This study investigates the impact of language proficiency on EFL learners' ability to identify and comprehend complex linguistic features, focusing on ellipsis and substitution. It aims to determine which of these features presents greater challenges and contributes to a higher frequency of errors, shedding light on the specific difficulties learners face in processing and using these structures across different contexts. The study employed a mixed-methods approach, involving 30 EFL learners from the University of Jordan, divided into intermediate and advanced proficiency groups, to investigate their ability to identify and comprehend ellipsis and substitution. Quantitative data were obtained from test results and analyzed using t-tests, while qualitative insights were gathered from post-test introspective discussions to explore learners' cognitive processes and challenges. The findings revealed significant differences in performance between advanced and intermediate EFL learners, with advanced learners consistently outperforming their counterparts in identifying and comprehending ellipsis and substitution. Substitution was found to be relatively easier for learners, as evidenced by higher scores and its explicit lexical markers, whereas ellipsis posed greater challenges due to its implicit, context-dependent nature, which aligns with Halliday and Hasan's (1976) Cohesion Theory. The study highlights the critical role of proficiency in mastering these linguistic features and highlights the need for designed instructional strategies to address learners’ difficulties, particularly with ellipsis. It also emphasizes the need for targeted practice and authentic text exposure to enhance EFL learners' ability to comprehend and apply cohesive devices like ellipsis and substitution effectively.
A significant amount of research exists on how the media cover environmental disasters and thus articulate climate concerns. However, there is a lack of studies on how news media outlets discursively presented the 2023 earthquake that took place in Turkey and Syria. To address the existing gap, the study seeks to investigate how the selected news media vocalised the climate concerns during the seismic event. For this purpose, we scrutinised the news pieces published by prominent news outlets. The study implemented mixed-methods tools to correlate the specific climate concerns and their representation. We qualitatively examined the obtained keywords earthquake, quake, and rubble, focusing on nomination and predication strategies employed for their discursive framing. Our research reveals a general trend exhibited by the three media outlets to place their discursive emphasis on a more immediate scale of repercussions (casualties, destruction, rescue efforts). The more global, climate-related issues might require more attention.
The rise of computer-based testing has transformed language assessment, with computer-based English speaking tests (CBESTs) offering scalable and efficient evaluations. However, the extent to which automated scoring aligns with analytic measures, such as complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) indices, remains unclear. This study examines the relationship between automated CBEST scores and CAF indices in 418 Chinese junior high school students’ spoken responses. Findings revealed strong correlations between automated accuracy and fluency scores and their respective analytic indices, demonstrating the system’s ability to assess grammatical precision and temporal fluency. However, automated complexity scores correlated only moderately with mean length of clauses, with no significant links to lexical diversity. Cross-dimensional correlations suggested potential overlap in scoring constructs. These results highlight CBESTs’ strengths and limitations in assessing oral proficiency, emphasizing the need to refine scoring algorithms to improve validity and comprehensiveness in automated language assessments.
Film titles are often comprised of single words or short phrases, their length rarely exceeding a sentence. Despite this, translating titles for new audiences is a complex task. This study examines this complexity by comparing how the same phrases are translated from English into Arabic when used as film titles versus when they appear within the dialogue as subtitles. Films where the title was uttered during the film were selected. The subtitles of the lines that contained the title reference were contrasted with the official target language title. The comparison focused on the influence of context and function on the translation strategies. The analysis confirmed the extent of this influence and showed that translating titles tended to take a more general approach that focuses on appeal rather than fidelity, while subtitles were specified by context and were thus more sense-oriented. The study recommends that both title localisers and subtitlers resort to the context of the film to produce accurate renditions.
