International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation
The International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation (ISSN: 2617-0299) is a double-blind peer-reviewed, monthly, open-access journal published by Al-Kindi Center for Research and Development. It publishes high-quality articles across the breadth of linguistics, literature and translation research. With its uniquely broad coverage, all articles are free to access across the globe, allowing authors to share their research and maximise its impact. The journal is led by expert international editorial board members who take an objective approach to peer review, ensuring each research paper is reviewed and evaluated on its own scholarly merits and research integrity. Publishing your work in the International Journal of Linguistics, Literature, and Translation means you will receive prompt and reliable publishing and a global platform for your research to reach its full potential. The journal is published in both online and print versions.
Al-Kindi Center for Research and Development
Influence of Translation Strategies Multiplicity on Translation Teaching
This article explores how the variety of terms and concepts in translation strategies influences teaching and learning translation. Using both foundational and modern frameworks, such as those by Vinay and Darbelnet, Nida, Newmark, Catford, Baker, and Venuti, it discusses how inconsistent use of terms—whether in their classification like "method," "procedure," "strategy," and "technique" or in their typologies like "word-for-word vs. sense-for-sense," "literal vs. free," "formal equivalence vs. dynamic equivalence," "semantic vs. communicative," or "foreignization vs. domestication"—affects curriculum design, classroom instruction, student understanding, and assessment methods. While this reflects the richness of Translation Studies, it also presents significant teaching challenges. Through case studies, hypothetical examples, and critical analysis, the article argues that strategic pluralism, when guided by clear pedagogical goals, can be transformed from a liability into an asset. Recommendations include fostering Meta-Strategic awareness, aligning teaching materials, and implementing integrated teaching practices to enhance student skills and theoretical understanding. The article concludes that embracing, rather than eliminating, this multiplicity—through informed and reflective teaching—is essential for advancing translator training in an increasingly global and interdisciplinary academic environment.
Translation strategies, Multiplicity, Translation, Teaching, Learning, Pedagogy
Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
“More Bad News”: Gossip, Scandalization, and Deception in Algerian Online Foreign-Affairs Hard News
This article examines gossip, scandalization, and deception in Algerian online foreign-affairs hard news. Conceptualized within Critical Discourse Studies (CDS), it addresses a gap in existing research: while foreign-policy media discourse has been studied through framing, propaganda, and ideology, far less attention has been paid to how gossip migrates into the hard-news genre of foreign-affairs reporting. Grounded in a three-year longitudinal investigation forming part of a broader doctoral thesis on disinformation discourse in Algerian online news, the study argues that routine hard-news practices in two major Algerian online outlets — Algeria Press Service (APS) and Radio Algérienne — produce systematically biased, gossip-laden accounts of international events, falling short of media-ethics standards of accuracy, balance, and source fidelity. Drawing on an integrated framework of Critical Discourse Studies, Critical Linguistics, Systemic Functional Linguistics, and the concept of gossip, and applying Richardson’s (2007) model of newspaper discourse analysis at micro-, meso-, and macro-analytical levels, the study analyses three representative articles covering two foreign-affairs dossiers: the Iran–Israel–United States military confrontation (two APS articles) and Morocco–Israel bilateral relations (one Radio Algérienne article). A forensic-linguistic verification procedure compares the outlets’ quotations against independent institutional records — including UN statements, IAEA reports, and U.S. governmental communiqués — to establish where sources are recontextualized or distorted, and to construct the historical archive that enables a Foucauldian genealogical engagement with Algerian foreign-affairs discourse. The analysis demonstrates that evaluative language is systematically mobilized to transform diplomatic events into moralized narratives of betrayal, conspiracy, and aggression. In the APS articles, gossip surfaces through negative naming, the scandal frame, and a forensically documented quotation-integrity violation in which an ideologically loaded expression is interpolated into António Guterres’s UN statement — words absent from the original source text. In the Radio Algérienne article, gossip is realized through transitivity and nominalization: action processes activate the Moroccan state as an agent of “repression” and “betrayal,” while nominalized forms condense political choices into morally marked categories. In the Iran–Israel–United States case, gossip converges with the discourse-historical construction of an enemy image (Feindbild), in which a complex geopolitical configuration is personified into a single, blameworthy actor organized around a Manichean division between the innocent and the guilty. At the macro level, the study argues that these practices are organized by an institutional order of discourse — a Foucauldian dispositif discursif — that governs who may speak, what may be said, and which meanings are privileged as legitimate. This order exhibits deep political parallelism between government and media. The study further identifies an internal contradiction within this order of discourse on the Moroccan Sahara issue, where two presidential statements — one adopting a cautious, UN-deferential register, the other dismissing the Moroccan autonomy plan as a French-born myth (kharafa) — reveal a hegemonic instability that, read through Fairclough’s (1992) theory of discourse change, signals the potential for future discursive realignment under structural diplomatic pressure, including UN Security Council Resolution 2797 (2025). Theoretically, the study makes three contributions. First, it extends gossip as an analytical concept beyond celebrity and tabloid culture into the hard-news genre of foreign-affairs reporting, operationalizing it through three co-occurring criteria: absent-third-party orientation, reputational-moral evaluation, and community-building. Second, it provides forensic-linguistic evidence that deceptive source recontextualization constitutes a structural feature of the Algerian government–media nexus, not an isolated journalistic lapse. Third, it applies Fairclough’s (1992) social theory of discourse change to project the conditions under which an ideologically overdetermined order of discourse may undergo hegemonic realignment. The article concludes that Algerian foreign-affairs coverage functions as “bad news” in a double sense: it reports crisis while simultaneously enacting bad professional practices — gossip, scandalization, and deceptive source recontextualization — that fall short of media-ethics standards and distinguish reporting from propaganda.
