Journal of Modern Languages

Language Shift and Maintenance: A Case Study of the Telugu Community in Bagan Datoh, Perak (Malaysia)

Kathreine Deva Babu Polamarachetty — 2023-07-31

Telugu is an official language, commonly spoken in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, India. Despite being one of the largest languages in the world, it is a minority language in Malaysia. Majority of the Telugus who migrated, settled in the plantation estates i.e Bagan Datoh, Perak (known as a Telugu heritage site). This study employs domain analysis to find out language choice in home, social, entertainment, religious and official domains among the younger and older generation as well as their language attitude. This study uses mixed methods. Questionnaire surveys were accompanied by interviews and focus groups discussions. Language shift is observed in literacy but being revitalized among the youngest generation. In spoken language, Telugu is well maintained especially in the home domain, coexisting with other languages in a diglossic relationship. Positive attitude towards mother tongue and revitalization endeavors demonstrate a favorable influence on the maintenance of the Telugu language in Bagan Datoh.

Metadiscourse Markers in Abstracts of Linguistics and Literature Research Articles from Scopus-Indexed Journals

Hui Geng — 2023-07-31

An abstract is generally a condensed version of a much lengthier research article (RA). It plays a crucial role in academic writing by initially grabbing the readers’ attention. A well-crafted abstract can greatly increase an RA’s chances of being published. Metadiscourse markers, which extend beyond the actual information being presented, provide significant assistance in textual organisation and interaction. However, less attention has been paid to the use of these markers in the abstracts of RAs within the field of linguistics and literature from Scopus-indexed journals. Therefore, this paper first investigated how authors presented their arguments in the abstracts by deploying interactive and interactional markers, and then it delved into the occurrence frequency of both types of markers in linguistics and literature corpora. A total of 100 English RA abstracts were selected for this study. The linguistics and literature corpus each contained 50 RA abstracts taken from three open-access Scopus-indexed journals. Based on Hyland’s (2005) interpersonal model of metadiscourse, an analysis of the identification and frequency of metadiscourse markers was conducted. A comparison was also drawn between the linguistics and literature RA abstracts. The findings showed that the abstracts from both corpora employed more interactive markers than interactional markers. Regarding the interactive markers, a similar tendency of using transitions was detected. However, the difference lay in the frequency of the other four types of markers between the two corpora. In the interactional category, boosters emerged as the most prominent markers while engagement markers were the least frequent in both corpora. The difference was mainly in the occurrence of self-mentions. The results of this study highlight the disciplinary awareness of metadiscourse markers in RA abstracts and offer a practical guide for scholars to utilise these cues and indicators in academic writing.

An Exploratory Analysis of Linking Adverbials Used by Filipino, Pakistani, and Thai Writers of English

Randy Appel — 2023-07-31

The current study provides a Contrastive Interlanguage Analysis (CIA) of linking adverbials (e.g., furthermore, in conclusion, on the other hand) in the second language (L2) English academic writing of post-secondary students from three countries: the Philippines, Pakistan, and Thailand. This analysis makes use of 80 essays from each of these three first language (L1) groups by way of data sourced from the International Corpus Network of Asian Learner English (ICNALE); we eschew the use of a native speaker control group in response to recent critiques of the native speaker fallacy. Quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed several noteworthy production tendencies which distinguish each English variety. These include a generally low frequency of linking adverbial tokens by Filipino writers of English, as well as a comparatively narrow range of linking adverbial types by Pakistani writers of English. In terms of functional category differences, Thai writers displayed a relatively high frequency of listing devices while Pakistani writers showed a low frequency of appositional linking adverbials, and a high frequency of resultative linking adverbials. Methodological and pedagogical implications of these findings are discussed.

Female Circumcision in Malaysia: Challenges and Lessons Learned in Using Focus Groups through an NGO-Academia Collaboration

Nik Nur Ainin Soffiya Nik Mat — 2023-07-31

Female circumcision is a relatively understudied topic in the Malaysian context. It is also a topic that is considered sensitive due to its strong association with culture and religion. This paper explores the challenges and lessons learned from a larger project that focuses on the discourse analysis of female circumcision in Malaysia. The project involves collaborative work with a local NGO that works on the advancement of Muslim women’s rights in Malaysia. This paper outlines the processes involved in data collection via focus group discussions and is written as a reflexive exercise based on the recommendations proposed by Olmos-Vega et al. (2023). This reflexive paper on the methodological challenges and lessons learned from the collaboration offers insights that can help other researchers make a more informed research choices on working on collaborative research and on the use of focus groups as a method of data collection.