Cross-cultural communication has acquired particular significance in contemporary societies, where the world-wide traffic of people, goods and ideas, which has impacted upon social and cultural values, raises debates over globalisation issues. Translation plays a crucial role in these interchanges, by mediating the socio-cultural contacts between different language communities. The present study aims to look into the translation of advertisements that cross borders, and that are part of the cross-cultural flow. It will attempt to describe and discuss the translation strategies employed in the translation of perfume and cosmetics print advertisements in to Portuguese.F or this purpose, a selection of English and Portuguese advertisements of the major brands of these products has been made, so as to (a) outline the main translation approaches adopted in the translation into Portuguese, (b) compare them to the major approaches adopted in English advertisements of the same type, (c) discuss major issues in translation studies raised by the specificity of international advertising, and (d) infer some of the (cultural) factors conditioning these options. This analysis will consider the different constitutive dimensions of these multimodal messages, namely pictorial and verbal elements, the combination of which is believed to influence the translational approaches and processes. This study also seeks to demonstrate that discursive features and translation strategies a re-connected with the societies they are part of and hence both affect and reflect the existing cultural conditions and power relations. This view of discursive practices, particularly translation, as part of the wide cultural system, has required an approach that draws on different disciplines, namely discourse and serniotic analysis, media studies in advertising and international marketing, as well as studies in translation.

This dissertation examines the production and perception of some selected stress patterns in Libyan Arabic by English speaking learners and compares them to the production and perception of the native speakers. Two tasks were utilised to investigate the participants’ performance: a picture naming and an identification task. Word patterns covered potential problematic and non-problematic areas. An optimality theoretic approach is adopted in the discussion of the results of the perception and production of stress by the participants (Chapters 5 & 7) while a metrical approach is referred to in the discussion of the Libyan Arabic stress system in Chapter 3. It is found that structural effects (e.g. syllable structure, vowel quality, syllable position or class) have consequences on how the learners perceive and produce stress and on how they use this information in assigning stress. The study found that if the stress patterns match in the L1 and L2, and they follow regular phonological conditions, the learners get these patterns right by just applying the predictable patterns. If the stress patterns are similar but applied differently and they contradict predictable conditions, these unpredictable and/or marked patterns are not accessible in the L2 despite their partial availability in the L1. If a particular stress pattern does not exist in the L1, then the L1 negative transfer effect may appear in the L2. The misperception of stress is not only restricted to L2 learners but native speakers also fail in certain patterns to perceive the stress location. The learners use grammatical class and syllable structure as stress indicators but they show a deviation from the native speakers in using the vowel length cue. The native speakers are more sensitive to vowel length; the absence of vowel length or syllable closure in the stressed syllable in certain patterns prevent the native speakers from perceiving stress accurately.

This study is the first of its kind to examine the discursive construction of diabulimia. Diabulimia is a contested disease characterised by the deliberate restriction of insulin dosage by people with insulin-dependent diabetes in order to control their weight. The analysis takes a mixed methods approach, combining quantitative corpus linguistic techniques with qualitative discourse analytic methods to examine how diabulimia is discursively constructed in three English-speaking diabetes internet fora. By examining the discursive construction of diabulimia in this context, this study explores this emerging health phenomenon from the perspectives of those individuals who, in many cases, have lived, first-hand experience of it. The corpus analysis reveals the discursive construction of diabulimia in this context to be deeply influenced by medicalisation and the neoliberal imperative of autonomous diabetes self-management. Individuals with diabetes who restrict their insulin dosage to control their weight are likely to articulate their experiences and concerns using decidedly medicalising language, construing these experiences as the symptoms of a disease (diabulimia). It is also found that the demands of diabetes self-management figure in and shape individuals’ experiences and understandings of diabulimia in varying and conflicting ways. By providing novel insight into subjective experiences and understandings of diabulimia, the findings reported in this study give voice to those individuals affected by it, findings which also bear important implications for health care practitioners likely to encounter such individuals in the future.

In a context of precariousness of Modern Foreign Languages and promotion of e-learning at national level, often referred to as “technology-enhanced learning”, the targeted institution, a “new” university in the United Kingdom, offers an Institution-Wide Language Programme where language classes are presented as a blended learning package of face-to-face classes coupled with the use of the Blackboard Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Operating within a hermeneutical phenomenological approach and constructionist epistemological principles, this thesis seeks to investigate the students’ experience of a VLE among beginners and post-beginners of French and in particular whether their level (beginners or post-beginners), status (undergraduates, post-graduates or external students) or the lecturers in charge of the various groups for the face-to-face component of the module, have any significance on their experience. At a time when the students’ feedback and the quality of their learning experience are considered with care by institutions of Higher Education, this thesis contributes to an enhanced knowledge of the students’ experience in connection with a VLE, obtained through a mixed-method approach based on the completion of 96 questionnaires and six follow-up interviews, in association with socio-constructivist principles. This research differentiates itself by being conducted specifically about students’ experience of the institutional VLE in a context of blended learning, with students based primarily on site, and study of languages. Although they may be considered as digitally literate, students’ response regarding their own experiences indicates that digital skills do not appear as readily transferable to formal learning contexts. Therefore, lecturers need to guide students in a structured and progressive manner in order to maximise their engagement with the VLE. In addition, it contributes further to knowledge by highlighting implications for pedagogical practices.

