Interrogative structures have been investigated in wide range of languages including but not limited to English, Italian, French, and Mandarin Chinese. Thus, this paper presents an analysis of the syntactic structure of yes/no questions based on feature-checking analysis (i.e., [Q], phi-features, [T], [Polarity], and EPP). First, I briefly discuss the feature-checking analysis in the declarative clauses in Modern Standard Arabic. Then, I analyze the interrogative structure in main clauses (hal, ʔa-) and in embedded clauses (idhaa) in MSA. Finally, this paper displays and discusses the findings showing that there are three types of feature-checking in yes/no particles in Modern Standard Arabic.

The paper aims to shed more insights into the impact of online learning on the philosophy of teaching online translation courses. It starts from the premise that online translation courses have peculiar epistemological and pedagogical characteristics which differ from those available in conventional teaching settings. The traditional styles of teaching translation courses have generally focused on linguistic competence and translation and interpreting skills with a little focus on the increasing demands and changing conditions of the translation industry. In spite of the effectiveness of online translation courses in addressing the needs of both translation students and labor market in terms of offering diverse programs and courses including computer-assisted translation tools, subtitling, document management, and localization software, different challenges remain unresolved. These challenges can be attributed to different factors including the lack of a reliable philosophy of teaching that addresses the peculiar epistemological and pedagogical characteristics of online learning. In order to explore the role of philosophy of teaching in the effectiveness and quality of online translation courses, twenty seven online instructors were interviewed about their philosophy of teaching and strategies of addressing the online learning problems and challenges. It is suggested that instructors' unawareness about the peculiar nature of online learning and learners' needs has negative implications on students' achievement and online learning process in general. Online translation instructors are thus recommended to integrate different teaching philosophies in order to improve interaction with students, better understand their needs, and prepare them for the translation industry and labor market.

Discourse markers, as words or phrases, play a significant role in promoting coherent segments of discourse. This paper investigates the use of discourse markers (DMs) in newspaper articles. By applying Fraser's framework, this study aims at investigating the functions and positions of DM but (English) and its equivalent lakin (Arabic) in newspaper articles written by native and nonnative speakers of English and Saudi and Egyptian speakers of Arabic. It also highlights the similarities and differences in the functions and positions of DMs but and lakin. This quantitative study adopts a corpus-based approach. The data consist of articles collected from 12 newspapers categorized as: Arabic language newspapers published in Saudi Arabia (Alriyadh, Al Jazirah, Al-Hayat) and Egypt (Al-Ahram, Al-Gomhuria, Eltahrir) and English language newspapers published in Saudi Arabia (Arab News, Saudi Gazette, Asharq Al-Awsat) and the USA (Washington Post, The New York Times, USA TODAY). Findings demonstrate, first, that DM but is used frequently as a confirmation or addition marker by both native and non-native speakers. However, second, lakin, functions as the primary correction DM in standard Arabic. Moreover, third, the native Arabic speakers mostly share the same functions of using lakin despite different dialects they have. This study also reveals that lakin can be found only in the medial position, whereas, but is found in the initial and medial position. It concludes that DMs but and lakin evidence that functions of DMs proposed by Fraser are universal and they could be generalized.

The paper aims to shed more insights into the impact of online learning on the philosophy of teaching online translation courses. It starts from the premise that online translation courses have peculiar epistemological and pedagogical characteristics which differ from those available in conventional teaching settings. The traditional styles of teaching translation courses have generally focused on linguistic competence and translation and interpreting skills with a little focus on the increasing demands and changing conditions of the translation industry. In spite of the effectiveness of online translation courses in addressing the needs of both translation students and labor market in terms of offering diverse programs and courses including computer-assisted translation tools, subtitling, document management, and localization software, different challenges remain unresolved. These challenges can be attributed to different factors including the lack of a reliable philosophy of teaching that addresses the peculiar epistemological and pedagogical characteristics of online learning. In order to explore the role of philosophy of teaching in the effectiveness and quality of online translation courses, twenty seven online instructors were interviewed about their philosophy of teaching and strategies of addressing the online learning problems and challenges. It is suggested that instructors' unawareness about the peculiar nature of online learning and learners' needs has negative implications on students' achievement and online learning process in general. Online translation instructors are thus recommended to integrate different teaching philosophies in order to improve interaction with students, better understand their needs, and prepare them for the translation industry and labor market.

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