International Journal of Language and Literary Studies最新文献

{"title":"High School Students’ Perception and Development of Soft skills","authors":"Hicham Rahate Ellah, Noureddine Azmi","doi":"10.36892/ijlls.v5i2.1283","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36892/ijlls.v5i2.1283","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000Abstract\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000Developing soft skills has become as necessary as hard skills for 21st century EFL learners. Thus, the integration of soft skills teaching and learning in the EFL classroom in the Moroccan high schools is very important. It is claimed that graduates and students lack the necessary soft skills due to the ineffectiveness of the contemporary educational systems that somehow fail to equip students with the necessary soft skills. These systems focus more on equipping students with hard skills. It is said that the lack of soft skills is evident and it results in a big skill mismatch between what students and graduates have and what employers need. Thus, the main objectives of this study are to investigate the extent to which high school students are aware of the importance of soft skills and to explore their favorite methods and school subjects for soft skills development. It also attempts to test the 2nd year baccalaureate students’ development of soft skills. This study used a quantitative methodology to collect numerical data and answer the main questions. The study employed a questionnaire as a tool to gather data. The participants are one hundred students from five high schools in the region of Marrakech-Safi. The results revealed that the majority of high school students aren’t aware of the importance of soft skills. Besides, the majority of students preferred learning soft skills in the language school subjects through education technology. Another important finding is that students’ performance in soft skills is not satisfactory.","PeriodicalId":34879,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Language and Literary Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46828570","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Demystifying the Absurd in Samuel Beckett's Fiction and Drama","authors":"Mohammed Bennis","doi":"10.36892/ijlls.v5i2.1276","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36892/ijlls.v5i2.1276","url":null,"abstract":"Understanding the philosophy of the Absurd has always solicited the attention of modern and post- modern critics, scholars and researchers. The Absurd remains one of the most inscrutable concepts that both philosophy and literature have produced ever. The Absurd as a vision of life came at a time when Western societies were experiencing a transitional juncture in terms of social, cultural, philosophical, political and technological changes. These societies were progressively shifting from traditional values of conservatism and uniformism that were essential characteristics of the first half of the Twentieth Century to a more experimental and avant-gardist culture that defines most of modernist and post-modernist contexts. Writers of the period reflected the mood of the age which hinged on an outspoken need for change that would meet the aspirations of younger generations. However, the change writers were seeking was thwarted by the looming shadow of the philosophy of the Absurd which incarnated a deep feeling of loss of faith, pessimism and belief in the futility of human existence that finds its sustainabiliy in the meaninglessness of man’s endeavour to impart meaning to life. Absurdists problemized human actions and convictions, believing that they would lead to no avail as they are mere abstract notions devoid of any substantial significance or viability. I have always been struck by the similarity between the Absurd and cyberspace which is a defining marker of the 21th Century digital technology. Both breed virtual and abstract spaces : one on the stage and the other on digital tools’ screens. I even argue that William Gibson’s seminal defintion of cyberspace could be applicable to the Absurd as both a concept and a literary genre. Gibson defines cyberspace as « a consensual hallucination experienced by billions of legitimate operators… » (Gibson, 1984). Indeed, the phrase « consensual hallucination » finds relevance in the literary works of the Absurd, especially Samuel Beckett’s novels and plays which squarely dramatize the nothingness of human beliefs, values and convictions which are represented as sheer hallucinations and abstractions that humans consent to take for granted. Beckett’s philosophy of the Absurd will be examined through his « deformalization » of literary genre, deconstruction of language and disembodiment of the individual self.","PeriodicalId":34879,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Language and Literary Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45573540","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Power of the Saudi Woman's Novel From Silence to Empowerment","authors":"Huda B. Al-Matrafi","doi":"10.36892/ijlls.v5i2.1267","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36892/ijlls.v5i2.1267","url":null,"abstract":"Against the backdrop of an extended history of Arab women’s silence in general, and Saudi women’s in particular, in the field of literature, this paper seeks to introduce the development of the Saudi female novelist’s voice and its progress. It traces the improvement of the Saudi female novelist chronologically, demonstrating how writing is an essential tool for self-identification and self-expression. An analysis is made of how novels by Saudi women writers have changed through recent decades and how Prince Mohammad Bin Salman's 2030 Vision initiative might be said to have empowered these voices expressed in fictional words. It introduces the significance of Saudi female novels and how they create new fictional environments that uncover the inner strength of women and highlight their individual and collective empowerment. This paper demonstrates how Saudi female novelists have been fully aware of the significant influence of novels as one artistic means of expression. Today, they can openly express their previously unspoken thoughts and feelings. Moreover, the paper addresses the important implications of their writing, i.e. the remarkable progress achieved in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.","PeriodicalId":34879,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Language and Literary Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42352787","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Rationalizing ‘identity’ through Virginia Woolf’s Lily Briscoe in To the Lighthouse","authors":"Amjad Alshalan","doi":"10.36892/ijlls.v5i2.1220","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36892/ijlls.v5i2.1220","url":null,"abstract":"The 1927 publication of Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse (2007) was a landmark for both the author and the development of the novel in England. Since Woolf's death in 1941, To The Lighthouse (2007) has risen in importance as a focus of criticism concerning issues of gender, empire, and class. This paper will not be focused on the narrative techniques used by Woolf as the ‘stream of consciousness’ has been covered excessively by many scholars. It rather repositions the novel within the critical framework laid out by Toni Morrison in two of her critical works, Playing in the Dark (1992) and The Origin of Others (2017), to extend Edward Said’s argument on hegemony as discussed in his Orientalism (2003) to rationalize Woolf’s own understanding of identity within a 21st century racial framework. The discussion of Morrison’s critical text invites, as I argue in the paper, re-positioning the the link between Mrs. Ramsay and Lily Briscoe into a new perspective,   beyond the representation of Briscoe as simply an  ‘Orient’. Morrison’s critical framework presents a more concise understanding of identity within the creative framework of literary texts to reflect a subjective conviction of the author in question.","PeriodicalId":34879,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Language and Literary Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46308628","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"COVID-19 Vaccine Framing: The Case of Astrazenca and Twitter Users","authors":"Reem Alkhammash","doi":"10.36892/ijlls.v5i2.1303","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36892/ijlls.v5i2.1303","url":null,"abstract":"Framing of health messages on social media can impact health choices and behaviour such as vaccine uptake. The present study aimed to examine how AstraZeneca has been framed on social media, characterize Twitter users who have engaged in the distribution of health-related information about the AstraZeneca vaccine, and demonstrate the impact of various frames on user engagement. Tweets with a collective total of more than 159,000 words were gathered from tweets posted during the second and third week of March 2021 and analyzed using a cognitive linguistics approach, i.e., frame semantics. In addition, social media mining tools were employed to investigate user engagement. The findings indicate the presence of negative vaccination framing with three sub-systems: the vaccine (i.e., vaccination politics), the government’s response to (in)effectiveness, and citizens (the vaccinated), which are known through public reaction. All frames represented AstraZeneca in a negative light and have implications for health professionals, policies, and practices. Furthermore, Twitter user analysis revealed a link between the condensed nature of the retweets about the AstraZeneca vaccine and the potential spread of health misinformation. The findings inform future research by providing a snapshot of how the public has dealt with recent news of the reported side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine on social media. The study concludes that the findings provide useful information in understanding the impact of health messages on social media in influencing people’s vaccine uptake.  ","PeriodicalId":34879,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Language and Literary Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47593869","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cultural Mediation in Tourism: Online Promotional Travel Guides as a Case Study","authors":"Asma Souhail, Hassane Darir","doi":"10.36892/ijlls.v5i2.1250","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36892/ijlls.v5i2.1250","url":null,"abstract":"In tourism, mediation refers to the assistance of tourists in their journey. In other words, mediation occurs when the mediator presents the culture of a place to potential tourists while making sure that the cultural elements are clear enough for the tourists to grasp.  Culture is an embedded element in tourism promotion. Hence, the mediator must be well grounded in the culture in order to adequately transmit it to the tourists discovering it for the first time. The study relies on excerpts extracted from online travel guides, which have become a widely used means of promotion in “post-pandemic” travel due to their innovative promotional approaches, i.e., considering safety measures. Following a qualitative approach, a comparative study is conducted to explore how culture is “mediated” through four international online travel guides. The focus is on the element of Moroccan culture and the tools employed when it is presented to the English readership.","PeriodicalId":34879,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Language and Literary Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43522590","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Challenges Encountered by ESL Students in The Development of Communicative Competence Skills in Lesotho","authors":"Sekoai Elliot Nkhi, Thapelo Vincent Lebona","doi":"10.36892/ijlls.v5i2.1229","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36892/ijlls.v5i2.1229","url":null,"abstract":"This study explored the challenges that undergraduate tertiary students encounter in the development of communicative competence skills in three selected tertiary institutions in Lesotho. Adopting the qualitative approach, the study employed a case study design for data collection strategies which included face-to-face interviews with lecturers (n=11), focus group discussions with students (n=100) as well as classroom observations (n=2). The findings from face-to-face interviews revealed that traditional methodologies which are mostly employed in the language classrooms because of large classrooms do not enhance students’ communicative competence. Furthermore, the findings from focus group discussions showed lack of motivation to learn English language and the anxiety caused by the fear to speak the target language. Further noted from the observations is that lack of language exposure due to scarcity of interactive activities in the classrooms may further render students communicatively incompetent. On these premises, the study thus recommends that students should be exposed to language through activities