OKARA: Jurnal Bahasa dan Sastra

Global Englishes Awareness and Pedagogical Practices: A Study of Chinese English Teacher Educators

Junshuan Liu — 2023-10-30

Previous studies on Global Englishes (GE) awareness tend to focus on pre- and in-service English teachers, with little attention paid to English teacher educators. Given the potential transfer of English teacher educators’ perceptions on diverse Englishes and associated teaching practices to English teacher trainees, this study adopted a mixed-methods approach to investigate the GE awareness and pedagogical practice of Chinese English teacher educators who are engaged in preparing English teachers for junior middle schools in rural China. The analysis of the data collected via a questionnaire survey with 49 English teacher educators and interviews with seven of them indicates that most participants had a pseudo GE awareness, holding a positive attitude toward non-native English but deeming it as less standard than its native counterpart, and almost all participants followed the native-speakerist paradigm in classroom teaching, and did not actively introduce GE to their students. Revealed simultaneously is that even the participants with long stays overseas also bought into native speakerism. In reference to China’s socio-cultural and historical-political contexts, this study proposes that China adjust its national English syllabi and reconstruct the professional development programs for English teacher educators to facilitate the implementation of Global Englishes Language Teaching (GELT).

Delving Into Writing Anxiety of Rural College EFL Learners: A Quantitative Study

Heri Mudra — 2023-11-06

Anxiety in foreign language writing burdens EFL learners before, during, and after producing scientific written texts. This current research aimed to explore the types, levels, and causes of anxiety toward writing research reports and the final thesis of rural college EFL learners and the emerging causes of their writing apprehension. 103 EFL learners in two rural colleges in Indonesia participated in the quantitative study by employing the Second Language Writing Inventory (SLWAI) and the Causes of Writing Anxiety Inventory (CWAI). The results reveal that cognitive anxiety was the highest type and level of rural college EFL learners' writing apprehension. Independent t-test shows that female EFL learners dominate male learners regarding writing anxiety. Furthermore, junior learners were more anxious than seniors. The learners with writing training had lower anxiety than those without writing experiences. Moreover, the learners taking the Research Method course were anxious about writing a research report. However, no significant difference was found between each variable. The most dominant emerging factors deal with problems with linguistic matters, fear of lecturers or supervisors' negative feedback, self-regulation in writing, writing evaluation, and inadequate training in writing. In conclusion, current classroom practice in rural colleges needs to be aware of and take academic action towards such circumstances.

Authenticity in Language Learning: A Study of Language Materials in Public High Schools

Jevera Cawilan Domogen — 2023-11-07

Instructional materials are paramount in effecting language instruction. However, there are contextual issues related to the use and selection of these materials. This study focused on authentic language instructional materials in public secondary schools in the Philippines. This study employed a mixed-methods research approach. This study concludes that internet-based authentic language instructional materials are inadequate in language instruction, showing limitations on the capacity of the school and the language teachers to provide adequate internet-based materials; there are concerns about using authentic language instructional materials that hinder learners' authentic response and comprehension to authentic language instructional materials, and there were measures to overcome the concerns which could develop authentic language instructional materials into the ideal learning materials. It is recommended that language teachers select resources according to the learners' unique requirements, proficiency levels, cultural contexts, and educational contexts. The participation of learners in the selection process and activity design is crucial to ensure the materials are engaging and culturally pertinent. To effectively address the challenges associated with using these resources, a collaborative approach is recommended, involving teachers, students, and other stakeholders in implementing the suggested solutions.

The Image of Java and Its People in Emilie’s Eyes Under the Perspective of New Historicism

Yuli Mahmudah Sentana — 2023-11-16

Emilie Java 1904 by Catherine Van Moppès is a French novel that portrays Indonesia's portrait in Java in 1904, a century of Dutch colonialism in Indonesia. This novel describes Indonesian colonialism through the third lens, a narration from a French person's point of view. This research aims to identify the historiography of Java in 1904, where the Dutch carried out deep colonialism using a new historicism perspective. The qualitative descriptive method was used. The data involved words, phrases, and sentences containing Javanese historiography in the novel. This study found that 1) the Javanese people are friendly, embrace Islam, and have solid ancient beliefs. The nature of Javanese men who still despise women is also reviewed; 2) From the European perspective, Java's conditions are described as exotic and beautiful but chaotic and dangerous; 3) Colonialism is also seen from a neutral side by writing that shows the negative side of priyayi and the arbitrary attitude of the Dutch toward the natives. This novel implies that the Javanese were civilized before the Dutch came, which contradicts the primary purpose of Westerners coming to the East. Otherwise, she also showed the negative and positive side of Java and its people toward the Dutch.

