The present study was conducted to investigate possible interpretation discourse level effects of processing instruction and re-exposure to processing instruction on the acquisition of a specific feature of the Japanese linguistics system: namely Japanese passive forms. Processing instruction is a type of focus on form which is framed around the input processing theoretical framework. In order to carry out this investigation two separate experimental studies were conducted. All participants were native English speakers and were randomly assigned to two groups. In both experimental studies, one group received processing instruction which involved an explicit instruction component and structured input practice directed at altering the way L2 learners process input; the other group was used as a control group and received no instruction. Interpretation and production sentence level tasks, and discourse level tasks were used to measure performance after a one day instruction. A pre-test/post-test design was adopted to collect data in both studies. In the second experimental study, the processing instruction group received a re-exposure treatment between the post-test and the delayed post-test. Based on previous research carried out on the effectiveness of processing instruction, it was hypothesised that processing instruction would have positive effects on the accuracy with which subjects interpreted and produced sentences containing Japanese passive forms. A further hypothesis was that the effects of re-exposure to the processing instruction treatment (after the first post-test) would further improve subjects ability to interpret and produce sentences containing Japanese passive forms. A set of two hypotheses were formulated on possible interpretation discourse effects for processing instruction. It was hypothesised that the group receiving processing instruction would improve in its ability to interpret discourse (guided recall: dialogue and story version) containing Japanese passive forms, and that learners in this group, receiving re-exposure to the processing instruction treatment would further improve in their ability to interpret discourse containing Japanese passive forms. Overall the statistical analyses carried out on the raw scores of all the measures used supported the four hypotheses of this study. The results obtained in this research provide clear evidence that processing instruction has positive effects on the acquisition of Japanese passive construction. The present study showed that processing instruction was successful in altering the way in which learners processed the input and its effects had also an impact on the way learners produced Japanese passive construction forms. The main findings of the present study also provided new evidence on the effectiveness of processing instruction in improving learners’ performance on interpretation discourse level tasks. In addition to this, it also provides new evidence that learners receiving re-exposure to the processing instruction treatment between a post-test and a delayed post-test can further improve in their ability to interpret and produce the target feature at sentence level and interpret the target feature at discourse level. The results obtained in the two studies have implications at two levels. At the theoretical level this research provides further support for the role that input processing plays in SLA. At the pedagogical level it demonstrates the effectiveness of processing instruction on the acquisition of a different linguistic feature of the Japanese grammar system (passive forms), not only on an interpretation and production sentence level task but also on an interpretation discourse level task. It also demonstrated the important role of a re-exposure instructional treatment.

This is a thesis in variationist sociolinguistics. It attempts to make a contribution to the study of a dialect of Arabic—Palestinian Arabic—spoken in a region where the population is gradually becoming engulfed in a language, which was once quite similar to Arabic, namely Hebrew, but has undergone drastic changes, particularly in its phonological structure, as a result of contact with European languages. Now, Modern Hebrew is acting as a colonizing language vis-à-vis Palestinian Arabic, and in this study we are exploring the effects the contact between the two languages on the phonology of Arabic in the town of Jaffa, where Arabic-speaking Palestinians and Hebrew-speaking Israeli Jews reside, perhaps not in harmony, but nonetheless in the same urban space. Employing quantitative methods for one linguistic variable and a sociohistorical analysis for another, we make the case that the two variables observed in this study are but a fragment of the entire complex. Examples from the data collected are provided and briefly analyzed, some of which are from other domains of the language, and these will be further explored at a later date.

This thesis presents a linguistic ethnographic case study on a large Chinese complementary school (CCS) in Birmingham, England. Guided by Bakhtin’s theory of heteroglossia, the study investigates multilingual practices of adult participants in and around the school, focusing on the changing constructions of language ideology, Chinese teachers’ professional identity and the ethnic identification of Chineseness. It documents the impact of globalisation on the shifting relations among Chinese varieties and English in the Chinese diaspora. The 10-month fieldwork for the study was conducted in 2013/14 academic year, with observations and interviews as dominant methods for data collection. Main findings are: (1) an ideological ecology including ‘separate bilingualism’, ‘translanguaging’, ‘a hegemony of Putonghua’, and ‘a preferred school-wide monolingualism’ is dynamically constructed in the school. ‘Language as pride’ and ‘Language as profit’ are simultaneously in play leading to the dynamic ecology; (2) Chinese teachers’ professional identities are shaped by the changing structure of Chinese diaspora, the shifting power balance among different Chinese varieties and English, and teachers’ own biographical trajectories of settlement into English society; (3) practices in CCS context reflect an evolving ethnic identification of diasporic Chineseness which ‘de-freezes’ from a cultural heritage affiliated purely with the past and the national homeland.