Forensic Linguistics — Gossip — Scandalization — Deception — Enemy image (Feindbild) — Political parallelism — Order of discourse — Discourse change — Algerian online hard news — Critical Discourse Studies — Critical Linguistics — Systemic Functional Linguistics — Ideolinguistics
The attitudes of Translation experts towards Literary Translation in Postcolonial Contexts: Suggesting the PTP Model
This study seeks to explore translation experts’ attitudes towards the translation of Culture-Specific Items (henceforth CSIs), idioms, metaphors, and translation of the paratexts within Postcolonial contexts. This study opted for a mixed-method approach, combining quantitative study and qualitative study. As for the quantitative study, data are collected through the instrument of questionnaire; whereas the qualitative study utilized interviews as an instrument for data collection. This study is premised upon a theoretical framework that comprises Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice, Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory, and Even-Zohar Itamar’s Polysystem Theory. Findings of the quantitative study and qualitative study are exploited by the authors to suggest a new model: The Postcolonial Translation for Prose Model (henceforth The PTP Model). It functions as a roadmap for the translation of Postcolonial novels, whose purpose is to preserve the specificities of Postcolonial cultures and promote intercultural dialogue.
Literary translation, experts’ attitudes, culture-specific items, foreignization, domestication
Cross-Linguistic Influence in Third-Language Phonological Acquisition: A Systematic Mapping Review of Empirical Research, 2010-2026
Research on third-language (L3) phonological acquisition has grown considerably, but the evidence remains dispersed across language combinations, phonological domains, methods, and theoretical traditions. This systematic mapping review synthesizes a verified corpus of 47 empirical studies published between 2010 and 2026 and distinguishes them from 16 Arab-world and Moroccan publications retained for regional contextualization. The corpus was assembled through focused bibliographic searching, publisher and DOI verification, and backward and forward citation chaining from major reviews of L3 transfer and phonology. Studies were coded for publication period, geographical context, language constellation, phonological domain, method, theoretical orientation, and proposed source of cross-linguistic influence. The mapping shows that research is strongly concentrated in European contexts and in production-oriented studies of consonants, stops, and voice onset time, whereas vowels, stress, prosody, perception-based designs, and longitudinal work remain comparatively limited. Only two core studies directly represented North-African or Arabic-speaking multilingual contexts, and none focused specifically on Moroccan or Amazigh-speaking L3 learners. The evidence does not support a single universal source of transfer; rather, L1, L2, heritage-language, proficiency-based, and property-specific effects are foregrounded across different studies. No confirmed core study explicitly applied Optimality Theory, although OT appears in regional pronunciation research. The review argues for more geographically diverse, theoretically explicit, perception-production, longitudinal, and vowel-focused L3 phonology research, with Moroccan multilingualism offering a particularly valuable testing ground for future work.
third-language acquisition; phonological transfer; cross-linguistic influence; multilingualism; speech perception; speech production; systematic mapping review
Writing Essays About Literature: Hindrances in the Writing Strategies of English Majors
Writing is a daunting task for English language learners; writing a literary essay a nightmare: it requires not only writing proficiency but also literary content knowledge. Since the introduction of integrating Literature into English teaching and learning, many studies have examined its merits and drawbacks. However, an underresearched area in this field remains: students’ literary writing. Educators and lecturers often borrow the criteria of Academic Writing to evaluate students’ literary essays because they assume it is among the academic essay types. Simple as it may sound, writing a literary essay is more complicated. This study, therefore, was conducted to investigate students’ hindrances in the writing strategies of English majors, who, to some extent, are required to take at least one literary course as a prerequisite in their program. The research employed the qualitative paradigm with two research tools, students’ literary essays and interviews, to explore the issue. Findings reveal challenges experienced by the students from the preparation steps for the literary essay to the writing process. Implications and recommendations are then proposed to help lecturers better facilitate their students in writing this interesting essay. A research limitation is that the study only provides a checklist to evaluate writing, not rubrics.
literary essay, writing about Literature, literary writing strategies, writing evaluation, teaching English through Literature
Sayaka Murata’s Earthlings: A Psychoanalytical Reading
Sayaka Murata is a Japanese author whose works are often considered shocking and controversial. She challenges the notion of normality through characters that are considered peculiar in the context of modern society, yet through them, conventional beliefs are deemed absurd. Sayaka’s worldwide fame peaked with Takemori’s English translation of her novel Earthlings in 2021, which was originally published in 2018 as Chikyū Seijin. However, not enough research has been done to unravel its depths. This paper aims to explore the complexities of the human psyche and the interplay of personal and collective consciousness. Through the main protagonist, Natsuki, the conflict between the Conscious and the unconscious mind is demonstrated, which results in outbursts of the repressed unconscious. This paper highlights the function of cannibalism in Earthlings, and it argues that the theme of cannibalism signifies the outburst of the unconscious and its triumph over the conscious mind. Cannibalism is a significant theme in Murata’s Earthlings and has evoked various reactions and different interpretations from readers around the world. It has roots in human history, and over the years was utilized to serve different purposes in the literary field. Although the novel is recognized, it has been scarcely addressed in academic studies, therefore, this paper will bridge this gap.
