Linguistic And Cultural Issues In Video Report Texts By Eesp Internship Students

Do Language Textbooks Challenge or Reinforce Cultural Stereotypes? Perspectives of Advanced Learners of Arabic

Language textbooks do more than facilitate linguistic development; they also mediate learners’ encounters with the cultural communities represented through the target language. This role becomes particularly significant in advanced foreign-language education, where learners are expected to engage critically with complex social, political, and cultural representations. This qualitative study examines how advanced learners of Arabic perceived and negotiated cultural representations in Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum al-'Arabiyya, Part Three, with particular attention to whether the textbook challenged or reinforced pre-existing stereotypes about Arab cultures. The study draws on focus-group data collected from eight advanced American learners of Arabic specializing in diplomacy and politics at a language center in Rabat, Morocco. Participants had extensive experience using the textbook during their advanced Arabic studies. The focus-group discussion was audio-recorded, transcribed, anonymized, and subjected to iterative qualitative content analysis. Findings indicate a complex relationship between textbook representation and learner perception. Participants acknowledged the textbook’s contribution to introducing cultural, historical, and political issues related to the Arab world, yet they also perceived some representations as insufficiently diverse or critically contextualized. Rather than consistently disrupting pre-existing assumptions, certain representations were perceived as potentially confirming simplified understandings of Arab societies. Learners particularly emphasized the need for greater regional diversity, authentic voices, contemporary perspectives, sustained self-reflection, and opportunities for direct intercultural engagement. The findings suggest that cultural representation in advanced language textbooks should move beyond exposure to cultural information toward pedagogical practices that actively encourage learners to interrogate, reassess, and complicate their prior assumptions. The study contributes to discussions of textbook evaluation, intercultural learning, and cultural representation in Arabic-as-a-foreign-language education.

EFL LEARNERS’ TRANSLATION STRATEGIES IN NARRATIVE TEXTS: A QUALITATIVE EXPLORATION OF READINGAND MEANING CONSTRUCTION

Translation plays an important role in helping EFL students comprehend English texts; however, many junior high school students still experience difficulties in translating narrative texts accurately due to linguistic and contextual challenges. This study aimed to identify the translation strategies used by eighth-grade students in translating English narrative texts into Indonesian and to explore the challenges they encountered and the references they used during the translation process. This study employed a descriptive qualitative research design involving 52 eighth-grade students of MTs Al-Hidayah, Bitung Jaya. Data were collected through observation, translation tasks, and semi-structured interviews and analyzed using Miles and Huberman’s Interactive Model, consisting of data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. The findings revealed that students employed four translation strategies: literal translation, idiomatic translation, addition, and omission. Literal translation and addition were the most frequently used strategies (26 occurrences each), followed by idiomatic translation (25) and omission (10). Students also encountered challenges related to limited vocabulary, grammatical confusion, and sentence construction, while relying on dictionaries, Google Translate, AI-based applications, teachers, and peers to support their translation process. These findings contribute to translation education at the junior high school level by providing insights into students’ translation practices and may assist English teachers in designing more effective instructional strategies to improve students’ translation competence, vocabulary mastery, and grammatical awareness.

Translating children's literature: linguistic and cultural challenges

The translation of children's literature represents a complex process of linguistic and cultural mediation between the source text and the young target audience. Unlike other literary genres, children's literature requires translators to take into account the cognitive, emotional, and cultural development of young readers. The translator must not only render the linguistic meaning of the original text but also adapt cultural references, humor, and narrative elements to make them accessible and meaningful. This process often involves balancing fidelity to the source text with the need for cultural adaptation. Translators may simplify certain expressions, clarify implicit meanings, or replace culture-specific elements with more familiar ones. At the same time, they play an important role in introducing children to new cultural realities and perspectives. Thus, translation becomes a form of intercultural communication and education. The translator acts as a mediator who shapes the reception of the literary work in the target culture. Particular attention is required when translating idioms, wordplay, and stylistic devices frequently used in children's literature. These elements often demand creative solutions in order to preserve the expressive and aesthetic value of the original text. Therefore, the translation of children's literature is both a linguistic task and a cultural act that contributes to the formation of young readers' intercultural awareness.

JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Localized English in Indonesian Social Media: Implications for English Language Learning

This study examines the emergence of localized English expressions in Indonesian social media discourse, highlighting how English is adapted and reinterpreted in multilingual digital contexts. While previous studies on English in Indonesia have primarily focused on formal domains such as education and language policy, limited attention has been given to informal online communication where linguistic innovation is highly visible. This study aims to analyze how English lexical items are re-semanticized and creatively transformed by Indonesian users on social media platforms. The study employed a qualitative approach using data collected from Instagram posts and comments, focusing on selected examples of English-derived expressions such as boba, gas, voucher, server, and suamiable. The analysis compares the conventional meanings of these terms in Inner Circle English with their localized meanings in Indonesian usage. The findings reveal that English functions as a flexible linguistic resource, undergoing processes of semantic shift, metaphorical extension, and lexical blending. These localized forms reflect users’ creativity as well as their ability to adapt global linguistic resources to local cultural contexts. The study concludes that English in Indonesian social media is not merely borrowed but actively reconstructed, contributing to the dynamic development of English in the Expanding Circle.