Tpls 1309

Theory and Practice in Language Studies
ISSN 1799-2591
Volume 13, Number 9, September 2023
Contents
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ISSN 1799-2591
Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 13, No. 9, pp. 2163-2171, September 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1309.01
Learning Mathematics in English Through the

Use of the Think-Talk-Write Strategy
Diosa Misme
SMBP Education Hub Program, Phayaopittayakhom School, Phayao, Thailand
Rattana Yawiloeng
Department of English, School of Liberal Arts, University of Phayao, Phayao, Thailand
Abstract—This study examines the effects of the Think-Talk-Write (TTW) strategy on Thai EFL students’
learning mathematics in English. The TTW learning strategy contributed by Pratiwi and Muiz (2016) was
used in this study. The participants were 25 Thai EFL students enrolled in a Mini-English Program in which
English is used as a medium language in all subjects. During the teaching and learning activities, the
researcher conducted three phases of mathematics problem-solving activities, including the Think, Talk, and
Write phrases. In this study, a Filipino teacher as the researcher taught a mathematics subject in English since
the researcher and the participants used different first languages. Five research instruments were deployed to
collect data: a pretest/ posttest, survey questionnaire, observation checklist, and semi-structured interview.
The findings of this study revealed that the TTW strategy could enhance Thai EFL students’ learning of
mathematics in English. In addition, the results showed that the EFL students used English (L2) and Thai (L1)
to solve their mathematical problems with their peers. The findings from the semi-structured interview also
revealed that the EFL students viewed the think, talk and write as a useful strategy to share ideas with their
peers. Therefore, using the TTW strategy is an easy and challenging way to solve mathematical problems in
English.
Index Terms—think-talk-write strategy, EFL classroom, English writing activities, mathematics in English
I. INTRODUCTION
English plays an essential role in various fields of work because it is used as an international language. In ASEAN
countries, communication in English is crucial since Asian people work in increasingly intetionalised environments. In
addition, English is the key to success in many careers and plays a significant role in classrooms where it is used as a
foreign language (EFL). This EFL teaching and learning encourages teachers and students to practice working
collaboratively through English. English is also essential in Thai EFL high schools since it is a compulsory subject that
all Thai EFL students need to study. Particularly, Thai EFL students who enroll in a Mini English Program (MEP) must
study all subjects in English, such as mathematics, physics, and chemistry with foreign teachers.
Problematically, EFL students are confronted with a particular barrier when they have to study other English-based
subjects, such as Mathematics in the MEP classrooms. Unlike native English-speaking students, EFL students in MEP
classrooms are challenged by studying all subjects using English as a medium language. Foreigner teachers in Thailand
have also faced challenges in teaching mathematics in English. Another challenge for EFL teachers is to ensure that
EFL students gain enough necessary vocabulary knowledge to comprehend English instructions and mathematics
concepts. According to Yawiloeng (2020), due to their insufficient L2 vocabulary knowledge, EFL learners have
difficulty guessing the meaning of unfamiliar L2 words in the absence of relevant contexts. In addition, traditional
teaching approaches in some Asian countries (such as Thailand) rely primarily on the first language (L1) medium and
the grammar-translation teaching approach. Nonetheless, this traditional teaching approach can promote students’
memory through repetitions, but EFL students’ lifelong learning seems to be overlooked.
Learning mathematics in English is viewed as a problematic challenge for EFL students since these students have
limited language proficiency to handle mathematical problems in another language (Peter, 2019). As Jourdain and
Sharma (2016) stated, an English-medium setting is one of the most significant obstacles for language learners to learn
mathematics. That is to say, learners must not only attempt to study in English while learning to speak but also operate
English mathematics (Mandy & Garbati, 2014). Another reason that EFL students obstruct learning mathematics in
English is that they need to learn more than numbers, and they have to encounter the challenges of learning academic
English and mathematics at the same time (Daniel & Zamborova, 2015). In addition, it is not easy to learn mathematics
in English since “the learners must recognize and understand the mathematical relationship between the components of
words” (Machaba, 2021, p. 1504). Therefore, mathematical English is an extra challenge for English language learners
(Jourdain & Sharma, 2016).

Corresponding Author. E-mail addresses: [email protected] and [email protected]
© 2023 ACADEMY PUBLICATION

2164 THEORY AND PRACTICE IN LANGUAGE STUDIES
However, complex linguistic and metalinguistic abilities are required to thoroughly understand the mathematical
registers and the capacity to transition between them. These abilities are required for students to communicate with their
peers and deal with more sophisticated mathematics (Mandy & Garbati, 2014). Learning to solve mathematical
problems with peers can enhance learners’ problem-solving abilities. When learning with peers, learners may encounter
cognitive conflicts that motivate them to explain and justify their stance and seek additional information to resolve
different points of view (Chairinkam & Yawiloeng, 2021). As can be seen, these problems cause studying mathematics
to be more difficult than studying mathematics itself because one must read the English texts first before translating
them to mathematical ideas. As a result, in an English-medium classroom, English language learners may require more
time than native English speakers to master mathematics. As a result of spending too much time attempting to
comprehend the questions and mathematical registers, these students may miss out on mathematical learning.
Furthermore, to do well, students must be familiar with the highly technical vocabulary required in mathematics.
Consequently, learning mathematics in English is very difficult for students, especially EFL students who seldom use
English in their daily life.
To solve learning mathematics problems, the Think-Talk-Write strategy is proposed as a learning model in EFL
mathematics classrooms (e.g. Afthina, 2017; Setiawan et al., 2017). The TTW is a learning strategy that begins with
thinking and continues with discussion, presentation, and independent writing of presentation results (Hariyati, 2013; as
cited in Afthina, 2017). Applying the TTW strategy when confronting mathematical challenges, students can acquire
proper language skills, particularly in conveying ideas in spoken and written language. Therefore, this current study
investigated the effects of the TTW strategy on Thai EFL students’ learning mathematics in English and explored the
EFL students’ attitudes towards using the TTW strategy in the mathematics classroom.
II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
A. Think-Talk-Write Learning Strategy

Think-talk-write strategy is viewed as a cooperative learning model comprising thinking, talking, and writing stages
(Afthina et al., 2017; Satiwan et al., 2017; Supandi et al., 2018). Regarding the TTW strategy, students are involved in a
cooperative learning process, so their problems can be solved. To clarify, engaging in cooperative learning activities
provides the students with opportunities to explore the materials provided by the teacher together with other peers since
the teacher cannot control all students’ activities during the TTW classroom session (Setiawan et al., 2017). Think-talk-
write is also viewed as an approach that aids learners in producing spoken and written language fluently (Huda et al.,
2020). The TTW method emphasizes thinking, reflection, and organizing time. After engaging in introspective dialogue
with themselves, students engage in conversation and exchange ideas with their peers before writing. In classrooms,
students are encouraged in the thinking, talking, and writing stages using the TTW tactics. This TTW method is
intended to enhance writing fluency and prepare the language for writing. In addition, students gain opportunities for
thinking, speaking, and writing on given tasks. Thus, the think-talk-write strategy can enhance learners’ writing abilities
and assist learners in preparing the target language for written communication.
Using the TTW strategy in classrooms involves three stages, namely, Think, Talk, and Write. Students read the
instruction based on the topic given by the teacher and make notes about what they have thought (Think), interact and
collaborate with their group to discuss the notes (Talk), and express the result of the discussion in the form of written
text (Write) (Yamin & Bansu, 2012; as cited in Setiawan et al., 2017). Moreover, Huinker and Laughlin (1996) stated
that in the Think stage of the TTW learning process, students are asked to read the content in the form of questions
relating to daily activities or descriptions. At the Talk stage, students are efficiently allowed to discuss the results of
their investigation in the thinking stage. At the Write stage, students compose the concepts they have developed through
the thinking and talking stages (Pratiwi, 2019). In teaching writing descriptive text, Suminar (2015) mentioned three
stages of the TTW strategy, including thinking by reading something clue containing pictures and making small notes
of what has been thinking, talking through using their language to present ideas, and writing by constructing the idea of
writing after the discussion or dialogues. In sum, the TTW strategy is used to enhance students to develop their thinking,
speaking, and writing abilities through cooperative learning activities with their teacher and peers.
There are many advantages of the TTW strategy to students’ learning development. First, utilizing the TTW strategy
permits students to engage in cooperative learning (Afthina, 2017; Setiawan et al., 2017; Supandi et al., 2018). Second,
the TTW approach can enhance the development of students' writing abilities (Setiawan et al., 2017). Using the TTW
strategy in descriptive writing activities provides students with opportunities to gain ideas and necessary information for
writing, constructing, and sharing ideas with other students (Setiawan et al., 2017). Third, by engaging in mathematics
learning activities through the TTW model, students can improve language skills effectively, particularly in expressing
ideas when solving mathematical tasks (Afthina et al., 2017). The students are encouraged to learn actively by gaining
opportunities to think, talk, and write during learning processes. While engaging in the TTW activities, the learning goal
is accomplished through the collaborative efforts of the students working together in groups (Setiawan et al., 2017).
Moreover, Aziz and Maaliah (2016) mentioned that the TTW strategy could sharpen all visual thinking skills, enhance
comprehension and a relevant solution, and promote critical and creative thinking skills. Lastly, using the TTW strategy
can encourage students to actively participate in solving a problem; consequently, this TTW strategy can enhance

THEORY AND PRACTICE IN LANGUAGE STUDIES 2165
students' writing development (Tamara & Rusfandi, 2021). Thus, learners become more actively involved in their
learning activities through interaction and discussion with the group.
Many studies revealed the effects of the TTW technique in Mathematic classrooms (Afthina et al., 2017; Jaber &
Daana, 2020; Nasrulloh & Umardiyah, 2020; Supandi et al., 2018). Afthina et al. (2017) compared the effects of the
TTW and the think-pair-share model. The researchers found that utilizing TTW with a realistic mathematics education
strategy can assist students in gaining better mathematics achievement than TPS with a realistic mathematics education
approach. The researchers also elaborated on the comparison that students with high mathematical-logical intelligence
outperform students with poor mathematical-logical intelligence in mathematics achievement. Furthermore, the
researchers also mentioned that students with low mathematical logical intelligence struggled to understand new
materials and were weak in calculating, reasoning, and thinking logically (Afthina et al., 2017).
B. Previous Studies
(a). Studies on the Use of Think-Talk-Write to Enhance Writing Abilities

Many scholars have examined the effectiveness of using the think-talk-write method to improve learners' writing
abilities (Pratiwi, 2019; Setiawan et al., 2017; Suminar, 2015; Tamara & Rusfandi, 2021). Suminar (2015) investigated
the effectiveness of the TTW method while practicing students to write descriptive texts. This study required students to
take notes, explain, listen, share opinions with peers, and write their thoughts. This study's pretest and posttest results
showed the positive influence and effectiveness of the TTW strategy. In addition, Suminar (2015) also suggested that
the TTW strategy can be effective in large classrooms since it allows students to work in a group, enjoy, and have fun
learning to write in English. Setiawan et al. (2017) investigated the effectiveness of the TTW strategy in teaching
descriptive writing. The findings of this study uncovered that using the TTW technique to teach writing descriptive text
provided positively influences the students rather than the production technique. Setiawan et al. (2017) mentioned that
the TTW technique gives opportunities for learners to gain ideas and information needed to write. Moreover, Pratiwi
(2019) explored the effect of the TTW strategy in enhancing high school students writing narrative text. After learning
through this learning strategy, the findings indicated that the TTW model could assist students in narrative paragraph
writing. The results from Cycle Two of this study revealed that the students succeeded in developing their ideas through
writing with the TTW strategy. In addition, the students felt more confident in conveying their thoughts in descriptive
writing, and the class conditions were more active. Lastly, a study by Tamara and Rusfandi (2021) investigated the
effectiveness of the TTW technique applied with audiovisual media in enhancing the descriptive writing skills of
students. The study's findings uncovered that the TTW technique encouraged students to develop creative thought, be
more active in seeking knowledge in class, add material they missed from audiovisual mediums, and discuss ideas
within their groups. In sum, these previous studies confirm that the TTW strategy can effectively enhance students’
writing abilities.
(b). Think-Talk-Write Research in EFL Mathematics Classrooms
Recently, many studies have investigated the implementation of the TTW approach in mathematics classrooms for
students learning English as a foreign language (Afthina et al., 2017; Ishaya et al., 2018; Nasrulloh & Umardiyah, 2020;
Supandi et al., 2018). Wulan and Khotimah’s (2015) study aimed to enhance students' mathematics communication
using a scientific approach and the TTW strategy. According to the findings of this study, utilizing the TTW technique
can increase students' mathematical communication skills, and students become more active in the mathematics
classroom. According to the observation from the classroom activities, the results uncovered that the students were able
to express mathematical ideas by speaking and writing, utilize mathematical notation to communicate ideas, define
relationships and model situations, and visually illustrate mathematical concepts.
Afthina et al. (2017) compared the effects of the think-talk-write and think-pair-share models in the mathematics
classroom in Indonesia. The researchers reported the students who engaged in the TTW model using a realistic
mathematics teaching method could get higher mathematical accomplishment than those who utilized the think pair
share model. The researchers explained that after comprehending the lesson in the Talk stage, learning through the
TTW model entails individually reflecting on and explaining mathematical concepts through writing. In terms of the
comparison results, students who have a mathematical-logical intelligence that is above average can achieve higher
success in mathematics than students whose mathematical-logical intelligence is poor. Therefore, children with high
mathematical intelligence can better comprehend lessons than those with ordinary or low intelligence; that is, they seek
to solve problems independently.
Later, Supandi et al.’s (2018) study uncovered how the TTW strategy could improve eighth-grade students’ abilities
in mathematical representation in an Indonesian high school. This study uses the TTW strategy as a cooperative
learning model. During the TTW stages, students learn the material (Think), discuss the results of the learning material
(Talk), and write the ideas obtained from the talk phrase (Write) (Supandi et al., 2018). The researchers uncovered that
the students were enthusiastic, asking questions actively, addressing mathematical problems and answers, and
developing ideas of answers to solve mathematical problems. The study of Supandi et al. (2018) also revealed that
Indonesian students with high self-efficacy gained higher scores on the mathematical representation ability after
participating in the TTW learning processes.

Nasrulloh and Umardiyah (2020) investigated the effect of the TTW method on the critical thinking and
mathematical communication of learners. Researchers found that the TTW learning strategy enhances students’ active
learning, expressing their ideas, sharing opinions with peers, problem-solving, and promoting enthusiasm and
confidence in solving math problems. Nasrulloh and Umardivah (2020) suggest that traditional learning is less effective
than the TTW learning strategy regarding critical thinking and mathematical communication. Moreover, Kruawong and
Soontornwipast (2021) examined Thai EFL students’ Science vocabulary knowledge of 9th-grade students through
science vocabulary crossword puzzle (SVCP) practices. In the study, the Thai students improved their science
vocabulary by practicing crossword puzzles. The results after implementing SVCP practices revealed that the students’
science vocabulary knowledge scores increased significantly (Krauwong & Soontornwipast, 2021).
Many studies focus on teaching and learning strategies to promote EFL students in English-medium classrooms.
However, there has been less previous evidence for EFL research in Thailand that focuses on Think-Talk-Write
teaching techniques to promote learning other subjects in the MEP programme, such as teaching mathematics through
using English as the medium of instruction. Nevertheless, few studies focus on practical teaching approaches to help
EFL students better comprehend mathematical concepts by using the TTW strategy through English in MEP classrooms.
Consequently, the present study examines the effectiveness of the Think-Talk-Write strategy by Thai EFL students
learning mathematics in English. Thus, there is a need to consider effective teaching approaches to help EFL students
better understand mathematical concepts while simultaneously improving their English communication abilities.
Therefore, this research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the TTW in enhancing EFL learners’ learning of
mathematics in English.
III. METHOD
A. An EFL Mathematics Classroom Setting

This study was conducted in an EFL mathematics classroom where English is used as a medium language between a
Filipino EFL teacher and Thai EFL students. In this study, the researcher’s roles were the mathematics teacher, the
observer, and the interviewer. Twenty-five Thai students who studied in grade seven were registered in a mathematics
subject for five weeks. These EFL students studied mathematics in English for five hours per week. Since the foreign
teacher could not speak Thai, it was compulsory for the students to communicate with the teacher and peers in English.
B. The Participants
The participants of this study comprised 25 Thai students who enrolled in a Mini English Program (MEP) during the
2021-2022 academic year. Their age ranged from 12-13 years old. These grade seven students were selected by
purposive sampling from 15 classes with 585 students. Twenty-five EFL students comprised 12 males (48%) and 13
females (52%). Only six students who gained high, intermediate and low pretest scores involved qualitative data
collection.
C. The Instruments
The instruments used in this study consisted of a pretest and posttest, a survey questionnaire, an observation checklist,
and a semi-structured interview. The pretest and posttest were designed in the form of five English words of
mathematics problems for secondary students. The pretest was conducted in the first week before the students studied
the first mathematics lesson. The students were asked to solve problems of five mathematics problems within one hour.
The first two items were easy mathematics problems, the third and fourth were intermediate mathematics problems, and
the last was the most difficult mathematics problem. These five mathematics problems in English were aligned with the
mathematics curriculum for Thai students studying at a secondary level. Then, the posttest was given in the last session
of the fifth week after the students engaged in the Think-Talk-Write (TTW) activities. The posttest aimed to investigate
how the EFL students utilised the TTW technique to solve Math problems in the English language.
The survey questionnaire was designed to investigate how English impacts students’ English fluency, comprehension,
and interest during engaging in Think-Talk-Write activities in the mathematics classroom. The 5-point Likert scale
questionnaire was developed in accordance with the study's objectives. That is, five means ‘strongly agree’, four means
‘agree’, three means ‘neutral’, two means ‘disagree’, and one means ‘strongly disagree’. In addition, the ratings for the
interpretations were as follows: 4.20 - 5.00 (strongly agree), 3.40 - 4.19 (agree), 2.60 - 3.39 (neutral), 1.80 - 2.59
(disagree), and 1.00 - 1.79 (strongly disagree).
The observation checklist was used to collect quantitative data on the EFL students’ behaviours while participating in
the Think-Talk-Write activity. This observation checklist includes the students’ interactions, participation, manners, and
practices during the Think-Talk-Write activities during learning mathematics in English. Six EFL students (high,
intermediate, and low) were observed in this study. The researcher conducted the observation checklist, which included
ten items using a 5-point Likert scale.
The semi-structured interview was used to elicit qualitative data on how often they use English outside their
classroom. The interview was semi-structured so the researcher could clarify and dig deeper into the respondents’
responses. The semi-structured interview method promotes two-way communication by allowing both the interviewer
and the participant to ask questions, allowing for a thorough discussion of relevant issues. Six students who were

observed by the researcher were interviewed in English. However, these students could answer in both English and Thai
language. To ensure reliability, the researcher asked a native Thai speaker to check the transcriptions. This research was
approved by the University of Phayao Human Ethics Committee, Thailand. The date and number of the ethical approval
are UP-HEC 2.2/006/66.
D. The Research Procedures
This study was conducted in an EFL Mathematic class where the Filipino teacher taught Thai EFL students in
English. After gaining permission for data collection from the school, the researcher briefly explained the research plan
to the participants. Twenty-five participants were asked to sign the consent form and informed that they could withdraw
from the research participation at any time. The research procedures were conducted in five steps as follows. (1) In the
first week, the pretest comprising five items was given to 25 Thai EFL students to solve mathematical problems in
English words. The students were allowed to solve the mathematical problems from five English words for 50 minutes.
(2) The EFL students participated in the EFL mathematics classroom to study mathematics in English using the TTW
strategy for three weeks. From the second to the fourth week, the researcher conducted the observation checklist by
observing six intermediate, and low Thai EFL students. (3) In the fifth week, the 5-item posttest was given to 25
students. In this session, the students solved the mathematics problems for five English words for 50 minutes. In
addition, the 15-item questionnaire was administered to 25 Thai EFL students after participating in the Think-Talk-
Write activities in the L2 mathematic classroom. (4) After participating in this research, a semi-structured interview was
conducted to elicit qualitative data from six students regarding their attitudes toward learning mathematics in English.
Each student was interviewed individually for ten minutes.
IV. RESULTS
A. The Effects of the TTW Strategy on Learning Mathematics in English

Table 1 below shows the pretest and posttest scores for five English words in mathematics problems gained by 25
Thai EFL students. The total scores for five English words of mathematics problems were 25 scores.
TABLE 1
THE PRETEST AND POSTTEST SCORES OF THE EFL STUDENTS
Test Number Min Max Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean
Pretest 25 4 20 11.44 3.852 0.77
Posttest 25 16 25 23.48 2.568 0.514
Table 1 shows that Thai EFL students’ posttest scores for solving mathematics problems in English were higher than
the pretest after participating in the TTW activities. Before engaging in the TTW activities, the EFL students’ pretest
means and standard deviations were 11.44 and 3.852. After gaining help from the teacher and working with the peers
through the TTW strategy, the EFL students gained higher posttest scores, the means and standard deviation were 23.48
and 2.568. The results of this study uncovered that the posttest scores significantly increased after the Thai EFL
students studied mathematics in English through the TTW strategy. In sum, using the TTW strategy can enhance the
EFL students’ understanding of English in the mathematics classroom.
B. Thai EFL Students’ Learning Strategies Used in the EFL Mathematic Classroom
After the EFL students engaged in problem-solving activities in the EFL mathematics classroom, they were asked to
answer a questionnaire to reflect their English learning strategies. The questionnaire included five rated scale questions
asking the Thai EFL students’ opinions on English learning strategies they used in the EFL mathematics classroom (see
Table 2).

TABLE 2
THE EFL STUDENTS’ LEARNING STRATEGIES USED IN THE EFL MATHEMATICS CLASSROOM
(1) (5)
Item (2) (3) (4)
Statements Strongly Strongly X SD
no. Disagree Neutral Agree
Disagree Agree
I do not skip words while reading English because I am 1 0 6 13 5
1 3.84 3.42
familiar with most English. (4%) (0%) (24%) (52%) (20%)
I rarely use the English dictionary, translator, or other
1 7 11 3 3
2 mobile applications to translate my first language (Thai) 3 2.65
(4%) (28%) (44%) (12%) (12%)
into English.
When I read an English text, my first step is to translate
1 1 6 8 9
3 it in my mind to my first language (Thai) in order to 3.92 3.54
(4%) (4%) (24%) (32%) (36%)
understand the English text.
When I am solving a Mathematic problem in English, I
1 5 9 8 2 3.2 2.83
4 usually start by drawing it to help me visualise the Math
(4%) (20%) (36%) (32%) (8%)
problem.
I find it challenging and exciting to solve math 2 2 6 11 4
5 3.52 3.17
problems using English. (8%) (8%) (24%) (44%) (16%)
I share my opinions with other classmates using English 0 4 12 9 0
6 3.2 2.74
in the Mathematic classroom. (0%) (16%) (48%) (36%) (0%)
Table 2 shows Thai EFL students' attitudes towards learning strategies while solving mathematical problems in
English. The highest mean score is shown in Item 3 that most Thai EFL students preferred to translate from their first
language (L1) in order to understand English text (X = 3.92, SD =3.54). In Item 1, these EFL students did not skip
English words when they were familiar with the terms (X = 3.84, SD =3.42). However, the lowest mean score was
found in Item 2 (X = 3, SD = 2.65); these Thai EFL students who studied in the MEP programme rarely used English
dictionaries to translate their first language (L1) to English (L2).
C. The EFL Students’ Think-Talk-Write Strategies in the EFL Mathematics Classroom
Table 3 shows the analysis results for the qualitative data collected from the semi-structured interviews. Six EFL
students were interviewed in the last session of this research to reflect on their use of the think-talk-write strategy in
both their first language (Thai) and their second language (English).
TABLE 3
THE EFL STUDENTS’ THINK-TALK-WRITE STRATEGIES IN THE EFL MATHEMATICS CLASSROOM
Participants Statements The EFL students’ responses to
the semi-structured interview
1 “I talk to my friends in English but mixed with Thai words.” (Student 13)
2 “Yes. I talk to my friends in Thai, but I talk in English to my teachers.” (Student 13)
Advanced
EFL students 3 “I read it and translate it in Thai in my mind, and I ask myself what question is asked.” (Student 13)
4 “Not straight, mixed with Thai.” (Student 06)

5 “I think it in Thai first.” (Student 06)
6 “Yes. I answer the questions in English when the teacher asks, and when I share my opinions with
others.” (Student 06)
Intermediate 7 “Sometimes, if they don’t understand it, I just explain it in Thai.” (Student 03)
EFL students 8 “Sometimes I draw it.” (Student 03)
9 “Highlight what is the question asked first, then draw, and solve.” (Student 9)
Beginner EFL 10
“Listen first, write the word, and translate in Thai.” (Student 18)
students
Table 3 shows six EFL students who used the TTW strategy in Thai (L1) and English (L2) to solve mathematics
problems. In comparison, the advanced EFL students used the TTW strategy higher than the intermediate EFL students
and the beginner EFL students during the English mathematics activities. For the advanced EFL students, they
mentioned that they mostly used the Talk strategy to solve mathematics problems. That is, they ‘talk’ with their peers in
Thai (L1) and English (L2) (statements 1 and 2), ‘ask’ the self in Thai (in L1) (statement 3), ‘answer’ the teacher in
English (L2) (statement 6), and ‘share’ opinions with others (number 6). Regarding the intermediate EFL students, the
intermediate EFL students also solved the mathematics problems by talking (‘explain’ in statement 7). In addition, they
used the Write strategy by drawing (statements 8 and 9) and highlighting (statement 9) to solve mathematics problems.
Lastly, the beginner EFL students revealed the use of the TTW strategy by thinking (‘listen’), writing (‘write’), and
talking (‘translating into Thai’), as shown in statement 10.
V. DISCUSSION
A. The Effectiveness of the TTW Strategy on Learning Mathematics in English

The findings of this study reveal that using the TTW strategy can enhance EFL students’ learning of mathematics in
English. Based on the pretest and posttest results, the EFL students gained higher scores after engaging in the TTW
strategy while writing the mathematics solutions in English. These findings are in accordance with a study by Jusniani
et al. (2020), in which the scholars uncovered that the mathematics communication skills of students who use the TTW
learning model with an interactive media aid outperform those of students who use traditional learning models. This
present finding also ties nicely with a previous study by Nasrulloh and Umardiyah (2020), who confirmed the positive
impact of the TTW instructional method on students' critical thinking and mathematical communication. This is also
consistent with Ishaya et al. (2018) and Supandi et al. (2018), who uncovered that the learning method with the TTW
model affects the achievement of students’ mathematical communication ability and mathematical representation.
Regarding using the TTW strategy in a writing context, the results of this study confirm the studies of Tamara and
Rusfandi (2021) and Setiawan et al. (2017), who revealed that using the TTW technique had positive effects on the
students' descriptive writing abilities and had a substantial impact on the students' writing abilities.
B. Using the Think-Talk-Write Strategy to Solve Mathematical Problems
Considering the application of the TTW strategy to solve mathematics problems, the findings revealed that the EFL
students used the TTW strategy to solve problems by communicating in English and Thai in the mathematics classroom.
The EFL students mostly used the Talk strategy while they attempted to solve mathematical problems with their peers.
In line with a previous study by Anisah et al. (2020), their findings demonstrated that the students engaged in
cooperative learning with the TTW to enhance their mathematical writing ability. Anisah et al. (2020) elaborated that
students gained opportunities to think by using abstract mathematical symbols to facilitate solutions. The Talk phase
allowed students to discuss steps to solve problems in groups through social interaction. After that, they encountered the
Write phase to construct their own knowledge as a result of collaboration from the Talk phase (Anisah et al., 2020).
This finding of this study is also consistent with the findings of Setiawan et al. (2017) that the TTW technique affords
students opportunities to acquire the concepts and data necessary for writing. They engaged in the Think phase to
develop their ideas, participated in the Talk phase to discuss when they lacked information, and encountered the Write
phase to express their ideas in written form (Setiawan et al., 2017). Regarding the use of the first language in the EFL
mathematical classroom, the findings revealed that the students tended to use the L1 language (Thai) when confronted
with complicated mathematical problems. This finding is similar to a study by Jaber and Daana (2020), which showed
that using the first language is necessary for Jordanian students who learn mathematics in English.
C. Thai Students’ Attitudes Towards Using the TTW Strategy During the EFL Mathematic Classroom
Based on the semi-structured interview results, the findings show the EFL students’ positive attitudes towards using
the TTW strategy as a strategy for sharing ideas, a helpful learning strategy, and an easy and challenging way to solve
mathematics problems in English with their peers. The results of the present study confirm the finding of Nasrulloh and
Umardiyah (2021), who investigated the effects of the TTW learning strategy in mathematical communication. In terms
of improving critical thinking and mathematical communication, the researchers revealed that the TTW technique was
more effective than traditional learning Nasrulloh and Umardiyah (2021) highlighted that using the TTW learning
activities provides students with opportunities to think and talk together with their peers. Generally, students with great
mathematical skills can communicate and collaborate to solve mathematical problems (Nasrulloh & Umardiyah, 2021).
In addition, this finding is consistent with the findings of Katawazai and Saidalvi (2020) and Alghamdy (2019) that
learning together with peers can enhance learners learning easier. This result also supports a study by Zohrabi and Jafari
(2020), which focused on the role of think-pair-share in enhancing Iranian EFL learners’ communication. Zohrabi and
Jafari (2020 view the think-pair-share as a collaborative teaching activity, and they claim that this think-pair-share
activity is useful for Iranian EFL learners since they become aware of collaborative activities and respond to different
ideas by challenging themselves. In addition, Chan and Idris (2017) also mention that a learning technique in
mathematics should be involved cooperative learning. Since the TTW technique not only helps students find solutions
to difficult mathematics issues, but also assists them in overcoming the challenges they face on daily life.
VI. CONCLUSION
This study revealed the effects of the TTW strategy on Thai EFL students’ learning mathematics in English. Using
the think-talk-write strategy can facilitate the EFL students’ ability to solve mathematical problems in English. The EFL
students revealed that they mostly translated mathematical problems from their first language to English. In addition,
the EFL students used the think-talk-write as a learning strategy to help them overcome learning mathematics in English
by thinking to solve mathematical problems, talking with peers to discuss the mathematics solutions, and writing to
transform their ideas into English written forms.
In conclusion, learning mathematics in English through the use of the think-talk-write can enhance mathematics
communication in English. In other words, EFL students gain opportunities to learn mathematics in English with their
teacher and peers to solve mathematics problems by thinking, talking, and writing in English effectively. This suggests
that think-talk-write should be used to assist EFL students in learning mathematics in English.

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Diosa G. Misme was born in Central Tabao, Valladolid, Negros Occidental, Philippines. She attended
undergrad at La Carlota City College, La Carlota City, Philippines and received a Bachelor’s degree in
Secondary Education, majoring in Mathematics in 2010. She had her first teaching job at Phayao
Municipality School 5 and taught English for three years. This was one of the most challenging times in her
life. She was wrapped up in the differences and similarities, especially in cultural backgrounds and languages.
Then, she moved to one of the prominent schools in the Northern Part of Thailand, namely,
Sammakhiwittayakhom School, Chiangrai and worked there for a year. After that, she decided to return to
Phayao and work at Phayaopittayakhom School as a math Teacher.
Rattana Yawiloeng is a lecturer and the Head of Program Master of Arts in English at the School of Liberal
Arts, the University of Phayao, Thailand. She pursued her B.Ed (English) and M.A. (English) in Thailand.
She received her doctoral degree (PhD in Education) from the University of New South Wales, Sydney,
Australia in 2013. Her teaching and research interests include second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition,
EFL writing, second language acquisition (SLA), teacher and peer scaffolding, self-regulation in sociocultural
theory (SCT), and communication strategies in EFL context.

ISSN 1799-2591
An Investigation Into the Psychological and

Cultural Transformation of an Immigrant Woman
in Bharati Mukherjee's Novel Jasmine
Balaji D
Department of English, School of Social Sciences and Languages, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore – 632014,
Tamil Nadu, India
Thenmozhi M
Department of English, School of Social Sciences and Languages, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore – 632014,
Tamil Nadu, India
Abstract—One of the most prominent Indian Diaspora writers, Bharati Mukherjee often writes about the
difficulties encountered by Indians who migrate to the United States. The struggles of Indian immigrants to
assimilate into the ethos, culture, and people of their adopted country as well as their home country are themes
that permeate her writings. She also emphasizes adaptation and character transformation in her writings.
Migration and ethnic acceptance of expatriates has always been a burning issue with diaspora (Subrahmanian,
2022). Extending this hypothesis, this article analyzes the cultural and psychological denominators
contributing to the protagonist, Jasmine’s diasporic agony as she is exposed to a hostile, aggressive treatment
in the hands of American counterparts. The researcher using a descriptive and analytical methodology
examines the emotional turbulence of Jasmine whose life is only a succession of pain and under-privileged
living in a foreign land in the passage of time.
Index Terms—diaspora, migration, expatriates, psychological, cultural
I. INTRODUCTION
Mukherjee was one of the pioneering authors to depict South Asian Americans in literature. After the Immigration
and Nationality Act of 1965, which ended the quota system, Mukherjee considered the impact of non-European
immigrants on American society. As a prolific writer with a deep insight into the diasporic experience of the expatriate
Indians in America, Mukherjee brings out the inner most pain and anguish that the migrants entailed on the Indian
community in North American province. The topic of the mixed, diasporic character of migratory groups has been a
constant concern throughout her works. The lead characters in Mukherjee's works are outsiders who have chosen to live
their lives in a foreign land (Sankar & Soundararajan, 2017) hold very true and relevant. She predominately focuses on
Asian women immigrants and their experiences of adaptation to a new culture, new surroundings, and a new country.
Due to the complexity of the problems that foreign women experience, Mukherjee has chosen to focus her investigation
of the migrants’ ordeal. Her female protagonists frequently find themselves in precarious situations where they must
learn to adapt to a new culture in order to live. Recognizing her relevance and immense contributions, authors—
including Michael Ondaatje, Amy Tan, Richard Ford, Russell Banks, Ann Beattie, Margaret Atwood, and Joyce Carol
Oates have lauded her works as indispensible masterpieces in the domain of diaspora (Maxey, 2019). With the
publication of Jasmine, Mukherjee has reached the pinnacle of her writing career. As a feminist writer, Mukherjee
dexterously infuses profound vision onto her women characters. The plot of Jasmine is a heart wrenching account of
what happens in the life of Jothi, who assumes dozens of names and false identities in her sheer pursuit of fulfilling her
dead husband’s dream of settling in America. Her American dream becomes only a bubble that burst in no time as
misfortune after misfortune strikes her hard time in and time again, right after her departure from her homeland, Punjab
to her present state of being a desolate in Iowa. Her frantic search from pillar to post for a safe heaven ironically proves
to be a shattered dream. With this brief back ground, this article seeks to investigate the diasporic experience of cultural
and psychological crisis and also attempts to provide insight into the mental and societal adjustments that are required
by an Indian female, immigrating to the United States in order that she might get assimilated into a larger community
and earn a better life.
II. A BRIEF OVERVIEW ABOUT THE INDIAN DIASPORA

Corresponding Author, Email: [email protected]

A. Diasporic Writers
Women authors have added significantly to the canon of literature in the Indian diaspora. Some of the most famous
Indian-American authors include Bharati Mukherjee, Kiran Desai, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Sujata Massey, and
Jhumpa Lahiri. Writers who have left their native countries often draw parallels between the social, cultural, economic,
and psychological issues returning home and the challenges refugees face when settling into a new country. Among
Indian-American women writers, particularly Bharati Mukherjee who writes from comparable perspectives and
frequently discuss comparable experiences (Chatterjee, 2013). All these authors share a strong conviction that a person's
character is founded on the society in which he or she was raised. One's culture is based on the unified way of thinking,
comprehending, assessing, and speaking that one exhibits. Culture consists of an infinite variety of social, ethical, and
moral ideals, standards, symbols, dialects, and information. Culture is the result of human interaction and contains not
only behavioural standards but also systems of religion, traditions, etc.
B. Diasporic Conflict
Some factors that lend character to a culture as it appears in emotive behavior, language, and writing include the
family structure, child raising processes, mythologies, tales, and history. Personality development necessitates the
incorporation of one's group membership, whether overtly or covertly. People who don't adhere to the established social
standards are always labelled as ‘foreigners’ or ‘strangers’ in any community. It's not typical for a group of people to be
able to swiftly and effortlessly adapt to a new society. “Due to the lack of their original culture, immigrants experience
feelings of isolation and alienation” (Rajkumar & Vijayakumar, 2022). The ability to adopt new cultural norms is
crucial in today's globalised world. Individuals who make an effort to overcome language and societal obstacles tend to
achieve their goals. What's important is having the strength to throw off the chains and eliminate these challenges.
When one is deeply embedded in the social and cultural network of their family of origin, they may experience
increased stress and difficulty in their daily lives. Most works written by people of the diaspora exhibit this quality.
C. Existence of Immigrants in a Foreign Land
Simply put, the term ‘diaspora’ refers to the groups of people who have been uprooted from their homelands due to
factors such as colonial growth, empire, trade, business, or the pursuit of improved chances or possibilities. A group's
communal recollection, vision, or story about its birthplace survives the process of relocation. This thinking back on the
past is often put into writing, either poetry or text. People can move from one country to another in two ways:
temporarily and permanently. As a result of the shift in time, the newcomer gains the ability to both reflect on the past
and anticipate the future. As a result, this creates sentiments of longing and loss, as well as themes of resilience and
societal adaptation. Both deterritorialization and reterritorialization are a part of the geographical shift. Because of this,
both physical and cultural territory will be lost while new territory will be gained. It's also possible to juxtapose and
compare things like ‘home’ and ‘foreign,’ ‘familiar’ and ‘strange,’ ‘old’ and ‘new’. Writings from the diaspora often
address issues such as the hardships endured by emigrants, the effects of cultural encounters, the upheavals of migration
and displacement, and the difficulties of adjusting to a new culture. When these authors emphasize the lives of their
characters in their works, they use Indian culture or we can see an aspect of Indianness (Raj, 2021).
III. LITERATURE REVIEW

The text Jasmine is used as the primary source for the analysis of cultural and psychological crisis as experienced by
the female lead Jasmine while library resources, references materials from university library, e-resources from online
databases, scholarly research articles, and dissertation submitted have all been carefully used as the secondary resources.
The ensuing literature review details some of the most important articles published in the given thematic and character
analysis. For the paucity of space, only a few articles published between 2012 and 2022 are considered.
The research article titled “The Cultural and Psychological Emancipation of an Immigrant Woman in Bharati
Mukherjee’s Jasmine” explores the novel's central theme, which centres on a woman's slow cultural and psychological
transformation as she adapts to a new society and forges her own identity in spite of facing many challenges along the
way. As the article's heroine, Jasmine, undergoes a sequence of transformations, we get a glimpse of Mukherjee's
refugee experience (Tamilarasan, 2017). Likewise in the other research article entitled, “Immigrant Experience and
Self-Identity in Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine: A Study” argues for the difficult background and multifaceted culture of
emigrants' children and grandchildren. Their piece also does a thorough cross-examination of Mukherjee's novel
Jasmine, which is set in the United States and follows a young Indian lady called Jasmine as she makes an effort to
assimilate into American culture (Sankar & Soundararajan, 2017). Similarly, Selvi (2017) in her research paper “Cross-
Cultural Conflict in Bharati Mukherjee’s “JASMINE” and “WIFE”, examines the malleability of multicultural
migration, ethnicity, and globalization—the normal central issues of her literary agenda. Through "Jasmine" and "Wife",
she shows us the lives of two young women in the United States who are dealt very distinct hands. The protagonist
endures some of the worst experiences imaginable, but she ultimately prevails over her past by growing as a person,
forging a new identity, and moving on with her life. Likewise in the article named, “The Postcolonial Diaspora: Cross-
Cultural Conflicts in Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine” dealt with the ideas of migration and hybridity in postcolonial
thought are analyzed. These writings address problems brought on by a nomadic people who are neither at home nor

abroad. The refugees are constantly engaged in an inner conflict as they are torn between the attractions of both their
homeland and their new environment (Puri, 2014). Whereas in “The Quest for Female Identity in Bharati Mukherjee's
Novel Jasmine” examines the protagonist's internal conflict, alienation, and even madness as they search for their
identity in the work of Bharati Mukherjee. She spends more time crafting strong female protagonists than she does
masculine ones. Her narrative style is frequently satirical, and this piece focuses primarily on the novel's female heroine,
Jasmine, whose metamorphosis into Jyoti, Jasmine, Jazzy, Jase, and Jane gives her agency over her own deformative
past and gives her a voice (Aarthi & Latha, 2022). Besides, in the “Journey from Exile to Immigration in Bharati
Mukherjee’s Jasmine” mainly interested in how Mukherjee's fictitious work Jasmine relates to her exile and subsequent
immigration. How Bharati Mukherjee's self-identity as a diasporic writer provides a realistic foundation for her
protagonists to get past the identity problem she experienced as a refugee to the United States (Radhakrishnan &
Sivakumar, 2022). Similarly, Ravichandran and Deivasigamani (2013) through their research article “Reflections of
Female Sufferings in Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine and Wife”, explores the female characters' suffering in Bharati
Mukherjee's Jasmine and Wife. Mukherjee's Jasmine follows an Indian lady from her childhood in a remote village in
India to her adult existence in America and her definition of the American Dream. The heroine of Jasmine, whose
names include Jyoti, Jase, Jazzy, and Jane, is constantly being reincarnated as a higher-order being as the story
progresses, seemingly until she finds a place of refuge. Likewise in the article titled, “Aspects of Enculturation and
Acculturation in Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine: An Appraisal”, examines enculturation and acculturation in Indian
English fiction, with special reference to the reflection of the same in Bharati Mukherjee's fictitious world, especially
Jasmine, and from a global viewpoint, introducing readers or fans of literature to global views and cultural variants
(Reddy, 2018). Whereas in the research work tittled, “A Tornado Hitting the Homeland: Disturbing American
Foundational Myths in Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine” analyses the means and processes Mukherjee uses to set the
territory free: First, she mocks the American countryside, showing that the idea of a static, uniquely American setting is
completely fabricated. By recasting the Midwest as an ethnography, she transforms the concept of the "global
metropolis" into the ideal location for a diasporic community, where "the other" can be securely contained "outside" of
the native land (Seeliger, 2020). Similarly, in the article “Cross- Cultural Conflicts in Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine”,
the protagonists destroy themselves because they aren't emotionally stable enough to keep going. Mukherjee's novel's
protagonist, a young woman named Jasmine, travels from India (Punjab) to the United States, where she undergoes a
sequence of encounters designed to shed light on the nuances of cultural friction (California) (Kathoon et al., 2022).
IV. A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CULTURAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TRANSFORMATION IN JASMINE: FINDINGS AND
DISCUSSIONS
Bharati Mukherjee's third novel Jasmine was published in September 1989 and recounts the tale of its titular
protagonist's trip. Jasmine, a rural girl from Hasanpur who defies social conventions related to her background and
gender. After the untimely loss of her spouse, Prakash,
I grieved. I read slokas with swamis in mountainside ashrams. For every fish, there is a fisherman; for every
deer a hunter. For every monster a hero. Our highest mission, said a swami, is to create new life. How many
children do you have? When I bowed my head, he offered prayer (p. 97).
She looks for comfort in realising his dream of a prosperous career in the country of opportunity, the United States of
America. Author uses protagonist's journey to the United States as a springboard for a series of exploits meant to peel
back the layers of cultural clashes. Names like "Jyoti", "Jasmine", "Jazzy", and "Jane" reflect the character's
metamorphosis as she travels from Punjab to California. Jasmine's internal (psychological) and external transformations
are beautifully illustrated by the way she veers between the past and the present as she tries to reconcile her native and
immigrant worlds. Trying to pin down Jasmine's true identity is challenging because she seems to be trapped in a time
warp between the past and the present, the east and the west. “Jasmine constantly "shuttles" in search of a concrete
identity” (Reka, 2011). Numerous episodes in the novel show her erratic and inconsistent approach to understanding
cultural norms. She defies, "an astrologer cupped his ears-his satellite dish to the stars-and foretold my widowhood and
exile" (p. 3) from the nation when she is only seven years old in her Indian hamlet. There is a strong impression that
Jasmine is a renegade and an outlier in every meaning of the word. Despite the astrologer's warnings, she ignores them
and resumes her education with her mother and Masterji's assistance. She takes pleasure in learning and speaking
English, but she has given up her dream of becoming a doctor due to the unexpected changes her life has taken as a
result of the Sikh national movement.
The villagers say when a clay pitcher breaks, you see that the air inside it is the same as outside. Vimla set
herself on fire because she had broken her pitcher; she saw there were no insides and outsides. We are just
shells of the same Absolute (p. 15).
However, her marriage to Prakash, who has a strong desire to continue his education and find employment in the
United States, has given her some hope of detaching herself from the conventional roles of a married woman. By
changing his wife's name from Jyoti to Jasmine, Prakash hopes to transmit his progressive outlook on life to her. This
exemplifies the initial psychological transformation of a country lady.
The protagonist husband's desire to attend the University of Florida is foiled by the Khalsa Lions, a Sikh national
movement, that they kill him in an assault. Despite being depressed by her husband's sudden and unexpected death, she,

unlike the women of her village, remains undeterred and makes persistent efforts to fulfill her husband's dream of
leaving for the United States. Jasmine's self-discovery voyage, which takes her from feudalism to migrancy and
banishment in the West, is characterised by brutality (Dayal, 2017). She also considers committing sati by cremating
her husband's suit in the grounds of the University of Florida. She thinks that by doing so, she will be carrying out the
most respectable task suiting an Indian widow. Soon after, she embarks on her perilous trip to the United States,
arriving on the Florida shore after an extremely dangerous journey. However, another mishap greets her in the motel,
where she is violated by the captain who ferried Jasmine and other refugees to America.
She is enraged by the deceitful and ruthless act of the captain Half-face and plans to end her life, but she quickly
changes her mind because she cannot be retracted from her mission.
What if my mission was not yet over? I didn’t feel the passionate embrace of Lord Yama that could turn a
kerosene flame into a lover’s caress. I could not let my personal dishonor disrupt my mission. There would be
plenty of time to die… I extended my tongue and sliced it (pp. 117-118).
Jasmine, as the goddess Kali, assuages her rage by murdering Half-face. For the second occasion, we see her
character's change. Samir Dayal, an Indian writing expert, claims that "in killing Half-face, she experiences an
epistemic violence that is also a life time transformation" (p. 71). On her very first day in the country of opportunity,
she destroys Half-face and denies her own mortality. She sets off once more into the wild to realise her husband's dream.
She receives assistance from the generous Lilian Gordan, who helps undocumented immigrants and orphans. Jasmine is
now called Jazzy, another moniker she gave the flower. Instead of ignoring these identities and names at different times,
she tries to find a way to get along with them (Tai, 2016). Mrs. Gordan makes profound changes to Jasmine's existence,
both in terms of her body and her outlook on life. The process of her education and subsequent liberation from suffering
has begun. Her memory of her time with American Gordan is forever altered. She distinguishes herself from the other
immigrant and refugee women by quickly adjusting to the instruction on being an American. Within a week of her
rebirth, Jazzy overcomes her reluctance and hopelessness to meet Professor Vadhera, who played a key role in Prakash's
acceptance to the University of Florida.
She is treated like a widow when she was in India at Professor Vadhera's house. She has trouble adjusting to the
Vadhera's Indian culture, which includes their cuisine, entertainment, clothing, language, and sleeping/eating routines
and timetables; this is a common complaint among members of diasporic communities. The following passage from the
text clearly depicts this
I could not admit that I had accustomed myself to American clothes. American clothes disguised my
widowhood. In a T-shirt and cords, I was taken for a student. In this apartment of artificially maintained
Indianness, I wanted to distance myself from everything Indian, everything Jyoti-like. To them, I was a widow
who should show a proper modesty of appearance and attitude. If not, it appeared I was competing with
Nirmala” (p. 145).
While staying at Vadhera's, place, Jasmine experiences a distorted and delayed sense of self. There seems to be
nothing happening in her life anymore, or so she assumes. The lurking inertia and disillusionment of Jasmine is
captured in the following lines too.
I felt myself deteriorating. I had gained so much weight I couldn't get into the cords even when I tried. I
couldn't understand the soap operas. I didn't know the answers to the game shows. And so I cooked, shopped,
and cleaned, tended, the old folks, and made conversation with Professorji when he got home (p. 148).
Moreover, Jasmine is not eager to become involved in a life of domesticity. Mukherjee emphasises the stark contrast
between a social milieu in India where widows are ostracised and a dynamic environment in the United States that
offers them a chance for resurgence through her depiction of Jasmine's alteration in attitude and way of life. “Among
traditional oral stories, myths, and folktales in India” (Parekh, 2017), Jasmine finds the lifestyle at Vadhera's house to
be highly unsatisfactory. She experiences a sense of constriction due to the lack of activity within the home, as it is
completely cut-off from the external world.
This is a standard representation of a 'Third World' as perceived in the West, a 'Third World' in which women are
typically subjugated, oppressed, and silenced. In view of the stagnant nature of life at Vadhera's, she attempts to
separate herself from all aspects of Indian culture and to erase any recollection of her Indian heritage. Consequently, she
elects to escape the conventional Indian lifestyle and atmosphere and immerse herself in the American culture defined
by consumerism. Gurlin Grewal has noted that Jasmine has experienced a significant journey, both in terms of physical
location and mental transformation, from India, a place of stagnation and Yama (death) to America, a place that
symbolises freedom, prosperity, and more open gender identities. Jasmine endeavours to negotiate a situation which
transcends the ghettoization and appears to corroborate Mukherjee's conviction of the advantageous cultural influences
of immigration. She does not perceive any promising possibilities of joy if she persists in her relationship with Vadheras.
Jasmine's right to explore and seek out new experiences may be denied. She is drawn to autonomy and singularity.
In order to take care of the affluent and liberated couple Taylor and Wylie Hayes and their adoptive daughter Duff,
she escapes from Vadhera's and moves to Manhattan, New York. She was rechristened Jase by Taylor and emerged as a
refined American female. In Hayes, we observe a remarkable shift which is not a consequence of any response, but a
result of her own desire for self-transformation. As Jasmine adopts her new identity of Jase, she gradually becomes
more accepting of her own sexuality, something which had been constrained previously. She emphatically declares:

I changed because I wanted to. To bunker oneself inside nostalgia, to sheathe the heart in a bulletproof vest,
was to be a coward. On Claremont Avenue, in the Hayeses’ big, clean, brightly lit apartment, I bloomed from a
diffident alien with forged documents into adventurous Jase (pp. 185-186).
However, Jasmine's mental state is unaffected by Wylie's decision to forsake Taylor in pursuit of greater contentment.
The realisation of the precarious nature of the relationship between men and women in a multicultural country such as
the United States is made possible through her work. Mukherjee effectively utilises her protagonist to illustrate the
complexities of human relationships in an insightful manner.
In America, nothing lasts. I can say that now and it doesn’t shock me, but I think it was the hardest lesson of
all for me to learn. We arrive so eager to learn, to adjust, to participate, only to find the monuments are plastic,
agreements are annulled. Nothing is forever, nothing is so terrible or so wonderful, that it won’t disintegrate (p.
181).
Jasmine's stay at Taylor's allowed her to develop greater mental resilience as well as gain a better appreciation of the
distinct values related to marital relationships compared to those of her homeland. Despite the marked differences, she
has a sense of being inextricably connected to the culture of her adopted homeland. When at the Hayeses, Jasmine
avails herself of the possibilities offered and attempts to make her at home in the new environment. Jasmine ‘s ‘fish-
out-of -water’ experience in the pursuit of fulfilling her dead husband’s desire in a foreign land as an expatriate Indian
woman who stood up against the wall and had to learn the art of adjustment the hard way is vividly observed in the
ensuing passage,
felt lucky. My pillow was dry, a launch pad for lift-off. Taylor, Wylie, and Duff were family. America may be
fluid and built and flimsy, invisible lines of weak gravity, but I was a dense object, I had landed and was
getting rooted. I had controlled my spending and now sat on an account that was rapidly growing. Every day I
was being paid for something new. I'd thought Professorji out in Flushing was exceptional, back when I didn't
have a subway token. Now I saw how easy it was. Since I was spending nothing onfood and rent, the money
was piling up” (p. 179).
Taylor engages in a romantic liaison with Jasmine. Taylor's romanticism quickly dissipated when she concluded that
a street vendor selling hotdogs in her neighbourhood was the perpetrator of her husband's murder. Jasmine's
circumstances have been in a state of continuous transformation throughout the span of her life. As readers, we observe
that her life is characterised by both positive and negative experiences, a life which includes both blessed and cursed
moments. In order to elude detection from the perpetrator of her spouse's demise, she relocated to Iowa, where she
encountered Bud Wipplemeyer, a fifty year old, statuesque, good-looking banker. In the state of Iowa, Jasmine assumed
an alternative persona known as 'Jane'. It explains how her multiple identities have helped her as an immigrant, and it
sheds light on the idea that if one's history is fraught with pain and despair, it's best to let it go and move on (Sukumary,
2015). The development of her racial identity is also demonstrated in the context of Bud's Place. She is perceived as a
known entity in the community in which she resides, rather than an alien.
The formulation of a new understanding of her racial identity holds a fundamental role in Jane's individual identity
construction, allowing her to achieve a sense of assimilation and become the exemplary American that she had long
desired. Following a period of time, Bud was confined to a wheelchair as a consequence of being shot in the back by a
farmer in a state of financial distress due to impending foreclosure and Jane became pregnant whilst endeavouring to
make Bud feel at ease. Evidencing a significant alteration, Jasmine's demeanour has undergone a striking alteration. The
young woman responsible for Half-Face's death for compromising her chastity has now opted to live with an American
man in a state of cohabitation and conceive a child with him, despite having been unmarried. Having successfully
immersed herself in the American family lifestyle, complete with the adoption of children and her own pregnancy, she
awaited the arrival of the true love of her life, which was realised when Taylor arrived. She has come to recognise her
responsibility to herself, in addition to her obligations to others.
Jasmine resolves to reside in faraway California alongside Taylor and Duff, the Hayes' adopted daughter, while
leaving Bud behind. Her decision to pursue her own personal satisfaction is separate from her obligations and
commitments. It is thus manifest that Jasmine forges a novel, negotiated identity. This endeavour seeks to depart from
the colonial legacy. She does not encumber herself with the sentimentality of nostalgia or the inhibiting effects of
memory. She has developed the capacity to travel with minimal possessions, either for the purpose of sustaining her
livelihood or in order to accommodate the customs of a foreign culture. Jasmine's discourse indicates that she appears to
be in a perpetual state of evasion from it: ...I had a past that I was still fleeing. Perhaps still am” (p. 34). As Jasmine's
assimilation into American culture advances, her recollection of her native country fades more and more, and she
endeavours to repress it from her mind.
The female protagonists in Mukherjee's novels, being acutely aware of the liminality of their existence, demonstrate a
heightened consciousness of self in spite of their ever-changing names and identities. The protagonists in her works
experience a considerable amount of anguish while undergoing psychological and cultural metamorphosis, “but most of
this suffering seems to stem from resistance to the hybrid identities they are forced to assume” (Tamilarasan, 2017).
Mukherjee demonstrates via the voyage of Jasmine that those who are able to escape the traditional identity of their
native land and accommodate the culture of their new homeland may be able to achieve success.

Mukherjee posits that immigration is a process of 'gain' as opposed to those who experience a 'loss' in transitioning to
a new culture. The discarding of communal identity in favour of an individual identity, which is ever-changing and
subject to continual transformation and evolution, such as that experienced by both Mukherjee and her protagonist in
Jasmine, can be seen as beneficial. This novel by Bharati Mukherjee unequivocally lauds the vitality of immigration.
Jasmine is motivated by the concept of America to pursue her own aspirations and independent identity, while
simultaneously challenging patriarchal and entrenched conventions. The re-invention of identity through gradual
assimilation into the mainstream is evidenced by the alteration of her name. In her interview with Hancock, Mukherjee
elucidated the process of identity reformation among diasporic communities. “Unhousement is the breaking away from
the culture into which one was born, and in which one’s place in society was assured. Rehousement is the re-rooting of
oneself in a new culture. This requires transformations of the self” (p. 39).
V. CONCLUSION
In this novel, Jasmine is portrayed as a symbolic representation of the ideal of a highly motivated immigrant woman,
acting as a catalyst to inspire other immigrants to embrace their full potential. Mukherjee has articulated in her
interviews that she places greater value on Indian immigrant women than on Indian immigrant men. She elucidates that
women experience a more profound psychological evolution, whereas men strive to acquire financial success and
repatriate to India. Jasmine must reconcile her ethnic identity when global ideals prevail (Aarthi & Latha, 2022). She
serves as a representation of the psychological transformation being undergone by Indian woman simultaneously; she
undergoes multiple rebirths as evidenced by the different identities and titles she assumes. Jasmine's acceptance of what
she perceives to be American culture, along with her subsequent recognition of her own desires, is viewed by
Mukherjee as a significant achievement in the life of an Indian immigrant woman. Jasmine's manifestations as Jyoti,
Jasmine, Jazzy, Jase and Jane can be seen as exemplifying the stages of her ongoing process of self-identification, each
stage demonstrating her engagement with the cultural elements that shape her. In addition, recent analysis of Jasmine by
Bharati Muhkerjee has focused on the novel's representation of refugee pain and the natural flaws of a foreign country.
As a result, psychological and cultural emancipation remain largely unexplored, which also opens the door for new
research.
REFERENCES
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and Linguistic Studies, 17(3), 1974-1976.
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Jasmine. IJRAR-International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews (IJRAR), 9(2), 317-322.
[5] Maxey, R. (2019). Understanding Bharati Mukherjee, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvgs0bhh.5
[6] Mukherjee Bharati. (1989). Jasmine. NewYork: Grove Press.
[7] Parekh, P. N. (2017). Telling her tale: Narrative voice and gender roles in Bharati Mukherjee’s jasmine. Bharati Mukherjee,
109–126. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315269993-6
[8] Puri, C. (2014). The Postcolonial Diaspora: Cross-Cultural Conflicts in Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine. IRWLE, 10, 1-4.
[9] Radhakrishnan, V., & Sivakumar, K. (2022). Journey from Exile to Immigration in Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine. Journal of
Language and Linguistic Studies, 17(4), 2960-2964.
[10] Raj, A. (2021). Multiculturalist aspect in Bharathi Mukherjee’s jasmine and Chitra Banerjee divakaruni’s arranged marriage.
International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, 6(3), 322–325. https://doi.org/10.22161/ijels.63.45
[11] Rajkumar, S., & Vijayakumar, M. (2023). The Portrayal of Homeland Reminiscences in Sunetra Gupta’s Memories of Rain
and A Sin of Colour. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 13(1), 42-49.https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1301.06
[12] Ravichandran, M., & Deivasigamani, T. (2013). Reflections of Female Sufferings in Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine and Wife.
The Criterion an International Journal in English, 4(4), 1–6.
[13] Reddy, N. K. (2018). Aspects of Enculturation and Acculturation in Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine: An Appraisal. International
Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews, 5(3), 520–524.
[14] Reka, V. V. (2011). Perspectives of Transformation in Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine. Strength for Today and Bright Hope for
Tomorrow Volume 11: 7 July 2011, 256-262.
[15] Sankar, G., & Soundararajan, R. (2017). Immigrant experience and self-identity in Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine: A study.
Scholedge International Journal of Multidisciplinary & Allied Studies ISSN 2394-336X, 4(2), 10.
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[16] Seeliger, H.-J. (2020). A tornado hitting the homeland: Disturbing American foundational myths in Bharati Mukherjee’s
jasmine. Humanities, 9(3), 112. https://doi.org/10.3390/h9030112
[17] Selvi, T. T. (2017). Cross-Cultural Conflict in Bharati Mukherjee’s “JASMINE” and “WIFE.” Research Journal of English
Language and Literature (RJELAL) A Peer Reviewed (Refereed) International Journal, Vol.5 (Issue 2), 254–256.
[18] Shin Tai, C. (2016). Metamorphosing Jasmine: Identity sorting in Bharati Mukherjee’s jasmine. International Journal of Social
Science and Humanity, 6(1), 65–71. https://doi.org/10.7763/ijssh.2016.v6.620

[19] Subrahmanian, M. (2022). Socio-cultural traits and gender elements: An analysis through Indian diaspora in Germany. The
Center for Asia and Diaspora, 12(2), 175–208. https://doi.org/10.15519/dcc.2022.08.12.2.175
[20] Sukumary, A. (2015). An analysis of the identity transformations and the survival of an immigrant in Bharati Mukherjee’s
‘jasmine.’ International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics, 1(1), 70–73. https://doi.org/10.7763/ijlll.2015.v1.15
[21] Tamilarasan, P. (2017). “‘The Cultural and Psychological Emancipation of an Immigrant Woman in Bharati Mukherjee’s
Jasmine’”, The Criterion an International Journal in English, Vol.8 (Issue-II), pp. 535–542.
D. Balaji is a Research Scholar in the Department of English, School of Social Sciences and Languages, Vellore Institute of
Technology, Vellore, Tamilnadu. He has published five of his research articles in reputed international journals. He is currently doing
his research in Indian Diaspora Literature. His broad area of interest includes teaching literature.
M. Thenmozhi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, School of Social Sciences and Languages, Vellore Institute
of Technology, Vellore, Tamilnadu. She has published many scholarly articles both in journals of national and international repute to
her credit. Her research interests include Indian Writing in English, Post-colonial Studies, and Feminism etc... She has authored a few
books and several book chapters. She can be reached at [email protected].

ISSN 1799-2591
Comparative Images in Vietnamese Perception

Through Idioms With Comparisons
Dang Nguyen Giang
Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Labour and Social Affairs, Hanoi, Vietnam
Abstract—Idioms are considered special linguistic units that represent national cultures and views (Giang,
2023). Idioms with comparisons are a type of idioms commonly used in Vietnamese communications.
Comparative images of these idioms derive from their component parts implicitly containing typical cultural
characteristics and unique perception of Vietnamese people. This paper is concerned with comparative images
in Vietnamese perception through idioms with comparisons from a cultural perspective. A hand search of
Vietnamese idiom dictionaries helped to establish a corpus of 731 idioms with comparisons, from which
comparative image groups were identified. It was found that comparative images of Vietnamese idioms with
comparisons come from humans, animals, objects and materials, natural phenomena, food, and plants. The
diversity of comparative images of idioms with comparisons is a mirror that reflects not only the geographical
and natural characteristics of Vietnam but also Vietnamese people’s rich material and spiritual lives.
Index Terms—idioms with comparisons, comparative images, Vietnamese perception, culture, component
parts
I. INTRODUCTION
Hanh (2008) stated that there have been three approaches in studying idioms in Vietnam. First, investigations on
idioms under etymology are research projects of macro field. These studies discover the formation and transformation
of each idiom during its existence; in other words, the origins of idioms are recovered in order to make the forms and
the idiomatic meanings transparent. The second approach in studying idioms is synchronic evolution. Research on
idioms from this approach provides underlying cultural factors that govern the formation of idioms. Studying idioms
under contrastive analysis is the third approach in which original recovery and synchronic evolution are the
backgrounds for contrastive analysis works. Several attempts have been made to work out the similarities and
differences between Vietnamese and another language, especially English, in terms of idioms. These in-depth
investigations of idioms offer excellent opportunities for cross-language comparison and analysis.
According to Giang (2018), Vietnamese idioms have been investigated from both traditional and cognitive views.
Those scholars who dropped the traditional view emphasize the fixation of idioms. They mean that idioms are
unpredictable or non-compositional. Scholars who adopt the cognitive view focus on the ability to analyze idiomatic
meanings from component parts forming idioms. It is believed that most idioms can be analyzable and have meanings
that are at least partly motivated.
Menh (1986) and Chau (1981) supposed that idioms are available linguistic units which have stable structures,
typical meanings and nominative functions. Dan’s (1986) definition showed that an idiom is “a fixed group of words
having a complete meaning and descriptive value” (p. 8). He also added that idioms express concepts based on
separated images. Thus, idioms usually have their own figurative meanings. Similar to Dan (1986), Hanh (2008, p. 31)
considered an idiom as “a fixed group of words which is firm in terms of structure, complete and figurative in terms of
meaning, and is widely used in daily speaking”. More specifically, Giang (2018) defined that an idiom: (i) is a fixed
unit whose component parts cannot be varied or varied under definable control; (ii) is regarded as a complex scene with
a bipartite semantic structure: a literal reading and an idiomatic meaning; (iii) has the meaning which is usually
different from the meanings of the combination of its components; (iv) expresses a pure concept. Then, he divided
Vietnamese idioms into three categories: idioms with pairs, idioms with comparisons and idioms with ordinary rules.
Giang also carried out an investigation into contents of idioms with comparisons in Vietnamese in 2022. However,
comparative images exposing the degree, the manner or the attribute of contents of idioms with comparisons were not
investigated. In the present study, comparative images in Vietnamese perception through idioms with comparisons will
be described and analysed from a perspective of culture.
II. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

A. Idioms from Different Views
Traditionally, several authors such as Menh (1972), Dan (1986), Duc (1995), Hanh (2008) and Luc and Dang (2009)
assumed that idioms are unpredictable or non-compositional. The idiomatic meaning of an idiom cannot be captured

although the meaning and syntactic properties of each word of that idiom have been learned. By this, it means that the
meaning of an idiom cannot be derived from the meanings of its component parts.
The meaning of an idiom in Hanh (2008) is not the result of the compositional function of its component parts. An
idiom is regarded as a single lexeme that is non-correlative in its syntax and therefore non-literal in terms of its
constituents. For instance, mìchính cánh ‘monosodium glutamate’ is an idiom which can be paraphrasable as “valuable
and rare”. The idiomatic meaning of this idiom seems to have no link with the literal meaning and syntactic properties
of the idiom. In other words, the meaning of an idiom is the special chemical mixture of all components’ meanings,
which is totally new in quality.
From a cognitive view, Giang (2018) believed that most idioms in Vietnamese can be analyzable and have meanings
that are at least partly motivated. Based on the classification of idioms by Fernando and Flavell (1981), Giang (2018)
divided Vietnamese idioms into four categories: transparent (all components are explicit), semi-transparent (some
components are explicit and the others are implicit), semi-opaque (all components are implicit but possibly
interpretable), and opaque (all components are implicit). This classification reveals that Vietnamese idioms appear from
totally transparent to totally opaque. In fact, most idioms are motivated by cognitive – semantic mechanisms such as
metaphors, metonymies and conventional knowledge (Gibbs, 1995). Tức nổ mắt ‘angry explode eyes’ [become
extremely angry], tức nổ ruột ‘angry explode intestine’ [become extremely angry], and tức lòi con ngươi ‘angry
protrude pupils’ [become extremely angry] are called “anger idioms” which are widely motivated by conceptual
metaphors. ANGER IS HEATED FLUID IN A CONTAINER is a conceptual metaphor that can activate the linguistic
realizations of the anger emotion. Therefore, the figurative meanings of most idioms are not arbitrary.
Language in Zhang (2007) is a reflection of culture and culture directly shapes the formation of language. Idioms are
considered an important part of the language and culture of a society. In discovery into the unknown world, idioms
reflect the transformation in conceptualization of the world around and the association between the human beings and
the universe (Giang, 2018). Therefore, idioms, as a form of a language, represent culture in a concentrated way. Binh
(1999) found that geographical feature, living circumstance, mode of production, culture and national thought define the
properties of idioms of each language. Similarly, Lan (2001) emphasized the role of the national thought in defining the
images compared by giving a comparative table among Vietnamese, English and Russian in terms of idioms with
comparisons. From this table, she commented that the images used to compare are very popular things in everyday lives
of the people in each nation. Additionally, Hanh (2008) did not only pay attention to structural properties, he also
particularly focused on the use and artistic value of Vietnamese idioms. From a cultural perspective, he said that
underlying cultural factors behind idioms need uncovering.
The formation mechanism of Vietnamese idioms is generally motivated by external semantic cognition including
metaphors, metonymies and conventional knowledge (Giang, 2018). It is a natural process involving the human
perception about the world around (including natural world, social world and imaginative world) through comparative
images. This formation is also affected by several underlying factors such as living circumstance, historical allusion,
religions and beliefs, traditions and customs, etc.
B. Classification of Idioms
There has been a great number of works classifying Vietnamese idioms (e.g., Luc & Dang, 1978; Tu, 1983; Duc,
1995; Hanh, 2008; Giang, 2018, 2021). Luc and Dang (1978) proposed a division of Vietnamese idioms according to
the number of words forming idioms as well as their compositions. They gave seven types of idioms: idioms with three
single words or more, idioms with a single word and a compound, idioms with two compounds, idioms as simple
sentences, idioms with alliterations or compounds, idioms with symmetrical comparisons, and idioms with summary
comparisons. Relying on the expressing functions of idioms, Tu (1983) addressed Vietnamese idioms and identified
three major types of semantic functions that idioms fulfil: idioms expressing things, idioms expressing properties, and
idioms expressing activities.
Vietnamese idioms, in Duc’s (1995) categorization under the symmetrical properties, are divided into three main
groups: idioms with symmetrical patterns, idioms with comparison patterns, and idioms with non-symmetrical patterns.
Sharing much with that of Duc (1995), Hanh (2008) classified Vietnamese idioms into three main categories according
to their compositions and formation of idiomatic meanings: symmetrical figurative idioms, non-symmetrical figurative
idioms, and similized idioms. Linguistically, this classification of idioms in Vietnamese is regarded as a comprehensive
one because it is based on both structural and semantic properties showing the nature of idioms. However, Giang (2021)
claimed that Hanh’s classification is not based on a consistent criterion and he divided Vietnamese idioms into three
categories: idioms with pairs (e.g., buôn gian bán lận ‘trade fraudulent sell fraudulent’ [cheat in commerce]), idioms
with comparisons (e.g., nói như vẹt ‘speak like a parrot’ [be talkative], and idioms with ordinary rules (e.g., gửi trứng
cho ác ‘give eggs to crow’ [believe in wicked people]).
C. Idioms With Comparisons
Hanh (2008) regarded Vietnamese idioms with comparisons as fixed groups of words coming from comparative
structures and having figurative meanings such as khỏe như vâm ‘as strong as an elephant’ [very strong], như cá nằm
trên thớt ‘like a fish on a chopping-board’ [in a dangerous situation], nhảy như choi choi ‘jump up and down like a
plover’ [jump up and down continuously], etc. In terms of composition, an idiomatic comparison is similar to an

ordinary one; however, they are different from each other in some ways. An ordinary comparison refers to two things
belonging to the same category to show the degree of their similarity or difference. For example, “Hue đẹp như chị gái
mì nh [Hue is as beautiful as her sister]” is an ordinary comparison since it refers to two people of the same category.
Hue’s sister is beautiful and Hue is beautiful, too, but we do not know how beautiful Hue is. On the contrary, an
idiomatic comparison involves one thing which is put in the same line with another of a different category to emphasize
or exaggerate certain properties. Let’s have a look at “Hue đẹp như tiên [Hue is as beautiful as a fairy]”. This sentence
is an idiomatic comparison in which the comparison is made between Hue and a fairy. It shows how beautiful Hue is
because it is compared to the fairy’s beauty.
Idioms with comparisons are a popular type of idioms in Vietnamese. They are realized by three component parts,
namely contents of comparison, comparative images and connectors of comparison, in which the comparative images
are the symbols making the contents of comparison explicit (Giang, 2022). In đẹp như tiên ‘as beautiful as a fairy’ [very
beautiful], đẹp (beautiful) is the content of comparison; tiên (a fairy) is the comparative image; như (as…as/like) is the
connector of comparison. In addition, tày (as/like), bằng (as/like) and tựa (as/like) are also the connectors of
comparison in some cases. According to Giang (2022), contents of comparison appearing at the same time with the
comparative images and connectors of comparison are called closed contents of comparison; contents of comparison
that do not appear with the comparative images and connectors of comparison are open. The comparative images
usually show the degree, the manner or the attribute of contents of comparison.
III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This study gives an in-depth discussion of comparative images in Vietnamese perception through idioms with
comparisons; therefore, it is considered a descriptive study. According to Wisker (2001), the aims of descriptive
research are to learn more about a phenomenon and to capture the phenomenon with detailed information. Wisker (2001)
also explained that descriptive research attempts to determine, describe or identify what is. It means that in descriptive
research, description, classification, measurement and comparison are used to describe what phenomena are. This study
presents the theoretical background of Vietnamese idioms in general and idioms with comparisons via their comparative
images in particular, which are illustrated by examples along with explanations and discussion, and then concluding
remarks are given by means of deductive reasoning.
The data collection instrument employed in the study was a hand search of Vietnamese idiom dictionaries. According
to Anshen and Aronoff (1999), dictionaries are valuable instruments for the scientific research of languages because of
their ‘objective and readily verifiable reference’ (Neumann, 2001). Vietnamese idioms with comparisons are taken from
five standard lexicographical works (current dictionaries). The collected data forms a corpus of 731 idioms with
comparisons in a Word file, stored under different headings according to the comparative images investigated:
comparative images from (1) humans, (2) animals, (3) objects and materials, (4) natural phenomena, (5) food and (6)
plants.
After the data was collected and classified, the comparative images on which the idioms with comparisons are based
were described and analysed. Six comparative image groups were found in the corpus. In each group, comments are
illustrated by examples with explanations and discussion. In this study, Vietnamese idioms in general and idioms with
comparisons in particular first had to be translated into English. However, there are several Vietnamese idioms for
which English equivalents could not be found. In order to maintain consistency in translation, both word-for-word and
paraphrase (Baker, 1992) are used as the translation strategies. Word-for-word translation would help to indicate the
actual words in the source language, and the idiomatic meanings of idioms would be kept by paraphrase.
IV. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

An investigation of five Vietnamese idiom dictionaries was carried out in this study, and 731 idioms with
comparisons were collected. Within this corpus, comparative image groups were identified. Table 1 shows the results
for Vietnamese idioms with comparisons classified according to the comparative image groups, consecutively arranged
from the largest number of idioms to the least. It can be seen that comparative images from humans, animals, and
objects and materials are in the largest percentages of idioms (41.18%, 27.09%, and 16.00%, respectively). 6.84% of
idioms with comparisons possess comparative images from natural phenomena. Comparative images from food, and
plants have lowest percentages of idioms, with a total of 8.89%.
TABLE 1
COMPARATIVE IMAGES IN VIETNAMESE PERCEPTION THROUGH IDIOMS WITH COMPARISONS
No Comparative images in Vietnamese perception Number of idioms with comparisons %
1 Comparative images from humans 301 41.18
2 Comparative images from animals 198 27.09
3 Comparative images from objects and materials 117 16.00
4 Comparative images from natural phenomena 50 6.84
5 Comparative images from food 33 4.51
6 Comparative images from plants 32 4.38
Total 731 100

A. Comparative Images From Humans

Humans in the present study include specific people, body parts, occupations, activities, religions, beliefs and
historical allusion. Comparative images from specific people such as ông cụ bảy mươi (a seventy years old man) in lụ
khụ như ông cụ bảy mươi ‘as senescent as a seventy years old man’ [old and weak], mẹ ranh (a young mother) in léo
nhéo như mẹ ranh ‘as shrill as a young mother’ [talking too much makes the others annoyed], hủi (a leper) in bẩn như
hủi ‘as dirty as a leper’ [very dirty], and cụ non (a little old fellow) in nói như cụ non ‘speak like a little old fellow’ [be
well-spoken despite being very young]. There are some body parts appearing in several idioms with comparisons. For
example, the palm of the hand is shallow, which shows the degree of cạn (shallow) in cạn như lòng bàn tay ‘as shallow
as the palm of the hand’ [be shallow in thought]. Other body parts such as fingers, hands, teeth, tongues and bowels are
also the comparative images of several contents of comparison. These comparative images represent the figures, the
functions or the attributes of the body parts.
Vietnamese people have many traditional occupations, each of which has its own characteristics. Thợ đấu in ăn như
thợ đấu are the people who work as diggers. Digging is a hard work; hence, diggers must be in good health and often
eat quickly and a lot. This comparative image indicates the degree and the manner of ăn (eat) in ăn như thợ đấu ‘eat like
a digger’ [eat quickly and a lot]. Some other jobs such as boatman, rice-hulling mill maker and blacksmith are also
found in the comparative images of idioms in the corpus.
Comparative images from human activities account for a very large number. These activities in the comparative
images often come from Vietnamese society in the past. Let’s have a look at cãi nhau như mổ bò ‘argue like butchering
a cow’. Cows were previously raised for pulling power, not for meat. Most of the cows that were slaughtered were old
and weak. They were no longer able to work and reproduce. Slaughtering pigs, chickens or dogs was the work within
the families or the relatives. However, butchering a cow was a big deal, the work of the whole village. Because
slaughtering cows was not a regular job, there were very few skilled people for the job. This work would be done by
some so-called know-how men with the help of the others. In fact, the activities to kill a cow such as tripping, tying,
using a hammer to stun its head, and then urgently cutting its neck for blood before the poor animal died were not easy.
The more people participated, the more opinions were given. Therefore, there were often noisy quarrels right from the
beginning of the work. By the time the cow was skinned and butchered, many onlookers around also made a lot of noise.
Accordingly, cãi nhau như mổ bò which means “argue loudly” is often used with critical view.
Although Vietnam is a multi-religious country, Buddhism has the most influence on Vietnamese culture. A large
number of Vietnamese words and idioms derived from Buddhism indicate this influence. There are many comparative
images associated with pagodas, temples, shrines and characters appearing there: e.g., vắng như chùa Bà Đanh ‘as quiet
as Bà Đanh pagoda’ [very quiet and deserted], lừ đừ như ông từ vào đền ‘as sluggish as a temple keeper’ [very
sluggish], to như Hộ Pháp ‘as big as a Colossus’ [very big], hiền như Bụt ‘as kind as Buddha’ [very kind], etc. Bà Đanh
is a pagoda in Ha Nam province of Vietnam. It is located in a secluded location, which is surrounded by rivers and
forests. In the past, there used to be wild animals, so it was dangerous to enter the pagoda by going through the forests.
The only safe way was to row a boat across Đáy River, which was very inconvenient, and the pilgrims were sparse.
Therefore, Bà Đanh pagoda is used as a comparative image showing the degree of vắng (quiet). Besides, for
Vietnamese people, the underworld is always believed to be the place where people will live after deaths. In fact,
several imaginary characters and scenes from the underworld appear in idioms as comparative images: e.g., tối như cửa
địa ngục ‘as dark as hell’ [very dark], chiều như chiều vong ‘pamper like pampering manes’ [pamper somebody], giục
như giục tà ‘urge like urging evil spirits’ [urge somebody to do something], nhấm nhẳng như chó cắn ma ‘speak as a
dog barks at ghosts’ [talk to somebody with anger and annoyance], etc.
Vietnam has a history of more than four thousand years, in which there have been a series of important historical
events. During the long history, Vietnamese people have had many unique stories and anecdotes about different
historical figures. This is a rich and diverse source of comparative images, from which several idioms with comparisons
have been formed: e.g., nợ như Chúa Chổm ‘owe like King Chổm’ [owe a lot of people], giàu như Thạch Sùng ‘as rich
as Thạch Sùng’ [very rich], như vợ chồng Ngâu ‘like the Ngâu’ [a separation of husband and wife], etc. Nợ như Chúa
Chổm is an idiom related to an anecdote in the past. This anecdote concerns a historical figure called King Chổm. That
was Mr. LêDuy Ninh, i.e. King LêTrang Tông, son of King LêChiêu Tông and a woman. When LêDuy Ninh was
born, his mother named him "Chổm". King Lê Chiêu Tông was usurped and Chổm was brought up by his mother in the
society. He was very poor, thus, he borrowed money from a lot of people for food year after year. Then, when the Lê
Dynasty was restored, Chổm was brought back to the capital to take the throne. Once, when going through the former
hometown, many people recognized him and came to collect the debts. King Chổm did not remember how much and
who he owed, so he told his soldiers to mint coins and scatter them on the roads. Whoever found the coins could keep
them. It was the way King Chổm repaid the people he owed. This comparative image made nợ như Chúa Chổm mean
“owe a lot of people”.
B. Comparative Images From Animals
Vietnam is a country located in Southeast Asia with a long coastline stretching from North to South. Three-fourth of
Vietnam's territory is mountainous and the rest is plain. It is also the country which owns vast deltas with several rivers.
The diverse terrain combined with the tropical monsoon climate makes the fauna in Vietnam very rich. Many animals

have appeared in Vietnamese idioms, especially idioms with comparisons. Comparative images directed by Vietnamese
people include both aquatic and terrestrial animals. Aquatic animals mainly live in rivers, streams, ponds and lakes such
as snails, crabs, leeches, loaches, mussels, fiddlers, etc. Terrestrial animals include domestic animals such as dogs, cats,
chickens, buffaloes, cows, pigs, etc. and wild animals such as tigers, bears, crows, cranes, shrews, etc. Below are
examples for illustration:
(i) Comparative images from aquatic animals: e.g., lẩn như chạch ‘sneak away like a loach’ [sneak away in a quik
way], câm như hến ‘as mute as a mussel’ [speak nothing], dai như đỉa ‘as obstinate as a leech’ [very obstinate], ngang
như cua ‘as stubborn as a crab’ [very stubborn], etc.
(ii) Comparative images from terrestrial animals: e.g., béo như lợn ‘as fat as a pig’ [very fat], ngu như bò ‘as stupid
as a cow’ [very silly], khỏe như trâu ‘as strong as a buffalo’ [very strong], cao như sếu [as tall as a crane’ [very tall], hôi
như chuột chù‘as smelly as a shrew’ [very smelly], etc.
Comparative images from animals are used to show the degree or the manner of contents of comparison. The degree
is expressed through animals’ appearance and characteristics. Cao như sếu [as tall as a crane’ [very tall] is an idiom in
which the height of a crane represents the degree of cao (tall). The nature of a slug is to move very slowly and this
property is the degree of chậm (slow) in chậm như sên ‘as slow as a slug’ [very slow]. The manner is expressed through
animals’ activities. How a cat watches for a mouse shows the manner of rì nh (watch for) in rình như mèo rình chuột
‘watch for as a cat watches for a mouse’ [watch for something or someone].
Vietnamese people do not appreciate some animals such as dogs, pigs and cows; therefore, these animals are often
found in idioms with offensive meanings: e.g., ngu như chó ‘as stupid as a dog’ [very stupid], ngu như lợn ‘as stupid as
a pig’ [very stupid], ngu như bò ‘as stupid as a cow’ [very stupid], etc. This explains why Vietnamese people will feel
humiliated and insulted when they are compared to dogs, pigs or cows. Bees, squirrels and starlings are few of the
animals that appear in comparative images with positive meanings. Chăm chỉ như con ong ‘as assiduous as a bee’ [very
assiduous], nhanh như sóc ‘as fast as a squirrel’ [very fast] and vui như sáo ‘as happy as a starling’ [very happy] are the
examples.
C. Comparative Images From Objects and Materials
Vietnam is a country which has agricultural imprints with familiar items to farmers such as cái bồ sứt cạp (a bamboo
basket with the broken rim) in to như bồ sứt cạp ‘as big as a bamboo basket with the broken rim’ [very big], cái vại (a
jar) in bình chân như vại ‘as unruffled as a jar’ [stay unruffled], and cái kiềng ba chân (a tripod) in vững như kiềng ba
chân ‘as steady as a tripod’ [very steady]. Comparative images can be the shapes, the parts, the colors, the functions or
the features of the objects. Kiềng ba chân is an iron tool with three legs, on which pots or pans can be put for cooking.
Because this tool has three legs and is made of iron, it is very steady no matter where it is placed. This is an image that
shows how steady the content of comparison (steady) in vững như kiềng ba chân ‘as steady as a tripod’ [very steady] is.
Sắc như dao cau is another example. Dao cau is a small sharp knife used for cutting areca-nuts. The comparative image
of this item shows the degree of sắc (sharp) in sắc như dao cau ‘as sharp as a knife for cutting areca-nuts’ [very sharp].
Sắc như dao cau sometimes indicates “sharp eyes”.
In addition, comparative images from materials are also used in many idioms with comparisons. The degree of
comparative contents is shown through the colors or the properties of materials compared such as coal is black, iron is
hard, velvet is soft, glue is sticky, etc.: e.g., đen như than ‘as black as coal’ [very black], cứng như sắt ‘as hard as iron’
[very hard], êm như nhung ‘as soft as velvet’ [very soft], dính như keo ‘as sticky as glue’ [very sticky], etc.
D. Comparative Images From Natural Phenomena
Vietnam is located in the tropical monsoon climate zone (humid and drizzly in spring; hot and rainy in summer; cool
in autumn; cold and dry in winter). Diverse climatic conditions have directly affected Vietnamese perception in using
comparative images in idioms with comparisons. In fact, there are several idioms with comparative images showing
weather phenomena; for example, nhanh như gió ‘as fast as wind’ [very fast], nhanh như chớp ‘as quick as lightning
[very quick], ngáy như sấm ‘snore like thunder’ [snore loudly], bắn như mưa ‘shoot like a shower’ [shoot a lot and
continuously], mạnh nhữ vũ bão ‘as powerful as a storm’ [very powerful], etc. In addition to comparative images of
weather, Vietnamese people also refer to other natural phenomena related to moon, sun, stars, water, etc. Đang lên như
nước thuỷ triều ‘rise like tides’ [advance in one’s career], lơ thơ như sao buổi sớm ‘as sparse as stars in the early
mornings’ [very few] and đông như nước chảy ‘as crowded as running water’ [very crowded] are the examples.
Comparative images from natural phenomena indicate the degree or the attribute of contents of comparison. Wind
speed represents the degree of nhanh (fast) in nhanh như gió ‘as fast as wind’ [very fast]. Sét đánh (thunderbolt) shows
the attribute of comparative content in như sét đánh ‘like a thunderbolt’ [strongly affected].
E. Comparative Images From Food
In Vietnam, rice is cultivated in most regions, and it is considered the main food in daily meals. Therefore, it is not
surprising that several comparative images come from rice-based dishes: e.g., chán ngán như cơm nếp nát ‘feel sick of
somebody/something like clammy sticky rice’ [feel sick of somebody/something], láo nháo như cháo trộn cơm ‘get
confused like soup and rice mixed’ [very confused], mềm như bún ‘as soft as rice vermicelli’ [very soft], rời rạc như
cơm nguội ‘as desultory as cold rice’ [very desultory], etc. The dishes that appear in comparative images are mostly

popular such as mắm tôm (shrimp paste) in gắt như mắm tôm ‘as grouchy as shrimp paste’ [very grouchy], canh hẹ
(shallot soup) in rối như canh hẹ ‘as complicated as shallot soup’ [confusing and complicated problems], cơm nếp
(sticky rice) in chán như cơm nếp nát ‘feel sick of somebody/something like clammy sticky rice’ [feel sick of
somebody/something], bánh chưng (square glutinous rice cake) in dửng dưng như bánh chưng ngày tết ‘as indifferent
as Bánh chưng at Tet’ [very indifferent], etc.
Bánh chưng (square glutinous rice cake) is a traditional dish indispensable at Tết (Vietnmaese Lunar New Year).
This food is very delicious. However, every family has bánh chưng on Tết holidays, and it is so popular that people feel
indifferent to this kind of cake. It is why dửng dưng như bánh chưng ngày tết means “very indifferent”. Another
example, in which the degree of comparative content is from the appearance of the dish, is rối như canh hẹ ‘as
complicated as shallot soup’ [confusing and complicated problems]. Canh hẹ is a soup made from shallot leaves and
eggs. Shallot leaves are long, thin and tough; thus, they are tangled together when cooked. This comparative image
helps to think of confusing and complicated problems like shallot leaves tangled together in a bowl of soup.
F. Comparative Images From Plants
Like the fauna, the flora in Vietnam is very rich and many kinds of plants appear in idioms with comparisons.
Comparative images come from food plants, fruit trees, wild plants, medicinal plants, vegetables, etc. Some plants are
compared as a whole such as nhẹ như bấc ‘as light as a rush’ [very light], ngọt như mía ‘as sweet as a sugar-cane’ [very
sweet], and run như cây sậy ‘shake like a reed’ [shake with fright]. Most of comparative images are mainly from parts
of the tree such as stems, fruits, bulbs, leaves and flowers: e.g., đỏ như gấc ‘as red as a gac fruit’ [very red], lành như củ
khoai ‘as gentle as a bulb of batata’ [very gentle], đen như củ súng ‘as black as a bulb of water lily’ [black skin], etc.
The degree of the comparative contents is based on the characteristics of plants such as shape, color, taste, price,
growing condition, etc. Chilli is hot, and its taste represents the degree of cay (hot) in cay như ớt ‘as hot as chilli’ [very
hot]. Rice leaves are long and thin. This image shows how thin the comparative content is in mỏng như lá lúa ‘as thin as
a rice leaf’ [very thin]. In some cases, comparative images are parts of the tree in general without indicating any specific
plants such as đẹp như hoa ‘as beautiful as a flower [very beautiful], xanh như lá ‘as green as a leaf [very green] and trẻ
như búp ‘as young as a bud’ [very young].
V. CONCLUSION
Idioms which are considered the crystals of a language mirror human wisdom in the process of world perception
(Zhang, 2007). The formation mechanism of idiomatic meanings is generally motivated by “external semantic
cognition’, i.e. it is the process of human perception of the world around (including natural world, social world and
imaginative world) through images (Giang, 2018). Specifically, idioms with comparisons represent Vietnamese
comparative perception of what they have experienced. These idioms are realized by three component parts, namely
contents of comparison, comparative images and connectors of comparison. Contents of comparison are usually explicit;
therefore, the idiomatic meanings are mainly from comparative images associated with humans, animals, objects and
materials, natural phenomena, food, and plants. Comparative images from humans, animals, objects and materials in the
largest number show that Vietnamese people’s lives are colorful and idioms with comparisons correspondently reflect
their lives. With creative perception of the world around, Vietnamese people have created an extremely rich corpus of
idioms containing their living knowledge and cultural values.
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Dang Nguyen Giang is a lecturer and currently the Deputy Dean of Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Labour and
Social Affairs, Hanoi, Vietnam. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in English from Thai Nguyen University, his Master’s degree in
English Linguistics from University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS) and his Ph.D. in English Linguistics from
Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU-HN). His research interests include Idioms in English and Vietnamese, Contrastive
Linguistics and English Language Teaching.

ISSN 1799-2591
Role of Learning Environment in Arabic as a

Foreign Language in Saudi Arabia
Danya Shaalan
Department of Applied Linguistics, College of Languages, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia
Abstract—The second-language learning environment (L2LE) plays an important role in successful second
language (L2) learning achievement. Studies in English as a foreign language (EFL) found that when learners
feel anxiety or negative emotions in the L2LE, it reduces their willingness to communicate (WTC), and this
could impede their L2 achievement. Although it is likely that the L2LE has a similar impact on Arabic as a
foreign language (AFL), there is a lack of research that focuses on the role of the Arabic L2LE. The Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has organized Arabic Learning Institutes (ALIs) that teach AFL to foreign students on
government scholarship studying in KSA’s higher education institutions. The aim of this study was to develop,
pilot, and evaluate the validity and reliability of an instrument to measure the influence of the Arabic L2LE in
AFL learners at KSA’s ALIs. Using items and domains from existing instruments, a 32-item instrument was
piloted among 140 ALI learners, with the data from 70 retained for analysis. Factor, reliability and correlation
reduced items to 17 and revealed evidence of three independent subscales: classroom, teacher/curriculum, and
personal anxiety toward L2 Arabic. Although ALI learners appeared motivated by classroom, teacher, and
curriculum, their L2 achievement seemed impeded by anxiety, likely due to de-emphasis in classroom
interaction in Arabic. Future research should be undertaken to improve the validity and reliability of the
Arabic L2LE instrument, and to further investigate strategies to reduce anxiety and increase WTC in ALI
learners.
Index Terms—Arabic, second-language learning environment, heritage and minority languages, Muslim,
survey methods
I. INTRODUCTION
Researchers studying factors that influence second-language acquisition (SLA) have identified that the second-
language learning environment (L2LE) plays an important role in successful SLA. Among learners of English as a
foreign language (EFL), research shows that more exposure to spoken English in the learning environment increases
SLA (Dewaele, 2019; Zoubi, 2018), and that EFL teachers serve as language “role models” (Muir et al., 2021). In
contrast, if learners feel anxiety or negative emotions in the learning environment, their SLA is hindered (Dewaele,
2019; Khajavy et al., 2018; Oteir & Al-Otaibi, 2019). This is likely because feeling anxiety in the L2LE has been found
to decrease learners’ willingness to communicate (WTC), thus impeding their learning (Dewaele, 2019; Khajavy et al.,
2018).
Factors in the L2LE that influence SLA among second-language (L2) Arabic learners have received less attention
among L2 learning researchers. As with EFL, different aspects of the teacher, curriculum, and classroom environment
influence L2 Arabic learning (Dubiner, 2019). In their study of L2 Arabic learners who were undergraduates at a United
States (US) university, Brosh (2019) found that advanced learners preferred interaction with the teacher and working
individually, while those at the beginner level preferred group work. A similar finding was obtained from a study of
strategies used by EFL compared to Arabic as a foreign language (AFL) students, where AFL students used different
strategies at different levels, while the EFL students favored metacognitive, compensation and social strategies at all
levels (Fithriyah et al., 2019).
Unlike with learning L2 English, learning Arabic as an L2 has a unique connection with identity, in that Arabic is the
liturgical language (LL) of Islam (Husseianali, 2005; Husseinali, 2006). A study of students learning L2 Arabic in
higher education in the Islamic country of Indonesia found that religion influenced their L2LE, in that those identifying
as Muslim felt uncomfortable studying Arabic in classes with non-Muslims (Ritonga et al., 2020). This is because
Arabic is both a heritage language (HL) among those who grow up in an Arabic-speaking country, and a LL for
Muslims, as their holy book Quran is written in Arabic (Husseinali, 2006; Jaspal & Coyle, 2010). A different study of
L2 Arabic learners at Arabic language institutes (ALIs) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) found that one of the
main reasons learners were motivated to study Arabic was due to their Islamic identity (Shaalan et al., IN PRESS).
The current research focuses on factors influencing SLA of Arabic at ALIs in KSA. These ALIs were set up by the
KSA Ministry of Education (MoE). These MoE ALIs include the Arabic Language Teaching Institute at Imam
Mohammed Ibn Saud Islamic University (Imam-ALI) (Abdelhalim & Alqubayshi, 2020), the Arabic Teaching Institute

Corresponding Author.

for Non-Arabic Speakers at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University (PNU-ALI), and the King Abdulaziz
University Arabic Language Institute (KAU-ALI) (Shaalan et al., 2023). All are situated in KSA’s capital city Riyadh,
and while Imam-ALI only serves male learners, both KAU-ALI and PNU-ALI accommodate only female students. The
signature program at all three ALIs is called the Diploma Program, which provides L2 Arabic instruction over two years
to non-Arabic speakers who are studying at KSA higher education institutions on government scholarship. Almost all of
these students are Muslim, which eliminates the issue of AFL learners of mixed religions in the same L2LE
(Abdelhalim & Alqubayshi, 2020; Ritonga et al., 2020; Shaalan et al., 2023).
The objective of the ALI Diploma Programs is to develop L2 Arabic competency in learners to a high enough degree
to facilitate their participation in higher education programs delivered in Arabic elsewhere in the KSA university system.
The ALI Diploma Programs use a standardized national L2 Arabic curriculum established by the MoE. This curriculum
emphasizes basic reading and writing in the first year. As the program progresses and throughout the second year, there
is a deeper examination of the history and meanings in the Arabic language. Contrary to many EFL programs (Seraj &
Hadina, 2021), conversational Arabic and improving Arabic L2 speech and spontaneous dialogue in learners through
practice is not emphasized in the ALI Diploma Program curriculum.
The current analysis was undertaken to better understand factors associated with the L2LE that influence Arabic
language learning in the Diploma Programs at KSA’s ALIs. The intention was to develop an instrument that
characterizes the impact of the Arabic L2LE on the AFL learner’s L2 motivation. The aim of this research was to
develop, pilot, and assess the validity and reliability of an instrument to measure the influence of the Arabic L2LE and
learner attitudes toward the L2 and L2LE in a sample of L2 Arabic learners at KSA’s ALIs.
II. MATERIALS AND METHODS

This analysis is part of a larger cross-sectional study undertaken to better understand influences on L2 Arabic
learning among students at KSA’s ALIs (Shaalan et al., 2023). The focus is to research the influence of identity, the
L2LE, and integrativeness as defined by Gardner and colleagues (2000) on L2 Arabic learning. A previously published
article describes how an existing instrument to measure identity-motivation to study L2 Arabic was adapted for use in
this study, and demonstrated evidence of both reliability and validity (Shaalan et al., 2023). As described in the article,
the primary L2 motivations arising from identity were due to the learner’s Islamic faith (ISLAM), for cultural exposure
(CE), for instrumental purposes (INS), and to better understand problems and politics in the Arab world (PP) (Shaalan
et al., 2023). As part of the same study, an instrument to measure the influence of the Arabic L2LE on ALI Diploma
Program learners was developed and tested, and the results are reported here.
A. Arabic Second-Language Learning Environment (L2LE) Instrument Development
The literature was reviewed to identify items that could be used to measure the influence of the L2LE on motivation
to learn L2 Arabic at KSA’s ALIs. Empirically, it was felt that the items should adequately cover these four domains:
attitudes toward learning L2 Arabic (Aladdin, 2010; Al-Musnad, 2018; Asker, 2012; Gardner, 2000; Masgoret &
Gardner, 2003), influence of the L2 Arabic classroom environment (Assulaimani, 2015; Moskovsky et al., 2016;
Subekti, 2018), influence of the L2 Arabic curriculum (Asker, 2012), and influence of L2 Arabic teachers (Asker, 2012).
Items were adapted for each domain from several published studies of L2 learning of Arabic or English (see Table 2
for item wording), and the scale from the identity-motivation instrument was used, where the respondent was asked to
rate each item in terms of level of agreement using a one to seven scale (Asker, 2012; Assulaimani, 2015). Thirty-two
items were included in the pilot instrument, with 12 adapted from Assulaimani (2015), nine from Asker (2012), four
from Aladdin (2010), four from Subekti (2018), one from Moskovsky and colleagues (2016), and two developed by the
author as reverse-coded items to balance out domains (as detailed in Table 2). The intent was to use factor analysis to
reduce the number of items in the pilot instrument and clarify the domains as factors.
B. Participants, Setting and Data Collection
An anonymous survey asking for demographic information and items from all instruments included in the study was
programmed into online survey application SurveyMonkey. As described in the previous publication (Shaalan et al.,
2023), a link was provided to learners at Imam-ALI, KAU-ALI, and PNU-ALI who either were alumni of the diploma
program (PNU-ALI n = 98) or were currently enrolled in the diploma program (KAU-ALI n = 43, Imam-ALI n = 105).
Using a group chat created by instructors at KAU-ALI and Imam-ALI in the social media application WhatsApp that
included current Diploma students, the survey was administered at those locations (Shaalan et al., 2023). As the Dean of
PNU-ALI maintains a WhatsApp group of Diploma alumni, she used this to administer the survey (Shaalan et al., 2023).
The survey was administered through an anonymous survey link provided to members of these WhatsApp groups
(Shaalan et al., 2023). Students receiving the link were asked to complete the survey either during or after class by
week’s end. Alumni receiving the link were asked to complete the survey over the next week (Shaalan et al., 2023).
C. Data Analysis
R statistical software was used for data analysis (R Core Team, 2021). First, descriptive analysis was used on
demographic variables. Next, factor analysis was undertaken to evaluate validity of the L2LE instrument. To compare
the alignment of factor loadings to how they had been assigned to pre-specified domains originally, I used the principal

command from the psych package with the varimax rotation. The alpha command from the psych package was used to
calculate Cronbach α scores for each group of items loading on an identified factor. Consistent with the literature, an α
of 0.70 and above was established as being considered acceptable (Dörnyei, 2007). I used the likert package to visualize
the distribution of raw answers to Likert items (Bryer & Speerschneider, 2016).
To establish number of factors during factor analysis, three-factor, four-factor, and five-factor models were attempted,
and the one that was selected was felt to fit the data best. The package nfactors was used to run a scree plot also aid in
the selection of the optimal model (Raiche & Magis, 2020). After reviewing the results, decisions were made as to
which items to keep in the final version of the Arabic L2LE instrument, and to which subscales to assign them
(available in Appendix A). Once items were selected and placed on subscales, summary scores were calculated by
adding together the values of the items on each subscale. To compare mean scores on each subscale across the three
participating ALIs, an analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted. Finally, in consideration of convergent and
discriminant validity, Pearson correlation analysis was used to evaluate the correlation between subscales on both the
identity-motivation instrument and the L2LE instrument. For statistical testing, α set at 0.05.
III. RESULTS
As reported in a previous paper (Shaalan et al., 2023), survey links were sent out to 246 learners at KAU-ALI, PNU-
ALI, and Imam-ALI, and from this effort, 140 anonymous surveys were received, for an overall response rate of 57%.
Due to missing data, 70 of these were removed, and this left 70 surveys available for analysis (see Table 1).
A. Demographics
Table 1 provides demographics from respondents for the 70 surveys included in the analysis (Shaalan et al., 2023).
As shown in Table 1, these included nine from KAU-ALI (n = 13%) and 39 from PNU-ALI (56%), which were all from
female respondents, and 22 from Imam-ALI (31%), which all were from male respondents.
TABLE 1
DEMOGRAPHICS
Sited
All KAU-ALI PNU-ALI Imam-ALI
Category Level
n, % n, % n, % n, %
All All 70, 100% 9, 13% 39, 56% 22, 31%
Gender Male 22, 31% 0, 0% 0, 0% 22, 100%
Female 48, 69% 9, 100% 39, 100% 0, 0%
Age group (years) 18-24 32, 46% 3, 33% 15, 38% 14, 64%
25-34 35, 50% 6, 67% 22, 56% 7, 32%
35-64 3, 4% 0, 0% 2, 5% 1, 5%
b
Marital status Married 32, 46% 6, 67% 20, 51% 6, 27%
Never married 38, 54% 3, 33% 19, 49% 16, 73%
Ethnic/religiousa Identify as Arab 8, 11% 0, 0% 4, 10% 4, 18%
Identify as Muslim 68, 97% 8, 89% 38, 97% 22, 100%
Identify as Middle Eastern 6, 9% 2, 22% 4, 10% 0, 0%
Language fluency Any African language 27, 39% 6, 67% 7, 18% 14, 64%
Any Chinese language 2, 3% 0, 0% 2, 5% 0, 0%
Any Indian language 16, 23% 0, 0% 13, 33% 3, 14%
Arabic 45, 64% 3, 33% 26, 67% 0, 0%
English 51, 73% 4, 44% 29, 74% 18, 82%
French 6, 9% 1, 11% 1, 3% 4, 18%
German 3, 4% 0, 0% 2, 5% 1, 5%
Spanish 1, 1% 0, 0% 0, 0% 1, 5%
Fluency in any of above
62, 89% 7, 78% 36, 92% 19, 86%
languages
Parents speak Arabic? One speaks fluent Arabic 24, 34% 1, 11% 18, 46% 5, 23%
Both speak fluent Arabic 3, 4% 0, 0% 2, 5% 1, 5%
Enrolled in formal Arabic
Intensity of Arabic study 42, 60% 9, 100% 16, 41% 17, 77%
language learning program
Completed instrumentsc Identity Motivation 69, 99% 9, 100% 39, 100% 21, 95%
a
None of the respondents in the study identified as Saudi. bNone of the respondents in the sample identified as divorced or widowed. cThe sample was
limited to respondents who completed all items of the second-language learning environment instrument. dKAU-ALI: King Abdulaziz University
Arabic Language Institute, PNU-ALI: Arabic Teaching Institute for Non-Arabic Speakers at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Imam-
ALI: Al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University.
In terms of age group, respondents were relatively young, in that about half (50%) were aged 25-34 years. Also, over
half (59%) reported being unmarried. Although respondents were diverse in terms of ethnicity, none reported being
Saudi. However, 13% reported being Arab, and 11% identified as Middle Eastern. Almost all respondents (97%)
identified as Muslim. The most common language of fluency other than Arabic was English (74%), with Arabic at 62%.
After this, 40% of respondents reported fluency in any African language, 21% reported fluency in any Indian language,
and 13% reported being fluent in French. When asked about parental Arabic fluency, only 5% reported that both parents

were fluent, while approximately one third (32%) reported having only one parent who spoke fluently. When asked if
they were currently enrolled in a formal Arabic language learning program, 63% chose “yes”.
B. Factor Analysis Results
Factor analysis results for the Arabic L2LE instrument are presented in Table 2. As can be seen in Table 2, a four-
factor model was selected.
TABLE 2
FACTOR ANALYSIS RESULTS ARABIC SECOND-LANGUAGE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT INSTRUMENT
Four-factor Model
Item Wording Code* RC1 RC3 RC2 RC4
My teachers are patient with students whose Arabic is difficult
d,g Classroom1 0.70 0.14 -0.10 -0.12
to understand.
Most of my Arabic teachers take a personal interest in
Did not load -0.13 0.26 0.21 0.65
students.d,g
Arabic students are often asked by the teacher to choose how
Did not load -0.08 0.47 0.08 0.11
they want to learn.d,g
My Arabic teachers have interesting teaching styles.d,h TeachCurric1 0.37 0.62 -0.14 0.07
I like my Arabic teacher because their class is fun.d,j TeachCurric2 0.47 0.66 -0.12 -0.03
Most of my Arabic teachers can get angry easily.d,e,g Did not load -0.48 -0.37 0.27 0.44
My Arabic teacher doesn't teach in an interesting way.d,e,h Did not load -0.55 -0.61 0.19 0.05
I find the other students at my Arabic classes really friendly.b,h Classroom2 0.73 0.48 -0.09 0.06
I always look forward to Arabic classes.b,j Classroom3 0.74 0.27 0.08 0.20
It worries me that other students in my class seem to speak
PersAnx1 0.16 0.11 0.66 0.08
Arabic better than I do.b,e,h
I'm losing any desire I ever had to know Arabic.b,e,h Did not load -0.63 -0.06 0.32 -0.02
I enjoy the activities of our Arabic class much more than those
TeachCurric3 0.23 0.71 -0.35 0.14
of my other classes.b,i
b,e,h
I have no interest in my Arabic class. Did not load -0.79 -0.13 0.14 -0.26
I really enjoy learning Arabic.b,h Classroom4 0.72 0.44 -0.02 0.26
I like the overall atmosphere of my Arabic classes.b,h Did not load 0.47 0.54 -0.08 0.33
I am sometimes worried that the other students in class will
PersAnx2 -0.09 -0.04 0.66 -0.26
laugh at me when I speak Arabic.b,e,h
b,e,h
I think my Arabic class is boring. Did not load -0.74 -0.51 0.13 -0.06
The materials in my Arabic class suit my needs.c,j Did not load 0.63 0.47 0.04 0.16
I find the Arabic books that we are studying in class useful.c,h TeachCurric4 0.59 0.60 0.01 -0.08
The Arabic books that we use in class are really boring.c,e,h Did not load -0.64 -0.28 0.24 -0.05
Some of my Arabic course materials are too difficult for
Did not load -0.13 -0.43 0.55 0.06
me.c,e,g
The level of difficulty of my Arabic course materials helps me
TeachCurric5 0.40 0.57 0.25 0.01
improve my Arabic.c,j
Sometimes I feel I can hardly cope with the materials in this
Did not load 0.09 -0.37 0.46 0.14
Arabic course.c,e,g
Sometimes I do not understand what I read or listen to in
PersAnx3 -0.35 0.14 0.58 0.09
Arabic class.c,e,g
I think I expend a lot of effort in learning Arabic.a,g Did not load 0.56 -0.01 0.07 -0.20
Arabic is one of the most important languages in the world.a,f Classroom5 0.71 -0.02 0.05 0.38
Arabic is not an important global language to learn.a,e,k Did not load -0.29 0.16 0.25 -0.58
Everybody regardless of their ethnicity and faith should learn
Did not load 0.17 0.43 0.01 0.10
Arabic.a,f
Learning Arabic is an advantage for me.a,f Classroom6 0.83 0.20 0.04 0.29
I can honestly say that I am really doing my best to learn
Classroom7 0.71 0.25 0.00 0.08
Arabic.a,g
The Arabic language is difficult to learn.a,e,f Did not load -0.07 -0.21 0.45 -0.44
Just because a person has a certain ethnicity or faith should not
Did not load -0.24 -0.16 0.00 -0.55
require them to learn Arabic.a,e,k
*This code is used to indicate which subscale the item was placed on for scoring based on factor analysis results. Bolded value indicates how item
was selected for factor. The four-factor model rendered factors RC1-RC4. RC1 was labeled "classroom environment", and consists of items
Classroom1-7. RC3 was labeled "teacher/curriculum, and consists of items TeachCurric1-5. RC2 was labeled "personal anxiety toward Arabic
learning environment", and consists of items PersAnx1-3. RC4 was not considered a subscale. aOriginally placed on the "attitudes toward learning
second-language Arabic" domain. bOriginally placed on "second-language Arabic classroom environment" domain. cOriginally placed on "second-
language Arabic curriculum" domain. dOriginally placed on the "second-language Arabic teacher" domain. eReverse-coded. fAdapted from Aladdin
(2010). gAdapted from Asker (2012). hAdapted from Assulaimani (2015). iAdapted from Moskovsky et al. (2016). jAdapted from Subekti (2018).
kCreated by authors to add reverse-coded items to counterbalance positively-coded items included.
As can be seen in Table 2, a four-factor model was accepted, but only the first three factor loadings were felt to be
strong enough to place items on subscales. This choice appears to be supported by the scree plot, which implies some
ambiguity between a third and fourth factor (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Scree Plot for Arabic Second-Language Learning Environment Instrument

Factor analysis results and this scree plot were interpreted to imply a four-factor model, although only the first three factors were felt to be robust
enough to interpret
As shown in Table 2, of the 32 items included in the pilot instrument, only 17 loaded on the first three factors. These
17 were placed on three subscales according to the factors onto which they loaded. The first factor was labeled “L2
classroom environment”, contained seven items, and these items were assigned the codes Classroom1 through
Classroom7. The second factor was labeled “L2 teacher/L2 curriculum”, contained five items, and these items were
assigned the codes TeachCurric1 through TeachCurric5. The third factor was labeled “personal anxiety toward the
Arabic L2LE” and originally contained five items, three of which were reverse-coded, and two which were direct-coded.
After viewing the wording of the items, it was decided to drop the two reverse-coded items, and to label the remaining
items PersAnx1 through PersAnx3. Cronbach α analysis rendered the following results: classroom (seven items) = 0.92,
teacher/curriculum (five items) = 0.85, and personal anxiety (three items) = 0.55. Only the Cronbach α for the personal
anxiety subscale did not exceed the 0.70 threshold.
C. Summary and Correlation Results
The 17 items placed on three subscales were summed to create subscale scores for “L2 classroom environment”
(Classroom, range 7 to 49), “L2 teacher/L2 curriculum” (TeachCurric, range 5 to 35), and “personal anxiety toward the
Arabic L2LE” (PersAnx, range 3 to 21). Table 3 presents summary statistics for the three subscales stratified by site.
TABLE 3
SUBSCALE SCORES
Sitea
All KAU-ALI PNU-ALI Imam-ALI ANOVA p-
Subscale Range
mean, sd mean, sd mean, sd mean, sd value
Classroom environment 44.0, 7.0 42.5, 8,0 44.7, 4.1 43.6, 9.8 0.63507 to 49
Teacher and curriculum 27.8, 7.1 28.0, 8.6 27.2, 6.4 28.8, 7.8 0.67405 to 35
Personal anxiety
toward Arabic learning 12.0, 5.0 12.9, 4.3 12.0, 4.6 11.7, 5.8 0.8110 3 to 21
environment
sd = standard deviation, ANOVA = analysis of variance. aKAU-ALI: King Abdulaziz University Arabic Language Institute, PNU-ALI: Arabic
Teaching Institute for Non-Arabic Speakers at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Imam-ALI: Al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic
University.
Per Table 3, subscale scores were highest for Classroom and lowest for PersAnx, with no statistically significant
differences between site means (ANOVA p = 0.6350, 0.6740, and 0.8110 for Classroom, TeachCurric, and PersAnx,
respectively). The internal correlation between the Classroom and TeachCurric subscale scores was strong, positive, and
statistically significant (r = 0.70, p < 0.0001), while other correlations were weak, slightly negative, and not statistically
significant (Classroom vs. PersAnx r = -0.13, p = 0.2696; TeachCurric vs. PersAnx r = -0.12, p = 0.4248).
Correlations between subscales on the identity motivation instrument and the new L2LE instrument are presented in
Table 4.