Sayaka Murata, Earthlings, Carl Jung, Cannibalism, Unconsciousness, Shadow, Persona, Consciousness, Psychoanalysis, Japanese Literature
Specialized Academic Writing: Syntactic Complexity Rhetorical Functions in EFL Applied Linguistics Research Article Abstracts
The form-function relationship in academic writing has been evidenced to serve the communicative goals sought in scholarly research writing. Syntactically complex structures are linguistic devices that have been shown to realize different rhetorical functions in this genre, and syntactic complexity development has been demonstrated to follow pre-established stages and to reflect a nominal style at advanced levels. This study examines the extent to which Moroccan applied linguistics researchers use syntactically complex structures to accomplish communicative functions within a research article abstract. A corpus of 60 applied linguistics research article abstracts published between 2020 and 2025 was compiled, and the abstracts were annotated following the five rhetorical functions in Swales’s Moves framework. The syntactic complexity features used to achieve each of these functions were identified and situated within Biber et al.’s syntactic complexity developmental stages. The data analysis yielded results indicating a uniform overreliance on attribute adjectives and nouns as noun pre-modifiers and prepositional phrases as noun post-modifiers (lower syntactic complexity developmental stage features) to accomplish rhetorical functions across all the abstract moves. Higher syntactic complexity stages features—nonfinite relative clauses and apposition—and nominalization, a central feature of scholarly research writing, were found to be underused. These findings call for the necessity of raising awareness of the form-function relationship in academic writing and the effectiveness of the strategic variable use of linguistic features to achieve communicative purposes in scholarly research writing characterized by a compressed style and the packing of information within sentences. This study provides an opportunity to advance the understanding of academic writing instruction and development in EFL contexts and offers insights into how to facilitate integration into disciplinary scholarly research writing communities of practice.
Syntactic complexity; research article abstract moves; rhetorical functions; academic writing development; scholarly research writing; form-function in academic writing
Supervisory Practices through the Lens of In-Service English Teachers in the Region of Fez-Meknes in Morocco
Educational supervision has historically been of the utmost importance. It has been widely regarded as vital, particularly in enhancing instruction. Nonetheless, previous research has reported dissatisfaction among teachers and supervisors with supervision outcomes, raising questions about the effectiveness of supervisory practices. Investigating this issue, therefore, was the primary intent of this quantitative study. Data were collected from 55 in-service high school English teachers in the public sector in the region of Fez-Meknes, Morocco, using a questionnaire as the research instrument. The data were analysed statistically using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. The results of the study demonstrate that supervisors adopt a formative supervisory approach. Nevertheless, various deficiencies in their practices are identified, especially the lack of a comprehensive supervisory cycle and a slightly higher tendency towards summative evaluation. Accordingly, it is recommended that the existing approach be enhanced by establishing a comprehensive supervisory cycle and strengthening formative-oriented evaluation practices.
Educational supervision, formative supervision, supervisory practices, supervisory cycle, teacher evaluation
Ecological Discourse Analysis of TED Talks on Environmental Protection from the Perspective of Transitivity
Ecological Discourse Analysis is one of the main research approaches in Ecolinguistics, which focuses on the role of language in the ecosystem. Its purpose is to raise people’s ecological awareness, enhance their sense of ecological responsibility, and take action to save the ecological crisis. Given this, this study employs the transitivity system as the theoretical framework, guided by the ecosophy of “diversity and harmony, interactive coexistence”. It employs the UAM Corpus Tool 3.0 software to conduct a transitivity analysis of six TED talks on environmental protection, revealing the ecological ideas contained in their discourse.
TED talks; environmental protection; transitivity system; ecosophy
Copyright (c) 2026 Yunxi Hu https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
From Marginalization to Visibility: Discursive Constructions of Saudi Women in Local Sport News
This study examines how Saudi women are discursively constructed in local sports news and explores how their engagement in sport is represented within the country’s broader sociopolitical transformation. Adopting a corpus-assisted discourse analytical approach, the study analyses a specialised corpus of Saudi Gazette online news articles published between 2020 and 2024. Corpus linguistic tools are used to identify dominant thematic patterns, social actors, and social actions, which are subsequently interpreted through Theo van Leeuwen’s socio-semantic framework. The findings reveal that Saudi women are increasingly constructed as visible and active participants across multiple sport domains, particularly in global competitions such as football and the Olympics. Material processes associated with participation, achievement, and institutional development dominate the discourse, positioning women as contributors to a rapidly expanding sporting landscape, although leadership and decision-making roles remain largely linked to institutional actors. By analysing Saudi women’s representations in local media discourse, this study contributes to scholarship on Muslim women and sport by offering an internally grounded account that challenges dominant external portrayals of Muslim women as passive and marginalised. The findings demonstrate how sport discourse participates in constructing a progressive narrative of Saudi women’s empowerment aligned with the national reform agenda of Saudi Vision 2030.
Copyright (c) 2026 Zainah Alshahrani https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
A Study of Communication Predicament in Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall”
Employing Bakhtin’s Dialogism and Levinas’s philosophy of the Other, this thesis analyzes Robert Frost’s renowned poem “Mending Wall” through the lens of dialogue of consensus. While “Mending Wall” has been traditionally interpreted as a criticism of conservatism, this study moves beyond the subjective perspective of the speaker in the poem, providing a nuanced reading that transcends simplistic binary moral oppositions. The thesis reexamines the communication predicament between the speaker and his neighbor by expounding on “process of communication,” “reason of predicament,” and “consensus as implication” in a progressive manner. Through this exploration, the thesis uncovers the poet’s underlying intention of creating this predicament. The thesis primarily focuses on examining the transformation of communication, analyzing the unreliability of single narrative and unequal projection onto the Other, and underscoring the significance of consensus in facilitating effective communication. It argues that consensus should not be viewed as mechanized uniformity, but rather as a convergent process that allows for a multiplicity of perspectives.
