Current Research in Language, Literature and Education Vol. 5

The article hereunder is to focus on the exact phenomenon of the usage of Social Networking Sites (SNS), more specifically the Facebook page and its potential influence on the growth of high school learners’ motivation to learn a foreign language (English). The precise research findings are to be presented and discussed in detail. In an attempt to obtain as meaningful outcomes as possible, the study which is to be depicted was conducted using a mixed method. Thus, the numerical data was completed with the qualitative outcomes. Furthermore, the innovative method of teaching English is presented in detailed comparison with the traditional one. The poorer students participated actively in the online exercises as well, but it was determined that they needed more time and effort to gain confidence in using everyday English words. What's important is that the group's teacher unmistakably indicated that each student's motivation to learn English had increased substantially, equally in the case of the stronger pupils and the weaker ones.

The assessment of teaching quality is a very complex and fuzzy nonlinear process involving many factors and variables, so developing a mathematical model is difficult, and the traditional method of evaluating teaching quality is no longer fully competent. In order to evaluate teaching quality effectively and accurately, an optimized GA-BPNN algorithm based on genetic algorithm (GA) and backpropagation neural network (BPNN) is proposed. Firstly, an index system of teaching quality evaluation is established, and a questionnaire is designed according to the index system to collect data. Then, an English teaching quality evaluation system is established by optimizing model parameters. The simulation shows that the average evaluation accuracy of the GA-BPNN algorithm is 98.56%, which is 13.23% and 5.85% higher than those of the BPNN model and the optimized BPNN model, respectively. The comparison results show that the GA-BPNN algorithm in teaching quality evaluation can make reasonable and scientific results. The GA-BPNN technique developed in this study searches locally near the global optimal solution, which effectively overcomes the classic approach's sluggish convergence speed while also overcoming the problem of being easily local confined to the minimum.

The Confucian primary educational goal is to cultivate the person of ren or exemplary person (human quality of truth, good, and beauty); its curriculum consists of teaching the Six Arts, which include li or rites (good), yue or music (beauty), she or archery (truth), yu or charioteering (truth), shu or reading (truth), and *shu or mathematics (truth). Confucius’ educational aim, curriculum, and methods reflect the characteristics of the educational system in ancient China.   Confucian pedagogy focuses on three major instructions: connecting knowing and acting, teaching students based on their aptitude, and skillful directing. Confucius’ educational aim, curriculum, and methods reflect the characteristics of the educational system in ancient China.  This study examines Confucius' educational goal of cultivating the whole development of self from the standpoint of truth, good, and beauty as self-cultivation. There is an introduction to current issues in early childhood education. Confucius' education is explored in order to offer insight on the importance of current educational studies.