TABLE 4
SUBSCALE CORRELATIONS
Arabic Second Language
Identity Motivation Subscale r p
Learning Subscale
Islamic Motivation Classroom 0.51* <0.0001
Teacher/Curriculum 0.21 0.0588
Personal Anxiety -0.11 0.5282
For Cultural Exposure Classroom 0.49* <0.0001
Teacher/Curriculum 0.30* 0.0129
Personal Anxiety -0.03 0.7842
Instrumental Motivation Classroom 0.40* 0.0012
Teacher/Curriculum 0.36* 0.0013
Personal Anxiety 0.16 0.0869
To Better Understand Arab
Classroom -0.16 0.2611
Problems/Politics
Teacher/Curriculum -0.08 0.7253
Personal Anxiety 0.01 0.2242
*Statistically significant at α = 0.05.
Statistically significant moderate positive correlations were seen between ISLAM and Classroom (r = 0.51, p <
0.0001), CE and Classroom (r = 0.49, p < 0.0001), CE and TeachCurric (r = 0.30, p = 0.0129), INS and Classroom (r =
0.40, p = 0.0012), and INS and TeachCurric (r = 0.36, p = 0.0013). Positive correlations that approached but did not
meet statistical significance were seen between ISLAM and TeachCurric (r = 0.21, p = 0.0588) and between INS and
PersAnx (r = 0.16, p = 0.0869), but these correlations were weak. The other subscale scores had weak correlations that
were not statistically significant.
IV. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

The Arabic L2LE instrument developed in this study provided evidence of two strong factors – the influence of
classroom, and the influence of teacher and curriculum approach. These two factors appeared independent, but were
also strongly positively correlated. The instrument also provided evidence of a weaker factor with fewer items, which
was personal anxiety for learning L2 Arabic. The highest mean subscale score was for classroom environment, and the
second highest was for teacher/curriculum, suggesting that these were both generally seen as positive by ALI Diploma
Program learners. However, there was also enough evidence of anxiety about learning L2 Arabic to suggest that this
third factor should not be ignored. The weak but positive and almost statistically significant correlation between
personal anxiety and the instrumental subscale from the identity-motivation instrument suggests that this anxiety was
felt more often by learners who wanted to utilize L2 Arabic for instrumental purposes, such as work or socializing
(Gardner, 2000). Although this finding deserves more investigation and should not be over-interpreted, it suggests that
there is the opportunity for modifying the ALI L2LE to facilitate increased L2 achievement among Diploma Program
learners.
Even though there was only weak evidence of the personal anxiety subscale in this analysis, it was retained in the
instrument because it was felt to be important, as it is already known that SLA is in general is impeded by negative
emotions in the L2LE (Dewaele, 2019; Khajavy et al., 2018; Oteir & Al-Otaibi, 2019) mainly by reducing the learner’s
WTC in the L2LE (Dewaele, 2019; Khajavy et al., 2018). Notably, most studies addressing the issue of WTC in the
L2LE are in the context of EFL rather than AFL (Khajavy et al., 2018); very few have focused on the L2 Arabic
classroom. One notable study of L2 Arabic learners in Iran found that WTC was positively correlated with Arabic
language achievement (Mahmoodi & Moazam, 2014). Among the L2 Arabic learners in the US university study
described earlier, two primary strategies utilized were “interaction with the teacher” and “speaking” (Brosh, 2019). This
finding emphasizes the importance of WTC, as L2 Arabic learners with higher levels of anxiety and lower WTC will be
less likely to feel comfortable interacting with the teacher and speaking in class, and this could negatively impact their
L2 Arabic achievement.
In the current study, the ALI learners expressed a relatively high mean positive rating of the classroom environment,
teacher and curriculum; yet, the mean score for the personal anxiety subscale was also somewhat high. This may relate
to the emphasis on activities involving reading, writing, and listening to lectures, rather than those that incorporate
conversational and peer learning with respect to L2 Arabic in the ALI context. The MoE curriculum, which has a more
academic focus, de-emphasizes actual communication among classroom members and with the teacher in lieu of other
learning activities. This may result in learners who feel positive about the classroom, teacher, and curriculum, but who
still have anxiety about communicating in Arabic. This is consistent with findings from a previous interview study at
Imam-ALI, where learners expressed they had trouble communicating in Arabic with locals because they did not learn
the local conversational dialect (Abdelhalim & Alqubayshi, 2020). It is possible that the lack of emphasis in actual
communication among learners using the L2 at the ALIs is inadvertently negatively impacting their L2 achievement in
general.
Considering this, it seems the personal anxiety subscale should be retained and improved upon in the current
instrument so it can continue to be used to measure the L2LE influence at KSAs ALIs. Currently, a validated instrument

already exists for measuring L2 anxiety in general called the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS)
(Botes et al., 2020). A recent meta-analysis of studies using the FLCAS found that there is a negative association
between foreign language classroom anxiety and academic achievement in foreign language courses (Botes et al., 2020).
The FLCAS has 33 items (Horwitz et al., 1986), and the current instrument’s anxiety subscale could be improved using
items from the FLCAS in future research. If so, it could produce a more valid and reliable measurement of personal
anxiety for L2 Arabic in the L2LE in learners at KSA’s ALIs. In addition, instructors at KSA’s ALIs should be made
aware of this study’s findings, as it appears that incorporating more Arabic communication and peer activities into
academic learning in the L2LE may actually improve L2 achievement in general. If ALI instructors can find creative
ways of incorporating L2 Arabic communication in the learning environment without departing from the standardized
MoE curriculum, it could go a long way toward reducing anxiety, increasing WTC, and improving L2 achievement in
ALI learners. Additionally, having an improved L2LE measurement instrument could help monitor progress in this
effort.
In addition to the weak findings behind the personal anxiety subscale, there are other limitations to this research
study. The instrument being developed has only been used on L2 Arabic learners in the Diploma Program at KSA’s
ALIs, and it is unclear how it would perform in learners from other programs at KSA’s ALIs, or in other samples of
AFL learners in different L2LEs. Also, only basic evaluations of validity and reliability were performed; ideally, mixed-
methods studies that include interviews should be completed to improve instrument validity, and reliability studies
should be conducted to estimate test-retest and other types of reliability. The main strength of this study is that it builds
upon the existing L2 motivation literature to develop a quantitative measurement approach for the Arabic L2LE, which
likely has an important influence on Arabic L2 achievement, but for which there is not a validated instrument available.
It also provides insight into the impact of the Arabic L2LE on L2 achievement in Diploma Program learners at KSA’s
ALIs.
In conclusion, an instrument to measure the influence of the L2LE among L2 Arabic learners in the Diploma
Program at KSA’s ALIs was developed and piloted, and demonstrated evidence of both validity and reliability. Three
instrument subscales were identified, including classroom environment, teacher and curriculum approach, and personal
anxiety toward learning Arabic. Respondents expressed increased motivation arising from the classroom environment,
teacher, and curriculum, but at the same time expressed anxiety. The lack of emphasis on learning activities utilizing L2
Arabic for social interaction consistent with the emphasis of the standardized ALI curriculum may be responsible for
this pattern, but further examination is needed. Future research should focus on improving the reliability and validity of
the L2LE Arabic measurement instrument, as well as gaining a better understanding of the role social interaction may
play as a potential facilitator for increasing L2 Arabic achievement in KSA’s ALI Diploma Program learners.
APPENDIX. FINAL PROPOSED ARABIC SECOND-LANGUAGE LEARNING INSTRUMENT

Please rate your agreement with the following statements about why you are learning Arabic on a scale where 1 is
strongly disagree, and 7 is strongly agree.
1. Strongly
Statement 2 3 4 5 6 7. Strongly Agree
Disagree
My teachers are patient with students whose
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Arabic is difficult to understand.
My Arabic teachers have interesting teaching
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
styles.
I like my Arabic teacher because their class is fun. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
I find the other students at my Arabic classes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
really friendly.
I always look forward to Arabic classes. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
It worries me that other students in my class seem
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
to speak Arabic better than I do.
I enjoy the activities of our Arabic class much
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
more than those of my other classes.
I really enjoy learning Arabic. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
I am sometimes worried that the other students in
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
class will laugh at me when I speak Arabic.
I find the Arabic books that we are studying in
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
class useful.
The level of difficulty of my Arabic course
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
materials helps me improve my Arabic.
Sometimes I do not understand what I read or
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
listen to in Arabic class.
Arabic is one of the most important languages in
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
the world.
Learning Arabic is an advantage for me. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
I can honestly say that I am really doing my best
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
to learn Arabic.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author would like to thank Dr. Jaber Alasiri of Al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University and Dr. Huda
Albatati of King Abdulaziz University Arabic Language Institute for assistance with data collection, and Drs. Badriyya
Al-onazi and Alya Alshammari for assisting with the research study.
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Danya A. Shaalan is currently an Assistant Professor in the Applied Linguistics Department in the College of Languages at
Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University (PNU) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. She recently completed her doctoral studies in
linguistics at Sussex University in the United Kingdom. Her doctoral research focused on the connection between female Saudi
higher education students’ motivation and second language acquisition (SLA) and identity, and used sociolinguistic methods. Her
research interests include improving SLA in Saudi women in higher education through the optimization of curriculum and
improvement of teacher training and knowledge.

ISSN 1799-2591
Anti-Locality and Covert Movement in Arabic

Abdel-Rahman Hani Abu Helal
Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan, Jordan
Abstract—This paper provides a new argument for the specifier-to-specifier anti-locality constraint from
covert movement. The argument is based on an observed asymmetry behavior of the Quantifier Raising (QR)
of the superlative morpheme in two superlative adjectives modifying relative clauses in Levantine Arabic (LA):
the two superlative modifiers give rise to different paradigms of high and low interpretations.1 The paper
shows that a configuration restricted by the specifier-to-specifier anti-locality constraint straightforwardly
explains the asymmetry lending further evidence supporting this syntax-economy condition from covert
movement.
Index Terms—specifier-to-specifier anti-locality, high/low ambiguity, phase impenetrability condition
I. INTRODUCTION
Erlewine (2020) defined the specifier-to-specifier anti-locality constraint as follows.2
(1) Movement from position α to β crosses γ iff γ dominates α but does not dominate β.
(Erlewine, 2020, p. 2)
The anti-locality constraint in (1) explains an asymmetry between the Ā-extraction of subjects and non-subject
arguments: movement from α to β is too short a movement that is ruled out by the anti-locality constraint in (1).
An example of this ban is the short subject movement from specifier-TP into specifier-CP as schematized in (2.a).
With an additional projection γ dominating α, movement from α to β is long enough that satisfies the specifier-to-
specifier anti-locality constraint (1). This licit movement is exemplified by the movement of the non-subject argument
from specifier-XP into specifier-CP in (2.a).
(2)
To discuss a representative example, consider the long-distance subject movement in (3).

(3) a. Who did he say [ CP (*that) _ hid the rutabaga]?
b. What did he say [CP (that) Laura hid_]?
(Erlewine, 2020, p. 3; as cited in Perlmutter, 1968, p. 214)
Erlewine (2020) explains the complementizer- trace effect in (3) in terms of the anti-locality condition (1). He put
forth the following analysis that derives the pattern in (3). In those languages where a head T 0 with PROBE D that
triggers phi-agreement, nominative Case assignment, and EPP movement accompanied with a head C0 with PROBE Ā
that facilitates intermediate movement, the CP and TP compose in two forms: the split C0-T0 configuration where the
head T0 and C0 undergo separate probes in their respective c-command domains and the bundled C0-T0 with a composite
PROBE T0 +C0 that probes into objects with shared D and Ā features in the same c-command domain.
1
The data discussed in this paper follow from the authors’ native speaker intuitions. To replicate the judgements, five native speakers of Jordanian
Arabic were consulted: three males and two females who are in their late twenties or late thirties. All consultants, including the author(s), are based in
Eastern Amman; an urban area of the capital Amman of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. It is worth mentioning that Jordanian Arabic is a dialect
of Southern Levantine Arabic. It is one of the mutually intelligible varieties of Levantine Arabic that is spoken by the people of the Hashemite
Kingdom of Jordan. The two dialects are used in daily conversational exchange along with the most official diglossia of Modern Standard Arabic
used in official written documentation and mass media (See Ababneh et al., 2017; Fukara, 2022; Zyoud & Zyoud, 2022 and Abu Helal, 2021a) for
more information).
2
Antilocality refers to the ban on movement that is too short. For more discussion, see Saito and Murasugi (1999), Ishii (1999), Abels (2003),
Grohmann (2003), Ticio (2005), Boeckx (2005), Jeong (2006), and Bošković (2016) and Erlewine (2018).

In the split CP-TP configuration where the complementizer is lexicalized, movement targets the edge of CP phase.
As shown in (4), subject movement from specifier-TP into specifier-CP violates the anti-locality condition. Non-subject
movement, on the other hand, proceeds from a lower position across the TP projection into specifier-CP. It is then long
enough to satisfy (1) as schematized in (4).
(4) Split C-T configuration
a. * …. [CP __ C0 that [TP T0 ___ ….. (subject extraction)
b. …. [CP __ C0 that [TP T0 ___..... (non-subject extraction)
In the bundled CP-TP configuration where C0 is a null, movement targets the edge of CTP phase. Both subject and
non-subject movement satisfy the anti-locality condition as shown in (5).
(5) Bundled C-T configuration

a. …. [CTP__ C0+T0 ___ … (subject/ non-subject extraction)
This paper discusses and analyzes an asymmetry behavior of the covert movement of the superlative morpheme
involved in the interpretation of two superlative modifiers of relative clauses Jordanian Arabic (JA): the attributive and
genitive superlative modifiers. 3 In the attributive superlative modifier (henceforth, Asuperlative), the superlative
adjective post-modifies its associate NP and both agree in Case and definite morphology (See Elghamry, 2004; Abu
Helal, 2021). As way of example, consider (6).
(6) a. l-kitaab l-ʔtˤwal ʕallaf-u Tolstoy

DEF-book.NOM DEF-longest.NOM authored-it Tolstoy
Literal: ' The book the longest, Tolstoy wrote it’.
≈: ‘The longest book, Tolstoy wrote it’.
b. Tolstoy ʕallaf l-kitaab l-ʔtˤwal
Tolstoy wrote DEF-book.ACC DEF-longest.ACC
Literal: ' Tolstoy authored the book the longest’.
≈: ‘Tolstoy authored the longest book’.
In the genitive superlative modifier, the superlative adjective pre-modifies its associate NP which is assigned default
genitive Case as in (7).
(7) a. ʔtˤwal kitaab ʕallaf-u Tolstoy

longest.NOM book.GEN authored-it Tolstoy
Literal: 'Longest book, Tolstoy wrote it’.
b. Tolstoy ʕallaf ʔtˤwal kitaab

Tolstoy wrote longest.ACC book.GEN
Literal: ' Tolstoy authored the book the longest’.
≈: ‘Tolstoy authored the longest book’.
A well-known ambiguity arises when an adjectival modifier (e.g., the superlative –est) modifies relative clauses that
dominate a propositional attitudinal verb (Bhatt 2002; Hulsey & Sauerland, 2004; Heycock, 2005). Consider the relative
clause in (8).
(8) the longest book that John said that Tolstoy had written
‘High ‘Reading:
3
The superlative adjective in PA is formed using a process of suppletion that replaces the three consonantal root cluster of the positive adjective
‘C1C2C3’with the template sequence ‘ʔC1C2 aC3’ (Hallman, 2016; Grano & Davis, 2017; Abu Helal, 2021). For instance, the
superlative/comparative form ʔtˤwal ‘taller’ is the suppletive form of the root sequence tˤwl.
(i) a. Positive form b. Comparative form c. Superlative form
Ali tˤaweel Ali ʔtˤwal min Mary Ali tˤtˤaalib l-ʔtˤwal / ʔtˤwal tˤaalib
Ali tall Ali taller from Mary Ali DEF-student.NOM DEF-tallest.NOM / tallest.NOM student.GEN
‘Ali is tall.’ ‘Ali is taller than Mary.’ Ali is the tallest student.’

In a bookcase shelf is a set of three books authored by Leo Tolstoy: War & Peace, Anna Karenina, and Resurrection.
The actual length of each book is 1000, 864, and 483 pages, respectively. In this context, the high reading of the relative
clause (6) refers to War & Peace which is the actual longest book of the set about which John said that Tolstoy wrote.
‘x is the longest book out of the books about which Ali said that Tolstoy had written them.’
‘Low ‘Reading:
John said that War & Peace is 800 page long, Anna Karenina is 900 page long and Resurrection is 1000 page long.
The low reading of the relative clause (6) refers to Resurrection: the x such that John said that x was the longest paper
authored by Tolstoy.
‘What John said can be paraphrased as ‘x is the longest book that Tolstoy wrote’.
Interestingly, the attributive and genitive superlative modifiers in (6) and (7) modifiers exhibit an asymmetrical
behavior when modifying a relative clause that dominates a propositional predicate like ‘said’: while the relative clause
modified by the A-superlative modifier in (9) is ambiguous between a high and low interpretation, the relative clause
modified by the G-superlative in (10) is unambiguous and the only interpretation it has is the low reading. Consider the
paradigm in (9) and (10).
(9) l-kitaab l-ʔtˤwal yalli Ali ħaka innu Tolstoy katab-ha

(DEF-)book (DEF-)longest YALLI Ali said that Tolstoy wrote-it
Literal: ' the book the longest that Ali said that Tolstoy wrote’.
≈ : ‘the longest book that Ali said that Tolstoy wrote’.
‘High’ Reading:
x is the longest book out of the books about which Ali said that Tolstoy had written them.
‘Low’ Reading:
What Ali said can be paraphrased as ‘x is the longest book that Tolstoy wrote.
(10) ʔtˤwal kitaab yalli Ali ħaka innu Tolstoy katab-ha

longest (DEF-) book.GEN YALLI Ali said that Tolstoy wrote-it
Literal: ' longest book that Ali said that Tolstoy wrote’.
≈ : ‘The longest book that Ali said that Tolstoy wrote’.
#‘High’ Reading:
x is the longest book out of the books about which Ali said that Tolstoy had written them.
‘Low’ Reading:
What Ali said can be paraphrased as ‘x is the longest book that Tolstoy wrote.
The facts in (9) and (10) present a puzzle which can be sharpened by the following two questions: knowing that the
high reading of the relative clause is available in the A-superlative structure (9), what blocks the high reading in the G-
superlative (10)? Why is the low reading of the relative clause still available in both A- and G-superlative structures?
This paper shows that a configuration restricted by specifier-to-specifier anti-locality can straightforwardly resolve the
puzzle. Before going into the specifics of the analysis, some independently motivated background assumptions are laid
out about the syntax-semantics of the low/high ambiguity and the A- and G-superlative adjectives.
The paper is structured as follows. Sect.1 introduces relevant background assumptions: it first reviews the syntax-
semantics of the high/low ambiguity of the relative clause modified by the superlative modifier based on reconstruction
in an NP- head raising syntax as originated in Bhatt (2002). It then discusses the syntax of two DP structures of
superlative modifiers which have different morphosyntactic properties in both attributive and genitive structures in PA.
Sect.2 presents an anti-locality-based analysis that offers a pleasing solution to the asymmetrical behavior in the
interpretation of the two superlative modifiers of the head NP of PA relative clauses. The last section concludes the
paper.
II. BACKGROUND ASSUMPTIONS

A. A Reconstruction Analysis of the High/Low Ambiguity of the Superlative-Modified Relative Clause
Consider again the high/low ambiguity of the superlative adjective that modifies the relative dominating the
propositional attitudinal verb ‘said’ in (11), repeated from (6).
‘High’ Reading
x is the longest book out of the books about which John said that Tolstoy had written them.
‘Low’ Reading

‘What John said can be paraphrased as ‘x is the longest book that Tolstoy wrote’ (Bhatt, 2002, p. 57; Heycock, 2005,
p. 360).
Bhatt (2002) proposed an analysis for the high/low ambiguity in (11) based on head NP raising syntax.4
According to him, the constituent containing the head NP and its superlative modifier longest book is reconstructed
within the relative clause in the gap position and this constituent undergoes successive-cyclic movement to the left
periphery of each clause resulting in a chain of copies as schematized in (12).
With the syntax (2) 5, Bhatt (2002) claimed that the high/low ambiguity can be derived by interpreting the CP-
internal copy of the head NP at different positions of the movement chain NP3 NP2 NP1. In deriving the low reading, the
semantics interprets the lower NP copy ‘NP1’ as in (13).
(13) [DP D0 the [XP X0 λx [CP C0 that [RelP [NP3 -est long book] Rel0 [TP John [vP v0 [ VP V0 said [CP [NP2 –est
long book] C0 that [ TP Tolstoy T0 had [ vP v0 [ VP V0 written [NP1 -est long book]]]]]]]]
The interpretation of the NP1 copy proceeds as follows. First a trace conversion applies to convert NP1 into an
interpretable object (Fox, 2001).6
4
See also Hulsey and Sauerland (2004) for a different version of the reconstruction analysis of the high/low ambiguity in (11). Alternatively, look at
Heycock (2005) for a different approach. This paper begins with Bhatt’s (2002) original analysis based on reconstruction.
5
We assume with Bošković (2016) that all relative clauses have a relative clause dedicated project RelP dominated by a higher CP projection. We
also assume the presence of a functional XP that dominates the relative clause. This projection houses the final head NP raising (See Bhatt, 2002;
Bianchi, 2000).

(14) the λx that John said [CP that [TP Tolstoy T0 had [ vP v0 [ VP V0 written [NP1 ι -est long book]]]]]
Second, the superlative modifier -est undergoes covert Quantifier Raising7. The movement of the -est is semantically
motivated by the -est operator’s need to associate with a focus which it c-commands. The syntactic position of the
sentential scope of the moving -est determines the semantic value of the comparison class C. In deriving the low
reading, the-est raises into the specifier of the embedded CP to take scope over the focused NP 1. The sentential scope
created delineates the members of the comparison class C as in (15).
(15) [CP -est λd C0 that [ TP Tolstoy T0 had [ vP v0 [ VP V0 written [NP1 ι d-long book]]]]]
The truth conditions of the low reading of the relative clause in (15) can be derived compositionally as in (16) (My
presentation closely follows that of Heim, 1999; Szabolcsi, 1986).
(16) (i) Lexical entries

(a)-est = λG<dt,t> λP<dt>. d [ P(d) Q G [ Q ≠ P→ ¬ (Q(D))]
(b)long = λd.λx. LENGTH (x) ≥ d
(ii) a. LF: the λx John said [ CP-est λd that Tolstoy had written ι d-long BOOKF ]~ C
C ⊆ ⟦ λd’. Tolstoy had written ι d’-long BOOKF ⟧ f
C ⊆ {λd’. Tolstoy had written ι d’-long War & Peace, λd’. Tolstoy had written ι d’- long War
& Peace, λd’. Tolstoy had written ι d’-long Anna Karenina, λd’.
Tolstoy had written ι d’-long Resurrection…}
b. Truth conditions: the unique x: John said ∃d [ Tolstoy had written book(x) & long (x,d)
& ∀Q ∈ C [ Q ≠ (λd’. x is a d’-long book) → ¬ Q(d)]
The function in (3) compares the set of degrees initiated in then matrix clause with the predicates of degrees denoted
by the contextually determined comparison class C and it asserts that the relevant individual has the scalar relation to a
degree d that no other element in the comparison class has.
In deriving the high reading of (11), it is the highest internal NP copy (NP3) that gets interpreted by the semantics.
(17) [DP D0 the [XP X0 λx [CP C0 that [RelP [NP3 -est long book] Rel0 [TP John [vP v0 [ VP V0 said [CP [NP2 -est
long book] C0 that [ TP Tolstoy T0 had [ vP v0 [ VP V0 written [NP1 -est long book]]]]]]]]
The -est undergoes QR into the specifier of CP of the matrix ‘say-clause’; the scopal sentential domain that
determines the comparison class restriction of the-est in deriving the high reading as in (18).
(18) the λx [CP -est λd that [RelP [NP3 d-long book] Rel0 [ John said that had written ]]]]
This movement skips one phasal head C0 crossing the non-phasal projection NP3. The truth conditions of (18) is
derived as follows.
(19) (i) Lexical entries

a. ⟦ -est ⟧= λG <dt,t>λP<dt>. ∃d [ P(d) ∧ ∀Q ∈ G [ Q ≠ P→ ¬ (Q(D))]
b. ⟦ long ⟧= λd.λx. LENGTH (x) ≥ d
(ii) a. LF: the λx [CP -est λd that [RelP [NP1 ι d-long BOOKF] Rel0 John said that Tolstoy had written x ]~ C
C ⊆ ⟦ λd’. ι d’-long BOOKF John said that Tolstoy had written ⟧ f
C ⊆ {λd’. ι d’-long War & Peacex John said that Tolstoy had written x;
6
Fox (2001) proposed a conversion mechanism that interprets the copies of movement chains in the LF. This mechanism converts movement copies
into definite descriptions of type e using two derivational steps: first, the variable [λy(y=x)] of type is inserted in such a way that the (Det) Pred turns
into (Det) [ Pred λy(y=x)] where the Pred and the inserted variable [λy(y=x] compose intersectively as in (i).
(i) (Det) [λy [ Pred (y) & (y=x)]
Second, a determiner replacement operation applies in which the Det is replaced by a definite description operator which applies to the predicate
of individuals in (36) yielding an object of type e as in (ii).
(ii) ιy [ Pred (y) & (y=x)]

7
We assume with Heim (1999, 2000) and Szabolcsi (1986) that the -est quantifier is a two-place function from implicit context variables of type that
characterize the comparison class restriction of the superlative quantifier to predicates of degrees of type as represented in the lexical entry (3).
(iii) ⟦ -est ⟧= λG<dt,t> λP<dt>. ∃d [ P(d) ∧ ∀Q ∈ G [ Q ≠ P→ ¬ (Q(D))]
(Heim, 1999, p. 20)

λd’, ι d’-long Anna Kareninax John said that Tolstoy had written x;
λd’, ι d’-long Resurrectionx John said that Tolstoy had written Tolstoy had written x}
b. Truth conditions: the unique x: ∃d [ John said Tolstoy had written book(x) & long (x,d)
& ∀Q ∈ C [ Q ≠ (λd’. x is a d’-long book) → ¬ Q(d)]
Under this reconstruction analysis, the ambiguity between the high and low interpretations of the relative arises due
to interpreting copies of the CP-internal head NP; both at the high and low level, respectively. In each case, the-est
operator performs long distance movement that takes a CP-structure as its scope sentential domain: while the sentential
domain involved in deriving the low reading is the embedded write-clause CP, that of the high reading is the matrix tell-
clause CP.
B. Syntax of A- and G-Superlative Adjectives
Let us now turn to the syntax of the two superlative modifiers in question. PA and other varieties of Semitic
languages have two forms of superlative modifiers: (A)ttributive and (G-)superlative exemplified in (20).
(20) a. l-kitaab l-ʔtˤwal

DEF-book.NOM DEF-longest.NOM
Literal: ' The book the longest’
≈: ‘the longest book’
b. ʔtˤwal kitaab
longest.NOM book.GEN
Literal: longest of book
For the superlative adjective in the A-superlative (20.a), we assume a version of head movement theory based on
Pereltsvaig (2008) (See also Borer, 1996; Fassi-Fehri, 1989, 1993; Hazout, 1995; Ritter, 1991; Shlonsky, 2004; Siloni,
1996).8 This theory derives the syntax of the attributive superlative adjective as follows.
Assume the projection α1P is located between the DP and NP complement, deriving the Semitic DP with attributive
adjectives like (10.a) proceeds as follows. First, the lexical head N kitaab ‘book’ head-moves into the head of a
functional head α10. Then the heavy superlative adjective l-ʔtˤwal ‘the tallest’ is basegenerated in the specifier of NP as
schematized (21).
8
The main advantage of Pereltsvaig’s (2008) approach is that it provides a unified syntactic analysis that differentiates between heavy and light
adjectives. A heavy adjective like the superlative adjective ‘l-ʔtˤwal ‘the longest’ is distinguished from other light adjectives such l-hilu ‘the beautiful’
in that the latter occurs in the mirror order compared to English and the former never respects this order. Consider the pattern in (i) and (ii). While in
light adjectives the evaluative adjective follows the size adjective in the post-nominal position
(i) a. the long beautiful book / #the beautiful long book (English) Evaluative adjective > Size adjective > Noun
(ii) l-kitaab l- tˤaweel l-ħilu (PA) Noun > light size adjective> evaluative adjective
the-book the-long the-beautiful
‘the beautiful long book’
b. ??l-kitaab l-ʔtˤwal l- ħilu # Noun > heavy size adjective > evaluative adjective
the-book the-longest the-beautiful
intended: ‘ the beautiful longest book’
b. l-kitaab l- ħilu l-ʔtˤwal Noun > evaluative adjective > heavy Size adjective
the-book the-beautiful the-longest
intended: ‘the longest beautiful book’

The genitive superlative structure in (20.b) has a different syntax similar to that of construct state genitive structures
(See Longobardi, 1996; Ritter, 1988, 1991, pp. 39–40; Siloni, 1991, 1994, 1997; Elghamry, 2004; Abu Helal, 2021b).
In this structure, the NP is assigned structural Case akin to nominative and accusative Case assigned in the IP/vP
domains: it makes use of a functional head (i.e., D0) that enters into Agreement and Case assignment relation (i.e.,
genitive) with an internal NP (Abney, 1987; Siloni, 1997). In addition, the DP contains a functional category AgrGP
that is located between DP and NP (Ritter, 1991) as schematized in (22).
Following Siloni (1997), the Adj0 head-moves into D0 bundling with Agr0 head. On a minimalist view to Case
(Chomsky, 2000), the bundled head Agr +Adj0 enters the derivation with a valued genitive Case feature and
uninterpretable φ-features. It probes into its c-commanding domain to value the genitive Case feature on the NP goal.
The Agr0 then gets its phi-features interpreted by virtue of Agree with its associate NP.
III. THE ANALYSIS

The assumptions discussed in Sect. II provide a guiding light for my explanation of the high/low asymmetry based on
anti-locality constraint. First, deriving the ambiguity involves the long-distance movement of the -est quantifier as part
of interpreting CP-internal copies at a high or low level in the structure. As a standard minimalist practice, the long-
distance movement is regulated by locality conditions of grammar which is discussed in Subsect. 4. A in terms of the
phase theory of Chomsky (2000).
Second, the paper shows that the syntactic configuration of the G-superlative triggers an anti-locality effect on the
economy-constrained movement of the -est quantifier which results into the blocking of the high reading in G-
superlatives. Such configuration in A-superlatives neutralizes the anti-locality effect by virtue of having an additional
projection intervening between the source and landing sites of movement which renders movement long enough to
obviate the anti-locality effect. A similar obviation of anti-locality arises in the movement deriving the low reading in
both A- and G- superlatives. Because the low CP- internal copy under interpretation is uniquely low in the clause (i.e.,
being the object argument position of the embedded clause), the -est quantifier has now more room for long movement
that satisfies the specifier-to-specifier anti-locality.
A. Phases, Case, and Movement of -est

Quantifier Raising (QR) is often shown to be a local operation whose domain is the clause where the quantifier is
base-generated (Szabolcsi, 1997; Johnson, 2000; Cecchetto, 2004; Wurmbrand, 2018).9 Consider the following example
in which the universal quantifier takes low or wide scope relative to the existential quantifier when both quantifies
occur in the same clause.
(23) Someone loves everyone.

Universal low reading: ∃y(PERSON(Y) & ∀x (PERSON(x) → (x loves y)
Universal wide reading: ∀x (PERSON(x) → ∃y(PERSON(Y) & (x loves y)
In (24), the wide scopal reading of the universal quantifier is blocked: the QRing of the universal is clause-bounded
so that the quantifier may not take scope over the matrix existential clause across the embedded clause.
(24) Someone thinks that John loves everyone.

Universal low reading: ∃y(PERSON(y) & thinks (y) & ∀x (PERSON(x) → (John loves y)
#Universal wide reading: ∀x (PERSON(x) → ∃y(PERSON(y) & thinks (y) & (John loves y)
One syntactic theory that regulates the clause-boundedness of QR is the phase theory of Chomsky (2001, 2008). It
establishes that QR is a syntactic movement that is subject to phase impenetrability condition (PIC). It is then phase-
bounded (Cecchetto, 2004; Takahashi, 2010; Miyagawa, 2011). Chomsky (2000) defines PIC as follows.
(25) In phase α with head H, the domain of H is not accessible to operations outside α, only H and its edge are
accessible to such operations (Chomsky, 2000, p. 108).
If CP, vP, and DP are phases, the following syntactic representation depicts how PIC works.
(26) [CP C0 [TP T0 [vP v0 [ VP V0 …… [QP]]
In phase-theoretic terms, for the object QP to undergo long distance QR from the embedded clause into the matrix
clause, it should meet the following two requirements: first, it proceeds successively so that only one phase head (C, v,
or D) is crossed in a single leap of movement in compliance with the PIC. Second, each successive step of movement
must be semantically motivated: the requirement that the quantifier take scope over other respective structures to yield a
new interpretation or/and raise to resolve type mismatch. Let us discuss these economy requirements in the context of
the covert movement of the superlative operator-est which derive the high/low ambiguity. Consider the low reading of
(27) repeated from (11).
Syntax of low reading
The longest book that John said

[CP -est λd C0 that [ TP Tolstoy T0 had [ vP -est v0 [ VP V0 written [NP1 ι d-long book]]]]]
Semantics of low reading
the unique x: John said ∃d [ Tolstoy had written book(x) & long (x,d) & ∀Q ∈ C [ Q ≠ (λd’. x is a d’-long book)
→ ¬ Q(d)]
To derive the low reading of (27), the -est operator undergoes QR from its base-generated in NP1 into the specifier-
CP of the embedded clause. This movement is semantically motivated by the -est need to take scope over the embedded
CP to determine the -est comparison class restriction. The -est operator also needs to repair type mismatch with the
gradable adjective: it raises to create a degree abstract over degree the degreedenoting trace that directly saturates the
degree argument of the adjective long. 10 This long movement, being phase-bounded, satisfies the PIC: it proceeds
successively through each phase edge towards the landing site in specifier-CP of the embedded clause so that it first
moves into specifier-vP . It then moves into the specifier of the embedded CP.
Consider, now, the high reading of (28).
9
One exception is indefinite Quantifier Raising which seems to apply non-locally across finite clauses (See for example Ebert, 2009).
10
Cecchetto (2004) defines semantic motivation in QR successive movement as: (i) interacting scopally with another quantificational NPs, (ii)
repairing type mismatch in semantic composition, and (iii) solving an infinite regress in an antecedent-contained ellipsis.

Syntax of high reading

the λx [CP -est λd that [RelP [NP3 [AdjP est long] [N’ book] Rel0 [ John said that Tolstoy had written ]]]]
Semantics of high reading

the unique x: ∃d [ John said Tolstoy had written book(x) & long (x,d) & ∀Q ∈ C [ Q ≠ (λd’. x is a d’-long book)
→ ¬ Q(d)]
Again, the -est movement needed to derive the high reading is semantically motivated by the need to determine the
comparison class restriction. It is also driven by type resolution. As in (28), the movement has one sub-link from AdjP
into specifier-CP of the matrix clause. The -est doesn’t need to stop in the specifier of nonphasal NP3.
We close this subsection by laying out our approach to the notion of phasehood. We assume the noncontextual view
of phasehood which establishes that the CP and vP and presumably DP are phases (i.e., by virtue of being constituents
with independent semantic and phonetic realizations, Chomsky, 2005). For the purpose of this paper, we further assume,
following Kasai (2004), Takahashi (2010) and Miyagawa (2011) that a functional projection whose head is Case-
assigning is necessarily a phase. For example, a vP can only function as a phase if its v0 is as a Case-assigning head.11
B. An Anti-Locality Effect
This section proposes that the asymmetrical behavior of the A- and G-superlative structures with respect to the
high/low ambiguity is due to a specifier-to-specifier anti-locality effect induced by the covert of the -est movement: the
illicit movement leads to the blocking of the high reading in G-superlatives. Such an effect doesn’t arise in the A-
superlative with the high reading since movement crosses intermediate material that makes it long enough to satisfy the
anti-locality constraint in (1).
Let us begin with the high reading in the A- and G- superlatives. Recall that the high reading is derived by
interpreting the CP-internal highest copy of the head NP3 in the chain (See (12)). Consider first the syntactic derivation
of the high reading in the A-superlative (29).
(29) a. l-kitaab l-ʔtˤwal yalli Ali ħaka innu Tolstoy katab-ha
(DEF-)book (DEF-)longest YALLI Ali said that Tolstoy wrote-it
Literal: ' the book the longest that Ali said that Tolstoy wrote.’
≈ : ‘the longest book that Ali said that Tolstoy wrote.’
‘High’ reading
x is the longest book out of the books about which John said that Tolstoy had written them
The syntax of the A-superlative in (29) is represented as follows.
(30) [DP D0 the [XP X0 λx [CP C0 that [RelP [α1P α10+N0 booki [NP est-long ti ]] Rel0 [TP John [vP v0 [VP V0
said [CP [α1P α10 +N0 booki [NP d-long ti ]] C0 that [TP Tolstoy T0 had [ vP v0 [VP V0 written [α1P
α10+N0 booki [NP d - long ti ]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]
In interpreting the higher CP internal copy, the -est moves into specifier CP. Again, this movement is semantically
motivated by the -est operator’s need to associate with focus in determining the range of its comparison class and by the
need to resolve type mismatch. The movement satisfies anti-locality since it crosses the α1P in its way towards
specifier-CP. Notice that α1P has no Case-assigning head meaning that it is not phasal and hence the PIC does not
enforce the moving -est operator to stop in its specifier.
(31) the λx [CP -est C0 λd that [RelP [α1P α10+N0 booki [NP d-long ti ]] Rel0 [ TP
Let us look at the G-superlatives. In deriving the high reading, the semantics interprets the higher CP internal copy of
the genitive nominal. Consider (32).
(32) [DP D0 the [XP X0 λx [CP C0 that [RelP [DP D0 Agr0 +Adj0 long [AgrGP book ]] Rel0 [TP John [vP v0 [VP
V0 said [CP [DP D0 Agr0 + Adj0 long [AgrGP book ]] C0 that [TP Tolstoy T0 had [ vP v0 [VP V0 written
[DP D0 Agr0 + Adj0 long [AgrGP book ]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]
With the assumption that -est movement is phase-bounded and it is subject to PIC, the -est operator first targets the
edge of the phase DP (i.e., it is phasal by virtue of having a case-assigning D0 ) and then it moves into specifier-CP as in
(33).
11
See Takahashi (2001) for evidence from the nominative/accusative conversion in Japanese.

(33) *the λx [CP -est C0 λd that [RelP [DP D0 Agr0+Adj0 long [AgrGP book [AgrG’ est long]] Rel0 [ TP
✘
This movement is too short. It violates the specifier-to specifier anti-locality (1). Therefore, the higher CP internal
copy of the G-superlative cannot be interpreted at this position due to the superlative failure to move into specifier-CP.
This necessarily leads to the blocking the high reading in G-superlatives.
When it comes to the low reading, the A- and G- superlatives are not affected by anti-locality since their movement is
long enough to obviate anti-locality: the landing and source positions of movement are separated by sufficient room
making movement long enough to satisfy the anti-locality condition (1): there exist additional functional projections
above the base position of movement (i.e., lower NP). Let us see how movement proceeds in the interpretation of the
lower CP internal NP copy in both A- and G-superlatives. Consider first the syntax of the low reading in the A-
superlative in (34).
(34) [DP D0 the [XP X0 λx [CP C0 that [RelP [α1P α10+N0 booki [NP est-long ti ]] Rel0 [TP
John [vP v0 [VP V0 said [CP [α1P α10+N0 booki [NP d-long ti ]] C0 that [TP Tolstoy T0
had [ vP v0 [VP V0 written [α1P α10+N0 booki [NP d-long ti ]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]
The interpretation of the NP1 copy proceeds as follows. First a trace conversion applies to convert NP1 into an
interpretable object (Fox, 2001).
(35) the λx that John said

[CP -est λd C0 that [ TP Tolstoy T0 had [ vP v0 [ VP V0 written [α1P α10+N0 booki [NP d-long ti ]]]]]]
Second, the -est operator undergoes covert movement motivated by considerations scope association and type
resolution. Recall that the covert movement of -est movement is controlled by the following conditions on QR: (i) it is
phase-bounded. (ii) If it is to undergo long distance movement as in the case in hand, it applies successively through the
edge of each phases by PIC. In (36), the -est first moves into the edge of phasal vP and from there it moves into the
edge of the embedded CP. (ii) Movement satisfies specifier-to-specified antilocality: in the first sub-link the -est crosses
the VP projection and in the second it crosses the TP projection.
(36) [CP -est λd C0 that [ TP Tolstoy T0 had [ vP -est v0 [VP V0 written [α1P α10+N0 booki [NP d-long ti ]]]]]]
Consider now the derivation of the low reading in the G-superlative with following syntax (37), repeated from (13).
(37) [DP D0 the [XP X0 λx [CP C0 that [RelP [DP D0 Agr0 +Adj0 long [AgrGP book ]] Rel0 [TP
John [vP v0 [VP V0 said [CP [DP D0 Agr0 + Adj0 long [AgrGP book ]] C0 that [TP Tolstoy T0
had [ vP v0 [VP V0 written [DP D0 Agr0 + Adj0 long [AgrGP book ]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]
Using relevant compositional mechanism of interpretation, the -est movement is regulated by PIC and anti-locality as
shown in (38)
(38) the λx that John said

[CP -est λd C0 that [ TP Tolstoy T0 had[ vP -est v0 [ VP V0 written [DP -est D0 Agr0+Adj0 long [AgrGP book [AgrG’ est long]]
Taking into consideration PIC and anti-locality, the three sub-links created by the long distance movement of -est in
(38) satisfies the anti-locality condition i (1): the -est first moves into specifier-DP crossing the AgrGP projection. Then,
it moves into specifier-vP by PIC. This sub-link crosses an intervening VP projection. Finally, -est moves into specifier
of CP where it creates the scope sentential domain of the low interpretation of the G-superlative nominal. In each of
these sub-links, movement respects specifier-to-specifier anti-locality and hence the lower CP internal copy gets
interpreted as giving rise to the low reading of the G-superlative.
IV. CONCLUSION
This paper argued that a specifier-to-specifier anti-locality condition makes a straightforward solution to a puzzle
involving the interpretation of PA relative clauses modified by two superlative modifiers of different syntactic
structures. The argument has two main implications for the minimalist theory of syntax.
First, the ban on the too-short movement as regulated by specifier-to-specifier anti-locality constraint is not restricted
to subject extraction asymmetries (See Erlewine, 2020, for three case examples based on subject extraction). The ban
can be extended to other moving (scope-taking) objects as long as it moves for the specifier of a uniquely high position
into the specifier of an immediately dominating projection. The observed nonsubject extraction asymmetry involves the

covert movement of the superlative quantifier which derives different high/low interpretive possibilities available to two
forms of superlative modifiers which occur with the external head of relative clauses in PA: the so-called attributive and
genitive superlative modifiers. The observed asymmetry arises due to a specifier-to-specifier anti-locality restriction on
the covert movement of the superlative morpheme which blocks the high interpretation in the genitive superlative
modification. This restriction is obviated in the attributive superlative modification owing the presence of additional
intervening material that renders movement long enough to satisfy the anti-locality condition in (1).
Second, the anti-locality effect on the covert movement of superlative quantifier appears to support a model of
grammar where covert and overt operations occur within single cycles in derivation making the two kinds of operations
equally subject to general economy conditions such as PIC, Last Resort, and anti-locality (Bobaljik, 1995; Saito, 2005;
and Takahashi, 2010). This model assumes no arbitrary point of Spell-out between syntactic and LF operations: while
the semantics decides on which copy of the chain to be interpreted, the phonology decides which part of a moving chain
to pronounce. Simply put, covert movements such as the -est QR are no different from overt movements except which
copy of the chain is to be pronounced by the phonology chooses to pronounce (Pesetsky, 1998; Fox & Nissibaum,
1999).
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Abdel-Rahman Hani Abu Helal is an assistant professor of linguistics in the Department of English language and literature at
Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan. His main specialization is focused on the modern semantic and syntactic theory of Language and
Language Acquisition.

ISSN 1799-2591
Marketization Strategy in Research Article

Introductions by Indonesian Authors in English
Language Education Journals
Safnil Arsyad
English Education Postgraduate Program, Education Faculty, Bengkulu University, Indonesia
Abstract—Writers should attract readers’ attention to read their work from the very beginning of their article;
this can be done by addressing a centrality claim (henceforth CC). However, very few studies examining
research article introductions (henceforth RAI) examined further how authors attract readers to the
importance of the research topic. This study aimed at investigating the types of CCs used in the RAIs
published in local journals in English Language Education (henceforth ELE) with different Sinta values. Forty
articles were chosen from four national accredited journals in LE for this study. The results showed that the
most frequent appeals found in the RAIs are appeals to salience followed by appeals to problematicity and
appeals to magnitude. This is reasonable because a piece of research should be on an important topic, because
of a practical problem on a popular topic to attract readers to read the entire article. Also, although the
difference is not significant the higher the Sinta value of a journal the higher the frequency of different appeals
used by the authors in the introduction of the articles published in the journal. This suggests that to improve
the attractiveness of an article, authors should use several different types of appeals in their RAIs.
Index Terms—research article, introduction section, claiming centrality, accredited national journals, English
language education
I. INTRODUCTION
One of the determining criteria in a scholar's professional advancement in recent years is the publication of scholarly
journal articles; therefore, competition for articles published in top-tier journals is increasing over time (Hanauer &
Englander, 2011; Lillis & Curry, 2010). As a result, researchers must use proper discourse strategies to establish the
importance of their work and obtain approval from the experts of a particular disciplinary community (Martin & Perez,
2014). This is where the concept of promotion comes into play. Writers must be able to advertise their research to
others by employing discoursal and rhetorical components that serve to increase the perceived worth of their work
(Bhatia, 2005). Berkenkotter and Huckin (1995, p. 43) claim that scientists are currently promoting their work to an
extent that has never been seen before and that one of the major factors contributing to this upsurge is the modern
promotional culture, which is altering discursive practices and generating hybrid genres.
Promotion can take several forms, including being realized through those rhetorical and linguistic choices that
attempt to modify or affect the attitudes or actions of an audience in terms of favorably appraising the study
contribution (Martin & Perez, 2014). The promotion has been investigated as a discourse characteristic realized through
appraisal (Hunston & Thomson, 2000), metadiscourse (Hyland, 2005), and lexicogrammatical aspects like self-
reference and self-citation (e.g. Afros & Schryer, 2009; Harwood, 2005a, 2005b; Hyland, 2000, 2005). Other tactics,
such as directly noting the study's original contributions to the subject or briefly commenting on the findings in the
opening section, have also served as promotional features (Martin & Perez, 2014).
Swales (2004) suggests that authors should address a centrality claim at the beginning of their introduction to
promote and attract readers’ attention to read their work. Swales insist that authors should convince readers that their
topic or title is viable, important, or well-settled. Lindeberg (2004) suggests that the centrality claim in an article's
opening section is intended to obtain readers' attention rather than expecting them to accept the study subject or topic.
Similarly, Wang and Yang (2015) suggest that centrality claim is the writers' rhetorical endeavor to market their papers
to the potential audience; these are ‘appeals to salience,' 'appeals to magnitude,' 'appeals to topicality,' and 'appeals to
problematicity (p. 5). Previous research, however, has frequently focused just on whether or not writers advocate
centrality claims in their article introduction; these studies have not looked at how authors handle the CCs or which type
of CC they prefer using. Also, previous studies did not compare the use of CC types in different-ranking journals. This
research is vital to learn how effective authors communicate the main relevance and appeal of their research subject or
title. Thus, this study's major goal is to find out how writers in LE implement CCs in their RAIs published in accredited
local journals in English and whether or not authors who publish in different ranks of national journals employ the same
or different CC types in their RAIs.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW

Studies related to the introduction section of journal articles have mainly focused on the analysis of rhetorical
structure used in the article sections so far. In analyzing the rhetorical structure of the section, researchers usually
employed the framework suggested by Swales (1990, 2004) which is called creating a research space or CARS. These
studies often compared RAIs in a particular field of discipline written by native and nonnative speakers of English.
These comparative studies commonly found that RAIs written by native speakers of English are rhetorically different
from those written by nonnative speakers of English (Alyousef & Alzahrani, 2020; Deveci, 2020; Kafes, 2018; Ozturk,
2018; Sirijanchen & Gamper, 2018). The main difference is that RAIs written by nonnative speakers of English often
lack a Move 2 (establishing a niche); this is where authors discuss the rationale of their research project on the bases of
some kind of gap found in the previous relevant studies. One possible reason for the differences, as Kafes (2018) claims,
is the cultural difference between the first language of the authors and that of English. For example, Adnan (2014)
suggests that Indonesian authors are reluctant to look at the weaknesses or limitations of other authors because
criticizing the work of others in published academic texts ‘can result in disharmonized relationship’ (p. 11). Thus,
Indonesian authors may not negatively evaluate other authors’ work and use the results as the basis of their research
when writing in English. Arianto et al. (2021) insist that Indonesian authors are ‘not ready to criticize previous studies
because of feeling small in a discourse community and feeling afraid of revealing the weaknesses of what previous
scholars had done in their studies’ (p. 38).
Lindeberg (2004) performed one of the few studies concentrating on a more specific component of RAIs, such as a
promotional plan. She discovered that authors in the field of Economics utilize six different sorts of appeals: ‘appeals to
authority’, ‘economy’, ‘practitioner’, ‘research’, ‘scope’, and ‘topicality’ (p. 57). However, Wang and Yang (2015)
discovered that in the area of Applied Linguistics, there are only four basic forms of promotional rhetoric, which they
name centrality claims in the RAIs: 'appeal to salience,' 'appeal to magnitude,' 'appeal to topicality,' and 'appeal to
problematicity' (p. 1). Wang and Yang claim that the usage of various CC kinds is indicative of a marketization
approach, showing a compromise between the two.
Abdi and Sadeghi (2018) performed a study on centrality claims or appeals in RA introductions, looking at the
variations in the usage of CC types in RA introductions between English native writers and English nonnative authors
(Iranian speakers) in Applied Linguistics. They discovered that the most common sort of appeal identified in their data
was the appeal to salience in both groups of articles followed by the appeal to magnitude and appeal to topicality, with
the appeal to problematicity being the least common. Abdi and Sadeghi suggest that the use of appeal to salience and
appeal to magnitude differs across the two groups of articles. Nonnative authors, as Abdi and Sadeghi claim, need to be
more aware of the importance of CCs because their work may not receive credit from international readers if they do
not include them. This is due to the increasing competition for publishing in high-impact international journals
(Hanauer & Englander, 2011; Lillis & Curry, 2010) and the need for promotion to obtain acceptance and attractiveness
(Mautner, 2010).
In the Indonesian context, studies on the use of CC types in the RAIs, as far as these authors are concerned, are never
or rarely conducted. This research is important to know how Indonesian authors in ELE published in national accredited
journals of different rankings address a CC in their RAIs. It is commonly believed that Indonesian authors especially
those from social sciences find it very hard to publish an article in a reputable national and/or international journal (The
author et al., 2020). This can be because of the weakness of their RAIs particularly in terms of CC types used at the
beginning part of the section in the eyes of international journal editors and/or reviewers. This is the rationale for this
research; that is to examine how Indonesian researchers in ELE address a centrality claim in their RAIs published in
national accredited journals. The following research questions are addressed as a guideline.
1. How Indonesian authors in ELE published in local journals use centrality claims in their article introductions?
2. How Sinta values affect the use of centrality claims in journal article introductions? and
3. Why do Indonesian authors use particular types of centrality claims in their article introductions?
The responses to these inquiries should give further insight into how authors in English language education published
in local journals use centrality claims in promoting their research topic in their article introductions. Furthermore, the
results of this study's findings will be helpful for novice authors and postgraduate students for article writing practices
for national accredited journals.
III. METHODOLOGY
A. The Corpus of the Research

The articles for the corpus of this research were taken from four different journals with different Quartile values and
four different national accredited journals with different Sinta scores. Table 1 presents the study's corpus.

TABLE 1
THE CORPUS OF THE STUDY
Mean
Sinta No Number of
No National Accredited Journals Code length of
Value articles words in RAI
RAI
1. Journal of English Education and JEELS S2 10 5.358 536
Linguistics Studies
2. Journal of English as a Foreign Langue JEFL S2 10 4.900 490
3. Journal of ELT Research: The Academic JELTR S3 10 7.962 796
Journal of Studies in English Language
Teaching and Learning
4. Journal of English Language Teaching and JELTL S3 10 7.566 757
Linguistics
5. English Language in Focus ELIF S4 10 5.162 516
6. Journal of English Education and JEET S4 10 4.308 431
Teaching
7. Journal of English Teaching, Applied JETALL S5 10 4.455 446
Linguistics and Literatures
8. Journal of English Language Teaching and JELTCS S5 10 6.874 687
Cultural Studies
Total & Mean 46.585 582
Table 1 displays that the total length of the RAIs is 46.585 words while the average length of RAIs is 582. It can also
be seen that the average length of the RAIs in one journal is considerably different from one journal to the others. This
data is not very different from that of Wang and Yang (2015) and Abdi and Sadeghi (2018). The average length of RAIs
in Wang and Yang’s study is 479 words while in Abdi and Sadeghi’s study is 584 words. These two studies also
analyzed articles in Applied Linguistics published in international journals.
As can be seen in Table 1, 80 articles were included in this study and these were chosen from eight different
accredited journals with 4 different Sinta values (i.e., Sinta 2, 3, 4 and 5). These journals were chosen because 1) they
have an open access system, which means that articles published in them can be retrieved for free; 2) the articles
published in the journals are in the study of teaching the English language; 3) the articles follow a standard format of
introduction, methods, results, and discussion; and 4) the articles were written from empirical research; articles that
were reviews or reinterpretations of other studies were not chosen for this study. 5) The journals are accredited national
journals in Indonesia with Sinta scores of 2 to 5 in the 2021 record, and 6) the journals are mainstream journals, with
works published in them often read and referenced by researchers in the same area. Journals from Sinta 1 and 6 were
not included in this study because journals with Sinta 1 value have been considered equal to those published in
reputable international journals while journals with Sinta 6 value are newly accredited journals and cannot represent
local journals yet. It is believed that by including articles from journals with Sinta 2 to 5, the articles used in this study
can to some extent represent the characteristics of RAIs in terms of the use of CCs.
The number of articles included in this study is deemed to be sufficient because the analysis was done manually.
Abdi and Sadeghi (2018) state that, this rhetorical element of RA introductions has not been subjected to computer
analysis. In contrast, Afros and Schryer (2009) investigated the use of promotional metadiscourse in RA introductions
using just 20 publications. Parkinson (2011) looked at only 30 articles to investigate how authors in high-ranking
Physics journals discuss their new knowledge in the discussion sections, and Yang et al. (2015) looked at only 25
articles to investigate the use of epistemic modality. Although a larger corpus is more beneficial and representative, a
small corpus of 80 RAIs is considered sufficient in this investigation to verify journal article validity.
B. Data Collecting Technique
We investigated the types of centrality claims used by the authors in the introduction of the two groups of articles
included in this research. We used four types of centrality claims suggested by Wang and Yang (2015, p. 5); these are
‘appeals of salience’, ‘appeals to magnitude’, ‘appeals to topicality’, and ‘appeals to problematicity’ (p. 5). Below are
descriptions and examples of the centrality claims.
Appeals to salience refer to writers’ claims on the importance or significance or advantages of the key theory in the
title of their articles. Below is an example.
Parental involvement has been believed to play an essential role in their children's academic success… (JEET-3)
In the above example, the writers address the importance of their article title (Emergency Remote Learning in a
Foreign Language Learning: The Parents' Involvement) by claiming that scholars believe that the involvement of
parents plays an important role in the success of their children’s success in learning a foreign language. This claim is
considered an appeal to salience.
Appeals to magnitude deal with the popularity of a research title; authors claim that their research title is a popular
one by claiming that there have been many researchers who have investigated the topic. Below is an example.
Several studies have shown that authentic texts are found to be relevant to the students (Sulkunen, 2007), it should
be noted that the text must be distinctive and relevant to students, not just the original real-life text (Newmann et al.,
1996). (ELIF-7)

This example was from a paper published in the English Language in Focus (ELIF) titled Systemic Functional Genre
on Students Reading Literacy’. As in the above example, the authors state that several studies have been done on the
topic of the use of authentic texts in the teaching of English. This is why this claim is classified as an appeal to
magnitude.
Appeals to topicality refer to the newness of the research topic. Thus, a study on this topic will positively add to
readers’ knowledge of this topic. Below is an example.
In recent decades, modern technologies serve more sophisticated features to improve the pedagogical practices in
the field of language teaching and learning … (JEFL-3)
The above example was from an article titled ‘Undergraduate students’ perceptions toward Google Classroom
integration into EFL classroom: a sequential explanatory study at an Indonesian university) is new by using a specific
term ‘in recent years’. At the beginning of the introduction, the authors mention that technologies help teachers improve
the results of language teaching and learning processes. This is why this claim is considered an appeal to topicality.
Appeals to problematicity refer to the conflict, problems, difficulties or challenges that support the importance of
the research. Below is an example.
Unfortunately, it is a fact that Indonesian graduates have not shown satisfying performance in speaking English
up to this day. (JEFL-8)
The above extract was from an article titled ‘A scoping study of “Snapshot” teaching framework’. As can be seen in
the example above, the writers claim that many Indonesian university graduates are poor at speaking English. This is
why this claim is classified as an appeal to problematicity.
The second research question was answered by comparing the frequency of each type of CC used in the RAIs
published in different Sinta value journals. This is to know whether or not Sinta values affect the use of CC types. It is
generally believed that Sinta (Science and Technology Index) value tells the quality of the journals and the articles
published in the journals. A journal with Sinta 1 value has a score from 85 to 100, a Sinta 2 journal has a score from 70
to 85, a journal with Sinta 3 value has a score from 60 to 70 (https://mokacreative.wordpress.com/2020/05/15/apa-sih-
sinta-itu/). The last research question was answered by interviewing several Indonesian active authors on why they
prefer using a particular type of CC in their RAIs. The information from the authors was used as data for this study and
samples of their comments are presented in the results of this study.
C. Data Analysis Procedure
All RAIs underwent three-step analyses: identification, classification, and interpretation. We used specific
terminology, discourse constructs, and contextual interpretation to identify the CC. After that, an independent rater with
a doctorate in English language education was asked to look for probable CCs in 8 or 20% of randomly picked RAIs to
guarantee the data's authenticity. Before she was requested to analyze samples of RAIs, the independent rater was
taught how to identify CCs in RAIs using the same checklist. Following the data analysis, any disagreements between
the researcher and the co-rater were handled through a pleasant dialogue to verify that any words, phrases, or sentences
were accurately classified into a specific CC category.
Cohen Kappa analysis was implemented in this research to ensure the data analysis processes and results were
consistent between researchers and an independent rater. The highest score in Cohen’s Кappa analysis is 1.00 and the
lowest is 0.00 (Brown, 1996). Then, we followed Kanoksilapathan (2005) in classifying the scores; if it is less than 0.40
it was labeled bad, between 0.40–0.59 acceptable, between 0.60–0.74 good, and 0.75 or above excellent. The
researchers' and independent rater’s findings were then compared and the results are presented in Table 2 below.
TABLE 2
INTER-CODER RELIABILITY OF CENTRALITY CLAIM TYPES OF THE ARTICLE INTRODUCTION
No. Types of Centrality Claim Cohen’s Kappa Score
1. Appeal to salience or the importance and usefulness of the research topic 0.82
2. Appeal to the magnitude or the popularity of the research topic 0.76
3. Appeal to topicality or the newness of the research topic 0.78
4. Appeal to problematicity or the problem related to the research topic 0.79
Mean 0.787
Table 2 reveals that the derived Cohen's Kappa value is 0.787 which indicates high total inter-coder reliability. This
suggests that the mechanisms for identifying and classifying appeal types were considered excellent. However, several
discussions were held between the researchers and the independent coder to achieve an agreement in identifying and
classifying the appeals and the appeal types.
IV. FINDINGS
A. Distribution of Centrality Claims in the RAIs

The analysis results on the CC types found in the RAIs analyzed in this study is given in Table 3 below.

TABLE 3
DISTRIBUTION OF CENTRALITY CLAIM TYPES IN THE RAIS
No Types of Centrality Claims (N=80) Total %
1. Appeal to salience or the importance and usefulness of the research topic 80 100
2. Appeal to the magnitude or the popularity of the research topic 38 47.50
3. Appeal to topicality or the newness of the research topic 22 27.50
4. Appeal to problematicity or the problem related to the research topic 41 51.25
Table 3 indicates that the most frequent type of CC used by the Indonesian authors in their RAIs is appeals to
salience (80 or 100%) followed by appeals to problematicity (41 or 51.25%) and appeals to magnitude (38 or 47.50%)
while appeals to topicality are found only in 22 or 27.50% of the articles. Below are examples of appeals taken from the
RAIs in the corpus of this study.
Extract 1: Appeals to salience
Although reflective teaching is very important for teacher professional development, it seems that most Indonesian
teachers are reluctant to do it because of several reasons. (JETALL-3).
Extract 1 was taken from an article titled ‘Reflective Teaching as a Means of Teacher Professional Development’
published in the Journal of English Teaching, Applied Linguistics and Literature (JETALL). In the above extract, the
authors claim that reflective teaching is very important for teachers in their professional development and therefore this
claim is identified as an appeal to salience.
Extract 2: Appeals to magnitude
Some studies claim that the implementation of e-learning has a positive impact on students, and some other studies
find that the implementation of e-learning has problems. (JELTL-5).
Extract 3 was taken from an article titled ‘Future English Teachers’ Perspective towards the Implementation of E-
Learning in Covid-19 Pandemic Era’ published in the Journal of English Language Teaching and Linguistics (JELTL).
In the above extract, the authors claim that there have been many studies investigating the implementation of e-learning
and its impact on students and this is why this claim is identified as an appeal to magnitude.
Extract 3: Appeals to topicality
With the rapid development of technology nowadays, English language teaching (ELT) professionals have freshly
started investigating the way EFL learners practice and learn English beyond a formal classroom by means of
accessible digital devices and internet resources .... (JEELS-6).
Extract 3 was taken from an article titled ‘Digital Learning of English Beyond Classroom: EFL Learners’ Perception
and Teaching Activities’ published in the Journal of English Education and Linguistics Studies (JEELS). In the above
extract, the authors claim that researchers have begun scrutinizing how learners learn and practice English outside the
classroom with the help of technology and the internet. This is why this claim is identified as an appeal to topicality.
Extract 4: Appeals to problematicity
Difficulties in learning listening skills are certainly influenced by many factors based on the fact that so many people
have not been able to understand the English-language information expressed by the speaker as a whole. Most
of them are still confused about the speed of utterances. … (ELIF-3).
Extract 4 was taken from an article titled ‘Improving Students Listening Comprehension with Mobile Application of
English Listening Test’ published in the English Language in Focus (ELIF) journal. In the above extract, the authors
claim that for many students listening skill is found very difficult to improve because of many reasons. This is why this
claim is identified as an appeal to problematicity.
It is also important to note that authors may use more than one CC of different types in one RAIs. For example, they
use appeals of salience and appeals to problematicity in their RAI. Below is an example.
Extract 5: an RAI with two appeals
(P1-S5)Speaking or communicative skills in the language are strongly mandated as one of the final expectations to
be held by the students. (JEFL-8)
…
(P1-S7)Unfortunately, it is a fact that Indonesian graduates have not shown satisfying performance in speaking
English up to this day ... (JEFL-8)
Extract 5 was taken from an article titled ‘A scoping study of Snapshot teaching framework’ published in the Journal
of English Foreign Language (JEFL). As can be seen in the above Extract, in paragraphs 1-sentence 5 the authors state
that the research topic or title is important in the teaching of English and this is considered as an appeal of appeal to
salience. In paragraph 1-sentence 7, the authors state that Indonesian students do not present sufficient ability in English
speaking and this is considered an appeal of problematicity.
B. Distribution of Centrality Claim in the RAIs of Different Sinta Value Journals
In the second analysis, we compared the frequency of CC types found in the articles of each journal and the results
are given in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1. CC Types in RAIs Published in Different Sinta Value Journals
Figure 1 reveals that on average articles published in Sinta 2 journals use the most frequent CCs in their RAIs (2.45)
followed by articles published in Sinta 3 journals (2.2.) and articles published in Sinta 5 journals (2.1) while articles
published in Sinta 4 use the least frequent CCs (1.6). Thus, on average, the Indonesian authors in ELE published in
nationally accredited journals use 2.1 CCs in their RAIs. It can also be seen that on average authors published in higher
Sinta value journals tend to use more different types of CCs than those published in lower Sinta value although the
difference is not significant.
C. The Authors’ Possible Reason for Using Particular CC Types
To answer research question number 3, we interviewed five authors in ELE who often published articles in national
accredited journals. We asked them why Indonesian authors use CC type 1 (appeal to salience or importance). One of
the authors said,
A piece of research is conducted because the topic or title is important or necessary so that the results can be
implemented in the teaching or learning activities.
When asked why the Indonesian authors use CC type 4 (appeal to problematicity), one of the authors said,
It is very reasonable that research is done because there is a practical problem and the main purpose of the
research is to find the best solution for the problem.
Finally, when asked why Indonesian authors also often use CC type 2 (appeal to magnitude or popularity), one of the
authors said that,
If we conduct research and publish an article on a popular topic among researchers in a particular field, the
possibility of the article being read and cited by other authors or researchers is higher compared to that of
articles on a less popular topic.
Thus, according to the interviewed authors, the three types of CC (i.e., appeals to salience, appeals to problematicity
and appeals to magnitude) frequently used by the authors of articles analyzed in this study are for practical and
academic purposes.
V. DISCUSSION
The first result of this research is that the most frequent type of CC used by Indonesian authors in ELE published in
national accredited journals is appeals to salience. Appeals to salience is the authors’ claim that their research topic is
important or useful and therefore their article should be read as a whore (Wang & Yang, 2015). The Indonesian authors
use this appeal to attract readers’ attention to read their article and support this claim with citations from other authors.
However, Indonesian authors also use other types of appeal, such as appeals to problematicity (the problem related to
the research topic) and appeals to magnitude (the popularity of the research topic) to convince readers that their article
is worth reading. Thus, by using more than one type of appeal in their RAIs, Indonesian authors expect that potential
readers will be willing to read their articles.
This result is in line with that of Abdi and Sadeghi (2018) who also found that Iranian authors used appeals to
salience the most frequently in their English RAIs. Abdi and Sadeghi suggest that the authors’ English writing ability
might be one of the possible reasons. Unlike English native-speaker authors, Iranian authors might not have adequate
vocabulary to address the centrality claims other than those addressing the importance or usefulness of their research
topic. Indonesian authors may experience the same problem when writing in English; they have limited vocabulary to
choose from their memory although they can consult a dictionary or thesaurus to find the necessary terms to use in their
articles to address the other types of appeals such as appeals to magnitude and appeals to topicality. Another possible
reason is the influence of culture; like Iranians, Indonesian authors may have thought that a piece of research needs to
be carried out on an important issue or problem not because it is new or popular.

Wang and Yang (2015) found a different finding in which authors in Applied Linguistics published international
reputable journals in the data of their study used appeals to magnitude the most frequently which is then followed by
appeals of salience. However, Wang and Yang did not discuss why the International authors in the data of their study
prefer using appeals to magnitude. Wang and Yang (2015) suggest that ‘… appeals to magnitude relates to the
prevalence or popularity of a research topic or a phenomenon by indicating, for example, the multiplicity of studies
having been conducted on it or researchers' perpetual interest in it, hence its significance implied and the topic indirectly
promoted’ (p. 166). One possible reason is that since the international authors have access to the most recent references
they are fully aware of the current topics or issues frequently discussed by other authors and are willing to participate in
the discussion. By doing so, they will get attention more easily from other authors in the field including journal editors
and reviewers.
The data of this study also indicate that Indonesian writers in the data of this research also frequently use appeals to
problematicity. This is probably because it is commonly believed that a piece of research is necessary if there is a
practical problem at hand. Therefore, the primary goal of the investigation is to identify the issue's ideal resolution.
Swales (1990) also claims that problems are crucial to research in many fields, by addressing that ‘problems or research
questions or unexplained phenomena are the lifeblood of many research undertakings’ (p. 140). Thus, the success of a
piece of research is not only judged by the publication but also by the practical advantage of its findings to be
implemented in a real-life context.
The second finding in this study is that articles published with a higher Sinta value tend to use more types of CC in
the RAIs. This might be because authors publishing in high-ranking journals believe that by addressing several different
types of CC in their RAIs their article becomes more attractive and their argument becomes more convincing to readers.
Wang and Yang (2015) found a higher frequency of CC in their data (i.e., 4.3 CC per RAI) but Wang and Yang also
found articles with only one and two CCs in the RAIs. Abdi and Sadeghi (2018) also found a much higher frequency of
CC (i.e., 6.28 CCs) in each RAI written in English by Iranian authors in Applied Linguistics. This is because unlike in
Wang and Yang (2015) and Abdi and Sadeghi (2018) if one type of CC occurs several times in an RAI in this study it
was counted as one since the purpose of this study is to know the frequency of different types of CC used in an RAI and
not just the frequency of the CC. Thus, the lower frequency of CC in this study is because of the different methods of
counting the frequency of CCs and not because of the different ways of identifying the CCs.
The last result of this research is that the authors’ reasons for the frequent use of three CC types (i.e., appeal to
salience, appeal to problematicity and appeal to magnitude) are for practical and academic purposes. This implies that
the authors of articles included in this study promote their articles to potential readers by using multiple appeals to have
a strong argument. Setyaningsih and Rahardi (2020) found that authors argue for the importance of their research in
four article sections: background, literature review, method and discussion. Setyaningsih and Rahardi claim that authors
should consider three important arguments in the background part of their article: ‘the position of the topic raised by the
article writer in terms of issues in a global context, the position of the topic of the problem of the article writer in the
framework of the results of previous similar studies, gaps that arise related to the topic of the problem raised, and
justification of a problem raised in a study’ (p. 212). Thus, the three appeals frequently used by Indonesian authors in
their RAIs are popular appeals also used by authors published in international journals such as those found by Wang
and Yang (2015).
VI. CONCLUSION
From the findings and analysis in this study, it can be inferred that Indonesian writers frequently make appeals in
ELE published in national authorized journals are appeals to salience, appeals to magnitude and appeals to
problematicity. Also, the authors of articles published in higher Sinta value journals tend to use more types of CC
although the difference between different Sinta value journals is not significant. Finally, the reasons the authors
frequently use the three different types of CC are for practical and academic purses.
In this study, only articles published in Indonesian national accredited journals are included. The future study should
also look at how Indonesian authors in ELE published in international reputable journals use CCs in their RAIs. This is
because articles published in reputable international journals are considered higher in quality than those published in
national journals. Information about the differences and similarities between the use of CCs in national and international
journals will be useful for the teaching of academic writing, especially in the teaching of journal article writing. This is
one way of improving the attractiveness of journal articles, especially in their introduction to be possibly accepted to be
published in a reputable international journal.
The findings of this study have implications for how academic writing is taught, especially for novice authors and
postgraduate students. They should use multi types of CCs in their introduction to strengthen the argument and improve
the attractiveness of their research title or topic in the eyes of potential readers including journal reviewers and editors.
Also, every appeal should be supported with relevant, recent and reliable references and/or data to convince readers that
their research title or topic is important and useful not only for practical reasons but also for academic reasons.

APPENDIX. RESEARCH INSTRUMENT

Journal :
Code :
Article number :
No Types of Appeal Description Paragraph and sentence
number
1 Appeal to salience (the Author/s address the importance or significance usefulness, or
importance of the research advantages of the key construct in the research topic
topic)
2 Appeal to magnitude (the Authors claim the prevalence or popularity of a research topic or
popularity of the research phenomenon by indicating the multiplicity of studies that have been
topic) conducted on it hence its significance is implied and the topic
indirectly promoted
3 Appeal to topicality (the Authors address the newness of the research topic or phenomenon or
newness of the research topic) the implication that the research is likely to add new knowledge to
this little traversed/ novel area
4 Appeal to problematicity (the Authors address the conflict, problems, difficulties or challenges as
problem related to the research the rationale for the research.
topic)
Bengkulu, 2021
Independent coder, Researcher,
(_______________) (________________)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study was financially supported by the Directorate of Research and Community Service of the Directorate
General of Research and Development Enforcement, The Indonesian Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and
Technology (Contract Number 682/UN30.15/PG/2021). Therefore, we thank them very much.
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Safnil Arsyad is a professor in Applied Linguistics at the English Education Postgraduate Program of
Education Faculty of Bengkulu University, Indonesia. Safnil Arsyad was born in Limapuluh Kota West
Sumatera Indonesia on the 21 of January in 2022. Safnil Arsyad graduated from IKIP Padang in Padang of
West Sumatera of Indonesia in 1984 for his undergraduate study in English Education, from Canberra
University in Canberra Australia in 1994 for his master's program in TESOL and the Australian National
University in Canberra Australia in 2021 for his doctoral program in Linguistics.
He began teaching at the University of Bengkulu in 1986 until now. In 2004, he was elected the dean of the
Education Faculty of Bengkulu University until 2012. Currently, he is the head of the English Education
Postgraduate Study Program at Bengkulu University. In 2013, he did his postdoctoral program at Ohio
University in Athens Ohio USA. He is often invited as a keynote speaker at conferences on the Teaching of English as a Foreign
Language.
Prof. Arsyad, MA., Ph.D. is a member of the Linguistic Association of Indonesia (KIMLI) and the Organization of English
Teachers of Indonesia (TEFLIN). He has published articles in several international journals, such as Multicultural Discourses, Asian
Englishes, Discourse and Interaction, Asian Journal of Applied Linguistics, Studies in English Language Education, International
Journal of Language Education, International Journal of Instruction, Asian ESP Journal and Studies About Languages. He has also
published books on the writing of journal articles in Indonesian and English.

ISSN 1799-2591
Exploring COVID-19 Arabic Humorous

Comments in Social Media: Linguistic Analysis
of Facebook Comments Using the General
Theory of Verbal Humor
Sulaiman M. Alkaraki 
Research Center For Language Studies and Linguistics, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia
Marlyna Maros
Norhayati Binti Alias

Abstract—This paper investigates the Arabic verbal humorous comments pertaining to COVID-19 on social
media. The main objectives of the paper are to identify the distinct categories that are highlighted in those
comments disseminated between March and September 2020, on the AlMamlaka and Roya Jordanian
Facebook accounts. Additionally, the study examines the claim of Attardo and Raskins's (1991) that the
"target" is an optional Knowledge Resource in the General Theory of Verbal Humor. The research design
employed in this study is descriptive qualitative. The researchers conducted a thematic analysis to analyze 15
comments, applying the General Theory of Verbal Humor of Attardo and Raskin (1991). The analysis revealed
eight emerging categories: governmental, gender, COVID-19, lockdown, behavior, conspiracy, geographical,
and facemask jokes. The study found that humorous comments conform to the six Knowledge Resources of the
General Theory of Verbal Humor. The most prominent logical mechanism used in the comments was irony
and sarcasm, enabling Jordanians to shed light on hidden issues to express their reactions and feelings. The
study also found that identifying the target in a humorous comment is crucial in determining the various
categories of humorous comments. The research opens avenues for further exploration into the utilization and
interpretation of humor in diverse cultural settings, during other natural disasters, and its impact on
understanding humorous content.
Index Terms—Coronavirus, Facebook, Jordanians, knowledge resources, verbal humor
I. INTRODUCTION
Humor has emerged as a crucial coping mechanism for individuals dealing with the anxiety and stress caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic (Ogunbge & Omolabi, 2020). It provides a means of expressing anxieties and taking control of an
uncontrollable situation, thereby promoting psychological well-being (MĂDA & Gomoescu, 2020). Additionally,
humor has also been effective in challenging those in positions of power, including government officials, and providing
a psychological lifeline in difficult situations (Cancelas-Ouviña, 2021). Jordanians have a history of using humor and
satire to cope with challenging circumstances, and the COVID-19 pandemic is no exception. Social networking in
Jordan aided in alleviating pandemic anxieties (Hussein & Aljamili, 2020).
Several researchers have conducted studies on the use of humor in Jordanian social media and political commentary.
Ali and Faraj (2022), for example, analyzed COVID-19 humor in Jordanian social media hashtags and identified two
types of humor: language-based and reference-based humor. The linguistic devices, including phonological, syntactic,
and semantic aspects, are analyzed in the language-based humor, while cultural and religious references are employed
in the reference-based humor. Puns and wordplays were the most commonly used humorous elements, and the humor
reflected Jordanian culture and traditions.
Additionally, Al-Daher et al. (2022) conducted a study on the jokes circulated on Jordanian social media using
GTVH during the pandemic between March and October 2020. The study revealed that the jokes adhere to the six KRs
of GTVH theory and addressed ethnic jokes, governmental decisions, the effect of restrictions, sexist jokes, the virus,
miscellaneous offensive jokes, the year 2020, and remote education.
Moreover, Al-Qudah and Hait (2022) analyzed 25 online jokes made by Jordanians during the COVID-19 pandemic
using Berger's (1993) rhetorical techniques. They found that Jordanian social media users employed various rhetorical


strategies such as satire, pun, irony, exaggeration, definition, ignorance, rigidity, disappointment, allusion, and absurdity
to convey humor and highlight political, social, and psychological themes prevalent during the pandemic in Jordanian
culture.
Furthermore, Lulu et al. (2021) analyzed linguistic features in Jordanian cartoons related to COVID-19. They found
that the cartoons reflected Jordanians' attitudes and opinions about the pandemic, including dissatisfaction with the
government's response and concern for their health and safety.
More, Hussein and Aljamili (2020) utilized Kress and Van Leeuwen's (2006) framework to examine the role of
humor on Jordanian social media during the COVID-19 pandemic, revealing its efficacy in alleviating anxiety, fostering
community, and emphasizing the cultural context in understanding the socio-semiotic aspects of COVID-19 humor.
Barahmeh's (2020) doctoral dissertation investigated how Jordanian comedians used social media to create political
humor. Using Bakhtin's carnivalesque framework, the research identified five main characteristics and revealed that
Jordanians used humor to cope with political power and socio-economic inequalities and to criticize, ridicule, and mock
the government on social media.
Prior research on Jordanian humor has primarily focused on linguistic features and employed various frameworks for
analysis. Al-Daher et al.'s (2022) investigation of Jordanian jokes is however more relevant to the current study. Both
studies investigate COVID-19-related humor on Jordanian social media during a specific period and use the General
Theory of Verbal Humor as a framework for their analysis. They identify some similar categories of humor related to
the pandemic (government, COVID-19, effects of restrictions, sexist jokes) and emphasize the role of humor in coping
with the pandemic and expressing anxieties, frustrations, and fears. While several other studies have explored humor in
Jordan, they have emphasized different themes and issues.
This study aims to address these gaps by identifying the categories prevalent in the selected Facebook accounts. The
analysis will be accomplished by utilizing six Knowledge Resources (KRs) from the General Theory of Verbal Humor
proposed by Attardo and Raskin (1991).
By applying this framework, the study will explore the impact of the pandemic on the Jordanian society, including
challenges faced by the government, the proliferation of misinformation and conspiracy theories, and the gender and
cultural implications of the pandemic. It delves into the portrayal of men and women and examines the influence on
family relationships. Additionally, the study highlights the effective use of irony and sarcasm as logical mechanisms by
commentators in Jordan to approach a challenging situation in a light-hearted manner. These mechanisms will be
explored to understand how commentators effectively communicate their messages and evoke laughter amidst difficult
circumstances. The current study will build upon existing knowledge and contribute new insights into the specific
categories of humor prevalent on the mentioned Facebook accounts. The research will provide a comprehensive
understanding of the role of humor as a coping mechanism, shed light on the societal impact of the pandemic, and
reveal how individuals navigate challenging situations through humor.
II. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
A. The Concept of Humor

The word “humor” originates from a Latin word with a bodily fluids connotation. Many scholars attempted to
explain it. Lynch (2002) for example, defines humor as an “intended or unintended message interpreted as funny” (p.
423). Graham (1995), on the other hand, views humor as a pervasive phenomenon that refers to funny, humorous, and
positive aspects of our life. The current study will be based on the comprehensive definition of Attardo (1994), who
defined humor as “any event or object that elicits laughter, amuses, or is felt to be funny” (p. 4). In this regard, Verbal
humor is understood as formed through language or text (Attardo, 1994; Attardo & Raskin, 1991; Raskin, 1985).
Accordingly, humorous comments on Facebook are considered as verbal humor.
B. Theoretical Approach to Humor
General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH)
Attardo and Raskin (1991) revised and expanded the Semantic Script Theory of Humor (SSTH) into the General
Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH). The new suggested theory consists of six parameters or Knowledge Resources (KRs)
representing a verbal joke model: the Script Opposition (SO), the Logical Mechanism (LM), Situation (SI), Target (TA),
Narrative strategy (NS), and Language (LA). This categorization is advantageous in two things. Firstly, it facilitates an
understanding the connection between lines. Secondly, it enables the identification of the patterns of lines’ occurrences
in relation to one another and the texts as a whole. This link between the lines allows for the identification of thematic
or formal relationships between lines.

 The Knowledge Resources
Figure 1. The Hierarchical Structure of Knowledge Resources (Attardo, 2002)
1. Script Opposition (SO):

The concept of Script Opposition (SO) involves two opposing scripts related to a particular element. According to
Attardo (1994), SO is an essential component of humor in any text. Scripts can be opposed lexically using negation or
antonyms (e.g., alive vs. dead). Attardo (1994) identified three types of script opposition based on the real and unreal
situations presented in the text: actual vs. non-actual, normal vs. abnormal, and possible vs. impossible. In addition to
these, Raskin (1985) introduced a set of general script oppositions, including life vs. death, good vs. bad, obscene vs.
non-obscene, high vs. low stature, and money vs. no-money.
2. Logical mechanism (LM):
The Logical Mechanism (LM) plays a vital role in connecting scripts within a joke, generating humor that fulfills the
desire for laughter. It resolves the incongruity triggered by the humorous text in the reader's mind. Pasaribu and
Kadarisman (2016) propose different logical mechanisms, including twisting prepositions, twisting idiomatic
expressions, twisting homonymy, twisting figurative language, absurd interpretation, absurd neologism, false analogy,
word repetition, fallacious reasoning, and insult or put-down humor.
3. Situation (SI):
The third Knowledge Resource is the situation (SI) in which the joke occurs. As defined by Attardo (2017, p. 131),
the situation refers to’’ the overall macro script that describes the background in which the events of the text of the joke
take place’’. Attardo (2017) asserts that the situation has nothing to do with the context of the telling joke. The situation
of the joke includes objects, activities, instruments, and props needed to tell the story.
4. Target (TA):
The Target (TA) refers to the group or individual who is the subject of the humor, also known as the "butt of the
joke", the ones whom a joke ridicules. However, some jokes may not have a specific target, and may not be intended to
ridicule anyone. Therefore, Target is an optional knowledge resource.
5. Narrative Strategy (NS):
The Narrative Strategy (NS) is concerned with the narrative organization of the humor, or the format in which a joke
is presented. Attardo (1994) mentioned that any humor should be placed in the narrative organization form, such as
question-and-answer dialog, narrative, or conversation. Each of these formats has its unique structure, and the selection
of the narrative strategy depends on the type of humor and the audience's characteristics.
6. Language (LA):
The Language (LA), as a Knowledge Resource, deals with the humor’s text wording and the placement of the
functional elements that create humor. It encompasses all the critical information for the text verbalization.
III. METHODOLOGY
This study employed a descriptive qualitative research design, analyzing linguistic aspects of Jordanian verbal humor
on Facebook during the COVID-19 pandemic, utilizing a thematic analysis approach guided by the General Theory of
Verbal Humor (GTVH). The data consisted of humorous comments from the AlMamlaka and Roya Facebook pages,
collected between March 2020 and September 2020 using the Facepager tool. The researcher coded the comments as
humorous or non-humorous based on the definition of humor, the researcher's intuition as a native Arabic speaker, and
humor features suggested by Nastri et al. (2006) as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Humor Markers Suggested by Nastri et al. (2006)
The study employed purposeful sampling to collect verbal humorous comments related to COVID-19, aiming to
reach data saturation. The data analysis involved using the General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH) proposed by
Attardo and Raskin (1991) and its Knowledge Resources (KRs), including script opposition, logical mechanism, the
target, narrative strategy, language, and situation. The research procedures included translating the collected comments,
categorizing them, and analyzing them using GTVH.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The analysis through the General Theory of Verbal Humor of Attardo and Raskin (1991) identified eight emerging
categories of humorous comments related to COVID-19 on AlMamlaka and Roya Jordanian Facebook accounts. These
categories include governmental, gender, COVID-19, lockdown, behavior, conspiracy, geographical, and facemask-
based jokes.
A. Governmental Jokes
The category of "Governmental Jokes" primarily parodied government announcements, decisions, corruption, the
Ministry of Health, and unequal distribution by the government.
Government corruption:
Comment 01 (Roya):
‫راح تخلص كورونا وتفتح المدارس ويأتي رمضان على وال بااص السريع لسه ماخلص‬
Translation:
“Corona Virus will be vanished, the school will reopen, and Ramadan will start. However, the quick bus is not ready
to work yet”.
The first humorous comment in the "Governmental Jokes" category critiques the corrupt and lazy policies of the
government. While the expectation is that the coronavirus will vanish, schools will reopen, and Ramadan will begin, the
government's "quick bus" project is still not operational. The "quick bus" project has been ongoing since 2010,
exemplifying corruption that is widespread in Jordanian government.
This creates a script opposition between the expected and the actual. The joke is based on the incongruity between
the expected events and the delay of the "quick bus" project, which is a form of faulty logic. The situation is set in a
context where the government has started a project for the "quick bus," but it has taken a lot of time and is still in
progress. The target of the joke is the government and its corrupt and lazy officials. The joke uses a simple narrative
format to highlight the incongruity between the expected events and the delayed "quick bus" project. The language used
is simple and straightforward, using familiar words and concepts to create a contrast between the expected events and
the delayed "quick bus" project. The Setup is “Corona Virus will be vanished, school will reopen, and Ramadan will
start”. The Punchline is “However, the quick bus is not ready to work yet”.
Governmental Decisions:
Ministry of Health:
Comment 02 (Roya):
....☺☺‫بصراحة حسب قدراتي الذهنية والعلمية سينتهي بمجرد ايجاد لقاح او يطور من نفسه الفايروس تلقائيا الى ان يضعف تدريجيا الى ان يختفي‬
‫يمكن اسبوعين بنشف وبموت ويمكن ايضا يخرج من الباب كما يخرج الضبع من البيت عند ترك الباب‬: ‫اما برأي الجهابذة العلماء‬
... ‫مفتوح‬
Translation:
“Frankly, based on my mental and scientific background, the virus will vanish the moment a vaccination is found, or
the corona will degrade until it vanishes on its own. The clever scholars however think the virus will, in two weeks, get
dry and die. Or it may leave through the door if you keep it open, just like a hyena”.

The script opposition in this joke is between the commentator's scientific and rational explanation for the end of the
virus and the opinion of the "scholars" who have a more simplified and unrealistic view. The joke is based on the
contrast between a reasonable explanation and unrealistic expectations. The situation is that the Minister of Health Saad
Jaber said in a televised interview that the virus will dry and die within two weeks. While Ishaq Adnan described the
coronavirus as a hyena if it enters our house and we leave the door open it will leave soon. The targets of the joke are
the Minister of Health and Ishaq Adnan making illogical statements. The narrative strategy is a comparison between the
two opinions, using irony to mock the unrealistic view. The language used is informal and sarcastic, conveying the
intended humorous tone of the joke. The Setup is “Honestly, according to my mental and scientific capabilities, it will
end as soon as a vaccine is found, or the virus develops itself automatically until it gradually weakens until it
disappears”. The Punchline is “however, in the opinion of the scholars: Two weeks can dry up and die. It can also come
out of the door as a hyena comes out of the house when the door is left open”.
B. Gender Jokes
Gender-based humor is another common category, with comments mocking traditional gender roles and expectations.
They are loaded with inappropriate humor about men, women, husband and wife, mother and father, etc. The
commentators portray the scenario through the use of humor. Following are the gender-based jokes:
Women:
Comment 03 (Roya):
�‫ام يانس هيه الوحيده يلي فايعه متل الصرصور والبتهدا اال تطلع‬
Translation:
“Um Yanis (the woman with the prayer dress) is the only one moving around like a cockroach always trying to leave
home”.
The commentator uses a metaphor to describe a woman's behavior during a strict lockdown. The metaphor compares
the woman to a cockroach, implying that she is always active and determined to go outside despite the lockdown
restrictions. Iqbal et al. (2020) explored “Wives as Talkative Creatures, Wives as Authoritative Creatures, Wives as
Violent and Troublesome Creatures, Wives as Stupid Creatures, and Wives as Bad and Ugly creatures”.
In this joke, the opposing scripts are "woman in prayer dress" and "active outside during lockdown", active/inactive.
The logical mechanism is a simple verbal technique of irony. The situation is inferred as women who were breaking
lockdown rules. The narrative strategy is a simple statement without any additional narrative structure. The language
used in the joke is simple and straightforward, with the punchline placed at the end for emphasis. The joke is making
fun of people who broke the rules during the lockdown and went out, despite being prohibited from doing so. It
specifically targets women who, according to the joke, would wear prayer dress and go out. The joke is humorous
because it is unexpected and ironic, as the person who is supposed to be engaged in spiritual activities is the one who
can't resist going out, while everyone else is following the rules and staying indoors. The setup of the joke is that during
the lockdown, women would break the rules by wearing prayer dress and going out. The punchline of the joke is "The
woman with the prayer dress is only one who is really active. She can't feel good till she goes out".
Man
Comment 04 (Roya):
‫ والشرطه بدهاش ياه في الشارع‬،‫ ومرته بدهاش ياه في البيت‬،‫ الحكومة بدهاش ياه في الشغل‬،‫الرجل حاليا ي ُمر بأصعب أيام في التاريخ‬
Translation:
“The man is currently going through the most difficult days in history. The government doesn’t want him at work, his
wife doesn’t want him at home, and the police doesn’t want him in the street”.
The script opposition in this joke is between the expectation that a person will be wanted by various authorities, and
the actual scenario in which the person is unwanted by all. The logical mechanism in this joke is the repetition of the
phrase "does not want him" to create a sense of increasing difficulty for the man. The situation in this joke is a man
going through a difficult time during the covid-19 lockdown because he is unwanted by the government, his wife, and
the police. The target in this joke is the man, who becomes the "butt" of the joke by being unwanted by everyone. The
narrative strategy in this joke is a statement that describes the situation of the man during the covid-19 quarantine. The
language in this joke is straightforward and uses simple phrases to create a clear and concise scenario. Setup is “The
man is currently going through the most difficult days in history”. Punchline is “The government does not want him at
work, his wife does not want him at home, and the police does not want him on the street.
C. COVID-19 Jokes
This is another category with many comments poking fun at the virus's infection, symptoms, poor health system to
control it, the quarantine, the false theory about it, the different waves of COVID-19, and the change of perception
because of the pandemic. Following are the illustrative examples:
The Infected Person
Comment 05 (AlMamlaka):
. ‫فايروس كورونا صار مثل المخدرات الي يصيدوا الزم يقولهم كل االسماء يلي تعامل معهم‬
Translation:

“Corona Virus became just like a drug dealership. The one, who is caught having it, must tell about everyone else he
dealt with”.
The script opposition in this joke is between the usual association of the disease being caught and treated and the
comparison to a drug dealership where the caught person must reveal information about others. The logical mechanism
in this joke is the comparison between the act of being caught with the virus and being caught in a drug dealership. The
situation in this joke is the scenario of a person being caught with the Corona Virus who has to reveal information about
others. The target of this joke is the concept of being caught with the virus and having to reveal information about
others. The narrative strategy of this joke is comparison. The language used in this joke is straightforward. The setup in
the funny comment is "Corona Virus became just like drug dealership" and the punchline is "The one, who is caught
having it, must talk about everyone else he dealt with." The setup sets up the comparison of the situation with Corona
virus and drug dealership and the punchline delivers the humour by highlighting the similarity of the consequences of
being caught with either.
First and second wave of COVID-19
‫مالحظين انه موجه كورونا الثانيه مالها بهجه زي األولى وين العطله وين تأجيل القروض وين الخبز لباب الدار يا عمي زمان كورونا كانت احسن‬
Translation:
“Do you notice that the second Corona wave is not as joyous as the first, where is the postponement of loans, where
is the bread at the door of the house. The first was kinder to us”.
The script opposition here is between the idea that the first wave of COVID-19 was better (because of the perks like
postponed loans and bread delivery) and the reality of the current, less interesting second wave. The contrast between
the two opposing scripts creates a humorous effect. The LM used here is a form of irony, which highlights the absurdity
of the speaker's claim that the first wave of COVID-19 was better. By listing the relatively trivial benefits of the first
wave (postponed loans and bread delivery), the speaker is highlighting the contrast between the supposed benefits and
the more serious consequences of the pandemic. The situation is the pandemic, specifically the differences between the
first and second waves of COVID-19. The target of the joke is the absurdity of comparing the two waves based on
trivial benefits. The narrative strategy here is a simple comparison. The language used here is informal and colloquial,
which contributes to the humorous effect. The setup is a rhetorical question posed to Setup: The setup is a rhetorical
question posed to the reader, asking them if they have noticed that the second wave of the pandemic is not as interesting
as the first wave, which implies that the first wave had some interesting or unique aspects. The punchline is a sarcastic
and humorous statement that suggests that the first wave of the pandemic was better because it had things like
postponed loans and bread delivery, which are not present in the second wave. The phrase "Man, Corona, in the past,
was much better" adds to the humorous tone and exaggerates the idea that the first wave was more enjoyable than the
current situation.
D. Lockdown
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to lockdowns across the world, causing significant disruption to daily life,
boredom, frustration, and mental health issues. Zheng et al. (2020) noted that individuals in the quarantine may develop
boredom, hostility, and fear related to COVID-19. Comments in this category reflect the collective experience of
frustration during the lockdown, highlighting the adverse effects on family relationships, funny comments on months of
lockdown, difficulties in disposing of the rubbish bags, and characters like Subhi and the grocer.
Effects on Family Relationships
‫انا ابوي صار مطلق امي الف مره بالحضر هاض‬
Translation:
“My father divorced my mother a thousand times during the lockdown”.
The lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the social relationships between listless husbands and wives
because of tedious routines that resulted in tension at home (Al-Qudah & Hait, 2022).The script opposition in this joke
is between the expected norm of a stable and long-term relationship and the reality of frequent "divorces" during the
lockdown. The people became less tolerant of each other. The logical mechanism in this joke is the exaggeration of the
frequency of "divorces" during the lockdown. The situation in this joke is the frustration and tension caused by the long-
term quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic. The target of this joke is the situation of quarantine and the stress it
can cause on relationships. The narrative strategy in this joke is an assertion made by the speaker, providing a humorous
spin on a difficult situation. The language in this joke is simple and direct, adding to the humor and light-heartedness of
the situation. The use of the word "divorced" with the exaggerative number "a thousand times" contributes to the humor.
The setup of the joke is the frustration of being in lockdown with a partner, and the punchline is the exaggeration of the
father having divorced the mother a thousand times during the lockdown, implying that they may have had a difficult
time being cooped up together for an extended period of time.
Subhi and the Grocer
Comment 8 (Roya):

‫ يوم من صبحي وطالع وال بعدنا على تقويم الخضرجي‬٤١ ‫عشان الواحد يعرف راسه من رجليه هسه فهموني بدنا نبلش نعد‬
Translation:
“To be able to understand how the world is going on around us, I need to know whether we begin counting 14 days
of quarantine, starting from Subhi or are we still on the grocer's schedule?”.
In this Joke, There is a script of normalcy in counting the days of a lockdown and the opposing script of confusion in
counting the days of lockdown starting from Subhi or the grocer. The logical mechanism is the confusion in
determining which of the two super spreaders to start counting the lockdown days from. The situation is the current
state of the world where a lockdown is in place due to the spread of the coronavirus. The target is the Subhi and grocer
who are among the super spreaders of Coronavirus. The narrative strategy is the use of a question to express confusion.
The language used is straightforward, with the use of humor to express the confusion. The choice of words such as
"schedule" adds to the humorous effect. The setup of the joke is the speaker's confusion about which individual should
be used as a reference point for counting the lockdown days. The punchline is the statement "To be able to understand
how the world is going on around us, I need to know whether we begin counting 14 days, starting from Subhi or are we
still on the grocer's schedule?" This statement creates a humorous contrast between the seemingly trivial matter of
counting days and the serious consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
E. Behavior
During the COVID-19 pandemic, behavior-based humor has emerged as a prominent category in Jordanian social
media. Such humor often revolves around people's behaviors during the pandemic, including non-seriousness, breaking
the rules, and overusing sanitizers. Some comments are as under:
Non-seriousness
Comment 9 (Roya):
‫احنا خزنا المونه بالبيت ودايرين بالشوارع‬ ‫بالصين خزنو حالهم بالبيت بدون مونه‬
Translation
“In China, they stayed at home with no food supplies, we filled the house with supplies and kept roaming around in
the streets”.
The script opposition in this joke is between staying at home without hoarding food (China) and hoarding food at
home while walking the streets (Jordan). The logical mechanism in this joke is a comparison and contrast between the
two countries' behavior during the pandemic. The situational context of the joke is the Covid 19 pandemic and how
different countries responded to it. The target of the joke is the behavior of people in Jordan during the pandemic. The
narrative strategy in this joke is a comparison/contrast between two situations. The language used in this joke is simple,
direct, and concise, which emphasizes the contrast between the two situations. The setup of the joke is the comparison
between the behaviour of people in China and Jordan during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the punchline is that
people in Jordan hoard food at home and walk the streets. This contrasts with the behaviour of people in China who
kept themselves at home without hoarding food.
Non-seriousness
Comment 10 (Roya):
‫عزيزي المواطن فايروس‬. ‫ ومايدري الثور أني عنترة‬:‫ف سئل أين شجاعتك؟؟ أتخاف من ثور وانت عنترة ؟؟ قال‬ َ ‫هرب عنترة بن شداد من ثور‬
‫خليك_بالبيت‬ ✋‫كورونا ما يدري ان كنت شجاع او ثور‬
Translation:
“Antara bin Shaddad fled from a bull, so he was asked, where is your courage??Are you afraid of a bull while you
are Antara?? He said: The bull does not know that I am Antara. Dear citizen, Corona virus does not know if you are
brave or bull…Stay home”.
The script opposition in this joke is between being Antara (a famous Bedouin warrior) and being afraid of a bull and
being a brave person and being affected by the coronavirus. The logical mechanism in this joke is the comparison of the
bull and the coronavirus, both of which are indiscriminate in their effects. The situation in this joke is a conversation
between Antara and someone who is questioning his courage. The target of the joke is the citizens who are not
following the rules of the lockdown and are not taking the coronavirus seriously. The narrative strategy of this joke is a
simple narrative structure, a question-answer dialogue. The language used in this joke is colloquial and conversational,
and the wording of the punchline is "Dear citizen, Corona virus does not know if you are brave or bull so Stay Home".
The setup of the joke is a reference to Antara bin Shaddad, a historical figure known for his bravery, who fled from a
bull. The person is then asked about his courage and why he is afraid of a bull. The punchline is that Antara replied by
saying that the bull doesn't know who he is, just like the Corona virus does not know if a person is brave or not, and the
message is to stay home to stay safe. The humour comes from the comparison of the deadly virus to a bull and the idea
that being brave or not doesn't matter in the face of the virus. The setup of the joke is a reference to Antara bin Shaddad,
a historical figure known for his bravery, who fled from a bull. The person is then asked about his courage and why he
is afraid of a bull. The punchline is that Antara replied by saying that the bull doesn't know who he is, just like the
Corona virus does not know if a person is brave or not, and the message is to stay home to stay safe.
F. Conspiracy

The "Conspiracy" category contains comments that are related to doubts and suspicions about the government's role
in the COVID-19 pandemic, questions about the origin of the virus, and even claims that the virus may not exist at all.
Origin of Corona Virus
Comment 11(Roya):
‫ أول مره يصدرو لنا اشي أصلي‬،‫هللا ال يوفق الصين‬
Translation:
“May Allah not grant success to China, for the first time they issued something original to us”.
The script opposition in this joke is between the conventional notion of China producing low-quality, imitation goods
and the reality that they have produced a highly impactful, original virus. The logical mechanism in this joke is irony
and sarcasm, where the commentator is using humor to express their frustration and disbelief that China has produced
something original, especially considering the negative impact it has had on the world. The situation in this joke is a
commentary on the global outbreak of the COVID-19 virus and the belief that it originated in China. The target of this
joke is China, and its reputation for producing low-quality, imitation goods. The narrative strategy in this joke is a short
statement wishing ill fortune upon China for producing the virus. The language in this joke is informal and contains
religious references, such as "May Allah". The use of religious references adds to the informality and cultural context of
the comment. The setup of the joke is the belief that the corona virus originated from China and the things made in
China are not original. The punchline is "May Allah does not grant success to China, for the first time they issued
something that is original to us". This punchline is ironic and uses humour to mock China for creating a frustrating and
affecting the whole world with a virus for the first time making something original.
Existence of Covid-19 pandemic
‫كورونا بخاف من اصحاب االموال ويصيب الناس العاديين…شكله الفيروس بفهم بالسياسه ومابصيب السياسيين…هللا يحميك بالوباء‬
Translation:
“The epidemic is afraid of people who have money, it only affects ordinary people, the epidemic seems to understand
politics and is afraid to affect politicians, God bless the epidemic”.
The commentator sarcastically questions the existence of the coronavirus through this comment. Humor
automatically emerges in these cases given the release of tension following a momentary sense of disparity (Gibbs et.al
2014). The script opposition in this joke is between the idea that the epidemic affects only ordinary people, and the
reality that it affects people of all social classes. The logical mechanism in this joke is a form of irony, as the speaker is
making a statement that is the opposite of what is expected. The situational context of this joke is the COVID-19
pandemic, which has affected people all over the world. The target of this joke is the existence of COVID-19 pandemic,
and the politicians are also targeted as they are depicted as being immune from the effects of virus. The narrative
strategy in this joke is a simple statement, as the speaker is making a direct statement about the epidemic. The language
used in this joke is simple, straightforward, and lacks embellishment, making it easy for the audience to understand. The
setup of the joke is "that epidemic is afraid of people who have money,,, it only affects ordinary people." The punchline
is the statement "God bless the epidemic", which adds an element of irony to the joke, as it is an unexpected and
sarcastic comment about a serious situation.
G. Geographical
These comments are related to geographical areas, especially the city in Jordan, Irbid. The people of Irbid are
criticized by the commentators because the Coronavirus in Jordan was spread from a wedding party in Irbid and pokes
fun at the non-seriousness of the Irbid people. The comments are as follows:
People of Irbid
Comment 13 (Roya):
‫يزلمة هو عرس اربد كانو يرقصو وال يبزقو على بعض‬
Translation:
“It seems that people at Irbid wedding were not dancing with each other they were spitting at each other”.
When people do not abide by the laws of quarantine, detrimental consequences will happen, and it will affect the
entire society (Al-Qudah & Hait, 2022). The script opposition in this joke is between the usual behavior of people at
weddings (dancing) and unusual behavior (spitting on each other). This creates a humorous effect. The logical
mechanism in this joke is the verbal technique of juxtaposition, which creates a contrast between two contrasting scripts
(dancing vs. spitting). The situational embedding in this joke is the spread of the virus starting from a wedding in Irbid
city of Jordan. The target in this joke is the attendees of the wedding in Irbid city. The narrative strategy in this joke is a
simple statement. The language in this joke uses casual and informal language to convey humor. The setup is "Man,
were the wedding of Irbid attendees dance or spit on each other”. The punchline effect comes from the incongruity of
the two actions presented (dancing and spitting), which are usually not associated with each other and are typically
thought of as opposite actions in a social context, creating a script opposition.
‫اربد سيتي سينتر عاملين سحب ع سياره كيا واالنسانيه جمعاء كلها هناك‬
Translation:

“City Centre shopping mall in Irbid is doing lottery and the prize will be a Kia car. So, all human beings are over
there”.
The script opposition in this joke is between the lockdown imposed to prevent the spread of the virus and the
carelessness of the people of Irbid. The logical mechanism in this joke is the alarming situation that all people in Irbid
are ignoring the lockdown to participate in the lottery, implying the absurdity of their behavior. The situation in this
joke is the lottery being held at the City Centre shopping mall in Irbid, despite the lockdown. The target of this joke is
the people of Irbid, who are portrayed as ignoring the lockdown to participate in the lottery. The narrative strategy in
this joke is a simple statement. The language in this joke is straightforward, with word choice and placement
emphasizing the absurdity of the situation. The setup is that there is a lockdown in Jordan due to the spread of the
corona virus, but people in Irbid city are not taking it seriously. The punchline is that the City Centre shopping mall in
Irbid is doing a lottery and the prize is a Kia car, and all human beings are over there, implying that people in Irbid are
disregarding the lockdown and gathering at the mall in large numbers.
H. Facemask
This is also one of the emerging categories of inappropriate verbal humorous comments on AlMamlaka and Roya
Jordanian Facebook accounts related to the COVID-19 pandemic. It expresses the people annoyance caused by the
facemask.
‫بالموت ليغيرو بدك يغير كمامات‬ ‫وزير تربيه كاين حاكي يرجو من االهل بتغير كمامات الطفالهم كل يوم وحده راده عليه انا ابني كلسونو‬
Translation:
“The Minister of Education asked parents to change masks for their children every day.
One of them replies: It takes me ages to change his underwear, how can I change his mask?”.
Face masks have been one of the hotly debated topics since the news about the new coronavirus started spreading
(Dynel, 2020). The script opposition in this joke is between the request made by the Minister of Education and the
reality of the situation faced by the person making the reply. The request to change masks daily is seen as difficult as
the child is not ready to change even his underwear. The logical mechanism in this joke is the comparison between the
two requests, which highlights the incongruity between them. The situational context is the COVID-19 pandemic and
the request made by the Minister of Education during a speech. The parent and their kid are the participants in the
situation. The target of the joke is daily mask changing. The parent making the reply is poking fun at the request and
highlighting its unrealistic nature of it. The narrative strategy in this joke is a question-and-answer dialogue between the
Minister of Education and the parent. The language used in this joke is colloquial and informal. The setup is “The
Minister of Education requests in his speech that parents should tell their children to change masks every day during the
coronavirus pandemic.” While the punchline is “A parent replies, "I spent the whole week trying to convince my kid to
change his underwear and you're asking them to change their face mask daily".
V. CONCLUSION
This study examined the humorous comments made by the Jordanian population during the COVID-19 pandemic to
cope with and mock the situation. It focused on identifying the categories emphasized in these comments between
March and September 2020, specifically on the AlMamlaka and Roya Jordanian Facebook accounts. A descriptive
qualitative research design was employed, utilizing the General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH) by Attardo and
Raskin (1991) for thematic analysis. The analysis revealed jokes about government, gender, COVID-19, lockdown,
behavior, conspiracy, geographical areas, and facemask. The study also found that COVID-19 jokes aligned with the six
knowledge resources (KRs) of GTVH theory. Irony and sarcasm were identified as prominent humor strategies used to
highlight the challenges faced by Jordanians during the pandemic. The study further highlighted the importance of the
"Target" knowledge resource in categorizing and understanding different humorous comments, challenging Attardo's
claim that it is optional.
Many of the themes identified in the humorous COVID-19 content in Jordan also have equivalents, albeit with
variation, in worldwide COVID-19 humor (Thelwall & Thelwall, 2020; Al-Daher et al., 2022; Chibuwe &
Munoriyarwa, 2022; Cancelas-Ouviña, 2021; Meder, 2020; Khan et al., 2020; Norstorm & Sarna, 2021). Moreover,
studies specific to the COVID-19 pandemic in Jordan (Al-Daher et al., 2022; Hussein & Aljamali, 2020; Lulu et al.,
2021; Ali & Faraj, 2022; Al-Qudah & Hait, 2022) have similarities in the concept of humor with the current research,
concurring that humor serves as a coping mechanism, and that political, social, and psychological themes are prevalent
in COVID-19-related humor in Jordan.
For future research, it would be interesting to investigate the impact of humorous content on social media on people's
behaviors and attitudes toward the pandemic and other societal issues. It would also be valuable to explore how humor
is utilized and interpreted in different cultural settings, including diverse responses to natural disasters and its influence
on understanding humorous material.
Practically, these findings can contribute to a better understanding of the role of humor in coping with crises such as
pandemics and incorporate this knowledge into public health messaging and communication strategies. Governments
should prioritize evidence-based pandemic response plans, transparent reporting of data, and equal distribution of

resources, while individuals must take personal responsibility to adhere to preventative measures and combat
stigmatization of the virus, to effectively mitigate the social, political, and cultural implications of the pandemic.
The study's limitations include its narrow focus on verbal humor within a specific timeframe and context, analyzing
only comments from two Jordanian TV channels on COVID-19 news, and excluding other forms of humor and non-
humorous comments. Despite these limitations, this study offers valuable insights into the social, political, and cultural
effects of the pandemic on Jordanian society, and the research methodology used can serve as a model for future studies.
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Sulaiman Alkaraki earned his bachelor's degree in English Language for Specific Purposes from Jordan University of Science
and Technology (JUST) in 2006. He completed his master’s degree in applied Linguistics at Jordan University of Science and
Technology (JUST). His academic pursuits encompass linguistics, pragmatics, and sociolinguistics. Currently, Sulaiman is a PhD
candidate at the National University of Malaysia (UKM). His current research revolves around the utilization of the Cooperative
Principle and the General Theory of Verbal Humor.
Marlyna Maros is an Associate Professor at the Research Center for Language Studies and Linguistics, Faculty of Social
Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. She lectures in linguistics subjects in particular Sociolinguistics and
Intercultural Communication at BA and MA levels; and published extensively from her research in Sociolinguistics and
Sociopragmatics.
Norhayati Binti Alias is a Spanish language instructor at the Research Center for Language Studies and Linguistics, Faculty of
Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. The main areas of her expertise and experience are Spanish
Language and Linguistics Discourse Analysis. She has actively published in her area of expertise.

