It is well understood by international students who are studying in an English speaking country that proficiency in English is crucial to success. English for Academic Purposes has conventionally aimed to focus on a blend of language skills and study strategies to support students before and during their postgraduate studies. It is apparent from anecdotal information that the needs of Saudi Arabian students are not being met, as they continue to encounter problems with the academic culture of the British higher education system. This study investigates the needs of Saudi students. It draws principally on present situation analysis and target situation analysis to explore the extent of students‟ needs. It exceptionally introduces a new element, referred to as cultural aspects of learning analysis, to assess new areas that preparation courses can usefully focus on. A mixed methods approach is used in this study (Questionnaire, Interview, and Observation), and three groups of participants were approached for the purpose of data collection to determine precisely what elements of academic study in the UK uniquely pose problems for Saudi students. The questionnaire was distributed to 62 Saudi students (male and female) studying at postgraduate level at Southampton University; from this, deductions could be drawn that should apply across the whole Saudi community of graduate learners in the UK. Interviews were composed of three sets: with postgraduate students; with students studying on the English for academic studies programme; teachers teaching on the English for academic studies programme. The observations centred on different English for academic studies classes. Therefore, the data have been analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. The research examines traditional methods of English teaching in the KSA within the context of the Saudi education system, and surveys attitudes towards the difficulties of studying in the English language, in terms of language differences and the academic cultural demands of British postgraduate study programmes. It also examines the area of English for Academic Purposes to ascertain why Saudi students report that these courses do not meet their target situation needs. The results of this study reveal that there are indeed specific needs that relate only to Saudi students studying in the UK, and that a number of these do relate to cultural difference. The recommendations assist in three major areas: (a) to outline suggestions for the provision of preparation courses in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; (b) to improve the provision of programmes of English for Academic Purposes; and (c) to provide advice to Saudi students in their studies in the United Kingdom.

Scottish letters and court-records from the late 16th and early 17th centuries give access to a rich variety of conflicts, ranging from international disputes to everyday spats. This thesis investigates verbal offences reported by correspondents or recorded as legal evidence. Current models of (im)politeness (Culpeper, 2011a, Spencer-Oatey, e.g. 2005), which have rarely been tested on historical data, are synthesized with insights from historical pragmatics. The aims are to create qualitative reconstructions of how participants communicated their period- and situation-specific understandings of verbal offences, and how their expressed perceptions were shaped by private and public dimensions of different contexts. This thesis thus addresses three comparatively understudied aspects of (im)politeness research: historical impoliteness, Scottish (im)politeness, and the examination of private-public aspects of social interactions. Regarding the third point, a multi-dimensional framework is developed for systematic descriptions of private-public dimensions of conflict-situations, remodelling an existing pragmatic approach to news discourse (Landert and Jucker, 2011). Letters are drawn from the Breadalbane Collection, 1548-1583 (Dawson, 2004/2007) and James VI’s correspondence. Court-records are selected from editions of Justice Court papers and Kirk Session minutes. Case studies reveal that the vocabulary and discursive structure of conflict-narratives in letters is largely distinct from reported offences in court-records. Differences are presumably influenced by the genres’ contrasting contextual functions of more private versus more public conflict-settlement. However, the language of conflict-letters and court-records also shows shared moral and religious dimensions. Furthermore, verbal offences in the investigated letters and lawsuits refer primarily to collective identity-aspects of group-membership and social roles, while purely individual qualities appear to have been marginal. The perceived gravity of offence could be intensified by participants’ notions of private and public in multiple ways. Concerning comparisons within genres, the Scottish king’s epistolary language in conflicts shows similarities to that of Scottish upper-rank correspondents; nevertheless, it also has some distinct features reflecting James VI’s understanding of his royal status. Criminal and ecclesiastical court-records had largely different, yet semantically related, inventories of verbal offence terms.

Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) of any country could be a source of providing professionals to the country in many fields. By doing so, HEIs could play a pivotal role in the economic growth of the country. In Pakistan, it seems that, in the wake of this realization, steps have been taken to reform Higher Education. Drawing on the Triple I model of educational change covering Initiation, Implementation and Institutionalization (Fullan, 2007) this study focuses on the planning and implementation of reforms in the Education system of Pakistan at higher education level that have been introduced by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) since its inception in 2002. Kennedy’s model of hierarchical subsystems affecting innovation and Chin and Benne’s (1985) description of strategies for implementing change also provided guidelines for analyzing the changes in education in the country to highlight the role that the authorities expect the language teacher to play in the process of implementing these changes. A qualitative method is followed in this study to gather data from English language teachers at three universities of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. A questionnaire was developed to look into the perceptions of English language teachers regarding the impact of these reforms. This was followed up by interviews. Responses from 28 teachers were received through questionnaire out of which 9 teachers were interviewed for detailed analysis of their perceptions. Thematic Content analysis was used to analyze and interpret the data. Some of the most significant changes that the respondents reported knowledge of included the introduction of Semester System, extending the Bachelors degree to four years from two years, promotion of research culture, and increased teachers’ autonomy in classroom practices. Implications of these reforms for English teachers’ professional development were also explored. The data indicate that the teachers generally have a positive attitude towards the changes. However, the data also show concerns that teachers have about the practical effectiveness of these changes in improving English language teaching and learning in Pakistani Universities. Some of the areas of concern are worries regarding resources, the assessment system, the number of qualified teachers, and instability in the educational policy. They are concerned about the training facilities and quality of the professional training available to them. Moreover, they report that training opportunities for their professional development are not available to all the teachers equally. Despite the HEC claims of providing regular training opportunities, the majority of the teachers did not receive any formal training in the last three years, while some teachers were able to access these opportunities multiple times. Through the recent reforms HEC has empowered the teachers in conducting the learning/teacher processes but this extra power has reduced their accountability and they can exercise these powers without any check on them. This empowerment is limited to the classroom and there appears to be no or minimal involvement in decision making at the top level of policy making. Such lack of involvement in the policy decisions seems to be generating a lack of sense of ownership among the teachers (Fullan 2003a:6). Although Quality Enhancement Cells have been developed in the universities to assure the desired quality of education, they might need a more active role to contribute in achieving the level of enhancement in education expected from them. Based on the perceptions of the respondents of this study and the review of the relevant literature, it is argued that it is unlikely for the reforms to be institutionalized if teachers are not given the right kind of awareness at the initiation stage and are not prepared at the implementation stage to cope with the challenge of a complex process. The teachers participating in this study, in general, have positive and enthusiastic attitudes towards most of the changes, in spite of some reservations. It could also be interesting to see if the power centers of the Pakistani Higher Education appreciate this enthusiasm and channel it for a strong Higher Education system in the country.

This thesis offers an examination and analysis of the manuscript compilation of three poems: Judgement Day I, Resignation A and Resignation B (ff.115v-19v) found in Exeter Cathedral Library MS 3501. It argues that paratextual information including textual division, subordination and manuscript layout are indicative of compiler intention and are significant in the interpretation and subsequent editing practice of Old English texts. An examination of other Old English manuscripts reveals that compilation of this sort was not uncommon; this compilation is indicative of the intended function of the poems as conceived by the manuscript compiler. Evidence from Old English homilies provides a context for the compilation of JDayI with ResA and ResB, where the poems can be seen to share themes common to sets of Rogationtide homilies. An analysis of the use of textual division markers found throughout the Exeter Book manuscript is also provided. This thesis is divided into five main sections: methodology; thematic evidence; contextual evidence; manuscript evidence; and a transcription of JDayI, ResA and ResB. Section I presents the methodology which informs this study, examining the significance of manuscript context in the interpretation and editorial practice of Old English poetry; it also provides an editorial rationale for the semi-diplomatic transcription of Section V. Section II: Thematic Evidence provides an individual review of each poem’s critical history, genre classification and literary analysis, and re-evaluates the poems anew. Section III: Contextual Evidence brings together the thematic evidence of Section II to argue the poems were compiled together in the Exeter Book because they reflected themes common to Rogationtide homilies. Using evidence of similar manuscript compilation in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS 201 (CCCC 201) and in the Vercelli Homilies (specifically VercHomXIX-XXI) it is argued the three Exeter Book poems were placed together for use during Rogationtide, and thereby designed to promote compunction, confession and penance among the audience. Section IV: Manuscript Evidence examines the layout and textual division of these three texts and results displaying the textual division and subordination practice found throughout the Exeter Book manuscript are provided. Finally, Section V: Transcription presents a diplomatic transcription of the texts with facing facsimile image to reflect their manuscript context. The original contributions of this thesis are therefore twofold: i. It presents original data and analysis of textual division practice used in the Exeter Book manuscript ii. It provides thematic, contextual and manuscript evidence of manuscript compilation of JDayI, ResA and ResB and provides an explanation of the purpose such compilation sought to offer.

