Self-mention used by university-level Yemeni writers is regarded as a challenging task. The overuse use of this feature is often considered as less formal and objective in academic writing. Despite the significance of this feature in academic writing, previous studies were mostly conducted in the Western cultural context. Research on self-mention produced by EFL learners of Arabic cultural background seems to be overlooked. Therefore, this study aimed to explore and compare the use of the first-person pronouns across three proficiency levels in an argumentative paragraph written by 80 third-year undergraduate students. Data were collected, assessed by ELT specialists, and then quantitatively analyzed. The results revealed that Yemeni EFL learners make extensive use of the first-person pronouns in their argumentative paragraphs. Differences were found in the occurrences of the first-person pronouns across three proficiency levels. The results also indicated that learners with a high proficiency level tend to use the first-person pronouns less than learners at low and intermediate proficiency levels. Since low-proficient learners rely more on the use of the first-person pronouns than those at higher levels, learners need to be exposed to a variety of strategies of how they can project their voice appropriately in their written texts.

Motivation is an important factor for success in learning a foreign or second language. Creating such motivation among learners through adopting certain teaching practices is likely to stimulate learners to learn. Previous research has largely investigated motivational teaching practices from teachers’ perspective. However, little research has addressed motivational practices from learners’ perspective. In context such as Yemen, EFL teachers at the tertiary level encounter a challenging task in creating motivational practices for learners whose preferences for teaching practices should be the corner stone in the learning and teaching process. Therefore, this study aimed to explore whether the teaching practices adopted by teachers are motivating from learners’ perspective. To achieve this objective, a questionnaire was distributed to 137 undergraduate students in level four at the English Department, within two faculties (i.e. Faculty of Education and Faculty of Languages) at Sana'a University. Data collected were analyzed using SPSS. The teaching practices which are likely to be motivating as perceived by learners were computed and compared. The findings revealed that teaching macro-practices vary in the degree of their motivation from most motivating (i.e. familiarize learners with L2 related values) to the least motivating (present tasks properly) as perceived by learners. The study also revealed that some teaching macro-practices appear to be transmitted to the Arab culture based on the learner-center approach.

Metaphors play an important role in conveying meaning not only in literary texts but also in scientific genres. Although there have been many translation studies on metaphor in literary texts, studies on metaphor translation in scientific settings seem to have been overlooked and received less attention. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the strategies used in translating scientific metaphors from English to Arabic by Yemeni senior translation students in three universities. This was achieved by using a translation test consisting of (33) metaphors selected from various sources based on Lakoff and Johnsen’s (1980; 2003) classification of metaphor. The test was given to a sample of 91 students who were randomly selected. 72 participants completed the test. Data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Results showed that eight strategies, adapted from Alshunnag (2016), were used. The highly frequent strategy was the literal strategy and the least frequent was the explication strategy. The use of literal strategy indicated the difficulty of finding a metaphorical expression of a different type for the English metaphors in Arabic which might be due to the limited time available for translation and lack of knowledge of the metaphorical structure in both the source and target languages. It was recommended, therefore, that more comparative studies should be done to help improve translation training offered to students who should also be provided with training sessions which are more conducive to learning.

This study aimed to investigate the difficulties encountered by translation students when translating the ten Arabic verb patterns into English. To achieve this objective, the descriptive quantitative and qualitative method was followed. A translation test consisting of 16 sentences which included the ten Arabic verb patterns was administered to a sample of 112 participants who were randomly selected from five Yemeni universities. The findings revealed that the additions associated with the Arabic verb root can create multiple semantic changes which are fraught with difficulties for student translators. The difficulties may lie in the fact that student translators lack basic knowledge and understanding of the multiple functions of the morpho-semantic features which might be due to the translators' unfamiliarity of the multiple and underlying meanings of the morphemes affixed to the root form. The findings revealed that the more features the pattern takes, the more difficult it is for student translators. Furthermore, the pattern with infixed morphemes was more difficult to be recognized than the one with prefixed morphemes. The findings also provide further insights on the importance of integrating the Arabic verb patterns into the translation modules with a focus on the link between form and functions of each morpho-semantic feature affixed to each pattern. Keywords: affixes, morpho-semantic features, root, translation, verb patterns.