This thesis examines the role of vision in language development by focusing on: first, the understanding blind infants have of objects, actions/events and the way they start to talk about these aspects of their environment; and, second, the ways visual information contributes to conceptual and lexical development in sighted infants. Until recently, research has predominantly focused on infants' understanding of objects and their understanding of actions/events has been neglected. Since individuals who are blind predominantly have access to temporal, rather than spatial infomation and so are better able to process information about actions and events rather than objects, this bias seems to have led to the conclusion that an absence of visual information results in a cognitive deficit. Six blind/severely visually impaired infants and their sighted controls were studied for around a year using a range of quasi-experimental, parental report and observational techniques. The studies found little difference between the blind and sighted infants in the age of onset or rate at which first words are produced. However, blind infants were found to be delayed in the age at which they were able to comprehend and produce labels for objects and they produced few words for concrete, discrete objects. The finding that the blind infants were able to categorize objects/actions as well as generalise and extend their words calls into question Dunlea's (1989) claim that an absence of visual information leads to a cognitive deficit. It is argued that blind infants can make their way into language using a route which is merely one end of a spectrum of routes used by sighted infants. Implications are discussed for theories of lexical development (multiroute model, developmental lexical principles framework and the social-pragmatic framework) as well as for possible strategies facilitate conceptual and lexical development in blind/SVI and sighted infants.

Formulaic sequences are very frequently used in language as a preferred way to convey certain meanings. This thesis looks at distribution, processing, and incidental acquisition of formulaic sequences, by presenting four separate studies on different aspects of formulaicity. Study 1 investigated the distribution of four different categories of formulaic sequences (collocations, idiomatic phrases, lexical bundles, and phrasal verbs) and showed that those four categories vary considerably in terms of frequency. Also, register seems to affect the number of formulaic sequences used, as well as the categories of formulaic sequences preferred. Importantly, this study raised an issue of form variation of formulaic sequences (especially collocations) which seemed to be an under-researched area. Therefore, the following studies investigated the effect of form variation (focusing on non-adjacency) on collocation processing and their incidental acquisition. Studies 2 and 3 used an eye-tracking technique to investigate how native and non-native speakers of English process adjacent and non-adjacent verb-noun collocations. The results suggest that native speakers process both adjacent and non-adjacent collocations faster than matched control phrases, albeit the collocation effect seems to be larger for adjacent collocations. As for non-native speakers, there is a clear collocation effect for adjacent collocations and it is moderated by prior vocabulary knowledge. However, there seems to be almost no effect for non-adjacent collocations. This finding suggests that even advanced non-native speakers process non-adjacent collocations differently than native speakers. Finally, Study 4 tried to take the findings from the previous studies to a classroom. It investigated whether there is any difference between the chances of incidentally acquiring adjacent and non-adjacent collocations from reading. The results suggest low but durable gains for both adjacent and non-adjacent collocations, with no significant differences between these two groups of items. Overall, the results presented in the thesis support the idea that formulaic language is ubiquitous, but suggest that some of the criteria that have been widely used for identifying formulaic sequences might need to be reconsidered. It seems that collocations, at least for native speakers, retain their formulaic status even when presented non-adjacently. They seem to be successfully learned as non-adjacent dependencies as well. While this finding cannot be easily generalized to other types of formulaic sequences, it seems to suggest that a lot more research on form variation of formulaic sequences is needed in order to better understand the scope of the phenomenon.

