Research studies on ESL writing are more interested in providing operational writing strategies for academic writing. However, there are not many studies on challenges faced by students and their solutions. The main aim of this paper is to provide a systematic literature review of academic writing studies which focused on investigating students’ academic writing challenges and their solutions. The papers used in this study were published from 2010 until 2019. A systematic search of literature proposed in this paper employs the exploratory approach for identifying and evaluating twenty-seven articles published in the authentic Journals. The themes of the review are divided into two categories, one which is related to ESL Malaysian students and another category is regarding non-Malaysians, this is due to the context of the study which will be conducted in Malaysia and therefore a review of studies done on Malaysian student academic writing is justified. The review shows there is a broader context of ESL students’ academic writing challenges and factors influencing students’ academic writing skills. In addition, as mentioned above, the review clearly shows the highlight of previous studies was on strategies which help improve students writing skills. As a conclusion, the review signifies that there are three major enormous challenges faced by ESL students in academic writing, such as teaching methods, students’ attitude towards English, and language ability. And the solutions to the challenges are to employ active learning English language teaching methods, for example, Task-Based learning (TBL), Blended learning, Collaborative learning and cognitive approach, in teaching writing.

The paper provides new insight into the analysis of exocentric compounds in English and Punjabi by introducing a new step-by-step mechanism devised with the help of cognitive and cultural linguistics. The main purpose of the study is to show that exocentric compounds are very productive in the Indo -European languages. The current study claims that every exocentric compound is metaphoric in nature. Every constituent in an exocentric compound carries several  interpretations based on specific metonymic relations and  cultural knowledge. The meaning of one constituent aids and activates the interpretation of another constituent.   In this paper*, only four examples of NN compounds are discussed in detail. Although the study is not a comparative analysis in actual sense, however, the formations of such compounds in English  are also analyzed to show the applicability of the mechanism in other languages as well. The results revealed that the above mechanism is equally applicable in both the languages and supports the metaphoric interpretation in exocentric compounds. The study also nullifies the claims about the non-productivity and unpredictability of the exocentric compounds.   

The changing undercurrents of the political situation of the world, in the aftermath of 9/11, seem to have affected the notion of the 'other' in the social, cultural and most expressively the discourse of literature. The power structures embedded in these discourses have influenced the social practices in the portrayal of the 'other'. The construction of the 'other' is epitomized through writings illustrating biases that reveal themselves in ostracizing communities and ideologies. The socio-political implications of the identity in post 9/11 require further investigation.  The current study investigates the portrayal of the 'other' delineated in American young adults. The theoretical perspectives of Siegfried Jager and Teun van Dijk (2001) in the domain of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) were employed to analyze the data. The results of the investigation substantiated that the 'other' was redefined as an entity loaded with explicit negative implications and depicted by adding a prefix to the ‘other’ creating a ‘Muslim other’. The paper has implications for socio-political, education and cultural setting and practices in society.

This paper reflects only part of a broader research project in which narratives between India and Pakistan have been analyzed as propagated through the medium of film. Existing literature highlights that events from 1947 partition between India and Pakistan, have been used methodically by establishments on both side to recontextualize the realities of partition and violence associated with that, blaming each other for being the cause, suppressing much of what actually transpired, evading any clear position, while promoting triumphant discourses of nation, sacrifice and socioeconomic insinuations. The focus of this paper is to examine how visual modality as explained by Machin and Mayr (2012), plays a part in shaping opinions and narrating events. Employing Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) to analyze the discourses realized by a partition based movie, this paper highlights that the way "other" is depicted to experience partition, and has been represented to suit the "self"s" account. The representation is a vital part of the legitimization of one particular discourse of partition, used to marginalize other likely discourses in both countries. The study has implications for understanding post-colonial and post-separation socio-cultural development in Pakistan and India. The outcomes of the study can be utilized to identify the ways both countries can use media and narratives to enhance socio-cultural ties and policies; thereby welfare of people on both sides.

Hindko is an Indo-Aryan language that is mainly spoken in Khyber Pukhtoonkhaw province of Pakistan. This work aims to identify the oral stops of Hindko and determine the intrinsic acoustic cues for them. The phonemic analysis is done with the help of minimal pairs and phoneme distribution in contrastive environments which reveals that Hindko has twelve oral stops with three way series. The acoustic analysis of these segments shows that intrinsically voice onset time (VOT), closure duration and burst are reliable and distinguishing cues of stops in Hindko.Keywords: Hindko oral stops; phonemic analysis; acoustic analysis; VOT; closure duration; burst PovzetekHindko je indo-ajranski jezik, ki se večinoma govori v provinci Khyber Pukhtoonkhaw v Pakistanu. Namen raziskave je opredeliti ustne zapornike Hindka in določiti njihove akustične značilnosti. Fonemska analiza temelji na minimalnih parih in distribuciji fonemov v kontrastivnih okoljih. Iz rezultatov analize je razvidno, da ima Hindko dvanajst ustnih zapornikov v treh serijah. Akustična analiza teh segmentov je pokazala, da so v Hindku VOT, trajanje zapore in odpora zanesljivi in razločevalni ključi zapornikov.Ključne besede: ustni zaporniki v Hindku; fonemska analiza; akustična analiza; VOT; trajanje zapore; odpora 10 Haroon Ur RASHID, Raja Nasim AKHTAR