ISSN 1799-2591
EFL Lexical Chunk Teaching in Chinese Senior

High School: Current Practices and Challenges
Fen (Grace) Zheng
English Language Center, Shantou University, Shantou City, Guangdong Province, China
Abstract—The ability to effectively use vocabulary is a crucial aspect of language learning, and the
development of this skill requires extensive exposure to idiomatic words and expressions. Previous research
has shown that the main difference between intermediate and advanced English as a foreign language (EFL)
learners is the size of their mental lexicon rather than their knowledge of grammar. In fact, the key to
language learning progress is not the understanding of individual words or grammar, but the ability to
assimilate the dynamic connections between different words. The use of lexical chunks has been identified as a
key characteristic of proficient language learners (Schmitt, 2000). However, in the teaching context of this
study, the use of lexical chunks has not been effectively emphasized in EFL education. In order to explore the
reasons for this lack of emphasis, this qualitative study will interview three in-service EFL teachers to examine
their teaching methods and identify potential factors that may contribute to the underutilization of lexical
chunk instruction. The findings of this study will provide insight into ways to improve the teaching of lexical
chunks and ultimately enhance the language proficiency of EFL learners.
Index Terms—vocabulary, lexical chunks, Chinese EFL learners, senior high school
Ⅰ. INTRODUCTION
Vocabulary is a fundamental aspect of language learning and has gained renewed attention as a means of facilitating
fluency in English as a foreign language (EFL) (Webb & Nation, 2017). However, vocabulary acquisition can be
challenging, as learners may struggle to assess their progress in acquiring different skills (Webb & Nation, 2017). To
improve language learners' skills, it is necessary to provide them with exposure to idiomatic words and expressions.
Lewis (2000) argued that the main distinction between intermediate and advanced EFL learners lies in the size of their
mental lexicon, rather than their mastery of grammar. Therefore, the key to language learning is not simply acquiring
the meanings of individual words or understanding grammar, but rather understanding the dynamic and inherent
connections between separate words.
Numerous studies have used corpus-based approaches to investigate authentic discourse (e.g., Alenberg, 1998). For
example, Alenberg (1998) found that over 80% of the words in the corpus were part of recurrent word combinations in
one way or another, supporting the idea that chunks are restored in languages. Lexical chunks, as defined by Schmitt
(2000), are "long sequences of the words…recur frequently enough to be treated as units in their own right" (p. 400).
Since Lewis (1993) introduced the concept of the lexical approach, lexical chunks have been recognized as crucial to
productive language use and an important characteristic of proficient learners (Boers & Lindstromberg, 2009; Lewis,
1993; Read, 2000; Thornbury, 2002; Webb & Nation, 2017).
As a current college teacher, who previously worked in senior high school context for about ten years, the author of
this paper often finds that many of the EFL learners she has taught, when writing, their expressions are inappropriate
and incoherent due to lack of lexical chunks. The author and her colleagues are always confused why Chinese college
students, who used to spend much time studying English in senior high school, often struggle with vocabularies or
lexical chunks when doing communicative tasks such as writing and speaking, even though they are able to spell
individual words correctly. To better understand the current practices and challenges of EFL lexical chunk teaching in
senior high school, a qualitative study is conducted by interviewing three in-service teachers from a local senior high
school. This paper will examine how lexical chunks are taught by teachers and explore potential factors that may
contribute to the underutilization of chunk teaching in senior high school. The study will begin by providing a
description of the author’s teaching context where lexical chunks are emphasized. This will be followed by a review of
relevant literature, research questions, participant information, research methods, and a discussion of the findings and
their implications. The paper will conclude with a summary of the analysis based on senior high school context.
Ⅱ. RESEARCH CONTEXT
Since 2009, the author has been teaching at a senior high school in my city. This school is a public municipal school,
and its students are intermediate English learners. Most of the EFL learners here are able to gain admission to
undergraduate colleges after the college entrance exam with hard work and the help of their teachers. In addition to
teaching, most in-service English teachers at this school are frequently involved in various tasks, including mandatory
teaching conferences, checking students' homework, designing assessment tasks, and grading students' academic

performance. English, which accounts for 150 points in the college entrance exam, is one of the major subjects that both
teachers and students struggle to excel in. This exam-oriented context often makes it difficult for the English teachers to
maintain a balance between preparing for exams and incorporating occasional curriculum innovations. Despite the
challenges, teachers are still trying to find ways to combine both in order to achieve our desired teaching outcomes.
In 2018, a new curriculum standard for ordinary secondary schools was released in China. Unlike previous
curriculum innovations, it proposes that students should develop "core literacy," including integrated language skills,
learning ability, thinking quality, and cultural awareness (Ministry of Education, 2018). It is clear that language ability
is central to core literacy and will have significant implications for English as a foreign language (EFL) and English
language teaching (ELT) in Chinese secondary senior schools. The Chinese Ministry of Language (2018) specifically
emphasizes the importance of students' language ability to understand and express meaning in a social context through
listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and particularly highlights the need to develop learners' awareness of lexical
chunks in discourse to enhance their fluent and accurate output (Ministry of Education, 2018).
After studying the new curriculum standard, the author and her previous colleagues attempted to understand and
discuss how to teach lexical chunks. However, they were disappointed to find that the curriculum standard does not
provide a definition of "lexical chunk" or offer any specific guidance on effective chunk teaching. It merely advises
teachers to focus on presenting lexical chunks and helping students pay attention to collocations and expressions
(Ministry of Education, 2018). This suggestion leaves teachers with little guidance on how to effectively teach lexical
chunks. Some teachers have tried dictating collocations from our supplementary material, but they were disappointed
with the results when they assessed students' productive performance.
Vocabulary knowledge can be divided into "receptive" and "productive" categories (Nation, 2001, p. 24). Receptive
knowledge is required for listening or reading, while productive knowledge is needed for speaking and writing. For a
long time, both teachers and students have been accustomed to traditional vocabulary teaching methods, such as
presenting translations from the second language (L2) to the first language (L1) or dictation. While students may have
acquired sufficient receptive knowledge, they often struggle to retrieve the appropriate words when it comes to
productive knowledge. This is where the challenge of teaching lexical chunks lies in this context. Thus, this paper will
focus on finding out what are the potential factors for the ineffectiveness in EFL chunk teaching and what teachers can
do to improve teaching lexical chunks in senior high schools.
Ⅲ. LITERATURE REVIEW
A. Knowing a Word
The concept of what it means to know a word has been widely explored in various studies (Badger, 2018; Carter,
2001; Nation, 2001; Read, 2000; Thornbury, 2002). According to Thornbury (2002), knowing a word involves both its
form and its meaning, but simply understanding the meaning of a word from a dictionary is not sufficient because a
word is closely linked to other words, such as collocations and connotations. Thornbury (2002) also notes that receptive
knowledge often exceeds productive knowledge, as we often understand more words than we produce and tend to
understand them before proficiently producing them. Thornbury (2002) argues that this is particularly true for second
language (L2) learners due to the increasing amount of word knowledge and learning time, leading to a "state of initial
fuzziness" (p. 16) during the vocabulary learning process. In short, Thornbury (2002) suggests that knowing a word
involves both receptive and productive understanding of its form and meaning. Nation (2001) contends that knowing a
word involves three layers of receptive and productive word knowledge, including "form, meaning, and use" (p. 27). In
terms of form, learners need to be aware of a word's pronunciation and spelling. For meaning, learners need to
understand a word's "form and meaning, concept and referents, and associations" (Nation, 2001, p. 27), while use
requires learners to be familiar with a word's "grammatical functions, collocations, and constraints on use (register,
frequency...)" (Nation, 2001, p. 27). Both Thornbury (2002) and Nation (2001) acknowledge that productive knowledge
is more challenging than receptive knowledge and that there are two types of word knowledge: receptive/productive
meaning and form. However, Nation (2001) further expands on the concept of knowing a word by including word use
in addition to form and meaning. In addition, Nation (2001) breaks down both the form and meaning of a word into
three categories: "spoken, written, and word parts" (p. 27) and "form/meaning, concepts/referents, associations" (p. 27),
respectively. This is consistent with the idea that knowing a word involves receptive and productive understanding of its
"spoken and written contexts of use; its patterns with words of related meaning as well as with its collocational partners;
its syntactic, pragmatic, and discourse patterns" (Carter, 2001, p. 43). Without a thorough understanding of a word,
learners may struggle to fully grasp receptive knowledge and may struggle even more with productive knowledge.
Given that knowing a word is closely tied to word knowledge, the following section will examine vocabulary learning.
B. The Process of Learning Vocabulary
There has been much discussion in the literature on how vocabulary is learned in a first language (L1) or a second
language (L2) (Takač, 2008; Thornbury, 2002; Webb & Nation, 2017). For instance, children typically acquire
vocabulary in their L1 through processes such as "labeling, categorizing, and network building" (Thornbury, 2002, p.
18). In contrast, L2 learners already have "conceptual and semantic systems linked to the L1" (Takač, 2008, p. 8). This
can make it difficult for L2 learners to connect new English words to their existing knowledge, as they may instead

associate these words with their native language or other non-native languages (Badger, 2018). Moreover, L2 learners
must build a "second mental lexicon" (Thornbury, 2002, p. 18) and develop new conceptual systems, as word
associations in the L1 may differ from those in the L2. L2 learners often rely on direct transfer from L1 to L2
equivalents, which may be influenced by their perceptions of linguistic and cultural distance (Takač, 2008, p. 9). The
challenge of acquiring L2 vocabulary may be compounded by the fact that "the associative links in the second language
lexicon are usually less firmly established than mother tongue links" (Thornbury, 2002, p. 18). Acquiring L2 vocabulary
can be a lengthy process, and it is important for teachers and students to understand the conditions that can facilitate
vocabulary learning (Webb & Nation, 2017). These conditions may include repetition, noticing, retrieval, varied
encounters, and varied use and elaboration (Webb & Nation, 2017). These conditions are based on two critical elements:
repetition and the quality of attention at each encounter (Webb & Nation, 2017). Repetition refers to the number of
times learners are exposed to a word, while the quality of attention can be either incidental or deliberate. According to
Thornbury (2002, p. 24), a word is more likely to be remembered if it is encountered at least seven times over spaced
intervals. However, repetition alone is not sufficient for vocabulary learning; learners must also pay attention to the
words they encounter, either incidentally or deliberately. This may involve noticing new words and trying to retrieve
them from memory when needed (Badger, 2018). However, it is important to note that vocabulary learning involves
more than just noticing and retrieval; it is a cumulative process that involves a range of aspects of knowledge (Nation,
2001, p. 4). Vocabulary learning is characterized by "creative and personalized use" (Thornbury, 2002, p. 31) and the
acquisition of "memorized sequences of lexical items that serve as a pattern on the basis of which learners create new
sequences" (Takač, 2008, p. 16). When organizing L2 words, L2 learners often combine L2 words that are equivalent to
their L1 counterparts based on the sequences of their semantic knowledge. However, this may not always make sense,
as "combinations that are idiomatic in one language often sound awkward when translated word-for-word into another,
even when both languages are closely related" (Boers & Lindstromberg, 2009, p. 1). To help L2 learners produce
native-like language in various contexts, it is helpful to introduce them to lexical chunks such as collocations and lexical
phrases, or "chunks," which are "pre-patterned and stored in long-term memory" (Takač, 2008, p. 16). These chunks can
help learners produce language more fluently and accurately. These chunks generally refer to many lexical-grammatical
structures “which are pre-patterned and may therefore be used in a formulaic rehearsed way” (Carter, 2001, p. 46).
Given that these prefabricated chunks are beneficial to L2 proficiency in language output and capacity (Boers &
Lindstromberg, 2009; Takač, 2008), definitions about lexical chunks and relevant researches about their effect on
language learning will be discussed in the following section”. “Lexical chunks” refer to prefabricated, lexical-
grammatical structures that can be used in a formulaic, rehearsed way (Carter, 2001, p. 46). Research has shown that
these chunks can improve second language (L2) proficiency in language production and capacity (Boers &
Lindstromberg, 2009; Takač, 2008). In the following section, we will explore definitions of lexical chunks and the
impact of these chunks on language learning. These chunks generally refer to many lexical-grammatical structures
“which are pre-patterned and may therefore be used in a formulaic rehearsed way” (Carter, 2001, p. 46). Given that
these prefabricated chunks are beneficial to L2 proficiency in language output and capacity (Boers & Lindstromberg,
2009; Takač, 2008), definitions about lexical chunks and relevant research on their effect on language learning will be
discussed in the following section.
C. Definitions of Lexical Chunks / Learning and Teaching Lexical Chunks
There have been numerous efforts to clarify the definition and concept of lexical chunks, which are a type of
formulaic sequence (Lewis, 2002; Wray & Perkins, 2000; Wray, 2002). Formulaic sequences are defined as "a sequence,
continuous or discontinuous, of words or other elements, which is, or appears to be, prefabricated" (Wray, 2002, p. 9).
In the context of English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching, terms such as "chunks, multiword units, idioms, and
collocations" (Wray & Perkins, 2000, p. 3) are often used to refer to formulaic sequences. However, there is still no
consensus on a precise definition of lexical chunks, possibly because "chunks can come in a variety of forms and fulfill
a variety of functions" (Boers & Lindstromberg, 2009, p. 3). In a recent study, Hou et al. (2018, p. 149) suggested that
lexical chunks "can be defined according to grammatical structure, function, or degree of conventionalization or a
combination thereof," while Lewis (2002, p. 3) argued that "language consists not of traditional grammar and
vocabulary but often of multi-word prefabricated chunks." These multi-word prefabricated chunks include "words,
collocations, fixed expressions, and semi-fixed expressions" (Lewis, 2002, pp. 8-11) and are characterized by inherent
semantic associations and syntactical functions. In this paper, we will use Lewis' (2002) taxonomy of lexical chunks,
which refers to fixed multi-word phrases that cannot be separated (e.g. "in this way," "bread and butter"), combinations
of words that frequently occur together in authentic discourse (e.g. "attend school," "have a good time"), and
expressions with special pragmatic functions in language (e.g. "Merry Christmas!" "you can't always burn a hole in
your pocket"). These lexical chunks, or multi-word units, can be saved in memory and retrieved automatically in daily
speech (Richards & Rodger, 2001; Wray, 2002). In other words, learners can improve their proficiency in a language by
focusing on these multi-word units as a whole rather than analyzing each individual word in a lexical chunk. This
requires less cognitive effort (Schmitt, 2000, p. 400) and allows learners to more easily process new words (Carter,
2000). Lexical chunks can be learned or taught either incidentally or explicitly. Webb et al. (2013) found that
collocations can be learned incidentally through repeated encounters in reading and listening, a finding supported by
research showing that reading alone can also facilitate the learning of collocations (Sanchez, 2017). As for explicit

methods, Webb and Kagimoto (2009) found that both receptive (e.g. reading sentences and memorizing them) and
productive tasks (e.g. completing a cloze activity) can help learners acquire collocational knowledge. Productive tasks
were found to be more effective for advanced learners, while receptive tasks were more suitable for lower-level learners
(Webb & Kagimoto, 2009). In a study by Zhang (2017), it was found that students can more effectively learn
collocations through a combination of receptive tasks (e.g. reading L2 collocations with their L1 translations,
understanding sentences with L2 collocations in bold) and productive tasks (e.g. creating new sentences using given
collocations) compared to those in the receptive or productive groups alone. The positive effects of lexical chunks on
language learning have been demonstrated in numerous studies within the EFL context. In the following section, we
will explore several recent research findings on the implications of lexical chunks for teaching and learning.
D. Related Studies on Lexical Chunks in EFL Contexts
In recent decades, a number of studies have examined the relationship between lexical chunks and EFL students'
proficiency, specifically whether non-native speakers can produce lexical chunks fluently and accurately. These studies
have used various terms such as lexical bundles or collocations, which all refer to "fixed or semi-fixed lexical phrases,
usually units longer than a single word" (Hou et al., 2018, p. 149). As lexical chunks are essential for functional
language knowledge (Schmitt, 2000), more attention has been paid to the role they play in language acquisition. Hou et
al. (2018) measured chunk coverage and average chunk length in a study of advanced EFL learners, and found that
more proficient writers used more chunks. Despite little progress in students' overall writing scores, the researchers
suggested that developing learners' use of chunks could promote them to a higher level. However, a study by Huang
(2015) argued that using a large quantity of lexical chunks does not necessarily equate to good quality. Rather than
focusing on the frequency and type of lexical bundles used by L2 learners, as Hou et al. did, Huang (2015) analyzed the
accuracy of lexical bundles in the writing of Chinese college students of different English proficiency levels. The senior
students, who had studied English for longer and used more lexical bundles, did not show significant improvement in
the quality of their bundle use. To achieve a balance between fluency and accuracy, it is important for students to use
lexical bundles with both quantity and quality in mind, and to receive training in both top-down and bottom-up
approaches to help them use lexical bundles accurately and appropriately (Huang, 2015). A similar study by Pan et al.
(2016) used a corpus-based approach to compare the structural and functional patterns of lexical bundles used by native
and non-native English writers in academic papers. The results showed that native writers were more likely to use
phrasal bundles, while non-native writers (Chinese speakers) primarily used clausal bundles. Additionally, there were
functional differences in the use of lexical bundles between native and non-native writing. This aligns with the
argument that non-native writers struggle to use collocations that are less frequent or closely connected, as used by
native speakers (Durrant & Schmitt, 2009). Non-native writers also made mistakes in the use of certain lexical bundles
in their professional writing (Pan et al., 2016). As a result, Pan et al. (2016) emphasized the need to help L2 academic
students use lexical bundles appropriately and in context, with the correct structural patterns. The findings of Huang
(2015) and Pan et al. (2016) suggest that the use of lexical chunks can affect language production, but teachers need to
help students become aware of the appropriate use of these chunks, rather than simply focusing on the number used in
production.
Ⅳ. METHODOLOGY
A. Research Questions
Obviously, learning and using lexical chunks is not an easy matter. Teaching lexical chunks is no exception. Most of
previous research about lexical chunks is done quantitatively among EFL advanced learners. Relatively little research
has been conducted on how lexical chunks are effectively taught in Chinese EFL senior high schools. To address this
issue, the present study will set out to investigate the ineffectiveness of teaching lexical chunks in the author’s context
in a qualitative way. To clarify why teaching lexical chunks hasn’t achieved desired effect in the author’s context, she is
going to identify possible factors accounting for this dissatisfaction, though raising students’ awareness of lexical
chunks is articulated in the latest curriculum standard. So, the following research questions (RQ) will be addressed:
RQ1: Do English teachers in my context really teach lexical chunks as required by the curriculum standard?
RQ2: What beliefs about teaching lexical chunks do teachers hold in senior high school?
B. Research Method
It is not convenient for the author to observe how vocabulary is taught in EFL classrooms due to some objective
reasons. As such, the author decides to interview the three in-service EFL teachers by enquiring their practice, puzzles
in vocabulary instruction, and their perceptions on teaching lexical chunks. Conducting such an interview is “a known
communication routine that the method works so well as a versatile instrument” (Dörnyei, 2007, p. 134).
The foregoing literature reviews illustrate that lexical chunks, if well instructed, can make a big difference to students’
language development and skills. Weighing up the understanding of the author’s previous teaching context, several
questions on my puzzles are intended to allow teachers to contemplate the process of teaching lexical chunks in real
classroom and whether their students can form the awareness of lexical chunks thus facilitating their vocabulary
learning. Before doing interviews with the three in-service teachers, the author has done a pilot study with another

teacher. To guarantee the quality of the interview questions, the author has deleted some of the questions that seemed
overlapped or opaque. Real interview questions can be seen in Appendix Ⅰ. To make the interviews smoothly, the real
interview was conducted in Mandarin, audiotaped, transcribed and later translated into English.
C. Participants
The three participants have already taught in senior high school since they graduated from college. All of them have a
bachelor degree. For sake of clear depiction, they will be labeled as Teacher 1 (male, 5 years of teaching), Teacher 2
(female, 25 years of teaching), Teacher 3 (female, 15 years of teaching). In their daily teaching, they are expected to
deal with vocabulary teaching in our textbook or in other supplementary materials. Before the author interviewed them,
she told them her intention to interview them and they readily accepted her request and signed the consent form. The
author also told them she will put their names anonymously and keep the recordings undisclosed. At the end of each
interview, she had a follow-up discussion with teachers to gain more insight to their beliefs and expectations on
vocabulary teaching.
Ⅴ. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

Derived from the interview data, several prominent factors will be ascribed to temporary ineffectiveness of lexical
chunk in our context. In this section, in-depth explanation for the current situations of lexical chunks will be presented
to address the research questions.
A. Teachers’ Perceptions and Knowledge About Vocabulary and Lexical Chunks
The interviewees all considered that vocabulary played an important but challenging part in EFL learning, paralleling
the argument that “in all stages of our education, vocabulary is central to learning context” (Webb & Nation, 2017, no
pagination). They also regarded lexical chunks essential to improve students’ language ability and advantages of
learning lexical chunks (see their answers to Questions 4). Strikingly, all the three teachers were outspoken about the
effect of lexical chunks on learning and teaching, such as facilitating proficiency and authenticity in production (see
their answers to Question 4). The role of lexical chunks in learning English, from their perspectives, is in accord with
the notion that “good chunk knowledge does contribute to proficiency in L2 as well as in L1” (Boers & Lindstromberg,
2009, p. 38). However, there is little concordance in their understanding of what can be categorised as lexical chunks
(see their response to Question 3). As is mentioned earlier, ‘lexical chunks’ is noted by the latest curriculum standard,
however, no more information are not presented clearly enough for the teachers to learn about the theoretical knowledge
about lexical chunks, needless to say, to teach lexical chunks effectively.
Question 4: What do you think of the role of lexical chunks in English learning?
T1: Important. Since lexical chunks mean not a simple single word, but many words together. If students can grasp a
multiword unit in classroom, they may not have difficulty when they communicate in English. Lexical chunks make it
convenient for students to well organize language in brain. Lexical chunk teaching is important to EFL teaching in
our senior high schools, because students may need lexical chunks to improve their writing ability like using some
structural sentences
T2: I think lexical chunks are useful and beneficial. If students can apply lexical chunks in their learning, their
English level will impossibly be a load of crap. At least, they can have a good sense of language. Learning lexical
chunks allows them to understand the language knowledge better and convey the meaning more native like without
interference by our mother tongue.
T3: Actually, now I have begun to realize lexical chunks can be indeed termed as the core of vocabulary learning and
teaching
Question 3: How much do you know about lexical chunks?
T1: Lexical chunks, from my point of view, words together with certain meaning like phrases and collocations,
sentence structures and idioms
T2: Unlike idioms, lexical chunks can be typical collocations, but their connection between words may not be as fixed
or close as idioms.
T3: Lexical chunks can be something like verb phrase + preposition. For example, take in, take out, turn around…etc.
Similar to something in our L1, English lexical chunks are like some expressions serving as clues…when we don’t
finish our speech, the listeners can slightly predict what is going to be said next.
B. Teachers’ Approaches of Teaching Lexical Chunks
From the account of the participants’ hands-on vocabulary teaching in classroom, another finding is that all teachers
are under top-down pressure, such as the exam-oriented context and the innovated curriculum standard. Their hands-on
teaching vocabulary turned out to be a little different (see their answers to Question 2). To meet the demands of required
tasks, Teacher 1 chose a more conventional and explicit approach, i.e. teaching all the knowledge of the given words in
each unit of the textbook before dealing with relevant tasks about these words. Similarly, Teacher 2 also adopted in an
explicit way out of the needs proposed by her students, but indeed she felt immensely resistant to do in this way, which
she thought could impede students’ language development. Rather than teach words isolated from discourse, Teacher 3

preferred to teach vocabulary implicitly by asking her students to guess, infer and understand words contextually.
Question 2: How do you usually teach vocabulary?
T1: I still take the traditional way of teaching vocabulary. Ask the students to follow the word-list in each unit of the
textbook…teach them one by one. Then I teach them the knowledge of this word, like form and meaning.
T2: Well, actually, I am resistant to the conventional way, like teaching all the words before we begin to deal with a
text! Students can’t learn effectively in this way. Only by discourse will they take the text as a whole and isolate the
meaning of each word they meet. However, sometimes I don’t have choice but to give in to students’ requirement
because they tend to prefer the old way.
T3: I strongly disagree that students are taught all the target vocabularies before they meet these words in discourse.
I often teach these words in discourse, guiding them to guess and understanding from the context.
When further asked how they really teach lexical chunks (see their answers to Question 5), they did take this
responsibility through incidental and receptive approaches like asking students to notice useful lexical chunks in reading
and then record in notebooks for future study. In this regard, their action on chunk teaching showed that they really took
the responsibility for students’ learning by “being more proactive in pointing out useful language and getting learners to
record it is an essential role of the teacher” (Lewis, 2000, p. 18). Teacher 3 also underlined the great necessity to instruct
students to become an autonomous learner.
Question 5: How do you usually teach lexical chunks?
T1: Well, I think students can be guided to underline, memorise and understand lexical chunks in reading. Through
these underlined collocations, I can enhance their ability to recognize chunks. In my opinion, we can design some
activities like giving students a text with some blanks and fill in the blanks with some collocations. However, our time
is limited, so I seldom do this.
T2: I don’t teach lexical chunks especially for a certain lesson. Mostly, I lead the students to pay attention to some
collations with patterns like “noun + verb” (realize/achieve one’s dream). While analysing some reading texts, I
often ask the students to pay attention to these native like chunks.
T3: Firstly, I think we need to tell the students not to memorise word by word, and in careful reading, we can discuss
with students about which lexical chunks they think might be important and then underline, and advise students to
accumulate these on their notebook. We can also use jigsaws and students in each group can exchange their ideas. In
this process, students can gradually form the habit rather than feel pushed to do this by us. Besides, we can design
some interesting activities, word puzzles or brainstorm to map their prior knowledge. Therefore, students can gain
awareness. Dictation is the worst way of teaching.
However, depending solely on teachers’ instructions to notice chunks as an intervention tends to be “insufficiently
effective” (Boers & Lindstromberg, 2009, p. 54), and “rich vocabulary is not necessarily a consequence of having
inference skills” (Takač, 2008, p. 18). Incidental acquisition of chunks through reading, especially in EFL context, is
considered as impracticable in that “most chunks occur relatively infrequently” (Boers & Lindstromberg, 2009, p. 42).
In addition, less autonomous learners would be less likely to output the recorded chunks in their notebooks without
some recycling activities requiring students to “reconstruct the main content of the text, or parts of the text, using the
collocations as prompts “(Lewis, 2000, p. 26). Only “by making frequent use of lexical bundles or other variations of
formulaic sequences” (Huang, 2015, p. 21) can learner’s fluency in speaking and writing be optimised. Taken together,
the most notable feature of chunk teaching in my context seems anchored in receptive approaches instead of integrating
some productive approaches. Coupled with teachers’ nebulous concepts of lexical chunks, such consistent approach is
another reason for the failure of chunk teaching.
C. Teachers’ Schooling and Working Experiences
According to Wedell and Malderez (2013), teachers’ previous experiences can be influential to the EFL classroom to
some extent. During the interviewees’ schooling, scant attention was paid to teaching lexical chunks, and Teacher 2 was
just tangentially exposed to lexical chunks in reading instruction (see their answers to Question 8). Teacher 1 and
Teacher 2 said that they were taught vocabulary in a conventional way during their schooling, so lexical chunks seemed
an unexplored domain before they worked as EFL teachers.
Question 8: As an advanced English learner and teacher, have you ever been trained to use lexical chunks for
productive tasks, like speaking and writing?
T1: No. In my memory, most of my English teachers often followed the word-list, required us to follow to read aloud
before we dealt with the text reading in each unit.
T2: Yes, but a little bit. When I was in Junior or senior middle school, our English teachers generally taught so
traditionally. Every day, we had a word dictation as a quiz…teacher read a word in the list…and we wrote down and
needed to spell correctly with L1 equivalents attached …even though I could spell individual word correctly, I found
my output at that time far from satisfaction. As for lexical chunks, I remembered one of my teachers asked us to
underline some chunks like collocations or fixed sentence structures which they thought seemed useful and highly
frequent in a reading text.
T3: No, never.
While talking about their experiences in teaching (see their answers to Question 9), Teacher 2 and Teacher 3 reported
they had never been observed some shared lessons relevant to lexical chunks, while Teacher 1 said he had once watched

a class where a teacher guided students to write a composition by the given lexical chunks concerning a topic.
Interesting as the class was, Teacher 3 showed his concern that students may be at a loss next time they are given
another topic without the prompts of lexical chunks.
Question 9: Have you ever watched live lessons relevant to chunks for language production?
T1: Yes, but only a few, only in those writing classes. I have once observed a classroom where the English teacher
presented a series of lexical chunks relevant to the writing topic. It turned out to be interesting, creative and
successful. However, I wonder whether it always functions well, especially when the students encounter another
writing task about an unfamiliar topic in the exam.
T2: No, never.
T3: No, it seems that lexical chunk belongs to a new domain in our teaching context.
In this sense, little access to chunk teaching seems to reside in “the minimal extent to which trainers themselves have
been helped to make sense of the new curriculum” (Grassick & Wedell, 2018, p. 260). In default of accessible training
supported by the top-down policy makers, it can be safely confirmed that most teachers in my context are more inclined
to teaching vocabulary in an old way and this will definitely bring chunk teaching to a standstill.
D. Limited Variety of Materials and Exam-Oriented Factors
Currently in senior high school, lexical chunks in classroom are commonly used to be presented in the form of two-
word collocations. Regarded as by-products of a target word to teach, lexical chunks remain “useful, but peripheral”
(Lewis, 2000, p. 27), despite increasing awareness of chunks as aforementioned. In the textbook, there scatter a limited
amount of receptive exercises related to collocations, such blank filling or matching.
When asked what kind of materials can be used to teach lexical chunks (see their answers to Question 11), Teacher 1
hoped that he can learn more from some instructive resources like shared lessons. Teacher 2 expected technological
corpus to help teachers and students to select frequent chunks occurring in the exam, so we can improve the efficiency
of preparing lessons. While there is a widespread assumption that “what goes into a course book will be maximally
useful” (Koprowski, 2005, p. 330), Teacher 3 considered some of the lexical chunks in the current textbook not so
useful to learners, and she insisted that students’ textbook be upgraded soon. Teacher 3 also advocated native reading
materials and collocational dictionary can be complemented. Though Teacher 3’s priority goes to exam-oriented
exercise materials, she often found those chunks not so native-like.
Question 11: What kind of top-down support do you expect to get? (e. g. teaching resources)
T1: I hope there will be more shared and recommended lessons about chunk teaching, like some shared lessons
online. It is a quick way for us to follow chunk teaching.
T2: I would expect we can teaching lexical chunks with the help of technology and corpus. If those highly frequent
chunks in students’ exams can be listed out, we teachers don’t have to spend so much time selecting lexical chunks,
and thus improve the teaching efficiency.
T3: Our textbook needs upgrading. It has been used for a long time. Some of the expressions are not so useful to our
students. Besides, it would be more convenient if students can be allocated a collocational dictionary, but this seems
difficult to realise. Most of the time, I would prefer to teach chunks by making use of our supplemented materials
concerning our exam, but those chunks are also not authentic in that those articles are not written by native speakers.
The last point I want to say is our text. You know, if lexical chunks are taken as one of the rubrics in our test, like
writing, our teachers will not take it seriously. I think teaching lexical chunks will be more effective and successful
once they are compulsorily required in our tests.
In senior high school, exam results still remain the only yardstick of a school’s performances. Under such
circumstances, asking teachers to try something new required by the curriculum standard seems threatening and
“represents a huge risk for any teacher’s professional self-image and status” (Grassick & Wedell, 2018, p. 261). Despite
this, all the participants in this study all showed their interest in exploring more about lexical chunks, though the exam-
oriented system hasn’t been fundamentally reformed. It is noteworthy that Teacher 3 believed that lexical chunks will
be taken seriously by teachers only when lexical chunks are explicitly required as one of the rubrics in students’ test. In
a teach-to-test environment, limited diversity of materials and disagreement between curriculum and exams can also
account for the widespread ignorance of lexical chunks in senior high school.
Ⅵ. IMPLICATIONS
There are several implications for vocabulary teaching in senior high school based on the findings of this study. First,
teachers should increase lexical awareness and consciously help students develop sensitivity to lexical chunks. Before
introducing lexical chunks to students, teachers should consider whether they will be useful and relevant for their
students. Classroom activities can be utilized to improve students' ability to recognize and use lexical chunks. Without
awareness of lexical chunks, students may struggle to understand texts with complex semantics, syntax, and pragmatics.
Therefore, it is important for teachers to analyze and scaffold challenging lexical chunks for students to promote
language proficiency.
Second, teachers can make use of the 24 topics in the syllabus to help students accumulate relevant chunks and
complete communicative tasks. By identifying and acquiring lexical chunks related to each unit's topic, teachers can

ensure that both curriculum content and high-stakes exams are well-integrated. This approach also allows teachers to
improve chunk teaching receptively and productively using materials available to every student.
Finally, teachers should revolutionize the way they address students' vocabulary errors. For a long time, students'
spelling and handwriting have been overemphasized, particularly in writing practice and tests. However, this can
discourage autonomous students from attempting to use lexical chunks. According to Lewis (2000), students'
collocational mistakes provide teachers with an opportunity to effectively expand and organize learners' lexicons.
Instead of spending a lot of time correcting students' spelling or grammatical errors, teachers can focus on collecting
common collocational mistakes and using them to teach lexical chunks more effectively. It's important for teachers to
recognize that these mistakes are valuable for chunk teaching, and it can be counterproductive to overly focus on
surface errors.
Ⅶ. CONCLUSION
Lexical chunks, which incorporate grammar, semantics, and pragmatics, are a central focus in a lexical approach to
language learning and teaching (Thornbury, 2002). These chunks have been shown to enhance authentic language input,
memory, retention, and output. However, EFL students often struggle to produce chunks naturally, due to a lack of
guidance from teachers and insufficient exposure to English (Lewis, 2000; Takač, 2008). The interview data in this
study suggests that teachers in senior high school may only be superficially teaching lexical chunks, but this does not
necessarily mean that the teachers are to blame. Instead, the contextual factors in my context make it difficult for
teachers to strike a balance between introducing new concepts and preparing students for exams. Vocabulary learning is
a challenging and ongoing process that students must undertake on their own, with teachers assisting through "careful
planning and well-directed teaching" (Nation, 2003, p. 150). While teaching can be organized in a linear fashion,
learning is more complex and non-linear (Lewis, 2000). Therefore, it is important for teachers and policymakers to
recognize that a strict adherence to certain rules and regulations may not align with the nature of learning. To address
the challenges of chunk teaching in this context, we must consider the underlying causes and work towards a more
effective implementation of lexical chunks in EFL classrooms.
Ⅷ. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

In this study, the current state of chunk teaching was investigated through interviews with teachers. The findings
reveal certain aspects of teachers' knowledge, learning experiences, and teaching strategies related to vocabulary.
However, it should be noted that there are limitations to this study that were not addressed due to time and word
constraints, and it would be inappropriate to generalize the responses of the three interviewees to all teachers. To further
explore potential issues in chunk teaching, future research could include observations of actual classes or gather
students' perspectives to supplement and potentially confirm the data obtained through interviews.
APPENDIX. INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

Q1. Could you please talk about your views on vocabulary teaching?
Q2. How do you usually teach vocabulary?
Q3. How much do you know about lexical chunks?
Q4. What do you think of the role of lexical chunks in English teaching?
Q5. How do you usually teach lexical chunks?
Q6. When designing classroom activities for receptive or productive lexical chunks, what factors should teachers
consider to raise students’ awareness of lexical chunks?
Q7. What materials do you often choose to optimize teaching lexical chunks?
Q8. As an advanced English learner and teacher, have you ever been trained to use lexical chunks for productive
tasks, like speaking and writing?
Q9. Have you ever watched live lessons relevant to chunks for language production?
Q10. Will you try to explore more about teaching lexical chunks in your future teaching?
Q11. What kind of top-down support do you expect to get? (e. g. teaching resources)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their insightful and constructive suggestions. Also heart-felt
gratitude goes to the participants who joined this study. Also I am very grateful to Ms. Laura Grassick for her helpful
comments on this paper.
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[6] Dörnyei, Z. (2007). Research methods in applied linguistics: Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methodologies. Oxford
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[7] Grassick, L., & Wedell, M. (2018). Living with curriculum change: Temporal dissonance, contextual confusion, and risk:
Learning from the experiences of teachers living with curriculum change. In M. Wedell & L. Grassick (Eds.), International
perspectives on teachers living with curriculum change (pp. 247-270). Palgrave Macmillan.
[8] Hou, J., Loerts, H., & Verspoor, M. H. (2018). Chunk use and development in advanced Chinese L2 learners of English.
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[9] Huang, K. (2015). More does not mean better: Frequency and accuracy analysis of lexical bundles in Chinese EFL learners’
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[10] Koprowski, M. (2005). Investigating the usefulness of lexical phrases in contemporary coursebooks. ELT Journal, 59(4), 322-
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[11] Lewis, M. (1993). The lexical approach: The state of ELT and a way forward. Language Teaching Publications.
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in telecommunications research journals. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 21, 60-71.
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[20] Sanchez, A. P. (2017). Learning L2 collocations incidentally from reading. Language Teaching Research, 21(3), 381-402.
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[23] Thornbury, S. (2002). How to teach vocabulary. Harlow: Longman.
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[27] Wedell, M., & Malderz, A. (2013). Understanding language classroom contexts: the starting point of change. Bloomsbury
Academic.
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Fen (Grace) Zheng was born and bred in Shantou City, Guangdong Province. She is an English instructor at English Language
Center of Shantou University in China. In 2019, she received her MA TESOL (Teaching English Speakers of Other Languages) at
University of Leeds in UK.
Currently, she is also a PhD candidate in the School of Education at University of Malaya, Malaysia. So far, she has taught
English at senior high school and tertiary contexts in China. Her research interests include teaching EFL reading, vocabulary learning
and action research in language classroom.

ISSN 1799-2591
Investigating D.H. Lawrence's Persona in Late

Poems During the Savage Pilgrimage: A
Psychoanalytic Approach
Mohammed Dhahir Oleiwi Al-Tameemi
Department of English, Imam-AlKadhum University College, Baghdad, Iraq
Malini N.G. Ganapathy

School of Languages, Literacies and Translation, Universiti Sains Malaysia,Penang, Malaysia
Abstract—The academic field of literary criticism or literary theory has long taken advantage of the covert
connection between literature and psychoanalysis, as this study did when it employed a psychoanalytic
technique to analyze a literary work. Psychoanalysis is one of the contentious and unappreciated literary
criticism philosophies among many readers (Hossain, 2017, p. 41). The persona or the character of the literary
work is one of the literary methods. This study seeks to identify the late persona in D.H. Lawrence's final three
collections of poetry, which were composed near the time of the author's death due to extremely poor health.
The study of a writer's unintended message is referred to as psychoanalytical critique. The investigation's
main point of interest is the author's biographical background. The main goal is to look at the unconscious
components of a literary work in the context of the author's upbringing. It is a technique for correctly and
critically understanding the literary material. Additionally, it is a type of psychoanalytic reading. We can
understand literary texts better by using psychoanalytical thinking. We can swiftly master the subject matter
thanks to the manipulation of the literary text and the sharper picture it produces. Psychoanalytical critique is
one of the most fundamental reading strategies for comprehending the psyche (Ahmed, 2021, p. 2).
Index Terms—D.H. Lawrence, poetry, savage pilgrimage, psychoanalytic approach, Laird's method, Freud's
iceberg, Lacan's registers
I. INTRODUCTION
This research provides a psychological analysis of the late poems written by D. H. Lawrence a few days before his
death. The poems in this paper are carefully examined to discover the functions of the poems, and a summary of the
analysis is provided in the form of tables. In order to respond to the four research questions, the chosen functions will
define the study's topic. This study examines D. H. Lawrence's most recent three collections, which were written during
his final years as he battled tuberculosis. The three collections are entitled "Nettles," "More Pansies," and "Last Poems,"
and each should have a brief introduction for the analysis.
A. Nettles
This collection is made up of 24 poems that were published on 28 pages in "D. H. Lawrence: The Complete Poems,"
which was published in the United States in 1993, and in "Nettles," which was published in London by Farber & Farber
on January 1st, 1930, both before and during D. H. Lawrence's presidency. Even though he had earlier in the year
anticipated a volume that would be a sequel to "Pansies" in a similar vein, Lawrence revealed to Charles Lahr in late
November that he was working on "a little series of poems" (Lawrence, 1993, p. 578).
On the other hand, Lahr's dissatisfaction with his ability to produce a visually appealing volume of "Pansies" most
likely influenced his decision to publish a shorter selection with a reputable publisher. This collection is comprised of
24 poems on 28 pages and was published in "D. H. Lawrence The Complete Poems" by Vivian De Sola Pinto and F. On
December 13, 1929, he sent Laurence Pollinger an autographed manuscript of his "Nettles" poems to be printed as a
Faber pamphlet (Lawrence, 1993, p. 595). Faber's Criterion Miscellany series included "Nettles" at No. 11, while
Lawrence's popular Pornography and Obscenity was published as No. 5.
The poems of this collection are randomly chosen in this study to deal with 5 poems and entitled as follows: "A Rose
is Not A Cabbage" (Pinto & Roberts, 1993, p. 569), "The Man in The Street" (Pinto & Roberts, 1993, pp, 569-70), "III.
The British Boy" (Pinto & Roberts, 1993, pp. 576-77), "Innocent England" (Pinto & Roberts, 1993, pp. 579-80), and
"What Have They Done To You ?" (Pinto & Roberts, 1993, p. 585).
These are poetry. These poems were transcribed from two manuscripts that were found among Lawrence's things
after his passing (Aldington, 1932, p. 1). The 205 poems in this book range in length. This study focuses on eight poems

Corresponding Author. Email: [email protected]

that were selected at random. These poems include "Sing of the Times" (Pinto & Roberts, 1993, p. 585), "Free Will"
(Pinto & Roberts, 1993, p. 617), "Modern Problem" (Pinto & Roberts, 1993, p. 619), "Rose and Cabbage" (Pinto &
Roberts, 1993, p. 634), and "All Sorts of Gods" (Pinto & Roberts, 1993, p. 684).
Lawrence's statement that these poems "are rather "Pansies" than anything else [...] it has always [been] a real notion,
a single thought" reflects his true attitude during the last years of his life (Brown, 2017, p. 53). This collection, known
as MS. "B," was compiled by Richard Aldington, a close friend of D. H. Lawrence, after Lawrence's death in 1932. It
was included in "D. H. Lawrence: The Complete Poems," edited by Vivian De Sola Pinto and F. Warren Roberts and
published in the United States in 1993. To identify the late attributed identity, the poems from the book "More Pansies"
will be examined psychoanalytically, contextually, and literally.
B. More Pansies
The poems in "More Pansies" were posthumously published and historically came after the earlier poems in the
collection. "More Pansies" begins on page 601 and includes 203 poems until page (648). The focus of this collection, as
implied by the study's title, is on people in order to convey the author's revised ideal persona. For instance, in the poem
"People" (Pinto & Roberts, 1993, p. 602), the speaker expresses that he does not favor any particular type of person but
rather enjoys seeing them "pass and pass/ and go their own way," particularly if they have "aloneness alive in them." As
a result, the persona in this poem exhibits a lonely attitude, and this attitude generates a variety of psychoanalytical
debates that will be investigated in the following chapter.
Since Lawrence has "no desire any more/ Except to be left, in the end resort, alone, quite alone," his "Yearning"
(Pinto & Roberts, 1993, p. 602) also shows the desire for "aloneness." These two poems, along with others, search for
souls that are peaceful, like the "unique persons" of the past. These poems give rise to in-depth discussions examining
the author's personal effects and his new persona.
C. Last Poems
After the author's passing in 1932, Aldington referred to MS. "A" as such. "These poems were published following
[Lawrence's] passing" (Aldington, 1932, p. 1). These are the very last literary works to be produced. The (67) poems in
this anthology range in length but share a common theme.
This study deals with (8) poems entitled "The Greek are Coming!" (Pinto & Roberts, 1993, p. 687), "Maximus"
(Pinto & Roberts, 1993, p. 687), "Bavarian Gentians" (Pinto & Roberts, 1993, p. 697), "Silence" (Pinto & Roberts,
1993, pp. 698-99), "Pax" (Pinto & Roberts, 1993, p. 700), "Lord's Prayer" (Pinto & Roberts, 1993, p. 704), "The Ship
of Death" (Pinto & Roberts, 1993, pp. 716-720), and "Song of Death" (Pinto & Roberts, 1993, pp. 723-724).
Tables at the end of this paper summarize the research results. This chapter discusses the study's objectives while
focusing on the study's findings, which are as follows:
II. HOW MUCH OF A PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVE DOES D. H. LAWRENCE USE TO PORTRAY HIS EGO IN HIS LATE-
SELECTED POETRY FROM THE TIME OF SAVAGE PILGRIMAGE?
RQ1's interpretation was based on the psychoanalytic approach's findings. The ultimate goal of objective one is to
examine the late persona in D. H. Lawrence's late poems. To do this, this study will employ four different
methodologies, including Laird's classification of the persona and the poem, Freud's Ice-Berg psychoanalytic approach,
kinds of persona, and person's point of view. The following methods depict the persona from various angles:
psychologically; from his or her point of view within the poem; and from the type of persona and gender reflected in
recent poetry.
A. Laird's Method
Laird's Method (Meyers, 2003, p. 5) argument seems strong. She disagrees with Lawrence's painful division of the
1928 Collected Poems into "Rhyming Poems" and "Unrhyming Poems," which he then reorganized to give his
autobiography a significant, symbolic form. She explores the poetic sequence as "a key unit of poetic production" and
looks at "the books of poems in the original order in which Lawrence wrote, rewrote, and published them." Lawrence,
as an autobiography, has three goals, according to the author, namely self-expression, personal growth, and reader
transformation (Meiners, 2003, p. 23).

TABLE 1
LAIRD'S CLASSIFICATION
Collection Poem self-expression self-transformation transformation of the readers
Nettles A 
B 
C 
D 
E 
More Pansies A 
B 
C 
D 
E  
F  
G 
H  
Last Poems A 
B 
C  
D   
E  
F  
G  
H  
By using Laird's classification of the persona, it can be seen that Lawrence employs self-expression 13 times in the
chosen poems, which accounts for 61.90% of the classification, self-transformation 11 times, which accounts for 50%
of the classification, and transformation of the reader seven times, which accounts for 33% of the classification. This
research demonstrates that the majority of the poems discuss the self and have the self as their central theme throughout
the later stages of composition.
Additionally, the chosen poems for this study argue for the readers' metamorphosis because Lawrence wants to
express his ideology toward life and contemporary life and death. The late poetry and life of D. H. Lawrence are
examined as a rich source of data for the understanding of the contradictory relevance of a sense of self in personal
development. We emphasize the importance of self-psychology as a subfield of psychoanalysis and discuss some of the
ways Lawrence foresaw this development. Additionally, it is noted that Lawrence provides convincing support for a
self-psychology view of the creative urge, and it is briefly explained that throughout his main works, he was "pursuing
his own self-healing" (Bragan, 2009, p. 13). Lawrence's later poems analyze themselves explicitly or indirectly through
allusion or entanglement. These writers investigate their own creativity as well as that of other artists. Reflexivity like
this is not a twentieth-century invention. The majority of art, which includes imaginative accomplishment and inventive
creations, is self-expression in some way. Lawrence is not an exception, but his sense of self-expression stands out more
than that of his contemporaries. He disagrees with certain forms of self-expression since they involve mental states and
moral dilemmas. They are also necessary stops on his imaginative trip.
B. Freud's Iceberg
Freud's Ice-Berg is another method used in this study, and it determines whether the persona in the chosen poems
represents their Id, Ego, or Super-Ego. In order to foresee, Freud (1900, 1905) devised a topographical model in which
he described the composition and operation of the mind. Freud utilized the image of an iceberg to represent the three
levels of the mind (McLeod, 2015, p. 12). This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how Freud (1915)
described the conscious mind as "all the mental processes of which we are aware". Thoughts and feelings that a person
is not now aware of but that are simple to bring to consciousness are stored in the preconscious (1924). It is present only
before unconscious thought. Thoughts stay in the preconscious like they would in a mental waiting area until they
"succeed in drawing the eye of the conscious" (Freud, 1924, p. 306).
Psychoanalytic evaluation requires a thorough understanding of the writer's unconscious or the personalities that the
poet has created in a creative work. Psychologists Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan's theories are frequently used to
study the unconscious mind. The energy in the unconscious continues to want to present itself, with a need for self-
expression, according to Harland (1999), who claims that the "unconscious" "constitutes the reject bin [...] for images
and impulses now excluded by consciousness" (Mushtaq, 2010, p. 8). Any psychoanalytical critique often focuses on
the investigation of the author's unconscious mind or the unconscious mind of the main character in a literary work. In
this examination, we try to understand the unconscious of the persona that Lawrence established in his poetry.

TABLE 2
FREUD'S ICE-BERG
Collection Poem/s Id Ego Super-Ego
Nettles A  
B  
C  
D 
E 
More Pansies A   
B  
C 
D 
E 
F  
G  
H 
Last Poems A 
B 
C 
D  
E 
F 
G 
H 
According to Howe (1973), D. H. Lawrence's primary interest is identity and the divided self, "not blood religion,
modern sexuality, or the vicissitudes of the industrial age," [as] he anticipates the present (p. 1). The Id is reflected in 17
of the 21 chosen poems, the Ego and Super-Ego are expressed in 7, the Ego and Id and Super-Ego are expressed in 4,
and all three are reflected in one poem. This study demonstrates the significance of the self in relation to society
because the Id feature, which relates to the persona's identity, is more evident in the recently chosen poetry than the
other parts of Ego and Super-Ego.
This demonstrates how Lawrence, in his later writing, tended to focus on his inner feelings and identity, which
demonstrates the need for self-insurance. The subconscious is represented by the Id aspect, which "drives the organism
to engage in need-satisfying, tension-relieving activities that are seen as pleasure" (Lapsley & Stey, 2011, p. 5).
Therefore, the majority of Lawrence's later poetry conveys his true need, which requires "pleasure." Applying Freud's
theory, this study will come to the conclusion that Lawrence's personality was affected by the outside world because
"the psychosis represents a conflict between the ego and the outer world; the neurosis reflects a struggle between the
ego and the id (the innate needs)" (Alexander, 1935, p. 67). In light of these discoveries, Lawrence must have been
experiencing "neurosis" when he wrote the late poems.
The foundation of psychoanalytic criticism is the idea that literary creations reflect the dreams of their authors or
personas. In this study, the researcher has focused on the poem's main protagonist. The final poems emphasize the
progression and demonstrate how the Id, Ego, and Superego—three facets of the persona's identity—battle it out in each
poem. In spite of appearing to be active in some poems, the ego and superego often vanish completely. Id, on the other
hand, is still largely dormant, but in some poems it pushes its way through the middle and takes over. Thus, the latter
poems might be seen as a conflict between the Id, Ego, and Superego, with the Id claiming control of the final goal.
C. Different Personas
Fishelov (1990) asserts that an alternative method for describing personas from various angles is persona type (p. 78).
Fishelov says that personas can be categorized based on how they alter (or remain unchanged) during a narrative.
Persona types, which include the dynamic persona, the round persona, the static persona, and the flat persona, are
categorized according to how each character develops in the poem. This method will evaluate the persona within the
texts as the study follows the categorization of the type of persona, as follows:

TABLE 3
DIFFERENT PERSONA
Collection Poem Flat Round Static Dynamic Male (M)/female (F) or No
specific gender (X)
A  M
Nettles B  M
C  M
D  M
E  M
More Pansies A  X
B  X
C  X
D  M
E  X
F  X
G  X
H  X
Last Poems A  M
B  M
C  X
E  M
D  X
F  M
G  X
H  M
This type of analysis demonstrates how frequently Lawrence uses the terms "men" or "women" because, as
evidenced by 11 poems that discuss masculinity and 10 poems that don't explicitly mention gender, the latter represent a
masculine mindset rather than a feminine persona. In contrast to his earlier works, such as "Women in Love" (1920),
"The White Peacock" (1911), "The Virgin and the Gipsy" (1926), and many others, in which women were the main
characters, Lawrence does not place as much emphasis on gender in his later writings.
Additionally, because Lawrence primarily writes about female characters, this type of examination demonstrates how
different Lawrence's writing style is from his early style. There are 8 poems that reflect a flat persona (34%), two poems
that display a round persona (7%), 12 poems that reflect a static persona (57% of the chosen poetry), and 0 poems that
indicate dynamic persona (0%). As long as the dynamic persona is a person who experiences significant internal change
throughout the poem. The development of a dynamic persona is frequently gradual and wordless, and it is not brought
on by a change in the persona's environment. The recent poems demonstrate the opposite, because a static persona is
one who remains largely constant throughout the poem. Even though his or her surroundings have altered, the character
nevertheless retains the same attitude and personality as they did at the start of the poem. As a result of this strategy,
Lawrence's personality and the late character remain constant throughout the poems. This method also demonstrates the
degree to which Lawrence's persona evolved over his late writing era and the degree to which his writing style altered
because his early persona, as it appeared in Lawrence's early writings, was dynamic.
D. Person's Point of View
The viewpoint that the story should take is one of the most important factors to take into account when Lawrence
tells a poem. The poet's point of view establishes the link between the poet and the persona in the poem. Poems might
feel very different depending on who is reciting them. In his 1986 work "A Theory of Narrative", F. K. Stanzel lists
three narrative points of view. This method identifies the persona's point of view, demonstrating how frequently
Lawrence employs the first, second, or third points of view. When writing, authors must decide from what point of view
they want to present their ideas. There are three types: first person, second person, and third person perspectives. The
type of pronouns and the genre can be helpful in determining the author's point of view, and as follows:

TABLE 4
PERSONA'S POINT OF VIEW
Collection Poem First Point of Second point of view Third point of view
View
A 2 7
Nettles B 8 4
C 8
D 8 1 6
E 8 6
More Pansies A 1
B X X X
C 2
D 1
E 3
F 7 2
G 4 7
H 1
Last Poems A 4
B 3 4
C X X X
D 4
E X X X
F 2 1
G 4 2
H 2
First person and third person are the two main points of view, with second person appearing less frequently yet
frequently enough to be studied in the poetry analysis. The poet assumes a persona in the poem and tells the story from
his point of view in one of the 44 first-person points of view that are employed in the more recent poems. The author
regularly uses the pronoun (I) or (we), if the narrator is speaking as part of a group. You are getting that persona's report
of what happens, whether they are actively participating in the activity or are more of a spectator from the sidelines.
Additionally, it means that representations and beliefs are influenced by the persona's opinions, mood, past experiences,
or even their distorted interpretations of what they see and hear.
25 poems allude to second-person viewpoints. In recent poetry, where the action is controlled by a persona attributed
to the reader, known as you, the employment of the second-person narrating persona is unusual. The reader participates
in the poem as one of its personas. The persona talks about "you" and delves into your background and innermost
thoughts. 43 third-person perspectives are included. In a third-person persona, the speaker is not present during the
events of the poem and instead uses the pronouns "he", "she", or "they" to describe the actions of the characters.
Three poems also don't express any one viewpoint. The findings indicate that the selected poems incorporate the
perspectives of 112 people. Third person point of view accounts for 38.39%, second person point of view for 22.32%,
and first person point of view for 39.28%. In addition, 14.28% of the chosen poems don't use a particular point of view.
This method demonstrates the degree to which Lawrence expresses either his own or others' points of view.
III. HOW CAN A PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACH TO D. H. LAWRENCE'S LATE-SELECTED POEMS FROM THE SAVAGE
PILGRIMAGE PERIOD REPRESENT THE ESSENCE OF HIS WRITING STYLE?
Lacan's Registers analysis findings were understood to offer a response to identity expression and identity
performance, which are clearly distinguished in the majority of Lawrence's works. In a letter dated June 5, 1914,
Lawrence advised Edward Garnett that "[y]ou mustn't search in my story for the old steady ego of the character"
(Lawrence, 1981, p. 183). As a result, the psychological elements that are illustrated in the preceding section have an
impact on the manner of recent poems.
The final psychanalytic technique is Lacan's Registers, which reveals if the poem is actually reflected in the late
poems or just a metaphor (Perman, 2018, p. 13). The second goal of this strategy is to answer the question: How does a
psychoanalytic strategy portray the character of D. H. Lawrence's writing style in his late-selected poetry from the
Savage Pilgrimage period?

TABLE 5
LACAN'S REGISTERS
Collection Poem/s Symbolic, Imaginary Real
Nettles A 
B  
C  
D  
F 
More Pansies A 
B 
C 
D 
E 
F 
G  
H 
Last Poems A 
B  
C 
D  
E 
F  
G 
H  
This method demonstrates that 16 of the 21 poems that were chosen only use symbols to convey ideas and thoughts
that were present in the poets' later stages of life. Six poems are actual, and seven poems use imagination. There are six
poems that mix symbolic and fantastical elements, and two poems that combine symbolic and literal elements.
The specifics of this strategy reveal that 38% of the poems use symbols to represent the majority of Lawrence's ideas
and thoughts. Some poems demonstrate that the thoughts are fictitious; they make up 33% of the poetry, whereas only
28% of the poems contain true thoughts. Additionally, this discussion demonstrates that Lawrence does not
simultaneously employ genuine and imaginative language to convey the author's mindset.
This method demonstrates that 16 of the 21 poems that were chosen only use symbols to convey ideas and thoughts
that were present in the poets' later stages of life. Six poems are actual, and seven poems use imagination. There are 6
poems that mix symbolic and fantastical elements and two poems that combine symbolic and literal elements.
The specifics of this strategy reveal that 38% of the poems use symbols to represent the majority of Lawrence's ideas
and thoughts. Some poems demonstrate that the thoughts are fictitious; they make up 33% of the poetry, whereas only
28% of the poems contain true thoughts.
Additionally, this discussion demonstrates that Lawrence does not combine the real and the fantastic simultaneously,
expressing the author's preference to write either symbolic-imaginary or symbolic-actual thoughts rather than
imaginary-real thoughts. Thus, this method demonstrates the way in which the author wrote at a late date, helping to
reveal his late ideas and thoughts at the time.
IV. HOW MUCH DID D. H. LAWRENCE'S LATER POEMS REFLECT HIS LATER IDENTITY AND WRITING STYLE AS
AFFECTED BY THE SAVAGE PILGRIMAGE?
Contextuality analysis's findings were interpreted to produce an answer to this question.
Contextuality
The majority of the discussions on the subject of Lawrence's later poems rely on a broad, popular understanding of
their objectives and how they react to the study's conclusions. In order to evaluate and take into account theoretical
concepts from important actors in their natural context, this study makes the case that generalizations into underlying
variables and linkages need to be investigated.
Grete Hermann made a passing reference to the need of contextuality in 1935, but it wasn't until more than 30 years
later that Simon B. Kochen, Ernst Specker, and separately John Bell had acknowledged its importance.
The study examines how factors in the internal and external contexts affect contextual processes (i.e., how
Lawrence's strategy switched from competing to conquering). The many internal and external context components that
either support or resist the change are the main focus of a conceptual viewpoint. The analysis elaborates on the
experiences and observations of 21 poems using a contextual technique. The results acknowledge the process by which
each poem is exposed to different contextual factors. The findings reveal a number of background factors and show how
their effects vary depending on the circumstances.
This approach is used in this study to address the fourth objective, which asks to what extent the Savage Pilgrimage
affected D. H. Lawrence's writing style and persona in the late poems? This study uses contextual analysis to
demonstrate both the internal and external consequences of the late time of the late poems' composition.

TABLE 6
CONTEXTUALITY
Collection Poem/s Internal factor External factor
Nettles A  
B  
C 
D 
E 
More Pansies A 
B 
C 
D  
E  
F  
G  
H 
Last Poems A 
B 
C 
D 
E 
F 
G 
H 
Five poems demonstrate the external impacts of writing late poems and make up 23.80% of the factors, while six
poems contain both external and internal factors and make up 28.57% of the factors. Of the 10 poems that are affected,
internal effects make up 47.61% of the variables. This method demonstrates the extent to which internal factors—the
majority of which are psychological—had an impact on the composition of the latter poetry. As 47.61 percent plus
28.57% equals 76.18%, each poem captures Lawrence's true mindset and reveals the fundamental forces that underlie
Lawrence's disease. According to this perspective, the late poems demonstrate how much the Savage Pilgrimage is
responsible for the late style of the late poems.
The influence of external factors such as the physical environment, like energy and anger, persistence, positive habits,
and self-motivations, is rarely explored, making internal psychological elements such as intentions and behavioral
factors, like annoyance, frustration, stress, and depression, essential predictors of environmental behavior. The
investigation into how external factors interact with the actual setting in which decisions are made is even more unique.
This study examined the relative impact and interaction of sociopsychological factors on the environmental behavior of
the study's poetry.
As a result, the new character is shown in line with Lawrence's writing style from his last days. As stated in the
literature review for this study, Jones (2016) claims that the poet who passes away won't be plagued by embellishment
or aggravation because they compose with the utmost care in "a tremendous stillness, in which every line reverberates."
This theory holds that "the mythologized visionary/dying poet is, in this perspective, promoted to transcendental
expression by necessity": a necessity that time's passing forces upon him and by a sense of duty that compels him to
create a thorough picture of the end (p. 5).
V. HOW MUCH DOES D. H. LAWRENCE'S LATE-SELECTED POETRY FROM THE SAVAGE PILGRIMAGE DEPICT THE IDEA OF
DEATH USING A PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACH?
To respond to the question, the findings of the literary theory analysis and indirect persona characterization were
interpreted.
A. Literature Theory
The modern meaning of "literary theory" dates back to the 1950s, when structuralist linguistics, developed by
Ferdinand de Saussure, started to have a significant influence on English-language literary criticism (Martinet, 1989, p.
45).
The answers to this query are based on the poems that were chosen for study. The discussion will then go over the
main themes and interpretations of what is already known about how Lawrence gradually changed his approach from
dealing with life and other contemporary phenomena to dealing with death and seeing death as something that is
suitable for everyone, as shown in the diagram below:

TABLE 7
THE MAIN THEMES
Collection Poem/s Main themes
Nettles A Life
B Life and modernity
C Homesick
D sorrow, heartbreak and innocence
E disdain and pities of the working class
More Pansies A Strength and youth
B free will
C rejection to the same gender love
D homesick and loneliness
E Pure god
F Anti-modernity
G Manhood
H ultimate divine bodies
Last Poems A the men of the old world are divine, heroic
B life after death and the ongoing god
C Death and Greek gods
D living silence, death
E Living god
F god-like
G Death
H Song of death
Regarding the themes of the last few poems, this diagram illustrates how Lawrence's ideas evolved from describing
life in poem (A) of the first collection, life and some modern aspects in poem (B), Lawrence's contempt for the life of
the working class in poem (E), youth in poem (A) of the second collection, the concept of free will in poem (B),
homesickness and the agony of being alone in poem (C), to describing life in poem (A) of the last collection (D). The
search for the right god to be his companion is the overarching topic of the poems from the third collection's poem (E)
to the end, as seen in (E) and (B, C, E, and F). The selected poems' use of quiet as a subject is another (D), and finally
the poems end with the theme of death, as this theme appears in (D, G, and H) of the third collection.
This strategy demonstrates how Lawrence's writing style gradually shifted from dynamic themes to stillness and
death. The most prevalent theme in recent poems is death. This strategy captures Lawrence's relationship with death
because, strangely, death symbolizes relaxation and eternal life, a quiet and peaceful existence. Oblivion and its
associated sea of oblivion, which is traversed by the ship of death, stand in for quiet and profound silence. The path to a
new life is death. Live a life free of the corrosive effects of modernity and selfish concerns.
B. Characterization of an Indirect Persona
Indirect characterization in literature can take four different forms: words, thoughts, effects or impact on others,
action, and looks or appearance (Burroway, 2000, p. 87). (STEAL).
TABLE 8
INDIRECT PERSONA CHARACTERIZATION
Collection Poem Indirect Persona Characterization
Speech Thoughts Influence on Action Appearance
Others
Nettles A convey his Feelings towards None Homesick A sick man
feelings nature
towards the
rose
B directly to Pain of being a man in the Loneliness A wondering man
another stranger street.
persona and the
policeman.
C To Britain Loyalty Britannia depression a boy
and
loyalty
D Innocence of free thoughts None beauty of A romantic and an
the homeland England artist man
E Anti- Anti-mechanism None people are A pessimistic
modernism lifeless when advisor
they live like
machines
More Pansies A Modernity & Youth and its value Young men None a wise man
carelessness
B pessimisticall disagreement with None motivating a connected
y describing human's unfree will "free will" persona to the
human's life cosmos.
C direct to Sexuality Females and love between None

females males male and

female.
D unwished bring back the glory Modern men An allusion to None
regime of his of England past time
period
E Godly speech To be in touch with men and An allusion to None
the G/gods women the old and
modern
G/gods
F pessimistic anti-modernism Modern men introducing A dying persona
speech about death and with a bad
death and dealing with tempered.
modern men. it
G Speech is to Paganism and Every man wishes that A persona with a
everybody savage wishes and woman. every man negative idea of
and woman the modern life.
should be as
clear as
flowers
H Godly speech Religious thoughts None imaginative Like a Lord
actions and
occurred
away from
the earth
Last Poems A allusion to the connected with None Changed A man "with
past time. "archaic" men archaic pointed
beard"
B Godly Godly None describes the looks like a god
coming of
Hermes
C Gothic Old civilization None describing God-like
death and the
underneath
D Silence silence thinking Everybody Silence alone man in
silence
E Godly Peace Everybody looking for like a cat a sleep
"the living on a chair
God"
F persona is a naked man None imaginative a naked man
calling for his journey and
mana looking for
the kingdom
G the voyage allusion to Greek Everybody longest dying persona
towards a and Egyptian voyage to
complete oblivion
oblivion. using the ship
of death
H death and life dying man Everybody singing the A dying and
after death. song of death hopeless man
(a). Speech Diagram

What response does the persona display in this diagram? How does it function? Is a character capable of speaking?
(Burroway, 2000, p. 12) This kind of examination demonstrates how Lawrence's writing style evolved over the course
of his later years since it reveals just how drastically Lawrence's style had altered. For instance, the speech category
demonstrates Lawrence's organization and connection to nature right from the start, as poem (A) in the first collection
articulates the relationship with roses, poem (B) articulates the speech to other personas, and poem (C) articulates the
speech about the country of origin, Britain. Both poem (E) and (D) express Lawrence's anti-modernism stance. The
poem (D) depicts the innocence of the nation. Nettles, a compendium, highlights Lawrence's key concepts.
Nettles displays Lawrence's core concepts and thoughts, some of which are tied to nature and contemporary life in
other poems. The following collection, More Pansies, presents an average of thoughts and concepts related to different
facets of existence, including God/s, women, human life, and modernity, before transferring the concepts to death and
religious discourse.
The poems in the final collection, Last Poems, primarily depict the relationship between humans and God as in the
poems (B and E), while others make allusions to the past, as in poem (A), employ gothic language to conceal actual
change as in the poem (C), and finally shift the mode toward silence in life as in the poem (D). The act of calling for the
"mana" in the poem (F) is expressed in other poems. Lawrence uses this phrase to indicate his desire for a new existence,
a new soul, and to travel to "oblivion," which is beneath modern life, as illustrated in the poems (F) and (G). Lawrence
finally realizes his ultimate goal in life, which is his excitement and desire to pass away and join the life of the
underworld as in the poem (H).

(b). Diagram of Thoughts

What is represented in this diagram by the persona's innermost thoughts and feelings? (Burroway, 2000). The poem
(A), from the Nettles collection, addresses feelings toward nature as the major theme and considers nature as the
strength of life. This is in reference to thoughts that appeared in the late selected poems. The pain of being a foreigner
outside of one's own nation is then described in the poem (B) of the same collection. Loyalty and freedom of thought
are displayed in the poems (C and D). The final piece in this anthology is a poem critical of machines (E).
More Pansies, the second collection, highlights the worth of youth as in the poem (A) and expresses dissatisfaction
with the concept of human unfree will as in the poem (B). The concept of being outside of England restores his
country's greatness in the poem (C), where sexuality is dominating (D). The poem (E) is very concerned with the idea of
connecting with G/God, and anti-modernism that is found in (F). Additionally, pagan beliefs and wild desires are
displayed in (G), however, these are turned into religious beliefs in (H).
In the final collection, The "Last Poems", the author's ideas about ancient civilizations and his desire to live naked
like them are completely transformed (A, C, F, and G). So the poem's overriding thought that is one of God (B). Last
but not least, Lawrence expresses the idea of the beautiful dying as seen in poetry as he seeks silence throughout his
own death (D, E, and H).
(c). Influence on Others Diagram
What things influence others' character reactions or the persona's emotions? (Burroway, 2000, p. 18). Regarding the
diagram of the influence on others, this study finds that Lawrence primarily describes his situation and his feelings
because the other characters' influence in the later poems is not very prominent, while the poems that do address the
influence on everyone in general or none in particular are few in number. The author's true feelings and attitude are
depicted in this diagram.
(d). Action Diagram
What role does the persona play in the poem, according to this diagram? The persona has a personality, but in what
way? And how? (Burroway, 2000, p. 54).
The first poem in "Nettles" collection, which addresses these inquiries, depicts the persona's homesickness and
loneliness in the poems (A and B). Additionally, the poem (C) expresses the beauty of England as the author's nation
and displays the depression and allegiance of the character (D). The persona's attitude against people who are like
robots and think of them as emotionless and lifeless is demonstrated in the collection's final poem.
In the following collection, "More Pansies," the poem (A) in particular depicts no action, and the poem (B)
challenges the persona's perspective on free will. The poem (C) describes the persona's attitude on love and how falling
in love feels. It also expresses the love between men and women. The persona's yearning for ancient civilizations and
ancient G/gods is expressed in poems (D and E). The persona then shifts in the poem (F), where he introduces death as
something everyone should embrace as normal. Additionally, the character in the poem requests that souls be clear and
that they be as clear as flowers (G). The persona in the poem (H) travels imaginatively outside of our planet, and his
deeds happened there.
The character expresses his transformation in the "Last Poems," which also imaginatively descends to the underside
and depicts the arrival of "Hermes" poetry (A, B, and C). Lawrence defends the poem's use of quiet there, in the
underworld (D). In the poem, it is also implied that he is searching for the living deity (E). Finally and imaginatively,
the character travels to the sea of oblivion, his final kingdom, and uses a ship of death to sail while singing and reciting
poems about death (F, G, and H).
(e). Appearance Diagram
What does the persona look like? What is his, her, its function? (Burroway, 2000, p. 22). The persona makes
numerous appearances in the recent poems that were chosen. For instance, in the "Nettles" collection, the persona
appears as a sick man in the poem (A) and as a young kid in the poems (B) and (C). In the poems (D and E), the persona
presents herself as a romantic and an artist who offers dismal counsel to others. The figure appears in the "More
Pansies" collection as a wise man and poet (A). Then, as demonstrated in the poem, the character is linked to the
cosmos beyond Earth (B). The poems (C, D, and E) don't specify who they are, and the poem (F) which depicts a dying
character who is incredibly irritable and has a bad temper.
The persona in "Last Poems" resembles an ancient man with god-like qualities as depicted in the poems (A, B, and
C). The character then appears alone and silent, similar to a cat perched on a chair in front of a living god, in poems (D
and E). The persona's appearance is similar to that of a naked man, as it is in the poem (F). In the poem, the dying guy is
helpless (G and H).
VI. CONCLUSION
This research summarizes the collections and applies psychoanalytic theories to a textual study of the relevant poetry.
The conclusions of the investigation are then presented in tables once the analysis has been summarized. In order to
respond to the research questions posed in chapter one, the data and tables discussed above will be explained in chapter

five of the study. Through the research questions and analysis of the poetry, as well as by combining the functions and
motions, the current study provided two novel outputs. It also demonstrated a new method for identifying and analyzing
the persona in poetry from various perspectives, including psychological, contextual, and literary perspectives.
REFERENCES
[1] Aldington, R. (1932). Introduction to Last Poems and More Pansies. Penguin Group, USA.
[2] Alexander, F. (1935). The psychoanalysis of the total personality: The application of Freud's theory of the ego to the neuroses.
(B. Glueck & B. D. Lewin, Trans.). Nervous and Mental Disease Publishing Co. https://doi.org/10.1037/11565-000_
22.10.2022
[3] Bragan, K. (2009). D. Lawrence and self-psychology. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 20(1), 56-62.
http://dio.org/10.3109/00048678609158865
[4] Brown, Kathrine. (2017)."Are D.H. Lawrence’s ‘Pansies’ Poetry?". https://catherinebrown.org/ 28/02/2022
[5] Burroway, J. (2000). Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft. London: Longman.
[6] Fishelov, D. (1990). Types of Character, Characteristics of Types. Style, 24(3), 422–439. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42945871,
Accessed at 24.11.2022
[7] Freud, S. (1924). "A general introduction to psychoanalysis", trans. Joan Riviere.
[8] Hossain, Md. Mahroof. (2017). Psychoanalytic Theory used in English Literature: A Descriptive Study. Global Journals Inc.
(USA)
[9] Howe, Marguerite Beede. (1973). D. H. Lawrence as Ego Psychologist: Self and Being in the Novels. Columbia University
ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.7629297.
[10] Jones, Bethan. (2016). " The Last Poems of D.H. Lawrence: Shaping a Late Style". https://books.google.iq/books. Accessed at
07/06/2019
[11] Lawrence, D. H. (1981). The Letters of D. H. Lawrence, Vol. II, ed. George J. Zytaruk and James T. Boulton Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
[12] Lawrence, D.H. (1993). Complete Poems, ed. Vivian de Sola Pinto and Warren Roberts. London: Penguin.
[13] Martinet, Andre. (1989). "Linguistique Generale, Liguistique Structurale, Linguistique Fonctionelle" La Linguistique, 25(1),
145-154.
[14] Meyers, Jeffrey. (2003). “The Immediate, Instant Self” Issue: Summer 1989, Volume 65: 3 Published: December 12, 2003.
https://www.vqronline.org/ Accessed at 15/11/2022.
[15] Mushtaq, Hammad, (2010). "The Triumph of ID Over Ego and Superego in to His Coy Mistress", www.researchgate.net Pinto,
Vivian De Sola and Roberts, F. Warren. (1993). (Eds.), D. H. Lawrence: The Complete Poems. London: Penguin.
[16] Perman, Gerald, P., (2018). "Jacques Lacan: The Best and Least Known Psychoanalyst". Psychiatric Times, Vol, 35, Issue 12.
December 19, 2018 https://www.psychiatrictimes.com Accessed at 12/10/2022.
Mohammed Dhahir Oleiwi Al-Tameemi is born in 07/15/1979 in Iraq and he lives in Baghdad. Now he is a
Ph.D. student at School of Languages, Literacies and Translation, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang. He has
a Certificate of Education (TESL), B. A. in Teaching English Language from Collage of Education Diala
University (2002), Iraq, M. A. in English Literature from Cankaya University, Turkey (2015).
He has published many papers in different journals most of them were in Literature in English Language
and one of them in Arabic Language.
The Lecturer Al-Tameemi's interests include English Language Teaching (ELT) Literature, Poetry and
Story Writing.
Malini Ganapathy is a University Lecturer at the School of Languages, Literacies and Translation,
Universiti Sains Malasia, Penang. She has a Certificate of Education (TESL), B.A. (Hons.) in English
Language and Literature Studies, M.A. and Ph. D in Applied Linguistics from Universiti Sains Malaysia. Her
research interests include English Language Teaching (ELT), Literature, Literacy (Multiliteracies,
Multimodality, New Literacies) and Writing.

ISSN 1799-2591
Pain, Agony, and Trauma in the Characters of

‘Toba Tek Singh’ and ‘This Blinding Absence of
Light’
Mohammad Osman Abdul Wahab
Department of English, Faculty of Languages and Translation, King Khalid University, Abha, KSA
Nisar Ahmad Koka

Mohammad Nurul Islam

Syed Mohammad Khurshid Anwar

Applied College, Mahala, Khamis Mushait, King Khalid University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Javed Ahmad
English Language Center (ELC) Graiger, Faculty of Languages and Translation, King Khalid University, Abha, KSA
Mohsin Raza Khan

Fozia Zulfiquar
Department of English, Applied College for Girls Abha, King Khalid Khalid University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Abstract—‘Toba Tek Singh’ is an Urdu Short story written by Saadat Hassan Manto and ‘This Blinding
Absence of Light’ is a French Novel Written by Taher Ben Jelloun. ‘Toba Tek Singh’ was perhaps written in
1954 and published in 1955 whereas ‘This Blinding Absence of Light’ was written in 2001. There is more than
four decades span between both works of literature. ‘Toba Tek Singh’ is pure fiction but ‘This Blinding
Absence of Light’ is although a novel but based on a true story or narration of a prisoner who spent eighteen
years of his life in one of the worst prisons of the documented history. ‘Toba Tek Singh’ is written in the third
person whereas ‘This Blinding Absence of Light’ is narrated in the first person. This research will be referring
here to a 2002 translation of ‘This Blinding Absence of Light’ by Linda Coverdale in English. ‘Toba Tek Singh’
is a fictitious character who is a patient in a lunatic asylum. Before suffering from the mental illness ‘Toba Tek
Singh’ was a landlord and during the partition of India, his village and his lands go to a Muslim majority
country i.e., Pakistan. This research intends to study the effects of the pain, agony, and trauma on the psyche
of the characters here.
Index Terms—pain, agony, partition, delirium, dementia
I. INTRODUCTION
‘Toba Tek Singh’ is one of the best short stories written in Urdu literature. The story revolves around the character
whose real name is Bishen Singh and who is a landlord but, unfortunately, he loses his equilibrium and it becomes
difficult for the family to handle him so they bring him to the lunatic asylum and admit him there. Bishen Singh has
most of his lands in the District of Toba Tek Singh. Unfortunately, when Bishen Singh is already under treatment at the
lunatic asylum the partition of the Subcontinent of India takes place on religious ground. The central idea of this short
story is also about the partition of the country and the displacement of millions of people in the subcontinent. The
district of Toba Tek is given to Pakistan, a Muslim country. Bishen Singh who comes to know about this fails to bear
the pain and trauma of the fact that he has to leave his place and go to India. During the transfer of mentally sick
patients in the two countries Bishen dies in tragic circumstances.
The novel ‘This Blinding Absence of Light’ is written by French Novelist Taher Ben Jelloun. The novel revolves
around the prisoners who are convicted for the crime of an attempted coup d’état against the Hassan II the king of
Morocco in 1972. The writer claims that the novel is based upon the narration of one of the prisoners who narrated him
the story of the prison. The novel deals with the subject of the horrible conditions in which the prisoners lived in the

prison of Tazmamart and how several of them could not bear the pain and trauma of this tough imprisonment lost their
mind and ultimately died. The novel is full of the pain, agony and trauma of several soldiers who even didn’t know
what they were doing. They were, indeed, following the orders of their commanders. The imprisonment, for those few
who came out alive, lasted for 18 years. However, many died there.
Although a lot has been written on Saadat Hassan Manto’s ‘Toba Tek Singh’ but this is the first attempt to compare
the mental state of the characters in his short story and the prisoners of Tazmamart. Although the mental state of these
characters can also be compared with the mental state of Hamlet (1599-1601), one of the best tragedies penned by
William Shakespeare but due to the paucity of space, it is not advisable to delve deep into the Shakespearian tragedies
here.
II. A GENERAL NOTE ABOUT SAADAT HASSAN MANTO AND TOBA TEK SINGH
Saadat Hassan Manto (1912-1955) is one of the greatest novelists and short story writers of Urdu literature. He was
born in 1912, in India and later migrated to Pakistan after the partition of India. Manto mostly wrote about the fringe
elements of the society and openly discussed the women, sex and flesh trade in his novels and short stories. Khol do
(Open it), Bu (Odor), Kaali Shalwar (Black Trousers), and the short story in question, Toba Tek Singh are some of his
best works. Manto mostly wrote about the gory effects of the partition and how common men suffered the brunt of
partition. He was known for his blunt comments against religion and its misuse by pseudo-religious people.
Manto had a bad academic career. He failed in matriculation examination twice and when he took the admission for
graduation in Aligarh Muslim University, he had to quit the university due to his bad health and diagnosis of
tuberculosis.
He lived in Mumbai (the then Bombay), Delhi, and Lahore in search of jobs. At the time of the partition of India,
Manto was working with the Bombay Talkies, in Mumbai, as a movie scriptwriter. The partition of India into two
countries was followed by horrific Hindu Muslim riots. Thousands of people were killed in these riots. Nearly 12
million people had to migrate to the countries of their religion since India was considered as a country of Hindu
majority people and Pakistan was considered as a Muslim majority country. When flames of communal riots reached
Mumbai, Manto decided to move to Pakistan and traveled by ship to Pakistan. Initially, he stayed in Karachi and then
moved to Lahore. Manto was charged with obscenity and tried in court six times. Three times he was tried in undivided
India and three times in Pakistan. In Pakistan, Manto was tried last time in court for writing obscene literature. During
the trial, Manto asserted that he is not a pornographer but he is a short story writer. He writes about what he sees in
society. He suggests the dirt of the society should be cleaned and should not be brushed under the carpet. Many literary
writers gave testimony in favor of Manto and the judge let Manto go with a fine and stern warning that if he doesn’t
stop writing obscene literature he will be put behind bars for years. Manto was very upset with this warning from the
court and to overcome the depression he took refuge in excessive drinking which eventually affected his liver and he
suffered from cirrhosis of the liver and eventually died.
Manto’s health was rapidly deteriorating due to excessive drinking and Manto was not ready to quit it. At this time
his family decided to admit him to a lunatic asylum in Lahore. This lunatic asylum was also a rehabilitation center for
alcoholics at that time. It is assumed that the idea of writing the short story Toba Tek Singh took birth in his mind
during his stay in the lunatic asylum. When Manto speaks about the lunatic patients under treatment in the hospital of
Lahore he says, satirically, that the people in the outside world are equally or more lunatic than the people inside. In the
first paragraph of his Toba Tek Singh, he says that the government of both countries decided to exchange the insane
prisoners the way the sane prisoners were exchanged. In the final years of his life when Manto saw the inevitable death
coming, he penned his tombstone that read, ‘Here lies the great short story writer buried under earth wondering who,
either he or god, is the greater short story writer’.
Toba Tek Singh: Toba Tek Singh, in reality, is the name of a city in Pakistan. The central character of the short
story Bishen Singh is a landlord from Toba Tek Singh and hence he is known by the name of this city. The story is
narrated in the third person. All the inmates in the lunatic asylum and the guards call him Toba Tek Singh. Manto did
not mention in the short story in what circumstances Bishen Singh loses his equilibrium but he has just mentioned that
Bishen Singh was brought in chains to the lunatic asylum by his relatives before the partition of the country. He was a
landlord and he had his lands in Toba Tek Singh district. After the partition both the countries decide the exchange the
Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh lunatic patients, particularly the patients whose next of kin migrated from their places. The
story is set around three years after the partition. By this time many Sikhs and Hindus who lived in Pakistan had already
moved to India and millions of Muslims who lived in different parts of India had migrated to Pakistan. Unfortunately,
some Hindu and Sikh patients in lunatic asylums in Pakistan were still there and some lunatic asylums in India still had
patients whose relatives had already moved to a newly formed country. The governments of both the countries, first,
decided to exchange the prisoners from the jails of both the countries then they started exchanging the patients of the
lunatic asylums. Bishen Singh who is a Sikh by religion and whose family members left the district of Toba Tek Singh
was also about to be moved from the lunatic asylum of Lahore. When the patients in the lunatic asylum of Lahore heard
the news of their transfer from Lahore their reactions were shocking. The Hindu and Sikh patients who were originally
from the region of Pakistan were in a kind of impotent rage and state of further dementia and anxiety. Unlike millions
of sane people, they didn’t want to leave their cities and villages. They did not come to terms with the reality of the

partition of the country. Manto used the gibberish words or the incomprehensible sentences uttered by Bishen Singh to
satirize the decision of partition and to mock the idea of two countries. In the end when the transfer of the patients was
in the final stage, amid the night, and when the patients were waiting at the buffer zone between both the countries,
Bishen Singh denies crossing the border and stands between the borders of both the countries for hours and before the
dawn he makes a heart-wrenching cry and dies on the border. This was indeed the cry of millions of people of both
countries who had to leave their birthplaces and migrate to new cities and villages. This was indeed the emotional death
of millions of people who lost their near and dear ones in the horrific riots after partitions. Manto expressed the pain of
every individual, may they be from any religion, through the pain of Toba Tek Singh whose family had already
migrated to India leaving him behind in a lunatic asylum. His final cry was the cry of thousands of people who did not
understand the meanings of two countries in the name of religion but their lives had been sacrificed by the marauders on
the altar of the ego of leaders from both the countries and their religious fervor.
III. A GENERAL NOTE ABOUT TAHER BEN JELLOUN AND THIS BLINDING ABSENCE OF LIGHT
Taher Ben Jelloun: Jelloun was born on 1 December 1944, in Fes, Morocco. He wrote several poems and novels in
French. His first collection of poetry was Hommes Sous Linceul de Silence (1971; Men Under the Shroud of Silence).
After moving to France from Morocco, he received his doctorate in Social Psychology from the University of Paris.
Cette Aveuglante Absence de Lumiere (2001; This Blinding Absence of Light) is a harrowing account of several
prisoners’ lives in the desert concentration camps which were, especially, created for these prisoners who attempted a
failed coup d’état against King Hassan-II. Jelloun narrates that many of these prisoners didn’t even know that they were
leaving to stage a coup against the king. They left their barracks just following the orders of their commanders and
ended up in prisons.
This Blinding Absence of Light explains two things: First, the horrific conditions of the jail where several prisoners
were kept for almost two decades. The second thing is the endurance of some of the human beings who emerged alive
even after living almost eighteen years in those prisons. The prisoners were given starch as food and coffee which tasted
even worse than the horse piss.
Though Ben Jelloun worked closely with a prisoner who narrated the whole story to him, on the other hand, his
detention for 18 months in 1960 helped him narrate the story in picturesque details.
This Blinding Absence of Light: This novel is narrated in the first person. Linda Coverdale translated it from
French. The novel revolves around the prisoners who are convicted for the crime of an attempted coup d’état against
Hassan the II, the king of Morocco in 1972. The prisoners were brought blindfolded and hence they didn’t know where
they were. The prisoners spent the next 18 years of their lives at that place. This is about the prisoners who suffered and
died and who suffered and survived. Many didn’t survive and died in the prison. Those few, who survived, Jelloun
narrates, looked like living cadavers and had shrunken to at least one foot. The prisons where they were kept were five
feet high and ten feet long and nearly five feet wide. There was no washroom or sink but there was just a hole in a
corner for pissing and crapping. There were no beds or cots for the prisoners but rather two very old blankets were
provided to them. Every prisoner was provided with five quarts of muddy water every twenty-four hours.
IV. NARRATORS’ PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

Saadat Hassan Manto himself was admitted to a mental asylum for reasons not known Anwar Sadid writes, he was
admitted since he was suffering from the habit of excessive drinking (Manto ke sau afsaane, Chaudhary Academy
Lahore, April, 2017) whereas Leslie Flemming says he was admitted to a mental asylum due to traits of abnormal
behavior. (The Life and Works of Saadat Hasan Manto, Leslie Flemming, VBL Publications, 1985).
When Jelloun was narrating the story of the prisoners in Tazmamart prison, perhaps he recalled some of his own
experiences when he was in jail in 1960 for eighteen months. Hence this paper can conclude here that both the writers
had directly experienced the pain and agony through which their characters were suffering. Perhaps this is the reason
that Manto sympathizes with his character Bishen Singh and Jelloun sympathizes with all the inmates of the prison. It
seems, through the narrator, he mourns the death of every prisoner.
V. PAIN AND AGONY OF THE CHARACTERS AND THE REASON FOR THEIR MENTAL ILLNESS
Bishen Singh the central character of ‘Toba Tek Singh’ was already suffering from mental illness when he came to
know about the partition of the country and how his village and his lands went into the Muslim majority Pakistan. His
mental illness, after this news, reached the culmination point and he succumbed to the pain and agony and at last,
passed away.
Bishen Singh spent fifteen years in the asylum and he used to mumble just one incomprehensible sentence all the
time. For fifteen years during the day and night, he used to say the same sentence.
When the governments of Pakistan and India decided to transfer the patients of mental asylum based on their religion,
many of those patients could partially understand what was happening were disturbed and in mental agony, trauma and
pain.

Bishen Singh was also one of the patients who were about to be transferred to India. On the day when prisoners were
being transferred, Bishen Sing stood in the buffer zone and died. Saadat Hassan Manto did not describe the reason for
his death but it was obvious that Bishen Singh died of the pain and agony he was suffering due to the partition of the
country and the displacement of his family.
The story of characters in ‘This Blinding Absence of Light’ by Taher Ben Jelloun, is no different than the story of
Bishen Singh. Toba Tek Singh depicts just the suffering of one character whereas Ben Jelloun narrates the story of not
one but several characters who were arrested and imprisoned in one of the worst jails of history for at least eighteen
years.
While narrating the story of characters, the narrator generally calls them by number. Number 12 Hamid, who could
not bear the pain and agony and lost touch with reality, used to just stare at the roof and go on talking in a state of
delirium. Jelloun says the delirium of Hamid was a way of leaving his prison mates and calling death. In a state of
trance, he bashed his head against the wall several times and after several long cries, his breath stilled. This is the story
of one prisoner who succumbed to his pain after a mental delirium. He lost his mental equilibrium when he lost hope of
seeing his family and relatives ever again in his life. Perhaps, for him, death was the only way to get out of prison.
Larbi, the number 4, who was a chain smoker could not bear the urge to smoke and when he gave up after requesting
the guards to provide him with some cigarettes he announced that he saw his death coming and he died after one week.
He simply died because he did not get cigarettes to smoke.
When Mustapha, number 18, who died of scorpion sting, was being buried Moh, number 1, jumped into the grave to
end his own life too. He was somehow pulled out but after this incident, the pain of being away from his family became
unbearable for him, and he lost his mental balance. He used to talk to his mother and cook food for her and feed her in
his imagination. As the time passed his mumbling grew fainter and slowly he embraced the death. His memories of his
past were the harbinger (sic) of his death.
Majid, number 6, believed that those who died are not dead indeed. In his state of mind, he claimed that they are just
pretending to be dead and they are waiting for a chance to free all the other inmates. He had hallucinations about the
inmates who were already dead. In his imagination, he thought they are calling him and he, somehow, managed to
commit suicide in a cell that was hardly five feet high.
After twenty years of imprisonment when the narrator was taken for medical treatment before his release, he saw the
mirror for the first time after almost two decades. He took time to process in his mind after seeing his image in the
mirror on a dentist’s chair. He was shocked to see his face and appearance.
When the narrator was released, his younger brother and sister came to receive him from the local police station.
They had tears in their eyes when they saw him, but the narrator did not or could not show any emotion. This is because
he did not know what emotion he needed to express at that time. He was completely clueless. The narrator expresses
that after spending almost two decades in the prison his later life after the release too was not normal. Perhaps the
memories of pain, agony, and mental trauma haunted him permanently.
VI. MENTAL ILLNESS AND SPIRITUALITY

Almost every character lost its mental equilibrium and then died. There is not even a single character in the novel that
suffered mental illness and survived. The narrator of the story who was spiritually strong and kept on praying regularly
and involved himself in teaching the religious scripts to others did not suffer any serious mental disorder. This research
can conclude here that involving yourself in spirituality and religion may keep your mental equilibrium intact.
VII. ELEMENT OF SCHADENFREUDE IN THE INMATES

When, Number 12, Hamid died, everyone saw a ray of hope of seeing the sky soon and getting released from the
pigeon coops for at least a little time during the burial of the deceased. They all enjoyed the open sky and the narrator
says he kept his eyes and mouth open to suck as much sunlight as much possible. In the evening, the narrator felt
ashamed of enjoying the sunlight on the death of an inmate instead of mourning his death. The condition of the inmates
had reached such a miserable state that they enjoyed the burial of one of their inmates. This was the reason they had a
question in their mind, ‘who is the next?’ Perhaps, the jail authorities realized that the living inmates are enjoying the
opportunity of burial of their dead prison inmates hence they decided not to allow them the luxury (sic) of taking part in
the burial.
When Baba, the Saharawi, died, the inmates took his tunic before burial and sewed trousers, shirts, and underpants.
The death of an inmate was a boon for the other inmates since they could get some extra clothes. The prison authorities
did not provide any. When Jama, another inmate, showed the signs of insanity, the narrator was optimistic about getting
his tunic since he could not bear the piercing cold and had developed an ache in his testicles.
VIII. WAR AGAINST PAIN AND SUFFERINGS

The narrator in This Blinding Absence of Light says they are fighting a war against an invisible enemy. This enemy
is pain, agony, dementia, and even hallucinations. If the hope was the denial of reality the memories of the past were
comparable to cyanide, a poison that gives you immediate death. Hence the narrator decides to keep the memories of

the past days at bay. Those who turned mad or lunatic had perhaps indulged in thinking too much about the beautiful
past and their beloved relatives and friends. Whenever memories tried to invade the storyteller, he mustered all the
energy and pushed them out. A resistance against negativity was not a requirement but a survival tactic for these
inmates. Although the food which was being provided to them was barely enough to survive, the writer says most of
those who died did not die of starvation but hatred. They felt a deep hatred against everyone responsible for their plight.
I think the same was the case of Bishen Singh in Toba Tek Singh. He had developed deep hatred against those who
supported and asked for the partition of the country.
To keep the pain and delirium and dementia away the inmates used to tell the stories of movies. The narrator himself
was the storyteller of the prison. Sometimes, he used to concoct the stories on the line of the Hollywood movies and tell
other inmates. He used to take them on a tour of different countries and cities in their imagination. Sometimes, the
stories were about beautiful girls and their lovers.
IX. END, BUT NOT THE CONCLUSION

It will take further detailed analysis of the psyche of the characters of both the works to conclude this paper about the
pain, agony, and trauma of the characters. However, it can be concluded here that pain, agony, and trauma have close
relation with the mental equilibrium of an individual and this is the reason almost all the characters in question here
died after suffering from a mental disorder. It can also conclude here that at the highest point of pain and trauma an
individual loses his mental equilibrium.
This is the reason that the narrator of This Blinding Absence of Light says if the hope was the denial of reality the
memories of the past were comparable to cyanide, a poison that gives you immediate death. Why memories are
considered cyanide here is because memories lead to further mental pain and agony. The mental suffering of all the
characters was the reason behind their death.
The reason behind the death of Bishen Singh was agony and pain. The reason behind the death of Hamid, Majid,
Moh, and many others was not the disease or accidents but the pain, agony, and trauma from which they were suffering.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors extend their appreciation to the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Khalid University for funding
this work through Project under grant number GRP/306/43
REFERENCES
[1] Ashraf, K. (2010). Barre Saghir Mein Urdu Afsana [Urdu Shorty Story in the sub-continent]. Modern Publishing House, Darya
Ganj, Delhi, India
[2] Manto, S. H. (April, 2017). Manto ke sau afsaane [Hundred Short Stories of Manto]. Chaudhary Academy Lahore, Pakistan
[3] Dalrymple, W. (2019). The Anarchy, Bloomsbury Publishing, London, UK
[4] Flemming, L. (1985). The Life and Works of Saadat Hasan Manto, VBL Publications, Darya Ganj, Delhi, India
[5] Saint, T. (1995). The Long Shadow of Manto’s Partition Narratives: ‘Fictive’ Testimony to Historical Trauma”. Social
Scientist
[6] Jelloun, T. B. (2001). This Blinding Absence of Light, Translated from the French by Linda Coverdale, The New Press, New
York, London, UK
[7] Manto, S. H. (2008). Toba Tek Singh: Stories, Penguin Books India, Gurgaon, Delhi, India
Mohammed Osman did his PhD in Literature from Dr. B. A Marathwada University of India in Literature. He did his B A from
Mumbai University and M A from Dr B.A Marathwada University of India. He has been teaching English at King Khaled University
for last seven years. He has been involved in teaching Grammar, Writing, and Reading. He is in charge King Khalid University
department of Language and Translation Examination committee. He has interest in research in the field of linguistic,
autobiographies and short stories in literature.
Nisar Ahmad Koka, being highly motivated in carrying out teaching and research in the field of linguistics, did his M.A. and
Ph.D. in Theoretical and Sociolinguistics Linguistics from Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh, India in 1998 and 2002 respectively.
He has been engaged in teaching linguistics /applied linguistics and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in different
universities/institutions for the last 20 years or so. Dr. Koka has published more than twenty research articles on Linguistics and
language teaching in different national and international journals and has also presented several papers in various
conferences/seminars covering various themes and topics concerning linguistics and language teaching. He has also co-authored 3
books on ‘Testing and Evaluation’ in Indian Languages while working as junior resource person on the projects of Multipurpose
Indian Language Evaluation System (MILES) and National Testing Service (NTS) India. Dr. Koka is currently engaged as an
assistant professor at the Department of English, Faculty of Languages and Translation, King Khalid University Abha, KSA teaching
English as Foreign Language (EFL).

Mohammed Nurul Islam (PhD) is an assistant professor in the Department of English, Faculty of Languages and Translations,
King Khalid University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Since 2009. His areas of interest include ELT, ESP and World English. Theory
and practice in language studies.
Syed Mohammad Khurshid Anwar working as Asst. Prof. at King Khalid University since September 2006. He's interested in
the field of Literature and Sociolinguistics for research. He prefers to apply new approaches and technics in teaching language and
literature.
Javed Ahmad is a lecturer at English Language Center, King Khalid University, Abha, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He joined
the university as a lecturer in the session 2007-2008 and since then he is continuing his job. Currently, he is serving the English
Language Center as a Campus Coordinator (Al-Graiger Campus). He received an MA (English Language and Literature) degree
from Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India. He also did his M. Ed. (master’s in education) from the same university.
Mohsin Raza Khan is a lecturer at the Department of English, Faculty of Languages and Translation, King Khalid University
Abha, Saudi Arabia. Specialized in language teaching, Mr. Khan is the Master Reviewer for Quality Matters (QM) and online and
Face to Face Facilitator of the Quality Matters QM at King Khalid University. His major interests are Computer Assisted Language
Learning (CALL), language acquisition, and teaching English as a foreign language.
Fozia Zulfiquar is a lecturer at the Department of English, Applied College for Girls, Abha, King Khalid University Abha, Saudi
Arabia. Specialized in English language and literature, Ms. Fozia Zulfquar’s major interests are teaching English Language, Modern
Literature, Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL), Mobile Assisted Language Learning, and teaching language skills.

ISSN 1799-2591
A Study on the Application of Online Speaking

Class in Remote Areas: Is the Implementation of
the Principle of Education for All Achieved?
Konder Manurung
Department of English Education, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Tadulako Uiversity, Palu, Indonesia
Abdul Kamaruddin
Agussatriana
Zarkiani Hasyim
Grace Novenasari Manurung

Abstract—Studies on blended and online learning have mostly focused on information and communication
technology accessibility. This study investigated aspects other than ICT when students joined the Speaking
Class blended and online from remote areas during the COVID-19 Pandemic. This study employed a mixed-
method case study. The purposive sampling technique was used to choose two groups of students who enrolled
in Speaking Classes at the English Department in the 2020/2021 academic year as the study's sample. The first
group (Group A), which included eighteen (18) students, attended fourteen online speaking lectures, whereas
the second group (Group B), which included twenty-two (22) students, attended blended learning lectures. The
student's achievements in speaking abilities were described. Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and interviews
were used to obtain information about students' problems, and the data were analysed using content analysis.
The data analysis revealed that Group B students performed better than Group A students in terms of
learning outcomes. The findings of the data analysis from the interviews and focus groups reveal that some
problems were encountered, including; 1) interference from family members; 2) absence of a study room; 3)
financial difficulty; 4) absence of peers; 5) difficulty to get local transportation; and 6) problem to concentrate.
These findings suggest that the applied online learning system has not been able to meet the principles of
education for all during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Solutions to the application of online learning in remote
areas, highlighting the roles of the local government, are forwarded.
Index Terms—application, online speaking class, remote areas, education for all
I. INTRODUCTION
The principle of education for all has been declared by the United Nations through UNESCO as one of the
foundations of education implementation. This idea emphasizes that everyone in the community has equal access to
education (United Nations, 2005, 2015). Indonesian national education system accommodates equality of access to
education and education for all through a law that requires local government and the central government to collaborate
in the implementation of education (Undang-Undang Republik Indonesia Nomor 20 Tahun 2003, 2003; Undang-
Undang Republik Indonesia Nomor 6 Tahun 2014 Tentang Desa, 2014). The implementation of this principle was
challenged when learning had to be held online during the COVID-19 pandemic, which started in early 2020 and
imposed significant restrictions on community activities. The challenges were particularly experienced by the learners
who reside in remote or rural regions (Sayed & Singh, 2020). Those who reside in remote areas face difficulties to
access internet connection and electrical power supply & Göktas, 2014), digital instructional material resources
(Khoza, 2015), and reliable supporting tools (Hu et al., 2021; Manurung et al., 2020; Olasina, 2018). If indeed the
principles of universal education are applied, all learners, including those who live in remote regions, must have equal
access to online learning (Khoza, 2015).
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has long been used and accepted in the educational system by
both students and teachers (Burston, 2013; Ghavifekr & Rosdy, & Göktas,
2014; Warschauer & Healey, 1998; Williams, 2008) where their breakthroughs are combined with traditional methods

of teaching to keep teaching and learning interesting (Bates, 2019; Fu, 2013). The acceptability of ICT tools in the
teaching and learning process is owing to their contribution to creating a variety of teaching and learning settings for
teachers and students (Ghavifekr & Rosdy, 2015; Nickerson & Zodhiates, 1988) and their widespread use among the
younger generation (Cheon et al., 2012). The use of ICTs in teaching and learning activities has been shown to promote
individualization in the learning process (Allen et al., 2002; Anderson, 2008; Rahman, 2014), create a more comfortable
environment for learning (Manurung, 2005, 2015; Warschauer & Healey, 1998; Wright, 2017), and facilitate
interactive learning through the use of mobile devices and internet networks (Weldon et al., 2021). In addition, It is
noted that the use of ICT in online learning improves student cognition, encourages learner reflection and information
processing, and improves roles throughout learners (Westberry, 2009), as well as provides learners with the belief that
they have a better attitude toward online learning J ’ ). More importantly, Fu (2013) and Bates (2019) noted
that the current state of ICT facilitates the application of learning in the digital literacy era, especially content and skills
including the appropriateness of the needs and competence achieved by students, and the adequacy of the substance of
skill development in the curricula. The massive use of ICT in the teaching and learning process, therefore, allows for
both online and blended learning to take place and allows for learning to take place in any situation (Anderson, 2008;
B J ’ ). These facts have served to reinforce the use of ICTs in education systems around the
world, especially in urban regions.
Since the introduction of Computer-Aided Language Instruction (CALI) and Computer-Assisted Language Learning
(CALL) in language teaching and learning (Burston, 2013; Campbell et al., 2008; Higgins, 1983; Saieed, 2018), more
studies engage ICTs in foreign language teaching (Alonso & Samy, 2018; Dedja, 2015; Serostanova, 2020; Zakirova et
al., 2020), more specifically the use of mobile devices (Park et al., 2012). The use of these mobile devices in the
teaching of language skills, such as listening C ğ Gul 7 R M z V ug
Belmonte, 2007), speaking (Manurung, 2015; Millrood, 2015), reading (Abd Al-Hameed & Al-Shuair, 2019), writing
(Cho, 2017; Kessler et al., 2012), and language components (Kang & Lee, 2020) have already been reported effective.
Even though both blended and online learning contributed to the teaching and learning process, it is claimed that
learners' motivation during online learning is weak (Savenye, 2005) l ’ v m p (You &
Kang, 2014). This is because the use of ICT in the teaching-learning process needs comprehensive support and efforts
(Anderson, 2008; Wilson, 2013). Wilson (2013) argued that although ICT has facilitated online learning, the
appropriate use of ICT continues to be a challenge (Wilson, 2013; Wright, 2017). The use of ICT requires a good
network (Hackman & Walker, 1990), appropriate tools (Manurung et al., 2020; Olasina, 2018), related infrastructures
and funding lm g l 7 & Göktas, 2014), teachers and learners experiences (Fenwick, 2016;
Sayed & Singh, 2020), and individual l ’ v m (Weldon et al., 2021). These arguments are true in the
present situation, the COVID-19 Pandemic, in the teaching and learning process, where most learners from remote areas
encounter problems regarding online learning using ICTs, particularly mobile devices. This is because the contribution
of ICT implementation in online and blended learning has primarily been evaluated in terms of its strengths and
weaknesses before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and has primarily been reported in research results from urban
areas.
As a follow-up to research findings on barriers to the introduction of online and blended learning before and during
the COVID-19 Pandemic, very few studies have explored the problems faced by teachers and students living in rural
areas while online learning was being held. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a massive number of learning processes at
all levels of education, including higher education levels, took place from diverse remote locations. During the COVID-
19 Pandemic, students from higher education who normally study in urban areas, as most universities are located in
cities, returned to their respective regions and studied online from their homes. Some problems related to the
implementation of online learning have been highlighted before the covid-19 pandemic, including the lack of tools
(Manurung et al., 2020; Olasina, 2018), insufficient infrastructure and funding difficulties l &
Göktas, 2014), unequal teaching and learning process (Sayed & Singh, 2020) l m f xp fl ’
ll ’ l l g (Fenwick, 2016; Hu et al., 2021), and individual learner situation and condition
(Weldon et al., 2021), however, there has been little research looking into and proposing solutions for online learning
from remote areas until lately. As the consequence, when learning activities have to be done online as was experienced
during the covid-19 pandemic, particularly for those who reside in remote areas, the reality that the conduct of the
learning process was far from the principle of education for all, access availability, have to be admitted.
It has long been proposed that for online learning to be sustainable, burdens such as a lack of resources, contradictory
ideas and practices, and learners' social surroundings (Stepanyan et al., 2013), network availability (Hackman & Walker,
1990), and collaborative reflection (Anderson, 2008) must be resolved. This paper aims to contribute to a better
understanding of the problems faced by learners in remote areas of Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, to minimize the
negative consequences of the implementation of online and blended learning by first comparing the achievements of
students enrolled in blended and online learning, second describing the problems faced by learners during online
learning, and finally addressing the challenges faced by learners during online learning. In this investigation, the
following hypotheses are proposed: 1) During the covid-19 pandemic and the new normal era, students who participated
in blended learning performed better than those who participated in online learning. 2) Learners from remote areas

experienced some problems during online speaking classes. And 3) Education for all principles was not accomplished
through online learning from remote locations.
II. THE METHOD OF STUDY

A mixed methods case study design was used in this study, which included both qualitative and quantitative methods.
The case-study design enables a more in-depth review of diverse cases of natural events based on the context and needs
of the inquiry (Creswell & Cresswell, 2017; Hancock et al., 2009; Seliger & Shohamy, 1990). As a consequence, we
started by assessing the student's performance in the Speaking for Professional Context Class at the end of both blended
and online learning. Then we explain the problems faced by students who took the class online from remote areas and
analyse the results based on the principles of education for all. The purposive sampling technique was used to select two
of the twelve existing groups of students registered in the Speaking in Professional Context Classes at the English
Department Faculty of Teacher Training and Education Tadulako University Indonesia in the 2020/2021 academic year.
The two groups were divided into group A, which consisted of 18 students, and group B, which consisted of 22 students
aged 19 to 21. They lived in the ten Central Sulawesi regions (22 or 55%) and Palu, the capital city, (18 or 45%). The
participants had previously completed two compulsory Speaking Classes in the Department, Speaking for Basic
Communication Skills and Speaking for Social Intercultural Communication.
The research took place between August and December 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic and the new normal
era COVID-19 pandemic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, students studied online from their regions, and after the
new normal era was declared in mid-October 2021, the university made a policy mandating 50% of courses to be taught
face-to-face in all departments. Group B, one of the twelve groups in the Speaking in Professional Classes, was chosen
to receive face-to-face instruction. As a consequence, students in Group A were taught online 14 times, whereas
students in Group B were taught via blended learning, which included seven online sessions and seven face-to-face. The
student's achievement in speaking ability was measured using the study program's criterion (Table 1), and the results
were analysed descriptively. Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and interviews took place to collect information on
students' problems in online learning, and the data were analysed using content analysis. Zoom meetings were used to
conduct focus group discussions, while WhatsApp was used to conduct interviews.
TABLE 1
ACHIEVEMENT CRITERIA
Achievement Qualitative Description
86-100 A Excellent
81-85 A- Very Good
76-80 B+ Good
71-75 B Good Enough
66-70 B-
61-65 C Enough
0-60 D Poor
The speaking components of fluency, comprehensibility, and accuracy (Heaton, 1989) were utilized to measure the
achievement of students in Speaking Classes in the English Department where the current study was done. To
differentiate the achievement of students in Group A and Group B, the final achievement was first rated, and then the
frequency and percentage of each grade were described in distinct columns. Students pass the course if they get a
minimum score of 61 or C.
III. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
A. Blended Learning Versus Online Learning

The first question of this study, whether blended learning is more effective than online learning, is addressed by
analysing and comparing the achievements of students in groups A and B. Table 2 and Table 3 show the results of the
data analysis on the achievements of the groups.
TABLE 2
THE ACHIEVEMENT OF THE STUDENTS IN GROUP A
Achievement Description Frequency Percentage (%)
86-100 Excellent 3 16,67
81-85 Very Good 6 33,33
76-80 Good 3 16,67
71-75 Good Enough 6 33,33
66-70 Enough 0 0
61-65 Poor 0 0
0-60 Very Poor 0 0
Total 18 100

Table 2 provides that the student achievement in Group A is divided into four (4) categories, namely 3 or 16.67%
achieving excellent level, 6 or 33.33% achieving very good level, 3 or 16.67% achieving good level, and 6 or 33.33%
achieving good enough level.
TABLE 3
THE ACHIEVEMENT OF THE STUDENTS IN GROUP B
Achievement Description Frequency Percentage (%)
86-100 Excellent 8 36,36
81-85 Very Good 8 36,36
76-80 Good 6 27,27
71-75 Good Enough 0 0,00
66-70 Enough 0 0,00
61-65 Poor 0 0,00
0-60 Very Poor 0 0,00
Total 22 100
Table 3 illustrates that the student achievement in Group B is divided into three (3) categories, namely 8 or 36.36%
achieving excellent level, 8 or 36.36% achieving very good level, and 6 or 22.27% achieving a good level.
The results in Tables 1 and 2 indicate that, although both groups of students successfully passed the speaking class,
the grade received by the students who were taught through blended learning was higher than those obtained by
students who were fully taught online. The students who were taught using blended learning are at the good to an
excellent level, while students who were taught online are at the good enough to an excellent level, with 6 or 33.33% of
students at the good enough level. Similarly, at the excellent level, there is a big difference in the performance of the
students taught through blended learning (8 or 36.36%) and the students taught online learning (3 or 16.67%). These
findings suggest that blended learning is more effective than online learning. This finding reinforces previous research
evidence that engagement in online learning is weak and as a consequence, the achievement of learners is weaker than
anticipated (Savenye, 2005; Wright, 2017; You & Kang, 2014). The better achievement of the learners in blended
learning can be understood due to the presence of the teacher during the face-to-face sessions. Interaction between
learners and teachers as well as interaction among learners bring about a better understanding of the instructional
materials (Kim & Moore, 2005), better interest and engagement with peers (Wright, 2017), and incorporate various
learning techniques (Lalima & Lata Dangwal, 2017). On the other hand, students who study online are more
individualistic, dependent on social media, and often neglect study time so their achievement level is low (Wong &
Phang, 2017). The possibility to build up mutual interaction among learners and the use of various techniques and tools
have benefitted learners in the implementation of blended learning. This agrees with Kang and Lee (2020), who claim
that blended learning is an effective strategy to enhance language ability.
B. The Problems Faced by the Learners From Remote Areas During Online Class and the Implementation of the
Principle of Education for All
The findings of the focus group discussion and interviews reveal that students studying online from remote areas
confront problems. The problems that have been confronted are not only related to ICT or mobile devices available, but
also family members' interferences due to a lack of a study room, money issues in buying data plans, a lack of peers
with whom to discuss and ask questions, difficulty in getting a mode of transportation to reach places where internet
access is available, and difficulty to focus attention.
(a). Study Room Factor
One of the keys to the successful implementation of any teaching and learning process to achieve the teaching
objectives is the teaching and learning facilities and environment. The absence of a study room during online learning
from remote areas is believed as one of the obstacles to underpinning success in the speaking class. The disturbance
may come at any time from the family members that break down the learning concentration. Other daily activities
cannot be avoided since the family members feel that the learner is at home and therefore, the learner can undertake
household activities and not realize that the learning process is being held online, instruction to do something as a
family member may be ordered at any time during the online learning. These problems are raised by one of the FGD
participants (A) below.
Studying at home is greatly influenced by the atmosphere at home. Family members have their activities so that
noise cannot be avoided during the online learning process. During online learning, sometimes my parents call
me and ask me for help… things like this affect my learning activities and I often miss the subject matter.
The lack of study room is also claimed by a student that distracts her during online learning at home. The simple
house that the family owned is an obstacle in the conduct of online speaking class since all of the family members also
conduct their activities in the same room, as revealed by one of the interviewees (interviewee 1) in the following
excerpt.
I live in a remote area and my house is very simple. There is no study room in my house. I study in a room where
all family members also did their activities, so I often get distracted while studying.

The problems reported by A and Interviewee 1 indicate the absence of access to a comfortable learning situation
during the online speaking class, and therefore, do not support the principle of education for all. An enjoyable and
comfortable learning environment is needed to implement effective teaching and learning process and to best achieve
learning output (Warschauer & Healey, 1998). The teaching and learning process, including online learning, requires a
conducive learning atmosphere in any learning system. The use of ICT in the teaching and learning process facilitates
the implementation of learning anywhere and anytime (Anderson, 2008). This implies that the teaching and learning
process is not only the responsibility of the societies but also the concern of the related institution and government since
the principle of education for all, equal access to education, has been declared.
(b). Funding Factor
Online learning requires a qualified internet network. The unavailability of the internet network in remote areas
affects the online teaching and learning process. Students have difficulty accessing a good internet network because of
their parent's financial limitations. The unavailability of the internet network causes additional costs that are difficult for
students to meet due to the financial limitations of parents who work as farmers, as stated by the participant of the
Focus Group Discussion (B).
My parents work as a farmer. Sometimes my data plan ran out when my parents don't have money, so I can't
follow the learning process completely. I often miss the instructional materials during online teaching because it
was very slow to catch up and join the internet network.
The limitations of mobile devices also hinder online learning from remote areas where the specifications of mobile
devices owned by students affect the speed of access to the network. The financial limitations of students' parents cause
students to only use existing cellular phones while the cellular phone capacity is very limited. Students cannot afford to
buy cellular phones or laptops that have a larger capacity which hinders the process of downloading learning materials
and uploading assignments, including filling out the attendance list online, as stated by interview participants (2) below.
My parents don't have money to buy a better mobile phone or laptop that can quickly access the network. I often
face difficulty to download instructional materials and uploading my home assignment. It is also a problem to
fill out the online attendance list because the time to fill it out is limited.
T f m l upp b FG ’ p p C) g l f fu gf ff
concentration during online learning due to the limitation of available internet data. The limitation of internet data also
affects uploading assignments and downloading instructional materials or references suggested to underpin the teaching
and learning process, as expressed by interview participant (3) below.
It is difficult to understand the lessons and many tasks to do, many assignments, such as creating and sending
photos, and videos, downloading instructional materials and references, as well as uploading tasks. All need
internet access, and uploading and downloading videos consume a lot of data packages.
Problems raised by students during FGD (B and C) and interviews (2 and 3) indicate that access to online learning
requires a network and capable mobile devices. Online learning can achieve its goals with the support of a good internet
network (Hackman & Walker, 1990), appropriate mobile devices (Olasina, 2018), and financial support (Lalima & Lata
Dangwal, 2017). This shows that the financial limitations of parents in remote areas also limit the application of
education for all. Thus, financial support in implementing education for all greatly affects online learning from remote
areas by providing online learning equipment assistance and providing internet quota assistance or scholarships to
realize education for all.
(c). Peer Factor
When students are alone during online lessons from remote areas, it is one of the inhibiting factors for success in
speaking skills. Today's learning is student-centred so it affects the learning methods applied by teachers. Learner-
centred learning requires the active involvement of students both in the classroom and outside the classroom.
Collaboration between students is carried out when students discuss in groups. During the Covid-19 pandemic, group
learning and interaction with other students were not applicable so students felt alone, there is no discussion partner and
there is no one to whom to ask questions about learning materials that had not been understood, as revealed by the
following FGD participant (D).
There are no classmates or students of the Language Education study program living in the area where I live. I
need a friend to discuss what has been taught during online learning or ask something that was not clear during
the online learning. I also need group members to do group work. I often can't do group work online because
group members have discussions in the afternoon or evening, and I have trouble getting an internet connection
at that time.
The problems expressed by the FGD participants (D) are related to collaboration between students during learning
which is very much needed in student-centred learning methods. Collaboration between students can activate and
motivate students (Anderson, 2008). Collaboration between students can increase the active participation of students in
the classroom which can directly affect the achievement of learning objectives. The desired collaboration could not be
realized during the Covid-19 pandemic it affected student achievement.
(d). Local Transportation and Surrounding Environment Factor

The unavailability of local transportation is an inhibiting factor for students when studying online from remote areas.
Students living in remote areas who cannot access the internet network need transportation to reach areas where internet
access is available. The unavailability of this means of transportation affects the concentration of students because it
takes a long time to walk, as revealed by interview participants 3 below.
No signal in the area where I live. I have to go towards the city to access the internet signal. I find it difficult to
get a vehicle to the city because there are almost no motorbikes or cars in the area where I live, so I have to
walk quite a distance to get an internet signal.
The problem of concentration in online learning is also influenced by the atmosphere around the learning
environment. The existence of the community, especially children playing around online learning, affects concentration.
Electricity conditions around remote areas are often disturbed, and blackouts, make it difficult to concentrate while
studying, as reported by interview participants (4) below.
I have difficulty concentrating on the teaching and learning process, I am worried that my cell phone will run
out of battery or my data package credit plan will run out soon. The electricity is frequently not stable. In the
study environment, the noise from the neighbourhood could not be avoided, the children played and made a lot
of noise. This situation and condition affected my concentration during the online lesson.
The problems reported by Interview participant 3 and the FGD participant D indicate that absence of infrastructure
that underpins the conduct of online learning is still lacking in remote areas. The existence of infrastructures &
Göktas, 2014) and a comfortable environment (Stepanyan et al., 2013) are needed in online learning to help learners to
concentrate during online learning and the existence of adequate infrastructures (Lalima & Lata Dangwal, 2017)
motivate learners to achieve the learning objectives. This phenomenon indicates and strengthens the fact that access to
education particularly during online learning has not been experienced by the learners who are joining online learning.
IV. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
No one can promise that global online learning will cease to take place after COVID-19. Because of this
phenomenon of global online learning that occurred during the Covid-19 epidemic, all countries are now moving to
consistently prepare and develop further the infrastructure needed for online learning. Particular attention must be paid
to the communities that live in remote areas. The declaration of the principle of education for all by the United Nations
opens opportunities for the entire world's communities to participate in educational programs. The Government of the
Republic of Indonesia also stipulates that all citizens have the same right to education through a law that all citizens
have the right to education. The implementation of education is also regulated in the law that the government and local
governments are obliged to provide services and facilities, as well as guarantee the implementation of quality education
for every citizen without discrimination. By referring to this law, the problem of evenly implementing education during
online learning will be able to be resolved through collaboration between agencies. By referring to the problem, data
experienced by students in online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, the implementation of learning is no longer
only the responsibility of the education and teaching institution but is a shared responsibility between the education and
culture institution and local government. This collaboration can be realized through needs analysis, namely the needs of
students when implementing online learning. The problems faced by students can be overcome by empowering the
village hall. The local government through the village head and village officials together with parents has to program
the provision of facilities and infrastructure such as shared study rooms, electricity preparation, and network
procurement at the village hall, while the education and culture institution prepares learning tools and teaching staff.
Needs analysis can be carried out in collaboration with universities, including planning for online learning support
facilities that are suitable for the community environment. The village hall is prepared to be a centre for joint activities
with village residents. In this way, the village hall can also become a centre for learning support facilities and
infrastructure for all because village halls are generally established in strategic locations. The location of the village hall
is strategic because it can be reached by all villagers. Thus, village officials together with the community can jointly
program educational improvement activities for rural communities.
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Konder Manurung was born in Lumban Manurung on 19 August 1965. He earned his Ph.D in Education
2002 at the School of Education, La Trobe University, Australia. He is a Professor in Curriculum and Material
Development at the Department of English Education, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, University
of Tadulako Palu, Indonesia. His research interests include Curriculum Development in Language Teaching,
Instructional Materials Development, and Teaching English as A Foreign Language Methodology.
Abdul Kamaruddin was born in Bolokut on 28 September 1974. He completed his Ph. D in Education in
2015 at the School of Education, La Trobe University, Australia. He is a permanent lecturer at the Department
of English Education, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, University of Tadulako, Palu Indonesia. He
is interested in conducting research in the area of TEFL Methodology, English Language Teaching
Assessment, and Curriculum and Instructional design.

Agussatriana was born in Benteng on August 18th, 1990. She earned her Master Degree in Education from
State University of Makassar in 2015. She is a lecturer in English Education Study Program, Faculty of
Teacher Training and Education, Tadulako University, Palu, Indonesia. Her research interest includes
Teaching English as a Foreign Language Methods and Discourse Analysis
Zarkiani Hasyim b P lu Augu . b M ’ E gl E u u

Program from Tadulako University in 2014. She is a lecturer at the English Education Study Program, Faculty
of Teacher Training and Education, Tadulako University, Palu, Indonesia. Her research interests include
Pronunciation Practice and Speaking Skills.
Grace Novensari Manurung was born in Palu on 25 November 1996. She earned her Master Degree in
English Education from Graduate School, Tadulako University Palu Indonesia in 2020. She is a lecturer at the
Department of English Education, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Tadulako University Palu,
Indonesia. Her research interests include Teaching English as A Foreign Language Methodology, Self-Access
Material Development, and ICT in Language Teaching.