Copyright (c) 2026 Qiyun Chang https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Clothes of the Dead: Materializing Loss in Anne Enright’s The Gathering
This paper explores the interconnected themes of dress, death, and identity in Anne Enright’s The Gathering (2008). It is an attempt to examine how clothing functions as a powerful symbolic medium through which Enright’s characters express their cultural belonging. Through Veronica Hegarty’s narration of her brother Liam’s death and burial, the study investigates the significance of dressing the dead as both a personal and cultural practice. Drawing on theoretical perspectives from Sigmund Freud (2003), Elisabeth Bronfen (1992), Peter Brooks (1992), Clare Gittings (1984), and Nina Glick Schiller (1995), the paper argues that clothing goes beyond its mere function as a material covering of the body to an equivocal sign that communicates meaning after death. Particular attention is given to the various garments associated with Liam’s dead body, including his fluorescent jacket, worn-out Wellington boots, paisley pyjamas, and formal suit. These items reveal the conflictual analogy between individuality and social convention, private memory and public ritual, as well as homeland and diaspora. By connecting funeral dress to issues of migration, displacement, and Irish identity, the paper highlights the role of mourning practices in resisting cultural erasure and maintaining a sense of belonging across geographical boundaries. As possible findings, the study contends that Enright transforms the act of dressing the dead into a meaningful ritual through which identity is reconstructed and preserved. In The Gathering, clothing becomes a metaphorical language that negotiates the boundaries between life and death, presence and absence, and memory and forgetting. Thus, this paper opens new horizons to understand the slippery nature of death via the acts of dressing and undressing the dead.
Dress, Death, Identity, Mourning, Memory, Diaspora
Copyright (c) 2026 Mohamed Amesnaou https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Identity, Linguistic Exile, and Silence in Leïla Sebbar’s Je ne parle pas la langue de mon père and l’arabe comme un chant secret
This article examines identity, linguistic exile and silence in Leïla Sebbar’s autobiographical narratives Je ne parle pas la langue de mon père (2003) and L’arabe comme un chant secret (2010) (2nd edition), exploring how Sebbar reclaims the silenced memories of displacement and cultural fragmentation experienced by Franco-Algerian identity. Drawing on postcolonial memory and cultural studies frameworks and autobiographical diaries, the analysis engages in close textual readings of the novels. Through narrative strategies that foreground linguistic and cultural hybridity, they articulate the complex negotiations of identity faced by individuals caught between colonial histories and postcolonial realities. The analysis highlights how Sebbar’s works challenge monolithic conceptions of belonging by emphasising exile as both a rupture and a site of creative memory reclamation, thereby contributing to broader discourses on diaspora, memory, and identity formation in contemporary Francophone literature.
Copyright (c) 2026 Djamel Eddine Ghiat https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Saudi High School EFL Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Implementing the Flipped Classroom Model in Jeddah City
This study investigated the professional attitudes and contextual challenges regarding the implementation of the Flipped Classroom Model (FCM) among Saudi secondary school EFL teachers in Jeddah. Aligned with Saudi Vision 2030, the research utilized a descriptive survey design to examine the gap between technological integration policies and classroom realities. Data were collected from 32 EFL instructors via a structured questionnaire. Findings reveal a significant paradox: while teachers hold positive theoretical attitudes toward the FCM and recognize its potential to enhance student autonomy, actual instructional adoption remains low. Statistical analysis identified three primary barriers: inadequate technological infrastructure, a lack of specialized professional training in active learning, and classroom management anxieties. Furthermore, student resistance—specifically regarding pre-class preparation- hampers sustainable implementation. The study concludes that top-down digital resource provision is insufficient without concurrent, localized professional development and targeted administrative support. It recommends that the Ministry of Education transition toward contextualized pedagogical training that equips teachers with specific behavioral management strategies, thereby bridging the gap between national strategy and frontline practice.
Flipped Classroom Model, Saudi EFL Context, Teacher Attitudes
Copyright (c) 2026 Najla Alsheikh https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
A comparative interpersonal analysis of identity construction in Chinese and American leaders’ political speeches
Although political discourse has been extensively examined from various perspectives, comparative studies of identity construction in political speeches by leaders from different countries remain relatively limited. Drawing on Halliday’s interpersonal metafunction within Systemic Functional Grammar, this study investigates how Chinese and American leaders construct political identities through interpersonal resources in the mood and modality systems. The analysis is based on the English version of China’s Government Work Report (GWR) and the United States’ State of the Union Address (SUA), aiming to identify similarities and differences in identity construction and to explore the underlying motivations behind these discursive choices. The findings reveal that declarative clauses are the most frequently employed mood resource in both GWR and SUA, followed by imperative and interrogative clauses. In terms of personal pronoun use, the Chinese leader shows a clear preference for the first-person plural pronouns we and us, whereas the American leader more frequently employs the first-person singular pronouns I and me, as well as the second-person pronoun you. Regarding modality, GWR predominantly adopts median-value modal operators, while SUA favors high-value modal operators. Moreover, SUA demonstrates greater diversity in both clause types and modal operators than GWR. These linguistic choices contribute to the construction of distinct political identities. In GWR, the Chinese leader is represented as a determined executor, authoritative guide, and responsible statesman who emphasizes collective wisdom and shared efforts in serving the people and the nation. In contrast, SUA portrays the American leader as a strategic politician, persuasive speaker, and inspiring guide who highlights personal charisma and capacity to achieve his political ideals and engage diverse stakeholders. The differences in identity construction can be largely attributed to the distinct political systems and ideological orientations of the two countries.