Legal English (legalese) is the language of the law that is claimed by many legal linguists as very archaic, verbose, and conventionalized. The verbosity of legalese is mainly due to highly technical use of nominalization, mainly constructed by the lexico-grammatical patterns of colligations of preposition. The highly use of technical collocation (lexical collocation and grammatical collocation (colligation)), which are prevalent in legal English texts, has often faltered English as Second Language (ESL) law students’ comprehensibility of the texts, particularly among those who study law in Malaysia. Possessing collocational competence of these patterns; however, is very essential for law students’ survival in legal academic field, especially in writing legal academic essays. Due to the fact that there is lack of research conducted on investigating colligational competence of Malaysian law students, this needs analysis study examined the usage of colligations of preposition in the Problem Questions essays of law undergraduate students at a public university in Malaysia.  This study was designed as descriptive research, in which the students’ use of colligations of preposition in the essay writing was analysed in frequency and percentages. 40 semester three law undergraduate students from this university were chosen to participate in the study. Two types of data were collected for this purpose, which are the interview responses and the participants’ production of colligations of preposition in the essay writing. Only eight of the forty students took part in the interview, but everyone did the essay test a week later.  The interview replies were manually analysed in theme, and the Surface Strategy Taxonomy of Dulay et al. (1982) was used to analyse prepositional patterns in the Problem Question essays (of legal contract genre).  The findings indicated produced many erroneous patterns, which can be related to their lack of lexico-grammatical competence, resulted from interlingual (L1 negative transfer, i.e., Malay) and intralingual (difficulty with the L2 itself, i.e., legalese) interference, as well as improper teaching method in teaching preposition (i.e., drilling) taught in both the primary and secondary schools.  The study concluded that needs analysis studies are very pertinent in the field of law in order to reveal the target and learning needs of law students. It is suggested that colleges and universities that offer law courses should review the legal curriculum by including explicit teaching of colligation of preposition as a means of improving law students’ language proficiency This study is significant for law instructors, course designers, and legal practitioners to reconsider the development of legal materials for ELAP (English for Legal Academic Purposes) courses at higher education.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has quickly spread worldwide and declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020.This pandemic with resulted radical changes in many aspects of our lives had a huge impacts on the global population, health care systems, economy and education.Advice for strict social distancing resulted in the closure of educational institutions and online education has suddenly become the main route of education worldwide.Likewise, Turkey has decided immediately to begin online education on March 23, 2020. However, this has been somewhat problematic for medical education which has traditionally relied on face to face learning and laboratory skills more than other educations. In addition, this exchange was established quickly resulting in challenges about use of technology tools or time management.We tried to search about the difference between public and private universities and the opinions of both types of medical faculity students regarding online education, and how effective online education is in the medical education during this healthcare crisis. by using a self administered questionnaire.This survey study showed that the students have different perspectives towards the online education but, regardless of being state or private university students, it can be said that many students are unpleased with the online education.However, it can also be said that students from public universities seem more likely to want to study online after the COVID-19 crisis and foundation/private university students are more likely to want to return to the face-to-face education. As the situation is still progressing, it is too early to decide whether a new co-education system will emerge, that includes both face-to-face and online classes, or whether it is advisible to revert to the traditional methods if online learning fails.

The goal of this chapter is to determine students' readiness, perceptions, and feelings about distance learning during the pandemic lockdown. Distance learning happens while an instructor is physically located in a different place from the learner and uses emerging media and related experiences to produce learning opportunities. The study's participants are eighteen female undergraduate students participating in an Education Summer 2020 course at an Abu Dhabi federal college. It takes a mixed-methods approach, looking at students' reflective journals as well as their replies to qualitative and quantitative surveys. The study's important findings demonstrate that the educational institution was prepared for distance learning, as were the students.

In order to fully develop their academic and professional competencies, medical doctors (MDs) need to be highly proficient in English. Since vocabulary learning, as a fundamental aspect in language learning, is a continuous and complex process, the overall objective of the current research is to get an insight into vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) employed by medical students. To be specific, this study aims at (a) exploring VLS that medical students in Croatia use in order to learn target vocabulary; (b) investigating the relationship between VLS subscales and different types of vocabulary knowledge; and (c) analyzing differences in the mean strategy use between male and female students as well as among low-, middle- and high-scoring students. The results indicate that medical students use a core inventory of VLS, whereby showing preference for the category of self-initiated vocabulary learning (SI-IVL). Further, there is a very small statistically significant correlation between formal vocabulary learning (FVL) strategies and controlled-productive type of vocabulary knowledge. Findings also reveal that female students use SI-IVL and FVL strategies significantly more often than their male counterparts and that there are no statistically significant differences in the mean VLS use by English language proficiency levels. The results of this study imply the need for teacher training aimed at developing specific skills for providing their students with explicit instruction in VLS use.

The goal of this research is to learn more about the literacy rates in Malay Language, English, and mathematics among Malaysian secondary school students, as well as the factors that influence them. The study's conceptual framework is based on the International Adult Literacy Survey's (IALS) definition of literacy. A total of 5,635 respondents were selected from secondary schools across the country from the Remove Class to Form five. The overall basic literacy rate was 95.2 percent, while critical literacy was 71.2 percent, according to the data. The literacy rate in Malay Language was greater at the basic and critical levels than in English and mathematics. As a result, the Malaysian Ministry of Education (MOE) should place a strong emphasis on mathematics literacy, especially among secondary school students. According to their level of education and ethnicity, one-way ANOVA analysis revealed significant disparities in the rate of basic literacy and critical levels of students. Teachers need to be made to understand the concept of literacy and how the literacy capabilities of students have an impact on the development of school students. To ensure that secondary school students attain a respectable literacy rate, all parties must work together.

