http://jals.miard.org/index.php/jals/issue/feed Journal of Arts and Linguistics Studies 2025-02-07T09:47:55+00:00 Dr. Zahoor editor@jals.miard.org Open Journal Systems <p>Journal of Arts and Linguistics Studies (JALS) is an international peer-reviewed journal that publishes original and high-quality research papers in all areas of arts, linguistics, and literature. As an important academic exchange platform, scientists and researchers can know the most up-to-date academic trends and seek valuable primary sources for reference.</p> <p>The journal also welcomes articles from Visual arts (drawing, painting, ceramics, photography, design, creativity, sculpture, conceptual art), Performing arts (music, theater, dance), literary arts, art history, Anthropology, Archeology, Communication studies, Cultural studies, Development studies, Geography, Home Economics, Political Science, History, Journalism, Language, Linguistics, Literature, Novels and short stories, Philosophy, Poetry, and Religion Studies.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Dr. Zahoor Hussain (Editor)</strong><br />Associate Professor, Department of English, The Islamia University, Bahawalpur.<br /><strong>Email:</strong> editor@jals.miard.org</p> http://jals.miard.org/index.php/jals/article/view/199 Needs Analysis using ESP Approach: A perception of Nursing Students and other Stakeholders in Pakistan 2025-01-08T08:17:44+00:00 Tayyaba Tajamal tajamaltayyaba@gmail.com Salma Kalim salma.kalim@iiu.edu.pk Farhat Meher farhat.meher@iiu.edu.pk <p>This study examines the distinctive discipline-specific English language needs of nursing students in Pakistan in academic and clinical settings using the concept of large-scale needs analysis. Large-scale needs analysis is crucial for comprehensively identifying learners' needs in order to determine the linguistic and communicative needs of the nursing discourse community effectively. Grounded in Brown’s (2016) four views of needs and Anthony’s (2018) large-scale perspective, this study employed mixed-method approach and collected questionnaires (04) and interviews (03) with stakeholders including students (94), nurse teachers (30), clinical preceptors (30), English teachers (02) and deans (05). Findings revealed that nursing students need to be proficient in productive skills (writing, grammar, vocabulary, and speaking) and all stakeholder highly prioritized the need to integrate diverse reading and writing genres in specially designed discipline-specific ENP course. Participants argued for focusing on developing competencies to read and write case studies, research reports, shift reports, care plans, handovers, nursing notes, history taking, reflections, discharge notes, patient discharge letters, patient transfer notes/letters, bed statements, and are found to be important. The study concluded with the learner’s needs addressed for pedagogical implications, necessitating the integration of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) principles and English Language Teaching (ELT) methodologies tailored to the specific language requirements of nursing students. In addition, the study recommended finding pedagogical practices used to teach ENP to nursing students to further design materials and resources for genre-specific ENP course.</p> 2025-01-21T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Tayyaba Tajamal, Salma Kalim, Farhat Mehar http://jals.miard.org/index.php/jals/article/view/206 Secularism vs Islamism: A Historical Debate in Pakistan’s Political Discourse 2025-01-23T10:23:44+00:00 Syed Waseem Raza wasimnaqvi99@gmail.com Abdul Qadir Mushtaq Progcuf@gmail.com <p>The debate on the role of Islamism and secularism in the politics of Pakistan has been at the center of attention of Pakistan’s political activism since 1947. In this article, we analyze the historical, political and societal aspects of this debate, ranging from its emergence before the time of independence to the present. It assesses the impact of secularism and Islamism on the constitutional development, governance, and public policy of the state, which sometimes resulted in the quest for political hegemony and resultant political chaos. The article also discusses the influence of prominent political figures, political movements, and foreign engagement on this political debate. In doing so, the study also emphasizes the interrelations and the dynamics of the ideational conflict, to advance the research on core questions, on how Pakistan developed politically, and how this development may affect national connections.