ISSN 1799-2591
The Thirdspace of Resistance Literature in Naomi

Shihab Nye’s “1935” and Hala Alyan’s “Hijra”
Zainab Al Qaisi
Department of English Language and Literature, the University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan
Wafa Awni Al Khadra

Department of English Language and Literature, American University of Madaba (AUM), Madaba, Jordan
Abstract—This paper examines the poetry of the two Palestinian American poets, Naomi Shihab Nye and Hala
Alyan within the concept of the “thirdspace” of resistance literature. With this premise in mind, the study uses
Edward Soja’s concept of “thirdspace” (1998) to examine the poetry of Naomi Shihab Nye and Hala Alyan as
an articulation of “resistance poetry” exemplified in Ghassan Kanafani’s book entitled Resistance Literature in
Occupied Palestine 1948-1966 (1966). The poem itself, as a form, is an imagined geography constructed by the
poet’s personal and collective memories that build up his/her spaces of resistance poetry. In these artistic
cartographies, memories traverse from contested lands and geographies to a “thirdspace” that recreates a
timeline of stories and narratives that unfold the poems’ resistance manifesto. To foreshadow these imagined
memories, the poem functions as: first, a documented tool of resistance to forgetfulness; second, an artistic
device for articulating memory; third, a “thirdspace” where contested geographies of resistance and resilience
dissolve to re-visioning history that curates hybridized literary spaces of prose poetry and cartographies of
memory.
Index Terms—Palestinian American poetry, resistance poetry, thirdspace, prose poem, cartographies
I. INTRODUCTION
Palestinian American poets are best known for their devotion to writing about Palestine which has never wavered.
Whether living willingly or forcibly in exile, these poets comprise artistic and intellectual leverage in the formation of
the global Palestinian literary movement. Amongst the Palestinian American poets who identify themselves as Arab,
Arab American, or Palestinian American are Naomi Shihab Nye, Lisa Suhair Majaj, Deema Shehabi, Fady Joudah, Lina
Khalaf Tuffaha, George Abraham, Hala Alyan, and others (Handal, 2002; Kaldas & Mattawa, 2020; Charara, 2008).
When discussing their poems, critical studies highlight themes including food, family, land, identity, memory, religion,
doubleness, and cultural multiplicity. Therefore, this study attempts to explore what emanates from fusing these themes
with a variety of poetic devices, focusing on a process that integrates conceptual, thematic, and analytic frameworks. To
show how poetry recreates a cartographical timeline of stories and narratives, this paper offers a thematic, analytical,
and aesthetic study of Naomi Shihab Nye’s “1935” and Hala Alyan’s “Hijra”.
II. THEORY AND FRAMEWORK

This study aims to explore how the direct memories of displacement, whether resulting in Nakba (the 1948
catastrophe) or Naksa (the 1967 setback), transmute into narratives of the thirdspace through prose poetry as a device of
resistance. It argues that Palestinian American poetry produces lyrical spatiotemporal geography of Palestine in a
“thirdspace”, to use Soja’s (1998) terminology. This “thirdspace” guards memories and preserves identity from
distortion and fabrication put forth in the concocted Israeli and Zionist narratives in their agenda “to rewrite the history
of Palestine” (Said, 2000, p. 184). It highlights the idea that Palestinian American poetry is a dynamic part of resistance
literature, particularly literary and documentary resistance that resists the erasure and forgetfulness of Palestine and
Palestinians, predominantly after Nakba. Thereupon, the study tracks how memories are created or imagined by these
poets in an attempt to initiate a poetic space of their resistance.
With this premise in mind, the study highlights four main ideas. The first explores the connection between the poetry
of the two Palestinian American poets, Nye and Alyan, and the concept of “resistance poetry” exemplified in
Kanafani’s (1966) book. Second, it investigates associations between real and imagined memories by integrating two
narratives: the narrative that directly links the poems with places and people from their past, and the indirect narrative
that stimulates the poets to reproduce collective memories. Such memories become postmemories that have passed on
to these poets through ancestral and familial stories and history, and then the poets can reclaim them as their own, using
Said’s (2000) argument on “invented memory”, expounded in his article “Invention, Memory, and Place”. Laila Abu-
Lughod (2007) appropriates the concept of postmemory arguing that in the case of the Palestinian generations of Nakba
“the past has not yet passed”, and Nakba is still ongoing (Abu-Lughod, 2007, p. 79). The third idea tends to inspect the
ways in which history is reclaimed in poetry drawing on Soja’s (1996) concept of “thirdspace”. It refers to a “space of

extraordinary openness, a place of critical exchange where the geographical imagination can be expanded to encompass
a multiplicity of perspectives” creatively (Soja, 1996, p. 5). Taking this argument, the poet becomes a cartographer and
a memory-creator, so the poems, in such metaphors, are not geographical maps but rather more of a space with cultural,
social, colonial, political, and historical liminalities. Fourth, numerous scholars have investigated prose poems as a
genre whereas others have employed it as a tool; nonetheless, many have rejected prose poetry because it violates the
form decorum, that is of verse and meter. In “The Prose Poem: An Alternative to Verse”, Lehman (2003) states that
prose poetry emerges “in rebellion against tradition” (Lehman, 2003, p. 45). In his view, “for the poet, writing in prose
gains one entry into a world formal possibility- the poem as an anecdote, as a letter, as meditation, as plot summary but
what is produced is still conceptually a poem” (Lehman, 2003, p. 46).
III. RESISTANCE LITERATURE

In Resistance Literature in Occupied Palestine 1948-1966, Ghassan Kanafani (1966) traces the transformation of
poetry after Nakba in five main stages. Stage one refers to the appalling silence due to Nakba in which all Palestinians
express resentment against occupation through folk songs (i.e., Sahja, mijana, ataaba, mawwal, dal’ona) that express the
grief over loss and dispossession. In the second stage, the strident enthusiastic poetry mollifies the consciousness of the
masses. It arises to articulate a sense of realization of Nakba; however, poetry in this stage divulges a state of
repudiation over the displaced and looted land and memories. Outside Palestine, poetry written in exile effectively
subjugates, in form and content, the Arab and foreign intellectual literary movements. Thus, in the early 1950s, as
Kanafani comments, exile poetry comprises the third stage. Kanafani sees that “exile poetry has transformed gradually
from the state of raucous enthusiasm to the state of sorrowed enthusiasm, yet it is promising that the state of denial after
Nakba has bitterly fallen out because the Palestinians’ reality after 1948 has become greater than such disregard”
(Kanafani, 1966, p. 29).
Between 1948 and 1951, the fourth stage comes into sight when Zionists in occupied lands ban any attempts at
resistance poetry. However, they permit amorous poetry as the only form of expression in an unsuccessful endeavor to
stray the Palestinians from writing with an expressive resistance voice to Nakba (Kanafani, 1966, p. 29). Nevertheless,
while love poetry cannot cure the Palestinians’ trauma over the Nakba, it becomes a tool of embedded resistance writing.
Through amorous poems, Palestinian writers have never stopped resisting occupation. That is why, they present their
maneuvering love poems for a beloved woman with reminiscent denotations about the love and homesickness of their
homeland, which Kanafani later refers to as the poetry of “Palestinian Cause/ [Qaddiyah]” (Kanafani, 1966, p. 29).
Kanafani (1966) proposes a literary resistance manifesto with a futuristic vision, in which he argues that literature
produced by Palestinians regardless of their geographical place or thematic portrayal will “always be pregnant with
resistance in its explicit or implicit motifs and allusions (Kanafani, 1966, p. 38).
As a result of emotional and intellectual alienation after the loss of Palestine, the way Palestinian American poets
have recalled memories concerning their homeland is of vital importance so as to revise and reclaim their history, fight
culturicide, preserve their Palestinian identity and save it from oblivion. They have become resistance icons by
mirroring the long-lasting struggle of their people in their poetry. For them, poetry is not the mere pleasure of writing
sublime pieces of literature; it is a means of protest and rebellion against those who have expropriated their land, culture,
identity, and history. The Israeli occupation agenda in replacing history causes powerlessness felt by the
neglected/silenced Palestinians in forced exile or self-imposed exile, and more importantly by Palestinians who were
born and grew up in exile with more than one identity and language.
IV. POSTMEMORY AND THIRDSPACE

In her book, The Object of Memory: Arab and Jew Narrate the Palestinian Village, Susan Slyomovics (1998)
investigates the Palestinian villages in the narratives of Arabs and Jews pre-and post-1948. Slyomovics (1998)
comments on how real and imagined memories of an incurable catastrophe of Palestinians (Nakba, 1948), and
paradoxically a triumphant foundation of the state of Israel, take a huge part in conceiving a particular place/land i.e.,
Palestine. These memories can undergo distortion, removal, replacement, and recreation on both the physical and
propagandist levels. She states:
The Palestinian Arab past, as it is imagined, recounted, written, and drawn from memory, involves images and
descriptions of specific places and actual settings. Projects commemorating places of memory not only are
imaginatively constructed and reconstructed but, according to the French historian Maurice Halbwachs, are
also collectively espoused: only communally do we remember (Slyomovics, 1998, p. xi).
Hence, when discussing the Palestinian past, there is a personal solitary story of every Palestinian whether inside the
occupied land and/or outside Palestine. These stories comprehensively contribute to shaping memories of lost land.
Edward Said (2003) describes these perceptions of Palestine as absolutely unequal “between the average Palestinian
and the average Israeli” (Said, 2003, p. 23). This downright variation appears in the media channels through which our
stories are narrated. He elaborates:
We know about it as Arabs, as Palestinians, as neighbors if you like in the Middle East, but in the West, you
have no idea for example when you watch a CNN broadcast which is quite different from the CNN you watch

here [Egypt] which is international CNN. But if in America you watch a broadcast about what’s happened on
the West Bank-let’s say yesterday’s events-you’ll never know that there is a military occupation going on,
that’s never mentioned. It is simply taken out of context (Said, 2003, pp. 23-24).
Said (2000) discusses the manipulations of the art of memory in the modern world. He states that memory “is both
for historians as well as ordinary citizens and institutions very much something to be used, misused, and exploited,
rather than something that sits inertly there for each person to possess and contain” (Said, 2000, p. 179). His statement
sheds light upon two counter-narratives: The Palestinian one, which is authentic but muted and exploited, and the Israeli
one, which is misused and fabricated. In this stand, media and propaganda play an influencing role in rerouting global
attention to one narrative over the other. Thus, memories in Palestinian American poetry, though selective, are real and
narrate back to the Zionist’s misinformative narrative. Similarly, Keith W. Whitelam (1996) discusses strategies of
muting memories and historical accounts of Palestine written by others, i.e., Israel, stating that: “[t]he fact that [Israelis]
refer to the geographical region as Palestine but never refer to its inhabitants as Palestinians is a denial and silencing of
Palestinian history. We are continually presented with images of a land in which its inhabitants are anonymous or
nonexistent” (p. 46). Nevertheless, this art of memorizing the past and framing it upon desirable “manipulated and
inverted” whims serves the “urgent purposes in the present '' (Said, 2000, p. 179), even if it lacks logical reasoning.
Considering this, postmemory emerges to fight back any exclusion of personal or collective memory because it
brings about the leavings and remainders from the past and interactively links it to the present. In “Return to Half-Ruins:
Memory, Postmemory, and Living History in Palestine, Laila Abu Lughod (2007) adopts Hirsch’s concept of
postmemory into the Palestinian context exemplifying her father’s death and the return story to Jafa. She comments:
Marianne Hirsch, the sensitive analyst of the transfer of traumatic memory across generations among
Holocaust survivors, calls postmemory the experience of having one’s everyday reality overshadowed by the
memory of a much more significant past that one’s parents lived through (Hirsch, 1997, p. 22–24, 1999). But
the situation she describes is of parental memories of events that have passed. The world has denounced that
genocide and those horrors. What I, as the daughter of someone who lived through the Nakba learned from my
father’s return to Palestine, was that, for Palestinians, both memory and postmemory have a special valence
because the past has not yet passed. (Abu Lughod, 2007, p. 79)
In the expression “the past not yet passed,” Abu Lughod refers to Palestinians’ ongoing remembrance and their
capacity to reconstruct their memories in connectivity despite the unstoppable struggle they ought to face every day. In
this regard, Abu Lughod and H. Sa’di (2007) argue in “Claims of Memory”, how the younger generations are connected
to their parental memories, not from a traumatized angle. They state that “It is this next generation that has been making
the films, organizing the collection of testimonials, trying to grasp the meaning of the Nakba, while fighting
forgetfulness and making public claims on behalf of their parents’ and grandparents’ suffering” (Abu Lughod & H.
Sa’di, 2007, p. 21). I refer to this generation as “the grandchildren of Nakba”, considering myself as one, because
Nakba is still ongoing due to the Zionist’s acts of cleansing, replacing inhabitants, disowning Palestinians from their
rights of living or/and returning in Palestine, and most importantly fabricating the image of Palestinians in the global
scene through manipulated propaganda.
In another investigation of the Palestinian postmemory, Chrisoula Lionis (2014) in “Past Not Yet Passed:
Postmemory in the Work of Mona Hatoum”, elaborates on Abu-Lughod’s (2007) “the past has not yet passed” saying
that “the artist’s experience of a double exile is indicative of Abu-Lughod’s (2007) suggestion that Palestinian offspring
not only carry the surrogate postmemory recollections of their parents but also experience the consequences of these
memories directly in their own reality” (Lionis, 2014, p. 79). Lionis explores the continuous narrative between
generations, i.e., the mother and daughter in binary relationships, and states that such familial connections rely on
“storytelling and narration, history and the present, writing and reading, Arabic and English, subject and artist” (Lionis,
2014, p. 79). These parental relations between mothers/fathers and/or daughters/sons lead to a remembrance in which
events from the past become non-events in the present, but simultaneously construct a trustworthy base for the future. In
other respects, Abu-Lughod (2007) examines the “perceived” and “conceived” Nakba trauma transferred and passed
down from the direct Nakba generations into the next ones and shows, how new modes of expression, memorization,
and documentation arise in a newer paradigm that is referred to as “lived/thirdspace” which has unprecedented
articulations on the ongoing narratives and recollections of the post-trauma journey.
V. PALESTINIAN AMERICAN PROSE POETRY

Palestinian American poetry re-visions the land/ the narrative as a part of the future and not as an incident from
history. Thus, it presents counter-narratives that create an accessible location with a recognized positionality.
Subsequently, retrieving replaced memories, dispersed people, or dispossessed land through postmemory is an act of
resistance that lives in a future-oriented “thirdspace”. Although the context of Palestinian American poetry is
sentimental, it is still loaded with resistance to forgetfulness, and rejection to live in a frozen trauma; it ignites the
creation of an alternative space, which resides in the poem itself. While, seemingly, written in free verse, Palestinian
American poetry can also be classified as prose poetry which is a distinguishing characteristic that functions as an
adequate form of expressing historical narratives and postmemories. In prose poems as Mary Oliver (1994) states, the
features of prose writing like characters, settings, etc. exist in the poem. She elaborates on the effective play between

themes and language in prose poems which succeed in “making the language work without the musicality of the line.
The syntax found in prose poems is often particularly exquisite, combining power and grace” (Oliver, 1994, pp. 86-87).
A meticulous investigation of what prose poetry is and is not shall demonstrate how prose poetry can be a device of
expressing literary resistance not only in its form, but through its use of language, the spatiotemporal imageries it
employs, and the sequential narrative of an incident or a story. To do so, this study traces major works on the creation of
the prose poem in American literature. Originally established by the great French poets like Charles Baudelaire, and
Arthurs Rimbaud, prose poetry expands to become the new poetry of the late twentieth-century poets in America,
particularly with Robert Bly, John Ashbery, and others worldwide (Bernstein, 1962; Fredman, 1990; Oliver, 1994;
Delville, 1998). What prose poetry offers- regardless of the rejections it receives or the confrontations it faces-
according to Fredman (1990), is not the authenticity and genuine capacity to create a system, but it is the potential of
prose poetry to generate “a space of permission” for the world to exist through language (Fredman, 1990, p. 8). Such
“space of permission” grants the poet with the vast experimentations to practice in a creative and innovative encounter
with what language and form might do in favor of an idea, a concept, a feeling, or a fight against the dogmatic tide of
the definition of poetry in the contemporary times. In “Stephen Fredman’s Poet’s Prose: The Crisis In American Verse,”
Delville (1998) scrutinizes and traces the prose poem as stated in Fredman’s book particularizing the experience of
prose poem poets from the sixties up to contemporary times. Delville has reached a conclusion that serves this paper’s
argument of considering Palestinian American Poetry as prose, in that he concludes:
[I]t is precisely that tension between content and form, innovation and tradition, which forces the poet to come
up with fresh, innovative work, and makes a prose poem, perhaps more than any other poem, an interesting
experience. Fortunately enough, critics interested in the prose poem have not yet produced for it an academic
handbook of reading strategies, a formalized way of introducing readers and students to what should or should
not be considered a prose poem, as well as to what many have diagnosed as the antagonism between the genre
and the lyric-based premises of “mainstream” poetry (Delville, 1998, p. 9).
Stating this, through the discussion of Nye’s and Alyan’s poems, this study attempts to create “a space of permission”
to define what a Palestinian American prose poem might be, not only in the light of the poems selected in this study but
also with regard to the two poet’s general literary production of other poems. Hence, the prose poem achieves a kind of
malleable experimentation in Palestinian American poetry. According to Horvath (1992), first, “prose poem offers
resources that must be available to poetry if poetry is to retain its status as that use of language that most fully exploits
the language’s resources” (Horvath, 1992, p. 12). On the one hand, Nye (2011) introduces language exploitation in the
introduction to Transfer by using her father’s incomplete notes and stories to create the unsaid dialogue between them
(Nye, 2011, p. 11). She produces a poetic dialogue using her father’s voice who maneuvers between oppositions to
clarify his standpoint and story from various perspectives. In traditional verse poetry, brevity is the soul of wit; however,
in prose poetry brevity is not about using eloquent language, but rather about using this language eloquently. Thus,
Transfer’s well-traced narrative evokes questions about the Palestinians in America and maps a mode of recollection
and reminiscence between generations. In “War”, Nye takes the mission of retelling her grandmother’s stories and adds
to them the others’ which occur after her death, then ironically, she questions who knows, she says:
Where did we bury Sitti?
I will wait beside her stone,
telling the same story she told
of the river of waiting, how some of us
fall into it and are not seen again.
How some end up in another paradox
with a changed name, Mahmoud to Mo,
lost in small shops making change
for gasoline. If this is persistence,
Who knows? I’m stuck in the corner of war
that's not even called war, pressed like a pigeon
into a twig cage, my dry eyes flaming (Nye, 2011, p. 50).
The combination of death represented in the burial, and life embodied by alterations in identity and names, or
relocation of a home is put in a conversational frame that one might hear in a speech or a complaint matter, however;
language shifts from a questioning narrative to a poetic inquisitorial urge to express the desire to fight against such a
demolishing act of war.
On the other hand, in Alyan’s (2016) Hijra, language seems to be complex, tight, and maneuvering, in comparison to
Nye’s simple and implicit language, but it runs in the narratives smoothly. Hijra (2016) is testimonial poetry with
cinematic potential and detail-oriented in fewer words that are scientifically burdened with denotative synonyms of
meaning. This can be seen in many poems, particularly “New Year” where she says: “I want the vandalized night, rock
water/ from a cavern, my eyes copper coins/ strewn at the bottom of the gypsy/ fountain. Owls fleck the air with/ bids of
love” (Alyan, 2016, p. 6). Then Alyan brings about the idea of refugees and the inheritance of pain in their exodus while
she keeps the beautiful lingual consistency and says: “I’m afraid, a refugee selling/ flowers red as a blazing forest calls/

me wife. We river onto maps with/ shaking hands, skittish, non grata, / as the snow blankets our reckless lives” (Alyan,
2016, p. 6). Though lyrical, musical, and rhythmical, the story surfaces vividly.
Second, prose poems release themselves from decorum, yet they take a free shape that shows their artistic values.
Horvath (1992) rightly states that “the prose poem offers itself as a form relatively free from conventions and
expectations, thus enhancing one’s artistic freedom, one's liberation from seriousness, generic constraints, and the self-
consciousness of producing literature” (Horvath, 1992, p. 12). Nye and Alyan exploit this freedom thematically and
aesthetically in content and form through their deviation from the traditional methods of oral narrative and the
nonconformity of free verse. An example of such an artistic method is when Alyan (2016) describes an incident that
occurred in January in her poem “Aria” saying “the greed of us ruins dresses and I am one/ fire chasing another. Exodus
will find me cutting/ throats, breaking my hunger” (Alyan, 2016, p. 7). Another example is from Nye’s poem
“Maximum Security” in which she describes the streets and spaces where people march and make changes, she says
“past tense/ more exquisite than the present, / and repetition, mysterious comfort/ of rolling back-to-back syllables, /
when it might be better to insert/ a new phrase or start over entirely, / if only, beams of light” (Alyan, 2016, p. 51).
Though short and condensed, their poetry follows a sequential plot expressed in the conventional poetic sentence line,
which breaks into a series of enjambments, by producing fragments of sentences, paragraphs, and excerpts of dialogues
or imagination. Prose poems free the poets’ expression and release their stories poetically. Resistance, in this sense, is
manifested in this type of poetry as it rejects conventional modes of writing without aligning to verse rules, disregards
the mainstream narratives, and replaces them with various polyphonic voices and epic-like traits.
Horvath (1992) adds that “the prose poem encourages the reader’s active participation as co-creator not only of
meaning but of the text as poem” (Horvath, 1992, p. 13). Narratives of postmemory in each poem invite the readers to
conjunct the narrative chain of postmemories by appropriating the poem to their context and inventing a new scheme of
storytelling that is both personal and affiliative.
Finally, prose poems show a mixture of language, images, architecture, art, music, news excerpts, and maps which
resemble a normal scene in our hectic life. Analysis of Nye’s “1935” and Alyan’s “Hijra”, further illustrate this freedom
in Palestinian American prose poetry where the poet in resistance poems creates postmemory narratives in a lucid
“thirdspace. In her collection of poems Transfer (2011), Nye (2011) speaks about her Palestinian American heritage,
her American identity in Texas, and her journeys between airports and countries. Nye embracingly reveals her both
Arab and American cultural diversity through intoned poems that reflect the perspective of a lamented daughter who
imagines the bursting scenarios of what her father feels and thinks of every situation and event through his life in exile.
Nye (2011) writes in the introduction of Transfer (2011) about the unaccomplished project of writing a book with her
father. She comments: “My father wanted us to write a book together. A “dialogue,” he called it. But he kept sending
me monologues by e-mail and fax. Rants on topics I’d heard him discuss many times- frustrations, difficulties,
peculiarities of a long life-in-exile. Perspectives on this and that” (Nye, 2011, p. 11). This introductory statement paves
the path along with the title “Transfer” for the reader to understand how stories, monologues, and situations can become
a source of memory and creation. Nye transforms all incomplete conversations and fragments between her father and
herself into a museum of words and carries the guardianship of memory.
VI. NYE’S “1935” AND ALYAN’S “HIJRA”

With a chaotic desk full of stacks of paper and journals of a late father, Nye (2011), with unfinished stories of her
father, with short/long titles, fragmented scenes, and jumbled notes, sews the voice of her father, Aziz, into a little series
of poems under the title “Just Call Me Aziz”. In these poems, Aziz’s voice is lyrically loud and the weaver is a daughter
who guards her father’s narrative and tries to express his grief for Palestine. For Aziz, Palestine “was a landmass
underwater” that is drowned in memory and remembrance (Nye, 2011, p. 13). Nye inaugurates her postmemorial
narratives of Palestine through the memories of an unusual man, her father, and paves the exposition of her stories to
the listener/ reader by tracing back history when the sailor Ahmed Bin Majed, in the 15th century, “wrote about the
movements of stars, /sang praise to the moon and the waves” (Nye, 2011, p. 17) in a charming comparison between
traveling then and today and how it becomes difficult to “see stars/ for light and haze” (Nye, 2011, p. 17). Then, Nye
brings the image of the airport where various people progress with familiar facial expressions, and differentiated
luggage checked in and out in customary shapes and sizes. She alludes, in her initial poem “History”, to the lost odyssey
of the historical line to which her father and she belong:
We were born to wander, to grieve
lost lineage, what we did to one another,
on a planet so wide open to doing (Nye, 2011, p. 17).
In the first part of Transfer, Nye (2011) paves the narrative through focal points in the life of an immigrant like her
father. She starts with “History” talking about the status of a person in exile as being unclear, foggy, and uncertain due
to the endless wandering for a lost land with lamentation and unfathomable grief. Then, she moves to “1935” in which
her eight-year-old father appears in a photograph “standing behind a table of men/ dipping bread in hummus” (Nye,
2011, p. 18). The scene describes the boy sitting with these men who are gathering for a meal and eating bread and
other types of dipped-in food; here, the real scene in the photograph ends. However, Nye wonders if this little boy has
eaten enough food or bread rips. She does not know the answer and wishes that her father was alive to answer if he has

ever got to eat the last bite. Yet then, her reflection of what she sees in this photograph emerges in a direct speech to her
father: “You beam as if you own the whole city, / could go anywhere in Jerusalem, / watch overeating with affection, /
waiting your turn” (Nye, 2011, p. 18). In this stanza, Nye (2011) connects with the little boy to this scene as a part of a
family and a dweller of a city that happens to be Jerusalem and pities him for waiting for his turn to eat. However, the
last (third) stanza of “1935” holds a surprising inquiry into her father’s frozen memory in the photograph in a manner
that initiates the stories. She utters in the following poems in her book:
You spoke inside
my head the moment before I saw it.
Now the picture hangs
beside my desk, holding
layered lost worlds where
you are, not only the person I knew
but the person before the person I knew,
in your universe, your life’s possible story,
still smiling (Nye, 2011, p. 18).
In this poem, Nye plays with time between the past, present and future. She conflicts with a photo against a memory
of her father, a re-memory of the particular event in the photograph, and a postmemory created by her while writing the
poem. In “1935”, the poet is in direct interaction with a photograph of her father when he was eight years old. Hirsch
(2008) explains that “Photography’s promise to offer an access to the event itself, and its easy assumption of iconic and
symbolic power, makes it a uniquely powerful medium for the transmission of events that remain unimaginable”
(Hirsch, 2008, p. 107). This explains Nye’s imaginative interpretation of her father’s situation in the photo while she
describes the type of story this photo holds in its details.
Nye (2011) describes the setting where her father sits around a dining table with elders eating something. She knows
that it is in Palestine, Jerusalem, in that age and wonders whether the men have given little Aziz the last bite of bread or
not. She observes the photograph and wishes that her father is alive so that he can tell her the unrevealed part of the
story. Nevertheless, now that her father is dead, she becomes the narrator of her story and her father’s photograph story
and imagines how this little boy has been crossing the streets of Jerusalem like a beam that is owning the whole city.
She gets this photograph, which has been hung on the wall of her friend and places it by her desk where she feels her
father’s closeness. Now with her father sitting in that photograph, she envisions the greatness of knowing her father not
only as the person she knows but also as the person before the person she knows. In her father’s world, the one in the
photograph or the one with whom she shares her life, his life’s would-be narrative still smiling, she tells her father: “in
your universe, your life’s possible story, / still smiling” (Nye, 2011, p. 18).
In-Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography, to further explain the associations in photography, Ronald Barthes
(1982) reflects on photography and how “the photograph mechanically repeats what never be repeated existentially”
(Barthes, 1998, p. 4). Therefore, what Nye reflects in “1935” resembles what Barthes (1998) refers to in his book when
he discusses how “a photograph can be the object of three practices, or of three emotions, or of three intentions): to do,
to undergo, to look” (Barthes, 1998, p. 4). In reference to Nye’s poem, the photographer (anonymous) is “the operator”.
Nye, her friend, and everyone who glances at her father’s photograph is “the spectator”, and her father is “the spectacle”
according to Barthes’s three practices. Regardless of “the operator”, the photographer who documents that moment, the
relationship between “the spectator”, the poet, and “the spectacle”, her father is dual. “The spectator” interacts with the
photograph on two levels: the familial as a daughter who remembers and connects her familial relationship with this 8-
year-old child, “you are, not only the person I knew/ but the person before the person I knew” (Nye, 2011, p. 18), and
the little Aziz as a poet who constructs worlds, memories, and space of “the spectrum” particularly when she imagines
her father as beaming and running in Jerusalem, “you beam as if you owned the whole city,/ could go anywhere in
Jerusalem” (Nye, 2011, p. 18). The poet, through such “memorial construction” resists the absence of “the spectacle”
who returns differently due to the poet’s impulse of reclaiming a memory. In this respect, Barthes refers to this
relationship between “the spectator” and “the spectacle” as “the return of the dead” (Barthes, 1982, p. 9).
In her third poetry collection, Hijra, Alyan (2016) writes poems of relocation and flight reflecting and “bearing
witness” to the lingering details in her trans-worldly journey in line with other past journeys of her mother, her aunts,
and every possible female ancestor between Palestine, Syria, and America. Unlike Nye, Alyan’s poetic conversation is
complex and heavy; yet, it embodies the shape of intangible feelings and particulars like loss, grief, chaos, displacement,
alienation, and wandering between places. Alyan’s Hijra chronicles her family’s personal history by sharing these
stories of war, dispersion, and immigration which physically and mentally synchronizes with the collective history of all
Palestinians. These stories which, to some extent, voice downgraded women evolve to another level of documenting a
historical narrative of a whole nation. With a focus on women’s journeys, Alyan discusses how women are carriers of
memory and guardians of its transmission to the next generations.
Alyan (2016) divides Hijra into four parts with an epigraph of each that indicates the type of narrative she tells. The
collection starts with a single poem entitled “Ancestry”, in which Alyan (2016) opens the story by lamenting the
perished cities and longing for the roots of her ancestry. However, she inquires about the stories our fathers tell us about
our origins and past: “Our fathers tell/ the story of this luminous dust, / a soil red as zinnias” (Alyan, 2016, p. 1). In

these lines, Alyan presents the unfinished narrative that is scattered, and works on recollecting all those stories,
assembles their parts, and then mingles them into a polyphonic experience of memorization and space creation. In part
one, Alyan quotes Mahmoud Darwish’s “[t]he exile tells himself: “If I were a bird/ I would burn my wings” (Alyan,
2016, p. 4), to discuss how living in the new city is an exile from everything she knows. In part two, Alyan (2016)
quotes Etel Adnan “[i]n the deluge on our plains there are no rain but stones” (Alyan, 2016, p. 18), to introduce
women’s stories of suffering between the borders and en route from home to nowhere, or somewhere. In part three,
Alyan quotes Joy Harjo’s “[t]he map must be of sand and can’t be read by ordinary light” (Alyan, 2016, p. 36), to map
the real narratives and relocate memories of time and place interchangeably. Finally, in part four, Alyan (2016) quotes
Kazim Ali “I wanted to be those stairs, the hunger I felt, the river inside” (Alyan, 2016, p. 50) to document her
participation in the act of memory and open new spaces of postmemory and resistance.
Sleepwalkers, uterus dust, you heard the gunfire
and folded into clay. We begged our bodies for Alchemy, death into new lungs; we fed bread
to the jinn (Alyan, 2016, p. 15).
The shocking introduction in the poem describing the migrants who fled from the reckless bullets reveals the tension
and pain of these displaced people who are still in trauma over this preposterous act of dispersion. Migrants are
sleepwalkers who drag their bodies between life and death and share food with supernatural creatures i.e., jinn. Alyan
draws the map of departure where place shifts in time and time flip with or against the migrants, and memory of this
painful incident travels back and forth between generations. What is quintessential in this poem is the voice of Alyan
herself that echoes every single voice of all migrants; the story is the same even if people are different and their journey
varies in length. The suffering of loss, the marching to the unknown, the burial of bodies, the delivery of mothers, and
the breasts that have fed babies and adults all dissolve in one weeping narrative. Alyan uses elective metaphors to
manifest transition at its maximum brutal imagery. She utilizes realistic descriptions of sight, smell, sound, and touch
senses to convey a holistic relocation of memory.
We wrote their unsaid names
on parchment, buried them in boxes, gave birth
to our daughters in caves. When our breasts wept
milk for months, we drank it ourselves (Alyan, 2016, p. 15).
Alyan (2016) draws a cinematic dusty storyboard that is apocalyptically undaunted, cruel, and yet profuse. She
depicts not only the transition of immigrants lyrically, but also builds liminal spaces of expression, suffering, and
boundaries en route to nowhere. What is quintessential about Alyan’s collection is the outrageous continuity in binding
the paradoxes; in “Hijra” she combines opposites metaphors whose intensity emerges in conjunctive binaries of home
and exile, “uterus dust,/ we fed bread to the jinn,/ Allah’s calligraphy stitched our vertebrae” (Alyan, 2016, p. 15), The
surrealist approach which Alyan employs to write these melancholic scenarios of “Hijra” dances in a minefield of
memory where history recounts itself in the narratives of immigrants, and in the songs of usurped lands. Alyan’s Hijra
creates intense portrayals of suffering and the brutality of tahgeer (displacement). It is a glorifying canto of resilience to
cleansing, violence, and oppression and resistance to fabrications and demolishing of home and identity narratives in
history.
VII. CONCLUSION
Acts of resistance in Nye’s and Alyan’s poetry differ from the five stages of resistance poetry to which Kanafani
refers; instead, their poems blossom from a different stance where memory is guarded through developed narratives of
the past. The authenticated history in these narratives is linked metaphorically to the past, the present, and the future in a
“thirdsapce” that is authentic, real, and yet selective and imagined. The act of imagination by Palestinians who rebuild
their homelands, houses, and memories of sound, smell, touch, taste, and sight highlights the story of individual and
collective dispossession and displacement and varies from the act of distortion and fabrication by Israelis/Zionists who
strive to replace the history of Palestinians by negating the presence and marginalizing their narratives. For Palestinians,
their memory is not a past occurrence, but rather an ongoing postmemory that transfers from one generation to the other
linearly and conjunctionally creating more space to trace land, people, and history.
Naomi Shihab Nye and Hala Alyan’s exemplary Palestinian American poetry re-vision the land/the narrative as a
part of the future and not as an incident from history. Accordingly, retrieving stolen memories, dispersed people, or a
dispossessed land through postmemory is an act of resistance that resides in a future-oriented “thirdspace”. Through this
minimal scrutinized examination of Nye’s “1935” and Alyan’s “Hijra”, this study concludes that Palestinian American
prose poem is the poetry of resistance because of its unique free experimentation in form, style, and language. Prose
poetry facilitates the intention of narrating and commenting on catastrophic incidents through brevity in Language and
the employment of thematic techniques in favor of style i.e., photography, biography, letters, news reports, and others.
Both poets become cartographers of a “thirdspace” through their exploitation of their familial and affiliative stories
and transforming them into current remembrance through “postmemory”. Like some monuments that are constructed to
tell a story in history, Palestinian American poetry initiates a movable monument in every poem to keep the narrative
never-ending.

REFERENCES
[1] Abu-Lughod, Lila. (2007). Return to Half–Ruins: Memory, Postmemory, and Living History in Palestine. Nakba: Palestine,
1948, and The Claims of Memory. New York: Columbia University Press, 77-104.
[2] Al Maleh, Layla. (2009). From Romantic Mystics to Hyphenated Ethnics: Arab-American Writers Negotiating/ Shifting
Identities. Arab Voices in Diaspora: Critical Perspectives on Anglophone Arab Literature. New York: Rodopi, 423-448.
[3] Alyan, Hala. (2016). Hijra. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
[4] Barthes, Roland. (1982). Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. Trans. Richard Howard. New York: Hill and Wang.
[5] Bernstein, Joseph M. (1947). Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine: Selected Verse and Prose Poems. New York: The Citadel Press
Collection.
[6] Brooker, Peter. (2003). A Glossary of Cultural Theory. New York: Arnold.
[7] Charara, Hayan, ed. (2008). Inclined to speak: an anthology of contemporary Arab American poetry. University of Arkansas
Press.
[8] Delville, Michel. (1998). Stephen Fredman’s Poet’s Prose: The Crisis in American Verse. The Prose Poem: An International
Journal, 7, 1-9.
[9] Delville, Michel. (2017). The Prose Poem and the Microessay. Text, Special Issue 1, no.46, 1-7.
[10] Farag, Joseph, R. (2017). Politics and Palestinian Literature in Exile: Gender, Aesthetics and Resistance in the Short Story.
London: I. B. Tauris & Co. Ltd.
[11] Fredman, Stephan. (1990). Poet’s Prose: The Crisis in American Verse. New York: Cambridge University Press.
[12] Handal, Nathalie. (2002). The Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology. New York: Interlink Books.
[13] Hirsch, Marianne. (2008). The Generation of postmemory. Poetics Today, 29.1, 103-128.
[14] Horvath, Brooke. (1992). The Prose Poem And The Secret Life Of Poetry. The American Poetry Review, 21.5, 12-14.
[15] Kaldas, Pauline; Mattawa, Khaled eds. (2020). Beyond Memory: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Creative
Nonfiction. University of Arkansas Press.
[16] Kanafani, G.. (1966, 2013). Resistance Literature in Occupied Palestine 1948-1966. Cyprus: Rimal Books.
[17] Lehman, David. (2003). The Prose Poem: An Alternative to Verse. The American Poetry Review, 32, 2, 45–49.
[18] Lionis, Chrisoula. (2014). Past Not Yet Passed: Postmemory in the Work of Mona Hatoum. Social Text, 119, 32, 2, 77-93.
[19] Nye, Naomi Shihab. (2011). Transfer. New York: BOA Editions LTD.
[20] Oliver, Mary. (1994). A Poetry Handbook: A Prose Guide to Understanding and Writing Poetry. Boston: Mariner Books.
[21] Sa’di, Ahmad H.; Abu-Lughod, Laila. (2007). Nakba: Palestine, 1948 and the Claims of Memory. New York: Columbia
University Press.
[22] Said, Edward W. (2000). Invention, Memory, and Place. Critical Inquiry, 26, 2, 175-192.
[23] Said, Edward W. (2004). Memory, Inequality, and Power: Palestine and the Universality of Human Rights. Alif: Journal of
Comparative Poetics, 24, 15-33.
[24] Soja, Edward W. (1996). Third space: Journeys to Los Angeles and Other Real and Imagined Places. Cambridge: Blackwell.
[25] Slyomovics, Susan. (1998). The object of memory: Arab and Jews narrate the Palestinian village. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press.
[26] Whitehead, Anne. (2009). Memory. New York: Routledge.
[27] Whitelam, Keith. (1996). The Invention of Ancient Israel: the silencing of Palestinian History. New York: Routledge.
Zainab “Moh’d Said” Al Qaisi: A PhD candidate in Palestinian American Literature and Postmemory
studies at The University of Jordan. Editor at Large at Wasafiri magazine for international writing. A literary
translator and editor. She is the founder & CEO of two startups: Al Nqsh LTD (2020) and The Writing Room
(2021). Zainab is an academic researcher and critic who is interested in literary and cultural studies, dna
comparative studies in the fields of Feminist literature, postmemory, and thirdspace.
Wafa Awni Al Khadra: Wafa AlKhadra holds a Ph.D. in English Literature and has many research interests
and publications within the realm of literature, cultural studies, and women’s studies. She is a member of the
Board of Trustees of the National Centre for Human Rights. Wafa is an Associate Professor in Comparative
Literature at the Department of English Language and Literature / American University of Madaba (AUM).
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Wafa_Alkhadra
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=SQKRpFoAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3485-113X
Scopus Author: Wafa Alkhadra 220906031063

ISSN 1799-2591
Spoken English of Saudi Undergraduate Students:

Issues and Strategies
Fawaz S. Al Mahmud
English Language and Translation Department, Faculty of Sciences and Arts, Khulais, Jeddah University, Saudi Arabia
Saeed S. Khan
English Language and Translation Department, Faculty of Sciences and Arts, Khulais, Jeddah University, Saudi Arabia
Abstract—This study aimed to explore why some undergraduates at the University of Jeddah struggle with
spoken English in personal and professional settings. Employing the explanatory sequential mixed method
design, we administered a five-point Likert scale questionnaire to 107 Saudi undergraduate students. This was
followed by observing a twenty-student Listening & Speaking class and conducting semi-structured interviews
with three serving faculty members at the University of Jeddah. The results indicated that most students
experienced difficulties in speaking English in personal and academic contexts. The students' spoken English
difficulties could be attributed to the following major factors: limited use of spoken English in everyday
personal and professional communication situations lack of linguistic competence, and speaking anxiety. It
was also found that there were no significant differences in students' responses based on their year of study,
major, and gender. We also suggested strategies and techniques; more precisely, we recommend increasing
communication opportunities for students, employing CLT techniques, promoting the use of ICT, and
collaborative learning. This study contributes to the current understanding of spoken English problems among
Saudi undergraduate students and proposes relevant solutions.
Index Terms—spoken English, EFL, ESL, Saudi undergraduates, strategies
I. INTRODUCTION
Spoken English has been an essential tool of international communication for many decades, widely used across the
world (Graddol, 2006). Multinational businesses, economic affairs, technology exchange, popular media, the
publication of books and newspapers, and the globalization of education, all extensively use the language (Rao, 2019;
Rahman & Singh, 2022). An individual’s communicative competence is a predictor of his self-image, cognitive abilities
and knowledge of the world (Luoma, 2004). Thus, considering its status as a lingua franca, obtaining communicative
competence in English is highly desirable (Jenkins, 2007). Indeed, professional success largely depends on one’s
proficiency in spoken English (Pandey & Pandey, 2014). Those who achieve communicative competence in English are
able to avail various opportunities in academia, society, and different professions (Brown, 2001; Cook, 2003; Crystal,
2003). Furthermore, proficiency in spoken English helps dignitaries of a nation collaborate on issues regarding two-
sided interests (Phillipson, 1992).
However, despite its vital significance, numerous college students who learn English as a second language (L2) find
it hard to communicate well in English. Achieving communicative competence in English is not easy in countries where
English is not native and is taught and learnt as a second language (ESL) or foreign language (EFL). Students and
common people need to apply considerable effort to acquire spoken English proficiency (Luoma, 2004). According to
Lazaraton (2014), "speaking is an unfavorably complex and bewildering skill" (p. 107). The complexity of speaking is
caused by the fractionation of speech as thought groups, suprasegmental features (stress, rhythm, and intonation),
hesitation techniques, and the use of colloquial language (Brown, 2001). Learners struggle with speaking because they
are required to synchronize several processes, such as generating ideas, using linguistic knowledge, and employing
strategies concurrently (Johnson, 1996).
This problem is especially prevalent in Saudi Arabia. Various scholars have conducted substantial research and
identified the causes of Saudi students’ low proficiency in oral communication. For example, Al-Sobhi and Preece
(2018) explored challenges the students faced while learning spoken English at Saudi School in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia. They identified factors that hampered Saudi students’ learning of spoken English, such as fewer opportunities
to communicate in English, almost exclusive use of Arabic in everyday communication, and instructors’ traditional
teaching methods. Similarly, Rabab’ah (2016) found that not receiving ample opportunities to communicate in English
hindered learners’ acquisition of English. Additionally, learners’ lack of motivation was a serious issue (Ali et al., 2019).
Bani Younes and Albalawi (2016) identified learning anxiety, exclusive use of mother tongue, demotivation, fear of
being judged by classmates, and traditional teaching methods as the causes of learners’ low proficiency.


A. Reasons for the Study

This study was conducted for the following reasons. First, while many studies in the non-Saudi context have regarded
English pronunciation as a major problem area for EFL learners, studies in the context of Saudi Arabia have overlooked
pronunciation as a focus area. Second, a good number of studies, including the ones in Saudi, have overemphasized
anxiety as a factor impacting spoken English performance. Finally, while discussing remedies for spoken English, many
studies have neglected the role of group activities to augment spoken English.
B. Significance of the Study
This study is important because it provides insights into the challenges faced by Saudi undergraduates in spoken
English. It also offers remedial measures to solve the identified problems. A greater understanding of the problems and
remedial measures can help develop Saudi undergraduates’ spoken English proficiency. Additionally, the findings will
magnify and refine the current knowledge regarding the oral communication difficulties faced by Saudi EFL students.
Moreover, this study could help identify areas of improvement in the academic preparation programs offered for
graduate students in Saudi Arabia.
C. Research Objectives
Considering the existing gap in the literature regarding why Saudi undergraduates struggle with spoken English, this
study examined spoken English difficulties encountered by Saudi undergraduates. Moreover, it aimed to determine
whether the students’ perceptions of spoken English problems varied significantly according to their gender, major, and
year of study.
D. Research Questions
This study was guided by the following research questions:
1. What are the specific spoken English difficulties encountered by Saudi undergraduates?
2. What specific remedies can be offered to improve Saudi undergraduates’ spoken English proficiency?
3. Are there any statistical differences between undergraduate students’ responses based on their gender, major, and
year of study?

A. Challenges to the Enhancement of Spoken English
Globally, experts, instructors, and researchers have contributed to the EFL domain by extensively publishing journals,
books, theses, and research papers. Literature on the challenges of spoken English for EFL learners is voluminous and
varied owing to substantial research focused on identifying the causes of students’ low proficiency. A selected review
of the relevant past studies follows.
Islam and Stapa (2021) conducted a study with 21 students and 11 instructors from five private universities in
Bangladesh. By administering an IELTS-style test to the students and conducting semi-structured email interviews
involving students and teachers, they aimed to understand students’ present levels of communicative competence in
English, barriers to its improvement, and what guidelines could be offered to help students elevate their proficiency.
The findings revealed that most of the learners encountered problems such as anxiety, low confidence, fear of losing
face, and peers’ mockery. Additionally, other causes that hampered the students’ learning included family background,
low-input environment, and the complex nature of spoken English. The following problems were also identified:
traditional teaching methods, poor linguistic competence, and lack of communication opportunities.
Similarly, Alrabai (2016) identified additional causes of Arab EFL learners’ low proficiency, including instructors’
excessive use of Arabic in class, inappropriate curriculum design, overcrowded classes, and lack of motivation. In a
study with 638 undergraduate students from four universities in Taiwan (two with full English Medium Instruction &
two with partial English Medium Instruction), Chou (2018) examined learners’ anxiety, strategy use, and other
problems they encountered while speaking English. In line with the findings of other studies mentioned above, this
study also identified anxiety, complexity, inadequate content knowledge, poor linguistic competence, and confusion of
stress, intonation, and homophones as the major problem areas.
Surveying 20 B.Ed. third-year and fourth-year ESL students (4 males and 16 females) at a tertiary teacher training
institution in Hong Kong, Gan (2012) concluded that poor vocabulary, poor grammatical competence, imperfectly
learned pronunciation and intonation, and inadequate communication opportunities, in and outside the class, hampered
speaking proficiency. In addition, Gan identified problems such as inappropriately designed curriculum and poor
environment outside the class.
Zrekat and Al-Sohbani (2022) conducted a study at the Arab Open University, with 74 Saudi undergraduates (26
male and 48 female) from the English department. Aiming to explore their spoken English difficulties, the authors
found that inadequate communication opportunities, within and outside the class, deprived students of real
communication situations. Furthermore, they argued that for many learners, the large size of the class decreased their
chances of participation in communication activities. Additionally, they identified anxiety, poor grammatical
competence, and lack of language resources as obstacles to learning.

B. Solutions to the Challenges of Spoken English

While some studies focused exclusively on identifying barriers to improving spoken English proficiency, others have
gone one step further and proposed advanced solutions to those problems. Interviewing 11 teachers across five
universities in Bangladesh, Islam and Stapa (2021) found task-based learning to be helpful in enhancing ESL/EFL
learners’ oral communication. Some scholars have recommended that new strategies be formulated to motivate EFL
students to use English within and outside the class (Namaziandost et al., 2019). They also recommended replacing the
instructor-centered model of learning with a student-centered model of learning, as the latter provides students with
sufficient communication opportunities (Namaziandost et al., 2019). Additionally, Gan (2012) stressed incorporating a
sufficiently intensive language improvement component in the curriculum of teacher preparation programs.
Mahmoud and Tanni (2014) suggested using communicative games to teach oral communication to EFL learners,
which would make the classrooms communicative and enjoyable. Additionally, listening to experienced speechmakers
can provide students with exposure to fluent language. Using the input acquired from listening, learners can then make
good use of it while delivering a speech (Brown & Lee, 2015). Furthermore, facilitating group activities can dispel
students’ fear and increase their level of confidence. Accordingly, Patil (2008) asserted that instructors should prioritize
developing learner’s confidence to help them overcome their fear of making mistakes.
III. METHODOLOGY
A. Research Method
This study employed an explanatory sequential mixed method design. A five-point Likert scale questionnaire, semi-
structured interviews, and class observations were used for data. Quantitative data were collected through a Likert scale
questionnaire, whereas qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews and class observations.
Quantitative data were analyzed statistically, whereas thematic analysis was used to analyze qualitative data.
B. Participants
The participants were 127 B.A. second-year students at the University of Jeddah and three instructors of English at
the same university. A total of 107 students completed a 20-item Likert scale questionnaire, which led to quantitative
findings. Twenty students of Listening and Speaking-2 (KSEL-221) volunteered to be observed in the class, and three
instructors agreed to be interviewed.
C. Instruments
The researchers used three instruments for data collection. First, a five-point Likert scale questionnaire comprising 20
questions was administered to the students electronically. The second instrument was semi-structured interviews with
the three teachers. The interviews were conducted individually and face-to-face after the completion of the survey. Each
interview lasted 30–40 minutes. Moreover, the third instrument was classroom observation over one academic semester
(16 weeks).
D. Procedure
As mentioned earlier, data were collected through a questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, and classroom
observations. One hundred and seven students completed the questionnaire. Prior to the study, students were informed
about the purpose of the study, after which they consented to participate. As for the semi-structured interviews, three
faculty members volunteered to participate. Before the study, the participants were given details related to the
objectives of the study and the interview protocol. The interview audios were transcribed and coded, and a thematic
analysis procedure was used to analyze the qualitative data for themes and categories. Regarding classroom observation,
which lasted 16 weeks, we obtained the consent of the listening and speaking teachers, prior to observing the classroom.
One author of this study visited a listening and speaking class as an observer twice a week. As non-participant observers,
we used a pre-designed format to assess students’ learning of spoken English. The students' behavior was closely
monitored and notes were taken. The following classroom activities were observed: group discussion (each participant
of the five-member group participated in four group discussions), oral presentations (each student delivered four oral
presentations), and role-play (each participant played various roles in seven situational conversations).
E. Data Analysis
Statistical Analysis Software (SPSS) was used to analyze quantitative data (the completed Likert-scale questionnaires)
to determine the overall characteristics of the score distribution. To this end, means and standard deviations were
calculated. To analyze qualitative data (semi-structured interviews and classroom observation), thematic analysis
procedure (Braun & Clarke, 2006) was used. After the semi-structured interviews with the teachers, we carefully read
the transcripts to acquire an overall sense of the interview responses. Next, we manually coded the transcripts,
segmenting and labeling them to develop descriptions and themes. We were particularly interested in information that
repeated, extended, or disputed the students’ responses to the items on the questionnaire.

IV. RESULTS
A. Quantitative Findings
The response rate was 100 per cent. Of the 107 participants, 69 (64.2 per cent) were men and 38 (35.8 per cent) were
women. Furthermore, 71 (67 per cent) were English language majors, whereas 35 (33 per cent) studied translation.
Characteristics of the distributions of the answers were obtained by calculating means and standard deviations for each
item (see Table 1).
Table 1 shows the information collected and analyzed by the researcher based on participants’ opinions toward
augmenting spoken English; the questionnaire items were rated on a five-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (Strongly
disagree) to 5 (Strongly agree).
In general, participants responded negatively regarding augmenting spoken English, revealing a high level of
disagreement for the most of items, especially for: feeling relaxed and confident speaking English in academic and
social settings; pronunciation and lexicon (stock of words) are up to the mark; producing a variety of grammatical
English sentences easily; and carrying out contextually appropriate English conversation easily. Additionally, context-
centered issues were rated very low (mean of 2.7); particularly, the following items had the lowest rating: using English
frequently when communicating with the members of my family; socializing in my society involves frequent use of
English; and my country’s formal conversations such as debates and interviews are carried out in English. It is an
exceptional challenge for the administration to enhance students’ capability to boost their spoken English. By contrast,
candidates provided positive feedback regarding instructors, implying that students have a high level of confidence in
their teachers. There was an insignificant difference in overall scores between students according to their year of study:
first year (M = 3.45), second year (M = 3.24), third year (M = 3.46), and fourth year (M = 3.67), and p = 0.27.
TABLE 1
DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS OF THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Statement M SD
Student-centered issues
I feel relaxed and confident speaking English in academic and social settings. 2.98 1.31
I am always looking for opportunities to use and improve my spoken English. 3.65 1.24
My pronunciation and lexicon (stock of words) are up to the mark. 2.89 1.24
I can easily produce a variety of grammatical English sentences. 2.88 1.28
I can easily carry out contextually appropriate English conversations. 2.82 1.39
Overall 3.04 1.11
Instrument-centered issues
The instructional material used in the class is relevant, adequate, and varied. 3.87 0.89
My spoken English syllabus is well-designed in terms of coverage, structure, and emphasis. 3.76 0.91
The instructional material used in the class relates to aspects of my culture and society. 3.82 0.81
The instructional material is easy to comprehend. 3.33 1.17
The instructional material provides first-hand experience of the realities of the social and 3.34 1.14
physical environment and encourages active participation in the lesson.
Overall 3.63 0.77
Instructor-centered issues
My spoken English instructor is a highly motivated individual. 4.12 0.69
My spoken English instructor knows and teaches the subject well. 4.5 0.61
My spoken English instructor makes copious use of instructional material in the class. 4.13 0.81
My spoken English instructor uses a wide range of instructional materials in the class. 4.04 0.88
My spoken English instructor encourages learners to ask questions and speak up in the 4.28 0.75
class.
Overall 4.25 0.61
Context-centered issues
I get frequent opportunities to learn English through natural interaction. 3.21 1.36
I use English frequently when communicating with my family members. 2.39 1.41
At my university, subjects other than English are also taught in English. 2.84 1.53
In my society, socializing involves frequent use of English. 2.50 1.33
In my country, formal conversations such as debates and interviews are carried out in 2.56 1.48
English.
Overall 2.71 1.19
A one-way ANOVA was used to determine whether there is a statistically significant difference in overall scores
between students according to their year of study: first year (M = 3.45), second year (M = 3.24), third year (M = 3.46),
and fourth year (M = 3.67), (see Table 2). A one-way ANOVA revealed a statistically insignificant difference in overall
scores (F = 1.322, p >0.05).

TABLE 2
TOTAL AUGMENTING SPOKEN ENGLISH
Year of study M n SD F sig
First year 3.4541 37 .81763 1.322 0.271
Second year 3.2434 38 .83732
Third Year 3.4633 15 .43114
Fourth Year 3.6656 16 .53843
Total 3.4118 106 .75070
A Poisson regression analysis was run to predict participants’ opinions toward augmenting spoken English based on
the year of study and major of the student. The test revealed that the year of the study is the only significant variable;
for every extra year spent at school, there was 1.0914 (95% CI, 0.23 to 5.147) times more positive opinion toward
augmenting spoken English (p < .05; see Table 3).
TABLE 3
ESTIMATE FOR THE EFFECT OF BACKGROUND DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS ON AUGMENTING SPOKEN ENGLISH
Factor IRR 95% CI IRR Estimate SE T value P value
First year of study 1.048 0277 t0 3.97 0.046 0.6799 0.005 0.946
Second year of study 1.091 0.23 to 5.147 0.093 0.7885 3.014 0.036
English 1.16 0.37 to 3.5 0.148 0.5784 0.066 0.798
Note. IRR= incidence rate ratio; CI= confidence interval; SE= standard error
B. Qualitative Findings
(a.) Teachers' Evaluation
Overall, as indicated by the responses of the participating teachers to the first research question, most students
struggle with their spoken English performance. This overall inadequacy was explained by the participants with
reference to the scant use of English in personal and professional settings, inadequate subject knowledge, and speaking
anxiety. According to Teacher 1 and Teacher 2 (T1 and T2), scant use of English in personal and professional settings
and poor command of English caused below-average speaking performance of students. For Teacher 3 (T3), speaking
anxiety was the biggest challenge faced by most of his students. T1 remarked, “If I am to assess the level of
communicative competence of the students, most of them struggle with constructing grammatically correct sentences.”
Echoing T1’s stance, T2 observed, “Regarding speaking skills, I believe one’s linguistic competence matters the most; I
have seen students’ anxiety come down as their linguistic competence went up.” Singling out speaking anxiety as one of
the biggest obstacles to speaking fluently, T3 said, “Students’ level of proficiency in speaking skill varies; however, I
would categorize their level as pre-intermediate and intermediate. The students’ level is not up to the mark for post-
secondary education, which obstructs their learning in the classroom. Their interaction with the teacher is often
hindered by pauses and incertitude”.
When asked to offer guidelines for students to improve spoken English, all three teachers emphasized the need for
frequent oral communication drills in the classroom and providing students with a basic course in communicative
grammar. Underscoring the need for practicing English speaking vigorously, T1 said, “To help students control their
anxiety, instructors should create a classroom environment conducive to learning. They should motivate students to
partake in various activities (e.g., group discussions, debates, presentations, and role-play conversations)”. While T1
offered his suggestions on reducing anxiety, T2 and T3 stressed strengthening students’ linguistic competence. T3 said,
“A teacher should ensure that a large part of his lessons focuses on the use of language for purposes. If the functional
purposes of language are the center of attention, in the course of time, students will attain linguistic competence”.
(b). Class Observation
Students were observed for the following aspects of their spoken English: pronunciation, vocabulary, fluency, and
anxiety. Overall, students experienced difficulties with words and pronunciation, fluency, and confidence level.
However, as the classes went on, there was clear improvement. By the end of the 10th week, students had remarkably
increased their vocabulary and improved their pronunciation. Improvement in fluency and confidence was not
remarkable, but noticeable nevertheless.
1. Pronunciation
Most students learned to pronounce English words correctly. They assimilated the 44 English phonemes of the
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). They grasped the phonemes as individual sounds and pronunciation units. At the
beginning of the semester, they mispronounced the sounds of English that do not exist in their native language, such as
/b/ in place of /p/. They also learned to look up words in dictionaries with proper phonetic transcription. For example,
they knew to distinguish between bit (/bɪt/) and bet (/bet/). Moreover, they understood how primary stress differs from
secondary stress and when to place which type of stress on the syllable(s) in a word. For instance, they learned that if a
disyllabic word (conduct) is a noun, the first syllable (/ˈkɒn.dʌkt/) will carry primary stress; by contrast, if the same
word is a verb, the second syllable (/kənˈdʌkt/) will carry primary stress. They also learned to recognize diacritics (signs
written above or below a sound or syllable to indicate a difference in pronunciation or word stress). Because students

were taught to read words phonemically and phonetically, a majority of them began pronouncing English words
correctly.
2. Vocabulary
The researcher observed that most students suffered from limited lexical size in the first quarter of the semester.
While participating in communication activities, some did not show any signs of anxiety or stage fright, although they
could not sustain their interaction due to limited stock of words. However, in the next three quarters, the students
showed significant improvement. A series of communication activities (group discussions, presentations, and role-plays)
motivated them to improve their speaking abilities. A majority of the students enriched their word stock by memorizing
new words used in different communication situations, which subsequently elevated their confidence level.
3. Fluency
Another observation in the first quarter was that the students’ limited stock of words often prevented them from
expressing themselves fluently and correctly. A good number of students often stopped to think of correct words, frame
grammatical sentences, and consider the content of a conversation. They would also forget what to say during
conversations with classmates or communication activities. However, in the last two quarters, the researchers’ notes of
class observation recorded an improvement in students’ performance. Most of them actively participated in classroom
interactions and group activities, answered questions correctly, and showed positive attitudes toward learning.
Sufficient in-class communication opportunities for the learners helped them overcome fluency problems.
4. Anxiety
The researcher found that adequate communication opportunities in the classroom proved to be effective in
improving learners’ speaking ability and increasing their confidence and motivation. Students who were previously
quiet and shy became actively involved in in-class communication activities. The observers were glad to notice that
most students started spending time self-learning at home. Three students did not actively participate in the
communication activities and could not improve considerably, whereas the majority of the learners made good use of
the classroom communication opportunities and developed into confident speakers.
V. DISCUSSION
This study aimed to explore students’ spoken English problems, offer guidelines accordingly, and determine
differences between their perceptions based on their gender, major, and year of study.
RQ1: What are the specific spoken English difficulties encountered by Saudi undergraduates?
Regarding the first research question, both quantitative and the qualitative findings indicate that overall, students face
considerable challenges in speaking English in personal and professional settings. The greatest challenge was the scant
use of spoken English in everyday personal and professional situations, followed by the lack of linguistic competence
and speaking anxiety (Megawati & Mandarani, 2016).
Of the three abovementioned factors, the most serious issue for the students was the scant use of English in everyday
personal communication, as indicated by the mean value of 2.71 for context-centered statements in the questionnaire.
The findings revealed that students did not find substantial opportunities to hone their speaking skills due to the
prevalence of monolingualism in the classrooms. Most classes, other than English, we assume, are not conducted in
English (Islam & Stapa, 2021). This affects students’ oral English competence. Instructors’ proficiency in spoken
English helps students become more fluent because they receive credible input from their teachers (Chambless, 2012).
Accordingly, the delivery of lectures in English by all subject teachers will have two advantages for the students. First,
the teachers will be able to contribute to the students’ subject knowledge; and second, they will provide students an
opportunity to discuss their respective subjects in English. Our findings, regarding the link between the instructors’
spoken English proficiency and students’ English proficiency, lend support to the assertion made by Sadeghi and
Richards (2015), that the students’ progress in spoken English depends, to a great extent, on instructors’ level of
proficiency. Infrequent interactions in English among the students in the classrooms may prevent them from gaining
communicative competence in the language.
Another major finding was that the learners did not use spoken English in routine conversations with family members,
friends, neighbors, and acquaintances. There are several reasons for this. First, they have a poor input environment in
their surroundings: markets, cafeterias, restaurants, cinema halls, shopping malls, hospitals, airports, or government
organizations. Even if students wish to communicate in English with their fellow citizens, they do not often find
individuals with the ability to speak English. Second, a majority of Saudis prefer communicating in their native tongue
because they believe, and rightly so, that it will be difficult for them to sustain the same level of eloquence in L2 as in
L1. This is consistent with the conclusions reached by Seraj et al. (2021), whose study found that the learners could not
improve their spoken English because they were inadequately exposed to the language. For them, as for others, the
exchange of information in their mother tongue is quick, smooth, and spontaneous. Third, in some cases, students’
learning process was hindered by peers mocking, which led to many students avoiding speaking in English when
communicating with their friends. This finding echoes the results of Lin (2013). Finally, as indicated by the participants’

responses, disadvantageous family backgrounds impeded students’ development as proficient users of English. This
finding is in line with Forey et al.’s (2016) argument that parents’ education level, involvement in their children’s
education, and socioeconomic standing impact their children’s development as language learners.
The next most serious issue encountered by students was the lack of linguistic mastery. This was clearly observed in
faculty interviews and class observation. The survey findings too hinted at linguistic issues with the students, as
suggested by the mean value (M = 3.0) for student-centered issues. This implies that according to the questionnaire
responses, many students were unsure about the level of their spoken English proficiency. For example, many students
struggled with spoken English due to limited vocabulary, scant content knowledge, and grammatical incompetence.
Many failed to produce grammatically correct sentences in genuine communication situations due to limited vocabulary.
In a study on Chinese EFL learners, Liu and Jackson (2008) found that inadequate stock of English words impeded
learners’ development of spoken English. Another noticeable problem was students’ inadequate content knowledge.
They would often begin to stutter and take recurrent pauses when were short of ideas on any given topic. Bachman and
Palmer (1996) argued that learners discontinue talking on a given topic as soon as they fall short of words. The learners’
inability to put words together to produce grammatical sentences hampers their learning process. Xie (2020) argued that
learners grapple with grammar issues when they face a spontaneous communication situation. Moreover, with regard to
the teachers’ evaluation of their students’ spoken English, the instructors expressed dissatisfaction with the
undergraduates’ current level of proficiency. The instructors assume that if the students cannot ask their questions, share
their views, and assimilate information in the classroom, they will be deprived of in-depth knowledge of various
subjects. They added that in classroom discussions, without adequate communicative competence, the undergraduates
may not be able to attain the desired learning outcomes of the courses.
The third major impediment to learning spoken English was performance anxiety. When asked to articulate their
thoughts in front of others, learners often experienced fear, increased heart rate, low confidence, and a sense of losing
face. Bhattacharjee (2008) identified these problems as barriers to honing speaking skills. However, in certain situations,
one positive aspect of anxiety was that it helped learners prepare well in advance to avoid nervousness in public. We
argue that learning anxiety, in certain cases, affects the performance of EFL learners with good grammatical
competence too. This psychological problem, at times, lowers students’ confidence in their spoken English abilities
RQ2: What specific remedies can be offered for the Saudi undergraduates' spoken English insufficiencies?
As for the second research question, the solutions include increasing classroom communication opportunities,
adopting task-based learning (Namaziandost et al., 2019), incorporating ICT applications, training learners in
pronunciation (Cai & Liu, 2018), teaching English through collocation, listening to others and observing, and promoting
self-regulated learning (Sambath & Sethuraman, 2017).
The researchers and the teacher participants proposed increasing communication opportunities in class, which may
significantly improve EFL learners’ spoken English (Li, 2015; Lv, 2014; Wang, 2013). The three activities (group
discussions, debates, and role-play) adopt a collaborative learning approach aiming to bring together diverse groups of
individuals to form a community of practice that endeavors to elevate the academic capability of the group. When the
learners participate in GDs, debates, or role-play, each of them generates ideas and uses various expressions. Such
exchange of information contributes to the knowledge of all learners (Kagan & Kagan, 1994).
Furthermore, the teacher participants recommended the use of task-based learning, which could help learners hone
their speaking skills. While task-based language teaching is heavily grounded in theory and research, it is also an
approach to classroom practice (Adams & Newton, 2009). Safitri et al. (2020) and Zusuki (2018) opined that task-based
learning is highly effective in enhancing EFL learners’ speaking ability. A task-based approach provides opportunities
for language acquisition, both speaking and writing, via learning activities designed to enable learners to use the
language naturally, practically, and functionally (Lin, 2009). Namaziandost et al. (2019) reported that when learners
were engaged in cooperative learning in a class conducive to learning, their level of confidence increased and their level
of anxiety decreased.
Additionally, the researchers and teacher participants supported the integration of Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) in spoken English plans. Today, ICT has made learning easier. Most items related to learning spoken
English, such as pronunciation, word meaning, synonyms, and usage, can be found on one platform. Various
applications of personal and professional conversations, dictionaries, and thesauruses have contributed to the
enhancement of spoken English of innumerable learners globally (Alsaleem, 2013; Godzicki et al., 2013).
Furthermore, the participants stressed that the EFL learners’ training in pronunciation is vital to their enhancement of
spoken English. When pronunciation hampers understanding of any English word, a native speaker can make out the
meaning of the word using contextual cues, in contrast to a non-native speaker, who may face communication
breakdown (Zulqarnain & Muhammad, 2015). Hughes (2005), Goh and Burns (2012), and Luoma (2004) argued that
pronunciation is one of the six common components (fluency, pronunciation, vocabulary, content information, grammar
use, and relevant responses to a conversation partner) of any spoken language.
Additionally, the researchers and participants believed that non-native learners can improve their speaking ability
using English collocations. Non-native learners of spoken English use collocation more frequently. In any
communication situation, when they are short of words, they prefer to use collocations due to their ready-made

grammatical structure. Hsu (2002) demonstrated that EFL learners’ frequent use of collocations sharpened their spoken
English.
Moreover, the participants recommended that the EFL learners listen to fluent speakers and observe their use of
words, pronunciation, voice modulation, and grammatical structures. The improvement in one’s speaking ability
depends upon how consciously one listens to the routine or professional conversations of people around them (Abdalla,
2014). Baleghizadeh and Derakhshesh (2012) found that listening to different conversations can help learners
internalize the correct pronunciation of words, their contextual use, and a variety of expressions.
The researchers also proposed that learners adopt a self-regulated learning (SRL) approach. This will expedite their
learning of spoken English because SRL gives learners the freedom of regulating their learning habits, managing their
schedules, monitoring their training, and setting goals (El-Sakka, 2016). Regulating the self is significant because
education, among other things, is supposed to develop the self (Zimmerman, 2002). Ciesielkiewicz and Munoz (2015)
recognized SRL as one of the basic pillars of pedagogy.
Finally, researchers stated that communicative language teaching will be highly effective in solving learners’
speaking problems. Using CLT techniques in the classroom will reduce learners’ anxiety and enhance their language
competence (Richards, 2005). An instructor should provide students with more opportunities to learn to speak out
because the more the EFL learners communicate, the more fluent they will become. The goal of spoken English is to be
fluent and accurate in using English, although making mistakes while speaking out is the initial reward of learning.
However, being fluent in speaking does not mean being inaccurate. Richards (2005) stated that language learning is a
gradual process that involves the creative use of language and trial and error. Finally, the ultimate goal of learning is to
use a new language both fluently and accurately.
RQ3: Are there any statistical differences between undergraduate students’ responses based on their gender, major,
and year of study?
Considering the third research question, a one-way ANOVA revealed no statistically significant difference in
students’ responses to the questionnaire in terms of their gender, major, or year of study. This implies that on the whole,
students’ responses did not vary considerably across these factors. This is consistent with the results obtained by Ali et
al. (2019). This lack of significant difference has to do with the similar school experience of the students and the overall
place of English in different majors. At school, because both male and female students study the same curriculum, their
proficiency in English at the time of their entry into college is largely the same. At college too, the level of English
taught does not differ much between the majors and the year of study. Therefore, it is reasonable that students’ average
responses did not vary according to their gender, major, or year of study.
Recommendations
Because we found speaking anxiety to be a barrier to spoken English performance, there is a clear need to help
students control their anxiety and elevate their confidence level. Accordingly, instructors should spend time with
students explaining to them that making mistakes in the classroom is a fear shared by almost all students and therefore,
is not unusual. By learning more about and practicing spoken English, learners will improve. Another recommendation
is that the classrooms should be made communicative by including various tasks (such as debates, group discussions,
presentations, and role-plays).
We also recommend that the curriculum design committees consider modifying the existing spoken English syllabi in
light of the insights from this study. In the modification process, the committee should involve EFL instructors because
of their first-hand information about students’ level of understanding, their issues, and pedagogical suggestions to
enhance their learning and overcome their problems (Shawer, 2010). This will lead to more productive learning and
teaching of spoken English.
Concerning future research on the spoken English challenges confronting Saudi college students, we recommend that
more studies focus on pronunciation as the angle of inquiry. This is because in the Saudi Arabian context, there has
been considerable research on anxiety, English vocabulary, and oral communication drills. A richer understanding of
pronunciation-related issues with EFL learners will eventually lead to gains in spoken English.
VI. CONCLUSION
Globally, communicative competence in English has been a major requirement for those aspiring for academic or
professional excellence. However, this poses various challenges to EFL/ESL students. This study investigated the
challenges faced by Saudi undergraduates when speaking English. Both the quantitative and the qualitative findings
revealed that most students reported scant use of English in personal and academic settings to be the biggest obstacle to
speaking English. Poor linguistic competence emerged as the second main challenge for the students. Finally, speaking
anxiety was found to be the third main challenge for EFL learners. In addition to bringing to the fore students’ English-
speaking issues, this study also suggested the following strategies: increasing communication opportunities, applying
CLT techniques, active listening, pronunciation training, collaborative learning, use of ICT, and endorsing self-
regulated learning. The suggested remedial measures, if implemented, can contribute to the enhancement of the EFL
learners' spoken English.

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Fawaz S. Al Mahmud has worked as an assistant professor in the English Language and Translation
Department at the University of Jeddah since 2020. Currently, he has two additional roles. He is the vice dean
at the College of Science and Arts for not only Research and Innovation but also Academic Affairs and
Development. In 2017, he received his PhD in Education from Memorial University, Canada, where he
specialized in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. In 2018, he was appointed as a consultant to the Vice
Minister of Education in Saudi Arabia. He has published several articles addressing issues on foreign
language teaching and learning.
Saeed S. Khan is an assistant professor of English at the University of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He received his
PhD in English in 2006 from the M. J. P. Rohilkhand University, India. Before joining a Saudi Arabian
university in 2010, he had taught English at Integral University, India for about five years. He has published
articles in American Literature. His areas of interest include projectivist Poetry, spoken English, and
Phonetics & Phonology.

ISSN 1799-2591
Syntactic Characteristic Analysis of Colloquial

Makassar Indonesian Based on the Use of
Personal Pronoun Affixes: From Interference to
Borrowing
Kamsinah
Department of English Literature, Hasanuddin University, Makassar, Indonesia
Muhammad Darwis
Department of Indonesian Literature, Hasanuddin University, Makassar, Indonesia
Ainun Fatimah
Department of English Literature, Hasanuddin University, Makassar, Indonesia
Muhammad Nurahmad
Indonesian Language and Literature Education Department, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education,
Muhammadiyah University of Makassar, Indonesia
Muhammad Ali Imran

Indonesian Language and Literature Education Department, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education,
Muhammadiyah University of Makassar, Indonesia
Abstract—This paper will prove the existence of colloquial Makassar Indonesian (CMI) by showing its
syntactic characteristics based on the use of personal pronoun affixes. This is very interesting and important
because in general colloquial Indonesian languages are spoken in other cities in Indonesia, for example
Jakarta, Manado, Ambon, etc. is a subsystem of the Indonesian language (hereinafter abbreviated as IND),
but CMI is really a subsystem or subvariant of the Makassar language (MAK), the mother tongue of the
Makassarese people. Therefore, it is not easy for Makassar newcomers to master this CMI. To master it, they
must first learn the basic rules of MAK syntax. The fundamental thing in this case is the change in language
typology, namely CMI has been proven to have adopted the V-S-O (Verb-Subject-Object) typology of MAK.
Meanwhile, IND has the S-V-O (Subject-Predicate-Object) typology. This happened because there was
language contact between MAK and Malay (now IND), a language which became the forerunner to the birth
of IND as the national language and the state language of the Republic of Indonesia. In this case, at first
Makassar city residents tried to use Malay, but with MAK syntactic interference. Gradually this form of
interference became the entry point for the borrowing of the MAK syntactic subsystem in the IND speeches of
Makassar city residents. IND utterances with the characteristics of MAK syntax then become the
characteristics of CMI, which has now reached the level of integration and convergence.
Index Terms—colloquial Makassar Indonesian, syntactic characteristics
I. INTRODUCTION
The existence of colloquial Makassar Indonesian (hereinafter abbreviated as CMI) is very important to study for
several reasons. First, CMI is actively and widely used actively in informal communication, not only by native MAK
speakers in Makassar city, but also by speakers of other regional languages in South Sulawesi Province, both at home,
in the community, and in government and private offices. Second, CMI has its own syntactic characteristics that are
different from colloquial Indonesian languages in other provinces in Indonesia (IND), namely it does not adopt the IND
syntax system, but MAK instead. Third, CMI offset the nationalization of the use of colloquial Jakartan Indonesian
(hereinafter abbreviated as CJI) for the purposes of diglossia, namely IND is used in formal situations and regional
languages in informal situations within the internal ethnic sphere (see Nomoto, 2006, p. 98; Yılmaz, 2013), while CMI
exists to be used in informal situations that cross ethnic groups in the Province South Sulawesi.
Previously, Sneddon (2006, p. 14) had researched CJI. Unlike CMI, CJI is an informal variant of formal Indonesian.
However, CJI has become an informal variety of Indonesian that applies nationally. On that basis, in Makassar a
collective awareness arose to empower CMI. This is indicated by the emergence of a motto that reads, Makassar bisa

tonji! 'Makassar can too' which indicates the need to inflame the spirit of empowering local culture which is a symbol of
regional or regional pride and identity. In other words, strengthening the existence of CMI is intended as a form of
counterweight to the increasingly widespread use of CJI. In this regard, Arka (2016, p. 1) has mentioned the negative
influence of CJI on the Indonesian language. It is said that the suffix -in of CJI has its own place in Indonesian grammar,
but this suffix overlaps with the suffix -i/-kan in standard Indonesian grammar. However, what needs to be underlined is
that this Arka (2016) study states that the JCI morphosyntax remains a subsystem of the IND morphosyntax, not a local
language subsystem as is characteristic of the CMI syntax.
An article related to the topic of this paper is the writing of Mokhtar (2000, p. 219). This article discusses how the
Bugis language interferes with MIC morphologically. It is said that the dominant or productive ones that interfere with
the use of MIC morphologically are the morphemes -mi, -ji, and -pi. It seems it went unnoticed that these forms are
actually from MAK, not from Buginese except for the -pi morpheme. In addition, it is also not realized that these
morphological forms do not consist of one morpheme, but are two convergent morphemes, namely each morpheme -
ma-, -ja-, and -pa- is joined by a singular third person pronoun suffix -i.
The aim and focus of this study is to show the syntactic characteristics of CMI. In general, there are two things that
influence the characteristics of CMI syntax, namely (1) MAK morphological forms and (2) MAK sociopragmatic rules.
The morphological forms of MAK manifest in the use of pronominal affixes (Uhlenbeck, 1982). This causes a change
in typology, namely from S-V-O (IND) to V-S-O (MAK). The MAK sociopragmatic rule is the use of the inclusive
plural personal pronoun for the second person singular honorific. This will be explained one by one with examples of
each in this paper dominance of the use of CJI as an informal variant of Indonesian.
II. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The MAK sentence can be formed by a word, of course it is a word formation which plays a very important role in
this case are pronoun affixes. There are pronoun affixes in the form of prefixes and some are in the form of suffixes.
The two forms of affixes produce polymorphemic words which have the status of a grammatical single sentence.
Therefore, to understand the intricacies of the formation of MAK sentences, it is very important to study the pronoun
system first. In this case, besides having personal pronouns which are free morphemes, there are also personal marker
affixes which are bound morphemes (Darwis, 2014; Darwis & Kamsinah, 2018).
Grammatical sentences can be formed with personal marker affixes or simply called pronoun affixes, both with and
without free personal pronoun morphemes. In the form of personal pronouns in MAK, some are in the form of free
morphemes and some are in the form of bound morphemes (Jukes, 2013a, p. 101). The free morphemes can be seen in
the following table.
TABLE 1
THE FREE MORPHEMES OF MAK
Personal pronouns Personal pronouns
First singular inakke
First plural ikatte
Second singular:
familiar ikau
honorific ikatte
Third singular ia
Furthermore, pronoun affixes are divided into two, namely pronoun affixes for verbs and pronoun affixes for nouns.
The first is divided into two more, namely in the form of prefixes and those in the form of suffixes. The pronoun affixes
in question can be seen in the following table.
TABLE 2
THE PRONOUN AFFIXES OF MAK
Personal pronouns Personal pronoun prefixes to verbs
First singular ku-
First plural ta-
Second singular:
familiar nu-
honorific ta-
Third singular na-
The use of pronoun prefixes for the formation of verbs can be said to be simple because it does not require complicated
morphophonemic rules as is the case with the use of pronoun suffixes for verbs. Examples of the basic verb alle 'take' can
be formed into kualle 'I take', nualle 'you take', taalle 'we take', and na(a)lle 'he takes'. The pronoun suffixes to nouns and
verbs can be seen in the following Table 3 and Table 4.

TABLE 3
THE PRONOUN SUFFIXES TO NOUNS OF MAK
Personal pronouns Pronominal suffixes to nouns
First singular -ku
First plural -ta
Second singular:
familiar -nu
honorific -ta
Third singular -na
TABLE 4
THE PRONOUN SUFFIXES TO VERBS OF MAK
Personal pronouns Pronominal suffixes to verbs
First singular -(k)ak
First plural -kik
Second singular:
familiar -ko
honorific -kik
Third singular -i
The form of interference here is defined as the use of patterns or grammar from the source language which is
negative and leads to errors or unusual use of constructions in the target (recipient) language (Azzouz, 2013, p. 21;
Eppler, 2005, p. 63; Kamsinah et al., 2021). The interference has the characteristics of an idiolect and occurs
accidentally and causes systemic disturbances in the recipient's language, while borrowing has dialect characteristics
and is a deliberate form based on certain reasons, so it does not cause systemic disturbances in the recipient's language.
In other words, borrowing is a form of using borrowed words or phrases from other languages that stand alone and are
established (see Diallo, 2010; Esser, 2006; Hsin, 2014).
III. METHODOLOGY
The primary data of this study are IND sentences of informal varieties of Makassar city residents, both spoken and
written utterances, taken from public spaces, such as buying and selling interactions at traditional markets, public
transportation, and social media. Spoken speech was taken by tapping, either with or without speaking involvement,
while written data was taken by copy-paste. This data is then analyzed with a structural grammar theory approach. This
research was designed as qualitative research with grounded research efforts. That is, this research is not intended to test
the legitimacy of a theory, but instead seeks to produce a new theory based on the strengths of identification,
classification, and characterization of research data conducted in the research arena, so that the latest results are
obtained in classifying the phenomenon of language contact (between IND as national language and MAK as a regional
language in South Sulawesi).
IV. RESULT AND ANALYSIS

A. MAK Personal Pronoun Affixes
Personal pronoun affixes in MAK are divided into prefixes and suffixes. Personal pronoun prefixes construct verbal
clauses, while personal pronoun suffixes are divided into two more, namely suffixes that construct verbs and suffixes
that construct noun phrases with possessive meanings.
(a). Pronominal Prefixes on Verbs
In CMI there are also pronominal prefixes for verbs borrowed from MAK. These pronominal prefixes are divided
into the first person singular (p1sg), the second person singular familiar (p2sg-fam), the second person singular
honorific (p2sg-hon), and the third person singular (p3sg). The personal pronouns in question are ku- (p1sg), nu- (p2sg-
fam), ta- (p1pl), ta- (p2sg-hon), and na- (p3sg). Three of the four pronominal prefixes have equivalent concepts in IND,
namely the prefixes ku-, nu-, and na-. In this case, the p1sg prefix in IND is also expressed in the same form, namely
ku-, while nu- corresponds to kau-, and na- corresponds to prefix di-. Meanwhile, ta- does not have an equivalent in
IND. What characterizes CMI syntax is that these pronominal prefixes can be used in parallel with pronominal suffixes
in verbs in the construction of IND sentences
(b). Pronominal Suffixes
The syntactical behavior of MAK pronominal suffixes carries out three functions, namely (1) pronominal suffixes as
subject fillers (S), (2) pronominal suffixes as object fillers (O), and (3) pronominal suffixes as possessive meaning
constructors.
1. Pronominal Suffix as a Filler for S
There are at least six categories of words that can fill the P function in sentences, namely verbs, adjectives, numerals,
prepositions, adverbs, interrogatives, and nouns. Therefore, the characteristic of the CMI syntax is itself an inversion

pattern, namely P flows S. Below is an explanation and examples of each.

(1). Pronominal Suffixes to Verbs
The use of pronominal suffixes in verbs constructs two types of sentences, namely transitive verbal sentences and
intransitive verbal sentences. Transitive sentences construct P/S/O functional structures (VSO typology), while
intransitive sentences construct P/S functional structures.
i. Transitive verbal sentences
(66) Minumkak kopi.
Minum kak kopi
drink p1sg coffee
'I drink coffee.'
(67) Masakkak nasi goreng.
masak kak nasi goreng
cook p1sg fried rice
‘I cooked fried rice.’
(68) Menulisko buku dan naskah teater?
menulis ko dan buku dan naskah teater
write p2sg-fam and books and theater scripts
‘You write books and plays?’
Apart from that, there are still examples of sentences that confuse the IND and MAK syntax systems, resulting in
redundancy symptoms. Example:
(69) Saya minum kak kopi di warkop.
Saya minum kak kopi di warkop
P1sg drink p1sg at the coffee shop
‘I drink coffee at the warkop.’
Sentence (69) comes from two sentence systems, namely Saya minum kopi ‘I drink coffee’ (IND) and Minumkak kopi
‘drink-kak coffee’ (MAK).
ii. Intransitive verbal sentences
(70) Pulangkak tadi waktu Magrib.
Pulang kak tadi waktu Magrib
go home p1sg just now at Maghrib
‘I came home just now at Maghrib.’
(71) Masih tidurko, rupanya.
Masih tidur ko rupanya
still sleep p2sg-fam apparently
'You're still sleeping, apparently.'
(72) Mandikik dulu, sayang.
mandi kik dulu sayang
bathe p2sg-hon first honey
'You take a bathe first, honey.'
(73) Pulangngi ke Toraja.
pulang i ke Toraja
return p3sg to Toraja
'He returned to Toraja.'
(2). Pronominal Suffixes to Adjectives
(74) Malaskak pergi les.
Malas kak pergi les
lazy p1sg go lessons
‘I am too lazy to go to lessons.’
(75) Rajin-rajinkik bekerja, Deng.
rajin-rajin kik bekerja, Deng
diligently p2sg-hon work, Deng
‘You work diligently, Deng.’
(76) Beraniko datang?
berani ko datang
dare p2sg-fam come
berani p2sg-fam datang
‘Do you dare to come?’
(77) Lamai menunggu antrian.
lama i menunggu antrian

long p3sg waiting queue

'He's been waiting in line for a long time.'
(3). Pronominal Suffixes to Numerals
(78) Duakak (lulus).
dua kak
two p1sg
‘We are two (passed).’
(79) Duako (lulus).
dua ko
two p2sg
‘You are two (passed).’
(80) Duakik.
dua kik
two p1pl
‘We are two (passed).’
(81) Duai.
dua i.
two p3sg
‘They are two (passed).’
(82) Katanya sepuluhko, cuma delapan?
Katanya sepuluh ko, cuma delapan?
You saidten p2sg-fam only eight
‘You said, you are ten, only eight?’
(4). Pronominal Suffixes in Prepositions
(83) Di mobilkak sekarang.
Di mobil kak sekarang.
in car p1sg now.
‘I'm in the car now.’
(84) Iye, masih di sinikak (masih di Jakarta).
Iye, masih di sini kak
yes still prep here p1sg
'Yes, I'm still here (still in Jakarta)'
(85) Ke siniko (berkelahi).
Ke sini ko
Prep here p2sg
'You come here (to fight)'
(86) Ke sanakik dulu.
ke sana kik dulu.
Prep there p2sg hon first
'You go there first'.
(87) Dari Bonei tadi.
Dari Bone i tadi.
Prep Bone p3sg just now
'He's from Bone just now.'
(5). Pronominal Suffixes to Adverbs
(88) Sudahkak mandi tadi.
sudah kak mandi tadi
already p1sg bathes just now
‘I already bathes just now.’
(89) Pernahkik ke Parepare?
pernah kik ke Parepare
ever p2-hon to Parepare
‘Have you ever been to Parepare?’
(90) Selalukak capek.
selalu kak capek
always p1sg tired
'I'm always tired'
(91) Jarangi mandi.

jarang i mandi.
rarely p3sg bathe.
'He rarely bathes'
(6). Pronominal Suffixes to Nouns
(92) Kepala sekolahkak di situ.
Kepala sekolah kak di situ.
the principal of the school p1sg there
'I am the principal there'
(93) Orang basketkokah?
Orang basket ko kah
basketball person p2sg questions mark
‘Are you a basketball person?’
(94) Camatkik di sini?
Camat kik di sini
the head of the district office p2hon here
‘Are you the head of the district office here?’
2. Pronominal Suffix as Filler for O
Personal pronoun suffixes in verbs, namely -kak (p1sg), -ko (p2sg), -kik (p1pl), and -i (p3sg) can also fill the object
function (O) in transitive active sentences. Actually, the four pronominal suffixes in these verbs each have an equivalent
in IND. In this case, -ko corresponds to -mu, -kak corresponds to -ku, and -i corresponds to -nya. Example:
(95) Barupi lagi kulihatko muncul.
barupi lagi ku lihat ko muncul.
Just this again p1sg see p2sg appear
TEMP S P O COMP
‘It was only recently that I saw you appear.’
(96) Lamami nacarikak di semua tempat.
lamami na cari kak di semua tempat
for a long time p3sg look for p1sg all over the place
TEMP S P O LOK
I've been looking for sis all over the place
(97) Kapanna nulihatkak makan sayap?
kapanna nu lihat kak makan sayap.
When p2sg-fam see p1sg eating wings
TEMP S P O COMP
‘When did you see me eating (chicken) wings?’
(98) Besokpi nu lihat i, nah?
besokpi nu lihat i, nah
tomorrow p2sg-fam see p3sg OK
K S P O
‘You'll see him tomorrow, OK?’
3. Pronominal Suffix With Possessive Meaning
In CMI there are also pronominal suffixes to nouns: -ku (p1sg), -nu (p2sg-fam), -na (p3sg), and -ta (p1pl). All of
these come from MAK. Only the suffix -ta has no equivalent in IND, but is often substituted with inclusive first
personal plural pronoun. The previous third pronominal suffix has a similar equivalent in IND, namely the -ku suffix
corresponds to the same form, namely ku- too. As for -nu and -na, respectively, are equivalent and consonant with the
use of the forms -mu, and -nya in IND, for example, mentalku 'my mental', rumahnu ‘your house’, kantorna 'his office',
and so on. Example:
(99) Kupikir kenapa bisa selalukak capek padahal banyakji istirahatku, eh ternyata, mentalku yang lelah.
'I thought how come I'm always tired even though I've had a lot of rest, uh, in fact, mentalku ‘my mental’ was
tired.
(100) Kalo mauko datang tepat waktu damkar, telpon memangmi damkar baru nubakar rumahnu!
'If you want the fire department (fire engine) to arrive on time, you should have called the fire department
before you set your house (rumahnu) on fire.'
(101) Tadi siang singgahkak di kantorna teman. Kantorna itu 'kan baru satu tahun selesai direhab, tapi hancurnamo
itu gedungna.
'This afternoon I stopped at a friend's office. His office (kantorna) has only been rehabilitated for one year, but
what a ruined building it is.”
(102) Habismi datana.

habis ma i data na
finished PF p3sg data p3sg
'Data exhausted'
(103) Ikuti protokol kesehatan demi kesehatanta juga.
ikuti protokol kesehatan demi kesehatan ta juga.
follow health protocols for health p2-hon too
'Follow the health protocol for your health (kesehatanta) too'.
B. The Use of Inclusive Plural Personal Pronoun Affixes for the Second Person Singular Honorific
There are three inclusive personal pronoun affixes in MAK, namely the prefix ta- for verbs, the suffix -ta for nouns,
and the suffix -kik for verbs. All three tend to be used as the second personal singular honorific pronouns. This follows
the sociopragmatic rule in MAK, namely to greet the second person honorably (respect) using inclusive personal
pronouns. Example:
(104) Apa tabikin di Jogja?
apa ta bikin di Jogja
what p2sg-hon make in Jogja
‘What did you make in Jogja?’
(105) Mohon infota kalau ada.
mohon info ta kalau ada.
please info p2sg-hon if any
‘Mohon info Anda kalau ada.’
(106) Makanya, jangankik lale sekali jadi orang.
makanya jangan kik lale sekali jadi orang
so don't p2sg-hon flirtatious so as person
'So, don't be so flirtatious as a person.'
In the Makassar language civilization, as well as in the Bugis language, the first person plural form is used to greet
the second person respectfully. Therefore, the prefix ta- is often substituted with our inclusive plural personal pronoun:
kita (MAK: ikatte ‘we’) to address the second person singular.
(107) Maukik apa pergi berenang?
Mau kik apa pergi berenang?
want p2sg-hon what go swimming
‘What do you want to go swimming for?’
(108) Biar langsing badanku. Kan kalo langsingkak, kita tonji yang senang.
Kan kalo langsing kak, kita tonji yang senang
Well if slim p1sg, p2sg-hon too be happy
'Well, if I'm slim, you are happy too.'
(109) Kalo kita mau krim no WA-ta, nanti saya telfon.
if kita mau krim no WA-ta, nanti saya telfon.
If p2sg-hon want send number WA-p2sg-hon, I'll call later.
‘If you want to send your WA number, I'll call later.’
V. DISCUSSION
There are two prominent characteristics of the CMI syntax, namely (1) the typology of the CMI V-S-O and (2) the
inclusive plural pronoun used as the second person singular honorific pronoun (p2sg-hon). The explanation is that IND
actually has a typology of S-V-O (Subject-Predicate-Object) and MAK has a typology of V-S-O (Verb-Subject-Object).
Now CMI has a V-S-O (Verb-Subject-Object) typology, which means it follows the MAK typology. This is conditioned
by the use of MAK pronominal suffixes in six categories of words, namely verbs, adjectives, numbers, prepositions,
adverbs, and nouns. This pronominal suffix fills the syntactic function of the subject (S) and the six categories of words
fill the function of the predicate (P). So, the P function always precedes the S function (inversion pattern). This
resembles the typology of Arabic syntax, which often makes VSO and SVO word order patterns an alternative to Arabic
speech, both colloquial Arabic and standard Arabic (Belkacemi, 2013, p. 15; Fakih, 2016, p. 21; Davies, 2010).
However, Belkacemi hypothesizes that the VSO language is basically SVO (at the level of deep structure and typology
VSO is actually transformed from SVO with movements.
In Arabic there is an example of the sentence Anaa 'akaltu al'arz 'I eat rice'. This sentence follows the SVO word
order pattern. Another alternative is 'Akaltu al'arz 'I eat rice'. This sentence follows the VSO word order pattern. In the
second example, the subject of the sentence is marked by the pronominal suffix -tu, while in the first example, the
subject is filled with the first personal pronoun anaa 'I'. In CMI there is a word order pattern that is similar and more
varied. For example, Makankak nasi 'I eat rice. This sentence follows the VSO word order pattern. In fact, there are still
variations in the word order pattern of VSO Makankak saya nasi. However, this last example sentence seems to be
symptomatic of interference. This sentence is a form of MAK translation, A'nganreak nakke kanre 'I eat rice'. Another

alternative that follows the SVO word order pattern is Saya makankak nasi 'I eat rice'. This sentence structure is usually
used when the speaker aims to topicalize, namely to topic the agentive subject.
At first, the arrangement of sentences with the V-S-O typology or iversion pattern: P-S (Predicate-Subject) is still a
symptom of interference, but over time this has become a feature of borrowing (Sofiane, 2015; Haugen, 1950; Hamers
et al., 2000). In this paper, the forms of interference between MAK and IND can be classified into: (1) pronominal
suffixes for verbs, (2) pronominal suffixes for nouns, and (3) pronominal prefixes for verbs. For example:
(110) ..., tapi herankak saya, kenapa ia, kalo di dekattakak, serasa melayang-layangkak. (but I wonder why, when I'm
near you, it feels like I'm floating.)
The construction of Herankak saya clause is an example of a clause that is interfered with by MAK. In IND it is
suffice to say:
(110a) Saya heran
Saya heran
p1-sing wonder
(I wonder)
or in CMI it is suffice to say:
(110b) Herankak.
Heran kak.
wonder p1-sing
(I wonder)
As for the constructions (110c) and (110d):
(110c) di dekattakak
di dekat ta kak
pref near p2tg-hon p1-sing
(I'm near you)
(110d) melayang-layangkak
melayang-layang kak
floating p1-sing
(I'm floating)
At first these clause constructions may have been a symptom of interference, but such constructions are now widely
and deliberately used. A similar example is (111) below:
(111) Tidak maukak, deh, saya. Nanti namarahikak maceku.
(I don't want to, ah, I'll be scolded by my mother)
In example (111) there are two clause constructions:
(111a) Tidak maukak, deh, saya.
Tidak mau kak deh saya
Neg want p1sing ah p1-sing
(I do not want, ah)
(111b) Nanti namarahikak maceku.
Nanti na marah i kak mace ku
Later pref scolded suf p1-sing mother p1-sing
(Later, I was scolded by my mother)
The main reason is practicality. With the use of personal pronoun suffixes, the sentence that is built is only one
simple word, for example the sentence Saya heran ‘I wonder’ it is enough to say it with the short sentence Herankak ‘I
wonder’.
The use of inclusive plural pronouns as honorific singular second person pronouns (p2sg-hon) is due to the demand
for obedience to MAK sociopragmatic rules. According to Helmbrecht (2004), in some languages such innovative
plural pronouns are used to refer to the second person singular honorably. In this case, the respected second person is
not addressed with the familiar second person pronoun, but is addressed with the inclusive plural pronoun. Thus, the
familiar second person prefix in the verb: nu- is replaced by the first personal plural inclusive prefix of the verb: ta- or
the first plural inclusive pronoun: kita 'we'. Likewise, the familiar second personal pronoun suffix in nouns: -nu is
replaced with inclusive plural first person pronoun suffix in nouns: -ta or the first plural inclusive pronoun: kita 'we'.
The same sociopragmatic rule applies to the use of the second singular pronoun suffix in verbs: -ko is replaced with the
first plural plural inclusive suffix in verbs: -kik or the first plural inclusive pronoun: kita 'we'.
Actually, in IND there are a number of second person pronouns, such as kamu, anda, kamu, kau, dikau, dan mu
(singular) dan kalian, kamu, sekalian (plural) (see Moeliono et al., 2017, p. 340). However, none of these pronouns can
be chosen to express positive politeness as theorized by Brown and Levinson (1987). This void is filled by MAK
linguistic forms, namely -kik, -ta, and ikatte. The use of honorific second personal pronoun forms in CMI realizes the
two characteristics or reasons for using positive politeness as stated by Ide (2001). According to Ide (2001), politeness
can be voluntary in the use of oral strategies that reflect the speaker's intention to be in a polite atmosphere at certain
communication events. This is in line with the theory Brown and Levinson. In addition to this, politeness can also be a

person's assessment of social norms that exist in a society and is realized in certain linguistic forms.
In this connection, the use of honorific second plural personal pronouns is very important for CMI speakers to pay
attention to. This is caused by many aspects of cultural understanding, greeting second person honorably is necessary
because people want to avoid conflict, or at least avoid social sanctions, namely being ridiculed as uncivilized people.
Actually, norms like this do not only apply in CMI. In Arabic there are also similar speech norms. In this case, when the
second person is honored, we greet him with a plural second personal pronoun suffix, not a singular second personal
pronoun suffix. For example, the sentence Kaifa halukum (plural) 'How are you'. This sentence is more polite than
Kaifa haluka (singular) 'how are you' (Brown & Levinson, 1987).
In CMI there are four pronominal prefixes for verbs taken from MAK. Three of them are widely used in CMI
because the sentences are simpler and give a relaxed, intimate, or informal effect. This cannot be achieved with the IND
sentence construction. In this case, the prefix ta- (p1pl) has been explained above. The prefixes ku- (p1sg) and na- (p3sg)
can be used to construct simple sentences Kulihatko and Nalihatkak. Compare with the IND sentence: Saya melihatmu
“I see you’ and Dia melihatku ‘He looks at me’ longer and seems very formal and stiff. All of these are characterized by
borrowing, not interference anymore. In contrast to the use of the prefix nu- (p2sg), for example in the sentence Apa
nubaca still competes with the sentence IND: Apa kaubaca ‘What did you read’ in terms of practicality and informality,
so that there are still symptoms of interference to date.
VI. CONCLUSION
The characteristic of CMI syntax is that it tends to have an inversion pattern, namely the predicate (P) element of the
sentence precedes the subject (S). This happens because the S function is filled with pronominal suffixes. The P
function is filled by the categories of verbs, adjectives, adverbs, numerals, nouns, interrogatives, and demonstratives.
The most fundamental thing in this case is the change in language typology, namely CMI has been proven to have
adopted the V-S-O (Verb-Subject-Object) typology of MAK.
In the beginning, these suffixes were still characterized as interference, but finally they were in borrowing status. In
other words, interference becomes an entry point for borrowing the MAK syntax subsystem for CMI. This is caused by
three factors, namely the simplicity factor of sentence construction, the need to reflect cultural identity, and the factor of
informality or intimacy.
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Kamsinah is an associate professor in linguistics in the Department of English Literature, Faculty of Cultural
Sciences, Hasanuddin University, Makassar, Indonesia. She holds a bachelor's degree (1984) and a master's
degree (2003) as well as a doctoral degree in theoretical linguistics (2011) from Hasanuddin University,
Makassar, Indonesia.
Muhammad Darwis is a professor in linguistics in the Department of Indonesian Literature, Faculty of

Cultural Sciences, Hasanuddin University, Makassar, Indonesia. He holds a Bachelor's degree (Indonesian
Linguistics) at the Faculty of Letters, Hasanuddin University (1982), Master’s degree (1990), and doctoral
degree (1998) in the same field at the Postgraduate Program at Hasanuddin University, Makassar, Indonesia.
Ainun Fatimah is a lecturer in English in the Department of English Literature, Faculty of Cultural Sciences,
Hasanuddin University, Makassar, Indonesia. She holds a bachelor's degree (2009) and a master's degree
(2011) in applied linguistics from Hasanuddin University, Makassar, Indonesia.

Muhammad Nurahmad is a lecturer in Indonesian Language and Literature Education Department, Faculty
of Teacher Training and Education, Muhammadiyah University of Makassar, Indonesia. He holds a
Bachelor's degree (Japanese syntax) at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Hasanuddin University (2010), a
master’s degree (2015), and a doctoral degree (2021) in theoretical linguistics at the Faculty of Cultural
Sciences, Hasanuddin University, Makassar, Indonesia.
Muhammad Ali Imran is a lecturer in Indonesian Language and Literature Education Department, Faculty
of Teacher Training and Education, Muhammadiyah University of Makassar, Indonesia. He holds a
Bachelor's degree (psycholinguistics) at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Hasanuddin University (2012), a
master's degree at Gadja Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2014), and a doctoral degree in theoretical
and applied linguistics at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Hasanuddin University, Makassar, Indonesia
(2023).

ISSN 1799-2591
A Critique of Etaf Rum's A Woman Is No Man

Andaleen H. Al-Khateeb
Jordan University, Jordan
Mahmoud F. Al-Shetawi
Jordan University, Jordan
Abstract—Literature of diaspora has lately been widely acknowledged since the disporic generation embraces
Homi Baba's belief that "nations are narrations". For them, displacement combines the notions of de- and re-
inhabitation that are often regarded as related yet distinguishable processes of memory and identity formation.
Not surprisingly, the displacement experience has given rise to their consciousness of the importance of
constructing a counter-narrative. Most of the displaced resort to writing about their experience of migration
or about the hardships they face in their new destination, especially in challenging the stereotypical image that
has been "consciously" formed in the West. Arab- American diasporic women, in particular, have given rise to
their voices in an attempt to overdue the injustice caused by the Western gaze to their cases. Literature has
been their arena to call for presenting themselves and their own narratives to overdue the injustice caused by
both the patriarchal and the Western discourse. Etaf Rum, an Arab- American writer, wrote a novel in 2019
depicting the lives of three generations of a daisporic family. She zoomed in the lives of the female characters
while she was representing her own experience. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether Etaf Rum, in
her 2019 – novel A Woman is No Man, corrected or reinforced the stereotypical image of Arab women
constructed in the Western minds.
Index Terms—diaspora experience, Arab-American feminism, stereotypes
I. INTRODUCTION
Arab American women have occupied a controversial position in the mainstream literary discourse. They have
ardently and passionately maintained to make their presence visible and their voices heard through their arts.
Undoubtedly, their struggle has been intertwined with political, social, gender and ethnic discourses. In their attempts to
foreground their presence, they have articulated their aims of breaking the dichotomy of male/female, Arab/American,
Muslim/ non-Muslim and all of the other dichotomies that may restrain them. Also, they aim at negating the
stereotypical image associated with Arab women as compliant, mediocre and inferior who are easily lumped.
Noticeably, the struggle of Arab American women intensified in their diasporic sphere where they found themselves
also labeled by American Feminists as the ones who need to be "saved" from the oppression practiced on them. Though,
ironically enough American feminists have long been suffering from similar imperial, patriarchal system that operates
their movement and causes it to "be". Arab-American women found themselves excluded from the Feminist movements
in America under the claim that their problems and demands are far from the American's. Okin (1997) believes in the
imperfection of any other feminist movement than the American feminist. She justifies this by claiming that "the liberal
Western culture had departed far from its patriarchal past than others" which causes its superiority to other minor,
inferior cultures (p. 82). Okin's belief suggests that discrimination is also practiced among American feminism, as they
believe of their superiority over any "Others". Not surprisingly then that American feminists have limited the problems
of Arab and Arab American women to being "Hareem", "covered" and " passive creatures"; their flaw is that they fall in
what they stand against: categorization, limitations and exclusions. To provide a counter narrative, Arab- American
feminists comment that the" main problems according to American feminists are - the veil, the harem and the female
circumcises – [ that] don’t represent the only important issues for Arab and Arab- American women"(Abdelrazik, 2007,
p. 3). While for Arab-American and Arab feminists , the concerns are larger and wider; they look forward to having
"writing- woman" not" written- woman", to getting the right of education, equality , self- representation and freedom of
thoughts. Hatem (1998) in her essay "The Invisible American Half: Arab American" states that the core of Arab
American feminism is "to increase public awareness of issues affecting Arab American feminists and to eliminate
negative stereotypes of Arabs" (p. 19).
Following this statement, many of Arab American women found themselves responsible to confront the proliferated
and wide-spread prejudices and presuppositions "created" and curved in the Western mind; This has been done by
correcting the image and representing a better understanding of Arab and Arab American women's pride of their culture,
religion and the homes they belong to, while showing their loyalty to the land they migrate to, too.
Etaf Rum, an Arab American writer, published her novel A Woman is no Man in 2019 depicting the life of three
generations of diasporic Arab American females. She explored the agonies and the turbulent experiences of being an
Arab, Muslim woman in the United States. Hence, the aim of this paper is to investigate whether Etaf Rum, in her
novel, negates or asserts the stereotypical image of Arab American women.


st
American literature of the late 21 century has witnessed and undergone various changes by being more culturally
inclusive; it starts to be written by writers of different cultures, ethnic groups and genders. This is largely due to the
rising consciousness of the importance of knowing "the other". This understanding enriches the American literature and
makes it more marketable. Not surprisingly, one of the profound influences on the literature in the USA traced back to
women's movement of the 1970s which called for being invisible and accredited through entering the public sphere and
stopping the "silencing" of women's voice. Women started to increase their publications because their writings can be
critically studied as "intersections" between gender, race, gender, ethnicity and the notion of hyphenated, fluid identities.
Thus, women produced literary texts that address crucial issues defining their existence and presence in culture. A
reader notices that the question of identity, especially in the writings of the diasporic female, becomes a key arena of
exploration. Abdelrazik (2007) elaborates, that "the issue of identity is further complicated in that gendered
constructions of women differs among cultures and sub-cultures, thus, acquiring additional negotiations". However, she
notes that, in spite of all the complications, the writings of Arab-American women "become the norm rather than the
exception or the effaced" (p. X).
In a larger and wider scale, the experience of diaspora has revealed many navigated difficulties for the Muslim and
Arab American writers. This tension and difficulty intensify in the aftermath of 9/11 attacks where they become visible
and under the radar – as if they hadn’t previously been part of the American cultural fabric. The attacks have urged the
diaspora to construct "distinct identities" marked by being dynamic, fluid and hybrid. The state of in-between cultures is
doubled when addressing Muslim Arab- American women, where women's writing should take a stand and be
committed to the issues of women in the new sphere.
Many questions, concerning identities, arose and haunted the writings of Arab American female writers. These
questions investigate what it means to be an Arab- American woman, who is not totally Arab neither fully American?
What does it also mean to hold a hyphenated identity and not to belong? And what does it mean to "appear" as an Arab
as lensed by the West? Some writers have furthered their writings to question their restricting Arab culture compared to
the "seemingly" promising American culture , only to find out that women are culturally in- structured and whenever
women go, they have to meet the expectations of their cultures in terms of appearance, duties, behavior and
opportunities allowed. It is worth mentioning that Muslim Arab- American women's identity-definition is rather
complicated in the Western culture due to their attempts to defy the stereotypical image of Muslim Arab women, who
are seen as "veiled, uncivilized, uncultured, abused" creatures. These writers have asserted that cultural practices –
worldwide- and the dominating imperial patriarchal gaze are the reasons for cultivating and nourishing such images,
and not religious doctrines. It appears that the burden of Muslim Arab-American writers is a heavy one due to the
intersections of the issue – as mentioned previously.
Arab- American women resort to writing as a form of resistance, Abdelrazik (2007) clarifies that "[women] use their
writings to resist the East, with its fundamental, oppressive regimes as well as the West, which sees them as
domesticated, and/or unenlightened other" (p. 2). Therefore, writing is seen as a double- resisting method. Moreover,
their writing is a way to define what it means to "be" and to depict their "being" journey by creating what Homi Bhabha
called a "thirdspace"; a place where "the negotiation of the incommensurable differences creates a tension peculiar to
borderline existence" (p. 218). Bhabha envisages a cultural space in which cultures clash and differences are respected
and advocated without any attempt to homogenize. Trinh T Min-ha (2005), whose work defies national borders and
resists singular definitions, has developed Bhabha's concept of the "third-space" in her essay "Other Than Myself / My
Other Self ". She defines it as " not merely derivative of first and second [space]. It is a space of its own that allows the
emergence of new subjectivities that resist letting themselves being settled … It gives a rise to an elsewhere- within-
here- there … which is impossible to contain (p. 19). For her, the disporic space is definitely a call to go beyond the
fabricated cliché.
Feminists, as many other right-callers, in their third space refuse categorizing, fixity and limitations. They prefer
living in a fluid- third space where the dichotomies of (male/ female – Arab/ non-Arab – Muslim – Non- Muslim) are
broken and structures are deconstructed. They celebrate difference and diaspora rather than roots which are rigid, static
and fixating. They draw upon what Edward Said (2000), in his memoire Out of the place, described saying "I
occasionally experience myself as a cluster of flowing clusters. I prefer this to the idea of a solid self, the identity to
which so many attach so many significance. These currents, like the themes of one's life, flow among during the waking
hours, and at their best, they require no reconciling, no harmonizing. They are "off" and maybe out of the place, but at
least they are always in motion, sometimes against each other contrapuntally. Yet, without any central theme… a form
of freedom" (p. 245).
Feminism finds their third-space "a healing process" since they recognize that you can live as an Arab or as an
American without losing your true self to one culture. Here, they resonate with Said's (1998) argument in Culture and
Imperialism that "no one today is purely one thing. Labels like Indian or woman or Muslim, or American are not more
than starting points, which if followed into actual experience for only a moment, are quickly left behind… just as
human beings make their own history; they also make their culture and ethnic identities" (p. 330) and "the rendezvous"
of the meeting culture would spring into a more distinct, powerful and fluid identity.

However, Arab Feminism in its way to establish a best understanding of what it means to be a feminist, has not
neglected the fact that they are misrepresented not only by the phallocentric discourse but rather by the American
feminists who consider Arab and Arab-American women as" passive victims of patriarchal oppression who need saving
" (Abdelrazik, 2007, p. 2).
The writings of Arab American women are means of resistance. Most of them have geared their efforts mainly to
negate the stereotypical images of Arab women as passive, silent and unwilling. Arab American women have gained
their position in the literary world especially in the aftermath of 9/11 attacks. It is felt that most female Arab writers
wrote to build bridges with other cultures by telling their agonies which are " intensified with the ethnic profiling and
the rising xenophobia towards Arabs and Muslims in the post 9/11/2001 United States" (p. xxxv). They have voiced
their rejection of the" either- or "formula by showing pride of their own culture and their respect to the American
society, which they have been for a long time part of its fabric. Among these writers is Leila Ahmed, who sets herself
the goal to dismantle negative stereotypes associated with Arab Muslim women as submissive, negative and unwilling.
Her writings show that women are in an active resistance to alter the "frozen misconceptions" and biased American lens.
Alike, Diana Abu Jabir uses her pen to uncover the particularities of diasporic Arab women's own history; she shows
pride in her own culture and enhances a positive image of Arab American women who are able to assert their own
identities and negate the stereotypical negative image. She has also questioned some practices of people of her culture
and of the American's culture as well. The writings of Zeina Zaatari, describe her own experience and her" eagerness
not to fit the stereotype can translate into naï
ve attempt to make the other see you as a human being, a willingness to be
the token Arab or the token Muslim" (Abdelhadi et al., 2014, p. 62). She feels the "brunt" of marginalizing and labeling
their issues of concerns as well as the burden of defending one's identity. Hence, these Arab American writers and
activists contribute to the project of humanizing Arab and Arab American women. However, some other female writers
find it easier to assert and stress the stereotypical image of Arab women and to blame culture and religion for "the
passive positions" women are put in. These writers resort to satisfying the Western taste in order to promote their
writings despite the shortcomings of adopting the Orientalists' discourse. It is true that each community has its
"questioned" cultural practices, but one cannot argue that these "minor" practices are representative and all-inclusive of
the whole culture.
In short, Arab Feminists repudiate both the Western and the Eastern male constructions of controlling because they
"know" better. Thus, Feminists embrace Spivak's (2008) urge for the subaltern to speak as an intellectual who has
"circumscribed task which is must not disown with a flourish" (p. 104). Etaf Rum follows this urge and represents her
own experience as an Arab American woman. She explores the territories of representing, voicing and owning one's
narrative. In so doing, has Rum asserted or negated the stereotypical image of Arab American women?
III. A CRITIQUE OF A WOMAN IS NO MAN
The prologue opens with Deya, a third generation Arab- American diasporic female, who "was born without a
voice, … [she] didn’t know [she] was mute until years later when [she] opened her mouth to ask for what [she] wanted
and realized no one could hear [her]". This realization of Deya's own state has empowered her to tell what is used to be
thought as an "ultimate shame". The novel is divided into three parts with different chapters and each chapter is entitled
with a name of one of the three main female characters – each one of the characters stands for a generation: Fareeda, the
grandmother, represents the first generation of the diasporic family, Isra represents the second generation and Deya
stands for the third generation. In doing so, Rum has prioritized the female view points and geared her narratives
towards the narratives of women.
As readers, we expect that Rum is reinforcing the stereotypical image of the Arab culture that oppresses and silences
women. However, in an interview with the CGCC Amman, Rum clarifies that she intends to represent the three
generations of only one family to assert that the life of this family doesn’t necessarily represent the whole Arab
community and culture. In so doing, Rum attempts to "voice" the unvoiced and to zoom in one of the practices of the
Arab patriarchal system that she hopes her novel will put an end to by raising awareness of the sufferings of some
women and men, too. This patriarchal system has not only breaded Khalid and Adam, who used to beat their wives and
submit to the societal expectations, but also it breaded Fareeda, whose "shame of her gender is engraved in her bones".
She is practicing power over the other members of her family – mainly Adam, Isra and Sarah to meet the expectations
of her culture and to preserve it.
After Experiencing the trauma of Nakbah, which uprooted her from her homeland in Palestine, Fareeda survived the
frustrations of the displacement by trying to keep her culture alive. She expects that all what she experienced back in
her homeland is to be practiced in the Arab community in Brooklyn. Thus, she overloads her eldest son with
responsibilities to run the family's firm neglecting his dream of becoming Imam. Also, she expects her daughters - in-
law to be obedient and submissive. Moreover, she advocates arranged marriage and supports the male gaze of valuing
women by appearance. However, since no one is purely one thing, Fareeda sometimes reconsiders her own
understanding of culture, she "knew that no matter what any woman said, culture could not be escaped. Even if it meant
tragedy… it took more than woman to do things differently. It took a world of them" (p. 88). This awakening, that
Fareeda has experienced, is the hope to aspire women to stand up for their own rights. Fareeda's recognition of her
"wrong" practices of culture shows her resilience and this made her "a true warrior". For a better understanding of

Fareeda's character, the reader has to link her behaviors to what she has been through in the refugee camp in Palestine
where the "tragedy of Nakba bulging in her veins… She knew that the suffering of women started in the suffering of
men… and it was this awareness of the hurt behind the hurt that had enabled her to see past Khaled's violence over the
years and not let it destroy her" (p. 41). Fareeda, is by definition, a considerate character because she understands well
the powerlessness, the weakness men felt after the Nakbah. She believes that what redeems Khaled's past actions is the
setbacks he has undergone during the Nakbah. No wonder then that Rum depicts two parallel characters of Khaled. One
in the memories of Fareeda, where he is presented as an abuser, a stereotypical male who favored sons to daughters and
who believed that the only duty of a woman is to care for a family. Whereas, Khaled of the present time is someone
who thinks that reading books can enlighten a girl's mind and that "what is wrong is forbidding books" not reading them.
He also believes that there is no difference between sons and daughters. He even regrets failing his daughter earlier in
her life. I think that Rum has had the responsibility of bringing all the dimensions of the characters, despite the
difficulty of this mission, to assert that diasporic are fluid characters and that they are not easily categorized.
Accordingly, one cannot label Fareeda or Khaled because women sometimes are oppressors and men are victims and
vice versa.
Rum, in an attempt to reinforce her intention of shedding the light on one family not the whole community, has
introduced the character of Umm Ahmed. Umm Ahmed, an Arab American Muslim woman, appreciates her daughters
and values their presence in life. "What would we have done without our daughters? Fatima and Hannah do everything
for me. I wouldn’t trade them for thousand sons" (p. 64). She is also a considerate, helpful and a friendly mother-in –
law. She helps her daughter-in –law and gets her served. She sympathizes with her because she is alone in America
"you all remember how it felt coming to America? We came without a mother or a father. Just a husband and a handful
of kids. Do you remember how it felt when our husbands went off to work in the morning leaving us alone? My
daughter-in-law is here alone. The same way I was. The least I can do is help her" (p. 65). Moreover, when her eldest
daughter Fatimah was getting divorced because of the ill-treatment she received, the whole family supported her
decision and the only thing they cared about was their daughter's safety and her peace of mind. They didn’t pay much
attention to "reputation" in a cultural sense.
The difficulties that Arab- American women face are variant, starting from confronting both the private and the
public spheres, to telling their stories of this confrontation. Telling one's story is definitely the power of female writers.
Thus, they employ the iconic, symbolic figure of Scheherazade in their own writings and Etaf Rum is no exception. In
the novel, Scheherazade is the role model for Isra; she likes the notion that this female character was capable of
narrating stories for her life because this shows "strength and resilience of women. Scheherazade's stories were
resistance. Her voice was a weapon – a reminder of the extraordinary power of stories, and even more the strength of a
single woman (p. 44). By definition, "Scheherazade represents one of the strongest and cleverest heroines in world
literature. Scheherazade triumphs because she owns endlessly inventive and artistically creative talent… the spirit of
Scheherazade persists in Arab-American women who use their art and storytelling as a powerful means of resistance,
naming their experience and teaching others how to heal and to kill the beast of doubt in them" (Abdelrazik, 2007, p.
104). This has empowered Isra, towards the end, to sacrifice herself in order to save her daughters' future and to open
the door for them to pursue their dreams. Her eldest daughter, Deya, learns the lesson of the importance of self-love and
telling one's story. Deya who describes herself as voiceless and mute, ends up telling her own story and owning the
narratives of the three generations. Not only does Deya function as a transitional, and a voiced character but also as a
character to defend Arab Feminism against American Feminism. She alludes to "The Yellow Paper", written by Alice
Walker, to clarify that not only Arab women suffer from cultural expectations and discrimination, but American women
as well. Rum, in her novel, allows Deya to read "The Yellow Paper"; one of the most influential, radical stories in the
archive of American feminism. In her reading of “The Yellow Paper”, Deema Ammari (2015) examines the “Bed Rest”
as “an oppressive psychological method which carried negative connotations … being exclusively practiced on women”
(p. 2). In “The Yellow Paper”, the protagonist is in the status of “awakening” as she realized being imprisoned within
the patriarchal patterns and this awakening is “abnormal” according to the social norms as this indicates a rebel against
and a question of who is to determine what is normal and what is not, what is accepted and what is not, what is
“feminine” and what is “masculine”. A threat that would shake the solidity of the ground on which the patriarchal
system stands. Hence, a treatment should be offered to “mad” women,who attempt at scrambling the image of women
as “ Angels of the House “to enter the public sphere. This treatment is known as “The Bed Rest” for women. In A
Woman is No Man, Fareeda accused Isra of being possessed and of suffering from mental disorder only because she
started to question her status in the world. It seems that Rum wants, by allowing Deya to read "The Yellow Paper", to
stress that the concepts of mental health and normality are part of the constructed norms and values which are read in
the light of culture. For centuries, madness and instability have been gendered and have been metaphorically considered
a female attribute. Throughout history, images of mental illness in women send the message that women are weak,
dangerous, and require containment. These images are destabilized by women represented in cinema, visual arts and
literature for better understanding of “madness” as a state of in-between that women want to overcome. Doing so, Rum
writes back to the American Feminists as well as to the patriarchal system that confines Arab American women.
Being a Muslim has intensified the agonies of Arab American women, and Rum has depicted the inconvenience Isra
and Deya have gone through because of their veils. For instance, Isra has been advised not to wear her hijab in a public

sphere because she would be easily recognized as an outsider and this would cause her problems. Years later, her
daughter Deya confronts the public sphere and the American society wearing hijab and she was easily pointed.
Definitely, Rum was writing in the aftermath of 9/11 attacks that have escalated the difficulties that minorities have
endured.
Finally, the doctrines of Islam have been long accused of motivating the sufferings of Arab American women and
Rum finds it necessary to defend Islam and to provide others with a better authentic image of Islam. She presented
Brother Hakeem, the teacher of Islamic studies, who asserts that "mothers carry the entire family- arguably the entire
world – on their shoulders. That's why heaven lies under their feet. That is how we are told to treat women in the
Quran" (p. 141). Rum, undeniably, reminds us of the important position women have in Islam and how the doctrines of
Islam are more respectful to women everywhere. She even hints to the idea that daughters are means of salvation.
IV. CONCLUSION
Though Etaf Rum has presented a stereotypical image of Arab women, she has successfully maintained to enter the
dark territory and to make her female characters speak up their minds and decide on their future. She has not presented
a black- white story because no culture or nation is purely one thing. She has made the transition in the first generation's
attitude an opening door for the third generation to search for their own identity and to narrate their own stories. A
female character at last owned the narration and was able to tell her own story and this is definitely the value of self-
representation.
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[17] Spivak, G. C. (1988). "Can the Subaltern Speak?" In C. Nelson & L. Grossberg (Eds.) Chicago.
[18] Steven, Slaita. (2007). Arab American Literary Fiction, Culture and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan.
[19] Zaatari, Zeina. (2014). "In the Belly of the Beast: Struggling for Nonviolent Belonging". In Arab and Arab American Feminism.
Syracuse University Press, (60- 77).
Andaleen H. Al-Khateeb: was born in UAE in 1985. She is a PhD student of English Language and Literature in the School of
Foreign Languages, Jordan University. She received her MA. degree in English Literature from Jordan University in 2011.
She is currently an English Language teacher in Jordan and she worked as a lecturer and coordinator at Najran University in KSA.
She is interested in Postcolonial studies, Literature of Diaspora and Arab Feminism.
Mahmoud F. Al-Shetawi: was born in Jordan in 1954. H received his PhD from The University of Illinois, UrbanaChampaign in
1983.
He is currently a full professor in the School of Foreign Languages, Jordan University, Jordan. His research interests include
Modern Literature, Drama and Poetry, Post-colonial studies.
He has held many memberships in a number of editorial boards and academic societies like Member of the editorial board of
Jordan Journal for Modern Languages and Literature, 2007-2011, and 2016 until now Associate editor, International Journal of
Arabic-English Studies (IJAES), 2014- until now Member of the editorial board of Jordan Journal of the Arts, 2007-2011 Member of
the editorial board of Abhath al-Yarmouk (Literature and Linguistics), 2004-2006 International Shakespeare Association (ex-member)
Member of Committee of Correspondents/ World Shakespeare Bibliography Member of Jordanian Translators’ Association
International Comparative Literature Association (ex- member).