Copyright (c) 2026 Lehan Li https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
A Systematic Literature Review of Moroccan Arabic Darija and American English code-switcing among University Students
The Moroccan sociolinguistic landscape represents a strategic intersection where Modern Standard Arabic and Moroccan Darija engage in complex linguistic hierarchies. Data highlights the dominance of Darija in daily interactions at 87.9% creating a Standard in the Shadows paradox. This environment serves as a critical backdrop for American university students who navigate these hierarchies during study abroad programs. Education of the linguistic tension reveals a dichotomy between the symbolic role of Modern Standard Arabic in identity and practical utility of Moroccan Darija. Such established complexity necessitates a systematic evaluation of literature concerning foreign learners. This systematic review addresses a significant research gap by evaluating synthesized evidence regarding American university students. While researches secondary education this review researches the unique sociolinguistic pressures on the American higher education cohort following the PRISMA 2020 framework and an initial bibliography of 81 documents. Synthesis indicates that code-switching facilitates clarity reflecting the 62% teacher usage rate yet potentially diminishes formal proficiency. The review researches the association between code-switching and 5 key variables including identity research outcomes and intercultural communication effectiveness plus language acquisition progress and sociocultural attitudes as well as formal language proficiency. Code-switching acts as a bridge for comprehension but simultaneously challenges formal proficiency levels which suffered a 65% negative impact in related contexts. Practical implications advocate for Arabic English bilingual classroom pedagogy and longitudinal research. Current evidence remains limited by reliance on convenience sampling and urban contexts. Policy reforms like the Strategic Vision 2015-2030 should foster balanced proficiency in multilingual contexts.
Code-switching, Moroccan Darija, American university students, Study abroad, PRISMA 2020, Identity research
Copyright (c) 2026 NOUR-EDDINE FIKRI, Belqassem Laghfiri, Jamaa Ouchouid https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Corpus Tools in Translation Pedagogy: Instructors' Knowledge, Barriers, Practices, Effectiveness and Enablers in Saudi Universities
The integration of technology in translation pedagogy continues to evolve, yet the utilization of corpus tools remains limited, particularly among translation instructors in Saudi universities. This quantitative study explores the knowledge, barriers, practices, effectiveness, and enablers of corpus tool implementation in translation teaching. Through a comprehensive questionnaire administered to 30 translation instructors across Saudi universities, the research examined five key constructs: knowledge, barriers, practices, effectiveness, and enablers of corpus tool usage. Employing the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge TPACK framework proposed by Mishra and Koehler (2006), the study assessed instructors’ technological, pedagogical, and content competencies. Findings indicated that instructors possess basic but limited knowledge of corpus tools, which affects their confidence in applying them pedagogically. Several significant barriers emerged, including insufficient training, technical difficulties, and a lack of institutional support. Correspondingly, actual classroom practices involving corpus tools were modest. Nevertheless, instructors reflected positive attitudes regarding the effectiveness of corpus tools and demonstrated high motivation and favorable enabling conditions for future adoption, contingent upon adequate support. The study highlights the need for enhanced professional development, improved institutional infrastructure, and curriculum refinement to support the meaningful integration of corpus tools in translation pedagogy.
corpus tools; translation pedagogy; TPACK framework; translator training; Saudi universities; corpus activities
Copyright (c) 2026 Salma Alhamad, Albatul Althunayyan, Nafla Alotaishan, Talal Alghizzi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
English-Arabic Language Dynamics: A Systematic Self-Review of English Hegemony in Educational and Sociolinguistic Landscapes
This study conducted a systematic self-review of 30 studies published by the author between 2004 and 2025 on Arabic–English language dynamics. The studies were categorized into six thematic clusters: English visibility in public spaces; linguistic intersections; lexical hybridization and word formation; linguistic hegemony, preference, and language attitudes; the effect of social media on Arabic; institutional preference and policies; and parental preference and home dynamics. This SR provides the first comprehensive, domain integrated synthesis of how English influences Arabic across public, institutional, digital, linguistic, and home environments. Findings of the review revealed that English dominance in Arabic speaking societies emerges through interconnected sociolinguistic mechanisms. English exerts a multi layered, cross domain influence on Arabic that is simultaneously structural, sociolinguistic, institutional, digital, and familial. It functions as a pervasive linguistic force that reshapes public visibility, lexical formation, language preferences, digital practices, educational policies, and home language choices. The six clusters collectively reveal that English dominance is reinforced through mutually supporting mechanisms as public prestige, institutional endorsement, digital immersion, and parental preference, creating a linguistic ecosystem in which Arabic experiences varying degrees of pressure, adaptation, and displacement. The corpus demonstrates that Arabic responds through hybridization, borrowing, morphological innovation, and selective maintenance, yet these adaptive processes coexist with signs of erosion in domains such as children’s early language use, social media communication, and higher education. Overall, the English–Arabic interaction is neither uniform nor unidirectional; it is a dynamic, evolving relationship shaped by power, technology, globalization, and local sociocultural choices. Arabic is undergoing a complex process of adaptive restructuring, showing resilience through innovation while simultaneously exhibiting vulnerability in significant domains. The review also highlights generational shifts, with younger speakers increasingly exposed to English dominant environments that influence their linguistic preferences, identity formation, and communicative practices. Taken together, these findings underscore the urgency of addressing the widening linguistic imbalance between Arabic and English, particularly in digital and educational spheres. By mapping cumulative evidence across two decades of research, this review provides a foundational framework for policy, curriculum design, and language planning initiatives aimed at strengthening Arabic’s visibility, vitality, and long term sustainability.
Systematic review (SR), Al-Jarf research program, English hegemony, English-Arabic language dynamics, dominance of English, Arabic language marginalization, language policy in higher education, sociolinguistic landscapes, medium of instruction, digital Arabic content
Critical Discourse Analysis and Donald Trump’s Speech at the Davos Convention
This study analyzes the ideological dimension of Trump’s discourse in the speech that he presented at the World Economic Forum on the 21st of January, 2026. Critical Discourse Analysis or CDA will be used in this research not only to deconstruct language choices, but to uncover hidden ideologies that might be embedded and legitimized in the discourse. These assumptions can go unnoticed by a reader, but identified by a critical analyst who is aware of the strategies employed in speeches. This research utilized Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional CDA framework where the examination goes from textual analysis, discursive practice, to sociocultural context. Michael Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics was also incorporated at the textual level alongside Van Dijk’s ideological square. Combining these methods helped yield a more layered and comprehensive analytical results. By analyzing the pronouns, modality, transitivity processes, and genre types used in the speech, it was observed that several normalized presuppositions and hegemonic power relations are reproduced in the discourse. Recontextualizing the meanings and ideas present in the speech by media outlets assisted in re-enacting these legitimized sociocultural practices. The results showed that not only America was portrayed as the economy lead of all nations, but also other countries were framed as dependent on the success of the American nation. Trump, as well as the media, reproduced a deeper division within the American society between ingroups versus outgroups and Republicans versus Democrats.