Manifesting Grammatical Meanings and Functions of Particle “Lah” in Pégon Script (Javanese Translation) of Syiʻir Qiyāmah

Hendrokumoro — 2023-11-18

Linguistics researchers and academics frequently overlook the presence of particles in sentence constructions. Nonetheless, language is never presented in a vacuum. Any-faceted phenomenon can be ‘means’ in many different ways and can be explored from many different points of view. This study discussed the grammatical meanings and functions of the particle lah in Syiʻīr or Singir. Qualitative data collected in this study were obtained from Syiʻīr Qiyāmah’s Pégon script, consisting of recto (introduction) and chapters from 16 pages with the amount of 16 verses. Meanwhile, all the data were analyzed by combining philology and linguistics studies to comprehend and interpret language in written historical sources. The findings of this study indicate that the grammatical meanings of this particle lah were highly contested and varied due to the particle lah's different position in Javanese clause/ sentence construction. Given that the particle lah has no lexical meaning of its own, its meaning is inextricably linked to the context of the sentence in which it appears. Through meticulous investigation, this study discovered four grammatical meanings of particle lah in Syiʻīr Qiyāmah’s Pégon script: (1) as the interjectors, (2) as taukid, (3) as conjunctures, and (4) as separators; as well as three functions of particle lah in Syiʻīr Qiyāmah’s Pégon script: (1) to highlight the information that was considered important; (2) to connect one information with another; and (3) to emphasize the importance of elements in the information unit.

Istirātījiyyātu al-Nafādi Ilá al-Muʻjami al-Żihnī lada Talāmīżi al-Sanati al-Śāliśati min al-Taʻlīmi al-Śānawī al-Iʻdādiyyi [Mental Lexicon Access Strategies for Students of the Third Year of Preparatory Secondary Education]

Hamza Ghoura — 2023-11-21

Lexical units are organized within the mental lexicon, and the processes of constructing, processing, and accessing them are organized according to extremely complex mental pathways. This requires language speakers to activate them and use them quickly and effectively in their linguistic achievement. The more the speaker's access to his mental lexicon is sound, the more he can communicate successfully in different linguistic contexts. This research paper attempts to contribute to deriving some appropriate strategies for accessing the mental lexicon according to the parametric peculiarities of the Arabic language by linking these strategies to four basic criteria (the criterion of phonetic similarity, the criterion of spelling form, the criterion of semantic similarity, the criterion of grammatical predicate). This study was based on field research that targeted a sample of 40 students belonging to the third year of preparatory secondary education within a Moroccan public educational institution. The study used tests related to linguistic information that allows access to lexical units within the mental lexicon, aiming to analyze and measure them in the student's linguistic achievement. The results revealed that there is a strong influence of standards of access to the mental lexicon on the performance of learners in written expression and that there is a large gap between what is stipulated in educational documents and what students produce in their construction writings based on their level in this academic level.

Al-Ārā’ al-Balāghiyyah li Sheikh al-Azhar Muḥammad Sayyid Ṭanṭāwī fī Tafsīr al-Wasīṭ [Arabic Rhetorical Opinions of Sheikh al-Azhar Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi in the Tafsir al-Wasit]