ISSN 1799-2591
Debating the Mixed Gender Classroom and Saudi

Female Students Visibility in Coeducation
Eman AlJuhani
Jubail Industrial College, Royal Commission of Jubail, Jubail, Saudi Arabia
Abstract—In Saudi Arabia, the country is making strides to improve its educational sector, specifically in
coeducation. While the concept of female students in leadership positions is novel in this country, the
government is endeavoring to reduce gender segregation and same-sex education in schools, to empower
women. There are already existing coeducation opportunities for females pursuing undergraduate levels in
medical majors, including for scholarship pursuits outside the nation. Many universities aim to enroll
thousands of students in Saudi Arabia's first coeducational higher-education programs. Furthermore, studies
show that education can be even more reinforced through enhancing ESL methods in this higher education,
enabling both male and female graduates to compete with peers worldwide. Therefore, this study examined
three Saudi ESL students who took English classes at Root Hall, Union University (pseudo name), exploring
their viewpoints about mixed-gender classrooms and their influence on English language development. The
results determined that their confidence significantly improved through coeducational programs and English
language proficiency.
Index Terms—coeducation, ESL, ELTE, TCs, mixed-gendered
I. INTRODUCTION
Saudi Arabia has made a notable shift in recent years to empower females within the workplace. Unfortunately, these
same advancements have not been applied to the country's educational system. Many schools and universities still
segregate students based on gender, providing only same-sex or single-gender educational opportunities. These
practices are founded upon Arab culture and traditions, including traditional Islamic interpretations, especially since this
has discouraged men and women from interacting socially. This has led to strict enforcement of gender separation
within the educational system, as both cultural and religious aspects inherent in the country have tainted these systems.
However, there have been recent strides to address this issue, aiming at empowering females in the country. The
Saudi government has invested energy and time to improve the educational system, allowing women to enroll in
universities that have traditionally only served men (Al Munajjed, 2009). These efforts have led to more women
receiving higher education. Literacy rates for women in Saudi Arabia were only 2% in 1970, but only four decades later,
this rate has increased to 91%, compared to 97% for men (Al-Rasheed, 2013). Saudi officials claim that they have
almost eliminated illiteracy among younger generations of women (World Economic Forum, 2014). According to
Tanveer (2021), recent statistics from the Saudi education ministry show that almost 52% of university graduates were
women in 2014, with over 35,000 female Saudis studying abroad. This increasing prevalence of education among
women in Saudi Arabia may be attributed to the fact that females face more social restrictions, which subsequently
encourages them to pursue this advanced education (Cordesman, 2003).
II. THEORITICAL RATIONALE

The theoretical rationale for this research is derived from feminist theory. This theory focuses on the idea that gender
is socially constructed and that the current patriarchal system creates unequal opportunities for women. The feminist
theory seeks to challenge these inequalities and create a society that recognizes the importance of gender equality. The
debate around mixed-gender classrooms and Saudi female students' visibility in coeducation is an important one as it
seeks to challenge the traditional gender roles that have been assigned to Saudi female students (Sousa, 2006). It creates
an environment where they can feel visible and be given the same opportunities as their male counterparts (Sousa,
2006). This can be seen as a way of challenging patriarchal norms that have been in place in Saudi Arabia for centuries
and creating a more equitable educational environment. Feminist theory also argues that education is an essential tool
for creating social change and that it has the potential to create a more equitable society.
By challenging traditional gender roles in the classroom, Saudi female students can be allowed to develop their skills
and be given the same educational opportunities as their male peers. The main idea behind co-education is that it helps
to promote interaction and collaboration between both sexes, which can lead to increased understanding between
genders and foster a more equitable and tolerant social culture. Studies have shown that mixed-gender classrooms can
promote higher academic achievement, as both sexes can benefit from a richer range of educational experiences
(Gardner, 2011; Gurian, 2009; Levine, 2002; Sax, 2005). It can help to create a more inclusive and equitable society

and create an environment where female students are given the same respect and opportunities as their male
counterparts.
Many studies have focused on the benefits of single-sex education. For example, Hughes (2006) found that public
school single-sex environments are conducive to improved student achievement, particularly for minority students, such
as those in poverty. This is because there are better behaviors within these single-sex classrooms, with teachers
concentrating on learning-style differences (Hughes, 2006). By offering single-sex education, students are given
opportunities to learn in environments that do not have as many distractions (related to the other sex), highlighting the
prioritization of academic performance; furthermore, teachers can develop curricula tailored to each sex (Hughes, 2006).
The theoretical framework in this research study is based on the concept of gender segregation and its implications
on society. This paper focuses on the debate around the implementation of gender-mixed classrooms in Saudi Arabia
and how it impacts the visibility of female students in coeducation. The theoretical framework of this paper is rooted in
gender studies, which examines the role of gender in society. The paper then draws on sociological theories such as
symbolic interactionism and social constructionism, emphasizing the importance of interactions between individuals
and the meanings attributed to those interactions (Gurian et al., 2008). These theories help to explain how gender
segregation can create an environment of gender inequality and how it impacts the visibility of female students in
coeducation. The authors also draw on feminist theories to explore the power dynamics between men and women in
society's education. This is done to analyze further the effects of gender segregation on female students and their
visibility in coeducation. Finally, the paper applies postcolonial theory, which examines how power is distributed in
societies with a history of colonialism. This is used to explore the implications of traditional gender roles and how they
can be challenged through the implementation
A. ESL Education and Identity Conceptualization

Studies show that language educators in ESL classrooms frequently do not consider their students' cognitive or
emotional characteristics (Jackson, 2008; Parkinson & Crouch, 2011). This is a necessity in this learning process. In a
recent meta-analysis, 184 studies were analyzed on the effects of single-sex and coeducational schooling on students
(Pahlke et al., 2014). This represented 1.6 million students from 21 nations throughout Grades K-12, with multiple
outcomes examined, including mathematics, science, educational aspirations, self-concept, and gender stereotyping.
B. English Language Learning and Gender Identities—Single-Gender Education
Single-gender education exists in other societies besides Islam, such as Europe and the U.S. Many schools have been
single-gendered, with core courses in parallel education. Studies have shown both the advantages and disadvantages of
these single-gendered educational systems. For example, a systematic review at Union University (UU) which was
undertaken in 2005, compared single-sex schooling to coeducational. The researchers failed to find sufficient evidence
to indicate that single-gender education was superior to coeducation. However, other research has stated that single-
gender programs have their benefits. They enable female students to feel more comfortable expressing themselves when
there are no males in the classrooms (Salomone, 2006). Furthermore, a UCLA study corroborated these findings,
determining that single-gendered classrooms allow teachers and professors to spend more time with the students and
help prevent any awkwardness (Stets & Burke, 2003).
Within Saudi Arabia, male and female students are separated within higher education, although recent changes have
allowed male professors to teach both male and female students in graduate programs (Alsuwaida, 2016). At the local
university in Riyadh, several video conferencing classes are taught by male professors, which have both male and
female students. However, group discussions were not possible with the setup, while there were other challenges,
including not being able to see the blackboard.
C. Test Scores Data
A comparative study was conducted at Root Hall and Saint Mary of the Wood, with data, gathered and then analyzed
(Barry, 2019). The goal was to compare the achievements of Saudi female students enrolled in a coed class to those of
female students enrolled in a single-gendered class at UU.
TABLE 1
FEMALE STUDENTS’ SCORES IN THE ESL CO-ED CLASS BY THE END OF THE SEMESTER
Institute n Mean SD
Graduate
Interlink 20 87 28
SMOW 16 91 20
36 89 24
Undergraduate
Interlink 49 79 28
SMOW 32 56 26
81 68 28

The results showed that female students in Root Halls’ LLL coed class (undergraduate level) were in the 50th
percentile in mean achievement score, which was very close to the female students in Saint Mary of the Wood’s single
education class (graduate level). However, this graduate class was still below the 50th percentile, indicating the
students’ achievement was not as great as that in the undergraduate coed class. Statistical analysis, including Cohen’s
and mean scores, determined there was not a meaningful effect (d = .12) in the LLL classes, while there was a slight
effect (d= .19) in the graduate class.
IV. METHODS
A. Research Design
A case study was undertaken on four Saudi female students enrolled at a Saudi university. The aim of the study was
for these students to engage in reflection while carefully examining their language skills development. They were
expected to reflect on their experience-based assessment by comparing their learning in both coed and single-gendered
classes. The participants were told to reflect upon their experiences from KG to 12, noting similarities and differences,
including barriers and challenges, between mixed-gendered classrooms and single-gendered classrooms they had been
enrolled in over the years. Using journaling to collect student data, a narrative research approach was utilized to
examine this lived experience.
Additionally, interviews were conducted, enabling students to discuss these experiences with the researchers.
Observations were made on how the students spoke and "how" they reflected upon these lived experiences, noting facial
expressions, tone, and pauses. This enabled the researchers to capture the students' past, present, and future perceptions
of these classrooms. Unfortunately, there were no video recordings for the researchers to examine after the interviews.
B. Participants and Context
The narrative was focused on four Saudi female students aged between 22 and 23 years’ old who were enrolled in the
ESL program offered at UU. Furthermore, they all had similar demographics and backgrounds, as they were from mid-
class families and had studied in public schools before enrolling in the ESL program. This program offered a coed class
setting, which was noticeably different from the predominantly single-education classes with which the two students
had previous experience. A comparative case study research design was chosen, as this enables a more comprehensive
reflection on the impacts of society on people's experiences. Since the study design is founded upon socio-cultural
theories of education, it is a preferable choice for investigating policy and practice (Bartlett & Vavrus, 2019). Finally,
the sampling used in this study was convenient, since there were only two students who participated.
C. Data Collection and Analysis
There were two primary data sources, including bi-weekly journals and semi-structured interviews. These interviews
provided narrative frames within which the spatiotemporal dimensions of the participants' experiences could be gleaned.
Furthermore, the researchers also gathered information such as English language learning histories and biographical
identities of the four students. Five in-depth interviews were performed, with participants being interviewed for about
45 minutes to an hour through the Google meet application. This enabled the researchers and participants to engage in
voice-note conversations which could be recorded, enabling the interviews to be transcribed later so they could be
analyzed. The researchers then chronologized the information so the participants' experiences could be more easily
examined. This enabled the four classroom settings to be more successfully compared. The data were analyzed by
Dedoose, which aided in data analysis, codification, and identification of themes.
V. FINDING AND DISCUSSION
A. Tension and Gender Identity

According to Howe et al. (2006), interactive activities should be included in student learning programs to increase the
interactions between students from diverse backgrounds. The participants in the current study effectively utilized
interactive activities to connect with other students to learn about the topics such as politics and power that were
formerly restricted to them (Jackson, 2008). There is an indication that when the language learning experience is made
more interactive and pleasant, it supports the ability of the students to gain understanding and knowledge. One of the
participants explained how she was obliged to convince her family to cross borders of societal traditions by
accomplishing her domestic duties. When faced with the pressure of tight schedules at university and home, the students
opt to devote themselves to the subjects they view as essential, mainly the major subjects. Major subjects are mostly
prioritized since they have more credit points and marks. Since the university offers the ESL course as minor, female
students find it difficult to prioritize it, despite it being essential in advancing their language skills and gaining
confidence. One participant indicated that she mainly studies ESL topics that can be discussed in class or those that can
be examined. The engagement of female students in the ESL programme is reduced to the bare minimum of passing
examinations mainly due to the pressures they face at the university and at home.

A large part of the semi-structured interviews involved questioning the participants regarding how their gender
identities interact with the new ESL classroom environment, their learning responsibilities, and how the interactions
affected their learning experiences. One of the main themes from the semi-structured interviews is that the participants
primarily perceive coeducation in a higher education institute as a chance for them to challenge the individualities
imposed on them by society. The bi-weekly journals also showed that both participants tried to participate in all the
university's educational activities. Through the interviews, the participants also stated that studying English was
essential to their university life since it helped them build confidence throughout their ESL program. Female students
perceive that when they use English to interact with other students, they are seen as individuals who are not constrained
in their societal roles. One of the participants shared her reflection as follows:
Growing up, I always assumed that men thought females existed only to work in houses. But now I know we
can do more. Through studying, a woman can become an important person who builds society […] besides
having the right motivation, and one must also have English language skills to understand the teachings. As
females, we are more motivated to study hard due to past experiences that we may have had regarding our
gender. We aim to change our lives. Studying English gives us the confidence and skills to complete our
education.
B. ESL and Imagined Border Crossing
Analysis of the participants' bi-weekly journals depicted the variances between the new ESL program experience in
Root Hall and that of their previous public school. One participant stated in her journal that she was now more self-
confident about joining classroom discussions and demonstrating that she has the same capabilities as the male gender.
According to Howe et al. (2006), by giving students a chance to learn and practice the language in class, the ESL
program assists in creating the students' confidence. The program sometimes mainly utilizes activities such as debates to
generate student discussions. Both the journals and the interviews depict that the students view debates as an activity
that allows them to negotiate using English and learn the meaning of different words. The more interested they got in
the debate activities, the more they got the encouragement to use other resources to further their English language skills,
understanding, and knowledge. One of the students notes in her journal that at first, she did not know how to speak in
front of the male students, but most of them were devoted to supporting her, and thus she managed to start speaking,
which is how she became a frequent speaker.
However, some students expressed annoyance with some English textbooks that had distressing images that made
their English learning unpleasant. The images show women doing house chores such as cooking, ironing, and cleaning
while men are shown studying, operating computers, and watching TV. According to Rouse (2002) and Zahra (2005),
images such as these reflect the pervasive socio-cultural norms in the typically male-dominated society. The English
learning dynamics eventually make female students lose interest in the ESL class despite joining it to advance their
English-speaking skills. The findings match those of Amna (2009), who studied in Pakistan and focused on identity and
curriculum in primary education. She notes that women's illiteracy can be partly attributed to the educational system
provided by the government. Women cannot consider themselves capable if the textbooks have pictures of boys or men
dominating all fields of life. In contrast, girls or women are portrayed as timid, submissive, and restricted to house
chores.
C. Reconceptualizing Participants' Identities in a Mixed-Gender ESL Classroom
Besides enjoying learning in the ESL program, the participants indicate that they experience extensive involvement
in balancing their student and gender identities. The participants' roles as university students seemed to conflict with
their gender identities associated with their families and expected family responsibilities. Females are expected to
undertake all domestic tasks, including cleaning, washing, and cooking, despite having male siblings or some family
members who can help (Evans, 2014; Sullivan, 2009). Therefore, women are more unlikely to receive help or support
with house chores even though she is needed to dedicate their time to their learning. The students report that the
communication gap between male and female students increased when the male students dominated class discussions.
Some female students even opted to stop participating when the male students took it too far to cite religious sources to
prove their claims. Sometimes, the teacher does not note the distress of the female students and thus takes the situation
passively, making them fail to intervene.
D. Students Reviews
Sometimes, the teachers also employ learned stereotypical gender projection as mediated identity construction. For
example, one student notes in her journal that she was frustrated when she questioned the picture the teacher had given
the class to discuss. The teacher defended portraying male roles in the image as realistic and fair. The learning morale
of female students gets destroyed when they see images representing women as beings confined at home (Ebrahimi &
Yarahmadzehi, 2015; Smyth, 2010). The student recalls the situation calmly, indicating that her frustration had reduced
as the female role in society changed. The other student depicts her annoyance with male students showing their power
in class discussions. She notes that at one time, she was incapable of saying anything despite having a lot of things to
say. The male students were aggressive and confident with their arguments, which made her lose her confidence to say
anything, and she ended up remaining silent the whole time.

VI. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

The study findings show that coeducation in the language classroom has several positive effects, including falsifying
wrong societal behaviors or attitudes. In the uncontrolled studies, there were some modest advantages for single-sex
schooling in mathematics performance but not science performance; furthermore, controlled studies demonstrated only
minor differences between the students (Pahlke et al., 2014). Therefore, the findings from this meta-analysis indicate
that single-sex education does not provide benefits compared to coeducational settings (Pahlke et al., 2014).
Through the class discussions, such as debates promoted by the ESL course, misconceptions are corrected as
stereotyped societal attitudes are challenged. Coeducation enables one gender to see the other as equal and view
everyone individually, not as a generalized group. The study findings support the study, Jackson (2008), where it was
found that a coeducation environment fosters interaction and inclusiveness. The students cultivate mutual respect as
they understand and support each other (Orfan & Niazi, 2021; Narwana & Rathee, 2017). A coeducation environment
also creates a situation whereby females develop the confidence to share their ideologies. For example, with the ESL
course, they learn how to speak English fluently and have enough courage to argue in class discussions substantively.
This study demonstrated the benefits of a coeducational classroom system. The two Saudi Arabian women who
participated in the study perceived coeducation in a higher education institute as an opportunity to contest the identities
imposed upon them by society. Furthermore, they reported that studying English was considered a vital aspect of their
university life, with the ESL program helping to build their confidence and motivating them to participate in classroom
discussions. Unfortunately, there are still male-dominant discussions ongoing in these classrooms. Male students
dominated over the fewer female students in these discussions of gender roles, exacerbating the communication gap.
In contrast, the teacher – who was male – did not provide the support the female students needed. Without teacher
intervention in these unfair discussions and shows of power, it can make female students even less likely to participate,
negating the potential benefits of coeducation. However, the two participants saw the other classes more favorably, as
their desire to know about previously prohibited topics motivated them to put more effort into the ESL program.
Therefore, the female students' English language learning experience was much more pleasant and interactive,
supporting their ability to attain new knowledge and understanding.
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Eman AlJuhani is an Assistant Professor in Linguistics at Jubail University College. She has a PhD in Curriculum Instruction
Management Technology (CIMT), with a specialization in Applied Linguistics from Indiana State University, USA. Her research
focuses on a variety of phenomena related to the English words identification by ESL learners, the acquisition of phonolexical
structure of a second language, language education, and teacher identity in EFL contexts.

ISSN 1799-2591
Dolphin Conservation in Pengelana Laut Short

Story: Greg Garrard's Ecocriticism Study
Juanda
Faculty of Language and Literature, Universitas Negeri Makassar, Indonesia
Azis
Faculty of Language and Literature, Universitas Negeri Makassar, Indonesia
Abstract—The short story "Pengelana Laut" by Linda Christanty focuses on the theme of preserving dolphins.
Therefore, this study aims to investigate the environmental phenomena and the importance of environmental
education in the story. This qualitative design presents descriptive data using the Grag Garrard ecocritical
approach. The primary data source is the short story "Pengelana Laut," published in Kompas newspaper and
ruangsastra.com, containing words, phrases, and sentences related to marine ecological phenomena, collected
using the literature study techniques. The data obtained were analyzed using interactive interpretive models
involving data condensation, data display, and conclusion drawing/verifying. The NVivo software program
was used to code the data. The result showed that the short story contains various environmental phenomena,
such as pollution, wilderness, apocalypse, dwelling, animals, and earth, with a focus on the exploitation of
dolphins by humans. In conclusion, environmental education is crucial for dolphin conservation, hence it is
imperative to incorporate such material in literacy skills for students to cultivate a sense of concern for and
environmental preservation of marine life.
Index Terms—dolphin, environmental education, ecocriticism, preservation, short stories
I. INTRODUCTION
Several Indonesian literary studies have explored themes related to the marine biota environment, including those
conducted by Jemmy Piran and Linda Christanty. For instance, Christanty's short story "Pengelana Laut" highlights the
theme of preserving dolphins. However, various human activities, such as exploiting dolphins for tourism, have
disrupted their conservation efforts (Carzon et al., 2023). Conservation efforts for marine animals, such as dolphins,
consider their behavioral responses as well as their impact on individuals and populations, leading to opportunities for
sustainable tourism that benefits pro-environmental socio-economic growth (Rocha et al., 2023, p. 2). Pollution caused
by garbage, such as plastic bags and fishing lures, poses a significant threat to dolphins, leading to gastric blockages and
strandings (Carzon et al., 2023). Semantic segmentation is used to extract dolphin fin contours from photos, identifying
them accurately (Maglietta et al., 2023, p. 2). Persistent organic pollutants were analyzed in 136 blubber samples of the
Brazilian Franciscana dolphin (Pontoporia blainvillei), the most endangered dolphin in the Southwest Atlantic.
Dolphins were caught by fishing fleets and collected from 2000 to 2018 in the northern, central, and southern areas of
the state of São Paulo (Montone et al., 2023). Additionally, the recognition of the conceptual and material attachment
between human and animal oppression has been explored (Małecki et al., 2020, p. 365). Humans feel justified in
oppressing and exploiting animals because they consider non-human species creatures not worthy of moral
consideration.
In the last decade, literary experts have applied an ecocritical approach to analyzing literary works. This has led to
studies on short stories with an ecocritical lens, including those by Hillard (2009), Brereton and Gómez (2020),
Schneider-Mayerson (2020), Caracciolo et al. (2021), Min and Chen (2021), and Stanley (2022) that focus on climate
phenomena. Other studies, such as those by Hernandez (2020), Ringle (2021a), and Cossio (2022), examined human
interactions with forests, while Marland (2021) focused on turtles and trash, and Gooch (2021) on natural disasters such
as floods. Moe (2014) explored the topic of dolphins, Smulders (2022) examined the Pacific salmon life cycle, and
Huber and Brazier (2020) and Lewis (2021) investigated marine ecological damage.
The impact of climate change, waste, loss of biodiversity, resource depletion, and pollution is not evenly distributed
across society. Education is crucial in promoting sustainability and encouraging people to take action (Dí az-López et al.,
2023, pp. 1–2). In their book "God is Cool," Sujiwo Tejo and M. N. Kamba discussed the human relationship with
nature in Komat Kamit (muttering) and emphasized the importance of respecting and protecting it due to its
contribution to the ecological balance (Siwi et al., 2022, p. 1278). Furthermore, the Mahabharata study highlights
ecological imbalances due to human activities disregarding nature and provides guidance on achieving environmental
harmony (Raju, 2023, p. 441). Another example comes from environmental functions in Kaba Minangkabau with an

Corresponding Author. Email: [email protected]

ecocritical perspective, where four and six natural environment settings are represented as literary references and an
analogy in the physical form of humans (Nofrahadi et al., 2022, p. 214).
Previous studies have not investigated the short story Pengelana Laut using the Grag Garrard ecocritical approach,
despite its focus on dolphin conservation and marine ecology. Therefore, this study examines the environmental themes
and educational values in Linda Christanty's story. The study also aims to provide valuable literary material for schools
to develop students' literacy skills and foster an appreciation for marine conservation and environmental preservation.

The Republika Newspaper published seven short stories in Indonesia between 2015 and 2018, focusing on
environmental themes. The dominant environmental phenomena are natural disasters and forests. The readers
understand the importance of maintaining a balance in nature to ensure the sustainability of the earth and its contents
through the characters' interactions with the environment. These short stories also promote environmental education by
emphasizing the need to preserve forests, protect and reforest trees, as well as maintain rare animal species (Juanda,
2018a).
Romli story reflects on how environmental phenomena affect rivers by comparing the cities of Bandung in Indonesia
with Paris. Faris Al Faisal's story, titled Cerita Daun Pohon and Petrichor, highlights the importance of trees in
maintaining the balance of the ecosystem. Tjak S Parlan's story portrays the devastating impact of illegal logging due to
human activities in causing a landslide disaster. Usep Romli HM's short story narrates the problem of river water
pollution, specifically the Citarum River. The short story Go to the Hill depicts the tragic child loss of Kayah's mother,
who was buried in a landslide on a gold-digging hill and served as a reminder of the importance of caring for the
environment through proper waste and garbage management, greening, and building layout arrangements. Furthermore,
it is imperative to stop dredging mines excessively to maintain the ecosystem (Juanda, 2018b).
Ecocriticism emerged as a field of literary study in the 1970s and 1980s. However, only in the past few decades has
there been a growing interest in applying ecocritical approaches to ancient Greek literature, coinciding with the
emergence of Mediterranean ecocriticism, which examines the region as a 'cultural-diverse' (Post, 2023, p. 2). The
concept of "echo-criticism" posits that texts can significantly impact readers (Brozović, 2023; Pollard, 2022).
Ecocriticism is rooted in the study of nature (Jomah & Fawareh, 2023; Raihanah et al., 2014), as well as in the
examination of the relationships between humans and their environments (Schneider-Mayerson et al., 2020, p. 327).
Ecocriticism is a field that is characterized by a lively exchange of opinions and viewpoints, with audiences playing
an important role in the construction of works of art (Käck, 2022; Rodriguez-labajos, 2022). This approach challenges
readers to reconsider their relationship with the world and their surroundings, depict the interactions within them, and
re-envision the environment as a product of both natural and human influences (Tareq et al., 2021b, p. 158). Ecocritics
are interested in exploring the relationship between literature and nature and often use literary analysis as a means to
understand socio-ecological systems (Kiviat, 2021, p. 1). In addition, ecocriticism concentrates on the examination of
ecological ideology in literary works (Alvi et al., 2019). This field of study seeks to reveal how human involvement
shapes the natural world’s perception (Caracciolo et al., 2021, p. 2). In Old English literature, animals, weather, and the
environment are often figurative metaphors for human thoughts and emotions (Paz, 2022, p. 560).
Ecocritics explores the relationship between humans and nature with six main aspects, namely pollution, wilderness,
disasters, settlements, animals, and the earth. Pollution is the accumulation of various substances in inappropriate places
that pollute the environment, causing ecological problems (Garrard, 2012, p. 1). Air pollution, for example, can lead to
respiratory problems and diabetes in humans (Burkart et al., 2022, p. 586). On the other hand, the idea of wilderness
represents nature in a state uncontaminated by civilization and holds a special value in the relationship between humans
and the earth (Garrard, 2012, p. 66). Kimmerer, for instance, regards forests as animated organisms that exhibit
commensalism between animate and inanimate matter (Ringle, 2021). Settlements or dwellings refer to the long-term
place of humans in the landscape, including memory, ancestry, death, ritual, life, and work. The study of the
relationship between animals and humans consists of analyzing representations of animals in history and culture, as well
as philosophical considerations of their rights (Garrard, 2012, p. 146).
The impact of climate change on homes goes beyond displacement, as people who still reside in their environment
experience place-based pressures when dealing with drastic environmental changes (Wilson-Scott, 2021, p. 1).
Ecological awareness and environmental ethics are interconnected with planet earth (Krotz & Riquet, 2021, p. 24).
Ecocriticism's relationship between literature and nature creates environmental awareness through the ecological
messages conveyed in preliminary studies (Mihaljević, 2022, p. 306). The crisis affecting west coast fisheries has
inspired several picture books featuring the iconic fish, some of which have been endorsed as science books. Works
published in Canada and the United States are examples of Pacific salmon life cycle narratives (Smulders, 2022, p.
1055). Metaphorical language and affective responses play a critical role in negotiating human-non-human segregation
narratives in the face of climate change, as seen in non-fictional and fictional discourses such as McEwan (Caracciolo et
al., 2021, p. 4). Narazaki's investigation of loggerhead turtles' foraging behavior revealed that they use visual cues to
locate prey and move toward plastic bags, mistaking them for actual gelatinous prey like jellyfish (Marland, 2021, p. 1).
Environmental education is a multifaceted concept encompassing an approach, philosophy, tool, and profession
aimed at creating environmentally literate citizens who can address environmental and resource sustainability (Ardoin

& Bowers, 2020; Damoah & Omodan, 2022; Zikargae et al., 2022). It emphasizes the development of attitudes, values,
knowledge, and skills that enable individuals to take pro-environmental actions and increase the sustainability of
human-nature interactions over time (Vieira et al., 2022). Environmental education seeks to increase public knowledge
about environmental issues and promote individual motivation and skills to protect or improve the natural environment
(van de Wetering et al., 2022). Its ultimate goal is to foster broader social and economic sustainability in addition to
environmental sustainability.
Literature serves as a powerful tool in promoting environmental education by instilling moral values in students that
encourage students to care for the environment (Lane et al., 2023, p. 1). In Indonesia, education is crucial in driving a
cultural revolution due to its ability to shape attitudes, ideas, and actions toward sustainability (Maulidiah & Fitrianti,
2023, p. 626). Therefore, by studying environmental humanities, students can deepen understanding of the ocean as a
planetary environment rich in history, culture, and materials (Huber & Brazier, 2020). The process of addressing the
issue of food waste requires not only educating individuals on the impact of their behavior but also utilizing elements of
behavior, such as imitation, which tend to be neglected (Piras et al., 2023, p. 1). Short stories and other literary works
are valuable resources for teachers to promote environmental awareness and character-building among students.
III. METHOD
This study employs a qualitative design that presents descriptive data. Furthermore, it utilizes the Greg Garrard eco-
critic approach, which explores the interconnectedness between humans and nature in literary works by analyzing
natural events or phenomena in texts. The data source is a short story called "Pengela Laut" by Linda Christanty,
published in Kompas on January 5, 2020, and available on the web page ruangsastra.com. Data was collected from
words, phrases, and sentences related to marine ecological phenomena using literature study techniques, and an
interactive interpretative model analysis technique was used for analysis. The data analysis process consists of three
stages, namely data condensation, data display, and conclusion drawing/verifying (Miles et al., 2014, p. 31). The data
coding process was carried out by coding the data with the help of the NVivo software program. Furthermore, data
presentation was conducted by presenting or exporting coded data in the form of tables and graphs, displaying the
percentage coverage calculated automatically based on the frequency of appearance of the code in short stories as the
data source. Finally, conclusions are drawn based on the findings from the data analysis.
IV. DISCUSSION
A. Indonesian Short Story Pengelana Laut

The short story Pengelana Laut revolves around a child's quest to find his missing father, who is a passionate
advocate for marine conservation, particularly dolphins. The father and son often embark on diving trips to explore the
ocean and marvel at its wonders. However, the story takes a dark turn when the father attends a meeting about
protecting marine animals, and a suicide bombing occurs on a remote island, leading to his disappearance. The security
forces seem indifferent to conducting a thorough search, possibly due to the influence of a shadowy group controlling
the island or even the entire country. As the story progresses, the child discovers three large, sealed barrels while diving,
but their contents remain a mystery. The story sheds light on the dangers faced by conservationists and the urgent need
to protect marine life from harm.
Linda Christanty, an Indonesian author born on March 18, 1970, in Bangka, Graduated from the Department of
Indonesian Literature, FIB, University of Indonesia. Linda has won several literary awards, including two Khatulistiwa
Literary Awards in 2004 and 2010, as well as the 2013 SEA Write Award. Her short story titled "Leaves of Dry" was
awarded the Kompas Best Short Story in 1989 and won the SEA Write award in 2013. Among Linda’s published works
are a collection of short stories called "Mario Pinto's Flying Horse" and a collection of essays titled "Militarism and
Violence in Timor Leste".
B. Environmental Phenomena
Environmental phenomena found in short stories are pollution, wilderness, apocalypse, dwelling, animals, and earth.
The data are analyzed in the description below.
The short story Pengela Laut portrays a pollution phenomenon that can disrupt the balance of nature due to the
harmful substances it releases into the surrounding environment. The story features two types of pollution, namely
water and sound pollution. Those that occur in the sea are caused by shipwrecks, radioactive toxic substances, and
bombs. This is described in the following data. “Mereka melihat bangkai kapal yang telah berubah menjadi taman
bawah laut; Tahun lalu, ia kembali menyelam di lokasi yang cukup dekat dengan kapal karam. Ia melihat tiga tong
besar permukaan tong dilas. Mustahil dibuka. Apakah ayahnya dimasukkan dalam tong dan dibuang ke laut?” 'They
saw a shipwreck that has been turned into an underwater garden. Last year, he dived again at a location quite close to
the shipwreck and saw three large barrels of welded surface barrels difficult to open. Was his father put in a barrel and
thrown overboard?' (Christanty, 2020).
The given passage highlights the issue of water pollution caused by radioactive, toxic substances due to shipwrecks.
According to Huber and Brazier (2020), ships can pollute the sea with oil spills. Next data, “Pemerintah membantah

secara resmi tentang pesawat luar angkasa yang dulu jatuh di sebuah ladang tebu. Kawasan itu ditutup karena
mengandung racun radioaktif. Lumba-lumba, menurut ayahnya, menyantap hewan-hewan laut beracun sehingga
membantu keseimbangan dan kelestarian alam” 'The government has officially denied that the spaceship crashed in a
sugarcane field with the area closed because it contains radioactive poison. Additionally, the story mentions that
dolphins consume poisonous sea animals, which helps in maintaining the balance and preservation of nature (Christanty,
2020).
The provided data sheds light on water pollution caused by radioactive poisons that contaminate marine life, such as
dolphins, and the government's efforts to prevent further contamination by closing off the polluted area. However, the
father in the story believes that dolphins can cope with this issue by feeding on poisonous marine animals, thereby
helping to maintain the balance and preservation of the sea. The story also depicts pollution caused by hazardous
substances, such as bombs. This is further described in the following data. “Pengalaman menyelamnya yang paling
mengesankan berlangsung pada puncak musim kemarau, di tahun bom bunuh diri meledak di ibu kota untuk pertama
kali” 'The quoted passage describes the author's most memorable diving experience during the dry season when a
suicide bomb exploded for the first time in the capital city, highlighting the devastating impact of human activities on
the environment (Christanty, 2020).
The data provided pertains to the occurrence of suicide bombings in the vicinity of the sea. In the short story, the
protagonist plans to go on a diving vacation but is confronted with the threat of a potential suicide bombing that could
endanger the sea and the surrounding people. There are two types of pollution, namely water pollution and noise
pollution. Water pollution is caused by shipwrecks, radioactive poisons, and bombs, while suicide bomb explosions
around the sea cause noise pollution. Both forms of pollution threaten the balance of the sea as hazardous substances
contaminating the water can harm marine life and its habitat. Pollution leads to ecological issues, such as accumulating
substances in inappropriate areas that pollute the environment (Garrard, 2012, p. 1). In this regard, pollution causes
serious problems for humans and other living things, such as health problems and dirty seawater (Amin-Hong, 2022;
Burkart et al., 2022; Bush, 2022; Carzon et al., 2023; Gooch, 2021; Boast, 2021; Hill, 2022; Małecki et al., 2020;
Montone et al., 2023; Stanley, 2022; Yang, 2022).
The forest is described as a crucial element of an ecosystem where the interaction between humans and nature occurs.
This interaction is described in the following quote. “Seorang saksi memberi keterangan berbeda kepada polisi.
Ayahnya berjalan menuju hutan; Aparat keamanan tidak serius melanjutkan pencarian, di kedai kopi dan di hutan,
karena atasan mereka mungkin terlibat jaringan operasi itu dan pengendali jaringan sekelompok orang yang
memengaruhi kehidupan di pulau, bahkan di sebuah negeri” ' The witness gave a different account to the police, stating
that the father walked towards the forest. However, the security forces appeared not to be serious about continuing their
search both in the coffee shop and the forest. This may be attributed to the potential involvement of their superiors in a
network of operations controlled by a group of people who exert significant influence over life on the island and beyond
(Christanty, 2020).
The information presented suggests that the security forces were searching for a missing father figure. However,
despite their efforts, they could not locate the individual within the forest. The author describes the forest as an integral
component of the ecosystem that influences human activities, a notion supported by various studies on human-forest
interactions (Hernandez, 2020; Ringle, 2021a; Cossio, 2022; Juanda, 2018a). According to Juanda (2018a), Indonesian
short stories usually emphasize the importance of forest preservation. The wilderness is almost sacramental and
promises a renewed and authentic human-earth connection (Garrard, 2012, p. 66). The forest, in particular, is a self-
expressive entity that creates its world through complex networks of relationships where diverse organisms interact,
develop, and communicate with each other (Cossio, 2022; Hernandez, 2020; Kiviat, 2021; Ringle, 2021; Tareq et al.,
2021a).
Meanwhile, apocalypses, or natural disasters have claimed several lives on this earth. These can be caused either
naturally or by human intervention. According to the following excerpt, disasters are also caused by human intervention,
“Pemerintah membantah secara resmi tentang pesawat luar angkasa yang dulu jatuh di sebuah ladang tebu. Kawasan
itu ditutup dengan alasan mengandung racun radioaktif” 'The government has officially denied that the spaceship
crashed in a sugarcane field. The area was closed because it contains radioactive poisons' (Christanty, 2020). This
illustrates the potential consequences of human intervention in natural ecosystems, leading to catastrophic outcomes.
The given information depicts the sudden crash of a spaceship into a sugarcane field. This led to the closure of the
area due to the production of toxic radioactive gas that could harm the surrounding living organisms. Humans caused
this catastrophic phenomenon. Based on this description, certain disasters are caused by humans, namely the crash of
spaceships and the spread of radioactive poisons. Apocalypse interferes with the survival of humans and other living
things because they are hindered by destructive events (Garrard, 2012, p. 93). In response to such calamities,
ecocriticism has emerged as a field that emphasizes the mystical substance of nature and advocates for the protection,
awareness, and eco-literacy to address environmental issues (Jomah & Fawareh, 2023; Lewis, 2021; Raihanah et al.,
2014). This field recognizes the importance of establishing a genuine connection with nature and taking essential
measures to safeguard the environment.
The concept of dwelling or settlement is related to the community or people who live in a certain area. The existence
of a community in an area results in the interaction between humans (society) and nature. This interaction leads to the

formation of communities in urban and rural settlements, as depicted in the following statement. “Sesudah itu ayahnya
hilang; Sebelum menjadi penyelamat lumba-lumba, ia bekerja di sebuah lembaga yang mendukung konservasi kota
kuno di bawah laut. Lebih dari setengah abad lalu Jim Thompson, pensiunan tentara dan mata-mata berjalan-jalan di
sekitar penginapan, lalu hilang”. ‘However, after that, the father disappeared. Prior to becoming a dolphin rescuer, the
father worked for an organization that supported the conservation of ancient underwater cities. More than half a century
ago, Jim Thompson, a retired soldier, and spy, was wandering around the inn and then disappeared (Christanty, 2020).
The information provided describes the ambiance of urban settlements that offer a plethora of facilities. In addition,
among these facilities are offices of organizations that specialize in dolphin rescue or conservation. The father character
in the short story is employed as a dolphin rescuer in one of these offices. This character frequently participates in
various conservation operations by monitoring different areas around the sea. “Penyelaman terakhirnya berlangsung
kemarin di laut yang terletak dekat kampung terpencil, di sebuah semenanjung; Sejak ayahnya hilang, selain menyelam,
ia menghabiskan masa-masa liburan dengan berenang di perairan pulau-pulau kecil, mendatangi kampung-kampung
pesisir” The father figure’s most recent dive was conducted near a remote village on a peninsula, just yesterday. Since
the father's disappearance, the protagonist has been spending vacation time not only diving but also swimming in small
islands and visiting coastal villages (Christanty, 2020).
In addition to urban areas, there are also coastal villages that are inhabited. The earlier presented data pertains to a
coastal village visited by a family while on vacation. Since their hobby is closely tied to the sea, family members enjoy
diving and have a strong connection to coastal regions, which are inextricably linked to both nature and human behavior.
The aforementioned information suggests a relationship between nature and humans as reflected in their living
environments, which indicates a natural interaction between urban settlements and villages. Settlements represent a
place where humans reside for a long time, embodying memories, ancestors, death, rituals, life, and work (Garrard,
2012, p. 117). Ecocriticism illustrates the varied influences of human engagement with the imagined non-human world
(Alvi et al., 2019; Caracciolo et al., 2021; Kiviat, 2021).
The author of the short story uses animals to shedlight on the detrimental effects of human activities on marine
ecosystems and their habitats. The narrative focuses on various aspects of dolphin hunting and conservation. The
characters play an active role in safeguarding the welfare of dolphins and other marine creatures, as reported in the
following data. “Para nelayan di kampung ini pernah menangkap ikan terlalu banyak sehingga membuat laut nyaris
kehabisan ikan. Mereka kemudian meminta pemerintah melindungi ikan-ikan, menjadikan laut mereka sebagai cagar
laut.” ' Interestingly, overfishing by the local fishermen had a severe impact on the sea's fish population. This prompted
them to seek government protection by designating their waters as a marine reserve.' (Christanty, 2020).
The data presented describes fishermen who engage in large-scale fishing. This prompted the father figure to act and
collaborate with the government to conserve fish populations and prevent their extinction. It simply suggests that the
father has a caring attitude towards marine animals and feels responsible for protecting them. “Tiba-tiba seekor ikan
besar mendekat, mengagetkannya. Mola-mola, ikan pemakan ubur-ubur, bukanlah ancaman” ' Suddenly a big fish
appeared, and startled the father figure. The sunfish, a fish type that lives in the sea and feeds on jellyfish, is not a threat'
(Christanty, 2020). This species belongs to the genus Mola, and it has a distinctive bullet-shaped body due to the lack of
development of its back fin. The sunfish or Ocean Sunfish is a fish related to pufferfish and triggerfish. Despite their
large size, sunfish are not a threat to humans.
Lumba-lumba, menurut ayahnya, menyantap hewan-hewan laut beracun sehingga membantu keseimbangan
dan kelestarian alam; Sebelum hilang, ayahnya menghadiri pertemuan antar-negara yang membahas
perlindungan satwa-satwa laut; Tidak lama sesudah ayahnya menghilang, sebuah kapal patroli berisi para
ilmuwan yang menjaga lumba-lumba diserang kapal pemburu lumba-lumba. Lalu seorang wartawan
digantung sampai mati karena menulis tentang perdagangan lumba-lumba.
According to the father, dolpins consumed poisonous marine creatures, thereby aiding in maintaining ecological
balance and sustainability. Before the father’s disappearance, the character participated in an international conference
that discussed safeguarding marine fauna. Shortly after the father's disappearance, a patrol vessel containing scientists
responsible for protecting dolphins was attacked by a dolphin-hunting ship. A journalist was subsequently executed for
reporting on the trade of dolphins. News outlets financed by cartels argued that the dolphin population is not at risk of
extinction and will remain abundant indefinitely (Christanty, 2020).
The provided data highlights the vital role played by dolphins in promoting ecological balance and marine
sustainability. The father figure in the story participated in international discussions to protect marine animals, with a
particular emphasis on dolphins. They discussed the problems experienced by these species as a result of population
reduction due to poaching. Next data, “Barangkali ayahnya diselamatkan sekawanan lumba-lumba hidung botol yang
cerdas dan ramah atau diselamatkan ribuan camar laut yang menerbangkan tubuhnya ke pesisir, sebagaimana nenek
moyangnya dulu dikisahkan tiba di pulau” ‘The subsequent data suggests that the father might have been rescued by a
group of friendly and intelligent bottlenose dolphins or thousands of seagulls, and according to their ancestors, these
creatures have a history of transporting bodies to the coast upon arrival on the island' (Christanty, 2020).
The information presented earlier pertains to the presence of seagulls inhabiting coastal regions alongside dolphins.
However, Their coexistence implies the availability of ample fish in the surrounding marine environment. The data
“Massa ikan bersisik perak, bigeye jack, berenang mengitarinya saat ia menembus pusat kolom, membentuk arus

seperti sungai besar yang mengalir.” A mass of silver-scaled fish, the bigeye jack, swam through the center of the
column, forming a current like a mighty flowing river.' (Christanty, 2020). This widespread species of large marine fish
belongs to the Carangidae family. The author notes that these fish tend to go away when divers are around them due to
feeling threatened.
The given description showcases the coexistence of various sea creatures, including dolphins, seagulls, and bigeye
jacks. However, in this short story, the author emphasizes the existence of dolphins more than other species. The
relationship between humans and animals goes beyond mere symbolism and encompasses historical and cultural
representations, animal studies, and philosophical considerations of animal welfare (Garrard, 2012, p. 146). The
relationship between the two material phenomena is more than metaphorical. Many environmentally conscious writers
use their literary works to criticize actions that harm or endanger the natural habitats of living creatures (Carzon et al.,
2023; Hillard, 2009; Huber & Brazier, 2020; Marland, 2021; Moe, 2014; Smulders, 2022).
The earth is a planet that is inhabited by humans and provides various resources for their survival. The author
describes it as a phenomenon that strives to maintain the preservation and balance of nature. The data “ Oksigen juga
berbahaya jika dihirup berlebihan karena merusak sistem saraf pusat; Namun, imajinasi punya sisi kelam, seperti
dampak penggunaan nitrogen dan oksigen yang melampaui batas dalam penyelaman.” ‘Oxygen and nitrogen are some
of the elements found on earth, and while oxygen is essential, excessive inhalation can cause damage to the central
nervous system. Some of their problems are quite interesting and testify to the power of the imagination. The author
also notes that imagination can have a dark side, as seen in the negative impacts of exceeding limits while diving.
(Christanty, 2020). This data implies that oxygen and hydrogen are elements found on earth, with oxygne used by
thecharacter to dive. The author describes certain elements found on earth, such as oxygen and nitrogen. Ecocritics
delve into various phenomena related to earth's preservation, climate change, and its elements (Garrard, 2012, p. 181).
In both fiction and non-fiction discourse, metaphorical language and emotional responses play a crucial role in
negotiating the human-non-human segregation narratives concerning climate change (Brereton & Gómez, 2020;
Caracciolo et al., 2021; Min & Chen, 2021; Paz, 2022; Stanley, 2022; Wilson-Scott, 2021). According to the
aforementioned description, there are six aspects narrated by the author, namely wilderness, pollution, apocalypse,
dwelling, animals, and earth. These aspects were analyzed using NVivo software and are shown in Table 1.
TABLE 1
THE ECOLOGICAL PHENOMENON OF THE SHORT STORY PENGELANA LAUT
Codes Percentage Coverage
Pollution 5.11%
Wilderness 3.06%
Apocalypse 0.78%
Dwelling 6.81%
Animals 11.32%
Earth 6.02%
According to Table 1, the most dominant aspect is animals with a proportion of 11.32% which has a significant
difference from the others. On the other hand, the least narrated aspect is doomsday, with only 0.78%. This proves that
in the short story “Pengelana Laut,” the author aims to highlight the issue of animal exploitation, particularly the
exploitation of dolphins, and emphasizes the need for conservation efforts to preserve them. This description is shown
in Figure 1.
Figure 1. The Ecological Phenomenon of the Short Story Pengelana Laut
C. Environmental Education

Preserving the ocean and its wildlife is a crucial concern for everyone. Environmental education can play a vital role
in instilling a sense of responsibility towards the environment. The author highlights the issue of dolphin conservation,
which is the central theme of the short story.
“Mereka meminta pemerintah melindungi ikan-ikan, menjadikan laut sebagai cagar laut; Sebelum hilang, ayahnya
menghadiri pertemuan antar-negara yang membahas perlindungan satwa-satwa laut; Ia memimpin gerakan yang
menentang penangkapan lumba-lumba untuk sirkus; Para nelayan di kampung ini pernah menangkap ikan terlalu
banyak sehingga membuat laut nyaris kehabisan ikan" ' They urged the government to safeguard the fish and establish
the sea as a marine sanctuary. A character’s father attended an international conference on marine animal conservation
before passing away. Additionally, the character leads a movement against capturing dolphins for circuses. In the past,
the fishermen in the village had overfished, leading to a scarcity of fish in the sea ' (Christanty, 2020).
The provided data discusses Ayah's efforts in a dolphin conservation agency to protect endangered species and fight
against illegal capture. Ayah formed a movement against all forms of illegal capturing of endangered dolphins. This
effort is a form of human concern for the environment. Therefore, humans must care about the preservation of the sea
and the animals that live in it so that the earth's balance is maintained. Ecological awareness and environmental ethics
are related to planet earth (Krotz & Riquet, 2021, p. 24). The connection between literature and nature is significant in
creating ecological awareness by conveying environmental messages through literary works (Mihaljević, 2022, p. 306).
Ecocriticism is a branch of study that emerges from this relationship, focusing on the social, cultural, and political
aspects of texts from an environmental perspective. It is paramount to explore literary works with ecological concerns
for developing ecological awareness and environmental ethics (Jomah & Fawareh, 2023; Krotz & Riquet, 2021;
Mihaljević, 2022; Raihanah et al., 2014; Schneider-Mayerson et al., 2020).
Environmental education aims to create environmentally literate citizens who can address issues related to
environmental and resource sustainability. This is realized through the development of attitudes, values, knowledge,
dispositions, and skills to take pro-environmental actions. Environmental education encourages involvement in
increasing the sustainability of human-nature interactions over time. The nature writing genre can help students become
aware of and appreciate nature, and the writer's conceptual framework governing the attributes and intentions used in
this genre. Indonesia is an arena of unique and unavoidable cultural struggles, and in this setting, education must be able
to influence the cultural revolution, including ideas, attitudes, and actions. The transformative process must involve
cognitive and cultural systems to achieve a cultural revolution (Ardoin & Bowers, 2020; Damoah & Omodan, 2022;
Lane et al., 2023; Maulidiah & Fitrianti, 2023; Rocha et al., 2023; Siwi et al., 2022; Zikargae et al., 2022).
Marine ecosystems worldwide are negatively impacted by various human activities such as resource extraction,
industrialization, overfishing, oil spills, seismic detonations, microplastics, nuclear testing, rising temperatures, and
decreasing pH levels. However, by studying the ocean from a humanistic perspective, students can better understand its
cultural and material history as a planetary environment. Education plays a crucial role in addressing food waste among
consumers, including aspects of behavior such as imitation, which are often overlooked (Dí az-López et al., 2023; Huber
& Brazier, 2020; Piras et al., 2023; van de Wetering et al., 2022; Vieira et al., 2022).
V. CONCLUSION
Linda Christanty's short story "Pengela Laut" is a critique of dolphin hunting and environmental destruction that
threatens these animals' survival. In this story, volunteers who strive to preserve marine life do not receive protection
from local authorities, and some even cooperate with those who exploit dolphins. The short story highlights
environmental themes such as pollution, wilderness, apocalypse, dwelling, animals, and earth. The author's dominant
narrative describes the exploitation of dolphins by humans. However, through this story, the younger generation can
learn about environmental preservation, including protecting marine animals from overexploitation, preventing
pollution and fish bombing, designating marine reserves, and calling for government intervention in preserving marine
life. The author emphasizes the significance of conserving endangered marine animals to ensure their survival. This
study can serve as literary material to help students develop literacy skills while instilling a sense of environmental
responsibility and marine conservation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors are grateful to the Dean of the Faculty of Language and Literature and Rector Universitas Negeri
Makassar, Indonesia, for supporting the publication of this study.
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Juanda was born in Wajo, South Sulawesi, Indonesia March 10, 1968, and is an alumnus of the Doctoral
Program of the Universitas Negeri Jakarta. Language Education Study Program. The Indonesian Masters
Program was obtained at Hasanuddin University in 1994. Has published an international Scopus journal
article entitled Student Mental Health Euphemisms (XLinguage, volume 16, issue 1, 2023); The Effectiveness
of Online Learning During The Covid-19 Pandemic at Higher Education in Indonesia (Multicultural
Education, vol. 7, issue 5, 2021); Anxiety in Classroom Presentation in Teaching – Learning Interaction in
English for Students of Indonesian Study Program at Higher Education (International Journal of Education
and Practice, volume 7, issue 1, 2019). Contact me directly to e-mail.
Azis was born November 10, 1973 in Tanrutedong, Sidrap Regency, South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia.
Doctorate (Dr.) in the PPs Language Education Study Program, Universitas Negeri Jakarta in 2012. Lecturer
at the Faculty of Languages and Literature, Universitas Negeri Makassar. International articles have been
published as the main author: Structure of Litotes Environmental Text on Students (Solid State Technology,
volume 63, issue 6 (2020); Student mental health euphemisms (XLinguae, volume 16, issue 1, 2023).

ISSN 1799-2591
The Effectiveness of a Training Program Using

Differentiated Instruction to Improve the Reading
Skill of Jordanian Third Graders With Learning
Difficulties
Ahmad A. Al-Makahleh
Department of Special Education, Princess Rahma College, Al-Balqa Applied University, Salt, Jordan
Alaa’ M. Smadi
Department of Basic sciences, Princess Rahma College, Al-Balqa Applied University, Salt, Jordan
Maram Momani
Department of Educational Sciences, Salt Faculty of Human Sciences, Al-Balqa Applied University, Salt, Jordan
Abstract—This study aims to explore the effectiveness of a training reading program consisting of six units and
multiple activities using the differentiated instruction strategy on the reading comprehension improvement of
Jordanian third graders with learning difficulties. A total of 120 Jordanian third graders with learning
difficulties from 17 governmental schools in Amman participated in the study. About 90 of them were
categorized under an experimental group and taught using the differentiated strategy and were then divided
into three groups based on their preferred learning styles: kinesthetic, auditory, and visual, while the
remaining 30 students were categorized under a control group and taught using the traditional strategy of
teaching. The findings showed an important impact of the differentiated instruction strategy on the
improvement of the reading comprehension skill of Jordanian students with learning difficulties. Furthermore,
the findings showed the importance of the use of the preferred learning styles of students in the teaching
process.
Index Terms—differentiated instruction, Jordanian children, learning difficulties, reading skill
I. INTRODUCTION
Teaching is a precious mission that requires teachers to teach and convey different concepts, information, topic, etc.
to students effectively. It involves the use of different learning styles and the concentration on different skills such as
reading, writing, listening, and speaking. However, the different levels of students in terms of learning abilities,
preferences, and styles may become barriers to achieving such a mission. Therefore, differentiated instruction has been
considered an effective strategy to achieve the goals of teaching (Tomlinson, 2001, 2014; Al-Hulaisi, 2012; Sheerafa et
al. 2019; Al-Badareen, 2021).
A. Differentiated Instruction
Sheerafa et al. (2019) defined differentiated instruction as an effective strategy used by teachers in which the students’
diversity in a class is taken into the account. This diversity is represented in terms of the students’ learning capacities,
learning development, interests, attitudes, and readiness levels. Therefore, differentiated instruction is an effective
approach which demonstrates that each student is taught by using a strategy that is suitable to his/her own level or
learning needs (Sheerafa et al., 2019). Bob and Anderson (2007) stated that differentiated instruction is drawn basically
from the teachers’ awareness of the differences in learners’ interests, styles, and preferences to motivate and engage
students in addition to developing their academic growth. He added that teachers believe that every student is unique
and needs his/her own learning strategies. Therefore, the teachers may differentiate on the basis of the student’s
readiness and the difficulty of the material being taught in class. However, the utmost goal of teachers is to include all
students in the class environment without any exceptions. The Differentiated Instruction Model suggested by Tomlinson
(2001), Tomlinson (2014), and Tomlinson and Imbeau (2010) indicated that such a model consists of four elements;
content, process, product, and environment. The content refers to the material and the mechanisms used by the teacher
and not all students should be given the same content. While the process or the instructional strategies refer to the
different activities or methods that are used to teach the students on the basis of students’ preferences and styles. The
product, on the other hand, refers to the means used to see what the students have learned. Some of the students may

Corresponding Author

prefer to express what have learned through written means while some may prefer technological or social means (Reis
& Renzulli, 2018). Finally, the environment refers to the community of learning where the students and teacher grow in
respect. It might be a classroom, a lab, or a trip field. According to this model, Santangelo and Tomlinson (2009) argued
that teachers should take into account each student’s level of learning and how each responds to the activities employed
in the class. Therefore, teachers should use different strategies of instructions with varying degrees of complexity.
Chamberlin and Powers (2010) suggested seven guiding principles for the differentiated instruction which are: (1)
Teachers inform students of what is important to learn about a particular subject, (2) Teachers respond to and accept
students’ differences, (3) All students are expected to be included in the teaching process with no exception, (4) The
teaching process is collaborative; students and teacher work together, (5) Differentiated instruction is a proactive
approach in that the lesson plans are adjusted according to the students’ preferences variance, (6) Time, material, and
space are applied to adjust to the students’ various needs, and finally (7) Teachers are flexible to use groups and to thus
divide students into groups based on their readiness, learning interests and profiles.
Rays et al. (2013) stated that differentiated instruction is characterized by considering the learning styles of students
and presenting the skill in a manner suitable to the students' different learning styles and forms. Al-Makahleh (2018)
argued that knowing the different learning styles helps teachers to acquire a variety of educational experiences to
present the same information in different ways and strategies. He added that the most preferable learning styles among
students with reading difficulties are the kinesthetic style, followed by the tactile style, then the auditory style, and
finally the visual style. Jaber and Al-Quraan (2004) also indicated that knowing the different learning styles helps
teachers to determine the activities, materials, content and evaluation tools given to students. However, the students’
differences in learning styles or preferences are still ignored in the education process and thus resorting to differentiated
instruction was a good choice to take into account the students’ differences.
B. Learning Styles
From the psychological point of view, Jantan and Razali (2002) referred to learning style as the way through which
the student obtains information, knowledge, or experience. From the cognitive perspective, Fleming and Baume (2006)
referred to learning style as the multiple methods used to create perception and process information to create concepts
and principles. Furthermore, Drago and Wagner (2004), referred to learning styles as the individuals’ differences
towards each learning technique. They added that teachers should be aware of the importance of the use of different
learning styles to adhere to the demands of the students’ learning styles. Duff (2000) referred to learning style as a
cognitive-based, affective, and psychological indicator that demonstrates the way students interact and respond to the
learning environment. According to what has been mentioned earlier, the learning style can be defined as the preferred
learning strategy that is used by an individual to perceive or obtain knowledge in its different forms, and individuals
usually varied in their learning style preferences and may have more than one preferred style.
Different models have been proposed for the learning style such as the Hill Model which focuses on the way
information is received, processed, organized, and retrieved to realize and give meanings from the surrounding
environment (Honey & Mumford, 2000). These mental patterns depend on personal or family experiences, and personal
goals which in turn affect the student's preferred style of learning. Hill also developed a tool to diagnose the student's
mental pattern including four basic dimensions that interact with each other to form the mental pattern of an individual,
namely, symbols and their meanings, cultural determinants, forms of inference, and educational memory (Honey &
Mumford, 2000). In addition to Fleming’s VARK Model which focuses on the methods of how the information is
received through sense and then processed and retrieved. It also focuses on the brain’s representation of experience and
methods of receiving stimuli in order to absorb them. This model consists of four preferred learning styles, the visual
style, the auditory style, the reading/writing style, and the kinesthetic style (Fleming & Bonwell, 2002).
Reading skill is an essential skill that is considered the cornerstone of learning and its importance stems from its
relation to academic achievement. It is also considered the basis of the learning process because it helps the student to
recognize and understand the words and content of the text. For example, it is impossible to learn the study materials
interactively and functionally without actual proficiency in the skill of reading. According to Al-Waqfi (2011), reading
in its modern concept is an intellectual and communicative activity that includes many different and sequential skills
such as recognizing letters and words and pronouncing them correctly, understanding, analyzing, criticizing, and
interacting with the reader. Wong (2004) reported that reading has four components: phonetics, phonemic awareness,
vocabulary, fluency, and reading comprehension. There are many students who have difficulties in reading skills due to
a lack of proficiency in the aforementioned components. Those students are diagnosed with reading difficulties. It is
worth noting that for students with reading difficulties, it is necessary to identify the appropriate learning styles to teach
them and to identify the appropriate activities and methods through which the reading skill can also be taught.
C. Aims and Questions of the Study
The current study aims to investigate the effectiveness of a training program based on differentiated instruction in
different learning styles to improve reading comprehension skill for third graders with learning difficulties in Jordan.
Particularly, it aims to explore the effectiveness of differentiated instruction strategy i.e., the kinesthetic, auditory, and
visual learning styles on the improvement of the reading skill in third graders with learning disabilities. Thus, it aims to
answer the following questions:

1. To what extent does the use of the kinesthetic learning style affect statistically the improvement of the reading
comprehension skill of third graders with learning difficulties?
2. To what extent does the use of the auditory learning style affect statistically the improvement of the reading
3. To what extent does the use of the visual learning style affect statistically the improvement of the reading
4. Are there any statistically significant differences between the learning styles: kinesthetic, auditory, and visual in
improving the reading skill of third graders with learning difficulties?
II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Reis et al. (2011) investigated the impact of the school-wide enrichment model-reading (SEM-R) with differentiated
instruction on students’ reading fluency and comprehension. A total of 63 teachers and 1,192 second- to- five graders
who were enrolled in five elementary schools participated in the study. The findings revealed evident effects in favor of
the SEM-R model. They also revealed significant differences in favor of reading fluency in two schools only and in an
only high-poverty urban school in favor of reading comprehension. The results also indicated the effectiveness of the
SEM-R model with the use of differentiated instruction is much more than the effectiveness of the traditional whole-
group basal approach.
Scott (2012), further, explored the extent of improvement in mathematics based on differentiated instruction
according to the variables of gender, and academic ability (outstanding and average achievers) based on a semi-
experimental design. The sample consisted of three classes for the second grade taught by three teachers in the United
States. The results indicated that the effectiveness of differentiated instruction was not comprehensive to a large extent,
as the outstanding students benefited greatly, while the average students did not get a significant benefit, however, the
gender variable has no statistically significant effects.
Meanwhile, Williams (2012) on the other hand, aimed to investigate the effect of differentiated learning on the
performance of students in the seventh grade by assessing mathematics using a repeated measures design. Two different
experiments were conducted to monitor the differences between the initial group with the results of the assessment of
the University of Texas Test of Knowledge Skills (2011). The results showed differences between the students who
were taught using the differentiated instruction and those who were taught using traditional education strategies. The
study comprised different learning groups, including special education, the economically disadvantaged, English
language learners, and gifted students. To figure out whether these strategies are also effective according to the basis of
special learning needs, findings from classroom observations show some lack of effective delivery of educational
content by differentiated teaching strategies, highlighting the need for a qualified continuing development and teacher
assistance.
Further, Al-Hulaisi (2012) investigated the possible effects that appeared on the academic achievement of sixth
graders in the English language using the differentiated instruction strategy at the three levels of Bloom's classification
(remembering, understanding, and applying) in Saudi Arabia. About 25 students participated in the experimental group
while 28 students participated in the control group. The results revealed statistically significant effective impacts on
developing the students' academic achievement due to the use of the differentiated instruction strategy.
Moreover, Al-Mahdawy (2014) examined the impacts of the strategy of differentiated instruction on the academic
achievement of second-year students in the biology course, at the levels of analysis, composition, and evaluation
according to the levels of Bloom's pyramid of knowledge and total achievement in Saudi Arabia. About 50 students
participated in the study who were then divided equally into two groups; experimental and control groups. The results
showed evident impacts on the development of the students’ educational level because of the use of the differentiated
instruction in contrast to the use of the traditional strategy of teaching which was found to be less effective.
Chien (2015) also conducted a study which explored the effects of a differentiated instruction workshop on the
activity design prepared by Taiwanese English teachers in elementary schools. The workshop discussed issues related to
theoretical concepts, hands-on activities, and lesson demonstration using a differentiated instruction. The workshop
revealed that English teachers were competent and skillful in designing options for classroom activities or home
assignments using a differentiated instruction. However, the teachers were not competent enough in designing
classroom activities for deeper learning objectives or using simple English to clarify choices or designing variant
instructional strategies.
Meanwhile, Valiandes (2015) conducted a quasi-experimental study to evaluate the impact of the implementation of
a differentiated instruction on students’ learning enrolled in mixed-ability classrooms. The sample of the study
comprised 24 teachers and 479 fourth graders. The findings showed that the students who were exposed to a
differentiated instruction showed better performance and learning progress than students who were not exposed to such
instruction. Furthermore, the findings revealed no significant differences in the students’ achievements attributed to the
socioeconomic status of the students’ families. They also showed a significant impact of the quality of a differentiated
teaching on the students’ progress.
Furthermore, Al-Khatib (2017) attempted to identify the effects of employing the differentiated instruction approach
on developing conceptual comprehension and learning processes in science among 74 fifth-grade female students who

were enrolled in Nuseirat Primary School in Gaza. The results revealed statistically significant effects on the post-
application of the conceptual comprehension test and the learning processes test on the performance of the students’
who were taught using the differentiated strategy.
Shareefa et al. (2019), on the other hand, observed the teachers’ perspective on the conceptual definition of
differentiated instruction and the challenges they have encountered through their application of such strategy. The
sample of the study consisted of 400 teachers divided into 32 special education needs teachers and 368 mainstream
teachers in Maldivian schools where inclusive education is implemented. The open-ended questionnaire and semi-
instructed interviews were used. The findings showed that teachers’ definitions of differentiated instruction depended
upon three aspects; the types of strategies being used, the students’ diversity, and the advancement of students’ learning.
On the other hand, the findings indicated that the main challenges that encountered the teachers were about time,
number of students in the class, knowledge, available resources, amount of work and support.
Al-Shaqran (2019) also investigated the impact of differentiated instruction on the acquisition of scientific concepts,
the skills of the learning process, and the attitude toward science among seventh-grade students in Jordan using a semi-
experimental approach. Around 65 male and female students were randomly chosen and then were grouped into two
groups. The first group consisted of 31 students who were taught using the differentiated instruction, while the second
group consisted of 34 students who were taught by the traditional method. The results showed that differentiated
instruction affected significantly the aspects of the acquisition of the scientific concepts and the skills of the learning
process in those who were taught through this strategy.
Al-Badareen (2021) further identified the effects of applying the differentiated instruction strategy on developing
some reading and writing skills in the Arabic language among third-grade students in Jordan based on a semi-
experimental approach. The sample comprised 70 female and male students who were then grouped equally in an
experimental group; teaching through the use of differentiated instruction strategy and in a control group; teaching
through the traditional strategy. Similar to the previous literature, Al-Badareen (2021)’s results showed evident
improvements in the writing and reading skills of the students who were taught by differentiated instruction.
It was quite clear that the previous literature has studied the effectiveness of the use of the differentiated instruction
in different subjects such as Science, Arabic, and English languages for different classes in different countries. However,
as far as the researchers know, it was only one study which investigated the skills of writing and reading. Furthermore,
it was clear that the differentiated instruction has not been applied effectively in studies which investigated the students
with learning difficulties, especially, in Jordan except Al-Natour and Siam (2016)’s study. Their study, focused on the
challenges that faced teachers while teaching students with learning disabilities using differentiated instruction. Nothing
has been mentioned regarding the use of such a strategy to affect any of the four skills i.e. reading, writing, listening, or
speaking. Therefore, as far as the researchers know, this study is the first that explored the effectiveness of the
differentiated instruction to improve the reading comprehension skill of students with learning difficulties in Jordan.
III. METHODS
A. Research Design
This experimental research combines qualitative and quantitative research designs. That is, a total of 120 Jordanian
third graders with learning difficulties were chosen randomly to apply an experiment including a training program for
reading comprehension skill based on the differentiated instruction strategy in accordance with the students’ preferred
learning styles. To evaluate the effectiveness of the program, pre- and post- Arabic reading tests were applied with an
interval of eight weeks. The data was then collected and analyzed statistically to find the means and standard deviations
of the students’ performances in both tests in addition to the use of ANCOVA test. After that, the data was then
discussed quantitatively to find out the potential effects of the training program.
B. Sample of the Study
The sample of the study comprised 120 Jordanian third graders enrolled in 17 elementary schools in the capital city
of Jordan; Amman. Those students were taught in the resource rooms in particular and were selected randomly. The
students are officially diagnosed with learning difficulties, reading difficulties in particular, by Jordanian specialists and
this is confirmed by the official documents kept in their school files. The students were then divided into two main
groups; an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group consisted of 90 students to whom the
reading training program based on the differentiated instruction strategy was implemented. They were then divided into
three subgroups based on the learning style they preferred. That is, 30 students were taught using the kinesthetic
learning style; 30 students were taught using the auditory learning style; and 30 students were taught using the visual
learning style. On the other hand, the control group consisted of 30 students who were taught using the traditional
teaching strategy.
C. Tools of the Study
(a). Training Reading Program

A training reading program was constructed by referring to the theory of differentiated instruction, and a panel of
previous studies such as the studies of (Tomlinson, 2010; Al-Hulaisi, 2012; Sari & Senturk, 2018; and Al-Badareen,
2021). The focus of these studies was on the learning styles of students with learning difficulties and the nature of the
activities that must be provided based on the preferred learning style for teaching the reading skill. The coefficient of
agreement among the judges was (80%) and above.
The final version of the program consisted of six educational units, each unit contained five gradual activities for
teaching the reading skill. The activities were suitable to the student's learning style and level of performance. The
activities focused on the basic components of reading so as to cover the reading levels of students with learning
difficulties. The units and the activities were presented in a manner that was appropriate to the student’s learning style.
For instance, for the auditory learners, the focus was on conversation and listening while for the visual learners, the
activities were presented through the holistic and analytical methods. The sensory-kinesthetic learners, on the other
hand, were taught in an interactive and flexible way in addition to the combination of holistic and analytical methods.
The corners strategy was adopted in this study. A group of corners was provided that was compatible with the learning
styles of the students. Thus, the resource rooms were provided with a reading corner, where the student went to the
corner in a manner intended by the teacher to address certain learning difficulties. Those centers usually include a group
of different activities varied in their degree of difficulty and ease. It is worth noting that the more the student was
interactive and enjoyed the activities the more he/she got better learning and achieved much better performance.
(b). Learning Style Questionnaire
A valid and reliable questionnaire which was constructed previously by Al-Makahleh (2018) was also used in this
study. The purpose of this questionnaire was to find the preferred learning styles of the sample of the study. The
questionnaire included (36) items for the three learning styles: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic and each domain
consists of 12 paragraphs. The questionnaire was presented to the student’s teacher who has been teaching the student
for more than a year. To test the validity of the questionnaire, it was presented to a panel of experts in this field. The
reliability of the questionnaire was measured using the Cronbach alpha coefficient. For instance, the reliability
coefficients for the visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile learning styles were: (0.783), (0.792), (0.756), and (0.774),
respectively. These values are considered appropriate and indicative of the reliability of the test.
(c). Arabic Reading Test
An Arabic reading test consisting of four components was constructed. The purpose of this test was to evaluate the
effectiveness of the training reading program which was based on the differentiated instruction strategy and it was
implemented twice i.e. pre-and post-tests with an interval of eight weeks. Ten paragraphs were provided under each
component: phonetic, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and reading comprehension. The validity of the test
was measured by presenting it to ten Ph.D. holders of special education at The University of Jordan and Al-Balqa
Applied University. The researchers took into account all the modifications provided by the experts. The difficulty and
discrimination coefficients of the test were measured. The difficulty coefficient was measured based on the correct
responses for the paragraphs while the discrimination coefficient was measured by applying the test’s items to an
exploratory sample from outside the study sample, which consisted of (25) male and female third graders who had
learning difficulties in the reading skill. The difficulty coefficients for the test’s paragraphs ranged from (38.0-87.0)
while the difficulty coefficient for the test as a whole was (46.0). The discrimination coefficients for the test’s
paragraphs ranged from (39.0-72.3), while the discrimination coefficient for the test as a whole was (56.0). On the other
hand, the reliability of the test was measured by applying the test twice to an exploratory sample consisting of 25
students with reading difficulties with an interval of two weeks. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated for the
results of the two implementations of the test, and the reliability coefficients for the test dimensions ranged from (78.0-
89.0), and the overall value of the total reliability coefficient for the test was (92.0).
D. Procedure
After the random selection of the sample of the study, the learning style questionnaire was presented to the students’
teachers to determine the preferred learning style for each student. After that, the students were divided into three
subgroups based on their learning preferences: kinesthetic, auditory, and visual. Then, a training reading program was
constructed suitable to the three learning styles and based on the instruction strategy. The teachers were trained to use
the program for five days and presented with models for the classes based on the differentiated strategy and then began
to apply it for eight weeks. An Arabic reading test was applied twice within an interval of eight weeks in order to
evaluate the effectiveness of the training reading program. That is to say, the students were tested before the
implementation of the program and then were retested after eight weeks of teaching. The data from the pre-and post-
tests were collected and analyzed statistically.

This section is devoted to presenting the statistical results and the comprehensive discussion of the data collected
concerning the study’s questions and objectives. Particularly speaking, the study aims to explore the effectiveness of the

use of the differentiated instruction strategy on the kinesthetic, auditory, and visual learning styles on the improvement
of the reading comprehension skill in third graders with learning difficulties.
A. Results
This section presents the statistical results concerning the data collected from the performances of the third graders
with learning difficulties on the pre-and post- Arabic reading tests on each learning style; kinesthetic, auditory, and
visual after the implementation of the training reading program which is based on the differentiated strategy in separate
three subsections. It also presents the results regarding the data collected from the performances of the third graders
with learning difficulties who were taught using the traditional strategy of teaching on the pre-and post-Arabic reading
tests. Then, the results of the performances of the third graders on each learning style are compared together in one
subsection to find out the most effective learning style for the improvement of reading comprehension skill.
(a). Results of the Performance of Third Graders Using the Kinesthetic Learning Style
To figure out whether there are any statistically significant differences in improving the reading comprehension skill
of third-grade students with learning difficulties in using the kinesthetic learning style based on the differentiated
instruction, pre and post-Arabic reading tests were conducted. Table 1 shows the means and standard deviations of the
performances of the experimental group (i.e. using kinesthetic style) and control group (traditional way of teaching) on
the pre-and post- tests, respectively.
TABLE 1
MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS OF THE PERFORMANCES OF THE EXPERIMENTAL (I.E. USING KINESTHETIC STYLE) AND CONTROL GROUPS
(TRADITIONAL WAY OF TEACHING) ON THE PRE- AND POST- TESTS
Pre-test Post- test Adjusted averages
Group N
Mean Std. Mean Std. adjusted average SE
Experimental group (using kinesthetic
30 9.00 5.38 20.37 3.77 20.46 .561
learning)
Control group 30 9.40 5.95 13.53 4.26 13.44 .561
Total 60 9.20 5.63 16.95 5.27 16.95 .561
Table 1 reveals significant statistical differences in the means and standard deviations of the reading skill’s test
between the experimental group who was taught using the kinesthetic learning style based on the differentiated
instruction (i.e. M=9.00, Std.= 5.38 and M= 20.37, Std.= 3.77) and the control group who was taught using the
traditional strategy (i.e. M=9.40, Std.=5.95 and M= 13.53, Std.= 4.26) in the pre-and post- tests, respectively. Table 1
shows that the difference was in favor of the experimental group. Therefore, to determine whether these differences are
statistically significant, ANCOVA analysis was conducted. See Table 2.
TABLE 2
RESULTS OF ANCOVA FOR THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE EXPERIMENTAL AND CONTROL GROUPS USING THE KINESTHETIC LEARNING STYLE
Source of variance SS DF MS F-Value P-Value Effect size
Pre-test (total) 401.276 1 401.276 42.581 .000 .428
Group 737.998 1 737.998 78.312 .000* .579
Error 537.157 57 9.424
Total 1638.850 59
* Statistically significant if (α ≤ 0.05).
Table 2 demonstrates that F value is (78.312), which indicates a statistically significant value. In other words, Table
2 shows statistically significant differences in the overall means in the reading skill’s test of third-grade students
between the experimental group who was taught using the kinesthetic learning style and the control group who was
taught by the traditional strategy. Furthermore, to find out the effect size, an ETA square was conducted. Table 2 shows
that the effect size is (0.579), indicating that (57.9%) of the variation in the improvement in the reading comprehension
skill for the experimental group is attributed to the differentiated instruction strategy.
(b). Results of the Performance of Third Graders Using the Auditory Learning Style
To find out whether there are any statistically significant differences in improving the reading skill of third-grade
students with learning difficulties in using the auditory learning style based on the differentiated instruction, pre-and
post-tests of reading comprehension tests were conducted. Table 3 shows the means and standard deviations of the
performances of the experimental group (i.e. using auditory learning style) and control group (traditional way of
teaching) on the pre-and post- tests respectively.

TABLE 3
MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS OF THE PERFORMANCES OF THE EXPERIMENTAL GROUP (I.E. USING AUDITORY STYLE) AND CONTROL GROUP
(TRADITIONAL WAY OF TEACHING) ON THE PRE- AND POST-TESTS
Pre-test Post- test Adjusted averages
Group N Adjusted
Mean Std. Mean Std. Std. error
averages
Experimental group (auditory learning style) 30 10.33 5.75 22.0 3.67 21.752 .457
Control group 30 9.40 5.95 13.5 4.26 13.781 .457
Total 60 9.87 5.82 17.8 5.81 17.767 .457
Table 3 reveals statistically significant differences in the overall score of the means and standard deviations of the
reading skill’s test between the experimental group who was taught using the auditory learning style using the
differentiated instruction strategy (i.e. M=10.3, Std. =5 .75 and M= 22.0, Std. = 3.67) and the control group who was
taught using the traditional way (i.e. M=9.40, St.= 5.95 and M= 13.5, Std.= 4.26) in the pre-and post-tests, respectively.
Table 3 also reveals that the difference is in favor of the experimental group. Thus, to determine the significance of
these differences, the ANCOVA test was conducted. The results are shown in Table 4.
TABLE 4
RESULTS OF ANCOVA TEST FOR THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE EXPERIMENTAL AND CONTROL GROUPS USING THE AUDITORY LEARNING STYLE
Pre-test (total) 560.048 1 560.048 89.817 .000 .612
Group 946.827 1 946.827 151.847 .000* .727
Error 355.418 57 6.235
Total 1990.733 59
* Statistically significant if (α ≤ 0.05)
Table 4 shows that F value for the overall score of the reading skill’s test for third graders with learning difficulties is
(151.827), which means that there are statistically significant differences between the experimental group who was
taught using an auditory learning style and control group who was taught by the traditional way. These differences are
attributed to the differentiated instruction strategy. To determine the effect size, the ETA square of the total scores was
extracted (i.e. = 0.727) and this value indicates that (72.7%) of the variation in the improvement in the reading skill of
the experimental group is due to the differentiated instruction strategy.
(c). Results of the Performance of Third Graders Using the Visual Learning Style
To figure out whether there are any statistically significant differences in improving the reading comprehension skill
of third-grade students with learning difficulties in using the visual learning style based on the differentiated instruction,
pre and post- tests of reading comprehension tests were conducted. Table 5 shows the means and standard deviations of
the performances of the experimental group (i.e. using visual style) and control group (traditional way of teaching) on
the pre-and post-tests, respectively.
TABLE 5
MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS OF THE PERFORMANCES OF THE EXPERIMENTAL GROUP (I.E. USING VISUAL STYLE) AND CONTROL GROUP
(TRADITIONAL WAY OF TEACHING) ON THE PRE- AND POST- TESTS
Pre-test Post-test Adjusted average
Group N
Means Std. Means Std. Adjusted average Std. error
experimental (visual learning
30 11.73 5.06 22.57 3.48 22.047 .561
style)
Control 30 9.40 5.95 13.53 4.26 14.053 .561
Total 60 10.57 5.60 18.05 5.97 18.050 .561
Table 5 demonstrates statistically significant differences in the overall means and standard deviations of the reading
skill test between the experimental group who was taught using the visual learning style based on the differentiated
instruction strategy (i.e. M=11.73, Std.= 5.06 and M= 22.57, Std.= 3.48) and the control group who was taught using
the traditional way (i.e. M=9.40, Std.=5.95 and M= 13.5, Std.= 4.26) in the pre-and post- tests, respectively. Table 4
also reveals that the difference is in favor of the experimental group. Thus, to determine the significance of these
differences, the ANCOVA test was conducted. The results are shown in Table 6.
TABLE 6
RESULTS OF ANCOVA TEST FOR THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE EXPERIMENTAL AND CONTROL GROUPS USING THE VISUAL LEARNING STYLE
Pre-test 351.614 1 351.614 38.159 .000 .401
Group 916.233 1 916.233 99.435 .000* .636
Error 525.220 57 9.214
Total 2100.850 59
* Statistically significant if (α ≤ 0.05)
Table 6 shows that F value for the overall score of the reading skill’s test for third graders with learning difficulties is
(99.435), which means that there are statistically significant differences between the experimental group who was

taught using an auditory learning style and control group who was taught by the traditional way. These differences are
attributed to the differentiated instruction strategy. To determine the effect size, the ETA square of the total scores was
extracted (i.e. = .636) and this value indicates that (63.6%) of the variation in the improvement in the reading skill of the
experimental group is due to the differentiated instruction strategy.
(d). Results of the Comparison of the Performances of Third Graders Using the Kinesthetic, Auditory, and Visual
Learning Styles
To figure out the differences between the performances of the third graders with learning difficulties in kinesthetic,
auditory, and visual learning styles based on the differentiated instruction in the pre-and post- tests of the reading skill
test, Table 7 presents the means and standard deviations of the performances of the third graders on each learning style
in the pre-and post-tests of the reading test, respectively.
TABLE 7
MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATION OF THE PERFORMANCES OF THIRD GRADERS ON KINESTHETIC, AUDITORY, AND VISUAL LEARNING STYLES
ON THE PRE- AND POST-TESTS
Groups N Pre-test Post-test Adjusted averages
Means Std. Means Std. Adjusted Std, error
averages
Group 1 using the kinesthetic learning style 30 9.00 5.38 20.37 3.77 20.84 .550
Group 2 using the auditory learning style 30 10.33 5.75 22.00 3.67 21.91 .547
Group 3 using the visual learning style 30 11.73 5.06 22.57 3.48 21.88 .553
Total 90 10.36 5.46 21.64 3.72 19.62 0.55
Table 7 shows statistically significant differences in the overall means and standard deviations of the reading skill’s
test for students with learning difficulties on the three types of learning styles in the pre-and post-tests, respectively (i.e.
M=9.00, Std.=5.38 and M= 20.37, Std.= 3.77), (M=10.33, Std.=5.75 and M= 22.00, Std.= 3.67), and (M=11.73,
Std.=5.06 and M= 22.57, Std.= 3.48) in favor of the visual learning styles. Therefore, ANCOVA test was conducted to
find out whether these differences are statistically significant. The results are shown in Table 8.
TABLE 8
RESULTS OF ANCOVA TEST FOR THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE PERFORMANCES OF THIRD GRADERS WITH LEARNING DIFFICULTIES IN EACH
LEARNING STYLE
Pre-test 336.913 1 336.913 35.446 .000 .292
Group 26.825 2 13.413 1.411 .249 .032
Error 817.421 86 9.505
Total 1232.622 89
*Statistically significant if (α ≤ 0.05)
Table 8 shows that F value of the overall scores of the reading skill’s test is (1.411), which is a non-statistically
significant value at the significance level of 0.05. This means that the differences between the performances of the third
graders on the kinesthetic, auditory, and visual learning styles were not statistically significant i.e. the students showed
similar performances on the three learning styles based on the differentiated instruction strategy.
B. Discussion
The current study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of the differentiated instruction strategy in the
improvement of the reading comprehension skill of Jordanian third graders with learning difficulties using three
learning styles: kinaesthetic, auditory, and visual. About 90 Jordanian third graders with learning difficulties
(experimental group) and 30 Jordanian third graders (control group) were tested using a reading comprehension test
twice; in pre- and post-tests with an interval of eight weeks of the implementation of a training reading program based
on the differentiated strategy. The experimental group was divided into three subgroups based on their learning style
preferences.
The findings of the study revealed statistically significant differences in the performances of third graders with
learning difficulties who were taught using the differentiated instruction and those who were taught using the traditional
strategy. The differences were found in the performance of the experimental group in each learning style. For instance,
those differences were apparent in the means and standard deviations in the kinesthetic, auditory, and visual learning
styles in the pre-and post-tests, respectively, (i.e. M=9.00, Std.=5.38 and M= 20.37, Std.= 3.77) compared to (i.e.
M=9.40, Std.=5.95 and M= 13.53, Std.= 4.26), (i.e. M=10.3, Std.=5.75 and M= 22.0, Std.= 3.67) compared to (i.e.
M=9.40, St.=5.95 and M= 13.5, Std.= 4.26), and (i.e. M=11.73, Std.=5.06 and M= 22.57, Std.= 3.48) compared to (i.e.
M=9.40, St.=5.95 and M= 13.5, Std.= 4.26).
These findings can be attributed to the distinctive features of the differentiated instruction strategy in that it is
characterized by considering the students' individual differences in their learning style preferences and their educational
level. Thus, teaching the reading comprehension skill through this strategy including the different activities that were
suitable to the students’ level had an impact on the development of their level of reading comprehension. The reading

program had also an effect because it consisted of different levels that enable the teachers to gradually move from one
level to another.
The findings may also be attributed to the features of the differentiated instruction strategy that account for the
individual performance differences among the students with learning difficulties. That is to say, the differentiated
learning strategy also worked to guide students in a way that allows them to learn effectively and reach the maximum
possible level of their abilities.
Therefore, these findings may highlight the importance of the effects of the differentiated strategy on the teaching
process in general and on teaching students with learning difficulties in particular.
The current findings supported the findings of previous literature which encouraged the use of the differentiated
strategy and its effectiveness in the teaching process for different types of courses in different languages (Tomlinson,
2001, 2014; Al-Hulaisi, 2012; Scott, 2012, William, 2012; Sheerafa et al., 2019; Al-Badareen, 2021).
Moreover, the findings of the study highlighted the role of the training program itself. That is to say, the elements of
differentiation and variation in the training program played an effective role in the teaching process. For instance, each
of the six educational units in the program's final version contained five progressive activities for teaching the reading
skill and they were chosen carefully to be suitable to the student's learning preferences and appropriate to their skill
level. The activities addressed the reading levels of the students with learning difficulties and concentrated on the
fundamentals of reading. These findings were in line, particularly with Al-Badareen (2021)’s and Al-Khatib (2017)’s
and Reis et al., (2011)’s findings.
Furthermore, the results of the study showed an interesting finding, in that, the overall means of the students’
performances in the kinaesthetic, auditory, and visual learning styles, showed apparent differences in the pre-and post-
tests (i.e. M=9.00, and M= 20.37; M=10.33 and M= 22.0; M=11.73, and M= 22.57, respectively) in favor of the visual
learning style. However, ANCOVA analysis showed that these differences were not statistically significant i.e. F value
is 1.411 i.e. > 0.005. This indicated that there were not any statistically significant differences in the performances of
Jordanian third graders with learning difficulties due to the differences in their preferred learning styles. This means that
all students showed similar performance in the reading comprehension test although they have taught using different
learning styles. This finding may shed the light on the effectiveness of the differentiated instruction strategy despite the
students’ differences in their learning styles. This finding may also highlight the equal effectiveness of the activities that
were used in the three different learning styles. In other words, although each learning style had its own particular
activities, all these activities were as effective as required and to the same degree. The reading comprehension skill of
the students with various learning styles was improved due to the combination of these activities and how they were
presented to students with learning difficulties through a structured program based on the technique of differentiated
instruction.
To conclude, the effectiveness of the use of the differentiated instruction strategy especially in teaching students with
learning difficulties may encourage the schools’ principals to adopt such a strategy at their schools. Furthermore, the
effectiveness of the experienced training reading program may be used as a ready-made program including its activities
to teach this group of students in different schools. The teachers who participated in this experiment benefited as well;
they now have the experience of teaching using this strategy and this category of students.
V. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The current study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a training reading program consisting of six units and
multiple activities based on the differentiated instruction strategy on the reading comprehension improvement of
Jordanian third graders with learning difficulties. A total of 120 Jordanian third graders with learning difficulties from
17 governmental schools in Amman participated in the study. About 90 of them were taught using the differentiated
strategy and were then divided into three groups based on their preferred learning styles: kinesthetic, auditory, and
visual while 30 students were taught using the traditional strategy of teaching. The findings showed an important impact
of the differentiated instruction strategy on the improvement of the reading comprehension skill of Jordanian students
with learning difficulties. Furthermore, the findings showed the importance of the use of the preferred learning styles of
students in the teaching process. Therefore, the present study recommends the intensive use of the differentiated
instruction strategy at schools, especially for students with learning difficulties who need such a strategy the most. It
also recommends further research on the use of differentiated instruction strategy on different skills such as writing in
the Jordanian educational community.
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[2] Al-Hulaisi, M. (2012). The effects of differentiated strategy on the academic development in English curriculum for sixth
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[6] Al-Shaqran, K. (2019). The effects of differentiated instruction in acquiring the colloquial concepts, science skills, and attitudes
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[10] Chien, C.W. (2015). Influence of differentiated instruction workshop on Taiwanese elementary school English teachers’
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1-13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01409170410784211.
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style questionnaire (LSQ). Bristol Business School Teaching and Research Review, 14 (3):131- 177.
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Falls.
[15] Honey & Mumford. A. (2000). The 23 learning styles helper's guide. Maidenhead, Berkshire, UK: Peter Honey publication
limited.
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and enrichment pedagogy on reading achievement in five elementary schools. American Educational Research Journal. 48 (2).
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[17] Reis, S. & Renzulli, J.S. (2018). The five dimensions of differentiation. Theory and Practice in Language Studies. 5, (2): 270-
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[18] Rays, I. Defray, S., Rots. I. & Alterman, A. (2013). Differentiated instruction in teacher education. A case study of congruent
teaching. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 19(1), 93-107.
[19] Santangelo, T. & Tomlinson, C.A. (2009). The application of differentiated instruction in postsecondary environments:
Benefits, challenges, and future directions. Int. J. Teach. Learn. High. Educ, 20, (3): 307–323.
[20] Senturk, C., & Sari, H. (2018). Investigation of impacts of differentiated instruction applied in a primary school in attitudes of
students towards the course. Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences, 13(2), 240–248.
https://doi.org/10.18844/cjes.v13i2.3359
[21] Scott, B. (2012). The effectiveness of differentiated instruction in the elementary mathematics classroom. Unpublished Doctoral
Dissertation, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, USA.
[22] Siam, K. & Al-Natour, M. (2016). Teacher’s differentiated instruction practices and implementation challenges for learning
disabilities in Jordan, Int. Educ. Stud., 9 (2), p. 167-181.
[23] Shareefa, M. & Rohani, H.J & Awg, Z. & Nor, Z. & Midawati, A. & Rosmawijah, U. & Brunei, D. & Brunei, D. (2019).
Differentiated instruction: Definition and challenging factors perceived by teachers. Advances in Social Science, Education and
Humanities Research, (388):322-327.
[24] Tomlinson, C. A. (2001). How to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability classrooms. ASCD.
[25] Tomlinson, C., & Imbeau, M. (2010). Leading and managing a differentiated classroom. Alexandria, Virginia: ASCD.
[26] Tomlinson, C. A. (2014). The differentiated classroom: responding to the needs of all learners. ASCD.
[27] Valiandes, S. (2015). Evaluating the impact of differentiated instruction on literacy and reading in mixed ability classrooms:
Quality and equity dimensions of education effectiveness. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 45, 17-26.
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[28] Williams, K. (2012). The effects of differentiated instruction of standardized assessment performance of students in the middle
school mathematics classroom. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation School of Education, Liberty University, Virginia, USA.
Ahmad A. Al-Makahleh is an associate professor in Special Education at Al-Balqa Applied University in Jordan. He received his
Ph.D. in Special Education from The University of Jordan in 2009. His interests are in learning difficulties, speech and language
disorders, and evaluation and diagnosis in special education.
Alaa’ Mohammad Smadi is an assistant professor in Linguistics at Al-Balqa Applied University in Jordan. She received her
Ph.D. in Linguistics from The University of Jordan in 2021. Her research interests are in language acquisition, psycholinguistics,
sociolinguistics, syntax, and corpus linguistics.
Maram Momani is an assistant professor in Curricula and Teaching at Al-Balqa Applied University in Jordan. She received her
Ph.D. in Curricula and Teaching from The World Islamic Sciences and Education University in 2015. Her research interests are
teaching and learning children in the kindergarten and primary stages.

ISSN 1799-2591
Correspondence Between the Textbooks of the

Intensive English Program and Students’
Language Proficiency at King Khalid University
Ahmad Alshehri
King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia
Abstract—This study aims to identify the correspondence between the textbooks of the Intensive English
Program and students’ language proficiency at King Khalid University in Saudi Arabia. In addition, it
explores the differences in the level of language proficiency of the students based on the variables of gender
and course specialization. A test was constructed to measure the level of language proficiency, and valid
responses from 408 male and female students were collected. The results demonstrated the correspondence
between the textbooks of the Intensive English Program and students’ language proficiency. Moreover, the
findings revealed that there were no statistically significant differences attributed to the variables of gender
and course specialization. Based on the results, the following recommendations to reinforce the program are
provided: conduct placement tests for students to accommodate them in the appropriate levels of language
proficiency and prescribe textbooks that are suitable for all language levels from beginners to advanced.
Index Terms—English language textbooks, correspondence, Intensive English Language Program, King
Khalid University
I. INTRODUCTION
English is the medium of instruction in most scientific, medical, and engineering programs. Hence, Saudi universities
have paid a great deal of attention to English language teaching. This focus on teaching English includes providing first
year students with adequate English language skills that can help them pursue their university education in a suitable
manner. One of the reasons for this attention is addressing the gap between the school outcomes and the requirements of
university education. Though the students have studied English for several years during their various levels of school
education, their English language proficiency remains weak and lower than the expected level (Al-sonei, 2005; Qhedh,
2004). In this regard, and despite the views on its definition and types, language proficiency generally refers to the level
of language capability of the learner and the degree of mastering the different language skills (Bedore et al., 2012). It
can be measured through language proficiency tests, such as the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and
International English Language Testing System (IELTS). In the current study, the proficiency will be measured through
a test designed for this purpose.
King Khalid University, similar to the other Saudi universities, offers an intensive English course for freshmen. This
program offered for students in their first year aims to enhance their proficiency in the English language. It consists of
three courses, namely ENG 011 and ENG 012, offered to the students of the colleges of science, computers, engineering,
business administration, and humanities, and ENG 019, which is offered to the students of medical colleges. The
English Language Center at the College of Language and Translation is responsible for teaching these courses. Course
ENG 011 is taught at the first level to the students in the colleges of science, engineering, computers, business
administration, and humanities. This course aims to provide students with language and academic skills that would
enable them to pursue their university education where English is the medium of instruction. According to the course
description, this course targets students at language levels A1 and A2 according to the classification of the Common
European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Credit hours for this course are 6 credits, and 85% and 15%
of the course is taught on campus and through e-learning, respectively. Students are evaluated through two semester
exams and a final exam in addition to a few other activities and assessments.
ENG 012 course is meant to be taught at the second level for the students of the colleges of science, engineering,
computers, business administration, and humanities. It aims to provide students with the four language skills, namely
listening, speaking, reading, and writing, to help them practice the language in day-to-day life situations. Furthermore,
this course targets students at language levels A2 and B1 according to the CEFR. The credit hours are 6 hours, and on
campus classes constitute 85% of the course while the rest is instructed online. Students are evaluated through two
semester exams and a final exam in addition to a few added activities and assessments.
ENG 019 Course is taught to the students of the health science colleges (medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, and applied
medical sciences). It aims to provide students with the four language skills as well as the terminology and
communication skills related to the medical field. The course description specifies that this course targets students at
language levels A2 and B1 according to the CEFR classification. The course consists of 6 credit hours, and 85% of the

course work is completed on campus while 15% is offered online. Students are evaluated through two semester exams
and a final exam in addition to a few supplementary activities and assessments.
Table 1 summarizes the courses of the Intensive English Language Program.
TABLE 1
INTENSIVE ENGLISH PROGRAM COURSES
Course Target college Student level Prescribed Textbook(s) Students Expected Target Specified Units
Name students Language Language
Proficiency Level Skill
ENG 011 Science, Engineering, Level 1 Unlock Level 1, Listening A1 ‫ و‬A2 Listening and All
Computer, Business & speaking Speaking
Administration, & Unlock Level 2, listening & Listening and 1, 2, 3 & 4
Humanities. speaking Speaking
Unlock Level 1-Reading, Reading and All
Writing Writing
Unlock Level 2 Reading, Reading and 1, 2, 3 & 4
Writing Writing
ENG 012 Science, Engineering, Level 2 Unlock Level 2 Listening, B1 & A2 Listening and 1,2,3
Computer, Business Speaking Speaking &4
Administration, & Unlock Level 3 Listening, Listening and All
Humanities. Speaking Speaking
Unlock Level 2 Reading, Reading and 1,2,3 & 4
Writing Writing
Unlock Level 3 Reading, Reading and All
Writing Writing
ENG 019 Medicine, Pharmacy, Level 1 Unlock Level 2 Listening, B1 and A2 Listening and All
Dentistry, and Applied Speaking Speaking
Medical Sciences Unlock Level 3 Listening, Listening and Listening and
Speaking Speaking Speaking
Writing Writing
Writing Writing
English in Medicine Medical All
Terminology
It is evident from the course description of the Intensive English Language Program that the suitable level of English
for each course has been determined according to the CEFR classification. The levels of language proficiency are
divided according to this framework into the following six levels: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, and C2, where A1 represents the
lowest and C2 represents the highest level in language proficiency. The levels of the learners targeted by the Intensive
English Language Program (IELP) courses range from A1 to B1. These six levels can be classified into three main
levels as follows:
1. Basic level: Two sub-levels constitute this level, namely A1 and A2. In the first level (A1), the learners can use
simple sentences and familiar phrases in day-to-day life situations. In the next level (A2), the learners can communicate
in better ways in everyday situations.
2. Independent level: Levels B1 and B2 represent this category. In the third level (B1), the learners can produce more
complex sentences, either written or spoken, than the previous level. In the fourth level (B2), the learners can produce
more in-depth texts and also comprehend both abstract and concrete spoken or written texts. In addition, they possess a
good command over speaking and communication skills.
3. Proficient level: This category comprises two sub-levels called C1 and C2. In the fifth level (C1), the learners are
able to understand lengthy and complex texts without any difficulty. Additionally, they demonstrate the ability to
produce written or spoken texts by relying on a bundle of language structures and vocabulary. The last level (C2)
represents the highest level of language proficiency where the learners can voice their opinions and argue their points in
a clear and effective manner.
Abdala (2022) evaluated the Unlock textbooks in terms of the communicative proficiency skills and content
suitability; however, it is not clear whether he investigated all the Unlock textbooks or merely a sample. The findings of
his study revealed that the textbooks are well-designed and provide effective communicative and academic skills
although using videos for the warm up stage as an introduction to the lessons is time consuming. The current study will
evaluate these textbooks from a different angle, namely their suitability to the language proficiency level of the learners.
The textbooks market offers an extensive number of books, which makes the task of selecting the right textbook
difficult for the learners, teachers, and/or educational institutions. Although the majority of these textbooks are
commercial, their publishers or authors may label unreal features to their books in terms of the level of language
proficiency or even the theory of learning or teaching methodologies that are appropriate for them.
Therefore, some specialists and researchers have attempted to make the process of selecting the appropriate books
systematic by evaluating these books first and subsequently selecting the appropriate one out of the available choices.
There are several methods of evaluating textbooks, such as the impressionistic, systematic, and checklist evaluation.

The problem of selecting books has attracted a lot of arguments. The supporters find it an essential part of the
curricula, which plays a pivotal part in the learning and teaching process for the teachers, students, and the educational
institution. Numerous scholars, such as Burden (2007), Cunningsworth (1995), Dali (2019), Guilloteaux (2013),
Hutchinson and Torres (1994), Mares (2003), Putra (2017), Romeny and Holsworth (2016), Richards and Renandya
(2002), To and Mahboob (2019) believe that the selection of textbooks is an indispensable task in teaching the English
language.
On the contrary, those who are against the idea of textbooks find it a barrier to the independence of the learners and
teachers as it may not match the needs of the learners, weaken their independence in the learning autonomy process, and
may limit the teacher’s creativity and ability to select educational materials that fit the needs of the students. Some of
the textbooks contain similar and repetitive topics. Moreover, they may hinder language learning in natural contexts
from everyday life situations (Brumfit, 1980; Crawford, 2002; Johnson, 1995; Nunan, 1989).
Irrespective of the view of those interested in books, as Williams (1983) pointed out, they still play an important role
in the learning process, but they cannot be the only materials used in assisting in language teaching and learning. This
view is emphasized by Swan (1991) who demonstrated that books will always be in demand.
It is more likely that the reliance on books in teaching languages will continue as they contain a lot of activities to
practice the language, have clear-cut objectives, and save the time and effort of the teacher, especially those who lack
adequate experience in teaching. Books do not necessarily refer to printed paper; they could also be electronic copies or
in other existing multimedia forms.
The approval and selection of the textbooks is a multifaceted process (Romeny & Holsworth, 2016) that is both
difficult (Minoo & Nikan, 2012) and exhausting as it requires a lot of time and effort, especially when several choices
exist in the market. What makes the matter even more challenging is that most of the available books have a purely
commercial purpose; therefore, the publishers or authors of these books may claim inaccurate facts about their books,
such as their appropriateness to the level of learners, their suitable teaching methods, or the learning theories on which
they are designed as well as their eligibility to the social context of the target learners. Thus, McDonough and Shaw
(1993) have warned against blindly following what they called “the blurb” of these books.
It is important to consider the level of language proficiency of the learners when choosing books. Despite the array of
views on the term “language proficiency” and what it means, in general, it refers to the level of language ability of the
learner and the extent of mastering the different language skills (Bedore et al, 2012). Furthermore, Nunan (1995)
stressed that the selected books must fit the linguistic level of the students. However, in a program with hundreds of
learners with different personality traits and linguistic and cultural backgrounds, it is difficult to find a textbook that
addresses all their needs and individual differences. This may affect their achievement (Radencich, 1995). They may
also feel frustrated when the level of linguistic complexity in the course offered does not meet their language
proficiency.
Textbook evaluation process is considered as one of the most important ways of selecting the appropriate textbooks
for the learner and teacher in addition to meeting the objectives of the educational program and institution. The pre-use
evaluation phase (McGrath, 2002) is the one in which a decision can be made of its suitability for use in the educational
program. Ellis (1997) and Tomlinson (2003) emphasized on a certain type of textbook evaluation, which is called
predictive evaluation, through which preliminary decisions can be made regarding the suitability of the textbooks for a
certain context and objectives.
Evaluation checklists have emerged since the 1970s, which provide clear guidelines for evaluators (Littlejohn, 1998).
The textbook evaluation frameworks that emerged in the 1990s and early 2000s are still leading in textbook evaluation
(Byrd, 2001; Cunningsworth, 1995; Eliss, 1997; McDonough & Shaw, 1993; McGrath, 2002; Rubdy, 2003). Recent
studies, such as those by Ahmadi Safa and Karampour (2020), Ayu and Inderawati (2019), Demir and Ertas (2014),
Dongxing (2020), Mohammadi and Abdi (2014), and Nurhamsih and Syahrial (2018), made use of the evaluation
checklists and frameworks developed by the previous authors.
Research problem
The medium of instruction for the scientific fields, including medical, engineering, and computers, at King Khalid
University is English. Therefore, the university must focus on providing students with the necessary language skills that
will help them succeed in their studies (Dev & Qiqieh, 2016; Kong et al., 2012; Pauline, 2015; Wilson & Komba, 2013).
To meet the above requirement, the university offers the IELP for its first year students to improve their language
acquisition skills and help them advance in their further studies. It has approved a number of textbooks for teaching the
program’s courses. These courses are essential in achieving the objectives of the course and of the language program as
a whole. However, the selection of the right English Language Teaching (ELT) coursebooks from the large volume of
materials available in the market for English language textbooks makes this selection process challenging, and it
requires objectivity as well as high accuracy to choose the most appropriate textbooks that meet the course objectives
(Minoo & Nikan, 2012; Romeny & Holsworth, 2016).
Reflecting on the personal experience of the researcher, as a specialist of ELT and having maintained contact with
the students who study these courses in their first year, the difference in their level of language proficiency could be
observed; some of them are proficient, and the majority are between the beginner and intermediate levels. Consequently,
approving standardized textbooks for all students despite their different language levels may not be suitable and may

affect their success due to their lack of understanding of the content (Radencich, 1995), which may cause a feeling of
frustration. Nunan (1991) emphasized that no single textbook can address all the needs of the learners in the classroom
because their needs are many and different. He adds that the textbook must address the suitable language level.
Therefore, this research has drawn on such a point to examine whether the textbooks prescribed in the IELP at King
Khalid University address the language levels listed in the course descriptions of the program (A1, A2, B1).
Research questions
1. Are the prescribed textbooks suitable for the level of proficiency of the students in the IELP at King Khalid
University?
2. Do gender differences (male-female) affect the level of proficiency of the students in the IELP at King Khalid
University?
3. Do different course specializations (tracks) affect the level of proficiency of the students in the IELP at King
Khalid University?
Significance of the research
It is expected that this research will serve as a clear indicator for the English Language Center at the College of
Languages and Translation of King Khalid University on the suitability of the current courses to the students’ language
proficiency level and the degree to which their proficiency is affected by the variables of gender and study discipline.
The literature review also contributes to providing guidelines on the criteria that can be relied upon for approving the
English language coursebooks to those in the departments and committees responsible for textbook approval and review.
Additionally, this study is an endeavor to provide recommendations and suggestions that can contribute to enhancing
the English language teaching process.
II. METHODS
Research design
The study utilized the descriptive approach. Quantitative data were collected by an electronic test sent to all first-year
students in the medical, engineering, and computers disciplines during the first semester of the academic year 2021.
Participants
The study tool was distributed to all the male and female students (about 1800) enrolled in the IELP at King Khalid
University during the academic year 2021. They were distributed in the following three disciplines: medical,
engineering, and computers. A total of 408 students responded; they were aged between 18 and 20 years. They were all
native speakers of Arabic and had been learning English for nine years before they attended the university. For three
years, they were in the elementary stage, and for six years, they were at the intermediate and secondary stages. Table 2,
3, and 4 display the details:
TABLE 2
DISTRIBUTION OF RESEARCH SAMPLE ACCORDING TO SEX VARIABLE
Sex Number Percentage
Male 297 72.8
Female 111 27.2
Total 100
TABLE 3
DISTRIBUTION OF RESEARCH SAMPLE ACCORDING TO SPECIALIZATION
Specialization (Discipline) Number Percentage
Computer 62. 0.62
Engineering 66. 0.62
Medical Sciences 6.. 2.6.
Total 22. 62262
TABLE 4
DISTRIBUTION OF SAMPLE ACCORDING TO ENGLISH COURSE THE OPTED BY THE STUDENT
The English course currently being studied Number Percentage
ENG 011 622 0.62
ENG 012 .8 0.62
ENG 019 6.6 2.6.
Total 22. 62262
Instrument
To measure the level of language proficiency for the study sample, the Cambridge University test was employed. It is
a reliable test designed by the Cambridge University and is characterized by its accuracy and ability to distribute
students according to the language levels as per the classification of the CEFR. This test consists of 25 items; one point
is assigned to each correct item, and based on the number of correct answers, the level of language proficiency is
determined according to Table 5 (Cambridge Assessment English):

TABLE 5
LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY LEVEL ACCORDING TO EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK OF REFERENCE FOR LANGUAGES (CEFR)
Scores Language proficiency level according to European Framework of
Reference for Languages (CEFR)
25 C2
23-24 C1
20-22 B2
16-19 B1
10-15 A2
Below 9 A1
The test was electronically designed; the information on the variables related to the research were introduced in its
introduction, namely, gender, discipline, and course. It was electronically sent to all the first-year students in the
medical, engineering, and computers disciplines during the first semester of the university year 2021 through text
messages containing the test link via the university’s communication system. The respondents were 408 male and
female students.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

To answer the first question: Are the prescribed textbooks suitable for the level of proficiency of students at the IELP
at King Khalid University? Mean averages and standard deviations of the total score for the proficiency test were
calculated. Table 6 indicates that the average scores of the sample reached almost 13 degrees. This score is categorized
within the range of language proficiency level A2 according to the CEFR. It is the target level in all coursebooks for
students of the Intensive Program, thereby indicating that they are suitable for the level of language proficiency of the
students.
TABLE 6
AVERAGES OF THE SAMPLE SCORES IN THE PROFICIENCY TEST (N=408)
Dimensions Average Standard deviation Minimum score Maximum score
Out of 25 6062. .620 0 0.
Out of 100 .0600 06682 . 622
A more comprehensive way to explore the students’ language proficiency level is used. The language proficiency test
scores were divided into six levels (according to the CEFR classification) to get the following division, which
represents the sample language proficiency level.
Table 7 shows that 31% of the research sample were found within the A1 level while 35% and 19% got scores at the
A2 and B1 level, respectively. These three levels are the three targeted levels by the textbooks for teaching English to
the students of the shared programs (Table 1). Therefore, the total of these percentages reached approximately 86% of
the research sample. The result confirms the suitability of the prescribed textbooks for the students’ language
proficiency level. This finding is consistent with the language levels stated in the course descriptions (Table 1). The
result confirms what some previous studies have stressed, i.e., the necessity of matching the English language teaching
textbooks to the students’ language proficiency level (Nunan, 1995).
TABLE 7
STUDY SAMPLE LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY (N=408)
Language proficiency level Score Number Percentage
A1 9 and below 60. 0662
A2 10-15 622 0.60
B1 16-19 8. 6.66
B2 20-22 0. .6.
C1 23-24 6. 06.
C2 25 . 66.
Total 22. 62262
It is clear that the students’ language proficiency levels showed that 86% of the sample came under the first three
levels of the CEFR. This, in turn, raises a question about the degree of achievement of the objectives of teaching
English in public education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Although the students have been studying the language for
several years, their language proficiency scores still do not go beyond the third level (B1) of the CEFR (Al-sonei, 2005;
Qhedh, 2004).
The response to the second question: Do gender differences (male -female) affect the level of proficiency of students
at the IELP at King Khalid University?
To answer this question, the t-test was used to measure the significant differences between the two independent
groups to identify the differences between the research sample individuals in their scores in the language proficiency
test according to gender (male-female). The statistics showed that no significant differences can be attributed to gender
differences.