Critical Discourse Analysis, ideologies, hegemonic power relations, discursive practices. sociocultural practices
Copyright (c) 2026 Maud Manouchakian https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Investigating Opportunities and Challenges of Integrating Artificial Intelligence into Moroccan EFL Classroom Practices
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has had a significant impact on language education worldwide. This article investigates the effectiveness and limitations of AI integration in Moroccan EFL classrooms. It addresses this issue through a mixed-methods design, combining quantitative data (questionnaires) and qualitative data (semi-structured interviews). Data analysis has shown that despite international recognition of the evidence of AI’s pedagogical efficacy, Moroccan educational policymakers have not yet invested significantly in this area. It also demonstrates that there is a growing acknowledgment of AI tools’ effectiveness, but their integration faces several challenges, such as a lack of relevant professional development, inadequate infrastructure, and the absence of institutional policy. The study concludes with some recommendations for AI integration in Moroccan EFL classrooms.
Artificial Intelligence, EFL instruction, Moroccan secondary education, mixed-methods research, teacher perceptions, technology integration, language learning
A Socio-cognitive Study of Jargon in Al-Najaf Medical Community
This study investigates the concept of jargon from a socio- cognitive approach. The research seeks to decode the dimensions of localizing English medical terms, jargon, in Al- Najaf medical discourse, depending on Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive perspective. Although the fact that the language of the staff in the medical field is Arabic, they use English when they communicate about medical cases because the language of their academic study was English. The study aimed at exploring the different terms of jargon used in Al-Najaf medical community, investigating the types and functions of jargon, and identifying the hidden ideologies of the medical staff behind employing the medical jargon. It has been observed that they use terms that cannot be understood by the surrounding people. They manipulate English words in different ways to create new modified ones. The data was collected by conducting some interviews with ten members of the medical community in Al-Najaf hospitals. Finally, the research concluded that the medical staff utilizes jargon when they interact with each other about medical cases, such as the use of مشَوِّكْ instead of “in shock “. Their usage is restricted only to the word form of jargon. Moreover, they have hidden intentions behind using jargon, such as separating themselves from anyone who does not belong to their profession to create a closed and highly prestigious linguistic community known as “in-group”, and isolate the patient in an area that constitutes “out-group”. Besides, jargon is one of the most powerful clues that help the medical staff to achieve numerous functions concerning proficiency, time saving, reproducing language, and as a result, social dominance over other language users around them.
Jargon, socio-cognitive approach, Al-Najaf medical community, and hidden ideologies
Ideological Dissonance in Gish Jen’s The Resisters
While existing scholarship has emphasized The Resisters’s resilient resistance, feminist commitments, faith in human nature, this paper contends that The Resisters simultaneously contradicts its own ethical ideals through its narrative construction of resistance: an ambivalent resister, the suffering martyr and the romanctic heroin. This narrative construction reveals Gish Jen’s dilemma as a writer: on one hand, she continues to uphold a cosmopolitan, pluralist ethical vision; on the other hand, the pressing realities of racial inequality and structural oppression compel her to attend to concrete, context-specific ethical positions.
Copyright (c) 2026 Shiyue Zheng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Satirical Humor Translation in YouTube Automatic Indonesian Subtitles
This study investigates the translation of satirical humor in YouTube’s automatic Indonesian subtitles of a stand-up comedy performance by Armando Anto. Using a qualitative descriptive case study, the research compares the English source text with the automatically generated Indonesian subtitles. Eleven satirical segments were identified and analyzed to examine meaning shifts, humor preservation, and the contribution of multimodal elements such as music, gestures, and facial expressions. The findings show that the subtitles generally preserve the literal meaning of the source text but frequently weaken or fail to convey the humorous effect. Irony, wordplay, and culturally embedded satire are often reduced, while humor conveyed through musical and visual elements is largely absent from the subtitles. In addition, several automatic speech recognition (ASR) errors negatively affect humor comprehension. This study concludes that YouTube’s automatic subtitles function more effectively as lexical translations than as translations of multimodal comedy performances. The findings highlight the challenges of translating satirical humor through automatic subtitle systems and the importance of multimodal features in humor translation.
Copyright (c) 2026 Nafingatul Mustafidah https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Translation and Rights: A Practical Grid for Protection Settings
This article proposes a three-part grid – reliability, verifiability, equity- as an interdisciplinarity tool for reading translation in protection settings. The grid is borrowed from two well-established traditions: global governance and international protection law. For decades, governance scholars have judged institutions by three questions: Are they effective, accountable, and legitimate? (Archibugi and Held, 1995; Buchanan and Keohane, 2006). International protection law asks much the same thing in its own terms: It requires accurate information, procedural safeguards, and fair treatment for vulnerable people (Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, 1951; UNHCR, 2019). The article brings these traditions together and adapts them to translation studies, so that very different kinds of research can be placed within an emerging protective turn. The grid is not a theory. It is a reading tool: it makes studies comparable, shows where scholars have focused their attention, and points to the gaps that remain. Three illustrative readings, all drawn from the existing literature, show the grid at work, and a set of proposed instruments is added in the appendices for future testing. The article argues throughout that translation in protection settings cannot be studied well without law, political science, and sociolinguistics. Here, interdisciplinarity is structural.