Researchers have studied voice onset time (VOT) in a number of languages but there is a scarcity of research on the acquisition of VOT of English, particularly by adult Saudi learners, and on the VOT of Saudi Arabic. The current study aims to fill these gaps. At the same time, we aimed to assess whether key claims of Flege's Speech Learning Model (SLM) were supported by this kind of data. 31 adult advanced Saudi learners of English and 60 monolinguals (30 native English and 30 Arabic monolinguals) participated in this study. The VOTs of the voiced and voiceless stops were measured followed by three different vowels, in both isolated word and word in sentence contexts. The results show that the learners produced English voiceless stops with aspiration closer to Arabic than to the higher native English VOT values, and voiced stops with pre-voicing, similar to Arabic, rather than with native English short-lag VOT values. Context had an effect in English but vowel did not, while the reverse was true for the learners and Arabic native speakers. Overall, learners' acquisition was modest despite their level and exposure, in that they overwhelmingly resembled Arabic rather than English native speakers. Several hypotheses based on SLM expectations were not confirmed in an unqualified way. However, support was found for learners' phonetic categories being ‘deflected’ away from both L1 and L2 categories. All three groups produced longer positive VOT for aspirated than unaspirated or voiced plosives. All exhibited VOT increasing across places of articulation, front to back for the voiceless stops, but only English native speakers showed this clearly for the voiced stops. Length of residence in UK and daily use of English did not seem to affect nativelikeness of learner VOT.

For the past three decades, psychological research has repeatedly shown that it is not always necessary for us to be conscious of events in order to perceive them, a phenomenon referred to as implicit cognition (Underwood & Bright 1996). Although this has been the subject of much research in the disciplines of psychology and social psychology, sociolinguists have only recently begun to examine how implicit cognition functions with regards to how we perceive speech (Campbell-Kibler 2012). Consistent with social psychology research on implicit responses to visually-derived social information (Greenwald et al 1998; Karpinski & Hilton 2001), recent sociolinguistic research suggests that listeners make differing conscious and unconscious social evaluations upon hearing different regional and foreign-accented speech varieties (Kristiansen 2009; Pantos & Perkins 2013), and that this is at least partly driven by socially-marked phonetic variation (Campbell-Kibler 2012, 2013). While previous research has investigated this phenomenon in relation to different regional or international varieties of English, the current study investigates the conscious and unconscious associations listeners make towards different social accents in Glasgow. This was achieved over three experiments by adapting an established psycholinguistic eye tracking methodology for sociolinguistic research. The first experiment (N=32) was conducted without eye tracking, relying on pencil and paper responses. Participants were tasked with choosing between on-screen ‘working-class’ and ‘middle-class’ target images (determined via a separate norming task) of brand logos and objects while recordings of different speakers uttering words semantically related to both images were heard. Non-significant trends were found in the data, with participants more likely to choose ‘working-class’ brand logos when a working-class speaker was heard and ‘middle-class’ logos when a middle-class speaker was heard. A second experiment (N=42) recorded listener eye movements in real time towards the same experimental stimuli, finding listeners to have been significantly (p < .05) more likely to fixate upon ‘working-class’ brand logos when hearing a working-class speaker than when hearing a middle-class speaker. Listeners’ verbal choices of brand logos showed no significant effect of speaker heard, showing a divergence between the on-line and off-line responses made towards speakers. Conversely, the speaker heard was found to have had a significant (p < .05) effect on the images of objects verbally chosen by listeners, but no effect on fixations made towards objects. A third experiment (N=54) investigated listener fixations towards brand logos while hearing words containing different socially-marked phonetic variants. Socially-marked phonetic realisations of CAT, post-vocalic/post-consonantal /l/, and non-prevocalic /r/ were all found to have elicited significant (p < .05) effects on listener fixation behaviour, with response times ranging from 300-700ms. A supplemental subjective reaction test (N=60) found participants to have evaluated middle-class Glaswegian speakers significantly (p < .05) more favourably in terms of Zahn & Hopper’s (1985) status attributes than working-class Glaswegian speakers, in line with the findings of previous language attitude studies (Preston 1999; Zahn & Hopper 1985; Kristiansen 2001). Overall, the results indicate that speech varieties with varying levels of perceived social status elicit differing conscious and unconscious social evaluations in listeners, and that socially-marked phonetic variation plays a role in this.