As seen in Table 8, although there are differences between the mean scores of the females and males, these
differences are not significant as the t-values indicate (1.85), thereby implying that the language proficiency of the
sample is not affected by gender. This result can be attributed to the fact that male and female students were subjected
to the same volume of language exposure. They studied approximately the same courses during the stages of
preparatory and secondary education and had the same number of classes in addition to the similarity of context, which
contributed to the close levels of language proficiency of the male and female students. This finding is in congruence
with the study of Koosha et al. (2001) while it contradicts the results of a study by McMullen (2014), who found an
effect of the gender variable on the level of the students’ language proficiency.
TABLE 8
T-TEST FOR SIGNIFICANCE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE STUDY SAMPLE INDIVIDUALS IN THE LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY LEVEL TEST SCORES
ACCORDING TO GENDER VARIABLE (SCORE OUT OF 100)
Sample sex Number Average Standard t-value Significance level Comments
deviation
Male 0.8 .6622 0668. 66.. 262.. Not significant
Female 666 ..62. 0660.
The response to the third question: Do different course specializations (tracks) affect the level of proficiency of
students at the IELP at King Khalid University?
To answer this question, a one-way analysis of variance (F test) to measure the significant differences between more
than two independent groups was utilized to identify the differences between the study sample individuals in their
scores in the language proficiency level test attributed to the difference in course specialization (track): (computers,
engineering, medical sciences). Table 9 shows the results:
TABLE 9
ONE-WAY ANALYSIS (F) TEST FOR THE SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE STUDY SAMPLE INDIVIDUALS IN THE
LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY LEVEL TEST SCORES ACCORDING TO GENDER VARIABLE
Source of Sum of squares Degree of Squares mean F-value Significance level Comments
variation freedom
Between groups .0686 0 2.60. Not significant
66.. 26028
Within groups 66..0666 22. 0.602
Table 9 displays that the value of F is not significant, which means that there are no statistically significant
differences between the participants in their scores in the language proficiency level test attributed to the difference in
the course specialization (track) i.e., computers, engineering, and medical sciences. This finding can be interpreted in a
similar way to the interpretation of the result of the previous question where the students were exposed to the same
volume of English during the different stages of preparatory and secondary education and the same number of study
classes because the study plans are unified by the Ministry of Education. Moreover, the programs for training the
English language teachers are the same. Surprisingly, the students of medical sciences are selected according to a high
selection criterion, but the results of the study did not reveal any difference in the level of language proficiency
attributed to the variable of medical sciences track. This fact is in contrast to the findings of Alfehaid’s (2018) study
which suggested that there are differences attributed to the course specialization (track) variable.
IV. CONCLUSION
The current study investigated the correspondence between the textbooks of the Intensive English Program and
students' language proficiency at King Khalid University. It explored the differences in the level of language
proficiency of students based on the variables of gender and course specialization. The findings revealed that there were
no statistically significant differences attributed to the variables of gender and course specialization. In light of the
research findings, the present study recommends the following:
1. Reinforcing the IELP to address the weakness of pre-university education graduates to prepare them well to
progress and succeed in university education programs, especially in the specializations where the medium of
instruction is English.
2. Conducting placement tests for all freshmen to accommodate them in their respective suitable language levels.
3. Adopting the levels system in teaching the IELP so that the students can be placed in the levels matching their
language proficiency levels according to the language proficiency tests. Those whose language proficiency is good can
directly join the higher levels and consequently accelerate their completion of the program.
4. Considering the approval of a variety of English language teaching textbooks that match all learners’ language
levels from beginners to advanced.
Future research is suggested in the following areas:
1. Considering the reconstruction of the IELP and selection of the best methods of introducing it to the learners.
2. Investigating the degree to which the IELP contributes to enhancing the language enrichment of the learners for
achieving its objectives.

3. Cross-checking the appropriateness of the criteria and principles followed in selecting the English language
textbooks.
4. Conducting a further study to evaluate the previously approved English textbooks for the Intensive Program in
terms of achieving the objectives, their relevance to the level of the students, their relevance to the context, the
pedagogical as well as learning theories followed, the assessment methods used in them, and the extent to which they
consider the learners’ independence.
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https://doi.org/10.5430/wjel.v2n4p1
Ahmad Alshehri is an Associate Professor of TESOL at the Department of Curricula and Instruction, College of Education, King
Khalid University, Saudi Arabia. After completing his MA in TESOL from the University of Bristol, UK, he proceeded to obtain a
PhD in TESOL from Umm Al-Qura University, Saudi Arabia. His research interests revolve around textbooks evaluation, blended
learning, vocabulary teaching, language assessment and technology-enhanced language learning.

ISSN 1799-2591
Cognitive Process and Skill Training of

Time-Limited Sight Translation
Deyan Zou
School of Advanced Translation and Interpretation, Dalian University of Foreign Languages, Dalian, China
Jing Chen
School of Advanced Translation and Interpretation, Dalian University of Foreign Languages, Dalian, China
Abstract—In sight translation, a written message is converted into a spoken message, or a written text must be
read aloud in another language. Sight translation has long been considered a hybrid of translation and
interpreting and a preparatory training method for simultaneous interpreting. However, because the
information input in sight translation is in the form of text rather than fleeting speech, not enough attention is
paid to the time factor of sight translation. This paper addresses the definition, cognitive process, and training
of the skills of time-limited sight translation. The aim is to highlight the importance of time constraint in sight
translation to strengthen the role of sight translation in language skill acquisition, including supplementing
cognitive knowledge and improving bilingual conversion ability.
Index Terms—time-limited sight translation, cognitive process, skill set, training method
I. INTRODUCTION
Sight translation, as the name suggests, is “translation while reading” or “an oral translation of a written text”
(Agrifoglio, 2004, p. 43; Lambert, 2004, p. 298; Setton & Motta, 2007, p. 203). There are two types of sight translation,
one based on reading the text, the other based on reading the text and listening to the audio of the text (Wan, 2017). The
former is often used in liaison interpreting, consecutive interpreting or when sight translation of the text on the spot is
required, often with no strict time limit imposed on the task. The latter is very similar to simultaneous interpreting with
text, where the audio of the text is played and must be followed simultaneously. Sight Translation is neither considered
“pure translation” nor “pure interpreting”, but is a “transitional form”, a hybrid of translation and interpreting. However,
sight translation is generally considered to be closer to interpreting, especially simultaneous interpreting, because the
procedures and strategies used are similar (Mikkelson, 1994; Weber, 1990). Sight translation has always had a place in
interpreting practice and teaching, but the academic community has not yet reached a consensus on the meaning of sight
translation, the use of sight translation, or the variants of sight translation (Li, 2014). The relevant research findings are
still limited. This paper discusses the definition, cognitive process, and training of time-limited sight translation to
enrich the related research on the time factor of sight translation.
II. DEFINITION OF TIME-LIMITED SIGHT TRANSLATION

The output form of sight translation is spoken language, which seems to imply that there are output speed or time
limit requirements, but the definition of sight translation rarely explicitly mentions output speed or time limit.
Moser-Mercer (1995) found that in the practice of sight translation with no time limit on output, veterans can multi-task,
while novices generally interpret after reading. This leads to a large difference in the speed of sight translation between
the two, with the former at 115 words per minute and the latter at 60 words per minute. Chmiel and Lijewska (2019)
also found that professional translators spend less time on sight translation than student translators. Angelelli (1999)
pointed out that sight translation in the target language should sound as if the translator is reading the text in the target
language, and the target language output should be as fluent as possible, without hesitations or pauses. Setton and
Dawrant (2016) believe that listeners should have expectations about the fluency of the translation, as the sight
translation output is spoken language. The output of sight translation should be clear, easy to understand, and natural.
When translating from language C or B into language A, the output time should not exceed the time spent reading the
original text; when translating from language A into language B, the output time should not exceed 20% of the time
spent reading the original text.
In the definition of sight translation, output at natural language speed seems to be the temporal standard for sight
translation, but this standard is neither precise nor can it meet the needs of sight translation for different scenarios or
purposes. Sight translation based on reading and sight translation based on reading and hearing can be seen as the two
ends of the temporal limit for sight translation: One is sight translation without a time limit, and the other is
time-limited sight translation, which can be overlaid with multiple cognitive tasks of simultaneous interpreting.
Time-limited sight translation can be defined as follows: In contrast to self-contained or self-paced sight translation,

time-limited sight translation manipulates the input speed of the source text to guide the translator to produce the sight
translation at a specific speed and within a specific time limit. The importance of exploring the time factor of sight
translation is not only to clarify the two ends of the continuum, but also to pay more attention to the time factor in the
interval and the integration of the time requirement in sight translation training, to clarify the limit limitation of sight
translation, the cognitive process, and the composition of skills in order to better play the mediating role of sight
translation between translation and interpreting.
III. COGNITIVE PROCESS OF TIME-LIMITED SIGHT TRANSLATION

Weber (1990) uses a flowchart to illustrate the two stages of the process of sight translation: conceptualization and
the representation of units of meaning. Gile's (2009) effort model: Simultaneous interpreting = listening + memory +
production + coordination; Sight translation = reading + memory + production + coordination; Sight translation and
simultaneous interpreting differ in the way they take in information. Since reading and listening are the main
components of each process, and the rest is produced and modified by them, the cognitive processes of the two are
similar but different. The visual input of sight translation can be revisited, which seems easier than the auditory input of
simultaneous interpreting, but in fact the prolonged presence of visual input is a kind of interference, and the visual
interference of reading causes the sight translator to pay more attention to vocabulary and makes “forgetting words” or
“deverbalization” more difficult. For novice interpreters, sight translation is more difficult because they have not yet
mastered the mental representation of distancing themselves from the language form (Gile, 2020).
When interpreting, if the interpreter cannot effectively divide the limited cognitive resources between completing the
reading of the original text, short-term memory, and output in the target language, or if the cognitive resources are
insufficient due to the difficulty of the interpreting task itself, cognitive problems occur, which are referred to as load
imbalance. Cognitive load, applied to the study of translation cognition, can identify important features of the
translation process; it can reveal complex relationships between factors such as “consciousness, problem solving, and
automation” (Muñoz-Martin, 2012). Attention to the temporal constraints of sight translation and the inherent changes
in cognitive load can highlight the multitasking nature of sight translation and refine cognitive research on sight
translation. In time-limited translational activities such as simultaneous interpreting, consecutive interpreting, sight
translation, and audiovisual translation, completing tasks and avoiding downtime is not only a “self-protection” decision
but also a “survival” decision. In the case of time-limited sight translation, the translator must therefore complete
several tasks at the same time to cope with the cognitive load.
The time difference between input and output is referred to as “ear-voice span” (EVS) in simultaneous interpreting,
which refers to the time difference between hearing the source language and the output in the target language; in sight
translation, it is referred to as “eye-voice span” or “sight-speech difference”, which refers to the time difference
between the translator seeing the source text and the output in the target language. Studies have shown that the time
difference between hearing and speaking in simultaneous interpreting is basically between 0.5 and 11 seconds, with an
average between 2 and 4 seconds (Oléron et al., 1965; Barik, 1973). The “sight-speech difference” in sight translation
can also refer to such a range, although “reading ahead”, i.e. processing before producing, is the norm and the existence
of regressions complicates the “sight-speech difference” of sight translation. Setton and Dawrant (2016) found that
increasing the amount of reading in sight translation can ensure the quality of the target language, but more information
intake costs time and energy. To keep the “sight-speech difference” within a controllable range, sight translators need to
complete the translation of fragments after they have absorbed a certain amount of information to reduce cognitive load
and avoid cognitive overload.
Some researchers (Brady, 1989; Gile & Lei, 2021) believe that the difficulty of sight translation is that retaining the
information of the original text constantly disturbs the translator. However, this is only one aspect of the problem. An
essential component of human language is the ability to extract semantic information from spoken and written language,
and semantic representations are not affected by sensory modalities (Binder et al., 2009; Price, 2012). On the one hand,
in simultaneous interpreting, the source language is volatile, whereas in sight translation, the textual information is
always present and can be retrieved multiple times as long as the span of working memory and the overall cognitive
load allow, which facilitates comprehension of the source text, and the time difference between input and output can be
made more flexible. On the other hand, Lamberger-Felber and Schneider (2008) found that visual and auditory input in
sight translation and simultaneous interpreting has a significant impact on the output of the target language. The degree
and frequency of impairment do not differ significantly by mode, but rather by the individual performance of the
translator.
Like other time-limited translational activities, sight translation is a cognitive multitasking process that has a positive
effect on source language comprehension, translation mentality, splitting and reorganization, use of parallel translation,
and expression in the target language, helping translation students to sense and adjust to the process of “deverbalization”
(Deng, 2017; Liu, 2011). Song (2010) found that the skill transfer between sight translation and simultaneous
interpreting cannot be smooth if sight translation is not temporally limited, and its static features and the dynamic online
information processing of simultaneous interpreting cannot be reconciled. Since it is a time-limited translational activity,
the time limitation of sight translation plays an important role. This can highlight the role of sight translation in
promoting translators to efficiently analyze the original text, detach from the original text structure, and develop a

translation strategy.
IV. SKILL TRAINING IN TIME-LIMITED SIGHT TRANSLATION

In time-limited sight translation, reading of the original text, short-term memory, and output in the target language
must be coordinated within the time limit, and all tasks must compete for limited cognitive resources to ensure that the
task pile does not exceed the available processing capacity. The skill composition and training methods for time-limited
sight translation are considered below from three points of view: fast reading, working memory, and production in the
target language.
A. Fast-Reading Competence
Time-limited sight translation requires more efficient reading comprehension. According to eye-tracking research on
the reading process, the reader's eyes do not read word by word from left to right, about one-third of the words in
reading are not fixed (Rayner et al., 2011), and the brain infers and receives overall information based on partial
information and impressions using syntactic and semantic rules. Research on fast reading also shows that there is a
trade-off between reading speed and accuracy.
Aspects of reading efficiency are particularly important in time-limited sight translation. Efficient readers can focus
on content words that contribute more to the information structure, spend less time on fixations, have longer saccades
and look back less often. Inefficient readers cannot focus on content words, spend more time fixing words, have shorter
saccades, and look back frequently. So whether the fixated word is a more effective content word for building
information, whether more or less time is spent on fixated words, whether saccades are large or small, and whether
regressions are more frequent or less frequent, are all important factors in reading efficiency. This is crucial for sight
translation because only when the translator becomes an efficient reader can he or she excel at sight translation.
The improvement of speed-reading skills during time-limited training in sight translation depends on numerous
factors. Kalina (2000) and Sandrelli (2006) propose timed sight translation, training that focuses on the role of speed
reading and comprehension in sight translation. Chung (2007) suggests marking the semantic units of the source text,
highlighting the key words that represent the content and structure to avoid students getting stuck on the surface
structure of the source text, and helping students generate the target language according to the semantic and structural
cues. Song (2010) helped students learn interpreting skills and strategies, especially simultaneous interpreting, by using
timed PowerPoint presentations; Setton and Dawrant (2016) suggested dividing the text into blocks of information and
presenting them one after the other. The presentation speed can be adjusted according to training needs, and students
can be trained to segment sentences so that students feel that the information is limited and that they need to weigh risks
and caution in order to complete the interpreting task. Moreover, fast reading is not only a method and way of language
learning, but also the need and trend of human beings to absorb information quickly. Reading software uses rapid serial
visual presentation (RSVP) (or guided highlighting mode) to display the text word by word (or multiple words) in the
center of the screen to avoid eye backtracking, and to encourage the reader to read faster. These methods are similar to
traditional sight translation training methods and can be used as a reference for time-limited sight translation training.
B. Working Memory Competence
Time-limited sight translation requires more efficient working memory. Miller (1956) suggested that the human
short-term memory span is 7 ± 2, i.e. between 5-9, which means that the capacity of human short-term memory is
limited and people can remember 5-9 chunks at a time in short-term memory. An updated study found that this number
is closer to 4, i.e. the human short-term memory span is 4 ± 1 or between 3-5, which is a more precise capacity limit, it
is only three to five chunks, in young adults, and less in children and older adults (Cowan, 2001). Cowan’s suggested
value of four chunks may be an overestimate. The number of chunks can be as low as 2, and the size, rather than the
number, of chunks that are stored in short-term memory is crucial to an individual’s improved memory performance
(Gobet & Clarkson, 2004). Studies on the span of human short-term memory can explain the visual span and processing
ability of sight translators. When short-term memory processes information, it extracts existing knowledge and
experience from long-term memory into short-term memory. This information is processed, which is also called
working memory. Working memory is divided into long-term working memory and short-term working memory.
Improving working memory competence in time-limited sight translation training is of paramount importance.
Psychological studies have shown that individual working memory can be improved by training the inhibition,
switching, and updating functions of the central executive system (Zhou & Zhao, 2010; Zhao & Zhou, 2011). Research
on the combination of working memory and interpreting has also found that interpreters have advantages in cognitive
transformation compared to ordinary bilinguals (Zhao & Dong, 2021); the inhibitory function of the central executive
system of working memory is related to the length of interpreting experience; the better the inhibitory function, the
shorter the input-output time difference; and interpreting accuracy shows an upward trend (Chmiel, 2021; Timarováet
al., 2014; Zou, 2017). Traditional interpreting training methods such as shadowing, shadowing + retelling, multitasking
shadowing, and synchronization of listening and reading, can improve interpreters’ multitasking skills. Working
memory training methods that can be used for reference include visual-spatial working memory tasks, digit span tasks,
word span tasks, working memory training tasks such as reaction time choice, and strategy training tasks such as

repetition and n-back tasks (Wang, 2013). In addition, the use of professional working memory training software, such
as the Lumosity cognitive training program (www.lumosity.com) or the CogniFit personalized training program
(www.cognifit.com), can improve working memory levels after 4-5 weeks of continuous training (Liu & Zhou, 2012).
Applying working memory training methods in time-limited sight translation training and learning from
interdisciplinary achievements can improve the efficiency and sustainability of translation training methods.
C. Target Language Production Competence
Time-limited sight translation requires more efficient production of the target language. Sight translators can control
the rhythm of perceived information, but fluency can only be ensured if the target language is produced while reading.
Research shows that veterans pay more attention to overall meaning and use a top-down strategy; novices pay more
attention to specific words, especially words that cause difficulty, and use a bottom-up strategy (Davis & Bistodeau,
1993; Liu et al., 2004). Wang (2012) also found that veterans are good at inferring the unknown from the known and
skipping the unknown information if it is redundant or negligible, while novices often focus on the unknown
information and therefore get “stuck”. Under time pressure, professional interprets pay more attention to the main
information and information structure, while maintaining a certain success rate in prediction and completing the
translation with high quality. The presence of the source text in sight translation makes it more difficult to break away
from the shell of the source language. Therefore, the speed and ability of “deverbalization” displayed by the interpreter
are the result of deliberate training in interpreting.
Improving target language production competence in time-limited sight translation training depends on proven tactics.
The methods for improving target language expressive competence are often based on the general methods for
improving bilingual expressive competence, such as supplementing relevant cognitive knowledge with parallel text
input exercises and translation exercises; free speech based on word lists, cue text output, cloze text output, compressed
output, and flexible output in a thematic framework. In time-limited sight translation, however, the guiding principle is
to overcome the excessive influence of the source text and to try to translate as smoothly as possible at a given speed. In
addition, the rapid conversion of main terms and the flexible handling of syntactic differences are comparable to bricks
and cement, and by forming an organic integration, the target language is built up faster and better. The bricks include
not only the terms that charge thematic and world knowledge but also the general vocabulary: “rapid continuous visual
presentation” or “scrolling presentation” can train the accuracy and speed of bilingual term conversion to improve the
efficiency of “baseline” conversion; the cement refers to flexible processing of syntax, recognition and full use of
linguistic plasticity, suppression of linguistic interference, more linear output, and output as authentic as possible while
maintaining the original word order. Falbo (1995) suggested using pseudo sight translation method. Even if there is a
direct correspondence between the original text and the translation, students need to consciously transform the syntax
and vocabulary of the original text in order to train students to produce flexible output. Nolan (2008) found that there is
not much difference in effect when multiple methods of expression and organization are used for the same source
language. Setton and Dawrant (2016) also pointed out that flexible syntax processing can better cope with the time
constraints of interpreting and ensuring fluency in the target language.
V. CONCLUSION
Sight translation plays an important role in linking translation and interpreting. The similarities and differences to
traditional translation and interpreting, the cognitive characteristics, the skills required, and the development of skills
should be considered. Based on the time-limited nature of sight translation, this paper discusses the definition, cognitive
process, and skill training of time-limited sight translation. Training in time-limited sight translation can help to
improve the interpreter’s ability to read quickly and the efficiency of working memory, to make the reception of
information more effective, and to weigh the pros and cons (risks and benefits in terms of expression, fluency, accuracy,
etc.) more quickly and then decide whether a restart or linguistic restructuring is needed to ensure fluency in the target
language. Emphasizing the importance of the time limit in sight translation can better play the mediating role of sight
translation, optimize the process of translation and interpreting, and better realize cross-border integration between the
sub-disciplines of translation and interpreting.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was supported in part by a grant from National Project of Philosophy and Social Sciences Research
(17BYY067), National Social Management Office of China.
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Deyan Zou, born 6 December 1976 in Liaoning, China, received her MA in Translation and Interpreting from
Bath University, Bath, UK, and her PhD in Translation Studies from Shanghai International Studies
University, Shanghai, China, and visited Peking University, China, in 2013-2014, and University College
London, UK, in 2017-2018.
She is now Professor and Associate Dean of the School of Advanced Translation and Interpretation, Dalian
University of Foreign Languages, China. She has published two monographs (Zou, D. Memory Training in
Interpreting, Beijing: Central Compilation & Translation Press, 2016; Zou, D. A Study on the Differences in
Working Memory Competence in Consecutive Interpreting, Beijing: Central Compilation & Translation Press,
2017) and both have won the Liaoning Province Distinguished Social Science Research Award (Second
Prize). Her research interests include the process of translation and interpreting, memory in translation and interpreting, the pedagogy
of translation and interpreting, corpus-based studies of translation and interpreting, and the role of translators and interpreters
throughout history.
Prof. Zou is a member of the Chinese Interpreters and Translators Association of Australia, an expert member of the Chinese
Translators Association, board member of the Translation and Interpreting Branch of the Chinese Association for Comparative
Studies of English and Chinese, and has twice been awarded the Distinguished Social Science Research Award of Liaoning Province,
and four times the Liaoning Province Teaching Achievement Award.
Jing Chen, born 8 November 1978 in Liaoning, China, obtained her MA in Linguistics from Dalian
University of Foreign Languages, Dalian, China, and visited Brunel University, UK, in 2013-2014.
She is now an Associate Professor at the School of Advanced Translation and Interpretation, Dalian
University of Foreign Languages, China. She has contributed to the writing of three textbooks (Zou, D.
Listening Comprehension and Summary Interpreting, Beijing Normal University Press, 2020; Zhang, H.
Business Interpreting, Beijing Normal University Press, 2022; Chen, J. Theme-based Interpreting, Beijing
Normal University Press, to be published in 2023). Her research interests include translation and interpreting
pedagogy, corpus-based translation and interpreting studies.
Associate Prof. Chen has won the Liaoning Province Teaching Achievement Award three times.

ISSN 1799-2591
Reconsidering Translation From a Bourdieusian

Sociological Perspective: A Case Study of the
Jing Cao
Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia
Nor Shahila Mansor

Diana Abu Ujum

Abstract—Translation activities are not isolated, and an increasing number of researchers have applied
sociological theories to translation studies, which contributions to interdisciplinary research in translation.
Luotuo Xiangzi, written by Lao She, is one of the best modern Chinese novels. Its four English translation
versions and translation activities that span decades have deeply interacting with various parts of society.
Based on Bourdieu’s sociological theories of the “field”, “capital” and “habitus”, this case study of the English
translations of Luotuo Xiangzi explored the relationship and interaction between the translator and other
participants (participating groups) in the translation activity. It was discovered that the translation activity
could reveal the translator’s habitus and be greatly influenced by interactions with various fields of society and
by the capital engaged in the translation activity of Luotuo Xiangzi, providing proof of the explanatory and
guiding power of Bourdieu’s sociological theory in translation studies. This paper tries to enrich the
interdisciplinary research of sociology and translation and offers additional references for the translation and
global dissemination of translated literature, particularly for Chinese literature.
Index Terms—Luotuo Xiangzi, translation, sociology
I. INTRODUCTION
Translation is an important information dissemination process (Pradita, 2012). “Translation activities are not isolated
but closely related to the politics, economy, science, technology, and culture of human society” (Xu & Murray, 2009, p.
17). Translation theorist Lefevere (1998) notes that “the essence of effective methods for studying translation can only
be studied from social and historical perspectives” (p. 47). He (1998) also believes that the most important aspect of
translation studies is not the corresponding of words, but why words corresponded in this way and what social, literary,
and ideological considerations made translators translate in a specific way. Moreover, the translator’s intended purpose
should be examined. Translation studies and sociological studies have intersected in the same spirit of situating
translation activities in broader contexts, such as social and historical. Bourdieu’s sociological theory has been
employed by many scholars (Wolf, 2007; Xing & Chen, 2020) to analyze translation activities.
Written by Lao She, Luotuo Xiangzi is the “finest modern Chinese novels” (Hsia, 2016, p. 155). It tells the story of a
working-class young man, Xiangzi, struggling to realize his dream of buying a rickshaw of his own to live a decent life.
In this novel, “the lower-class protagonist is portrayed with a degree of loving attention and emotional intensity that has
no parallel in Chinese fiction” (Liu, 1995, p. 107). The first translation, entitled Rickshaw Boy, was a best-seller in
America, selling over a million copies (Li, 2013, p. 177). To date, there are four English translation versions of Luotuo
Xiangzi (see Table 1). The translation activities of Luotuo Xiangzi span decades, with the profound involvement of four
different translators and interactions with various parts. The success and translation activity of Luotuo Xiangzi are
typical and of great value for research in providing a reference for translation and the dissemination of translated
literature, particularly for Chinese literature.

TABLE 1
FOUR ENGLISH TRANSLATION VERSIONS OF LUOTUO XIANGZI
Previous research on the English translations of Luotuo Xiangzi has focused on themes related to cultural elements
(Wang & Zhang, 2018; Fan, 2019), translators’ styles (Huang, 2014; Zhang & Fu, 2019), and how the texts were
received (Xie, 2012; Jin & Wu, 2016). The most recent research relates to the positioning of the translators (Zhao & Li,
2021). Nevertheless, few have explored the translation of Luotuo Xiangzi sociologically, and even fewer have compared
the four English translations and discussed the translation activity, which spans decades, from a Bourdieusian
sociological perspective. Therefore, this study is conducted to provide a thorough analysis of the English translations of
Luotuo Xiangzi from a sociological perspective, aided by Bourdieu’s theory of “field”, “capital” and “habitus”,
exploring the relationship and interactions between the translator and other participants (participating groups) in the
translation activities of Luotuo Xiangzi as well as the interactions between the translation activities of Luotuo Xiangzi
and various parts of society.
II. THE SOCIOLOGICAL TURN OF TRANSLATION STUDIES

James Holmes highlighted in the 1970s that translations could be studied from a sociological perspective with a focus
on what texts were translated at a specific time and place (often the texts that were not translated were equally important)
and what kind of influence the translations had (Holmes, 2000). In early 1998, Lefevere developed Bourdieu’s concept
of “cultural capital” in the anthology Constructing Cultures (Lefevere, 1998, p. 42). In Translation Practice(s) and the
Circulation of Cultural Capital, Lefevere (1998) used the concept of “cultural capital” to explore the dissemination and
reception of Virgil’s epic Aeneid in the English-speaking world. Semioni detailed Bourdieu’s concept of “habitus” as a
supplement to translation studies, specifically descriptive translation studies, in the same year (Semioni, 1998). The
application of Bourdieu’s sociology to translation studies was then investigated by Gouanvic (2005), Sela-Sheffy (2005),
and Wolf and Fukai (2007), based on Bourdieu’s concepts of field, capital, and habitus. In 2005 and 2007, the
publishing companies St. Jerome and John Benjamins published essay collections focused on translation studies from a
Bourdieusian sociological perspective. Thus, translation studies underwent a sociological turn, which was advocated by
Wolf (2006). Merkle (2008) concedes that translation studies “are undergoing a kind of sociological turn in recent years”
(p. 175). Regardless of whether the term “sociological turn” in translation studies was appropriate, translation studies
from a sociological perspective clearly evolved into a new model of contemporary translation studies (Wang, 2011).
III. BOURDIEU’S SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY

During the 1960s, the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu defied many disciplinary boundaries by conducting
in-depth research on anthropology, sociology, linguistics, philosophy, and political science from an interdisciplinary
perspective and constructing a series of unique ideological categories. Following Bourdieu’s work, waves of debate
erupted in France and throughout the Western humanities and social sciences, promoting major reforms of
contemporary western humanities and social sciences theory and methodology and opening a broader prospect for the
development of the humanities and social sciences (Li, 2007).
A. Field
In Bourdieu’s practice of sociology, “field” is a crucial concept: “to think from the perspective of the field is to
understand from the perspective of relations” (Bao, 1997, p. 141). Bourdieu used the field concept as a “social space
with its own unique laws of operation” (Bourdieu, 1993, p. 162). Furthermore, “various fields are interrelated”
(Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992, p. 109). “In highly differentiated societies, the harmonious unity of the society consists of
a relatively autonomous microcosm, which refers to the space of objective relations and the site of logic and necessity”.
(Bao, 1997, pp. 142-143). Bourdieu opines that these social microcosms are composed of the fields of economics,
politics, arts, and academia. Therefore, society, as a broad field, comprises several independent and interconnected
sub-fields.
B. Capital

Bourdieu (1997) drew on the concept of “capital” in economics and believed that capital could be classified into
economic, cultural, and social capital. “Economic capital” is like “capital” in the conventional sense of the word, which
refers to assets (money and stocks) that can be used to directly purchase products or services. The term “cultural capital”
refers to the knowledge and skills gained via social interaction, such as writing and diplomas from accredited higher
learning institutions. “Social capital” refers to the multiple interpersonal connections, personal ties, and societal
responsibilities within society.
C. Habitus
To avoid the use of the word “habit”, Bourdieu used the term “habitus” sparingly. His intention was to state not only
the repetition, mechanicalness, passivity, and a specific type of reproduction to which the word “habit” refers, but also
to express a specific type of generative ability ignored by most sociologists, which exists in the generative capacity as
an art in the dispositional tendency system. Bourdieu’s sociological theory emphasizes the analysis of participants’
habitus because habitus is the internalization of the rules of the “field”. In this context, the rules of the translation field
influence and even restrain translators’ behaviour. Bourdieu states that habitus initially indicates a stance or defined
attitude toward creating and comprehending practice with a unique logic. The constructive principle of habitus resides
in a system of socially constituted, created, and constructed dispositions acquired in practice, which continue to play a
practical role (Bao, 1997).
Bourdieu considered that “habituation” suggests a generative capacity that is “inscribed in the system of temperament
as an art, in the most powerful mastery of practice” (Bao, 1997, p. 169). Xing (2007) traced Bourdieu’s vocabulary and
noted that habitus “constitutes the core of human practice and lies at the center of the interaction among objective
environment, history, and human psychological tendency, thus providing an interpretive framework that enables us to
view human behaviour comprehensively” (p. 11).
D. Application to Translation
Translation can be considered a special and relatively independent field, or, in Bourdieu’s words, “a field with a
relatively low refractive index,” so the surrounding peripheral and power fields interpenetrate with the translation.
Therefore, translation activity does not only occur in the translation field but also in other fields concurrently. These
other fields infiltrate and influence one another with the rules of these related fields, and this is similar to the way
individuals in society work in more than one field. Thus, the translation field should be observed with consideration of
the way that it interacts with and relates to other fields to examine the rules of translation field. This is the first step of
Bourdieu’s sociological research method (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992).
Translation is an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural activity. The operations of power in the translation field are
more complicated than those in relatively independent fields, such as literature and commerce, as specific fields and
national culture-level battles feature power relations (Wang, 2011). Thus, the power relations and capital structure of
translation are more complex than the common field, and its rules are more diverse. Only with the introduction of the
idea of “capital” can a more comprehensive understanding of the constantly evolving historical translation practices be
gained and the distinctive laws and traits of each translation peak be disclosed (Xin & Fei, 2018). The translator’s
capital is generally considered to be symbolic and mainly consists of good bilingual ability, expertise with the relevant
disciplines, translation theory mastery, and previous translation experience (Wang, 2011).
In translation, the habitus of translators specifically refers to the thinking habits and behavioral tendencies that are
developed in translation and other fields. A translator acquires their habitus through various interactions beyond
translation. The translator’s habitus should not only be related to the translation field because translators are social
individuals. Translators’ behaviors are influenced by their translation habitus and attitude towards the culture of the
original work, their professional identity positioning, their relationship with publishers, and other habitus (Wang, 2011).
Thus, translators’ habitus affect both micro aspects, such as their translation strategies and diction, and macro aspects
like text selection.
IV. INTERACTIONS OF THE LUOTUO XIANGZI TRANSLATIONS WITH DIFFERENT FIELDS

A. Evan King: Rickshaw Boy
King’s translation emerged during the time of World War II, when China was an ally of the America and the United
Kingdom. As Kao (1980) states in Two Writers and the Cultural Revolution, Rickshaw Boy was published “when ‘warm
feelings’ toward China, the wartime ally, were still widespread” (p. 37). The extraordinary welcome of King’s
translation version of Luotuo Xiangzi, Rickshaw Boy, mirrored these “warm feelings” toward China.
King’s version rewrote the fate of Xiangzi, the protagonist, into a happy ending to meet the expectations of American
readers at that time and maximize commercial value. This rewriting resulted in similarities between Xiangzi’s bold and
upbeat spirit and the resilient and self-fulfilling aesthetic cultural principles promoted by the American culture
following World War II. Thus, King’s translation is closely related to and interacts with the social, translation, and
commercial fields.
B. Jean James: Rickshaw: The Novel Lot’o Hsiang Tzu

China and America parted ways, particularly after the Korean War in 1950. Following President Nixon’s 1972 visit
to China, diplomatic ties between China and America were restored after seven years. However, despite the swift
change in diplomatic ties to serve common goals, the ideological preconceptions and misunderstandings that developed
during the Cold War continued to impede effective communication between the two countries. Based on the Vietnam
War and its previous involvement in Asian affairs, America was interested in learning more about China, including its
history and culture.
Furthermore, a sociological school emerged in the academic field in American due to the anti-Communist sentiment
gradually waned in the 1960s with profound shift of the American political consciousness (Gotz, 1976, pp. 407-408).
The sociological discipline was particularly immediately applicable to 1970s politics. Following Nixon’s 1972 visit to
China, academics were eager to conduct studies on the country. Social science researchers mainly relied on data related
to China after the feudal system to comprehend the contemporary China that Nixon had just visited.
James’ translation version of Luotuo Xiangzi, Rickshaw: The Novel Lot’o Hsiang Tzu, was produced when the mutual
hostility between China and America began to wane. James’ translation was obviously influenced by the 1970s political
climate, specifically the rapid improvement in America–China relations. Since James was associated with academia and
the translation was intended to be a textbook, it also clearly reflected the academic setting, which may have prevented
her from rendering the translation differently. This new translation was warmly received by people with an interest in
China, which had recently opened to America, as well as largely by students of Chinese literature due to the political
context and the growth of higher education in America.
C. Shi Xiaojing: Camel Xiangzi
China sought greater international recognition once their home climate, both economically and politically, improved
during the mid-1970s. Internationally, China replaced Taiwan as a permanent member of the UN Security Council in
1971 and, shortly afterwards, in 1972, forged diplomatic ties with Japan and with America in 1979. China decided that
it was a good time to change the world's impression of the country. A prominent Chinese translator, Yang Xianyi,
proposed that the literature of China should be translated to promote a better understanding of China by Western
countries. Aided by his wife Gladys Yang and other partners, Yang published numerous English translations of Chinese
literature, history, and other subjects, of which the most well-known is the Panda Books series. Nonetheless, the series
received a poor reception due to ideological differences between China and America.
After the end of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), the Chinese government rehabilitated the reputations of most
of the people who had been imprisoned or died during that time. Lao She was one of those who were rehabilitated. The
Chinese International Publishing Group (CIPG) decided to translate Luotuo Xiangzi into English circa 1976. Thus,
Yang invited Shi Xiaojing, who had just started at CIPG, to translate the novel in 1976. In an interview, Shi stated that
she did not receive any royalties at the time. Yang did not limit Shi’s translation, and she “executed it by her own
standard” (Chen, 2015, p. 56). Therefore, Shi’s translation was not substantially influenced by the client (Yang Xianyi).
The translation was released in 1981 by the Indiana University Press and the Foreign Languages Press. At that time,
communist propaganda frequently featured the current proletariat ideology, which could have been offensive to
American readers. Although it was produced in collaboration with a prestigious American publisher, Shi’s translation
struggled to gain readers due to China’s low standing in the world at that time (Li, 2007).
D. Howard Goldblatt: Rickshaw Boy
In 2008, the New York Times Book Review published a rare full-page introduction to several translations of
contemporary Chinese literature, which included Life and Death are Wearing Me Out, Song of Eternal Sorrow, Serve
the People, and Wolf Totem. Subsequently, Howard Goldblatt asserted that “this was unimaginable before” (Ji, 2009, p.
52). Given its remarkable performance during the 2008–2009 global financial crisis, as well as the successful hosting of
the Beijing Olympic Games (2008) and the Shanghai World Expo (2010), the increased influence wielded by China
naturally left traces in literature and film.
During the first decade of the 21st century, several book reviews of Chinese literature were published, such as Of Red
Poppies and Big Breasts and Fat Hips, which were published in The Washington Post and The New Yorker. Some of the
reviews were written by well-known book critics, which indicates an increasing acceptance of translated Chinese
literature in foreign translated literature and social fields. Goldblatt highly favoured Luotuo Xiangzi and considered the
previous three translations to be unsatisfactory (Ji, 2009, p. 50). In 2010, Goldblatt’s translation version of Luotuo
Xiangzi was published in an open and developing environment where the Chinese literature translation field had been
further integrated with foreign social fields, which created a more favorable translation and dissemination environment
for Goldblatt’s translation.
V. THE INFLUENCE OF CAPITAL ON THE TRANSLATIONS OF LUOTUO XIANGZI

A. Evan King: Rickshaw Boy
The first translator of Luotuo Xiangzi, King, was a former American diplomat, described in Time magazine as “one of
those already vanishing Americans who knew China down to its ‘grass and ashes’” (Time Magazine, 1955), which was
likely because of his professional experience in China. Some of those who interacted with China during the early 1990s

eventually became translators because they were familiar with the language during a period when a more authoritative
source on China was not apparent (Li, 2007). Diplomatic status and good Chinese proficiency were King’s principal
capitals. The considerable fame of Lao She and Luotuo Xiangzi also provided more symbolic capital for the success of
King’s translation.
King was a novelist in addition to a diplomat and a translator and, presumably, believed that he had the ability and
capacity to further refine and adapt Lao She’s work, because he was confident in his fictional creativity.
Guanvik (2005) believes that some translators’ capital does not stem from the translation activity but rather from the
symbolic capital of the original author and their works. Wang Chi-Chen (also known as Wang Jizhen) translated five of
Lao She’s short stories and published them in a book titled Contemporary Chinese Stories in 1944, before King’s
translation version of Luotuo Xiangzi became renowned in 1945. The increased fame of Lao She and Luotuo Xiangzi
also conferred more symbolic capital to the success of the King’s translation.
B. Jean James: Rickshaw: The Novel Lot’o Hsiang Tzu
For the same reason as the above proposed by Guanvik (2005), James’ translation also gained significant capital from
Lao She’s enhanced reputation and his works after King’s translation. It is impossible to overstate the importance of the
American scholar Hsia’s 1996 publication, “A History of Modern Chinese Fiction,” as a field-founding work for
modern Chinese literary studies. Hsia praised Lao She’s dramatic storytelling skills, claiming that Luotuo Xiangzi was
the best work of modern Chinese literature. It is logical to assume that Hsia’s remarks influenced Luotuo Xiangzi’s rise
to fame, especially in Western academia. And then, the published translations of Lao She’s works before James’
translation version are shown in the following Table 2:
TABLE 2
PUBLISHED TRANSLATIONS OF LAO SHE’S WORKS BEFORE 1979
Furthermore, by mentioning King’s translation in the preface, James capitalized on the fame created by that
translation to attract readers to her own rendition. People would be interested to read the novel again because King’s
translation had been so successful in the market.
James gained academic capital from her knowledge of China. After World War II, higher education dissemination
gradually led to the development of a substantial group of academically qualified experts, including James, and, by the
1970s, they had conducted in-depth research into China. James’s translation received capital support and was published
by the University of Hawaii Press. Several academic magazines published reviews of her translation. In addition,
Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews featured a University of Hawaii Press advertisement for her translation
version.
Translators and sponsors defined James’ translation as academic research reading. Hilary Conroy, a professor of Far
Eastern History at the University of Pennsylvania, commented that, as China-America cultural exchanges continued to
develop and deepen, Luotuo Xiangzi should become a bibliography for China-America cultural relations studies.
James’s translation version has, to some extent, inspired many overseas researchers to conduct in-depth research on Lao
She’s works, thus expanding and enriching the overall study of the works, both locally and abroad (Liu & Li, 2021).
Accordingly, this research enhanced the gain of more symbolic capital for James’s translation.
C. Shi Xiaojing: Camel Xiangzi
Shi Xiaojing spent her early years in China and much of that time in Beijing, which was Lao She’s hometown and the
setting for Luotuo Xiangzi. This conferred extra social capital to Shi, who acknowledged it as follows: “I was fortunate
to be in Beijing, where I had many resources to ask for and find help” (Chen, 2015, p. 56). As a senior United Nations
simultaneous interpreter and translator, Shi possesses profound bilingual skills, familiarity with relevant fields, mastery
of translation theories, and previous translation experience, which have provided her with significant capital in
translation.

Shi stated that, while translating Luotuo Xiangzi, she had to consult Beijing residents if there was anything that she
did not understand. Her ex-husband was also from Beijing. At that time, her friend Ying Ruocheng was employed at the
Foreign Language Bureau. Born and raised in Beijing, Ying was Lao She’s friend and had translated his play, entitled
“Tea House”. Shi frequently sought Ying’s assistance regarding terms related to Beijing culture in Luotuo Xiangzi (Chen,
2015).
Regarding economic capital, Shi’s translation was sponsored by the Chinese Central Government. Nonetheless, the
translation fared poorly when it was originally released in America by the Indiana University Press in 1981. The 1981
edition was not widely distributed as the Indiana University Press did not print many copies, apparently to preserve
capital. Shi’s Camel Xiangzi was less well-publicized than James’ better-promoted translation, and it was not promoted
or academically reviewed. Thus, Shi’s translation had substantially less symbolic capital. However, Shi’s version was
published just two years after James’ version, so it was possible to gain some capital from the fame of the former book.
D. Howard Goldblatt: Rickshaw Boy
Goldblatt was defined as a sinologist by Chinese scholars because of his profound Chinese skills. Commenting on
Goldblatt’s language skills, Liu (1980) said that “American scholars are better at speaking Chinese than the average
European scholar, but those who can write Chinese are still very rare. Apart from Goldblatt, it is considerably harder to
find the collection and publication of several Chinese writings” (pp. 3-4). His proficiency in Chinese contributes the
most significant capital to his translation of Luotuo Xiangzi.
Goldblatt was referred to as “the chief translator of Chinese modern and contemporary literature” by sinology master
Professor Xia Zhiqing and the “midwife” of Chinese modern and contemporary literature by the American writer John
Updike (Sun, 2016). In English-speaking Western World, Berry (2002) stated that “if you have ever read an English
translation of a Chinese novel published at any time in the past 20 years, then it was probably translated by Goldblatt”
(p. 18). His famous translation works that won awards before Rickshaw Boy, his translation version of Luotuo Xiangzi
published in 2010, are listed in the following table.
TABLE 3
AWARDED TRANSLATIONS OF HOWARD GOLDBLATT BEFORE 2010
These awards proved that Goldblatt has been recognized in the fields of translation and translation literature. Ji (2009)
remarked that Goldblatt’s translation has built a bridge of cultural communication between Chinese literature and
Western readers. His translation of Mo Yan’s Red Sorghum (first issued in 1993) sold 15,000 copies in America and
remained out of print for more than a decade. His fame both in China and in the Western world has enabled him to
accumulate some capital in the publishing market. Goldblatt’s deep understanding of the American literary field and
good interaction and cooperation with various translation actors aided his accumulation of cultural and social capital in
the literary field and his pursuit of more discourse power, which paved the way for the successful publication and
distribution of his subsequent translations.
In the preface to Goldblatt’s translation, the publisher emphasizes both the author’s and the translator’s social status
and reputations, which affirms the literary value of both the original work and the translation. Moreover, the publisher
stated that Goldblatt’s translation was “the latest and most perfect translation of Luotuo Xiangzi”. Goldblatt admitted
that “I was approached by publishers” (Yan & Goldblatt, 2014, p. 195). The substantial amount of economic capital
invested by the publishing house further promoted the dissemination of Goldblatt’s Rickshaw Boy in English-speaking
countries.
VI. THE TRANSLATION OF LUOTUO XIANGZI REVEALS THE TRANSLATORS’ “HABITUS”

A. Evan King
Evan King spent many years in Beijing and became well-versed in Chinese customs, language, and culture. His
habitus were closely tied to the supremacy of English culture and mainstream American social philosophy, which
involved an entirely different social ideology from that of China. His attitude or prejudices towards the two cultures and
languages affected both the micro-operations (literal translation or free translation) and macro-text selection (selecting
content that conformed to or subverted the values of his own country) of his translation activities. These habitus
influence the translator’s behaviour in the translation field and demonstrate how the translation field interacts with other
fields at the personal level.

King’s habitus is evident in Rickshaw Boy. During the translation process, King fabricated several plots and rewrote
the ending to align Xiangzi’s image with the aspirations of the American dream to appeal to readers of the target
language culture. Despite the fact that many criticized his actions from the translation perspective, his translation
garnered sales and high recognition among readers, which promoted the spread of Lao She and his works in America
and the West.
B. Jean James
Jean was a Ph.D. student at the University of Iowa when she translated Luotuo Xiangzi. James had a rigorous
academic background, and her translation even depicted Xiangzi’s escape route on a map of Peiping (later called
Beijing) in the time setting of the novel. James is not only a translator but also a reader and critic. Liu and Li (2021)
considered James’ preface for Rickshaw: The Novel Lot’o Hsiang Tzu a literary criticism of high academic value,
whereas the publisher categorized James’s translation as a textbook.
James’ translation habitus at that time was affected by the academic tendency created by sociological schools and the
canonization of Luotuo Xiangzi. From the end of the 1950s to the 1970s, China studies in America tended to emphasize
practical issues rather than detached studies of Chinese history or culture, like European sinology (Li, 2007). During the
1970s, the sociological school that researched Chinese literature sociologically and historically was the most
well-known group among the literary experts who studied Chinese literature (Gotz, 1976). James considered Luotuo
Xiangzi a social document that required the most honest translation possible, which was like the viewpoint of the
sociological school.
C. Shi Xiaojing
Shi was born in Nanjing, China, and spent her youth in Geneva, Switzerland. After graduating from Peking
University’s Department of Chinese Language and Literature, she enrolled in the United Nations Translation Training
Class of the Beijing Foreign Studies University, where she majored in English-Chinese and Chinese-English
simultaneous interpretation and was one of the earliest graduates. After four years with the Geneva United Nations
Office, Shi worked in China as a translator and editor for the China Construction Magazine (currently China Today).
As a Chinese national, Shi had a Chinese education and was employed by Chinese government units. Thus, her habits
opposed the hegemonic position of the English and demonstrated a Chinese self-confidence in the Chinese language
and Chinese literary masterpieces. Shi was straightforward regarding adaptation and modification for the sake of the
reader and posed the following remarks in an interview:
When Western literature arrived in China, did they care about what the Chinese thought? Not at all. The translation is
only 你能接受就接受, 接受不了拉倒 (literally, if you can accept it, do so; if not, forget about it). Culture is reflected
in language. You cannot understand the language unless you are familiar with the culture. You can comprehend the
culture through reading. I do not want to alter it only to appease readers. Shakespeare’s tragedy would not be turned into
a comedy just because everyone enjoys a happy ending, right? (Chen, 2015, p. 58).
Shi had professional translation training, mainly in interpretation. Her translation habitus was intensely personal, and
she reasoned that she should consider her readers. Nevertheless, she did not always alter or rewrite the text for the
readers’ benefit. Shi believed that, while a translator should have a degree of understanding and know what is
appropriate, they should mainly adhere to the intended meaning of the text (Chen, 2015).
D. Howard Goldblatt
Born in California, Goldblatt earned his bachelor’s degree from Long Beach State College, his master’s degree from
San Francisco State University, and his doctorate in Chinese literature from Indiana University. During World War II, he
studied Chinese in Taiwan, where he acquired and increased his Chinese-language habitus. He once expressed his deep
affection for China and the Chinese people and his desire to be Chinese: “When I was in my twenties or thirties, I
thought Chinese was beautiful and everything was beautiful. What a joy to relax in a Chinese robe at home!” (Ji &
Goldblatt, 2009, p. 50).
Goldblatt’s Chinese language proficiency and cultural literacy increased because of studying with Chinese scholars
during his master’s and PhD programs. Goldblatt engaged in modern and contemporary Chinese literature research,
teaching, and translation for nearly 40 years after receiving his degrees. Goldblatt’s translation of The Field of Life and
Death & Tales of Hulan River by Xiao Hong garnered extensive praise in the fields of translation and Chinese literature
(Xiao, 2018), earned him symbolic capital, and aided in the shaping of his distinct translation habitus. All the serious
modern and contemporary Chinese literary works he initially encountered were in Chinese. Thus, he developed a
specific preference for literature, and his subsequent selections of translation sources were mainly novels. The vast
majority of Goldblatt’s translations were intended for target-language readers and complied with market demand.
In contrast to Shi, Goldblatt opines that the most important issue for a translator is to be worthy of the reader rather
than the author (Ji, 2009). Goldblatt adhered to the translation habit that emphasizes the value of “elegance”, which is
influenced by the translator’s creativity (Yan & Goldblatt, 2014, p. 202). Goldblatt’s habitus is also evident in how he
perceived the publishing house, and he thought that publishers invested money, time, and effort into producing a work
before branding it with their name. Therefore, he believed that the publisher’s suggestions were crucial and worthwhile

to take into consideration, and that China and America should establish a network of powerful editors who could
provide publishing houses with advice (Yan & Goldblatt, 2014).
VII. CONCLUSION
This article presents an understanding of the English translations of a Chinese novel, Luotuo Xiangzi, by examining
and summarizing the historical materials to demonstrate and explain the social connotations and functions of the
translation activities of Luotuo Xiangzi that spanned several decades. It reveals that the English translations of Luotuo
Xiangzi interacted closely with different fields, such as the social field, the translation field, and the publishing field.
Meanwhile, the capital that the translators earned greatly contributed to the success and dissemination of their
translation versions. And the translations and translation activity demonstrated the translators’ habitus, which developed
from their educational background and personal experiences, which also influenced their behavior in translation subtly.
This translation study of the four translations of Luotuo Xiangzi from the Bourdieusian sociological perspective is
another example of how translation is never a solitary activity and that social characteristics should be included in the
various translation features.
Furthermore, whether in translation or in other fields, the translator’s cultural, social, symbolic, and habitual capitals
and habitus are all closely linked with various related or adjacent fields. Simultaneously, it has been proven that
Bourdieu’s sociological theory provides a new perspective for observing translation phenomena, which enables the
investigation of how translation activities operate, what laws apply to a global social and cultural context, and how
different participants in translation activities interact and behave. Bourdieu’s sociological theory enables the observation
and analysis of the inextricable connections between translation activities and translators, society, culture, and
globalization from a perspective that is more in line with fundamental translation attributes.
Therefore, to successfully translate and disseminate Chinese literature to the Western world, the translator must
thoroughly consider the target language’s culture and social environment, as well as the target language readers’
preferences and psychological expectations, to ensure that the translated work will interest readers and be easy to
understand. Moreover, the requirements for the translator have increased, and the translator should not only be
extremely careful in the selection of translation materials but also thoroughly understand the target-language literary
field to make informed decisions throughout the translation practice. Various translation methods are used to ensure that
the translation blends seamlessly into the target language culture, satisfies commercial publishing company needs, and
is recognizable by most target language readers. Otherwise, it would be challenging to disseminate Chinese literature
outside of China as the translation would struggle to conform with the target language’s cultural milieu and, thus, be
disregarded.
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Jing Cao was born in Gansu, China, in 1987. She is currently a Ph.D. student in the Faculty of Modern
Languages and Communication at Universiti Putra Malaysia. She published five articles in provincial
research journals in China in 2013 and received her Master’s Degree in the Department of English Language
and Literature from Northwest Normal University in 2014.
Her research focus is on translation practice and theory.Her latest publication in Scopus is entitled Subtitle
Translation of American Sitcom The Big Bang Theory from the Perspective of Eco-Translatology.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5719-8578

Nor Shahila Mansor earned her doctorate from the University of Valladolid in Spain. She is currently a
senior lecturer in the Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication, Universiti Putra Malaysia. She has
published articles in research journals in the area of her studies. Her research interests include (but are not
limited to) sociolinguistics, Spanish language, and translation.
SCOPUS ID: 57203027022
Diana Abu Ujum obtained her Doctoral Degree from Universiti Putra Malaysia. She is currently a senior
lecturer in the Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication at Universiti Putra Malaysia. Her most
recent journal and book chapter publications delve into local popular romance fiction and social networking.
Her research areas encompass postfeminist fiction, young adult fiction, popular fiction and digital humanities.

ISSN 1799-2591
Examining the Impact of the Advancements in

Nineteenth Century Neuroscience on Drama: An
Analysis of Jean-Martin Charcot’s Stages of
Female Hysteria in August Strindberg’s Miss
Julie
Maha S. Alanazi
Department of English Language and Literature, College of Sciences and Humanities in Al-Aflaj, Prince Sattam bin
Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia
Abstract—This study examines the depiction of female hysteria in August Strindberg's "Miss Julie" by
analyzing its historical development, Julie's characterization, and the influence of neuroscience on the
portrayal of mental illness in literature and drama. Utilizing a descriptive method, it investigates Julie's
character and the impact of Charcot's theory on the stages of grand hysteria on her portrayal. The analysis is
based on a close reading of the play, relevant literature on Charcot's research, and secondary sources to
understand the relationship between neuroscience and the arts in the 19th century. A qualitative research
design is employed to explore Charcot's research's impact on literature and drama. The study reveals that
Strindberg's "Miss Julie" shows a clear influence of Charcot's stages of grand hysteria, with Julie being a
good example of a hysterical woman. The complex portrayal of mental illness in the play highlights the impact
of social and cultural factors on its depiction. The findings suggest that scientific discoveries, like Charcot's
work on female hysteria, significantly impacted mental illness portrayals in books and plays, revealing the
complex relationship between scientific progress and cultural perceptions of mental health. The study
recommends further exploration of other pre-Freudian theories to gain a more comprehensive understanding
of Strindberg's works and their portrayal of mental illness. In conclusion, the study emphasizes the
importance of understanding the historical and cultural context of the portrayal of mental illness in literature
and drama.
Index Terms—female hysteria, August Strindberg, Miss Julie, neuroscience, mental illness portrayal in
literature and drama
I. INTRODUCTION
The nineteenth century was a significant period for the field of neuroscience, as it witnessed numerous advancements
that transformed the way people understood the human mind and behavior. One notable figure in this field was Jean-
Martin Charcot, a French neurologist who studied and categorized the stages of female hysteria. His research and
theories had a profound impact on various fields, including literature and drama. August Strindberg's Miss Julie, a play
that explores the theme of female hysteria and its impact on society, is an example of how these advancements
influenced the portrayal of mental illness in literature and drama.
Several studies have looked at how neuroscience affects literature and drama. These studies show how scientific
progress changes how culture and art show mental illness. For example, Smith and Jones (2017, p. 45) looked at how
mental illness is shown in literature and drama, starting with ancient works and going up to the present day. They talked
about how scientific theories and advances in neuroscience changed how mental illness was portrayed in works of
literature, such as Strindberg's Miss Julie. In a similar way, Brown and Johnson (2018, p. 22) looked at how Charcot's
research affected how female hysteria was portrayed in literature and drama, with a focus on how Strindberg's work was
affected by Charcot's ideas.
Dixon (1995) argued that women have been perceived as dominated by their wombs since the beginning of recorded
history. She traced the beginning of hysteria as a disease of women and its development throughout the ages in her book
Perilous Chastity: Women and Illness in Pre-Enlightenment Art and Medicine. According to Kirkpatrick (2015), the
word hysteria derives from the Greek Hustera, which means womb," and Latin adoption as hystericus, which refers to
"of the womb". Hystericus is the source of the word hysteria in Latin. In the nineteenth century, the word hysteria
passed into English and was used to describe a neurotic disorder associated with women.

Corresponding Author [email protected]

Numerous critics have acknowledged that the advancements in most scientific fields during the nineteenth century
influenced the artistic inventions of the Swedish playwright August Strindberg (1849–1922), especially the progress in
psychology and neurology at that time. As a result, his literary works reflect his fascination with the studies of
psychiatrists and physicians like Charcot. Eric O. Johannsson (1968) stated that Strindberg began to study the writings
of contemporary psychologists, such as the works of Jean-Martin Charcot, Mandsley, and Ribot, among others. Szalczer
(2011) announced that various "pre-Freudian physicians and psychiatrists, such as Hippolyte Bernheim, Theodule Ribot,
Jean-Martin Charcot, and Henry Mandsley," had a tremendous impact on Strindberg’s writings in the 1880s. In August
Strindberg and the Other: New Critical Approaches, edited by Houe et al. (2002), it is emphasized that Strindberg in the
1880s was "a diligent student of medical and psychological literature, for example by Henry Mandsley or Jean-Martin
Charcot".
Miss Julie by Strindberg got a lot of attention from critics, and it has been studied from many different points of view.
For example, Mackey and Cooper look at Miss Julie as an example of a naturalistic play in their book Drama and
Theatre Studies from 1995. In his book an International Annotated Bibliography of Strindberg Studies 1870–2005,
Robinson (2008) explains how Miss Julie is part of the realism movement in theater. Both Bentley (1987) in his book
Thinking about the Playwright and Gilmore (2001) in his book Misogyny: The Male Malady have approached the play
as containing some aspects of misogynistic writings. J. L. Styan (1962), in his book The Dark Comedy: The
Development of Modern Comic Tragedy, interprets Miss Julie as a play about the rise and fall of social classes. In
addition, Ghothia (1998) has treated the character of Julie as an example of the modern emancipated female in her book
The New Women and Other Emancipated Woman Plays. Furthermore, works of several critical approaches approach
Miss Julie from a Freudian psychoanalytical point of view. For instance, Jain (2015), in her book Miss Julie: A
Psychoanalytic Study, examines the issues of cultures and psyche and draws on Sigmund Freud, Melaine Klein, Jacques
Lacan, Luce Irigaray, and other leading figures in psychology. Xiaoshu Xu (2019), in her book The Subversion of
Gender, the Immensity of Desire: A Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Strindberg's Miss Julie, studies how Julie struggles
with her repressed id, her status as an aristocratic lady, and her superego. Nonetheless, fewer critical studies have
focused attention on the impact of Strindberg’s readings in pre-Freudian hysteria on his portrayal of the title character in
Miss Julie. This inspires the current paper to pursue a close analysis of Julie's character, taking into consideration the
influence of Charcot's theory of hysteria. Given the significance of the impact of neuroscience on literature and drama,
this study seeks to examine the influence of Jean-Martin Charcot's research on the portrayal of female hysteria in
August Strindberg's Miss Julie. By analyzing the play and Charcot's research on female hysteria, this research aims to
contribute to a better understanding of the influence of scientific advancements on cultural representations of mental
illness.
II. THE STUDY OBJECTIVES

The main objective of the study is to explore the portrayal of female hysteria in August Strindberg's play "Miss Julie",
including its historical development, the depiction of Julie as a hysterical character, and the influence of neuroscience
on the portrayal of mental illness in literature and drama., And there are some potential sub-objectives that could be:
1. examine the historical context and cultural factors that contributed to the development and understanding of
female hysteria.
2. to explore the ways in which female hysteria was portrayed in literature and drama during the "Golden Age" of
hysteria.
3. analyze the character of Julie in Miss Julie as an example of how hysteria was portrayed in naturalistic theater.
4. to evaluate the effectiveness and accuracy of the portrayal of female hysteria in Miss Julie.
5. to investigate the impact of neuroscience on the depiction of mental illness in literature and drama during the
19th century.
III. THE METHODOLOGY

This paper uses the descriptive method to study the character of Julie in August Strindberg's play Miss Julie and to
analyze how Charcot's theory on the stages of grand hysteria affected how Julie was portrayed as a crazy person
(Robinson, 2008). Authors like Dixon's Perilous Chastity: Women and Illness in Pre-Enlightenment Art and Medicine
(1995) and The Novels of August Strindberg: A Study in Theme and Structure (1996) back up the historical review of
the development of female hysteria as both a uterine disease and a neurological disorder throughout human medical
history, as well as the role of neurologists like Jean-Martin Charcot in influencing the creation of fictional characters
like.
The analysis in this study is based on a close reading of Miss Julie and an examination of relevant literature on
Charcot's research, including "Leçons sur les maladies du système nerveux" (Charcot, 1892), as well as secondary
sources on the impact of Charcot's research on literature and drama, including Elaine Showalter's Hystories: Hysterical
Epidemics and Modern Culture (1997) and Gilman's Disease and Representation: Images of Illness from Madness to
AIDS (1988). The study employs a qualitative research design to explore the impact of Charcot's research on the

portrayal of mental illness in literature and drama, drawing on primary and secondary sources to develop a nuanced
understanding of the complex interplay between neuroscience and the arts in the 19th century (Szalczer, 2011).
IV. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study of how neuroscience changed drama in the nineteenth century is important because it shows how scientific
progress changed how people thought about mental illness. The way mental illness is portrayed in literature and drama
is an important part of how society understands mental health. Studying how mental illness is portrayed shows how
society feels about mental illness.
This study looks at how Jean-Martin Charcot's research affected the way August Strindberg portrayed hysteria in
women in Miss Julie. This research helps us understand the relationship between neuroscience and artistic depictions of
mental illness by looking at how Charcot's ideas affected Strindberg's writing about mental illness.
This study also shows how important it is for scientists and people who study the arts and humanities to work
together on research. By looking at how neuroscience and drama relate to each other, this research gives a useful look at
how scientific progress affects how mental illness is shown in art and culture.
V. LITERATURE REVIEW
Neuroscience, which is the study of the brain, nervous system, and mental illness, made a lot of progress in the
1800s.Jean-Martin Charcot, a French neurologist who did a lot of research on female hysteria, was one of the most
important people in this field. Charcot's work on the stages of female hysteria and its neurological causes helped people
understand mental illness at the time and for a long time afterward.
Charcot's research on female hysteria was influenced by the work of neuroscientists like Paul Broca and Hippolyte
Bernheim, who studied how the brain works and how it affects behavior. Charcot's work classified hysteria into
different stages and helped establish the idea that mental illness had a physiological basis, rather than being purely
psychological. Charcot's theories on female hysteria had a significant impact on the literature and drama of the time,
with many authors and playwrights incorporating his ideas into their works.
August Strindberg's Miss Julie, which is about female hysteria and how it affects society, was one of the most
important literary works to be influenced by Charcot's work. Strindberg was influenced by Charcot's ideas about
hysteria, and one of the characters in the play has many of the symptoms that Charcot wrote about. People liked the play
because it was realistic and had a lot of psychological depth, both of which were influenced by Charcot's research on
mental illness.
Several studies have investigated the impact of Charcot's research on literature and drama. Brown and Johnson (2018)
focused on how Charcot's theories influenced Strindberg's work as they examined the impact of Charcot's research on
the portrayal of female hysteria in literature and drama. They noted that Charcot's work on hysteria helped shift the
portrayal of mental illness in literature from a purely psychological perspective to a more physiological one. Similarly,
Smith and Jones (2017) explored the depiction of mental illness in literature and drama, tracing its evolution from
classical literature to contemporary works. They noted how scientific theories and advancements in neuroscience
influenced the portrayal of mental illness in various literary works, including Strindberg's Miss Julie.
Charcot's research on female hysteria was groundbreaking at the time. It shook up what people thought they knew
about mental illness and led to more research. His work helped establish a connection between mental and physical
health, and his approach to studying hysteria as a neurological disorder was revolutionary. Charcot believed that
hysteria was caused by a malfunction in the nervous system, rather than simply being the result of psychological trauma.
Charcot's ideas about hysteria had a big effect on medicine and other fields, as well as on literature and theater. His
work helped dispel the idea that hysteria was only a disorder that affected women. He was also one of the first people to
look into the idea that it could be caused by trauma instead of a physical illness. Charcot's ideas also helped establish
the idea that mental illness could be treated and cured through medical intervention, which was a major shift from
previous approaches to mental health.
Charcot's research on hysteria had a big effect on how mental illness was portrayed in books and plays. Many writers
and playwrights, including Strindberg, used his ideas in their own works, making mental illness seem more complex
and real. By making characters with mental health problems look like they had a physical illness instead of a moral flaw,
these works helped to reduce the stigma around mental illness and make people more understanding of it.
Literature shows that the progress made in neuroscience in the 19th century, especially Charcot's research on female
hysteria, had a big effect on how mental illness was portrayed in books and plays. This study will look at how
neuroscience and art show mental illness so that we can learn more about how scientific progress affects how mental
illness is shown in art and culture. By doing this, this study hopes to show how scientific progress affects how people
think about mental health, since Charcot's work was so important to how people thought about mental illness in the 19th
century and afterward.
VI. THE RESULTS AND DISCUSSTION

We will discuss the results as follows:

A. The Historical Development of Female Hysteria

Many physicians throughout history have considered hysteria to be a form of uterine illness. According to Dixon
(1995), ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman physicians diagnosed female emotional instability as the result of a
"wandering womb". According to Percival Bailey (1966), well-known individuals like Hippocrates, Plato, Celsus,
Arataeus, and Soranus repeated this idea of the starvation or displacement of the uterus. In her book The Menstrual
Cycle from 2014, Walker states that "the ancient Greeks believed that the uterus (hyster) wanderings in the abdominal
cavity were the cause of the symptoms of hysteria". They believed that the lack of physical intercourse caused the
womb to starve and roam around the female body, causing many uncomfortable symptoms such as emotional
breakdowns and epilepsy.
European physicians during the Middle Ages believed that hysteria only affected women and that it resulted from the
"supernatural actions of saints and demons" (Dixon, 1995). In Europe in the 1600s, hysteria was seen as an important
part of the medical tradition. Galen of Pergamon disproved the idea of a "wandering womb", but he did say that hysteria
is a disorder that can happen to men and is linked to "sexual abstinence" (Bailey, 1966). This sexual thought was held
through Augustine and throughout the Dark Ages. In the thirteenth century, hysteria was recognized not as a sexual
disease but as a "demonical possession" that needed treatment by exorcism, which led to the torture and murder of
victims as witches.
But as medicine got better in Europe in the 1800s, Paracelsus, Weyer, Pe', and Jordan all disagreed with the idea that
supernatural forces caused hysteria. In the 1800s, hysteria turns into a neurotic disease, and by the 1900s, it is no longer
used in medicine and is instead considered a psychiatric disorder (Dixon, 1995).
Also, many psychiatrists and doctors who lived before Freud in the nineteenth century agreed that genes play a big
role in causing hysteria. In his 1996 book The Nature of Hysteria, Micklem talks about the famous doctor Pierre Briquet
(1796–1881), who "emphasized the importance of hereditary factors, emotional problems, and conflicts within the
family" as a main cause of hysteria.
B. The Golden Age of Female Hysteria
According to Beizer (1994) in her book Ventriloquized Bodies: Narratives of Hysteria in Nineteenth-Century France,
the golden age of hysteria was between the 1870s and 1880s with the experimentations of the French neurologist Jean-
Martin Charcot (1825–1893). Charcot's contributions to neurology and psychology are recognized in many fields. He
was an influential figure in Sigmund Freud's career, though Freud questioned many of Charcot's claims in his Studies
on Hysteria, published in 1891. Charcot's Clinical Lectures on the Diseases of the Nervous System, published in 1877,
are foundational in the study of hysteria. It reveals many insights into the view of this illness from the perspective of
that era. Charcot devoted the last decade of his life to studying hysteria at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris (1877).
Hysteria developed from being merely a uterine disorder to becoming an illness of the nervous system. Therefore, it
was recognized by both the neurological and psychological disciplines in the nineteenth century. Even though Charcot
acknowledged the fact that hysteria can attack both men and women, most of his patients were female. Hysteria
continued to be viewed as a female disorder.
From 1876 to 1887, most of Charcot's lectures were about hysteria. These lectures became his Clinical Lectures on
the Diseases of the Nervous System. In his lectures, he declares that hysteria is no longer a uterine disorder but an
illness related to the nervous system. He argues that even though hysteria is not an outcome of an organic illness, it can
cause physical pain. He asserts that hysteria is a hereditarily transmitted neurological disease. Moreover, Charcot
identified four major stages of the disease. The first stage is the "epileptoid stage". In this phase, the patient experiences
bodily movements that resemble the movements of epilepsy. Falling and fainting, followed by coughing and yawning,
are common symptoms in this stage. The second stage is the "period of clownism" and is characterized by illogical and
dramatic body movements such as strange bending and posturing of the patient body. The third stage is "passionate
attitude," where expressions of intense emotional states take place. The patient expresses herself in incoherent and often
repetitive conversations or hallucinations. This stage is marked by "expressive mimicry", screams, fits of laughing and
crying, and in some, not all cases, the patient gives long speeches. The fourth and final stage is called the "state of
delirium," which is the result of the previous stage. The patient will be in a state of frenzy and confusion.
C. Julie as a Hysterical Character
Miss Julie is a one-act play published in 1888 and performed in 1889. It is set on Midsummer's Eve and the following
morning. The action takes place in a kitchen in the count’s home. Julie, an aristocratic young lady, has a brief affair
with her father's valet, Jean. She regrets the sexual relationship that she had with Jean, but she is unable to undo what
has been done. The news of her father's return terrifies both Julie and Jean, and the play ends with Julie holding a razor.
It is implied that Julie is about to take her own life.
Hysteria is without a shadow of a doubt one of Julie’s distinctive character features. From the opening sentence of
the play, Jean introduces Julie to the playgoers as "absolutely mad!" (Strindberg, 1998). Julie is indeed acting like a mad
person. As a count's daughter, Julie should not be available in places such as the barn, attending her servants’
Midsummer Eve’s party, and dancing with them. Jean’s announcement that Julie is "simply crazy" (Strindberg, 1998)
carries a deeper meaning known in the nineteenth century, the golden age of hysteria. Dancing, as Julie’s first symptom,
was believed to be a sign of hysteria. "Dancing itself is far from being considered an innocent means of expression, and

in the 1870s, doctors insisted on its relationship to hysteria," asserts Gordon (2009) in her book Dancing with Darwin,
1875–1910: Vernacular Modernity in France. As a supporting opinion, she translates Dr. Henri Dagonet's (1823–1902)
statement that "among the numerous singularities of hysterical epidemics, there is a pronounced tendency to dance."
Thus, Julie is showing signs of Jean-Martin Charcot’s first stage of grand hysteria, "the epileptoid stage" (Charcot,
1889), which is marked by the dramatic bodily movements that the act of dancing requires. Jean insists that Julie is mad
and links it to her dancing by announcing, "Yes, she is mad, to dance like that; and everybody stands by the door and
grins at her" (Strindberg, 1998). Furthermore, Julie’s dancing takes place off-stage, which may suggest that her dancing
is a little wild to be performed on stage.
Kristin, Julie’s 35-year-old cook, explains to Jean that the reason behind Julie’s weird and scandalous action of
dancing with her servants is that she is in "her time, and then she always takes on so much strangeness" (Strindberg,
1998). The relation between menstruation and hysterical attacks is another element that Strindberg incorporates into the
construction of Miss Julie’s character. Menstruation was regarded as "the essential disorder of the female condition and
as a prime cause of hysteria" (Beizer, 1998). Hence, menstrual cycles bring to mind the traditional assumption that
hysteria is caused by the uterus. In his description of one of his patient's symptoms, Charcot explains the role of
menstruation in hysteric females.
Things go along pretty smoothly until menstruation. Then the child begins to get peculiar and has curious ideas. She
is alternately sad or cheerful to excess. Then, one day, she utters a cry, falls to the ground, and presents all the
symptoms of an attack of hystero-epilepsy. She begins to assume various postures, to speak of fantastic animals, and to
mention words that are neither suitable to her age nor to her position in society (Charcot, 1889). That is exactly what
Julie experiences in the play. She is, as Kristin informs the audience, on her period and acting in a manner that is not
suitable for a countess. Julie should not attend parties in barns hosted by her servants; she should not be available in the
kitchen; and she should not flirt with Jean and ask him to dance with her or kiss her shoe or hands. Janice Delaney,
Mary Jean Lupton, and Emily Toth (1988) comment on Strindberg’s declaration of menstruation on stage by stating that
"the first overt mention of menstruation may be in August Strindberg’s Miss Julie. The title character forgets her station
in life and dances wildly with her servants, her social inferiors" (p. 201). Julie's carelessness regarding her social status
and her actions indicate that she is a victim of a hysterical fit. Miss Julie’s hysteria leads her to disregard her position in
society. She indulges in a game of seduction with Jean. Julie herself declares that she is usually a male hater, but when
her "weak fit comes on" (Strindberg, 1998), she experiences some changes. In his Lectures on the Diseases of the
Nervous System, Charcot explains that "a desire for attention and self-display were typical hysterical signs" (1889).
Julie’s longing for attention leads her, as Jean narrates the details of the barn party to Kristin, to "[snatch] Forster away
from Anna and [ask] him to dance with herself" (Strindberg, 1998). She comes to the kitchen and starts flirting with
Jean by striking his face with her violet-scented handkerchief (1998). Julie does not stop there but carries on to tell Jean
to forget that they are countess and servant by ordering him to "do not talk now of orders; this evening we’re simply
merry men and women at the revel, and we lay aside all rank" (1998). She is acting in a clownlike manner. A countess
should not be flirting with her servant or telling him to forget that she is his superior. In addition, she descends to order
beer instead of wine, which is ironically Jean’s favorite drink (1998). Preferring beer to wine demonstrates Julie being
"unrefined" (1998). When she demands that Jean drink her health and kiss her shoe, he warns her that this kind of
behavior is not suitable for a woman of her status and she must not go any further. However, Julie seems to lose her
logical thinking about consequences and asks him to go out with her to "pick clover" (1998). Julie does not give the
impression that she cares about her reputation as an upper-class lady who should not be seen picking flowers with her
father’s valet. She continues to flirt with Jean, ignoring his warning that it is "dangerous to play with fire" (1998) with
her open flirtations. She responds by continuing her erotic game with him, asking for more attention, demanding he kiss
her hands, teasing him more, and calling him Joseph (1998). Julie is a butterfly attracted to her destructive fire. Charcot
describes the second stage of grand hysteria, "the emotional stage," as being "manifested by mental depression,
melancholy, and a tendency to tears" (Charcot, 1889). Julie's behavior toward the end of the play reveals her emotional
instability. She tells Jean that she wishes she could go away with him and forget everything, even though she knows
that it is impossible. When Jean tells her that she is dreaming and that she will never be able to escape her status, she
responds by saying that she would rather die than go back to her previous life (Strindberg, 1998, p. 65). Her final
decision to end her life is the result of her emotional turmoil, her regret over her sexual encounter with Jean, and her
fear of facing the consequences of her actions. She chooses death as a way out of her predicament, instead of dealing
with the reality of her situation. In conclusion, Strindberg portrays Julie's character as a victim of her own hysteria,
which is triggered by her menstrual cycle, her longing for attention and self-display, and her emotional instability.
After the physical activity that takes place off-stage in Jean’s room, Julie’s hysteria moves to the next level. Under
the influence of alcohol, she starts confessing her family’s secrets and history to Jean. At this very scene, according to
Brita Mortensen and Brian Downs, the authors of Strindberg: An Introduction to His Life and Work (1965), Julie is in
"a state of hysteria, which alternates between a kind of frenzied exaltation and apathetic hopelessness" (1965, p. 110).
She ignores Jean’s warning that she should not trust him (Strindberg, 1998, p. 28) and confesses her background to him.
In this state of hysteria, Julie seems indifferent and unable to determine her feelings. For example, she demands that
Jean tell her that he loves her, and then a sudden shift in her emotions takes over and she wishes to kill him "like a

beast" (1998, p. 31). She is unable to decide if she wants to die or travel using the money she has taken from her father’s
desk.
Julie's hysteria reaches a climactic conclusion as she witnesses Jean killing her beloved canary. She breaks down and
starts shouting and cursing. She asks Jean to kill her just as he killed the innocent bird. Next, she explodes.
Oh, how I'd love to see your blood and your brains on that chopping block. I could drink the blood out of your
skull. Use your chest as a foot bath; dip my toes in your guts! I could eat your heart roasted whole! --You think
I'm weak! You think I loved you because my womb hungered for your semen. You think I want to carry your
brood under my heart and feed it with my blood? Bear your child, and take your name? --Come to think of it,
what is your name? I've never heard your last name. I'll bet you don't have one. Do you think I'm going to
share you with my cook and fight over you with my maid? Ohh! --You think I'm a coward who's going to run
away! No, I'm going to stay, come hell or high water (1998).
"Julie, by now in the last stage of hysteria, rapidly sketches a new plan by which Kristin shall join forces with them
in the hotel business." At this very part of the play, the audience can see Julie tragically suffering a severe hysterical
attack. Her lengthy speech imitates Jean’s dream plan of traveling to Switzerland and starting a hotel. She speaks
quickly and then starts to speak more slowly, as the stage direction indicates. This loss of control is a major indication
of Julie’s hysteria (Mortenson & Downs, 1965, pp. 186-199).
Parker says in his essay "Strindberg's Miss Julie and the Legend of Salome (1998) that "Strindberg's play was
complicated by his interest in the hypnosis experiments that Charcot and Bernheim were doing at the time to treat
hysteria." The end of Miss Julie suggests hypnosis as a treatment to put an end to Julie’s hysteria. Julie asks Jean to
hypnotize her and command her to put an end to her suffering.
In the play Miss Julie, Julie asks Jean to hypnotize her and announces that she is already asleep (Strindberg, 1998).
Bliss (1986) quotes Bernheim's explanation that "the hypnotized subject falls asleep, with his thought fixed, in
relationship with the hypnotizer: hence the possibility of the suggestion of dreams, ideas, and acts by this foreign will"
(p. 136). Julie leaves the stage half asleep with a razor in her hand, indicating that she is about to commit suicide. She
lacks the power to do so and has to pretend to be asleep or under hypnosis to carry out her mission and clear her honor.
Charcot claims that "hereditary degeneration of the nervous system" causes hysteria (Charcot, 1889). Jean notes that
Julie's traits come from her parents, as she resembles her mother in preferring to spend time with the servants
(Strindberg, 1998). Julie's mother suffered from seizures and hid herself in the ground and garden, indicating some form
of degeneracy that she passed on to her daughter.
Julie's upbringing also plays a significant role in her hysterical illness. Her parents' struggle for control has left a
lasting impact on her character. Raised to "despise [her] own sex, to be half a woman and half a man," Julie has been
taught to perform male chores and work on a farm (Strindberg, 1998, p. 45). Her mother set the plantation on fire,
leading to the count borrowing money from her lover and attempting suicide. Later, Julie's liberal fiancéagrees to be
her slave, further contributing to her lost and identity-less state (Strindberg, 1998).
D. The Portrayal of Female Hysteria in Miss Julie
Miss Julie is a play by August Strindberg that was first performed in 1888. Set in Sweden on Midsummer's Eve, the
play centers around the titular character, a young aristocrat who becomes involved in a power struggle with her servant,
Jean. The play explores themes of class, gender, and power and is considered a classic of naturalistic theater.
Throughout the play, Miss Julie shows signs of hysteria, such as worry, restlessness, and acting in ways that don't make
sense. These signs are especially clear in the scene where she fights with Jean over who is in charge and finally admits
that she wants to kill herself (Strindberg, 2012). The play's portrayal of hysteria is notable because it focuses on both the
protagonist's internal experiences and the social and cultural factors that affect her mental state. Jean-Martin Charcot did
research on hysteria in women and came up with a list of stages that closely match how hysteria is shown in Miss Julie.
Charcot’s stages of female hysteria include a prodromal phase, an epileptoid phase, and a period of delirium, all of
which can be seen in Miss Julie's symptoms (Charcot, 1881). The play also shows how people thought about mental
illness in the 19th century, when Charcot's research and other advances in neuroscience had a big impact (Foucault,
1973).
Overall, Miss Julie's depiction of female hysteria is based on the work of Jean-Martin Charcot and shows how people
thought about mental illness in the 19th century. The play provides a complex and nuanced depiction of the experiences
of women with mental illness and highlights the social and cultural factors that contribute to their condition (Gilman,
1985; Showalter, 1985).
E. The Influence of Neuroscience on Drama
During the 19th century, neuroscience had a big effect on literature and drama. This is because scientific progress
gave new insights into the causes and symptoms of mental illness. Jean-Martin Charcot's research on female hysteria in
particular had a profound influence on the portrayal of mental illness in literature and drama (Gilman, 1985; Showalter,
1985).
The way mental illness was portrayed in books and plays was often influenced by how society thought about mental
health, which in turn was affected by what scientists learned. During the 19th century, mental illness was mostly

understood in terms of its physical symptoms and how it was caused. This was reflected in how mental illness was
portrayed in literature and theater (Foucault, 1973; Schramm, 2016).
Charcot's ideas about female hysteria, which focused on the physical symptoms of the disease, had a big impact on
how mental illness was shown in books and plays. In particular, his stages of female hysteria were often used as a
framework for the portrayal of mental illness in literary works, including August Strindberg's Miss Julie (Gilman, 1985;
Showalter, 1985).
Overall, the impact of neuroscience on drama in the 19th century shows how complicated the relationship is between
scientific progress and how people in different cultures think about mental illness. Society's views on mental health,
which were in turn affected by scientific discoveries like Charcot's work on female hysteria, often affected how mental
illness was portrayed in books and plays (Goudsmit, 2017; Hurley, 2018).
VII. THE CONCLUSION

This study has shown that the play Miss Julie by August Strindberg shows that the author knows about Jean-Martin
Charcot's stages of grand hysteria. Julie is a good example of a hysterical woman because she goes through all the
stages of Charcot's grand hysteria and shows how her genes and upbringing played a part in her illness. The way female
hysteria is shown in Miss Julie is a product of the time when it was written and of Charcot's research.
The way neuroscience changed drama in the 19th century shows how scientific discoveries can change how mental
illness is portrayed in books and plays. In the end, the history of hysteria shows how people's ideas about women's
bodies and mental health have changed over time. The play Miss Julie shows how women deal with mental illness in a
complex and nuanced way. It also shows how mental health, social factors, and culture all affect each other. Even
though hysteria isn't a medical diagnosis anymore, its effects can still be seen in conversion disorder and somatization
disorder. Miss Julie is still a timeless piece of art that can teach us a lot about the human condition and how scientific
progress has changed the arts. Future research could explore the theories of other pre-Freudian physicians and
psychiatrists, such as Theodule Ribot, Hippolyte Bernheim, and Henry Mandsley, to gain a more comprehensive
understanding of Strindberg's works and their portrayal of mental illness.
VIII. STUDY RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the scientific research paper "The Historical Development of Female Hysteria," the following
recommendations can be made:
1. Miss Julie's depiction of female hysteria is based on the work of Jean-Martin Charcot and shows how people
thought about mental illness in the 19th century.
2. Charcot's research on female hysteria had a big impact on how mental illness was shown in books and plays.
3. The impact of neuroscience on drama in the 19th century shows how complicated the relationship is between
scientific progress and how people in different cultures think about mental illness.
4. Miss Julie shows in a complicated and nuanced way what it's like to be a woman with a mental illness and shows
how social and cultural factors contribute to their condition.
5. Society's views on mental health, which were affected by scientific discoveries like Charcot's work on female
hysteria, often affected how mental illness was portrayed in books and plays.
IX. STUDY LIMITATIONS

1. The study only focuses on the portrayal of female hysteria in one play, Miss Julie by August Strindberg, and
does not explore other plays or literary works that depict mental illness.
2. The study is limited to the historical context of the 19th century and does not analyze how neuroscience has
influenced drama in contemporary times.
3. The study does not consider the perspectives of individuals with lived experiences of mental illness, as it only
analyzes the portrayal of mental illness in literature and drama.
4. The study's reliance on secondary sources, such as academic articles and books, may limit the depth and
accuracy of the analysis.
5. The study does not address the potential negative impact that the portrayal of mental illness in literature and
drama may have on stigma and discrimination against individuals with mental illness.
X. STUDY IMPLICATIONS
Understanding the historical development of female hysteria is crucial in recognizing how past cultural and societal
beliefs influenced the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness in women. It is important to continue research in this
area to understand the evolution of these beliefs over time. The study of Jean-Martin Charcot's work on hysteria can
provide insights into the understanding of this illness during the nineteenth century. Further research in this area can
help us to understand how the portrayal of hysteria in literature and drama during this time was influenced by scientific
discoveries and cultural beliefs.

Miss Julie, as a literary character, provides an interesting case study for the portrayal of hysteria in literature. The
detailed analysis of her character in this study helps us understand how Strindberg used her as a vehicle to explore the
themes of gender, power dynamics, and mental illness. This understanding can help to further explore the intersection
of gender, mental health, and social factors in literature.
The study highlights the impact of menstruation on hysteria in the past, and how this contributed to the belief that
hysteria was a uterine disorder. This understanding can help in developing more effective diagnostic and treatment
strategies for mental illnesses in women, which are not based on outdated cultural and societal beliefs. The study shows
the historical and cultural context in which hysteria was viewed and understood, and how this understanding has
evolved over time. This understanding can help in developing more culturally sensitive and appropriate approaches to
the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness, which take into account the influence of cultural and societal beliefs.
Overall, the study highlights the need for further research in the area of the historical development of female hysteria,
and its portrayal in literature and drama. This understanding can help in developing more effective diagnostic and
treatment strategies for mental illnesses in women, which are not based on outdated cultural and societal beliefs. The
portrayal of female hysteria in Miss Julie highlights the impact of social and cultural factors on mental illness. The play
provides a nuanced depiction of the experiences of women with mental illness and sheds light on the historical context
of how mental health was understood and treated. The influence of neuroscience on drama during the 19th century also
underscores the importance of scientific progress in shaping cultural attitudes toward mental health. Overall, this study
contributes to a better understanding of the complex relationship between science and culture in shaping our
understanding of mental illness.
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Maha Suliman Alanazi holds the position of assistant professor in English literature within the Department of English Language
and Literature at the College of Sciences and Humanities in Alaflaj, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, located in Alkharaj, the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Alongside her academic role, she serves as the Head of the Department of English and Literature and
holds the position of Vice-Dean responsible for female students' affairs at the college. Dr. Alanazi's research interests span various
fields, including interdisciplinary studies in literature, minority literature, indigenous literature, cultural studies, and areas such as
feminist dystopia and political drama.

ISSN 1799-2591
The Feasibility of Critical Literacy Practices in an

EFL Reading Class
M. Bahri Arifin
Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Mulawarman University, Indonesia
Singgih Daru Kuncara

Chris Asanti
Syukur Saud
Faculty of Languages and Art, Makassar State University, Indonesia
Syarifuddin Dollah
Nurming Saleh
Abstract—This research aims to explain how critical literacy was practiced in an EFL reading class. In this
reading class, students read and responded to a short story about bullying and friendship entitled Egghead.
The data were generated from the classroom’s observations and interactions and students’ artifacts during the
reading class. This research thoroughly examined 1) how critical literacy was employed in the reading
classroom and 2) students’ engagement in the class. Using the four dimensions of critical literacy by Lewison et
al. (2002), this research has figured out that critical literacy practices in the reading class are feasible to raise
students’ awareness. Two significant findings are emphasized in this research. First is the positive outcomes
during classroom discussions. Second, this approach can create an atmosphere that can motivate students’
enthusiasm and enjoyment. Both findings show that employing critical literacy allows students to verbalize
their thoughts and opinions of their worldview, raising their awareness and understanding of social issues.
However, as a role model, the teacher must engage students in a meaningful discussion while selecting and
considering appropriate reading materials.
Index Terms—critical literacy practices, EFL reading class
I. INTRODUCTION
People’s perceptions of the environment have shifted along with the times due to the abundance of information
available in today’s culture. The information is then interpreted using texts as a reference (both written and oral). As a
result, a comprehensive understanding of what has happened, what is happening now, and why this has happened is
needed. With this in mind, as English teachers, we have often been confronted with a plethora of ideas and thoughts on
how we should teach and what students should learn, especially when digesting information concerning their critical
literacy skills. These skills are required to help them succeed in the twenty-first century’s fast-changing society. In this
era, students must be able to digest knowledge, challenge ideas, contend, take a stand, and (or) understand the voices in
the texts.
In Indonesia, the curriculum design under the Ministry of Education and Culture (MoEC) currently embraces
improving students’ critical literacy. The MoEC proposed Gerakan Literasi Nasional/GLN (National Literacy
Movement) under the Ministerial Regulation of Education and Culture No. 23 in 2015. This regulation aims to improve
and preserve the Indonesian students’ characters which then covers three other literacy movements, namely, Gerakan
Literacy Sekolah (School Literacy Movement), Gerakan Literasi Keluarga (Family Literacy Movement), and Gerakan
Literasi Masyarakat (Society Literacy Movement).
In the sense of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education, the problems are even more perplexing. According
to Gustine (2014), teachers and students face difficulties in terms of teaching and learning processes where they must
master English reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills through memorization, yet at the same time, they must
also develop their critical skills. Harste (2003), on the other hand, contends that the previously described traditional
skills are no longer adequate for twenty-first-century students. Students are encouraged to engage “in higher-order

thinking skills – creativity, innovation, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and problem-solving – by
tackling real-world problems” (Živkovic, 2016, p. 107). They note that educational institutions frequently place too
much emphasis on memorization.
Today, Indonesia’s conventional educational philosophy is still upheld; it relies on memorization. This tradition of
memorization has been perpetuated and practiced in all schools for decades, and it has become a misconception that a
student is intelligent and well-achieved if he or she can memorize all of the lessons taught by the teachers and pass the
exams with flying colors. Even so, this memorization activity has hampered students’ imagination to the extent that they
are required to complete assignments based on the interests of the teachers (Rahayu, 2021).
With this in mind, a new teaching method that can help students improve their critical literacy skills is urgently
needed. Paulo Freire, a Brazilian philosopher, pioneered the concept of addressing students with critical thought
decades earlier. Freire was a precursor in the field of critical literacy. He emphasizes that critical literacy cannot be
perceived as a single, unified approach but as a set of socio-political perspectives. Freire instructed Brazilian and
Chilean workers to read decades ago using a problem-solving pedagogy that introduced them to practical and profound
valuable vocabulary in their everyday lives (Freire, 1971). Freire used language to motivate and stimulate his students,
engaging them in critical reflection on the oppressive realities of the moment and teaching them how to break away
from injustice and change their lives.
The preceding explanation merits further consideration, especially in the context of Indonesian EFL teaching. On the
one hand, the demand in the twenty-first century is high; students are expected to be critical thinkers, capable of
debating and disputing opposing points of view and developing their understanding. On the other hand, in Indonesia,
teaching and learning processes are still primarily developed on the basic idea that students should memorize
(Dananjaya, 2013).
In line with the above explanations, this study explains how critical literacy practices are implemented in
Mulawarman University’s intensive reading class using a short story entitled Egghead. In conducting the practices, the
four dimensions of critical literacy suggested by Lewison et al. (2002) are employed, namely 1) disrupting the
commonplace, 2) interrogating multiple viewpoints, 3) focusing on socio-political issues, 4) taking action and
promoting social justice. The four dimensions model is chosen as it offers an in-depth understanding of how critical
literacy practices should be implemented in the class.
Based on the rationales above, this research is trying to explore empirical data to answer the following questions.
1. How are critical literacy practices implemented in the class?
2. How do students engage in the reading activities?

A. Critical Literacy
Experts and researchers classify critical literacy based on distinct theoretical frameworks and approaches, making its
definition complex. For example, McDaniel (2006) notes that “critical literacy transcends conventional notions of
reading and writing to incorporate critical thinking, questioning, and transformation of self and/or one’s world” (p. 5).
Moreover, according to Luke (2000), critical literacy education is also “a theoretical and practical attitude” (p. 454).
Critical literacy has replaced this context’s narrow skills-based reading and writing instruction model. Today’s students
encountering the ‘web and net’ age makes it more critical than decades ago. As Janks (2010) mentioned;
In an age where the production of meaning is being democratized by Web 2, social networking sites and
portable connectivity, powerful discourses continue to speak us and to speak through us. We often become
unconscious agents of their distribution. At the same time, these new media have been used for disseminating
counter-discourses, for mobilizing opposition, for questioning and destabilizing power. This is the context
within which we need to consider the role of critical literacy in education (p. 150).
Critical literacy undoubtedly plays an essential role in students’ lives. As many scholars have said, Blanton (1999)
asserts that critical literacy significantly transforms academic achievement because it involves more than just reading
and writing. According to Comber (2001), language is utilized in increasingly potent ways to question freedom and
injustice in society. Moreover, Knobel and Lankshear (2002) state that critically literate students can examine ongoing
development, their roles in the world, and how their experiences make sense.
Although there are numerous approaches to critical literacy (Pennycook, 2001), it is concerned with “engaging with
the possibilities that the technologies of writing and other modes of inscription offer for social change, cultural diversity,
economic equity, and political enfranchisement” (Luke & Freebody, 1997, p. 1).
Critical literacy is then used to develop students’ critical stance or perspective when studying a language and their
ability to discover hidden ideologies embedded in texts, as previously mentioned.
In addition to that, Luke and Freebody (1999) stated that effective literacy practices allow students to:
1. Break the codes of the texts, and students need to comprehend the basic features of the written texts, such as
alphabet, sounds, spelling, and structural conventions and patterns,
2. Participate in comprehending and creating meaningful written, visual, and spoken texts. In this instance, students
are encouraged to relate their knowledge and cultural background, perspectives, and experiences to make
meaning of texts or to compare and contrast their experiences with texts,

3. Utilize texts essentially by traversing and negotiating the labor and social relations surrounding them; – i.e., by
understanding and going to act on the different social and cultural functions that numerous texts perform inside
and outside of class and by understanding that these features shape how texts are formed, their tone, the degree of
formality, and the order of their structures.
4. Texts are neither ideologically natural nor neutral; they reflect one point of view while censoring others and
affecting people’s thoughts, and the designs of texts and the discourses contained within them can be criticized
and reinvented in unique and hybrid ways.
The four models above help students consider their positions from various perspectives to analyze texts critically.
According to Luke (2000), these models cannot be used hierarchically; instead, the four interdependent functions should
be used synchronously. This research employs four models of critical literacy by Lewison et al. (2002):
1. Disrupting the Commonplace
A new take on the commonplace is one definition of critical literacy, which applies to this concept aspect. Language
and other sign systems are utilized to determine implicit ways of perceiving and examine new frames to comprehend
the experience. Another method of social action, according to Van Sluys et al. (2006) is: …reading resistantly,
communicating new lines of thinking, and pushing others to question how they come to see the world (Van Sluys et al.,
2006, pp. 22-23).
2. Interrogating multiple viewpoints
In this dimension, students are encouraged to understand experiences and texts from their perspectives and other
viewpoints. Further, students are also challenged to identify whose voices are heard or silenced critically and those who
are marginalized and oppressed through the analysis of the texts.
3. Focusing on sociopolitical issues
This dimension demonstrates that teaching is not a neutral form of social practice, yet it is frequently conducted
without regard for how sociopolitical systems, power relationships, and language are inextricably intertwined with our
teaching. Literacy can be understood in this dimension as a means to challenge unequal power relationships (Anderson
& Irvine, 1993).
4. Taking action and promoting social justice
This aspect is commonly regarded as the core of critical literacy. Social justice promotion does not always require
becoming a social activist (Lee, 2012). A change in perspective or the transition from superficial to resistant reading can
also be classified as taking action (Lewison et al., 2006).
This research makes use of the four-dimensions model (Lewison et al., 2002) in three different capacities: as a
teaching model, as a procedure, and as an analysis tool.
B. Literature in English Language Teaching
The benefits of linking language teaching and learning with literature have grown over the last few decades. Students’
ability to learn English is thought to be enhanced by reading literary texts. Lyutaya (2011) pointed out that reading
literature “exposes them to exciting plots, interesting characters, and authentic dialogues as they learn the language in
context” (p. 26). Further, she added that the reading assignments could be employed as a platform to integrate other
language skills, such as; when the students have to verbalize their thoughts, it will lead to their improvement of listening
and speaking skills, and when they have to write the feedback in the reading activities. In much the same vein, Povey
(1972) declared that “literature will help increase language skills because literature will extend linguistic knowledge by
giving evidence of extensive and subtle vocabulary usage and complex and exact syntax” (p. 44).
However, the link between language teaching and literature has not always been flawless in the EFL context.
Curriculum design, content availability, and teachers’ experience in selecting suitable texts are all typical constraints
that obstruct the use of literature in the teaching and learning process. In the early 1990s, the focus of ELT was using
Grammar Translation Method (GTM) in ELT; literature functioned as “illustrations of the grammatical rules” (Duff &
Maley, p. 3). The Grammar Translation Method, the original method for teaching foreign languages, was employed for
the longest time in language education history, from its birth until the 1900s. The purpose of this technique was “to
learn a language to read its literature in order to benefit from the mental discipline and intellectual development that
result from foreign language study” (Richard & Rodgers, 2001, p. 5). Only in the early 2000s was a space dedicated to
literature in language teaching created. Despite the heated debates and contradictory stances on using literature in the
language classroom, some studies and theories that support the ideas still win out among teachers and researchers.
III. RESEARCH METHOD

A. Research Design
The primary purpose of this study is to determine and clarify how important literacy activities are used in an EFL
reading class. Specifically, the study is performed in a classroom setting with students obtaining a thorough
understanding of the topic. As a result, a case study is thought to be the best method for this analysis. Case studies
enable complicated problem-solving. Yin (1984, p. 23) defines the case study research method “as an empirical inquiry
that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context; when the boundaries between phenomenon
and context are not evident; and in which multiple sources of evidence are used”. Further, Yin (1994) states that there

are some advantages to employing case study, they are; 1) The examination of the data can be thorough as it is usually
conducted within the context of its use, 2) The variations can also create space to approach the study by using
quantitative method, 3) Case study not only help to explore the data in real-world experiments but also aid in explaining
the complexities of situations that other approaches may not cover. Thus, a case study is suitable for this research
because this research will be conducted in real-life situations and will try to uncover the complexities of the issues
(Arifin et al., 2022).
Teachers’ in-class observations and discussions formed the basis for this study’s data. Furthermore, data were
obtained from students’ artifacts during reading class exercises to concentrate on critical literacy practices. An open-
ended questionnaire was circulated to the students to obtain more detailed information about their class participation.
B. Participants
The participants in this study are 32 students enrolled in Mulawarman University’s English Literature Study
Program’s Intensive Reading Class. There are 14 females and 18 males among the students. In Indonesian schools and
universities, large classes are pretty standard. These students are in their second semester, indicating they are still
adapting to university life after graduating high school. Students’ language abilities are also diverse, implying a
disparity in their language proficiency.
All participants in this research are aged between 17-19 years old. The majority of the students come from Samarinda
with different ethnic groups. Some are Bugisnese, Banjarese, Kutainese, Javanese, Dayaknese, and Berau. They spoke
Bahasa Indonesia, mainly used to communicate, and some are fluent speakers of their local languages. As has been
noted, the students’ cultural and ethnic backgrounds are diverse, which indirectly also influences their worldviews and
perspectives on how to see things which makes this research worth investigating further.
IV. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

A. The Implementation of Critical Literacy Practices & Students’ Engagement
The implementation of the practices was guided by a lesson plan designed based on the four dimensions model of
critical literacy. In order to understand the map of the ongoing teaching and learning process, the lesson plan is provided
as follows:
TABLE 1
LESSON PLAN
Meeting 2nd - 5th
Main topic Bullying
Sub-Topic School, family, friendship, and emotions
Rationale This course encourages students to discuss and reflect on issues teenagers commonly face.
Furthermore, students are expected to:
1. Discuss whether the texts they read are still happening in society nowadays
2. Make a connection between the texts and their life experience and cultural background
3. Explore the definitions of bullying from different references
4. Question the values of friendship
5. Identify why diversity might become the source of the problem
Language objectives 1. Respond and ask to higher-order thinking questions
2. Describe a person’s specific appearance by using accurate adjectives in the story
3. Report some specific events in the past by using correct tenses, such as; Yesterday,
Michael went to…
4. Retell the story by using past tense and other verbs
5. Use vocabulary embedded in the texts
Class activities 1. Read aloud the story
2. Give an opinion about the story
3. Discuss the similarity and the difference in the setting
4. Discuss the story and relate that to their life experience.
5. Do the exercise in each chapter
6. Create a bookmark
7. Create a mind-map
8. Write a reflective journal
The lesson plan is made based on the Egghead storybook. The book consists of 79 (seventy-nine) pages and is
divided into 6 (six) chapters; Chapter I: The Monster Horse, Chapter II: A Day at School, Chapter III: Egg and Bacon
and the Invisible Ball, Chapter IV: The Old Man, Chapter V: Tom’s Story, and Chapter VI: The Prize. In each chapter,
the book is also provided with post-reading activities related to reading comprehension questions. There is also another
question that leads the students to wonder in the next chapter of the book. In addition, this book is also equipped with a
brief explanation of the four main foci in the story; first is the end of the story, the second is the description of the
author’s first-hand experiences as the bullying victim, third is the bullying, and fourth is the settings. The settings used
by the author are all located in England, such as London Zoo, The Natural History Museum, and Hyde Park. The
explanation helps students understand clearly the situation and the places.

B. An Overview of Critical Literacy Dimensions in the Lesson on Friendship and Bullying From Egghead Story: The
Implementation and Students’ Engagement
Students’ responses in this lesson were outlined with the four dimensions model elaborated in Chapter 2. The
responses were outlined and related to the first dimension, disrupting the commonplace, and the second dimension,
considering multiple perspectives presented below, followed the third dimension, focusing on socio-political issues, and
the fourth dimension taking social action. The data used to document this lesson came from observations made in the
classroom and assignments turned in by the students.
(a). Questioning and Interconnecting ‘Bullying’
Based on the preliminary responses to the short story, students verbalized their thoughts on the definition of bullying
and the stereotypical images of the bully and the victims. When the students were asked to do this, they emphasized the
physical appearance of the bullying victims. They identified the physical attributes, such as big head and red face.
The following responses showed the interconnection between bullying and physical appearance:
Data 4.1.
Ella: Michael was bullied by his school friends. They called Michael Egghead because he has a big head.
He felt nobody liked him and never tell anyone about it. But Michael trying to ignored them and did anything
he wants. When Tom tells him that Egghead means clever, he was getting confident. He doesn’t care anymore
if his friends call him Egghead every day.
Laras: This main story is about bullying that experienced by Michael and David because they have a
different physical than others, Michael has a bigger had and David has a red face like bacon, the problem
solved because Michael get support from tom, David, and his parent. He starts to show his self-confidence and
his ability and there’s no one bully him.
Students then engaged in further discussion. In small groups, they listed some words which were related to bullying.
They found some listed words: mock, earning respect, confidence, toxic people, rejected, courage, proud, harassment,
different, mockery, and support.
During the class observations, one of the students stated that his group tried to list more positive words than negative
ones. One of the reasons why they did that was because the group members used to be bullying victims. In the students’
opinion, it can be seen that some of them tried to fight the accepted normalcy created in society. These activities
showed that students could identify whose voices were heard and whose voices were unheard (Luke and Freebody,
1997) in the texts.
After that, students were invited to verbalize their opinions on why bullying was closely related to physical
appearance and why having support was necessary, particularly for the victims. When the students were asked this
particular question, they explained that some young people have become more aware by giving a counterargument.
Below are some students’ responses which are mainly highlighted on the above issues:
Data 4.2.
Rina: Michael got bullied at school because of his appearance, and he solved it by showing people what he
capable of, with some persistence.
Deni: The Main Problem of the story is that Michael don’t have any friend and the other kid at school don’t
want to be friend or play with him and they always mock him when they have the chance the problem of this
story is solved by Michael who write a story and tell that story in front of the school earning respect from the
other student. Though this case might not happen in Indonesia, they committed suicide because there’s no
support from the surrounding.
From the two responses above, the students could identify the different perspectives from the story (Lewinson et al.,
2002), which aligns with the four dimensions of critical literacy. What is more, students also became the agents that
tried to create a more just society by giving feedback on how to handle bullying. They mentioned support, self-
achievement, and courage. As the discussion unfolded, students started to see more clearly the stereotyped nature of the
representation of one’s physical appearance. As Rina and Deni articulated, students’ responses demonstrate an essential
and gradual shift in their thinking.
During the discussion, however, most students questioned what if the bullying victims had no excellent support
system, just like Michael. Deni, for example, questioned some of the bullying cases in Indonesia where the victims
decided to end their lives in miserable ways. Deni’s critical statement shows that he is gaining a critical awareness by
comparing what happened in the texts and in some real situations in Indonesia. The responses from the students mark a
crucial change in the way students compare and contrast the different settings of bullying, question the idea of bullying,
and cope with the bullying.
(b). Reflecting and Positioning
Students’ responses can be split into two groups: those who want to be the narrator and challenge the story’s unfair
treatment and those who want to be another character and challenge the story’s unjust treatment. The following is the
first example:
Maria: I want to be like egghead, because I think people who successfully passed the times
Ahmad: when he bullied, he will be stronger than people who never got bullied

Ben: Yes I want to be a egghead so I can fight the bullied

Laila: Maybe yes, and I will fight them back if I get bullied. They will never stop if I don’t make them quiet
The responses above demonstrate that when the students are positioned to be the characters in the story, half of them
try to fight back. Students’ reflections on the story are also trying to prove that bullying is wrong in so many ways.
Ahmad, for example, verbalized that the individual bullying experiences will make him/her stronger. When the
discussion progressed, Rama also mentioned that he used to be a bullying victim, and after that, he escaped the situation
by painting pictures/drawing.
Another episode is based on a classroom activity in which students must select their favorite lines from the story and
create bookmarks from them. Encouragement and constructive reinforcement from the environment are two items that
bullying victims need, as shown by the bookmarks. Furthermore, some students argue that schools in Indonesia should
have knowledgeable counselors, not just counselors who can advise them on the best universities to attend or how to
improve their grades. From class discussions and activities, students have learned that the current system in some
Indonesian schools needs to be modified, especially regarding student well-being. This definition is intertwined with
critical literacy’s third dimension (Lewinson et al., 2002).
Below is the bookmark created by one of the students.
Figure 1. Bookmark
Students’ favorite lines demonstrate that when optimistic and compassionate environments surround bullying victims,
they can change and deal with their problems.
Those who do not want to be the protagonist in the story come up with the second concept. The following are
extracts from their arguments:
Sean: I would not like to be the character in this story, because it is so hard to be Michael bullied by other
children, he did not tell his parents. He had no friends and was lonely even he had an imaginary friend
‘Andrew’.
Lea: No, because I certainly won’t be able to. I was too weak to face bullying. And to be honest, I’m not like
Michael who is very patient. If I were in Michael’s position, I would definitely fight them and avenge their
treatment of me. But, I’m so proud of Michael. He can overcome problems with the brain not the muscles.
While the students do not want to be the novel’s protagonist, they acknowledge that bullying must be counteracted
and ultimately eliminated. According to Lea, bullying can be countered using an intelligent brain. This argument
stresses the importance of sound reasoning and critical thought in coping with bullying. Moreover, this idea resonates
with the notion of disrupting the ordinary situation. Generally, a phrase says ‘an eye for an eye’, yet the students prefer
to transform the shared belief by offering a solution to bullying.
Through analyzing the texts, students started to understand that bullying might happen in society because of the
differences, and they also offered a more humanist approach to dealing with the bully.
(c). Identifying and Redefining Self
After the students were questioned on the causes that caused bullying and how they would position themselves in the
story, the discussion continued to their favorite part(s). The excerpts from the students demonstrate that most students
choose the parts when Michael can achieve what he wants, show his strength, and solve problems with the help of the
people around him.
Mila: I love the part when Michael’s friends start singing Egghead when swimming lesson finished. He tries
to thinking people who love him and he smile. I think that was the best way to get rid of my anxiety.

Maria: I like when Michael in his swimming class. He feels so quiet in the water. He can’t hear anything. So
calm and he remember the thing Tom said to him. Then, when he out from the water, he feel better because he
know how to not to care about people who call him names.
Dani: My favourite part of this story is when Tom said to Michael “just remember, they don’t know you. So,
if they don’t know you, what they say isn’t important. Don’t let it hurt you inside. Remember, everybody who
cares about you, and knows you, your mum and dad, David and me, we don’t call your names. The others
aren’t important”. Because when I read this part, I am also feeling better, just like Michael. I am touched. It
motivates me, to love myself.
The above responses reveal that the students can demonstrate a critical understanding of self-achievement. Mila’s
quote, for example, conveys that if someone can be content and achieve anything in life, they can overcome their
anxiety. As a result, students gain an understanding of the value of being able to solve problems individually and how to
deal with them. Mila has reached a stage where self-achievement can become a defining factor in someone’s ability to
inspire themselves, despite her inability to explain why.
Maria utters yet another comment. Maria emphasizes the importance of other people in forming a person’s self-
identity and self-confidence. According to our classroom observation, Maria added that people often choose not to
discuss their issues because they are afraid or embarrassed. However, after reading the story, Maria understands that
Michael’s story may have happened to her brothers or friends, and she tries to listen first before making broad
generalizations about people’s experiences.
Another identical idea comes from Dani. Michael is strengthened by Tom, which is his favorite part of the plot. Dani
also stated during the discussion that he had the same experience when his classmates bullied him. As a consequence,
class, in this case, serves as a reflection of real life, enabling students to focus on and rethink social problems that have
arisen in their lives. His reflective notions can also be seen in his words, such as; feel touched, motivate and love myself.
Based on the comments, it appears that students have begun to raise their awareness of bullying, mainly how to deal
with it. Furthermore, as shown by the above opinions, critical literacy discussions in class tend to cause students to
become more reflective.
(d). Taking Action
As stated in the literature review, the final dimension of Lewison et al.’s (2002) framework is taking action, regarded
as the ‘heart’ of critical literacy. In this dimension, students are involved in critical literacy when there is a shift in the
reading activity. Students can question, argue and take a stance from the reading activity. Furthermore, it allows
students to re-examine their way of thinking (Van Sluys et al., 2005).
Riza: I think the author want we know that there is ok to be different, not so insecure and don’t give up in
any situation
Rani: The author -which is also the main character- want to tell us about his life. He wants people to know
how society works. For child, teen, or adult. Not just in the past, but also present. He want the reader to be
stronger and not give up when their life quite hard to bear. I think this story want to save people who have the
same problem as him. Bully didn’t end up until now. But through this story, the author tells us that there will
be happy ending in your life. Just don’t give up and go on. Maybe not just for them who get bullied, but also
all people who want to give up of their life. And through this story, the author proves that someone who bullied
other is nothing. Finally being nothing. Really-really nothing. That’s what I think.
Rama: I think the author would like to remind us, just because the difference we treat people different
unconsciously, we didn’t even realise that the difference can make us ‘complete’ cause we fill up each the
emptiness from the other, together we can make better world.
From the above excerpts, Riza, Rani, and Rama have developed their awareness, and they can differentiate that in
society, there must be actions that may lead to uncomfortable feelings. Moreover, they also explain that people are
different in so many ways. Rama, for example, states that differences can be used as a ‘tool’ to see things and to ‘fill’
the empty gap. Though Rama could not clearly explain what he meant, he gave an example from the story. It was when
Michael and David became friends. Michael’s hobby is playing football, while David’s is running around. Then
Michael suggested that David play football together so that David could still run when he felt scared.
V. CONCLUSION
In this chapter, students successfully demonstrate their ability to make responses that reflect the four dimensions of
the critical literacy framework (Lewison et al., 2002). At least two essential findings emerge from the critical literacy
practices and students’ engagement in the reading class. The first finding relates to the positive outcomes during the
discussions in class. Relating to critical literacy practices, students can define bullying by reflecting on their experiences
and positioning themselves. Further, students can identify what happened in society, leading them to redefine
themselves. This one relates to how students use the classroom as a reflective tool. In this instance, a classroom is seen
not as a neutral place but as a contestation place to form self-identity. Last but not least is the most crucial part of
critical literacy practices. It is when students can take action and try to transform an unjust society. In this phase,
students gradually shift in seeing and interpreting the world.

Second, in terms of students’ engagement in the class, they all showed enthusiasm and enjoyment. Their enthusiasm
can be seen when the quiet students were also willing to verbalize their thoughts about their experiences. One of the
students even gives opinions that learning English can be so much fun. Also, she can acquire new vocabulary during the
teaching and learning process. However, also, she can broaden her cultural knowledge about England. Hence, it can be
assumed that a good choice of relevant stories, teacher preparations, and collaborative activities in the class will support
the feasibility of critical literacy practices in an EFL setting.
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THEORY AND PRACTICE IN LANGUAGE STUDIES
2364
M. Bahri Arifin obtained his doctor degree in Linguistics in 2000 and a Master’s degree in English Language
Studies in 1996, both from Hasanuddin University, Indonesia. His research areas of interest are Semantic
issues in Linguistics and related cultural problems, particularly indigenous cultures. His works on Linguistics
and associated cultural issues have been published in national and international journals and books and
chapters in books. He was the Vice Rector of Academic Affairs of the Borneo University Indonesia from 2008
to 2012 and the Director of the Postgraduate School of the Borneo University from 1012 to 2014. Since the
end of 2014, he has been a professor of Linguistics at the Faculty of Cultural Science, Mulawarman
University of Indonesia.
Singgih Daru Kuncara obtained his Master’s degree in Linguistics in 2012 at Universitas Sebelas Maret and
his Bachelor’s degree in English Department in 2008 at Universitas Gadjah Mada. He is currently an assistant
professor in the English Department of Cultural Sciences Faculty Universitas Mulawarman with expertise in
Translation Studies and Literary Criticism. He has published two books: a novel entitled Kasam (2017) and a
bilingual book “Cerita dari Tanah Kalimantan” (The Stories from the Borneo Land) (2017). He also has
published in many reputable journals in translation studies, literary criticism, and cultural studies. He speaks
at local, national, and international cultural sciences conferences. He is an assessor of the National
Accreditation Board of School for East Kalimantan (2018-present). He works at two journals, accredited rank
4 Sinta, as managing editor in the Journal of Culture, Arts, Literature, and Linguistics (Calls) (2015-present)
and as Editor in Chief in the Journal of Ilmu Budaya (Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra, Seni, dan Budaya) (2016-present).
Chris Asanti completed her Bachelor of English Education study at Mulawarman University in 2007, then
continued her Master’s studies at Monash University Australia in 2012. She is currently a Ph. D candidate in
Education at Monash University. She currently teaches at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Mulawarman
University. Her interest in children’s literature and literacy led her to produce two children’s books, “Manik –
Manik di Bajuku” and “Resep Rahasia Ibu”. In addition, the author is also a member of IERA (Indonesia
Extensive Reading Association).
Syukur Saud was born in Tallang Rilau on September 30th 1962. Before completing his bachelor program at
IKIP Ujung Pandang in 1987, he attended IDS (Integrities Deutschland Semester) at German Muenchen
University (1985). In May-June 1992, he followed Spachkurspro in Bremen Goethe Institut. In 1997 he
visited Muenchen Goethe Institute to attend Sprachkurs for three months. He got his doctoral degree in
Foreign Language Teaching from The State University of Makassar. He has published several articles and
books. He was one of the best researchers at the State University of Makassar in 2000 and an exemplary
lecturer at the state university of Makassar in 2000. He was awarded a reward for his 10 and 20 years of
dedication to education by the President of The Republic of Indonesia in 2007 and 2011. He is currently a
professor in Foreign Language in the Faculty of Languages and Arts of the State University of Makassar in
which he is also the Dean of the faculty from 2019 to 2023.
Syarifuddin Dollah is a senior lecturer at the English Department, Faculty of Languages and Literature,
Universitas Negeri Makassar (UNM). He was born in 1963. He acquired his Bachelor degree in TEFL,
Faculty of Languages and Arts of Institutes of Teacher Training and Education Ujung Pandang in 1988. In
1996 he graduated his Master degree from IKIP Malang, East Java, and got his Ph.D. in English Language
Studies (Linguistics) from Universitas Hasanuddin in 2006. He was inaugurated as a professor in English
Language Studies in 2018. So far he has published some books and many articles in his field of study and he
has also presented papers in some national and international conferences. During his career, he has held
different posts at UNM. One of the posts was the Dean of Faculty of Languages and Literature in the period
of 2015 - 2019.
Nurming Saleh is an educator and associate professor at the Faculty of Language and Literature, Makassar
State University. The field of expertise includes communication science and language education. She
completed her Bachelor Degree in German Education Department of IKIP Ujung Pandang in 1988. She then
took a Masters Degree Program in Communication Sciences of Padjajaran University and completed the
program in 2002. Her Doctor degree was obtained from Makassar State University in Language Education
Science in 2017. She served as the Head of the German Language Education Department at the Postgraduate
Program of Makassar State University (2014-2018), and the Head of the German Language Education Study
Program (2018-2020). She is currently serving as the Vice Dean for Cooperation and Development Affairs at
her Faculty.