Translation studies, protective turn, global governance, international protection regimes, reliability, verifiability, equity, interdisciplinarity
Subtitling Oath Language from Arabic into English: A Study of the Saudi Comedy Series Jak Al Elm
This study investigates how oath expressions are subtitled from Saudi Gulf Arabic into English in Season 2 of the comedy series Jak Al Elm (MBC Shahid, 2025). Oath language — expressions such as wallah (by God) and ali al-talaq (I swear by divorce) — is deeply embedded in Arabic everyday speech and carries religious, social, and performative weight that poses a considerable challenge for subtitlers. Despite this, it has received little systematic attention in audiovisual translation (AVT) research. This study analyses 124 oath instances drawn from fifteen episodes, applying Vinay and Darbelnet's (1995) translation procedures to classify subtitling strategies, Al-Khawaldeh's (2018) extended pragmatic function typology to identify source-text functions, and Baker's (2018) pragmatic equivalence framework to evaluate translational outcomes. Modulation emerges as the dominant strategy (38.7%), most often rendering wallah as 'Actually' or 'really' — a domesticating move that preserves surface fluency while erasing the oath's religious and social dimensions. Partial equivalence is the most common outcome (50%), confirming a systematic loss of illocutionary force. Oaths deployed for comedic exaggeration are particularly vulnerable: in eleven of fourteen cases, the comedy depends on the incongruity between a solemn oath form and a trivial claim, and modulation removes that incongruity entirely. Two outright mistranslations highlight a Gulf Bedouin dialect competence gap in professional subtitle production. The study concludes that domestication is the structural default, and that translating oath language effectively requires a pragmatic, function-aware approach rather than a purely lexical one.
Audiovisual translation; subtitling; oath language; pragmatic equivalence; domestication
Yinyuan's Thoughts on Home and Country: Cross-Ocean Patriotism and Cultural Integration
This study aims to explore the profound patriotism and cultural integration reflected in the poetry and life of Monk Yinyuan, a pivotal figure in Sino-Japanese cultural exchange during the Ming-Qing transition. The research employs textual analysis of Yinyuan's poetic works and a historical review of his journey to Japan and the subsequent establishment of the Obaku sect. By examining his literary expressions and religious activities, the study contextualizes his personal emotions within the broader socio-political landscape of the 17th century. The analysis reveals that Yinyuan's poetry is deeply imbued with a complex nostalgia for his homeland and a steadfast commitment to national righteousness. Despite the geographical distance, his founding of the Obaku sect in Japan served as a vital conduit for transmitting Chinese Zen Buddhism, Confucian ethics, and traditional culture. His efforts not only significantly enriched Japanese Zen culture but also fostered a deep resonance within Japanese political and cultural spheres. Yinyuan's cross-ocean journey transcends mere religious propagation; it represents a monumental act of cultural integration driven by profound thoughts on home and country. His legacy underscores the importance of cultural confidence and the role of individuals as bridges in cross-cultural communication, offering valuable historical insights for promoting cultural diversity and mutual understanding in the contemporary era of globalization.
Yinyuan; Thoughts on Home and Country; Obaku Sect; Cultural Integration; Zen Buddhism; Sino-Japanese Exchange; Ming-Qing Transition; Cross-Cultural Communication
Still Searching for a Moroccan Cultural Diplomacy
The ambiguities that surround the concept of cultural diplomacy have led scholars to approach it in different ways. These discrepancies largely concern both the objectives attributed to cultural diplomacy and the actors involved in its practice. Gienow-Hecht (2010) identifies three schools of thought: one that associates cultural diplomacy with political objectives; another that views the practice as functioning outside the realm of the state and a third that emphasizes the heterogeneity of the structure involved in cultural diplomacy, including both public and private actors. To resolve these ambiguities, the authors suggest that cultural diplomacy should rather be defined in terms of concept and structure. In other words, time and location shape both the meaning of cultural diplomacy and the actors responsible for its implementation. This paper reviews two sections of the introduction of Searching for a Cultural Diplomacy: the first, “What Are We Searching For? Culture, Diplomacy, Agents and the State”, authored by Gienow-Hecht (2010), and the second, “The Model of Cultural Diplomacy: Power, Distance and the Promise of Civil Society” co-authored by Gienow-Hecht and Donfried (2010). This paper further applies the proposed model of cultural diplomacy to the Moroccan context. The analysis revealed the practical applicability of the model in addressing Moroccan cultural diplomacy. It suggests that it may help overcome some of the challenges currently affecting this field particularly the multiplicity of the actors involved in the practice. This paper argues that the institutionalization of Moroccan cultural diplomacy though the creation of a federating institution would clarify the actors involved in the practice and better define their roles. Such an initiative would bring relevant stakeholders together to determine the objectives attributed to Moroccan cultural diplomacy.
Moroccan cultural diplomacy, Model, Concept, Structure, Institutionalization
The Narrative Dilemma of the Double Self: Three Dimensions of the Unreliable Narrator in The Sympathizer
Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Sympathizer (2015), has become a milestone in contemporary Asian American literature and Vietnam War literature due to its unique narrative voice and complex exploration of identity politics. This paper aims to analyse the construction mechanism and profound implications of “the Captain” as an unreliable narrator from a narratological perspective. Drawing on Wayne C. Booth’s classic definition and James Phelan’s rhetorical narratology theory—specifically his division of unreliability into three axes (fact/event, knowledge/perception, and value/judgment)—this study proposes that the protagonist’s unreliability presents a “three-dimensional” structure corresponding to these axes. The first-dimension stems from the concealment and distortion of factual reporting caused by his double-agent identity (unreliability on the fact/event axis). The second dimension arises from the cognitive limitations and parodic deconstruction of the East-West binary discourse viewed through the lens of a postcolonial diasporic subject (unreliability on the knowledge/perception axis). The third-dimension touches upon the repression of traumatic memory and the internal conflict of value judgments (unreliability on the value/judgment axis). Through a detailed textual analysis of these three dimensions, this paper argues that the unreliable narration in The Sympathizer is not merely a technique for plot development but a formal representation of Vietnam War trauma, Cold War ideological conflicts, and the identity crisis of the diasporic subject. The narrator’s “unreliability” constitutes the only reliable path to historical truth and ethical reality; through constant self-negation and reconstruction, he reveals the alienation of humanity by war and the perpetual fluidity of identity.
