Background: Language assessment is widely used to determine learners’ proficiency; however, the accuracy of score interpretation depends on the quality of the measurement instrument. Aims: This study aims to evaluate the psychometric quality of the Arabic Language Fluency Assessment (ALFA) using Classical Test Theory. The psychometric findings are subsequently interpreted from the perspective of communicative language assessment informed by the CEFR framework. Methods: A quantitative descriptive-evaluative design was employed using Classical Test Theory (CTT). Data were collected from 92 beginner-level learners and analyzed using item difficulty, discrimination index, reliability (Cronbach’s Alpha), and distractor functioning. Results: The findings show that the test is dominated by easy items, with mean difficulty indices of 0.93 and 0.88, resulting in limited score variability. Consistent with this pattern, most items exhibited poor discrimination, while a large proportion of distractors were non-functioning. Although the reliability coefficients were relatively high (0.885 and 0.843), these values indicate internal consistency rather than overall measurement quality. Implications: Within the present sample, the ALFA demonstrated limited ability to differentiate learner performance. The psychometric findings also raise the possibility of construct underrepresentation when interpreted from the perspective of communicative language assessment informed by the CEFR framework. The findings support systematic revision of the ALFA instrument and may also inform the improvement of institution-developed Arabic language assessments in comparable educational contexts.
Background: In order to provide contextual, relevant, and culturally responsive learning, especially in primary school, it has become more crucial to incorporate local culture into English language instruction. The incorporation of Manadonese culture into English teaching materials, especially at the elementary madrasah level, has been the subject of little empirical research. As a result, it emphasizes the necessity of examining the needs of both teachers and students in order to provide pertinent instructional resources. Aims: The purpose of this study is to examine how teachers and students need to integrate Manadonese local culture into English language learning resources, and to identify cultural components that can help Madrasah Ibtidaiyah Negeri (MIN) in Manado City, Indonesia creates contextual English teaching materials for fifth-grade pupils. Methods: This preliminary study represents the Analysis phase of the ADDIE instructional design model, selected because needs analysis provides essential information about learners’ characteristics, difficulties, and cultural resources as the foundation for developing relevant teaching materials. The participants were 51 students and two English teachers from MIN I and MIN II Manado. Data were collected through questionnaires and interviews and analyzed descriptively. Results: The results indicate that students need additional contextualized learning materials since they have trouble understanding fundamental English items, especially nouns and adjectives. The creation of English resources based on local culture was endorsed by 95% of pupils. Concrete cultural content, such as customary games, regional cuisine, and tourism destinations, was preferred by the students. Teachers likewise had positive opinions on incorporating Manadonese culture, but they also mentioned difficulties with a lack of instructional resources and implementation support. Implications: This study contributes to the development of culturally responsive English teaching materials by providing empirical evidence of learners’ and teachers’ needs and identifying relevant cultural elements for contextual learning resources.
Background: The Palestinian–Israeli conflict extends beyond territorial and political struggles, producing enduring social, cultural, and psychological suffering, particularly for Palestinian women whose experiences are frequently marginalized within colonial and patriarchal discourses. Aims: This study examines the representation of Palestinian women as a subaltern group in Fadwa Tuqan’s poem إليهم وراء القضبان through the perspective of Gayatri C. Spivak’s theory of subalternity. Methods: This research employs a qualitative literary textual analysis. Data were collected through close reading and note-taking techniques applied to the poem and relevant scholarly literature. The primary data consist of the selected poem, while secondary data include books and journal articles on postcolonial feminism. The analysis focuses on epistemic violence, the politics of representation, and the problem of subaltern speech to investigate how women’s voices are marginalized and how the poem creates alternative spaces for resistance. Results: Based on twenty-nine textual units identified from close reading, including significant verses, symbolic diction, and recurring thematic patterns, the findings reveal that Palestinian women are portrayed as subaltern subjects who experience structural oppression under colonial domination and patriarchal power. Simultaneously, they emerge as active agents of resistance who preserve national identity, collective memory, and cultural continuity despite systematic silencing. Implications: This study demonstrates that literary works function not only as artistic expressions but also as sites of resistance that challenge dominant narratives and amplify marginalized voices. Furthermore, the findings contribute to postcolonial feminist scholarship by highlighting literature’s critical role in representing subaltern women’s experiences within contexts of colonialism, displacement, resistance, and historical injustice across diverse contexts.