ISSN 1799-2591
Gender Stereotypes in TV Commercials: A

Multimodal Analysis Approach
Souad Atma
The University of Jordan, Jordan
Zahra Awad
The University of Jordan, Jordan
Abstract—The current study examines gender stereotypes in TV commercials through the lens of
multimodality. It adopts Kress and Van Leeuwen's (2006) visual grammar to decipher the visual resources
that form gendered depictions in Algerian TV advertising discourse. To achieve this aim, five TV ads
broadcasted on public and private Algerian TV channels were selected and downloaded from YouTube, then
they were analyzed in terms of the representational metafunction, the interactive metafunction, and the
compositional metafunction. Results show that Algerian TV commercials are loaded with offensive depictions
for both genders. They also indicate that different multimodal resources are involved in the construction of
these gendered portrayals. The study concludes with some recommendations for ad designers and TV
producers.
Index Terms—multimodality, Algerian TV commercials, gender stereotypes, visual grammar meta-functions
I. INTRODUCTION
Advertisements constitute the most effective marketing tool for conveying messages to the target consumer via
various forms of media. Cook (2001) does contend that commercials have the ability to affect consumers' thoughts and
ideas in addition to influencing their purchasing decisions. That is, advertising agencies are capable of generating
ideological representations of reality. Gender stereotypes, or expectations of how men and women are expected to
behave in a society, are among the ideologies that are constantly reinforced in advertisements, either intentionally or
unintentionally. Hassanaath (2020) argues that the unequal representation of men and women in advertisements
contributes to gender stereotypes. That is, men are frequently portrayed as strong in advertisements, whereas women are
typically depicted as weak (Goffman, 1979). Such gendered representations continue to be present in a variety of media,
including broadcast media like television and print media like magazines and billboards. Although advertisers claim
that they only replicate and reflect what is already present in society, research shows that the media frequently fails to
acknowledge the changing social roles played by women and instead emphasizes their traditional ones (Hassanaath,
2020; Kolman & Tkalac Verčić, 2012).
Gender stereotypes often go unnoticed by the audience, as these biased portrayals are concealed using a plethora of
strategies (Fairclough, 1989). To put it in simple words, the interaction of language with other semiotic modes such as
image and music made it possible for advertisers to convey hidden meanings and to grab the attention of consumers.
Rhetorical appeals, scientific terms, and slogans (Aazam et al., 2021) are examples of the linguistic strategies usually
used in commercials. Celebrity endorsement (Susanti, 2020) and music are also implemented as supporting techniques
along with the language to attract the audience's attention (Hassnaoui, 2018). The majority of the studies on gendered
advertising prioritized investigating women's portrayals in media over men's, giving the impression that only women are
inaccurately portrayed. Their focus was placed on the discourse of the still image, ignoring that of the moving image.
Therefore, the current study looks at how both women and men are portrayed in television ads within the framework of
visual grammar, which allows for the revelation of non-verbal modes that construct gender stereotypes in Algerian TV
commercials. Specifically, this study investigates gender stereotypes in TV advertisements and how they are generated
multimodally. The following are the questions this study attempts to address in order to accomplish its objectives:
A. How are gender stereotypes generated both visually and linguistically in Algerian TV commercials?
B. What stereotypical roles do men and women typically play in TV commercials in Algeria?

The advancement of technology prompted Kress and Van Leeuwen to apply social semiotics to multimodal texts and
replace the term "sign" with "mode" (Prior, 2014). Given the importance of modes in multimodality, Kress (2013)
contends that "modes shape our encounter with the world and our means of re-making the world in semiotic entities of


any kind" (p. 46). In simple words, modes are ways in which meanings are communicated (Kress & Van Leeuwen,
2006). In fact, one useful framework for analyzing multimodal texts is that of Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006), known
as "visual grammar." Their approach is an adaptation of Halliday’s systemic-functional linguistics, which regards
language as a system of communication that satisfies three functions, which he labels ideational metafunction,
interpersonal metafunction, and textual metafunction (Halliday, 1985). For Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006) meaning in
visual grammar is merely a social product and so their approach to communication starts from a social base. In their
words “the meanings expressed by speakers, writers, printmakers, photographers, designers, painters, and sculptors are
first and foremost social meanings" (p. 20).
In contrast to Halliday, who eliminated the visual modes, Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006) assert that, like language,
visual communication relies on the same resources for constructing meaning. That is, different components of the visual
design (such as colors and layouts) are combined together to communicate meaning. So, they extended their framework
to deal with visual representations using different terminology: representational, interactive, interpersonal, and
compositional functions (Rizvi et al., 2020). Each of these meanings corresponds to a different metafunction. In fact,
this made it possible to switch from a monomodal to a multimodal representation of the world (Kress & Van Leeuwen,
2001).
To begin, the representational metafunction is primarily concerned with the representation of elements in the world
and the various relationships that exist between these elements. These are depicted as participants, who are divided into
two categories: "the represented participants", who are anything visible in an image, and "the interactive participants,"
who are either the creators of these images or the audience (Hu & Luo, 2016). Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006)
mentioned another type of participant called "circumstances". These participants are peripheral, and their removal will
have no effect on the main meaning. Two processes are critical at this level: the narrative and conceptual processes. The
former involves dynamicity, where vectors are created via movements. These are further divided into action processes,
reactional processes, speech processes, and mental processes. The latter, on the other hand, involves greater stability
and a lack of vectors.
In the interactive metafunction, the image producer can generate different social meanings in the image through four
dimensions viz., image act and gaze, social distance, perspective, and modality. To begin with, image act and gaze; the
gaze direction establishes different relationships between the represented and interactive participants. In offer relations,
there is no direct gaze; however, in demand relations, the represented participant directs his or her gaze to the viewer.
Furthermore, in the social distance dimension, the image producer determines how far the represented participant is
from the viewer by adjusting the frame size. An intimate relationship is thus realized by close shots, and a social
relationship by medium-close shots. For perspective, the image designer maintains social relations between the
represented participants and the audience through the angle or point of view from which the participants are framed.
Basically, angles are either horizontal or vertical: the former implies a relationship of "involvement" between the
represented participants and the interactive participants, i.e., the viewer is invited to be part of their world, whereas the
latter indicates a relationship of "detachment" (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006). Finally, modality determines the
faithfulness and dependability of the visual design in terms of different markers such as color, representation, and
context.
Finally, the compositional metafunction: at this level, the semiotic elements are analyzed using three principles:
information value, salience, and framing (Hu & Luo, 2016). The information value indicates the importance of the
position of elements in the image. As for salience, the multimodal resources used to capture the attention of interactive
participants are dependent on a variety of factors, including the size of these visual elements and their placement.
Framing indicates whether elements are combined or not to form a complete meaning (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006).
Previous Studies on Gender Stereotypes in Advertising
For decades, gender stereotypes in advertising have been an interesting topic for researchers in various disciplines
(e.g., Goffman, 1979; Cook, 2001; Browne, 1998; Slak Valek & Picherit-Duthler, 2020). Different studies have
examined gender bias in broadcast media, mainly television. For example, Rubio (2018) carried out a socio-semiotic
analysis of gender portrayals in British TV commercials. His corpus-based research sought to uncover the hidden
meanings in images. Quantitative and qualitative methods have been applied to analyze data using Kress and Van
Leeuwen’s (1996, 2006) and Goffman's (1979) frameworks. Results revealed that women play traditional roles in
British TV advertisements. They are shown working in traditional jobs such as cashiers and waitresses or at home doing
housework and caring for their children. In contrast, men are shown in occupational settings, e.g., as dentists, sportsmen,
and lawyers. The semiotic dimensions mentioned in Goffman’s (1979) work helped in exploring these gender
stereotypes. For instance, in the function ranking category, men are depicted as professionals and the ones in charge of
the executive roles.
By the same token, Browne (1998) conducted a comparative study on socio-cultural gender roles in television
commercials in the United States and Australia. He examined advertisements aimed specifically at children in order to
find out how these advertisements can influence their beliefs about their role in society. A total of 150 advertisements
from Australian TV and 148 from American TV were videotaped and analyzed using Goffman's (1979) conceptual
framework. His findings indicated that boys are portrayed as more knowledgeable, strong, and intriguingly dominant

than girls. The results also indicated that Australian TV commercials portrayed both genders as equals more than
American commercials.
Research on stereotypical gender portrayals in non-Arabic media shows that women are frequently depicted playing
traditional roles. Only a few studies show that the media are keeping up with the modern roles that women play today
(e.g., Khalil & Dhanesh, 2020; Abboud, 2020). Similar results were reported by studies on the issue in the Arabic
context. Hal (2021) conducted a comparative multimodal study on women's portrayals in detergent TV commercials in
Egypt and the United States. He chose to analyze the data exclusively using the interactive meta-function that primarily
focused on attitude, contact, and social distance. The results revealed that Egyptian television commercials depict
women stereotypically, with women's duty being to learn how to do the laundry so they can be ready for marriage. In
contrast, American advertisements show women in active roles, occupying important positions.
Similarly, Khalil and Dhanesh (2020) conducted a content analysis study to explore gender stereotypes depicted in
TV commercials in the Middle East, focusing on Gulf countries. They analyzed 111 TV commercials using Furnham
and Farragher’s (2000) classification of female depictions in terms of seven variables: role, credibility, argument,
product type, location, background, and age. They found that although women are frequently depicted in occupational
settings as active participants, the product type variable encouraged some traditional stereotypes, in which females are
shown at home using food products.
Previous studies addressed the issue of gender stereotypes and how they are promoted through advertising. However,
women’s depictions received far more attention than those of men, giving the impression that only women are subjected
to unrealistic representations. Additionally, the advertising discourse of the moving images in the Arabic context was
not given enough attention. In order to fill this gap, the current study looks at how both genders are portrayed in
Algerian TV commercials.
III. METHOD
A. Sample and Data Collection
The sample of the present study consists of five TV commercials aired on different Algerian TV channels sourced
from YouTube channels. The following are the links to the selected commercials organized according to their category:
food, medical drugs; and internet services.
TABLE 1
THE SAMPLED TV COMMERCIALS
TV Commercial Duration YouTube channel TV channel Date
44 2022
1. Oscar Coffee https://youtu.be/xgi2vqLDXqI Echourouk TV
Seconds
2. Lala Bouillon 48 Echourouk 2022
https://youtu.be/GF_RwCzUhHc
Cubes Seconds TV
26 2021
3. N’gaous Juice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5svxgXRc_NA Elbahia TV
Seconds
4. Dolorol pain 30 Echourouk 2022
https://youtu.be/fIsKGUcF_Mk
Killer Seconds TV
5. Mobilis @fe 2022
46
Parental https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNqQI1ykL54 A3
Seconds
Protection Service
B. Data Analysis
The current study views visual features as important meaning carriers that must be decoded. Therefore, Kress and
Van Leeuwen's (2006) theoretical framework for visual grammar was adopted in order to gain access to the gendered
meanings present in Algerian TV advertisements.

A. Advertisement One: The Visual Analysis of Oscar Coffee TV Advertisement
Oscar Coffee television ad, 44 seconds long, was broadcasted on the private channel "Echourouk TV" in 2022. It
begins with the wife in the kitchen about to make coffee and the husband in the living room reading a book comfortably.
However, the relaxed mood didn’t last for a long time as the son started to tease his sister and the toddler’s crying
aggravated him to the point where he was about to lose his temper. Fortunately, the wife arrived just in time and offered
him a cup of coffee. The coffee quickly altered his state of mind and caused him to relish the chaos around him and
imagine his kids' arguments as songs. The final scene of the advertisement features the father yelling at his wife over a
trivial matter. His son then showed up and offered him a cup of coffee to calm him down.
(a). Representational Metafunction
According to Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006) the representational metafunction is mainly concerned with the
participants and processes. In effect, every visual representation entails two types of participants: represented

participants and interactive participants. In the advertisement under investigation, the interactive participants are the
audience, while the represented participants are five members of one family: a father who appears to be in his early 50s,
dressed casually in red brick and beige contrast, a mother who appears to be in her late 30s, dressed in a beige
sweatshirt, a son who is approximately 12 years old, a daughter who is approximately 6 years old, and a baby child who
is approximately 5 months old. The represented participants were depicted doing different actions, such as walking,
crying, and serving coffee. On these grounds, it is plausible enough to argue that the process is narrative. As for the
narrative process, it involves two primary types (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006), namely the action process and the
reactional process. The Oscar TV advertisement actually draws upon the two. For the former, Figure 10 demonstrates a
bidirectional-transactional process. In fact, actors in bidirectional transactions are referred to as "interactors" (Kress &
Van Leeuwen, 2006) because they simultaneously serve the roles of actors and goals. The vectors in this process are
formed as the actors make movements, particularly hand movements. For the latter, vectors emanate from reactors
(mainly the husband) through eye movements and gazes.
Overall, the visual narrative has formed some stereotypical portrayals that are offensive to both genders. First, the
wife was shown making coffee in the kitchen and holding a baby in the very last scene, indicating that women must be
in charge of cooking and childcare, while the husband was shown reading a book, indicating that he is an intellectual
and taking care of children is never his responsibility. Second, Figure 10 illustrates how the Algerian man is stereotyped
as being irate and anxious over unimportant matters. It represents the very last scene, where the husband was fighting
with his wife simply because he couldn't find his phone. In a similar fashion, Figure 3 portrayed the son as nervous and
angry as he was yelling at his sister.
(b). Interactive Metafunction
Four dimensions are subsumed under the heading of interactive metafunction: image act and gaze, social distance,
perspective, and modality. In Oscar coffee advertisement, the viewer is detached from the represented participants
through offer gaze. Thus, using Kress and Van Leeuwen’s (2006) terms, the represented participants constitute an
object of contemplation for the viewer. In terms of frame size, a flexible camera movement between long shots (Figure
2) and medium-close shots (Figure 8) is noticed. The medium-close shots, on the other hand, outnumber the wide ones.
This frame size constitutes a crucial visual technique that enables the viewer to feel close to the represented participants
and builds a social relationship between them. Furthermore, the advertisement is shot from both frontal and oblique
angles. While the husband is depicted from both angles, the wife is shown mainly from an oblique angle, detaching her
from the viewer. In terms of modality, the articulated and detailed background, which shows clearly the context of the
advertisement, as well as the use of a range of colors that are bright, fully saturated, and modulated, such as orange,
green, yellow, and red brick, all contributed to increasing modality in this advertisement. Nevertheless, the high degree
of brightness made the video look less natural.
(c). Compositional Metafunction
Analyzing the compositional structure of the advertisement requires consideration of three dimensions: information
value, salience, and framing. In fact, the information value in this advertisement is unstable due to the combination of
centralized and given-to-new structures. Given that it is the camera that moves rather than the subject, this dynamicity is
referred to as "camera-initiated." It is also important to note that while the husband was shown on both the left and right
sides, the wife was mainly shown on the right, which gives her the information value of "new". Indeed, the woman’s
appearance in the right position in Figures 6 and 7 presented her as new information, as she appeared suddenly and
served her husband a cup of coffee that saved the situation. This highlights the role of the housewife, who strives to
please her husband. In terms of salience, the husband is the most salient participant, as he appears most frequently.
Moreover, the medium-close shots make him occupy a sizable portion of the screen in comparison to other participants.
Last but not least, the prominence of the husband has been achieved through the vibrant color of his shirt, along with the
intricate background. As for framing, elements of the composition are strongly disconnected by changes in the rhythm
of the music, the pauses in the speech of the represented participants, and more importantly, by portraying the
represented in separate shots. To sum up, it seems reasonable to argue that information value and salience emphasized
the gender stereotypes previously mentioned, which highlight the significance of men in women's lives and suggest that
a woman's primary responsibility is to serve her husband.

Shots From Oscar Coffee TV Advertisement
B. Advertisement Two: Visual Analysis of Lalla Bouillon Cube TV Advertisement

The Lalla Bouillon Cube advertisement appeared in 2022 on Echourouk TV. It shows a young couple at home who
look angry at each other for an unknown reason. In fact, the advertisement was narrated by a male voiceover, who
seems to represent the husband’s inner voice. The husband asked angrily if dinner was ready, and his wife smiled and
began to prepare dinner. Unlike his wife, the husband was shown throughout the video with a frown on his face. When
the dinner was ready, the husband tasted the dish and, although he liked it, he didn’t admit it and kept the same facial
expression. However, his silhouette reflected on the wall jumped out of joy.
In the Lalla Bouillon Cube advertisement, there are two participants represented. The husband, who is in his late
twenties, wears dark blue pants and a green t-shirt and has brown skin and black hair. The wife is in her mid-twenties,
dressed in striped trousers, a light beige t-shirt, and a yellow apron; she has blonde, fair hair. Given that the participants
are not static, the process is primarily narrative. The latter includes both action and reactional processes. In particular,
the reactional processes are reactional-transactional, with vectors emanating from the reactor (the wife), who directs her
gaze at her husband (the phenomenon) with a wide smile to please him. The action processes, on the other hand, are
transactional and are represented by movements like walking, sitting, standing, and cooking. All in all, the narrative
discourse of the TV spot under examination portrays Algerian men negatively, as the husband is shown throughout the
video grimacing and asking for dinner in an impolite manner. Furthermore, it portrays women as decorative objects by
employing a beautiful model who smiles throughout the advertisement to attract viewers and invite them to purchase the
product. Last but not least, it reinforces the traditional role of women, which is to cook and strive to please her family
and, in particular, her husband, as shown in the previous advertisement.
In the Lalla Bouillon Cube advertisement, "offer gaze" is used the most in the video. The demand gaze, was used
only twice, by the couple in the opening scene, to invite viewers to engage with the advertisement's story. The second
use, when the wife smiled at the camera, showed that she had a good idea (Figure 3). The advertiser used medium-close
shots to create a social relationship between the female model and the audience on the other hand medium used medium
shots to maintain a familiar social relationship between the male model and the audience. Taking perspective into
account, the use of the frontal angle in most of the scenes to frame the wife shows her involvement with the audience to
encourage them to try the product, while the oblique angle shows the detachment of the husband from the audience. The
eye-level angle is used in the vertical angle to indicate the equal relationship between participants. In terms of visual
design credibility, it appears that the use of vibrant and modulated colors such as yellow, beige, orange, red, and green,
combined with the detailed background, increased modality. As a matter of fact, these bright colors induced a sense of
joy, especially the predominant yellow hue, which indexes happiness and relaxation.
In the visual arrangement of elements, given-to-new and center structures are used. The female participant is placed
mostly in the center position, indicating that she is the most important element that the audience should pay attention to,
while the male participant appears mostly in the right position as new information. The most dominant participant in the
Lala Bouillon Cube commercial is the wife, since she appears most and is placed in the center. Furthermore, she is

framed through the frontal angle in most of the scenes, which makes her occupy a relatively large space compared to the
whole picture. Moreover, the color she was wearing also contributed to her salience, particularly the yellow color of the
apron. The salience of female participants in this food product commercial indicates that women are the target. This
supports the idea that women are responsible for cooking for their families. Finally, framing, the alternation between
medium close-up and medium shot to depict the husband and his wife in separate scenes marks disconnection in the
present advertisement. Yet, the very first scene illustrated in Figure 1 shows that the participants are weakly framed as
they are joined together in one shot. Overall, the compositional metafunction analysis of the advertisement confirms the
stereotype that cooking is a purely feminine task and that men do not have to share household chores with their wives.
Shots From Lalla Bouillon Cube TV Advertisement
C. Advertisement Three: Visual Analysis of Dolorol Pain Killer TV Advertisement

The Dolorol TV commercial promotes a medication for headache pain relief (30 seconds); this was broadcast on
Echourouk TV in 2022. It features a woman in the kitchen who suffers from headaches and complains about her
children's requests that never end and demanding husband who refuses to share household duties. The woman adds that
she is unable to take headache medication due to Ramadan, which worsens her situation. The commercial concludes
with her husband giving the medicine that helped her relieve her pain in less than a minute.
The Dolorol TV ad depicts four represented participants standing next to each other in the kitchen (Figure 2): the
wife, in her early thirties; the husband, in his early forties; and two kids, the son, and the daughter. The wife is featured
with signs of fatigue all over her face, wearing an apron and cooking; despite that, the husband didn’t offer any help
when the daughter asked her mom to help her in her homework and the son asked for food. The movements in this
commercial indicate a transactional action narrative process, with vectors emanating from participants as they move and
carry out actions such as cooking, holding a book, and walking. In fact, reactional processes are present as well, with
the mother (the reactor) shown gazing at her children (the phenomenon), and the husband (the reactor) gazing at his
wife (the phenomenon) as an indication that he noticed she was sick (Figures 1 and 2).
Both the man and the woman appear to be offended in the Dolorol commercial. The male participant is portrayed as
heartless and emotionless because, despite the fact that she is ill, he chooses to offer her medicine rather than share
household responsibilities with her. The female voiceover, which represents the wife, supports this when she says that
he is such a demanding husband and always refuses to lend a hand. Similar to the previously analyzed advertisements,
the female participant is depicted in the kitchen, suggesting that women are expected to be in charge of all domestic
duties like cooking and childcare.
A closer look at the video shows lack of direct gazes at the interactive participants forming what Kress and Van
Leeuwen (2006) call an "offer gaze", which means that the audience is addressed indirectly. Also, screenshots taken
from video reveal that the participants (mainly the woman) are mostly framed using medium-close shots to create a
social relationship with the audience, with the occasional appearance of close-ups to establish a friendly relationship
with them. This frame also allows the viewer to see the woman's sad facial expressions and feel her pain, which
demonstrate how badly she is suffering from the headache. As for horizontal angle, the ad producer primarily adheres to
the frontal angle, which expresses the audience's involvement in the world of the represented participants. Whereas an
eye-level angle is the most commonly used vertical angle to indicate a neutral effect on the audience, with the
occasional appearance of high-angle shots when the mother looks at her children to demonstrate how irritated she is
with their endless requests. As far as modality markers are concerned, a wide range of vibrant colors is used. These
include mint green, garnet, yellow, and beige. These colors are fully saturated and modulated with a detailed

background, which clearly shows the context of the advertisement. Actually, these visual elements contribute to a
highly naturalistic modality and, as a result, a relaxing environment.
Two major elements contributed to the compositional meaning of the advertisement under scrutiny: information
value, and salience. For information value, the video producer used the center-to-margin structure the most. Where the
husband and children appear in the margins while the wife is in the center. This is to show that the wife is the pillar of
the home. As for salience, the wife is the most prominent element or participant because she is placed at the center of
the visual space. The wife's prominence can also be demonstrated by the use of close-ups that show only her face, thus
taking up a significant portion of the frame. This salience implicitly perpetuates the idea that women belong in the
kitchen.
Shots From Dolorol Pain Killer TV Advertisement
D. Advertisement Four: Visual Analysis of N’gaous Juice TV Advertisement

The TV spot under scrutiny promotes the juice brand “N’gaous” that was aired on the public channel “Elbahia” in
2021. The opening scene shows a woman standing next to a table in the kitchen, pouring juice for her husband. This is
coupled with a male voice-over that addresses the women, inviting them to imagine the disastrous consequences of not
serving N’gaous juice to their husbands. He suggests that doing so will drive the husband crazy, prompting him to argue
with the wife. She will then pack her clothes and leave for home before getting her divorce papers. The advertisement
concludes with a flashback depicting the end of imagination, with the same woman pouring N'gaous juice for her
husband, who appears satisfied. The male voice-over concludes by saying, "Change your ways and put N'gaous on the
table to avoid divorce".
(a). Representative Metafunction
The TV commercial, as shown in the screenshots above, is filmed mainly in the kitchen, and it depicts four
represented participants: the husband, the wife, the mother-in-law, and the postman. However, the husband and wife are
the main actors as they appeared the most. The husband seems to be in his mid-forties; he is tall, thin, and dressed in a
casual outfit, while his wife seems to be in her mid-thirties, wearing no makeup, being relatively short in comparison
with her husband, and wearing an indoor dress. The action process, according to the narrative process, is transactional,
with the husband playing the role of the actor and the wife playing the role of the target as she received verbal abuse.
The wife pouring the juice and the husband's hand movements while arguing with his wife (Figure 1) are examples of
how the vectors are formed by body movements, mainly through hands. When it comes to the reactional process, which
is accomplished through eye movements and gazes, vectors emanate from the reactor (husband), who was looking at his
wife while they were having a disagreement (Figure 2). In this situation, the phenomenon is the wife. The overall
analysis of the advertisement under scrutiny reveals that although it is only 26 seconds long, the verbal and visual
content were more than enough to offend both men and women. The Algerian man is once more portrayed as irritable,
domineering, and easily angered. In fact, the male voiceover, who warns women throughout the advertisement, added to
men’s power. In contrast, women are portrayed as helpless, passive, and submissive to men.
In this advertisement, the gazes of the represented participants are directed toward each other, detaching the viewer
from their world (offer gaze). The husband's gaze and his facial expressions both indicated that he was angry, as shown
in figures 1 and 2. As seen in all of the screenshots above, the wife's facial expressions convey her anxiety and sadness.
The fact that she isn't wearing makeup adds to the sadness on her face. The ad producer draws upon different sizes of
frames to establish an impersonal connection between the represented participants and the interactive participants. The
advertisement opens first with a long shot (Figure 1). Then, it quickly switches to a medium close-up shot (Figure 2) to
establish a social connection, which is more frequently used in this commercial. This framing makes it possible to see
the product and the faces of the participants very clearly. With regard to the angle from which the advertisement is
filmed, a slightly oblique angle is noticed the most. The oblique angle complements the offer gaze by detaching the

viewer from the world of the represented participants. Moreover, the vertical angle is at eye level, which implies
equality between the participants, i.e., the represented participants and the interactive participants. Finally, the N’gaous
commercial appears more realistic and naturalistic in terms of modality thanks to the varied use of fully saturated and
modulated colors, such as orange, yellow, and light pink.
In the N'Gaous juice TV commercial, the ad producer adheres to a left-right structure, where the husband is placed on
the left (given) and the wife on the right (new). When it comes to salience, the wife is the most salient participant in the
advertisement under scrutiny, as she appeared more than the husband. This can be regarded as a visual support for the
male voice-over, which advises the wife to avoid causing problems with her husband by only serving his favorite juice
on the table. Finally, the medium-close shot allowed the advertiser to highlight the wife as an important element so the
viewer could clearly see her facial expressions. Moreover, the vibrant colors she was wearing, such as light pink and
purple, contributed to her salience. The compositional analysis of the advertisement under examination backs up what
has been claimed before with regard to women’s representation. That is, the wife is portrayed as unquestionably
agreeing to their husbands' demands, and being usually associated with the kitchen.
Shots From N’gaous Juice TV Advertisement
E. Advertisement Five: Visual Analysis of Mobilis@fe Parental Protection Service TV Advertisement

Mobilis@fe is a parental protection service that was launched by Mobilis, the mobile operator. In 2022, the television
ad for this service was broadcast on the public channel "A3". It features four families. The first family is seen in a car.
The mother is about to drive a car with her two children in the backseat. The second family depicts a mother looking
worriedly at her child as he plays games on his tablet. However, her husband appears and pats her on the shoulder to
reassure her that she has nothing to be concerned about. In the case of the third family, a woman is shown in the kitchen
with her daughter baking a cake, while the son is shown in his room conducting some scientific experiment. His father
then appears and offers him safety goggles to protect his eyes. For the fourth family, a couple is shown sitting on a sofa
and video calling their daughter.
In the TV commercial under study, there are 14 represented participants: 7 females and 6 males. Their ages range
from about 10 to 35. The represented participants are shown doing actions such as driving a car, touching, using phones,
cooking, fastening belts, etc. On these grounds, it is possible to argue that the process in this video is a transactional
narrative. The reactional narrative process is also present in the Mobilis@fe commercial; the reactors are the parents,
whose gazes create vectors as they look at their children (the phenomenon). The analysis of the represented meaning
reveals several important aspects of gender. First, the opening scene (Figure 1) appears to defy gender stereotypes by
depicting a woman with her children driving a car, demonstrating her independence. Figures 5 and 6, on the other hand,
construct some gender stereotypes by depicting the daughter with her mother in the kitchen baking a cake and the father
with his son conducting a scientific experiment. These two different scenes imply that the daughter, like her mother,
should learn to cook at a young age, as this is their primary task. While boys should be interested in science and
technology because it will help them in the future. In fact, these portrayals reinforce the previously discussed traditional
gender stereotypical roles, in which women are frequently depicted in the kitchen, responsible for cooking and child
care, whereas men are frequently depicted as educated or performing professional tasks. Not to mention that this
commercial reinforces the traditional family structure discussed in Goffman's (1979) book; typically, advertisements
depict daughters close to their mothers and boys close to their fathers. Finally, stereotypically masculine strength is
shown indirectly by men's height in relation to their wives, as well as when the husband taps on his wife's shoulder,
implicitly associating the power of protection with him.

A closer look at the visual configuration indicates an offer gaze since the represented participants do not look directly
at the camera. Thus, in this case, the represented participants constitute objects of information. However, the smiles and
different facial expressions of the represented participants, who appear happy and satisfied with the Mobilis service,
suggest that the audience is addressed indirectly. Furthermore, the Mobilis@fe commercial uses medium-close and
close shots more frequently than the other frame sizes, in which the frame is cut at the level of the represented
participants' waists or shoulders in order to create a social, friendly relationship with the viewer. In fact, this frame size
allows the producer to bring the viewer close to the represented participants, see their happy facial expressions, and thus
share the happy moments with them. In terms of perspective, the majority of scenes that depict females are shot from an
oblique angle, detaching the viewer from their world. Take, for example, the opening scene illustrated by Figures 1 and
2. The mother appears in an angled position, which makes her face unknowable to the viewer. The same is true for the
daughter in the backseat with her brother. She was out-of-focus, i.e., blurry, as the camera's focus was adjusted to the
male participant. Figure 6 also shows the mother with her daughter in the kitchen, where the face of the mother is not
clear as she is standing in an angled position. However, males are shot mainly from the frontal angle. On the other hand,
an eye-level shot is used to emphasize the absence of power between the participants. More particularly, this
perspective allows the audience to engage with what they are watching. Finally, a naturalistic modality is noticed due to
the articulated and detailed background and the use of a diversity of fully saturated and modulated colors. These colors
include light pink, dark green, light green, and light orange.
In the majority of the scenes, the Mobilis@fe video producer adopts a left-to-right structure. It is noticed that in
scenes that show couples, women are positioned on the right side, signifying the information value of "given," while
men are positioned on the right side, signifying the information value of "new." This can be interpreted as the audience
is already acquainted with the female participants, maintaining an intimate relationship with them. The focus, however,
should be on the male participants. Another visual technique that supports their salience is the alternation between
medium-close and close shots in framing the participants, which clearly show their facial expressions.
Shots From Mobilis@Fe Parental Protection Service TV Advertisement
V. CONCLUSION
The results of the study disclosed that Algerian TV ads are soaked with inaccurate gendered generalizations that are
offensive to both genders. These stereotypes were constructed via different visual modes. Indeed, these TV spots turned
a blind eye to the active role that women play nowadays, as they frequently limit women to domestic roles; surprisingly,
regardless of product type, they are portrayed as housewives and mothers cooking or caring for children, striving to
please their families. Men, on the other hand, are depicted as carefree, never lending a helping hand, and, more notably,
children are never their responsibility. Interestingly, gendered roles observed in adults are observed in children as well.
Furthermore, Algerian men are stereotyped as emotionless, easily angered, domineering over their wives, and more
importantly, demanding. Women, on the other hand, appear caring, submissive to their husbands, and accepting. In
view of the conclusion, the current study recommends that advertising agencies break away from portraying the
traditional roles of both genders. More research should be conducted on gender-biased representations in the various
forms of media to raise awareness of the potential effect of advertising on the audience’s self-perception and behaviors.

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Souad Atma is an Algerian Ph.D. candidate in the department of English language and literature at the University of Jordan. Her
areas of interests are discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, and TEFL.
Zahra Mustafa-Awad is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Jordan and has been a visiting scholar in several
universities in Europe, the United States and the Middle East. Her research focuses on Discourse Analysis, Language and Media,
Cross-Cultural Communication and Foreign Language Teaching. Her publications include articles in international journals, chapters
in edited volumes, and two textbooks. She is a member of the Editorial Boards of the International Journal of Arabic-English Studies
and Voices in Asia Journal. Dr. Awad has also been long involved in higher education management and accreditation at both the
national and regional levels. She has received several prizes, grants and scholarships.

ISSN 1799-2591
On Linguistic Reviews of Arabic and Bangla: A

Comparative Study
Md. Faruquzzaman Akan
Faculty of Languages and Translation, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia
Abdulrahman Almosa
Sharmin Siddiqui
Gaus Chowdhury
Md. Mostaq Ahamed

Anjum Mishu
Javed Ahmad
Sufia Sultana
Abstract—This research work sets out to explore the major distinctions between Arabic and Bangla—the
languages with unidentical origins. Comparing and analyzing the various aspects of these two languages
requires huge linguistic expertise in the respective fields as it is a most complicated job for anyone to
accomplish. Arabic and Bangla are two of the leading languages of the world, specially in terms of the number
of speakers, tourism, religion and the growing demands in world affairs. As Arabic and Bangla are from
unalike families of languages, they differ a lot in the word class, grammar, pronunciation, usage, writing style
and so forth. In particular, the sentence structure in Arabic is divided into two types, such as, verbal
i.e. V+S+C and nominal i.e. S+C; while the typical Bangla sentence pattern is inflexion-based i.e. S+C+V. Like
any other vocalized language, Arabic does not have vowels in the alphabet which is recognized as an ‘abjad’
meaning a ‘consonantal alphabet’. Therefore, a syllable or word in Arabic is formed without the help of any
vowels. However, Bangla has eleven vowels to constitute a syllable or word. Moreover, Arabic is read and
written from right to left, whereas Bangla is from left to right. Despite all these differences, Arabic and Bangla
have some similarities as well. For instance, they do not have any differences between the upper case and the
lower case. Besides, Arabic and Bangla are both phonetic and rhotic languages. Nevertheless, there are a few
more minor differences between Arabic and Bangla. Hence, this paper is intended to provide the learners,
users, as well as teachers of the two languages with some important facts and features which are often faced,
essentially in the areas of writing, speaking and translating.
Index Terms—alphabet, grammatical word class, punctuation, language family, triconsonantal root, writing
system
I. INTRODUCTION
Language is basically an arbitrary means of human communication. It has a lot of subclasses called dialects which
are spoken by the ethnic groups in some areas of a country or region. However, the objective of the current study is to
find and evaluate the main differences between the standard verities of Arabic and Bangla which are two prevalent
languages of the world with respect of the number of users, natural resources and globalization. To differentiate
between the characteristics and properties of any two languages of discrete origins has always been a very intricate job
that necessitates bilingual expertise to a great extent. Arabic occupies the fifth position in the world having

approximately 371.4 million native speakers which is 4.64% of the world population spreading primarily in the regions
of the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia, Western Asia and some other areas; and on the other hand, Bangla is the
sixth language on the globe with 280.9 million native speakers which is 3.51% of the world population mainly used in
Bangladesh and some parts of India—West Bengal, Tripura and southern Assam (Ethnologue, 2023). The main reason
for the variation between Arabic and Bangla is that they belong to two very different language families. This paper is,
therefore, envisioned to provide the learners, the teachers as well as the researchers of the two languages with some
important facts and features in the standard variety so as to learn, use as well as teach these languages with proper
accuracy.
II. DISCUSSION
Arabic is a very old language, but Bangla is a relatively newer one. The formal introduction of Arabic to the Bangla
language is primarily due to religious causes, most importantly for being the language of the Holy Quran during the
time of Muslim rule. Arabic is also the third official language of the United Nations Organization. It has some varieties
used in the Arab countries. However, Bangla has got the glory of the Language Movement taking place on the 21 st of
February in 1952 which is now being officially celebrated as the International Mother Language Day all over the world
after being declared by UNESCO on the 17th of November, 1999 (Banglapedia, 2021). As far as language family is
concerned, Arabic is from the Afro-Asiatic languages, while Bangla is from the Indo-European languages. In addition,
Arabic has got enormous significance among the global communities for two main reasons: the Arab world is a
naturally well-off area where Arabic is the lingua franca, and it is the language of the Holy Quran—the Muslim
scripture (Akan et al., 2023). Despite some similarities, these two languages have different alphabets, writing styles,
sounds, vowel patterns, pronunciations, genders, numbers, nouns, adjectives, articles, prepositions, conjunctions,
structures, punctuation, capitalization etc.

Although numerous comparative researches between two languages of the same origin have been carried out so far,
the studies between languages of different origins are still a few. However, Arabic has had a great influence on other
languages, such as Bangla, English, Urdu, Spanish etc, specially in vocabulary, due to the religion of Islam and the
Muslim rule in those areas and classical Arabic literature. Unlike Arabic, Bangla belongs to the family of Indo-
European languages. This is why there is little similarity between Arabic and Bangla in vocabulary and grammar
(Banglapedia, 2021). Various studies have been undertaken over the space of a thousand years to examine the
differences between the verb systems used in Arabic and those used in other languages (Eisele, 1990; Zollmann et al.,
2006). All expressions in Arabic are effected with the help of consonants but there are signs to indicate vowel sounds.
However, they do not generally appear in writing. This makes reading the script a little complicated (Banglapedia,
2021). “One of the main distinguishing features of Semitic languages is their root-and-pattern morphology” (Watson,
2002, p. 3). These two languages have very dissimilar sentence patterns. Arabic has, for example, two patterns: (i)
nominal‒ subject and complement as well as (ii) verbal‒ verb, subject and complement while Bangla has one, i.e.
subject, verb and complement (Akan et al., 2023). Arabic may be the only language that has not undergone radical
changes; since an educated Arab today is able to read books from classical times and ancient manuscripts but the
situation in the case of the Indo-European languages is different (Dajani & Omari, 2013). So far as we have come to
know that many issues are still unexplored and unmapped between the Arabic and Bangla languages. We have,
therefore, ample scope for further researches in the field of contrastive linguistics for two dissimilar languages of great
impotence like Arabic and Bangla for many reasons.
IV. RESEARCH FINDING

All languages are believed to have emerged from the same origin. Later, they get changed for various reasons, such
as geographical, ethnical, political, historical etc (McWhorter, 2004). Here, we will try to compare and contrast the
standard varieties of the Arabic and Bangla languages under the following headings to find out the important facts about
them:
Language family: A language family represents all the different languages descending from a particular common
ancestral language. This very language is called a ‘protolanguage’. Most languages belong to a language family but a
few languages do not. They are called language isolates or isolated languages. Usually, maximum languages emerging
from or a member of the same origin or family functions in the similar way. There are 136 language families in the
world (Ethnologue, 2023). Arabic is a very widespread Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic family and Bangla is from
the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages. However, the Indo-European language family is
larger than the Afro-Asiatic family in terms of the total number of languages. The Indo-European language family
comprises of 448 languages, while the Afro-Asiatic family includes 300 languages spreading over different
geographical areas of the world. The genealogy of the two languages highlighted with blue is shown in the following
diagram:

Diagram 1. Language Family
Alphabet: The size and nature of the Arabic and Bangla alphabets are quite different. The Arabic alphabet is called
an ‘abjad’ (i.e. ‘‫ ’أبجد‬/abʤad/) which means a ‘consonantal alphabet’ (Daniels, 1992). But it is now considered an
‘impure abjad’ with other impure ‘abjads’ such as the Hebrew alphabet, scribes later devised means of indicating vowel
sounds by separate vowel diacritics. Although the vowel signs (i.e. diacritics) have been developed as ‘ ‫( ’ ﹶ‬fathah), ‘‫’ ﹸ‬
(dammah) and ‘‫( ’ﹺ‬kasrah) for the non-Arabs who learn Arabic as a second or foreign language, they are not at all a part
of the Arabic alphabet. Nevertheless, these signs are primarily found in religious texts and are rarely seen in newspapers
and magazines. Although ‘‫ ’ﺍ‬/a/, ‘‫ ’و‬/w/ and ‘‫ ’ي‬/j/ are used in Arabic as long vowels depending on their positions in the
syllable, they also play the role of weak consonants. The Arabic alphabet consists of 28 letters where all of them are
consonants i.e. there are no vowels in the Arabic alphabet (McWhorter, 2004). But Arabic has tri-consonantal roots as
its basis of combining letters to form syllables and/or words. So, Arabic syllables (or words) could be formed without
any vowels. For example, ‘‫ ’قلم‬/qɔlam/ (i.e. a pen) where ‘‫ ’ق‬/q/, ‘‫ ’ﻝ‬/l/ and ‘‫ ’م‬/m/ are consonants. On the other hand, the
Bangla alphabet is termed a ‘ ’ /bɔrnomala/ meaning a ‘garland of letters’. Bangla has got 49 letters which is
divided into two separate parts: (i) vowels and (ii) consonants. Like any other vocalized language, Bangla has its own
set of vowels, for example, ‘ ’ /ɔ/, ‘ ’ /a/, ‘ ’/‘ ’ /i/, ‘ ’/‘ ’ /u/, ‘ ’ /ri/, ‘ ’ /e/æ/, ‘ ’ /oj/, ‘ ’ /o/ and ‘ ’ /ow/. They
help join letters so that a syllable and/or word can be achieved. Like Arabic, Bangla has no functional long vowels.
Writing system: The reading and the writing system of Arabic are quite different from those of Bangla. Arabic
reading and writing start from right (to left), whereas Bangla is read and written from left (to right). But in both
languages, the writing system of numbers is the same that is it starts from left (to right). e.g. ١٢٣ vs. (i.e. 123).
Arabic texts are written in a cursive script, but in the Bangla text, the cursive writing is not mandatory. An Arabic letter
or character may have up to four shapes depending on the position of the character itself, its predecessor and its
successor. So, there is an isolated or clear shape, a right-connected shape, a connecting or middle shape and a left-
connected or initial shape. For example, the letter ‘‫ ’غ‬/ɣ/ in Arabic, may have up to four shapes in a word, for example,
‘‫’غ‬, ‘‫’ﻎ‬, ‘‫ ’ﻐ‬and ‘‫ ’ﻏ‬whereas Bangla has, in general, three shapes of a letter, such as, isolated or clear, half clear and
unclear: ‘ ’ /m/ has the forms like / /, / / & / /.
Arabic and Bangla have no use of capitalization at all as they don’t have any distinction between the upper case and
the lower case. Consequently, all the letters are written in the same way all the time. Although Arabic is often written in
a cursive way, the cursive writing style could often be used in both the languages.
Spelling: The spelling in Arabic and Bangla is much easier than some other languages since they have one specific
letter for each single sound. When an Arabic and/or Bangla word is spelt, it is almost always written as one hears it.
Arabic is an Afro-Asiatic language which is notable for its nonconcatenative morphology. Besides, Bangla is more
phonetic than Arabic as a language in which each letter clearly denotes a single sound. Arabic syllables or words are
consonant-based, but Bangla syllables or words are formed based on vowels. That is, in Arabic, word roots are not
themselves syllables or words, but instead they are isolated sets of consonants. Most Arabic words or parts of speech are
formed by combining the three-root consonants with a fixed vowel pattern and, sometimes, an affix. The Arabic
consonantal root ‘‫ ’ﮎ ‒ ﺖ ‒ ﺐ‬/k – t – b/ can have different but semantically related meanings. e.g. ‘‫ ’كتاب‬/kitaːb/ i.e. ‘a
book’, ‘‫ ’كتﺐ‬/kutub/ i.e. ‘books’, ‘‫ ’كاتﺐ‬/kaːtib/ i.e. ‘a writer’, ‘‫ ’كتاب‬/kuttaːb/ i.e. ‘writers’, ‘‫ ’كتﺐ‬/kataba/ i.e. ‘He wrote’,
‘‫ ’يكتﺐ‬/jaktub/ i.e. ‘He writes’―all derive from the same root i.e. ‘‫’ﮎ ‒ ﺖ ‒ ﺐ‬. On the contrary, as Bangla is an Indo-
European language, its word roots are themselves either syllables or words. For instance, ‘ ’ /bɔi/ i.e. ‘a book’, ‘ ’
/bɔigulo/ i.e. ‘books’, ‘ ’ /likhɔk/ i.e. ‘a writer’, ‘ ’, /likhɔkgɔn/ i.e. ‘writers’, ‘ ’ /ʃe likhe/ i.e. ‘He writes’,

‘ ’ /ʃe likhlo/ i.e. ‘He wrote’ etc.

Morphology: Morphology refers to that branch of linguistics which is known in Bangla as ‘ ’ /rupt̪ ɔt̪ t̪ o/ and in
ҁ ҁ
Arabic as ‘‫ ’ﻋلم ﺍﻟﺼﺮف‬/ҁlm as s rf/. It deals with the formation of words (Akan et al., 2023). Let us look at the formation
of Arabic verbs from its root or base ‘‫ ’ذهﺐ‬/ðahab/ with their Bangla equivalents and English meanings. e.g.
‘‫ ’ذهﺐ‬/ðahab/ (i.e. the root word for ‘go’) vs. ‘ ’ /ʤaɦ/ (i.e. the root word for ‘ ’ /ʤawa/)
‘‫ ’ﻴذهﺐ‬/jðhab/ (i.e. go/goes) vs. ‘ ’ /ʤae̯ /
‘‫ ’ذﺍهﺐ‬/ðaːhib/ (i.e. can go) vs. ‘ ’ /ʤet̪ e pare/
‘‫ ’ذهﺐ‬/ðahaba/ (i.e. went) vs. ‘ ’ /gælo/
‘‫ ’سنذهﺐ‬/sanaðhab/ (i.e. (We) shall/will go) vs. ‘ ’ /ʤabo/ (Akan et al., 2023)
Again, we can have a look at the formation of adjectives (deriving its forms from its root word) in Arabic and
Bangla. e.g.
‘‫ ’صﻐﻴﺮ‬/sˤaɣir/ vs. ‘ ’ /khud̪ro/ (i.e. small)
‘‫ ’أصﻐﺮ‬/asˤɣɔr/ vs. ‘ ’ / khud̪rot̪ ɔro/ (i.e. smaller)
‘‫ ’ﺍألصﻐﺮ‬/alasˤɣɔr/ vs. ‘ ’ / khud̪rot̪ ɔmo/ (i.e. the smallest)
Phonetic symbol: Arabic and Bangla are primarily phonetic languages. But they differ largely in terms of sound
symbols. For instance, some sounds of Bangla (both vowels and consonants) do not exist in Arabic, such as, ‘ ’ /ɔ/, ‘ ’
/e/æ/, ‘ ’ /oj/, ‘ ’ /o/, ‘ ’ /ow/, ‘ ’ /gɦ/, ‘ ’ /ŋ/, ‘ ’ /ʧ/, ‘ ’ /ʧh/, ‘ ’ /ʈ/, ‘ ’ /ʈh/, ‘ ’ /d̪ɦ/, ‘ ’ /p/, ‘ ’ /pɦ/, ‘ ’ /bɦ/, ‘ ’ /ɽ/, ‘ ’
/ɽɦ/ etc, but Arabic ‘‫ ’ث‬/θ/, ‘‫ ’ز‬/z/, ‘‫ ’خ‬/x /, ‘‫ ’ص‬/sˤ/, ‘‫ ’ض‬/dˤ/, ‘‫ ’ط‬/tˤ/, ‘‫ ’ظ‬/ðˤ/, ‘‫ ’ع‬/ʕ/, ‘‫ ’غ‬/ɣ/, ‘‫ ’ق‬/q/ etc are not exactly
found in the Bangla alphabet too. Bangla has no long sounds in pronunciation whereas Arabic has. As some Bangla
sounds are missing in Arabic, it uses some approximant sounds to pronounce those sounds. Some substitute Arabic
sounds for Bangla are as follows:
TABLE 1
BANGLA AND ARABIC PHONETIC SYMBOL
Bangla sound Bangla word Arabic sound Arabic word
‘ ’ /p/ ‘ ’ /panda/ [animal] ‘‫ ’ب‬/b/ ‘‫ ’بندة‬/band̪ah/ [animal]
‘ ’ /bɦ/ ‘ ’ /bɦul/ [mistake] ‘‫ ’ﻒ‬/f/ ‘‫ ’ﻓﻝ‬/ful/ [not a word]
‘ ’ /ʧ/ ‘ ’ /ʧit̪ ɔl/ [fish] ‘‫ ’ﺲ‬/ʃ/ ‘‫ ’ﺸتﻞ‬/ʃitɔl/ [not a word]
Bangla is phonetically richer because it has more sounds than Arabic. So, when Arab speakers attempt to pronounce
Bangla words appropriately using Arabic sounds, they face severe pronunciation problems. e.g. ‘ ’ /ʧit̪ ɔl/ vs. /ʃitɔl/.
However, both the languages are rhotic. So, they have the /r/ sound pronounced in all positions. It is worth mentioning
that Bangla has three /r/ sounds with a subtle pronunciation variation and quality while Arabic has only one. e.g. ‘ ’ /r/,
‘ ’ /ɽ/ & ‘ ’ /ɽɦ/ (Bangla) vs. ‘‫ ’ﺮ‬/r/ (Arabic).
Word stress: Arabic is a stress-timed language. Word stress is very regular in Arabic. So, a change in stress causes
change in meaning of an Arabic word. But any changes of stress in a Bangla word never pose any changes in meaning.
Instead, an Arabic word is pronounced with a different short vowel even when it is spelt the same. For example, ‘‫’كتﺐ‬
/kutub/ (i.e. books) and ‘‫ ’كتﺐ‬/kataba/ (i.e. He wrote) have the same spelling but different meanings because of the
change in the short vowel. Nonetheless, Bangla is a syllable-timed language. Thus, the change in meaning does not take
place in Bangla when any alteration of any long vowels in a syllable occurs. e.g. ‘ ’ /baɽi/ (i.e. a house) and ‘ ’
/baɽi/ (i.e. a house)―the earlier one contains a short vowel sound whereas the latter one takes a long vowel sound which
does not cause a change in meaning.
Phonology: Phonology is concerned with sounds and their effects on the meaning. It may sometimes be significant
for meaning in a text, particularly in places where sounds are more significant than senses. Arabic and Bangla have
different phonologies. However, two languages may have different phonology but the same phonetics. Sounds are also
important in language when they appear in different patterns to give different shades of meaning (Akan et al., 2019). In
support of the importance of sounds, Lawson (1979, p. 97) states that “much more meaning is conveyed by rhythm and
stress than we recognize”.
Vocabulary: Vocabulary is the building block of language. Arabic has got a strong vocabulary of its own. Thus, it
has the least number of borrowings from other languages. However, when it coins a new word, it receives it by
changing the pronunciation and spelling to some extent. However, to cope with the Western world, it uses alien words
in parallel with the Arabic ones while Bangla has huge number of borrowings. Arabic has almost no parallels or
substitutes for some Bangla words, on the contrary, there are many substitute words with a little change in
pronunciation (but not in meaning) in Bangla. e.g. ‘‫ ’أذﺍﻦ‬/aðaːn/ (Arabic) to ‘ ’ /azan/ (Bangla) i.e. ‘a call for the
prayer’, ‘‫ ’نبي‬/nabi/ (Arabic) to ‘ ’ /nobi/ (Bangla) i.e. ‘a prophet’ etc. Here, it suggests that the borrowing takes place
mainly from Arabic to Bangla.
Determiner: The type and use of articles in Arabic and Bangla are not the same. The indefinite article does not exist
in Arabic but Bangla often uses it in some way. In Arabic, there is a definite article, but there is no such article in
Bangla. Bangla has some words, such as ‘ ’ /ʈi/, ‘ ’ /ʈa/, ‘ ’ /khana/ and ‘ ’ /khani/ but they are used as definite
determiners instead of definite articles. So, their use is not identical to the use of the definite article in Arabic. Although

indefinite articles are always omitted in Arabic, they are at times expressed in Bangla as indefinite determiners. In
Arabic, the definite article looks like a prefix in a word, phrase or sentence. e.g. ‘‫ ’ﺍﻟقﺮآن‬/alquraːn/ vs. ‘ ’ /quranʈi/
i.e. the Quran
In Bangla, abstract words referring to ideas, attributes or qualities are used without the definite determiner to refer to
that idea or that attribute which belongs to everybody or everything.
Noun & Pronoun: Nouns are a very important part of vocabulary in any languages. They are words used to name a
person, animal, place, thing, or an abstract idea. Apart from Bangla, Arabic nouns are usually either masculine or
feminine. So, a masculine noun is used when it refers to a male and a feminine noun is used when it denotes a female.
The feminine noun, in most cases, is formed by adding a special character, for example, ‘‫ ’ـة‬or ‘‫( ’ة‬i.e. ta marbutɔh) to
the end of the masculine noun. Unfortunately, not all feminine nouns end in ‘ta marbutah’ in Arabic. However, Bangla
nouns have no such markers, they are identified by the meaning. Unlike Bangla, Arabic pronouns are either male or
female.
But the pronouns in the two languages have the same differences while nouns are always in the third persons. So, the
comparison between Arabic and Bangla nouns could be shown here:
TABLE 2
BANGLA AND ARABIC NOUN AND PRONOUN
Arabic Noun Bangla Noun
Gender: masculine, feminine Gender: masculine, feminine, neuter, common
Number: singular, dual, plural Number: singular, plural
Case: nominative, accusative, genitive Case: nominative, dative, genitive
Humanness: human, non-human Humanness: human, non-human
Cardinal & Ordinal Number: Yes Cardinal & Ordinal Number: Yes
Adjective: Arabic has no attributive or pre-modifying function of adjectives. It has only post-modifying or post-
positive adjectives. That is, adjectives in Arabic follow the noun they qualify. e.g. ‘‫ ’سﻴارة بﻴضاء‬/saijaːrɔh baidɂ/ i.e. ‘car
white’ (post-modifying function). So, it is placed just after the noun it modifies or qualifies. But Bangla has both
attributive and predicative use of adjectives. e.g. ‘ ’ /ʃad̪a gaɽi/ i.e. ‘white car’ (attributive function). Here, the
adjective precedes the noun it modifies. But in predicative use, adjectives are placed just after the linking verb. e.g.
‘ ’ /gaɽiʈi ɦe̯ ʃad̪a/ i.e. ‘The car is white’. The comparison and contrast between Arabic and Bangla adjectives
are shown below:
TABLE 3
ARABIC AND BANGLA ADJECTIVE
Arabic Adjective Bangla Adjective
Gender: masculine, feminine Gender: masculine, feminine
Number: singular, dual, plural Number: singular
Case: nominative, accusative, genitive Case: N/A
Gender & Number: Arabic has only two genders i.e. a word is either masculine or feminine and there are no neuter
and common genders. But Bangla has four genders, namely masculine, feminine, neuter and common. Unlike Bangla,
Arabic differentiates between male and female in most of the parts of speech: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives,
adverbs and also in sentence structures. Moreover, all Arabic pronouns and nouns have specifications for male and
female, singular, dual and plural. No pronouns and verbs, but some nouns and adjectives in Bangla have male or female
distinctions. A few Bangla nouns and most adjectives have grammatical genders like Arabic. Thus, we have for Arabic
nouns, such as, ‘‫ ’طاﻟﺐ‬/tˤɔlib/ (i.e. a student‒ male) vs. ‘‫ ’طاﻟبة‬/tˤɔlibah/ (i.e. a student‒ female) and for Bangla, ‘ ’
/ʧhat̪ ro/ (i.e. a student‒ male) vs. ‘ ’ /ʧhat̪ ri/ (i.e. a student‒ female) and then for Arabic adjectives, ‘‫ ’جمﻴﻞ‬/ʤami:l/ (i.e.
beautiful‒ male) vs. ‘‫ ’جمﻴلة‬/ʤami:lah/ (i.e. beautiful‒ female) and for Bangla, ‘ ’ /ʃund̪ɔr/ (i.e. beautiful‒ male) vs.
‘ ’ /ʃund̪ori/ (i.e. beautiful‒ female). Arabic and Bangla have their own sets of numbers (e.g. ١, ٢, ٣ etc .... vs.
.... etc i.e. 1, 2, 3 .... etc) although they were originally borrowed from the Indian subcontinent (Smith et al., 1911).
Arabic has three types of numbers: singular, dual and plural but Bangla has two: singular and plural. In classical Arabic,
the use of the dual is mandatory whenever exactly two objects, persons etc are referred to, regardless of whether the
‘two-ness’ of the objects or persons is explicit or not.
Adverb: Adverbs in both the languages can modify verbs, adjectives, clauses, other adverbs and answer the
questions, such as, how, when, where, why, how long, how often etc. In most cases, adverbs are formed by adding some
suffixes (for Arabic and Bangla) and many prefixes (for only Arabic) to the adjective or in some other ways.
Sometimes, prepositions or prepositional phrases can act as an adverb in both the languages. Adverbs frequently modify
many parts of speech in Arabic and Bangla. Here, the adverb ‘fast’ in the sentence ‘He runs fast’ could be shown in
Arabic as ‘‫ ’بسﺮﻋة‬/bisurҁh/ and in Bangla as ‘দ্রু ’ /d̪rut̪ o/. e.g.
Arabic: .‫ يﺮكض بسﺮﻋة‬ǁ jarkud bisurҁh ǁ
Bangla: দ্রু ǁ ʃe d̪rut̪ o d̪ouɽae̯ ǁ
Here, in the above Arabic sentence, the adverb ‘‫ ’بسﺮﻋة‬modifies the verb ‘‫ ’يﺮكض‬and answers the question ‘how’.

Again, in the Bangla sentence, the adverb ‘দ্রু ’ modifies the verb ‘ ’ as well as answers the question ‘how’. The
other similarities and differences between Arabic and Bangla adverbs are represented in the following table:
TABLE 4
ARABIC AND BANGLA ADVERB
Arabic Adverb Bangla Adverb
Types: adverbs of time, place, manner, frequency Types: adverbs of time, place, manner, frequency
Gender: masculine, feminine Gender: N/A
Verb & Tense: Arabic and Bangla have no auxiliary verbs. But they have some linking verbs which are omitted in
formal Arabic and often implied in a few Bangla sentences, specially in the present simple and passive forms in the
present. Even the Arabic sentence may not contain a verb at all, for example, Arabic nominal sentences are formed
without any verbs. Furthermore, Arabic verbs have two types of tenses: past and present, and no continuous and perfect
tenses, the present tense is used to indicate the future as well (Banglapadia, 2021). There is an absence of formal
markers for the progressive and perfect aspects of the Arabic verb. The futurity is expressed by adding ‘‫ ’ﺱ‬/s/, ‘‫’سوف‬
/saufa/ and ‘‫ ’ﺐ‬/ba/ (informal) to the Arabic verb base in simple present tenses (Reishaan & Ja’far, 2008). Nevertheless,
in Bangla, there are three major types of tenses, such as present, past and future with four subcategories (i.e. simple,
continuous, perfect and perfect continuous). So, Arabic has only two verbal forms, a prefix conjugation and a suffix
conjugation while Bangla has more than ten suffix conjugation forms. The prime differences between the two verbs are
as follows:
TABLE 5
ARABIC AND BANGLA VERB
Arabic Verb Bangla Verb
Main & Linking: main, linking Main & Linking: main, linking
Operator: Yes Operator: N/A
Voice: active, passive Voice: active, passive
Mood: imperative, declarative Mood: imperative, declarative
Tense: past, present Tense: past, present, future
Person: first, second, third Person: first, second, third
Number: singular, dual, plural Number: singular, plural
Gender: masculine, feminine Gender: N/A
Question: Bangla has no use or existence of the verb ‘Do’ as an operator (i.e. Do/Does and Did) for Yes/No-
questions. It rather uses some question word such as ‘ ’ /ki/ in all tenses. But the verb ‘Do’ for Yes/No-questions have
the Arabic equivalent as ‘‫ ’هﻞ‬/hal/ for both present and past tenses. As there is a one-to-one equivalent for each Bangla
question word in the Arabic language for Wh-questions, there is no complication involved in the translation. The Arabic
counterparts of Bangla question words are shown in the brackets: ‘ ’ /ki/ ((‫هي‬/‫ ﻣا )هﻮ‬/maː (hua/hia)/‒ What), ‘ ’
/konta/ (‫ أي‬/aiw/, or (‫هي‬/‫ ﻣا )هﻮ‬/maː (hua/hia))/‒ Which), ‘ ’ /ke/ ((‫هي‬/‫ ﻣﻦ )هﻮ‬/man (hua/hia)/‒ Who), ‘ ’ /kake/
((‫هي‬/‫ ﻣﻦ )هﻮ‬/man (hua/hia)/‒ Whom), ‘ ’ /kar/ (‫ ﻟمﻦ‬/liman/‒ Whose), ‘ ’ /kæno/ (‫ ﻟماذﺍ‬/limaːða/‒ Why), ‘ ’
/kibɦabe/ (‫ كﻴﻒ‬/kaif/‒ How), ‘ ’ /kot̪ hae̯ / (‫ ﺍيﻦ‬/aina/‒ Where), and ‘ ’ /kɔkhon/ (‫ ﻣتﻰ‬/mata/‒ When) etc in addition
to others. For example,
Arabic: ‫ هﻞ يعﺮف؟‬ǁ hal jarif ǁ vs. ‫ ﻣاذﺍ يعﺮف؟‬ǁ maːʤa jarif ǁ
Bangla: ǁ ʃe ki ʤane ǁ vs. ǁ ʃe ki ʤane ǁ
Here, the first Arabic and Bangla sentences are Yes/No-questions (i.e. Do you know?), whereas the second ones are Wh-
questions (i.e. What do you know?). But the two Bangla sentences with ‘ ’ and ‘ ’ make huge difference in meaning
though they sound the same in speaking.
Negation: We usually add some negative words like ‘ ’ /na/, ‘ ’ /ne̯ /, ‘ ’ /nai/ etc in Bangla after the verb to form
negative expressions but in Arabic, it is used at the beginning of a sentence. So, we have ‘‫ ’ﻣا‬/maː/, ‘‫ ’ل‬/laː/ (Present), ‘‫ ’ﻟم‬/lam/
(Past), ‘‫ ’ﻟﻦ‬/lan/ (Future) etc negative equivalents in Arabic. e.g.
.‫ ل أﻋﻟم‬ǁ laː aҁlam ǁ vs. ǁ ami ʤani na ǁ (I do not know.)– Present
.‫ ﻟم أﻋﻟم‬ǁ lam aҁlam ǁ vs. ǁ ami ʤant̪ am na ǁ (I did not know.)– Past
Syntax: The sentence structure of Arabic and Bangla is not alike. However, Arabic is syntactically more flexible
than Bangla. For an Arabic sentence, there are generally three acceptable word orders: (i) VSC (i.e. verb + subject +
complement), (ii) SVC (i.e. subject + verb + complement) and (iii) VCS (i.e. verb + complement + subject). However,
in Arabic, the typical structure of a sentence is SVC: the ‘subject’ followed by a ‘verb’ which is further followed by a
‘complement’ but in Bangla, it is SCV: the ‘subject’ followed by a ‘complement’ which is further followed by a ‘verb’
(Abdelmajd & Akan, 2018). But with some change in meaning, the word order of Bangla would also be different. So,
the sentence ‘The boy ate the apple’ in the two languages could be represented as:
Arabic: .‫ أكﻞ ﺍﻟوﻟد ﺍﻟتﻓاﺣة‬ǁ akala (V) alwaladu (S) attuffaːh (C) ǁ
Bangla: ǁ ʧheleʈa (S) apelʈa (C) khelo (V) ǁ
However, Arabic has two types of sentence patterns: verbal (i.e. with verbs) and nominal (i.e. without verbs) whereas
Bangla has only one. So, the structure of the sentences of the two languages is quite different. The Arabic sentence

patterns or structures are displayed below with the help of tree diagrams for a clearer comparison and better
understanding:
Diagram 2: Arabic Verbal Sentence Diagram 3: Arabic Nominal Sentence
NP + NP VP Comp. NP
NP NP V
N Det N Det N Det

‫تﻓاﺣة‬ ‫ﺍﻝ‬ ‫وﻟد‬ ‫ﺍﻝ‬ ‫أكﻞ‬ ‫ﺣمﺮﺍﺀ‬ ‫تﻓاﺣة‬ ‫ﺍﻝ‬
The structure of a typical Bangla sentence could be represented as the NP (i.e. noun phrase) and the VP (i.e. verb phrase)
which is traditionally known as ‘subject’ and ‘predicate’ respectively are shown in the diagram below. Then the NP is again
subdivided into a determiner and a noun. The VP is not divided here though it could have been. However, some Bangla
sentences in the present simple tense have the verbs (i.e. usually the linking verbs) omitted (i.e. not semantically) but it is
implied if desired by the writer. Here, the VP is a single word which, sometimes, may be modified by a group of words.
Although Bangla sentences are not verbal, the verb can be kept implied in the present simple tense. That is to say, Bangla
sentences may not be verb-based all the time, it is affix-oriented, indeed. Let us have a look at the structure of the Bagla
sentence ‘ ’ in the diagram below:
Diagram 4: Bangla Sentence (One type)
NP + NP VP
NP NP V
N Det N Det V
Preposition: Prepositions are the grammatical items that connect the preceding and following words. They pose a
great difficulty in Arabic since various prepositions in Arabic have the same function. Nevertheless, prepositions
seldom have a one-to-one correspondence between Arabic and Bangla as an Arabic preposition may be translated in
more than one way for Bangla. In fact, Bangla has fewer uses of prepositions. For example, ‘‫ ’ﻣن‬/min/ (Arabic) vs.
‘ ’ /t̪ heke/, ‘ ’ /ɦot̪ e/ etc (Bangla) to mean ‘from’
Punctuation & Conjunction: The punctuation system varies largely in the two languages. The punctuation mark for
a comma in Arabic looks like ‘،’ but in Bangla, it is as ‘,’. Moreover, the Arabic question mark appears as ‘‫ ’؟‬whereas
Bangla question mark shows like ‘ ’. Arabic ‘‫ ’و‬/wa/ is equivalent to Bangla ‘ ’ /ebɔŋ/. But the other punctuation
marks in the two languages are almost the same or similar in usage and function. In Arabic, each item in a series is
preceded by the conjunction ‘‫ ’و‬/wa/. But in Bangla, items in a series are separated by commas and the coordinate
conjunction ‘ ’ /ebɔŋ/ is used just before the last item. Moreover, there is another conjunction ‘ ’ /o/ in Bangla which
can substitute the conjunction ‘ ’ /ebɔŋ/.

V. PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATION
It is important for the learner to be familiar with the key similarities as well as the differences between one’s L1
(primarily mother tongue) and L2 (the target language) before learning any languages. As learners’ inability to
understand the rules of L2 results in grammatical and usage mistakes, they find it, in particular, challenging to
understand L2 forms without clear and identified meanings. Thus, learning linguistic diversities and developing their
linguistic abilities in Arabic and Bangla can both be facilitated by this contrastive analysis. The syntactic, semantic and
phonological rules of these two languages demonstrate how word order, sound combination, and the meaning of a word,
phrase, or text are slightly related or distinct in different ways and eventually, how we can apply the knowledge of the
analysis to bridge the gaps between the vocabularies of the two languages and minimize the phonetic differences.
Languages and the differences within them contribute to both the integration and the diversification of culture. The
study is essential for fostering a sense of identification and unity through the two languages and for establishing a
common platform to maintain them. The synchronic study, which examines how people speak and use languages in a
specific speech community at a specific time, and the brief diachronic study, which examines how the two languages
changed over time, are both concerned with the key characteristics of the two languages and, in the end, gives us a
picture of the linguistic landscape of comparative linguistics.
VI. CONCLUSION
To compare and contrast the Arabic and Bangla languages is a bit more complex job as they have far more
differences than similarities because of their unidentical linguistic roots. Although there are many dialects in Arabic and
Bangla, one is the standard variety used for the medium of instruction and mass communication. Nevertheless, our
focus is the study of standard varieties of Arabic and Bangla. Bangla borrows many words from Arabic, and these
lexical similarities show long-standing societal and cultural affinities between the two specific speech communities.
Moreover, the religious and cultural variations among the users have a vital influence on both languages. So, this
cooperative research will probably have significant benefits for a wide range of people, including instructors,
researchers, students majoring in translation, as well as everyday users of the two languages. Of course, the need for
further research cannot be overemphasized.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors extend their appreciation to the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Khalid University, the Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia for funding this work through a large Research Group Project under the grant number RGP2/392/44.
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June 4-9, 2006, New York, 201–204.
Md. Faruquzzaman Akan, a Bangladeshi national, is presently working at King Khalid University, the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia, in the capacity of a lecturer in English. He pursued his M.A. in Applied Linguistics and ELT from the University of Dhaka,
Bangladesh. Mr. Akan has been teaching English as a foreign language for a considerably long period. He has published a good
number of research papers and academic books in English published both at home and abroad. Email: [email protected]
Abdulrahman Almosa, a Saudi by nationality, has been teaching English as an Assistant Professor at King Khalid University in
the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He did his Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from Monash University, Australia. He is the Chair of the
Intellectual Development Unit, King Khalid University. Email: [email protected]
Sharmin Siddiqui, an M.A. in Applied Linguistics and ELT, is a lecturer at the Faculty of Languages and Translation, King
Khalid University, Abha, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Her fields of interest are Applied Linguistics and ELT.
Gaus Chowdhury is a lecturer in English Language Center at King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia. He received his B.A. and
M.A. in English (Language & Literature) from Khulna University, Bangladesh. He also did CELTA from the UAE. His research
interests include CALL, CLIL, and Mobile Platform-based Language Teaching. Email: [email protected]
Md. Mostaq Ahamed, an ex-lecturer at King Khalid University, Abha, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has M.A.s in English
Literature, ELT, and Education. He is a Cambridge certified teacher and a Teaching Excellence and Achievement fellow, George
Mason University, Virginia, USA. His fields of interest are Applied Linguistics, English Literature, and ELT.
Anjum Mishu is a lecturer in the Faculty of Languages and Translation, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia. She
obtained her B.A. and M.A. in English (Language & Literature) from Khulna University, Bangladesh. She also did her CELTA from
the UAE. Her research interests include Psychoanalytic Study of Literary Texts, Integrating Literature in ELT, Interdisciplinary
Studies between Psychology and ELT, and Task-based Language Learning/Teaching. Email: [email protected]
Javed Ahmad is presently working at King Khalid University, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as a lecturer in English. He joined
the university in 2006. He received his M.A. (English Language & Literature) as well as M.A. (Education) from Aligarh Muslim
University, India. Email: [email protected]
Sufia Sultana did her M.Phil. in English Language and Literature from B. R. Ambedkar Bihar University, India. She has been
teaching English as a lecturer at King Khalid University in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia since 2009.

ISSN 1799-2591
Mystical Implicature of Javanese Mantras: From

Lingual to Transcendental?
Eko Suroso
Study Program of Indonesian Language Education, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Universitas Sebelas
Maret, Surakarta, Indonesia;
Study Program of Indonesian Language Education, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Universitas
Muhammadiyah Purwokerto, Purwokerto, Indonesia
Sumarlam
Study Program of Javanese Literature, Faculty of Cultural Studies, Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta, Indonesia
Muhammad Rohmadi
Maret, Surakarta, Indonesia
Sumarwati
Maret, Surakarta, Indonesia
Abstract—Up to this point, no research has been conducted on the mysticism found in the mantra of Kidung
Rumeksa ing Wengi (referred to as KRW). This study focuses primarily on Javanese Mysticism, employing
qualitative research methods as guidelines. The primary data utilized in this study is the spell text, while
hermeneutic techniques are employed for analysis. The findings reveal that KRW, through the symbolism of
its mantra language, embodies the implicit aspects of Islamic Mysticism within Javanese philosophy. The
structure of KRW demonstrates influences from Javanese poetry, specifically tembang macapat, while mystical
symbolism draws upon the analogy of birds. The essence of mysticism pertains to sufiyah inclinations such as
desire, anger, mutmainah, and lawwamah. The most profound aspect of controlling desire revolves around the
perspective on the life of the Kiblat Papat Lima Pancer. The content of KRW holds relevance as it serves as an
Islamic religious mantra for conversion. A subtle strategy that combines language symbolism and cultural
convention is deemed more acceptable than proselytizing through violence. A significant implication of this
research is that mantra literature stands as an essential medium for embracing transcendental values. KRW is
an inclusive and collaborative platform that unites linguistics, mysticism, sociology, culture, and philosophy,
all converging toward the enhancement of theological studies.
Index Terms—mantra, Javanese mysticism, traditional religion, etnoreligius, pragmatic
I. INTRODUCTION
The Javanese people, hailing primarily from Central Java, East Java, Yogyakarta Special Region, Indramayu
Regency, Cirebon Regency/City, and Serang-Cilegon Regency/City, constitute the predominant ethnic group in
Indonesia. Their cultural influence extends far and wide, with individuals of Javanese descent accounting for at least
40.22% of the country's population as of 2010 (Suryadinata et al., 2003). According to historical records, Javanese
people have an excellent writing culture. This is evidenced by the thousands of documentation of ancient literary
manuscripts stored in libraries worldwide (Rass, 2014), including those in Indonesia. The academic manuscript is a
memory repository that can be used as a source of information for investigations about the past civilization of the
Javanese people from time to time. The information in literary texts can carry messages from the past to present and
future generations (Jerome et al., 2016, p. 39; Ratna, 2013, p. 21; Widodo & Purwanto, 2019, p. 451). Literary texts are
precious historical artifacts because they serve as references to individual and societal memory over time (Barthes, 1975,
p. 18; Joshee & Sihra, 2009, p. 427). Javanese literature is an artifact, archive, and document that can replace lost
memories and offer authentic evidence for understanding traditions.
Some experts acknowledge the cultural arrogance of Javanese society (Nurgiyantoro, 2014, p. 203; Widodo, 2020, p.
1294). This is evidenced by numerous cultural expressions preserved throughout people's lifetimes. Life portraits of
Javanese people are also widely depicted in various literary works. Javanese people value spirituality more than reason
because they are an Orientalist society. Therefore, Javanese literary works often contain mystical, spiritual, and


transcendental elements in the many sociocultural images recorded in literary texts. The mantra literature Kidung
Rumeksa ing Wengi (KRW) serves as an example of one of these assumptions. KRW literature is essential to get a
critical response because it differs from other mystical literature in character.
Javanese mantras found in KRW, a key source of Mysticism, contain a variety of life's knowledge and wisdom
(Astari, 2016, p. 87; Permadi, 2022, p. 43; Widodo, 2018, p. 37). KRW was written not only for magical purposes but
also for other purposes. In addition, KRW has a different character from other spells. Therefore, the research against
KRW is considered necessary for two reasons: 1) mantras are part of oral literature, which in its teaching should not be
written in text form; 2) mantras are a Hindu tradition that is often used for magical purposes. Meanwhile, in this case,
the two issues show contradictory things, namely 1) KRW is not inherited orally but is instead written in the form of a
song text with a strict meter; 2) KRW is a mantra that contains the values of both Islamic and Javanese mysticism. For
this reason, the study will focus on two research objectives: the structure of mantra texts and the mystical form of the
Spell.
Regarding the problem and focus of this research, the literature created by the author has a particular purpose. In the
context of literary communication, the author has a writing intention that is referred to as implicature. An implicature is
a form that is implicitly present in language and concealed within the communication (Palacio & Gustilo, 2016, p. 14;
Semino, 2014, p. 147). Implicature is part of the pragmatic theory, which analyzes the meaning of words. It is based on
the text and the speaker’s context when uttering (Hernández, 2013, p. 69; Sweetser, 2017, p. 67). Literature is a creation
in which the author's intention is not clearly expressed. Therefore, knowing the author's motives for creating literature is
essential. For this reason, KRW's investigation efforts are reviewed from the perspective of pragmatic implicatures.
The study's results are expected to describe the structural model of mantras and Mysticism from the perspective of
Javanese literati. The mystical representation in the mantra is explained to see the historical traces of the Islamic
movement in traditional Javanese society. In addition, the author's implicature will also be studied to reveal the motive
behind creating the spell text. KRW studies are conducted with various multidisciplinary approaches, including
literature, language, pragmatics, philosophy, religion, and culture. This research examines the problem from an
ethnoreligious perspective. Ethnoreligious studies is a transdisciplinary, multisite research program that examines
various variations in the religious knowledge of a particular ethnic group (Fox, 2000, p. 426, 2002, p. 21; Gesthuizen et
al., 2021, p. 16; Salawu, 2010, p. 348). It will show how religious syncretism, assimilation, and traditional beliefs relate
to cultural ideas and knowledge changes. This approach predicts the peoples’ religion from many forms of traditional
local genius found in mantra texts.
II. MATERIALS AND METHODS

This research endeavors to unveil and present compelling arguments elucidating the enchanting significance of KRW.
The primary focal points of this investigation encompass the mystical essence embedded within the incantations and the
intricate structure of its written form. Various textual models are explored, serving as conduits for mystical strategies.
Consequently, this study represents an interdisciplinary exploration encompassing the realms of oral literature, language,
culture, theology, and philosophy. Hence, the qualitative hermeneutic method has been deliberately chosen, deemed
capable of providing a comprehensive elucidation of text interpretation, ensuring a holistic understanding of its nuances
(Holzhauser, 2008, p. 121; Krippendorff, 2010, p. 121; Ricoeur, 2016, p. 14; Strauss & Corbin, 1998, p. 21).
The object of study is a collection of KRW texts in the book Serat Kidungan published by the publisher Maha-Dewa,
Ngajogjakarta Hadiningrat, 1957. KRW was created by Sunan Kalijaga. This is a translated copybook. The data of this
study is in the form of texts (words, phrases, and sentences) with implied magical meanings. Data were obtained from
critical, thorough, and in-depth readings of KRW. According to the research focus, mantra structure and mysticism
elements are classified by category. Classification results are tested for validity using relevant theories (Holzhauser,
2008; Stake, 2010). Once the coding is confirmed to be valid, the spell texts are interpreted based on two criteria: 1) the
structure of the mantra in the perspective of Javanese culture; 2) a form of mantra mysticism in the perspective of
Javanese religion and culture. The interpretation of KRW's meaning is meticulously undertaken, diligently observing the
intricate interplay between its various signs. Subsequently, the study's findings are subjected to thorough verification,
enabling the formulation of interim conclusions. Following the rigorous verification process, the research results are
meticulously gathered and compiled, ready for further analysis and exploration.
III. RESULTS
KRW, an ensemble of mystical incantations, bears the imprint of Sunan Kalijaga, a revered figure among the Wali
Sanga, a group instrumental in propagating Islam across Java. Tracing back through the annals of history, Maulana
Malik Ibrahim, hailing from Uzbekistan in Central Asia, is recognized as the first among the Wali Songo, having
journeyed to Indonesia in the early 15th century. Meanwhile, Sunan Kalijaga assumes the distinguished position of
being the 7th Sunan within the esteemed ranks of the Wali Sanga. Born in 1450 in Tuban, East Java, his path to
enlightenment was marked by an unconventional past, having once embraced a life as a bandit before his affiliation
with the Wali Sanga (Quinn, 2019, p. 7). However, at one moment when he committed the crime, it turned out that the

person who was robbed was Sunan Bonang1. However, Sunan Kalijaga requested to become Sunan Bonang's disciple
after discovering Sunan Bonang's supernatural powers. Then he was appointed to Wali Songo; Wali Songo was in
charge of spreading Islam in Java, where most of the people still embraced Hindu-Buddhism at that time. Of course,
there had to be an excellent way to do it if Islam was to be accepted by a non-Muslim community. Therefore, Sunan
Kalijaga tried to incorporate elements of Islam through the culture of the people at that time, one of which was the
practice of the magical habit of using spells.
For this reason, KRW was created. Through mantras, Sunan Kalijaga slowly incorporated religious elements oriented
towards mystical goals. KRW is a set of spell texts totaling 43 stanzas. It has a fixed meter structure. It is different from
the custom of spells that exist in general.
For this reason, it was based on the data that has been found. The structure of spells in KWR will be demonstrated in
this section. The findings of mystical elements are also explained from Islamic and Javanese perspectives.
A. Spell Structure
Based on data analysis, it was found that the structure of the KRW text has similarities with tembang macapat, which
is a traditional Javanese poem. In the rules of writing, it is necessary to follow set rules. As a traditional poem, tembang
macapat is often sung for various purposes, including puppet performances, sacral rituals, and education. Tembang
macapat has 11 types: Maskumambang, Mijil, Sinom, Kinanthi, Asmaradana, Gambuh, Dandanggula, Durma, Pangkur,
Megatruh, and Pucung. KRW has similarities with Dandanggula. The details of the meter tembang Dandanggula applied
in the KRW mantra are as follows.
TABLE 1
EXAMPLE OF THE STRUCTURE OF THE FIRST STANZA KRW MANTRA
Mantra Meter Translation
Ana kidung rumeksa ing wengi 10 i There is a hymn that begins in the evening
Teguh hayu luputa ing lara 10 a Remarkable resilience in warding off illness.
luputa bilahi kabeh 8e Avoid all dangers
jim setan datan purun 7u Genies and demons never wish it
paneluhan tan ana wani 9i Search fearlessly, devoid of hesitation
niwah panggawe ala 7a It belongs to bad deeds
gunaning wong luput 6u The utilization of guilt
geni atemahan tirta 8a The fire became water
maling adoh tan ana ngarah ing mami 12 i The thief stayed away; no one could threaten me
guna duduk pan sirna 7a All sorcerers perished
Meter notes:
10 i = Syllables numbering 10, the final vocal of the letter "i"
The rule applies to all meter codes.
The data in Table 1 is an overview of all the KRW spell structures totaling 43 stanzas. This finding differs from other
Javanese mantras (see, for example, Budiharso, 2016; Saddhono & Hartarta, 2013; Sutarsih & Sudarmanto, 2020). In
addition, the findings are also different from the structure of spells in the Petalangan (Kang, 2003), the Hindu mantra in
Bali (Candra et al., 2018), and the mantras in India (Yelle, 2014). Based on the cases found, there are allegations that
the author seemed to be trying to incorporate his teachings through the culture of the Javanese people at the time.
People will prefer mantras when they are sung over when they are just spoken. People will eventually learn to pay
attention to its meaning once they enjoy it because the words in KRW are logically understandable. This intersects with
other mantra texts that contain many irrational words. Thus, the text structure in KRW is one of cultural acculturation,
which is an effort to incorporate elements of Islamic culture into Javanese culture.
B. Mysticism in Mantra
Mysticism is part of the supernatural (Endraswara, 2003b, p. 11; Smith, 1995, p. 87; Zaehner, 2004, p. 21). Zaehner
(2004, p. 21) stated that Mysticism is a personal spiritual world for psychological and spiritual tranquillity. Mysticism is
an aspect of spiritual ascent. Mystical experiences (Kroll & Bachrach, 2006, p. 88) refer to spiritual and religious
consciousness to pursue the closeness of God. Meanwhile, Javanese Mysticism is a spiritual belief ingrained in the
spirituality of Javanese society (Mulder, 2001, p. 29; Pamungkas, 2021, p. 5; Pamungkas et al., 2021, p. 7; Simuh, 1999,
p. 21). In this regard, Sunan Kalijaga has similar beliefs. Later, he implemented mystical beliefs in KRW. For this,
Mysticism is visualized in Table 2.
In Table 2, the lingual findings representing the mystic begin with the symbolization of God. In KRW, God is
symbolized through the metaphor of birds. In SP 01 data, it is explained that "there are birds that rule the earth and sky".
In this context, it is undoubtedly illogical for a bird to be able to rule the earth and sky. In religious belief, only God has
authority over the earth and the heavens. Therefore, the bird in KRW represents the symbol of God. Birds are an
inseparable choice for God's image for various reasons. First, birds live in the clouds as an analogy for their high level.
Then, their ability to fly through space symbolizes the ability to rule the sky. In Javanese culture, birds are also believed
to have sacredness. One notable belief states that the ominous cawing of a crow foretells impending deaths,
1
Sunan Bonang was born in 1465 in Rembang, Central Java. He was the son of Sunan Ampel and Nyai Ageng Manila (Sunyoto, 2012).

exemplifying the mystical interpretations attributed to avian presence. On the contrary, the turtledove emerges as a
harbinger of good fortune, symbolizing auspicious occurrences. Intriguingly, within formal contexts, birds are utilized
as emblematic representations of the Indonesian state. Such practices unequivocally demonstrate that, in Javanese
culture, birds are not relegated to a lesser status; instead, they occupy a unique position within the community's
collective consciousness. Hence, the profound symbolism associated with birds, representing the divine, remains
indissolubly intertwined with the profound influence of Sunan Kalijaga. Being deeply immersed in Javanese culture,
Sunan Kalijaga's experiences have fortified his understanding of the intrinsic value accorded to birds within the
Javanese worldview.
TABLE 2
MYSTICISM IN KRW
Stanza Line Mantra Translation Data Code
38 1 Ana peksi mangku bumi langit Some birds rule the earth and sky SP 01
2 Manuk iku endah warnaira The bird is beautiful in colour SP 02
3 Segare erob wastane The high tide is its name SP 03
4 Uripe manuk iku The life of the bird SP 04
5 Amimbuhi ing jagad iki Adding to this world SP 05
6 Warninipun sekawan It has four colours SP 06
7 Sikile wewolu It has eight legs SP 07
8 Kulite iku sarengat His skin is Sharia SP 08
9 Getihipun tarekat ingkang sejati Its blood is a true tarekat SP 09
10 Ototipun kakekat Its muscle is the hakikat (essence) SP 10
39 1 Dagingnya makripat sejati Its flesh is a true makrifat SP 11

2 Cucukipun sajatining sadat Its beak is the true creed SP 12
3 Eledan tokid wastane Its tongue is called tauhid. SP 13
4 Anadene kang manuk The bird SP 14
5 Pepusuhe supiyah nenggih Its spleen is called Safiya SP 15
6 Amperune amarah Its gall is anger SP 16
7 Mutmainah jantung Its heart is mutmainah (Sure of Heart) SP 17
8 Luamah wadhuke ika Its big belly is Lawwamah ( a transient lust that SP 18
fleetingly stirs within) SP 19
9 Manuk iku anyawa papat winilis The bird has a four-way life cycle. SP 20
10 Nenggih manuk punika Look at the bird
Note:
SP= Spell Mysticism
Every aspect of the bird's anatomy, from its individual parts to its entirety, holds profound allusions to its mystical
significance. This can be seen in the data SP 08-13, that the bird symbol is referenced to the meaning of Shari'a, tariqat,
Hakikat (essence), makrifat, shahada, and tawhid. Sharia, tariqat (order), hakikat (essence), and makrifat are the four
spiritual levels. Shari'a occupies the first level, while the tariqat (order) and hakikat (essence) are above it. Meanwhile,
the makrifat, which occupies the fourth level, is the core of the highest essential area. These are the mystical levels that
lead to God (Endraswara, 2003a; Maslahah, 2018; Simuh, 1999). Meanwhile, creed and tawhid are the most basic
things before heading to the four spiritual levels because one's self-recognition of the prophet Muhammad and Allah is
expressed through one's creed and tawhid. The linguistic portion of this Spell does not mention magical language as a
component of the Spell. The author has only attempted to include elements of Islamic teachings through the text of the
KRW.
Furthermore, SP data 15-18 represents Mysticism, which is about the relationship between the elements of sufiyah
lust, anger, mutmainah, and lawwamah. This concept of lust is an adaptation of Islam, which has been described in the
Koran (see, for example, (Imani & Ropi’ah, 2021, p. 27; Pratiwinindya, 2018, p. 22). However, Javanese people have
other views on the four lusts. In Javanese culture, the four lusts symbolize Filosofia kiblat papat lima pancer.
According to Simuh (1999, p. 87), The lust on which the human character is based can be divided into four according to
the cardinal directions. The four cardinal directions can be used to divide the four types of lust that make up human
nature, as follows, namely 1) East: the character of mutmainah, with an honest nature: 2) South: the character of anger,
with wrathful personality; 3) West: the character of supiyah, with lust; 4) North: the character of lawwamah, with
human biologic traits, such as hunger, thirst, sleepiness, etc. The main part is the pancer (centre), the human mind. In
Javanese Mysticism, man must control these lusts to become a "Insan Kamil" (the perfect man). For the Javanese, an
Insan Kamil or the perfect man includes the Prophet Muhammad and other human beings. Because man is a reflection
of God's essence, he can be a perfect human being owing to the spirit of idhafi (Simuh, 1999, p. 89). Thus, this KRW
text not only provides magical power but also as a medium of mystical, spiritual understanding for the Javanese.
Sufis believe that the Insan Kamil is where God manifests himself in the purest form, by expressing his name and
attribute, the most perfect. God chose man as the Ahsan taqwim (the perfect creation) and the being with an advantage
over other beings. The reason behind man's perfection is that, of all the creatures of God, he is the most prepared to
receive the names and attributes of God. The rest of the creatures can only reveal certain parts. That is why, according
to Seyyed Hossein Nasr, man is called the only theomorphic and existentialist being (Nasr, 2008, p. 127). After all, man
is composed of the same elements as other macrocosm creatures and spiritual beings. There are mineral elements,

vegetation, and animals in terms of physical creatures. There is also a non-physical spiritual element, namely the spirit.
In other words, humans are both locally and individually perfect on a cosmically universal level. That is also why
humans represent the macrocosm and are often called miniature cosmology fields (Pamungkas et al., 2021; Widodo &
Purwanto, 2019). Thus, this KRW text serves as a source of magical power and a medium for spiritual understanding of
Javanese Mysticism.
IV. DISCUSSION
KRW embodies the practice of deconstructing spell structures, challenging established norms and regulations
surrounding inheritance ordinances. While traditional rules dictate that spells should be passed down solely through oral
means, KRW defies this convention by transcribing the enchantments into written text, meticulously adhering to a strict
meter. Such audacious practices exemplify the author's courage to disrupt the long-standing Javanese cultural order, a
system deeply ingrained over generations. Surprisingly, despite the dissolution of the enchantment's sacredness, there
appears to be minimal resistance from the populace. Sunan Kalijaga's influential religious authority seemingly compels
individuals to comply with his actions. Remarkably, he places greater emphasis on matters of dignity and spirituality
rather than mere economic considerations, solidifying his esteemed position. For this matter, Sunyoto's statement
(Sunyoto, 2012, p. 103) that spreading Islam in Java had failed for seven eight centuries because a merchant from a
Middle Eastern nation spread it seemed to be true. Later, Walisongo began to convert to Islam because he had left the
mundane.
The deconstruction process of KRW is intricately intertwined with the concept of intertextuality, recognizing that a
text cannot exist in isolation but is inherently shaped by the influence and incorporation of other texts. Intertextuality
highlights the notion that a text relies on the interplay and incorporation of quotations from various sources to form its
own cohesive entity. In this context, the deconstruction of KRW acknowledges and embraces the interconnectedness and
interdependence of texts, acknowledging that their formation and meaning are shaped through a complex web of
references and allusions to other literary works (Allen, 2000, pp. 7–8; Kristeva, 1980, p. 189). In intertextual
argumentation, the text is not only written but any product of culture at large (Kristeva, 1986, p. 189). A hypogram
characterizes the intertext process as a marker of the text that becomes the background for creation. In the case of KRW,
the tradition of Hindu-Buddhist mantras and the concept of the past are hypograms, while KRW is a form of
modification. In the text transformation process, the hypogram used is a type of potential hypogram because it takes the
concept of past spells and the concept of tembang macapat, which is then modified into a new form (see, Riffaterre,
1978). In other words, Sunan Kalijaga did not create the concept and structure of KRW; instead, he only made
modifications from past sources of knowledge. The practice is critical in the proselytising strategy that infiltrates
various aspects of culture.
Implicitly, KRW is one of the media for instilling Islamic values into Javanese society, focusing on mystical values.
The form of Mysticism is found implicitly through the symbolic text. In other words, the KRW text is just a surface
game. The substance of the meaning of the mantra no longer rests on the circle of words, phrases, clauses, sentences, or
even the structure of the novel; instead, the notion develops beyond the boundaries of such structure (Pamungkas et al.,
2021, p. 87). Mysticism in KRW refers to a symbol of lust oriented towards the philosophy of keblat lima pancer. As a
result, the meaning of the Spell is entirely blurred, which allows the author's arbitrary interference. At the same time, it
is a productive alternative for the author to embody the independence of the symbolism of the text.
The symbolization of Javanese Mysticism in KRW incorporates the author's sociocultural experiences because the
author lived and grew up in the social situation of the Islamic movement in Hindu-Buddhist society. Sunan Kalijaga's
spirit of Islam seeks to be integrated into Javanese sociocultural traditions, which view mantras as a sacred network of
structures. A view of the sacredness of mantras provides a means to construct the complexity of symbols of divine
Mysticism, even when reality has no simple reference. A language game strategy is required to implement experience to
the complexity of truth. Therefore, symbolization is a way of talking about the writer’s experience. Mantra literature is
the product of the contemplation of religious experience. As a result, KRW is a blend of fiction, mystique, culture, and
reality that represents transcendental lingual.
Mystical findings in KRW suggest that the mantra was not originally intended to be used primarily for magical rituals.
Mystical ideas are appealing because they help the public understand mystical values related to the teachings of Islam.
It is optional to ignore local cultural norms to learn and apply Islamic ideas; instead, they can be blended. This is
apparent through a series of mantra languages that unite Javanese and Islamic mystical knowledge. KRW also contains
teachings about balancing a person’s relationship with God, others, nature, and themselves. At this stage, readers might
project themselves and their lives using the (value) recommended in this KRW.
V. CONCLUSION
KRW embodies Javanese mysticism, concealed within the symbolic language of its mantras. Influenced by Javanese
poetry, specifically tembang macapat, its structure serves as a vessel for Sunan Kalijaga's endeavor to impart
transcendent Islamic values to the Javanese populace. Within Javanese philosophy, Islam finds mystical representation
through the symbolic imagery of birds, beautifully interwoven into the aesthetics of the mantra language. This profound

and foundational philosophical perspective offers a profound contemplation on the essence of all beings and phenomena.
Sunan Kalijaga's contemplation encompasses diverse interpretations of spirituality, seeking to navigate the complexities
of the four elements of sufiyah: lust, anger, mutmainah, and lawwamah, in pursuit of becoming an "Insan Kamil" - a
perfect human being. The philosophical orientation towards the kiblah papat lima pancer serves as a deeply ingrained
belief within the Javanese way of life, inviting introspection on the nature of existence.
The significance of the content in KRW becomes evident as it serves as a mantra for disseminating Islam.
Furthermore, considering the covert nature of Islamic propagation during that era, interwoven within the Hindu-
Buddhist cultural fabric, it becomes imperative to comprehend the societal beliefs, cultural milieu, and historical
context. Understanding the cultural backdrop of Javanese society can inform the development of effective strategies for
embracing Islam. Employing a subtle approach through language symbolism and cultural dynamics proves more
acceptable than resorting to violence. However, the intricacies of mantra symbolism often need more written records
from that time, particularly in elucidating analogies specific to a particular culture or society. Consequently, a
significant implication of this study lies in recognizing mantra literature as a vital medium for instilling transcendental
values.
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Eko Suroso, M.Pd. was born in Blora, Central Java, Indonesia on April 22, 1968. He lives in Sokawera
Village RT I / RW IV, Patikraja, Banyumas, Central Java, Indonesia. He is a permanent lecturer at the
Universitas Muhammadiyah Purwokerto, Banyumas, Indonesia. He currently serves as Dean of the Faculty of
Teacher Training and Education at the university he works for. He is an expert in the field of linguistics,
especially pragmatics. He completed his undergraduate studies (S1) Indonesian Language and Literature
Education Study Program at IKIP Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta, Indonesia, graduating in 1993. After that, he
continued his Master's studies (S2) in the Indonesian Education Study Program at the State University of
Malang, Indonesia, graduating in 2010. He is completing his doctoral studies (S3) at Universitas Sebelas
Maret, Surakarta, Indonesia.
Sumarlam, M.S., is a professor of linguistics. He is a lecturer at the Linguistics Doctoral Study Program,
Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta, Indonesia. He studied for a bachelor's and
master's degree at Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta, Indonesia. Then, he pursued his doctoral studies at
Padjadjaran University, Bandung, Indonesia. He did a lot of research on Javanese linguistics. However, he
also examined linguistic comparisons across Javanese, Indonesian, and other languages.

Muhammad Rohmadi, M.Hum. was born in Sragen, Central Java, Indonesia on October 13, 1976. He
obtained his Bachelor's degree (S1) in literature from Universitas Sebelas Maret of Surakarta, Central Java,
Indonesia. He obtained his Master's degree (S2) in linguistics from Gajah Mada University, Yogyakarta,
Indonesia. He obtained his Doctoral degree (S3) from Gajah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in
linguistics/pragmatics. He is a permanent lecturer in Indonesian Language and Literature Education at
Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia. He did a lot of research on pragmatic
linguistics.
Sumarwati, M.Pd. was born in Kudus, Central Java, Indonesia on April 13, 1960. She is a lecturer at the
Indonesian Education doctoral study program at Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia.
She earned his Bachelor's degree (S1) and Master's (S2) at Yogyakarta State University, Indonesia. Later, she
earned his doctorate from her studies at Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia. She is
an expert in grammar, educational research, and educational evaluation.

ISSN 1799-2591
Black vs. White: Referring to Black Friday in

Jordan
Noora Q. Abu Ain
Department of English, Jadara University, Irbid, Jordan
Ibrahim M. Darwish
Translation Department, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan;
Department of English, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan
Abstract—This study investigates how retailers in Jordan refer to Black Friday when they advertise their
discounted products during the end-of-year sales. Black Friday is a culturally loaded term as it is the day
following Thanksgiving, and it is semantically loaded with negative connotations historically rooted in
superstition. The data were collected from various retailer stores in Jordan which started advertising
discounted products around the last week of November of 2022. The sample was randomly collected and
consisted of 115 advertisements. Further, semi-structured interviews provided complementary qualitative data.
The sample was linguistically scrutinised seeking various terms used to refer to Black Friday. The main focus
was on whether or not retailers in Jordan kept the phrase ‘Black Friday’ or changed it to suit the target
Muslim Arab locale. The terms were classified into various categories and analysed linguistically trying to find
the different factors playing roles in choosing alternative names for Black Friday. The results show that 58%
of the sample retailer stores used alternative names for ‘Black Friday’ in order to appeal to the local target
potential buyers whose culture neither celebrate Thanksgiving nor consider Fridays to be black or unlucky. In
other words, most retailers in Jordan replaced ‘Black Friday’, which is historically loaded with negative
connotations, with more positive terms, such as ‘White Friday’, ‘Blessed Friday’ and ‘Smart Friday’. The
results also show that English was the dominant language in the sample advertisements as 45% appeared in
English only, 25% in Arabic only and 45% in both.
Index Terms—Black Friday, White Friday, ideology, linguistic referring, Jordan
I. INTRODUCTION
Black Friday is the day following the celebration of Thanksgiving in the USA which takes place on the third
Thursday of November. For sellers and buyers, it marks the beginning of the holiday discounted shopping season.
Shoppers all over the world wait impatiently for this occasion that often starts on the first Friday after Thanksgiving and
lasts for days or weeks. Retailers do their best to attract potential buyers by advertising their discounted goods in stores,
websites and various social media platforms. Falling between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Black Friday has become a
social and shopping occasion, perhaps, not less important than the two sacred holidays. Interestingly, “sales tactics,
combined with the consumers’ desires to save money and perhaps start (or even finish) their Christmas shopping, has
resulted in Black Friday becoming a celebrated consumption ritual almost as important as Thanksgiving Day” (Thomas
& Peters, 2011, p. 523). Indeed, the excitement, anticipation and chaos that accompany Black Friday each year prove
that it has become more than a simple shopping day. People line up in long queues waiting and praying to be able to
beat all the others and get the desired discounted products. When they succeed in their mission, they go back to their
homes happy, satisfied and thankful because they are convinced that they have saved money not spent it!
A. Black Friday History
The origin of the term is more speculated than known. In 1965, Philadelphia traffic police used the term to refer to
the chaos created in the city centre by shoppers and tourists on Friday following Thanksgiving. The huge number of
bargain hunters meant longer shifts for the traffic police staff; therefore, they negatively referred to the day as Black
Friday (Apfelbaum, 1966). Black Friday can also be linked to the accounting practice that appeared in the 1980s when
accountants started scoring profits with ‘black ink’ and losses with ‘red ink’ (Morrison, 2008). From the viewpoint of
retailers, “Black Friday refers to the day of the year when retailers hope to go from being in the “red” (i.e. losing money)
to being in the “black” (i.e. making money)” (Thomas & Peters, 2011, p. 522). In fact, the history of Black Friday can
be further traced back to 1869 when Jay Gould and Jim Fisk attempted to send prices high by buying as much gold as
they could, but on Friday 24, September, the president at the time (Ulysses S. Grant) intervened and blocked their
attempt. Consequently, the stock market collapsed and many people went bankrupt, hence the name Black Friday
(Vaughan, 2022).


Regardless of its origin, Black Friday is “a global retail phenomenon thanks largely to the internet and the media. The
sales extravaganza was originally conceived as a one-day bargain bonanza in shops … Today it is no longer a 24-hour
national sprint, but a multi-day international marathon” (Denison, 2017, p. 2). It started in the US and then spread to
Canada in 2009, the UK in 2010, Australia in 2011, and Russia in 2013. It kept spreading until it became a global
discounted shopping phenomenon both in physical and virtual retailer stores all over the world (Denison, 2017).
Historically, the term ‘Black Friday’ comes with some negative connotations. For example, if we embrace the 1869
origin, it comes with a negative collapse of the stock market and subsequent bankruptcy of many people. If, however,
we embrace the 1965 Philadelphia Police origin, it comes with negative chaos resulting from many people being in one
place at the same time. Furthermore, each word in the two-word name ‘Black Friday’ has a history of its own in ancient
superstition. The black colour is often associated with evil and bad omens. For example, the “Romans marked their
lucky days with a piece of chalk, their unlucky days with charcoal. From this custom of marking unlucky days with
charcoal a rose the phrase ‘Black-letter day’” (Brokaw, 1932, p. 4). Similarly, “the fear of Friday is quite as old as the
fear of the number thirteen” (Brokaw, 1932, p. 4). Perhaps, the origin of the unlucky Friday has to do with two evil
incidents thought to have occurred on a Friday: the crucifixion of Christ and Adam and Eve eating from the forbidden
fruit (Brokaw, 1932).
Because of this negative history of Black Friday, there has been attempts to change the name into a more positive or
neutral one. The merchants of Philadelphia, for instance, suggested ‘Big Friday’ and ‘Big Saturday’ (see Vaughan,
2022), but these names did not gain the anticipated popularity and were forgotten. Instead, more negative alternative
names gained popularity, such as ‘Black and Blue Friday’ in the UK and ‘Black Fraud Day’ in Brazil. The former refers
to the stampede and violence that often occurs in the UK by shoppers who force their ways into stores to get the
discounted goods, some of whom return with blue bruises. The latter refer to the day when shoppers in Brazil were
defrauded as they were offered unreal and phony sales (Denison, 2017).
B. Black Friday in the Arab World
Like the rest of the world, the Arab World has adopted the idea of Black Friday since 2014, but changes have been
made to suit the Arab Muslim locale. In the majority of Arab countries, Black Friday, the shopping discounted frenzy,
takes place one or two weeks earlier than the date in the USA (Jordan News Agency, 2019). This shift is more
ideological than commercial, but it is built upon religious misinformation. Islam, in general, forbids Muslims of
imitating the non-Muslims in their unique acts of worship, festivals and customs. Thus, more often than not, we see
Muslims celebrating their birthdays a day or two before or after their birthdates to avoid imitating non-Muslim cultures.
Al-Aql (1996) explains the rationale behind such a prohibition by arguing that within the game of imitation, the imitator
often develops a sense of admiration towards the imitated; this leads to eager attraction and “commonality of speech
and deeds” (p. 8) which negatively impacts the imitator’s faith, culture and identity. Although Thanksgiving is a secular
festival, a large number of Christians and non-Christians wrongly think it is a religious one. Perhaps, this misconception
has led some retailers in Muslim countries to change the date in which the discounted shopping season starts. In fact, in
1939 Franklin Delano Roosevelt tried to move the date of Thanksgiving and Black Friday one week back in the
calendar, but he did so for commercial reasons rather than religious ones. He wanted to aid retailers by extending the
Christmas shopping season, but the idea did not work that in 1941 he “signed into law a congressional resolution fixing
Thanksgiving Day on the fourth Thursday of November” (Chessman, 1990, para. 1).
In the West, Black Friday is not an official holiday although many do not work during it to give themselves time to
rest and hunt for shopping bargains (Thomas & Peters, 2011). Meanwhile, in the majority of Muslim Arab countries,
Friday marks the beginning of the weekend during which people rest and go to mosques to perform the Friday prayer.
This prayer should be performed in congregation (not individually) at mosques (not at home) seeking forgiveness and
spiritual rewards. Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) urged Muslims to take a bath, wear the best clothes and attend the
Friday prayer early in order to reap a spiritual reward worth an entire year of praying and fasting (see Aslan, 2019). The
Arabic word for Friday is jumu’ah (/dʒʊmʊʕa/) which comes from the trilateral Aarbic root jama’a (/dʒamaʕa/) which
means ‘to gather’. So, jumu’ah literally means a ‘gathering’.
In other words, while Friday in the West carries unlucky negative connotations, it carries positive connotations in the
Muslim Arab World, as it is the day where people perform their weekly ritual congregational prayer and are promised
huge spiritual rewards, i.e., complete forgiveness of sins committed during the week. Hence, referring to Friday as
unlucky (Black) does not fit the Muslim Arab locale. Perhaps, this is why most Arabs refer to ‘Black Friday’ as ‘White
Friday’. In fact, other alternative names do exist and can be seen displayed on the front windows of stores all around the
Arab World.
C. The Aim of the Study
The present study aims to investigate how Black Friday is referred to by retailers in Jordan when they advertise their
discounted products to potential Muslim Arab shoppers. Specifically, it tries to answer the following research questions:
1) “How do retailer stores in Jordan refer to Black Friday when they advertise their discounted products during the end-
of-year sales?,” 2) “What are the most frequent terms used to refer to Black Friday in Jordan?” and 3) “What is the
dominant language in advertising Black Friday sales in Jordan?.”

