The research aimed to discuss the need for a learning tool that was capable of presenting audio and visual aids to accommodate students in learning writing. It was urgently needed as a logical consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, which disallowed face-to-face learning to be conducted. The research was conducted at the Department of English Education, Faculty of Teachers Training and Education, Universitas Muhammadiyah Parepare, by utilizing a questionnaire to explore the characteristics of ideal writing material restricted to visual aids. The research was participated by the second and fourth-semester learners as the population and recruited the samples based on simple random sampling. Every individual in the population had an equal chance to be chosen as a sample. There were 30 undergraduate students who enrolled in basic writing and advanced writing courses who became the subject of the research. Based on the research findings, eight characteristics of good audio visuals are recommended by the students. Those characteristics include the visual and audio elements/items, creative and innovative content, language and expression, operations and mechanisms (various learning opportunities and preferences), and eye-catching form/shape/design, which deliver brief and clear learning material under several considerations. Furthermore, following the findings, it also indicates that the effectiveness of delivering audiovisual aids materials in the learning process depends on how clear the audiovisual item (i.e. the text and audio, how efficient the material and audiovisual durations provided, how interesting and well-organized the design to attract students’ learning intention, how good the visual quality and how the audiovisual) can be produced into a small size to minimize the use of internet data. The research concludes that audiovisual learning materials need to be selectively chosen and periodically and systematically evaluated to best facilitate students in dealing with writing.

This ethnographic literary critique of an old Ba-diw of the Ibaloy ethnolinguistic group in Southern Benguet, Philippines, was completed by adopting a humanistic lens of a nonfolklorist with the aid of discourse analysis. Serving as a revisit to Philippine folklore, this ambitious yet novelty ethno-critique focused on the language of Ba-diw as a discourse of ethnicity and taking inspiration from the radical views of the National Artist in Literature, Bienvenido Lumbera, the research proceeded by employing the contextualist theory, setting the Ba-diw in its rightful indigenous literary and cultural background and historicity. The critique probed into the distinct ethnolinguistic heritage of the Ibaloy, after which discourse analysis was conducted to examine the grammar of the Ba-diw as both an ethnic and aesthetic expression. This grammar highlighted in the ethnographic critique is the dynamic system of the basic elements of a language consisting of lexis, syntax, semantics, phonology, and cultural load. Recognizing the Ba-diw as an indigenous oral tradition, the researcher examined its language use as an expression of the identity, ideals, aspirations, worldviews, and lifestyle of the Ibaloy ethnolinguistic group being the dominant theme henceforth, a legitimate and unique contribution to the richness of Philippine folklore.

The debate as to whether or not listening skills can be used as a testing device for measuring language proficiency—particularly grammatical competence—has been quite a controversial issue for the longest time. Yet, current research findings have not been entirely conclusive and sufficient either way. Hence, this particular study was conducted to address the problem given the existing research gap in the field. Firstly, the investigation sought to determine the listening proficiency level of 40 ESL freshmen in a state university for grammatical distinctions utilizing the mean score. Secondly, it identified the learners’ common errors and difficulties encountered in listening for grammatical distinctions using frequency and sentence analysis. To validate the results of the communicative listening test, a writing composition exercise was duly administered. The results showed that the respondents have very good proficiency levels in listening for grammatical distinctions in terms of inflectional patterns of singular and plural forms of subjects or predicates and good proficiency levels in terms of inflectional patterns for present and past tense of verbs. However, it was found that there still exist some problems in terms of more complex syntactic constructions. Results revealed that the respondents were confused and disrupted in some listening items when the test sentence is embedded with intervening words, phrases, or subordinate clauses. This problem may actually be indicative of socio-psycholinguistic factors to retain what they learned in an academic setting, but outside of it, the intervening words easily disrupted their concentration and memory. Lastly, the new normal caused by the COVID 19 pandemic has forced educators and students into a new learning environment: the online classroom. In recognition of this, the test was administered online, and the results similarly processed but with consideration of the electronic platform as a moderating variable. This shift in the modality of instruction affects ways of learning that have not necessarily been plotted before, as observed by EFL and ESL experts like Brown (2000) and Richards (2016). Thus, while it is not the primary focus of the study, this paper nevertheless highlights this new socio-technological aspect as a crucial moderator of listening assessment for better grammatical competence.

This research undertook an innovative approach to the language-literature interface by means of adopting a modified model of translanguaging in the analysis of the narrative techniques and discourse styles of three selected Philippine short novels: Getting Better by Tara F. Sering, What Things Mean by Sophia N. Lee, and Salingkit by Cyan Abad-Jugo. Theories on language and thought and the modularity of the mind were reviewed in the reconfiguration of the translanguaging model assisted by CDA and the protocol of discourse analysis particularly in the gathering and treatment of data. Results of the study indicated the effectiveness of translanguaging strategies emanating from the aesthetic translanguaging space and the imaginative translanguaging instinct of the authors which helped in the appealing narrative techniques and creative discourse styles of the works. It is recommended that translanguaging as practice and theory be explored further in ESL/ELT/EMI and the disciplines to optimize its potentialities as a decolonizing stance as well as a relevant and helpful paradigm in resolving pressing language-related problems and challenges of the times.