An investigation into the strategic competence of Arab learners of English at Jordanian universities

PhD ThesisThis thesis is a qualitative study of the strategic competence of Arab English majors at Yarmouk University in Jordan. Its aim is to fill the gap found in communication strategy (CS) research, which has at present little relevance to the Jordanian situation. Its main aim is to determine which communication strategies (CSs) are used by English majors while communicating in Ll Arabic and L2 English. Furthermore, since meaning is very important in language teaching, it aims to examine whether the messages transmitted by the learners are successful and comprehensible or not. This will increase our knowledge of how and by means of which strategies Arab English majors overcome their communication problems, and which strategies they use in communicating in their native language. The subjects of the study are 30 English majors at Yarmouk University, a typical Jordanian university, put into three proficiency levels according to an adapted TOEFL test. The sample represents a full range of English majors' ability at the English Department of the same university. Their ages range from 19-23. ... The main finding of the research is that English majors make wide use of CSs. These strategies are mostly L2- English based strategies. Another finding is that in spite of their limited linguistic knowledge, English majors manage to communicate their intended meaning by making use of CSs. It is also found that the learners' use of CSs is related to their proficiency level, in that Ll-Arabic based strategies decrease as proficiency improves. One of the most interesting additional findings is the effect of the mother tongue/Arabic which increases the variety of strategy use. For example, literal translation and word coinage are widely influenced by mother tongue interference. It is found that Arabic speakers use many communication strategies when compared with speakers of other languages in CS research. The subjects' use of CSs is also related to the type of task they are performing. Finally, Arab learners use CSs in their native language, but when compared to the CSs used in their target language, these are fewer in terms of frequency and vary in terms of type. Pedagogical implications and recommendations for further research are presented in light of the findings

Australian University Students’ Short-term In-country Study in China: An Ecological Perspective

The constant academic debate about the value of short-term in-country study (ICS) indicates the need for more research into ways to maximise the experience. There has been a disproportionate academic emphasis on the experiences of American students studying abroad, and hardly any research on Chinese learners from Australian universities can be found. To fill the gap, this study conducts a case study investigating this issue. It aims to examine the extent to which the ICS in China is beneficial for students’ learning, as well as to explore ways to maximise the short-term ICS experience. This study employs an ecological perspective which has redefined the goals of language education. Compared to the more traditional cognitively or socially orientated research, the ecological perspective offers broader interpretations of the four key constructs, namely, interaction, language learning, culture learning, and identity. Therefore, it can shed new light on the learning experience during ICS. Four questions to be answered regarding the key constructs of ICS are: (1) To what extent did the ICS facilitate interaction in different settings? (2) To what extent did the interaction during ICS contribute to language learning? (3) To what extent did the interaction during ICS contribute to culture learning? (4) What was the role of identity in the participants’ learning process in the ICS? The study used a mixed-method research design (the “quan-QUAL” design) for the triangulation of data sources. Pre-departure and end-of-program surveys were used to collect data on students’ learning experiences in the home country and host country respectively. In-country observations were conducted to capture more information on students’ sojourn experiences. Post-program interviews with participants collected nuanced details about their personal perceptions and re-entry experiences. Quantitative data were analysed by Excel and SPSS. The analysis of qualitative data included thematic content analysis, conversation analysis of observation data, and narrative analysis of student interviews. The main argument of this thesis is that while the ICS promoted in-class and out-of-class interactions which further facilitated language and culture learning to a great extent, Australian students’ identities and self-concepts also played a core mediating role throughout individual learning trajectories. The results have highlighted multi-level affordances for interaction, “seamless” opportunities for authentic language use, the diversity of cultural experiences that bolster intercultural learning, and the critical role of identity in different timescales in the ICS context. To maximise the ICS, participants should be facilitated with explicit program intervention to be fully aware of various affordances available and the power of their own subjectivity and agency. Since the ecological perspective has seldom been used to examine the ICS context, the findings of this research have made a substantial contribution to the practical field of study abroad and the theoretical domain from an ecological perspective. At the practical level, the findings will redound to the benefits of stakeholders in Australia and China. At the theoretical level, it has furthered our understanding of the theoretical framework of an ecological perspective on language education. The redefined success of language education from an ecological perspective allows us to evaluate the ICS with more subjective and relative criteria, which should be recognised in future research and by universities aiming to prepare their students for an increasingly multilingual and multicultural world

Language in Education Policy and Practice in Post-Colonial Africa: An ethnographic case-study of The Gambia

