Malaysian Journal of Applied Linguistics (MJoAL)

THE USE OF FIGURATIVE AND IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS IN SHARIAH-BASED RECONCILIATION CASE PROCEEDINGS IN NIGERIA

Mohammed Ahmed Ado — Sun, 31 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0800

In contrast to being on record, speakers in Shariah-based Reconciliation Case Proceedings (RCP) normally do the Face Threatening Acts (FTA) off record strategy if they intend to convey their meaning to an addressee in an ambiguous ways or hinting manner. Thus, the aim of this paper is to explore the use of Figurative and Idiomatic Expressions (FIE) in the RCP. The study utilized 12 various cases on Family Dispute Marital Issues (FDMI) and the data was obtained through audiovisual recordings in Bauchi State Sharia Commission (BSSC) in Nigeria. The data were coded and analysed using Nvivo, focusing on Brown and Levinson’s Off-Record strategy as part of the conditions in determining the choice of politeness strategy. The study showed that FIE FTA off record strategy was richly used across the 12 cases. However, the FIE were mostly employed by court officials in the attempt to avoid being perceived as bias or unfair to other parties during RCP. A total of 24 participants used 75 Interactive Turn-Takings (ITT). The findings revealed the use of various kinds of FIE FTA off record strategies including metaphors, personifications, climax, anti-climax, metonymy, hyperbole, and euphemism among others. The findings also indicated that sarcasm was used by the court officials to address or query the actions of addressee/s. Disputing parties were found of using metonymy, hyperbole to exaggerate their claims and euphemism in expressing unpleasant information in the attempt to establish defences. Finally, the paper demonstrates that it is a cultural practice of the speakers in Shariah-based RCP to use FIE in the quest to achieve settlement of matrimonial and family disputes. The implications of this study were also discussed on adoption and teaching of FIE in shariah legal schools to enhance the quality of RCP in Shariah-based courts. The paper also recommends further studies on other aspects of sociopragmatic acts of RCP to improve the value of Shariah-based courts of Nigeria and the world at large for the benefit of mankind.

INTERFERENCE IN LEARNING ENGLISH LANGUAGE: AN ANALYSIS OF SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION IN THE WRITTEN WORK OF YEAR 3 ESL LEARNERS IN WANGSA MAJU PRIMARY SCHOOL, MALAYSIA

Deborah Samson Hassan, Yuthashini Ramani — Sun, 31 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0800

ABSTRACT

One of the most significant and interesting aspects of human development is language acquisition. Since English is a universal language, it is an essential language of interaction and education. Therefore, we have to take this language of education for professional competence seriously. The aim of the study is to explore the analysis of cultural interference, an aspect that significantly hinders the learning and acquisition of English among young Malay learners. It aims to identify the students’ errors in sentence construction, particularly on the occurrence of mistakes in subject-verb-agreement’ (SVA), determiners, and the copula ‘be’. The data of this study came from an exploratory study of errors in the written essays by Year 3 students in Wangsa Maju Primary School, Malaysia. The findings of the study showed that the students were struggling and having difficulty in using accurate English grammar in their academic writing. The results revealed that the most frequent errors were the incorrect usage of the copula ‘be’ and the absence of determiners. The interference of mother tongue played a vital cause towards inhibiting the production of error free English language sentences. Lack of understanding of how the English language grammar function also accounted to this. All these could be seen as interlingual errors whereby the native language of the participants influenced their writing patterns.

PUBLIC SPEAKING ANXIETY AMONG JORDANIAN EFL LEARNERS OF ENGLISH

Mohd Hilmi Hamzah, Alaa Abdullah Alsaleem — Sun, 31 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0800

ABSTRACT

The current study seeks to determine the association between attitude and public speaking anxiety in the context of learning English by using a correlational research approach. A non-probability sampling approach was utilised to recruit the participants. Among four government universities in Malaysia, 191 Jordanian postgraduate students (PhD candidates) were chosen. The following two surveys were used to gather the data: (a) Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS); and (b) Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB). A correlational analysis was performed using Smart PLS 3.0 to test the hypotheses. The results show that attitude is substantially associated with English public speaking anxiety. It appears that among PhD students in Jordan, there is a strong negative association between attitude and public speaking anxiety in English. The findings have potential implications on language motivation and classroom instruction in foreign language settings.

IDEOLOGY AND POWER DYNAMICS IN PRESIDENT TRUMP'S FAREWELL ADDRESS: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Ridha Rouabhia, Nayef Jomaa Jomaa — Sun, 31 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0800

This analysis focuses on President Trump's Farewell Address, utilizing Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Fairclough's Three-Dimensional Model. Its objective is to examine the rhetorical strategies employed in the address, such as repetition, hyperbolic language, antithesis, and narrative structure. The analysis also takes into account sociocultural context factors along with power dynamics and ideological positioning evident in the address. The findings highlighted how language choices impact persuasion within political discourse by constructing a cohesive message that reinforces American values while inspiring hope for future endeavours. However, it is important to note that this analysis only focuses on a single case study without comparing President Trump's discourse with other political figures' speeches or statements. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of his communication style and strategies, future research could expand its scope by incorporating a wider range of speeches from different contexts considering sociocultural factors with multiple perspectives.

UTILISING CORPUS STYLISTICS TO FACILITATE LITERARY ANALYSIS: AN ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SEMANTIC DOMAINS IN IDENTIFYING MAJOR LITERARY THEMES IN A SELECTION OF CHARLES DICKENS’ NOVELS

Wesam Mohamed Abdelkhalek Ibrahim — Sun, 31 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0800

Though still in an early stage of development, corpus-assisted literary analysis is becoming increasingly popular as having the full potential of corpus linguistics methodology for literary stylistics. This paper argues that corpus linguistic procedures can be considered an addition to the analytical inventory of traditional stylistics. It aims to explore how corpus linguistic procedures, particularly semantic domains, can be effective in detecting major literary themes in fiction. In order to do so, five corpora were compiled: a corpus for each of the four novels of Charles Dickens’ selected (i.e., Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friend) and a compiled corpus combining all four novels. Wmatrix 5, with the BNC Sampler-Written as a reference corpus, was used to extract the key semantic domains in each corpus respectively. The literature on the selected novels was consulted to identify the major themes. Then, it was verified whether these themes were reflected in the corpus analysis, and, finally, the extent to which the procedure was effective in reflecting the major literary themes was also explored. The findings confirmed the effectiveness of the procedure of analysing semantic domains in studying literary texts, particularly in relation to their themes.