</p> 2025-01-23T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 http://jals.miard.org/index.php/jals/article/view/207 The Impact of Shortened Words Usage on Communication Effectiveness among Pakistan’s University Students 2025-01-24T10:44:47+00:00 Tanzila Abbas abbastanzila123@gmail.com Abdul Rasheed Soomro t@miard.edu.pk Ishfaque Ahmed Abbasi t@miard.edu.pk <p>The main purpose of the present research study entitled “The Impact of Shortened Words Usage on Communication Effectiveness among Pakistan’s University Students” was to explore the impact of shortened word usage on communication effectiveness among university students. This study utilized a content analysis approach, and the research population was the final examination papers of the MPhil English linguistics students at a private university in Lahore city. The sample size was contained on twenty-eight examination papers of twenty-eight students from both male and female genders. The researchers gathered data from these examination papers and the congregated was analyzed through the content analysis method and presented in the tables. The study found that these university students frequently used shortened words in their final examination papers as the results revealed that these students used thirty-seven shortened words in their examination papers. In the end based on these results, the researchers presented some recommendations for future scholars and researchers.</p> 2025-01-24T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 http://jals.miard.org/index.php/jals/article/view/210 The Effect of ChatGPT on the Writing Abilities of Undergraduate English Students 2025-02-03T14:56:42+00:00 Misbah Sultan t@miard.edu.pk Aleena Taj t@wum.edu.pk Fatima Sabir t@miard.edu.pk Sajid Ali t@miard.edu.pk Muhammad Obaid Kaleem Qureshi t@miard.edu.pk <p>This study investigates the impact of ChatGPT on the writing abilities of undergraduate English students, focusing on its effects on grammar, vocabulary, coherence, and structural organization. This research investigates how ChatGPT affects educational writing among students as well as their tool opinions and usage difficulties within Pakistani educational contexts. Undergraduate English students who total 371 in number participated in the research by completing this study's structured questionnaire through purposive sampling. A study using SPSS produced descriptive results which included frequency data distributions combined with percentages alongside mean scores. The research instrument solicited students' knowledge regarding ChatGPT together with its effects on writing abilities and their confidence in its accuracy and potential difficulties. The data shows that students benefit substantially from ChatGPT in their writing tasks by developing stronger skills for grammar usage as well as vocabulary control and improved essay organization. Most students who used ChatGPT noticed its positive effects on their writing capabilities while noticing a decrease in their errors in assignments. Students expressed worries regarding their heavy use of the tool and authenticity issues and imperfect suggestions it sometimes provided. Students recognized how ChatGPT provided efficient assistance by saving their time while generating suitable ideas for their academic assignments. The research puts restrictions on its results because of studying English undergraduate students in Pakistan yet this limit external application of findings. The use of self-reported data in the research might produce flawed results because of possible respondent bias. Future researchers should study the long-term consequences of ChatGPT for writing skills together with ethics and the precision of academic content generation. The research indicates ChatGPT delivers a beneficial writing skills improvement system that functions alongside standard educational approaches. Academic institutions must create regulations which help teachers exploit AI resources properly while keeping intellectual authenticity intact in student artworks. Institutional leaders should welcome ChatGPT into educational programs through curriculum integration accompanied by discussion of its restrictions. The results of this study enhance current academic research about the implementation of AI in education by documenting how ChatGPT influences undergraduate composition abilities. This paper examines the benefits alongside difficulties of AI-driven tools in academic environments while presenting guidelines for educational institutions and the government. More investigation is required to evaluate both the moral implications and extended outcomes that emerge when students employ AI for educational assistance.