The major focus of the thesis is to investigate the complex dynamism of L2 demotivation. It is an attempt to reform previous thinking of demotivation and move the L2 demotivation mainstream research into a new phase that focuses on the complexity of its process and its development. The demotivational, motivational, and remotivational trajectories of language learners were examined through the lens of various key psychological and theoretical constructs including mindset, personality hardiness, learnerd helplessness, and the L2 Motivational Self System. The thesis consists of two studies that investigated the demotivation of female Saudi university students by using a variety of research methodologies, including qualitative in-depth interviews, quantitative surveys, and structural equation modelling. A primary explorative qualitative study was conducted aiming at examining the Saudi learners’ different explanations of their language learning experiences and their various perceptions of different demotivating factors. Semi-structured interviewes were conducted with 13 female learners of English in King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, SAUDI ARABIA . Analysis of the qualitative data showed that the language learning mindset played an important role in the language learner’s motivation, demotivation, remotivation, and resilience/vulnerability. However, the relationship between the variables that emerged in the qualitative data needed further investigation in order to be confirmed and generalised to larger populations. A secondary confirmatory quantitative study was carried out aiming at investigating the impact of having a particular language learning mindset on L2 demotivation. Using the key variables that emerged in the qualitative data, a questionnaire was desgined and administered to 2044 foundation-year university students. A number of tests were conducted to investigate (a) the relationships between the variables; (b) the differences between the growth mindset language learners and the fixed mindset language learners; and (c) the differences between the resilient and vulnerable language learners. The quantitative results confirmed all the hypothesised relationships assumed and established an empirical link between the language learning mindset and both L2 demotivation and L2 resilience. Finally, a model that assumed that L2 demotivation can be predicted by the fixed language learning mindset was hypothesised. A structural equation modelling (SEM) to empirically test and examine the hypothesised model was conducted. A set of causal relationships were examined simultaneously. The SEM analysis confirmed all the hypothesised causal relationships and showed that L2 demotivation can be predicted positively and directly by the fixed language learning mindset. It also showed that the fixed language learning mindset can lead to L2 demotivation indirectly via decreasing the ability to create a positive ideal L2 self and increasing L2 disappointment. Although all the studies were conducted in the Saudi context and with female learners, it is hoped that the wealth of data can serve as an empirical point of departure in the realm of investigation of L2 demotivation. Conceptualising L2 demotivation by focusing on the role of the language learning mindset and its contribution to the learners’ perceptions and responses to demotivating factors, seems to provide language educators with a new tool to minimise language learners’ demotivation and help them to rebuild their motivation. It also seems to provide future researchers with a new theoritcal model to investigate when researching L2 demotivation in different contexts.

This thesis explores the possibility of applying Scriptural Reasoning (SR) principles for promoting Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) in primary schools. It used storytelling and interfaith dialogue to encourage pupils to exercise these competences in classroom settings. It takes its philosophical position from the work of Ricoeur and combines a phenomenological and interpretive approach to Religious Education (RE) to develop pupils' understanding of both the "other" and the "self." From this theoretical position, an age-appropriate intervention was developed based on the principles of Scriptural Reasoning in collaboration with the Cambridge Interfaith Program (CIP). The resulting "Story Tent" themed day built on the established work of Julia Ipgrave's dialogic and Esther Reed's narrative approach to religious education. The underpinning work utilised Action Research (AR) methodology through a cyclical approach which took place over two iterative cycles in three different schools, each with its own distinctively-different religious ethos and demographic make-up. It was unusual in combining the contributions not only of teachers and researcher but also faith representatives from local communities. Data was collected through pupil self-assessments, group work, and research team interviews during the Story Tent Intervention day. Follow-up interviews were completed with a selection of pupils using a semi-structured interview - The Autobiography of Intercultural Encounter (AIE). The data was combined to produce pupil case study portfolios. ATLAS.ti was used to support the coding process and analysis of the data. The initial primary findings suggest that the genre of story; the pedagogic style of drama; and the process of interreligious dialogue were particularly effective approaches which provided an environment where pupils and adults could explore and exercise intercultural communication. The secondary findings indicate that the skills and attitudinal competences outlined by Michael Byram seemed to lie within a hierarchy, both cognitively and interactionally. There was evidence which suggested that pupils with a strong sense of identity and were also able to tolerate ambiguity demonstrated a range of intercultural competences including critical cultural awareness. Finally, the personal religious identity of the pupils also had an impact on the pupils' responses to the encounters, which (in combination with other factors) could be associated with particularly positive or negative outcomes.

Reflective practice is deemed as one of the essential learning tools in professional education, particularly in the field of Medicine. Educators have recognised the role of reflective writing in focusing students’ reflective learning (Moon, 2004). Research in this writing genre has highlighted the centrality of successful management of affective meanings to achieve critical reflection (Boud et al., 1985). However, the volume of studies that explored the structure and linguistic features of authorial attitudes is limited, indicating a lack of knowledge. This study investigates the macrostructure of reflective writing and the strategies used by writers to position their stance towards entities and propositions across the sections of the reports. To achieve this aim, a corpus of 47 reflective reports written by four-year medical students at the Birmingham Medical School was compiled and interviews with supervisors were conducted. Drawing on the appraisal theory (Martin and White, 2005) and the parameter-based approach (Bednarek, 2006), a framework of evaluation was developed, featuring the analysis of the targets of the evaluation. The findings demonstrated the role of the situational context in selecting those targets, and the way writers position their stance towards them reflects their awareness of the genre conventions and their professional identity. They also revealed the influence the discourse community in structuring the reports. This thesis concludes with an evaluation of the framework and suggestions for pedagogical implications.

This thesis explores the use of the word chav in written discourse in Britain published between 2004 and 2008. Taking a critical social semiotic approach, it discusses how chav as a semiotic resource contributes to particular ways of using language to represent the world – Discourses – and to particular ways of using language to act on the world – Genres – suggesting that, though the word is far from homogenous in its use, it is consistently used to identify the public differences of Britain as a class society in terms of personal dispositions and choices, and in taking an ironic, stereotyped stance towards such differences. It is suggested that these tendencies can be viewed as ideological, as contributing to social domination and inequality. Chav is also found to be subject to a great deal of metalinguistic discussion, some of which serves to critique the above tendencies, but much of which does not.