Teaching ESL Listening Skills in Ghanaian Senior High Schools: A Study of Agona West Municipality

Listening skill is one of the four important language competencies. However, it has not received the needed scholarly attention, not only in classroom pedagogy and curriculum planning but also in studies and researches in Applied Linguistics and Teaching English as Second Language. This study therefore attempts an investigation into the teaching and learning of listening skills in the language classroom in Ghana. It focuses on three issues in English as Second Language (ESL) listening comprehension; i) the strategies/methods for teaching listening skills, ii) the challenges for learning listening skills and iii) the ways to overcome the challenges. This descriptive qualitative study, having used two major instruments for data collection; observation and open-ended questionnaire, engaged 200 students and 7 teachers as the sample from selected Senior High Schools in the Agona West Municipality. The analysis of data revealed that indeed clarity of speaker, speed of delivery, learning environments, etc posed challenges to the teaching and learning of listening skills. It was also revealed that combining listening with other skills, predictive and summative strategies were the strategies teachers employed in teaching listening. Then, finally, the solutions to listening comprehension challenges, as revealed in the data, were indicated as including planning, overt student participation, clarity of speaker, assessment strategies, etc.

The Correlation between English Department Students' Habit in Watching English Movies and Their Vocabulary Knowledge

This research discussed the correlation between English department students' habit in watching English movies and their vocabulary knowledge. The background of conducting this research is to see how the possibility of students' habits in watching English movies influenced students' vocabulary knowledge. Furthermore, to find out if there is a significant correlation between English department students' habit in watching English movies and their vocabulary knowledge, this research determines the descriptive correlational method as the research design. After collecting and analyzing the data, it is obtained that the students' habit in watching English movies is categorized in the "high" habit category, and vocabulary knowledge is categorized in "good" ability, and significant correlation value is in moderate level correlation. In other words, it is implied that the students' habit in watching English movies was influenced to the acquisition of students' vocabulary knowledge.

Learning with KAHOOT! as Advantageous Learning Experience in EFL Classroom

Kahoot! as a game-based student response system has been widely used for new virtual learning experiences. On the other hand, the impacts of Kahoot! in learning EFL for university students have not been investigated yet. The objective of this study is to describe students’ perceptions towards the use of Kahoot! in learning EFL and explore students’ learning virtual experience by using Kahoot!. The research method used is qualitative method with data collection technique by using observation techniques and documentation techniques. Interviews were done to collect students’ perceptions. Furthermore, the benefits of using Kahoot! and the description of activities in Kahoot! have been observed. The result of the analysis revealed that students have a positive learning experience toward Kahoot!. As a result, Kahoot! can be used as an additional learning application for reviewing the materials and motivating students to learn English.

Students’ Perception towards the Use of Rewards to Enhance Their Learning Behaviours and Self-Development

Rewarding system and reinforcement have often been used in language teaching, and they have been used to help improve students’ academic achievements, and learning competition and control desirable behaviours in the English learning classroom. This exploratory study investigates students’ perceptions of the use of rewards in the classroom for enhancing behaviours and self-development. Participants were 29 mattayom 5 high school students (Grade 11) who studied a fundamental English course in Samut Sakhon Province on the outskirts of Bangkok. The rewarding system was then designed to be used during the 12-week sessions. The course was divided into 3 phases, and each phase lasted for 4 weeks. No rewards were given to students in the first phase, and all rewards were given in the second and third phases. At the end of week 4, 8 and 12, participants were required to write reflective journals to examine their perceptions toward the use of rewards. The journals were analysed via thematic content analysis. The findings revealed that receiving rewards influenced students’ positive emotions - enjoyment, excitement, relaxation and engagement. The findings also showed that they were highly satisfied with the use of rewards which enhanced their self-development since a teacher used them as external goals. Rewards were used as positive reinforcement for learning behaviour. The use of rewards was also used to build more powerful activities in the classroom.

Investigating the Problems encountered by EFL Students in Translating English Idioms into Arabic or Vice Versa

Translating idioms is an indispensable part of human life which involves language, thought and action. This study aims to investigate the problems encountered by EFL students in translating English idioms into Arabic or vice versa and set up some solutions. The study hypothesizes that university students are unable to translate idioms from English to Arabic and vice versa. To fulfil this study, the descriptive-analytic method is used and to be followed. A questionnaire is used as data collection instruments. The sample of the study consisted of (20) students from the third and fourth school year at Onaizah Colleges, Qassim, K.S.A. The study found that the differences in the average of the consensus are in favour of the variables that translating idioms is a problematic area for Saudi EFL students. Likewise, EFL students are confused in translating idioms from English to Arabic and vice versa due to poor vocabulary and fixed idiomatic expressions. Moreover, EFL students translate the idioms from English to Arabic and vice versa literally. The study recommends that EFL students should be exposed to a variety of vocabulary, fixed and idiomatic expression in translation tasks. Also, they must be aware of the cultural differences in translation idioms. The study further recommends that deploying fixed and idiomatic expressions in schools' and colleges' aisles could benefit the students in translation.

