Issue Information

Computational thinking is considered an essential 21st-century skill, improving problem-solving and creative thinking skills. Therefore, there is increasing attention being paid to integrating CT into education. Furthermore, Oman Vision 2040 highlights the significance of advancing and cultivating a skilled workforce, prioritising competencies like computational thinking. Studies conducted on higher education students revealed a gap in CT skills among higher education students. As a result, this study aimed to address this gap by exploring CT development in higher education, emphasising the integration of innovative teaching approaches like game-based learning, which engaged students in activities aligned with CT principles. A quasi-experimental design was employed, utilising pre- and post-tests, interviews, and Computational Thinking and Language Learning Attitudes questionnaires to collect data from 24 Foundation Programme students at Sultan Qaboos University. It is worth mentioning that the intervention was informed by the TPACK framework for task design and reinforced by Brennan and Resnick’s (2012) computational thinking dimensions, offering both pedagogical and learner-centred theoretical grounding. The results indicated a significant positive impact on both CT skills and language learning attitudes. Based on these findings, it is recommended that higher education curricula incorporate game-based learning to enhance CT skills and student engagement.

The current study employed a sequential mixed-methods design, collecting both quantitative and qualitative data. First, a survey was administered to a diverse sample of the professionals across multiple industries, assessing their interorganizational communication practices, EIL proficiency, and psychological well-being. Subsequently, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a subsample of survey participants to gather in-depth insights into their experiences, perceptions, strategies, and challenges related to EIL use in professional contexts. Quantitative data was statistically analyzed to identify potential correlations between EIL proficiency, interorganizational communication effectiveness, and psychological well-being. Qualitative data was thematically analyzed to reveal common themes, patterns, and experiences that illuminate participants' perspectives. Integrating these findings enabled a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon under investigation. The study's results will contribute to scholarship on EIL, workplace communication, and psychological well-being, offering valuable implications for professional development programs, language education initiatives, and organizational policymaking.

Literature today becomes a powerful tool to explore cultural hybridity, identity construction, and linguistic adaptation in the increasingly globalizing world we live in. Young adult immigrant literature, particularly from the Bildungsroman or coming-of-age genre, mirrors challenges and negotiations arising from cross-cultural experiences toward selfhood. This paper consequently aims to explore how identities are constructed in the case of young adult immigration narratives, Julia Alvarez’s How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, as a case study with particular emphasis on how protagonists navigate personal and social identities in diverse settings. This study will analyze how specific genres in literature introduce and expose themes as well as linguistic phenomena as markers of identity, focusing on code-switching within multilingual narratives and literary works. The case study will integrate the Social Identity Theory in explaining how language shapes identity, and further, this analysis of the four female protagonists traces how linguistic choices and cultural negotiations shape identity development in a social environment. Adopting a qualitative research approach, specifically employing a close and thematic analysis of the literary text to examine the language use, identity construction, and cultural affiliations of the characters. This extends to how code-switching is brought out through the characters' actions and its importance in self-expression and belonging. Findings from a different angle suggest that code-switching in literature reflects deeper identity struggles and social adaptation that individuals face, illustrating the fluid and dynamic nature of identity in multilingual and multicultural contexts.

The current research attempts to explore autonomous learners’ patterns based on an in-depth analysis of both autonomy and blended learning concepts. Therefore, it is based on a descriptive approach. The research hypothesizes that implementing blended learning among undergraduate learners boosts their autonomous learning. An online questionnaire was used as the main data-gathering tool to gain empirical data. The questionnaire was administered to the sample of this study, which comprises 129 teachers randomly selected from the Department of English at Oran, Batna 2, Setif 2Universities, Algeria. The collected data were coded, treated, and analysed using the Social Package of Social Sciences (SPSS). Ultimately, the results of this investigation prove that blended learning positively affects learners’ autonomous learning. Additionally, learners who adopted blended learning from the early stages were highly motivated to be autonomous learners than those who used to learn just in traditional classes. Teachers recommend that adopting blended learning in high schools will positively impact future university learners.