This study presents a corpus-based analysis of the use of “wh” sentences by language learners, in language textbooks and in authentic written discourse. It focuses on the polysemeous nature of “wh” words, which can be usedas interrogatives, declaratives and to introduce subordinate clauses. The analysis of “wh” sentences in EFL textbooks showed that there are more prototypical examples at low proficiency levels. When teaching the interrogative, textbooks focus almost exclusively on grammatical words, particularly at the beginners’ level. The analysis of “wh” sentences elicited from Chinese speaking learners of English and Expert users of English suggested that the prototypical structure is very strong in both sets of data, although native speakers tend to use more prefabricated chunks of language. The analysis of “wh” sentences from native speakers and non-native speakers’ written corpora suggested that subordinate clauses are strongly present in both corpora, except for the word “why” in non-native speakers’ data. The use of different words occurring immediately after “wh” words in the two corpora can be explained by (1) the relatively small vocabulary size of the L2 speakers; (2) non-native speakers’ lack of awareness of restricted collocations; (3) L1 transfer; (4) over/under-generalization of rules and (5) textbooks.

In this thesis, I have examined the screen translation of Japanese politeness into Cantonese dubbing as well as Chinese subtitling at three difference levels: (a) face threatening acts; (b) frequently used politeness markers and (c) discernment aspect of politeness. It is not difficult to find equivalents in the target languages for the politeness strategies exploited in dealing with face threatening acts. However, the indirectness expressed through certain commonly adopted politeness markers (such as negative interrogative) in Japanese cannot be conveyed into our target languages easily. Translators also encounter some difficulties when they deal with the discernment aspect of Japanese politeness (i.e. the distinction between plain, formal and honorific form). Both target languages are able to distinguish politeness of two levels instead of three as observed in the Japanese original. Finally, the screen translation, especially the dubbed version, of the two films that I examined demonstrates the dual role of a translated text as not only a reproduction of the original text but also a text which has its function in the target culture.

This study explores perceptions of Chinese texts by Western audiences while looking into the interrelation between film and literature. This is done by two means: firstly, through a detailed discussion of film adaptations with the focus on Chinese cinema, and secondly, through a practical demonstration of a filmic style in prose fiction in the form of an original book-length piece of fiction. Using Bakhtin’s ‘dialogism’ as the point of departure, the research on adaptations adopts an intertextual approach of adaptation theory as developed by Robert Stam, looking into the intertextual relationship between a hypotext (a source text) and a hypertext (film adaptation). The analysis of Raise the Red Lantern by Zhang Yimou (1991) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon by Ang Lee (2001) concludes that both films contain elements of familiarity and strangeness for Western audiences, an uneasy mix of intimacy and exoticism which underpins their appeal. However, this phenomenon is unintended by the filmmakers themselves, chiefly because, firstly, the directors’ exposure to Western film art has contributed to the use of techniques that are familiar to Western audiences in the making of their films, and, secondly, the elements of strangeness are related to the natures of the films, the cultural elements involved and the locations in which the films are made, which are unfamiliar to a Western audience. The writing of the novel, Little Hut of Leaping Fishes, reveals the necessity of incorporating cultural elements into a narrative that is set in a time and place where the culture is deeply rooted. My background as a fourth-generation Chinese in Malaysia informs my urge as an artist and critic to explore aspects of my own cultural identity. The main concern, which is the key discovery of this experiment, is that once a writer understands the shared creative mechanism between film and literature, he can place a camera before his pages to capture the scenes he carefully arranged, making the page a screen onto which images as well as words can be projected.

