The abrupt disruption of the traditional face-to-face language instruction due to the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has forced many schools and higher learning institutions in Oman and around the globe to establish a virtual learning environment. This crisis-prompted remote learning has been a new experience for most teachers and students alike, a variable that may affect students' learning. Thus, it is significant to understand the students' experience with online teaching and learning. This study explicitly examines online teaching and learning as perceived by English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students of a higher learning institution in Oman. A total number of (112) undergraduate students in Oman acted as a data source by responding to a computer-assisted survey questionnaire. The survey focused on the following themes: overall first-time online language learning experience; online courses; online learning mode and attainment of graduate attributes; effectiveness of online teaching and delivery; utilization and usefulness of electronic learning devices; and e-learning language skills. The findings highlight the significance of exploring learners' online learning experience and its implications for planning, implementing, teaching, and assessing online language education.

Using Machine Translation (MT) for vocabulary acquisition is an inevitable phenomenon among Arabic-speaking L2 learners. But has MT fully succeeded in replacing traditional dictionaries and providing an ideal tool for vocabulary acquisition among L2 learners? This study aimed to research the value and implications of using machine translation in vocabulary acquisition. The study is significant as it investigates a neglected area in teaching a second language focusing on the role of MT in vocabulary acquisition. The empirical study adopted a combined quantitative and qualitative methodology that tested students’ skills in answering vocabulary questions in context by using online translators. Forty-seven participants took part in the assessment voluntarily, and they were all fourth-year students about to graduate from an Omani private university. The findings confirmed the results of earlier research about the challenges ESL learners face in vocabulary acquisition, including difficulties in processing sequential lexical patterns and using vocabulary communicatively. The results further revealed that online translators do not provide an optimal solution to overcome obstacles in using vocabulary unless accompanied by higher metacognitive skills such as critical thinking and using words in context. The study concluded with some implications and recommendations for further relevant research.

Research has shown that parallel corpora have potential benefits for translator training and education. Most of the current available Arabic corpora, modern standard or dialectical, are monolingual in nature and there is an apparent lack in the Arabic-English parallel corpora for translation classroom. The present study was aimed to investigate the translation problems encountered by Omani translation major students when translating from Arabic into English with a view to proposing some corpus-informed pedagogy approach for training student translators to overcome these challenges by looking at some model samples of professional translation. Thirty students voluntarily took part in the investigation. The study adopted a combination of both corpus and qualitative methodology whereby some typical problems students would encounter when translating from Arabic-into-English were selected along with some specific Arabic texts involving these problems were prepared and the participants were asked to translate them into English. The participants were provided with some samples of the parallel English translated texts and were asked to compare and contrast their translations with these samples and reflect on the overall experience. They were then interviewed to explore their impressions about and the extent to which they think that parallel corpora would help them improve their translation. Results of data analysis indicated that the participants experienced several translation challenges. They, however, showed an overall positive attitude towards parallel Arabic-English corpora as they reportedly found them very helpful in improving their translation. Pedagogical implications for corpus-informed translation teaching, training and materials design and development are presented and discussed.

One of the noticeable changes in the tertiary education scene is the continuous quest for quality-driven teaching and learning that prepares students for the demanding employment market. At the heart of this increasingly transformative process is competitiveness. This shifting view has made teaching a multi-faceted and dynamic process that calls upon teachers to adjust their teaching and align their pedagogical practices and decisions to emerging circumstances and challenges. Online learning has become the ‘new normal’ formula in language classes across the Sultanate of Oman due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. This paper reports (N=49) teachers’ perceived reflection and adjustment in online classes and the various strategies they adopted in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Oman. Data were collected from the responses of the participants to a semi-structured online survey. Data analysis showed that most teachers practiced reflection on action and for action more frequently while demonstrating lower awareness of reflection in action. The paper also draws on the significance of the spaces created by online teaching for reflection-driven action research to inform effective teaching for better learning experiences.

Translating Shakespeare into Arabic is a century-old cultural project which is still a source of challenge for translators who adopt a source-text-oriented approach that attempts to simulate the original in content, form and impact. Shakespeare’s texts are rife with metaphoric language which serves multiple functions on the cognitive, cultural, pragmatic as well as stylistic levels. This paper aims to analyse the translation of literary metaphors from a stylistic perspective in Mohamed Enani’s version of Othello. The analysis is conducted in the framework of conceptual metaphor theory which provides a microscopic description of how metaphors are influenced by the translation process. The findings of the analysis unveil the translation strategy adopted by Enani to reflect the stylistic function of metaphors while preserving their cognitive content and reveals that translating metaphors is influenced by the cognitive and professional background of the translator. Amplification emerges as a successful translation strategy which is used to extend metaphors creatively thus adding cognitive value to the Source Text content and compensating for a possible loss in the style of the Target Text. This paper concludes that, contrary to the prevalent assumptions, a source-text-oriented approach can deliver an accurate yet stylistically-functional translation if the translator is creative enough and willing to exert an additional cognitive effort similar to that exerted by the original writer. Enani’s translations of Shakespeare into Arabic are worth a life-long research project on the translation of style in literature.