Background: The success of reading skill learning greatly depends on the effectiveness of the teaching and learning process, which involves quality, accuracy, motivation, and time management. Aims: This research aims to analyze the teaching of reading skills from the perspective of effective learning using the QAIT model, which includes quality, appropriateness, incentive, and time. Methods: This study employed a descriptive qualitative case study analyzed through Slavin’s perspective. The subjects consist of a teacher and eight placement-based beginner students at Madrasatul Alsun Sidoarjo, Indonesia. Data were collected through observation, interviews, and documentation. The data were analyzed using the Miles and Huberman model, including data condensation, data presentation, and data verification. Results: The quality of reading skills instruction is characterized by structured and sequential teaching materials, which are further reinforced through question-answer exchanges, direct instruction methods, and the strategic use of concrete objects and visual media. This instructional design is appropriately tailored to learners' diverse needs, as texts are developed gradually in accordance with the input hypothesis (i+1), while differentiated instruction allows high-ability students to engage with entire texts and lower-ability peers to read at their respective proficiency levels. Furthermore, learning motivation is actively cultivated through the teacher's deliberate efforts to build students' readiness, introduce key vocabulary at the outset of each lesson, and deliver positive feedback as a form of reinforcement. Complementing these pedagogical strategies, time is managed effectively through a consistent 90-minute allocation per session, which is further supported by the provision of a substitute teacher to guarantee uninterrupted instructional continuity. Implications: The findings of this study indicate that the integration of material quality, strategy accuracy, learner motivation, and time management serves as an essential foundation for Arabic language learning that is more adaptive, contextual, and oriented toward students’ competency achievement.
Background: Although computer-mediated communication (CMC) has been widely adopted as a primary mode of human interaction, there has been no systematic synthesis comprehensively mapping research on politeness strategies in digital environments over the past decade. This lack of synthesis obscures theoretical trends, empirical gaps, and emerging constructs specific to digital pragmatics. Aims: This systematic literature review aims to synthesize empirical studies on politeness strategies in CMC published between 2015–2025, identify dominant theoretical frameworks, catalogue the strategies documented across studies, and develop a taxonomy of CMC-specific impoliteness phenomena. Methods: Following PRISMA 2020, studies were identified through a Scopus search restricted to publications from 2015 to 2025, followed by sequential database filtering and full-text eligibility review. The final corpus comprised 29 peer-reviewed studies, which were analyzed through narrative synthesis and a quality appraisal adapted from the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). Results: Three principal findings emerge. First, Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory dominates the field, appearing in 20 of the 29 studies reviewed, despite well-documented inadequacies in CMC contexts, evidencing a theoretical conservatism the review terms “framework inertia”. Second, positive politeness and bald-on-record strategies are the most robustly documented, yet platform informality frequently appeared to attenuate cultural hierarchy norms in the cases reviewed, a “platform-as-channel-mediator” effect unaccounted for by existing frameworks. Third, three CMC-specific impoliteness constructs, adversative (im)politeness, e-mpoliteness, and impoliteness resonance, collectively form the field’s first coherent taxonomy of digital-native face-attacking phenomena. Implications: Theoretically, this review challenges universalist accounts of digital politeness and establishes that cultural context is constitutive, not incidental, to CMC pragmatic norms. Practically, findings necessitate platform-differentiated EFL/ESL pedagogy and community-norm-sensitive content moderation. Longitudinal design, cross-platform comparisons, and AI-mediated communication research constitute the field’s most urgent unaddressed agenda.