The main purpose of this thesis is to trace the impact of the English Romantic poets, especially Keats, Shelley and Byron, on Arab/Iraqi Romantic poetry and thought, in particular that of Nazik al-Mala'ikah. The thesis is divided into two volumes. The first volume consists of three chapters, each divided into short sections. The first chapter is a detailed introduction to the three other chapters. It discusses the problem of defining the term 'Romanticism'. It studies comparatively the four fundamentals of the English and Arabic Romantic theories. It traces the origin and the development of Arabic/Iraqi Romanticism. It also traces the sources of Nazik's knowledge of world literature: Arabic, English, American, French, German, Greek, Latin and Scandinavian. Nazik's poems and those of other Arabic Romantic poets, such as Iliyya Abu Madi, Ali Mahmud Taha, and Abu 'l-Qasim 'l-Shabbi are compared. The importance of the poems that appear in The Golden Treasury to Arabic poetry in general and to Nazik's poetry in particular is highlighted. A list of English poets, such as Shakespeare, Milton, Gray, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley and Byron, whose poems and thoughts are influential on Nazik's poetry and critical works, is arranged chronologically with a short introduction to each poet, and his posit ion in Arabic/Iraqi poetry in general and in Nazik's literary works in particular. Abdul-Hai's bibliography of the Arabic versions of English poetry and Jlhan's Ra'uf's bibliography of the Arabic versions of Shelley's poetry are given, in order to indicate the earliest possible date of Arabic translation from English poetry. The second chapter is divided into two parts. These parts are preceded by a short introduction on Arabic translation of English poetry, followed by a section on Nazik's motives in translating English poetry. In the first part, Arabic versions of Gray's Elegy by Andraus, Mahmud, al-Muttalibi and Nazik are analysed comparatively to establish whether Nazik's version is original or dependent on the other earlier Arabic versions. In the final section, the influence of Gray's Elegy on Nazik's themes and imagery is traced. In the second part of this chapter, Nazik's version of Byron's address to the ocean in the fourth canto of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage is fully analysed, preceded by a list of Arabic versions of Byron's poems. Nazik's version is studied independently from other Arabic versions, because most of the versions found are of different parts of Byron's poem. A section is devoted to Nazik's and Byron's relationship with the sea. In the last section, the impact of this passage on Nazik's poetry is traced and compared to that of Gray's Elegy. The third chapter traces the presence of Keats's odes in Nazik's poetry. This chapter is introduced by a definition of the term 'Ode'. The second section traces the impact of the themes and imagery of Keats's odes on Nazik' s poetry. Four sections are devoted to establishing the common contrasting themes in Keats's and Nazik's poetry. The following sections are devoted to the natural elements common to the poetry of Nazik and Keats: the birds, the wind, the river, the sun and the moon. The final sections study comparatively Nazik's and Keats's common literary devices: Personification, Synaesthesia and Compound adjectives. The second volume consists of the fourth chapter, the tables and the bibliography. This chapter studies the allusions in Nazik's poetry, and traces their sources in Keats, Shelley, Byron and Anatole France. A section is devoted to names alluded to in Nazik's poetry. The significance of The Golden Bough in Arabic is highlighted in a separate section, followed by a section on Nazik's mythological themes and symbols. Two sections are devoted to the relations of the Jinniyyah to poetry and to god. The appearance and functions of Nazik's Jinniyyah are compared to those of similar figures in Anatole France and Shelley. Nazik's Jinniyyah is seen as the synthesis of a complex mythological tradition. Many examples are given to discuss her relations to: (1) male and female mythological, religious and cultural characters, such as: Adam, Cain, Abel, Prometheus, Christ, Muhammad, Paphnutius, Midas, Plutus, Eve, Thais, Adonis, Cupid, Narcissus, Nessus, Ares, Magdalen, Thais, Venus, Diana, Rabiah al-Adawiyyah, the Sleeping Beauty, Demeter, Rapunzel and Shahrazad; (2) supernatural creatures, such as: the serpent, the demon, the spider, the sirens, the giant fish, the ghosts and the ghoul; (3) mythological things, such as: the Labyrinth, Lethe, Eldorado, Pactolus and al-Kawthar. A section is devoted to the symbol of Gold in Nazik's and in English poetry. Nine tables are supplied, setting out the common mythological names that occur in Nazik's, Keats's, Shelley's and Byron's poetry. A bibliography of primary and secondary Arabic and English sources is given. This bibliography contains the works cited throughout and other relevant secondary sources. The former are marked with an asterisk.

Over the last two decades, research has exposed the need for new responses to English in various regions of the world, raising many critical issues. Recent English as a Lingua Franca (ELF)-oriented research deals with English in Asian contexts; however there seems to be insufficient research related to South Korea and, especially, Korean postgraduate-level students’ orientations to English. To help address this gap, this PhD thesis reports research into changes to South Korean postgraduate students’ use of and feelings about English during their study abroad in the UK. Explorations and discussions of the findings of this study shed light on the students’ orientations and attitudes to English before coming to the UK, how their attitudes and beliefs adjusted over the course of an academic year, and the factors that played a part in these changes. This research produces a comprehensive study of Korean postgraduate students using English in a multilingual but also native English language setting and reveals how the students oriented themselves to English in Korea, how useful their English preparation was before arrival in the UK, how they feel about their English, and what influenced the evolution of their perspectives over time. Importantly, the findings of the study suggest that the experience of living and studying in the UK had an impact on the participants’ attitudes and orientations towards English and their language use; among numerous other effects, a move away from norm-dependence in general, and in particular increasing awareness of the existence of different English varieties, were widely evidenced. The results give rise to new potential avenues for research into language attitudes and provide a deeper understanding of language(s) and language users in the field of English as a lingua franca in this previously unexplored context.

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The research aims to provide an alternative working methodology from the perspective of a contemporary Chinese artist, not a calligrapher, to answer the research question: how does one create new works of calligraphy an art so burdened with historical tradition? This is practice based research; the designed pattern of study aims to test and to exemplify the relationship, and also most importantly based on the nature of the investigation and practical necessity, the strategy of the research project is implemented in a dialectical construction as the title of the thesis suggests.