</p> 2025-01-29T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 http://jals.miard.org/index.php/jals/article/view/213 Chamak Patti; Gauging the Cultural Rhythm of Truck Art in Pakistan 2025-02-06T08:04:52+00:00 Anum Mahmood anummahmood@uo.edu.pk <p>Truck art has been recognized throughout the world as the indigenous art of this region. These moving murals from Pakistan, take weeks to be prepared by the artists of the region, turning them into magnificent galleries. The process of making this beautiful truck has evolved over time, now with the evolution of technology, artists have started working as chamak patti, using different colored tapes to create these magnificent creations. The paper discusses this intricate process of turning usual tapes into an un denying art form. Embellishing the truck with different mediums and materials shows the enthusiastic passion of the owner of decorating the truck and makes it different and appealing from other trucks and vehicles and the driver feels pride and enjoy for these ornamentations. Now a day’s truck art became a global phenomenon that reflects the diversity of our bright culture and artistic skills of creativeness of this country. Our rich culture is full of colors that represent the high-spirited values of this land. This form of truck art reflects the varied skills of adorning the truck with different mediums and materials through painting, designing the truck and embellished it with additional accessories like strings of bells and chains, reflective tapes, metallic and plastic elements, colorful lights, ribbons, scarves, frills, small mirrors, reflected tape and loops of beads. All these elements leading to the creation of an outstanding art form.</p> 2025-01-29T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Anum Mahmood http://jals.miard.org/index.php/jals/article/view/211 University Students’ Motivation for Intercultural Competence: A Case Study of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pakistan) 2025-02-04T17:24:02+00:00 Muhammad Waqar Ali waqarali@icp.edu.pk Zeenath Khan znath.khan80@gmail.com <p>An emergent interest in cultivating intercultural competence in wake of enduring internationalization of the world has generated a pressing demand for investigation of variable exerting impact on fostering intercultural competence. However, limited research on this phenomenon in the context of Pakistan creates space for further investigation about academic context in Pakistan. Resultantly, the current paper intended to investigate the interplay between motivation and gender, and their respective influence on fostering intercultural competence. The researcher employed quantitative research design.&nbsp; A 10-statement questionnaire was employed to collect data on 5-point Likert scale from 52 undergraduates (female = 51%; male = 49%) from a university in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The results revealed that the treatment boosted their enthusiasm for future intercultural education. The female partakers manifested higher motivation level than their male counterparts on certain question. However, the difference was not found to be significant. The conclusions suggest some implications for educators, policy makers, curriculum designers, and material developers.</p> 2025-02-05T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Muhammad Waqar Ali, Zeenath Khan http://jals.miard.org/index.php/jals/article/view/212 Nominal Licensing in Urdu-Hindi Applicative Construction 2025-02-06T08:09:36+00:00 Junaid Ashraf junaidashraf1194@gmail.com Zafar Munir zafarmuneer68@gmail.com Asad Ali masad7721@gmail.com <p>Nominal licensing is the requirement of fully convergent derivation in syntax, however applicative construction exhibits, albeit to core arguments, additional arguments which bear benefactive, instrumental and locative thematic roles. The present study is an attempt to examine nominal licensing (abstract case-assignment) of Urdu-Hindi in applicative construction utilizing probe-goal agreement framework of Nie (2024) which stated that “abstract nominal licensing”, is not computed by “case” rather by “ɸ-feature checking”. The study adopts a qualitative research design and gathers naturalistic data from native speakers. This study analyzes beneficiary applicative, instrumental applicative construction and multiple applicative construction in Urdu-Hindi. The findings of this study reveal that In Urdu-Hindi, each nominal argument is [-ф-] marked by clitic---ke –and –se.-ke occurs with third person nominals and while –se occurs independently and it did not take additional preposition but –ke takes additional preposition to create and establish relation. In multiple applicative construction, Urdu-Hindi takes the last conjunct agreement in paralleled merge structure in a single derivation. The nominal licensing in Urdu-Hindi is marked with heads (T0, v0, Asp0, and V). The study implies dependent nominal agreement in Urdu-Hindi. </p> 2025-01-28T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Junaid Ashraf, Zafar Munir, Asad Ali http://jals.miard.org/index.php/jals/article/view/216 Narratives of Covid-19 in Pakistani English Newspapers: An Ecolinguistic Appraisal 2025-02-06T08:11:10+00:00 Sajida Hanif t@miard.edu.pk Muhammad Farooq Alam t@miard.edu.pk Sadiq Khan t@miard.edu.pk <p>This research aims to explore the role of print media in spreading information about pandemics and environmental changes during pandemics of Covid-19. As environmental