This thesis builds on cognitive stylistics, humour studies and psychological approaches to literature, film and television to explore how the stylistic features of comic novels and short stories may shape readers’ experience of comedy. I suggest that our responses to written humorous narratives are triggered by two types of stylistic cue: those which lead to amusement and stabilise our experience of comedy, and those which destabilise it by evoking non-humorous emotions associated with experiencing narrative worlds generally. When presented simultaneously, those cues can trigger complex humorous responses in which amusement is experienced alongside other, often negative, emotions. In order to investigate how textual elements can influence our emotional experience of humorous narratives, this thesis examines the ways in which stylistic cues affect some of the main experiential features of the narrative worlds of comedy: the moods evoked by the world, our relationships with characters, and our reactions to plot events. Following on from the Introduction and the Literature Review (Chapters 1 and 2), Chapter 3 explores the ways in which stylistic cues may evoke various moods by establishing, reinforcing and disrupting our expectations. Chapter 4 focuses on the role of characterisation in humorous narratives, concentrating on those cues which encourage us to laugh at narrative characters, and those which evoke other, non-humorous responses to them. In Chapter 5, I consider how the presentation of story events affects our experience of humorous plots. I discuss the cues which add humour to the presentation of otherwise problematic events, as well as those which combine humour with more uncomfortable emotions that stem from our reactions to story structures. Chapter 6, finally, provides a summary of the argument and of the contribution to knowledge made by this thesis. My exploration of the non-humorous side of experiencing narrative comedy offers a key contribution to the study of humorous narratives. By investigating humour as part of a wider narrative world, this thesis moves beyond the analysis of amusing language and towards addressing the complexity of the creation and experience of humour in a narrative world. The interdisciplinary, stylistic-psychological approach adopted here allows for hypotheses to be made not only about the emotional experience of humour in comic novels and short stories, but also about the affective side of narrative comprehension more generally.

The study is about the experience of Arab University students whose main subjects are taught in English. It investigates and discusses many English language problems in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in teaching, learning and studying medicine, pure science and technical English. In general, Arab learners of the English language encounter problems in the four skills of the English language, in speaking, writing, reading and listening. They also show weaknesses in many aspects of the English language such as vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, spelling, morphology and syntax. The question is how these language difficulties affect their studies in medicine. The initial hypothesis was that all depended on the students’ facility in English, but this turned out not to be the case. The research started with the analysis of students’ written replies to questions. This was followed by the development of a questionnaire distributed to 736 medical students. This explored various factors in relation to their success in exams to find out which factors might be significant. There were few correlations between success in medical exams and previous encounters with the English language. The one correlation between the test results and the questionnaire findings was not the uses of and familiarity with English but the parents’ background. The research therefore went on to explore, through interviews, and analysis of written statements, the students’ attitudes towards the teaching of medicine in relation to the use of the English language. It was found that the hypothesis of the importance of English as a prerequisite for success was not borne out. What was discovered was the students’ pragmatic attitude towards their study and that what they thought they needed as medical practitioners depended on a kind of secondary technical vocabulary. The research discusses some of the effects of learning and teaching theories and their relationship to the process of the education system. Whilst social constructivism is held to be the ideal one to apply to the learning process, this research demonstrated that behaviorism and rote learning still dominated the experience of the students in their learning of medicine. Despite their continued commitment to the ideals of learning English, the students took a pragmatic approach to their studies, which consisted of a mixture of Arabic and English medical vocabulary.