II. METHODLOGY
A. Sample and Data Collection

The sample consisted of 115 Black Friday advertisements used by retailer stores in Jordan to advertise their end-of-
year sales. The data were randomly collected from various retailer stores in Jordan which started advertising discounted
products around the last week of November of 2022. Data collection was conducted by the authors themselves and
lasted approximately two weeks. They window-shopped in the major malls and busy commercial streets in Amman, the
capital city of Jordan, and Irbid, the second largest city in Jordan. Using the cameras on their mobile phones, they took
photos of retailers’ front windows displaying end-of-year sales (Black Friday) advertisements. Offline retail advertising
is a marketing strategy used by retailer stores to expand their reach and “drive more foot traffic and convert visitors into
customers … Through advertising, a retailer attempts to influence their audience to take a specific action” (Darstaru,
2021, paras. 6-7). To complement our main data collection method, short semi-structured interviews were conducted
with 15 retail employees who accepted to be part of the qualitative sample. The first author interviewed 10 female
employees and the second author interviewed 5 male employees. Each interview lasted between 10 to 15 minutes. It
was not easy to convince employees to participate in the study although we assured them that their names would not be
disclosed and that the data would be only used for academic research purposes. As the first author was well-acquainted
with one employee at one of the malls, she employed the social network procedure set by Milroy and Milroy (1978) to
gather participants, i.e., she approached the employees as a friend or as a ‘friend of a friend’.
B. Data Analysis
The collected photos of Black Friday sales advertisements were downloaded on a laptop to make them easier to view
and analyse. The data for each phrase used by retailers to refer to Black Friday sales were entered into an excel
spreadsheet. This data included the name of the store (in English and Arabic, if available) and the phrases (in English
and Arabic, if available) used to refer to Black Friday sales. Some retailers had multiple stores in different locations; for
those, only one token was included in the final analysis unless the advertisements were different. The phrases used to
refer to Black Friday were analysed and classified according to whether or not retailers in Jordan kept the phrase ‘Black
Friday’ or changed it to suit the target Muslim Arab locale. Terminological frequencies were generated and percentages
were calculated in order to have a statistical picture of the issue under investigation. Moreover, the qualitative data
generated from the semi-structured interviews were used to uncover the different factors, if any, playing roles in
choosing alternative names for Black Friday in Jordan. In other words, phrases referring to Black Friday were
semantically analysed for nuances in meaning and cultural connotations in relation to source and target cultures.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This section unveils the main findings of the present study. Choices of words or phrases referring to Black Friday in
Jordan were calculated in terms of frequency and percentages with the aim of uncovering linguistic and cultural nuances
amongst the source and target cultures. Additionally, the semi-structured interviews provided needed qualitative data to
supplement the numerical analysis. The key findings of the present study are as follows:
A. Findings Related to the First Research Question
Data collected from Black Friday advertisements of 115 retailer stores in Jordan revealed that more stores in Jordan
used alternative phrases to refer to Black Friday (62 tokens; 54%) than those that did use the foreign term (48 tokens;
42%). Few retailer stores were neutral and used both in the same advertisements (5 tokens; 4%). Table 1 displays the
statistical results in a more efficient mode.
TABLE 1
REFERRING TO BLACK FRIDAY WITH SOURCE, ALTERNATIVE OR NEUTRAL PHRASES
Type of Referring Expression Token Percentage
Source Phrase 48 42%
Alternative Phrase 62 54%
Neutral Phrase 5 4%
Total 115 100%
The results demonstrate that even importing one cultural term from a source language to a target language is not an
easy task as it involves more than a mere translation of the term. This is amplified when the two cultures do not have a
lot in common (see Darwish & Sayaheen, 2018). In the case of importing the concept of Black Friday, choosing a term
is not a mere linguistic choice, but rather a social, cultural, and religious decision. Therefore, one can claim that such
terms are better ‘localised’ than ‘translated’. Localisation in the general sense refers to the process of adapting a foreign
product or item to a rather different target locale (Sandrini, 2005; Sayaheen & Darwish, in press). However, the results
in Table 1 show that although more retailer stores chose to localise the term ‘Black Friday’ into more appropriate terms
that fit the Muslim Arab culture, 42% of the retailer stores chose to keep the source term as it is and either: 1) borrow
and transliterate it using the Arabic script (i.e., Arabisation ‫ )البالك فرايدي‬or 2) literally translate each word in the phrase
‘Black Friday’ (jumu’ah sawdaa’). The latter process is often referred to in the field of translation studies as ‘loan

translation’ or ‘calque’ which is “a special kind of borrowing whereby a language borrows an expression form of
another, but then translates literally each of its elements” (Vinay & Darbelnet, 1958, 1995, p. 32).
Twain (1888) emphasised that “the difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large
matter—’tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning” (pp. 87-88). Indeed, referring to Black Friday
in the Arab World represents choosing between the almost right word and the right one as there appear to be two
competing forces at play. The first force pushes towards keeping the foreign concept ‘Black Friday’ by either writing it
in English, transliterating it using Arabic script, or translating each word in the phrase, i.e., calquing the term. The
second force, on the other hand, pushes towards taking the concept of the end-of-year sales and giving it alternative
localised terminology that better suits the target market, i.e., localising the concept. As mentioned previously both
forces are at play in Jordan, but statistics in Table 1 show that the latter force is marginally dominating the linguistic
marketing scene.
B. Findings Related to the Second Research Question
The source term ‘Black Friday’ occurs in 48 (42%) advertisements of a total of 115. Alternative terminology appears
in 62 advertisements (54%). Black Friday was substituted with White Friday 43 times in the sample advertisements. In
other words, White Friday is the dominant alternative term (70% of a total of 62 alternative terms). Further to the
previous argument, retailer stores in Jordan are caught up in the middle of marketing, linguistic and cultural dilemmas.
Those who chose to keep the source term and use ‘Black Friday’ in their advertisements appear to believe in
globalisation and that the world has become a global village. No one can deny the impact of the internet and the
international culture dominating different social media platforms. On the other hand, those who chose to localise the
term and use alternative phrases to refer to Black Friday in their advertisements appear to believe that each culture has
its own subtleties, i.e., language and culture cannot be dealt with in a one-size-fits-all approach. Cultural-specific terms
always pose problems to translators and localisers as they involve more than the linguistic sign. In their discussion of
the difficulties involved in translating book titles, Darwish and Sayaheen (2019) argue that “religious, economic
(marketing), political, social and cultural reasons are always unavoidable when it comes to rendering new publications ...
publishers and translators do not need to gamble with a risky target title that violates any religious, political and social
norms in the receiving culture” (pp. 244-245). The concept ‘Black Friday’ is a foreign concept in Jordan, a relatively
conservative Muslim Arab country, and carries various negative linguistic, historical and cultural connotations. In this
case, it would be interesting to see what type of alternative names were used by those retailer stores who opted for
changing the term ‘Black Friday’ with other localised terms.
A further meticulous analysis of the data revealed that the alternative names used to refer to Black Friday fall under
three major categories: Store Name Associations, Store Sale Tags and Culture Positive References. In the first category,
some retailer stores in Jordan used alternative phrases to refer to Black Friday derived from the store names. To
illustrate, a shoe store called Dahab ‘Gold’ used the phrase Dahab Friday, a carpet company called Ward ‘flower’ used
the phrase Ward Friday and the telecommunication company Orange Jordan used the phrase Orange Friday.
Apparently, most of these linguistic alternations were done to avoid using the source phrase which is loaded with
negative linguistic and cultural connotations. In the second category, some retailer stores decided to refer to the colour
of the sale price tags. For instance, a store that sells household products called Abdeen ‘a proper name in Arabic which
originally means worshippers’ used Blue Friday as they marked each discounted item with a blue sale tag; other stores
followed suit and used Purple Friday, Green Friday and Pink Friday. In the third category, White Friday, White Week
and White Month were the most frequent choices of retailer stores in Jordan because swapping Black with White in the
phrase shows a mature understanding of the target customers who celebrate Friday by performing a weekly
congregational prayer hoping for spiritual rewards. Other positive alternative phrases in this category included Blessed
Friday and Unbelievable Friday.
C. Findings Related to the Third Research Question
The issue under investigation can be viewed as a marketing negotiation between the East and the West. This
negotiation involves religious, cultural and linguistic factors. It illustrates how the West is prevailing globally and how
its customs, cultures and languages are spreading at a fast tempo. No one can deny the dominance of the English
language in the global scene in almost all aspects of life, especially in politics, trade, diplomacy, science, technology
and academic research (Xue & Zuo, 2013). As “language is the carrier of culture … [and] users can gain a sense of
cultural identity and social belongings through language” (Xue & Zuo, 2013, p. 2262), it would be interesting to find
out the dominant language used in our sample Black Friday advertisements.
TABLE 2
REFERRING TO BLACK FRIDAY IN ARABIC, ENGLISH OR BOTH
Language Token Percentage
Arabic 29 25%
English 52 45%
Both Arabic and English 34 30%
Total 115 100%

Table 2 shows that 45% of the sample advertisements appeared ‘only in English’ although the sample was collected
from retailer stores in Jordan, a Muslim Arab country. On the other hand, 25% of the advertisements appeared ‘only in
Arabic’, and 30% were written in ‘both English and Arabic’. These results emphasise the status of English in Jordan as
a dominant language not only in science, technology and academic research but also in retail marketing. History
presents constant evidence that dominant civilisations often provide power to their languages to become ‘lingua francas’,
i.e., the cross-cultural means of communication. Before the Iron Age, Akkadian was the lingua franca in the East, then
“Greek and Latin served a similar role” (Woll, 2022, para. 3). Since the seventeenth century, English has been
considered the de facto global language dominating communication the world over as a consequence of the dominance
of the British Empire and the role of the United States of America as a global power. Bacon (2017) refers to the
constant spread of English as the “snowballing global dominance of English” (p. 425). Lee Brown et al. (2019) use the
notions of ‘hegemony of language’ (Gramsci, 1971) and ‘linguistic capital’ (Bourdieu, 1986) to interpret why English
language competence is often treated as a global valuable commodity. At present, “English language is the leading
foreign language enjoying a prestigious position in many countries. Jordan is no exception where English is neither a
national nor an official language, but it is the most widely taught foreign language in the country” (Al-Saidat, 2009, p.
155). Indeed, it is perhaps paradoxical that most retailer stores in Jordan feel the need to localise ‘Black Friday’, but
they do so principally using English not Arabic!
D. Findings Related to the Qualitative Interviews
The semi-structured interviews offered little information about the factors playing roles in whether to use the phrase
‘Black Friday’ or other alternatives, such as ‘White Friday’ or ‘Blessed Friday’. Most of the participants agreed that, as
mere employees, they did not have access to decision making and that they often receive the advertisements printed and
ready to display. However, two female employees who occasionally participate in decision making provided some
valuable information. One of them claimed that her bosses believed that White Friday was more appropriate for Jordan
as using Black Friday might offend some religious customers. The other claimed that using alternative names for Black
Friday in their stores is driven by a fear of being criticised by social media influencers and by the nature of their
products, i.e., they target female customers with Hijab ‘a head covering worn on public’. Those two, however, failed to
justify why their advertisements were written only in English. When reminded of the apparent contradiction of opting
for White Friday, but, at the same time, opting for English instead of Arabic, they both laughed and made some
nonverbal gestures denoting ‘bedlam’ and ‘confusion’. The other thirteen employees offered some speculative
explanations for either keeping the foreign term or altering it. Their speculations revolved around three main themes:
culturally-loaded foreign terms should be localised, religiously-loaded foreign terms should be avoided and non-Muslim
cultures should not be imitated. Nevertheless, they all admitted that today the world has become a global village, and it
is very hard to isolate any markets from the Western global cultures, languages and markets.
IV. CONCLUSION
Although the focus of this study is on how one marketing phrase is rendered into Arabic by retailer stores in Jordan,
it reflects various cultural competing forces. When retailer stores in Jordan decide to retain the culture-specific term (i.e.,
Black Friday) when advertising the end-of-year sales, this decision reflects a global view that sees the world as a small
global village sharing one global culture. On the other hand, those who decide to alter the foreign term and substitute it
with more culturally-appropriate terms reflect a notion of resistance against the global and in favour of the local. In
Jordan, the data show that both views are realised with varying frequency. The local force (54%) slightly commands the
marketing practices during the end-of-season sales. However, the global force (42%) is not far behind. Interestingly, the
data show that both forces are hegemonised by one global means of communication, i.e., English. Using English to
signify both local and global ideologies might seem paradoxical, but the issue is more complicated than that as it
involves linguistic power, reach and prestige. With English as the de facto lingua franca of the world, retailer stores
have better chances to reach wider sectors of potential customers by using English over Arabic. In Jordan, English
stands for modernity, cultural sophistication and social prestige. Future researchers can uncover more facets of the issue
under investigation via investigating the relationship between the type of stores and the linguistic marketing choices.
Furthermore, access to marketing decision makers would provide deeper explanations of the powerful cultural and
linguistic forces at stake.
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Noora Q. Abu Ain is an assistant professor of linguistics at the Department of English at Jadara University, Jordan. Her research
interests include sociolinguistics, dialectology and English phonetics. Email: [email protected]
Ibrahim M. Darwish is an associate professor of linguistics at the Translation Department at Yarmouk University, Jordan. He is
currently spending his sabbatical leave at the Department of English at Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan. His
research interests include socio-pragmatics, phonetics, phonology, translation studies, localisation and media analysis. Email:
[email protected] & [email protected]

ISSN 1799-2591
The Conceptual Relevance of English as Lingua

Franca in Non-English Speaking Countries:
Sohaib Alam
Department of English, College of Sciences and Humanities in Al Kharj, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University,
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Abstract—The present study foregrounds background information on attitudes towards acceptance of English
language and educational opportunities in non-English speaking nations from a historical and contemporary
viewpoint. The relevance of ELF-informed perspectives in non-ELF-speaking contexts is then discussed, both
from an educational and a business/professional standpoint. Using English as a common language globally
presents an unprecedented challenge for stakeholders in the 21st century. The paper focuses on the divergent
policies related to English language. It investigates several countries' status, their practitioners, and people's
viewpoints regarding the widespread use of the English language and the diversity of societies and cultures.
The objective is to investigate how accessible non-native speakers are to newer speakers and alternatives that
might work for their working atmosphere to provide some recommendations for them. The purpose is to
determine if they are willing to use more modern pedagogical approaches appropriate for their teaching
environment and to make recommendations for non-native people's development programmes. Recent years
have seen a rise in interest in studying English as a lingua franca (ELF), which has produced some fascinating
findings regarding how non-native speakers of English interact with other non-native speakers.
Index Terms—English Lingua Franca (ELF) communication, English Language Teaching (ELT), Standard
English (SE)
I. INTRODUCTION
Many aspects of ELF can be said to characterize it as a postmodern phenomenon: it can be described as a hybrid,
fragmented, contingent, marginal, and indeterminate use of language. There are presently five non-native speakers of
English for every native speaker, according to David Crystal, the author of English as a Global Language, in 2003.
English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), communication, and research are particular interest of present research because they
have practical relevance for teaching English (Kobylarek, 2017). Although many native-speaking institutions prioritize
English language teaching (ELT), the theoretical and methodological issues are meant to apply to ELT and ELF
learning in other educational settings. From the education perspective, current initiatives to support ELF-informed
programmes are examined, with a review of their effectiveness and development potential in the future. The present
research analyses and assesses instructors' and students' generally cautious, occasionally unfavourable attitudes to ELF-
informed proposals for pedagogical reform after providing a brief overview of educational laws and ELT practice.
Native and non-native speakers are the two primary groups that categorize language users. In both theoretical and
practical linguistics, this distinction between native and non-native language users has been made. The separation
between ‘us’ and ‘the others’ that exists in communities that try to create a strong bond among its ‘real inhabitants’ (i.e.,
‘us’), prohibiting ‘others too’ from fully participating in activities and events, is nonetheless very analogous to it
(Llurda, 2009). Although many native-speaking institutions prioritize English language teaching (ELT), the theoretical
and methodological issues are meant to apply to ELT and ELF pedagogy (Alam et al., 2022) in other educational
settings. The research endeavour intends to analyze and evaluate instructors' and students' normally cautious,
occasionally unfavourable perspectives towards ideas for pedagogical change motivated by ELF after briefly assessing
educational rules and ELT practice. As a result, the model for our English and the cultures we consider when learning
English are not always those of the native contexts. According to a pluralistic perspective of English, more than one
person may speak the "standard" form of the language. While learning and using the language, teachers and
interlocutors may not all be native speakers. The article is hence based on selected interview of pedagogues and uses
secondary data review the status of ELF in most native language-speaking countries.

Kohn (2015), in his detailed research article “Teaching towards ELF competence in the English classroom”, has
investigated how to create a common platform for integrated educational solutions by bridging the gap between ELT
and ELF. Direction and alignment are provided by a set of communicative-constructivist presumptions regarding the
communicative nature of ELF competence, a constructivist understanding of language learning as an individual and

social creation, the importance of speaker contentment as a measurement of communicative progress, and a
constructivist reinterpretation of Standard English as a teaching/learning objective. Kohn has outlined a teaching
strategy tailored to the needs and goals of ELF communication. The learning objectives are acquiring knowledge and
abilities for production, interaction, and comprehension. A particular focus is encouraging students to believe in and tap
into their non-native speaker creativity. The essay refers to online environments and materials accessible by various
OER initiatives, learning tasks, and activities ideal for ELF practice and growth.
The question of whether English as a Native Language (ENL) guidelines should be used in the English Language
Teaching (ELT) classroom has come up recently because of the growing use of English as a Lingua Franca, according
to Sung (2013) in his research article titled "English as a Lingua Franca and its Implications for English Language
Teaching" (ELF). By considering the realities of language teaching and learning, the researcher analyzes the
contentious problems surrounding the implications of ELF for ELT in this research. For educational reasons, ELF
should not be considered ENL's rival or a substitute. Instead, ENL and ELF can serve distinct but complementary
functions in today's ELT.
Aggarwal (1998), in his article "English and India's three-language Formula: an empirical perspective", discusses the
results of a sociolinguistic investigation on the attitudes and views of Indian university students about English and their
language usage. The study's goal was to get students' input for language policy and planning purposes. The study's
primary findings are that students value English, are aware of its prestige, and are motivated to learn it for useful
purposes. In addition, they favour English over Hindi as a gateway language and oppose Hindi's teaching in educational
establishments. It proves they favour the two-language system over the three-language one in practice. A brief
description of India's present and former language policy provides the study's historical context.
Ishikawa (2017), in his research article "Conceptualising English as a global contact language", states that the initial
framework of geo-localized Englishes, albeit using a simplified and reified approach, has helped to increase awareness
of the diversity of English usage throughout the world and the related creative teaching strategies. The proposed
approach of English similes has shown the persistent multilingualism among interactants outside of particular speech
groups by serving as a lingua franca amongst various first language (L1) users. However, from the computational
complexity standpoint, geo-local communities and interactants' L1s are just a few examples of complicated social
networks. Because of this, neither the first nor the second structure can fully capture what transpires during a
conversation using the appropriate terminology. The third framework of cross-cultural multi-language attempts to
comprehend the whole range of multilingualism, or generally conceptualized trans-language with various "languages,"
which happens across people, time, and place.
Moreover, it recognizes that cultures transcend national boundaries and that fundamental cultural categories may
alter because of cross-cultural interaction (Voloshina et al., 2022). The study conducted by Alam and Usama (2023)
asserts the critical aspect of minimizing the writing errors of ESL learners. It is essential because it is connected with
English as a lingua franca. One needs to grasp the nuance of language that can be used in real-life situations, and
students often need more productive language skills. Alhwamdeh and Alam (2022) elaborate on this aspect to further
enrich the idea about teaching during the pandemic, its effectiveness, and problems regarding learners' perspective. The
study highlights the problems encountered by the students during lockdowns in pedagogy.
In the realm of teaching EFL (English as a Foreign Language) abroad, Alptekin (1984) demonstrates the existence of
two conflicting pedagogical perspectives on the notion in his notable piece "the challenge of Culture: EFL Teaching in
non-English-speaking Nations" (p. 15). One is the notion that to educate bilingual and bicultural individuals, English
education should be conducted considering the socio-cultural norms and values of an English-speaking society. Most
educators who speak native English accord with this concept of maintain the socio-cultural values in pedagogy. The
other is backed by the community hosting the English-language teaching, which holds the view that English education
should be imparted beyond the nationality-bound contemporary framework to generate bilingual but not necessarily
bicultural persons. With a focus on the native English-speaking educator in the larger society, both points of view are
presented in this essay in cognitive, emotional, and cultural contexts (Alam, 2022). So, it is advised that competent
bilinguals serve as educational role models rather than monolingual and homogeneous native English-speaking learners,
in addition to utilizing familiar and pertinent local and global circumstances (instead of situations from the English-
speaking society that are unusual and inappropriate).
Moreover, a number of studies are conducted to minimize the hesitation of language teaching and learning in the
natural environment, or they provide a scope of using language structure in real classroom settings. Alam et al. (2022)
and Alam et al. (2021) describe the practice of Blended learning in the language classroom. It also fosters the problems
and issues of BL faced by language teachers across the globe when it comes to real classroom pedagogy. The second
study discusses innovative ideas related to drama activities in classroom pedagogy. All the studies discussed align with
the present study as they foreground the importance of English language teaching and its need in the 21 st century. The
study conducted by Alam et al. (2020) also foregrounds the idea of using the drama approach in language classrooms,
and they have demonstrated the real-life activities that can be used in classroom pedagogy.
D’ Angelo (2020), in his paper "The Status of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and Implications for the Teaching of
English in Japan", where historical and modern additional context on English language attitudes and education in the
Japanese setting addressed at the beginning of the research project. The value of ELF-informed perspectives for

Japanese people is then considered. The context: both from an academic and a corporate or professional one. From the
education standpoint, current initiatives to support ELF-informed programmes are looked at, with a review of their
effectiveness and potential for expansion in the future. Japan's on-going opposition to the ELF and other pluralistic
perspectives is also examined. Related to the applicability in the industry, the presentation will discuss the degree to
which ELF is applied in deeper interaction, both locally and abroad and the necessity for it among Japanese employees.
III. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

 To highlight the trends of bilingual, multi-linguistic, or trans-lingual and analyzes English as a language's
universality and diversity (Berthele, 2016)
 To overview the included and excluded non-English speaking countries following the term ‘English as a lingua
franca,’ for communication.
 To find out if English teachers and speakers, whether native or not, benefit from the same intellectual and
cultural variation.
 To reflect and emphasized the teaching of English, pedagogy and policies related to it.
IV. RESEARCH QUESTIONS

 Why it is questionable that English has become a worldwide lingua franca or an international language?
 How widespread usage in multiple ways of international economic and cultural connections and spectacular
growth of internet communication has made English a ‘Meta-language’?
 Have the policies, practices and acceptance enhanced the flow of English in these non-native countries or not?
 What are the cultural variations of English teachers and speakers, native or non-native?
V. METHODOLOGY
Due to its growing use in South Asian, African, and Latin American countries, the research using reliable secondary
sources has concluded that English has already been designated as an ‘international language.’ According to journal
publications and academicians' writing, adopting the language in third-world nations or non-native English-speaking
countries has shown to be highly challenging. Nevertheless, because it has been referred to as a ‘contact language’ in
many reputable research studies, it has benefited those who do not share its common language or its common ethos. A
qualitative analysis of more than thirty research publications, including those dealing with non-English speaking nations
and their perceptions of English as a universal language, is conducted. The present study's findings are derived based on
the inferences and discussions.
VI. CONCEPTUAL CHANGE OVER TIME

The phrase ‘lingua franca,’ frequently employed as the foundation for conceiving, investigating, and teaching ELF,
is essential in comprehending ELF and its supported ontological and epistemological assumptions. The phrase was not
recently invented, nor was it a brand-new idea. The term ‘lingua franca’ was first used to describe an Italian-Provencal-
lexified pidgin containing Arabic, French, and Turkish was a trade language used by early Crusaders and merchants
along the eastern Mediterranean coast from the period of the Crusades until the 19th century (MacKenzie, 2014). Greek,
Persian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Turkish were among the other languages. A lingua franca is a second language used
to communicate between people who speak different mother languages, according to one explanation and conception.
This description describes ELF as a language used for interaction between people who do not share the same native
tongue or national language and prefer to converse in English (Ricardo et al., 2015). Up until now, ‘mother-tongue’
speakers have not been included in ELF research, which has allowed for a different, less subjective viewpoint on how
English is used by most of its speakers. On a conceptual level, this kind of research has already started in the literature
of the Global Englishes. Scholars like David Crystal, Henry Widdowson, and Marko Modiano have speculated about
what may operate as the uniform interface for English as a global language, emphasizing the significant role that many
English dialects continue to play in all communities. Other options have been proposed and projected when considering
a future common contact form of English for speakers worldwide, but they lack empirical backing. We anticipate that
our research will help shed some light on the issue of how conventional norms support English as ELF (Sharifian, 2009).
ELF is gradually recognized as a learning activity in primary education standards, formal educational programmes,
and higher educational levels. As a result, it seems as though ELF pedagogy is progressing into historically
"challenging" areas of ELT (Seidlhofer, 2005). However, ELT experts of all levels of experience continue to believe
that teaching ELF is primarily about ‘teaching improper English.’ The on-going conflict between ELF and ELT is
largely the result of misinterpretations based on unspoken differences in focal interests and crucial conceptualizations in
research and instruction (Kohn, 2011). How we think and speak about ELF in the first place significantly impacts how
we think and speak about ‘ELF in the English classroom’ (Alam & Al-hawamdeh, 2022). Our pedagogical attention
will naturally be on the sounds, words, sentences, and structures that should or should not be taught if we perceive ELF
as some type of language or version of English. Because of this, many EFL instructors link ELF and ELF pedagogy to

the instruction of poor English (Jenkins, 2017). The pedagogical task will be regarded as aiding speakers and learners in
further developing and employing their own English for purposes of communication under ELF (Alam & Al-
Hawamdeh, 2022) circumstances if, on the other hand, we conceptualize ELF as communication. This paves the way
for a more nuanced understanding of ‘teaching towards ELF competency.’ Nonetheless, many pedagogical
presentations of ELF continue to subtly or overtly reinforce a rather unfavourable attitude towards SE. Thus, the study
wants to state unequivocally that there is no inherent incompatibility between SE and ELF.
Robust and Weak Variations of Standard English (SE) of Teacher and Students
Introduce the difference between a ‘strong’ and a ‘weak’ version of their SE orientation to better appreciate the
professors' and speakers' obsessive concentration on SE. The strong version states that learners must carefully adhere to
the SE (teaching) standards; However, some variations may be acceptable (especially in communicative techniques),
and the closer they are to the norms, the better. This viewpoint is prevalent in ELT circles, even among apparently
contemporary and ‘enlightened’ instructors (Jenkins & Leung, 2017). But, on closer examination, it is evident that a
strong version conceptualizes language acquisition as some sort of behaviouristic copying and cloning procedure, which
is to say that it is something we simply no longer believe in. The weaker version, on the other hand, embraces a social
constructivist outlook and instructs educators to use some form of SE as a baseline model for alignment while
simultaneously allowing space for their own emotional and cognitive procedures to assist them in creating their own
identity of English (using English for their ends). Moreover, the SE edition they focus on is already a product of their
original design (Catherine & Davies, 2006).
VII. LEARNING AND ATTITUDE TOWARDS ELF IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

Worldwide, there are many more non-native English speakers than native ones. By 2050, there will be 1.2 billion
non-native users and 433 million native speakers because of this divergence. Considering this circumstance, instructors
must understand that their non-native English speaking (NNES) students may encounter a variety of social or
professional settings that call for contact with persons from different nations who are not native English speakers.
English language teachers ought to emphasize teaching English as a lingua franca (ELF), which is 'the use of English
among speakers of disparate first languages, for whom English is the communication medium of choice, and frequently
the only option,’ according to Fan Gabriel Fang (2016). According to Jenkins (2020), University staff tends to believe
that "standard" British or North American English is the only version of English acceptable in academic environments,
according to findings that traced English language guidelines in higher education worldwide. Jenkins (2020) notes that
only a small portion of the staff responders showed flexibility and readiness to accept the students' English as valid
when it differed from native academic English. The two fields where English predominates over other languages are the
scientific and technical ones, and English by itself is currently the world's preeminent language for scientific and
technological communication. Studies focused on learners' and faculty's views, opinions, and linguistic ideologies
concerning the form of English suited to diverse academic contexts have increased in number within academic ELF
literature. The study takes a deeper look at key findings and their consequences to acquire a greater knowledge of the
subjects covered by these investigations (Hynninen, 2017). It incorporates the characteristics of a ‘community of
inquiry,’ according to Etienne Wenger (1998), including mutual engagement, a collaboratively negotiated enterprise,
and a common repertory of negotiable tools. Most ELF users are not mimicking the idealized competence of native
speakers, nor are they progressing linearly towards someone else's goal, as in the SLA notion of an approximation or
interlanguage system. Also, they are all bilingual or multilingual.
A change from a strong to a mild Standard English orientation is necessary to create an ELF pedagogical domain in
the English classroom (Gadušová et al., 2021). The socio-constructivist re-conceptualization of ELT and instruction in
second languages, in general, provides an entirely fresh pedagogical paradigm for various ELF-related training goals
and tasks surpassing normativity concerns (Marguerite et al., 2006). Using English as a lingua franca, in the social
constructivist's view, comprises utilizing one's own English for lingua franca dialogue, observation, consciousness, and
output. In the article's next section, the paper investigated several facets of ELF's pedagogical and historical policies.
Exposure to pedagogically specified samples of authentic ELF communication enables learners to increase their
tolerance for other people's languages and cultures in addition to their own. This is accomplished in conjunction with
knowing about ELF's features, opportunities, and challenges. Construction of the "third space" (Kohn, 2015) requires
the perception and management of comprehension issues. Extensive practice should be backed up and complimented by
"learning about" activities, like growing awareness. Developing manufacturing skills particular to ELF is the third
educational objective. In this context, pragmatic fluency which emphasizes non-native speakers' linguistic competence
and capacities for interpersonal communication performance-related ploys and speech acts, topic management, turn-
taking, speed of speech, and repairs, is highly relevant. The second educational goal is to aid pupils in developing
thinking abilities for managing ELF in particular. Emphasis is placed on activities linked to teaching and studying
English in the English classroom (Luis et al., 2018).
In conclusion, the constructive social approach emphasizes that language learning is primarily aimed at assisting
students in acquiring the linguistic knowledge most appropriate for their individual conversational and collective needs.
The students are said to have appropriated the target language for themselves. Language learning can be considered
successful in a socially constructive sense when they successfully maintain equilibrium between (a) understanding and

application of linguistic means of personal observation, (b) their requirements for success, and (c) their communicative
objectives (Kohn, 2018).
VIII. BACKGROUND ON POLICIES FOR INTRODUCING ENGLISH IN VARIOUS NON-NATIVE LANGUAGE SPEAKING NATIONS
Globalization has an impact on every country in the globe. It increases our awareness of the necessity of the extra
essential remark that we also ‘think locally, act worldwide,’ as so eloquently stated in addition to the directive maxim
‘think globally, act globally’ (Auziņa, 2018). Language is now viewed as a term that facilitates both interconnection and
mobility rather than as a spatial conception of local involvement (in the form of national linguistic and local accents) (in
the form of inter-cultural modes) (Sifakis & Sougari, 2003).
A. Case of Japan
This research introduces past and present perceptions towards English and English language education/teaching
(hereafter ELT) in the Japanese milieu. The study emphasises how these mind sets could assist us comprehends the
English as a Language Franca (henceforth ELF) paradigm. Human interaction and communication could adjust to
globalized environments, and Japan has engaged in a framework that boosts language adaptability. When it is realized
through global modalities, things demand to be changed in terms of language and must be more mobile for trade,
commerce, businesses, and education (Yasemin et al., 2020). Also, it is being employed in a larger range of
circumstances with a broader range of objectives, resulting in a deeper range of applications. Yet, empirical evidence
indicates that English proficiency is still not widely disseminated in this territory. Only 30% of the people speak English
in Japan compared to other countries.
B. Case of China
Foreign language education suffers when political agendas take precedence over educational ones, and it benefits
when political agendas align with educational ones. Higher education was only constituted in theory in China from
1966 to 1976. China has almost walled off its frontiers to the outside world. The difference in science and technology
between China and other nations, such as Japan and the USA, significantly grew throughout those ten years. Ten years
later, observable by the limited opening of its door, the rapid development of other countries and the results of the
globalization of the English language appeared to astonish the Chinese leadership. The summit resolved that China
should restructure and implement the induction policy as a turning point in its growth and that economic construction
should be the primary goal of the entire nation (Hu, 2005). The presence of bilingual Chinese citizens is a need for
enacting this approach. Deng Xiaoping demanded that all those who could acquire a foreign language should learn it.
As English grew worldwide, Chinese people could only engage with many other nationalities and have access to the
most cutting-edge scientific and technological advancements if they spoke English. This fact prompted China to adopt
the strategy of teaching English as the primary foreign language (Hu, 2005; Wu, 2001).
C. Indian Scenario
The National Curriculum Framework 2005 and the National Council of Educational Research and Training's position
document on the teaching of English (NCERT, 2006) agree that the demand for English derives from several different
sources:
'Indians' ambitions for high-quality education and greater participation in domestic and international affairs are
symbolized by the language of English today. The degree of the teaching of English has now turned into a political
subject in response to public aspirations, rendering the academic debate about the benefits of a very initial exposure
irrelevant.'
Language Instruction in Schools: The Three-Language Approach
The Central Advisory Board on Education (CABE), the nation's oldest representative body for learning, began
debating incorporating foreign languages in school instruction in the 1940s. This continued until 1960. CABE noted
five significant issues that needed attention:
1. The range of languages will be taught at different stages of schooling.
2. The growth of second and third language education.
3. The goal and practicality of English
4. The framework and function of Hindi
5. The spread of knowledge about learning Sanskrit and other minority languages in the classroom.
The national language policy (or strategy) for school instruction, a suggestion made by the National Commission on
Education from 1964 to 1966, was incorporated into the national curriculum plans of 1968 and 1986. While including at
least three languages in classroom instruction has been deemed viable, numerous publications have expressed concerns
about its "unfulfilling" execution (Aggarwal, 1988). India's diversity is reflected in its linguistic diversity. The nation
has 1,652 languages, divided among five major language families, according to the 1971 census: Indo-Aryan, Dravidian,
Austro-Asiatic, Tibeto-Burmese, and Semito-Hamitic (GOI, 1971). Twenty-two recognized languages are included in
the Indian constitution. The country's governance is carried out in 15 languages, 71 languages are spoken on radio, and
87 languages are used in the media (Meganathan, 2011).

D. Turkey, Latvia, and France Are Among the Countries Where English Is Widely Spoken
Scholars have adopted a variety of stances when discussing English language dissemination policies. The diffusion-
of-English and linguistic ecology assumptions distinguish between initiatives to challenge the externally eurocentric
English language's supremacy and its expansion. Others have questioned this strategy and suggested that local causes
and outside influences are also involved in developing the English language. These viewpoints exhort English language
instructors and others to consider how the local environment affects the spread of English. The utilization of English in
elementary education in France, Turkey, and Latvia is investigated in this research (Hurmerinta et al., 2015). The
assessment is based on a study of research on the uptake of English in these three countries and an examination of
multiple sources, such as reports from the education department and lists of students enrolled in courses.
Notwithstanding certain legislative disparities, the three countries are all making progress in the study of English in
elementary school. The end of the research presents findings on how the diffusion-of-English and linguistic ecology
standpoints on expanding the English language in local EFL settings were employed (Hande et al., 2007).
The phenomenon of ELF emerged because of more generalized globalization trends that have impacted many facets
of our daily existence. Instead of being organized in secure units, these domains are increasingly integrated into intricate
multidirectional systems (Ajmal et al., 2021). Due to the elasticity of political and socio-cultural borders, centre-
periphery paradigms no longer accurately represent how people communicate. But, there were additional elements that
supported the development of English. Asking individuals to acquire three languages made sense when German
dominated research, English was crucial to the economy, and French had a significant cultural impact. Japanese
scientists are still trilingual.
Nevertheless, with real globalization, there are also readers from China, Japan, Russia, India, and other countries. It
became increasingly challenging to mandate that everyone master three languages with readers from various nations.
Given this, even without other external forces, expanding the worldwide research community beyond Europe would
have required a common language to work in (Bjorkman, 2011).
IX. FINDINGS
The major source of the pedagogic divide between ELT and ELF is found to be varying opinions and assessments of
the instructional role of Standard English. Without a doubt, it is growing globally. There is no doubt that English is now
regarded as a universal language supported by the study. The preferred term, however, is ‘English as a lingua franca,’
despite the terms ‘English as an agent of cross-cultural interaction communication’ and, in this particular and more
current significance, ‘English as an international language,’ also being used when English is utilized as the means of
communication among people with varying native-speaking histories across lingua-cultural boundaries. Its lingua franca
cross-cultural communication is the most well-liked and often employed. Although it frequently serves as the default
option in settings, particularly when people are not familiar with one another, it varies from other intercultural modes
that generally require debate before being used: In the first decade of the twenty-first century, English is not just a
worldwide language; it is the global language. This study concludes that English is being moulded by its non-native
speakers at least equally as much as by its native speakers because of its widespread usage internationally; however,
thus far tended to be rejected. This has created a rather contradictory situation: On the one hand, English is an
unfamiliar tongue for most of its users, and the language is not used by any native speakers in most spoken encounters.
On the other hand, there is still a propensity for native speakers to be seen as the guardians of the correct language. A
deeper knowledge of the nature of ELF is being gained because of this slowly building body of research, which is
necessary for making informed decisions, particularly in language policy and instruction (Karpińska, 2016).
X. CONCLUSION
English emerged as the Meta speech of the global language system throughout the 20th century. Because of the
incredible number of language users who know it, English is the most frequently spoken language, even though Hindi
and Mandarin have (possibly) more native speakers than it does. This has nothing to do with the English language's
intrinsic virtues; rather, it is entirely unsuitable for use as a global language due to its sound and spelling. Surprisingly,
modalities like ELF may sustain speaker and resource constellations and the specific realities or linguistic micro-forms
they eventually adopt. In addition to the stability that such modes must have to function as effective communication
tools in the first place, these modes are realistic and attainable by the concepts of ﬂexibility and perseverance required
for them to operate on an international level, that is, across a broad spectrum of circumstances. So, ELF must be seen as
a global and globalized language usage from this perspective. However, it is directly linked to knowledge transfer and
the interchangeability of ideas and emotions. Moreover, the English language and its wide acceptance are directly
linked to employability as the world is connected through various means of technology. It is the outcome of the distinct
historical background of the English-speaking nations as well as shared assumptions and forecasts regarding the
language choices that aspirants worldwide will undertake. Hence, English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) is a global
phenomenon. However, it must be emphasized that language descriptions obviously cannot define what must be taught
and learned for specific purposes and in specific settings—they give crucial but insufficient information for what will
always be pedagogical judgements.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study is supported via funding from Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University project number
(PSAU/2023/R/1444).
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Sohaib Alam is currently working as an Assistant Professor of English at the Department of English, College of Science and
Humanities in Alkharj, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He holds a PhD in English Language
Teaching (ELT) from Aligarh Muslim University, India. His areas of interest are Applied Linguistics, Pragmatics, Teaching Methods,
Blended Learning, and Pedagogic Theory. He has presented papers at national and international conferences and published research
articles and papers in Scopus and Web of Science-indexed journals. He has been teaching English for over four years. (Email:
[email protected])

ISSN 1799-2591
Language, Identity and Diaspora: Bilingualism

and Multilingualism of Characters in Burnt
Shadows
Qi He
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zhejiang Conservatory of Music, Hangzhou, China
Tong Zhang
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zhejiang Conservatory of Music, Hangzhou, China
Abstract—The paper delves into the themes of diaspora, identity, and language in Kamila Shamsie's novel,
Burnt Shadows. The characters in the novel are portrayed as being bilingual and multilingual, which is
reflective of the intricate and diverse use of language in diasporic communities. This study analyzes how
bilingualism and multilingualism are depicted in the novel and how they contribute towards the construction
and deconstruction of the characters' identities. By closely reading the text, the paper underscores the
significance of language to diasporas in dealing with challenges caused by war, migration, displacement, and
belonging. The analysis highlights how language serves as a medium of communication, an arena of conflict,
and a source of cultural identity for the characters and shows the relationship between language and trauma
to underline the difficulties of expressing oneself in a language that may not fully capture the depth of one's
emotions. The research argues that Shamsie's portrayal of bilingual and multilingual characters offers a
powerful reflection on the complexities of language and its role in shaping identities in diasporic community,
which accentuates the need for a more inclusive approach towards language and identity in diasporic literary
studies.
Index Terms—language, identity, diaspora, Burnt Shadows
I. INTRODUCTION
Kamila Shamsie, a Pakistani woman transnational writer writing in English, is regarded by Rushdie (2009) as “a
writer of immense ambition and strength”. Shamsie’s third novel Burnt Shadows (2009) is a tale of love and war, of
shared histories of two families across three generations and of earth-shaking historical events. It is an epic in terms of
time, location and historical events it has covered. The story spans over fifty years from 1945 to 2002, from the
bombing of Nagasaki, the partition in India, the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in South Asia, to the US bombing
campaign in Afghanistan after 9/11. Characters in this novel, whether they are willing or not, travel constantly in the
world, from Germany to England, Japan, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and America, during which they are confronted
with all kinds of challenges. Given their vastly diasporic experiences, they have to overcome geographical, linguistic
and cultural displacements, get along with local people and other diasporas, establish new relationships, build new
identities and mediate the tension of settling down and longing for the lost homeland.
How do these characters manage to deal with all those difficulties? One thing in common that helps these diasporic
characters tackle those challenges is the shared love of language and their extraordinary language competence. Nearly
all the main characters in the novel are effectively bilingual or multilingual and are engaged in teaching or learning
languages to and from one another. The protagonist Hiroko Tanaka is a Japanese teacher who speaks German and
English and works as a translator for Konrad Weiss, a German writer whom she falls in love with in Japan. In India
Hiroko is befriended by Elizabeth Burton, Konrad’s half-sister, who is also a bilingual. Hiroko learns Urdu from Sajjad
Ali Ashraf, a bilingual Indian who converts to Islam and whom she meets in India and whom she finally marries to.
Their son, Raza Konrad Ashraf born in Pakistan, inherits his mother’s language gift and is capable of speaking nine
languages. There are many scenes in which these bilingual and multilingual characters use their language skills and
translate back and forth between languages to express themselves and perform their identities.
The bilingualism and multilingualism of these characters in Burnt Shadows are not a coincidence but a device
Shamsie uses to connect characters, help them cope with challenges caused by moving from one nation to another, and
finally redefine and reconstruct the identities of the characters. Therefore, the weight attached to language is
deliberately emphasized. Hiroko would not have met Konrad if she had not taught German to Yoshi Watanabe’s
nephew. In that case, she would not have gone to India to find the Burtons, the relatives of her fiancé. Likewise, had it
not been for language learning, Sajjad and Hiroko would never have overturned the separateness between these two
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Corresponding author: [email protected]

characters of different cultural backgrounds and fallen in love with each other. This essay examines the functions of
language Shamise demonstrates through the characters in Burnt Shadows and how the bilingualism and multilingualism
of these characters help them redefine, reconstruct different identities and articulate the struggles of these rootless
diasporic characters who deliberately use language to hide or/and express their identities in a globalized social context.
II. LANGUAGE AS INTIMACY

The importance of language in communication and in the creation of cultural identity has constantly been highlighted.
Anne Brisset (2000), a researcher on translation, highlights the importance of language, believing “Language is an
indispensable in the realization of the verbal act. It is a necessary precondition for communication” (p. 343).
Traditionally, linguists and philosophers have identified the two primary purposes of language as “communication and
representation” widely recognized in the twentieth century: “the phatic function” (in which ties of union are created by a
mere exchange of words) and “the performative function” (in which language performs the action it sates) (Joseph,
2004, pp. 15-19). Despite the differences of the terms, there is a parallel between these two types of functions, that is,
language as communication with others and representation of the world in one’s mind and performance of one’s identity.
James Clifford (1991) in his essay “travelling cultures” examines the discursive practices of travelers, including
dwelling in terms of adopting and learning the culture and the language in the displaced homeland. As Clifford (1994)
says, “dwelling implies a kind of communicative competence. One no longer relies on translators, but speaks and listens
for oneself” (p. 99). Diasporas who usually are permanent travelers, as they stay in a foreign land for a long time, are in
a greater need to gain language competence for communication and dwelling. As a result, diasporas are often bilingual
and even multilingual. The bilingualism and multilingualism, Susan Stanford Friedman (2007) argues, “are key markers
of transit; of the refusal to assimilate completely; and of the insistence on retention of the past, other homes and other
cultural identities” (p. 280). Therefore, in Burnt Shadows, Shamsie deliberately creates bilingual and multilingual
diasporic characters with such communicative competence to enable them to communicate with each other, perform
their identities, and travel and dwell in a transnational and foreign context.
Given the necessity and importance of language for diasporas, Shamsie uses language as a romantic connection,
linking characters of various relationships. At the very beginning of the novel, set in Nagasaki during the Second World
War, readers are introduced to a Japanese girl, Hiroko Tanaka, a multilingual character who is capable of speaking two
foreign languages, German and English. Her language competence enables her to work as a translator for Konrad, a
German writer who lives in Japan. As language enables communication, people mastering multiple languages have
more access to their communication with many other people. To Hiroko and Konrad, being multilingual means they are
capable to switch their conversations between German, English and Japanese, and language works as a silk of romance
linking them, as “[i]t feels to them like a secret language which no one else they know can fully decipher” (Shamsie, p.
19).
The function of language as an intimate tie for characters also works in the relationship between Hiroko and
Elizabeth Burton, Konrad’s half-sister, who is bilingual in English and German. If Konrad is a tie drawing these two
women characters physically, the German language has a similar intimate function in building up the friendship
between them. There are several instances in the novel, in which whenever they talk about Konrad, they switch to
German. Doing so, as admitted by these characters, makes them feel like “sharing the most intimate of secrets”
(Shamsie, p. 70). Even James, the husband of Elizabeth, observing these two women talking in German, does not want
to intrude this intimacy and even feels “rude to force their conversation back to English just by the fact of his presence”
(Shamsie, p. 109).
Besides, language facilitates the intimacy of the relationship between Hiroko and Sajjaid. It is through learning and
teaching Urdu, the language of Sajjad’s India, that Hiroko and Sajjad fall in love with each other. For Hiroko, she gets
to know Sajjad and India by knowing the language he speaks, although as Elizabeth warns Hiroko that she does not
know, and will never belong to his world. Yet, language paves the way for them to know each other. What’s more,
learning a new language means having a new access to communication. The beauty of being multilingual lies in the
diverse choices of code for them to communicate with each other. Whatever cannot be expressed in one language can
still be spoken in another. During one of the Urdu lessons, Hiroko thinks of Konrad and talks about the day of bombing
when she finds his shadow and murmurs why he does not stay with her. Sajjad stands up quietly and walks over to
Hiroko, comforting her:
There is a phrase I have heard in English: to have someone alone with their grief. Urdu has no equivalent
phrase. It only understands the concept of gathering around and becoming ‘ghum-khaur’-grief-eaters-who take
in the mourner’s sorrow. Would you like me to be in English or Urdu right now? (Shamsie, p. 77).
Language as intimacy proves itself when later at Sajjad’s death, Hiroko “whispered endearments in Japanese-the only
words of Japanese she ever taught him were words of love” (Shamsie, p. 240).
Moreover, language as an intimacy works obviously in the mother-and-son relationship between Hiroko and Raza.
While the father-and-son relationship looks quite awkward between Sajjad and Raza, as the father sometimes feels
timid to express his love for the son, and there is little daily communication between them, Raza seems more intimate
with Hiroko, which is attributed to their common love of language. Raza, who has already known Japanese, Urdu and
English since young, is thankful for his multilingualism, which allows him to share the secrets with her mother “without

lowering their voices” and enables him to “express to each other in words particular to specific languages” (Shamsie, p.
200). Similarly, Raza’s intimacy with his mother is reflected on the note written in Japanese he leaves for Hiroko before
his departure to Afghanistan.
In Burnt Shadows, Shamise uses language to build up the intimacy between characters, and within characters they are
interconnected with each other with a shared language, thus developing and deepening romantic relationship, friendship
or mother-and-son relationship. Here, Shamise conveys a message: speaking a language does not merely mean
performing the same linguistic operations. The same language also implies the shared ethos, feelings and belonging.
III. LANGUAGE AS IDENTITY

Mastering another language does not only help an individual gain one more way to communicate, but also enables
one to reconstruct his identity. In Burnt Shadows, multilingual characters hide or deny their competence in speaking
certain language to bury the identity that language indicates.
For the first time Elizabeth and Hiroko meet each other, Elizabeth corrects Hiroko when the latter addresses her Isle,
“with an apologetic smile that she was at fault for having discarded her childhood nickname” (Shamsie, p. 44). In fact,
what she is correcting is not just her childhood name “Isle Weiss” but rather, her German identity the name suggests
and her childhood altogether, when she was forced to leave Germany at an early age. By insisting on being called
“Elizabeth Burton”, she wants to show her Englishness and her role as the wife of Mr. Burton. Furthermore, the only
two occasions when she speaks German are when Konrad is brought into her conversation with Hiroko and when she
writes letters to her cousin using “liebing” Willie, the German word for “darling”. On those occasions, German is her
language of intimacy, although she hides her identity as half-German in the rest of her life. Nevertheless, although her
daily communication with others, including with her husband James is all conducted in English and even though she
insists on being called Mrs. Burton, her English identity as well as her identity as the wife of Mr. Burton is neither what
she is proud of nor what she desires. This could be seen in an instance when Hiroko asks her opinion about the British’s
withdrawal from India. Elizabeth’s response indicates how she despises the British colonization, revealing “[t]he British
Empire makes me feel so…German” (Shamsie, p. 68).
In Elizabeth’s letter to her cousin Willie, who has invited her to join him in New York, she confides to him about her
decision of leaving her husband and going to America to “see if there’s anything of your cousin Ilse left to be salvaged
from the lonely, bitter wreck that is Mrs. Burton” (Shamsie, p. 117). It seems that Elizabeth is hiding her German
identity by hiding her German name and refusing to speak German. Instead, she reconstructs a new identity as a British
wife by using a British name and speaking English. Elizabeth’s efforts of hiding and reconstructing her identity are the
result of her diasporic experience and reality. Having been displaced from German to England and from England to
India, Elizabeth has become a diaspora twice, and her diasporic experience is much a result of historical expansion of
the German Empire and British Empire. Therefore, Elizabeth’s denial of her German identity and uneasiness about her
Englishness is also a reflection of the historical influence on the individual. As Nadezda Stojkovic (2005) writes, “the
individual search for individuality is a process of self-discovery, always performed in relation to one’s inner life and to
the community, to its collective, yet multifarious identity” (p. 185), and “language is the picture of the state of the
consciousness of oneself and of the society in which we live” (p. 192). Therefore, Elizabeth’s choice of language is a
strategy that Shamsie uses to show the struggles of diasporic characters like Elizabeth with their different identities and
their attachment to each place, where they cannot find home. In Burnt Shadows, Elizabeth ends up in New York, a place
where she is eventually able to get rid of the shackles of the identity as Mrs. Burton and to be herself, as Isle.
Another example of Shamise’s use of language to hide or reconstruct a character’s identity is Raza, a language genius.
Raza, the son of Hiroko and Sajjad, has inherited Hiroko’s gift of learning language and is capable of speaking Japanese,
German, Urdu and English. However, the language he chooses to use is a self-conscious choice. For instance, although
Japanese is a bonding language between him and his mother, he “only spoke Japanese within the privacy of his home,
not even breaking that rule when his friends delighted in showing off to his mother the one or two Japanese words
they’d found in some book, some movie” (Shamsie, p. 139). It seems that he is trying to hide his Japanese-ness in
public by avoiding speaking that language. His self-consciousness, “[w]hy allow the world to know his mind contained
words from a country he’d never visited?” (Shamsie, p. 139) indicates Raza’s puzzle over his identity and his efforts to
fit himself into the local environment, where he has awareness of “how to downplay his manifest difference” (Shamsie,
p. 139).
If hiding a language is hiding the identity that language is related to, does acquiring a language mean gaining an
identity it represents? Why is Raza so keen on learning language? As Ana Castillo (1995) argues, “language is not
something we adopt and that remains apart from us. Explicitly or implicitly, language is the vehicle by which we
perceive ourselves in relation to the world” (p. 178). Raza’s passion towards acquiring language is a result of his
confusion of his identity and rootlessness, and his need for belonging which he desires to gain through language
acquisition. When he sees words in one language, he can instantly translate them into other languages, such as Japanese,
German, English and Pashto. He exclaims that “I want words in every language. I think I would be happy living in a
cold, bare room if I could just spend my days burrowing into new languages” (Shamsie, p. 146). Later, in his decade in
Dubai, Raza seeks out “as may nationalities as possible, acquiring language with the zeal of a collector” (Shamsie, p.
258).

The linguistic diversity exhibited by the main characters in Burnt Shadows and their conscious decision-making of
certain language they speak on specific occasions point to multiculturalism and multicultural identities. Identity, as Hall
(1996) argues, is not merely about “who we are” or “where we come from”, but instead it is more about the use of
historical, linguistic, and cultural resources to figure out what we might become, and how we are represented and how
this affects how we represent ourselves. With the help of the linguistic gift, the characters manage to build new
identities and to be represented with a different cultural identity. However, the linguistic consciousness of these
characters also indicates their anxiety of belonging as diasporas and their confusion about their identities in the distant
world. As Rushdie (1991) speaking for diasporic writers, “our identity is at once plural and partial. Sometimes we feel
that we straddle two cultures; at other times, that we fall between two stools” (p. 15). In a sense, the linguistic
competence of diasporic characters enables them to adapt to any culture in the world more easily, as if they belong to
everywhere. However, they constantly find themselves in a position which denies any access to a single culture or a
single identity, so to a certain extent, they belong to nowhere.
IV. LANGUAGE AND TRAUMA

Roland Barthes (1990) argues in A Lover’s Discourse that ‘Language is a skin’, which is used to signify the relation
of desire. Ann Scott (2003) in her essay “Language as a Skin,” proposes that Barthes’ idea can be applied to the relation
between bodily trauma and language to understand the specificity of the trauma the body has experienced and its
representation in memory (p. 71). It works for Hiroko in Burnt Shadows, too. To Hiroko, the word “hibakusha”
(referring to the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) is the most hated word in her vocabulary,
and the most powerful word, which is always reminding her of the trauma on her body. In the rest of her life after the
bombing, she has to constantly confront the consequence of the bombing and has to retell her trauma, which often ends
up with silence. In order to escape the word “hibakusha”, Hiroko boards a ship to India “to enter the home of a couple
she’d never met, a world of which she knew nothing” (Shamsie, p. 222), since “to the Japanese she was nothing beyond
an explosion-affected person; that was her defining feature” (Shamsie, p. 49).
However, different from Elizabeth as discussed in previous section, Hiroko does not deliberately hide her Japanese
identity. Instead, she keeps her Japanese identity by teaching and speaking Japanese with her son Raza at home. Living
in a distant world, she deals with her longing for homeland by using the native language. Hiroko feels excited when she
meets the other Japanese wives in Karachi and enters their weekly gatherings at Jimmy’s house. This gathering is the
maintenance of her Japanese identity in a foreign land, for “it had meant a lot, more than she would have guessed, to
have the promise of an evening every week to sit and laugh in Japanese” (Shamsie, p. 140). The foreign language that
Hiroko hears in a foreign land seems to remind her, as Rushdie (1991) realizes in Imaginary Homelands, that “it’s my
present that is foreign, and that the past is home, albeit a lost home in a lost city in the mists of lost time” (p. 9).
Therefore, Hiroko craves familiarity with the home through her native language: “I want to hear Japanese. I want tea
that tastes the way tea should taste in my understanding of tea. I want to look like the people around me…” (Shamsie, p.
99). Nevertheless, her desire of familiarity and of home as “a mythic place of desire” in Avtar Brah’s (1996) concept (p.
182) is not able to be obliterated by her multilingualism, but can be only gained by speaking her mother tongue, because
as Gottlieb (2007) claims, “no language functions in a vacuum; it comes with its own freight of wider cultural
implications for its native speakers” (p. 52). By restoring the affective linguistic identity, she is seeking cultural
recognition for her language concomitant with the country she has already left.
Unfortunately, even among the people who speak Japanese, feeling “at home at the idea of foreignness”, Hiroko is
still silent about what the bomb has done to her and she “never told any of them about the birds on her back” (Shamsie,
p. 140). She insists, “although she grew up there [Nagasaki], she was in Tokyo when the bomb fell” (Shamsie, p. 141),
trying to deny the effect of the war on her life. Here, Hiroko’s silence about the bodily trauma bears some resemblance
with the Holocaust survivors interviewed by Nadine Fresco in a sense of an “unspeakable” dimension, of something too
difficult to be put in actual words. As Fresco (1985) puts that “one doesn’t know whether it is the memory or the
forgetting of death that is the more intolerable…the images don’t stay, the words don’t stay, the dead don’t stay” (p.
422). Being multilingual, she still finds no word in any language to describe the trauma.
Meanwhile, the trauma makes Hiroko constantly question her sense of belonging. She confesses to Elizabeth that she
neither belongs to Sajjad’s world nor Elizabeth’s world, or even her own world. Her Nagasaki is even stranger and more
unfamiliar than Delhi is to her, for “nothing in the world could ever be more unfamiliar than my home that day. That
unspeakable day. Literally unspeakable. I don’t know the words in any language…” (Shamsie, p. 99). When it comes to
trauma, there is no language in the world that can express it. Likewise, speechlessness occurs when Sajjad first sees
Hiroko’s back and those birds, “[w]hatever he had been about to say remained forever unsaid” (Shamsie, p. 90). The
aftermath of the trauma even passes on to the second generation. At the first year of Hiroko and Sajjad’s marriage, she
has a miscarriage of a baby girl in her fifth-month’s pregnancy, a miscarriage which Hiroko believes is caused by the
bomb as the doctor does not give any detailed reasons for it. “As the years went on the deaths of Konrad and her father
had receded from her heart, but the child who she had known only as a stirring within, a series of hiccups and kicks-her
loss still remained, occasionally rising up in great wave of anger which Hiroko never knew how to express, where to
place” (Shamsie, p. 205). Here, to Hiroko, words cannot express the trauma and silence might be the best and the only
choice.

Just as the birds on Hiroko’s back which are always there, Nagasaki and the trauma are always there in her mind, too.
While Hiroko feels it necessary to talk to her son about what she has been through, but the bomb is too monstrous to tell.
Therefore, she comes up with another way of storytelling, through fairy tales or adventurous stories. The unspeakable
trauma is transformed into the “mother’s great adventure-from Tokyo to Bombay! Bombay to Delhi” (Shamsie, p. 223),
but she never tells Raza these fairy tales. Apparently, Hiroko has always wanted Raza to know as little of all the terror
of the bomb as possible, as she doubts, “[w]hy should I ever let my child imagine all that?” (Shamsie, p. 178) or “Why
tell him of the momentum of a bomb blast that threw her into a world in which everything was unfamiliar, Nagasaki
itself become more unknown than Delhi? Nothing in the world more unrecognizable than her father as he died”
(Shamsie, p. 223). What’s more, even in the fearless adventures and fairy tales she tells Henry, the son of the Burtons,
there is something suppressed: the terror, the fear and desperation she has experienced during the voyage. It seems to
Hiroko, by repackaging the telling of trauma into fairy tales or adventurous stories or denying her presence in Nagasaki
during the bombing, she is able to be detached from the actual disaster. And language, from this point of view, provides
her with a way to be newly in contact with her own experience, and an emotional outlet to name the horrible experience,
and then an opportunity for her to move on. Here, identification with a bodily trauma can be countermanded by
narrative.
V. LANGUAGE AND BORDERS

Diasporas are always featured with border-crossing movements. The diasporic characters in Burnt Shadows, such as
Hiroko, Konrad, the Burtons, Henry or Raza, constantly travel from one place to another and transit borders, as
Friedman (2007) notes, which “separate but also connect, demarcate but also blend differences” and which “promise
safety, security, a sense of being at home”, but also “enforce exclusions, the state of being alien, foreign, and homeless”
(p. 273). Just as Brah (1996) states, “all diasporic journeys are composites”, during which “they are embarked upon,
lived or relived through multiple modalities,” such as “modalities of gender, class, racial, religion, language and
generation”(p. 179), these diasporic characters are also confronted with all these issues and try to make their modalities.
According to Friedman (2007), border theory across the range of identity studies goes far beyond geographical scope.
Borders, as lines of division and connection, play a figurative role as points of “connection and disconnection between
differences” (p. 275). In Burnt Shadows, the geographical lines have never been the obstacles for main characters in the
process of crossing borders, which is probably attributed to the linguistic ability and even contributes to their language
learning. For instance, foreign language to Hiroko, be it English or Urdu facilitates her movement from Japan to India,
later to Pakistan and finally to America. It is the same with Elizabeth’s travel from Germany to England, to India and to
New York, and Henry’s journey from India to England and to America. Likewise, Raza’s multilingualism is partially a
result of his border-crossing movements to Afghanistan or Dubai.
As diasporic characters, they have to face the challenge of what Sheffer (2006) argues “dealing with the actual and
virtual boundaries” (p. 136). The linguistic competence, either being bilingual or multilingual, does help these
characters to cross geographical borders. As Clifford (1994) observes, the boundary which defines nations as common
territories “is traversed” and “subverted by diasporic attachments” (p. 307), but they are still contained by nationalism
which is shown by conflicts among themselves, and their sense of identity is defined by displacements and losses which
“cannot be cured by merging into a new national community” (p. 307). In Burnt Shadows, Hiroko quickly picks up
Urdu, which blurs the linguistic difference between her and the local Indians, but her physical difference and her dress
style by wearing trousers and showing her legs give herself away and even embarrasses her son Raza, who blames her
for not being “more Pakistani” (Shamsie, p. 130). However, Hiroko knows well that “she would always be a foreigner
in Pakistan” (Shamsie, p. 204). As a result, although Sajjad and Raza cross the border to visit the family that remained
in Delhi, Hiroko has never accompanied them. What she cannot cross is not the geographical border that divides
Pakistan and India, but rather the nationalism that defines her as a Japanese and Sajjad as an Indian. In Sajjad’s family,
Hiroko would always be an outsider and her presence would be a discomfort on every side. Nationalism, or rather, class
which is rather difficult to leave behind with border-crossing movement. It is the same reason that results in the
deterioration of the relationship between James and Sajjad when these two individuals of different nationalities judge
each other by their national identity as the Englishman and the Indian, instead of their personal identity as James and
Sajjad (Shamsie, p. 111), even though they speak the same language. Besides, borders, by confining individuals within
a specific line, impose on individuals the identities which they may not desire. For example, Sajjad, who leaves India
for a honeymoon during the partition finds himself no longer a citizen of India and is forced into an identity that he
never desires. Reluctantly, he and Hiroko move to Karachi, where Sajjad continues to long for his home and life back in
his beloved Dilli, and where Sajjad becomes a mohajir, the not endearing term for refugees from India for the rest of his
life, even though he speaks the same language in the new place.
The idea that Shamise is trying to convey is that even though language facilitates the border-crossing movement,
“borders” as a geographical line are easier to get across than the barriers of nationalism which border lines have
confined. The pain of abandoning their nationalism in a foreign land, whether it is Hiroko’s uneasiness in Pakistan or
Raza’s insistence on Pakistan-ness or Sajjad’s forced Pakistani is rather difficult to be expressed by any language, no
matter how many languages they are capable of speaking. An effective way to break down those barriers might be
through interpersonal communication across borders, as Konrad suggests that “barriers were made of metal that could

turn fluid when touched simultaneously by people on either side” (Shamsie, p. 82). This works for Harry, too, the CIA
officer who serves as “the gatekeeper between one nation and the next,” and has “swung the gate open, wide” (Shamsie,
p. 181), trying to communicate and understand people on either side.
VI. CONCLUSION
Burnt Shadows is a novel that explores the themes of bilingualism and multilingualism through its diverse cast of
characters. The novel shows how language is not only a means of communication, but also a source of intimacy and
connection between individuals to help them navigate their relationships with one another, creating a sense of belonging
and community despite their diverse backgrounds. Language serves as an intimate connection, linking characters of
various relationships, such as lovers like Hiroko and Konrad, Hiroko and Sajjad, friends like Hiroko and Elizabeth,
James and Sajjad, and the mother-son relationship like Hiroko and Raza. The characters in the novel use language to
navigate their relationships with one another, creating a sense of belonging and community despite their diverse
backgrounds and overcoming the separateness as a result of different cultural backgrounds between them.
In addition to enacting intimacy, Shamise also uses language as a device to represent and reconstruct identities of her
characters who are constantly confronted with challenges and struggles resulting from the geographic, linguistic and
cultural displacements. The use of multiple languages and dialects highlights the fluidity of identity and the ways in
which language can shape one's understanding of oneself and others.
Furthermore, although the bilingualism and multilingualism enable characters to communicate with each other and to
gain or hide certain identity, language is not almighty. Language is not able to fully express or obliterate the trauma
these characters have been suffering from as a result of war and violence, no matter how many languages they are
capable of speaking. The use of multiple languages and dialects highlights the difficulties of expressing oneself in a
language that may not fully capture the depth of one's emotions. However, by retelling trauma in other forms, language
provides a way to identify, name and narrate trauma.
Finally, the novel also touches on the idea of language and borders, as the characters move across different countries
and cultures. The linguistic competence helps characters in this novel who have been forced out of their own homeland
in transiting the boundaries of the nation-state, but the barriers of nationalism within the boundaries are rather difficult
to cross, making these bilingual and multilingual characters dwell between alienation and loss. Therefore, Shamise
suggests an effective way to break down those barriers, that is, through exchange and communication between people
on either side of borders, so as to swing the gate of misunderstanding open and wide.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Funding: This work was supported by Zhejiang Conservatory of Music and Department of Education of Zhejiang
Province, Grant Number G001A3072319.
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Time (71-86). Palgrave Macmillan.
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145. https://doi.org/10.3138/diaspora.15.1.121
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Difference: Translation Shaping Culture (178-196). Peter Lang.
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Qi He is a lecturer at Department of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zhejiang Conservatory of Music,

China, where she teaches College English, English Phonetics to undergraduate students, and English for
Academic Purposes to postgraduate students. She got her MA in English literary studies from National
University of Singapore in 2012.
She has published 10 papers on English literature and applied linguistics. Currently, she is interested in
research related to content-based instruction and task-based language teaching of English as a foreign
language with a special focus on listening and speaking. She has received funding from Zhejiang Provincial
Department of Education for “English pronunciation teaching and research”.
Tong Zhang is an associate professor at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zhejiang
Conservatory of Music, China, where she teaches Chinese literature to undergraduates. She got her Ph.D. in
Chinese literary studies in 2015 from Nankai University, China.
She has published more than 10 papers on modern Chinese literature on Chinese core academic journals.
Her research interests are modern Chinese literature and culture.

ISSN 1799-2591
Discursive Strategies of China-Related News in

Chinese and Western Social Media
Xiaoyan Zhang
Language Academy, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia;
School of Foreign Languages for Business, Heibei Finance University, China
Noor Aireen Ibrahim

Language Academy, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia
Aminabibi Saidalvi
Academy of Language Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA Johor UiTM, Malaysia
Abstract—With the development of social media, the landscape of international news dissemination has
changed significantly. This research is conducted to discover the discursive strategies of Chinese and Western
news outlets in China-related news reports on Twitter, one of the most widely used social media platforms.
The key objective is to examine China-related news reports on Twitter to explore the different discursive
strategies employed by Chinese and Western news media in reporting China. To achieve these objectives, the
research data were collected from the Twitter accounts of People’s Daily China, an official news outlet
representing the Chinese media, and the New York Times, a leading American/Western news agency. Based
on the data analysis, certain discursive strategies were identified in the practices of Chinese and Western
media that are causing differences in constructing China’s international image. These results might assist the
international audience in gaining a more objective understanding of China and help Chinese news media
sources improve their reporting strategies and international communication capacity.
Index Terms—China-related news, Chinese media, Western media, Twitter, discursive strategy
I. INTRODUCTION
The evolution of the internet introduced the world to social media platforms (SMPs), and some of these platforms
have emerged as popular forums for people to socialize. Traditional media organizations have taken the opportunity to
expand their digital news services to SMPs, and among these platforms, Twitter is the most popular because of its
liberal freedom-of-opinion (FOO) and freedom-of-speech (FOS) policies (Tkacheva, 2013). In addition, as a social
media platform, Twitter is equipped with the tools that any media house might find necessary to run its news broadcast.
For this reason, nearly all renowned media houses have a notable presence on Twitter, and they manage their Twitter
accounts (a unique Twitter username is known as a Twitter account) alongside their other news broadcasting platforms
(Sharma & Goyal, 2018).
It is evident that the internet has made communication more robust, and it has promoted the globalization of
information. Unlike news broadcasting means limited to certain geographical locations, the internet has blurred
geographical boundaries, and media outlets can now publish their news and reach the entire global population
(MacKinnon et al., 2014). Given that Twitter provides the basic tools for establishing an online news-broadcasting
outlet and a global audience to read news updates Twitter appears to be an ideal platform for news publication; however,
there is more to it (Ott, 2017).
Twitter started its operations in March 2006, and the Western media quickly realized its effectiveness and started
using it as a news publishing tool. This approach enabled the first entrants to gain dominance on Twitter and build a
loyal audience. If described otherwise, Western news outlets took advantage of being the pioneers in Twitter-based news
broadcasts (Enli, 2017). Twitter has liberal FOO and FOS policies that empower Western media outlets (e.g., New York
Times, ABC, BBC, and Daily Telegraph) to openly criticize the Chinese government’s policies. This criticism has been
supported by Western governments, in light of the ongoing trade war and political issues between them and the Chinese
government. Chinese media organizations joined social media platforms later, and when Chinese media houses (i.e.,
People’s Daily China, China Xinhua News, China News) eventually established a presence on Twitter, they experienced
continual competition for viewers’ attention (Zheng et al., 2014). In general, Western media outlets enjoy the benefits of
being the first entrants to Twitter, which enabled them to gain unrivaled dominance (Guo et al., 2019). Given that the
Chinese media was a late responder, it lost its competitive edge, and Western media houses have strengthened their
roots by establishing their credibility (Enli, 2017).
The Chinese government has put great emphasis on building China’s international image and its international
communication capacity. It has allocated funds worth $1.3 billion per annum to mitigate the impact of Western

propaganda and to portray positive images of the country by increasing the global presence of Chinese media. These
steps indicate that the Chinese government is aware of the importance of Twitter as a news-broadcasting platform (Enli,
2017; Nip & Sun, 2017).
The objective of this paper is to discover the discursive strategies that Chinese and Western media adopt in terms of
China-related news reports on Twitter. This paper also analyzes the published content of two selected entities,
@PDChina and @nytimes, to explore the image of China that Chinese and Western media present and the factors that
support the success of Western news outlets and to identify and recommend suggestions for Chinese media to compete
with Western media. Specifically, the research aims to answer the following questions:
RQ1: What are the contents of China-related news reporting in @PDChina and @nytimes?
RQ2:What are the discursive strategies employed by @PDChina and @nytimes in the news discourse of
China-related reporting on Twitter?

This paper focuses on two aspects of the study: China-related news reporting in social media and discursive strategies
of news media.
A. China-Related News Reporting
Western media outlets often portray China in a similar manner, namely, from a hostile perspective; however, China
has maintained a strategy of remaining neutral in response to conflict-promoting statements. In the 20th century, China
modeled its social media channels and news sources to depict positive news related to China. In the 1960s, Beijing’s
attempt to launch a nuclear arsenal was officially revealed, further antagonizing the United States against China and
building its image as an existential threat. However, after the Communist Revolution, Western media houses departed
from the herd mentality and started emphasizing positive aspects of the country.
News sources from China counteracted to respond to the media strategies and framing these Western news channels
used and remained heavily consistent in projecting its positive image (Kiousis et al., 2015). China attempts to maintain
its positive image across social media platforms; from this perspective, a study was conducted using discourse analysis
to compare the sentiment of the news portrayed by Chinese and U.S. news media channels. The study revealed that
China establishes its English-language pages across Facebook and similar news channels to divert the audience’s focus
from a negative view to a benign view (Frisch & Belair-Gagnon, 2018).
Not all the news portrayed by the Western media houses related to China is framed negatively. In the 1970s and
1980s, most American journalists showed a positive side of China. However, recently, particularly after the Strategic
Competition Act of 2021, the New York Times started to portray China as a competitor. In addition, it has politicized
many progressive actions assumed by China, such as agricultural initiatives and space programs. Most news items have
appeared to blame China for anomalies in the ties between China and the United States, whereas the British media has
remained fairly neutral in its portrayal of China, as it adopts an informative strategy to highlight the main events
objectively (Seth-Smith et al., 2016). This narrative is, however, challenged by the researched studies some articles
mention that the British media also uses a “ChinaThreat” frame to marginalize the Chinese nation. It also reports the
news on the authority of an anonymous reporter, which puts its veracity into question. However, such studies are not
numerous, and most of them present a view consistent with this particular study—that the British media adopts a neutral
approach toward depicting events occurring in China (Lee & Chan, 2018). Not only does the Western media portray
China as an enemy, but it sometimes goes to the other extreme of idealizing China, considering it to be like a fairyland.
Therefore, a mixed review is gathered through the literature search in alignment with the framing analysis performed by
this particular paper (Khan et al., 2016).
B. Discursive Strategies of News Media
Discourse analysis is both a theory and method that examines how social, cultural, and political perspectives and
identities are embedded in language, including spoken and written forms (Gee, 2014). Compared with textual analysis,
which is aimed at text structure, the objective of discourse analysis is to discover the sociopsychological characteristics
of the user (Wodak, 2013; Fairclough, 2013). The central concern of discourse analysis is the social practices of talk
and texts and the resources that enable those practices (Potter, 1996b; Potter, 2013). Research on discourse has
examined how people handle pervasive issues of blame and responsibility, focusing on issues concerning stake and
accountability (Augoustinos & Every, 2010; LeCouteur & Oxlad, 2011), and has analyzed how linguistic tools are
combined to operate and manage accountability (Kent & Potter, 2014; Potter, 1996a).
For discursive psychologists, reality is constructed through discursive strategy, and an unlimited number of ways
exist to present the world (Adjei, 2013). As a form of social practice of language use, discourse is textual or verbal
communication composed of ideas or patterned ways of thinking that are placed in a wide social structure (Johnstone,
2017). Thus, discourse analysis is situated within social constructionism theory. According to Potter and Wetherell
(1987), discourse analysis examines how people use language to construct and make sense of social realities. For
example, by employing different discursive approaches and linguistic devices, such as choice of words, metaphors, and

rhetorical styles, people can justify, explain, persuade, or even propagate the social practice of discourse (Ädel, 2010;
Doudaki & Boubouka, 2019).
In the field of media research, discourse analysis has provided researchers with a different perspective on examining
the interpretations and presentations of the media through critical and contextual insights. Media discourse refers to
communications that take place on a media platform, both spoken and written, in which the discourse is targeted toward
a non-present audience (O’Keeffe et al., 2011). Many previous studies have used different discourse analysis
approaches to investigate media discourse, including linguistic studies of print media discourse (Mendzheritskaya,
2013; Permyakova & Antineskul, 2016), conversation analysis and corpus linguistic analysis of spoken media discourse
(Ekstrom & Patrona, 2011; O’Halloran, 2010), and critical discourse analysis of both types of media discourse (Sari et
al., 2018; Sriwimon & Zilli, 2017).
Discursive strategy is a fundamental means of representing diverse points of view and ideologies in media
representations (Bennett, 2019). In the contemporary world, reality is constructed by media narratives. Daily events are
presented by media with certain ideological implications that aim to produce “empowered readers” (Carpentier, 2011).
By employing discursive strategies such as narratives of who “we” are, the media intentionally position the audience by
separating “us” from “them” or “others” who do not understand or share the same belief or value (Coleman & Ross,
2010; Mendes, 2012). Social issues, such as conflicts, are also constructed by media organizations under the power and
influence of particular parties or forces for their own interests (Hussain & Munawar, 2017). According to Fairclough
(1995), the reality presented by the media is created in the interest of its producers, and this reality plays an important
role in shaping and influencing the perception and opinion of the public, and Johnson and Milani (2010) argue that
media are involved with power and ideology in an elaborated manner.
By employing discursive strategies in news reporting and operating to control causality, agency, and readers’
opinions, media accumulate power and generate effects among the public (Fairclough, 2013). Among all the media
players, news media are considered the most successful and influential actors, as they produce massive content
consistently and construct realities based on events worldwide that are worth noticing. By selecting information with an
agenda and using various rhetorical devices, news discourse presents the writers’ understanding of events and their
ideologies (Catenaccio et al., 2011).
As an important tool, language is utilized by the news media in an “inevitably structured process,” which could
reveal the ideologies, values, and “implicit propositions” of the media if analyzed properly (Fowler, 2013). Previous
research on discursive strategy and linguistic features of news media have provided evidence of subjectivity in news
media discourse on a wide range of issues, such as racism (Chaudhry & Gruzd, 2020; Vidra & Fox, 2014),
discrimination and bias (Krzyżanowski, 2019; Samaie & Malmir, 2017), and framing (Allan et al., 2010; Doyle, 2011).
III. METHODOLOGY
To answer the research questions, this study adopted a combination of approaches that included content analysis and
discourse analysis (Creswell, 2011). It was designed within a social constructivism paradigm, with qualitative analysis
as the main research method. For gathering data, the Twitter accounts of two news organizations were selected from
China and the West—namely, People’s Daily China representing Chinese news media and the New York Times
representing American news media.
A. Research Procedure
Given that the research questions address news content, content analysis of the Twitter accounts of the two selected
media organizations was piloted at an early stage. With the purpose of observing and establishing patterns, an
open-ended, inductive, and descriptive approach was applied (Babbie, 2020). In phase 1, content analysis was deployed
to answer research question 1. As part of the content analysis, tweets from the specified time frame were identified and
collected. Data coding was performed, and the coding categories were adjusted according to the nature of social media
news items, including the nation or nations involved (whether it concerned China or not); the main theme; the nature of
the news item (positive, negative, or neutral); the usage of multimedia (whether it had image or video or none); and the
source (whether it was from an authority, social elites [such as experts or scholars], common citizens, or it is not
mentioned). Research question 2 was then answered using discourse analysis. Data from the selected texts and news
reports were used. As part of the process, linguistic units and specific words and phrases were studied. In addition,
discursive strategies, the assumed interpretations, stereotypes, biased descriptions, and linguistic features in the text
were identified.
B. Data Collection and Data Analysis
Diverse units of analysis are usually unutilized in content analysis, such as single words, sentences or paragraphs,
items, symbols, themes, and characters. According to Barbara, the unit of analysis in most cases includes words,
phrases, paragraphs, sentences, or the whole text, such as interviews, diaries, or books; topics (entire themes or
thoughts); and the amount of space and time of a subject (Downe-Wamboldt, 1992; Vaismoradi et al., 2013;
Krippendorff, 2018). In social media, one single tweet represents one news item, which includes text, image or video,
and comments. In this study, the single tweet was the unit of analysis, and the comments from the audience were

excluded from the content analysis because comments are concerned with the audience’s reaction, not the
characteristics of the news.
The data collection consisted of two stages aligning with the research questions. The first stage was content analysis,
(research question 1), and this phase of data collection was quantitative. In her discourse analysis, Zhang (2013)
constructed three weeks of content by representing each day of the week equally with samples taken from every fifth
day of the output of CCTV Africa programs. The method of constructed weeks was also adopted by Marsh (2018) in
her study of CCTV and BBC’s news program, but the frequency of sampling was raised to every third day, which was
considered sufficient for reflecting changes in the news world, as “only the biggest news event runs for more than two
days” (Marsh, 2018). The principle of constructed weeks was retained in this study, with a frequency of every third day
for the same reason mentioned above. The data were selected from January 1, 2019, to June 30, 2021, and the range
covered more than two years, making it a longitudinal study. Using Twitter’s advanced research allowed news items
from @PDChina and @nytimes from one complete day to be obtained and analyzed. The results were weighed to
determine what needs to be explained in more detail in stage 2.
The findings for research question 1 are used to explain and draw conclusions about the noteworthy variations that
exist between the two Twitter accounts and to generate variables for the data collection for stage 2. To observe the most
distinctive feature of each media and their attitudes towards China, news discourses from each media will be analyzed
in stage 2 using qualitative methods. As the statistics from this preliminary study show, the agenda of news coverage
concerning China in the Western media was focused mostly on its politics and economics, and the biggest difference in
reporting lay in the nature of reporting on political news items. Thus, the next investigation of discourse analysis will be
conducted by collecting data in a qualitative manner from specific events regarding key issues, such as politics and
economics. Data collection in stage 2 will also utilize Twitter’s advanced research as a tool by searching for keywords
in each specific news event.
IV. FINDINGS
A. China-Related Reporting on @PDChina and @nytimes
This section discusses the content analysis of China-related news reporting on the Twitter accounts of @PDChina
and @nytimes. The table below provides an overview of the number of tweets published by the two accounts. It is clear
that @PDChina’s volume of reporting on China-related news was much larger than that of @nytimes.
TABLE 1
TWEETS OVER TIME PUBLISHED BY NEWS MEDIA
Year Jan-Dec 2019 Jan-Dec 2020 Jan-Jun 2021
No. of Tweets by @PDChina 2386 2303 1464
No. of Tweets by @nytimes 356 501 155
The following section classifies the tweets according to their relevance to the theme and determines their impact on
China’s image among the global audience. To preserve simplicity in the analysis process, the tweets’ nature was scaled
on three levels (i.e., positive, negative, and neutral). For instance, if a particular tweet promoted a positive image of
China on an international level, it was categorized as positive, and similar merit was used to determine a negative or
neutral category for the other tweets.
The graph below provides an overview of the trends of People’s Daily China’s Twitter account. This overview
suggests that @PDChina focused on neutral reporting the most, followed by Tweets representing a positive image of
China to the international community. The least reported (a negligible number) were news updates that could be
considered negative.
Figure 1. Percentage Volume of Tweets Published by PDChina
On the other hand, the New York Times reporting has been recorded to be containing content that could promote a
negative perception of China in the international community(Pavlićević, 2018).

Figure 2. Percentage Volume of Tweets Published by NYTimes
The following table provides an overview of the tweets published by the Twitter account of People’s Daily China
(@PDChina) from January 2019 to June 2021. It is important to note that redundant tweets were removed during this
phase of the analysis. It was ensured that each tweet only accounts as one during the analysis process to guarantee
reliable and precise outcomes. The tweets were then divided into positive, negative, or neutral based on the kind of
impact that they could have on the international image of China among the global audience.
Based on the information derived from the content analysis, it can be observed that PDChina has been following a
trend that the number of neutral tweets is rising, whereas a significant decline in the negative tweets is apparent. These
attributes serve as supportive elements to promote a positive image of their country. Nonetheless, it is important to note
that no activity on the Twitter account of PDChina was recorded during the months of February 2020 and July 2020;
therefore, those rows of the table have been left blank, whereas the other ones have been analyzed normally.
TABLE 2
NUMBER OF TWEETS PUBLISHED BY PDCHINA OVER 30 MONTHS
Serial Year Month Total Tweets Positive Negative Neutral
1 January 200 21 11 168
2 February 154 4 0 150
3 March 212 12 2 198
4 April 202 6 3 193
5 May 196 4 1 191
6 June 200 2 2 196
7 July 227 7 3 217
8 August 222 9 0 213
9 September 171 13 4 154
10 October 22 23 17 186
11 2019 November 381 14 3 364
12 December 199 29 7 171
13 January 214 20 4 190
14 February - - - -
15 March 170 10 2 158
16 April 210 30 3 177
16 May 223 25 7 191
18 June 229 15 12 202
19 July - - - -
20 August 261 19 5 237
21 September 237 17 9 211
22 October 253 35 10 208
23 2020 November 258 31 5 222
24 December 248 27 6 215
25 January 243 35 10 198
26 February 219 39 7 173
27 March 281 45 9 227
28 2021 April 237 17 2 218
29 May 250 20 4 226
30 June 236 15 12 209
The following table provides an overview of the tweets published by the Twitter account of the New York Times. The
content analysis of the tweets reveals that very few news updates posted by the news agency’s social media account
could be categorized as positive or neutral in terms of their impact on China’s international image. Nonetheless, the
researcher documented that most of the tweets were negative in their nature and apparently followed a targeted
approach to sabotage the image of China in front of the international community. An important aspect worth
considering is that very few tweets were identified that could be helpful for the promotion of a positive image of the
country; however, the negative reporting remained dominant overall.

TABLE 3
NUMBER OF TWEETS PUBLISHED BY NYTIMES OVER 30 MONTHS
Serial Year Month Total Tweets Positive Negative Neutral
1 January 31 3 26 2
2 February 15 3 3 9
3 March 24 2 16 6
4 April 25 3 16 6
5 May 40 4 30 6
6 June 32 1 24 7
7 July 24 3 19 2
8 August 38 0 34 4
9 September 25 3 22 0
10 October 38 7 24 7
11 November 36 3 29 4
12 2019 December 28 3 22 3
13 January 53 7 30 16
14 February 87 17 48 22
15 March 58 5 22 31
16 April 49 6 28 15
16 May 55 5 37 13
18 June 32 4 23 5
19 July 49 6 40 3
20 August 27 3 23 1
21 September 23 2 17 4
22 October 23 7 13 3
23 2020 November 18 3 13 2
24 December 27 5 17 5
25 January 26 3 17 6
26 February 17 6 8 3
27 March 27 1 18 8
28 April 34 7 20 7
29 2021 May 32 14 10 8
30 June 19 4 6 9
In addition to understanding the nature of posting that is taking place on Twitter accounts of Western and Chinese
media outlets, it is also important to consider the issues that have been repeatedly discussed and posted by the outlets.
Given that this study focuses on identifying factors that may or may not have affected the image of China in the
global community, it is important to understand the nature of the issues that have been a part of media reporting.
Another factor that adds to the significance of this study is that repeated reporting of certain issues often results in the
development of a perception toward a specific entity.
China is among the world’s emerging leaders, and the Chinese economy has experienced groundbreaking
development through the modernization of industrial and supply chain practices. China has made significant
advancements in areas such as artificial intelligence, supercomputing, 5G networks, and quantum computing, among
others. Chinese tech giants, including Huawei, Tencent, and Alibaba, are leading innovators in their respective fields
and are increasingly expanding their reach globally. Although this development is positive, it has made China appear as
a competitor in the eyes of Western countries. China’s rapid economic growth and increasing technological capabilities
have led to concerns in the West that China could threaten the West’s economic and technological dominance. China has
become a major player in global trade and is increasingly investing in research and development, particularly in the
areas of artificial intelligence, supercomputing, and 5G networks. This shift has led to concerns in the West that China
could overtake them in certain technological domains, potentially leading to a shift in global power dynamics. A
common assumption exists that Western countries have been using their media houses to undermine Chinese
accomplishments in the domains of science and technology by promoting stereotypes about China. The United States
and other Western countries have accused China of engaging in unfair trade practices, such as requiring foreign
companies to share their technology with Chinese partners to do business in the country. This perception has led to
concerns that China is using unfair means to acquire foreign technology and gain a competitive advantage. Concerns
also exist in the West about the potential security risks posed by Chinese technology companies such as Huawei. The
United States and other Western countries have raised concerns that the Chinese government could use Huawei’s
technology for espionage, leading to calls for restrictions on the use of Chinese technology in critical infrastructure and
other sensitive areas.
To understand the nature of the issues being reported and discussed in Chinese and Western media, it is important to
carry out this particular segment of the content analysis process.

TABLE 4
MOST DISCUSSED TOPICS BY MEDIA OUTLETS OVER 30 MONTHS
Ranking Most Discussed Topic by @PDChina Frequency
1st Covid 438
2nd Trade War 236
3rd Technology 228
4th Economy 213
5th International Relations 198
Ranking Most Discussed Topic by @nytimes Frequency
1st US, China Relationships 219
2nd Covid 217
3rd Hong Kong 112
4th Taiwan 66
5th Uighurs 50
The @nytimes prioritized the bilateral relationships between China and the United States, which has been a focus of
their reporting through the research data. During the analysis, it was discovered that NYTimes especially prioritizes
topics such as trade and finance, and the majority of their tweets/updates have been indicative of certain
scenarios/changes in events that could occur due to worsening China-US relationships. However, a fair share of their
updates was also related to the internal issues of China, and although some of their tweets were neutral, a vast majority
of their updates showcased a vendetta, as a notable volume of their tweets was found to be targeted at China, which
could seriously hamper Chinese efforts to modify the perception of the international community to eradicate certain
stereotypes that exist across the globe.
B. Discursive Strategies of News Discourse in China-Related News in @PDChina and @nytimes
It was discovered that @PDChina mainly employed four discursive strategies to build themes of the news events and
gather the attention of audiences locally and internationally. These discursive strategies involved borrowing a
professional voice to exert integrity in capturing of event, using reporting verbs, deploying supportive and positive
adjectives and nouns, and using active verbs.
Through the use of different discursive devices and linguistic features, news media materialized different strategies in
the discourse analysis. To represent the news of a trade event between China and the United States while strictly
remaining in the nexus of the conflict frame to demonstrate the agreeability of China in response to American resistance,
@PDChina reported the event by borrowing the voice of professionals, using reporting verbs such as “said WTO Chief.”
It is important to mention that using reporting verbs, along with referencing professionals’ quotes, lends credibility to
the portrayal of an event. @PDChina used this strategy because it had to resort to a defensive side to remove the blame
exerted by Western media houses. At a textual level, @PDChina reported the event in the words of the WTO Chief of
the United States to strengthen its own position in covering the event because American media houses are often more
trusted and relied upon.
Excerpt: “China will be more willing to participate in global trade reforms if it does not feel being targeted, said
WTO chief as US, EU, and Japan are pushing for curbs on state support for industrial subsidies to address concerns
about China’s state-owned enterprises” (April 28, 2021).
Since discursive strategies rely on discursive devices and linguistic features, different discursive strategies can
employ the same devices to convey a broader meaning. @PDChina deployed the discursive strategy of framing by
using the rhetoric device of active verbs to signify the conflict associated with the event coverage. In the following
excerpt, the news channel built the event of US-China trade relations in terms of disagreement; however, the rhetoric of
the active verbs “regrets” and “opposes” was deployed to exert the authority of the news channel. As opposed to the
Western media houses, which tend to undermine China’s position by exerting their ownership through the occasional
use of active form, PDChina usually counters with active verbs to clarify the stance of the Chinese government on
issues that are uncompromisable. This is why active narration is usually found in a lesser quantity when @PDChina
presents the most contentious events of the US-China trade. However, some adverbs, such as “deeply,” are used
frequently by @PDChina to represent the depth of the narration.
Excerpt: “China deeply regrets and firmly opposes #US withdrawal from the #INF Treaty, saying the withdrawal is
a negative move by the US to pursue unilateralism in disregard of its international commitments: Chinese Ambassador
for Disarmament Affairs on Tue” (August 7, 2019).
Western media also often highlighted points of disagreement between mainland China and Taiwan. However, at the
textual level, the discourse analysis of the tweets of @PDChina shows that it used certain nouns, such as “artists” to
refer to Taiwanese talent and welcome this talent to mainland China. In addition, such news events were often reported
on behalf of an unknown third person to make the news relevant to all audiences and introduce a human face into the
conflict frame by minimizing the authority exerted by Western media houses, which often adopt a negative stance on
China–Taiwanese relations. The use of this discursive strategy is visible below:
Excerpt: “Chinese mainland on Wednesday voiced support for the participation of artists from the #Taiwan region
in cooperation and exchange activities in the film and television sector in developing their careers on the mainland, a
mainland spokesperson said” (September 30, 2020).

In contrast, @nytimes used the strategy of drawing from its own experience to generate the gist of a particular news
event. This method is not strange because @nytimes usually glorifies the image of the United States while undermining
the significance of events. In other words, the United States becomes the center, and events that are either directly
linked or not to the United States are peripheral. For example, @nytimes never reported the progress of China’s space
initiative without first comparing it to the bright history of the United States in space endeavors. Other discursive
strategies involve the use of emotive words, borrowing the voice of other entities, and making China the “subject” of
conflict-promoting news.
The @nytimes account portrayed the launch of the Chinese rover on Mars from a personal narrative. Although it
mainly made China the subject and spotlight of contentious events, it tended to cover the most benign news event of the
space program. The narration of the events through personal experience typically adopts the first-person pronouns of “I”
and “We” to reflect credibility, but @nytimes used this discursive strategy to shift the narrative of positive events to the
United States without deploying first-person pronouns. In addition, these news events were reported on the authority of
a third person or analysts qualified enough to present their views on a certain issue to achieve a conflict-framing
strategy while remaining apparently neutral and critical in the portrayal of the event.
Excerpt: “More than just China’s pride is at stake in the launch of Tianwen-1. ‘The Communist Party of China
wants to prove to the world that they are actually a legitimate alternative to a U.S.-led space order,’ one analyst said”
(July 20, 2020).
As established earlier in this paper, the New York Times mainly deployed active verbs to cover all the events of
conflict between China and the United States on the matters of trade, China’s space voyages, and Taiwan to grab the
attention of the audience worldwide. Nevertheless, it is important to note that these words were usually emotive in tone,
signifying an intense conflict. Although emotive words are also used by other media sources to achieve conflict framing,
their use is mainly centered around agreement and peace rather than disagreement. In the following tweet, note the word
“wrath,” which is quite aggressive for portraying an event of China–Taiwan interaction.
Excerpt: “Taiwan’s president, on a visit to the United States, said her people would ‘never be intimidated,’ risking
China’s wrath and a further fraying of ties between Beijing and the Trump administration” (July 12, 2019).
Some events were portrayed by making China the subject and simultaneously portraying other events that directly
borrow the voice of China to achieve the discursive strategy. This technique renders @nytimes neutral. For instance,
trade events were mainly reported on the authority of China, and the United States expressed some concerns. In this
manner, the news media source achieved a conflict-framing strategy by showing a partial disagreement on the part of
the United States while equally turning the news event toward the Chinese perspective.
Excerpt: “Breaking News: China said it agreed to an initial trade deal with the US that would roll back some tariffs,
a major de-escalation in the trade war. Initial China Trade Deal Defuses Tensions, but U.S. Still Has Concerns. The
agreement includes a commitment by China to buy more agriculture products and to strengthen laws protecting foreign
companies operating there” (December 13, 2019).
V. CONCLUSION
The findings suggested that @PDChina used different discursive strategies and rhetorical devices compared to the
Western media houses. It represented dismay at the US policies and actions in some instances; however, it remained
very direct and clear by deploying adjectives and verbs and using direct quotes. On the other hand, Western news
outlets remained seemingly objective; however, they used more subtle and shady adjectives to represent their bias and
signify conflict.
All these strategies demonstrate that Western countries believe that China is their strategic rival and competitor. On
that same note, active verbs were used by these Twitter news sources instead of other forms of verbs to cast doubt on
Chinese initiatives. These findings are consistent with the literature review, which mentions that Western media houses
rely on different rhetorical devices and linguistic units to remain objective at the surface and blame Chinese media for
deliberately trying to improve China's image (Jacobsen & Kristiansen, 2015).
This study has several limitations. Firstly, to some extent, the data only present the period studied. Because the news
content and discourse rely greatly on the relationship between China and the US. However, during the period studied,
China and the US are experiencing a tough relationship. Secondly, the data only include the discourse of the news
content, some other contents of news such as pictures, videos, audios, and links to websites are excluded. These
elements of news content may generate different interpretations of the news content.
Despite limitations, this research has provided some contributions to the study of social media news discourse.
Specifically, it has enriched the empirical studies in China-related news reporting to further understand China’s
international image. It has also provided some enlightenment for the Chinese news media in terms of the adaptation of
social media platforms.
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Xiaoyan Zhang was born on January 14, 1985, in Baoding, Hebei Province, China. She is currently working on her PhD degree
at the Language Academy of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in English Broadcasting and
Anchoring major in 2007 from Communication University of China, and her Master’s degree in International Journalism in 2008
from Hongkong Baptist University.
She is a lecturer at the School of Foreign Languages for Business in Hebei Finance University, China. She teaches courses such as
English Listening and Speaking, Intercultural Business Communication, English Pronunciation, etc.
Noor Aireen Ibrahim received her PhD degree in the area of Language and Communication from University of Cardiff Wales,
UK in 2008. She also earned her MA in Language and Communication Research at the same university. Her bachelor’s degree is in
Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) from University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
She is an Associate Professor at Language Academy, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Johor Bahru, Malaysia. She is a
Language and Communication researcher with a particular interest in discourse driven research especially in the areas of Health
Communication, Professional Communication and Media Communication.
Aminabibi Saidalvi received her PhD degree in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) from Universiti Teknologi
Malaysia (UTM) in 2016. She also holds a Master of Education (M.Ed) from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) obtained in 2009.
She has a bachelor’s degree in TESL from Universiti of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
She is an Associate Professor at the Academy of Language Studies, UiTM Johor, Pasir Gudang Campus. Her teaching and
research interests include Applied Linguistics, Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL), Online Integrated Language
Learning, Online Classroom Interaction Analysis and Oral Communication Skills.

ISSN 1799-2591
Revisiting the Violence of Sri Lanka’s Civil War:

A Study of Apocalypse as Portrayed in Shyam
D. Venisha
Department of English, School of Social Sciences and Languages, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India
Yadamala Sreenivasulu
Department of English, School of Social Sciences and Languages, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India
Abstract—This study analyses the ethnic conflict and civil war in Sri Lanka after gaining independence as
portrayed in Shyam Selvadurai’s Funny Boy. The aim is to determine if the violent acts committed against the
minority group can amount to apocalypse. This research examines the concept of ethnic conflict and the
apocalypse depicted in "Funny Boy" by Shyam Selvadurai. The analysis focuses on how ethnic conflict is
portrayed in the novel. This study explores the thematic elements described in Shyam Selvadurai's novel
Funny Boy, which provides a narrative account of the 1983 July riot in Sri Lanka. The novel vividly illustrates
the anti-Tamil pogrom during the 1983 Black July riot. It also explores the Struggles and violence of Sri
Lankans during the war. Furthermore, it analyses the remnants of violence and the apocalypse destruction of
the Jaffna library in 1981. This study addresses the civil war between the Sinhalese government and Tamil
Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka.
Index Terms—apocalypse, race, Civil War, Ethnic Riot
I. INTRODUCTION
Shyam Selvadurai, a Sri Lankan-Canadian author, is highly regarded as one of Sri Lanka's most esteemed literary
figures. His impressive debut novel, Funny Boy (1994), has firmly established his status as a significant contributor to
the country's literary scene. Selvadurai was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1965. In 1983, when he was nineteen, his
family moved to Toronto, Canada, after experiencing a racial riot. Funny Boy has been translated into different
languages. Some of Shyam Selvadurai’s notable works are Funny Boy (1994), Cinnamon Gardens (1998), Swimming
in the Monsoon Sea (2005), and The Hungry Ghost (2013). He edited an essay where he expressed his feelings of
alienation.
In civil states, ethnic conflict emerges when two groups from different ethnic backgrounds hold divergent views on
various aspects, including language, religion, culture, and other variables. Typically, this conflict arises between a
majority ethnic group and a minority ethnic group.
II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Manda (2022) states that Arjie's quest for identity is set within the context of the socio-political upheaval in Sri
Lanka. This study examines a turbulent journey of a young boy as he confronts familial and societal pressures while
grappling with his homoerotic desire. Examines how the personal and the political intertwine with each other and affect
the lives of individuals in ways that are often detrimental to the pursuit of individual desires.
Saraswathi’s (2017) article suggests how the ethnic crisis revolves around the novel through the characters, mainly
Sinhalese and Tamils. It has ethnic conflict as its backbone.
Sanuri Helmini Wanninayake’s (2013) article analysis of the role of the ethnic conflict and its level of victimisation
has been examined, and it also argues that both refugees and terrorists can be considered victims of the trauma
engendered by the ethnic conflict. The study hopes to benefit the areas of terrorist and refugee psychology and studies
of war-related trauma.
Tariq (2019), in his article he analysis, exposes the horrors of ethnic conflict and simultaneously accounts for the
gradual sexual awakening of its young protagonist. It also explores the themes of confusion, alienation and loneliness in
the novel through the study of characters.


III. OBJECTIVE AND RESEARCH QUESTION

This study aims to investigate the apocalypse, Violence and struggle of Sri Lankans during the Ethnic Conflict as
portrayed in Shyam Selvadurai’s Funny Boy. For the analysis, primary texts regarding the Sri Lankan war are used to
expose the horrors, catastrophes of Sri Lankans during the Civil War.
1. What are the underlying factors contributing to the subjugation, exploitation, and apocalypse experienced by
minority groups in Sri Lanka perpetrated by the prevailing majority group?
2. Is the status, apocalypse, violence and problems associated with ethnic conflicts universal?
IV. BACKGROUND OF FUNNY BOY

The novel Funny Boy focuses on Arjie (Arjun) Chelvaratnam, exploring his journey of self-discovery and evolution.
In this novel, Shyam Selvadurai, a writer of Sri Lankan origin, portrays his life experiences. The text comprises a fusion
of autobiographical and historical narratives. The novel Funny Boy comprises six memorable narratives that revolve
around the experiences of Arjie Chelvaratnam, a young boy. During his formative years, the author examines the
progressive intensification of racial violence. Despite being born into a privileged Tamil family, the family's socio-
economic status is drastically diminished to that of refugees due to the 1983 riots. They abandoned their belongings and
sought refuge in Canada to preserve their lives. The novel adeptly depicts the traumatic events of Black July through the
relatable character of Arjie, who serves as a survivor of that era.
The novel "Funny Boy" by Selvadurai depicts the life of its protagonist, Arjie Chelvaratnam, from beginning to end.
The story occurs between 1977 and 1983, a crucial moment in Sri Lankan history. In the novel's opening narrative,
Shyam Selvadurai recounts Arjie's exile. The second part of the narrative novel revolves around Radha and Anil. The
third narrative revolves around the character of Mr. Daryl, who travels back to Colombo from Australia intending to
uncover the truth surrounding the Sri Lankan government's alleged torture of Tamils. It also covers the LTTE's
(Liberation of Tamil Tigers Eelam) struggle for a separate state in Sri Lanka. The arrival of Jagan Parameswaran marks
the commencement of the fourth narrative. The narrative culminates in a confrontation between Sinhala groups and
Tamil communities. In this section, Jagan articulates his discontent with people from his ethnic community. Political
issues become more significant in the fifth narrative. The concluding chapter serves as an epilogue wherein the narrator
proceeds to chronicle the occurrences of the preceding section within the confines of his diary. Shyam Selvadurai has
analysed the 1956, 1977, and 1983 events in Sri Lanka (Kaur, 2019, p. 294).
The author provides a detailed account of the extraordinary occurrence within the narrative. The Gal Oya pogrom of
1956 marked the initial occurrence of an anti-Tamil pogrom in post-independence Ceylon. In the years 1958, 1977, and
1981, events of anti-Tamil pogroms occurred, during which Sinhala mobs engaged in acts of ransacking, looting, and
arson, targeting residential dwellings, commercial establishments, and office spaces as they engaged in violent activities
throughout Colombo Street. The Sinhala Only Act, implemented in 1956, is widely regarded as a substantial factor
contributing to the conflict, with allegations of atrocious intent associated with its enactment. The implementation of
this policy led to a simultaneous decline in the Tamil sector, which had been a crucial source of support for the Tamil
population in the northern region since the colonial era. Although it originated as a peaceful demonstration, it rapidly
transformed into a relentless account of retribution. The primary purpose of this study is to examine the impact of the
1958 riot and the 1981 Black July riot on the characters in the novel. Apart from the introductory section, nearly all the
significant narratives in Funny Boy portray the intensifying ethnic strife between the Tamil and Sinhalese communities.
The first chapter of the description, entitled "Pigs Can't Fly," describes Arjie's enthusiastic recollections of his joyful
childhood experiences while visiting his grandmother's residence. Nevertheless, his most cherished days became remote
recollections after the Black July incident.
V. DISCUSSION
A. Sinhala Only Act – 1958 Language and Racial Riot
The Ceylon, which was under British rule, achieved independence in the year 1948. Following the attainment of
Independence, the government, predominantly composed of the Sinhala majority, enacted numerous laws that exhibited
discriminatory tendencies towards the minority population. In 1956, the government introduced the Sinhala Only Act,
establishing Sinhala as the country’s official language. This resulted in widespread riots and sectarian bloodshed, paving
the way for conflict and establishing a state of emergency in 1958 (Veerasamy, 2019, p. 535).
The language policy, namely the "Sinhala Only" regulation, is portrayed in Funny Boy. It concentrates on how ethnic
conflicts affect the daily lives of people. The narrative "Radha Aunty" takes place within the context of the language riot
that occurred in 1958. The underlying factor contributing to the issue can be attributed to the Sinhala Only Act,
implemented in 1956, which is widely regarded as a significant contributing factor to the conflict, with allegations of
genocidal intent. The implementation of this policy led to a corresponding decrease in the Tamil sector, which had been
a crucial source of livelihood for the Tamil population in the northern region since the colonial era. Although it
originated as a peaceful demonstration, it swiftly transformed into a relentless account of retribution. Events in 1958

resulted in a deterioration of the mutual regard that existed among each community. This study aims to thoroughly
examine the repercussions of the 1958 riot on the development and portrayal of the characters in the novel.
B. Ethnic Distinctions
Arjie hears the term "racist" for the first time, which his father explains to him (Selvadurai, 1994, p. 60). The
protagonist Arjie discovers that his forefather experienced a heart-wrenching demise amidst the racial upheaval that
occurred in the 1950s. Until then, Arjie's sole recollection of his great-grandfather was limited to a photograph that
occupied a significant place among other pictures in his grandparents' hallway. According to the evidence given by
Janaki, the domestic worker, he cannot establish a personal connection with the deceased individual. He is witnessing
the unfolding of the history of the Tamil-Sinhala struggle. Arjie learns from his father about the reason for the 1950s
rebellion that murdered his great-grandfather. His father informed him about the cause of the 1950s rebellion that
resulted in the death of his great-grandfather (Dutta, 2020, p. 10684). Arjie becomes aware of a linguistic dispute
between the Sinhalese and the Tamils. He is informed about the presence of the Tamil Tigers in Jaffna.
In the aftermath of the event, Arjie develops an awareness of the political turmoil within the nation and vocalises his
concerns about it “From then on, I began to listen carefully to the adults’ conversation to discover more about the
quarrels between the Sinhalese and the Tamils” (Selvadurai, 1994, p. 61).
In the novel Funny Boy, the character Sonali, Arjie's sister, demonstrates the influence of racial awareness and
heightened ethnic consciousness. Sonali, a person of Tamil descent, expresses a desire to identify as either Sinhalese or
foreign, as she believes such an identity shift would contribute to a life devoid of panic. Sonali admits: “Sometimes I
wish I was a Sinhalese or a foreigner” (Selvadurai, 1994, p. 196). Another notable occurrence is that Arjie experienced
significant anxiety upon learning about several sporadic incidents. He recollected the statements made by his father
regarding the conflicts that transpired in the 1950s between the Sinhalese and Tamils, resulting in significant casualties
among the Tamil population. As a member of the victim's ethnic group, he experienced substantial fear regarding the
possibility of enduring a comparable destiny as his Great-grandfather.
During another occurrence, in the 1983 riot, Arjie became aware of the racial disparity between his companion
Shehan and himself, a realisation that had previously eluded him. During the hazardous escape of Arjie and his family,
Shehan provided a source of comfort and hope during the dire situation. Arjie, as a member of the victimised
community, contemplated the factors that contributed to his friend Shehan's ability to lead a tranquil existence,
juxtaposed with their inability to secure safety within the nation.
The novel extensively depicts ethnic conflict as the predominant catalyst for forming ethnic identity, as evidenced by
the detailed narrative of ethnic riots between the Sinhalese and the Tamils. These riots serve as significant empirical
evidence supporting the existence of distinct racial groups. Another essential aspect that should be considered when
analysing this novel is the explicit effort made by both Sinhalese and Tamils to establish their ancestral ties to Sri Lanka.
The issue of race came to his attention, prompting him to recognise the ethnic distinction promptly. Upon this incident,
Arjie's consciousness was awakened to the reality of racial inequality during the conflict.
C. Description of the Egregious Race Riot
Ajie's aunt, Radha, was returning from Jaffna. Nevertheless, an egregious riot ensued during her return journey from
Jaffna to Colombo. Ammachi was informed of an incident where Sinhala extremists perpetrated an assault on the Tamil
community on a train, resorting to hurling stones and bottles at the train. Mr. Rasiah, an acquaintance of the family, who
assisted Radha during a highly tumultuous riot, proceeded to elucidate the entire sequence of events. Radha, who
sustained injuries during the riot, experienced profound astonishment. The author has ingeniously crafted the character
of Mr. Rasiah to elucidate the most severe riot and its consequential effects on the surface of Radha (Goswami & Kar,
2021, p. 93).
Mr. Rasiah provided an account of the incident in which she was subjected to an assault by two Sinhala race
individuals wielding a stick. At the same time, the others had a belt in their possession. Additionally, the individual
recounted their successful rescue operation, attributing their success to their proficient command of the Sinhalese
language, which led the mob to perceive them as fellow Sinhalese. Ajie provides a vivid account of the profound nature
of the unprovoked assault on his aunt through his observation of her countenance.
Radha Aunty walked slowly, her hand resting on Mr. Rasiah’s arm. She was wearing a scarf and she kept her
head bent. When she was close to us, she lifted her head and we all stared at her in horror. (Selvadurai, 1994, p.
88).
The profound impact of the aggressive assault by the Sinhalese mob is evident in the notable shifts observed in
Radha's act. Being a victim, she exhibited a heightened awareness of racial distinctions. The concept of race is
extensively explored from multiple perspectives. The novel contains several sections that explore the idea of race and its
associated aspects through various incidents.
D. 1981 Racial Riot and Apocalypse
In 1981, Sinhalese mobs initiated a resumption of their forceful attacks targeting Tamil insurgents. Mr. Daryl, a man
from Australia, has arrived in Colombo intending to investigate the alleged involvement of the Sri Lankan government
in perpetuating torture against Tamils. His ultimate objective is to reveal the truth and ensure justice is served.

Additionally, it encompasses the Liberation of Tamil Tigers Eelam (LTTE)'s endeavour to establish a separate territory
in Sri Lanka. Arjie gains consciousness of the prevailing social and political volatility within Sri Lanka after the
inadvertent demise of Daryl Brohier in the region of Jaffna. The disappearance and subsequent murder of Daryl
illustrate the discriminatory practices and terrible treatment that minority populations experience within the jurisdiction.
Arjie’s mother was worried about the disappearance of Daryl (Dutta, 2020, p. 10684).
In 1981, Sinhalese mobs recommenced their violent assaults against Tamil insurgents. The troops were instructed to
march towards Jaffna and smash the Tamil movement. They aimed to prevent Eelam from gaining independence and
limit access to it. Jaffna has transformed a region known for its militancy and occupation. Arjie’s mother was waiting in
school for Arjie. Arjie states, “I saw the expression on her face and felt afraid” (Selvadurai, 1994, p. 122). Arjie, from
the expression of his mother, learned about the burning of the Jaffna library.
“The Jaffna library was burned by the police this morning. Ninety-thousand books were set on fire” (Selvadurai,
1994, p. 122).
Burning the Jaffna Public Library in 1981 was an essential incident in Sri Lanka's civil war. Sinhala mobs' burning of
the Jaffna Public Library was considered cultural destruction. On June 1, 1981, Sri Lankan security forces and state-
sponsored mobs set fire to the Jaffna Public Library. The act mentioned can be described as a severe offence against the
cultural heritage of the Tamil minority. Sinhalese mobs resumed their brutal attacks on Tamil insurgents in 1981. They
were instructed to march to Jaffna and destroy the Tamil insurgency to prevent independence and access to Eelam.
Jaffna was turned into a militant and occupied region. The destruction of the Jaffna library sparked the Tamil Tiger
insurrection. According to Matulewska and Gwiazdowicz’s Statement, the act of extracting and vandalising books,
artworks, sculptures, and other cultural artefacts. Furthermore, it caused significant damage to archival materials as
cultural genocide. (Matulewska & Gwiazdowicz, 2022). The act of setting fire to the Jaffna library was widely regarded
as an instance of cultural destruction with significant implications for the Sri Lankan Tamil community. After the
devastating destruction of the Jaffna library that many of the Tamils commenced advocating for or engaging in
nonviolent resistance (Kumarathasan, 2022). The event held enormous emotional significance for the Tamil community,
catalysing the emergence of the Tamil Tiger insurrection.
E. Apocalypse 1983 Riot – Traumatic Event of Black July
The month of July in 1983, commonly referred to as "Black July," marked a distressing period in Tamil history
characterised by the perpetration of violence against Tamils by state authorities and Sinhalese vigilante groups resulting
from ethnic tensions. In the July Riot of 1983, Arjie became aware of an alternate realm characterised by violence,
horror, injustice, and assault. Despite having been exposed to various instances of ethnic violence since his early years,
it was the 1983 riot that significantly disrupted the tranquillity of his existence. In due course, it resulted in his family
being rendered refugees. Upon the eruption of the riot, he harboured no anticipation that it would ultimately transpire as
the most severe riot in the nation's annals. The news of the riot in their community shocked him when his father
informed him about the conflict. In addition, his father clarified that the riot was instigated by Sinhalese extremists who
wanted revenge for the Tigers' recent killing of thirteen soldiers. Following the funeral, Sinhala mobs expressed their
anger by engaging in a violent and destructive episode, utilising objects such as sticks, clubs, tires, and petrol
(Wanninayake, 2013, p. 31).
The author provides an extensive portrayal of a severe communal riot and the narrative of a representative Tamil
family's struggle for survival, as depicted through the lens of Arjie's family. The individuals were informed that many
Tamil-owned establishments had been subjected to arson, resulting in the looting of their contents by unruly crowds.
Additionally, the Arjies family, after receiving information that the mobs were identifying Tamil households through the
electoral list, the mother firmly believed that the government was responsible for the riot. Arjie states that “At first I
didn't comprehend the reason for the electoral lists, but now I have thought about it and I understand. Since the mobs
have electoral lists, they know which houses are Tamil and which houses aren't. This means that we have no chance of
escaping if the mob comes down our road” (Selvadurai, 1994, p. 289). July riot of 1983 resulted in the tragic loss of
lives, including that of their grandparents.
In Funny Boy, the author deftly depicts how a select group of Sinhalese people helped Arjie's family amidst severe
civil unrest. This tumultuous period is characterised by the rampant destruction of shops and residences and the targeted
violence against Tamils, resulting in the tragic loss of innocent lives. Mr. and Mrs. Perera, notable individuals of
Sinhalese descent, protected Arjie's family from a hostile mob by hiding them in their storage facility for extended
periods. During their violent rampage in the streets, the Sinhala mobs engaged in destruction, targeting residential
properties, commercial establishments, and office spaces. “The Tamil shops had been set on fire and the mobs were
looting and burning” (Selvadurai, 1994, p. 291). Similarly, The Arjie family has received information that a mob has
demolished Arjie’s residence and his grandmother’s.
I try to remind myself that the house is destroyed, that we will never live in it again," he says, looking at his
shattered house (Selvadurai, 1994, p. 298). Arjie's family received the news “3:00 P.M. We have just heard the
news about Ammachi's and Appachi's house. It, too, has been destroyed (Selvadurai, 1994, p. 298).
During the 1983 riots, Sena demonstrated great courage by endangering his life to provide refugee for Arjie's family.
The Sena had encountered violent threats from members of his community due to his assistance to a Tamil family. One
noteworthy occurrence involved the reception of an anonymous telephone communication wherein Sena was accused as

a traitor for protecting Tamil descent. Arjie indicates that “Sena Uncle has received an anonymous phone call. The
caller knows that we are here. He called Sena Uncle a traitor for sheltering Tamils” (Selvaduri, 1994, p. 299). Shyam
Selvadurai vividly depicts the terrible incident by portraying Sena's character. Sena had witnessed the mob engaged in
the act of setting the car on fire, with the inclusion of both Arjie's grandparents. “The mob had set the car on fire with
Ammachi and Appachi inside it” (Selvadura, 1994, p. 306).
Arjie recounts the extent of casualties and property damage inflicted upon the Tamil community by Sinhala mobs
engaged in violent acts during the 1983 riots. While exhaustive accounts of the violence remain scarce, the narrator
recalls instances where Tamil-owned establishments were subjected to looting and arson, resulting in the tragic loss of
lives, including that of their grandparents. “The mobs had set the car fire with Ammachi and Appachi inside it”
(Selvadurai, 1994, p. 306). Arije recounts the violence that occurred during the riots.
VI. CONCLUSION
Arjie, the protagonist in the novel "Funny Boy," recounts the experiences of conflicting emotions of apprehension
and sentimentality as he confronts the necessity of departing from his native land amidst the backdrop of ethnic turmoil.
The detailed portrayal of ethnic riots between the Sinhalese and Tamils, which serves as compelling evidence of their
racial identities, shows that the novel provides an exhaustive account of ethnic conflict as the primary determinant of
race. An additional aspect that warrants attention during the examination of this novel is the conspicuous presence of
Sinhalese and Tamils, both striving to assert their ancestral claims to Sri Lanka through distinct methods. Arjie recounts
the significant loss of life and destruction of property inflicted upon the Tamil community by Sinhala mobs during the
1983 riots. The author examines the tragic loss of life during the ethnic conflict. Detailed accounts of the violence
remain scarce. Shyam Selvadurai illustrates the incidents involving the looting and arson of Tamil-owned
establishments during the conflict. To conclude, the narratives presented by the authors provide evidence suggesting
that the Sinhala Only Act of 1956, along with the state-sponsored riots of 1958 and 1983. This study analyses the civil
war between the Sinhalese government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka.
REFERENCES
[1] Dutta Kakali. (2020). Writing the Home Writing the Nation: A Reading of Shyam Selvadurai’s Funny Boy, IJIRSET, 9(11). P.
10683-10684.
[2] Goonetilleke, D. C. R. A. (1987). In his Between Cultures: Essays on Literature, Language and Education. Sri Satguru.
[3] Goswami, Soumi. Kar, Angshuman. (2021). Representation of Ethnicity in Select Novels of Sri Lankan Diasporic Writers.
(Doctoral dissertation, The University of Burdwan). pp. 93 -95.
[4] Kaur, M. (2019). The Representation of Ethnicity in the Selected Novels of Shyam Selvadurai, Research Journal of English,
4(3). p. 294.
[5] Kanimozhi. (2020). “Ethnic Conflict of the Sri Lankan Tamils Delineated in Select Novels: A Study of the Structured Cultural
Genocide”. (Doctoral dissertation, Bharathiar University). p. 97.
[6] Kumarathasan. (2022). The Burning of Jaffna Library: 41 years of in South Asia. Counter
[7] Lekamge, W. L. R. C., & Hapugoda, H. A. M. A. (2022). “De-Territorialization” as depicted by Shyam Selvadurai and Nayomi
Munaweera. Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Review, 7(3), pp. 201-203.
[8] Matulewska, A., & Gwiazdowicz, D. J. (2022). In quest of genocide understanding: Multiple faces of genocide. International
Journal for the Semiotics of Law-Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique, 35(4), p. 1425.
[9] Saraswathi. (2017). Ethnic Crisis and Apartheid in Shyam Selvadurai’s Funny Boy. International Journal of Research and
Reviews in Applied Sciences and Engineering (IJRRASE), 9(1), 401-404.
[10] Satgunarajah, M. (2016). "Never Again": The Case Study of Sri Lanka and the Collective Action Theory of Genocide (Doctoral
dissertation, University of Windsor (Canada). pp. 1-15.
[11] Security Council Report. (2011). UN Documents. Retrieved on January 23, 2023, from
https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/un-documents/document/poc-rep-on-account-in-sri-lanka.php
[12] Selvadurai, S. (1994). Funny Boy. Gurgaon: Penguin Books.
[13] Tariq. (2017). Conflict of Cultural Values in Selvadurai’s Funny Boy. An International Journal in English, 3(6). p. 2.
[14] Veerasamy, P. (2019). The Influence of Politics in Shyam Selvadurai’s Funny Boy, Research Journal of English, 4(1).533-534.
[15] Wanninayake, M. (2013). "Narratives of Trauma: A Theoretical Insight into Refugee and Terrorist Psychology in Funny Boy
and Island of a Thousand Mirrors". Dissertation, University of Kelaniya. pp. 31-45.
D. Venisha is a Research Scholar from Vellore Institute of Technology. Pursuing her research under the guidance of Dr Yadamala
Sreenivasulu at Vellore Institute of Technology. Her research areas include Post-colonial Literature, Canadian Literature, and Indian
English Literature.
Yadamala Sreenivasulu (Corresponding Author), Assistant Professor in Department of English, School of Social Sciences and
Languages, Vellore Institute of Technology. His area of research includes ELT, Post-colonial literature, Comparative Literature, and
Film Studies.

Call for Papers and Special Issue Proposals
Aims and Scope
Theory and Practice in Language Studies (TPLS) is a peer-reviewed international journal dedicated to promoting scholarly
exchange among teachers and researchers in the field of language studies. The journal is published monthly.
TPLS carries original, full-length articles and short research notes that reflect the latest developments and advances in both
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Theory and Practice in Language Studies

Volume 13, Number 9, September 2023

Comparative Images in Vietnamese Perception Through Idioms With Comparisons 2179

Role of Learning Environment in Arabic as a Foreign Language in Saudi Arabia 2186

Anti-Locality and Covert Movement in Arabic 2195

A Critique of Etaf Rum's A Woman Is No Man 2292

Cognitive Process and Skill Training of Time-Limited Sight Translation 2331

The Feasibility of Critical Literacy Practices in an EFL Reading Class 2356

Gender Stereotypes in TV Commercials: A Multimodal Analysis Approach 2365

On Linguistic Reviews of Arabic and Bangla: A Comparative Study 2375

Mystical Implicature of Javanese Mantras: From Lingual to Transcendental? 2384

Black vs. White: Referring to Black Friday in Jordan 2392

Learning Mathematics in English Through the

© 2023 ACADEMY PUBLICATION

II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE

A. Think-Talk-Write Learning Strategy

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(a). Studies on the Use of Think-Talk-Write to Enhance Writing Abilities

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A. An EFL Mathematics Classroom Setting

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A. The Effects of the TTW Strategy on Learning Mathematics in English

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4 “Not straight, mixed with Thai.” (Student 06)

A. The Effectiveness of the TTW Strategy on Learning Mathematics in English

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An Investigation Into the Psychological and

Index Terms—diaspora, migration, expatriates, psychological, cultural

II. A BRIEF OVERVIEW ABOUT THE INDIAN DIASPORA

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III. LITERATURE REVIEW

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Comparative Images in Vietnamese Perception

II. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

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III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

IV. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

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A. Comparative Images From Humans

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Role of Learning Environment in Arabic as a

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II. MATERIALS AND METHODS

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