In this chapter we explore language use in early childhood education settings, identify impacts of non-inclusive language, and make proposals to enhance the use of inclusive language in teaching and learning. We used a classic extract from an observation study as basis for a creative content and textual analysis to obtain rich meanings of non-inclusive language. In order to develop inclusivity, belonging, and value children, inclusive language is critical. In early childhood education settings, inclusive language is utilised to explain instruction as well as to set realistic expectations for all children. Non-inclusive language used by instructors, on the other hand, can be a deterrent, limiting how children openly learn and collaborate with peers and teachers in schools. This study examines the language used by teachers and finds that non-inclusive language can have a detrimental influence on children's learning, socialisation, emotional well-being, and motivation to learn. We discovered that good inclusivity training and professional development programmes can help teachers get the knowledge and skills they need to utilise inclusive language in the classroom, especially as a pedagogical and motivational tool in early childhood education. The study recommends that teachers should be made aware of the essence of inclusive language and its associated benefits for educating children instead of using non-inclusive language. Some practical implications for using inclusive language are also provided.

This study aims to analyze the teaching materials developed by pre-service teachers, and their awareness about meeting the needs of the society. Student Worksheets (SW) from pre-service teachers and Material Evaluation Form from the juries were used as data sources. To analyze data, document analysis technique from the qualitative research methods is used in this study. The results of the analysis show that 5 of the student needs and 15 of the society’s needs are met. It is found out that four of the students’ needs were the same as society’s needs. It is found out that needs of the students are learning-oriented, while the society’s needs are related to both student’s learning and utilization of the materials. Pre-service teachers should focus on interdisciplinary correlations in terms of the needs of both students and the society in order to raise new generations equipped with the 21st century skills.

Language is a tool or strategy for verbal or nonverbal communication between humans that involves the use of signs and symbols such as letters of the alphabet in written form to create words that carry meanings. The use of these words is done in accordance with grammar rules. Every culture, race, or group of people has its own language, symbols, and means of communication. Language allows people to communicate their emotions, thoughts, ideas, and shared experiences. Symbols have a magical element to them that transmits a sense of the sacred while also providing bodily nourishment. Inner energy is harnessed or put to use when working with symbols; one thinks more deeply than usual. These symbols have no value until they are comprehended, and so have no effect on the individual. Religious arts and symbols are so artistic representations intended to assist and encourage people to think on the spiritual. In religious service or liturgy, the Catholic Church makes extensive use of symbolism and art. The Liturgy is a religious manner of life centred on the Eucharistic celebration, or Mass.  Its religious arts - places, objects, arts, (icons, pictures), and adornments are dressing or vestments, vessels, and decorations (flowers, vestments seasons and colours). The objective of this article is to explain briefly what language and religion mean. It also attempts to expose to the reader the uses of some of the symbols, arts and adornment in the Catholic Church, noting their possible meaning and how they affect the life of the faithful for spiritual enhancement or growth.

This paper describes a study that looked into the relationship between mentorship and teacher effectiveness in Government-aided secondary schools in theAcholi sub-region in Uganda. The study focused on teachers in government-aided secondary schools in the Acholi sub-region and utilised a descriptive, cross-sectional survey approach. It was discovered that providing teachers with assistance helped them gain confidence, improve their teaching, and improve their efficacy and efficiency in directing students' successes. It was concluded that assisting teachers in government-aided secondary schools in improving their effectiveness enhances teachers' confidence in teaching and students' learning. Mentoring helps instructors in government-aided secondary schools improve their teaching methods in this way. As a result, the study recommends that mentoring counsel focus on assisting teachers in implementing social interactions and instructional techniques, as well as providing feedback and clarity in the classroom, all of which have direct quantitative effects on student learning outcomes.

The study aimed at exploring the experiences of female student representatives’ participation on public university councils in Uganda. The Ladder of Citizen Involvement was used to extract meaning and comprehension from views of participation levels. The study used a phenomenological research approach that included unstructured interviews, transect walks, and letter writing, as well as a two-level narrative analysis technique to extract plots and themes from the stories. Due to many obstacles, female students do not have enough ground to actively participate in leadership and governance, according to the findings. Lack of appropriate leadership capacity, insufficient resources, and gender stereotypes are among the reported restrictions. As a result, it is established that female student representatives on public university councils in Uganda were merely symbolic! As a result, it is suggested that the higher education sector intentionally promote female students in their pursuit of effective leadership roles.