that encourage interaction. Also recommended is that lecturers should balance fluency and accuracy activities so as to improve students’ discourse, linguistic, interactional as well as strategic competencies. racial framework. The discussion of Morrison’s critical text invites, as I argue in the paper, repositioning the link between Mrs. Ramsay and Lily Briscoe into a new perspective, beyond the representation of Briscoe as simply an ‘Orient’. Morrison’s critical framework presents a more concise understanding of identity within the creative framework of literary texts to reflect a subjective conviction of the author in question.","PeriodicalId":34879,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Language and Literary Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43550985","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Antiheroes in Mock-heroic Battles: Post 9/11 Alternatives in Jess Walter’s Novel The Zero","authors":"Munir Ahmed Al-Aghberi, Hussein Saleh Ali Albahji","doi":"10.36892/ijlls.v5i2.1268","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36892/ijlls.v5i2.1268","url":null,"abstract":"Placing Jess Walter's The Zero within a post 9/11 counter discourse, the present study examines the novel as a modern mock-heroic fictional work. The novel is critically analyzed as a parody of both the detective fiction genre as well as the early post 9/11 fiction adopting the American official narrative. The argument proceeds through three sub-headings. The first part queries the novel's representation of antiheroism in response to the discourse of heroism prevalent in American culture. The second part ponders on the mock-heroic battles and situations taking place as part of the US war against terror. The last part tackles the multilayered parody by which the novel addresses the hyperreal world by the mainstream media create to overshadow the event's factual enigma.","PeriodicalId":34879,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Language and Literary Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47826128","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Investigating The Effect of Attitudes on Learners’ Intercultural Awareness Development","authors":"Abderrazak EL KEMMA","doi":"10.36892/ijlls.v5i2.1297","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36892/ijlls.v5i2.1297","url":null,"abstract":"This article aims at investigating intercultural awareness development among Moroccan high school learners. It focuses on the central role of the ‘attitudes’ component in helping learners get involved in successful intercultural encounters. The study adopts Byram’s (1997) intercultural communicative competence (ICC) as an influential model that has brought intercultural education to the forefront of the teaching-learning process.\u0000Research reveals that the concept of the native speaker as an ideal is no more valid. Instead, targeting intercultural speakers who can interact with the other with no communicative breakdowns should receive a primary goal. Developing the learners’ intercultural awareness has become essential to the success of intercultural encounters among interlocutors belonging to different cultures.\u0000This study employed a mixed-method design. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods, in the form of a questionnaire and program evaluation, were used to gather information. Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to analyze the data quantitively.\u0000The overall findings of attitudes showed unfavourable statistical scores. Universal values and cultural issues activities that are responsible for promoting positive attitudes have been proven to be decontextualised in the textbook high school students use in Morocco. Students are, therefore, unaware of target cultures as almost all teaching activities are language oriented. The results clearly demonstrated that learners have not developed the intercultural component as the teaching approach in Morocco does not target ICC as a primary goal.  ","PeriodicalId":34879,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Language and Literary Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45525239","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Teaching Culture of Others through English Literature","authors":"Latifatul Isro'iyah, Dwi Ima Herminingsih","doi":"10.36892/ijlls.v5i2.1248","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36892/ijlls.v5i2.1248","url":null,"abstract":"The diversity of the culture in the world is a given thing.  Billions of people from different countries in the world have produced varieties of civilizations, ways of life, lifestyle, custom, heritage, habits, values, and traditions. It is hypothesized understanding the culture of different people can be valuable to the student’s character building. The comprehension of multicultural can be modality to be more aware of cultural dissimilarities. They can respect any variance of people whose backgrounds, minds, opinion and may behave in ways that are not the same. Besides, the possession of rich knowledge of diverse cultures can bridge them to take interpersonal communication in friendly ways. Nonfiction kinds of literature, science books as well as historical books are not the only sources to study multicultural. Doing literature reading comprehension is another method to open the horizon of the existing variability of culture.   The paper presents descriptively the teaching experience of how the students of the University in Tulungagung, Indonesia got to practice learning the culture of people in different areas of the world through extensive reading. The teaching materials cope with the introduction of the theory of literature, how are the cultures told by the author, and why is it important to comprehend literature? How multicultural literacy has inspired the students 'live performance. The teaching goal aims to let the students learn something good or positive about the culture of people of others delivered by the writers of poems, novels, and drama. The broader insights of life experiences, religion, beliefs, and customs of other people can bridge the friendship of ethnicity, race, and social status across the world. Being not a closed mind human beings can appreciate or respect others, avoid underestimating, bullying, any violence, and being the right, the best, and the richest person.","PeriodicalId":34879,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Language and Literary Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43717262","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}