Directed Motivational Currents (DMCs) are a novel motivational construct which describe periods of highly motivated behaviour while working towards a well-defined and personally significant end goal (see e.g. Dörnyei, Henry & Muir, 2016). Such periods of motivation are found in diverse contexts and directed towards varied outcomes, yet are uniquely recognisable by the highly positive emotionality exhibited by individuals, who during this time often surpass even their wildest expectations. To date, DMC research has focused on qualitative accounts of the personal experiences of DMCs, and while this has offered a wealth of comprehensive data, key research strands remain unexplored. In response to this, this thesis comprises two complementary studies, each looking at a novel aspect of DMC theory and application. Study 1 takes a quantitative approach to research by addressing questions related to the recognisability of DMCs across continents and contexts, and considers basic questions such as how many people report having experienced periods of DMC-like motivation, what inspired them, and the durations they lasted. It additionally looks at the demographic factors of respondents to understand whether there are links between DMCs and either gender, age or nationality. The study uses a newly developed online questionnaire tool and involves a total of 1563 participants of 71 different nationalities. The results support the notion that DMCs are a well-recognisable and widely experienced motivational phenomenon in society, and indicate no significant links between DMCs and any demographic factors. In terms of language learning, the findings support the assertion that DMCs are found across a wide range of language levels and contexts. Study 2 addresses the practical applicability of DMC theory to language learning and teaching. This classroom intervention study – conducted in collaboration with Jessica Florent and David Leach – aimed to purposefully facilitate a group DMC experience in a class of 16 business English language learners. The basis of this study stems from the observation that within a classroom context, group DMCs can be thought of as intensive group projects. The study was structured around an ‘All Eyes on the Final Product’ project framework (Dörnyei et al., 2016), the end goal being the organisation of a large charity fundraising event. Data was collected throughout the five weeks from personal diary entries and Skype interviews with both students and teachers. Findings suggest the intervention was highly successful in creating a group DMC experience, and significantly, it was also found that students reported notable positive developments throughout the course, both in terms of their language learning and in other key skills. The cumulative conclusions presented in this thesis are therefore highly encouraging, offering strong empirical support to the claim that DMCs are a well-recognised and widely experienced motivational phenomenon which transcends borders and contexts. Results equally suggest that the purposeful facilitation of DMC experiences with varied groups of language learners in diverse contexts – to achieve dual motivational and educational aims – might be a very real possibility. Although positive results are reported, both studies venture into previously unchartered research territory and, in light of this, the conclusions put forward require validation and confirmation through further empirical work. Suggestions for future research are made.

This dissertation concentrates on the role of the conceptual metaphor LIFE IS A JOURNEY in English hymns of the 17th and 18th centuries, addressing the following research questions: 1) To what extent and in which contexts have elements of the lexical category of travel, applied metaphorically, been used in English spiritual language and literature in the period 1650–1800? 2) How has metaphorical extension affected the semantic development of this category? This dissertation discusses the use of travel metaphors as structural schemata for complete hymns, and analyzes the use of individual elements of travel-related terminology across a historical textual corpus. The analyses in this dissertation are undertaken in light of recent trends in semantics, and with the aim of contributing to the development of Cognitive Metaphor Theory as a tool for historical linguistic analysis and literary criticism.

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This thesis explores the measurement of adult second language (L2) oral proficiency in Scottish Gaelic (henceforth Gaelic). Gaelic is a minority language in Scotland, and is currently the object of a major effort to reverse language shift. Adult L2 users of Gaelic have been identified as key agents in this effort, but some weaknesses in adult Gaelic language-in-education policy are making it difficult for adult L2 users to fulfil this role. One such weakness is the absence of an empirically-derived means of assessing proficiency in Gaelic, through which adult L2 users and their teachers can assess their progress. This project aims to address this weakness. Data from two tasks — an interview and a narrative — performed by adult L2 users of Gaelic are analysed from the perspective of the complexity, accuracy, and fluency framework, as the three main dimensions of proficiency. Data are also analysed for Communicative Adequacy, using raters’ judgements. These data provide the first examination of Gaelic L2 proficiency from the perspective of second language acquisition (SLA) research. Adult L2 users of Gaelic have a wide range of learning experiences and motivations for learning the language. This study also explores these experiences and motivations, and discusses how these relate to proficiency. Results show that individuals’ Gaelic language skills interact in complex and unpredictable ways, depending on the nature of the task being performed. There is some evidence that the interview task encourages complexity and fluency, while the narrative task encourages accuracy at the expense of complexity. Results also show that the Communicative Adequacy rating scale developed for this project is valid and reliable, but that assessments of proficiency are subjective, to a large extent. Finally, the results confirm that adult L2 users of Gaelic draw on a vast range of experiences and are motivated in many different ways to learn the language. The outcomes of the project contribute to existing scholarship on the experiences and motivations of adult L2 users of Gaelic, confirming previous findings. The results also confirm previous findings in second language acquisition research that complexity, accuracy, fluency, and Communicative Adequacy in an L2 interact in complex ways, and that these interactions can be mediated by different task conditions. Finally, the outcomes of this exploratory research serve as the basis for future, more large-scale research into the acquisition of Gaelic as a second language by adults.

