, who will be exposed to the English language for the first time. The sample of the study comprised 44 English teachers in Saudi public schools. The findings show that the majority of the English language teachers use Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) either alone or with other teaching methods. Moreover, most of them are willing to use it with the low grades of elementary. The findings also show that the most used materials in the classroom are videos, pictures, audiovisuals and the least used are written texts. These were the same materials that the teachers would like to use (with the same order of preference) for teaching the lower elementary grades. The findings have implications for current English language teachers who are willing to change their way of teaching and future teachers who would benefit from being aware of the effective methods of teaching the elementary grades in particular.

Digital Technologies in L2 teaching-learning in Brazil: A Critical Content Analysis

The aim of this study is to reflect about the view of digital technologies in L2 teaching-learning. With that aim, a content analysis study was carried out in the Brazilian database of theses and dissertations defended between 2015 and 2019 to analyze the view of technologies in the area of L2 teaching-learning. Drawing on the Critical Theory concept of semiformation and content analysis techniques, the view/use of technologies in L2 teaching-learning was analyzed in the corpus of 22 works. Results suggest challenges in the advancement of research and critical use of technologies in L2 teaching-learning in Brazil once few studies promoted a reflexive dialogue with the participants in order make them think about the critical use of technologies in L2 teaching-learning. The study concludes with the suggestion for more investment in the human formation process through the critical use of technologies in the teaching-learning of L2.

The Glotopolitical Perspective and the Linguistic Standardization: Perspectives about the Portuguese Language

This paper discusses the glotopolitical perspective, understood as any and all political and social action, conscious or not, about language (Guespin & Marcellesi, 1986; Lagares, 2018) and some Portuguese Language nominations – language as Hypostasis (Bagno, 2011, 2019), Official State/National Language (Faraco, 2008, 2016) and Mother Tongue –, so that readers have a broad theoretical-methodological panel of research in the theoretical field of glotopolitics and linguistics, which here come into clashes, confluences and displacements.