Journal of Modern Languages

Selected features of Philippine English pronunciation among three groups of Ilocano speakers

L. I Haloc — 2024-12-26

This paper describes the pronunciation of Philippine English by Ilocano speakers from three provinces of Region II in the Philippines: Nueva Vizcaya, Isabela, and Cagayan. All participants were born, raised, and educated in their respective provinces. The participants answered a questionnaire and were recorded reading a word list and structured dialog. The target pronunciation for analysis included the vowels /i/, /ɪ/, /ɛ/, and /e/, and the consonant pair /θ/ and /ð/, and two suprasegmental features: lexical stress and the intonation of question forms. To a certain extent, the findings were consistent with Llamzon's (1969) and Tayao’s (2004) findings on the features of Philippine English pronunciation. However, the findings suggest variation possibly due to the dialects of Ilocano that they speak. The study contributes to our understanding of the diversity in Philippine English pronunciation due to the multilingual nature of the country.

Engagement patterns in the reporting of the Arab-Israeli conflict in Al Jazeera English and the Washington Post

Abdallah. Z. A Warshaga — 2024-12-26

This study examines the portrayal of the Arab-Israeli conflict in two international newspapers: Al Jazeera English (AJE) and The Washington Post (WP). It explores the dialogic engagement within appraisal patterns in news reporting in two key events of the Deal of the Century and the Great Marches of Return. A total of 230 news texts (117 from WP and 113 from AJE) were examined, revealing differing engagement strategies of endorsement, attestation, and acknowledgement. AJE often critiqued US’s bias and gave precedence to Arab opposition to the Israeli occupation and US policies. WP, on the other hand, framed the conflict in the light of the US’s interests, often overlooking Arab grievances. The language used in conflict reporting plays a crucial role, and journalists need to recognise how their emotional evaluation could either obstruct or promote pathways to peaceful resolutions.

Unraveling the linguistic features of Facebook comments amidst live press conferences

Shin Yi Chew — 2024-12-26

Over the years, online communication has become increasingly popular, evolving from purely text-based formats to multifaceted media. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, live streaming of press conferences and other events on social media has dramatically increased. However, there is a lack of studies investigating the linguistic features of netizens’ online communication during live streaming of public events. Therefore, this study aimed to analyse the linguistic features of Facebook comments posted by Malaysian netizens during COVID-19 live press conferences and explore the functions of these linguistic features. In this study, a total of 1339 comments were collected during the live streaming of COVID-19 press conferences by New Straits Times on Facebook. The collected data were analysed following Crystal’s (2006) list of netspeak features. The findings revealed that Malaysian netizens used abbreviations (21.9%), emojis (13.2%), stickers (5.5%), particles (5.2%), punctuation marks (3.6%), translanguaging (3.3%), capitalisation (1.8%), and repetitions of letters (1.6%) when commenting on the COVID-19 live press conferences. The functions of these linguistic features include time-saving, emotional emphasis, identity portrayal, and others.

The use of English abbreviations on WhatsApp amongst university students in Zimbabwe

Clemenciana Mukenge — 2024-12-26

This study explores the utilization of WhatsApp abbreviations among university students in Zimbabwe and its implications for English language proficiency. Using a mixed-methods approach, combining semi-structured interviews with 30 university students in Zimbabwe and Content Analysis of selected WhatsApp messages, this study investigates the nature, purpose, and implications of abbreviation usage on students’ language skills. The findings reveal that while abbreviations facilitate efficient communication and social cohesion, they also simplify language, reduce vocabulary development and grammatical accuracy, and blur the distinction between formal and informal communication, potentially eroding formal language skills, particularly for non-native English speakers. The study highlights the need for educators to implement a multifaceted approach, incorporating digital literacy, context-dependent language use, vocabulary and grammar development, linguistic flexibility awareness, and balanced communication practices to reconcile digital communication demands with linguistic efficacy goals. These findings have positive and negative implications on students’ overall language proficiency. The study’s limitations include using a relatively small sample (30 students) and focusing solely on WhatsApp abbreviations, excluding other social media platforms. Future studies should aim to recruit a larger sample and explore a broader range of social media platforms.

Influence of translanguaging in writing across languages: A case of multilingual primary students in Sri Lanka

Mohmed Cassim Badurusaman Nihmathulla — 2024-12-26

Studying aspects of multilingualism, such as the dynamics of multilingual and linguistic variation, is a widely documented phenomenon. What remains relatively less explored in such studies, however, concerns how translanguaging (TL) influences writing across languages. This study considers essays written by three students at the primary level of education in Sri Lanka in their first language (L1/Tamil), second language (L2/English) and third language (L3/Sinhala). The purpose of the study is to comprehend how TL practices influence their writing and to report on the reflections of the students and their teachers on TL in writing. The study provides insights into how TL supports student writing across languages and the views of teachers and students on TL in writing. Additionally, implications for the education of multilingual students are discussed.

Pre-editing rules developed for higher-quality target language texts

Kayo Tsuji — 2024-12-26

Neural machine translation (NMT/MT) has recently developed by leaps and bounds through deeply learning human brain mechanism, and its effective use has been the focus of much attention. To generate high-quality target language (TL) texts, MT users or TL learners need to edit the source language (SL) text before applying NMT. The purpose of this study was to provide pedagogical implications on pre-editing for effective NMT use with Japanese as a SL. The participants were 23 Japanese students with intermediate TL (English) proficiency, and the targeted task was a Japanese (SL) written argumentative essay and the English (TL) output thereof. Three language researchers systematically examined and analysed issues with the NMT output to detect the problematic factors in SL texts causing the issues and developed pre-editing rules. The results demonstrated the following five principles users should be aware of: (1) simplifying statements, (2) clearly stating all necessary sentence elements, (3) noting the logical placement or setting of sentence elements, (4) paying careful attention to the semantic properties of lexical items in SL texts, and (5) considering appropriacy of genre-specific SL lexical items. These rules should be applied to improve the appropriacy of syntactic and semantic aspects of TL texts. They may also assist TL learners translating from Japanese to English independently, since the output of recent NMTs is largely considered close to human translations.

Editorial

Stefanie Pillai — 2024-12-26