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Creative writing is an imperative prerequisite in EFL contexts with emphasis on developing the cognitive abilities of students for delineating ingenious ideas on paper. Numerous techniques have been introduced for this purpose and one of these influential practices is the use of infographics. Infographics are a potent way to combine visuals with brief descriptions to trigger the cognition of the learners. Keeping in view the efficacy of infographics, the present research intended to explore its practicality within the EFL context of Saudi universities. For the said purpose, an exploratory study was designed with primarily a quantitative approach. In the first phase, an experimental study was conducted with a controlled group of EFL undergraduate students studying in Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University; whereas in the second step, students' perceptions were recorded through a questionnaire. The data gathered in the pre-test, post-test, and questionnaire were analyzed using statistical methods. The findings disclosed that infographics have the potential to improve the creative writing skill of the students at large. Moreover, the students also considered the use of infographics as an attention-grabbing way to contemplate new ideas. The study endorses that infographics can be used as an effective strategy in the EFL context.

Persuasion in media discourses produces certain meanings and mobilizes public attitudes in a set direction. Logical appeals, for instance, are created to gather public support for a particular viewpoint, which propagates a specific cause. This paper critically investigates the newspaper's use of persuasion strategies employed by editorial writers to represent the 2011 Arab Spring conflict. The data consist of 20 newspaper editorials published in the Arab News (AN) belonging to the Arab region yet presumed as a newspaper's voice from a non-Arab spring country. The purpose is to probe journalistic roles and discursive positions taken in representing the conflict. The content analysis technique is used to examine the selected editorials. Findings reveal that the newspaper (AN) constructed the events persuasively and portrayed different aspects of the uprising. This study points out that editorial writers relied on several logical appeals to, almost, set a pro-Arab Spring stage. In addition, it has been noticed that the AN adopted a more compassionate attitude towards protesters' losses, and their ambitions for bringing a 'change' were justified, generally, than the ruling authorities. Overall, the findings reaffirm the media's contribution to represent conflicts in different societies under social, cultural, political, and national parameters by using certain tools of persuasion. This study recommends that future research should draw a comparison between news reports and editorial opinions, and investigate post-Arab Spring situations.

Saudi Vision 2030 is a scheme; the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has formulated to realize its mainstream economic, social, and administrative goals. Accordingly, the Kingdom strategizes to implement this transformative Vision. The current research aims to analyze how American media has reported several events, actions, and policies in line with Saudi Vision 2030. Thus, the question posed is how an image of the transformative Saudi Kingdom has been presented by American media discourse, in line with Vision 2030. The study is substantial for the Kingdom to ascertain how the world has responded to its Vision. Moreover, in a world with media as a dominant directing agency, it is imperious for the Kingdom to keep an eye on its image in the global community. The research is primarily a quantitative study based on the corpus approach to study the designated media discourse. A specialized corpus of 150,000 words is compiled and analyzed through a variety of corpus tools. The results reveal that American newspapers have given limited representation of the Vision and related activities. Their media usually highlights the pre-existing features of the Kingdom. On the other hand, there are very occasional references to some new aspects like the transformation of the economy, promotion of tourism, revision of the society, etc., which are being implemented in the Kingdom. The study suggests that the Kingdom needs to brief the Western world for an enriched campaign of its contemporary image.

The need for transformation has led kingdom to envision and encode the Saudi Vision 2030 document; it is not merely an idealistic divination but a manuscript with an appropriate plan to accomplish its anticipated economic and social goals. In fact, planning is a critical factor in the document, which shapes it as a discourse of realization and fascination, made in the public interest. The present research aims to investigate the ways strategic planning has been articulated in the Vision 2030 document. It can help to get a deep linguistic understanding of this ideological discourse as well as to make it comprehendible for familiar readers. The core purpose of the present study is to examine this ideological discourse for the linguistic items that encapsulate the planning factor. For this purpose, the text has been reviewed using the foundational document model projected by Holland (2014). This semantic-grammatical based linguistic model helps to investigate the ideological strand of planning in the selected text. The research design is quantitative, using a content analysis method. The results reveal that planning strategies are well voiced in the Vision 2030 document, using a variety of vocabulary items; Investment, support, cooperation, provision, and increment are found as the fundamental strategies. The study suggests that other linguistic features can also be investigated to explain this document in the public interest.