Symbolic Representation Highlighted through Parallelism in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

The art of writing can be seen when, according to Gauding (2009), "authors use symbols to evoke more than a simple, straightforward, literal meaning". In addition to symbols, the art of poetic writing – Parallelism – emphasizes sounds and ideas in the parallel elements through repetition, development or contrast. However, most research on parallelism was done in poetic or biblical writing. This paper points out symbolic representation highlighted through parallelism in the prose-style novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. It explores how symbols categorized by Pickering and Hoeper (1986) were illustrated through types of parallelism by Lowth (1753), Bullinger (1898), Bulkeley (2001), McCoy (2003), Parry (2007) and Kostenberger and Patterson (2011). The results showed that symbols were represented mainly through semantic parallelism which is used to compare people, things and events using literary devices, and clarification parallelism which conveys additional information about the content. It is hoped that this paper will be useful for teachers teaching Dickens' style found in A Tale of Two Cities with a focus on symbols and parallel structures.

: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF THE RESISTANCE OF ISLAMOPHOBIC IDEOLOGY IN IMRAN KHAN CONFERENCE TO UNGA

Political discourse analysis is aimed at highlighting the emancipatory agendas of political actors who dialectically produce their discourses for the specific purpose of grasping “pro-ideologies” of masses without giving much room to their real interests. To a great extent the manipulation of language serves as a sturdy tool for political benefits and consequently it provides a strong base for the exploitations of the ideological assumptions of people on a large scale. A critical discourse analysis of Imran Khan’s point of view on Islamophobia suggested that a good speaker always overwhelms the masses and changes the way of thinking of the public. The researchers have accentuated that Imran Khan has affected the mindset of the people regarding Islamophobia. Also an analysis has been done by the researchers of discourses examples in the Imran Khan’s Speech. The researchers have explored various indicators of van Dijk in the Speech of Imran Khan. This paper aims to discuss the realization of the resistance of islamophobic ideology in Imran Khan Speech by means of language use in a political discourse, which is mainly grounded in Teun van Dijk‟s assumptions in critical discourse analysis. For this aim, the discursive strategies of the Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan during a press conference in the United Nation General Assembly held on 25th September 2019.The Speech will be examined within the context of his ideological, cultural and language background. . Keywords Political Discourse, Power, Ideology, Critical Discourse Analysis.

AN ANALYSIS OF PERSONAL AND COLLECTIVE TRAUMA IN KHALED HOSSEINI’S NOVEL SEA PRAYER

This research study is an attempt to explore the literary text of "Sea Prayer" written by Khaled Hosseini with the perspective of trauma study that includes personal trauma model of Cathy Caruth and collective trauma model of Kia Erikson. The theoretical framework focuses on both i.e., Caruth (1996) personal trauma discussed in "Unclaimed Experience: trauma, narrative and history" and Erikson (1991) collective trauma discussed in "Notes on Trauma and Community". This research study examines the elements of personal trauma of the Narrator's character through flashbacks, timelessness and unspeakablity. On the other hand, the elements of collective trauma are also investigated that are breakage of communal bond, distrust in future, mood of fear and depression on the collective level. In addition, the method used is the qualitative analysis. Through aforementioned elements, the researcher has discussed the collective trauma of Syrian community as a whole. Keywords: Trauma, Sea Prayer, textual analysis, Cathy Caruth.

FEMINISM PORTRAYED IN GRETA GERWIG’S MOVIE LITTLE WOMEN; ANALYSIS IN MODERN ERA

This paper discussed feminism in the Little Women movie directed by Greta Gerwig in 2019. This movie is adapted from Louisa May Alcott’s novel which was written initially in 1868. This study aimed to find out how feminism is described through the leading character. The other objective is to search the types of feminism on main character refers to Tong and Botts’s theory. The writer used descriptive qualitative methods which content analysis of the movie. All data is presented in the form of words and sentences and used library research as a way to collect data by reading and selecting quotations from the Little Women movie. As the result, it is found that there are five types of feminism: Liberal Feminism type, Marxist Feminism and Socialist type, Radical libertarian Feminism type, Psychoanalytic Feminism type, and Postmodern Feminism type. Besides the types of feminism, the discussions depicted feminism impact to the characters among women and sends the views and values in women personal life with connected to the relationship of family matters as well.

INTERACTIVE COMMUNICATION WITH EDMODO IN EFL CLASSROOM

Virtual learning is very much important in the 21st century in increasing interest in communicating in EFL classrooms. Edmodo is one of the media used for virtual learning. This research primarily aimed at describing interactive communication and students’ perspective of the online media "Edmodo" as a means of learning the EFL Classroom. The method used is qualitative methods with data collection techniques with documentation techniques, and observation techniques. Students’ perspective were collected by interviews. Besides that advantages of Edmodo and description classroom activities observed. The results of the analysis showed that Edmodo can be used as an effective learning medium. Edmodo, as a learning tool, can also be an easier introduction to students so that English knowledge be interested to communicate globally. Moreover, it revealed that using Edmodo had positive perspective from students towards interactive communication.