TRAINING, LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Anxiety is a multifaceted phenomenon that necessitates a systematic approach to its examination by delving deeper into the experiences of those who encounter it. The study used a mixed method design to address teacher anxiety by employing questionnaires, interviews, and classroom observations based on Horwitz’s (1996) Foreign Language Teacher Anxiety Scale (FLTAS). First, the questionnaire was used to collect data. Second, interviews were conducted. Third, the observation phase took place. The study participants were 240 English language teachers (110 female and 130 male) with 2 to 5 years of experience at the tertiary level. Quantitative results indicate a great degree of teacher anxiety. Male teachers, on average, report a higher anxiety level than female counterparts on the FLTAS. As 0.000975 < 0.05, the p-value indicates that there is a statistically significant difference in mean scores between female and male teachers’ anxiety. Interviews revealed that English teachers experienced anxiety for various reasons, including unprepared lessons and a lack of language proficiency, fear of negative evaluation, a sense of unpreparedness for class, anxiety about making mistakes, the challenges faced by language teachers in managing the classroom, and uncertainty about language skills. An analysis of classroom observations from 10 classes yielded that most teachers harboured apprehension about being observed, struggled to manage a large number of students in their English classes, ranging from 150 to 250 students, spoke at a rapid pace, and frequently employed the technique of avoiding student inquiries during the teaching process. The current research concludes with future recommendations to minimise teacher anxiety in teaching practices by engaging them in pre and post-professional training.

This study investigates the role of deictic expressions in the IELTS speaking test, addressing a gap in research on how test-takers across proficiency levels use deixis in spoken language assessment. While previous studies have examined general discourse features in language testing, little attention has been given to the frequency, functions, and distribution of deixis in assessing spoken proficiency. The study analysed a corpus of 30 IELTS speaking test transcripts, covering proficiency levels from low-intermediate to advanced. Using Levinson’s classification of deixis, the study employed quantitative frequency analysis and qualitative discourse analysis to examine variations in the use of personal, temporal, and spatial deixis. The findings revealed that personal deixis was the most frequently used, followed by temporal and spatial deixis. However, the results of One-Way ANOVA test showed no significant differences in deixis usage across proficiency levels. These findings contribute to English language teaching and assessment by highlighting how deixis functions in test-taker discourse, offering insights for IELTS preparation and speaking proficiency evaluation. The study indicates the need for further exploration of discourse features in language assessment.

English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses in Bangladeshi private universities are positioned to equip non-native undergraduate students with the required academic language skills needed for English Medium Instruction (EMI) education. However, these courses have frequently adopted generic language proficiency models, neglecting students’ academic and disciplinary literacy needs. Moreover, the paucity of studies on EAP leaves a critical lapse in understanding what changes are required, given this misalignment. Guided by Brown’s Needs Analysis framework (2016), this qualitative study investigated non-native undergraduate students’ perceptions and experiences of EAP courses at a Bangladeshi private university offering EMI education, focusing on its method of instruction, the barriers they face and the alignment of its content with their academic and professional needs. Thematic analysis of forty-five semi-structured interviews and document analysis of EAP course syllabi revealed a misalignment between current EAP courses and students’ academic and professional needs. The development of academic writing for disciplinary courses is unfulfilled, suggesting a need for a more targeted EAP curriculum. The study identifies students’ needs as systemic failures rather than linguistic deficits and challenges the generic EAP implementation in non-native higher education contexts like Bangladesh. It concludes that context-driven curricular reform, incorporation of skill-oriented content, and enhanced pedagogic practices can make current EAP courses to be needs-responsive. Additionally, teacher training in discipline-specific pedagogy is crucial for an equitable EAP redesign as it would better align with non-native students’ academic language and professional needs.

English is the dominant medium of instruction for numerous university programmes across the Arab Gulf. While a growing body of research examines learners’ attitudes towards English Medium Instruction (EMI), issues of language preference/use have received far less attention. The research reported here sought to redress this imbalance by examining the domain-based language preferences, use, and beliefs of English majors at Oman’s national university. A mixed methods approach was employed involving the administration of a 35-item questionnaire to 120 English majors and one-on-one semi-structured interviews with 13 participants. Descriptive analysis, Pearson’s chi-squared test, and Cramer’s V test were used to examine questionnaire data, while interview transcripts were analysed thematically before data triangulation was performed. Findings indicate respondents preferred and used English for academics and intended careers, Arabic for familial interactions, and both English and Arabic or English by itself to talk about feelings and beliefs. English and Arabic were almost equally preferred for identity representation, with a significant minority of respondents expressing a desire to study their majors in Arabic. Although gender and English proficiency were not found to be related to beliefs about language importance, Arabic proficiency had a moderate, statistically significant association. Arab students employing English to express cultural beliefs and identities has not been widely reported in the existing literature. Results suggest that, despite evidence of emerging bilingualism in some domains, reform to tertiary-level language of instruction policies and planning in the region and similar contexts worldwide, including by offering Arabic Medium Instruction options, may be necessary to ensure effective education provision.

Intensifiers play a crucial role in everyday communication, varying in frequency, function, and socio-pragmatic significance across languages. However, gender-based variation in their use remains underexplored. This study examines intensifier usage among native speakers of English and Bahasa Indonesia, focusing on male and female speakers in spontaneous, face-threatening contexts. Data were collected through Elicited Oral Responses (EOR) from 40 university students – 20 English speakers from an Australian university and 20 Bahasa Indonesia speakers from a university in Jambi. Participants responded in their native language to an apologetic scenario in which a close friend had broken a promise. Their responses were recorded, transcribed, and analysed for intensifier frequency and type. Findings indicate that both language groups use intensifiers to amplify emotions and signal heightened face-threat. However, English speakers employed intensifiers more frequently and with greater variety than their Indonesian counterparts. Gender differences were also evident, with males and females differing in both the types and frequency of intensifiers used. This study contributes to sociolinguistics and pragmatics by elucidating gendered language use in intercultural communication. It also holds pedagogical implications for language learning, enhancing awareness of how intensifiers function in spoken discourse across cultures. This study contributes to cross-cultural pragmatics by examining differences in intensifier use between native English and Bahasa Indonesia speakers in face-threatening contexts. The findings enhance understanding of gender’s impact on intensifier use and supply information for language instruction, particularly in teaching emotional expressions in everyday conversations.

The present study presents a comparative analysis of the translation processes and outcomes of human translators, Neural Machine Translation (NMT) systems and Large Language Models (LLMs) focusing on the translation of Metaphor-related Words (MRW). The study employs various research methodologies, including product analysis, think-aloud protocols, subsequent interviews, and translation quality assessments to uncover the choice of strategies in translating MRWs by different subject groups as well as its relation with quality criterion. Human translators and LLMs tend to favour strategies such as metaphor into different metaphor (M-M2) and metaphor reduction (M→Non), while NMT systems prefer the reproduction of metaphors (M→M). LLMs demonstrate translation patterns which are more aligned with human translators, helping them achieve higher evaluation scores, though their performance remains inconsistent, particularly with novel metaphors. Additionally, human translators process metaphors by incorporating conceptual, cultural, and contextual factors, whereas LLMs tend to rely on paraphrastic approaches. Evaluation results indicate that LLMs exhibit proficiency on par with novice translators in terms of accuracy, idiomatic expression, and vividness in metaphor translation, while NMT systems fall slightly short. The study highlights the influence of translation strategies on the quality of metaphor translation and concludes that, while NMT systems and LLMs can achieve performance comparable to human translators, much larger metaphor-specific datasets supported studies are expected to validate its consistency.