The Jordanian Ministry of Higher Education has recently released general guidelines for universities to adhere to in online education. Applying a student-centered approach in online learning was highly stressed in the ministry’s guidelines. In response to the ministry’s vision, the present study aims at investigating the effectiveness of online education in promoting student-centered learning at three Jordanian universities (two private and one public). One hundred and nine translation senior students were surveyed on their perception of the application of a student-centered approach in the translator training programs. The questionnaires were designed in open format items on which respondents were required to comment freely. However, data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. As the ratio of male students to female students in the programs is almost 3:7, the responses received from female students were almost three-folds the responses received from male students. The results of the study revealed that male and female students responded positively on four of the seven questioned aspects and negatively on three of them, with no gender-based statistically significant difference in the responses. The positive perceptions in online learning pertain to autonomy and responsibility, translation authentic projects, absence of teacher-centered learning and reflection of students on their own learning, while the drawbacks were reflected in areas related to teamwork, peer review, and time management.   Received: 23 June 2021 / Accepted: 2 September 2021 / Published: 5 November 2021

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The combination of Critical Discourse Analysis and verbal violence is an entirely new field that needs to be widely explored and this study takes an in-depth dive into this using the literature, ‘Merchant of Venice' by one of the canons of literature, William Shakespeare. In doing this, this study identifies verbally abusive speeches from the text, categorizes and analyzes them to reveal the common patterns of violence in the speeches of abusers. This analysis aims to reveal the structure abusers use and the effect that verbal abuses have on their victims. Following the tradition of Critical Discourse, the study investigates, in an exegetical pattern, how violence in the form of verbal expression can cause harm. This is situated within the context William Shakespeare’s, ‘Merchant of Venice'—these investigations are done using the social and cultural realities/contexts within which Shakespeare wrote his story/narration. Seeing “Discourse” as a social critical theory that emphasizes the place of language in the making of ideas within society, Critical Discourse Analysis [especially as used within the current study] investigates language within Shakespeare’s ‘Merchant of Venice’ and insists that language plays a viable role in society’s communication patterns, and as such, should be taken seriously in the critique of verbal violence within Shakespeare’s corpus—as this critique is being appropriated within current times.

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