Vol 9, No 4 (2023)

Introduction: Author-related and journal-related metrics have long been the target for manipulations on part of some researchers, journals, and occasionally countries, eager to rank higher or get other benefits. Games played with metrics are abundant and may be triggered by rigid “publish-or-perish” national or university policies and consequent pursuit for benefits. In addition, new technologies make headway to unprecedented schemes in research production and promotion. The JLE Editors aim to inform JLE readers of their stance on the current revision of the JLE ethical guidelines for authors, editors, and reviewers in response to the new challenges.

Basic Concepts Related to Academic Integrity: The key concepts related to academic integrity are commented on, including some particulars about academic integrity, plagiarism, academic misconduct, fabrication and falsification of data, peer review manipulations, citation manipulations, and predatory journals.

Revisions in the JLE Editorial Policy on Authorship: With the ChatGPT entering the realm of science, the technology caused a heated debate over the ethical aspects of Artificial Intellect (AI) generated submissions to scholarly journals. The JLE editors share a rather popular stance that submissions cannot be subject to ChatGPT generation or revision.

Conclusion: The JLE has been revising its ethical guidelines as of authorship, including the limits for ChatGPT uses in submissions. The JLE editors apprise all stakeholders of the revised guidelines that cover the use of generative pre-trained transformers in submission generation.

Background: Several language learning theories exist to explain the language learning process. Reflective learning is one of the models that has received attention and has been employed to explain language learning and teaching.

Purpose: The present study aimed to develop and validate a close-ended reflective language learning instrument to discover EFL learners’ reflective learning strategies while learning a language.

Method: Based on a comprehensive literature review, 358 concepts were extracted for reflective language learning. Then, experts’ opinions on reflective language learning were gathered, leading to the extraction of 50 general themes. After the experts’ approval, the researchers transformed the concepts into statements and constructed the final version of the questionnaire. In the next step, the initial version of the questionnaire was piloted with 100 participants, reducing the number of items to 47. Then, the piloted instrument was administered to a sample of 398 students. The obtained data were entered into SPSS and LISERL for exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Principle Component Analysis (PCA) was employed to run an explanatory factor analysis. Varimax rotation was performed on the underlying construct of the 47-item questionnaire. The result was the removal of four items and forming a 43-item questionnaire. A six-factor model of second language learning encompassing twelve behavioral cognitive items, twelve behavioral evaluative items, six behavioral metacognitive items, six behavioral interactional items, four behavioral reflective journal items, and three behavioral retrospective items was obtained. Then, the researchers performed confirmatory factor analysis to verify the six factors. Finally, a reflective language learning model was developed.

Results: The results showed that the newly developed Reflective Language Learning Questionnaire (RLLQ) was valid and reliable. The model formulated based on the data gathered from the administration of RLLQ also enjoyed acceptable fitness indices.

Conclusion: The questionnaire could be used in future studies. Researchers interested in reflective language learning, language teachers intending to follow reflective practices in their classes, and syllabus designers believing that reflection promotes learning can employ RLLQ.   

Background: This study explores and analyses occasionalisms that were created by social network users during the COVID-19 pandemic. The theoretical framework of this research is based on observing the concepts of occasionalism, neologism and nonce word. 

Purpose: To indicate occasionalisms in the Russian and English languages and compare them in terms of word-formation, frequencies, part of speech and meanings, thus making a contribution to the understanding of how occasionalisms emerge in these languages.

Method: A qualitative and quantitative content analyses are used for data collection. The sample is obtained from different social networks (‘Facebook[1]’, ‘Twitter[2]’, ‘Reddit’ and ‘VK’). Results: Occasionalisms are created mostly through blending, compounding, and affixation. Mixed word-formation methods are also used. The most used parts of speech appear to be nouns and adjectives. The most Russian occasionalisms are ironic, expressive and attract attention, while English occasionalisms are not that expressive as they refer to medical or political concepts. Borrowings from English in the Russian occasionalisms are also indicated. The glossary of 106 occasionalisms in the Russian and English languages is introduced at the end of the study.

Conclusion: The results might expand the knowledge of new vocabulary items in the field of lexicology and stylistics, and have practical implications in language teaching and translations, as occasionalisms may frequently create obstacles for foreign language students and translators. They also may serve as a basis for further studies on neologisms, occasionalisms and nonce words generated during the pandemic and cover the gap in comparative studies of the Russian and English occasionalisms. In addition, the obtained results might be beneficial for future research in sociolinguistics and sociocultural linguistics providing greater awareness of the linguistic and sociocultural factors that impact the adoption and use of occasionalisms in both languages.

Introduction: The influence of culture on translation has been a prominent feature of translation studies in recent decades. The place of cultural knowledge in the formation and development of a translator’s cultural competence, however, remains debatable. This paper argues that, in addition to general knowledge of a target culture (history, geography, literature, traditions, artefacts, etc.), it is crucial to be aware of the most important components of its deep culture, i.e., its social organization and worldview, which in turn have a major impact on identity. The study further develops the notion of I-culture vs We-culture and their respective identities. We suggest that an awareness of such cultural factors should form part of translators’ essential knowledge about language and their professional training.

