The current study is concerned with investigating the difficulties that Iraqi EFL learners of English may face when translating English collective nouns. Such collective nouns as committee, government, , jury , Parliament , etc. are considered singular when the concept of the unity as a group is emphasized , but when the concept of the individuals or numbers is emphasized they are treated as plural. A sample of twenty undergraduate students have been selected randomly to translate certain English collective nouns in some selected political texts in order to find out the difficulties they might face in rendering them into Arabic. It is hypothesized that most of the testees have used the singular form rather than the plural ignoring the notion of meaning of these nouns. Theoretically speaking, the most important conclusions that the present paper has come up with are: Firstly, English collective nouns may co-occur in the singular with either a singular or a plural form of the verb; secondly, in terms of form, three types of collective nouns can be recognized : (a) invariable singular collectives, (b) invariable plural collectives, (c) variable ( singular and plural); thirdly, in terms of meaning there are two types of collective nouns , i.e. human and non- human collectives. Empirically speaking, the paper shows the following conclusions: English collective nouns are problematic and difficult to translate due to the disparity between form and meaning of both languages , the inadequate knowledge of the function of some structural clues in determining the emphasized idea (i.e., singular or plural), and formal equivalence and literal translation are used by most testees.
Abstract The current study is a theoretical study that aims to underline the role of picture books as a serious genre of children's literature in raising children's understanding of English literature and life concepts; especially for non-English speakers. Unfortunately, most Iraqi people have developed a social phobia of learning English since childhood. This phobia is resulted from the heavy traditional reading and writing assignments as well as hard exams. Therefore, this study suggests incorporating more interesting literary material like picture books that would bring pleasure and help in raising children's love and cognition of English Language. More significantly, it calls to replace the old curriculum with a more vital one
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The present study aims at empirically investigating the effect of vocabulary learning strategies on Iraqi intermediate school students’vocabulary performance and reading comprehension. The population of the present study includes all the 1st year male students of Al-Wark’a intermediate school of Al-Risafa 1/ General Directorate of Education for the first course of the academic year (2015-2016). To achieve the aim of the study ,a pre-test and post-test after (5) weeks of experiment are administrated .The sample of the present study consists of (100) subjects :(50) students as an experimental group and other (50) students as a control group . The subj
... Show MoreThe birth of Multiple Intelligence (MI) theory has revolutionized traditional education since the twentieth century. Howard Gardner, the pioneer of this theory, believed that each learner has a unique way of acquiring information. This paper investigates how the New Headway Plus for Upper-Intermediate-Third Edition, a standard EFL textbook in Iraqi universities, can cater to the diverse MI profiles of Iraqi EFL learners. It evaluates the success or failure of senior undergraduates in actively engaging with different learning styles and activities in the classroom. The study maps the distribution of nine distinct modes of MI theory across all 12 Units_ Logic/Mathematical, Verbal/Linguistic, Musical, Bodily/Kinesthetic, Visual/Spatial, Natura
... Show MoreThe present study aims at analyzing the polysemy of the English preposition in from the cognitive linguistic (CL) point of view using Evans' and Tyler's approach (2003). The perplexity faced by Iraqi second language learners (L2) due to the multi-usages of this preposition has motivated the researcher to conduct this study. Seventy-six second year university students participated in this experimental study. The data of the pre-test and post-test were analyzed by SPSS statistical editor. The results have shown the following: First, a progress of more than (0.05≤) has been detected as far as students' understanding of the multiple usages of the preposition in is concerned. Second, the results of the questionnaire have s
... Show MoreThis piece of research deals with assimilation as one of the phonological processes in the language. It is a trial to give more attention to this important process in English language with deep explanation to its counterpart in Arabic. in addition, this study sheds light on the points of similarities and differences concerning this process in the two languages. Assimilation in English means two sounds are involved, and one becomes more like the other.
The assimilating phoneme picks up one or more of the features of another nearby phoneme. The English phoneme /n/ has t
... Show MoreMedia has become a common platform for communication as a tool of offense. English language has many insult words which are commonly used in the world of media. This study investigates the socio-pragmatic aspect of insulting in English news. It aims at identifying and analysing insult words and expressions used by news presenters. To specify the problem of the study, language has a harmful power that hurts the addressees and seriously harm their psychological well-being. The insulting words that are an element of all human languages are the source of this abusive power. The study questions sought to find out are if news presenters use insult words, which insult words, and in what social contexts. In this study, the descriptive method is use
... Show MoreThis paper investigates the collocational use of irreversible food binomials in the lexicons of English (UK) and Arabic (Iraq), their word-order motivations, cultural background, and how they compare. Data consisted in sixteen pairs in English, versus fifteen in Arabic. Data analysis has shown their word order is largely motivated by logical sequencing of precedence; the semantically bigger or better item comes first and the phonologically longer word goes last. These apply in a cline of decreasing functionality: logical form first, semantic importance second, phonological form last. In competition, the member higher in this cline wins first membership. While the entries in each list clearly reflect culturally preferred food meals in the UK
... Show MoreThis research aims at analysing epitaphs written by Thomas Moore for the memory of Rupert Southey, the epitaph is analysed linguistically and stylistically on four levels graphology, phonology, morphology, and lexico-syntax level to explore the elements that the writer uses the most at each level. Bearing in mind Nowottny approach (1962) (to text analysis) who believes that the linguistic analysis of a literary text is not just a marginal but a necessity” (Bakuuro etal., 2018:34). The researcher has selected and analysed a written epitaph of famous individual associated with English, literature. The study involves both literary and linguistic analysis, with much more concentration through the analysis on the aspect of linguistics. In fact
... Show MoreThe present study attempts to give a detailed discussion and analysis of parenthetical constructions in English and Arabic, the aim being to pinpoint the points of similarity and difference between the two languages in this particular linguistic area.The study claims that various types of constructions in English and Arabic could be considered parenthetical; these include non-restrictive relative clauses, non-restrictive appositives, comment clauses, vocatives, interjections, among others. These are going to be identified, classified, and analyzed according to the Quirk grammar - the approach to grammatical description pioneered by Randolph Quirk and his associates, and published in a series of reference grammars during the 1970
... Show MorePoliteness strategies are of significant importance to maintain the face of the addressee. Senders of formal congratulatory letters seek to create a positive image in the minds of their addresses by performing particular illocutionary acts and face-saving acts (FSAs) in the form of written texts. To the best knowledge of the researcher, this topic received little attention from linguistic researchers, especially on the pragma-stylistic level. The importance of this study arises from the fact that congratulatory formal letters are an effective tool in the successful performance of foreign relations and thus deserve investigation. The current study investigates the pragmastylistic aspects of illocutionary acts and FSA Politeness Stra
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