This research investigated mainly the effectiveness of implementing graphic organizers (GOs) on improving EFL students’ reading comprehension of narrative texts and motivation. EFL learners may face many difficulties when they analyze literary texts in terms of comprehending the story line with all its elements of fiction. The study was conducted on EFL students enrolled in a literature course at a university level. The data were collected using a mixed-method approach including quantitative data employing reading tests and questionnaires, and qualitative data using class observation. The study implemented three cycles, each one utilized a particular method of teaching short stories. The results show that the students’ performance was significantly higher when the EFL learners used graphic organizers to comprehend the story line of short stories when compared to using the story grammar (SG), more specifically the linear pattern. Students’ motivation was also enhanced in relation to reading and learning English literature. They developed more self-confidence and trusted their abilities to do well in literature classes. Their language anxiety was decreased as they improved in understanding narrative texts and were able to perform better in class activities. They also exerted effort to participate and were willing to work independently on reading tasks. All of this resulted in enhancing their motivation.
This study aims to analyze Barack Obama’s speech on Syria delivered on September 10, 2013 in response to the chemical attacks launched against Damascus on August 23, 2013. The study employs Fairclough’s (2001) framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to bring out the ideological polarization latent in the language of Obama by investigating the linguistic devices used to stir emotions in listeners to adopt certain stands or take certain action. The study posits three questions to investigate how Obama’s language has been used to display the nature of the U.S. political discourse during the Syrian crisis, explore the ideological component enshrined in Obama’s language, and cast light on the typical discourse strategies used by Obama to appeal to the international community to lead a coalition against Syrian regime. The analysis of Obama’s speech reveals the ideological opposition to implicating Americans and their allies solely in toppling Al-Assad’s regime under the pretext of being preoccupied with quelling violence and establishing peace in the world. The analysis also demonstrates that Obama has availed himself of many linguistic devices such as lexical manipulation, metaphorical expressions, personal pronouns, parallelism, and rhetorical questions to rally support for the US military action in Syria.
<p><em>Infographics are visual data that are used in public service announcements to convey particular messages to a particular group of people. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Health (MOH) in the Kingdom of Bahrain relied heavily on the use of infographics to communicate different types of information to all its people. The study at hand aimed to analyze the Medical Announcement Infographics (MAIs) published by the Bahraini MOH during the pandemic. Two research questions were posited. The first one investigated the schematic moves in MAIs, and the second one researched the extent to which the Bahraini Medical Announcement infographics on COVID-19 Pandemic met the contextual variables of register. The study utilized Swales’ genre-analysis model and examined the contextual variables of the MIA register and the lexicogrammatical features highlighted in Systemic Functional Linguistics in relation to the Bahraini MOH’s MAIs. The study concluded that the register variables showed variation in the lexical, structural, and illocutionary force choice-making. In addition, MAIs included both obligatory and optional moves that impacted the behavioral attitudes of the people either positively or negatively.</em></p>
The present study attempts to examine the referring expressions in Chapter 30 (Amma part) of the Holy Qur'an. It aims at identifying the referring expressions of Paradise and Hell involved in Amma part in particular. The study also attempts to investigate which of the two entities (Paradise and Hell) of the referring expressions have been referred to more. The study implements quantitative and qualitative methods to classify and analyse the referring expressions. In order to classify and describe the referring expressions, a content analysis checklist is utilized to categorize the referring expressions. The findings of the study reveal that there are 54 referring expressions of Paradise and Hell in Amma part, where 35 referring expressions refer to Hell representing 65%, and 19 referring expressions refer to Paradise representing 35%. The findings reveal that the referring expressions of Paradise and Hell contribute significantly to persuading people to follow the teaching of Islam in order to go to Paradise and dissuading them from rejecting them, ending up in Hell.
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