Code switching involves the interplay of two languages and as well as serving linguistic functions, it has social and psychological implications. In the context of English language teaching, these psychological implications reveal themselves as teachers’ thought processes. While the nature of code switching in language classrooms has been widely studies, as yet little if any attention has been paid to the relationship between such switching and the beliefs of the teachers involved. This study is designed to respond this gap in current research. In the study, I worked with five student teachers undertaking their teaching practicum at a private school in Turkey, aiming to investigate their thinking in relation to code switching in their classrooms by using the analysis of classroom interactions, individual interviews and stimulated recall interviews. The first step of the research involved video recording lessons taught by the five student teachers within the framework of their university Teaching Practice course. This was followed by individual interviews with the student teachers focusing on their views of code switching during their teaching experience and their general views about language teaching. The last stage involved stimulated recall interviews with the student teachers based on selected extracts from their lessons chosen after an analysis of spoken interaction in their classes. The data were then analysed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed that code switching is more than merely a linguistic matter; it is also indicative of a number of other dimensions including how teachers define themselves professionally, teacher beliefs, teacher identity, affective factors influencing teachers, and their relationships with supervisors. This study suggests that code switching could usefully be included as a topic in teacher education programmes and in supervisor/mentor training.

The relationship between phonemic awareness and literacy ability is well established in the developmental and adult reading literatures. Recent research indicates that awareness of the rhythmic patterns present in spoken language (i.e. prosody) may also be an important predictor of reading ability. Researchers have demonstrated that sensitivity to speech prosody can facilitate speech segmentation and the development of phoneme awareness. Awareness of the rhythmic patterns in spoken words and phrases is also known to play a direct role in phonological decoding, reading comprehension and learning to use punctuation. These findings have the potential to enhance our understanding of typical reading development and inform theories of how poor phonological and auditory skills contribute to dyslexia. This research also helps extend our knowledge of skilled and impaired reading to a wider range of reading materials (e.g. multisyllabic words) and thus raises issues relevant to cognitive models of visual word recognition. A small number of studies have demonstrated that sensitivity to the prosodic patterns in spoken language is reduced in children with dyslexia. However, there is currently no published research investigating the prosodic processing skills of adults with dyslexia. The precise nature of the prosodic processing deficit associated with dyslexia is also unclear. These gaps in the literature are problematic because phonological processing is multifaceted and the relationship between specific phonological skills and reading ability may change over time. This thesis presents four cross sectional studies in which adults with dyslexia were compared with control participants matched for age and IQ on various tasks designed to measure prosodic processing. The experiments also contrast the conscious awareness of prosodic structure with the underlying representation of syllabic stress assignment in the mental lexicon and the ability to acquire spelling-sound correspondences for decoding stress assignment in multisyllabic words. Participants with dyslexia showed reduced awareness of lexical and metrical prosody and these skills were found to be significantly associated with, and predictive of, phoneme awareness and phonological decoding ability (Experiments 1a and 2). In contrast, adults with dyslexia showed normal patterns of stress based priming at magnitudes similar to controls (Experiments 1b and 2). Similar, although somewhat weaker results were also obtained when lexical stress was primed with abstract stress templates rather than real-word stimuli (Experiment 3). Participants with dyslexia also showed normal effects of spelling-stress congruency on lexical decision times for disyllabic words (Experiment 4). The overall pattern of results strongly suggests that the prosodic processing problems associated with dyslexia in adulthood are limited to tasks requiring participants to access and consciously reflect upon their knowledge of prosodic structure, or to process information related to prosodic structure in an abstract way. In contrast, the ability of adults with dyslexia to represent lexical stress assignment in the mental lexicon, assemble novel prosodic representations, and learn correspondences between lexical stress assignment and aspects of orthographic structure appears to be intact. Encouragingly, this pattern of results is consistent with recent findings reported in the domain of phonemic processing.