This thesis examines the interaction between the language in education policy and classroom practices in The Gambia, West Africa. This examination takes place against a background of current and vigorous academic debate regarding policies for language in education and the learning and teaching of students, particularly in post-colonial countries. Using an ethnographic case study this thesis builds on the analysis of more than 38 hours of data collected during classroom observations of 10 teachers in three schools. Conversational interviews were held with 10 teachers and field notes from all observations were produced. Stimulated recall interviews were held with four teachers. The findings of this research suggest that the language in education policy currently in use in The Gambia is regularly subverted by the teachers and students in order to meet the pragmatic and pedagogic needs of the classroom. It was noted that the local languages were used differently in the urban sites, where evidence of a language amalgam was recorded, when compared with the rural sites, in which a phenomenon of serial monolingualism was observed. The impact of historical, political and cultural norms also affected the language in all the sites in the study. The thesis argues that there is an observable subversion of the language in education policy and different language practices are present as a result of heteroglossic conflict (Bakhtin 1981). The conflict is caused by the imposition of a monolingual language in education policy on a multilingual community. The findings reveal that the teachers and learners have developed a repertoire of pedagogic techniques, some of which are geographically specific, in order to present a demonstration of effective teaching and learning. In answering the research questions this thesis demonstrates that local languages do have a place in classroom interactions and that a reconsideration of the current English Only policy would be appropriate. There are few studies of language use in classrooms in The Gambia. This research therefore makes a significant contribution to this literature and to the ways in which language use is theorised

Perceptual assimilation, discrimination, and acquisition of non-native and second-language vowels assimilated as uncategorised

Non-native and second-language (L2) phones are perceived in terms of their similarities and differences to the listener’s native (L1) phonemes. A non-native phone that is reliably identified as similar to a single L1 phoneme is described as being categorised according to PAM/PAM-L2 (Best, 1995; Best & Tyler, 2007), and such categorised assimilations have been the focus of much of the research on non-native and L2 speech perception. It is also possible that non-native/L2 phones are perceived as being speech-like, but are not identified with any one particular L1 phoneme. In such instances, they are said to be assimilated as uncategorised. This thesis presents experiments designed to address how these uncategorised phones are perceived, discriminated, and acquired by adult L2 learners. The findings have theoretical implications for models of cross-language and L2 speech perception, and contribute to our understanding of the perception and acquisition of uncategorised phones. The first question addressed in this thesis was whether there were any systematic differences in the way in which uncategorised non-native phones are assimilated within the L1 phonological system. In the first experiment, native Egyptian Arabic speakers residing in Egypt perceptually assimilated and rated all of the Australian English vowels in relation to their L1 vowels. Results revealed new assimilation types for uncategorised phones. They may be perceived as being moderately similar to just a single L1 phoneme (focalised), to two or more L1 phonemes (clustered), or unlike any of the L1 phonemes (dispersed). This suggests that not all uncategorised phones are perceived in the same way, but rather, they vary in the extent to which they are perceptually identified with L1 phonemes. The second set of experiments addressed the issue of how well pairs of non-native phones might be discriminated when one or both phones are assimilated as uncategorised (i.e., Uncategorised-Uncategorised and Uncategorised-Categorised assimilations, respectively). Native Australian English speakers discriminated Danish monophthongal and diphthongal vowel contrasts varying in assimilation type, including Uncategorised-Uncategorised and Uncategorised-Categorised. Discrimination accuracy was modulated by the presence of perceived phonological overlap in the categorisations to L1 phonemes, with partially overlapping contrasts discriminated less accurately than non-overlapping contrasts. By considering the different uncategorised assimilations and the presence of perceived phonological overlap to L1 categories, it was possible to fine-tune predictions for Uncategorised- Uncategorised and Uncategorised-Categorised assimilations much better than if overlap were not considered. The final aim of this thesis was to examine the acquisition of uncategorised L2 phones in adults. It was predicted that new category formation would be more likely to occur for uncategorised, than for categorised, L2 phones. Egyptian Arabic speakers acquiring Australian English in an immersion setting were recruited for a 1-year longitudinal study. They were assessed on their perceptual assimilation of the English vowels, and also on their discrimination accuracy of English vowels that formed Uncategorised-Uncategorised and Uncategorised-Categorised assimilations, as it is these assimilations that should be easily acquired according to the PAM (Best, 1995) and SLM (Flege, 1995) theoretical models. The learners were not absolute beginners, but they differed on six factors related to L2 experience (i.e., length of residence, age of foreign language acquisition, age of immersion, proportion of L2 use, L2 vocabulary size, and duration of English as a foreign language training). There was no evidence of new category acquisition, perhaps because they had already reached a plateau in L2 learning at the start of the study, or possibly because a longer period of immersion may be needed to determine whether they show improvements over time. However, by considering variability among individual learners, the six factors were shown to predict discrimination accuracy to a certain extent, predominantly for Uncategorised-Uncategorised and Uncategorised-Categorised assimilations. Overall, the experiments reported in this thesis provided a much-needed systematic and thorough investigation into the perceptual assimilation, discrimination, and acquisition of uncategorised non-native/L2 phones. The experiments demonstrated that uncategorised phones vary in their perceptual assimilation to the L1, and that discrimination accuracy is dependent upon the presence of perceived phonological overlap for contrasts involving uncategorised phones. This has important theoretical implications for both cross-language and L2 speech perception models. A number of interesting questions are also raised for L2 phonological category formation, answers to which have the potential to provide a step forward in our understanding of L2 acquisition