Purpose: The study aims to reveal linguistic and discursive manifestations of lingua-cultural identity in translating a Russian text into English. We explore nuances in the use of the pronouns we, our vs. I, my as well as some other markers of we-identity vs I-identity in the original Russian text of Vladimir Putin’s speech at the Valday discussion club meeting (2021), and how these were translated into English in the translation text.

Method:  Selection of a text containing sufficient examples; close reading to identify lexico-grammatical features; comparison of source text and translation; analysis of examples; drawing conclusions. The texts were subjected to contrastive lexico-grammatical, pragmatic, and discourse analysis. Sociolinguistic and cultural studies were used to interpret the results.

Results: The findings suggest that a Russian text could express a more collective mindset than its English translation, which shows traces of what may appear a more personal/subjective focus. The study highlights the role of deep culture in discursive practices and demonstrates the relevance and effectiveness of an interdisciplinary approach to translation studies.

Conclusion: The study confirms the fact that manifestation of lingua-cultural identity can be observed at all levels of language, as well as in communicative strategies, and discursive practices. The task of how to accurately render these nuances in translation is a taxing one that requires a comprehensive understanding of the role of deep culture in discursive practices.

Background: This paper reports on an investigation of male primary student teachers about their planning and teaching over the course of the 2021 year. Three male student teachers’ experiences are presented.

Purpose: This study highlights how they negotiated the intersections of self with school, identity, and gender as male student teachers.

Method: In weekly semi-structured peer group discussions student teachers were asked to describe the decisions that they made in planning, to reflect on the nature of the decision-making process that they went through, and about the consequences of this process. As necessary, questions were posed to the groups to further stimulate discussions. Written notes were taken from these discussions and used in combination with visiting lecturer notes about their teaching practice.

Results: It was through the combination of these classroom activities and teaching practice observations that ethnomethodology and symbolic interactionism intersected with these student teachers’ self with school, identity, and gender. Ethnomethodology concerns how social order is established through social interactions while symbolic interactionism includes both verbal and non-verbal communication. It has been known that past experiences are the foundations of future experiences. The three male primary student teachers presented in this study support this assertion through their inward-looking and/or outward looking narratives.

Conclusion: This study adds to our understanding of the importance of what messages schools, colleagues, and the wider community are sending to male primary teachers about their work and worth as primary teachers.

Background: ChatGPT, a chatbot based on a large language model, captured global attention toward the end of 2022. With its potential to generate comprehensive texts of a variety of genres based on a string of straightforward prompts, it was soon perceived as a threat by many in various fields, including – and in particular – education. Schools across the world began banning its use as instructors started to receive suspiciously well-written essays and assignments from their students.

Aim: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of use of ChatGPT among university students for written assignments, explore the ways students utilize the tool, and examine students’ perspectives on the ethical aspects of its use.

Method: An online questionnaire was designed to collect data from 201 students from private and public universities in Croatia.

Results: The results show that more than half of the participants use ChatGPT for written assignments, that most use it to generate ideas, while many use it to summarize, paraphrase, proofread, but also to write a part of the assignment for them. According to the participants, the most ethically acceptable use of ChatGPT is for generating ideas, while other uses are perceived by many as being unethical; this, however, has not prevented some students from engaging in behaviors they deem unethical.

Conclusion: We conclude that universities and instructors need to take a decisive stand on artificial intelligence in education and provide clear guidelines to students regarding the ethical use of ChatGPT and emerging technologies.

Background: The concept of academic culture lacks a standardised definition, and its structural components have not been clearly outlined or universally agreed upon. 

Purpose: This systematic scoping review aims to synthesise literature on academic culture, delineate its demographic characteristics, and extract definitions of academic culture and the components of its structure.

Method: A search was conducted in the bibliographic database Scopus on August 2nd, 2023. Additionally, a search for related grey literature was carried out on August 3rd, 2023. We included studies published in English post-2018 that discuss academic culture. Titles and abstracts from the retrieved records were screened for relevance. Demographic characteristics related to academic culture were extracted from all search records. We then extracted statements from research articles, book chapters, editorials and reviews defining academic culture and  describing components of its structure. These identified structural components were categorised and thematically grouped, and then distributed according to the obtained components of academic culture. This review followed the guidelines of PRISMA-ScR to perform the study search and selection.  

Results: The search yielded 961 records, of which 94 met our inclusion criteria. Predominantly consisting of journal articles, book chapters, or reviews (78.44%), only 23 of these records provided definitions of academic culture and its structure. Notably, different definitions frequently conflated academic and organisational culture. The structure of academic culture was delineated into three primary components and their subcomponents. This review also analysed the main focuses of academic culture during the specified period highlighting the importance of sustainable development across the three primary components of academic culture and shedding light on the diversity of academic culture models.

Conclusion: This study successfully identified the key structural components and summarised the existing definitions of academic culture. It also highlighted principal research directions for studying academic culture. A significant aspect of this review is the investigation of various levels of academic culture, emphasising a meta-level of academic culture as a global, conventionally-determined dimension. This meta-level serves as a universal hallmark or the development of both national and local academic cultures.