Viet Thanh Nguyen; The Sympathizer; Unreliable Narrator; James Phelan; Narratology; Double Self; Traumatic Memory
Copyright (c) 2026 Jinjing Jiang https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Towards the creation of an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) body in Burkina Faso?
Au Burkina Faso, la formation professionnelle des professeurs d’anglais quoique évolutive, suscite de nombreuses interrogations quant à l'adéquation des livrables de fin de formation aux besoins d’enseignement de l’anglais de spécialité. Une fois en poste dans les classes du post-primaire et du secondaire, les professeurs d’anglais issus de l’École Normale Supérieure (ENS) ont la charge d'enseigner cette langue dans sa dimension aussi bien générale que spécialisée. Si l’anglais général pose peu de défis aux professeurs d’anglais, l’enseignement de l’anglais de spécialité se révèle, en revanche, éprouvant pour ces derniers. Après avoir exploré les potentielles difficultés liées à l'enseignement de l'anglais de spécialité au Burkina à travers l’analyse des curricula de formation professionnelle des élève-professeurs d’anglais, cette étude, suggère la création d’un corps de professeurs d’anglais de spécialité à former à la didactique de l’anglais de spécialité au bénéfice des établissements techniques, professionnels et scientifiques. En outre, ces professeurs devront également effectuer un stage thématique en entreprise ou en milieu professionnel lié au domaine visé par l’enseignement de l'anglais de spécialité. Ainsi, cette innovation, tout en outillant conséquemment et davantage les professeurs d’anglais de spécialité, contribuera à faciliter et à optimiser les classes d’anglais de spécialité, de plus en plus ennuyeuses, à la fois, pour le professeur et l’apprenant d’anglais surtout dans l’enseignement technique, la formation professionnelle et dans d’autres filières spécialisées.Au Burkina Faso, la formation professionnelle des professeurs d’anglais quoique évolutive, suscite de nombreuses interrogations quant à l'adéquation des livrables de fin de formation aux besoins d’enseignement de l’anglais de spécialité. Une fois en poste dans les classes du post-primaire et du secondaire, les professeurs d’anglais issus de l’École Normale Supérieure (ENS) ont la charge d'enseigner cette langue dans sa dimension aussi bien générale que spécialisée. Si l’anglais général pose peu de défis aux professeurs d’anglais, l’enseignement de l’anglais de spécialité se révèle, en revanche, éprouvant pour ces derniers. Après avoir exploré les potentielles difficultés liées à l'enseignement de l'anglais de spécialité au Burkina à travers l’analyse des curricula de formation professionnelle des élève-professeurs d’anglais, cette étude, suggère la création d’un corps de professeurs d’anglais de spécialité à former à la didactique de l’anglais de spécialité au bénéfice des établissements techniques, professionnels et scientifiques. En outre, ces professeurs devront également effectuer un stage thématique en entreprise ou en milieu professionnel lié au domaine visé par l’enseignement de l'anglais de spécialité. Ainsi, cette innovation, tout en outillant conséquemment et davantage les professeurs d’anglais de spécialité, contribuera à faciliter et à optimiser les classes d’anglais de spécialité, de plus en plus ennuyeuses, à la fois, pour le professeur et l’apprenant d’anglais surtout dans l’enseignement technique, la formation professionnelle et dans d’autres filières spécialisées.
Anglais, anglais de spécialité, didactique, stage, traduction scolaire,
Copyright (c) 2026 Elie YOUANE https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Generative AI in Teacher Professional Development: A Literature-Based Review of Student Engagement and Academic Performance in Saudi Early Childhood Education
Globally, classroom practices and teacher professional development have been significantly impacted by the quick development of generative artificial intelligence (AI) (Chen et al., 2020; Kasneci et al., 2023; UNESCO, 2023). In Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030-aligned educational reforms, technological innovation and the integration of AI into educational systems are becoming increasingly significant, especially in early childhood education (Ministry of Education, Saudi Arabia, 2021; UNESCO, 2023). Focusing on student engagement and academic performance in nursery and early childhood settings, this literature-based evaluation contrasts classrooms led by teachers trained through generative AI-supported professional development with those trained through conventional professional development. Using a qualitative document analysis method, the study examined peer-reviewed journal articles, policy papers, conference proceedings, and educational research published between 2015 and 2025. Thematic analysis was used to identify recurring themes across instructional strategies, classroom interaction, student involvement, and early academic development. According to research, AI-assisted professional learning can improve classroom interaction, individualized learning, engagement-based pedagogies, and instructional flexibility (Holmes et al., 2019; Luckin et al., 2016; UNESCO, 2023). Adaptive activities, language-supportive engagement, and personalized feedback strategies were more common among educators who received AI-supported technology training. There is still little and conflicting evidence for a direct advantage in academic achievement, especially in early childhood environments where linguistic interaction and social-emotional development are crucial to learning outcomes (Fredricks et al., 2004; Parker et al., 2021). The review also emphasizes the importance of aligning AI integration with Saudi cultural norms, educational regulations, and teacher autonomy. By examining recent findings on generative AI, teacher development, and early childhood learning in the Saudi Arabian context, the work contributes to ongoing discussions on AI in education and provides recommendations for additional empirical and longitudinal research.
Generative artificial intelligence; teacher professional development; student engagement; academic performance; early childhood education; Saudi Arabia; educational technology