International Linguistics Research

Peer Observation as a Professional Development Intervention in EFL Pedagogy

Zulfiqar Ahmad — Tue, 21 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0800

Most research on peer observation as a professional development intervention in EFL contexts focuses either on teachers' perceptions about its usefulness or the methodical frameworks. There are a few studies which report real-time incidence of a peer observed lesson. To fill this gap, the present study arranged a peer observation for a reading lesson on top-down processing skills to reflect upon the strengths and weaknesses of the lesson as well as develop the reading literacy of the students. The peer observation method included a pre-observation stage with the teacher and the observer deciding on the modalities of observation. The second stage was the lesson which was peer observed followed by the post-lesson reflection stage. The results obtained through teachers' reflection on different aspects of the lesson and the peer observer's report revealed that most stages and activities of the lesson went as planned except for the final where issues of activity management, teacher feedback, and coherent lesson progression came up to the fore. The study has significance for EFL practitioners interested in initiating self-directed professional development through peer observation in particular and for researchers of professional development studies in general.

Performative Speech Acts in the Translation of Indonesian Legal Documents into English

I Wayan Ana, Ida Bagus Putra Yadnya, I Made Budiarsa, Ida Ayu Made Puspani — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0800

The aim of this research is to find out speech acts used in legal documents. To discuss the problems of this research, two theories are applied, namely, the translation theory of Newmark completed by the concept of pragmatic (for what purpose, to whom, when and where the legal documents are used), while for speech acts typology, Searle's theory is applied. The data used for this research were taken from 6 (six) legal documents in the form of employment contract, conciliation agreement, lease agreement, sales agreement, lease of resident and business place and lease of villa agreement. Based on the results of the analysis, it was found that from the five specific types of speech acts put forward by Searle and Cruse, only 4 (four) speech acts were found, namely, (1) representative, (2) directive, (3) comisive, and (4) declarative speech acts. While expressive speech act was not found in this research.

An Interpretation of Relevance Theory on Vague Language in Business English Negotiations

Fanyu Mao — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0800

With the globalization of the economy, the fuzzy language in business English negotiations is widely used. The motivation for negotiators to use fuzzy language is not to hide information, but to convey information more clearly. This article attempts to divide business negotiations into three stages: the beginning, the process, and the end. With fuzzy language in business negotiation as a corpus, this paper studies how people adapt to different contextual factors to regulate fuzzy language in the process of business English negotiations under the guidance of relevance theory so as to achieve the optimal contextual effect with the minimum effort.

ESP Courses and Identity Formation: The Case of Introvert Students

Mojgan Rashtchi, Reza Porkar — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0800

Identity formation is one of the main concerns of today’s education and can have a vital role in ESP learners’ future professional success. This study investigated whether the employment of interactive practices in ESP courses had any impact on the identity formation of introvert students. Initially, 200 undergraduate students majoring in Computer Sciences, Accounting, and Physical Education answered the introversion/extraversion section of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and Cheek and Briggs’ Aspects of Identity Questionnaire (AIQ-IV). Based on their performance on MBTI, 90 learners with the extravert, introvert, and non-discriminating personality traits were selected from six classes and formed the three Extravert, Introvert, and Control (n1=n2=n3=30) groups. The students had taken a Specialized English course in the second semester of their BA program. The classes lasted 14 sessions. During the treatment, the researchers employed different activities for teaching ESP. After the instruction, the participants took the AIQ-IV. The results of ANCOVA indicated that the Introvert group gained significantly higher scores on the identity questionnaire than the Extravert and Control groups. The results of paired samples t-tests showed that while introverts had improved considerably in all components of the identity questionnaire, the Extravert and Control groups did not show any changes. The findings indicated that in interactive classroom environments, introvert learners had more inclination than the extravert and mixed introvert and extravert learners toward a shift in identity. The study has implications for ESP teachers, practitioners, and educators.