Interpreter output in talking therapy. Towards a methodology for good practice

This thesis investigated current praxis among professional interpreters working in psychiatric outpatient clinics. The research question asked whether there are models of interpreting practice, and whether or not they are being used. A qualitative approach was taken based on hermeneutic phenomenology, and thematic analysis was used to analyse multiple types of data. Two clinicians and eight certified and registered interpreters were interviewed with part of the interpreters’ interview consisting of responses to dilemma vignettes. A Delphi process validated responses to these vignettes. Four clinical encounters at routine appointments in psychiatric outpatient clinics were filmed and analysed using thematic analysis; post hoc satisfaction questionnaires were used after the filmed interviews. The complexity of interpreters’ work was revealed in the breakdown of the components forming the impartial interpreting model. Taking the model as the cognitive framework for observation of practice provided depth of insight into the whole communication event. A tension between doctors’ and interpreters’ understandings of each other’s roles and professional needs revealed that each believed themselves to be helping the other, when in fact they were working against each other. The impartial model was seen to be in use, but only in part, and interpreting practitioners were revealed to consider close interpreting and the full impartial model as not appropriate for mental health clinics, but only for courts of law. There were noticeable gaps among the interpreters in their education and training for this work. The clinicians declared a lack of training on joint working with interpreters, and this was evidenced in the course of their interviews. This thesis highlights the complexity of need that faces the profession of public service interpreting especially in terms of standardising both training and praxis

Still Just white-Framed: Continued Coloniality, Hispanic Serving Institutions, and Latin@/x Students

Abstract Throughout the Pacific Northwest there are a total of 12 Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) with an average Latin@/x undergraduate full-time enrollment rate of 33.7 percent. In order to be designated as HSIs, institutions of higher education must have an enrollment rate of 25 percent or more students who identify as Latin@/x. HSIs became recognized in the late 1980s when a small number of higher education institutions enrolled a large number of Latin@/x students, yet did not have the resources to successfully educate the students (Excelencia, 2019). Since then, HSIs have consistently and continuously risen in Latin@/x enrollments. To date, there are 569 HSIs throughout the United States (U.S.) and they are expected to continue growing along with the Latin@/x population (Excelencia, 2020). Despite the number of HSIs in the U.S., many continue to perpetuate colonial Eurocentric educational practices, policies, and procedures. Most of the personnel demographic remains predominately occupied by white individuals, particularly in faculty and leadership positions. The intent of this testimonio study was to learn about and highlight the experiences of Latin@/x students attending HSIs and the community cultural wealth they bring with them into the college classrooms and environment. Latin@/x students as People of Color are perceived as full of cultural poverty disadvantages instead of as individuals recognized as full of cultural knowledge, highly skilled and well connected (Yosso, 2005). This study utilized two Critical Race Theory (CRT) tenets racism as normative and white-framing as property and LatCrit to challenge ahistorical narratives. The theories are a proxy to demonstrate continued coloniality and focus on Latin@/x students’ aspects of community cultural wealth

Performing translation : theatrical theory and its relevance to textual transfer

The fundamental similarity between translation and acting can be summarized by the words of translator Ralph Manheim: ‘translators are like actors: we speak lines by someone else’ (cited in Stavans 1998: 176). This common metaphor is a useful tool for translation practitioners and researchers. Although it cannot be fully exhausted, it can be further clarified, analysed and developed by looking into modern and pre-modern theories of theatrical performance, examining their compatibility and incompatibility with the world of translation practice and theory. The first chapter of this thesis deals with mimetic representation in translation and in performance. The issue of disguising oneself as someone else while performing or translating raises practical problems. They are discussed here in relation to the opposite approaches to acting suggested by Denis Diderot and Constantin Stanislavski. The following chapter deals with radical goals of theatrical and textual representations, and discusses ethical and political strategies in relation to Bertolt Brecht and Lawrence Venuti. The next chapter deals with spiritual and metaphysical goals of theatrical and textual representations, and discusses them in relation to Jerzi Grotowski and Walter Benjamin. The final chapter explores the common ground between theatrical space and norms of translation, and shows that in many ways, the use of theatrical space, confining performers yet channelling their communication with their spectators, functions in similar fashion to translation norms