issues, climate change and such pandemics are common problems of the planet and connected to the health of ecosystem. Therefore, media, especially print media, is central in disseminating information regarding such disasters. Therefore, this research seeks to explore the strategies utilized in the development of four narratives: erasure, salience, conviction, and evaluation, as presented in articles from English newspapers. It emphasizes the role of various linguistic features in rendering the text both natural and persuasive. The researcher has selected thirty articles from three English newspapers, namely Dawn, The Express Tribune, and The News. Authors frequently utilize these techniques to eliminate or highlight significant elements. Stibbe (2015) serves as the theoretical framework for examining the strategies involved in the creation of erasure, salience, evaluation, and conviction in articles related to Covid-19 in newspapers. The findings of the research suggest that a range of strategies is employed in the development of these four narratives within environmental discourses. These strategies encompass appraisal patterns, modality, facticity patterns, euphemism, foregrounding, activation, personification, metaphors, co-hyponymy, passive constructions, nominalization, abstraction, and hyponymy, among others. Additionally, the study concludes that emphasis has been placed on the enhanced environment during the pandemic, yet selfish humans are held responsible for generating the conditions for COVID-19 through environmental destruction. By examining these narratives, the researcher explores the link between the environment and covid-19. The research highlights the need to promote positive narratives and counteract negative ones by raising public awareness about the detrimental effects of harmful stories.</p> 2025-02-06T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 http://jals.miard.org/index.php/jals/article/view/217 Need Analysis of Pakistani English Teachers Teaching at University Level: A Study of Skills and Digital Collaboration 2025-02-06T08:13:30+00:00 Mariam Bibi t@miard.edu.pk Tahira Rafiq t@miard.edu.pk Muhammad Rashid t@miard.edu.pk <p>This article analyses the English language Teachers’ skills and the use of digital tools from two perspectives: Importance and their application in both academic and professional circumstances. Additionally, the researchers review teachers' usage of emails, instant messaging, social networks, and various educational platforms to ascertain key differences in tool usage and preferences across the two groups. The sample of the study is 40 teachers teaching at graduate and postgraduate levels in Pakistan, selected as a convenient sampling process.&nbsp; Mean and standard deviation values are found through modified questionnaires of digital collaboration and skills used in the study of Mena-Guacas et al. (2024) having 24 questions. The study concludes that while graduates are focused on the verbal tools needed for contact with the professional world, postgraduates concentrate on contact with tools of a higher level, intended for research and teaching. Moreover, the study assesses the importance of educational platforms, wikis, and collaborative tools and reports that such tools were popular with teachers interested in improving the quality of learning. These findings also lead to the conclusion that there is a need to recommend applications and appropriate training programs to promote teachers’ digital literacy and oral communication competence and recommend the integration of advanced digital tools into class settings. Lastly, the article mentions certain areas that could be researched in the future including the role of modern technologies in teaching and learning outcomes, the effectiveness of professional development programs for teachers, and various cultural aspects regarding the use of the tools commonly.</p> 2025-02-06T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 http://jals.miard.org/index.php/jals/article/view/219 Readability and Syntactic Complexity in Undergraduate Essays on Technology 2025-02-07T09:14:48+00:00 Taimoor Gurmani mtaimoor@isp.edu.pk Ishfaque Ahmed Abbasi ishfaque@iba-suk.edu.pk Zahid Ali Jatoi zahid.jatoi@iba-suk.edu.pk <p>This research examines the comprehensibility and syntactic density of technology in the modern era essays penned by undergraduates. Employing computational tools and a quantitative approach, the study compares readability indices (Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid Grade, and Gunning Fog Index) as well as syntactic complexity measures (number of sentences, average word length, and average syllable length of the text). The ten essays underwent analysis in TEXT INSPECTOR form, and exploration visualizations such as bar plots, scatter plots, and heatmaps generated in Python environment were used to map the correlation between metrics. The findings