Political speeches delivered by state heads or politicians may stir controversies sometimes, especially, when speakers give arguments for or against some issues. To investigate so-called political discourses, critical discourse studies are conducted in different contexts. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), for instance, explores connection between different uses of discourse structures and socio-political contexts in which these structures occur. It also highlights issues such as power, dominance, ideology, and manipulation. The current study investigated Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan's maiden speech to the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on September 27, 2019 -- watched by over four million viewers on YouTube. This study used van Dijk's (1980) framework to analyze macro and micro structures in the speech and the underlying agenda behind employing such discourse structures. The qualitative data consisted of speech transcript, delivered in English, which contained about 2577 words. Findings reveal that macro propositions in the speech summarized global, regional, and national issues such as climate change, money laundering, corruption, Islamophobia, Pakistan's war on terror, the Kashmir conflict, and Pakistan's relations with India. The use of microstructural elements (pronouns, rhetorical question, references, number game, presupposition, modality, lexis and conjunctions) enabled the speaker to voice his ideological and political beliefs on aforementioned issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focal objective of this study is to explore the effectiveness of group work in enhancing the oral communication skills of undergraduate students. Possessing proficient command on speaking skill in English has undoubtedly emerged as a prerequisite for academic and professional excellence. However, the researcher being a teacher observed that most of teaching-learning time was spent on developing reading and writing skills undermining the practicality of enhancing communicative competency. This negligence results in grave deficiency of using English for conversational purposes at the part of the learners. Making the Vygotskian theory of social interaction base for this study, the research aimed at evaluating the role group work can play in developing oral communication of the learners by participating in collaborative tasks. It also strived to highlight the limitations of applying group activity based learning of English within our contextual constraints. The data was collected through questionnaire and observation checklist and interpreted qualitatively to elaborate the results. The findings of the study substantiated the advisability of group work in enhancing the speaking skill of the learners with increased vocabulary and decreased hesitation mainly. These findings can endorse including group work in the mainstream teaching of English with an objective to develop speaking skill of undergraduate learners within Pakistani context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching and learning of English as a second language in Pakistani context is a phenomenon well debated and explored. However, the major focus of research in this area remains the enhancement of speaking skill, undermining the equal importance of improving the listening skill to make the communication process effective. Thus, the aim of this research is to implement scaffolding language learning approach at the college level to evaluate the effectiveness of this novel approach in enhancing the listening skill of our learners. To achieve the said purpose, an experimental research design was employed, including pre and post tests data collection and analysis. The learners participated in experimental teaching sessions for two weeks with an objective to improve their listening skill efficieny. At the end of the experimental teaching the learners' performance was assessed through pre and post tests results analysis. The findings indicated that if English is taught under the scaffolding language leamingframework, the listening skill of the learners can be enhanced significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine physical activity level and its correlational factors among secondary school adolescents., Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in two public and two private schools in Jamshed Town, Karachi, from March 2012 to June 2013, comprising students aged 10-17 years. The subjects, selected by simple random sampling were students of grades VI, VII, VIII. Physical activity was measured using the Physical Activity Questionnaire for older children. Socio-demographic data was also collected. SPSS 19 was used to analyse the data., Results: Of the total 216 students, 131(60.6%) were girls and 85(39.5%) were boys, with an overall mean age of 13±1.4 years. Of the total, 151(70%) subjects had moderate and 65(30%) had low physical activity levels. Boys educated in public schools and those with parental support for sports were more physically active (p<0.05)., Conclusions: Private school without playgrounds, female gender and lack of parental support for sports were correlates of physical inactivity among the students..