Situated at the crossroads of Translation Studies, Semiotics and Chinese Studies, this thesis examines the non-localisation (NL henceforth) strategy adopted by Apple for its official website. Website layouts, multi-media information, textual information, such as names of products, services and technological solutions are kept unchanged on the Chinese target-language website. Focusing on the non-localised features, this thesis has three major aims. First of all, it seeks to verify a foreignising impact of the NL strategy on the Chinese translation tradition and Sino-centric values. Secondly, it tries to reconcile translation studies with merits of the localisation industry, namely digital technology and industrial management. Thirdly, regarding global power struggles, this thesis aims to verify that the foreignness of currently ‘dominant’ Anglo-American cultures, NL, is still mediated by the ‘dominated’ Chinese system that has long been a culture centre itself. However, the Chinese system cannot keep its own culture untouched by foreignness either. In order to achieve these three aims, a framework built on semiotics, digital-media, socioeconomics was established, giving birth to the following critical findings. First, NL has a foreignising impact on the Chinese translation traditions. In terms of how this impact is achieved and its efficacy, NL is fundamentally different from Lawrence Venuti’s paradigmatic model in translation studies. Venuti’ suggests translators in target cultures should take the initiative to achieve a foreignising impact by only using target language codes, in the literary domain. On the contrary, NL’s foreignising impact is achieved through:1) Apple’s technological and linguistic control over the development and dissemination of NL items, (such as iPhone and iPad) into the Chinese target culture through digital media, which minimise interference from Chinese publishers and editors who are mainly powerful in print media; 2) In Charles Peirce’s terms, NL items, being source language codes, are signs signifying Apple products that function as objects ubiquitously available in both source and target cultures (e.g. iPhone, a verbal sign, signifies Apple smartphone, an object popular in both U.S. and China); thus, no target code is needed for NL items to be understood in China, highlighting immediate foreignness, with substantially reduced target semiotic mediations; 3) Consumerism which is a foreign-oriented dimension of the Chinese society, conflicts with China’s domestic-oriented translation traditions. Due to China’s booming consumerism, a large and continuous consumption of Apple products in China socially consolidates the foreignising impact, and this cultural impact becomes measurable. The second key finding is the relationship between localisation and translation, and the implication on translation studies. Addressing existing attempts to explore the relationship between localisation and translation, (i.e. ‘localisation is just specialised translation’ vs ‘localisation includes translation’) this thesis discovers that localisation and translation are merely two different text production methods. In other words, both have equal status. Text production method refers to the entire information creation and dissemination process between source and target cultures. The difference between the localisation and translation is the historical, media, and technological context in which both are developed. Drawing on a review of media history, the thesis reveals that translation, as a text production method, includes source text composition, source text selection, translator selection, translation, translation editing and publishing. As print media matured, translation publishers and editors in the target cultures took and continue to take control over almost everything of translation apart from source text composition. The domesticating power of the publishers in the Anglo-American world, pointed out by Venuti, is actually a natural result of the industrial development; accordingly, it’s not difficult to understand why translators’ initiative to challenge the domestication tradition has been difficult. Localisation, as another text production method, includes, source content development and internationalisation, source content rendition, finalisation, and target content release. Multinational high-tech companies like Apple takes control over the entire process of localisation, witnessing a major shift of power from target to the source. This power shift is one of the major propelling forces for NL’s foreignising impact on the Chinese context. The macro-structural differences between localisation and translation pointed out in this thesis have significant implications on the current understanding of how translation creates cultural impacts in academia i.e. what translators do textually, such as a change of language style for instance, is only a part of the entire text production process. Overall this thesis argues that the study of translation impact should include much more than texts per se; instead social-economic and industrial circumstances under which texts are produced and disseminated must be factored in too.

This study has explored the motivational problem of speaking among language learners in an English secondary school. It set out from the premise that learners’ speaking is an important aspect of language learning but it is beset by a series of motivational difficulties, including lack of knowledge of oral progress, lack of awareness of how to improve, lack of confidence in speaking and an inability to say what they want to say. There has been little research into motivation in specific language skills among learners in UK schools despite evidence that speaking is associated with low levels of achievement. This study has sought to shed some light on this difficult aspect of language learning from the students’ perspectives. The study was conducted in a large, mixed comprehensive school in South East England in 2006-2007 and involved qualitative case studies of classes of students aged 11 to 14. Information was elicited by means of questionnaires, diaries and interviews. Performance data on students was also obtained from teachers (pseudonyms are used throughout when referring to the school, the teachers and the students). Although the study is small-scale, a series of key themes emerged from the data, which could help to inform developments in language teaching, research and policy. The findings of the study suggest that speaking is affected by a series of complex individual and social motivational variables that are not well understood but are, nonetheless, a source of tension for some learners.