show that complexity and readability levels vary greatly in the ten analyzed sentences. For Flesch Reading Ease, scores of texts ranged from 46 to 68, which reveal moderately to relatively high readability; Flesch-Kincaid Grade and Gunning Fog Index scores demonstrated how sentence length and syllable count affected perceived text difficulty levels. Regression analysis revealed that the average number of syllables per sentence was generally a good predictor of the readability indices we derived, which elicited those polysyllabic words made text more difficult. This study adds knowledge to the existing literature concerning the nature of syntactic choices and their effects on difficulty in academic writing. The implications for practice are that specific teaching methods to promote precision should be applied to address the imbalance of linguistic complexity to communicate academic content for a wide range of academic audiences. The limitation associated with a small sample size should be elaborated on in future studies; more texts from various genres should be incorporated into the analysis to establish greater generalization.</p> 2025-02-07T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 http://jals.miard.org/index.php/jals/article/view/218 Transformative impact of Social Media platforms on Language Evolution: Creation and Adoption of Emerging Lexicon 2025-02-07T09:11:59+00:00 Bushra Malik bushramalik283@gmail.com Fatima Iftikhar fatimasaeed096@gmail.com Taimoor Gurmani t@miard.edu.pk <p>The present research aims to investigate the language changes caused by the integration of social media sites with special reference to the usage of new jargon and emerging language among young social media users. This study employs quantitative questionnaires from 40 participants and qualitative interviews with 10 participants purposively sampled to understand the pattern of language by social media. The survey examined the frequency and the tendencies of such changes as abbreviations, informal structure of the sentence, and use of emojis in communication and identified considerable changes in user’s attitudes to the language. Employing Braun and Clarke’s (2016) thematic analysis, this paper builds upon qualitative materials and elaborates on how social media opens creative possibilities, enables code-switching, and renegotiates linguistic imagination. Consequently, the research suggests that social media fosters language use that embraces variance and innovation more than stagnation and stability in conventional English grammar and punctuation. Participants also claimed that a wide range of unknown vocabulary was also reported due to exposure to the different dialects and trends in the current world usage. As such, this research identifies social media as an active facilitator of linguistic change, which underlines the rate of language development by creating a novel interaction typology that reshapes users’ perceptive of prescriptive norms. These implications are useful for further research into the semiotic aspects of digital communication and for understanding the tendencies of informal language use among youths.</p> 2025-02-07T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 http://jals.miard.org/index.php/jals/article/view/220 Critical Discourse Analysis of selected Legal Discourse using Dell Hymes’ (1974) SPEAKING Model 2025-02-07T09:47:55+00:00 Amna Bajwa t@miard.edu.pk Sumiya Riaz t@miard.edu.pk Hafiza Aleena Khalil t@miard.edu.pk Kanwal Shahzadi t@miard.org <p>The Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of Legal Discourse requires the specific theoretical framework as it is the specific language which uses the codes and signs along with specific situation or setting. This study aims at analyzing the selected Legal Discourse (Rylands v Fletcher 1868 case). This research investigates how it lies based on the application of Hymes’ SPEAKING model (1974). The current study is limited to the CDA of the selected legal discourse in which the focus is on the analysis of the judgments and final decision of Rylands v Fletcher 1868 case took place. The collected data, under consideration, is composed of the judgments and final decision took place in the House of Lord on July 17th, 1868. Qualitative research methods are employed to gather and analyze data. Based on the Hymes’ (1974) renowned model, the findings of this study reveal how the SPEAKING model helps in analyzing the text. The discussion also explains that different variables play a significant role in maintaining communicative competence during communication. The study concludes with the implications that this research can contribute to conducting further research works on legal discourses and provides guidance regarding application of Hymes’ (1974) in analysis. Thus, in this way, it also has some pedagogical implications.</p> 2025-02-07T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025