Mirwan Akhmad Taufiq — 2023-11-23

A linguistic interpretation appeared at the hands of the Sheikh al-Azhar, Muhammad Sayed Tantawi, whose field was in tafsir. He wrote a tafsir book of the Holy Qur'an in thirty volumes until he became famous as an interpreter, modernizer, and Islamic thinker. He formulated his interpretation with balāghah's (Arabic Rhetoric) explanation in linguistic studies. The problem was whether Sheikh al-Azhar specialized in linguistic studies. This study aims to find his scientific personality and creativity in the balāghah explanation. The researchers used inductive and analytical approaches in three sections (juz) of Tafsīr al-Wasīṭ: the first, second, and third. The finding is that Sheikh al-Azhar was a prominent figure in the balāghah aspect, as he created a single opinion when explaining the rhetorical verses of the Qur'an. In his explanation, he may transfer from the books of the former interpreters. However, he was not only satisfied with conveying their opinions but also showed the existence of scientific discussion among the interpreters, adding a new opinion, preferring an opinion, or confirming a correct opinion by relying on Arabic grammar, tafsir, and hadith. This work indicated the existence of multidisciplinary studies in linguistics and Islamic studies.

Facebook Commentaries in Leni Robredo’s Presidential Campaign: Sexism Illumination

Ailyn Capuyan — 2023-11-26

Sexism in social media sites has rarely been looked into and has been scarcely seen as a crucial subject to research studies, which is alarming to the desire to achieve an equal and just society. This study focused on the sexist rhetoric used in the commentaries on 2022 Presidentiable Leni Robredo to reveal how prevalent and existing sexism in the Philippines through language is. Comments are gathered from Facebook posts pertaining to Atty. Leni Robredo. The study employed a qualitative-descriptive research design, specifically content analysis, to analyze sexist words and phrases. The weight and capability of each word's sexism were compared when it is used to insult, degrade, and malign a woman to determine its level of sexism. The study revealed that deep-rooted gender biases and sexism through language are still highly functioning in society, as is observed and experienced online. Hostile sexism is the most pervasive level of sexism and hence contributes to widespread sexism in the country and is more commonly done by the majority of males than females. It is recommended that academe should promote unbiased gender language by making every term and phrase gender inclusive as an introduction lesson/subject) to avoid sexism.

Bun-yat al-Manhâj Syibhu al-Muwâziyah li Qismi Ta’lîmi al-Lughati al-Arabiyyati bi Jâmi’ati Maulânâ Mâlik Ibrâhim al-Islâmiyati al-Hukûmiyati Mâlang

Nurul Hadi — 2023-11-29

The frequent changes in government policies regarding higher education curricula pose a problem for many universities. One recent policy that has caused issues is the "MBKM" curriculum, which also influences State Islamic Religious Colleges. This study aims to reveal how the Arabic Language Teaching Department of UIN Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang developed a semi-parallel structure by combining parallel and serial structures. A case study approach was employed, with the Arabic language teaching department of UIN Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang as the main research subject. Data was collected through interviews and documentation. The data analysis consisted of three stages: data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing. The findings revealed that the semi-parallel curriculum structure implemented by the Arabic language teaching department fulfills two curriculum standards. Firstly, it meets the demand for curriculum standardization based on the Indonesian National Qualifications Framework (KKNI) outlined in Higher Education Regulation No. 44, 2015. Secondly, the semi-parallel curriculum structure corresponds to the curriculum standards set forth by the Indonesian Arabic Teachers Association (IMLA) in 2019. So, the development of a semi-parallel curriculum structure for the Arabic Language Teaching department has proven to be following national standards, even though policies often change.

On Michel Foucault: Power/Knowledge, Discourse, and Subjectivity

Younes Poorghorban — 2023-11-29

The indubitable significance of Michel Foucault within the realm of modern humanities cannot be overstated. His far-reaching influence across various fields of study has proven to be of paramount importance. The present study is intended to bring into focus the most consequential critical concepts of Michel Foucault. While certain scholars have previously endeavoured to depict and reconceptualise Foucault's principal notions, many of them have tended to complicate the matter by problematising his understanding of these concepts. The most significant concepts include Discourse, Power, Knowledge, and Subjectivity. The nature and function of discourses in shaping knowledge and the relationship between knowledge and power have been subject to investigation. Additionally, this study sheds light on the manner in which subjects are shaped in the duality of power and resistance. The primary objective of this study is to offer a lucid definition of these terms and their interrelatedness.