The thesis aims to explore the viability of using a quantitative instrument to measure language learner autonomy and investigate whether such an instrument has a function in supporting teachers and learners in the development of learner autonomy. The research developed into a critical reflexive approach which probed the theoretical and design issues surrounding the development of a quantitative autonomy-measurement instrument by actually attempting to produce such an instrument. This approach means that I could experience and examine first-hand the theoretical and practical issues which the quantified measurement of autonomy would involve. The main conclusions of this research were, firstly, that the aim of measuring learner autonomy needs to be recast in the light of the research which indicated that it is necessary to understand autonomy as a quality which has only an abstract existence if it is not instantiated in a context. This means that the aim of producing an instrument which measures an abstract universal learner autonomy cannot be achieved. However, such an instrument can be used to monitor learners in autonomyrelevant areas and can serve a useful purpose in scaffolding the learners in their environment in order to facilitate the dialogue which enables a teacher to support the learners better in the development and maintenance of their autonomous learning. Secondly, teacher estimates of their learners' autonomy can be complemented and assisted by using the data provided by the quantitative instrument developed in this research. Another outcome was that the translation of instruments in second language teaching research is an issue which needs to be given more serious consideration and should be carried out in a more principled way than it is currently.

Amongst the rich variety of metaphors used to describe the process of transferring texts from one language into another, the parallels between translating and the acting process enjoy a prominent place. This thesis examines the arguments of both translation scholars and practitioners who highlight a need for translators to be able to function as actors do, particularly when translating for the stage, or to have at least an understanding of how actors work. By comparing and contrasting the creative process involved in translation, particularly drama translation, with that fostered by a particular method of drama training, namely that developed by Konstantin Stanislavsky, it is the purpose of this thesis not only to explore whether and how an awareness of the ways actors work could be of benefit to the translator, but also to examine the implications of thinking of the Translator as Actor. This thesis will initially offer an overview and contextualisation of the Stanislavskian approach to acting (Chapter I) and of existing approaches to drama translation (Chapter II). It will seek to examine the core aspects of the Stanislavskian approach to preparing for a performance (Chapters III-VI), and will explore areas of similarity and difference between this and the work of translation. In the final chapter (Conclusions), an attempt will be made to evaluate the extent to which the work of drama translators may be informed by the practices of Stanislavskian actors, as well as the validity of thinking of the Translator as Actor.

The main objective of this study is to show how "the Stylistic Phenomenon" has entered Arabic literary critical life. It aims to examine "Practical Criticism" in Arabic, which adopts a "stylistic approach". In order to achieve this, however, it is essential to have examined a complete picture of this approach in Arabic literary life in all its aspects, most of which are concerned with issues, of stylistic theory rather than practical stylistics. Efforts have been devoted to establishing it as a separate recognised approach: in the theory of translation, in matters of terminology, in traditional Arabic literary criticism, etc. The "Stylistic Approach" in Arabic literary life, as examined here, also illustrates the whole situation of the real relationship of Arabic literary criticism with modern literary criticism in The West. There are various channels of connection with modern Western literary criticism, such as the translation of the most important works relating to this topic into Arabic, either as monographs or as articles in literary journals. There are also Arab writers who have been educated in The West and who are applying the stylistic approach to Arabic literature. This study shows the connection of Arab scholarship with the modern linguistic revolution in the West, from which the stylistic approach is the fruit. It is clear that the most important figures in modern linguistics, particularly those whose works are influenced by modern Western linguistics or have been affected by modern Western literary criticism, are well-known, and the Arab reader is familiar with Althusser, Bakhtin, Bally, Barthes, Brooks, Chatman, Chomsky, Cohen, Derrida, Foucault, Genette, Jakobson, Levi-Strauss, Saussure and many others.

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